They padded across the stretch of open ground, swerving to avoid the thorn thickets. It was bad enough walking through greasy black mud without having their pelts filled with prickles. The plain was sliced through with BlackPaths, many of them with shiny tubes running alongside, and everywhere the tall flat-face dens loomed. Kallik shivered as she and Lusa trudged past, imagining hostile eyes peering down at them. But nothing moved, and Kallik wondered if they were empty.

‘This is the biggest flat-face place I’ve ever seen,’ Lusa whispered, gazing around with a mixture of wonder and dread. ‘But where are the flat-faces? We’ve hardly seen any.’

‘Maybe this isn’t where they live,’ Kallik suggested. ‘Their dens could be a long way off, near where we saw the metal bird.’

‘I think you’re right,’ Lusa agreed. ‘There aren’t any gardens, or firebeasts sleeping outside. And none of those big shiny things you get food out of,’ she added regretfully.

Kallik sniffed the air. ‘No smell of food at all. Just that horrible reek.’

Before they had covered many bearlengths, another metal bird rose from the far side of the denning area. At first Kallik was glad to see it because it helped to show them exactly where the nest was.

But instead of flying away up the coast, the metal bird flew inland towards the ridge. It stayed low, its claws almost brushing the roof of one of the flat-face dens. Kallik watched it approach with terror rising inside her.

‘It’s coming for us!’ she yelped. ‘They’ve seen us and they want to catch us!’

She crouched down, huddled against Lusa’s side. The clatter of the metal bird filled the sky; the wind of its approach flattened the grass and whipped at the branches of the thorns.

‘I’m sorry, Kallik,’ Lusa whispered. ‘I made you come here. It’s all my fault.’

Kallik was too frightened to reply; she just pressed herself closer to her friend’s warm pelt and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

Then above the growling of the metal bird she heard a bear roaring – bellowing their names through the stench-filled air. ‘Lusa! Kallik! Watch out!’

Kallik opened her eyes and lifted her head from the brittle grass to see a brown bear hurtling towards them, his jaws stretched wide. It was Toklo.

‘Move! Bee-brains! Hide!’

He slammed into Kallik’s side, thrusting her and Lusa towards a clump of thornbushes. Kallik crawled underneath, with Lusa beside her; Toklo crouched on the edge of the thicket, his snout raised as he snarled defiantly at the metal bird.

‘Go away! You can’t have them!’

Kallik waited, breathless with horror as she listened to the clattering of the metal bird. At last the noise faded, and when Kallik dared to poke her head out, she saw it lifting higher into the sky and disappearing across the ridge.