If you attack you would probably draw its attention whereas if you walk slowly by at a safe distance, it probably won't notice you. You walk to the south and then around the beast. The animal hears your footsteps and looks up at you. You shut your eyes and stop dead in your tracks. You hear the animal coming closer to you. You can smell it. You hear its footsteps and it walks around you in a circle. Then you hear it smelling you. You feel its moist snout and you jerk your hand away involuntarily. As it walks around you again, it brushes against you, and you feel its fur which feels like wire. Your eyes are shut so tightly you feel a headache coming on. Evidently for the creature to turn you to stone, it simply seeing you is not sufficient. You and the creature must look into each other's eyes. You hear the animal walk away but you remain motionless for a full minute afterwards. Finally, when you no longer hear the creature, and you sense that it must be a good distance away, you tentatively take a peek of the outside world. Even after you open your eyes, they still ache. Your eyes water and adjust to the light. You feel a trace of a headache. You could look around to see where the creature is but you don't bother. You start running to the east. After several minutes, you slow to a walk. Panting, you finally glance behind you and see nothing unusual. You regain composure and keep walking.

You continue walking for several hours. The shadows shorten as you approach afternoon. You wonder if you're achieving anything useful. This could be a wild goose chase. You hear barking. You glance up and see two hounds frolicking in the high grass. You're ready to defend yourself but they don't seem dangerous. They're about 50 feet away. For feral hounds, they look of good breeding. Then you hear a few whistles and stop dead in your tracks. Those were the whistles of a master calling his hounds. There's somebody here? You finger the hilt of your sword. You're ready to defend yourself if necessary. You scan the landscape before you and catch sight of a figure sitting on a stump under a stand of trees, maybe 80 feet away. You could just turn back. You decide that as of now, there's no reason to perceive a threat. However, you should be ready to defend yourself at the slightest indication to the contrary. You decide to proceed with extreme caution, and begin very slowly to walk forward. As you walk closer, the hounds begin milling around you but appear to take no notice of you. As you get closer, you see that it's a man and that he's facing away from you. You think you see a quiver containing arrows slung over his back. It would appear that he represents a greater threat than the statues did. Maybe you should consider a pre-emptive strike? You could possible sneak up on him. By the the time he sees you, he wouldn't have time to cock an arrow before you strike him. Otherwise, he might kill you. You considered a pre-emptive strike with the statues and here there's much more obvious need. On the other hand, he hasn't threatened you. Do you attack the man? Yes or no?

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