The Mystique Forest

“The Mystique Forest” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Tia Khadeja Azam Azi, Sri Kdu Smart School, Malaysia.

The Mystique Forest

Once Upon A Time, a girl named Denise lived in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. She had a sister named Agnes. They both liked to play in a nearby forest. Most people say that the forest was a mystique forest. But they said it seemed normal to them. So they would always bring a picnic basket, a picnic rug, a drawing block, paint and paint brushes into the forest. In the picnic basket they would usually bring a fresh plate of scones, jam, and whip cream. They put their picnic basket near a river in the forest. Agnes ate first. While she was eating, Denise saw a strange girl. She quickly ran away and hid in a nearby cave.

Denise came closer to the cave. She said hello to the strange girl. Denise went in the cave and said, “What is your name?” The strange girl came out of the cave and suddenly, she ran away in a blink of an eye. Denise ran back to Agnes and told the whole story about the strange girl she met. Upon hearing the story Agnes was so surprised that she was starting to feel like the forest was really a mystique forest. So they both went deeper into the forest to see more. While they were walking, Denise saw a beautiful rainbow pastel flower shaped like a cat. “Do you really think this is really a mystique forest?” Denise asked. Agnes told her that she was starting to feel like it was a Mystique forest. Agnes ran towards a tree that shred lollipops. She said, “Wow! Is this edible?” She unwrapped the lollipop wrapper and licked it. She said it tasted scrumptious. So Denise also decided to take a lollipop. She unwrapped the wrapper and licked it just like Agnes. Denise said it tasted like unicorn cookies. They took more and put it in their pockets.

While Denise was walking, she saw a ‘Rafflesia’ flower. The flower was actually the biggest flower in the world. She told Agnes to take a look at it. Agnes said wow this is the biggest flower I have ever seen in my entire life!. “But we come here every day, why didn’t we see these things before?” Denise said. So they began to go deeper in the forest, they saw many more weird things such as a giant pastel bunny as big as a truck. Denise wanted to touch it but it ran away so she went under a bridge with Agnes to see what was under it. They saw an ugly, fat, over-fed troll. The ugly troll grabbed them up and wanted to swallow them, but Denise woke up from her weird dream. She was shocked that she ran to her mum and told her all about her dream. Then she went to Agnes and hugged her tight.

She went outside to breathe fresh air, she was so happy that she jumped with joy because she didn’t have to be stuck in that weird dream anymore. Now Denise lives a happily normal life with her family. That day she went to the forest, then she sat on a bench and wrote a story in a book based on her dream. The story was called ‘The Mystique Forest’.