@baysiri You misunderstood. At first, he sensed a presence as bog as his own and planned to withdraw to set up an ambush. Later, when he got closer, he sensed two smaller presences and correctly assumed they could be humans.
There are only three plates on the table and his mother doesn't speak. Apparently she's a ghost and he probably didn't even realize it. His father seems to be depressed because of his wife's death and can't stand it when his son talks as if his mother were alive.