It’s another wolf, only this one is almost white, and its eyes are pale gray. It jumps from the Box and trots straight toward Rose. As the growling begins again, another shaggy head appears. How many are there? This one is the biggest so far and it’s scrabbling at the cardboard. It leaps through the air and dashes toward Rose. Then two more jump out, followed by another. Now there are six wolves—a pack.

They start to circle us, mouths gaping, saliva dripping onto the snow. “I don’t think these wolves want to be tamed,” says Rose, her voice shaky.

She’s right. They look like they want to attack.

“Look,” says Rose, “there’s something else.”

Another pair of ears has poked out of the Box, but they don’t belong to a wolf; at least, not anymore. They’re part of a hat. A face appears, then hands encased in leather gloves grab the side of the Box.

“It’s a girl!” says Win as she clambers out and jumps into the snow. If he thinks this will reassure Rose, he’s wrong. The sight of her makes Rose shrink even closer to us.

She dusts snow off her coat and stares at Rose from under her fur hat. Her eyes are pale blue, like ice, and her hair is thick, dirty, and matted. She’s wearing fur-lined boots and has a belt buckled tight around her coat. She raises her sunburnt face and I see scratches running down her neck.

“Rose, who is she?” I say.

“I don’t know!”

The girl whistles and instantly the circling wolves fall still. “I’m Hati Skoll,” she says. Her voice is loud and hard; it rises over the wolves’ growls. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the Land of Roar,” says Win. “It belongs to Rose and Arthur Trout, and your wolves are getting right in their faces!”

Hati shrugs. “I don’t care who it belongs to. I’m here to hunt.”

Her last words hang in the air. Snow falls quietly around us.

“And what are you hunting?” says Crowky.

Hati looks at us, then she lifts a finger and points it at Rose. “Her.”

The wolves creep toward Rose, snapping their teeth. Hati moves closer too. “Rose Trout, you have a choice,” she says. “You can come with me and join my pack, or you can try to escape. If you choose to run, we will hunt you down, but if you join us, you will have nothing to fear.”

“Oh yes she will,” Crowky says. “She will have me to fear, and so will you!” Wings stretched wide, he lurches toward Hati.