Travis caught up to Sarah, Dmitri, Lars, and Jenny at the top of the gondola run. It was a glorious sight–the sun sparkling on the thick snow, the clouds below them, tucked tight as thick blankets to Mount Yakebitai. It was snowing down there, but at the top, high above everything but the neighbouring bright white mountaintops, the day was picture perfect. Travis wished Data could get up here with the video camera, but Data had gone back to the lodge and Nish had stayed out on the smaller hill to practise.

They did a long run together, Sarah taking the lead and all the others trying to follow, not only her run but her every move. If Sarah pumped a fist, all five pumped a fist. If Sarah jumped and tucked or did a special grab, everyone did. They dropped down through the clouds and along a high ridge until they noticed some signs indicating danger, and Sarah pulled to a sharp stop in the shelter of some pines. The others pulled in beside her.

“Fun, eh?” Jenny said.

Travis smiled at her. Jenny’s face was flushed bright pink. Snow was falling on her cheeks, and melting from the heat as fast as it landed.

Lars was biting into a mittful of powdery snow.

Dmitri was closer to the edge of the pines, staring out over the dangerous slope where no one was to go.

And then the mountain exploded.

Just the roar alone would have terrified Travis. But a moment after the terrible sound hit them, the world began to slip away from under the Owls, and they hit the ground, screaming.

Mount Yakebitai was falling!

“It’s an avalanche!” Sarah screamed, barely audible over the devastating roar.

“Hang onto the trees!” Lars yelled.

Travis rolled to one side, over and over, until he could wrap his arms around one of the pines. The tree was shaking–but holding. Dmitri held on to a pine beside him.

The snow below the Owls seemed to be bucking like a horse. Travis could hear Jenny screeching, but he could also see that she had managed to grab a tree.

He lifted his head higher, the sound almost deafening. He could see out through the pines to the dangerous slope, and he had a sense of being in a moving car.

It felt like he was flying with the trees up the hill!

He looked again and realized it was the mountainside slipping down, not him going up. The slope seemed to be sliding like a cloth off a tipped-up table, the roar building and a plume of snow rising thicker than any of the clouds that ringed the mountain.

The roar began to recede, but the ground still shook.

Or is it just me shaking, wondered Travis.

The five Screech Owls lay against the safety of the pine trees until the roar stopped. The sky was still filled with rolling snowflakes when they finally stood, but the avalanche was over. They were still alive.

Jenny was crying. Lars put his arms around her and held her. Travis wished he had enough nerve to do it, but knew he couldn’t. He wished he could be that comfortable around other people.

Sarah was creeping to the edge of the pines. Dmitri grabbed her arm.

“Don’t!” he said. “There could be a second one any minute.”

“Where’s it headed?” Sarah asked.

“Toward the lodge,” Dmitri answered.

 

Never had Travis snowboarded so well and so fast–but it meant nothing to him except getting to the bottom of the mountain as quickly as possible. They had to find out if anyone was hurt.

Dmitri went first, body crouched, board singing on the snow. He led them in a high loop away from the avalanche area and into clearer skies that had not yet filled with the burst of powdered snow that had risen like a cloud of smoke from a bomb blast. Sarah followed. Then Travis, Jenny, and Lars bringing up the rear and making sure Jenny was all right.

Travis felt his heart jump when the lodge came into view. It was safe! There were skiers and boarders milling about, all staring up toward the practice hill where one edge of the avalanche had rolled over the top like a giant wave.

The five boarders raced down and several of the other Owls, and Muck, came stomping through the snow to greet them. Mr. Dillinger and Data were waving from the deck outside the lodge.

“You’re all right! You’re all right!” Fahd called.

“We’re fine!” Sarah called back. “But it was close!”

“Everyone here okay?” Lars asked.

The others turned to Muck.

Travis looked at the big coach. Maybe it came from running through the cold air, but Muck’s eyes were glassy and red around the edges.

“We can’t find Nishikawa.”