Bearclaw Valley Be Prepared

His mention of an inside pressed Clary's eyes to widen. She turned her head to look upon the rocky wall. The barrier looked ordinary, nothing more than what she'd seen this morning and the many mornings before, set with stone and smeared with vegetation. Yet this new information made them take a different life, mysterious and full of intrigue. The effort to imagine what secrets they held came easy, and her heartbeat quickened at the vivid thoughts which filled her. There were wolves living right next to them, and she hadn't even known!

His statement only itched her to climb further, despite the warnings he tried to give them. A sense of reason told her the man was right - her thoughts skipped back to the scare her sister had already had, and she pursed her lips in contemplation. They could be more careful, now that they knew the dangers. And though they hadn't ever climbed a mountain before, surely there was a first for everything - so why couldn't this be theirs?

But any thought of doing anything other than climbing up the mountain fizzled with a start. He knew their pack? Though she was young and knew nothing beyond Easthollow, she knew they carried a scent unique to them. It was what made them Easthollow, and what helped them recognize others who weren't.

The shock settled into the girl and she snapped her head to lock attention with Steph. She completely missed the realization this could be their uncle, and instead loomed on the most pressing reality first -

"What if he tells on us!" she hissed for Steph's ears to hear, and not the man's. "If we get down, I bet we can outrun him back to the territory. He can't follow us there, and then he can't tattle. [b]Mother can't find out we were up here." [/b]And she was sure they both knew why.