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The mouse's tracks had vanished.

"Oh man," he said. "Where is he?"

Jack followed her gaze. On one of the cliffs was a tiger. A giant tiger with two long, sharp fangs.

"Run to the trees!" said Annie.

"I hope he doesn't see us," whispered Annie.

"I can't see them anymore!" wailed Annie.

She and Jack now stood in the middle of the plain. They stared at the windswept snow.

"Yikes," whispered Annie, staring up.

"Peanut's tracks," said Annie. "We have to find her before she freezes."

"Me too," Jack whispered back. "We'd better head back to the tree house."

She wrapped her reindeer coat around her and headed across the snow.

"A sabertooth," said Jack.

The wind blew harder. Snow swirled over the ground, covering the tiny footprints.

Jack pulled on his backpack and followed.

Jack and Annie stepped very softly across the snow. Then Jack glanced back at the cliff.

The sabertooth was gone.

The mouse's tracks led them between the fallen rocks and back onto the open plain.

He and Annie started running. They ran over the snowy plain, heading toward the tall, bare trees in the distance.

He heard a yowl in the distance.

They crashed down onto a heap of branches, snow, and earth.

"There's no way out," said Annie.

They both looked up. They were in a deep hole. All Jack could see were gray clouds moving overhead.

The ground caved in, and Jack went with it.

"I feel like a trapped animal," Annie said.

Jack pulled out the Ice Age book. He found a picture of the sabertooth. He read: The sabertooth was the fiercest beast of the Ice Age. It attacked humans as well as woolly mammoths and other large animals.

"This is a trap," Jack said. "The Cro-Magnons must have put branches over this hole. Then the snow hid the branches. So we didn't see them."

Annie fell beside him.

"Oh brother," said Jack.

"Yes," she said.

"Listen!" Annie grabbed him.

"You all right?" he asked Annie.

She was right. They were helpless. The pit was too deep to climb out of.

Suddenly Jack heard a crack.

"Me too," said Jack.

They struggled to stand. Jack pushed his glasses into place.

"The sabertooth!" whispered Annie.

"I hear music."

Squeak.

Staring down at them was a figure wearing reindeer antlers and an owl mask.

Peanut peered down at them, too!

"Listen carefully."

Strange, haunting music.

Jack opened his eyes.

He closed his eyes. He listened very carefully.

"No," said Jack.

He heard the wind. But this time he heard another sound, too.

Jack listened. But all he heard was the wind.

"Ahhh!" cried Annie.

"The sorcerer," whispered Jack.

"You hear it?" said Annie.

"What?" Jack jumped.