Come back!’ Urdda broke from the trees and ran helter-skelter after Bear. ‘Wait, Urdda! Don’t leave me behind!’ cried Branza. Bear stumbled, he tumbled; he was gone from Urdda’s sight. And then there was a flash, like lightning, but lightning that did not end, and Urdda fell back, and Branza ran up behind her, exclaiming, and pulled her out of the light and away from an edge of thin grass, beyond which was nothing for a long way down to treetops, which seethed and swelled like shineless water there. The sisters clutched each other. ‘You nearly fell, Urdda! You would be dead!’ Branza’s teeth chattered with the surprise of it. ‘What has happened to Bear?’ Urdda tried to see through the glaring light to its source. It churned and bulged; its edges confused themselves among sunset-lit clouds. Was it a thing, or a hole with light pouring out? ‘Look, ears and a—oh, I cannot see it properly,’ said Urdda. ‘I thought for a bit it was Bear-shaped.’ ‘I too! But no, it is much too big, don’t you think?
