“Donghyun must me crazy.” I muttered to myself while pushing back wayward branches. I had already garnered a few nasty scratches from the twisted black trees. There was no marked path in this forest and, though the forest was dark enough already, I could tell time was ticking by at a steady pace. “I don’t have anymore time to waste!” I set off in a sprint and flew by the trees at a quick pace. If I were to get to the palace and find that mushroom I’d need to pick up the pace.

Soon I ran out of steam and slowed down to a stop. I had been running at full speed for almost ten minutes but it seemed as though I was still in the centre of the forest. I fell to the ground in a heap now exhausted from a continuous sprint. The ground was cold and twigs poked my legs. The trees here were much larger and the shadows they cast seemed darker than the night sky; it was unnerving.

“Great, now I’m even more lost.”

“If you’re lost,”

“We could help.” Two voices echoed from the shadows and I looked around curiously. Could this be another chance meeting with a cute young man? I carefully stood up, trying not to get rocks and twigs lodged in my hand, and scanned the trees. The little light from the patches of sky did nothing to aid my vision so I approached a large tree trunk. It’s base was wide enough to build a small shack on and it was so tall it towered above the other trees.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” I asked quietly while walking around the trunk.

“We’re here.” The two voices sounded again, but from either side of me. I faced the right and met eyes with a boy. He had a mop of black hair and wide doe eyes. He had a look of curiosity on his face and a childish smirk graced his lips; simply put, he was beautiful, prettier than me even.

“It seems the pretty girl is lost.” The voice to my left said again and I moved to face yet another boy. He was almost identical to the other boy, but this one had golden hair and, if I looked closely enough, a slightly more feminine face.

I took a few steps back and the two boys moved to stand next to each other. Even their clothes matched; a pair of black jeans and a white blazer with a silver tie. It was a rather amusing sight, two boys identical in almost every way.

“Hello. I’m Taekyung, could you perhaps point me in the direction of the Red Palace?” The two boys exchanged a slightly evil smirk and turned to face me again.
“We could show you,”
“But, you have to do something for us first.” They split the sentence into two parts; the blonde one talking first then the dark haired one. Everyone here wanted me to do something for them and it’s kind of getting on my nerves.

“What is it?” I asked warily.

“Plat hide and seek with us!” The two answered at the same time. Hide and seek? Are you kidding me?! They looked to be my age but they were still playing games like that? I don’t have the time to waste by playing.

“We’ll only show you the way if you play with us.” One twin said as if he read my mind. I guess I have no other choice.
“Okay then, I’ll play. Who’s it first?”

We had been playing for about an hour now and I was beginning to feel fatigue grow on me. I had discovered the twin’s names; the blonde one was Youngmin and the dark haired one was Kwangmin. I was suspicious of them at first but their quirky behaviour had started to grow on me. I had been hiding behind a massive tree root for the past five minutes and my legs were aching from having to crouch for so long.

“Found you!” Kwangmin’s head popped up from behind the root and I smiled tiredly before stretching my legs.

“New game. You’re it now Taekyung.” Youngmin had jumped down from the tree he was hiding in and the two were about to run off to their new hiding spots.

“Hey, guys. Don’t you think we’ve played enough?” I asked quietly. They stopped and turned to each other with a smirk; it was unnerving.

“Okay. Do you want to head off now?” Youngmin asked darkly. ‘What’s with the personality change?’

“Yeah, which way do we start from?”
“That way.” Both Youngmin and Kwangmin pointed to the right where the forest got even darker. They had already started walking in that direction so I jogged to catch up to them. Soon the forest became pitch black and I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.
“Hey, guys. Where are you?” I called out into the darkness while my panic rose. I wasn’t afraid of the dark but this was suffocating.

“Right here.” Their voices came from either side of me and I felt a hand grip either one of mine. Thank god it was pitch black otherwise they would have teased me about my red cheeks.

The forest gradually got lighter and the trees grew further apart. Ahead the forest opened up and the orange light from the sunset shone through. The three of us started running and soon we stood at a clearing. The sky had turned pink and orange, the colours of sunset, and the sun hung low on the hills. But the clearing was only a few metres wide on each side; stretched out in front of us was a sea of red flowers.

“There it is.” Kwangmin pointed ahead of us, towards the hills. I squinted to see farther and I spotted a small building on the top of one of the hills.

“That’s the Red Palace.” Youngmin spoke up before walking forward with Kwangmin. The flowers parted in the middle and a narrow dirt path winded through them.

“Don’t step off the path.” Kwangmin said sternly while we walked along it.

“Why?” They were just flowers, and they weren’t talking like the ones before. He bent over and picked up a twig from the ground and turned to the flowers. ‘What’s he doing?’ He threw the twig into the flowers and they immediately started thrashing around. Guttural growls came from the flowers and if I looked close enough, I could see they had tiny mouths with rows of sharp fangs.

“That’s why.” I just nodded my head and kept to the centre of the path.

The sky was darkening to purple and the sun’s glow outlined the surrounding hills. We were currently climbing a steep hill which was difficult as the path became rocky and the flowers here growled loudly with every step we took. ‘This Red Queen must not have many visitors if this is how you get there!’  The palace had finally come into view and I can tell you, it was magnificent. The walls were a pristine white and the roofs were red cones. A high wall surrounded the castle showing a challenge.

“We should be there in about another ten minutes.” Youngmin announced while he kicked a few stones into the savage flowers.

“So, now what?” Youngmin and Kwangmin announced at the same time while we stared at the wall in front of us. Even if we were to stand on each other’s shoulders we would be no where near reaching the top.

“You can’t go through the front gate, the guards would kill you on the spot when you don’t have a summoned paper.”

“And that mushroom is probably off limits to anyone but the Queen, selfish hag.” Kwangmin muttered to himself while pacing the wall.

“Maybe there are gaps or cracks in the wall. If there is one big enough we can get through it.” I said hopefully, as it was our only chance of getting in. The twins looked at each other and shrugged. We scoured the wall for any way to enter but so far we found nothing but a few cracks in the paint.

“Over here! I found a hole!” Youngmin’s voice echoed across the wall. Kwangmin and I raced to him and saw a gaping hole in the wall. It looked just big enough for us to squeeze through.
“Well, time to visit the old witch.” Kwangmin said with a grin before crawling through the hole. His feet disappeared and I bent over to look through. The hole was quite long but Kwangmin’s face could be seen from the other side.

“Well, here we go.” I announced before sliding into the concrete hole.

Hello! So that's the end of character introductions and the story really starts now. I only expect this to be three or four more chapters long so it should be finished soon.

Comments and subscriptions are much appreciated.