For the time, fear had been routed by growth, while growth had assumed the guise of curiosity.

He began to notice near objects--an open portion of the stream that flashed in the sun, the blasted pine-tree that stood at the base of the slope, and the slope itself, that ran right up to him and ceased two feet beneath the lip of the cave on which he crouched.
Now the grey cub had lived all his days on a level floor.

He had never experienced the hurt of a fall.

He did not know what a fall was.

So he stepped boldly out upon the air.