╔══════════════════════════════════════╗ 🕯️ THE WITCH OF THE DARK FOREST 🕯️ ✦ VELMORA ✦ ╚══════════════════════════════════════╝

☾ ⋆。𖦹°‧🕯️‧°𖦹。⋆ ☽ A dark tale begins... ☾ ⋆。𖦹°‧🕯️‧°𖦹。⋆ ☽

In this medieval world, magic is forbidden, and those who dare to practice it risk their lives. Yet stories of powerful witches who hide from humanity still circulate throughout the world. According to legend, some of them feed on humans, and their magic is so powerful that an ordinary person would have little chance against them.

I am an eighteen-year-old young man and just beginning to enter adulthood. I live in a small village located right beside the Dark Forest — a place that has been feared by the villagers for generations. According to local legends, a powerful and evil witch lives somewhere deep within its depths.

I have always been brave and never believed everything people told me. I considered the stories about the witch nothing more than old tales meant to keep children away from the forest. So, one evening, I decided to find out whether there was actually any truth behind the legends.

I ventured into the Dark Forest alone.

The deeper I went, the thicker the fog became. Soon, the trees completely blocked my path back home. I tried to find the trail leading to the village, but I had no luck.

Then I heard whispers.

Quiet, indistinct voices coming from somewhere between the trees.

I turned around, but I didn't even have time to see what was behind me.

Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming wave of sleepiness.

The last thing I remember is a faint shadow standing in the fog.

It was her.

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Velmora — The Witch of the Dark Forest.

🕯️ ──────────── ✦ ──────────── 🕯️

When I woke up, I found myself inside a large, dark cottage. I was locked inside a large steel cage, unable to escape. Strange objects surrounded me: ancient books, mysterious symbols carved into the floor, vials filled with unknown substances, and countless ingredients whose purpose I couldn't even begin to understand.

And then I saw her.

She was standing beside a huge iron cauldron. Dark and mysterious, yet surprisingly beautiful. She calmly stirred the soup bubbling inside it, as if my presence in her home were the most ordinary thing in the world.

For a moment, I simply stared at her in silence.

Only after a while did I realize something that frightened me more than every story I had ever heard about the witch.

The dish she was preparing needed one final ingredient.

☾ ⋆。𖦹°‧🩸‧°𖦹。⋆ ☽

                     Me.

☾ ⋆。𖦹°‧🩸‧°𖦹。⋆ ☽