Draco locked eyes with the fearsome creature, and what he saw sent shivers down his spine.
The creature could only be described as some sort of ape or monkey, and it had beady red eyes that seemed to look directly into Draco's soul.
As Draco fell from the branch he was sitting on he tried to break eye contact with the creature, but he found that he was unable to.
The creature's eyes seemed like endless red lakes, and the more Draco looked into them the more he lost his sense of where he was.
He faintly remembered he was falling, but it felt like he was in a dream.
He wondered when he would wake up, he felt like in just a few moments he would wake up in his bed in Los Angeles, and all of his worries would be gone when he awoke.
Suddenly Draco crashed into a thick tree branch, and he felt the wind get knocked out of his lungs.
Coughing, Draco was snapped out of his reverie. He looked around and saw he was laying over a tree branch, in danger of sliding off of the edge.
He quickly scrambled to stabilize himself, careful not to snap this branch like the last one.
This one was clearly sturdier than the last one though, and he almost allowed himself to relax before realizing what it was that caused his fall in the first place.
Draco shot up to look off in the distance, but he could no longer see past the treeline at his current height.
He must've still been 200 feet (61 meters) in the air though, and his vision could see past most of the trees ahead of him.
Draco looked up to see if he could spot the ape-creature again, but his eyes failed him.
However, Draco did find something that caught his attention.
Below Draco, an interesting sight caught his eye on the forest floor. There seemed to be an individual with white clothes running through the forest with an alarming swiftness.
He was erratically ducking between the trees as he sprinted, but it was evident that the thick forest was impeding his movements.
After all, there was only a few feet of space between most of the trees. This was not to mention the thick foliage and shrubbery that covered the entire forest floor.
So although the white-clothed person was undoubtedly swift, they were constantly forced to stop moving to change directions.
'I wonder where they're going so fast.' Draco wondered, alarmed by their sudden appearance.
Suddenly, Draco heard something that sent chills down his spine and raised the hairs on his neck.
It was a loud roar that reverberated through the forest, and its sheer power shook the leaves on every single tree near them.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHh"
Hearing this roar, Draco knew that he had to make like a fly on the wall.
'It must be that scary f*cking Ape from earlier! There's no way I can run from that thing, I'm going to have to hide!' he realized, resigning himself to prayer.
Draco laid down flat on the tree branch he was on, making himself as small as humanly possible.
Without realizing it, he had even halted his breath.
'I'm hoping that ape-thing focuses on the person making the huge commotion.' Draco wished.
Fortunately, it seemed like Draco's prayers were answered, for the ape creature suddenly barreled into sight and landed on a tree far ahead of Draco's position.
The creature was making quite a ruckus, and slammed oversized fists against its meaty chest as it hooted and hollered.
Its head then snapped into the direction the white-clothed person had just run in, and it seemed to have known the man had just been through there.
Seeing the creature leap in the direction of its prey, Draco became sure.
'That thing has amazing senses, it can either see through the shrubbery or it instinctively knows to look for traces of movement.' Draco thought, simply glad to not be in the direction the creature was going.
Draco watched the ape-creature's powerful muscles bulge as it leaped away, then wiped the sweat from his brow.
He didn't dare to get up yet, though. If that thing wasn't far enough away, he doubted his movements could escape its notice.
Suddenly, a low shriek could be heard distantly in the Forest.
"AAaaaaah!" screamed a voice deeper within the Forest.
This scream was followed by another ear-piercing shriek from the ape-creature, shaking the leaves around Draco and the very branch he laid on.
'That dude is definitely dead now.' thought Draco, keeping his eyes locked in the direction the ape thing had gone.
A few long seconds later the Ape returned from the depths of the forest, and it was holding something.
Upon closer inspection the object he was holding was not a broken branch, but the mangled corpse of some human. Although, Draco couldn't tell if the corpse was of a man or a woman.
Their blood soaked every inch of their previously white clothes, and their arms and legs were bent in unnatural angles.
As the unfortunate individual's blood dripped down onto the forest floor below, the Ape seemed to begin celebrating its apparent victory.
The Ape hooted and screeched as it slammed the corpse against the tree it was standing on, sending waves of blood everywhere with each hit.
It held the arm of the disfigured corpse, and after a few hits the arm ripped out of its socket and the body was sent flying like a limp ragdoll.
Draco had never before seen a human fly like a video game ragdoll, but there was a first time for anything.
Although the corpse had flown easily a hundred feet in just a few breaths, the Ape jumped from the branch he was on and caught up to it!
The ape grabbed the body like a loose garbage bag, and then proceeded to carry it onto another tree.
Draco watched with horror as the ape casually tore off the body's other arm, before digging into its chest with sharp canine teeth.
The ape creature ripped and tore through flesh like it was wet dirt, and it continued to eat out the chest area until it reached the heart.
It made short work of the heart though, and in not even half a bite the heart was swallowed with the rest of the chest cavity.
The ape then tossed the body aside and it fell off the tree like a pair of bloody noodles.
The remains of the corpse falling to the ground cut a gruesome picture. At this point Draco had seen his fair share of traumatic horrors, but even this sight threatened to turn his stomach loose.
As Draco watched the now satiated ape let out a ferocious belch and jump off into the distance, he was just happy that the creature hadn't seen him.
Draco continued to lay in his position and wait, but he heard something that caused him to jump.
"Hey, there." a man's voice said in a thick Russian accent, directly behind Draco.
Draco flipped himself over in alarm, the action threatening to send him off the edge of the branch.
What Draco saw behind him put him on guard.
This was because on a tree branch adjacent to his position, stood a man in white clothes.
The man had short blonde hair, unshaven stubble, and his black eyes had a mischievous glint in them.
"Easy now, I mean you no harm. I've been watching you for a while now so if I had bad intentions I could have easily done something already." The man said, a sly smile on his lips.
Hearing this, Draco raised his guard even further. He stood up on his branch and watched the man warily.
Draco also recognized that sly smile, it was one of the smiles he would commonly use before doing something devious.
However, what the man said did have merit. After all, the man could have easily taken Draco out while he was distracted.
Now, the only question was why didn't he.
Seemingly reading Draco's thoughts, the man continued, "I know you saw that strange beast. It seems to be the guardian of this dimension, some sort of trap our sick tormentors threw in here to make our lives harder."
This made sense to Draco, but he still didn't know what the man wanted.
After waiting another moment, Draco finally spoke, "I can sense you mean me no harm, at least not right now. What I don't understand is why you're trying to talk to me instead of trying to kill me."
When the other man heard this a laugh escaped his mouth, "That's a great question! Truthfully, I wasn't so sure if I should or not. You seem quite strong."
The man's features then turned serious, "But in reality, neither of our strengths is enough to compete with that monster. It would turn us into chew toys."
Draco still didn't understand what the man was getting at, "Obviously, what's your point?" he said, not comprehending the man's intentions.
The man clicked his tongue in annoyance, "I was just about to get to that. Listen, what do you say we make a little truce of sorts?"
The man sighed before continuing, "I'll let you in on a little secret, the person you saw getting devoured just now wasn't the only other person in this dimension. There's probably half a dozen of us in here, and if things continue like this, that monkey is going to kill us all off one by one."
Draco let out a grim laugh at that, "You're definitely right about that, I'd bet money the thing is already off to find another victim."
The man nodded, "Indeed, so what do you say?"
Draco thought it over for a moment, but quickly made up his mind, "Alright, alright. We've got a truce. The name's Draco, by the way."
The Russian man gave Draco a roguish smile, "Demetri. Nice to meet you."