What is love?

                          Chapter One

In an empty valley that was covered in flowers and thick tall grass with dark yellow weeds every small step, far away from anybody, there was a little cottage that lived in a little crook in a small, yet thick wood. A girl named Ryuu lived in this cottage with a boy named Sulu. The cottage was small and there were overgrown vines on every side of the cottage and little white flowers with yellow middles grew speckled on the vines giving it a cute and touchable look.

 The door looked old with a rusty metal handle and hinges. There was a small chimney and a trail of dark gray smoke coming out of it and windows on the sides that were old and dusty and looking uncared for. Ryuu came up to the cottage skipping and humming a song, her long, dark brown, elegant hair in two french braids on the top of her head and a flower crown made of purple wildflowers.

She was wearing a pale pink dress and tied around her waist was a white apron and small pockets on the sides. She held a woven basket that looked handmade and had all colors of all kinds of flowers laid in the bottom gently stacked on top of each other. She opened the wide wooden door to the cottage and the rusty hinges made a soft sound when she did.

She walked into the cottage. Inside the cottage on the right, there was a small round wooden table with two wooden chairs pushed into either side of the small table. On the left, there was a small sofa that was an awkward seafoam green color but looked soft and comfortable, and sitting on the sofa were two pillows of the same green color but they didn't look as comfortable as the sofa itself.

In the back of the cottage, there was a small furnace that had a small skillet on top of it. Next to that, there was a door that led to a small room, a bedroom. The bed had a light blue quilt draped over it and a fluffy pillow rested against the back frame of the bed. The bed frame was a beautiful design that looked something like an ocean wave but just plain wood that was smoothed to perfection. In a small corner of the bedroom, there was a desk that had letters and a pencil on top of them, a small chair was pulled out and a little cushion set on top of it. Ryuu set the basket on the small table and exhaled "I'm home!" she blurted out with a small smile on her face. After a couple of seconds of waiting nothing came. Her smile slowly dropped and she tilted her head, looked around, and then sighed. She looked over at the bedroom door, it was just slightly open. She walked over and looked through the little sliver of the door, she saw nothing. She pressed her hands against the door and gently pushed it open, the door creaked as she looked inside the room. Nothing. She groaned and threw herself on the bed, she held a pillow in her arms and turned onto her side, cuddling herself up to the pillow. After a while she laid on her back, she sat on the edge of the bed. She threw the pillow back onto the bed and stood up sighing. "Well no reason to wait for nothing to happen," she said to herself. She then hopped over to her small countertop, she picked up a small piece of bread and tucked it into the pocket of her apron, and folded the little flap attached to the pocket over it. She walked over to the small table and picked up a satchel and threw it on her side. She walked the few steps it took and she pushed open the creaky front door. She walked out and closed the door behind her. She looked out in front of her to see a beautiful, flower-covered valley. She smiled contentedly and walked forward. She walked forward a few steps but then she turned and looked behind her at the thick and dark wood behind the cottage. She thought for a minute then started walking toward the wood. She got to the edge of the wood, kept the content smile, and walked into the dark eerie wood. There were no paths so it was easy to get lost but she knew the way through, she knew everything about the wood, she had made her path and memorized it, it was all imprinted in her head, and yet she was barefoot the whole time. She didn't wear shoes for some odd reason but she didn't mind it, she had become used to it and she always mentally watched where her feet were going. She knew where her feet were going without even looking at them, she had an amazing memory, she was the only one who could navigate the thick wood, she didn't need a map. She wandered through the wood with ease, softly stepping on the dead, autumn leaves on the ground, and the tiny twigs that have fallen off the beautiful trees.

After some time of walking, she came to a small clearing in the wood, in the middle of the clearing was a huge tree with a big crack down the middle and toadstools the colors of red and white lining the trunk of the big tree. Every leaf was the colors of red, orange, yellow, and brown. In the tree was what looked like a platform, high up in the thin parts of the tree with a ladder leading up to it. She looked at it and smiled, the autumn leaves fell in her hair and got tangled in her dress as she ran towards the huge tree and quickly climbed the ladder, she jumped up onto the platform. She loved the tree and she was always happy to climb it, she always got upset growing up when the boys from her town would hit and kick it uncaringly and the girls would think she was weird for loving a tree, but she had forgotten about them now, all she wanted was quiet with her tree. When she hopped onto it she looked around and she saw Sulu sitting on the floor of the platform reading a book. She squealed "oh my gosh! I was wondering where you were!" she says with a smile. Sulu looked up from his book and smiled "I was only gone for a couple of hours. You didn't have to wonder where I was." he said calmly then looked back at his book. She rolls her eyes "I have a good reason to wonder. Don't pity me." she says dramatically and folds her arms in front of her chest. He softly chuckles "when did I say I pitied you, honey? You're just bored huh?" he says with a cute smile on his face. Her face gets flustered and she stutters "w-what!? I never said I was bored!" he closes his book and stands up, walks towards her and gently kisses her forehead, and looks at her "ok fine, you win, let's go home, honey." he says softly. Her arms fall to her sides and her face turns red once again with blush. He smiles and walks past her and starts to climb down the ladder, she smiles and follows him down the ladder. Once they get to the ground, he holds out his hand and she puts her hand in his. She puts a big smile on her face and leads the way through the wood, stepping over logs and stepping on fallen autumn leaves, gently crunching under their feet. Sulu knew the way through the wood as well, they both did, ever since they were kids, they grew up together. He looks at her and smiled "you know, we could take the route to town and walk through there for a while." she smiles and looks over her shoulder at him with a raised eyebrow "Now your the one who sounds bored. And it's rush hour, we don't wanna get caught in all the mud right? Let's just go home" she says looking forward now still pulling him behind her. He tugs on her arm, pulling her back. "I heard the king was gonna be in town." he says boldly, her eyes widen and she lets go of his hand "you're lying! No way the king's gonna be in town. He's a greedy pig, it's not like he wants to spend time with his people, he's just king for the fame. Ever since the queen died he's been acting stupid, I'm not going to waste a beautiful day on that lying pig that we call a king." she says annoyed, she starts to walk ahead of him a little, he catches up and grips her wrist tightly "hey, come on don't talk about our king like that. You know he's been trying to do his best since... well since the queen passed." he looks away from her strong gaze, she rolls her eyes and slaps her forehead, sliding her hand down her face "I don't care, he's still being selfish, the famine last year was caused because of him. He had all the riches and food to himself and he didn't think twice about his people. The queen didn't mean anything to him, he just likes the fact that people worship him. Everyone loves him but for what? I'm not falling for his antics." she shakes off his grip on her wrist and continues walking through the thick wood. He sighs and tries to catch up with her, jumping over logs and toadstools. "Oh come on, please just this once. We haven't seen the king in months, I just wanna see how he looks." she ignores him and continues walking through the wood, but her pace quickened slightly. "Hey, slow down, come on let's talk about this," he said with frustration, continued walking at a quick pace until the opening in the woods that led out to the giant valley, covered in flowers. Usually, when she comes out of the wood she would almost immediately see her small cottage if she went the right way, but when she came out of the wood all she saw was tall green grass and yellow weeds reaching just above the grass. She looks in both directions trying to find the cottage but all she sees is never-ending flat land. She groans and turns around to look at him "hey don't complain you weren't listening to me. Maybe if you listened for two seconds then we wouldn't be lost. Come on let's just go back into town, please ." She crossed her arms "Fine, but only if we find home before dark." he nodded and they started walking along the outside of the thick, never-ending wood.