His shadow was long and thin in the last light of day. As he walked, it twisted through the trees: sometimes hiding in their shadows, sometimes spilling over their rough bark. The sounds of insects were beginning to fill the night.

"There's a wolf in your shadow," said the owl.

Telikos stopped and glared up at it. It was sitting on a low branch in a tree just above, looking owlish and mute. Invera, the snake, shifted on his shoulders, curling a bit more tightly around his neck. He moved on past it.

"I think you need a better plan," it said. He stopped again and looked back. It had turned its head all the way round to gaze at him. "Ignoring never works. Wolves like to be ignored. That way they can get closer, and closer, and closer..."

The hair on the back of his neck stood up and a sudden flighty panic blew past him. He froze.

Then the moment passed. The owl was toying with him. He narrowed his eyes in fury at it. There was a menacing hiss; he could have been making it himself, but he wasn't.

Invera launched herself off his shoulders and struck the owl. It screeched and fell twitching to the ground, while she clung to the branch it had occupied. Telikos watched it die.

He lifted his arm to the branch and Invera slid down to her usual place. As he left the glen, the sun slipped down the other side of the mountain and left the trees in shadow.