Haunted Wood see no [more] evil

A childish voice replied with an uncertain, "Mom?" Then the shrieking and cries for help came. Peregrine recognized the voice from the earlier screams. As a father, her couldn't help but move suddenly forward, exploding onto the scene to find a fox facing a young wolf... whose eyes had been torn clean out of their sockets. The swarthy wolf felt his stomach plummet.

His head whipped toward the fox. "Get away!" he snapped, lunging toward it with a snarl. He didn't think it had done this to the boy, though all the same, the lesser creature had no business here. He was scaring the child. His bite missed but, then, it hadn't been intended as a hit so much as a warning. "Get the fuck out of here," he said ominously. He wouldn't ask again.

Moving to block the youngster's view of the fox—and realizing with a sick twist in his gut that the little wolf couldn't see shit—Peregrine said, "I'm not going to hurt you and I won't let the fox hurt you either. I'm Peregrine. What happened? What's your name? What's your mom's name?" he asked in a calm voice. He might not have reacted too well to a wolf, even a young one, traipsing around a territory so close to home... but all he felt was sympathy—no, empathy—for the blind boy.