When Ranger walked she did not have to suffer it.

Therefore she held him to a walk as long as she dared or until Dale and Bo were almost out of sight; then she loped him ahead until he had caught up.
So the hours passed, the sun got around low, sending golden shafts under the trees, and the forest gradually changed to a brighter, but a thicker, color.

This slowly darkened.

Sunset was not far away.
She heard the horses splashing in water, and soon she rode up to see the tiny streams of crystal water running swiftly over beds of green moss.
She crossed a number of these and followed along the last one into a more open place in the forest where the pines were huge, towering, and far apart.

A low, gray bluff of stone rose to the right, perhaps one-third as high as the trees.