Tell me a story; The haunted swamp

How I enjoyed illustrating the following tale! In a way the tale does not make sense at all, maybe you might even call it a little crazy. Never have I heard of a swamp where this many magical creatures and monsters live, but Carina could tell of one such and it was just around the corner of her father's house!

NOTE: would you also like to see your story get illustrated? please check out my previous blog post here and read the guidelines.

(Those who still wish to submit their story, please be quick because the final deadline is set on March 14th, 2010.)

(Please, click picture for bigger and better view)

Story Title: The haunted swamp
Submitted by: Carina
Country: Denmark

Where my father lives, there's a swamp, and my mother once told me this tale:

When there is fog in the swamp, the bog woman is brewing her ale, and the elves are dancing. Any human who passes by the elves, will be offered some of their wine and asked to dance with them. If he accepts, a beautiful elven woman will dance with him. When he puts his arm around the elf's back, he will notice her back is hollow, but by that time, it'll be too late for him to run. The elves will kidnap him, and bring him to their underground city, where they will keep him as a slave until the day he dies. No-one has ever escaped the hands of the elves.

Apart from the elves, there is also the Nixe, who lives in the lake and lures you to him with his beautiful Violin music. When he catches you he brings you to his underwater-house and eats you. There are the trolls who turn to stone should they be hit by sunlight and the wights who'll keep you as a pet. And every time she told me the story she would always, when the story ended, tell me this: "Don't ever go into the swamp alone, and don't even LOOK over there when its foggy, so they wont take you away." Thus I was scared to death by the swamp when I was younger.