Something massive moved through the dark, splitting branches, churning up the ground with slow, deliberate steps.

You ran. Not smartly, not quietly — just pure, human panic in a place that punished noise.

Your flimsy boots slipped in the moss. Breath ragged, chest burning, you didn’t see the shadow until you hit it — solid, unmoving, too strange to be a tree.

A hand caught your shoulder before you fell. Metal beneath worn gloves. Heat from skin underneath.

His head turned slightly, eyes reflecting a dull amber in the dark — focused on the treeline behind you.