Several clusters of hands peeled away from the huddled, writhing mass, each uncurling to shakily point somewhere just to the right of where he stood, begging him to turn around and face the slow, shuffling sounds that had been following him since he first entered the woods.
He scarcely knew what to make of the creature before him, seemingly composed of hands and meat with small dark dots that indicated it had some form of rudimentary vision. The fact that it seemed to be afraid f what was following him was somehow worse than if either creature had attacked him outright.
After taking several deep breaths and trying to calm his jackrabbit heart, he nodded to the huddled mass whose trembling hands proceeded to give him a thumbs up as he turned slightly to the right and headed diagonally away. He pretended not to hear the huddled creature slap at the ground around it to get his attention.
Behind him the slow, shuffling sounds were closer than they'd been all afternoon and he prayed he was heading towards the campsite again. At best someone would see the creature behind him and either shoot them or scare them away. At worst he be dead before it could become anyone else's problem.
Taking slow deep breaths, he walked towards the smell of smoke and burning meat with all the confidence of a dead man.
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