‘A deer.’ Stumpy licked his lips loudly. ‘A fresh one.’ Dreamy knew how he felt. His stomach had rumbled at the mention of the animal. Tonight, all seven dwarves would be home and most of what they’d eat would be boiled potatoes and cabbage, flavoured with a few herbs and the juice of a boiled scrawny rabbit carcass all the meat of which had been eaten days before. Now they also had Snow White to feed – a royal princess. The small forest animals who weakened at the mountain’s edge were not good enough for her, no matter how she protested that their generosity in hiding her was banquet enough.

As Grouchy and Stumpy muttered between themselves, Dreamy watched the old woman slowly making her way along the path that they should have been taking home instead of lingering here. ‘No good comes from a crone,’ he repeated.

‘You can’t judge a book by its cover,’ Grouchy snorted with mild amusement. ‘She might just be an old grandmother visiting nearby.’

‘What would you know about books?’ Dreamy said. ‘You’ve never even read one.’

Grouchy was their unofficial leader, his rank in the mine granting him the same authority in the cottage and it was rare for any of them to snap at him, least of all Dreamy, the gentlest of them all. But there was something about this crone that unsettled him.

Snow White had brought Dreamy books, slim volumes of adventures that she’d sneaked out of the vast library in the castle. They had changed Dreamy’s world and he would always love her for that alone.

‘Don’t need to read one to see how they’ve addled your brain,’ Grouchy said. ‘But then, your head’s always been in the clouds.’

‘The stories keep me sane while my body is in the mines,’ Dreamy said. The old woman was almost out of sight now.

‘Music should do that,’ Stumpy said. ‘Music is the dwarf way.’ He spat on the ground. ‘We should at least look for that deer. I’m fucking starving.’

Dreamy didn’t argue. Two to one said they should try, and his own stomach was turning against him in the argument. Venison was a strong meat. A delicious meat. And a whole deer would last them a while.