The Silent Paw and The Gentle Bark

🐾 Chapter 53: The One That Stepped Through

They ran.

Catnap's heart pounded. Dogday stayed close beside him, their paws thudding across the forest floor. Behind them, the mirror stood in the moonlight—silent, cracked... and watching.

Then—

A sound.

Step.
Step.
Step.

They stopped.

The sound wasn't from behind them.

It was ahead.

"Dogday..." Catnap whispered.

Branches rustled.

And then, from the shadows, a figure stepped into view.

Tall. Thin. Its body was made of shifting glass and black mist. Its face—if it had one—was just a smooth reflection.

Like a living mirror.

It tilted its head.

And when it spoke, it used their voices. Both of them. At once.

"You opened the door."

"We didn't—" Dogday began, but the thing stepped closer.

"The Prototype was a test," it said. "I am what watches after."

Its surface flickered, and suddenly Catnap saw something in the glass—his own reflection. But it wasn't him. It was a version of him with dark eyes and a twisted smile.

"What... are you?" Catnap asked.

"I am the shadow of thought," it said. "The mirror of minds. The truth behind the glass."

Then it raised its arm—stretching like liquid silver—and pointed right at them.

"And now, I will know you."

A blast of energy surged toward them—

But Poppy tackled them from the side just in time, shouting:

"MOVE! That's a Mirrorborn!"

They hit the ground as the energy tore through the trees, leaving branches blackened and smoking.

"A what?!" Dogday yelled.

"It's not the Prototype—it's worse," Poppy said, panting. "It doesn't want to kill you. It wants to be you."

Catnap stared at the creature, now stepping slowly toward them again, absorbing reflections from the puddles around it.

"Then we destroy the mirror," he growled.

"You break the glass," it hissed, "but I remain in every shard."