Lachlan was only following Anne out into the woods because he was bored and thought it would be fun to watch her try to explain her latest fantasy. He loved his sister, she was odd and fun, and definitely had what their mother called an “overactive imagination.”

He wasn’t following her out to the woods because he believed anything of what she’d said about any creature. He wasn’t stupid. There was no creature, but he did feel that in her own way Anne was taking him to a place of make believe. A place of her own creation, and he did think there was something magical in that.

Anne was leading him deeper into the woods than he had expected. These were old woodlands, they were home to old unspoken instincts, teeming with beasts that lay unseen, that if they could, would not say the same about you.