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Upon discovering about the mystery that surround the forests, the young prince sought out into the dark woods. He used his personal rider to bring him into the middle of the forest and instead of making his way home he made his way towards the forbidden forest, trying out his luck to look for the myth and the rumoured little girl lost at trees.
I changed the trajectory of the story, got some cool inspo I liked
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PROLOGUE
Evening dawns the kingdom in it's warm light, cold wind blows through the cracks of the castles walls. The throne had been empty for so long despite having two rulers in the kingdom. The twins had such a split end in personality, leadership and hospitality that even the kingdom are torn into two.
In one side, there's prince Nightmare, the older twin, was murmured to be the cold king, strict in his orders and direct towards everything. Giving off an intimidating aura wherever he went. His ways of leadership aren't accepted by all since they found it unnecessary to have strict law and order set in a peacefully thriving kingdom. It's not like he's all dread and misery all the time, they had seen kindness from the prince, though he'd often throw off any good allegations of himself and seem to always set his reputation in a question to the villagers, making them lean more towards the younger prince's prescense most of the time.
On another, we have the younger prince, prince Dream. He was the talk of the kingdom, many villagers adored him for his hospitality and positivity. It is said every morning he'd visit around the town and come back to the castle before afternoon, helping those around and greeting the people in his morning walk. However good his status is amongst the townpeople, his leadership are often questioned to no end, specially by the older folks, as much as they love him. He's good in battle and did well in one but when it come to judging a character or making up his mind, often struggling with prioritising duties at hand unlike his much more calculated older brother.
Some had no problem with having two leader but obviously the people are worried are concerned of the split in power, thinking it anything bad were to happen to the kingdom everyone would only agree with one of the twins and would cause collision in choices made for the kingdom.
After the death of the late queen, the evil man who had killed her cursed the kingdom to fall into chaos one day, killing all then the other kingdoms in his words. Can't say the kingdom wasn't shook by this, more so when they found a the skeleton twins under the Tree of Feelings, claming they're now the heir of the throne despite being toddlers then.
How could they believe the skeletons words? Skeleton monsters are one of the rares and most powerful monsters the surface could have, they could sense the magic radiating from the two of them, they couldn't not believe them anyways for the queen never had other heirs they're aware of, not wanting to leave the kingdom in shambles the two instantly became the rulers for the kingdom, had been for a couple of years now,
Of cours, they couldn't have two rulers for long and somehow the commoners had agreed upon one term of condition to find their offical ruler.
The first to find a Queen would be crowned King.
No it's not as simple as they thought it'd be.
Prince Dream had flat out told the people he's not interested to finding a queen, he's sure there are many lovely ladies out there but he couldn't see himself settling for anyone. He couldn't love someone just for the throne as he knows he'd need more than time to find the love of his life, admitting he couldn't exactly differenciate the feeling of platonic and romantic at times. Needing years of a lifetime to decide would be painstakingly long, and well, he is semi-immortal, he wouldn't be able to handle the heartbreak.
For Prince Nightmare, he surprised everyone by agreeing to the terms, claiming it's not for the reason of love or companionship but rather he'd do it because it'll help him gain the throne, consider it business matters. Despite the displeasure of many people it seemed they are morelikely to crown the other prince than other.
Even in this situation, both princes would be gaining visits from royalties all around the land, still opening the chances for either of them to gain the throne. No offer of them visitng another kingdom would be accepted as their prescense in their land are crucial, even if one of them was away.
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CHAPTER 1(drafted)
Dream, the younger prince was liked by all his courts though he'd always deny the offer of marriage for as much as he loved their hangouts he couldn't take it as that type of relationship. They couldn't have any visit that lasts more than 3 days since there are many courtings arranged for the two of then. At least, that's how it is during the early stages of their arrangement.
Nightmare's cold and uncaring demeanor had set many royals a bit off. Even when he was offered the agreement to marriage he'd deny them flatly, claiming they far too incompetent for his taste, and such. The longer this repeats the less visits they gained from the kingdoms, all their responses seemed to be the same which kills most attempts of the other kingdoms to even try.
After many failed dates and arrangements the high council decided to hold out a ball for the kingdom, seeing they've already wasted so much time and rather speed things up, making so all kingdoms who still wish to take their chances, or second, to go to the ball.
With this set in the stone, any courtings in this two weeks would be canceled as they want to focus on their big event. The princes doesn't have much of any work to do but Nightmare insisted on taking a big part of doing this. Dream doesn't mind not having much of a duty to dwell on in the event, he'd offer help to his servants but they'd often brush him off and rush away and in the end he decided if he is needed they'od call for him anyways.
The young prince would often use his free time to walk around the kingdom or train his swordsmenship alone in the garden or in the throne room where their mothers tree thrives in. As of this moment he had taken a break from training and instead decided to walk down the halls, the afternoon lights shimmers on his gold trimmed boots as he walks past the many framed windows, the knights in the hall greeting him whenever he passed by which he happily returned.
Most servants would be working on the dance room as of now, the knights in the halls are doubled to assist the prince instead. They never had that many servants in the palace despite how massive the place is.
He could help but take a halt as he reach the royal library, knowing how much time his brother would spend in them, which probably just makes this his office as of this point. He glances at the knight who guards the library door turning to him and asks if he knows the whereabouts of his brother as of now.
The knight replied swiftly, telling the young prince he is on duty dealing with the works of the ball. Dream nods at him and bid thank you taking a step to enter the library but the knight hesitantly stopped him but adamantly decided to let the prince enter. Dream didn't question the knight nor said anything but gives them another thank you as he opens the door, closing it shut behind him.
Cold breezes of wind caresses his skull as he entered, seeing the many books that towers on the library tables, some left open and others tagged with various strings of colours, notes written and piled on the table. Despite how cramped the tables are it is neatly arranged in their own sections and place, with their own purposes Dreams wouldn't know what.
He walked over to the table, eyeing everything on the table, dismissing the writings of his brother as he wouldn't want to intrude more of his brothers privacy. He turns his gaze towards the shelves behind him instead, walking into a random section and looks over everything, grabbing onto a random book as he glides his hand along the spine of the tomes.
The book he holds looks and feel a lot less like the other, the cover being made of thin leather and the strings that holds the book are exposed. He looks at the front which only had Al Vivera carved onto the leather and back of the book were blank with no other words to indicate the author or place of origin.
Curiously he opened the book, Seeing a date written which was far off just a few years ago, still no indication of name on the page. He reads over the handwritten words, the way the author wrote this is a clear indication this was meant to be a note book of sorts, claiming of an magical entity who resides in a deep and mysterious forests nearby his kingdom.
Tall telling of the power this being have, protector of life, the harbringer of curses of sorts. Soom speculated they're an unidentified mage or an all power lone monster. None could be sure of how they looked like as no one dared to come close to the forest, fearing they might get strucked with unwanted misfortune or get lost in the woods.
The forest had been named Al Vivera for how life like the forest would act up around traspassers, plants moving along their movement or trees crunching and hovering over their heads menacingly. Some would say they could hear whispers from the winds or random shuddering of bushes in the distance. The surface are more than familiar with the prescense of monsters but it is said the creatures in the forest are far more animal-like, giving imagination to work for the humans to come up with various of assumptions on what may reside in it.
One article caughts his attention though, the legend there's a kingdom in the mysterious forest with a powerful royalty ruling over them, thought that's jut one of the many rumours about the forest, some said there's a civilisation of shadow people in the forest or even haunted which the author claimed to be ridiculous.
His adventurous feet could help but feel the urge to come look for this forest.
He flips through the pages, gaining knowledge of the many plants that grows in the forest and the many creature "in theory" to be in the forest, emersing himself to the picture drawn of how the creatures look like, some terrifying and some fascinating. He flips more of the book only to see the many left empty pages of the book.
He checks it a few times, making sure his eyes are not playing him. Could that be all there is in the book? If it's true this was meant to be a notebook then this would be the only copy of the book, which makes it very valuable. Does his brother knew of this books existance?
He tucks the book under his arms, blantly walking out of the library, he approaches the knight, telling them he'd be leaving the palace for awhile and to inform any others the knight might encounter. The knight salutes to Dream affirming the order and went off of his stand to look for another knight to past the message to.
Dream went out of his way around the castle to back entrance of the castle, near the kitchen. Their stock of food are often sent personally by trader and this roadway had always been hidden from the publics knowledge aside from the castles workers. The back door is a good way of exit if he want to avoid the crowd and attention. As of around this time many items are being deported in the castle to prepare for the ball. He peeks around a corner to notice a knight and a bunny maid is talking to the rider.
He kept looking until the rider seemed to wave goodbye at the two, just about when he's about to leave, Dream flew out of the wall and calls out towards the rider, everyone stared at the prince in shock and hastily bowed at him. The prince staggered a bit and told them to lift their heads up, asking the rider if he could accompany the rider back out.
It's not his first time doing this, when he was younger he'd ask the same thing, to ride the carriage around town for the fun of it until some knight found him somewhere in the city and bring him home, it was. The old rider was surprised about this but smiled as he happily obliged, they haven't done it in a while, especially since he's been busy with his trainings and courtships and all.
He hoped onto the carriage and bid the knight and maid goodbye, mentioning towards them to not send a search team on him as he'll be back by foot later today. They responded with a "yes my prince" and waved at him as the horses moved the carriage forward. He and the rider, whose name is Joshua, talked about life and how his has been. After a while of riding the carriage in the middle of the forest deep road.
"Have you ever heard of the mysterious around our kingdom?" Dream pipes out, looking at the old man as he waits patiently for an answer.
"If I'm not mistaken, is this forest popular for it's magical properties prince Dream? I heard many poachers would attempt to enter the forest in search of rare finds from the rumours creatures in the forest."
Dreams eye socket widens, was that mentioned in the book somewhere? The poachers?
"What else do you know of the forest Joshua?"
"The farmers and hunters talks most about it, but most information of the forest is pretty circular, either it's mysterious, dangerous or weird. It's pretty vague overall."
The two then fell silent, the people are aware of the forest but they know much less than is written in the book. The felt a little bad for not having much to tell the young prince, but suddenly a though came up in his mind, which also surprised Dream.
"There is another rumour I heard, a hunter said he accidentally came close towards the forest lines and could've sworn he saw a little girl in forest, I reckon just around your age aswell. He was about to call out to the girl but the her figure disappears and the leaves sheilds his view from peering into the forest as he attempts to enter it, mysterious isn't it my prince?"
The old man exclaims, which did more to caught Dreams attention and interest, more so when he heard about the little girl. It somehow swirls a sense of worry in him though, if there truly is a little girl in forests. After their long conversation, he finally told Joshua to stop the carriage. He told Joshua he'll take his stop here. Much to Joshua's confusion and concern as they are still deep in the forest, even though they could've reached the town in a few minutes. He asks the prince if he'd be alright walking back in the middle of nowhere.
Dream dismisses the old rider and assured him he'd be alright. With hesitation the rider complied and told Dream to be safe home which he returned to the man.
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