Mirrors and Shadows

Chapter Seven

Is this a hallucination? I move forward an touch the mountain. Yep. It's real. Huh. Weird. I take a bite out of the mountain. It tastes delicious.

How did this mountain of potato mash appear? I was thinking of a mountain of potato mash. Yes.

I imagine a burger and a few fries in front of me.

So I can summon food in here? Oh, yeah. My dream come true.

I indulge myself in a chocolate palace, a whole buffet for 10, flying candy butterflies...

Wait. Flying candy butterflies?

I look around and see colorful candies in the shape of butterflies flitting around. I grab one and pop it into my mouth. Mmm. It's really sweet.

I imagine the butterflies flying in circles. I open my eyes and see them doing exactly what I pictured in my mind.

I can manipulate the food? Huh. I wonder...

I close my eyes and imagine I'm standing in a patch of sunflowers. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and there are pigs with wings flying in the sky. The breeze blowing on my face, light and cool...

Then I really feel the breeze. I open my eyes. There, around me, is a patch of sunflowers spreading out for miles and miles. The sky is now a bright blue, unlike the dull gray just now. The sun is filling the world with light and warmth, in contrast to the gloomy cold darkness that was this world just now.

A big shadow passing over me. I look up and see a giant flying pig flying towards the big chocolate palace I summoned just now.

Wow. I can create my own fantasy world in here. That's just... amazing.

New worlds pop out as I imagine each one. A world of video games, with an unimaginably fun unlimited amount of games. A world of sweets and chocolate, with hollow giant chocolate cakes with sweet vanilla ice cream running down the sides forming little houses which dot the colorful candy world. A world of food, from barbecues to giant meatballs, from hot pots to whole buffets.

I imagine wings on my back. I beat them I fly into the air, travelling at supersonic speeds, then dive into one of the chocolate houses and eat all I can, satisfying my sweet tooth to the extremes.

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He explained the new mission to the children. There was no choice. He had to pull them into his. He was too weak on his own. This was their only hope.

"So we need to fight through Emergent members, an 'innocent' creature whose flame can burn shadows, and get the magic flower to save Audrey? Easy peasy." Alastair said.

Christoph glared at Alastair.

"It won't be easy," he said. "Remember last time we faced the Emergent? We barely got out of there, Audrey almost got captured and is now faded, and that was without the monster." He shook his head. "Who knows how they're controlling the poor beast."

"So how are we going to pull this off?" Benjamin asked.

"That's what I'm thinking about. Their control on the creature must be wavering, since the beast went crazy and through Colin out of the cave last time. We must find out how they're controlling it and know why their control on it broke."

"Who knows? Maybe he's dead," Alastair said.

"Stop joking! This is a serious matter," Christoph said. "We must save Audrey."