‘Probably better not to know,’ said Sean, grabbing one.

Shimlara opened another container to reveal thick jam sandwiches on crusty white bread – at least they looked familiar. There were also biscuits, cheese sticks, gigantic muffins, strange-looking fruit and bottles labelled INDIGO BERRY JUICE.

‘Are you sure that’s not for the animals?’ asked Greta distastefully.

‘Who cares?’ said Sean. ‘It’s good!’

Of course, best of all, there were also dozens of ShobbleChoc bars and two thermoses filled with the creamy hot chocolate they’d had the day before.

While they were busy laying out the food, Greta efficiently started a fire. (It was one of her useful skills, they’d discovered on their last mission. She had learned how to do it in Girl Guides.)

Soon they were all sitting comfortably on the rug, enjoying the warmth of the fire, their mouths so crammed with food they could hardly talk.

A croaky voice that seemed to come from nowhere made them all jump.

‘Is that hot chocolate I can smell?’

19

Everyone looked around nervously.

‘I don’t mind you using my kitchen,’ continued the voice. ‘But you could at least offer me something warm to drink. I haven’t had a hot drink in twenty-three years.’

‘Is it that shrub talking?’ whispered Shimlara. She pointed at a short, stout snow-encrusted shrub in the corner of their clearing.

Nicola gasped as it started walking towards them. Talking, walking plants!

‘Would you look at all your faces!’ the shrub said. ‘Am I really so old I’ve started looking like greenery?’

And suddenly it wasn’t a shrub at all.

It was a very, very, very old Shobbling man.

He seemed to be dressed in a long coat with an ancient black scarf around his neck, but he was covered in such a thick layer of snow you could hardly tell his clothes were clothes. Even his eyelashes were white with snow. He was hunched over, leaning on a stick, and his face was a mass of wrinkles like a withered old apple.

‘My name is Horatio Banks,’ he said. ‘And it looks to me like I’m about to meet my first Earthlings. How interesting! Just when I thought life might have stopped being interesting, it gets interesting again. You know, I’ve always been fascinated by your planet, although I’ve never had the privilege of visiting.’ His eyes fell on Shimlara. ‘But if I’m not mistaken, you seem a little tall to be an Earthling. Let me guess – a Globagaskarian, am I right? I once travelled there for business. A very get-up-and-go sort of planet.’

‘We like to think so,’ said Shimlara.

‘I’m sorry if we’ve taken your campsite – I mean, kitchen,’ said Nicola. ‘Is this where you live?’ She hoped the poor man didn’t have to sleep in the snow.