It's got eight eyes and more teeth.

Jesus Christ can he zigzag to lose it or is it even following him how fast is it going what's the terrain like—

It's following him through scree and it's a miracle he hasn't gone rolling down the hill, yet. Down at the bottom of the hill is a river, turbid, rising.

shitfuckdamnhellgoddamnitfuck

Is there a fucking third alternative or does he have to choose between eight-eyed monster and turbid river in a storm?

Well, he can keep trying to run parallel to the river. On this loose ground. In the heavy rain in the dark.

Yes he'll do that it's better than being taken by a river in a storm to fuck knows where at least until he's pretty sure it's either that or being eaten his backpack is waterproof at least maybe he should throw it away but that'd slow him down even more come on is there anything or is he just gonna have to try not to die by river—

Well, the monster isn't gaining on him much, can he just... keep this up till it gets bored?

he's in good shape

The slope flattens out. The river sluices into a crevice in the ground, and Sadde can route around it to run into the jungle.

He'll do that thanks very much

(there might be other things there but at least they're not this specific thing what the fuck)

There are! There are other things there! Flying things the size of cars! A snake as big around as a sofa! Deerthings with six legs, four times Sadde's height! Brachiating creatures that could crush Sadde's skull like a grape!

are they trying to do anything to Sadde or are they harmless frolicking creatures

Well, the thunder and lightning and darkness and torrents of rain is not doing their apparent friendliness any favors. The deerthing seems curious about him but it has way fewer teeth than the big toothy critter so perhaps this is not particularly intimidating?

Yes he got it there are torrents of rain ha ha thank you weird place he dearly hopes he is dreaming but he thinks he's not even though that would make much more sense but anyway no he would like to not be the target of curious six-legged deerthings and hugesnakes and flying cars he'll keep running he needs to find somewhere safe.

The flying things are not, exactly, cars. They would just be slightly cramped in a parking space.

The jungle is short on shelter. Maybe he could go in this not-quite-cave formed by enormous tree roots?

Is it sheltery enough to actually protect him from the horrible things?

They or possibly their horrible clawed appendages would have to be considerably smaller than a car to get in here, looks like.

Okay so he will in fact get in there and look around and wait.

Small eight eyed fuzzy things, eyes aglow in the dark. Only about as big as Sadde. Staring at him. Not lunging in his direction though.

...where, exactly, are these things, and do they look threatening.

They were in the cave. They got here first. Rude, Sadde.

If they have teeth they are not displaying them. Or it's too dark to tell.

Oh-kay. And are there also scary things directly outside the, uh, cave, or can he try to run somewhere else that doesn't have eight-eyed things and do they look fast how many legs do they have

The lightning flashes don't reach in here very well, since it's all enclosed with giant tree roots. Hard to assess features about the things he's just barged in on besides the eight eyes per, blinking out of sync. Outside there is a deerthing, nosing around nearby; he can't see the huge monster from here though.

Okay. Okay, he will. Slowly get out, then. Keeping his eyes on the eight-eyed fuzzy things. Maybe he'll find an empty place somewhere else to stay.

The fuzzy things don't chase him.

The deerthing noses at him and knocks him right off his feet. It doesn't try to eat him, though.