After dusk, a metallic smell and strange sounds draw Kacper, Ola, and Daniel deeper into the forest, where something with scarlet eyes may be stalking the shadows.
Mist clung to the forest floor after dusk, turning roots into knots and tree trunks into ghostly shapes. Kacper, a chestnut-furred fox, moved between the shadows with the easy silence of a hunter who expected an ordinary night. Instead, the air carried a sharp, metallic smell that did not belong among moss and pine needles.
A long, low screech drifted through the trees.
Kacper stopped beneath the old spruce and lifted his head. Ola was already there, perched on a low branch, her amber eyes bright with unease.
"You heard it too," she said quietly.
"Hard to miss," Kacper replied, scanning the darkness. "Whatever made that sound wasn't any bird I know."
Ola ruffled her feathers. "I found tracks by the stream. Not deer. Not boar. Something heavier. The ground was torn up like claws had dragged across it."
Before Kacper could answer, a thudding rush sounded behind them. Daniel, the old badger, burst out of the mist looking as though he had run half the forest. His fur was tangled, his breathing uneven.
"Don't go any farther," he said, staring past them into the trees. "I saw it. Something with red eyes. Not glowing like fireflies. Watching. Waiting."
The three of them went still.
Then a branch snapped somewhere ahead, close enough to make the fur rise along Kacper's spine. Another sound followed, slow and deliberate, circling them through the mist. Ola leaned forward, peering into the dark. Daniel backed toward the spruce trunk.
And there, between two black tree trunks, a pair of scarlet eyes opened in the forest night.