Kate felt herself starting to panic. She wasn’t even sure this problem had a solution. In video games, however bad things got, you knew there was always a way through to the next level. But real life wasn’t like that. Sometimes there just was no way.

The trees outside were just ghostly shadows.

Trees. Wait a second.

“I don’t suppose,” Kate said slowly, “that you could burn wood, could you? Instead of coal?”

The train hesitated.

IT’S NOT MY FAVORITE

“But if you really had to?”

I GUESS

IF I REALLY HAD TO

“Well, all right, then! We’re in the middle of a forest! There’s bound to be loads of branches and things. Everything here is fuel!”

Though when she climbed down from the train, Kate suddenly felt nervous and exposed. It was very still and quiet in the forest. There was no wind. No birds sang. It seemed like anything could come out of that mist at any moment.

But she couldn’t think of any other plan. She wondered if this was what had happened to that other train, the one that never came back. Maybe they’d gotten stuck here, too, and been devoured by some hungry forest-dwelling mist monster. Something rustled behind her, and she spun around.

It wasn’t a mist monster. It was the others: Tom, the heron, the fishing cat, the snake, even the porcupine.

“We thought you might want some company,” the cat said.

“Especially since it’s kind of spooky out here,” the heron said.

“I just wanted a fresh gnawing stick,” the porcupine said.

Kate smiled. Adventures were great, but she was learning that sometimes you didn’t want to go on them alone.

16

Trees

SLOWLY AND CAUTIOUSLY THEY FANNED OUT INTO THE forest. The train disappeared behind them in the fog almost immediately. It was ridiculously thick, as if there were a smoke machine somewhere nearby that was stuck on maximum.

The trees were absolutely enormous, and they had no branches low down, so they looked like big stone columns in a cathedral. The biggest ones were as thick around as an elephant. It was so quiet it was almost like they were holding themselves still.

There was only one problem: There wasn’t any firewood. None. The forest floor was completely bare of branches.

“Where’s all the sticks?” Tom said.

“I don’t know.”

It was as if somebody had come through right before them and tidied up. Kate looked up, but even the lowest branches were lost in the fog. There had to be a way. Without wood they’d be stranded here forever.

“Maybe we could chop one down,” Tom said.

“Yeah. Except that we don’t have an ax, and even if we did it would be completely impossible because they’re like the size of buildings.”

“True.”