“It’s a full moon tonight,” Bear said. “That means plenty of light to see by. We’ll press on after dark for a few hours, before we finally settle down. Walking at night will help us conserve energy, and we’ll move quicker than in the heat of the day. If we stay here we won’t be any closer to water.”

Bear was carrying his makeshift spear in one hand, the stick resting on his shoulder.

“Do you think we’ll need that?” Evie asked.

Bear smiled.

“If there’s plenty of light for us to see by, there’s plenty for us to be seen by too. And big cats, like lions, have excellent night vision. It’s like I said back at the water hole, we don’t act like prey. Day or night, we walk tall, and we show we’ve got as much right as they have to be here. And if they still decide to pounce …”

He lunged forward suddenly, flinging both his arms out.

“HA!” he shouted, loud enough to make Evie jump.

“We give them a bit of that!” Evie laughed. “We bluff them and make it clear it’s not worth their trouble attacking us. We don’t run, because then they’ll chase us. They’re cats, after all.”

The light around them on the savannah was turning deep red. Their shadows danced over the grass in front of them, slowly growing longer.

“Will we really be able to see in the dark?” Evie asked. She was still thinking of lions. Bear smiled.

“Oh, yes. It’ll be a different kind of light, but there’ll be plenty of it. And over there is probably our last chance to grab a meal that isn’t biltong before the sun goes down.”

They changed direction slightly to go over to a fat, strange-looking tree. It was the complete opposite of the thin acacia they had seen earlier. Its trunk was very wide. It had a few leafy branches on top of it but they looked like someone had stuck them on as an afterthought. There were green, leathery fruit, the size and shape of rugby balls.

“This is a baobab,” Bear said. He gazed up at the branches. “We can eat that fruit if we can get it. Can you climb if I help you up?”

“Sure,” Evie said. Eating new food was tricky, but climbing for food was easy.

Bear took his knife off the spear, put it back in its scabbard and gave it to Evie. Then Bear gave Evie a boost up. The trunk shot past her eyes and she was up at branch level. She cut away several of the fruits, which fell to the ground with a thud.

Evie’s mouth watered. She was so hungry.