The grunt awoke suddenly. He realized he had been sleeping on his patrol. The sanghelli would kill him if they knew about this.
Clearing his eyes, he stood up and looked for his needler. It was resting on the wall beside him. As he went to pick it up, he felt
a
strange sensation, like he was being watched. He uneasily scanned the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly a
shadow flickered by. Rantik cautiously backed away and stood with his finger on the emergency alarm. Pushing this would wake
the entire camp. The short grunt decided not to push the button. If it was found that he had tripped the alarm for nothing, he
would be forced to do sentry duty for the Kig-yar. Rantik shuddered. The last grunt to do so had never been seen again. Once
again, he
felt the same feeling. "Who's there?" he called cautiously. Whatever it was, it didn't want to be seen. Suddenly, he heard a
ruckus in the section next to him. That was Tilik's area. He ran around the corner, and found Tilik up against a wall. "What was
that noise, Tilik?" the relieved grunt asked. He got no reply. He went closer and nudged Tilik. The grunt fell over, and Rantik
saw the smear of blue blood on the wall, and the huge cut in the grunt's back. He turned in horror and ran. Then he saw another
movement in the forest. The fear overcame him, and he let out a nervous squeak. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something
. A short, tiny blink of light. Then something emerged from the shadows. It was huge. It glistened a deep green. "Demon!"
Rantik squeaked, and ran to the alarm as fast as possible. Then he heard a thump and fell over backwards. The demon had
crushed his skull with a single punch. As his life quickly ebbed away, he realized he should have raised the alarm all along…