8
The hot spring was unoccupied, but it didn’t take her long to pick up the fresh tracks through the snow.
“By the tracks, it’s a big bull, two does, and a half-grown fawn.”
Horatio let her lead the way. It was a hard slog through the deep snow, even though the herd had broken the path.
At one point, an avalanche had erased their tracks. It took them several anxious hours to pick them up again on the far side of the damage path.
It was barely an hour to local sunset—and only four or five to Global Flying Time—when she found them. The small herd was grazing near a copse of Douglas fir that had blocked much of the snow. They were kicking aside the little snow that remained and eating the frozen grass.
“Jeremy!” Horatio’s shout of joy shook loose an entire cascade of snow from one of th
