𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑑 // Original Story

Chapter 1 - Part 1

A little ginger head girl was wandering around a forest that she found.

The girl, Lilian, was a nature lover. The people of her town will see her frequently at the nearby forest or by the riverside playing with rocks, sticks and leaves scattered around the trees and grass. Sometimes, they would even see her playing with small bugs like ladybugs, ants and grasshoppers; and maybe even frogs and mice. The townsfolk would also see her climb trees and wandering deep into the forest but she knew her way home like the back of her hand.

But this time, she wandered too deep.

Lilian was distracted by a blue butterfly she was chasing until the butterfly flew between some thorny vines blocking a path leading to somewhere. Curious, she carefully moved the vines aside and was met with a narrow path leading to what looks like a pond. She followed the path, feeling a cold breeze coming from the end of the trail. She got to the end of the path and reached the lake. The pond itself was a bright blue colour and was clear to the point where you could see the fishes swim gracefully in it.

She suddenly heard a rustle coming from the bushes. She whipped her head around to see what it was. The rustling then stopped suddenly. Being the fearless girl she was, she checked the bushes but was met with nothing but a white feather. The feather had some dried black liquid on the tip of it which Lilian assumed to be ink. She picked it up and started to inspect it like it was an ancient artifact. There was nothing special about it but Lilian kept it anyways; thinking it might be useful for something later on.

She heard more rustling behind her. She turned her head around again. One out of the many bushes was shaking violently. Lilian started to approach the bush slowly; trying not to startle the thing that was in the bush. She gulped before pushing the leaves of the push aside and was met with a half black-half white creature with mismatched coloured eyes. The creature took one glance at her before hissing and scratching her on her right eye, causing her to stumble back.

Lilian covered her eye with her hands trying to hold back tears from the pain as she felt her hands getting wet. She retracted her hands and expected blood to be on it but instead was met with a black substance on it. Her eyes widen in fear and shock. 'What is this black thing?!' she thought to herself. When Lilian was distracted, the creature teleported away. The girl was still in a fit of panic but eventually calmed down. She didn't have anything to patch her eye with so she just covered it with her bangs. A sigh escaped her lips. 'Okay, calm down now Lilian. First, figure out where you are.' It may not be the most logical thing to do when you have a scar leaking some weird mysterious black substance with nothing to patch it up with but what do you expect from a ten year-old that barely knows any medical knowledge?

(That sounds quite stupid)

She figured that she would just go back to where she came from but when she started to look for the path, she eventually realised that the path was gone. Lilian was so confused. 'How can a path just suddenly disappear from thin air?!'

( Trying) Calming down once again, she heard a voice. "Hello there.." Lilian stumbled back a little. She was still processing on what just happened in the past ten minutes but this just weighs more things for the girl to take in and think about. "Hello..?" Lilian responded. There was silence between them until Lilian spoke up. "Who are you and where are you?" She asked. "Well... it's hard to explain.." the voice responded. The mysterious voice echoed, making it hard to distinguish on where the owner of the voice is. The voice was a high-pitched female voice, seemingly to be a young girl. "I see that you are trapped here hm?" The voice echoed. "Ye- wait, you can.. see me?" Lilian started to look around for any sign of someone hiding; footprints, movement, breathing but there was nothing. "What?- No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I-i don't see you anywhere! I assumed that you were trapped.." the voice panicked. Lilian was still suspicious of it but shrugged it off, still keeping her guard.