Ronia and Birk nurse an injured wild mare after a bear kills her foal, turning an encounter with loss into a night of practical care and renewed companionship. Their rescue succeeds, but its lasting significance lies in what they do not claim: although the mare briefly depends on them for help and milk, she ultimately returns to the wild herd she belongs to.

The injured mare

Birk hears a horse in distress while searching for Ronia. In a pine glade he finds a mare with a serious wound in her flank. She is frightened of him, but does not flee; her cries seem to ask for help. Ronia arrives in tears and explains that she saw the bear kill the mare’s foal. The bear is no longer present, but the mare’s life is still at risk.

Ronia recognizes the urgency and tells Birk to fetch moss to stop the bleeding. She stays beside the mare, holding her head and trying to comfort her while Birk runs for supplies. When he returns, they press moss into the wound and bind it in place with leather ropes, crossing them over the mare’s flank. A rumphob appears nearby, but the encounter also reassures the children that the bear has gone: bears and wolves keep away from the shadow folk, whose presence drives predators off.

A night of care

The pair remain with the mare through the night, keeping watch beneath a thick pine. Their vigil follows the abruptness of the loss: the foal is dead, and Ronia cannot bring herself to tell Birk how she witnessed the killing. They speak about other things rather than their recent quarrel. Birk observes that such events happen in Matt’s Wood and in every wood, placing the mare’s suffering within the wider life of the forest rather than treating it as an exception.

In the middle of the night, Ronia and Birk change the moss. At dawn they find it dry and the bleeding stopped. Since the mare cannot be left alone, they lead her toward their cave; walking is painful for her, and she cannot manage the rocks even when fully recovered. They find a place for her near the cave, where they can continue looking after her.

Temporary dependence

The mare’s full udder gives them milk, which they collect in a wooden bowl. Birk calls her their domestic animal and suggests giving her a name. Ronia chooses Lia, recalling that Matt had a mare by that name when he was young. The naming marks a moment of closeness, but it does not settle the question of ownership. Lia is being cared for, not permanently converted into a household animal.

For a time, Ronia and Birk cut grass for Lia and milk her. The arrangement ends when she no longer yields more than a few drops and makes clear that she has had enough. Ronia thanks her for the milk and says that the following summer Lia will have another foal, whose milk will belong to it rather than to the children. She asks Birk to thank the mare as well. They stay with Lia before leaving; she follows them a short way through the summer night, then turns back toward her herd.

Reconciliation and return

The rescue also brings Ronia and Birk back into one another’s company after a quarrel. Birk had been searching for her, and his relief when he sees her alive is immediate. Once they are working beside the mare, neither returns to their disagreement; during the overnight vigil, they let it go unspoken. Their cooperation culminates in a quiet exchange the next morning, when Birk gives Ronia the knife she thought she had lost. It had been under the moss while they were quarrelling.

Ronia reflects that things can be ruined unnecessarily, and Birk answers that they will watch out for such needless damage. He tells her she is worth more than a thousand knives. The reconciliation is therefore connected not only to the recovery of the lost object but also to a new recognition of what matters between them: their companionship outweighs the quarrel and the possession they had each been defending.

Wildness and care

Lia’s story distinguishes helping an animal from possessing it. Ronia and Birk name her, shelter her, feed her, and take milk while she is recovering, yet Ronia explicitly recognizes that the milk should eventually be for Lia’s foal. When Lia returns to the herd, she does not leave it to come to the children, even though she sometimes whinnies when they call. The children can meet her again, but they cannot make her domestic by caring for her.

The episode develops the forest as a shared home rather than human property. Earlier, Birk had challenged Ronia’s claim to the fox cubs and the woods, insisting that the forest belongs to its many kinds of life. Here, that principle becomes a practical choice: the children intervene when the mare needs help, then allow her to resume her wild life. Their care matters precisely because it does not erase her independence.