Excerpt:

‘Oh, give over,’ Dae said, snorting. ‘You’re making it up.’
Solan feigned a look of outrage. ‘I am not.’
‘You’re seriously saying you’ve seen a monster from an imaginary plain –’
‘Hey, the Dreadlands isn’t imaginary.’
‘It’s the stuff of scare stories.’
‘You’re the stuff of scare stories. Ow!’
Dae had hit him. Charlotte giggled.
It was raining; not as badly as the night she had arrived, certainly, but certainly heavy enough for even Dae to give up on travelling for the evening. They were sheltering in a small thicket of trees, close enough together to shield them from most of the rain, though the odd droplet found its way through the leafy canopy overhead occasionally. It was semidark due to the time of the evening and the overcast sky, making the cave of trees fairly gloomy. The tent was draped over a tree branch, still damp from a light rain the previous night, and So had not managed to light a fire; the sad little pile of wood sitting sodden in the centre of their little circle illustrated the failure.
‘Well,’ So said, rubbing his arm with a dignified expression, ‘I think that proves my point.’