“There is something very wrong with this house.” Soyeon strode into her brother’s room, holding her expensive cell phone up to her face.

“I can’t get a signal anywhere.”

She moved around the room, watching the screen, but the signal bar remained flat.

Seungho looked blankly at his sister.

“Wrong with this house?” he repeated incredulously.

The he spoke very slowly. “Soyeon, we’re inside a tree! I’d say there’s something wrong with that, wouldn’t you ?”

When Gyuri had finished speaking with Jihoon, she had turned and disappeared into the woods without saying a word to them, and it had been left to Jihoon to bring them to the goddess’s home.

Instructing them to leave the car, he led them down a narrow winding pathway that cut through the overgrown woods.

They had been so intent on the strange flora – huge bruise—colored flowers that turned to track their movements, vines that slithered and squirmed like snakes as they followed them, grasses that had not existed since the Oligocene era – that they failed to notice that the path had opened out, and that they were facing Gyuri’s home.

Even when they looked up, it took them several moments to make sense of what they were seeing.

Directly ahead of them, in the center of a broad, gently sloping plain sprinkled with vast swathes of multicoloured flowers, was a tree.

It was the height and circumference of a large skyscraper.

The topmost branches and leaves were wreathed in wisps of white cloud, and the roots that burst from the ground like clawing fingers were as tall as cars.

The tree itself was gnarled and twisted, its bark scored and deeply wrapped around the tree and dangled from the branches.

“Gyuri’s home,” Jihoon explained. “You are the only living humani in the last two thousand years to see it. Even I’ve only ever read about it.”

Fei smiled at the looks on the twins’ faces.

She nudged Seungho. “Where exactly did you expect her to live? A trailer?”

“I wasn’t … I mean, I don’t know… I didn’t think ..,” Seungho began.

The sight was incredible, and from the little he had studied about biology, he knew that no living thing could grow so huge.

No natural thing, he corrected himself.

Soyeon thought the tree looked like an ancient woman, bent over with age.

It was all very well for Jihoon to talk about the distant past and a two-thousand-year-old warrior or a ten-thousand-year-old goddess.

The numbers meant almost nothing.

Seeing the tree was different.

Both she and Seungho had seen ancient trees before. Their parents had taken them to see the three-thousand-year-old giant redwoods, and they had spent a week camping with their father in the White Mountains in the north of California as he investigated the Methouselah Tree, which, at nearly five thousand years old, was supposed to be the oldest living thing on the planet.

Standing before the Methuselah Tree, a gnarled and twisted bristlecone pine, it was easy to accept its great age.

But now, seeing Gyuri’s tree house, Soyeon had no doubt that it was incredibly ancient, millennia older than the Methuselah Tree.

They followed a smoothly polished stone path that led to the tree. As they got closer, they realized that it was more like a skyscraper than they’d first thought. There were hundreds of windows cut into the bark, with lights flickering in the room beyond.

But it was only when they reached the main entrance that they appreciated just how vast the tree was.

The smoothly polished double doors towered at least twenty feet tall, and yet they opened at the merest touch of Jihoon’s fingers.

The twins stepped into an enormous circular foyer.

And stopped.

The interior of the tree was hollow.

From just inside the entrance, they could look straight up to where wispy clouds gathered inside the tree. A gently curving staircase curled up along the inside of the trunk, and every few steps brought them to an open doorway spilling out light,

Dozens of tiny waterfalls spouted from the walls and splashed down onto the floor far below, where the water gathered in a huge circular pool that took up most of the foyer.

The interior walls were smooth and unadorned, except for the twists and knots of vines that broke through the surface.

Seungho thought they looked like veins.

And it was completely deserted.

No one moved within the tree, nothing – human or inhuman – climbed the countless stairs, no winged creature flew in the moist air.

“Welcome to the Yggdrasill,” Jihoon said, stepping back and allowing them to enter.

“Welcome to the World Tree.”

Seungho held up his phone. The screen was blank.

“And have you noticed,” he asked, “there are no power sockets?”

“There have to be,” Soyeon said decisively. She walked over to the bed and dropped to her knees. “There are always sockets beside the beds … “

There were none.

The twins stood in the center of Seungho’s room and looked around.

His room was a mirror image of his sister’s. Everything around them was composed of a honey-colored blond woods, from the highly polished floors to the smooth walls.

There was no glass in the windows, and the door was a wafer-thin rectangle of wood that looked and felt like the papery bark of a tree.

The only item of furniture in the room was the bed, a low wooden futon covered with heavy fur throws.

A thick fur rug lay on the floor beside the bed.

It was dappled with and intricate pattern of spots that resembled no animal either of the twins had ever seen.

There was also a tree growing out of the center of the floor.

Tall, thin and elegant, the red-barked tree rose straight out of the wooden floor.

No limbs protruded from the trunk until it came close to the ceiling, and then the branches burst out into a canopy that covered the roof.

The leaves were a deep, luxuriant green on one side, ash white on the other.

Every so often, some spiraled to the floor, and covered it in a soft, almost furry carpet.

“Where are we?” Soyeon asked finally, unaware that she had spoken the thought aloud.

“California?” Seungho said softly, but in a voice that suggested he didn’t quite believe what he was saying.

“After all we’ve seen today?” Soyeon asked. “I don’t think so. We’re inside a tree. A tree big enough to house the whole University of San Francisco campus, a tree so old that makes the Methuselah Tree look like it was just planted. And don’t try to tell me it’s a building shaped to look like a tree. Everything here is made from natural materials.” She drew a breath and looked around. “Do you think it could still be alive ?”

Seungho shook his head. “Can’t be. The whole inside is scooped out. Maybe it was alive a long time ago. But now, it’s just a shell.”

Soyeon was not so sure. “Seungho, there is nothing modern and nothing artificial in this room, no plastics, no metals, no paper. Everything looks hand carved. There aren’t even candles or lanterns.”

“It took me a while to realize what those bowls of oil were,” Seungho said.

He didn’t tell his sister that he’d been about to drink what he thought was some sort of sweet-smelling fruit juice when he’d seen the wick floating in it.

“My room is identical to yours,” Soyeon continued. She lifted her phone again. “There’s no signal, and look” –she pointed—“you can actually see the battery draining away.”

Seungho brought his head close to his twin’s, their brown hair mingling, and stared at the rectangular screen.

The battery indicator on the right-hand side was visibly falling, bar by bar.

“You think that’s why my iPod has no power either?” Seungho asked, pulling it from his back pocket. “It was fully charged this morning. And my computer is dead.” He suddenly looked at his watch, and then he lifted his arm to allow his sister to see it.

The face of the chunky military-style digital watch he wore was blank.

Soyeon looked at her own watch. “Mine is still working,” she said in surprise. “Because it winds up,” she said, answering her own question aloud.

“So something is draining the power,” he muttered.

“Some energy in the air?” He’d never heard of anything that could draw energy from batteries.

“It is this place,” Fei said, appearing in the doorway.

She had changed from her black military-style combats and T-shirt into green and brown camo pants, high-top combat boots and a cut-off camo t-shirt that exposed her muscular arms

She was wearing a short sword strapped to her leg and there was a bow over her left shoulder, with a quiver of arrows just visible over the top of her head.

Soyeon noticed that there was a Celtic-looking spiral design etched into Fei’s right shoulder. Soyeon had always wanted a tattoo, but she knew her mother would never let her get one.

“you have gone beyond your world into a Shadowrealm,” the warrior added. “The Shadowrealms exist partially in your world and partially in another time and space.” The Warrior remained standing by the door.

“Are you not going to come in?” Soyeon asked.

“You have to invite me,” Fei said, with a peculiarly shy smile.

“Invite you in?” Soyeon turned to her twin, eyebrows raised in a question.

“You have to invite me in,” Fei repeated, “else I’ll not be able to cross the threshold.”

“Just like vampires,” Seungho said, abruptly feeling as if his tongue were too thick for his mouth.

After today, he was quite prepared to believe in vampires, though he really didn’t want to run into one.

He turned to his twin. “The only way a vampire can enter a house is if he or she is invited. Then they can drink your blood … “ He turned to look at Fei, eyes suddenly wide. “You’re not a … “

“I don’t like that term,” Fei snapped.

“Fei, please enter,” Soyeon said, before her brother could protest further.

The Warrior hopped lightly over the threshold and entered the room. “And yes,” she said, “ I am what you would call a vampire.”

“Oh,” Soyeon whispered. Seungho tried to stand in front of his sister to protect her, but she pushed him out of the way.

Although she loved her brother, there were times when he could be too protective.

“Don’t believe everything you’ve read about my race,” Fei said, moving around the room, peering through the windows into the lush gardens.

An enormous yellow-white butterfly fluttered past the opening.

It was the size of a dinner plate and had not existed on the earth since the Jurassic period.

“Gyuri created and maintains this place by an extraordinary use of magic,” she continued.

“But magic, like everything else, follows certain natural laws. Magic needs energy, and it takes that energy wherever it can find if, even from the tiny batteries in your electrical toys. If no other source of energy is available, it will take the life force of the magician who created it. That is why every use of magic weakens the magician.”

“Are you saying nothing electrical works in this Shadowrealm?” Soyeon wondered aloud, and then she shook her head quickly. “But Gyuri used a phone. I saw her showing it to Jihoon earlier. Why doesn’t its battery drain ?”

“Gyuri is immensely powerful and Is more or less immune to the effects of the magic she generates. I would imagine that she keeps the phone on her person so it doesn’t drain, or possibly she keeps it in the real world with a servant. Many members of the Elder Race have human servants.”

“Like Jihoon and Junhyung ?” Soyeon asked.

“Jihoon serves no Elder,” Fei said slowly. “The Book is his master. Junhyung, on the other hand … well, no one knows exactly who, or what, he serves,” She glanced over her shoulder, her gaze lingering on each of them.

“You’ll probably find yourself feeling exhausted in about an hour, muscles sore, maybe even a little headachy. That’s the magical field feeding off your auras. Don’t be too concerned, however your particular auras are exceptionally strong. Just drink plenty of liquids.” Fei moved from window to window and leaned forward, peering out.

“I know they are out there, but I can not see them,” she said suddenly.’

“Who?” Soyeon wondered.

“The Torc Allta.”

“Are they really wereboars? I mean, men who change into boars?” Soyeon asked. She was conscious that her twin hadn’t spoken since Fei had entered the room.

He was staring at her, eyes wide in horror, mouth drawn into a thin line.

She knew that expression well. He was scared, and she guessed that he was thinking about all the vampire novels he’d read and movies he’d seen.

“No, not really,” Fei said. “I know Jihoon has told you that before the humani claimed the earth, the world belonged to other creatures, other races. But even amongst the Elder Race, the torc clans were special. They could transform from beast shape to man shape and back again.” Fei sat on the edge of the low bed and stretched her legs straight out in front of her.

“When the earliest humani first appeared, the Torc clans taught them how to work wood and stone and how to create fire. The humani worshipped the Torc clans as gods – why do you think so many of the earliest gods have animal shapes ? Think of the cave painting of creatures that are neither man nor beast but something in between. You must have seen statues of the Egyptian gods Sobek, Bastet and Anubis. Humani bodies, but with animal heads. Think of the dances where humani pretend to be animals:  they are just memories of the time when the Torc clans lived side by side with the humani.”

“Therianthropes,” Soyeon said absently.

Fei looked at her blankly.

“Figures that are made from animal and human shapes mixed together,” Seungho explained. “I told you that our parents are archaeologists,” he added. Then he looked quickly at the brown-haired woman. “Do you drink blood?” he asked suddenly.

“Yah!” Soyeon whispered.

“Ani, I don’t drink blood,” Fei said quietly. “Not now. Not ever.”

“But a vampire –“

Fei surged to her feet and two steps brought her directly in front of Seungho. She was not quite as tall as he was, but in that moment, she seemed huge.

“There are many types of vampires, many clans, just as there are many Were clans. Some of my race are blood drinkers, it is true.”

“But not you,” Soyeon said hastily, before her brother could ask any further awkward questions.

“No, not my clan. Those of my clan … well, we feed in … other ways,” Fei said with a wry smile. “And we rarely need to feed,” she added.

She spun away. “Everything you have been taught, all the myths and legends of your world, have a kernel of truth in them. You’ve seen wonders today. You will see more in the days to come.”

“What do you mean, in the days to come?” Seungho interrupted, voice rising in alarm.

“We’re going home, aren’t we?” But even as he was asking the question, he knew the answer.

“Eventually,” the Warrior said, “but not today, and definitely not tomorrow.”

Soyeon laid her hand on her brother’s arm, silencing the question he was about to ask.

“What were you saying about myths and legends ?” She asked.

Somewhere deep in the house a bell chimed, the sound high and pure. It lingered in the still air,

Fei ignored it. “I want you to remember that everything you know – or think you know – about myth and legend is not necessarily false, nor is it entirely true. At the heart of every legend there is a grain of truth. I suspect that much of your knowledge comes from movies and TV. Xena and Dracula have a lot to answer for. All minotaurs are not evil, the Gorgon Medusa did not turn every man to stone, not all vampires are blood drinkers, the Were clans are a proud and ancient race.”

Seungho attempted a laugh, he was still shaken by the revelation that Fei was a vampire. “You’ll be telling us next that ghosts exist.”

Fei’s expression remained serious. “Seungho, you have entered the Shadowrealm, the world of ghosts. I want you both to trust your instincts from now on. Forget what you know – or think you know – about the creatures and races you will encounter. Follow your hearts. Trust no one. Except each other,” she added.

“We can trust you and Jihoon, though, right ?” Soyeon asked.

The bell rang again, flat and piercing in the distance.

“Trust no one,” Fei repeated, and the twins realized she was not answering the question.

She turned toward the door. “I think that’s the dinner bell.”

“Can we eat the food?” Seungho asked.

“Depends,” Fei said.

“Depends on what?” he asked in alarm.

“Depends on what it is of course. I don’t eat the meat myself.”

“Why not?” Soyeon said, wondering if there was some particular ancient creature they should avoid.

“I’m a vegetarian,” Fei answered.

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Woo. An update, like finally ^-^ Hehe.

Sorry my dear readers. I was down with a cold and fever for like, 2 weeks x.x Horrible much ><

Anywaiz, comments pleazeeeeeeee <3 xD