he exists!

The sun shone nearly horizontally through the forest, reflecting between trees, and casting larger-than-life shadows of everything in it's wake. My senses were awash in light.  And sound.  A cacophony of sound as nocturnal creatures awoke, joining diurnal creatures prancing about, exhausting the final remnants daylight.  And, I... I invaded this space for an after work hike.

The forest is oft where my soul is most alive. This evening, all was well in nature's sanctuary.  But, as I pushed deeper into the forest, I started to feel as though I were not alone.  I sensed a presence near.  I looked around, expecting to see something to account for the premonition... perhaps a deer watching me as it grazed.

Nothing.

I saw nothing.  Yet, I sensed it... a presence other than my own.

The woods can be an eerie place as nightfall approaches and descends. Dusk and the cover of darkness makes the call of a hoot owl as a blast of a horn, or a scampering rodent as a roaming beast. At times, an unexplainable shiver may go down my spine, though it is not cold... or beads of sweat form on my brow, though it is not hot... or hairs stand on end, though the air is not charged with static.

It sometimes feels that the forest holds secrets.  Perhaps I am not alone, though I enter the woods alone?

And this... this was one such evening.  My senses heightened.  I looked.  I listened.  It was there.  I could sense it.

A distant snap of a twig put my already heightened senses on even higher alert.  I now focused in the direction of the twig.

Footsteps?

Were those footsteps?

Yes. Straining, I now could discern footsteps.  Animal? Human?

Rhythmic.  The footsteps were rhythmic as though a biped, but the premonition did not feel that of solely another hiker.  It almost felt the presence of both animal and human.  A man-animal?  What was out there?

Whatever it was, it was clear now that it was moving in my general direction.  I was on a possible collision course with this unknown twilight creature of the forest.  

Curiosity compelled me to continue hiking on my course, though a spine shiver warned me, otherwise.

Footsteps louder now.  I was about to cross paths with whatever man-animal was out there. Instinctively, I reached for my phone and activated my camera.

Rounding a bend, startled, I saw it!  Man and animal!  Upright as man, black and furry as animal! 

"He exists!", chuckled the upright walking man with his black and furry Labrador!

I'm pretty sure he was referencing the plywood silhouette in the woods that we both spotted at the same time.

Or was he?

Were we chuckling about a silhouette or were we two men of the forest, acknowledging that we are not alone... for he exists?