"It's not for his sake, it's for yours," he says, thinking in advance of how annoying it would be to have to drag Ralston out of the raven boy's seductive wood or, even worse, to end up wandering there along with him. He says this while looking at Ralston's shoes.

After a deliberate pause, he looks to the face of the man himself.

Then he says, "I'd really rather not."