I didn't awaken, exactly; or if I did, it was too sudden to notice. I was lying on the side of a dirt path, lit by the moon directly overhead. Tall, dense trees lined each side of the path, surrounding it in deep shadows. A slow crackling noise was the only thing I could hear.
For a few seconds, I simply took in the sounds while I stared at the sky, not thinking much of it. After a moment, though, some part of me realized that I should be concerned; and having realized that, adrenaline flooded through me as I leapt to my feet, eyes darting around to catch as much as I could.
The path was empty aside from me. No boogeyman presented itself, and realizing this the adrenaline slowly drained from me, leaving only the traces of panic behind. Absent an immediate threat, I was left with the obvious: I was somewhere deeply unfamiliar. I had gone to sleep in my room, so far as I could recall. Could I have sleepwalked? It seemed unlikely, as I didn't recognize the types of tree surrounding the path. I wasn't much of a tree enthusiast-arborist?-but even so, if they were within walking distance of my house I probably would have noticed them.
Well, no matter how I'd gotten here, the important thing was to get back out again. Both directions of the path looked more or less the same, so I picked one at random and headed along it. The path was a winding one, not allowing you to see very far before the next turn, so I stuck to the middle of the path, as far from the looming shadows as I could manage.
It was around one such corner that I discovered a source of the crackling sound, which had persisted all the while. A brown crablike creature, with mushrooms sprouting from its back, wandered about the path, snapping twigs and branches in its mouth. The thing was fairly large, as far as crabs went; a foot long, maybe. This left me feeling both more and less relieved. If it was just weird crabs, then the noises were nothing to worry about; but all the same, I had absolutely never seen anything like it, which meant I could be very far from home. Regaining my former pace, I decided to simply walk past it.
I really should have known better. As I approached, it whirled to face me, spraying some kind of powder directly into my face. I coughed, or attempted to, but my body froze up and I fell, slamming facefirst into the ground. As I tried and failed to move, I could hear the crab approach me. Once it reached me, it paused for a second; and then I felt a spike of agony through my arm. The pain broke whatever effect the powder had held over me, and I stood, whirling to face the creature. Apparently, that was enough to scare it. Dripping blood from it's claw, it quickly scurried into the treeline.
After taking a moment to wrap my shirt around the sliced arm (thankfully, not a deep cut), I picked up a large stick off the trail. The next crab was getting driven off, no matter how innocent it looked.
Then my body locked up again, sending me plummeting to the ground. It seemed the powder lingered, even if it didn't totally paralyze you.