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them,
and Bernard and Charlotte gave them a wide berth. The blackened
meat made Bernard's mouth water. He wasn't sure that he liked the
appetites of this new body.
     
    As the gloomy, overcast afternoon faded into
gray evening, they entered rocky, broken country. Rock outcroppings
burst from the ground like the shattered bones of ancient monsters,
and here grew scrubby trees and little brush. Bernard left
Charlotte resting among the rocks, and scrambled among the
outcroppings, sniffing and listening. The fresh, salt smell of the
sea filled the air now, and the forest reared up in a dark wall a
few hundred yards away.
     
    After a while the rock outcroppings drew
together in a cracked limestone ridge. Bernard loped along this,
nosing into crannies, and found a handful of small, shallow caves.
None deep enough to provide any sort of shelter. He followed the
ridge as it curved west, and finally found a cave that delved deep
into the rock.
     
    He stepped cautiously inside and sniffed.
Gravel covered the floor, along with leaves and the occasional dry
bone. Twenty feet in, the cave ended in a smooth wall. Here was a
deep nest of sticks and leaves, and plucked hair from a bear.
Bernard examined it with his nose, but the scent was old and
fading. It had been abandoned for at least a season.
     
    Footsteps crunched on the rocks outside.
     
    Bernard scrunched himself into the nest and
stared out the cave mouth, hair bristling down his spine.
     
    A human voice said, "Doesn't look like
they've made it this far. They're hanging around Lyedyn City.
Better hunting."
     
    "Wait," said a second voice. "I see one down
there, in the rocks. Looks white."
     
    Bernard's heart stopped and his muscles
coiled. Charlotte!
     
    The mages crept off, trying to move
stealthily on the rocks, but their boots still crunched in gravel.
Bernard slunk out of the cave on all fours. Outside the world was
drenched in the onion-like smell of man. He could have followed
their trail blind.
     
    They followed the limestone ridge, so Bernard
climbed the it and galloped along its far side. The other side of
the ridge was a gradual slope, covered in deep grass that concealed
rabbit burrows. He'd examine it later--right now panic held him in
its choking grip. Charlotte had no warning! What if she'd left her
post and followed him, and walked into the mages?
     
    Was he willing to attack his former friends
to protect his wife?
     
    The choice tortured him. He leaped down the
low cliff and plunged into the rocks, panting and sniffing. He'd
outrun the mages, who were now a few hundred feet behind him, out
of sight, but tainting the breeze. And Charlotte--where was
she?
     
    A fireball burst against the limestone cliff
with a boom.
     
    Bernard moaned and ran toward the fireball's
source. It hadn't been aimed at him, and there was but one more
wolf here.
     
    "Charlotte!" he bellowed.
     
    "Bernard!" her voice floated over the
rocks.
     
    He sprang up on an immense boulder, hoping to
divert the mages' attention, and reared up on his hind legs.
Charlotte zig-zagged through the boulders, jaws wide as she panted,
ears flattened in terror. Twenty feet away, the mages stood atop
another boulder. One man held out both hands with a fireball
growing in it, while the other mage pointed his staff at it,
contributing power.
     
    "Two of them!" the staff mage exclaimed.
     
    The fireball mage hurled his bomb.
     
    Bernard watched it curve through the sky like
an orange comet. It had been thrown to reach the spot where
Charlotte would be in a few seconds--
     
    He leaped off the rock and flung himself into
her, knocking her off her feet and tumbling with her sideways,
behind the sheltering rocks.
     
    The missile exploded, blasting his fur with
heat. Charlotte screamed.
     
    They rolled to their feet, and Bernard
panted, "Climb the cliff and run for it. I'll draw them off." Then
he saw the black scorch mark across her back, the fur melted into
stiff clumps.
     
    The world froze in