The sky churned with thick grey clouds ced in mint green, as if bruised by the storm. Winds tore through the forest—ruthless and howling, like a beast denied prey. Rain crashed down with the weight of falling steel, and thunder didn’t just roar—it _snapped_, sharp and electric.

  Streams crisscrossed the forest floor like veins in panic, racing toward the swollen river. The trees stood like wooden sentinels, cshing with the storm as if settling some ancient feud once and for all.

  Behind a jagged wedge of rock, a ragged man crouched—half-hidden, half-drenched. Sheltering like it mattered—like the rain wouldn’t find him anyway.

  Xavier’s day had taken a sharp nosedive into miserable the moment he opened his eyes. He shivered beneath the stone outcrop, muttering curses under his breath, feeling as if the skies themselves had it out for him.

  Well... this was one of the tamer jokes this pce had pyed on him.

  "On the second damn day of my journey, no less."

  He’d walked maybe 50 kilometers in what he guessed was north—less guided by any real map and more by how thoroughly his legs despised him.

  With a tired grimace stuck to his face, Xavier peeled off the makeshift bandages wrapped around his torso to keep his healing back wounds from soaking further. The bandages, fashioned from his shredded trackpants, stuck to him with stubborn dampness.

  The wounds had closed enough for him to move without wincing every minute, but his body still flinched at sudden movement—more out of memory than pain.

  Just as he was tallying up the test damage the rain had caused, a sound pierced the downpour. Not a roar. A voice.

  A voice?

  “Good job, Xavier. You’ve officially started hearing things.”

  The shelter wasn’t keeping him dry anyway, so he stood up, listening harder. His heart pounded. He’d been hoping to find people—just not this soon. Not on day two.

  "I need to mentally prepare. What if they attack me? Surely not if I don’t seem threatening... right?"

  He moved toward where he thought the sound had come from, scanning the trees. The voice hadn’t returned. Maybe it was a cry for help... maybe someone being hunted.

  Either way, he had to know. Even if it was just a body.

  The forest opened up near a waterfall—overflowing and wrathful.

  And there it was: proof. Footprints.

  Humanoid. Awkwardly rge, toes spyed slightly outward—clearly built for grip and bance. The rain had already started to erase the details, but the imprints were deep and smeared in the mud. Running… or fighting. The pattern suggested a burst of movement concentrated in a small area. Enough to tell which direction they'd gone.

  Xavier ughed weakly. “I’ll be damned. I was actually right.”

  He’d suspected that this pnet shared a blueprint for life—evolution marching to the beat of a different drum, but not a different orchestra. That’s why he hadn’t died the moment he inhaled. Why the climate hadn’t melted his lungs. Why this world, for all its alien cruelty, worked.

  But that also meant danger. The footprints confirmed it.

  Fear prickled down his limbs—cold and instinctive. If these people resembled humans and decided he looked tasty, there wouldn’t be much he could do.

  But he wasn’t going to rot away in this forest.

  "Better to die than never go home."

  He followed what signs he could. The rain tried its best to cover the trail, but it hadn’t erased everything yet. Soon he found himself at the edge of a waterfall. The roaring waters didn’t seem crossable, not easily.

  He scanned below.

  At the base of the falls, where mist danced in rising clouds of water dust, shadows moved.

  Two of them.

  Xavier squinted. The silhouettes were... humanoid. Almost. Broad shoulders. Tall frames. Fighters, clearly.

  He dropped to the ground, keeping low, moving with the stealth of someone who really, really didn’t want to die.

  The aliens spoke to one another, but the roar of the waterfall drowned it out. He couldn’t make out a single word.

  'Did they jump from up here? That’s a fifteen-meter fall. Maybe they’re different from the ones who left the footprints.'

  Either way, too risky. Too many. If they saw him, he could be dinner.

  'I should aim for a less ominous timing to appear than a thunderstorm. For appearances' sake.'

  But then it happened.

  One of the figures turned its head sharply—locking eyes with him. Even from this distance, the alien’s eyes glowed green, cutting through the mist.

  A flick of its arm. A blur.

  “What the—”

  A spear sliced the air beside his face and buried itself into a tree behind him. The trunk exploded in a burst of wooden shrapnel.

  Xavier stared. The devastation left no doubt—this was not human strength.

  He looked back toward the two figures.

  Nothing. They were gone.

  Not fled. Not hidden.

  Gone.

  Raw, primal fear surged in his chest, and he ran. He didn’t need to be told. He knew.

  He was prey...

  "What the hell was I thinking?! I am so not ready for this."

  ***

  The forest writhed in the storm’s grip. Branches cracked. Rain fell in sheets thick enough to drown a breath.

  Two figures slipped between the trees like shadows freed from form—fast, precise, untouchable.

  The younger spoke first, his voice sharp with unease. “Elder brother… what was that thing you threw your spear at? I’ve never seen a creature like it.”**

  The elder ran in silence for a beat too long. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and troubled. “It wasn’t a beast. And it wasn’t one of the shapeshifters. Not even they could mimic a form like that.”

  The younger’s voice cracked. “Then what? What was it?”

  The answer came like a bde. “Original flesh. Unaltered design. Its kind has most likely birthed a sentinel.”

  The younger faltered, just a step. His eyes widened. “Then… she might be in danger.”

  The elder didn’t look back. His pace only quickened.

  The storm swallowed the rest.

  Both of them reached the top of the waterfall in less than 30 seconds. The absurd creature they’d seen was nowhere in sight—rain and river already erasing all signs of its presence.

  The younger figure spoke. “Are you sure we should be pursuing a sentinel, Brother Ren?”

  Ren lingered a few seconds before replying in a dark tone. “Elyas, what do you take me for? I can subdue one or two sentinels on my own. With the intelligence they possess—and their connection to the forest—we’ll find our sister soon enough.”

  Elyas had no choice but to agree, though his heart remained uncertain.

  They lingered a moment longer at the spot where Xavier had stood, then slipped into the deep forest—guided only by intuition.

  ---

  Meanwhile, Xavier was pinned—caught in a violent embrace between the waterfall’s fury and a jagged rock. The realization that he might die before getting to say a single word triggered a white-hot panic. His thoughts scattered, bnk.

  But even in the chaos—and the half-mad fog that had settled over his mind during his time in the forest—one thought surfaced.

  He didn’t know where the aliens were. He didn’t know where to hide. But he sure as hell knew one thing: They weren’t standing where they had been seconds ago.

  Acting on that thought, Xavier grabbed the vine rope bundle hanging at his waist—a big loop already tied. He secured it around himself and hurled the loop toward the rock. It caught on the third try.

  Without hesitation, he leapt into the torrent and crashed into the stone, driving his axe into a crevice. He locked the handle beneath his armpit, letting it take the brunt of the current as water smmed over him, crushing, blinding, suffocating.

  He had to cut the rope partway—just enough to avoid being snapped in half midair. The pn was simple: slow his fall, then let the river below finish the job.

  Hastily, yet precisely, he carved into the rope with a crude knife made from a predator’s cw.

  When the cut felt deep enough, Xavier tore the axe free. The current ripped him downward. The rope snapped—right on cue—but not before yanking his waist with a gut-wrenching force.

  He wasn’t sure if his insides had rearranged themselves or simply evacuated.

  Xavier hit the river below, lungs screaming. He swam desperately for the shore, arms filing more than they paddled, the current dragging him like a ragdoll.

  By some miracle, he made ndfall a few hundred meters downstream. Gasping, barely conscious, he dragged himself from the water, hacking up river water and bile. His hands cwed at the mud, fingers trembling.

  He’d survived. Somehow.

  He staggered upright, clutching his ribs. His entire body screamed, but worse than the pain was the silence.

  The forest had gone wrong.

  No chase sounds. No alien howls. Just rain and distant cracks of thunder — and a creeping certainty that he hadn't escaped anything.

  'They must know this forest' Xavier thought, dizzy. 'I'm in their den.'

  A sick, crawling dread climbed his spine. He wasn't safe — just... postponed.

  He tightened the belt around his waist, gathering his tools, jaw set. No time for cursing the universe. Think. Survive.

  Where wouldn't they search?

  Rivers? No — he'd floated downstream. They’d expect that. Open fields? Stupid. Too exposed.

  Xavier cursed under his breath. There was no safe answer. In their eyes, he was some twisted, alien thing — maybe fragile, maybe dangerous. Either way, a threat to be hunted down.

  A distant sound sliced through his thoughts — a long, keening wail that didn't belong to any storm.

  Xavier flinched, every nerve screaming.

  Another wail. Closer this time.

  He shoved his belt tighter, legs moving before thought caught up. Instinct demanded distance.

  The cries twisted into something uglier — low, rumbling growls that made the forest itself seem to hunch and shudder.

  Xavier pushed through tangled underbrush, moving blind. The sounds didn't fade behind him. They grew louder.

  Closer.

  The branches ahead swayed violently — not with the wind.

  Something big was coming.

  Xavier picked up the pace, the damage from the waterfall was treacherous, hindering him from running at his best.

  The thumping steps approached faster, almost desperate to rip him apart. In only a few seconds, the monstrosity was upon Xavier.

  It's cw bigger than Xavier's head descended down on him, but Xavier was expecting it. As soon as it swung down on Xavier he dove to the left. Missing it's cws by only a few centimeters.

  Xavier quickly gnced at what attacked him, it was... a grizzly. Or at least something that closely resembled it. It had two pools of bckness instead of it's eyes, face contorted with rage, fangs too rge for it's mouth to hold and a bluish white tinted fur coat, which was currently colored red due to two deep piercing wounds on the side of its stomach. The abomination was dying. He had seen a few of these beasts before and wished he never had to run into one.

  Currently, it was dead set on taking Xavier with him.

  He quickly got up and ran through some particurly dense twisting trees close by, taking advantage of his retively smaller frame.

  'This should buy me some time.'

  The bear simply swiped away the flimsy trees with his palm.

  'How is this fair!? The strength doesn't make sense for his size.'

  He thought he'd be able to slip away through the trees, now that the bear is mowing through them faster than he can run away. He'd only cornered himself.

  ...So far everything was within expectation.

  Moving through the growth with practiced efficiency, Xavier managed to maintain a roughly constant distance between him and the bear, almost getting crushed under the flying logs occasionally.

  One of the primary reasons humans had emerged as the apex species was because they could throw things. Hard and precise.

  The bear was currently approaching Xavier in a fearsome storm of broken trees and heavy rain, the sight was almost surreal. Unfortunately, Xavier didn't have the capacity to admire the wild ferocity.

  Using all his strength, Xavier hurled a rock the size of his fist towards it, hitting the bear right below it's eye.

  All to no effect, the bear flinched a little and advanced faster, more furiously.

  'Good, now I really have no pn.'

  He stood less than no chance of winning a brawl against a bear, forget one that had the strength of five!

  He slipped through the woods, knowing it was only a matter of time. The bear was faster — way faster. Trees and thick undergrowth slowed it down, buying him seconds, not salvation.

  He used the chaos of falling trunks and branches around him to maneuver around the bear, hopefully suppressing his footsteps enough to get away.

  The bastard seemed to be aware of his ideas.

  No matter where Xavier ran, the bear would soon follow. How? Xavier did not know.

  Hitting the bear with another rge stone and using the momentary window he ran around the bear. For once, it did not seem to know and ended up turning it's head in the wrong direction.

  Xavier did not miss the chance, instead of running away, he dashed towards the bear and shoved his knife into the wound, almost burying his fist into the flesh, almost.

  He'd underestimated how fast wild animals are capable of reacting to danger. As soon as Xavier's knife touched the bear's skin, it flinched and swung its giant paw, throwing Xavier over five meters away.

  The bear stood in pce, looking at him with resentment and fury.

  A pale smile appeared on Xavier's face.

  "That's right, turn away if you don't want to be hurt."

  The knife was still lodged into the wound, doing it's job.

  The bear lunged forward with a pained roar.

  "Right..."

  Xavier hurriedly stood up, the bear's strike was terrible but didn't break any bones.

  He sidestepped the charging bear, but he was a second too fast. The bear adjusted and rammed him with its head, throwing him further away. Then stopped once more, with a heavy gaze.

  As if it was observing him....

  'That's odd, that's two times it has struck me without fatal damage.'

  An insane idea emerged in Xavier's mind, he rejected it at first. But looking at his situation, it was worth a try.

  Xavier suddenly bolted into the forest again, naturally, the bear followed furiously, desperately...

  He threw stones at it, disappeared from sight a few times but he never got the same chance to get close again. He ran and hid, hit the bear with stones and ran again. Doing everything to keep the bear just far enough.

  Then he stopped, looked at the bear with a hint of madness in his eyes... and charged at the bear head on.

  He'd known everything he needed to know at this point. The bear was trying to take him alive, for whatever reason.

  The bear charged at him as well, ramming him with its head, which Xavier met with a forceful swing of his axe, into its eye. Finally, the bear recoiled back in pain and swung it's cws around wildly, however they didn't reach Xavier.

  He was already at the bear's side, and thrust his knife deeper into the wound.

  The bear screamed, and so did the thunder. The scent of wet soil mixed with blood, immediately washed away by the rain.

  The bear eventually settled down, and then grew still. Taking short and shallow breaths.

  Xavier picked up his axe, of which only the handle remained, broken off from the impact, he looked at it with a frown and then stood a small distance away from the bear.

  Now that the desperation and rage had vanished, it's pitch bck eyes showed a different emotion. Was it... longing? Regret?

  Xavier scoffed. "As if these beasts are capable of such complex emotions."

  Making sure the bear could no longer move, Xavier approached it to study it's wound. What would be big and terrible enough to sink its teeth directly into the bear's flesh. And how strong was this bear to escape such a deadly being.

  He then pushed his hand into the wound again, which now felt bloodless and cold, and retrieved his knife.

  Just then, something grimy stuck to his forearm...

  Xavier quick withdrew his hand and tried to shake off the thing.

  His face lost all color, and fear and disgust warped his expression.

  I was a moving bck mass made of a thousand worms, looked like tar. Xavier quickly stabbed it with his knife, but it just went through the creature and sunk into his own flesh.

  The tar creature coiled itself around his forearm. Xavier screamed for help and fell to the ground.

  struggling to get the repulsive thing away he repeatedly stabbed his forearm until...

  pain blinded him.

  An all consuming, maddening pain took over his mind. All of his body convulsed and Xavier let go of his knife with a pained yelp. The pain of stabbing his arm felt like an ant bite compared to what he felt now.

  It came from inside him, his muscles contorted, bones creaked and the skull threatened to explode.

  For the next few minutes Xavier couldn't even tell if he was alive or dead, who he was or where.

  All there was just pain, there was no future and no past for him, all that existed was pain. To make it worse, Xavier didn't lose consciousness. He lived each second of the eternity.

  Only much ter his sense of self returned and the pain started to recede, without killing him, somehow. He didn't move for a few minutes, enjoying the bliss of not having to feel pain, to be able to exist without hurting. Just ying here, under the rain.

  Rain? It had long stopped. He quickly sat up, the storm had retreated and the sun was setting. Just how long did he y down here for?

  He threw his head back and ughed manically, the sheer absurdity of everything was nothing short of hirious to his tired mind.

  He'd seen aliens, jumped down a raging waterfall, fought a bear and almost died to a strange bck mass.

  Reminded of the cursed thing, he quickly looked at his arm. There was nothing, no pain, no weird creature stuck to it....

  .... and no stab wounds. His arm was intact.

  'Did I dream up all of that strange thing?'

  That wasn't impossible with the amount of trauma and stress he was dealing with. However, Xavier was absolutely certain it wasn't a dream.

  But that can come ter, right now, he was hunger. Incredibly so!

  staring at the ripe fruits hanging on a nearby tree, he abruptly said.

  "Food, tasty."

  He quickly shut his mouth with his hand, with a shocked expression he cautiously spoke again.

  "Wha— why did I say that?"