you have hatched...
Phelim, who is fourteen, and his friend Alexia, also fourteen, step onto the platform of a train station and see a huge iron steam train. Phelim looks to Alexia, who shrugs and nods, and they get on board.
Making their way through the old-fashioned train, Phelim seems concerned. 'Are you sure this counts?'
'Of course it does. Iron horses, they called them. And it showed up just when we needed it. And we found exactly the right amount of money to pay for it.'
'You do know life doesn't work like that, don't you?'
'Whatever you say, Jack.'
'Phelim.'
'Mmhm.'
A young man, aged about nineteen, leaps from a treetop nearby and lands deftly and lightly on the roof of the train, unseen by anyone. He follows Alexia and Phelim along the train as they look for a good place to board, and he settles above the place where they step up.
They find a quiet corner, sit side by side, and listen to the shrill whistle and hissing steam.
Soon the motion of the train sends Alexia to sleep, and she leans against Phelim. He'd rather she hadn't, but he doesn't want to wake her.
After a while, his arm goes numb, so he puts it around her and she snuggles into him in her sleep.
He looks at his own shadow on the floor, and then at her lack of shadow. He looks at his own reflection in the window pane, and then at her lack of reflection.
He looks at her, and wonders why she's coming with him.
Later, as they arrive at the final stop, Phelim takes off the top one of the two shirts he's wearing, and tries to leave it on the train without Alexia noticing. But she does, and as she hands it to him, she says, 'You're going to lose that shirt one of these days'.
A little bird lands near the man on the roof. The man grabs it with lightning reflexes, and tears it open with his bare hands. He sticks his fingers into its chest, as if he's searching for something, but they come out bloody and empty. He throws the bird carcass away in disgust. He spots Alexia and Phelim getting off the train, so the young man leaps from train to tree to follow them.
