"Hunted?" I repeated.
My voice cracked like I'd bitten into fear and pretended it was confidence.
I looked around—trees, fog, shadows that breathed when they shouldn't.
"By what exactly, tho?" I asked, even though every part of me already regretted it.
Adrian didn't answer right away.
Of course he didn't. Drama queen.
He stood there, staring into the dark like it whispered secrets just to him. His jaw tightened, like he was debating whether telling me the truth would make me stronger or make me piss myself.
Finally, he spoke.
"It's big," he said quietly. "Bigger than the trees."A chill slid down my spine.
He continued, voice low. "I never saw the full body. Only… the eye."Just one eye?
My stomach dropped."It's huge," he said, lifting his hand. "About the size of my palm."He paused, and the air itself reacted—like the forest leaned in to listen.
"But size isn't what makes it terrifying," he added. "It's the way it looks at you."
My breath caught."The color," he said, eyes narrowing at the memory, "is wrong. It's golden—not shiny, not bright, but deep. Like molten metal cooling. With red veins swirling inside it like they're alive. Like they're… thinking."
I swallowed hard.
He kept talking, voice going softer, colder.
"When it blinks, the light around it dies. Like the forest goes blind with it. And the pupil—" He exhaled sharply. "It's vertical. But it moves. Like it can change shape depending on what it wants to see in you."My skin crawled.
"What kind of monster is that?" I whispered.
Adrian didn't blink. Didn't look away from the darkness.
"I don't know," he said. "And that is exactly why you should run when the forest goes silent. Because whatever it is…"He finally looked at me.
"…it's older than this realm. Older than me. And it doesn't hunt to kill."
He leaned close."It hunts to keep."
"I see… isn't there a way to stop it?" Druhva asked carefully.
Adrian and I both turned to stare at her.I face-palmed. Adrian didn't — he just sighed like her question aged him twenty years."There is no stopping it," he said, voice steady but grim. "This thing doesn't slow. It doesn't bargain. It doesn't sleep. It hunts until something dies."My mouth went dry.
I looked around at the forest — the twisting branches, the breathing fog, the shadows that leaned closer when no one moved.
"So… there's no way out of here," I whispered. "Is there?"
Adrian didn't hesitate."No. There's no possible way out. Either the forest kills us…"
His eyes swept the trees, sharp and cold."…or we kill it."
My stomach dropped.
"Can't we… I don't know… control it?" I blurted, instantly regretting it.He turned toward me slowly, staring hard like he was checking if I'd finally snapped.
"Control it?" he repeated.
I shrugged helplessly. "It's just a suggestion!"
Adrian kept staring — too long, too silent — until something shifted in his expression. Not surprise. Not laughter.Just… unease."…I've never tried," he said quietly.
"We should at least… I don't know… look around," I said, rubbing my arms.
"Or do you know this place? Since you've been here before?"
Adrian shook his head once — sharp, controlled."No. Not really. This place… like I've said, I've never seen anything like it. Not in my dreams. Not in anyone else's."
He glanced into the trees, jaw tight.
"So yes. We discover it."Great. Perfect. Love that for us.
Druhva swallowed hard but nodded. I didn't nod — because standing was already hell with a broken leg, so moving it was even worse.
Still… I forced myself upright. The stick I used as a crutch sank an inch into the moss. My whole weight leaned onto it.
We moved.Or… they walked while I hobbled like a dying grandma.
The forest didn't look real.It didn't look fake either.It looked like a dream of a forest drawn by someone who had only ever heard rumors about trees.
The trunks stretched higher than skyscrapers.The bark shimmered faintly, as if light moved under it, not over.And the leaves… gods, the leaves whispered.
Not in the wind — but like they were talking about us.Every few steps, something shifted behind the canopy, too big to be wind."So," I said, panting, "on a scale from one to ten… how screwed are we?"
"Eleven," Adrian replied instantly.
Fantastic.
We kept moving. My leg throbbed with every step, a deep stabbing pain that shot up my spine. Even with the splint I'd made, the bone grated every time I tried to put weight on it.
Druhva kept close, eyes darting around. "Stay beside me. If anything jumps—"
"Jumps?" I wheezed. "These things don't jump, Druhva. They—"
A sound cut me off.
A wet scraping.Like claws dragging across stone.Except there was no stone.
Adrian stiffened. "Behind us."
I didn't even turn. I didn't need to. I felt it.The air went sharp. Thin.My skin crawled.
Out of the fog stepped a monster — taller than a human, ribs jutted out, arms dangling too long, fingers ending in hooked bone. Its face was wrong, too flat, too smooth except for a line splitting down the middle like lips waiting to peel open.
"Oh hell no," I whispered.
It lunged.Adrian moved so fast the air cracked. One twist, one slice of dream-energy — whatever the hell he used — and the creature exploded into smoke.
But more came.Three.Five.Seven.Clawing out of the mist like nightmares trying to be born.We backed up until my spine hit a tree.Adrian stood in front of us, shadows curling around his hands like living weapons.Druhva grabbed my arm. "Seren, don't move— your leg can't take—"
"Yeah, no kidding!" I snapped.
The first monster launched itself at Adrian.He ducked, grabbed its head, and slammed it into another.Shockwave.Both shattered.But two more replaced them instantly, crawling along the ground like broken spiders.
"I thought you said these weren't the strong ones!" I yelled."They aren't," Adrian said flatly.
Oh fabulous. WONDERFUL.
One rushed me — I tried to swing my stick, but my leg buckled. I collapsed, breath slamming out of me—Claws sliced the air above my head instead of my face.
The monster's body jerked, lifted, and folded in on itself before bursting like ash in wind.Adrian didn't even look back."Stay up," he said. "If you fall, you die."
"Thanks!" I shouted. "Super helpful!"
We kept pushing forward, deeper into the forest.
More monsters appeared — some crawling, some slithering, some that didn't even move but simply… watched.Adrian fought like he belonged here.Sharp. Fast. Effortless.
Druhva stuck close to him, throwing bursts of light — small, weak, but enough to keep shadows from touching us.And me?
I limped.Shaking. Breathless.Terrified.But I didn't stop.The forest grew stranger the farther we walked.
Trees bent toward us like they were leaning in to sniff us.The fog throbbed with light — pulses, like breaths.Sometimes the ground shifted under my feet as if something large moved beneath the soil.We passed a clearing where the air tasted metallic.Where scratch marks clawed across the earth — deep, wide, massive.
Adrian stopped."This wasn't done by any of the monsters you fought," he said quietly.Druhva's eyes widened. "Then what—"
"The hunter," Adrian murmured.
My stomach clenched."Well… good to know we've upgraded from baby nightmares to whatever-the-hell-that-is."
Silence swallowed us.Wind didn't blow here.Nothing rustled.
But the trees… they seemed to lean closer.Watching.Waiting.
And as we kept moving, I realized something chilling:
Every creature we passed avoided one direction.
They moved around it. Away from it.
As if they refused to step into a particular path.
A path we were walking straight toward.
My fingers tightened on my crutch.
"Adrian," I whispered. "Why are they avoiding this area?"
He didn't answer for a long moment.Then—"…Because this is where the hunter feeds."