By the time they knew what it was, they were too exhausted to panic. Being the first to notice it, Jessica took it as a sign of hope.

"Hey look, a root! We must be near the surface by now." she said between labored breaths.

Hawktooth eyed it tentatively. "Don't know, looks more like a stick to me."

Jessica reached out a paw and ran her paw along it. It wasn't attached to the cavern walls or ceiling. "Strange... maybe it just got here."

"Must be one of your tools." said Hawktooth.

"Maybe, come to think of it." said Jessica. "Perhaps there's the head of a pickaxe lying around-"

And without warning, the stick sat up. None of them could see it. But they heard its movement just as well as they heard its voice. All three wolves froze.

It blinked, rubbed its eyes, and shook like a leaf. "-Oh jeez oh jeez -who-who-"

It took a deep breath, and asked, "Who are you?"

Snowpelt's ears twitched. She quickly put herself between Jessica and the stranger.

"I could ask you the same thing" said Snowpelt.

"Let me guess, you're locals." The stick said.

"Precisely. What else?" said Snowpelt. "And you?"

"I'm not from here. I'm from outside the forest." it said.

"Do you stand on two legs, or do you walk on four?" Snowpelt asked.

"Two." Kashi said. "My name is Kashi. I am a... How do I say it? I don't think you've seen anyone like me before."

"Of course we have. You're human." Snowpelt said.

"You're mistaken." Kashi said.

Jessica's heartbeat quickened. She ground her teeth together. The absurdity of this situation compelled her to act.

She couldn't see anything in complete darkness. The stranger could be a ghost for all she cared. Wedging herself between Snowpelt and the stranger, Jessica decided to settle it the only way she knew how. Jessica opened her mouth and the dead marmot fell out.

She consciously intended to touch the source of the voice with her paw, but her instincts kicked in and without thinking she stepped in and licked the stranger across the face.

"Ahhh!" Kashi wailed.

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Its face felt smooth and round, like a perfect sphere covered in human or animal skin. It didn't have any nose between its eyes, or lips on its mouth.

Kashi groaned. "Augh, you smell like a dog! Kashi groaned.

Horrified by her own impulsive behavior, Jessica reeled in disgust. "I-I didn't mean to do that! Sorry!"

Kashi wiped his face and spat on the ground. "You must be a real big one. You a Labrador?"

Jessica had no idea how to respond. For one thing, she had no idea what a "dog" even was. "...No?"

"Are you like, a fox?" Kashi said.

"...I'm human!" Jessica blurted.

"I doubt that." Kashi said.

"You know what?" Jessica said.

She touched him and ran her hand down its side. She didn't know what limb she was touching but its limb was hard and cylindrical. It did not feel like skin and flesh. It was smooth as pottery and strong as wood.

"Hold my hand and tell me what you think I am." said Jessica.

"Whoa! A little personal space-" Kashi protested. "Yeah fine - yeah, that's a paw. You're, like, a dog or whatever the closest thing there is to one out here."

"...I'm a wolf. But not really. I used to be human-" said Jessica before Kashi cut her off.

"-What say you we get out of here and go over where we can see each other?" Kashi said.

"Good idea." Jessica said.

Hawktooth stepped in. "Hold it - why should we trust you?"

"It's a long story."

Over the next fifteen or twenty minutes, the stranger Kashi told them everything. None of the wolves understood any of it.

"...You really are from outside!" Jessica said, the dead marmot back in her mouth.

"Do you really come from a place where you can eat anything you like, any time of the day?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah but you need to pay for it." Kashi said. "With money."

"Money? What's that?" Jessica said.

"Well you see, it's paper and metal you give in exchange for other things..."

Time passed. As Kashi went on and on and on, their doubts about him really being from the outside world faded away. Jessica listened with rapt attention. She was so focused she swallowed the marmot unconsciously, much to everyone else's surprise.

"I don't think anyone could come up with a story like that and have any time to do anything useful." said Snowpelt. "A story like yours could only come from a place with no such thing as hunger."

"I mean yeah, that makes sense." Kashi said. "When you're not worrying about starving tomorrow you have more time to do, like, anything else."

"Are you sure you're not from Cockaigne?." said Jessica.

Hawktooth sniffed the air and looked at Snowpelt. Neither of them decided to say anything.

"Is that..." Jessica said.

She walked faster and faster until she suddenly broke into a full sprint. She ran as fast as she possibly could, so fast the tunnel became a blur. And at the end of a tunnel was a faint light growing bigger with every leap. And with a final jump she tumbled into the snow. Cold wind and sunlight blasted Jessica's senses.

Evergreen trees swayed as though to greet her. The sun's radiance welcomed her back to the surface world. Jessica held back tears of joy.

Jessica looked back at the cave entrance. Out from the darkness came Hawktooth and Snowpelt and the stranger. She blinked and looked at it again.

And what a stranger it was. For someone who had come from a land of plenty it was awfully skinny. It looked in desperate need of a meal.

But what struck her the most was how didn't look like any kind of person. It looked like... a monk's doodle, plucked from the flat world of a book, particularly in the margins of some holy text, and juxtaposed into a real world of solid, tactile things. Its face was missing a ears or nose, and its eyes and mouth looked as if they were drawn on.

Its limbs and torso, which were equally thick, appeared to emerge from the exact same point at the bottom of his perfectly round head. The torso split into two legs with two joints each: one for the legs and another for the foot. And for some reason its body looked as if it were made up of thousands of tiny square tiles facing her no matter where she looked.

But none of this mattered.