Liam's gaze slid to his mother and flew back to him like an uncertain bird. He still pinched his lips together, but his stern, sullen expression disappeared. Instead, a mixture of curiosity and caution fought for victory over childish emotions in his soul's mirrors.

"Really?" came the whisper with a frighteningly grown-up-sounding mixture of suspicion and caution. "Promise?«

The small hand suddenly reached out toward him like a silent invitation. It was clenched into a loose fist, but only the little finger was raised. Liam's gaze, not full of childish mischief but serious, stared at him.

Surprised, Ryker hesitated briefly. He stared at the hand, at the little finger. His hand trembled on his thigh before he could call himself to order. Did he really have to promise the boy so fervently that he wouldn't hurt him or his mother? 'Dylan, if I get my hands on you...' he thought bitterly before a wry smile spread across his features.

"Promise," he heard his own voice as he raised his hand and intertwined his pinky with the boy's. "Little finger vow," he announced solemnly. At the same time, his conscience stabbed at him with fierce blades. It called him a liar - and rightly so. The moment would soon come when he would have to shatter this oath like a porcelain vase.

It was quiet for a moment, and the idyll of the forest seemed to allow her to breathe a sigh of relief. A bird chirped its song, and Liam moistened his lips.

"My foot hurts," he murmured softly and hoarsely.

"Oh, my darling..." Eve took a step toward the boy and crouched down. "Come on, show us your foot." She gently stroked his lap and placed her hand on his. He was dirty from head to toe, with leaves stuck in his hair and scratches everywhere.

The boy opened his mouth briefly but closed it again and seemed to think again before the arms around his legs finally loosened hesitantly. Liam swallowed visibly harder, then hesitantly held his right foot to Ray.

Carefully, Ray lifted it into his lap. He kept one hand under him while he carefully felt the ankle with the other, pressing lightly in various places.

"Does it hurt much, sweetheart?" the motherly voice hummed beside them.

Ray liked the tone Eve used in Liam's presence. She was always soft, like black tissue paper or flowing golden honey catching the sunlight.

He moved his knuckle carefully to check that it was working correctly, pressing at various points. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. The ankle was a little swollen but neither blue nor so severely that he had to reckon with a torn ligament or worse.

"The joint is stable. Nothing is broken," he told Eve calmly, hearing her sigh of relief. He could see her shoulders buckling and a huge boulder sliding off her. It must have felt like she had been underwater for too long and was finally catching her breath.

"I think he's only slightly sprained. We should cool it and rest it in the hut for a few days, and everything will be fine. But the hike is off for now."

"But the cave," Liam whined but was silenced by the paired stern looks of the two adults.

"We'll go there another time, darling, I promise. When your foot's all right again," Eve at least relented. That seemed to make the little sprout feel gracious.

They had to go back. That meant that one of them had to carry Liam, who ducked his head and started sobbing again a heartbeat later.

"I'm sorry," Liam stuttered, looking up at the two adults as fresh tears came to his eyes.

Ryker noticed that the boy's gaze lingered on the dried blood covering the side of his face from the small wound where Liam had hit him with the stone.

"I ran away ... and ... and..." The little boy was now kneading his hands restlessly, eliciting Ray's soft, understanding smile. Liam undoubtedly had his mommy's good heart.

"I... I was just... scared..." With these words, Liam lowered his head sadly. "Because..." he seemed to be searching for the right words. "I don't want to leave here again... and..." Tears rolled down his cheeks; he wiped them away with audible sobs and scrunched up his nose noisily. He didn't know how to express it and deal with his confused feelings.

But Eve and Ryker understood what Liam meant.

The dainty hand stroked tenderly through Liam's dark hair and then over his cheeks, flushed with excitement, to wipe away the tears. The moisture left pale rivulets and smudged earth on the soft skin.

"Oh, my darling," Ray heard her say and couldn't help but smile even wider as he watched mother and son. "You'll always be my number one, do you hear me?" she whispered tenderly, lowering her lips gently to the small forehead to emphasize her words.

Sniffling, the boy wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He clung to his mother, pressed his dirty face against her neck, and snuggled into her arms.

"But we can't go back to the cave because of me," the boy sobbed almost heartbreakingly while Ryker stood up and picked up the backpack from the edge of the clearing, which he had lost there in the fight. He didn't swing it onto his back but slipped it through the two straps and pulled it tight so that it sat on his chest.

"Hm, no, that's not going to happen today," he agreed quietly as he returned to the two of them. "But you can learn something else," he suggested with a mischievous wink, attracting the boy's attention. The boy squatted before him and peered over his shoulder to the back. Sometimes, it was best to distract children and give them something else to do—and that was precisely what he would do now.

"You know how the bears sometimes carry their cubs through the forest?" he asked, grinning at Eve and Liam as the boy shook his head.

Eve also gave him a questioning look, which he only acknowledged with a smile.

"Then get up and hold on; you'll learn!"

It barely took a few heartbeats for his arms to wrap around his shoulders. Ray straightened up and grabbed the backs of the knees of the little legs that dangled this way on either side of his waist.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Eve whispered to him as she slung her own backpack back over her shoulder.

"Sure, don't worry," Ryker replied with a grin.

He would have liked to take her rucksack off her, too, but with his own in front of him and Liam on his back, he couldn't help her. He momentarily let go of the leg and reached for Eve's fingers. He clasped her hand with his and gave her a soft smile before releasing it to hold Liam securely. "There we go, now," he said solemnly before they retraced their steps back into the undergrowth from which they had just stumbled.

"But bears can't walk on two legs!" Liam finally spoke up after they had fought their way through the last of the bushes and left the hole and its horrors behind them. Ray turned his head, saw the little pout out of the corner of his eye, and had to laugh. It was as if a few stones fell from his chest, and the pile collapsed with a clatter.

"Hmm, you're right," Ryker grinned back and dropped to his knees, his backpack like a big, fat belly beneath him.

The scent of the forest immediately hit him. Leaves rustled under his fingers, and a stick pressed against his palms—but that was all right and didn't bother him. With a roar that sounded like anything but that of a bear, he finally began to plod through the leaves on all fours. Only out of the corner of his eye did he notice the beautiful woman next to him watching the spectacle with amusement.

It must have been too strange to see the grown man, who had just been wrestling with a threat, stalking through the undergrowth like a bear minutes later and roaring like a stag. With exaggerated, sweeping movements, Ray stirred up the damp leaves. He threw his arms and legs into the air exaggeratedly, rocking Liam on his back like a ship on the high seas.

In return, he was rewarded with a childish laugh that rang out behind his back. Shortly afterward, Eve's bell-like laughter joined in, swelling into a concert of laughter.