"Seo Yul!" Go won heard his own deep voice calling out his cousin's name. He had grabbed hold of him when that mirror started pulling him in. The image slowly faded away and was replaced by milky pink patterns that told him his eyes were closed. He stretched out his hands and felt a surface of twigs, leaves and small plants. Was he laying? He couldn't remember having passed out. His ears registered the chirping of birds and bees. Was he outside? How had they gotten out of the vault? He couldn't remember. Had he saved Yul? Was he okay? He opened his eyes to find out and was blinded by sunlight, he was definitely not in the underground cave vault anymore.
He blinked repeatedly to adjust his eyes to the change of light. Sitting upright, he touched the back of his head but it didn't hurt. So he hadn't passed out on a hard surface, that was good. And if he had been kidnapped, he was handled gently. Not that he'd expect anything less for his position of prince, of course. He sighed, he was the crown prince of Daeho and yet the people he most yearned to impress with his position, did not care or despised him for it. 'Good' he thought, at least in the case of Jung Uk. It pleased him if he made that orphan son jealous. He held him responsible for his teacher not getting the official position he deserved. Which had belonged to Jang Uk's father, his teacher's master.
He breathed in deeply and raised his gaze, drinking in his surroundings. He had expected a forest, but instead, it was an enchanting meadow filled with flowers. The semi-shade that had tricked his senses had been provided by a sole tree towering above him. He sat up and mindlessly walked up to it, touching its bark and caressing its leaves. He recognized the shape, it was his favourite tree as a child. He had spent hours playing near it-- His thoughts were interrupted by laughter. He turned around and chuckled out loud as he saw a group of children dancing in a circle, all wearing crowns woven out of flowers.
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"Go in at your own demise" Lady Jin's voice rang in Seo Yul's head. He saw a green and gold pattern, swirling and dancing before his eyes and felt a soothing summer breeze caress his left cheek. After a while, he realized he was lying on his back. His eyes fluttered open and a roof of bamboo leaves swayed in the wind above him. Sitting up, he saw a bamboo forest, with sunlight streaming in between the stems. Awakening his senses, he traced the ground and felt a soft carpet of the finest grass and moss he could wish for. Seo Yul had been known to get disoriented when anxious. He was now at an unknown place and didn't know how he got there, he was both disoriented and anxious. But strangely the enchanting fairy-tale like bamboo forest provided him with a sense of comfort that soothed his senses and tingling in his stomach.
The prince, he remembered. When Lady Jin had let them enter the underground vault, his cousin Go Won was adamant to be at his side. And so they explored the wonderous cave of treasures together. Whispering comments about beautiful and unusual items they found, but careful to not touch anything. They had wandered through the gigantic vault that seemed a world of it's own, until they stumbled on to the mirror. They had not touched it either, but it spoke to them. Better said, an image of Mudeoki spoke to them. Of course they had stopped and listened, her gaze drew them in, quite literally and they found themselves being sucked into the mirror. He recalled Go Won throwing his arms around him. He raised his head and looked around, but his royal cousin was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he had gone ahead to explore the bamboo wood?
