"I don't know," Kieren replies again, feeling wildly denied of information that he needs in order to say anything with a sureness that he can stand behind. "Honestly, it was just really a big dog, I don't think it was even a wolf, not really," he confesses. "So maybe it was a person? Or maybe I was just so scared, I was making things up."

He doesn't think so, though. There had been times, he swears, when it had been like the creature could hear him. An animal wouldn't have that kind of sentience, would it?