Walt is secretly stalked by a cryptid (Alt Start w/o Trevor)

Walt quickly looks over his shoulder, believing he heard something move behind him. He doesn't end up seeing anything, so he just shrugs and goes back to the mid-sized pine fir he was chopping away at. He has been wound up like a spring since last morning, but is trying his best to get past it and not let paranoia ruin his day. Eventually, he cuts deep enough with his axe and fells the tree.

Now ready to strip off the branches and cut some pine logs he can carry back to his cabin, Walt begins to strip himself. He justifies it in his head as “not having to pick pine needles out of his clothes after,” but the truth of the matter is that he likes to woodwork nude. He knows it’s not the safest thing, but his naturalist tendencies make it hard not to strip whenever he’s alone. He tries to do as much of the work as he can naked, but he’s been a bit hesitant since yesterday, when he started to feel like he was being watched by… something…

Having pushed those worries deep into the back of his mind, Walt-out of his overalls and flannel and just wearing boots and socks-finishes stripping the felled pine, and gets ready to turn it into logs. But before he can bring the axe down, he hears something: the loud snap of a tree branch. He spins around to see what’s behind him, but finds nothing… but there’s lots of evidence that something was behind him.

Scattered leaves, footsteps present in the grass… leading up to the broken stick, only a few feet from him… Oh no…

Walter slowly turns all the way around to see if there was anything nearby. He sess no sign of anyone else, but that only spikes his panic. He grips tight onto the axe and runs back in the direction of his cabin… forgetting his clothes in his rush.

He ducks and weaves through the trees, not looking back to see if anything is following him. He’s only staring straight forward and can barely hear over his heavy, fear-filled breathing. Eventually, he crests a hill and can see his home just a mile away. He runs past the second-to-last oak in the tree line and-

He falls back from impacting something. He lands flat on his ass, only being cushioned by a leaf pile. He looks up at what… stepped out in front of… him…