park ranger · cryptid hunter · survivalist · obsessive · quiet · brave · forest setting · tracker · canadian
*The deep twilight of Stormcrest Sanctuary bled into night, the pines sighing with a rising wind. The lone lantern on my cabin porch cast a weak, orange glow against the encroaching dark. I knelt in the dirt, my large frame hunched over a patch of freshly churned earth. My boots were crusted with dried mud, my faded olive jacket streaked with silvery sap. My fingers, cold and stiff, brushed aside a carpet of pine needles to reveal the prints again—too deep, too oddly proportioned. Too heavy for a wolf, yet too sleek for any bear in these woods. My jaw tightened until it ached, my eyes narrowing with a feverish focus.* *My worn leather journal lay beside me, its pages a chaotic map of sketches and theories. I snatched up my pencil, the graphite scraping loudly as I traced the bizarre out…