Tennessee was very quiet the following morning as they packed. Beatrice watched him double check that the fire was out as she sat alone at the table. Out the window she could see the mountains shimmering in the distance.

"Do you have everything?"

Beatrice turned to Tennessee. His voice sounded strange in the quiet morning. "I do," she said softly. "Will we be taking a train back?"

Tennessee paused with his back to her. He heard her feet shift as she crossed her legs then he slowly turned around. "We'll need to use all the daylight we can if we want to reach the mountain before night."

Beatrice head shot up. "You're...you're taking me up the mountain?"

"I'm taking us up the mountain," Tennessee said putting his backpack on. "If this is the last leg of the journey I don't see why we shouldn't complete it now."

Beatrice wanted to smile but she was too amazed. "Why...what made you change your mind?"

Tennessee glanced down at the fireplace. "It was more a change of heart. Now listen, it will be very dangerous in the mountains. There are animals and blizzards and avalanches and moose. What I'm trying to say is, we may not come back."

Beatrice looked down at the grain in the table. Was this really what she wanted? Follow this map to its destination and there I shall speak with you one last time.

Tennessee stared at her for a moment then looked out the window. "I'll be outside."

Beatrice hugged her pack to her chest and bit down on the coarse material. Her eyes fell on an old novel that had been stuck under the table to keep it from rocking. She pulled it out and the short leg struck the floor with a dull echo. She opened the cover and turned slowly through the molded pages. She looked towed the door when she heard Tennessee walking around outside then she picked up a half of a pencil that had long been resting in a crack of the table. She took a deep breath.

To whoever finds this letter, my name is Beatrice Anne Winters. I went missing roughly two months before my eighteenth birthday. I have gone up the mountain and may not return. Please let my sisters Ladybird and Wysteria know what happened to me. I beg they forgive my flaws and foolishness but this is something I must do or I will never be able to look at myself. I am sorry for the cruel things I said. Please forgive me. To whoever finds this letter, please send it to the address listed below.

With gratitude, Beatrice Winters

She tore the page from the book then placed the book halfway on top of it. Getting up from the table she took one last look around.

Tennessee looked at her as she stepped outside then he looked in the direction of the mountain then back to her again.

Beatrice nodded and they moved forward.

/

Ladybird folded her map of the park as a sharp wind blew the misting geysers in their direction. The air was a strange mixture of warmth and cold as the wind howled over the barren land and grazing animals. They had exhausted their funds to get this far and were very fortunate to have food which they owed to Sacha's skills.

Ladybird checked her broach watch. "Here it comes, Wysteria!" She grabbed her sister's hands and they counted down. Old Faithful took what felt like a deep breath then spewed her water into the air. The sister squealed at the sudden explosion, drowned out by the waterfall like roar of the spout.

"I wish Beatrice could see this!" Wysteria shouted.

"What?"

"I said, I wish Beatrice could see this!" Wysteria repeated pointing to the geyser floor. Ladybird, however was too caught up by the thrill and the sound to hear her and seeing the childish excitement on her older sister's face she decided to let her be.

/

"What else is there to see here?" Wysteria asked once they had gathered their animals and got on their way.

Ladybird looked over the pamphlet. "Aside from the animals there is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, the fumaroles , Grand Prismatic Spring."

"Is everything here grand?" Wysteria asked.

Ladybird laughed. "There are the Shoshone falls but that's in Idaho. Now, the guide said we might find something like what we are looking for if we stick to the narrow stream." She pointed to the water moving a few feet below them. "We just keep heading up river."

"And perhaps miles in the wrong direction," Wysteria said.

"Well it's worth a shot," Ladybird said.

The sisters kept on in the same direction. Time seemed to fly by as they took in the beautiful autumn surroundings that illuminated the park. Thick mighty buffalo grazed in golden pastures while deer of all manners frolicked in numbers like birds of the ground. Sacha chased hares and at night the stars gathered like a bejeweled blanket unfolded overhead. It was the beauty of the earth.

It was on a pitch black night with a concealed moon that they came upon the lonesome cabin. Ladybird left Wysteria down at the water while she went to speak to the residents.

Wysteria was cleaning rocks from Mist's hooves when Ladybird returned with her arms wrapped around herself from the cold.

"There was no one there," Ladybird said. "I started a fire, go on in and warm up. I'll finish here."

"But, Ladybird what if the owners come back and spy us here?" Wysteria worried. "We're trespassing. I don't think real bears are as domestic as they are in the Goldie Locks story."

Ladybird laughed. "Wysteria, don't be silly," she said. "The place is hardly hospitable. It looks like all anyone does is pass through."

Wysteria relented and went up to the cabin. Ladybird had the fire going as she said. Sacha was laying next to it and thumped his tail as she went through the bags and spread out the blankets. She stared into the rafters and into the white face of a barn owl that stared back at her with big black.

She was just barely dozing off when Ladybird entered, shutting out the cold. "Tomorrow we can get a better look around," she said clapping her mitted hands together.

Wysteria yawned. "Do you think Beatrice has already gotten there and turned back by now?" she asked.

Ladybird got under her blankets. She truly didn't know what to expect next. She had been having nightmares lately where all she and Wysteria found were her bones. She wished she could just see her again and then she could sleep a little easier.

/

Wysteria rose early to feed the horses while Ladybird packed everything up for the journey that lay ahead. They had washed up in the wide stream and eaten breakfast and were preparing to take a look around at the trees. Sacha was snapping at insects in the grass away from the trees getting laughs out of Wysteria.

Ladybird checked around the little cabin one last time. She still had her rifle to pack and checked to make sure they left nothing behind. She turned to the window and looked down through the streaming light onto the table. The dull rays danced on a worn out book with a slip of paper peaking tauntingly from beneath it. Pushing the book aside she picked up the paper. Her hand went to her mouth as she read the contents of the letter. When she finished she jerked her head up to the mountain view outside the window.

"Beatrice." A thud in the doorway made her turn around. "Wysteria I—" he words turned into a gasp when she saw the man in white standing there.

"Surprise," he said with a grin, flipping back his hood.

Ladybird remembered the rifle in her arms and raised it. Within seconds he had crossed the room and grabbed the barrel aiming it around him.

"Didn't your father tell you never to point that at anyone?" he said yanking the gun and pulling her forward in the process.

Ladybird screamed as she fought back, trying her best not to lose hold of her weapon. When she felt her grip slipping she used the only defense she knew. Raising her leg she kicked him in the stomach making him bend forward with the blow.

Filled with rage he shoved her back sending her sliding across the floor. "I was told not to kill you," he said. "But that doesn't mean I can't get close." 

A deadly snarl sounded through the room and a great force rammed into the man, knocking him down.

Ladybird got to her knees with help from Wysteria who seemed to have come from nowhere as Sacha tore into the man's shoulder.

"Come on," Wysteria said "Hurry." They ran outside to their horses and quickly mounted. "Sacha!" Wysteria shouted and seconds later the wolf came leaping out of the cabin after the galloping horses.

"Keep going!" Ladybird said as they broke into a ring of trees. Beatrice letter crumbled in her hands as she held the reins urging her mare ever faster into the wilderness. When naked trees and bushes began to poke and scrape at them the sisters slowed the horses and looked back. No one was following them.

"What was that?" Wysteria panted.

"I don't know," Ladybird said. "But he said..."

"What is it, Ladybird what did he say?"

"That man he knew what Pa told me about pointing the rifle at other people," Ladybird said. She closed her eyes trying to make herself understand the situation. "There is only one person who could have told him that." she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. "Philemon."

Wysteria paused and looked away then back at her sister incredulously. "Ladybird I know we've seen him behave violently but do you really think he'd send someone to kill you?"

Ladybird shook her head. "He wasn't going to kill me. But why come after me at all? Why won't he let me go? I just want to find Beatrice. I never asked for all of this."

Wysteria swayed in her saddle as the mare moved. "Don't despair. We'll find Beatrice and Yewtree isn't going to get us."

Ladybird knew she had to keep her head up. They had come this far. She squeezed the reins. When she felt the prick of the paper she opened her palm. "Beatrice's letter."

Wysteria moved her mare closer to her sister's. "Where did you get that?"

"The cabin," Ladybird said unfolding the paper. "I was trying to show you but then that man attacked me."

"What does it say?"

"It says she's gone up the mountain."

"Which mountain?"

Ladybird looked through the trees and pointed. "The one at the center." She remembered the peak from the window and could very well picture Beatrice looking at it as she sat at the table writing this very letter. She stuffed it in her coat pocket and took up the reins. "We're going up the mountain too." She nudged the horse forward, the mares' hooves pounding like their hearts.

They would be together again and may it be forever.