The stars spread slowly across the sky until there were more than Evie could have ever imagined. The full moon was a circle of silver light, and the shadows on the ground were pitch black. Everything else was shades of grey in the moonlight. Evie thought it was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen.

Eventually they made a camp in a dry river bed. A tree grew right on the edge, and there was a small, Evie-sized hole underneath it, where its roots had eroded away the bank.

Bear shone a pocket torch into the hole. Nothing looked back at him and he looked pleased.

“Excellent. Somewhere for you to sleep, firewood and plenty of stones.”

Evie wondered. “Stones?”

“What do you think would happen if we made a fire in the middle of this bone-dry grass?” Bear asked as he started to cut some sticks from the tree.

“Ah,” she realised. “It would burn up half the savannah. So you build the fire inside the stones. Got it.”

“That’s right,” said Bear. “Being a survivor doesn’t just mean looking after yourself. We need to look after the environment as well.”

Together they made a ring and base of stones and started to build the fire on top of them. The very first thing Bear put down was –

“Is that elephant dung?” Evie asked.

“Bingo! Every fire needs some tinder,” Bear said. “Something that catches the flame and starts the fire off. This is completely dried out now, and most of it’s just undigested grass, so it will burn nicely.”

He built a pile of sticks on top of the dung, then took a couple of bits of metal that hung on a chain around his neck. Bear crouched down and struck the metals together so that sparks flew. He blew gently into the base of the fire. It started to glow as flame spread through the sticks with snaps and crackles.

Bear skewered some zebra meat onto a stick, but he waited until the fire was burning well before he held it over the flames.

“No one wants dung-flavoured meat,” he said with a wink. Evie watched the meat sizzle and brown in the heat. The smell tickled her nose, and her stomach responded. Evie imagined a perfect steak meal, with some chips on the side, crisp and golden …

But Evie pushed the picture in her mind away. This was the meal she had, and she was so grateful for it.

And when she finally bit into a warm, juicy piece of zebra steak, it tasted great – no need for chips, ketchup or anything else at all.

Every meal was a feast, Bear said. This truly had been a feast to end the day.

9

HUNGRY HIPPOS

In what felt like no time at all, Bear was saying, “Rise and shine!”