Mirror Me

7: Plains of Penia

I expected the fall through the mirror to be the same as before, but instead of a vast ocean lacking color and light, Owen and I were swept into a tunnel of vibrant landscapes. From mountains with snow spotted sides to grand cities with castles, every image we passed felt like a window to someplace new. Just as I felt one of those windows would be our stop, an unsettling jolt would hurl us towards another in an ever tightening vortex. I was reminded of the first and last roller coaster I ever rode. Even that did not feel this intense.

"So it's true!" yelled Owen glancing around at the swirl of confusing images. "You are a Mirrorbender!" He looked at me in astonishment.

"A what?," I cried, spitting the hair out of my mouth.

"I said you're a Mirrorbender," Owen yelled again.

"A mirror what?" I shouted. "I can't hear you! It seems to be getting louder in here!"

Indeed it was. A derailed train skidding along its tracks would have been quieter than the pounding wind that blew into my ears. Suddenly there came a final jolt, and we surged towards a small misshapen image of a bright blue sky. I extended my hand out from Owen's waist, far enough to break the veil between that place and this one. My fingers emerged into a chilly windswept landscape and like a vacuum sucking air out of a tube, Owen and I flung upward from this mysterious place of swirling images and landed against a golden field of wheat and soft patterned dirt. I glanced over my shoulder spying a small water puddle ripple until it became still as glass. There was no doubt we had exited from there. But how?

The wind whistled around us creating waves in the tall grass, and the large fluffy clouds above shifted calmly across the sky as though the unlikely event of two people leaping out from a puddle was no big deal. For a moment the two of us laid there, our hearts racing and limbs shaking. We both stood up and rubbed our aching muscles. As the pain died down, Owen stared at me with a look of bewilderment.

"I...just traveled... with a Mirrorbender," he said, clutching his chest. He glanced over the tops of the grass at the distant horizon. "And we scryed half a world away." Owen jumped with jubilation. "Take that Desire! Ah ha!"

"This is not a time for celebration!" I cried, stomping my foot. "I demand to know what just happened and where you have taken me. Explain yourself!" I gripped my head and spun around. Stress beamed off my face.

"Whoa, calm down. This is where you took us. I had nothing to do with what just happened."

"What are you talking about?"

Owen rolled his eyes and twirled in a circle with his arms outstretched. "You seriously have no idea what you did?" I shook my head. "Wow." He slammed his arms to his side. "A Mirrorbender who has no idea what she is doing. That's the first for the history books."

"Wait," I said. "I don't understand anything that you're saying. An hour ago I was leaving school and on my way home when this man chased me. Then somehow I landed in that creepy place with you, the boy I've seen in my reflection for so many years. Who the hell are you? Where the hell am I? What happened to me?"