‘I can easily catch small animals to cook and eat when I’m in my griffyx shape,’ said Liska, grinning. ‘We won’t need to bring any meat. As long as you don’t mind the taste of rabbit. Or rat.’

‘Hang on,’ said Lug. ‘Just how long are we going to be gone? I’ve never even spent a single night away from home! My parents will be worried sick!’

‘Leave them a note,’ said Liska, rolling her eyes. ‘I’m sure we’ll only be a few days. Right, Elowen?’

Elowen waggled her fingers. ‘Maybe a bit longer than that. It is quite a journey. Although it will be much quicker if we can ride along with one of the travelling-merchant caravans. I’m sure they’ve kept the northern road in good repair.’

‘Excellent,’ said Liska before Lug could object any more. ‘We’ll meet here tomorrow with all our supplies. Just remember not to tell anyone!’

This last sentence was aimed at Lug and she backed it up with a fierce glare.

‘Until tomorrow, then!’ Elowen leant over to give them both a peck on the cheek – her button nose was like a tiny icicle – and then skipped back into the grey depths of the Cryptwood. Liska and Lug stood looking at each other for a moment.

‘You’d better be here, Lugworth,’ said Liska, giving him a stern frown.

He studied a patch of nearby grass, trying not to meet her eyes.

‘Or I’ll have to climb down into your swamp burrow and drag you out.’

Lug gave a final grimace before turning and heading off into the Scrubbings. Liska watched him go and then pulled her fur hood on, shifting into her animal shape before flapping off over the treetops, startling a flock of roosting starlings.

When they had all disappeared, the vines of a nearby bush began to twist and writhe, folding back on themselves to reveal a black-cloaked figure hiding within. A boy, eyes hidden beneath a drooping fringe, stepped out brushing stray leaves from his shoulders. He looked around and, when he was sure nobody was watching, set off across the Scrubbings towards the mountain wall.

*

It wasn’t until later that evening, back in her chamber at the Noon Fort, that Liska realised what she’d actually done.

Caught up in all the excitement of Elowen’s story – in the idea of an epic, stripe-winning adventure – she had basically decided to run away.

No wonder Lug was so worried, she thought to herself as she gazed out of the open window at the green disc of Arborven below. I told him to leave his home, his family. I told him to put himself in danger just so I could get what I wanted.

But it wasn’t only about that, was it? They were trying to save the Undrentree and the whole of Arborven too, weren’t they?