‘I am sorry for your sister,’ she added. ‘I know how I should feel if a cub of mine were stolen. But, after all, life in the forest is one danger following another. We must eat. We must find food, and that is difficult enough. Meanwhile the Earth Mother who has always cared for us will look after her people. There is no use in worrying about to-morrow. For many years men have hunted us, and yet we live.’
Raphael muttered, ‘The Sorcerer will be more terrible than man.’
The bear stirred restlessly. ‘Well, perhaps as you say, some day we may go. It is quite true that life is growing harder for us. But then we do not expect to live forever.’
Here the little cub broke in with a whimper, ‘Mamma, I’m hungry. You promised me a log with fat slugs in it.’
‘I’m sorry I can’t help you,’ the bear said to Raphael, ‘but a mother’s life is a hard one. Yes, Lawrence, I’ll be right with you.’
Raphael watched them out of sight, and then ran on down the road. Down through the valley it wound until it reached the river, where it followed the river-bank. Having been granted the powers of an antelope, Raphael stopped every now and then to nibble at the green buds and tender shoots of late spring. In this way the day passed.
Toward evening he came suddenly upon a clearing hewn out of the forest. In the evening light the white-topped stumps of freshly cut trees looked like the gravestones of a bleak cemetery. Raphael moved forward very slowly. The road left the river and climbed a steep hill, and, as the boy reached the top, he saw the city itself below him.
‘There you are,’ said a familiar voice as a shadow passed over his head, and Empyrean lit on the ground beside him. ‘I have been following you for the last hour. What do you think of it?’
Raphael stood and said nothing.
