chapter 51

Lauren sniffed the air, too, but she didn’t smell anything. Just trees and winter and wolf. She tried again. “You might as well come out,” Toby growled, looking out into the dadsrkness below their bench. “I know you’re there.” Lauren turned around, but she didn’t see anything out of place. Then she heard the sound of boots in the snow and looked again. A man stepped out of the woods about ten yards down the mountain. If he hadn’t been moving, she probably wouldn’t have seen him. The first thing she noticed was hair. He didn’t wear a hat, and his hair was an odd shade between red and gold; it hung in ragged, ungroomed tangles down his back and blended into a beard that would have done credit to Hill or Gibbons of ZZ Top. He wore an odd combination of animal skins, rags, and new boots and gloves. In one hand he held the bundle she’d made of the things that had been in Toby’s backpack, and her own bright pink backpack was slung over one shoulder. He tossed them both toward Toby, and the