Once upon a time…

The Great Wizard Wu Yifan and his oh-so-unhelpful but pretty apprentice Luhan head into the Lost Forest. It is named as such because everyone who goes in is lost and if they’re not, they lose and change their ways. This isn’t so bad sometimes.

The Lost Forest isn’t a dark and creepy forest, full of scary unknowns waiting to pounce on unsuspecting travelers. No. This is a nice forest. Bright sunlight filters through the deep green canopy above, and occasional glimpses of pale blue skies and wispy clouds can be caught between the leaves. Birds keep a lively background tune that mixes with the babble of brooks and the rushing of rivers that cross the landscape. The soft breezes come down from the nearby mountains, and keep the grasses and trees dancing as the wizard and his apprentice walk down the forest path.

Lyre in hand and heart as light as a maiden in love, Luhan strums a few notes and lets them drift in the air for a moment before starting up a quick ditty.
 

Yifan groans. “Merciful gods, save me.”
 

“Lies,” Yifan mutters, picking out a leaf that had fallen on his shoulder. “It’s only been a hundred years.”
 

After the last note fades, Yifan pulls his hands away from his ears and sighs. Why had he taken on an apprentice in the first place? Oh yeah. After months of refusals to the offer of taking a pupil, the king had finally not asked anymore, but ordered Yifan to take Luhan under his wing. Or, to be more precise, under his wizard cape. The problem was—and still is—that Luhan rarely stays still long enough for Yifan to teach him anything.

Yifan sighs. “We certainly won’t find the beast now.”

“What? Why?” Luhan’s rosy lips push out in a pucker. It’s like he’s five and not five-and-twenty. Yifan is only two years older and he would rather throw himself in the castle’s crocodile infested moat than to be caught acting cute.

“Because your horrible singing just scared every living creature out of this forest,” Yifan snaps. He punctuates this with a dramatic flip of his wine-red cape over his shoulder and keeps on stomping his brand new, tall boots.

“I am bored and I am cold,” Luhan says, hanging his lyre by a string on the side of his leather pack once more. “How else should I pass the time?”

Yifan shrugs, an elegant roll of his shoulders that makes his cape rustle and fan out to showcase his tight leather pants and dark-blue tunic. He’d practiced the move many times to get the desired effect. “You’re always bored.”

“Whose fault is that?” Luhan grumbles and crosses his arms.

Yifan glances at his apprentice, narrows his eyes and points at the very outlandish outfit Luhan had insisted on wearing ever since they left the northern regions. “And the cold is your own fault for wearing a skirt.”

“It is not a skirt!” Luhan yells, gripping the edges of said skirt and jerking them down. “It’s a kilt!”

Yifan rolls his eyes. “Kilt. Skirt. What’s the difference? You’re still freezing your sacks.”

Luhan leers at him. “You should try it some time. Get them out of those tight leathers. Air them out. Maybe you’ll stop being so uptight!”

Yifan waves his hand sharply and a burst of wind buffets his apprentice who screeches when the kilt goes up and slaps him on the face. A drawn out string of curses follows, as Luhan fights to disentangle himself from the long length of plaid cloth.

Yifan continues walking and covers a smile behind his fingertips. His apprentice is unhelpful, loud, and never knows when to shut up, but he makes for great target practice when Yifan is bored or annoyed. Plus, he made their travels lively.

Luhan catches up to him soon though, all red in the cheeks and huffing. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

“The Great Wizard Wu desires a date, and he shall not permit some evil beast and his army of silly forest creatures to prevent the Valentine Faire from happening!” Yifan proclaims in a grandiose tone. It’s a tone that portrays the perfect amount of superiority, courage, and outrage.

Luhan exhales loudly. “I hate it when you talk in third person.”

“It’s a great confidence booster,” Yifan says. “And since you are not serving your apprentice duties and showering me with glorifying words—”

“Oh, for gods sakes! You are the most famed and acclaimed wizard in the entire kingdom,” Luhan practically yells. “Everybody wants you. Of course you will get a date! I, on the other hand, could use a bit of help—”

“Do they, Luhan? Do they really love me? The real me,” Yifan pounds his chest with a hand, “and not this superior magical person that they all see me as.”

Luhan shoves his pinky in his ear and wiggles it around. “I’m sorry. For a moment there, it sounded as if you had feelings, as in real ones that could get hurt.”

Yifan ignores the comment. “The Valentine Faire needs to happen, Lu. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a date?”

“Years, centuries, eons,” Luhan says, biting his lip to keep from smiling too wide. He is the worst apprentice ever.

“Exactly! I dedicated so much time to my wizard studies. I didn’t have time for distractions.” Yifan shakes his head mournfully. He does have feelings, dammit. Ones he keeps well hidden inside all the glory his name comes with, but that still bruise easily. “Now that I have my title and cape, now that I have time for myself…I can’t wait to find the one.” These last two words are said with the utmost reverence, because there really is nothing in the world that Yifan wants more than to find romance.

Luhan rolls his eyes. “What does that even mean? The one. Personally, I wouldn’t mind finding more than one—”

Yifan shakes his head. “Your views on love are appalling.”

“I would say adventurous,” Luhan says. “Speaking of adventure, did the king tell you what we are up against this time?”

“Nope.”

“Greeeeaaat,” Luhan exclaims with false cheer. “I hope it’s something easy, like a cerberus or a wyvern. Maybe one of those peacock serpent things.”

“A quetzalcoatl, Luhan,” Yifan says. “Have you been slacking in your studies?”

“Your chicken scratch is hard to read!” Luhan puts his small notebook away after he has copied down the correct word for chicken serpent. “Cyclops are easy too. You take a sling, get a nice rock, and bam! Down they go.”

Yifan shakes his head. “You read too many books and listen to too many tales if you think it’s that easy. Of course, for me it’s no problem at all, but for other mere mortals and young wizards such grand schemes are highly dangerous—” He carries on his explanation, knowing full well his apprentice is getting annoyed by the second, as they make their way deeper into the woods.

Sometime after, when Yifan is done talking, Luhan is too dazed by his monologue to even try and make conversation. In the resulting quiet, Yifan smiles and breathes in the forest—the scent of newly bloomed flowers, the clean waters of a nearby river, the loam and grasses. Ah. The peacefulness of his lone traveling days comes back like a bittersweet memory.

It’s while he’s enjoying this peace that Yifan catches a flash of white at the edge of his vision and he turns his head towards it. In between the trees there’s a boy with raven black hair and skin as luminous as the sun. He smells the pretty yellow flowers on a bush with his eyes closed and a tiny smile on his lips.

Yifan’s steps slow down. The longer he looks, the faster his heart beats. Then the boy’s eyes open up and look straight at him. A hush settles all around as they stare at each other, and then the boy’s lips turn up into a dimpled smile. Yifan’s heart sort of leaps, stops, and restarts out of sync. Just as fast, he blinks and the boy is gone. Was it a phantom? A mirage?

A hand waves in front of Yifan’s face.

“Helloooo? Are you in there?” Luhan waves harder.

Yifan pushes the hand away and moves closer to the tree line. A beautiful trick of the light?

Luhan comes to stand at his side. “Did you see something?”

“I don’t….” Yifan shakes his head. “No. It’s nothing.”