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I've spent a huge chunk of this book on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and although the last chapter was my final segment about it – for this next and final story, we're not going that far from it. It was 2013 when a young boy got lost – deep inside the forests of Maramuresi, which is a region of Romania.
That young boys name is Gabriel Gabi – who was only twelve years old at the time. He wasn't old enough to call himself a grown man just yet, but the random nature of life didn't care one bit. A set of unfortunate decisions led him to an awful position, but let's not get ahead of ourselves...
Let's start at the beginning.
Gabriel – along with his whole class from school, was going on a road trip that day. It was to be a simple visit to a local farm, kids were to observe people decades older than them, feed pigs for a few hours, then head home.
If this road trip sounds boring to you, that's exactly how Gabriel and some of his classmates felt about it. A decent number of them, around ten, took the first chance they could to sneak away into the nearby forest to smoke cigarettes.
Romania is not a country famous for Bigfoots, but it very much is when it comes to smoking at early ages. When the young teens felt they were far enough away from the farm, they took out their smokes and started the show.
Gabriel recalled how dumb most of them looked, himself included, and how some didn't even know how to smoke properly, but at the time, he felt really cool holding a lit cigarette and puffing it.
After some time of smoking and chit chatting about inane topics, the kids decided it was time to head back to the farm. Gabriel agreed as he wasn't a big fan of the woods, but he wanted to drink some water from the nearby river first.
The taste the cigarettes left in his mouth was unpleasant, he couldn't stomach it. The kids promised they would wait for him before heading back, and so he parted with them.
It didn't take him long to find the river, which he described as beautiful, at that time he didn't even know if the river water was drinkable, but he didn't care. He scooped up as much water from it as he could, and drank. It was cold to touch, even colder to drink, but no matter how much the water refreshed him, it wasn't washing away that disgusting taste.
After standing up, he spotted berries at the other side of the river. They weren't just on the other side though, but a bit far away, but not enough for him to not head over there to pick some up.
Maybe eating them would clean the taste of cigarettes from his mouth and it could also be a nice treat to bring back to his classmates. When he reached them and ate a few, he noticed something peculiar...
Gabriel was by no means a hunter or a tracker, but even someone as inexperienced and uninterested in the wild as him, could tell the tracks that were near the berries weren't exactly “right”.
He inspected them closely, first by looking, and then by putting his feet next to them, comparing the two. The ones imprinted in the soil were much bigger than his. Now, you might be thinking – of course his were smaller, that's logical.
He was just a kid, a grown man's feet would make a much bigger track. That might be true, but the track, next to being huge, also didn't appear human. There was no shoe pattern, the imprints were mostly flat with a few bumps here and there, but what the strangest thing was, was their shape.
It was almost circular, but Gabriel said he could still tell which direction they were going. Could it be human tracks? Maybe the prints were deformed by rain, it's possible. So was that it? That some farmer used this spot to pick berries?
No, how could it be? No fence was there to keep animals away and when he looked closely at the berries, they didn't seem picked, but torn. But the tracks direction, that was what poked Gabriel's interest the most. The nearby farm he was on had several more surrounding it – making all of them relatively close to the berries.
And yet none of the tracks led from their direction, but to the entirely other way. Gabriel's young mind couldn't resist this discovery and the potential adventure it led to, so he went after the tracks, which led him deep into the Maramuresi forest.
The more he followed them, more showed up. The tracks started spreading out in all directions, and soon enough, they surrounded him from all sides – those strange, circular like tracks.
They all led into different parts of the forest, leaving him stumped. Which one to follow? And most importantly, which set was the one he started following in the first place? There was no way of telling. He then noticed something...
Noise – there was none. It sounded too quiet to him. At first – he couldn't remember exactly why, and then it hit him. The river – its sound, it wasn't in the air anymore. He ventured too far and too willingly into the forest.
Tracing back his steps was impossible – he didn't leave any marks on the ground, unlike the mysterious creature. It then hit him that the animal must be incredibly heavy to leave such imprints.
Worried and scared, he picked one set of tracks and followed them without stopping. Getting stuck in a forest at night wasn't going to be a pleasant experience, especially for a kid that didn't know what he was doing.
He had no idea for how many hours he followed the strange tracks – but it was long enough for his legs to start giving out. His will to get out of there wasn't enough to keep him standing and after taking a few more painful steps, he fell to the ground.
Exhausted and scared he used the last ounces of his strength to yell – and yelled he did – as loud as he could. It tore his voice after he finished screaming for help. Walking or talking wouldn't be possible for a while, so he crawled up against a tree and rested his back on it.
Gabriel was paying dearly for his curiosity. As the night neared, he thought about the wild animals that might be living in those parts. If any did, he wasn't aware. Before he closed his eyes he hoped that squirrels and rabbits would be the only animals he would face, and for the forest to be as empty of wild beasts as his knowledge of them was.
The night was there – and it was cold and long. It wasn't the most pleasant time of year, but at least it wasn't snowing. Rain – he was getting ready for that. The cold air was flowing through the trees, hitting his face – waking him up, not letting him rest for a minute.
Sleep wasn't something mother nature would let him enjoy. Feeling cold was the only clear thing during that night – his vision was impaired by darkness and his sense of smell by a terrible odor.
Taking a big whiff of it made him sick right away – he wanted to vomit, even though his stomach was rumbling. But what was that disgusting stench? He never felt anything like that in his life – something that can be so sharp and insulting to ones senses.
It made him cough – that's how bad it was. Rumbling somewhere behind him – that's what he heard next. Could it just be the wind playing tricks on him? Or maybe his own mind? Was his mental state as damaged and bruised as his body?
Whichever was the truth, it didn't matter. The strange noise wasn't going away – actually, the exact opposite was the case. It was coming closer every few minutes or so, like someone was taking their time sneaking up to him.
What the creature wanted, he didn't know – but one thing was as clear as day – that it wasn't human, which meant it could only have one reason for such actions. Gabriel was its midnight snack.
He almost gave up on ever making it out of there alive – when he remembered something. His lighter. It was on his person, he was sure of it. Panicked – he searched for it.
His back pockets – his side pockets – his shirt – in one of them, he had found his salvation. Holding it firmly and high up into the cold Romanian sky, he lit it. It's flame illuminated almost nothing – but the creature behind him finally made a noise that wasn't the sound of someone silently moving through leaves. It was a shriek – one that was quick and loud.
Gabriel was breathing heavily, the beast was scared off and he was safe, but only for this night. Soon, the gas in the lighter would run out, just like his body would run out of its own fuel. It would kill him the next night – he was sure of it, if not the beast, then his body might.
Through the rest of the night, he held the lighter in the same position, high above his head and lit. Its flame hurt his thumb, burning it, the pain it caused, agonizing. But he knew it was that pain or no pain at all, ever again.
He was going to hold that lighter like that until the sun showed him every single piece of dirt in the forest clearly. It was a long night. The morning sun graced the forest with its shine, but even though Gabriel could finally see everything clearly, he was still alone and lost. It was a fresh morning, the air was as sharp as it was during the night.
Gabriel stood up and kept on heading in the direction he hoped would lead him to civilisation. With each step he took – the voice in his head telling him he was being stalked, kept on getting louder.
Panic slowly consumed him – soon he couldn't tell if the shaking of the leaves and cracking of fallen tree branches was the doing of his imagination or the small creatures of the forest – and there was no way he was going to stop and check, no way he was stopping for anything other than picking up berries to eat or water to drink.
Water – that was something he missed. His throat was as dry as a bone, even the scent of those awful cigarettes would have been better. Luckily for him, rain fell soon – it started with just a few drops and then, in a matter of seconds, it turned into a full on shower.
This was as good as it was bad for him. On one hand, the better one – the rain clenched his thirst for a while – but on the other, it wiped the forest clean of the tracks he was following.
While he cleaned his face in the rain, he decided that was a good thing. Maybe following those tracks further would have led him into more trouble. It's not like they did anything else for him so far.
After his recharging was done – he continued his venture forward – but then stopped when he realised how directionless he was without something to follow. More than one day passed, he thought they must be sending out search parties by now...
But that would do him no good if he was moving away from them. A dangerous plan popped in his head – one that would certainly resolve that issue. If he were to climb one of the trees, all the way up to the top, he could maybe spot a landmark to head for.
What made it dangerous was, once again, Gabriel's inexperience. He was as much of a climber as much as he was a hunter – but it was the only thing he had. The tree he picked, one that seemed the most friendly to his lack of skill and stamina, he climbed up. Inch by inch he climbed the massive tree and as he did, his hands and legs got more shaky.
When he was way up on it, struggling within its leaves and branches – something hit him, something big. Or to be more precise, something hit the tree he was climbing. What was this force that wished him harm? Was it the same creature from the other night? Whatever it was, Gabriel wasn't letting go – he wasn't falling down into anyone's hands that day, but even he knew that was just wishful thinking.
It didn't take him long to realise the tree wasn't getting hit, but that it was being shaken. The thing that was making it swing wildly was so strong that it could pull it off by just grabbing it.
He would fall down if the shaking kept up – the only thing he could do was buy himself a few seconds, which he used to beg God to spare him and to forgive him for whatever evils he had done to deserve such a cruel fate.
His hands – of a young boy, couldn't pass the cruel test of nature, and he doubted anyone else's could. That was his first time praying to God. His hands gave out – they disconnected from the giant tree, and the rest of his body followed a downward spiral into the hands of terror and mystery...
He used what remained of his strength to scream for help once more – before his small body slammed the ground loudly. The impact knocked all the air out of his lungs and also severely hurt his back and his left leg. His eyes were closed – he couldn't bear to see what horror could shake a giant tree so easily.
But, instead of hearing those awful noises from last night again, he heard a shriek close by and then running. He opened his eyes and propped himself up to finally see what the creature was, but the only thing his eyes caught was the back of the beast – which was covered in thick hair.
The sound of its running disappeared soon – and thus, the forest was quiet once again and
he was alone. He didn't think he'd be happy to be left alone in there – but there he was, smiling like a madman that there was nothing around, nothing to hurt or knock him off trees.
Speaking of his fall, it didn't do that much damage, his body was aching in pain, but his movements weren't disabled, they were just painful. Getting himself off the ground was a painful feat itself, and that was just the start of it.
Gabriel picked a direction and walked it – he might have been walking deeper into the woods – into the hands of the beast, but one thing he wasn't doing was climbing up more trees...
Nowhere in his vision was there anything but endless rows of identical trees – all blending in with one another, giving him the illusion he was walking in circles. Was he? It was possible – that rain cleared up his only sense of direction, he could have been on the same spot where he started without knowing it.
But to him, this didn't matter. Nothing did, as his body was giving up, each consecutive step hurt more and more. Like his plan, his frail body was letting him down.
He didn't even consider the possibility of surviving the second night – as his lighter was empty, much like his stomach was. Falling down on his knees marked his moment of giving up on ever getting out of there alive.
Once again, he crawled up to a tree and put his back up against it. Saying another prayer couldn't hurt, so he did, but unlike his first one, this one he screamed at the top of his lungs – because he didn't have the strength for both praying and screaming for help.
That was his two in one. Soon after his screaming prayer was done, he heard movement behind his back. In his mind – this was certainly the creature that planned to eat him the first night and knocked him off the tree.
His blood ran cold, his mind – wild. Was this something he deserved? To die at such a young age, slaughtered by unknown forces – what a way to perish. Could he fight back? He scanned the area for a sizable rock, but found none.
Running wasn't an option either – he could barely move an inch because of his injuries, but his mind was working perfectly and he had several minutes to think before the sound would be right next to him. It was pure torture – the fear he felt was immense and too much to bear.
Tears started running down his face and he bent his head down in defeat. The movement stopped and then – he heard a new kind of sound. A human voice screaming that they found him...
One man approached him and so did many others, who slowly showed up out of the forest. Their faces were ones of pride, worry and joy. They found the missing boy – he was hurt and looked like hell – but he was going to be okay, and that's all that mattered.
One of the men carried him on his back as they walked to the nearby farm, which wasn't the one Gabriel visited the previous day. It turned out he wasn't going in circles at all, but a path that was taking him deeper into the Maramuresi wilderness.
That's where the tracks were leading him, into the claws of whatever was making them – and whatever the thing was, it lived in the deepest parts of the forest. Gabriel – after eating some actual food and drinking water felt refreshed and curious once more.
He kept asking the men from the search party what the strange tracks that had almost led him to death were – what sort of animal could make them. All of the men got confused by his questions – except for one.
Tavi was his name – an older man, who was deep into his sixties but still spent time hunting in the woods. He was the one who knew exactly of which tracks the boy spoke of. Gabriel wanted to know more but Tavi said he would have to wait until they set up their camp.
A camp was needed – they weren't making it outside of the forest before nightfall and Tavi didn't fancy the idea of traveling that part of the woods at later hours. He much preferred to wait out the nights next to a safe and warm campfire, as it kept the forests inhabitants away.
All the men wrote his words off as ramblings of an old man who spent too much of his life alone in the woods, but he had Gabriel's full attention. They set up camp and were all getting ready for bed, when Tavi shed some light on those mysterious tracks...
October – he said was the time when they always showed up and have been for years now. When he was much younger, in his twenties, he tried a few times to do what Gabriel had done, follow the tracks and find out what made them, but the further he went – the more the forest opposed him.
During one of the nights he spent deep inside the woods tracking the strange imprints – he swore he was attacked by a hairy giant that came rushing at him from the forest. First, he felt a disgusting scent in the air, right before the beast attacked. His reaction was to get out of there as fast as he could. As he distanced himself from his camp – the campfire went out and with it, the screams that the creature was making stopped.
He never even considered venturing deep into the woods again, or going near the tracks. You would think most men would still consider this to be a dumb folklore story – but most were scared themselves. It wasn't due to the story, it was Tavi's mannerisms while telling it. Faking fear is hard, and if Tavi was faking it that night, he was doing a perfect job of it.
Gabriel wished he didn't ask the old man about the tracks – he just wanted to forget about everything and go home. They all feared it – but their camp wasn't attacked by Bigfoots or any other creatures that night. There was nothing special about it – it was just cold and long, like all the rest of them were.
So what is the creature of poor odor that inhabits the Romanian woods – that scares men and children off its territory? The creature seems to want two things – for people to keep their lights off and for everyone to not follow it into the darkness of the woods, and maybe that's for the best.
What happened to Gabriel?
He grew a bit more and openly shared his story, but it never really caught on in his homeland. You see, Romanians have no word for Bigfoot – so when sharing his story, Gabriel would call the creature “Puturosul” which means stinky...
