The mountainside around her was mostly dark. As best she could tell, she was on one of the grassier, more level slopes of the peak, just at the hour when a first, faint light was showing in the east.
But something was out there with her—something was looking for her. She wanted desperately to run away, but she was frozen in place, in the manner of dreams.
She only heard the thing as faint scufflings and caught a strange smell on the wind once, but somehow, she knew that it was shaped like a man, but would be far taller if it stood upright.
It was an impossibly lean, sinewy thing crawling around the slopes in spider fashion, its skin shining black as obsidian or dark amethyst. Two orange eyes flared in the darkness, and she knew it was coming for her.
It growled, or maybe something else
