Sleep Little Dreamer (feat. The Children of the Doomed)

#[INTRO – CHILDREN OF THE DOOMED] [music box • distant wind • faint strings] Sleep little dreamer Close your weary eyes Snow will guard the valley Beneath forgotten skies Rest little dreamer Morning comes too soon The forest keeps its secrets Beneath the pale-faced moon [whispering winds emerge] #[VERSE I] Far beyond the reach of roads and memory stood a village hidden among ancient mountains. Black pines surrounded its weathered houses like silent sentinels, their twisted branches clawing endlessly toward the heavens. The people who lived there spoke little of the wilderness. They respected it. They feared it. And when winter arrived, they barred their doors long before darkness descended. The elders told stories beside the hearth. Stories older than the stone foundations beneath their homes. Stories of voices drifting through the forest after snowfall. Stories of children who wandered too far from the safety of the valley and were never seen again. Yet no one truly believed them. Not anymore. #[ASCENT] Then came the winter of the seventh frost. The cold arrived early. Merciless. Unnatural. Streams hardened into glass. Livestock perished in their pens. The mountain passes vanished beneath endless white. And when the church bell rang on the final evening before solstice... Something answered. From deep within the forest. #[CHORUS] And through the snowfall came their voices Soft as lullabies carried upon the wind Calling every soul by memory Calling every sorrow hidden within The Children of the Doomed Still singing through the branches Still wandering through the winter Still waiting among the pines #[VERSE II] At first only a few heard the singing. A shepherd returning home after dusk. A widow gathering firewood near the tree line. A hunter who followed the melody into the fog and never returned. The voices sounded familiar. Comforting. Like forgotten friends. Like family members long buried beneath the earth. Those who heard them described the same sensation. A longing impossible to resist. A desire to follow. To leave everything behind. And walk into the forest. One by one people began to disappear. No screams. No struggle. No tracks leading away. Only footprints heading deeper into the snow-covered woods. Never returning. #[CHILDREN OF THE DOOMED] [layered choir] Sleep little dreamer Do not be afraid Come and join the others Beneath the evergreen shade Sleep little dreamer Lay your burdens down Leave the world behind you And wear the winter's crown #[ORCHESTRAL INTERLUDE] [female soprano • uilleann pipes • strings] Panic spread through the village. Search parties carried lanterns into the wilderness. They marked trees to avoid becoming lost. They tied ropes around their waists. They traveled in groups. Yet every path twisted back upon itself. The forest seemed alive. Watching. Guiding. Hunting. The men returned exhausted and terrified. Many spoke of distant figures moving between the trees. Small figures. Laughing. Waiting just beyond sight. #[VERSE III] As the longest night approached, the singing grew louder. Every household heard it. Every window trembled with its melody. Parents held their children close. Candles burned until dawn. No one slept. Then shortly after midnight the voices stopped. The silence felt wrong. Heavier than any storm. And from the darkness beyond the village came footsteps. Hundreds of them. Tiny footsteps crossing fresh snow. Drawing nearer. #[BLACKENED BREAKDOWN] The doors remained closed. The shutters remained barred. Yet everyone heard them. Children laughing. Children whispering. Children singing outside every home. The same children who had vanished generations ago. The same children buried only in memory. Waiting. Patiently. For someone to answer. #[FINAL CHORUS] And through the darkness came their voices Clearer than ever before No longer innocent No longer lost But ancient as the mountains themselves The Children of the Doomed Guardians of forgotten winters Keepers of abandoned names Calling the living toward the forest Where no dawn has ever reached #[OUTRO] [music box returns] Sleep little dreamer Close your weary eyes The forest keeps its secrets Beyond forgotten skies Sleep little dreamer The snow has come once more And we shall Scream forever Forevermore Forevermore...