Tobias fights to keep his eyes open, but the wind settles into a steady hush and his eyelids grow heavy. He slumps back onto his pillow, blanket still half-clutched in one fist. In his dream, the forest is lit by a pale silver glow, and something small and quick darts between the roots of an enormous oak — a flicker of amber eyes and a bushy tail. He reaches toward it, and the creature stops, watching him with uncanny calm. Then a second crack, louder than the first, splits through the dream and Tobias jolts upright, heart hammering. The silver glow is gone. But through his frost-edged window, he can just make out a warm, flickering light moving through the dark trees — a lantern, perhaps, or something else entirely.