a group of people standing in the woods with a full moon in the background

**The Silent Circle**In a small, forgotten village deep in the woods, there was an ancient ritual that had been passed down for generations--one that no outsider was ever meant to witness. The villagers called it "The Silent Circle." Each year, as the full moon rose high above the darkened forest, a group of villagers would gather in a clearing, their faces hidden beneath hoods of black cloth. The air would be thick with anticipation, and the trees would seem to lean in, as if listening for something far older than time itself.The ritual was meant to preserve the village--keep it safe from the dark things that lurked in the night. But no one ever spoke of what the dark things were, and no one ever spoke of what happened during the ritual. One fall, a young man named Elias, curious and eager to prove himself, wandered too close to the ritual site while hunting. He heard whispers on the wind, faint and distorted, like the voices of the long-dead. Drawn by an overwhelming urge to uncover the truth, he crept thro