The clearing is my refuge from everything. I do so love those pretty icicles hanging from the branches. Right now, the ground is frozen over and we've had a lot of snowfall, but I don't mind the chill. I always light a campfire there to sit at and relax.

There's a spot in my woods I frequent, a little clearing surrounded by tall trees and wild rose bushes. You'd have to drive off-roads for half an hour to get here, so we normally don't have to deal with any unexpected visitors. I wish we could just fence the perimeter and be done with it, but due to reasons too complicated to explain right now, that's not an option. Most of the time, when everyone's careful and meets the required precautions, everything goes over smoothly and the things in the forest are kept in check. It's a dangerous job and we've lost more than a few hires in regrettable ways. No forestry work can be done there and our staff is constantly patrolling the area, looking for irregularities. Now, you'd think owning an entire patch of woodland would mean we're rich, but it's actually really costly to take care of. Did you know that self-proclaimed cryptid hunters are a thing these days? Turns out there’s these online communities full of “sick badasses” who order combat gear on amazon and drive out to supposedly haunted locations to explore and film themselves.Īpparently, some shithead has shared the location of the plot of land that's been in my family for generations.

Cryptid hunters