CHAPTER 7
The dogs burst back through the trees and into the garden, and as I come out behind them, I find dad and mum both running towards me. Dad’s face is pinched white, and even under the splotches of paint on her cheeks, I can tell mum’s just as bad. Then, hearing their cries, Ru comes sprinting out of the trees a good twenty metres from where I did, his hair in tatters and the various jars and insect nets he’s carrying threatening to slip from his grip.
“Em, you’re safe!” he breathes. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere. Where were you?”
“I was in the woods with the dogs,” I reply, confused. I know I’ve been gone a while, but it hasn’t been that long.
“You can’t have been. I’ve been all over the woods and I didn’t see you anywhere,” he replies, just as mum reaches me.
“You ha
