Tis the night before Christmas, and Elias, axe in hand, slipped into the forbidden Blackwood Forest, desperate to fell one of the colossal pines to pay off his debts. The air was unnaturally still, the deep snow muffling his boots until only the rapid thudding of his own heart filled the silence. As his axe bit into the ancient wood, a sound echoed backβnot the satisfying crack of the trunk, but a low, guttural whisper right at his ear, smelling of damp earth and rot: "You take what is mine." Elias spun around, shining his lantern into the oppressive darkness, only to see seven pairs of faintly glowing, malevolent eyes reflecting the light from between the trees, none higher than his knees, steadily closing in.
He dropped his axe and scrambled away, but the eyes followed, weaving through the undergrowth with silent, predatory speed. He stumbled and fell, catching a glimpse of the figures: small, twisted humanoids, barely three feet tall, their bodies covered in thick bark and their hands ending in sharpened, needle-like twigs. They weren't just guarding the forest; they were the forest. They finally overtook him near the edge of the woods. The next morning, searchers found only his fur hat and, stuck firmly in the base of the stolen pine, his axeβits handle snapped, and the steel blade meticulously wrapped in thick, green moss, like a warning gift left for Santa's naughty list
Stake id: Monstercat