move, she started in its direction and setting her feet upon the log, once more glanced backward haughtily. Proud of her discovery, she raised her handsomely-wrought horn to her coral lips and blew upon it triumphantly, its sound rolling over the woodland necropolis, detonating down into the ravines, crashing against distant mountain tops, echoing, re-echoing, until it lost itself in some dark jungle of underbrush. In a moment from some distance away came the answer of her father’s horn and then of the other boyars. Peace-Renown paused, balancing herself on the log. It was a very ancient and dried-out one and from beneath it, within the impenetrable confusion of twigs, branches, logs and rocks, there seemed to come to her ears a faint sound as of a crunching of teeth and a low murmuring. She listened again more attentively, but she heard nothing. Reassured, she set her feet upon the log and proceeded confidently. Hardly had she taken five steps along it when the dry punkwood cracked and snapped under her and the daring girl went down with it among the branches, twigs and stones.
She landed on her feet without having let go any of her weapons. Grasped firmly in her strong hands, she held a silver pointed spear. Slung over one shoulder was a powerful bow and over the other a pouch filled with arrows and tucked behind the handsome leather belt which seemed as if it had been poured around the slim girlish waist, was a battle-axe and a stilleto with an intricately carved bone handle.. Falling unexpectedly into the dim cavern did not frighten her, she lost little of her self-composure, nevertheless, she began at once to look about her for some way out. At first she could distinguish nothing in the murky blackness but as her eyes accustomed themselves to the dimness, they encountered a sight which would make anyone’s blood freeze, for barely five paces away from her, in a den, lay a huge female bear and her young, glaring menacingly at her unexpected guest. Peace-Renown gasped in dismay. Should she try to fight the fearful beast
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