Beyond A Mirror

5: The Winding Woods // Finnian

A pained, annoyed groan escaped Finn as he laid on the ground. He had barely heard his sister calling for him the first time, luckily her loud voice woke him up.

"Finn! Are you alright?" Lily said, running over to him and crouching to his height. "Finn?"

"I'm fine." Finn replied gruffly as he sat up, rubbing his head. "Where are we? I just jumped into the mirror behind you and now... I'm here." He looked up, narrowing his eyes due to the glare of the sun. "Where is this place?"

"I don't really know, but I think I found someone—actually, he found me, that could help us!" Lily said, standing up, her signature optimistic smile on her face.

Finn rolled his eyes as he stood up, dusting off his jeans. "Really? I doubt that, hasn't Mom told you not to talk to strangers?"

"Um, if you don't mind, I'm going to have t—to interrupt here..." Came a voice from behind Lily.

Finn turned around to face where the voice had come from. He immediately noticed the taller teenage boy behind Lily, causing him to step forward and almost push his sister aside.

"Who're you?" Finn asked, his eyes narrowed.

This seemed to throw the mysterious boy off a bit, he had taken a step back when Finn glared at him. Speaking of a step, he had no shoes nor socks. Oh, great, Finn thought, what was Lily thinking? This guy looks shady, he doesn't even have any shoes.

"Is... is that a problem?" The boy said, "It's my choice to be more connected to the earth."

Finn froze, his eyes widening as he looked at the taller boy. "Did you just... read my mind?"

The boy nodded, a timid smile forming on his face. "Yes. Is it... that unusual? Sorry." He looked away for a moment, his eyes most likely laying on a tree, "I'm Courier, b—by the way." Returning his gaze to Finn, he held out his hand for a shake.

Finn reluctantly shook the older boy's hand. He didn't completely trust Courier yet, but they were seemingly lost and had no idea where they were, so they might as well trust him. Meanwhile, Lily was behind them, looking up into a tree, her arms held out. She was calling for one of the small winged rabbits that populated the forest. It appeared that she wasn't having much luck getting it down.

"I assume I'll be helping y—you both get around here, right?" Courier asked, putting his hands in his hoodie pockets.

Finn nodded, he assumed that Courier had already read his mind. "Lily! C'mon!" He called, turning around and waving an arm. Lily bid a farewell to the winged rabbit and walked to where her brother was, a slight frown on her face.

"Alright then, let's be off. Make sure you follow me closely, this place is called the Winding Woods for a reason." Courier said, holding out his hand. "I recommend holding hands."

Finn scoffed, "No than—" His sarcastic remark was cut short by him being pushed aside by an eager Lily, who skipped to Courier and immediately took his hand. She turned around and stuck her tongue out at Finn when the older boy wasn't looking. Finn narrowed his eyes at her, he grumbled something under his breath bitterly as he walked on the other side of Courier.

The trio began moving. A frown was plastered on Finn's face as they walked. His head was full of sour thoughts of today and his now-ruined plans of doing absolutely nothing. He was certain Courier was reading his thoughts, but it didn't bother the teen. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be stuck in this mess! Finn thought. Now that he thought about it, where were they exactly? And how did a mirror send them here? First, he falls through a cold void. Second, he wakes up in some fantasy land with flying bunnies. And third, he meets some weird mind-reading guy in a forest. This is not how he thought today would go at all.

The forest itself was very beautiful. Exotic and strange plant life was everywhere, even odder animals could be spotted occasionally in the trees. The trees were very large and had many branches, some were even twisted. In a nearby tree, Finn spotted a large bird with a long, curling yellow tail feather pecking at the bark of a tree with its sharp beak. He could've sworn he spotted another person in the cover of the trees, but they sprinted off as soon as he stopped to look.

"Ah, I nearly forgot to ask... I—I don't know your names. And I'm sure you both have questions to ask me, so go ahead." Courier said.

"I'm Finnian, but call me Finn," Finn began, "and that's Lillian, my little sister." He said, pointing at Lily.

Lily rolled her eyes, "You can call me Lily. I've got some questions, by the way. First—"

"—where are we?" Finn asked loudly, interrupting his sister. "Also, how did that mirror bring us here? And how can you read minds?"

"Also, how old are you?" Lily asked quickly, just in case her brother was planning on interrupting her again.

"Alright, well... you're both in the Winding Woods, outside of Firefly Village. If you want me to be specific, you're in Confictura." Courier explained. He hummed a bit in thought, it took him a few moments to think of the second question. "M—mirror? I... I don't know what you're talking about..." He seemed to hesitate a bit as he spoke, a small frown visible on his face. "T—to answer your third and fourth questions, I'm a psychic vene of course. I can do more than read minds." Courier looked down at Lily, his soft smile returning. "And I'm seventeen."

"Also, Finn..." He looked down at Finn now, "I recommend you hold my hand. This is where the winding begins."

Finn was busy processing what this so-called 'psychic' had said. Confictura? Firefly? Vene? All these names and words were like a foreign language to him, what did they even mean? He slowly grabbed Courier's hand as he thought, confused. "Okay... bummer. This... this is insane! This isn't real! I—I don't..." His voice trailed off as he stared at the floor when he walked.

"So you're four years older than me." Lily mumbled, looking down as well. "Um, Courier... why're we holding hands anyway?"

"The woods are like a maze, only a resident of Firefly such as myself knows their way around. And besides, you two are human. You'd never make it out of these woods without me, the path would distort for you and lead you off into another direction." Courier said, as they continued on the seemingly straight path. Apparently, it distorted your vision so that you would turn right instead of proceeding straight or something.

Finn jerked his head back up to look at Courier, his eyes wide with shock, "Wait, how did you—"

"Oh, perfect! We're here!" Courier exclaimed, interrupting Finn. Ahead of them was a straight path that led to a large, wooden post with a sign above it that read: Welcome to Firefly Village!

A moment of silence overtook the group before Finn spoke again, "...Can we stop holding hands now?"