“I am on the cheering team now, Greyback, and now I do backflips like Wonder Woman!” Anya said as she raced on the back of the great silver vucari.  The looming gray wolf with golden eyes barked with laughter.  They came to a witches’ hollow where warmth never fled the land despite the harsh winter cold and fern flowers always grew fever-bright and splendid.

Anya picked some and made a flower crown for the vucari.  He lay beside her, and with her witch-light and pine kindling and birch branches, she started a bonfire.

“As you grow, so does your magic, and as your magic grows, he grows hungrier in the...