((Disturbing content warning! Blood and predation.))
He didn't know why he kept moving closer to the sound rather than away from it. All sensible creatures had long since fled the area. Dusk was drifting heavily over the landscape, but none of the nocturnal creatures had yet showed their faces. He didn't even see any bats, the usual heralds of twilight and darkness. It was quiet, a terribly sort of unnatural silence broken only by the chewing, that horrible chewing, cracking, and twisting sound that could only mean one thing.
His paws stepped lightly over the leaves and fallen branches, through the knee-high ferns and over the delicate gray mushrooms. The sounds grew louder. His heart beat so fiercely that he thought surely whatever was out there could hear it, but the chewing didn't abate. Every eye on his body was wide wide open but could see nothing untoward, nothing except the strange emptiness that made him want to hide, yet kept propelling him forward. He didn't want to know what was ahead of him but had to know anyways. He had to know, even if he was next on the menu.
