Somewhere far away, yet very close, there was a village, once upon a time. The name of the place was long forgotten, it didn’t truly matter what it was called, it was what had passed there what was of importance. A young man stood strong, or at least so it seemed. Things weren’t always the way they appeared to the eye. A young hunter that is what the youth was at that point in time, he didn’t have a say in anything that mattered yet. Wisdom came with age, something the youngster didn’t have yet, neither wisdom nor age. His lack of height wasn’t working too well for him either. It was never something that bothered him though, but he truly stood out, or rather, stood low when he was among the other men in the village.

Jonghyun, as he was named, stood at the edge of the forest that surrounded the village, waiting for the elder of his family to present him with his hunting bow. It had been fate, for him to take over the position one of his uncles once had. It scared the young male, he hadn’t been out hunting yet at all, hence, Jonghyun wasn’t even sure whether he was strong enough to kill a creature, but in the end it was still his duty no matter how good the excuse he could come up with not to kill. A sigh escaped his body as he ran a hand though his dark brown hair. The waiting had made his nervousness grow strongly. There was the inevitable fact that something had to be killed, while life was something that should not lie in the hands of humans, only mother nature  was entitled to have that privilege. Jonghyun respected life and with that mother nature as well, but he was also fully aware of the fact that  for the survival of one kind, another had to die.

The sun was starting to reach it’s highest point of the day when the old man finally appeared with the equipment Jonghyun would need. The youngster took a bow to show his respects to his elder. The man seemed to be very accepting of the younger man in front of him. It was quite clear that there was a mutual feeling of respect between the two men. Without  wasting too many words the man handed over the hunting bow and arrows to the young man in front of him.

“Take this and may it help you to a successful hunt.”

Jonghyun accepted the bow gratefully and was quite amazed by the tool. It was still a very strange concept for him to understand. With the bow he could decide whether his prey would live or die. Life wasn’t something he was taught to think lightly of, yet with a hunting bow that was this light, he couldn’t help but to wonder how hard or easy it would be to kill. The young man knew that he suddenly had power in the palm of his hand, it was amazing and frightening at the same time.

Jonghyun was forced to come back to earth when the elder left with a small nod. The young male was left alone to his thoughts again. He was debating whether he would go into the woods to hunt right away. He wanted to try his luck, of course, but hunting was a very time consuming activity and since winter was approaching, the days grew shorter. He knew that it would be wiser to stay within the boundaries of the village, but then again, there was no adventure for a young man in following the rules all the time.
Thus it was decided, the first time hunter would go out and try his luck on a short hunt.

Jonghyun decided to head out quickly, he didn’t know whether he had made the correct choice, but he could always fall back on the excuse of being a foolish young man in the prime of his life. As a child he had been allowed to play along the edges of the immense forest. Though that had always been under strict supervision. He decided to stop recalling his childhood, as he was just wasting precious daylight with that.

The forest had always had a very magical glow, but this was the first time that the young man was truly feeling that glow. As it was the first time he wandered into it. It was as if his village was fading from all his memories as he wandered deeper into the forest, leaving only him as a small creature finding itself being intimidated by mother nature herself. From what could be seen from the village, there were just a lot of trees and bushes, but now that image was replaced by something much more vivid.

 Aside from the trees and bushes there was also an amazing variety in flowers that bloomed, even in the fall. The forest was clearly preparing itself for the incoming winter. The trees let their leaves fall, colouring the surroundings in a red and yellow hue. Birds could still be heard, but instead of being downright annoying, they were actually quite melodic and pleasant to hear. Everything seemed to be so full of live. Peace, that was what Jonghyun could feel deep inside, everything seemed peaceful.

His eyes scanned his surroundings briefly, for a moment the young man had forgotten why he was wandering deeper into the forest. He gripped his hunting bow and started to doubt himself as his mind returned to the task at hands, hunting. The brunet wasn’t so sure whether he had made the right decision, but he had already made the choice before entering the woods, so there was no other option in his mind but to follow through with the plan he made.

Again the young hunter scanned the area, but now he took his time to take in his surroundings more thoroughly, looking for a prey. Jonghyun sincerely hoped that he would get mother nature on his side. The male didn’t spot anything yet, but it didn’t influence his mood, it had lain within his nature to be optimistic, usually that mindset was rewarded. Though nothing was to be spotted, there was something else that lured him deeper into the forest. A faint, a mystical sound that reached the male’s ears made him curious. It was soft, yet captivating, it wasn’t like anything he had heard before. At first the melodic sound had seemed happy, but when Jonghyun started to listen more closely, there was nothing happy in the notes he heard. As if the thing which was producing that sound was intensely sad.

Without even thinking, Jonghyun started to walk toward the source of the soft, barely audible sound. His feet had carried him for a while, but he didn’t seem to get any closer. As if he was chased, his phase increased. With every step he went deeper into the woods, emerging in all the red hues around him. The male stood out, wearing plain village clothing, but he didn’t necessarily feel out of place. In fact his mind didn’t even allow him to think about anything but that sweet sound he was chasing. In the back of his head Jonghyun knew he could have been chasing but a mirage, but being young and impulsive, it was worth a shot.

The young male didn’t allow himself to take his time to actually pay attention to what was around him. He had grown ignorant of nature itself and had become obsessed with the sweet melody he was chasing. The elders would have found it to be one of the stupidest things to do, but to Jonghyun this was the best decision he had taken on his journey thus far.

With every single step he took the landscape seemed to chase. His expectation of the forest becoming denser as he went into it deeper, proved to be wrong. The trees seemed to grant each other more space to become larger and that was what they did. There were no small trees anymore, only giants. It made the young hunter feel even smaller than he already was compared to the nature around him, that was when he took the time to actually look around and catch his breath. Jonghyun hadn’t noticed that he was walking with such a speed that it was so high, it actually tired him. In that brief moment of rest, he managed to identify the sound he had followed to be a singing voice.

After catching his breath, the young hunter let himself be guided by the melodic sound. Once again the trees seemed to increase in size with each step he took. The shades of red and yellow also seemed to intensify, but some flowers, those that only bloomed at dusk, started to show their beauty. There were significantly more flowers in this less dense part. It was mesmerizing, he knew some of the girls back in the village would be more than delighted to even see the flowers.

Thus far Jonghyun hadn’t spotted another living thing, realizing that made a tiny bit of fear enter his heart. It wasn’t like nature to not have anything living in sight. Then again, since the young male was walking that fast, he was also producing quite a lot of noise, crushing leaves as he walked. He knew that would scare off most animals that dwelled in the woods.

He couldn’t even start to imagine what the forest would be like during springtime. It was already breathtaking in fall and Jonghyun made sure to remember a lot of what he saw. It was refreshing to have a change of atmosphere, the village seemed to forced, while during his walk in the woods, Jonghyun was feeling rather peaceful and calm.

In the brief moment in which the young hunter had been distracted, the voice had stopped singing. Jonghyun’s eyes widened in shock. He was struck with a sudden feeling of panic. He had lost the voice. The inexperienced hunter took a few deep breath, but with each breath he took he became more hesitant in deciding from which direction the voice had sang to him. After a few more deep breaths he decided to follow the instinct he had developed in his younger years. It was odd how he had forgotten about everything while chasing the voice.

It had always been tradition in his village to be trained to have at least some hunting skills. Jonghyun never expected to forget about them so easily. The male stood still and focussed on the direction in which he should be heading. He followed a trail that seemed to go uphill for some reason. It was the first hill he actually faced. The landscape had been quite flat thus far. The male let out a small curse since he hadn’t really counted on having to walk up a hill. He just prayed that it would be worthwhile.

Mother nature didn’t seem to be working in Jonghyun’s favour though. Dusk approached rapidly, meaning the true hunters of the forest would soon be emerging from their day time hide outs. As if the dusk wasn’t enough to be working against the brunet, he also started to feel large drips of rain. Another curse followed. Not only did it start to become dark, he was also getting wet. Though everything seemed to be against him, the voice started to sing again, lightening up the young male’s mood a bit. He didn’t waste any time, this was his chance to get closer to the source out of which the voice was to be heard.

The young hunter sped up and could only hope that his feet carried him fast enough to get to the source before it would stop to sing again. He could hear the voice getting louder and clearer, it was a strong indication that he was in fact getting closer. It didn’t seemed to be a mirage anymore, it was becoming very real, almost touchable.

The male continued to walk as fast as he could. With the speed he had, it didn’t take him long to reach the top of the hill he had cursed before. Once at the top, Jonghyun stopped in his tracks and it was as if the air he once breathed didn’t exist anymore.

He had reached to top somewhat effortlessly, due to the altitude he was on, Jonghyun had a very clear view of the open spot that lay on the other side of the hill. The young man had never expected to stumble upon an open spot in a forest that seemed as dense as it had been when he started his journey. He let the new surroundings sink in for a moment. It took a while to fully understand what he was seeing.

The open spot was covered in red and yellow leaves, creating something that Jonghyun had only heard of in old folk tales. As he looked closer, his big brown eyes started to grow large. The young male was beyond amazed by the sight that had been given to him. He could only call it a blessing. Jonghyun linked what he saw to the lore that had been taught to him ever since he had been a small boy. Tales of wonders and creatures that held a beauty that could only be found in the old folktales told by the elders. Never in his life had Jonghyun even dared to dream that he would get right in the middle of one.

Suddenly the young man had remembered how to breathe again. He had finally found the source, the one that possessed the voice he had been chasing like a dream. There it was on the edge of the open spot. A beautiful creature with sharp features. He didn’t know the gender of the creature, but that didn’t even matter. When Jonghyun had started it to breathe again, the creature seemed to take notice of him, looking up in de distance with green piercing eyes, like a deer that was startled. It only took a fraction of a second for Jonghyun to hide himself behind the nearest tree. A sudden realisation struck him, finally figuring out what he had just witnessed.

“A maiden”

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Author's Note; So here it begins~! it's really more of a prologue than a chapter, I know it's very dry and descriptive, it will get better soon~!

<3 

PS; comments are love <3