Suddenly he noticed an odd-looking shadow in front of him, he could swear that it wasn't here before, he immediately raised his vigilance, his heart thumping a frantic rhythm against his ribs. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Ten seconds passed. Nothing moved.
He slowly crept closer and found that it was just a dead tree stump…jagged, dark, covered in black lichen, about waist-high. It smelled of nothing but dry wood. A common, boring sight in a forest of wonders.
"Damn! It seems I'm a bit too paranoid," he muttered, letting out a shaky, wet breath. "It's just a wood, a fucking wood."
He moved to step around it, his eyes already scanning the brush ahead for the next threat.
CLICK.
But that was a mistake, a very big mistake. As he was just looking for monsters; not expecting the scenery to bite him.
When he was just about to pass it, the stump suddenly opened its eyes.
Two tiny, glowing red pinpricks flared in the darkness, burning with a cold, hateful intelligence.
"What the—?"
