The overwhelming sadness

Watching them with sadness, realizing that when he showed himself, they would recoil in horror and fear and realize what horrible fate was waiting for them, he listened to them talk and joke with one another about the rumors of terrible happenings in the woods. If only things were different. If only there was not the terrible hunger. If only his role in life were different. But, it was not and he knew that this quiet wood, so peaceful and beautiful would soon be filled with screams and, then, a terrible silence, broken only by the cracking of bones.