‘We don’t know where to look for him,’ Toklo pointed out.

‘Yes, we do,’ Lusa argued. ‘Or at least, we’ve got a good idea where to start. And we’re almost there.’

By now they were padding past the first of the dens where flat-faces seemed to live. Lights were coming on inside; Lusa could hear the faint sounds of voices. Her pelt prickled when she spotted firebeasts crouching outside most of the dens.

‘Quiet,’ she whispered, pointing to one of them with her snout. ‘I think it’s asleep, but you never know.’

Peering through the darkness, Lusa realised that the metal birds’ nest couldn’t be far away. There weren’t as many dens here as she expected; they were much further apart than in the denning places she had seen before. Some of them were raised up on stumpy little legs; she let out a faint huff as she imagined them scurrying off with their flat-faces inside.

‘Sorry,’ she muttered as Toklo and Kallik stared at her as if she was mad. ‘Come on, let’s keep going.’

Together they crept through the dens until they reached an open stretch of ground covered with the same hard stuff as the BlackPaths.

‘Look!’ Lusa exclaimed. Ahead of them, crouching in the darkness, was a metal bird. ‘We made it!’

‘I think it’s asleep,’ Kallik whispered.

‘Let’s go and check it out,’ Lusa whispered back. ‘If Ujurak is here, we might be able to scent him.’

In spite of her optimistic words, she felt terribly exposed as they left the shelter of the dens and set out into the open. She couldn’t see any flat-faces, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any lurking around, ready to leap out and drive them away with firesticks. And at any moment the metal bird might wake into clattering, snarling life.

But everything was quiet as they approached the bird. Snouts to the ground, they explored the area around it. Lusa’s senses were alert for the least trace of Ujurak’s scent, the tiniest indication that he had been here. But there was nothing. The heavy rain would have washed away the scent, she realised, and even if anything remained it was drowned by the stronger smell of firebeasts.

‘This isn’t working,’ Toklo growled. ‘We should go and look somewhere else.’

‘Like where?’ Lusa challenged. ‘We followed the metal bird. Ujurak must be here somewhere. We’ve got to keep searching.’

‘If we stay here too long then the flat-faces will find us,’ Toklo argued. ‘We have to leave now, Lusa.’

‘No, wait!’ Kallik’s voice was suddenly excited.

Lusa glanced across to where the white bear was nosing something on the ground a few bearlengths away, where a BlackPath led into the metal bird nesting place. Bounding over to join her, she yelped, ‘What is it?’