The Last Rabbit Prince

A Whole New World

"Oh," P'Phayu says, "You'll need this." He hands Rain a necklace with a hollow filigree ball charm on it. Inside the filigree ball is what looks like a translucent blue marble. He holds it up and can see the inside of the marble has a tiny rabbit design. At least he thinks it's a design. For a brief moment the bunny seems to move. Rain blinks and the bunny is still again. Rain sees that P'Phayu is wearing a similar charm with a green marble. "Put it on, otherwise you won't be able to get through."

Rain bites his tongue to keep from asking, 'get through where?' He knows he won't get an answer anyway.

"You probably should close your eyes; here give me your hand and I won't let you fall." P'Phayu holds out his hand and Rain takes it without hesitation. Part of Rain still wonders why he trusts this man so easily, but the fact is that he does.

P'Phayu guides him easily, making sure Rain keeps a steady footing as promised. After they walk a few feet, P'Phayu leans over and whispers, "Open your eyes."

Rain opens his eyes and feels his breath catch in amazement. He whips his head behind him and stares. The house and the street are gone. He then turns back to the sight in front of him. The landscape is a vibrant green that Rain has never seen before. Rain takes a deep breath and notices that the air around him is clear and crisp and smells sweet. In the distance he can see a waterfall ending in a river that flows out of sight. The sunlight bouncing off the falling water creates the most beautiful rainbow Rain has ever seen.

There might be beautiful places somewhere like this on earth but certainly not on the outskirts of Bangkok where Rain had been just a minute ago.

Rain begins to feel faint and realizes he has forgotten to breathe. He takes a steadying breath and puts both his hands on P'Phayu's arm to ground himself.

"Did I die? I'm dead, aren't I? I'm dead and this is some sort of afterlife." Rain turns and pokes an accusing finger at P'Phayu's chest, "You're a reaper, aren't you? Fuck, I'm dead."

P'Phayu's lips twitch as if he is trying not to laugh at Rain. "You aren't dead, little bunny and I am not a reaper. We are both very much alive."

"If I am not dead, then how can I be wherever this is? We were just in Bangkok. Did we teleport or something? Is this like a video game?" Rain asks.

"We didn't teleport, we are still in the same spot, just outside of Bangkok. We stepped through a portal into another world." P'Phayu says.

"Portal? You mean this is, we are still in Thailand?" Rain asks haltingly.

"Here it is still known as Siam. The Kingdom of Siam to be exact. The Royal Palace is located in Krung Thep, which is still considered the capital, but it is located much farther north than the Bangkok you are familiar with."

"This world and the one you know are mirror worlds. Parallel to each other. They are called mirror worlds not because they are the opposite of each other but because they are very similar. Except for a few notable differences. The biggest difference is that the other world runs on technology while our world runs on magic. Their technology doesn't work in our world," he waves his hand at the pocket Rain has dropped his phone back into. "At the same time our magic doesn't work in their world. If you don't believe me, look at your phone."

Rain takes out his phone and instead of his normal home screen he sees weird flashes of light and random pictures blinking rapidly. The calendar and clock, which is barely still visible, now claims it to be the 42nd day of the fifteenth month in the year 3456, the time is 74 past 89 o'clock in both the morning and afternoon.

"Is it broken?" Rain asks. He just got this phone.

"It's the magic field of this world, it interferes with the electronics from that other world." P'Phayu says.