Iola blinked against the bright sunlight filtering through her bedroom’s window, painting golden streaks across the bed sheet. Ruffling her long ebony hair she stretched her arms high, loosening up all the kinks and stiff muscles. Covering a yawn she slowly untangled herself from the blanket around her legs and stood up, grimacing when she felt her muscles protested. There was a feeling of lethargy clinging to her body, making her veins feels as if they were rubber and her eyes hard to open.

She groaned thinking of the class she had ahead of her. If only it wasn’t a mandatory lecture she needs for her thesis research, she would gladly skip the university today.

On top of the lethargy, though, there was a prickling in her mind which bothered her even more. She couldn’t put her finger on it; it was like a soft, quiet hum that resides deep inside, yet alive and thriving.

There was a knock and she turned to see a young man with brown hair and soft, kind eyes peeking from behind her bedroom’s door.

“Good morning, Iola.”

Iola smiled instantly at the sight of her older brother. “Good morning, Yunho.”

“Mom said breakfast’s almost ready, so you should come down soon.”

Satisfied with her nod, her brother left the room and she quickly went to the bathroom, a glance at the clock hastened her steps. A quick shower, putting on a simple attire and make-up only took a few minutes before she deemed herself ready. Taking a final look around the room to make sure she haven’t forgotten anything once done, she quickly made her way downstairs where the rest of her family had gathered at the dining table.

“Good morning Mom, Dad.” She gave them both a kiss on the cheek before sitting down at her seat, not forgetting to ruffle the hair of her younger, yet taller brother besides her. “Good morning to you too, Changmin.”

Changmin spluttered as he tried to fix his hair. “Hey! I spend a lot of time doing my hair today!”

“Yeah, and it still looked like you just rolled out of bed.”

“That’s the style, man, to look artfully messy!”

Yunho snorted from behind his coffee cup. “I’ll never understand you, Changmin.”

“That’s because you’re old and doesn’t know what’s cool if it bit you in the-“

“Now, now,” their mother quickly interrupted, frowning slightly at Changmin. “Why couldn’t we have a normal, quiet breakfast for once?”

Their father just grinned as he dropped a kiss on her cheek before he sat down. “If mealtimes were normal then I would’ve thought I was in the wrong house, dear."

Iola laughed and nudged her mother. “He’s right, Mom. You would miss it if things were quiet here.”

Her mother just sighed and quickly busying herself pouring the juice, but Iola knew there was a smile at the corner of .

Breakfast was loud and merry as usual, and Iola tried to enjoy the moment. It wasn’t often now that the whole family gathered like this; her brothers had left home for university and now only went back for semester breaks and holidays. She was the only one who still lives at home, since her own university was located nearby and she knew her father couldn’t bear to let her go too far away. The previous weekend had been a rare occasion since the whole family was together to celebrate Changmin’s birthday.

But try as she may to forget it, she was always reminded of that nagging humming at the back of her head, just hovering at the edge of her consciousness.

Soon it was time for her to go and she rushed out of the door, reminding her parents that she will be coming home late since she has an extra seminar at the university after her regular class.

As she walked down the narrow street of her neighborhood, the prickling sensation came back again and she rubbed her temple to ease her oncoming headache.

“Silly dream…” she mumbled softly, though her hands tugged the strap of her backpack nervously. “Just a silly dream.”

Checking her watch to see whether she can catch the next bus, it crossed her mind how abnormally quiet the street was, considering that it was usually noisy with the neighbor’s children going to school and the adults rushing off to work. She glanced curiously around the houses surrounding hers, when a movement ahead made her turned around again, only to stumbled back.

“Aaackk!!”

A bright light appeared in front of her, before exploding in white-hot intense heat and she covered her eyes from the sudden onslaught. Even from beneath her eyelids she can almost see the vivid brightness, until it vanished, leaving behind dark red spots on her corneas. After a few seconds of silence she slowly lowered her hands, peeking fearfully between opened fingers, and her jaw dropped.

“What in the name….?” she trailed off.

There was a floating white orb in mid air just at her face level, pulsing and shimmering with an almost silent hum. A sense of déjà vu prickled at the back of her mind, and without even realizing it her hand had risen up.

The moment her finger touch it the orb suddenly grew bigger and bigger, molding and shaping and opening up and the hum grew louder until her ears was ringing with it. Still the orb grew until it becomes a vortex of light, whirling around and pulling everything around it like a dazzling typhoon.

Iola realized too late that she was also being into it, her feet pulled closer and closer towards the vortex. Her hands scrambled for purchase but there was nothing for her to hold her ground, nothing solid she could grip to.

Her screams were muffled as the vortex pulled her into it, swallowing her down completely into the light before growing smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely with a small ‘pop’.

People strode back and forth at the small street, going over their daily business. No one seemed to notice that something out of the ordinary just happened.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Iola didn’t want to open her eyes. It was warm and soft and fluffy, and she wanted to stay in bed all day long. Besides, there was that hum in her head. Not like a headache and not entirely unpleasant; just a soft, humming at the back of her mind, that lulled her to feel comfortable and unwilling to open her eyes.

She smiled to herself and snuggled back into the fluffiness of it all, inhaling the scent of woods and grass deeply. And that was when the feeling of something not quite right hit her.

Her mother never uses woodsy scented detergent.

Still closing her eyes, her hand crept around slowly, feeling the surface she was lying on. It was soft, yes, but her eyebrows raised when she also noticed that it was also…..

Furry?

Finally her curiosity won out and she opened her eyes.

Only to wish that she hadn’t.

She was in a clearing of a forest. A thick, actual forest, full of the biggest trees she ever saw. Not mentioning the fact that there is no forest near her neighborhood or even the city she lived in, for that matter, but this was like no other forest she ever saw.

At once, the word colorful jumped into her mind. The trees’ trunks were ranging in color from soft gray to midnight black, from deep blue to fire-engine red. They were tall also, the branches of which reached across to form a kind of natural tunnel, thick and dense that in some places it almost covered the sunlight. Some trees were lower and smaller, though, with thinner, purple barks and branches hanging heavily with what seems like blue coconuts.

And the leaves! Iola was by no means a horticulturist, but she was pretty sure that normal trees don’t have white, hubcaps-sized leaves, or bright yellow that shaped like bells or pale pink that changes colors to deep rose everytime the wind blew through it.

Then there was also the greeneries, all with different colors than what she remember they used to, or at least she was pretty sure foliage and shrubberries was supposed to be green and other variations of that color, instead of green with orange and white and yellow and pink flecks all over it.

“Where am I….?” she whispered.

Slowly she got up, noticing her backpack just next to her head. The sight of the black bag somehow calmed her a bit, a familiar sight in a strange place and she grabbed it almost roughly, opening it quickly to check its contents.

“Okay, wallet, books, and…there you are!"

Iola took out her mobile phone triumphantly, already opening it to make a call, only to discover that it have no network service in the area.

“Great, just what I need,” she grumbled as she tried to stand up, and that was when she realized that she had been lying on a large patch of some kind of greenery. Gingerly she tried to touch it to find it surprisingly soft and thick and furry, almost like the carpet she had in her bedroom. Only this seemed like some type of golden moss and Iola swore that it was giving off a faint glow.

Somehow, to see the proof of yet another strange thing in this already strange place was the last straw before her mind started to begin a mild panic attack. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and she hit her fist over her chest to try to unclog whatever it was that was stopping her lungs from working. Unfortunately, the pain it caused just made her realize all the more that this was not, indeed, a dream.

On top of the mild panic attack the hum in her mind began to grow louder, buzzing and loud in her ears, while bursts of colors dance behind her eyelids whenever she blinked and all of it combined made her dizzy. Clenching her hands tightly, she tried to block the sound, forcing herself to stay alert.

‘Take a deep breath, then analyze your situation, calmly and clearly.’

Her father’s voice rang in her head, the way he’d advised her to do whenever she had a problem and Iola shook her head, trying to clear her mind. A few deep breaths later, she tried to think her situation over.

“Okay, okay, calm down. Let’s….let’s think back to what happened last,” she muttered as she began to pace back and forth, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

The orb.

Her eyes widened as she remembered being into the light, before waking up here. But…where exactly is here?

She looked around, finding only trees everywhere she looks. Surely there’s got to be somebody in this place, right?

Iola tried to walk a few meters ahead on a rugged path not far from the clearing, but made sure that she didn’t step too far. She didn’t know why, but there was an eerie feeling about the whole place and the