Chapter 8 Hostile Territory

• Rendell's tower of muscle coiled tighter with each earth-shaking stride he took down the shadowed trail. The looming canopy of ancient cedars and oaks spreading their gnarled limbs overhead seemed to lean inward as if oppressed by the sheer gravitational force of his titanic presence emanating outward in roiling waves of dominance.
• Every sundered twig and flattened fern trampled beneath his boots' merciless advance broadcast the primal truth of his absolute sovereignty over this domain in stentorian bellows across the silent woodland ether. The very air appeared to compress and resonate in sympathy with the reverberations of his remorseless approach.
• After the territory had been so grievously violated by that unnatural, reeking stain of a human's presence...the equilibrium had to be restored. Swiftly. Irrevocably. With a subjugating impetus that would grind the affronting trespass into atomic dust beneath his merciless heel.