A Dance of Death - Week 2 Story

There once was a land covered in a majestic forest. The trees rose for miles in every direction, and their bold green leaves absorbed the golden dew of the sun, casting brilliant light across the forest floor. Travelers always observed that the ground spread far and wide as a single velvety layer of earth. It had been worn smooth by dancing feet, for within the heart of the woods lived spirits who loved to dance.

At night the spirits took the form of beautiful women, and they would sing sweetly to attract men who might be passing among the brambles. Once these men heard their voices, they had no choice but to follow them; the music of the spirits was irresistible. 

When the men arrived to the clearing that was home to the spirits, it looked as if they had stumbled upon a royal ball. The spirits were dancing under the veil of the ebony sky, their beauty illuminated by the stars. Mortal men could not resist this intoxicating scene, and they became caught up in the frenzy of the dance. Winds whistled past their cheeks as they moved in time with the women, leaping and spinning and breathing in the rich night air.

Despite their external beauty, the spirits were not benevolent creatures. Dancing was the secret way in which they trapped men in their forest for eternity. The spirits were mystical beings and they never tired. But those they lured in were made of flesh and bone, and the men would become weak and dizzy and as they danced for hours on end. Even as they began to stumble and falter, the women became more manic, their movements becoming sharper, faster, harder. The winds intensified, and the frenetic energy of the evening whirled around them. The spirits would not cease, even as the men begged them for the chance to rest. They showed no mercy. The men were forced to dance until they collapsed, never to rise again: for this was a dance of death.

The souls of these men became trapped within the great forest, never to depart from the tangle of life that stood unassuming in the daylight. The spirits would rejoice, as the shadows of these men were forced to rise each night to dance with them once more. Although the men who were alive were not able to see the shadows of the ghosts that had surrounded them as they unknowingly moved toward their final breaths, the winds had tried to warn them of their fate; they were the cries of the men who had come before them, whose souls were already ensnared in the eternal dance. 

A macabre dance. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note: The story about the goblins intrigued me because of how it defied the traditional role prescribed to females in many stories, replacing the idea that women are docile and passive and instead imbuing their characters with a twisted, demonic nature. Reading this story reminded me a little bit of a ballet called Giselle, in which the female creatures (called willis) force the men that stumble upon their realm to dance until they die. I incorporated elements of this ballet into my re-telling. Unfortunately, unlike in the goblin story, the men of my tale could not understand the warnings of what lay in store for them, and none were able to escape their doomed fate. 

Bibliography

"Goblin City" by W. H. D. Rouse ~ Web Source