-A SONG OF SHADOW AND FOG-
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a girl. Her name was Elka, and she was no more than just a common, lowly, peasant. She lived in a small hut with her father, mother, and younger brother.
Everyday, when she was sent to fetch water from the well, she walked by the forest. Her parents would warn her not to go inside there, because anyone brave enough to venture inside never returned. Elka would often wonder longingly of what laid inside the thick mass of trees, but she always dismissed the thought.
One particularly sweltering day, she was lured into the cool shade of the forest trees. Despite the warnings she had received, she thought that lying there for a few minutes was fine. And yet, she was wrong.
After about a minute of lazing about, she was startled to hear a song coming from deeper in the forest. It was the most beautiful yet haunting song she ever heard.
Ignoring everything she had ever heard about the forest, she got up and started to follow the voice. Her heart was pounding faster and faster as she got deeper into the heart of the forest, yet she was determined to find the source of the strange call.
The voice was growing clearer now. She was getting closer to its source. She ran and ran until she reached a beautiful clearing, where the sun shone on it, and there were butterflies fluttering and birds twittering. She had hoped to find the voice here, but it seemed a little further away.
She ran again until she reached a part of the forest where the fog hung so thick, you couldn't see a thing. Yet she was brave, and she ventured into the mist.
She walked for a while when she saw a shadow. It looked vaguely like a cloaked figure. She was hesitant for a while, but she walked on and on until she had reached the place where the shadow had been. It disappeared.
The voice was really loud and clear now. The strange, haunting, and beautiful siren's call was now taunting her, as if it was calling out her name, daring her to venture further. She was now in a trance, with no full control over herself, an invisible force willing her to walk on.
She reached the end of the forest. There was a maiden in a dark cloak waiting for her. The maiden's cloak was the color of the darkest dark, blacker than a hundred midnights.
She approached the dark maiden. The maiden reached her hand out to Elka and asked her for a wish. Just one wish she could make, and it would cost her nothing.
Elka desperately wanted to break the spell that bound her to this forest. She wanted to get back outside and be with her family again. She felt regret at not heeding their warnings, for being so reckless and impudent.
She slowly took the hand of the maiden and made her wish. To be able to leave this forest.
Suddenly, the mist grew thicker and thicker around her. She couldn't see a thing, for the fog was blinding her eyes. She then blinked and was surprised to find herself in the clearing she had seen earlier. She ran away as fast as a bullet, and when she stopped to catch her breath when she reached the outside, she looked around.
Elka was surprised to see that the houses in her village that she had grown used to were different from before. The great big castle she would long to go inside looked older, with snarling vines circling its crumbling walls.
She looked around desperately for her parents, but to her grief, they were nowhere to be found. She wandered around asking the nearby villagers for answers, but they only gave her strange looks.
Heartbroken, she finally went to the place she hadn't visited yet. The graveyard.
Elka wept, glistening tears running down her fair face. She gathered a wreath of flowers, and laid it on the weathered tombstones.
She ran away from the graveyard to the edge of the forest. Hearing the haunting song, she entered once again, resolving to make one final wish.
She would be meeting her family again very soon.
