The cry of the wolf

Previously

…The woods outside were no longer just trees and shadows; they were alive, breathing, teeming with a magic he was only beginning to comprehend. And Old Man Hemlock, the superstitious hermit, was no longer just a madman. He was a harbinger, a voice from the past whose warnings now resonated with a terrifying, undeniable truth. The echoes of his fear, Carter realized, were not just superstition; they were the faint whispers of a truth that lay buried deep within the heart of the forest, a truth that was now, impossibly, tied to him. The wolf, he knew, was not just an injured animal. It was a key, and the lock it opened led to a mystery far older than any of them.