The woods were thick with undergrowth. The area was so desolate, Michael doubted if anyone had set foot in it for a hundred years. This must have been the hunting grounds of an Indian tribe from long ago. The stones could be part of some ancient structure for worshiping gods or something.

Michael felt his heart beat faster. He seemed to have discovered something of genuine interest. Maybe Ardwyn had also found the stones. But why had his friend not come back? Perhaps he had just gotten lost out in the woods and veered off in the wrong direction, walking for days without anyone in sight. This stretch of the woods seemed endless up. Someone could really have gotten lost in them.

Michael walked carefully, the twigs under the forest floor breaking under his feet. He shone the flashlight, trying to scan the forest wall for an opening to move through. The thick canopy of the forest was a giant labyrinth to traverse. The darkness did not make things any easier.

He heard an owl hoot behind him, momentarily startling him. He had forgotten that here in the woods he was not really alone, animals with far better senses than his watched his every move, observing the intruder who had disturbed the peace of the forest in the dead of the night.

He came out into a clearing, under the moonlight. The thick density of the trees thinned out, revealing shrubs and other bushes filling what seemed to be a field ahead. Had Ardwyn come through this area as well?

Michael took a rest, sitting down on the ground, and opened his backpack. He set up the Lidar equipment to scan the surrounding forest. The Lidar scanner still almost had 90% battery. By the time the scanner had run down to about 25% battery, he would start to make his way back. He had also brought a compass and carefully marked his journey in a notebook to ensure he would not get lost.

He mounted the bottom of the Lidar device on a tripod and it on. Lights on the scanner lit up and the screen flashed. In neon green, horizontal lines scanned the surrounding area. He pointed the Lidar scanner in the direction of the stones. He got another glance at them. They were large, and round, definitely man-made and arranged with some sort of an intelligent design. By his estimations, they were just a mile or so ahead of him to the north. He would come across the stones soon and be able to better examine them.

When Michael had fully rested, he got up from the forest floor and brushed off any twigs and dirt from his jeans. He packed up the Lidar equipment, gently stuffing it into his bag, with a folded sweater around the device for protection. He zipped up his backpack, and then strapped it behind him, setting out on the next stretch of his journey.

He pointed the flashlight at the forest, deciding which path would be easiest to take him north up to the stones. Just in case, he brought two extra sets of batteries, and also lunch for a few days, dried beef jerky and water. Even in the case of a power failure, he had an old-fashioned compass in his pocket at all times. If something happened, he could just head south back in the direction of the house, and eventually find his way out.

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With all of his careful preparations and his rational nature, the dark woods didn’t scare him. Instead, they fascinated him, especially with the mysterious stones up ahead. He was practically guaranteed to make a discovery. This trip had not been for nothing after all. In the eventuality that he had to explain why had gone all the way up here, at least he could present the evidence of the stones, so people wouldn’t think he was crazy.

With that out of the way, he could focus on finding his friend Ardwyn. He braced himself emotionally for coming across Ardwyn’s dead body in the forest. He knew that animals would likely have started to devour Ardwyn, and he might come across a half-eaten corpse of his friend. The thoughts were dark and made him uneasy, but that was life. Either you were ready for what life could throw at you, or you weren’t, and still had to suffer the same consequences. There was no other way.

Michael ducked through a low forest entry with branches of trees straddling the path ahead. By shining his flashlight, and from what he had noted on the Lidar scanner, this path was the easiest way to get to the stones ahead. At first, the path seemed to be more obscured and shrouded by trees, but with the power of his Lidar scanner, Michael knew that just a little ahead of here the path would clear out and turn into a final clearing separating him from the stones.

The night air dropped with a chill that made Michael unpack the sweater he had brought with him in his backpack. The night it seemed was starting to make things somewhat harder for him. Clouds materialized in the sky, covering the moon, decreasing the visibility significantly.

Michael turned the flashlight setting up to the brightest strength, and scanned the woods around him. The forest was much darker than it seemed before. He briefly considered setting up his Lidar equipment again to check if he was still going in the right direction. But he didn’t want to slow down now. He could always just retrace his steps since he was close anyway.

He took out the compass in his pocket and checked the direction — North. Almost there. Just follow the compass if anything.

A large animal startled him from behind. The creeks of heavy branches broke. Was it a deer? No, too big to be a deer, Michael immediately discarded the idea. He had been hunting before. He knew what deer sounded like, and that wasn’t a deer. What was it then? A large bear?

He started to sweat, his calm demeanor had all of a sudden left him, and now he felt like had to rethink his plan. This thing whatever it was, was large. It could be going straight after him, hunting him by his scent.

Michael quickly set his backpack down and turned off the flashlight to make himself less visible in the woods. Out of the backpack, from the very bottom he took out pellet gun. Just in case anything had happened he brought it with.

Quickly, he loaded the pellet gun and looked around trying to not make a sound. Whatever thing was out there in the woods, it also had stopped. Between them was just a silence, with an occasional owl hooting in the distance.

The forest now had taken on a much more sinister quality. Gone was the peaceful respite of nature’s surroundings, of gentle woods with gentle harmless animals. No, that was gone. Now it seemed this creature could be hunting him. Perhaps it was the very same creature that had gotten to his friend, Ardwyn.