Tormalent Flute

It’s nearly the end of September quite close to October, a young irish man named Devor who didn’t plan on anything to do for the 3 day weekends. He does have one idea for Saturday evening. He decides to plan on waking up late for the cabin that’s in the woods. This specific cabin is actually a cafe located in a really spacious area that’s surrounded by trees as Devor doesn’t live far from there at all, he thinks it’s a good idea.

Friday has passed it’s now Saturday, devor was woken up by his alarm at 7:30 pm. He got dressed & finally’ off to his journey to the woods where the cabin cafe is. He took the bus, arrived at the street, took a 15 minute walk, found the entrance to the woods & the moment he reached to his destination. He was lit up by the light decors that’s around the cabin, it looks absolutely beautiful to his view. He felt a bit hungry so there he went inside & ordered a cinnamon roll together with a warm latte. Collected his order, sat by the windows whilst enjoying his evening treat.

“I should come here more often” Devor thought to himself in relaxation. He looked out the window & saw how dark it was out there, it is indeed autumn so what did he expect, it’s that time of the year. He has another idea after his treat.. the idea is to walk into the woods to feel the nature & come back home afterwards.

Devor thanked the baristas “Cheers” & walked out of the door, towards the woods off from the trail that heads back to the exit from the cabin area & right into the deep woods he goes. After a couple of walks he saw a bench but the bench looked abandoned, nobody was around so devor decided it was a good idea to sleep on the bench for a little. But that “little” sleep turned into 4 hours of sleep without his own knowledge.

The moment he woke up, he realised he slept for too long & needed to head back home but it’s almost pitch black since he’s in the deep woods. He grabbed his phone & turned on the flash as he got up from the bench, he started to walk. Searching for the trail again but nothing, just leaves is all he sees on the ground with tall trees surrounding him.

That’s the moment he realised he has lost the trail. Devor started blaming himself for going off far from the cabin & should’ve slept in the cabin instead of in the middle of the woods. He’s in distress but tries to remain calm as he walks, trying to figure out in his head where exactly the trail would be to head back home.

He stopped in dead tracks as he heard a sound.

The sounds were melodic almost as a whole song he’s hearing. “It sounded like.. a flute” he thought, as he listened much closely. He was right, it is a flute but from where?

Devor was extremely confused yet he felt a bit off about the flute coming from the deep dark woods right in front of him. He’s getting random butterflies in his stomach as he was listening to the chords of the instrument. “It sounds like it’s from a European folk song but I don’t know what. It’s definitely not Irish. Whoever is playing it is a master at it, a whole music piece that I’ve ever heard before.” Devor was thinking to himself.

The music from the flute got closer to the point it got much louder which means it’s close to Devor but he couldn’t see ‘who’ it is that’s playing the flute, they’re hiding plain dark sight somewhere watching him as they’re playing the instrument. That’s when devor’s gut turned upside down, he’s in danger. He turned around & sprinted away back to where he was walking away from the abandoned bench previously as he was hearing the flute fading away from a distance & the flute somehow stopped playing as he reached to the bench.

Sounds from the flute began to play again but above him, not behind him, not in front of him, somewhere above him. Someone must’ve went on top of the trees & followed him to his direction but devor didn’t hear anyone walking or climbing… nothing. 

“I’m in deep shit” devor spoke to himself trembling, he began to turn left & run. He ran & ran.. as he finally found the cabin “The cabin- it’s so dark though” He says. As he looked very closely in this pitch dark area which he sees the cabin’s decor lights were off, it’s all empty inside & out, not a single person at sight which means it’s closed.. and he’s the only one around the area. 

As devor looked at the time it was already 12:00 am. “But how?? Was I in the woods for that long or something?” He thought which surprised him at the wrong moment where he is clearly being followed by what he described “some dangerously sick person” is following him in the woods with a flute, scaring him. He hears the flute from afar, at least it’s not close to him like it was before, he sees the trail that leads to the exit from the woods, he sprinted. Never wanted to look back as he dashed in fear like a deer.

Finally at the exit, he turned around & noticed how he doesn’t hear the flute anymore. He did a big sigh, still confused about the music that he heard & the stress he had felt from it. “I can finally go home” he says at relief.

But.. the little “B♭” & “A♭” chords played 4 times behind him. Devor froze, slowly turned his head around & noticed a small figure, it’s ‘something’ not a person at all. Definitely not human. It’s not a big thing, not a tiny thing but a small thing sized like a dwarf holding on the flute in both hands, standing on both feet, grinning at young devor.

That unsettling grin got devor’s anxiety rising high up to his head level to the point his heart rate began beating faster than usual. He dashed away once more.

Devor finally reached the bus stop that’s far away from the entrance of the woods area, as he did find himself in the streets so that he can finally calm down & try not to think about what he has just experienced. The bus came he went in & goes upstairs of the bus, sat down & started to think “what even was that, was it what I think I saw n’ heard or was it just hallucinations after that amount of sleep in the cold?”.

*He reached home safe n’ sound*

Devor was awake all night, thinking about if what he saw & heard was just hallucinations or a ‘real thing?’. He got onto his computer to do research on what it is to find some answers since he truly felt it wasn’t a hallucination. His research brought him to the website about folklore history that’s about spirits & entity summonings. He clicked on it & pressed on the bar that says “types of spirits”, scrolled slowly to every image of different types of entities. One image caught his eye as he looked carefully at the image which he recognised it’s the same appearance of the ‘dwarf thing’ that he has saw at the entrance in the woods. He clicked on it & read:

“Fox Imps, they are devil fairy-like spirits that roams around the woods with instruments, they appear as a gnome sized creature that stands, walks & runs on both feet with black hats, pale white fur with slim black eyes & a permanent grin as their physical appearance. There are two types of them, fox imp number one are usually spotted in the woods near tree houses or cabins, lake areas with or without boats presented or at the seashores during the night. They would appear with black boater hats with two long black ribbons dangling down from behind their hats down to their knee length: which this specific hat that they are wearing is based off an Italian origin of boaters from Venice who wears boater hats that has a singular ribbon tied around it as an accessory. Fox imp number two are spotted around sacred places such as temples, cathedral churches, stonehenge, cemeteries, they can also be spotted at abandoned places &  foggy places. Their appearance is the same as the first one but their hats is very different from the first fox imps: they wear a black stiff bucket witchy-like brim hats with two black belts hanging from behind. More information: These fox imps are musical geniuses such so they will carry any instruments as their own artifacts to make melodies with or to play with just for fun. They may seem harmless but they do have intentions that can bring misfortune or physical harm to humans if acted upon as for their own entertainment. Since they are “fox spirits”, fox spirits are known for their mischievous behaviour & they should not be around humans due to the abilities they possess as well as their trickery. They use instruments as an hypnosis item since melodies create strong frequencies & music itself can manipulate human emotions. Fox imps has the ability to mimic voices from other humans or animals that they imitate as well as they can make illusions in one’s minds. They may also possess a human’s body but that’s a very rare case for them to do that, it’s not common for them to be able to possess another body. However it’s common for them to shapeshift into objects, animals or children & adult humans. Their main manipulation technique is using instruments to lure humans into their hidden tricks, you wouldn’t know till you approach it, it’s not advised to do so, as these imps can be quite dangerous towards the living.”

Devor didn’t say a word as he became intrigued, now it all makes sense to him when connecting the dots from his research. What he has encountered was a mischievous devil fairy-spirit called “imps” & they are known from European folklore but the ones he encountered were fox imps with fox-like features either a normal red fox kind of look or fennec fox or maybe a mix hybrid of fennec & red fox features but the little fella’s fur are cold white resemblance as ghosts. “The one I saw was wearing a boater hat & was playing this melody.. what as it?” He said to himself.

He spent more hours to figure out online & found similar songs on YouTube that were actually indeed folk traditional flute music originated from .. Italy.

Everything made so much sense to Devor as he was discovering these little creatures since it was his first time encountering a spirit but still he’s anxious about everything he had heard & seen.

It was time to go to bed, he switched off everything & put a singular candle on to light up his room for the night, he felt safe as he cuddled up his pillow under the blanket. Slowly devor closed his eyes, about to fall asleep, suddenly

a melody from a flute appeared in his room:

“♩   ♩  ♩  ♩  ♭♩  ♩ ♩ ”

End.

Author: Octovia

Fox imp character/s(creatures) originally created by: Octovia

Literary Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Folklore, Horror