A girl walks down a forlorn road, with a whistle and a skip to her step. This road, one of pebble and dust, carries no living body, with a breeze floating along the grasses and trees. This girl, she steps and dances along the track, with a wonder and a grace befitting the fae. Before her is beauty and life, verdant and green. An old man approaches her from the front of the road, and she greets him.

"Hello, young sir!", she says.

"Hello!", says he, before his confusion sets in.

She turns her gaze from the old man and continues to walk, the sound of a body hitting the dusty trail behind her.

Next, a noble woman approaches.

"Hello, o radiance!", says the girl.

"Good morning!", says the noblewoman, before her face flushes.

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She turns her gaze from the noblewoman and continues to walk, the sound of a body hitting the dusty trail behind her.

She comes to a wall with a gate, plain and strong. She calls to the other side, asking

"Hello! May I come in??"

A boy, no older than seven summers, opens the massive door, timid and curious. He looks at her, not recognizing her, but he looks past her. His face doesn't change, but he shuts the door, and says "you may go."

The girl once again calls out,

"Please, may I come in?? Young Child, I so very much wish to come in!"

The boy does not reply, shaken from what he had seen. He knew if he opened that door, his mother and father would scold him.

"Little boy? Little boy!" She cries out, more desperate than before, before eventually being silent and still.

And yet, the boy still did not open the door, for he very did not wish to be scolded.

Five days and five nights pass by, and he finally opens the door, peeking beyond. No one could be seen, but the entire landscape, once green and verdant and beautiful was now dead and rotted, ashen and twisted, like a poisonous fire swept through the land. Three skeletons lay in the dirt, mangled and twisted, broken and torn.

The boy shudders all down his spine, and closes the door. As the door shuts solidly, he hears a cheery whistle behind him. He turns slowly.

There stood a girl, whistling cheerfully.