[spookies] Spooy “Tale of the wistful swamp maiden”

It’s dark and spooky in the forest lush with plant life and greens. The sound of crickets and rustling of animals hunting in the dark echoed through the forest for their next meal. 

The two symprites walked along the path under the trees where they casted shadows from the moon as it shines its gentle light down below. Wisteria and Nova trudged on while carrying their camping items, trying to find the perfect spot to camp out for the night and finally getting something to eat after walking for so long.

The clearings in the middle of the forest with logs around seems almost too perfect for it to be a coincidence. Someone must’ve camped out here before. Wisteria perked up when she saw the area empty and the best spot to camp out for the night.

“Nova, we should camp here! Ah- we’ve been walking for so long. I need a break.”

She pointed at the spot with lighter jumps in her steps and Nova speedily walked up after her. He tilted his head to look at where she’s pointing before nodding his head.

“Sure, let’s go! I’ll help set up the tents.”

Wisteria laid down her bags first and her basket with her pet byun inside. Amora let out a small chirp before crawling up and out of the basket before waddling away from the campsite.

“Don’t go too far, Amora!” She said after her beloved companion as the little one chirped in reply before going off into the bushes. Huh, hunting time for her byun. Guess she can also get hungry from the long trip after feeding her pet 3 strips of sweet seaweeds.

Nova unpacked the coals and the tent before huddling them all together to start a fire. Cold winds were blowing through the leaves and trees and it’s starting to become cold. It’s better to warm up first before setting up the tents.

He rubs together the two sticks of dry wood then after a sound of flames kindling and sparkling ‘crack crack’ He throws it into the other dry woods and coals to start the campfire. Ah, the fire is so pretty at night.

Nova then stood up and started to help Wisteria with the tents setting up for the night before getting the ingredients out to cook something for dinner. It’s getting pretty late already and they haven’t eaten anything much yet.

They got out some fishes to cook and some seaweeds to wrap around the fish, roasting them by the fire. As they sat down on the makeshift wooden logs as chairs. Wisteria started to hum.

“This feels like it’d be great for a campfire story.”

Nova turned the fish stick in his claws then tilted his head to look at Wisteria, “Campfire story?”

“You know, the spooky ones! Really sink in with the atmosphere around us.” 

She gestured to the woods around her. They’re eerie and dark, the only source of lights were from the moon and the campfire that Nova started a few hours earlier.

“Ohh, well. We could do that…”

He then looked up into the sky. The stars twinkle a million distances away from them.

“But I don’t know any story to tell.”

Wisteria blinked slowly at him before cracking a small smile, “Don’t worry, I have one that’s spooky and perfect for camping.”

Nova smiled back as he encouraged her to go for it and just then, Amora waddled into the clearing with the labor of her hunting in her mouth and some seaweeds stuck to her body, trailing after her like a gown… but made from seaweeds.

 “Amora! Welcome back.” Wisteria opened up her arms and tilted the grilled fish in her webbed claws away just in time for her byun to jump into her lap with a proud “mwehehe” as she showed off her catch of the day fish and plopped it next to the fire.

“Good girl, want to cook them with the fire?”

The byun chirped before throwing it into the flame.

“Amora! Wait wait-”

The fire whooshed up and cinders flying in all directions as Wisteria started to panic before trying to find something to fish out Amora’s fish from the burning hot flames. Aha! A long stick over there. That’s perfect!

They pulled it out of the fire with a stick a moment later. The fish was surprisingly cooked and the smell of it was mouth-watering. Wisteria let out a tiny sigh of relief at Amora nibbling on her meal. Well, at least it wasn’t burnt to a crisp. More like crispy charred fish with some coals as seasoning.

“Okay, campfire story. Let’s see.” 

Amora mumbled to herself before snapping her claws. Spooky, but also not too scary. Amora might also like it too. The byun in question looked at her with a curious tilt of her head.

“Where I lived, there was a rumor- no, a long forgotten tale of the swamp.”

Both Nova and Amora continued to silently eat their fishes with a small sound of seaweed crunches between Nova’s fangs. Interested in hearing the story that Wisteria is going to tell them.

“A tale of the wistful swamp maiden-”

Once upon a time, there was a maiden of the swamp. She spends most of her time there tending to her garden of lushful plants and flowers that dangle from the trees above. Hidden from the outsiders, her own little secret spot. 

Anyone who crossed the water of the murky swamp to collect ingredients and food for their meals sometimes spotted eyes watching from everywhere around them, watching their every move. Every step. Every breath.

This soon traveled from symps to symps. The story of the watchful eyes of the swamp. They don’t know what it entails. Only that the deeper you go into the swamp, the more intense and scary it was. Though most were scared by the thought that it won’t be safe to forage in the swamps anymore, some were brave adventurers and explorers who wanted nothing more than to find the truth to the story.

Then there they went into the ominous swamp, waddling through the fogs and the leaves that dangled from above. Undeterred by the gaze of an unknown creature of the swamp.

What they found was something amazing and magical. It was full of life and forgotten items that the symprites that foraged in the swamp dropped after running away from the watchful eyes of the swamp. The creature finally made itself known. That the feared creature was actually… another symp that enjoyed the quiet and serene atmosphere of the innermost part of the swamp that decided to make it a place of hers to live.

“Ah! I’m sorry if I scared you all. I was just watching from afar…” The maiden said with a shy wave of her tail. 

“Here, please return the items to their rightful owners for me. I’m not as well-versed with speaking with another symprite.”

The brave adventurers and explorers understand now that all those stories about the watchful eyes in the swamp and taking their missing items in exchange for their lives are just twisted from fear and desperation. So they agreed to take the lost items back to the village before saying goodbye to the maiden.

The stories of the scary eyes in the forest are now more of a tradition than a warning for smaller bappies to not venture into the swamp alone or… beware of being eaten by the maiden of the swamp!

“Boo!” Wisteria ended her story with a flair of her webbed claws as Amora jumped next to her before happily chirping at the end of the tale.

“And that’s the story! How was it?” 

She leaned in her wooden seat as she stared at Nova with sparkles in her eyes. He stared back at her before smiling.

“It’s an interesting story.”

Wisteria leaned back as she let out a tiny bit of a disappointed sigh.

“Ehh? Not scary or spooky at all?”

“It’s pretty tame, and the moral of the story is nice and lovely for the listener to not judge a tale from its look… or something of sorts.”

Nova said with a smile as he finished up the rest of the grilled fish and Wisteria slowly started to eat her own after ending her spooky campfire tale.

“Mmm, I’ll take that as a win then.”

The three of them sat in the peaceful and comfortable silence of the night. Polishing up their dinner and ready for bed, but before they go to sleep. Nova pulled back the starry tent flaps to talk to Wisteria one more time.

“Is the story real? Or did you come up with it?”

She poked her head out of her pink tent flaps as he heard Nova trying to talk to her through the tent before a small secretive smile graced her lips. Her eyes crinkled up as if she knew something amusing at the question.

“Hehe, that’s for you to figure it out.”