First chapter: The Stallion

It was like someone punched me hard while in reality it was only the mossy ground that I fell on. It should’ve been someone who slapped me, punched me, wounded me. I should’ve been punished for leaving Jessica all on her own in the painting.

“Hyukjae,” I heard a soft and concerned voice ring out. Tiffany was calling for me.

I creaked my eyes open and saw only a blur of white and blue. I blinked a few times to get a clearer view but regretted doing that almost immediately when I got a clear view.

I could still see a canvas texture over everything I saw! That meant that we were not out of the paintings!

I whimpered as I sat up. I felt some weight on my shoulders and I looked back to see Tiffany hanging on my shoulders with shimmering tears in her eyes.

“Are you hurt?” She asked me. I shook my head and looked at the mossy ground beneath me.

“Of course, he isn’t hurt,” I heard an annoyed voice say, “he fell on top of me!”

I turned to see Donghae leaning against a tree. He was wearing different clothes than before. And not only Donghae but the others too. I looked down, I was wearing different clothes too! The clothes looked a lot like the ones that Sungmin gave me before but the simple brown pants and crème shirt seemed like they could handle more. Kyuhyun’s and Ryeowook’s attire seemed a lot like mine though Kyuhyun’s boots were reaching up to his knees and he was wearing a dress shirt while Ryeowook was wearing a jacket over his shirt (probably because he was cold very quickly). Yesung was wearing completely black clothes that seemed easy to move in, they were very similar to the clothes he had worn before, it almost looked like his old clothes except for the fact that these clothes had no holes in them at all. Sungmin was wearing a white shirt with crème colored pants and he wore a belt around his hips with a sword dangling on it just like Donghae and Yesung. Tiffany was wearing the most colorful clothing of us all. She wore a red blouse with a tight fitting, black corset over it and black pants.

And Donghae wore the most sophisticated clothing of us all. His black pants and brown leather boots seemed to be made out of the best quality of fabric that there was. And his dress shirt seemed to be made of some sort of silk though I was pretty sure that it wasn’t silk…

“Why are you dressed like that?” I snapped at him, completely ignoring his mockery from before.

Donghae looked down at his clothes. “What do you mean?” He feigned ignorance, making me even more annoyed with him.

I narrowed my eyes dangerously at Donghae who looked back without showing any fear. And I was about to lash out on him but Ryeowook diverted my attention by asking: “Are you feeling well enough to travel?”

Confused, I nodded with my head. I was about to ask why but Donghae cut me off by saying: “Great, then I’ll just draw the horses.” He pushed himself off the tree and walked with a confident pace to a more spacious spot.

And gone was my control over the situation. I unconsciously pouted and watched Donghae unpacking his materials. He especially gave the darker brown colors a more prominent place but I was surprised to see that the red color just like the yellow color close too.

He was drawing horses, right? Why did he need to have those colors. I had never seen a red horse before nor a yellow one.

But I kept my mouth shut. Donghae was the master painter here and I wasn’t even able to draw a wolf so I really couldn’t say anything about it.

The others had been having a small conversation but they all stopped talking the minute that Donghae dropped his brush in the black paint. As if we were hypnotized, we stared at the brush that was held up in mid-air.

Donghae turned his head and saw our stares. He arrogantly smirked, turned around and swayed the brush to the left. I was baffled to see the of paint hanging in the air. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Donghae dramatically waited for a second before finally beginning with painting. Curved of paint hung in the air as Donghae drew the outlines of the horse. When he was done, he took a few steps and took in the horse’s height. Then he nodded to himself and stepped closer. He placed his brush on the horse’s back and then moved the brush towards his chest, making a curved line for the abdomen and he continued from there on.

And as Donghae’s brush filled in the last spot on the horse’s feet. The stallion came to life.

The gigantic black blur stepped around a bit as if it was uncomfortable, and I could see why. Donghae had only used the black color. The horse had no ears, no eyes, no mouth, he didn’t even have a real hair. And yet we were all completely smitten with the animal like blur.

Donghae softly smiled and petted the stallion’s broad neck. Then he bowed down and dipped his brush in the white paint. The black paint on the brush and the white paint seemed to mix by themselves. Donghae just pulled the brush out of the paint and there was just a slightly brighter shade of black on the brush. I looked in the jar and there was only white in it.

I smiled in wonder. It seemed that the King’s paint was more special than I had thought. And Donghae was more talented than I thought. Well, the world was still full of surprises… Though I wasn’t sure which world that was, ours or the world we were now walking in.

Donghae was done with the hair, the manes and tail and he was now busy painting the eyes. I stood up and cautiously walked a bit closer. Donghae didn’t seem to mind that I was watching over his shoulder so I just continued to stand behind him as if I was his shadow. I watched as Donghae drew the pitch-black eyes of the horse. He suddenly lifted his brush again and casually painted over the eye of the horse.

“Why are you doing that?” I asked him curiously and luckily for me, Donghae didn’t mind that I asked questions though he did seem to mock me when he answered: “I’m making sure that he can wink at you.”

“Oh…” Was my smart reply until I caught on and I repeated: “OH.”

“Yes.” Donghae dryly answered.

Donghae withdrew his brush and the stallion blinked twice. And I saw his eye coming to life. A spark that was given by the sun was suddenly noticeable in