Bailey tried to shut out the chugging of the rigimotive, and focus only on the silence in the trees, the faintest whisper of wind. He closed his eyes. His dad had tried to teach him so many times to connect with the animals around him, never with very good results. You're not so different, he'd said during those lessons. You just need a little focus.

He heard the branches of the trees scraping against each other in the breeze, and under that, a rustling, like the shuddering of dry leaves. It was a sound he was sure he hadn't heard earlier, through the window. It seemed to be buzzing in his very ears, as if he wasn't in the rigimotive car, but right out there in the trees, standing still, listening. He felt a leap of excitement.

"Something's out there," he said in a whisper, opening his eyes. The sound in his ears immediately died away. "I can feel it."

"What do you mean?" asked Hal. "Has that ever happened to you before?"

Bailey stood up. He had to get closer. He moved down the aisle to the back of the rigimotive car. Hal followed him. He had felt something different, a stirring that had never happened when he'd been training with his dad. If he could just get outside somehow, maybe that feeling would come back . . .
He reached the back of the rigimotive car and grabbed ahold of the brass handle that opened the car door.

"Bailey!" Hal whispered fiercely. "We're not supposed to move outside the car!"

A couple of passengers stirred, and one bright-eyed raccoon popped up from a blanket to blink at him. Bailey ignored Hal and opened the door. The wind outside on the platform blew Bailey's hair back from his forehead, and the machinery chugging below echoed in his ears.

If only I could focus, Bailey thought. If only I could get closer. He stepped forward onto the platform. The tops of the trees were lit by silvery moonlight; shadows raced and skidded across the ground. Only yards away from the tracks, the trees began to come together and form a thick, leafy wall-the beginning of the Dark Woods. In the trees,Bailey saw a flash of something white. He blinked. Was it a trick of the moon?

No. It was an animal.