Timidityby
SimmsComment by K3Master: It was a tale passed down from Father to fawn as a bedtime tale and fawn to fawn as a whispered spook story in the meadow under high sunlight. The tale of the dark of the woods, down past the old fir tree and at the beginning of the end of their known territory.
So it was that three friends set out one day, growing in curiosity and courage to finally confront such tales. For they did not believe all that they were told, and wanted to set the record straight. To come back and tell everyone that it was just a deeper part of the wood, and nothing to fear.
So they had set out, and had come to the beginning of the path into the gloom that was there. Laughing amongst themselves and teasing each other about being frightened, but not really feeling any fear.
Not feeling any, that is, until they came to the threshold, and suddenly it seemed as if the sunlight broke upon the path there and simply ceased to be. For it was not just gloom that shrouded that pathway, but a darkness so complete that it was almost unnatural.
They found themselves standing on the brink of that entrance, still as they could be, not daring to breathe. The laughter and teasing had stopped. They dared not make a sound. They stood rigid, their eyes opened wide in surprise and, now that they were here, a sudden fear.
Fear it was now that gripped them certainly, for at once they knew that the tales were not just mere ghost stories. Deep inside, their very instincts told them that something here was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Yet they stood, and stared into that darkness, which seemed to shrink and constrict around them, and despite all their sudden terror there was something about that dark. Something that seemed to call to them. Something that whispered in soft, calming tones and gentle musical notes. Something that beckoned, beckoned them on.
With eyes glazed over and a wobble in their step, they began to walk forward, closer now. Stepping into the emptiness before them, black as the deepest pit, there came the sound of a ragged breathing. A sound of anticipation and desire and... hunger.
They continued on, step by step, hoof over hoof, and...
... a cry came from behind them, and startled them from their reverie, and they jumped backwards for the blackness, shocked and now fully awake, and what they saw there froze their very hearts and screams broke from their throats. The spell had been broken by that shout from the light, and now they turned tail and tore back from the direction they came, terrified. They saw their parents there, and ran to them, crying and gibbering nonsense, and were taken in by them and then removed from that accursed place.
And in the darkness something cried out in anger and outrage, and its roar echoed through the woods, and for many days the three fawns could not be comforted, and their only words were about the eyes.
Those terrible, horrible eyes.
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