Kael walked back through the thinning trees, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The taste of the bitter berries still stuck to his tongue. The sun was almost gone now, just a thin orange line behind the hills. The forest was changing quieting in that strange, heavy way that made his skin prickle.

  He adjusted the small basket slung over his shoulder and picked up the pace.Almost home.

  A cold breeze slid through the branches.

  Then-a sound.

  Sharp. Sudden. Wrong.

  Kael stopped mid-step. His ears strained. It wasn’t an animal call he recognized. Not a bird. Not anything tame. It sounded like something dragging metal across stone deep in the woods.

  His heartbeat spiked.He took one slow step back.

  Don’t run… don’t run…His father had once said that about stray dogs. But this wasn’t a dog. This wasn’t anything.

  The forest behind him throbbed with silence.

  Then another sound-closer. A low, rough exhale.Kael didn’t think.He ran.

  Branches slapped his arms as he sprinted toward the village. His lungs burned, eyes watering, but he didn’t look back. Not once. The tower was the only thing in his mind get there, hide, breathe, survive.

  By the time he reached the base of the watchtower, his legs nearly buckled. He grabbed the wooden railing with shaking hands, head spinning. His heartbeat refused to slow, hammering like it wanted to escape his chest.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  He forced himself to breathe. Deep. Steady.But nothing helped.

  Night had already swallowed the clearing around him.

  Fireflies drifted between the houses like floating embers small lights, soft and warm. They should’ve been calming. Instead, they only made the shadows look deeper.

  The forest at the far edge of the village rustled.

  Kael swallowed hard.

  Slowly, inch by inch, he lifted his head over the tower’s edge to look.

  At first, he saw nothing. Just dark trees and drifting fireflies.

  Then something moved.

  A shape stepped out of the treeline tall, slouched, limbs too long. It paused at the border of the village, like it was testing the air. Its skin seemed stretched over its bones, dark and uneven, like burned wood. And its eyes

  God.

  Those eyes were pale and glowing, like two dying coals in the dark.

  Kael’s breath caught. His body went cold.

  He stared.It stared back.

  A violent wave of adrenaline surged through him so hard his vision pulsed. It felt like needles in his arms, pressure in his skull, electricity tearing through his nerves.

  The creature tilted its head slightly.

  Closer.Closer to him.

  Kael couldn’t move. Not even to blink.

  Then—

  The creature opened its mouth.

  No build-up.No warning.

  S C R E E E E E C H —

  The sound tore through the night like metal shearing apart.It wasn’t just loud.It was wrong.It felt like it hit inside his bones, crawling under his skin, ripping through every nerve.

  Kael’s vision exploded with white spots.

  His mind went blank.His knees buckled.His breath simply stopped.

  He stumbled back from the tower’s edge, hands trembling so violently he couldn’t even feel them.

  The screech echoed, fading slowly into the forest.

  Kael managed one final look.Those eyes-still locked on him, unwavering, cold.

  Then darkness crashed over him like a wave.

  He didn’t feel the floor when he hit it.Didn’t hear the night.Didn’t dream.

  Everything went silent.

  Everything went black.