When Phillip woke up, he was no longer in a warm bed. Instead he was on a blanket, on the ground. He frantically looked around and realized that he wasn’t even in a house. Phillip was in a small hut, with no windows, mud walls and leaves for a roof. There was a door, but something was draping over it; making the hut dark. He could make out the outlines of everything in the room; which wasn’t very much. Standing up from the blanket and stretched; taking everything in. 

Where was I? Did I get kidnapped? No, everything was locked; the front door and sliders, plus all the windows. So where the heck was I and how did I get here? 

“You’re in the book”

Phillip froze. He glanced around the room looking for where the voice came from but found no one. He wished he could see better, but didn’t want to leave the hut without knowing what was going on first. 

“Use your magic.” The voice spoke again. 

HIS MAGIC!! Phillip held out his hand, focusing on the light and heat of a fire. A small fire light on the palm of his hand, illuminating the hut. It didn’t take long for him to notice a tiger. He screamed, stepping backwards; falling over and making the fire disappear. He started to hyperventilate. 

There’s a tiger in the hut. THERE'S A TIGER IN THE HUT!!

“I’m not a tiger, I’m a cat.” 

His eyes widened. It’s the voice, the voice is the tiger! Phillip took a couple of deep breaths before making a small fire again. He was still huddled far from the so-called cat, as the hut lit up again. 

The cat sat there staring at me, he stared back, slowly realizing that it looked familiar. Why do you look familiar? 

 “I’m your stuffed animal, you idiot.” The cat hissed at him. 

He was taken back. This cat could hear his thoughts but it also was the stuffed animal. He was so confused. 

“How are you real? How can you hear my thoughts? What do you mean we’re in the book?” 

“Last night when you cursed at the book and threw it. It felt all of those feelings you gave it and took it out on you. Making you suffer through the whole book again except you’re actually here to live through it.”

Phillip was shocked, the book brought him here. His feelings about the ending of it transferred enough magic into the book so it was able to cast its own spells. It disliked him so much that it wanted him to relive all the pain he went through. Well Phillip wasn’t going to let some book control him; now that he was in the book, he could change the ending to what he wanted it to be. 

“Well fuck this, how do we get out?”

“I’m not sure. I do know that magic here is a lot stronger than back at home. That’s how I was able to come to live and speak with you.”

“Interesting.”

Phillip finally stood up from the ground and brushed off his butt from the dirt. Finally noticing the clothes. Ironically they were still the same from last night. The light blue pajama pants, white long sleeve shirt and fuzzy socks. He placed a hand on his hair, finding that it was still dirty blonde but longer. It fell to his shoulders, the longest he ever had it. His skin tone was a bit lighter than before. Which is weird, why is my skin tone lighter?

“It’s because of your outfit.”

Phillip looked over at the cat and saw a small bag sitting next to the door. Walking over to the bag and opening it, he grabbed the clothes inside of it. He pulled out something but couldn't; really tell what it was since the fire in his other hand. He looked up at the leaf roofing before raising his hand up towards it. The fire popped up from his hand and hovered in the air. Phillip  looked at it surprised, remembering that the cat said that magic here is much stronger. 

Turning back to the clothes, he had pulled out a thin black long sleeve shirt. He looked over the shirt and noticed that there was a slight shimmer of light blue on the shirt. When he turned it you could see the light blue but when it was still, it was black. Phillip scoffed, taking off his own shirt and replacing it with the new one. He then pulled out black shorts that had some strange buckles on them. Taking off the pjs and trying to put the shorts on correctly. It took him a good minute to figure out how it worked. The shorts were normal black shorts but didn’t have any pockets. There was a leather belt tied around the waist with what he thought were suspenders going down his thigh with a circle. He slipped his legs between the circle, having the leather snuggled up on his thigh. The strap only reached down to the mid thigh since he had to pull up the shorts and tighten the belt.

Searching through the bag, there were boots and some socks. Phillip took off his fuzzy socks and placed them on the new ones, slipping his feet into the boots; which went up about midway on the shins. Instead of tying them himself, he flicked his fingers; thinking about the shoes tying and they did. He looked down at himself and thought the outfit was amazing. Way better than the witch outfits they sell in the stores. Phillip took one last look into the bag and pulled out a black hooded cape. Getting all excited, he immediately put it on; noticing it had the same effect as the long sleeve shirt. Showing blue when he spun around. Surprisingly this cape had pockets, searching the pockets; there were white leather gloves. He slipped them on, thinking that it would cover up the magic but it didn’t. Phillip reached up towards the fire again and it automatically returned to his hand, he chuckled in awe. 

Looking around the room, he noticed that the clothes had disappeared. 

“They don’t belong in this world, so they disappeared.”

“I do belong here though?”

“No, a spell was casted onto by this book, remember.”

“Right. So what now?”

“We should start looking for characters.”

“Okay, but are you sure you’re not a tiger?”

“I’m not a tiger.”

The cat hissed at him, getting annoyed. This cat was big, they were at his knees; which isn’t a normal size for a cat. Phillip started thinking about how the cat got this big and it hit him. Just like how the book used his emotions to cast a spell, his emotions had also turned the cat into a real one but a huge one. 

“I'm going to call you Joel.”

“I’m a female.”

“Oh… then I’ll call you Juliet.

“Whatever floats your boat. Let’s go, you know this story more than I do.”

He flipped the hood over his head, grabbing the empty bag and walked out of the hut. The sun shone in the sky, blinding him. Phillip held his hand up, covering the sun; blinking a couple of times as his eyes adjusted. We were in the forest, which wasn’t a big surprise since the kingdom is in the middle of a forest. It was beautiful. The author would always put in so much detail about nature in this book, painting a gorgeous picture for the readers. Vibrant green leaves, bushes, grass. Shimmering blue rivers, ponds and flowers. Shingy sun, bright blue sky, fluffy white clouds. Red flowers, berries, butterflies and ladybugs. Orange flowers, foxes and the poisonous berries. Brown tree trunks, dirt, squirrels and birds. Everything was so lovely, the author really wanted to make you hate staying inside. Which is exactly what happens to the prince. He tells his parents his secret, trusting them but ends up being held captive in his own home. Never allowed to go outside and show his “disgraceful” face. Luckily for him during the tournament, no one paid attention to him anymore so he was able to escape; ultimately meeting his love. 

Phillip can now understand why he wouldn’t want to stay inside, this place was amazing. Remembering all the details that went into the forests, getting excited, he couldn’t wait to see the kingdom. He was so happy, completely forgetting about all of the horrible things going to happen to the two main characters; Phillip started skipping through the forest, somewhat looking like Red Riding Hood. Taking the scenery as he skipped by, with Juliet following behind him. 

As they continued through the forest, Phillip found the first flyer of many. Indicating that the month to become king would be starting soon. Panic started to rise up in him, he had already missed the part where Ian came out to his parents. He hoped that he had gotten here before Ian came out, but this wasn’t the case. Ian now was stuck inside of the castle while all of the contestants were getting ready to participate. Meaning that Ian’s murderer was most likely there. 

The author didn’t go into great detail about who murdered Ian; mostly since they were never able to figure out who killed him. Phillip had an idea of who it might be. He ripped the flyer off of the tree, shoving it into his bag; he started running towards what he hoped was the right way to the kingdom.