Jade Fern Grove run, and grow up fast

It could have been her imagination, and yet the girl would swear she could feel the hot and putrid breath of the bears just upon her haunches. Envisioning one was likely to just suck in air and with it, swallow her whole, she made to push faster and harder—anything to separate herself from them.

But she was winded, and just as she felt the pull of death, Bazi stopped and scooped her up beside her brother, this time moving even faster than before. Swift was unconscious by her side – from the corner of her eye she could see his eyeball dangling, and trying not to throw up the contents of her stomach, she stared ahead of them, feeling the panic in her chest even as her mother’s paws thrummed at the earth and pulled them further from their attackers.