The presence of those wicked creatures hit Calden just moments after Astrid had reached the terrifying conclusion herself. "I- yes. I heard it too," he whispered in disbelief with all that frustrated negative dispelled from his voice as it got replaced by something much simpler - dread. He would have swallowed could he have felt the cold sweat himself, but instead Calden remained quiet in a state of realization as his mind processed it all. His first thought was a statement that he knew it. He knew it! Somehow he just found himself immediately blaming these creatures on July, but how could that be? Even he knew that at least these weren't her pets, but maybe something else. It could still be a trap by her! Yes. That was possible.<br/><br/>In all that chaos of accusing thoughts and Astrid panicking next to him, Calden had not given the real situation a single thought. He sounded just as clueless as her with his answer, but at least his tongue instinctively found the words, "I don't- Run!? RUN! I can't see them yet, no wait." He quickly revised the statement after noticing a shadowy aura slid along a tree in the darkness that lied beyond the range of magical light. "One right ahead of us. There, in the shadows, it just climbed down! Go back the way we came. It's uh..." His eye spun wildly in its socket. A large moss covered boulder he had never seen before. A congregation of smaller oaks growing almost trunk to trunk. He couldn't find it; he couldn't spot anything familiar.<br/><br/>"Where was it? We can't be that far," he insisted, trying to reassure himself as much as Astrid. "The pond! The pond. Just find the pond, there was that big pile of rocks there. It's not too far away from there." He wanted out of the situation and it didn't matter how or where. No matter what the old lady was his heart couldn't wholly deny the impression of a gentle old woman. Maybe she wasn't a human, or maybe she was, but also something more, it didn't matter to him as long as Astrid didn't get caught by one of these things.