ong time now. Bad luck."

"Bad luck?!" Kelin burst.

"Can we run?" Mora hitched up her robes and bit back a whimper. She stared into the forest, but it only offered darkness in return. She imagined gigantic air max skyline paws barely whispering over the ground as the bears flew at their throats.

"We wouldn't make it. Not with all of us."

She stabbed her finger at the trees. "Spike can fly! We could hide in the trees!"

"Morana! Spike can't fly this many people and black bears can climb trees! They'll smell your scent running right to its base. Even in animal form, they'll bring a burning air max zenyth branch from our fire - or make a fire of their own - and burn us out or alive. Our best chance is to fight. Now, do you know any attack or defense spells? And can you modify anything else you know?"

She gulped. "Um, um, I can try."

"Good." Then, he did his best to smile. "I'm sure you can do this. We all have to pull our weight on this one."

"Are we going to die?" Thalon reached up and grabbed the back of his father's shirt.

Thistle sighed, and kept his hand on the boy's head.

"We'll fight like hell not to." Jakkobb looked around nike air max to the rest of the party. He breathed in and out sharply. "Alright. My axe's is magical, as are Thistle's sword and Spike's hooves."

"Why?" Mora inquired.

"Silver and magic can slay them. Mora, throw everything you can think of at them. Now, does anyone have any silver on them? No? Damn, too much to hope for anyway. Kelin, you'll just have to use your sword, but they'll heal and very rapidly. Thalon, Mora, I want you two in the center and try to stay out of the combat. Kelin, scare our other two horses off - we'll find them later if we can. No, wait. Don't scare them until the bears get here, if they're frenzied maybe they'll go for the horses instead."