title: The Cave Bear: A Scary Tale
author: Rachel Ginsberg
description: Rachel Ginsberg grew up in Texas, and as a child, her family crossed the plains each year (albeit by van, not wagon) to hike the Colorado Rockies. She has ventured into a few caves along the way, experiencing breath-restricting tight squeezes, pressing silence, total darkness and otherworldly beauty, and returning to the surface, the first-caught scent of open air, the starkness of sunlight spilling into the shaft, and awe at the tiniest, most humble desert plant clinging to the rim. Today, Rachel is wife and mother of two living in Austin, Texan. Shell loves to hike and explore.
zlib_text: **Stone of Tears**
  
  Sword of Truth 02
  
  Terry Goodkind
  
    
  
  ![](Images/image00619.jpeg)
  
  **Chapter 1**
  
  Rachel clutched her doll tighter to her chest and stared at the dark thing
  watching her from the bushes. At least she thought it was watching her. It was
  hard to tell because the eyes were as dark as the rest of it, except when the
  light caught them just right; then they gleamed a golden color.
  
  She had seen animals in the woods before, rabbits and raccoons and squirrels
  and such, but this was bigger. It was as big as her, maybe bigger. Bears were
  dark. She wondered if it could be a bear.
  
  But this wasn’t exactly the woods, since it was indoors. She had never been in
  an indoor woods before. She wondered if indoor woods had animals like the
  outdoor woods did.
  
  She might have been afraid if Chase wasn’t there with her. She knew she was
  safe with him. Chase was the bravest man she ever saw. Still, she was a little
  afraid. Chase had told her she was the bravest little girl he knew. She di