I looked around. We were behind the house, at the opposite side to the trees. The goats scattered faster than Sam could round them up. I dived in front and headed them off, throwing my arms forward to make them go. It worked. Now they’d stopped panicking, they were actually quite good at doing what we wanted.

Sam took over for the last part. He fed them through the gateway of the little field, doing farmer movements and farmer whistles, then tied the broken gate fastening at the top and kicked it into place at the bottom. I tried to pull my wet and sticky jeans away from my legs, but they kept pinging back.

‘Where’d you get the string?’

He tapped his pocket, saying nothing, and in a few minutes it was done: the goats were in, their gate was fastened, and we leaned against it, recovering.

‘You done herded those goats,’ I said, in my best American accent, ‘but that was off-the-scale scary.’ Mud and grass-juice were splotched down the front of his T-shirt. He didn’t look at me at all. I tried again. ‘You really OK? Cos you went down and everything. Thought you were toast.’

He stayed silent for a moment, and my whole chest felt like it was sinking into my stomach. How long was he going to stay mad with me?

But then he nodded and said, ‘Yup – they just stepped over me,’ on a big, amazed breath.

‘Wow, properly majestic,’ I said, and let out a big relieved sigh of my own. ‘Did you see anything while you were down? Did you see what spooked them?’ The creature didn’t seem to be there now, but I was still suspicious.

He shook his head. ‘Perhaps goats spook easy. I don’t know goats.’

I looked at them. ‘They’re back to normal. Instantly!’

He nodded. Some headbutted each other gently, as if they didn’t really mean it. Most ate grass. Only one of the adults still grumbled under her breath. Her kid answered in smaller, sadder, gurgling bleats, nostrils quivering like it had secret batteries up its nose. The rest acted like nothing had happened.

The mist started rolling away, a grey-white mass floating like a Zeppelin. Now the giant trees were visible again. We frowned at each other.

‘The mist? And the goats? I think it was the thing from the box,’ I said. ‘I think I saw it.’

Sam was silent for a long time, like he didn’t want to agree but couldn’t find a reason not to. ‘Put it in your records,’ he said.

The sun came out and our shadows loomed up gigantic, but still the air was full of what had nearly happened.