As Toklo sniffed the air he picked up the scent of a BlackPath. He could hear the distant roaring of a firebeast and caught a glimpse of its glittering colour through the trees ahead of him. Cautiously he padded forward, pushing his way between clumps of fern and thornbushes until he reached the BlackPath that sliced through the forest in a straight line. It was quiet now. He listened, but the only sound was the rain and the shaking of the trees in the wind.

Then he heard the sound of another firebeast, growing rapidly louder. Roaring, it swept past Toklo as he scrambled away from the edge of the BlackPath. The firebeast’s huge black paws sent up a spray of tiny stones that stung Toklo as they showered over him.

‘Ouch!’ he yelped.

Running beside the BlackPath, raised a little way off the ground, was a long silver-grey tube. Toklo sniffed it suspiciously; it had a strong smell of firebeasts. It reminded him of the tube beside the Great River, where firebeasts and flat-faces had been digging up the ground, except this one was smaller, about as high as his shoulder.

Toklo’s head and shoulders still stung from the blows the big grizzly had given him, and his pelt was clumped with wet soil and debris.

Fed up with splashing through mud and struggling through undergrowth, Toklo began to pad along the edge of the BlackPath, relieved to be on firmer ground. He leaped back when the next firebeast roared past him, terrified that it would crush him beneath its rolling, hissing paws. To his relief, it didn’t turn towards him, but he was still pelted with stones and soaked by the surge of water that came from it.

I’ve had enough of this!

The shower of stones clattered on the metal tube, drawing Toklo’s attention back to it. He gave it another cautious sniff. Though the top of it was curved, it looked wide enough to balance on, and it was raised well above the mud.

Why not? It’s worth a try.

Heaving with his forelegs, Toklo managed to scramble on to the top of the tube and stood there for a moment until he was sure he could balance. Then he began padding along it, setting his paws down carefully so that he didn’t slip on the rain-wet surface. It made him nervous to be so close to a flat-face thing, and the strong smell of firebeasts made him choke, but at least he wasn’t floundering through mud any longer. And the tube reminded him of the games he used to play with Tobi, balancing on fallen tree trunks when they were little cubs.

None of the firebeasts paid him any attention, and Toklo grew more confident as he realised that they couldn’t get at him while he was raised above the BlackPath like this.