The moon shines brightest on the nights that I hunt.
Prettiest at full, reflected at the riverfront.
I stalk, soundless, beyond the forest's end.
Watching, waiting, as the children begin to descend.
Treading into the water, they clasp hands and form a ring.
And before they can utter their rhymes, I sigh and begin to sing.
"Children gather near
For I've a tale to tell 'bout the water here
Upon the waves at night she'll rise
And sing you a song, so sweet against the star-spilled skies
And your souls she will gather
Then pull you under, rather
Than let your feet arrive
Safe at the morning's tide."
The ivory moon shone across Llian's face, the shadows of the tree leaves dancing across her pale features. She stood motionless, hidden just beyond the edge of the woods. The tree line sat just across a small village of humans, separated by a shallow river that cut deep into the ground. Nothing was happening, and all was quiet except for the rustling of the branches in the wind.
One of her red priestesses stood beside her, hood up and eyes down. She kept her hands in front of her, fingertips just barely touching, silent as her lady master. She didn't dare make a sound, out of fear of the wrath of her queen.
It didn't take long for the sound of young children to reach Llian's ear drums. Pointed ears perked up at the laughter, lilac eye searching for its source. And soon it came around the corner of one of the houses across the river: five youngsters of about eight or nine (in human years) running about the field, holding hands and knocking one another over playfully. One ended up rolling down the hill onto the riverbank.
Yes, thought the fairy, come closer to your demise.
The excitement grew within the pale predator as she watched and listened. The one on the bank began to beckon his friends, and they hastily followed, mirroring the method the first had taken to reach the bank. Now they were at the river. One boy pushed one of the girls into the water. She got upset and began to yell and cry. Another girl jumped in to comfort her companion by splashing water onto the three boys. Then they jumped in after them.
The game continued for some time, but Llian didn't mind. She never minded a wait for a delicious meal. There were times when the prey was so dim that they were within her grasp in minutes. Sometimes she would have to wait hours, stalk for days even before she got what she wanted. But every wait was always worth the effort she had to put in.
The children's voices were getting louder. Soon the boys were chasing the girls across the river to the other side, closing in on the forest. One boy began to climb the hill opposite of where they came from, and Llian saw that it was the boy who had pushed his friend into the water. What a brat. He wouldn't taste as nice as the others. He was tainted by his upbringing. The fairy guessed that he could do as he pleased and whenever he made a mistake or hurt someone else, the problem was brushed off as "that's what boys do". Despicable. But, even if he tasted horrible, Llian knew she would be doing the town a favor.
The group was almost to the forest edge. They were so close that Llian could smell the essence that they put out. It was almost time, and she could begin to taste it.
One of the girls passed by the boy. She pushed him aside and darted towards the tree line, right in Llian's path. The little girl stopped and stared into the darkness of the woods. She didn't see the being that hid from her view. The pale fairy waited for just a moment longer, staring into the young eyes that stared back without even knowing it. Then the other four arrived.
And that's when she began to sing.
Four tiny figures stopped dead in their tracks. Eight feet went still. Forty fingers slackened and fell. All eyes fell on the direction of the voice. They stood and listened as the song continued, and not much long after they were treading towards the forest line to the voice. Once they reached the trees, they stopped. Eyes wide in a trance, the children stood in a line, shoulder to shoulder, without so much as a whisper passing over their lips. Llian continued her lullaby, up until the very end, when their small eyes fluttered closed and they all collapsed onto the ground, so deep asleep that when the fairy approached them and motioned for them to rise, they did not awaken. Five young bodies rose from the grass, lined up before the fairy to view. Their naked toes hovered less than a centimeter above the ground and their heads lazily hung to the sides. The next motion was across their faces, one at a time, to pull the wisps of light that was the soul out of their soft lips, and finally she would consume it. Five children, five souls. A wonderful, hearty meal in the eyes of this creature.
Llian let the bodies of the children collapse on the ground in a dead heap. She wrung her hands together, as if harvesting souls had caused her great pain that needed to be massaged out. The bodies at her feet gained none of her attention, and they wouldn't gain anyone's attention until the early hour of the morning.
"Roza, we're leaving. Now."
The priestess in red stepped into the open, revealed by the moonlight, taking no extra time to summon a portal back to the palace. She waited for her queen to pass through it, then followed with haste before it snapped out of existence, leaving behind nothing but five dead children.