Eventually Simon left the forest and came to open grassland, which he thought must have been a field as there were black and white cows in the distance. A bird flew past and Simon stopped as he watched the small bird fly past. He wondered how it felt to be up in the air, riding the wind and looking down on the people below; he continued on in thought. It was hours before Simon walked into a small forest and noticed that the sun was starting to set; he walked a little further and found a tree that he could sleep in. The birds called out as he climbed the unusual shaped tree to a thick branch that stretched out from the trunk. There was a grove that he could lay in and he settled in it before he looked down at Magic and Patch. They were lying at the bottom; Simon smiled at them and then looked up through the branches at the star filled sky. Muttering came from the floor below, which Simon ignored and tried to remember the names of the pictures in the stars that Ken had taught him. As he looked up at the stars, he wondered what Ken was doing. A small wind blew the tree's branches as Simon thought about how he thought he heard Magic and Patch mutter to each other. He smiled as he thought of the man on television who made mistakes and sweated all the time. An owl called out as Simon thought of how Jo would react when he found out that Simon wasn't at school. There was movement at the bottom of the tree as Simon slowly fell into an uneasy sleep…
A wind blew as Simon looked around the field he was stood in. The sun shone down on his face and the birds were singing as they flew by. Simon felt as if he knew this place, it was calm and relaxing. There was a noise by his feet and he looked down to see a red squirrel happily eating a nut by his feet; he looked around the miles of grassland and stopped on seeing a man in the distance. As Simon ran up to him the man ran away from him and Simon followed. What was he running away from? Simon thought as he followed the man into a forest. When Simon caught up with the man in a clearing, he slowly walked up to the man and looked at his face, which was covered by long scruffy black hair and some sort of scarf. Suddenly, there was a loud howl and a pounding of hooves on the ground; Simon quickly looked around to see big hooded creatures appear from nowhere. His heart pounded fast against his chest. Some of the creatures were sat on the backs of big dark horse-like creatures and others were on foot. Simon caught a glimpse of one without its hood up. Its head was a vicious black dog's head, with pointed ears and foam coming out of its teeth bared mouth. The body as far as he could tell was Human, and he could see under the tatty black cloak that their dog-like legs were elegant. The creatures walked towards the man, with sharp clawed hands stretched out. They were going to kill him, Simon thought, he was sure of it. As he stepped forward to help the man, Simon fell, down into darkness…
The trees moved in the wind as Simon sat up with a start, he was hot and sweating all over. As he looked around at the trees, the sun shone through the branches. He looked up from the forest floor at the big tree that he had spent the night in. Magic's head appeared in front of his face; it looked concerned and panicked. Simon patted himself and counted; one body, two arms and two legs that aren't broken, one head, no blood. Good Simon thought. “Are you ok?” a voice from next to him asked.
"I'm ok…” Simon replied without any thought, he stopped patting his body and slowly looked around at Magic. “D… Did you…Did you say that?” He asked.
Trees moved in the breeze as Magic looked at him, with her head to one side and a confused look on her face. “No… Patch did.” She casually replied.
Simon looked at Patch and then quickly back at Magic; he quickly stood up and looked from one to the other. “You talked…. You can't do that...” he finally said and then rubbed his head. “I must have hit my head, that's it… I hit my head and I'm hearing things.” He said to himself.
Animals called out as Magic looked up at him and wagged her tail in excitement. “You can understand us?” She asked and then looked at Patch.
Patch slowly waged his tail and nodded. “Good… Now I don't have to act like an idiot when I want something.” he replied; his voice was ruff.
The birds sung as Simon looked from one to the other and then blacked out as he fell to the floor…