The air was thick with an eerie stillness, the forest whispering secrets through cracked, gnarled trees—voices lost to time, some warning, some tempting, but none ever answered. A hazy fog lingered in the underbrush, curling like wispy tendrils of smoke and shadows, suffocating any warmth that may have dared to enter. There was a suspicious lack of the forest's creatures, and I watched from the shadows of the perpetually darkened woods, my gaze fixed upon the man who had wandered too deep into my domain.

I had been watching for hours, drawn like a cecaelia-moth to a flame. Yet, there was something...different about this one. I had seen many wander into this warped forest, never to leave unless the forest permitted them to—the forest never did—and some I myself had been a part of their downfall. Something about this man drew me to him; the hollowness in my chest that always seemed cold began to crack at the edges like a broken picture frame. Perhaps it was the way the very forest itself seemed to be conspiring against the outsider, each misstep and falter only dragging the poor soul deeper into the woods.

I could hear the outsider walking, smell the days-old scent of someone that had been lost for days, maybe weeks, and of course, time didn't flow the same here. It never changed, the darkness, the mists, the silence; nothing moved but the ever-shifting shadows and the groan of creaking trees that appeared to have eyes—watching. Just as I was.

My brown eyes tracked the outsider as he moved, his form lost within the mist and trees. How long had this man strayed from the path? A deep ache twisted in my chest, something I could neither name nor understand, but it drove me all the same.

The glowing pond came into view, a phenomenon I was more than well acquainted with. The water never reflected and belonged to the other spirits—it would take him, swallow him whole to feed the forest's insatiable hunger.

Don't step there, don't—

For a moment, time seemed to slow as I witnessed the man's foot catch on something. I moved without hesitation, far too fast for a being of my size, large clawed hands outstretched, and in a breath, I was there—fingers curled firmly around the other's arm, pulling him back from certain demise just as the glowing pool threatened to take him. I could see the faint hints of the creatures trapped beneath the surface, victims' faces twisted in agony, and the spirits who owned them.

The press of the air was heavy, as though the trees held their breaths. My eyes, sunken with centuries of solitude and an emptiness that was far more than physical, flickered over the man's face. His scent was suffocating this close, I had never gotten this close to him before. I supposed that this was our first meeting, even if the other could feel that something had been watching for too long. A low sound rumbled through my chest as I stepped back, dragging the man away from the dangerous pond before releasing him.

The feel of his skin was seared into my memory.

"That was close." My voice, deep and rumbling, rolled over the man's face as I leaned towards him. The words lingered in the air longer than they should've, ghostly. My head tilted ever so slightly, as if studying the man before me. The horns atop my head cast a shadow across my face. "The forest doesn't take too kindly to those who wander too carelessly. I thought you might've been lost."

Oh, I knew that the man was lost. The faintest of smiles curved my lips, though it never reached my eyes.

"You can call me whatever you wish." There was no trick to my words, just the truth, or at least, a truth. "You should be more careful. I would hate to see something like you go to waste." A statement. One that I intended to be thanked for, and it would come at a cost—a debt to be owed. If only my prey would take the bait and say the words. Or perhaps he would be too smart for that.

But I would wait. I always did. The forest would keep the man, whether he willed it or not. And in time, so would I.