Choked by it's own overgrown branches, the forest resembled a sprawling fortress barricading the Earth from the warmth of the sun and chilly comfort of the moon.
A whispered followed, enchantingly calling her. She is trying to hide behind a giant tree, trembling with uneasiness and guilt of conscience that she shouldn't have gone there.
If only she had listened to the warnings that was given to her.
"Ilaria, do not go there. It is not safe." she remembered how her lady muttered those words.
She grew up within her castle walls and she wanted freedom. The thick proud trees of Elysian, the Land of Roses always teased her.
"Go deeper"
"Follow me"
"Forest"
"Elysian"
"Elysian"
"Roses"
"Deeper"
These are the words that is haunting her, haunts that she never hated. She never hated the fact that they keep repeating again, again and all over again her head.
Just repeating-
"Deeper" it whispered.
"My highness, go deeper" it said in a hushed voice.
Softer, this time like of a deer that is scared that the hunter might hear him.
It would always tease her.
To go deeper.
Lurk deeper into the forest.
Deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
Deeper to that land that Elysian forbids her to go.
She would always hate how the Queen forbids her to lurk into the forest. She would always hate the fact she is not even allowed to step foot onto that forest.
She only love the trees. She loved how they grew. She loves how they stood tall and proud.
What is wrong with that?
What is wrong with loving the trees?
Elysian is proud with it's blossoms especially the red roses. It bloomed like a sunshine that oftens put a smile onto a face. It radiates color and affection, things that a couple would like to keep. On top of that-
It radiates LOVE.
Who would not want that?
Now and then she tried to run, escape the choking walls of her castle. Escape the woman who pretends to be her mother.
Escape the Kingdom.
On the night of the setting sun, she went in.
She went in the woods away.
All alone.
They warned her.
"Don't go there"
"There's creatures who are hiding in the dark."
She could imagine her people whispering to her like voices of ghosts long dead as she looked back the gate of the kingdom she once loved.
She ran.
Away.
Then, she stopped.
She went in.
Woods.
An area growing trees above some threshold.
Luminous one.
Dark.
Branches scrawling.
She never saw the forest this way before.
Is this really the forbidden forest of Elysian?
She could hear the echoes of the birds chirping. Not those melodic sounds you could hear in a dramatic opening, but those who longed for escape.
A mournful chirping as if it is already begging to die.
Suddenly-
something-
Something came creeping.
Came creeping.