Dogman Tales

An eleven-year-old boy and his loyal dog set out for another quiet morning in the Appalachian hills—just like they’ve done countless times before. But when the woods fall silent and something unseen begins steering them away from home, their familiar mountains turn into a maze they can’t escape. Forced to spend the night under the watch of a predator that never quite reveals itself, the boy comes to a chilling realization… he isn’t lost. He’s being kept—and whatever is out there is deciding when, or if, he gets to leave.

For years, he’s heard the same promise—that on the day he turns twelve, Uncle John will take him deep into the Rocky Mountains to a place no one else knows exists. When that day finally comes, the two of them set out on a grueling two-day journey through some of the most remote, unforgiving terrain imaginable. Guided by a man he trusts without question, the boy presses on as the wilderness grows quieter and the isolation begins to feel heavier with every mile. What waits at the end of the trail is every bit as breathtaking as promised—but the journey there forces him to confront something far more unsettling than the rugged landscape around him.

When a backcountry camper strays off trail in Yellowstone, he finds himself in a part of the park where the usual rules don’t seem to apply.   The silence comes first. Then the tracks. Then the circling.   What stalks him through the timber doesn’t attack—not right away. It watches. It follows. It waits.   And by the time he understands what he’s dealing with, it’s already decided how the night is going to end.

When two brothers inspect a remote property deep in the Appalachian woods, they expect neglect—not a calculated presence watching their every move. What begins as an uneasy silence quickly turns into a controlled, methodical encounter with something massive, intelligent, and completely at home in the darkness. As night falls, it circles, tests, and studies them without ever forcing its way inside—because it doesn’t need to. By morning, one thing is clear: they weren’t being hunted… they were being managed.

For decades, residents of a small Arkansas town have heard a terrifying howl echo through the surrounding forests and swamps—a sound no animal should be able to make. The locals call it the Howler. No one knows what it is, and no one has ever gotten a clear look at it, but the stories have been passed down since the nineteen-fifties. Most people have learned to ignore the sound and stay out of the woods after dark. But when a group of kids decides they’re finally going to track the source of those haunting cries, they discover there may be a very good reason the older generation never tried.