The battle that raged after that was fierce and I had to fight to keep my eyes open. Joel tore into Eric repeatedly, but Eric continued to attack. The growling and snapping was loud and I wanted to cover my ears. Eric's blood was splattered across the stones in the circle and gave them a surreal look. At some point in the fight Eric's lip and shoulder had been torn. Large chunks of flesh hung strangely off his body and his fur was matted with blood.

Suddenly, Joel had Eric's neck between his teeth and the clearing was deadly silent. I saw Eric start to struggle and blood dripped from...