Eric almost fell out of the tree as he watched his shelter explode from the force of a beast jumping through the roof. The beast disappeared quickly into the night, the only signs of its passing blood the covered the punji sticks dug into the floor of the shelter. Even by the light of the embers, it looked like blood was scattered over a wide area by the creature.

Growls and screeches filled the night as nighttime predators were stirred up. Soon, the sound of battle rang out as multiple nightmarish monsters lost their lives to even more scary nightmares.

Eric shivered on his tree branch. He had been soo temped to take a nap in his shelter, rather than freezing in a tree, but he knew that he would have been dead if he succumbed to the temptation. Thankfully the fear of what just occurred gave him the stamina to set a trap and find a safer place to rest. Eric knew that he couldn't sleep nor keep moving in the forest at night, so scaring off a predator and giving the rest more interesting prey was the best he could do. If he was lucky, he might find some meat or materials to scavenge in the morning.

After a while, the noise stopped, and the forest returned to its usual quiet. No traces of lightening bugs or crickets interrupted the blanket of silence that spread through the night.

Eric thought about his condition, and everything that needed to do to survive. It was daunting, he was exposed to dangers that far exceeded anything that he could have imagined. Eric knew that even a small fortress wouldn't be enough to keep him safe against the night here. “Nuke it from orbit… the only way to be sure..” Eric laughed sadly, wishing that he had some space marines to hide behind. He doubted that even an auto-turret could keep him safe against the horde of dangers present.

Eric rested fitfully the rest of the night and carefully crept down to the ground with the dawn of the sun. Searching his camp, he found his trap destroyed beyond repair. Punji sticks were shattered and broken, with only a few showing deep coatings of dark blood. Searching further afield, he saw grasses and land torn to shreds where animals battled it out. Blood and scattered bones were the only remains. Eric found himself the proud owner of several fangs and claws that exceeded the size of his hand. Razor sharp, there was one that was sizable enough to make an axe head, something that would help Eric immensely in the days to come.