He sat up in bed, halfway between the world and his dreams, to see a dim sliver of moonlight stretching across the hardwood floor. The gears of his mind struggled with it, but the realization came at last.

His door was open. Primal instinct pumped adrenaline into his system. His subconscious mind wanted security and he didn’t have it. His conscious mind wanted a weapon to defend himself against the unknown. Against that smell.

The stink of damp and dirty fur lingered in the air. Something of the woods, something bestial and foreign to man had been in the room. It had been breathing on him, smelling him, touching and evaluating him while he slept. The hairs stood up on his body as his eyes searched the darkness.

As he swung his feet down off the bed, some thing moved. Claws clicked on the wooden floor as his heart pounded. A silhouette moved towards the moonlit door. Ragged fur, short, hunched over with strange slow movements, and utterly unafraid of the man on the bed.

It closed the door behind it.