‘I think he likes you,’ Maria said happily. She looked at the bears. ‘Can I touch them?’ she asked. ‘I’ve never seen bears this close before.’

‘Er, sure,’ said Ujurak.

Maria stretched out and pressed her hand against Toklo’s thick brown fur. Ujurak was sure he saw his friend roll his eyes.

‘I wish I had pet bears,’ Maria whispered.

‘Can you help us?’ Ujurak asked. ‘We need somewhere to hide. I – I don’t want the flat-faces to take my bears away.’

Maria grinned. ‘I know a perfect place! Follow me. Piper, stay!’

She led the way around the side of the house. At the back, a stretch of grass led down to a small wooden den beside a fence. Maria flung open the door and beckoned them inside.

Ujurak stood back to let his friends go first. He spotted lights from a firebeast turning on to the BlackPath and heard the sound of voices. A dog barked.

‘They’re still looking for us,’ he muttered.

Inside the den smelled of apples and dry earth. Flat-face things made of wood and metal hung on the walls. At one side were shelves stacked with containers. Ujurak shook his head.

‘We can’t hide in here,’ he said. ‘They’ll see us if they look through the window.’

‘Not in the shed, silly!’ Maria told him. ‘Down here, in the cellar.’

She pulled open a little door that lifted up from the floor of the den, revealing a small square space lined with flat slabs of stone. Ujurak wasn’t sure there was enough space to fit the four of them. A damp chill rose out of the hole, and he shivered.

‘I’m not going down there!’ Toklo protested, peering down from the edge of the hole.

There was panic in Kallik’s eyes. ‘We won’t be able to breathe!’

‘Yes, we will. It’ll be OK.’ Lusa’s voice was coaxing. ‘We won’t have to stay there for long.’ She jumped down into the cellar and looked back up at her friends. ‘See? It’s fine.’

Outside, the voices of the pursuing flat-faces suddenly got louder. Ujurak jumped at the baying of a dog. ‘They’re following our scent!’ he exclaimed.

‘Quick!’ Maria urged them.

Toklo and Kallik were still hesitating on the brink of the hole.

‘Get down there, now!’ Ujurak’s impatience spilled over. ‘This is our only chance to escape. Do you want them to find us?’

Maria let out a gasp, her eyes round with shock. ‘You just roared! Can you speak bear?’

‘Yes,’ Ujurak replied.

He gave Kallik a shove and she half jumped, half fell into the cellar beside Lusa. Toklo opened his jaws as if he was going to argue, but a howl from a dog outside stopped him. He leaped down, landing on top of Kallik. The hole seemed full of a heaving mass of black, brown and white fur.