At the end of the afternoon, the dog had helped them get back from their walk. It led the way and they just followed, which was lucky as they hadn’t really remembered the route – around here, everything looked the same. In the end they had spent over four hours in the green pit, the verdant sanctuary near the spring. They had even taken a dip in the pool of gently bubbling cool water, and they had stayed a long time sheltering from the heat, taking the waters, under the dog’s watchful eye. The animal would growl every time it saw Lise or Franck put their face near the surface of the water, but only in a protective way. Lise asked what its name could be, and they came up with a game. They played for a good while and tried out all the names that came to mind, from Lassie to Rex, Médor to Bulle, from Baikal to Samba, Biscuit to Ulysses, from Ascott to Brutus, Kali, Tara, Roxy … At every new suggestion, they would look at the dog as they called it by that name. The animal usually didn’t react; it just looked uninterested but didn’t stand up. Sometimes it didn’t even seem to hear them. None of the names were right. Trying out all the combinations of syllables until they found the right one would take for ever. The dog had perhaps never been given a name. To put an end to it, Franck and Lise decided to try to think of a suitable name each. If they came up with the same one, they would call it that. But if they came up with two different ones, they would each use the one they had chosen and see which name the animal responded to best. If necessary, they would keep both. Franck had chosen Alpha, the name of his company. Lise had gone for Bambi, because the dog always came from the forest, because it was at home there, and like the deer in the book, it seemed to bring drama with it. Bambi didn’t suit the dog at all, but it made it seem softer.

They packed up their things and stood there watching the dog, which had already set off, helping them find a more human-friendly route that was less steep than the way they had come down. It guided them around the outside of the igue along a wide path, which meant they could get back up without having to do any serious climbing. When they got to the top, they had no idea where they were or what direction the house was, but the animal was already ahead of them. They just followed.