Snow was circulating around me, not one flake fell onto me – however, I could still feel the cold nipping at my bare skin. The prick of the cold caused my finger tips to turn a vicious pink that was similar to the color on my nose, cheeks, and the tips of my ears. The freezing air caressed my skin rather harshly, causing goose bumps to rise in its wake and a tremor to run down my spine. My senses were numb, my legs were moving but I wasn’t sure if I was actually moving or not because the resilient snow that fell around me refused to let me see if I was truly traveling or if it was all up in my head.  Colors clashed in my vision, the snow was an odd color – gray.

Whispers buzzed in my ears, all different voices and holding a variety of tones. The voices’ words tormented me – some called me names some brought about the hunger of curiosity that they would then refuse to fill. Others brought about pain, picking at old scars and creating new ones – all wanting to see the ruby liquid of blood or the clear rivulets of tears. Others were neither friendly nor vicious; they were just there whispering words into my ears. The most harmful of them all were the sweet voices whose toxic words were laced with such tenderness and concern that it brought about a pain in my chest. The whispers blended together sometimes, all mixing together so that not one sentence was actually coherent.

As I continued on with my walk – or stationary struggle - I saw a figure facing me, completely hidden by their black cloak. The hood hung over their face, only allowing their mouth and chin to be apparent under the fabric. Those lips moved, forming words that were blocked out by the whispers, the words lost to the unending slur of sounds from imaginary people.  

Pushing myself harder, it because apparent that I was indeed moving and the figure’s words slowly became louder. The slight raspiness of the voice caused yet another shiver to travel down my spine, caressing my eardrums and for once, causing all the other voices to fall silent. The voice hit something deep within me; bringing about an odd feeling of trust.

“Don’t trust those around you, this world is filled with corruption and the only people you can trust are those who share a similar past to you. You might not believe me, but don’t let the voices of the darkness affect you because once they plant the seed of one of their thoughts into your mind, it’s too late for me and your kingdom. Once the seed is planted, you will most likely throw me away and throw away the whole world’s hope of stopping the spread of the dark void where I’ve been held captive since my birth fifteen years ago.”

As I got closer to the figure an odd warmth settled over me – protecting me from the biting cold that I had previously been surrounded by. I felt protected and comfortable.

I reached out, grasping ahold of the fabric of the figure’s hood in preparation to pull it down, but his words distracted me as did the feeling of his finger’s caressing my cheek, leaving a burning sensation where his skin ghosted against mine.

“Your parents as well as mine had left the mission of protecting you from the darkness to me and I will not let them down. Minki, please ward off their thought for just a little while longer. Just wait four more days, and then I will be able to join you. I’ll be able to stand beside you and protect you from all the evil that is after you. I will be able to protect you from the darkness in all its forms. Minki, I will be there to protect you when they finally find you.”

With that I pulled back the fabric of the cloak to reveal the speaker’s face, however, just as I was about to see their eyes the darkness consumed me and many deep, demonic voices spoke to me in unison draining the warmth that was previously surrounding me and filling it’s empty void with the cold yet again.

“We need to find the prince. We need to prevent him from gaining powers from that mage – however, do not kill the mage we need him to find the prince and we need him for what he knows.”

Suddenly the light enveloped me again with warmth stronger than before, causing me to break a sweat and squirm in attempt to be released from its grasp. The raspy voice returned, saying, “Minki…”

However, it refused to finish it’s sentence, it just kept calling my name, as his call came rather constantly, I felt the edges of sleep disappearing and felt myself waking up.  As I felt myself awakening, the voice changed from the warm raspy one to an overly familiar one.

“Minki, hurry up and wake up! Mr. Jung is going to punish you if he returns and sees you sleeping on his couch.”

I found myself shooting up into a sitting position, opening my heavy eyelids as I began to process that my forehead hurt. I pouted, slightly, rubbing both the sleep from my eyes and my sore forehead.

“Good, you’re finally up,” muttered Youngmin, rubbing his own forehead, “I would be very happy that you’ve finally joined the land of the living again, but the horrible head ache I have right now is preventing me from doing so.”

“Sorry hyung,” I said, jumping up and hugging him.

“Mr. Jung is home,” muttered Kwangmin, from where he stood by the window looking at bit frightened because the owner of the house was a jerk – to put it nicely, “We’re supposed to be ready to go back to the shop.”

Youngmin cursed and jumped to his feet, scurrying around with his twin to collect and put the supplies we had used to clean his mansion up. As I stood there watching them run around in slight panic, the last bit of sleep let go of my mind and I finally processed what had been said and ran to help them put the last bit of supplies up.

Just as we returned to the main hall, the front door opened and the rather – how do I say this nicely – short and stocky, muscles man walked in. His gray hair was kempt and gelled in a style that would look on anyone who wasn’t housing as many wrinkles as he was. He was handsome when he was younger, as seen in the pictures placed throughout his house but he didn’t age very well and it didn’t help that his eyebrows were always furrowed and there was a constant frown that found its home on his face.

The grumpy old man glared at the three of us, snapping at us with hatred in his voice, “What are you brats still doing here? I told you to scram!”

The three of us, nodded, keeping our heads down and our gazes on the floor respectfully seeing as whom we were peasants and he was a nobleman.

“SCRAM!” growled the old man, opening the front door and shoving us all rather harshly towards the door.

“Y-yes sir,” responded the twins, making me glare at them and look towards the noble, “What about our pay?”

“I’ve already dropped it off, if you had been paying attention this morning you would’ve known,” hissed the male, “Now get off of my property before I have my men you to the police.”

I nodded before walking out of the house, being sure to slam the door on my way out, causing the twins to flinch and look at me.

“You know he’s going to complain to Miss Kim right?” said Youngmin, looking at me.

I smiled and nodded, “Let him, maybe she’ll finally stop sending us to tend to his house while he’s away.”

Youngmin looked at me in disbelief while Kwangmin looked at me with a little bit of hope.  The twins then looked at each other, whispering to each other and having a heated argument that I was unable to hear before they both turned to look at me again – Kwangmin smiling and Youngmin scowling.

Youngmin then spoke in a slightly hushed voice, “Let’s hope so, because if we get another beating I’m going to knock you both upside the head.”

I smiled widely, while Kwangmin smiled rather shyly. Seeing how they were walking side by side and left me to walk behind them by myself, I ran up and ran between them, grabbing ahold of one of their arms and pulling them along with me.

“Guys, be happy! We don’t have to sleep on the old rotting floor of that house anymore.” I said cheerily, smiling widely at both of them.

“Our beds at the shop aren’t that much better,” said Youngmin, scowling yet again at me, “they are just piles of blankets that cover rather lumpy hay.”

“At least it’s more comfortable.” I shot back.

“That is true,” agreed Kwangmin, only to be glared at by his older brother which he responded to by mouthing his apologies to him behind my back.

As we came to the bridge that divided the rich half of town from the poor side, I let go of both their arms and pouted as I turned to face them.

“Fine, could you guys at least be happy that we have the next four days off?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and frowning, “or at least be happy that my birthday is tomorrow?”

The two looked up at me in shock suddenly, keeping their stare on me.

“What?” I asked, wiping at my face, “Is there something on my face?”

The two shook their heads and Youngmin spoke up, an apologetic tone in his voice, “We kind of forgot about your birthday due to how busy we’ve been recently.”

I frowned slightly before smiling, “It’s alright.”

“No it’s not,” Said Kwangmin, “We only have one gift for you.”

“So, at least I still have both of you with me,” I said, “that is a good enough gift.”

They both smiled, a bit more relieved.

“Why do you both seem so guilty?” I asked, curiously.

“It’s because the gift we have for you isn’t actually from us, it’s a gift from your mother…” muttered the duo, causing me to look at them in shock, “Our mother gave it to us before she passed away last year telling us to give it to you for your birthday this year.”

I peered at them curiously, “Why?”

The two shrugged and Kwangmin grabbed ahold of my arm, causing me to turn around and head towards the shop. Youngmin fell in step beside his brother as he whispered so only his twin and I could hear him, “All our mother told us was to protect it with our lives and give it to you when you turned fifteen. She also told us that your mother told her to tell us to tell you that it’s something that’ll lead your guardian to you and you back to our home kingdom.”

“Our home kingdom, weren’t we born here in Evermoon?” I asked, peering at the two.

Youngmin nodded his head, “You were, however, the two of us weren’t. Also, your blood ties lead to the same place where we were born.”

“Where is that?” I asked.

“Miro,” responded the two, shock hit me to the point that I stopped moving.

“B-But…It’s a frozen wasteland, how could anyone live there?” I asked, my voice barely coming out.

“No one does anymore…there is some sort of story behind the reason where here,” responded Kwangmin, “however, our mother died before she could tell us the full story.”

I looked at them in concern, “Then how are we going to learn about it?”

“Apparently, this guardian of yours will tell us everything,” said Youngmin, grabbing his brother’s arm and resuming our walk back to our home – Miss Kim’s Shop, “Because apparently he knows everything.”

“How will we find this guardian though? The capitol is humongous, it’s going to take days for him or her to find us,” I whispered, entering deep thoughts, “there are thousands of people here.”

Youngmin nodded, “However, as we said before, our mother told us that he will find you in a matter of three days after your birthday – so if she calculated this properly, it’s our last day off. She also told us not to go looking for them.”

I sighed but nodded, “But still, how will they find us?”

“They will find you through the family heirloom you will be receiving,” state Kwangmin, smiling at me, “However, that is all we know. As for our families’ past, we know nothing what so ever.”

I nodded, and let my head drop to stare at the dirt road we had stepped onto as we neared the shop finally. I stared at my torn up shoes, a faint frown upon my face as I thought about what the twins had just told me and about the so called ‘guardian’ that would come in four days, then suddenly all the nightmares and dreams I had been having this past week came to mind and a picture of the hooded figure flashed through my mind. A feeling appeared in my gut and I knew for a fact that something big was going to happen to the three of us in four days – I don’t know what or if it’s good or bad. I just know something is going to happen.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter - I'm sorry it took me so long to get it up, I didn't have power for a little while due to a big snow storm that hit where I live and my laptop obviously died (which is up in the mountains). I really do hope you liked the chapter and sorry for any spelling/grammar errors you see, I reread it a couple of times and fixed as many as I saw. So, how did you like it? (please, tell me your honest opinions.)

I'm going to try to post the second chapter in a couple of hours, so keep your eyes open. ^^

- Lane