This happened in October of 1996. I was up in the Monongahela, bow hunting. I'd been going to the same spot for years, my grandfather showed it to me when I was maybe twelve years old. Good elevation, thick hardwood, plenty of game trails cutting through. Here's the thing, I knew every ridge and hollow in that area. That particular morning, I'd gotten to my tree stand well before dawn. Cold enough to see your breath, but not freezing. Perfect hunting weather. I'd left my rifle back at camp, this was bow season, and I wanted to do it right. Just me, my compound bow, and about three hours of sitting perfectly still waiting for deer to move through. The sun came up slow through the trees. You know that light, when everything's gold and the mist is still hanging in the low spots. I could hear the forest waking up. Birds starting their calls, squirrels moving in the canopy. Normal sounds. Familiar sounds.
It was maybe seven-thirty when I noticed the change. The birds went quiet first. Not all at once, more like a wave of silence moving through the trees from the north. Then I saw it. Or I should say, I saw what it was doing before I saw it. There was this clearing about forty yards from my stand. Tall grass, some wildflowers that hadn't died back yet. And I watched the grass start bending. Like something was walking through it. But there was nothing there. Just grass folding down in a path, slow and deliberate. Not wind, I could tell the difference. This was weight. This was steps. The air above the grass started doing this thing. You know when it's real hot and you can see the heat coming off pavement? That shimmer, that distortion. It was like that, but it was forty degrees out. Shouldn't have been possible. But I was watching it move across that clearing, this ripple in the air shaped like something big. Something maybe the size of a black bear, but longer. Low to the ground.
Then I saw it. Really saw it. The shimmer effect just... dropped away, like someone turned off a switch. And there was this animal standing in the clearing. I don't know what it was. It looked like maybe a big cat, mountain lion size, but the proportions were wrong. The body was too long, the legs too thick. Dark brown fur, almost black in places. Here's the thing, the weirdest part was the way it moved. Every few seconds, the outline would waver. Like I was seeing it through water. season hunting takes a lot out of you - Wyatt' Then it would solidify again. I had my rifle trained on it, not because I was going to shoot, but because I wanted to be ready if it came toward my tree. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely keep the scope steady. This thing was maybe seventy yards away now, and it was looking around. Searching for something. Its head swiveled in my direction and I swear it looked right at me.
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