The Song of the Forest

A summoner's job was to eradicate all traces of the evil spirits let loose by the enemy kingdoms during the large-scale war that took place about a century ago. The recurring problems caused by the spirits after the war prompted the king to establish the royal academy that trained students to track and hunt down malicious spirits with the help of a familiar.

Olivia chose a forest that was beside a colorful little village known for their flower farms. Unions only moved to purify lands when some trouble is reported. Otherwise, they did not go hunting for dark spirits themselves. More often than not, simply stepping into woods unchecked by summoners led you to these creatures.

This made it a good place for Olivia to train her newfound power.

"My Lady, for what purpose are we banishing the wicked residing in these woods?" Mezolas asked.

"I need to train and get better at controlling these abilities," Olivia replied as the two of them entered the thick forest. "There's a chance we will fight those strong spirits that went after me again. We have to be prepared for it."

"Indeed, my Lady is a persevering one."

For about an hour, Olivia and Mezolas explored the woods and incinerated those which belonged not in the forest. Every minute, they encountered at least one.

"There are so many of them." Olivia was surprised by the sheer number of dark sprits that met their end through her hands.

"Alas, my Lady! The forest is where they increase strength and multiply, but verily I sense something amiss here." Mezolas began floating towards a particular direction.

"Meozlas, where are you going?" Olivia caught up with him.

"A faint song that beckons one to draw near... Do you hear it not, my Lady?"

Olivia listened. There was a sweet singing voice that echoed ominously throughout the woods. It was strangely calming and pleasing to the ear. The female singer sang out the lines:

Come, come my sweet

Let me take thee away

For life is but a bundle of sorrow

In the garden you'll stay

Come, come my sweet

Follow me, dance, and play

For life is but an unfair illusion

In the garden you'll stay

"My Lady, it is best we depart here immediately. I fear we are not alone and our company is frighteningly overfriendly," Mezolas advised.

"Let's get out of here." Olivia heeded her familiar's advice.

As they ran out of the forest, the song persisted like a broken record. Once they reached the safety of the village of flowers, Olivia caught her breath.

"What... what was that?" Olivia looked at Mezolas.

"I know not, my Lady, but suspect that a witch resides in that forest."

She sighed. "I should probably report this, huh? This is what I get for being productive on my day off."

"Indeed, you must. The people of this village are in grave danger." Mezolas looked about him. "Remind me, my Lady, you mentioned this village being inhabited?"

"Yes. What's wrong?"

"I see no people here."

"What?" Olivia walked around. Mezolas was right. The people in the village were missing. She examined a freshly prepared meal on an outdoor dining area that couldn't have been made more than an hour ago. "They were here just earlier. Could that witch have abducted them?"

"It is certainly the cause."

"We have to go look for them!" Olivia hurried back to the forest with Mezolas following behind her. They both heard the song once more, repeating the same lines in an endless loop.

"My Lady, I see one villager!" Mezolas led the way.

There was a man who walked as if he was half-awake. Olivia tried to get his attention, but he appeared unresponsive.

"Is he hypnotized?" Olivia wondered as she blocked the man's path and held him back from walking forward using her scythe's handle.

"Leave this to me, my Lady." Mezolas whipped the man's cheek mercilessly using a tentacle. It successfully woke up the man.

"What? Why am I here? Who are you?" The man was bewildered and disoriented.

"We found you here walking deeper into the forest. Do you remember anything that happened?" Olivia asked.

He shook his head. "I was just in my house when..." He tried to recall. "I heard a song?" Immediately, he was filled with guilt and panic. "Oh no. This is all my fault! She did this..."

"What happened? Who did this?"

"It's not safe to talk here. Let's go back to the village before she tries to lure us in." He ran for his life. Olivia had no choice but to follow him.

"So what happened there?" Olivia asked when they were out of the forest.

The man looked distressed to see the village empty. "I'm not sure where to start. The one doing this... her name is Willow. I met her in the forest when I was gathering wood. She started to like me and always appeared whenever I went in there. I invited her to the village, but she said she couldn't leave the forest. She was bound there. At that time, I didn't understand what she meant."

Olivia continued to listen.

The man continued, "One day, I discovered her true form. She is a strong dark spirit disguised as a human. I saw her... consume one of the village girls. She ate them out of jealousy. Since then, I stayed away from her, but she continued luring girls into the forest thinking I'd fallen in love with another."

"Why did she lure the whole village?"

"I confronted her and told her to stop. She nearly abducted me, but I managed to escape. Now, she lured in the whole town. If she consumes all the people, she will grow stronger and become harder to stop."

"Can you report this incident to authorities? I'll head in ahead and try to rescue the others before it's too late."

The man agreed and ran as fast as he could to get reinforcements.

"You wished for training and it certainly was handed to you on a silver platter," said the eye of nightmare.

Olivia took a deep breath before walking back to the forest.