The eyes did not blink.
They hovered in the dark, dozens of pale orbs watching from between the trees, swaying slightly as though attached to forms too large or too strange to step fully into the firelight.
Jonas' hand moved slowly to his sidearm. "Nobody panic," he whispered, though his own voice trembled. "If we move together, slow, we can back away."
Mara hissed, "And go where? We don't even know what they are."
The forest answered with silence—thick, smothering, alive. Then, a shape moved. A long, jointed limb slid forward, touching the ground like a hand feeling for warmth. Another followed, bending in unnatural angles. The fire's embers reflected off a body that shimmered faintly, as though its skin were cut from glass and filled with shifting smoke.
Liora's breath caught. "That's… not human."
The thing leaned forward. Its "face" was featureless except for the cluster of glowing eyes arranged in no pattern a mind could accept. It didn't speak—it vibrated, low and deep, the sound crawling into their bones.
Eris rose slowly to his feet. He didn't reach for a weapon. He only stood, staring at it. "It knows," he murmured. "It followed us. Not just the crystal. Them."
The creature tilted its head as if recognizing him.
Then, without warning, more shapes broke the tree line. Dozens. They moved with the silence of falling snow, their limbs long, their steps heavy enough to shudder the ground.
Jonas raised his gun. "Back to the ridge! Now!"
They stumbled through the dark, the forest closing in on all sides. Branches snapped, the ground trembled, the glowing eyes advanced.
Mara nearly tripped but Liora caught her, dragging her up. "Don't stop! Don't look back!"
The creatures did not chase with speed. They stalked, herding, forcing the crew into the valley. By the time they reached the base of the ridge, the firelight behind them was gone, swallowed by the dark.
The last thing Jonas saw before he scrambled up the slope was Eris standing still at the bottom, staring back into the forest as the things halted their advance. They hadn't touched him.
They had only watched.
And as Jonas dragged him up, Eris whispered again, with certainty this time:
"They were waiting for us."