You're in the middle of a dark forest at night, guided only by the moonlight streaking through the trees, hoping each time the bushes nearby rustle that what you hear isn't a stealthy predator stealing upon you, waiting for the right time to pounce and to sink its teeth into your body. It's just some smaller animals freaked out by the sound of your steadily accelerating footsteps... right?

---- Backstory continued from previous piece ----
Just so happens it's Halloween... so here you have the finale of the three-piece adventure!

The last bit my friend asked of me was probably the most demanding: he wanted a battle theme for a dark forest - dynamic and/or heavy, but so that the darkness could be felt.

My knee-jerk reaction was that there had to be some wood instruments, probably percussion - but then what? I was a bit stumped (pun intended), since I've only ever heard forest themes that were either too light or slow for the feeling I was going for. I would have to experiment and improvise to come up with an appropriate follow up to "The Moment of Truth."

After a few days filling my ears with various bits and pieces, I sat down and decided to play with my sound library -- excellent decision, as it turns out, because that waterphone screeching occasionally in the background does amplify what the solo vocal achieves: a heightened sense of unease. I carried over the vocal into the piece after noticing that it conveniently promotes a common element between the three pieces and that it greatly enhances the depth of the soundscape - while the drums do add some depth, it's really the vocal that produces a lot of the space. The piano bursting in for a note at a time was an idea I picked up from a few of the spookier themes I've heard, too (I did stray off forest themes - I figured might as well draw from multiple topics). All in all, I stitched together this Frankenstein's Creation of a piece with gusto and shipped it off to my friend.

I was worried that it was too off-the-wall and almost immediately offered to rework it if he thought adjustments were needed, but turned out he liked it.

Long story short, I sent him the three short loops, and I am waiting to see what he does with them! That, and I offered to extend the themes if it became necessary.

Note: I did rebalance the piece a little before posting here. The waterphone, especially at the beginning, was a tad too loud; and then I played with some of the other levels, but tried to not change too much (the composition remains the same, just adjusted the mastering/levels).
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Done in FL Studio 12
Plugins/Sound Libraries: EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold, EW Symphonic Choirs Gold, EW Hollywood Orchestral Percussion Gold, EW Pianos Gold.
Work Timer: 3 hours 45 minutes.

Comments welcome! And if you like it, don't forget to hit 4 or 5 on the left to rate!
Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!