No one else was awake. That struck Dalip as a mistake, for surely they’d need everyone to defend each other. The Romanian woman, Elena, was closest, and he got down on all fours, ready to crawl towards her.

He glanced up. Wolves. And not only wolves.

There was a man. At least, he was guessing it was a man. He was tall and broad, with a hood that may have been made out of the actual head of another wolf. The detail of his face was lost, though his breath came in heavy clouds of mist that rolled out and down. In each hand, he had a wolf on a chain that was tight with anticipation.

He knew where they were, so there seemed little point in trying to be quiet and hoping he’d pass by.

‘Elena. Elena, wake up.’

She rolled away from him with a moan, then rolled back, eyes white and open.

‘Visitor,’ he said, and nodded in the direction of the wolves and their handler, who he assumed for the sake of sanity was human. That they might not be caused his gut to tighten and his bladder loosen. ‘Wake the others.’

One by one, they were stirred, and they instinctively retreated to the fire. Dalip reached into his pocket for his stubby torch, clicked the switch, and nothing happened.

He banged it against his leg, and tried again. When he lifted it up and shook it, drops of salty seawater leaked out. That, he presumed, was the end of the torch, and he dropped it by his feet.

In amongst the trees, a wolf shook its head, and its chain rattled: an odd, light sound. The man didn’t move at all, and the time they spent staring at each other stretched past breaking point.

‘What,’ called out Dalip, ‘what do you want?’

He wished his voice hadn’t broken halfway through, because it made him sound as scared as he was.

When the man didn’t answer, Dalip didn’t know why. It was stupid to assume he’d speak English, but trying Punjabi probably wouldn’t work either. Was he deaf? Did he want to fight? Were he and the others trespassing?

‘Oi. He asked you a question.’

‘Mary, that’s not helpful.’

‘Well.’ She was shoulder to shoulder with Dalip. ‘Maybe not, but he’s given me the fucking fear.’

‘We don’t mean to be here,’ he called. ‘We just are, and we don’t know why. We, we’ve not got any food left, but you can share our fire if you want.’

‘What are you doing?’ whispered Mary.

‘Offering hospitality.’ It might work. It might diffuse the stand-off and even be to their advantage. Dalip was pretty certain they’d collectively lose a straight fight with two wolves, let alone the man, or whatever he was. And this person was a native. He was going to know how this world worked. He might be persuaded to help.