The tremor came again.
Step.
Step.
Pause.
Korvash felt it before he heard it.
His jaw tightened.
"…Hold."
The guard beside him frowned. "What is it?"
Another tremor.
Closer.
Not from the tree line.
From behind it.
Korvash turned sharply.
"Rear flank! Rear flank!"
Too late.
Branches exploded outward.
The predator emerged.
Three stories tall.
Bone plates overlapping like jagged armor.
One eye white and dead. The other sharp and furious.
"Shields!" someone shouted.
Torches wavered violently.
The beast's roar split the air.
The wooden being stood motionless between forest and settlement.
For a fraction of a breath !
The predator slowed.
Its good eye fixed on him.
Its nostrils flared.
It inhaled.
The air between them shifted.
Korvash noticed.
"Why did it ?"
The predator's growl faltered.
Then it roared again and charged.
"Left flank! Don't break formation!" Korvash shouted.
Spears lowered.
Warriors spread in practiced arcs.
The first spear struck bone and shattered.
"Find the seams!"
Another spear slid between plates.
The beast howled.
Its massive forelimb swung outward...
Two warriors were thrown aside like broken tools.
"Drannyn! Get him up!"
"I'm fine - " The injured man coughed blood.
The predator lunged again !
But its motion hesitated mid-step.
Korvash saw it clearly this time.
A stumble.
A flicker of uncertainty.
Predators did not hesitate.
They killed.
This one faltered.
"Now!" Korvash barked.
Three Rootbound surged beneath its raised forelimb.
Spears drove into exposed muscle.
The beast shrieked.
Its tail whipped outward.
A torch stand splintered.
Fire scattered across grass.
"Put that out! PUT IT OUT!"
Two warriors stamped down flames.
The predator reared high !
Its jaws opened wide...
It snapped at empty air.
Wrong direction.
"Why is it turning like that?" someone yelled.
"It's confused!"
"No beast this size gets confused!"
The predator's breathing grew uneven.
Steam poured from its mouth.
It turned its head sharply...
Not toward the tribe.
Toward the tree line.
Toward the wooden being.
Korvash followed its gaze.
There.
Between trunks.
A tall silhouette.
Unmoving.
Watching.
"Behind it!" Korvash shouted.
Two spears struck deep into the creature's hind joint.
The predator's leg buckled.
It roared and collapsed to one side.
Korvash ran forward.
"Throat seam! Drive it deep!"
A spear plunged between bone ridges.
Blood erupted.
Hot.
Thick.
It sprayed across grass and armor.
The beast snapped weakly once...
Then its movements became uncoordinated.
One final shudder.
Then stillness.
Silence.
Heavy breathing.
Crackling embers.
Korvash stood over the corpse, chest rising and falling slowly.
"Count."
"Two wounded. One dead."
"Damn it…"
He knelt near the beast's head.
Examined the eye.
Then the wounds.
Then the ground.
"This thing slowed," he muttered.
A younger warrior shook his head. "It was old. Look at the scars."
"No," Korvash said quietly. "It smelled something."
He turned.
Looked toward the forest.
The wooden silhouette was still there.
Half-visible in shadow.
Not attacking.
Not fleeing.
Just standing.
"Do you see that?" whispered one of the guards.
"See what?"
"There - between those trees."
Korvash narrowed his eyes.
Torchlight flickered.
Branches swayed.
The silhouette seemed to blend into trunk.
Then not.
Then still.
"Hold position," Korvash ordered.
No one moved.
The forest remained silent.
No birds.
No insects.
Even the wind seemed thinner.
"Why isn't anything making noise?" one warrior asked.
Another swallowed. "The beast scared them."
Korvash didn't answer.
His gaze never left the tree line.
He stepped forward slowly.
Raised his torch higher.
Light spilled across bark surfaces.
Trees.
Shadow.
Empty spaces.
But something felt wrong.
The predator had faltered.
Its breathing broke rhythm before spears struck.
It had turned its head mid-charge.
That did not happen.
Not without cause.
Korvash lowered the torch slightly.
"Drag it inside," he ordered at last.
"Double the northern watch."
"What about that"
"Double the watch."
His voice was final.
Eight warriors tied ropes around the predator's limbs.
"Lift!"
They strained.
The corpse shifted.
Heavy.
The wooden being stepped one pace deeper into shadow.
Watching.
Listening.
The tribe dragged the beast through the gate.
Blood smeared along stone threshold.
The gate slammed shut.
Torches dimmed.
But the rhythm inside the settlement had changed.
Fear now layered beneath movement.
Korvash climbed the watch platform alone.
He rested both hands on the railing.
Stared into forest darkness.
The wooden being did not blink.
Did not shift.
Their gazes met through distance.
One curious.
One calculating.
Korvash whispered to himself...
"That wasn't just a hunt."
The wind moved softly between trees.
And something unseen watched from beyond the light.