Breadcrumbs

The narrative returns to Hazel. The moment she steps into the woods, she’s transported to another forest unaffected by the winter cold. Suddenly, she spots a grey wolf staring at her. She tells the wolf that she’s looking for her friend, describes Jack, and backs away slowly. Hazel follows a mysterious ticking sound to a grandfather clock in the middle of a clearing. She asks a pair of enormous ravens, “Do you know of a woman who looks like she’s made out of snow?” (164). The birds gesture toward a dirt path through the trees.

According to Hazel’s compass, the path heads north. She hides when a woodsman rides down the path but decides to ask him for help. Before she can draw the man’s attention, a wolf with “a thick brown and black coat and creepy blue eyes” appears and growls at her (169). The woodsman rides away, leaving behind a pair of beautiful red ballet slippers in Hazel’s size. Hazel steps on her compass to retrieve them, but the wolf glares at her so she leaves them behind and goes into the woods.