The last word was a thundering roar from the giant itself. Liska felt it buzz through her very bones and it was enough to silence Lug and Fishbone’s arguing, at least for a moment.

With the four of them dangling over its shoulder, the creature began to stomp through the woods, the sound of crackling branches following as it passed. Boom, boom, boom went its feet as it marched and the darkness around them grew thicker and deeper with every step.

*

‘This is all your fault,’ Fishbone whispered at Lug, his voice hissing at the edges.

‘How was I to know it wasn’t your tail?’ Lug whispered back. ‘It was too dark to see anything. If we’d only waited for morning . . .’

‘I wonder what it intends to do with us?’ said Elowen, sounding as though she was on some kind of fairground ride rather than in a giant’s dinner satchel.

‘Let’s not hang around to find out,’ said Liska. ‘Can you reach into my pack? There’s a pocketknife in there. We might be able to cut through the net.’

Elowen began to wriggle about, trying to dislodge Liska’s pack from its place on her shoulder. But it soon became clear that she wasn’t going to budge it. The net had her arms pinned to her sides, and both hers and Liska’s packs were tangled in the mesh of ropy vines.

‘That’s it. It’s over.’ Lug began to sob. ‘It’s going to eat us all, I know it. Now my parents will never know what happened to me. I’ll just be a heap of bones in this dark, creepy forest. And the rest of me will be in a pie. Or maybe some kind of soup.’

‘I’m sure it won’t eat us,’ said Elowen. ‘It might be just taking us out of its lands. Besides, there’s a hint of the familiar about it, don’t you think?’

Liska peered through the netting at the giant’s back. It was covered in green fur of all different lengths and textures. In fact, it didn’t really look like hair at all . . . more like the moss that grew on the trees back home. Untamed, wild and straggly, but still moss.

She didn’t have time for a closer look. The air around them suddenly became cooler, the faint traces of light blinked out like a snuffed candle. They had walked inside a room or cave of some sort. The giant’s footsteps echoed as it trudged, and then it stopped.

‘Here we are. The last few moments of our lives before we become casserole,’ said Lug.