The other pups are quiet now. Harby has drawn a circle around them with his broken spear and they seem to like it because they’ve all gone to sleep.

‘Make safe,’ I say quietly, stroking the soft head of the wolf pup.

Harby looks at me. ‘Come!’ He nods towards the tunnel.

I give my wolf pup a little kiss and lay her carefully in the circle, back with her brothers and sisters. The warmth of her cools on my shoulder. She wriggles sleepily into her family, finding her comfy spot, until they’re all one joined-up bundle. I stare transfixed at the huddle of pups and I imagine my own family all cuddling up together too.

Harby tugs my arm. ‘Come, Cholliemurrum, come!’ I can hear the impatience in his voice.

But I can’t leave. Not just yet. I run my finger gently across my pup’s sleepy little head.

Letting go of my arm, Harby limps back to the start of the tunnel; he puffs out a sigh, then he drops to his knees and disappears. I turn away from the pups, my heart heavy, and start to follow him.

A sudden shower of stone and sand from the tunnel opening. Harby comes rushing back in, feet first.

‘GO! GO! GO!’ he shouts.

He rush-hobbles towards me, eyes wide and wild.

‘GO, Cholliemurrum!’ He grabs my arm and drags me back towards the wall of the cavern. Jamming his spear between his teeth, he leaps up the wall, grabbing on to a ledge with both hands, feet scrabbling for purchase. Making for the round opening high above us, he hauls himself on to the narrow ledge and yells down at me.

‘What? Why?’ I say, searching for a handhold on the slippery rock face.

‘WUVVVV!’ he answers, his mouth full of spear, his eyes full of panic. ‘WUVVVVVV!’

‘What?’ I call up to him. ‘I don’t understand!’

He stops climbing and takes the spear from his teeth for a second. ‘Wolf!’ he says. ‘GO!’

Then I remember; wolves aren’t solitary, are they? They’re pack animals. And just at that moment I hear it too: the echoing scurry of wolf claws and wolf voices in the tunnel. The rest of the wolf pack is coming.

PACK

Adrenalin surges through my body. There’s no time to think.

I scrabble to find a foothold, a handhold, but the rock is too smooth, too slippy.

‘I can’t!’ I scream. ‘I can’t!’

I’m frantic, clawing at the rock. Harby’s yelling down at me from his ledge. The wolf pups wake up and yelp like crazy.

I try running and jumping at the wall but again and again my hands and feet slip back off the rock face. I’ve climbed a hundred trees before but this … this is totally different.

‘Cholliemurrum!’ Harby stretches his arm down towards me but there’s no way I can reach it.

‘Help me!’ I shout.

I hear the scuffle and clamour of the wolf pack coming along the tunnel.

‘Fassssst!’ hisses Harby, the spear still clasped in his teeth. He’s pointing down, showing me his handhold.