Crown of Glass

III

Willow opened her eyes slowly, rubbing a hand against her temple as a stinging pain coursed through her head. All she'd remembered was touching the mirror and not what happened after. As she finally regained the strength to stand, she noticed that she wasn't standing on the basement floor but under her feet was grass. Puzzled, she shifted her focus upward and she appeared to be in what looked to be a forest. The trees were tall, the plant life was lush, and the sounds of what could be assumed to be birds flooded her ears.

"I have to be dreaming, there is no way this is real," she said repeatedly to herself to convince herself that she was in a dream.

To prove it to herself, she pinched at a piece of her skin, wincing from the pain, but she was still in this strange place. While rubbing at her arm, she took a deep breath and decided to explore her surroundings to maybe pinpoint where exactly she was. As she walked through the trees and bushes, her eyes darted around the area. Everything around her looked like a normal forest but it still didn't feel quite right to her. It was eerily silent, and she couldn't hear the birds anymore.

Once she turned around, she saw a creature staring right at her. It had deep brown fur, an unkempt mane, and its eyes were redder than fire. The creature looked angry and before she could even process it, the beast lunged at her, barely missing her. Willow took this narrow escape as a chance to run away; but the creature gave chase. Her breaths were heavy as she ran for what seemed like forever in any direction she could, but whatever was chasing her never ceased its pursuit.

While quick on her feet, she was ever so slightly outrunning the beast behind her, which seemed to make it angrier. The sounds of her feet and the paws of the creature padding against the ground echoed through the forest as both bodies were tangled in a seemingly endless race of hunter and prey. When she thought her situation couldn't get any worse, she dragged her feet to a stop when she came to a river, the only way across being a withered old log that looked as if it would fall apart if someone even managed to breathe in its direction. She pondered about it for a while but remembered that there was something hot on her trail and so she gathered the courage to cross the log as it wobbled slightly with each step she took, increasing her level of fear.

She honestly didn't know what she feared more, the thing chasing her or the thought that she'd fall into the river. Though she didn't have the time to ponder due to her life being on the line. Once she'd successfully crossed the river, she kicked at the log, causing it to fall into the water below and float away, trapping the beast on the other side, filling her with a sense of relief. That relief was quickly replaced by a long groan and a smack to her forehead because she still had no idea of where she was or where to go from the river. All she knew was that she was in a strange place with no recollection of how she got there or how she was transported here.

Willow, being the determined girl she was, rather quickly mucked up the courage to continue forward. Despite the aching pain in her head, she continued on her way, her feet tracking along the floor of the forest, getting stuck in the mud occasionally. It was hot and the blazing sun was beaming down against her skin. She was beginning to think that she was never going to find her way out of this place, and she would be lost in the sands of time never to be heard from again. To make matters worse, she was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and was beginning to perspire from the heat. Willow was tired, hot, and she had no clue what happened to her. She was starting to believe that there was no hope of ever escaping until she lost her footing and tumbled down what she felt was a hill and crashed into a tree, again losing consciousness.

When she awoke, she heard a male voice calling out to her and the voice sounded concerned.

"Ma'am, are you okay? Hello?" said the voice she heard.