Boris, the Great Sky Dog, is loose.  If he devours the Little Bear, the world will end--or so the legends say.  And the only one who can stop him may be a mortal girl-child...if she can find the courage.  
 

    My heart pounded, and my throat was dry.  I pressed clammy hands against the rough fabric of my dress and took deep breaths, trying to be brave.  The air up here was thin, making it that much harder to catch my breath and slow my racing heart.  Behind me, a crystal stair stretched down toward the earth.  It was perfectly clear, invisible; I only knew it was there because I had just climbed up it.

    Ahead of me, velvet-black space hung like a curtain, and set into it, familiar stars traced the outline of the Great Sky Hall, the home of the Zorya.  The thought of coming face to face with the three Sister Goddesses made my hands start shaking.  But a glance at the northern sky steeled my resolve; a stretch of sky lay empty.  The Little Bear had fled; Boris, the Great Sky Dog, was loose.  For a time, he had chased the Little Bear in circles, seemingly suspended in air above my head; at my approach, they had taken off.  My eyes, more accustomed to the sunlit earth below, could barely make out the Little Bear's pale shimmer, disappearing into the distance, and I couldn't see the dark shadow following hard on its heels—but I knew it was there.  

    I caught another wheezing gasp of too-thin air and, before I had time to lose my nerve, I ran across the remaining distance and flung open the doors of the Sky Hall.