Chapter 5: Predator’s scent
The earth had grown silent. Not the peaceful silence of sunlit stillness, but the kind that comes before something dies.
I felt it in my roots first. A faint quiver, like breathless tension pulled taut beneath the soil.
The rodent's blood still clung to my thorns, sticky and hot, the scent mingling with the sour decay of the forest floor. That scent, I realized, was a signal. Not just to scavengers, but to something higher on the food chain. A predator.
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[Unknown Entity Detected!]
[Proximity: Medium]
[Scanning...]
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The system's text flickered in my vision, sharper than usual, tinged with red at the edges.
I froze; or, well, stayed rooted.
My thorns retracted slightly, tension pulsing through my being as my root sensors extended further to feel through the dirt.