Strange event occured while camping.

[Otterclaw]

Hello, everyone! Did you all miss me?

Having mysteriously disappeared since the end of summer, I have come back with a new tale for you all, this time the story comes directly from me. Sadly, I am a terrible writer when it comes to horror stories, so I cannot even begin to describe the scene or the fear that we all experienced when this happened. This is one of those things that you simply must go through yourself to even begin to understand. However, I hope to entertain you all with my story and to hopefully gain some insight and feedback on it. The whole night is awfully blurred in my head, and everything happened so fast I am not even sure about my saneness at the time of the event. Sadly, my writing will not nearly do the event justice. I would love to weave the whole event into an incredible tale for you all, but let's face it - it has been a long night, and I'm awfully tired.

I will admit, it was a bit cold for camping. Alright, perhaps very cold, considering last night the temperature dropped down to six degrees before I went to bed. (Fahrenheit)

Still, none of my friends and I are typical girls. If you thought we spent the whole night giggling while giving each other makeovers, you have definitely never met us before. (Not that you would want to.) So during a sleepover during late autumn, instead of watching movies and huddling close together when we heard a creak from the attic, we decided to head outside in our backyard. We really didn’t fancy staying out for the whole night (our parents wouldn’t let us, anyhow.) so we thought just setting up some blankets and watching the stars up on The Claw would be fun.

I’ll have to explain a few things, first. The Claw itself is not a mountain range, although when the three of us were very young, a row of coils and hills that fell through the forest in our backyard seemed very much to us four year olds like the biggest thing in the world. So we naturally called it a mountain range, although now I can see it is no more than a few tree-cloaked hills among our forest.

The Claw has been a hideout, a base camp, enemy territory, and hundreds of other things that our imaginations came up with on early Saturday mornings. After a week of playing in the hills, we decided it needed a name.

We thought of Lioncrest, Dragontail, Sunrise, The Spine (after reading Eragon) and many more until finally we thought of The Claw. While it does not exactly make sense, since the hills do not look like a claw, all of us like the sound of the name.

The place had always been a bit spooky even during daylight, but then again most of the thick woods does carry a foreboding chill during early winter, but it was even more terrifying at night.

We went outside about nine o’ clock, hiking up through the darkness and taking root among the trees. We made camp in a shallow dip in the ground, brittle grass whispering under us as we set up the blankets under the sheltering embrace of a large tree.

A canopy of forest gleamed above us, every branch stretching high over our heads and interlocking in a web of tangled limbs, the moon glaring coldly through the narrow gaps in-between and shedding soft light like blood across the tips, bathing them in a frost-like kiss.

It was freezing cold, and utter darkness bathed the land away from the heat of our fire, which had now turned into a blazing demon as it feverishly leaped at the sky. We huddled closer, laughing and talking quietly as the cloak of darkness enveloped us, except for the orange shadow of the fire, leaping wildly up into the air and hissing and crackling with barely suppressed rage.

“I wish we could live here,” I said craning my head up to the sky to stare at the moon’s crater-glazed surface, the stars winking serenely around it.

“Not me,” my first friend, Katie admitted, kneeling by the fire. “It’s far too cold.” A bitter wind picked up, nipping ferociously at the heels of a few stray leaves. They leaped through the air, wrapping their arms around themselves and drifting into the shadows, snagging themselves on brambles and trees.

“I would,” I said wistfully, stomping on a stray spark and shielding my eyes against the smoke as the wind proceeded to redirect the fire’s gray breath, turning it into my face and causing my eyes to water.

“I can totally see you all out here,” Katie’s brother, Christopher, said with a grin. “For about five minutes, then you get eaten by coyotes.”

The conversation drifted away, but I wasn’t quite paying attention. The fire and the darkness around it was to alluring, and I shamefully admit I was nodding off into sleep. I was so exhausted from the day before, that the fire had caused me to drift off into a trance.

My eyes traced the ground, our camp site glaring up in between two hills like an empty eye-socket, tree roots acting as thick veins racing deep into the ground around the edges. The fire flickered, ferociously lunging and snapping another piece of firewood greedily from Christopher’s hands as he let it sail into the fire.

“Uh-oh,” Katie giggled. “Someone’s beginning to fall asleeeep,” she chanted in a sing-song voice.

I wasn’t really asleep, but my mind began to race through all of the different possibilities that existed if I pretended to be. I closed my eyes, eyelids fluttering as leaned back, slowing my breathing until it became steady and rhythmic.

“Let’s do that prank you always see in the movies with the, like, shaving cream and the feather thing,” Cassandra said with a demonic edge to her voice and a slight giggle.

“What?” Katie said, clearly confused as she impaled a marshmallow on her stick and dangled in front of the fire.

“You know, when you smear shaving cream or like, whip cream or something cream-y stuff all over their hand and tickle their face and - while they’re asleep- they go to itch it and they end up splattering the stuff you put on their hand all over their face?”

“Yeah, like that makes a lot of sense,” Christopher replied sarcastically.

“Oh, yeah! Didn’t they use that in Fantastic Four or something? With the Thing?” Katie wondered.

“Yeah!” Cassandra said, nodding enthusiastically and bursting into a long bout of conversation on how Fantastic Four never gave the comic books any justice.

“We don’t have any shaving cream,” Katie said at the same time as Cassandra began her winded-up string of chatter.

“We could use melted marshmallow,” Christopher said, ignoring Cassandra for a minute. I could not hear what he was doing, but I heard a rustling and assumed he was going for the marshmallow bag.

The next thing I knew I could hear their strangled breathing, as tense and worried, they crept up to my supposedly slumbering side with fingers smeared with melted marshmallow. All of their hearts were pounding as they tried not to make a sound, wishing and praying that they would not wake me as they made a move for my hand.

At just the right moment, I sprang. “ROOOOOOAAAARRR!” I cried. I startled them so badly both girls screamed, scrambling back as if I had bit them. Tripping over themselves in their haste, they fell in a heap upon the ground, melted marshmallow flying everywhere.

“Don’t ever do that again!” Katie scolded, pushing Cassandra (who was laughing hysterically) off of her. Christopher began to snicker in the corner.

“ME? Don’t YOU ever do that!” I cried, scooping up another wad of a gelatinous marshmallow blob and spitting on it. I made a move to throw it at them like a snowball. Both failed to notice that I could not throw marshmallow without it sticking to my hand, and burst off into the woods, screaming and shielding their faces with their hands.

Not willing to let them go, I heard Christopher yell something as we went chasing off after them, laughing and screeching giddily into the night.

The rest of the night passed by in a blur, although I do remember being quite cold and tripping over tree roots and branches, the beams from our flashlights illuminating the tree trunks and making the knotted pillars hold an unearthly glow. We flew by the river, half frozen with ice as we forded the frigid waters (most of us involuntarily). We climbed the highest hills of the Claw, and while running by Katie accidentally slammed into the tree at the top, bark spraying us all as we laughed and hid behind the giant trunk.

Long into the night, we wearily headed back, laughing as we shined the flashlights in each other’s faces and reminded us of all the great moments of tripping and falling or scaring each other silly.

By the time we got back, the fire was a smoldering pile of ashes, a few lonely flames licking half-heartedly at the cold air. The wind swept it’s invisible belly across the ground, rustling the tips of the grass and causing us all to shiver. I leaned back against a log that Christopher had dragged over, stuffing another marshmallow into my face. I closed my eyes, once again drifting off into peaceful sleep.

I could hear the low murmurings of my friends, conversing quietly around the edge of the fire. A loud burst of a feisty crack of fire echoed through my ears as Christopher poked the flames with a stick, causing them to angrily jump up as if insulted.

After a moment I could pick out another, more quiet and hissing voice coming from off of the right, a low, gurgling string of dark, unintelligible grunts.

“Stop that,” I snapped, after a moment of silence, having listened to the mutterings as one of my friends grumbled like a hungry bear. “That’s getting annoying.”

“What?” Katie murmured, licking marshmallow from her fingers tips.

Christopher looked up, eyes narrowing.

Cassandra was half asleep.

Chris leaned over, staring at Cassandra’s motionless body as her eyes fluttered warily. He poked her lightly in the side. “Quit that, you’re not fooling anyone.”

“What?” she said irritably, lifting an eyelid and pushing his hand away with a venomous glare.

Katie hissed, abandoning her marshmallow and looking around. “Whoever is doing that needs to stop, because it is totally not funny!”

I grunted in agreement, looking around uneasily.

The muttering continued, and we all eyed each other like starved wolves.

Suddenly the bushes trembled, and almost as if on cue a shout came from the edge of our campsite, roaring up like fire and ending in an ear-splitting screech. Like a whip crackling the air it came, horrified and rising like the wailing of a ghost.

Katie and Cassandra screamed, leaping forward and heading off into the woods again, their faces a pure reflection of terror.

“GET BACK HERE!” I cried, grabbing Cassandra’s shirt and yanking her back before she could do something stupid. Katie faltered as Christopher made a move to grab her, too.

“Sounds like an owl,” I said, attempting to comfort them.

Bur now everyone wanted to go in, and I spent the next fifteen minutes telling them over and over again how it was an owl, and pointing out all the reasons why it DEFINITELY WAS an owl and how I had heard it before and I recognized it as an OWL. It helped a bit, but no one had relaxed. The muttering had stopped, although I had no explanation for that and offered none.

We packed up camp, and although I had been hoping to stay out longer, it was getting late and everyone was thoroughly spooked, even if they figured it was an owl it had startled our wits across the ground.

I remember hiking up one of the hills in the Claw, looking over at the tops of the pine trees rolling out like a scroll beneath us, the tops of them dyed in blackness like spears stained with blood. The sky was velvet black, hundreds of stars splattering across them like glowing raindrops. The Milky Way that swept around them looked like swirls of white cream, glowing and throbbing as my heart hammered in my chest.

“Oh,” I murmured softly, smiling in spite of myself. “We should stay a bit longer.”

I was met with a firm defense, and it was clear that I was outnumbered. I dipped my head and bit my lip, but said no more and followed down the hill, my feet sliding against the dirt as a shower of pine needles and dead leaves flew from my sneakers.

There is one thing I cannot duplicate in writing - sound or music. And this sound was like both. Like the start of a song it began, a low, grinding and yet somehow high-sounding moan, drawn out and rattling the bones in my ears. This time I even screamed, and I swore loudly as the ground shook a bit beneath us, the leaves quivering and ducking in fear as the moan continued, rising in tone the longer it stretched on.

Screaming, Cassandra dropped the flashlight and ran, Katie close on her heels and even Christopher jogging behind. Katie had the other flashlight and so I went after too, scared and not wanting to be left in the darkness, my veins flooding with adrenaline.

Pure panic enveloped me as I tripped, but it was small in comparison with the fear I felt of running from whatever was making the noise. My palms hit the ground, roots and rocks scraping them until I felt a stinging sensation and felt blood trickling down. I ignored it, scrambling to my feet and chasing after the distant beam of the flashlight as the others continued running.

“COME ON!” Christopher cried, doing a double-take and turning around to pull me up. I turned around for a second, looking back at the scene of the forest below the hill, only to see one of the tips of the pine trees shaking as if trembling in fear. I watched in awe as that one tip among hundreds glowed turquoise in the moonlight, and suddenly I realized the sound was coming from by the tree. The tree suddenly, before our very eyes, began to sink.

The top of the tree was like a ship, the rest of the trees wearing capes of pine-needles that rustled like emerald waves, tossing and churning like ripples of water from the disturbance of the moving tree. In one swift motion, it began to slowly duck below the rest of the trees, the tip becoming smaller and smaller until it had disappeared from sight.

Whether the tree, as it fell, was the one making the moaning of whatever pulled it down was the one, I did not know and did not care.

I would like to tell you how I ran to investigate, how brave I was as I surged forward with a camera to see what was going on.

I didn’t.

Instead Christopher and I ran in the opposite direction, screaming and shouting all the way down to the house, slamming the door and racing into the light of the kitchen before collapsing around the table, quite hysterical and terrified.

With the initial shock and fear gone, all that remained was the extreme excitement that we felt after having seen such a sight.

Katie, Cassandra and I called up a friend and went to her house, fearful of staying near the woods. The sleepover was fun enough, but what it made more exciting was rushing to tell everyone what we had seen, and recounting the tale to each other over and over again, even though we had all been there.

But even today, I still feel a quake of fear as I recall the tree disappearing below.

Can anyone explain what happened?

[Crai]

You're a good writer.

I can see it all in my mind with how you lay it out. Impressive.

[NaturalMethod]

Yeah great writer keep that in mind

[Undeadskeptic]

You are a very good writer Otterclaw, but I think you've read Twilight one too many times

[Orcseeker]

I thought this looked like it was from a book. However, what you are asking is what this was, I honestly have no idea but to say that it is a mystery as to what was making the sound, would you say it was from a living creature?

[Otterclaw]

Twilight? I never even got past the first five chapters. Truthfully, the whole thing bored me out of my mind.

As for it being a living creature, I have no clue. What kind of living creature would want to chop down a tree? I suppose it could have been a person who randomly...uh..wandered into the night and wanted some lumber? But I really don't know.

I went back the next day and tried to locate the tree, but I soon realized it was a stupid hope. There was simply no way I could find one tree in an entire woods. Not to mention the fact that I didn't even really remember where it was and I wasn't really sure what I was looking for.

One of my friends seems to be convinced that we were camping somewhere where we shouldn't have been - like we were in something else's territory.

That's not much of a logical explanation, but I'm still not sure. I'm going to search around the internet and see if I can find something that duplicates the sounds we heard.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Otterclaw

[makaya325]

Twilight? I never even got past the first five chapters. Truthfully, the whole thing bored me out of my mind.

As for it being a living creature, I have no clue. What kind of living creature would want to chop down a tree? I suppose it could have been a person who randomly...uh..wandered into the night and wanted some lumber? But I really don't know.

I went back the next day and tried to locate the tree, but I soon realized it was a stupid hope. There was simply no way I could find one tree in an entire woods. Not to mention the fact that I didn't even really remember where it was and I wasn't really sure what I was looking for.

One of my friends seems to be convinced that we were camping somewhere where we shouldn't have been - like we were in something else's territory.

That's not much of a logical explanation, but I'm still not sure. I'm going to search around the internet and see if I can find something that duplicates the sounds we heard.

could have been a hermit in pain taking a poop? theres some weird looking things out there. people vary in sound making, and very possibly, it could have been some one making sounds to not feel scared

[Otterclaw]

could have been a hermit in pain taking a poop? theres some weird looking things out there. people vary in sound making, and very possibly, it could have been some one making sounds to not feel scared

WTH? Uhm...I suppose so?

But lately I am more inclined to believe it could be someone playing a trick on us. (Someone who would know me well.)

I think we are going to head back out there one night when it gets a bit warmer and bring a video camera or a recorder to see if we can hear or see anything.

[makaya325]

WTH? Uhm...I suppose so?

But lately I am more inclined to believe it could be someone playing a trick on us. (Someone who would know me well.)

I think we are going to head back out there one night when it gets a bit warmer and bring a video camera or a recorder to see if we can hear or see anything.

if he scares u badly, next time, just bring an air rifle and shot up in the air to scare him off

[bigdaddyinge]

um... where did this happen? what part of the country? it's kinda a stretch, what i'm thinking that is, but native americans in the northeastern part of the u.s. have many legends and folklore of what they know as manitous, or forest spirits or beings that are supposed to be as tall as the forest trees themselves in some cases. even stephen king, being a native of the forests of maine, has mentioned these beings briefly in some of his works. now i'm not saying that this is what you encountered, or even that these things are something that i even believe in, but i have seen way too many strange things to totally dismiss the possibility of something nobody really understands.

[louis_last]

did i mis-read this story or could it basically be summed up as 'me and some of my hysterical teenage friends went out into a woods and absolutely nothing happened. then a tree fell down. the end'

how many trees have you heard falling down? they make some very strange noises sometimes.

[The Grinning Man]

as interesting as this was, you didnt need to write so much backstory to the actual strange event, it was like a book

[Undeadskeptic]

Twilight? I never even got past the first five chapters. Truthfully, the whole thing bored me out of my mind.

You're telling me, I had to see the goddam movie. That smug b!*ch of a lead character over acted the whole way through and that stupid idiot playing alongside her knew he was hot so much he forgot to act! It was awful!

[evancj]

Hello Miss Claw,

You and undead have a great talent for writing and story telling. I look forward to reading your books in the future. But then agin how would I know they were your books unless you used otterclaw as the authors name.

Any way can you give us a hint about the geographic location and how big the tree was?

Just wondering because I have seen bear and moose plow down some fairly decent sized trees.

[Podo]

This is a stretch, but perhaps a beaver?

Beavers have been observed to make some pretty messed up noises (they're gaint rodents, after all), and if you had not noticed it due to darkness, it could have gnawed through a treetrunk without your knowledge until the tree broke.

[omed78]

seriously great writing. keep that up.

[American Chupacabra]

But even today, I still feel a quake of fear as I recall the tree disappearing below.

Can anyone explain what happened?

Have you ever heard the sound Bigfoot supposedly makes? Honestly I don't believe much in Bigfoot or any of his 'relatives', however if what your saying is true it's the only story I've ever heard to even nearly explain it.

[Lewys]

Have you went back since is the tree still gone.

I'm not sure if this is what happened it would all depend on what the area looks like now.

However this is something that happened a few years ago in our area.

there was a sift in the earth happens all the time but this one for some reason hit are area wrong and the whole mountain shifted. if ruined a lot of the farmers irrigation equipment as it closed up the old Canals and formed knew ones so the sand ruined the equipment. but what I'm getting at is in one part there was a sink hole it had been there for ever we used to go up to it and watch the water would sink down into it they never found the bottom when diving in it. Any how when this all happened the whole area around it sunk it used to be just a hole in the ground that the river would run into but now the whole river runs over through the trees and everything because they all sunk about 30 feet. So now what used to be a hole about 50 feet around and 30 feet deep with a creek running down into it is now all flat ground and the water runs over everything. to see it and now what it used to be and what is looks like now is actually quite scary. But this might be what happened there could have been just a small sink hole that pulled the tree down into it. the sound would have been made from the water and the ground moving.

Now I'm not saying this is what it is but it could be one explanation. it would all depend on if the tree is still there or not.

other than that I have no idea what it could have been. some crazy stuff happens though.

one person on here suggested big foot.

that is easy to know if he was involved. What did it smell like if you were near big foot I'm not sure why but He smells really bad. the smell will turn your stomach. and also the noise what was it like?

A Sasquatch has a very eerie high pitched scream. in between a Women and a Cougar. it will make your hair stand on ends. the male is a little deeper than the female but it is a sound that is unmistakable when you hear it. However I don't know why they would have been pulling a tree down. but then again I don't know everything there is to know about them either. I'm Still learning

Edited January 7, 2009 by Lewys