Tales:Faces in the Forest
Stemming from the snowy tundras of Ellador, this tale began around the time Fahlein were kidnapping people from towns and drawing them into forests and caves to feast. This is an urban legend, meaning the exact names and dates change with every retelling. A few books have this tale published in a couple different forms, but it's predominantly spread by word of mouth.
Faces in the Forest
A few years ago, in a small Elladorian town, lived two young sons to a lonely ice fisher. These boys, ten and fourteen respectively, were very well behaved; their chores were always done, they were good and sociable, and they always respected their elders. However, the two of them were very curious, which, as these stories are wont to go, would be their downfall.
Disappearances occurred in this town all the time. Children, careless lumberjacks or adventurers, or simply the curious, would fade from the town within a night. It was well-known that a person should never go out into the forest after dark. Faces always appeared at the edges of the woods, staring longingly at the town. While some of them were foreign and hardly impressive, others were clearly townsfolk. Every night, these boys would look out their windows and see these ghostly faces staring back. When they asked who they were, their elders were far too frightened to answer.
One morning, the elder of the brothers begun to complain that one of the faces were getting closer. Each morning, he'd go out to the edge of the woods and stand where it was, and every night, he'd see that face come just a little closer. Then, early one evening whern the elder brother was feeling particularly inquisitive, he strapped on his dagger, bid his younger sibling good bye, and set off into the forest to investigate. When their father returned, the young boy told him what had happened. His father stared back at him, and he realized at that moment the gravity of what had happened.
The next morning, a group of villagers set off into the forest to search for him. They came back empty handed, and a silence fell over the home for their loss.
That night, the boy looked out his window, and saw his brother's bloody face staring back.
Accreditation
- Written by Ryciera.