I didn't need a scent sample.

I knew Jack's scent like the back of my paw. Knew Uncle's and John's and Abigail's, too. So it was second nature to pick it up amongst cow-scent and horse-scent, nose to the air as I barreled out of the homestead and towards Tall Trees, towards that horrible bear's den.

My bones ached, and my joints were stiff, but they loosened as I ran, cracking and crunching in my ears. I'd be hurting, later, but what was pain to Jack's life?

"Where is he, Ginny?"

"Passed Tall Trees!" I barked, but of course he couldn't understand me.

I left the road, darted through the sparse trees and passed the train tracks, through more trees and then back onto the road inside of Tall Trees, John's voice a mosquito's buzz in the back of my head, all of my focus on following Jack's scent.

Without a heartbeat of hesitation, I bolted off the road into the trees. I'd normally never have left the road in Tall Trees—in the last few years, the population of cougars and bears had exploded, likely with the help of this very bear. Even with John at my back, it was damn foolish to go off the path, and he only had a revolver, didn't have his rifle on him, or any other gun that would be of any real use.

But Jack was more important, so I charged ahead, my lungs burning, joints screaming.

I skidded down an icy rock, my hips clicking, but it didn't hurt. John's voice faded, some, as he had to go around, and so I began to bark as I ran so he could follow me, though it, of course, ran the risk of attracting bears or cougars or wolves.

And then I lost the scent.

I stopped so abruptly that my hindquarters went up and over my shoulders, and then I was tumbling until I slammed into a tree, and that did hurt, and my back would be screaming later, I knew. My paws scrambled through the snow, and I darted back to where the scent had been lost, the snow scattered there where I'd fallen. I put my nose to the ground and began to circle, eyes darting this way and that in hopes of finding tracks, but either they'd been lost when I threw up the snow or my eyes were too dull to find them. Horse hooves clattered behind me as I sniffed, and John told me "You can find him, Ginny." before standing up in his saddle and yelling "Jack! Can you hear me Jack?!"

I found the scent again and took off as fast as I could, slipping as my claws failed to find traction on the icy ground. It wasn't much further before the trees grew sparser and sparser, and then the ground was inclining beneath my paws, the ground turning to rock. "Jack!" I pitched my voice up into a howl, "We're here, Jack!"

"Jack! You up here?!"

"He is, John! Hurry!"

The path up the mountain was winding, and I struggled to go up it at a run, skidding and almost falling as my claws slipped in the snow, and John had to slow Bramble to a trot to keep from running me over, the path too thin and precarious to allow him to pass around me.

The smell of blood smacked me, suddenly, in the face, and my howl died into a snarling bark, musky bear-scent making my fur rise along my spine. "Come on, John! Come on!"

Finally, we reached the plateau, and John reigned Bramble to a stop, while I drew myself up, looking around and, there! the bear growled, the sound rattling me down to my bones. Even from a distance, it was massive, face scarred and nasty. John's hand went down to his gun, and I heard breathing behind us, pained and stuttering,

"Pa, help me! I'm hurt!"

"I'm going to kill you."

I arched my back, peeled my lips back and began to snarl at the bear, stepping towards it on stiff legs, while John backed towards Jack without turning his back to the beast.

"How dare you!"

The bear drew itself up, roared so loud that, if it weren't for Jack, I would have fled, and began to barrel towards us.