so he got up , pushing away his doorway bough and leafy branch with it to step back out into the open country , where he distinctly perceived the rustle and movement of creatures around him like kids playing out in the street in suburbia on a summer night , only with red-fanged mouths and large walnut-blue eyes , and not like any kids who moved through bushes , but like bushes that moved , with arms and legs like a man , dwarf-sizethe creatures surrounded him like a postman being surrounded by watchdogsthey snarled and growled , jumping forward and back and sidewaysof course , it was as if the end to his aloneness in this manner was a better fate than a two- or three-day 's journey through more aloneness to a perhaps worse adversaryafter all , there was no way he could know how intelligent or dangerous the beings before , behind , and around him were .