The Dark forest on the edges of the town were quite unwelcoming. Trees as tall as a giant towered in the routes, blocking the moonlight. Sounds of the wild unknown stretched far and wide, frightening off any outsiders. These woods held the old stories of the ones with giraffe legs, werewolves, and most frightening of all, the Master of Dark Forest.
The people around the town were quite suspicious of Dark Forest. There came to many regulations and curfews restricting activity after dusk fell. But as these superstitions were proved to be groundless overtime, the more contemporary generations soon wiped it clean from their memory.
Being the poor little hamlet the town was, they welcomed any form of trade or tourism. The town was appropriately named Dark Forest Town. In an effort to attract revenues, they put together vaudeville entertainment and called it The Dark Woods Circus.
Sadly, few saw the show for any worth and the little village dwindled on the edge of eternal poverty. People moved out of the sad little place, hoping for lives elsewhere. They took all they had with them. Shoes, rugs, mattresses. They didn't really have a lot. Pianos, bed frames, lockets.
The older generations stayed, from fear of the outer worlds. Newer generations tried to coax them with tales of cities paved with gold and nonexistent hunger. Nonetheless, many stayed behind to guard the place of their origin.
History is blurry. As time transiently passed over the quiet town, things became silent. A little ghost town sat in the forest until the forest ate it up. Whatever left of the town now exists only in foreign records, as there were no detailed primary texts. The descendents have long forgotten the tale of the Dark Forest Town that exists now only in their great grandparents deepest memories.
The surrounding villages carried on with their own business until one day, a woodcutter came back with a fascinating tale.
"Where the long-gone Dark Forest Town stood, now stands a tent,
One of marvelous entities and mystery."
People were slow to follow on at first, but eventually, some went and returned with tales just as outrageous and glamorous as the last. Human curiosity ought to be a sin.
Soon the name of Dark Wood Circus spread across the region. Adults found it seemingly appropriate to rename the Dark Forest, "Dark Woods".
The circus always opened with this curious theme sung by it's partakers:
Deep in the Forest, far far in the back that way
There is a circus
The chairman with big eyes
and ten meters tall
All the cast is jolly
Their forms are rather strange but so fun!
The Dark Woods Circus