The Mirror Games

CHAPTER TWO

I stared at the woman, not minding if I was being polite or not. She looked a lot like my grandmother when she

«I know what you're thinking. We all know it, because we thought the same thing. Although», she added, her eyes lost in memories, «Ila is definitely more rude than the rest of them. At least, Gep wasn't at all as ill-mannered.»

«Gep?»

«Oh, yes», she said, and looked back at me. «All of them are named like us, only in reverse.»

I turned around and looked at the spot where Ila had been standing just a few minutes before. «So, what now?»

«Now we train you», she said, and started walking down the hill.

I ran to catch her; in two strides, she'd traveled almost six feet. «Train me? For what? And who's "we"?»

«You need to get ready for the Games», she said. «There are rules in this world that you need to learn, and I don't know all of them, we need the rest of the family.»

«How many members of the family are here?»

«About a dozen. My own uncles are here, I was surprised to find them here back in the day. At least I hope Gep, Kram and Siwel had fun together... The döppelgangers of Uncle Mark, Uncle Lewis and mine», she explained.

We walked down the hillside. My eyes were slowly getting used to the green darkness of the place. «How long has this been going on? And what exactly are the Games?»

«There are many stories about this place, you see. Some say it was created by the gods, as a punishment for those they hated most. Others think it's was the lair of the Titans after their fall. And then, there's Uncle Kellan. He thinks we're in another universe.»

«Who's that?»

«He's my great-uncle. Auntie Mary's husband, our Grandmother's brother.»

«I have too many questions not to be annoying, Aunt Peg.»

She laughed, and the sound matched her delicate figure. «Then we better make haste. I am not the best to answer, I have hardly made any experiments here. But the rest of the family knows this place better, I'm sure they'll be able to give you the answers you seek.»

We walked for two days through the valley, following a small road. We stopped a lot the first day, because she kept on sliding way too fast for me to follow, and I often had to run to catch up. On the second day, she walked slowly, following my pace.

Though we walked a lot, the landscape hardly changed; it was nothing but a mix between barren and dry. The soil under our feet was hard and pressed, and only grains of superficial sand detached and floated in the air, taken away by the wind. The tall trees I had seen from the top of the hill where the mirror was, looked even taller from down here, and made me feel insignificant. Everything was mold green: the land, the trunks, the bushes, the few patches of drying grass. Nothing in that place was other than green, black or gray; it was slowly depressing me. And the crushing silence made our voices echo, so I kept silent. Something in my silence must have made some effect on her, because she started talking. After a few moments of whispering, she started speaking in a clear, loud voice, telling stories about her childhood, anecdotes about her brother and sister, some funny things that had happened to her when she was just married. It was full of funny moments that managed to make her shed a tear or two. She missed her family so much, and I could hear it in her voice.

At the beginning of the fourth day, we reached the ruins of the building I had seen before. It was cement gray, made out of concrete blocks, and it looked like it had been one of those jails you saw in westerns, only now half of it was destroyed or missing. The ceiling, a side wall and the back wall were still united, and made a cave-shaped space underneath. There was a window with bars on the front that looked like an entrance, and a piece of dry wood that used to belong to another window laid on the side.