The cubs shot from the cave and continued running at a hard pace until they found themselves on a high cliff that hung over the firth. They skidded to a halt and looked down into the dark waters below. Their claws gripped the edge. Behind them they could hear the shouts of the Roguer bears growing closer. The thunder of their paws shook the ground.

“Oh, Great Ursus!” Stellan gasped. “There’s no choice. We have to jump.” He grasped each cub’s paw. “One—two—three!” he cried, then launched himself into the air. Their eyes were squeezed shut, their paws held fast. Down, down, down, and then a splash.

When the three cubs surfaced, they were sputtering but still holding one another’s paws.

“Now swim!” Stellan shouted. He thought of Marven and his twisted paw and swam as hard as he could. The current was with them, and they reached the other side of the firth faster than he’d thought possible. Staggering onto the beach, they looked back. There were no bears on the other side. The Roguers must have stopped at the cliff, not believing that the cubs would ever jump.

“We walked right into a death trap!” Jytte said.

“There must be Roguers all over this place,” Third said raggedly as he gasped for breath. “They’ve invaded. The bears of the Ice Clock are here!”

“Where will we be safe?” Jytte asked.

“Maybe nowhere,” Third said dismally. “But we can be careful.”

“It looks like there’s an old den in the bank just ahead. Must have been left from this past winter,” Stellan said. “We could use it, but we need to camouflage it.”

Cautiously the cubs approached the opening of the den.

Third peered inside. “It’s abandoned, so we’re not taking anybody’s den.”

“It smells like skunk bear,” Stellan said. His nose wrinkled, and there was a touch of doom in his voice.

Jytte and Stellan had been attacked by a skunk bear in the Nunquivik. Jytte would never forget her terror when the creature seized her and wrapped her in a death crush. Somehow, Stellan had managed to leap onto the skunk bear’s back and scratch its face. The creature dropped Jytte immediately and was left writhing in a pool of its own blood.

With those memories still vivid in their minds, the cubs cautiously entered the den. Stellan looked around, relieved. “This skunk bear hasn’t been here in a long time.”

“Are you sure, Stellan?” Third asked nervously.

“Look at these bones.” The bones of the skunk bear’s prey were scattered around, but they were bleached white and brittle. Whoever had pulled off the meat had done so long ago.

“Stellan’s right,” Jytte said. “Remember how Skagen camouflaged his cave? Let’s take some branches from those trees and gather some of those dead limbs on the ground.”

Stellan and Third nodded solemnly. What hadn’t they learned from Skagen? Every bit of knowledge he’d shared about the stars, all the stories he’d told of his homeland in the Schrynn Gar, were like a radiant gems from some secret cache. “Imagine this,” he would often begin. “Imagine how long it takes that light from the Svree star to reach the earth. Hundreds, maybe thousands of light-years.”

As the cubs worked together to conceal the entrance to the skunk bear’s cave, they fell quiet—overwhelmed by their memories of Skagen and of their recent terrifying escape from the firth.

Finally Jytte broke the silence. “You don’t believe what that awful Grynda said about the stories, right?”

“No, not really … ,” Stellan said. “But what if—?”

“Listen to me, cubs!” Third cut in sharply. “Forget everything that awful bear said. You are not made of lies. When creatures tell you not to believe something, you have to ask why. What are they fearful of you discovering?”

“What do you think?” Stellan asked. “What’s Grynda afraid of?”

“I’m going to have to sleep on that,” Third replied. Stellan and Jytte looked at each other knowingly. It was a strange territory that the little cub wandered through when he slept and went on his dream walks.

“I’m not sleepy in the least,” Jytte said, admiring their handiwork with the branches.

“Then don’t sleep,” Third said as he lowered himself to the ground and placed his head on his paws. “Tell your stories and mend your doubts and so mend yourselves. And then we’ll go on. We’ll do what Skagen told us. We’ll find your father. He’ll take us to the Den of Forever Frost. Now tell your stories. They are not lies. They will strengthen you.”