Bearclaw Valley you're not to stop me, whatever happens

This man was wicked - too wicked for Riley's taste. He had his own primal urges, but this creature unsettled him. He was not like the fox-not-fox (Dakota), he was not like the loners he had met - no, this man was something else.. something malevolent posing as a harmless yet quirky forest ghoul.

Riley shook his head. No he did not want to see, no he did not want to be here anymore. He was not brave, not this brave - he was not strong, not this strong -- Merrick was his superior in every way, and he had no stomach to witness whatever malignant design Merrick schemed to show him. Mute as a hare, the boy began to backtrack -- and then turned around in a flat run away from Merrick and his haunting candle-flame gaze.