"I'm coming, Luc," his sister calls, rolling her eyes. "Don't run so quick, though! You'll get tired, and we need to be home before supper."

"We'll be fine! Even if it gets dark out." The path's pretty obvious, after all.

"We'll get in trouble."

He just laughs and keeps heading into the woods.

She huffs.

But, still, she follows.

There's a bit of excitement in her, too. They're not supposed to go into the woods, lest they meet an evil witch or monster.

Léa thinks a monster or a witch sounds like a fine thing to meet.

It grows dark faster than it should, the trees getting thicker, taller. Old growth, with no brambles and tangles of plants blocking their view -

It shouldn't be this dark, with how spread apart the trees are, but their tops interweave into a dense canopy. The fields with their little house are long gone.

Still, there's stones beneath their feet, running down to what sounds like a stream in the distance.

Luc stops, looks around, and sighs when he realizes they're really really far and it's getting hard to see.

"We should probably go home, huh."

But Léa's staring down the path.

"...Do you hear that, Luc?" she asks, stepping forward.

"The - stream?"

There's not much else to hear. The wind is still, there's no birds or deer or howling wolves or - anything -

- this is getting a bit creepy.

"No, the music."

" - There's no music - "

"Something's wrong with it - "

She starts forward, running down the path.

"Léa!"

Luc runs after her - "Léa stop!"

She doesn't.

She does outpace him, her footsteps retreating - until the gloom swallows her.

It's just about night, now.

The path only goes one direction -

He picks up speed, not really looking where he's going, just chasing his sister -

She's standing on the edge of a huge, roaring river, staring across -

At a castle looming out of the woods, clinging to the cliff face, imposing and grand.

There's a bridge, before Léa's feet. She hasn't crossed yet.

Luc hears the music now, too. It's - odd. Gloomy. Like nothing he's ever heard, echoing like wailing across the rocks, rising and falling, barely audible over the river.

"Léa!" he calls, running up to her -

But his gaze is drawn by the castle.

" - We - we should go - "

She turns, wrenching her gaze away -

The path behind them's vanished. There's a nearly sheer slope, scattered with pebbles, the tall trees looming at its top. Nowhere with good footing - not on this side of the river - and it'll be easy to tumble into the water if they try and fail to climb.

Thunder rumbles overhead. There's no moon to light their way, no stars. Just storm clouds.

It begins to rain.

Luc flinches.

"The - castle might have someone who knows where this is?"

"The castle might have witches."

The idea isn't as exciting as it was an hour ago.

"The woods might have wolves."

"...We'll try the castle. But don't give anyone our names, or say where we're from, or be rude, or make promises, or lie, okay?"

"I'm not stupid."

Her expression says what she thinks of that.