The creature finished emerging from among the trees with a heavy drag that deformed the terrain in its path. The artificial star's weak light barely managed to outline its silhouette, but the nearby campfire's fire revealed details difficult to assimilate in a single glance.
Its body didn't respond to a single structure. Several tissue layers overlapped as if they had been assembled without following a coherent pattern. Some zones resembled hardened skin, segmented into thick plates that shifted slightly over each other with each movement. Other parts were softer, with a wet texture reflecting light irregularly. Between those layers, dark lines opened that breathed, expanding and contracting as if the whole ensemble had its own pulse.
