In the early fall in a remote, unspecified Alaskan village, an early-20s woman named Shiloh and her young female cousin take a four-wheeler out into the wide-open tundra to scout local berry patches. While traveling along a horseshoe-shaped trail roughly a mile from the nearest tree line, they spot a hulking, nine-foot-tall figure standing about 50 yards away. The creature begins gently gesturing toward them, casting an immediate psychological trance over Shiloh. Filled with an artificial sense of peace and the distinct impression that her grandfather is calling her over, she begins steering the vehicle off-trail toward the entity. However, hitting a severe bump in the rough tundra causes her to smash her knee hard, snapping her out of the mental fog. Looking directly at the creature, she observes a wrinkly, milky-gray complexion and solid, pitch-black eyes. Overcome with terror, she flees back to the village and returns with an older male cousin armed with a shotgun. They locate deep, heavy single-file imprints in the broken tundra, noting the creature's single stride equals four of Shiloh's cross-country running steps. Spotting the entity swaying aggressively across a nearby pond, they attempt to leave, but the creature rapidly stalks them. When it closes to within 100 yards of their four-wheeler, the male cousin fires a warning shot into the air, causing the creature to tumble twice and sprint away on all fours into the black spruce tree line. A search party of eight village men later tracks the footprints to confirm it left the area.
A few weeks later, a village smokehouse is cleanly pushed over and cleared of its smoked salmon; a father tracking the theft encounters the creature at close range holding 20-inch strips of salmon like small blades of grass in its massive hand.
