The skies had shifted.
Ash that once drifted like snow now swirled in unnatural spirals. The winds above Rey's head were not random—they moved with purpose, like breath from something watching… waiting.
Rey stood on a blackened ridge, overlooking the ravaged valley below. What he saw sent a chill through him:
A carcass.
A massive four-legged beast, one he'd seen roaming a few days ago, now lay torn apart. Not eaten—shredded. Bones splintered from inside out, fur seared as if scorched by lightning, yet the ground showed no burns.
There were no prints. No claw marks. No sign of a struggle.
Just death.
Clean, sudden.
> "It's getting worse," Rey muttered.
His knuckles clenched around his spear. The silence felt heavier than usual. Even the monsters that ruled the night seemed to avoid this place.
And that's when he saw it—a shadow in the ash sky.
Not a cloud.
A shape.
Gliding above like a predator. No wings. No limbs. Just a cloak of darkness stretching unnaturally, moving in defiance of wind.
It didn't flap or soar.
It floated, as if part of the sky itself.
---
Rey dropped flat beneath a jagged rock, covering his body in soot and dirt. He held his breath. The shadow moved slowly, scanning the valley with a presence that made his skin crawl.
Then, the shadow stopped—directly above him.
Rey's heartbeat thundered.
The air thinned. Ash stilled mid-air.
> "It's… sensing me?" he thought.
For a full minute, nothing moved. Then suddenly—
SCREEEEECH.
A noise tore through the sky, not heard but felt—deep in Rey's bones. His vision blurred. Blood dripped from his nose. The pressure crushed his mind.
And then…
Silence.
The shadow was gone.
Vanished into the ash sky like it was never there.
Rey rolled over, choking on the dust, and vomited. His body trembled as if he'd been standing before a god. Whatever that thing was—it wasn't a regular monster.
It was a watcher.
Something that didn't hunt for food, but for a purpose.
---
Later, as night fell, Rey rested inside a tree's hollow trunk. He gathered what little strength he had and pulled out his wooden map again.
The spiral.
Nine realms.
He was still on the second.
But the things here… they weren't just monsters. Some of them were intelligent, watching, organizing, waiting.
He thought of the shadow he saw.
> "It didn't attack. It scanned me. Why?"
He remembered the mysterious figure from the ruins, who had screamed upon discovering Rey's blood.
> "The blood of a human..."
There was something valuable about him here—something these creatures recognized.
He wasn't just prey.
He was a signal.
A message.
---
That night, Rey began crafting something new—not a weapon, but a trap. Using spider-thread, thorns, and bone-shards, he created perimeter wires and tension snares.
He didn't plan to fight the next predator.
He planned to study it.
> "You watch me from the sky?" Rey whispered. "Then I'll watch back."
The boy who once feared shadows was gone.
What remained now was a survivor sharpening his mind.
A hunter born from fear.
---