T he clearing dimly visible through the trees ahead was a welcome sight, for 
the forests of King Coyote were surpassingly deep and forever shrouded in cool 
mists. Fingers of sunlight had begun to thrust between the clouds, and so 
Princess Nell decided to rest in the open space and, with any luck, bask in the 
sunlight. But when she reached the clearing, she found that it was not the 
flower-strewn greensward she had expected; it was rather a swath that had been 
carved through the forest by the passage of some titanic force, which had 
flattened trees and churned up the soil as it progressed. When Princess Nell 
had recovered from her astonishment and mastered her fear, she resolved to make 
use of the tracking skills she had learned during her many adventures, so as to 
learn something about the nature of this unknown creature.