✯¸.•'*¨'*•✿ CHAPTER ONE ✿•*'¨*'•.¸✯
I ran up to the front counter. "Order for large apple cider." I say lazily. "Thank you, Kinoko!" the customer replies. "No problem." I reply. I work at my family's bar/restaurant in the middle of Wooderbrooke. I've always thought my name, Kinoko, was odd. It means mushroom in Japanese. I mean, in the mystical country of Lynx, everyone has floral names. But mushroom. Really? Since I'm always working, I don't have any friends. Imagine a 12-year-old with no friends. To be honest, that's not exactly uncommon though. But my parents don't care. They think I have friends. How can you have friends if you're working from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.? I guess I get every other day off due to child labor laws, but still. I haven't managed to make any friends. Except for Sage.
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Sage is kind of the opposite of me. She's always happy, kind to everyone, and loves romance movies. I'm grumpy, neutral, and I love action movies. We're so different, yet she's my only friend. We met when she came here for dinner when I was only 4. We've been best friends ever since. Sage is nice to everyone, but when asked, she says she only has one friend. Kinoko Jane Bisket. "KJ!" My mom shouts. "Sage is here!" I run up to the door and tell my older sister Juna to take care of my duties. After all, I substitute for her all the time. "Okay fine." Juna says.
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"Hi Kinoko!" Sage says to me, grinning ear to ear. "Hey Sage." I reply. Sage starts walking outside. She gestures me to follow her. I run up to her, my shoes tapping on the floor. Tp tp tp. "Where are we going?" I ask her. "I found something in the garden!" She leads me through the flowers and plants to a little door, about 3 feet tall. "I have this key, and it looks like the perfect size to open this." Sage says. "Let's see what's inside." I reply. She shoves the key into the tiny keyhole. The door opens. "Let's go inside, Kinoko!" Sage exclaims. We crouch down and crawl through the mysterious door.
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My jaw drops. I see a flash of light and I feel sick. A white figure, which looks like a cloud, appears. "You have disturbed me." The figure says in a deep, feminine voice. The light sparks again. Me and sage both get pushed back onto the garden. We turn around to go get my parents, but they're not there. Even my sister is gone. I see a note on the table.
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"Clue Number One-
If you want to see your parents
Follow this clue
For the next one is in the ocean
Deep and blue"
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"C'mon Kinoko we got to go to the ocean!" Sage yells. "But its two miles away!" "We need to get your parents back, Kinoko." "Okay, but let's find yours first." We walk up to Sage's house and knock on the door. No answer. Sage unlocks the door and runs right in. The exact same note is on her table. "W-What?" Sage frantically stutters. "Kinoko. We need to go to the ocean." Sage looks me dead in the eye. This is the first time I've seen her so serious. "Okay." I reply, my doubt washing away.
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Me and Sage start running towards the ocean. We stop in our tracks when we see something... unhuman. It's a monster. It pounces towards Sage. Before I can even notice, my body moves. I take out my pepper-spray (which I brought just in case something like this happened) and spray it. It only takes one squirt to defeat it. It disappears into dust. I turn towards Sage. "Are you okay?" I ask her. "Y-yeah." She smiles. "Thanks for saving me." She says pink in the cheeks. I guess she's embarrassed she needed me to help her.
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Sage looks up. "I think I know why that thing appeared." She points to a forest labeled "The Forest of Doom" "Well, Kinoko, if we want our parents back, were going to have to go through that." Sage says. "Let's just... get it over with." Sage pulls through vines, and I pull out sticks. We finally make a clear entrance. "Well, uh, let's do this!" Sage says. We run into the forest.
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The forest is dark and cold. "It's c-cold in h-here!" She says. I can see the shadow of her in the dimly lit forest. Shes shivering. I reach into my backpack and grab my coat. "Here, you can have this." I speak. "R-really?" Sage stutters. "Yeah." I say with a smile.
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It seems as if we're nearing the end of the forest. "Look!" Sage says, pointing to a bright light about 50 feet away. We start running towards it. I feel my feet kicking piles of dirt behind me. "We're almost there!" I shout. We exit The Forest of Doom. "Woohoo!" Sage says, with a huge smile on her face. She looks like a small child. I can't help but giggle along with her. "Kinoko! We're one step closer to finding our parents, and what really took them away!" "Y-yeah!"
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My ears are full of the sound of me and Sage laughing. Her laughter, like her smile, is like a little child's. Her blonde hair shimmers as it flows through the blue sky. "We did it! We did it! We did it!" chants Sage. "I guess we did!" I reply to her exclamation. "Kinoko, your pretty when you smile." "W-what do you mean?" "I mean it's a sight that makes me happy." "O-oh." My cheeks turn red. My mom says I do that whenever someone compliments me.
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I make Sage happy. I'm... proud of that. I'm causing another person to feel joyful. Well, Sage makes me happy too. I guess it was just fate for us to be such close friends. We walk across the muddy terrain. I get dirt and mud stuck on the back of my shoes.
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"Kinoko, look at the flowers!" Sage says. I turn and look at the flowers. They have all the colors you can imagine. Red, pink, purple, yellow, green, orange, blue, brown, white, black, even mixed colors. They also have all types of flowers. Cherry Blossoms, Wisteria, Daisies, Roses, Lilys, Tulips, Orchids, even Jade Vines. "Woah..." I say, in a trance from the beautiful floral sights surrounding me. "I know, right!" Sage says, jumping up and down. "This- this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!" I say. "Yeah." Sage says in reply to my statement. Soon the flowers surround us. There is a gate decorated with vines and roses. We walk through it. "Who are you?" a male voice says.
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"U-uh, I-I'm Kinoko Bisket." I say. "And I'm Sage McAether!" Sage says, red in the face. "Excuse my impoliteness." The man says. He emerges from the darkness. "I am Jasper." He has pastel blue hair tied into a short ponytail, only a few inches long. He has plant green eyes and deer antlers sticking out of his head. He appears to be around the age of 18. He is wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt with one sleeve rolled up to his elbow. He also has greenish jean like pants and two green hair clips in his hair.
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"So, what are you two doing here?" Jasper asks, looking into my eyes. "We-we're trying to find our parents!" His face darkens. "How long have you been searching?" he asks, in a grim voice. "About 4 hours." Sage says, trying to hide the fear in her voice.
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A gust of wind passes by. "They're long gone by now." he says, with a tint of sympathy in his eye. I stare in disbelief. "What?" I say, trying to sound calm. "They were taken away by the upper one..." The upper one... I've heard that name before. But where? I remember it being bad, but that's it. "W-what did he do with our parents?!" Sage asks, fearfully. "He took them. They're gone. I'm so sorry." Sage begins to cry. I pretend I'm not holding back tears
