With every step they ran, their legs felt heavier. Every exhausted breath pulled from the night's air burned in their throats.
"I can't keep running…" Cried the girl.
"You have to!" The boy kept a firm hold of her wrist as he pulled her along. He could see the tears in her eyes as she tried to keep up.
The wind carried dried rustling leaves as the moonlit fog continued to close in behind.
If the fog reaches them, they'll never get home.
"Are you hurt!?" The girl cried when the boy stumbled and tripped over an exposed root.
"I'm fine, Run!" He tried to stand, but by then it was too late.
The ground hazed under his hands as the fog consumed them.
The two huddled together in the fog, watching the leaves circle around them faster as the wind picked up.
A child's creepy laugh filled the air as the distant sound of rattling bells got louder.
That's when they saw it.
Staring out from behind a tree was a face made of straw, with black and gold eyes looking down at them.
"you're lost…~" It giggled as it stepped out from behind the tree. "It's time you came with me~"
The figure was no taller than the boy and girl, but the threat it posed was very real.
Children who die in the woods become like it.
The boy on the ground clutched a long stick, the only weapon at hand.
"Don't touch us!" He warned, putting himself between the creature and the girl.
The Strawkid giggled at the warning as it approached. The bells stitched on its boots jingled with every step it skipped forward, bringing the thickening fog with it.
Once standing just a few steps away, the fog had gotten so thick around the three of them that the forest floor looked like it was only a small island in a sea of cloud, lit only by the full moon.
The boy and girl held each other as the Strawkid pulled out a trumpet.
"Goodbye~" With one hard blow of the trumpet, the Strawkid frayed apart, breaking into grass and leaves in the wind. With the Strawkid disappearance, the fog cleared away too.
Astonished by what just happened and still terrified of their fate, the boy and girl soon realised they were home again.
Courage Incarnate.