Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game

The world breathed softly around Miles, the dream-memory thick and vibrant with color. He stood inside it like a ghost, neither seen nor acknowledged, differently from the other memories he had perceived before.

The boy in the too-large top hat stood at the edge of the clearing with the red-haired girl.

The temple loomed in front of them, dark stone and stark lines rising like a blade plunged into the earth. The forest seemed to recoil from it, the trees bending subtly away, as if trying to avoid even the shadow of the place.

There was no mistaking the wrongness of the structure. It didn’t belong in this sun-dappled world, or to any other world they had visited before.

The girl took a step forward, peering through the vine-laced arch that marked the temple’s entrance.

"Do you feel that?" She asked. Her voice, so bright before, was softer now. But it didn’t sound frightened, no. It sounded curious.

"Yeah. Like something’s watching us." The boy hesitated.

"Then let’s find out what it is." She turned to him, a challenging light in her eyes.

"I don’t think we should, princess." The boy reached out, grabbing her wrist gently. "This place isn’t right. It doesn’t feel like it’s part of the forest. It looks... Older. I don’t think it wants us here."

"You’re always afraid of the interesting parts, hatter-boy. That’s why you’ll never find anything good without me." The girl smiled, tilting her head the way one might when confronting a timid animal.

With a small tug, she slipped from his grip and stepped into the shadows beyond the threshold. The boy cursed softly and followed.