Page 31 of Hollow Child

“I’m fine,” I said, because the mere thought of food made me want to retch. “Why don’t’ you check with Samara or Polly? They need help.”

“No, I don’t need any help,” Polly snapped. She was laying on the ground with her hooded sweatshirt bunched up underneath her head like a pillow, so she lay in a tank top on the dirt. “I just need to get some sleep.”

“Go ahead. We won’t bother you,” Max said, sitting down beside me. “I’ll just take in this view while I can.”

I glanced over at Samara, staring off at nothing, and I hoped that she would be okay. But I didn’t know how to help her, especially not right now when I could hardly even think straight.

Ripley had a much easier time than the rest of us, but even she seemed tired, laying nearby and licking her paws.

The others had only been gone a short while when the lion suddenly perked up her ears and stood up. Max got up more slowly, and he grabbed his billhook knife.

Ripley growled, and Serg walked out from the trees with his hands up. “Easy, kitty. It’s just me.”

“How are things?” Max asked.

“Good. I’m actually here to get you all because we found a nice little cave to shelter in for the night,” Serg explained.

That all sounded good, except that Ripley stillhadn’t relaxed, even when she saw that it was just Serg. She was staring past him, into the trees, and her tail swished in agitation.

“Something’s wrong,” I said, but then we all heard the crunching branches.

A huge grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) came barreling out of the woods, running toward where we were resting by the waterfall.

“Oh, shit,” Serg said, and he dove out of the way just as the bear took aim at Ripley.

The lioness was half his size, but she ran at him, fearless and ferocious. That seemed to startle the bear. His eyes were already wide and bulging, and he stumbled backwards.

Ripley kept running at him, and when he turned, she swatted her paws against his backside.

Remy with her crossbow and Boden with his machete came out of the trees as the lion chased the bear off. Remy took aim, but she didn’t fire, and soon, both Ripley and the bear were out of sight through the trees.

“So that’s why they call it Grizzly Falls,” Max said.

“Are you all okay?” Boden asked. “Was anybody hurt?”

“I think we’re all okay,” I said.

“Let’s get back to the cave and get a fire going,” Remy said.

The cave was nestled in the small thicket of trees about five meters from the waterfall, and the rapid river that fed it. It wasn’t that large – maybe half the size of a school bus – and the ceiling was just tall enough that Boden and Serg could enter without ducking.

The roof of the cave was covered in a downy-looking moss, and when Boden saw it, he commented, “It looks like a hobbit hole.”

Lillian, Serg, and Max all laughed at that, and later Max told me it was from the big fantasy book he’d read last summer.

“Careful, there is bear scat and diarrhea around here,” Lillian said.

“Are we safe here if this is a bear’s home?” Samara asked. The charging grizzly had snapped her somewhat out of her stasis.

“We’ll make a fire, and we’ll have Ripley to scare them away,” Remy assured me.

I wasn’t sure if that was safe, but I was in no place to argue. Max laid out my bedroll in a flat spot near the back of the cave, and I laid down as soon as I could.

On my side, with an old shirt bunched up between my knees, I watched as Ripley returned a short time later, looking no worse for the wear. Samara, Max, and Castor “cleared” the cave as best they could, sweeping out debris and chasing off the spiders. The others gathered firewood and got the fire going near the mouth of the cave.

Except for Polly. She lay down on the ground across from me. Her brother offered to roll out her bedroll so she’d be comfortable, but she insisted that the cold ground felt better. Her skin was red from an apparent sunburn, so she had that on top of everything else.

At least Polly fell asleep almost right away, and fortunately, I wasn’t very far behind. Max woke me up once, trying to get me to eat, but I just couldn’t stomach food then.

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