Lucas was silent as he gazed into the flickering firelight before him, the warm glow from the flames illuminating the small clearing that he sat in. His hands slowly traced small patterns into the soft fur of the black fox sprawled out across his lap as Lucas sat, completely lost in thought. The fading light of the far off sunset occasionally flickered through the dense forest around him, though quickly the only light within the area was coming from the large blaze in the center of the clearing.

  Lucas was pretty much alone in the clearing, deeply lost in his own spiraling thoughts. Or, as alone as he could be with the small form of Dusk in his lap and Fay’s small hawk, which he’d learned was named ‘Dove’ perched on one of the branches above. Having the deceptively dangerous little bird nearby was a pleasant comfort in the unknown forests, but Lucas truly just wished that Fay would return sooner rather than later.

  The sound of a branch snapping off beyond the edge of the clearing caused Lucas to jump, nearly throwing Dusk out of his lap as his head whipped around towards the source of the noise fast enough to nearly give himself whiplash. After a few seconds of tense staring and trying to spot anything in the growing darkness, Lucas was forced to relax as Dusk gently pawed at his leg, nudging him back into a sitting position where she could rest in his lap once more.

  “Sorry, sorry.”

  He apologized to the fox as he sat back down, crossing his legs and allowing Dusk to climb into his lap once more.

  Once more staring into the roaring blaze that Fay had started, Lucas got lost in his own thoughts and memories again. He and Fay had been cutting a swift pace through the forests on the way back to her home, to the point that the two had been traveling since the morning and only just stopped as the sun started to set. It was a long journey and probably the longest distance that Lucas had ever travelled on foot before.

  But what was really surprising was that, other than some small five-minute breaks where they ate a bit of food and drank some water to keep them going, the two barely stopped until the sun began to set. And even with that brutal pace, Lucas was still feeling relatively alright. He was tired, sure, but he wasn’t physically exhausted like he knew he should have been from an entire day of keeping up with the far more athletic girl he was travelling with.

  It was strange, and Lucas had to wonder if it had anything to do with the magic that Fay had been telling him about. He hadn’t gotten much out of her before the two had to get moving, and their breaks had been spent recovering for a few minutes before moving on again. But with nothing else better to do while he waited for Fay to return, Lucas got lost in the blaze and brought up those recent memories again, wondering if there was anything that she’d told him that he'd missed.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “So you really don’t know anything about magic, then?” Fay asked as she turned her attention from the two dead Direwolves to Lucas himself.

  “No! My parents definitely were not magic in any sort of way, and I have no idea where we are or what’s going on,” Lucas replied, some of his frustration boiling over.

  “I just had to make sure. It’s really, really rare to find someone who managed to come through one of the Mirrors who didn’t already know about magic to some level.”

  “Mirrors? What do Mirrors have to do with any of this?” Lucas immediately questioned.

  “Ok, ok, give me a moment to try and explain the basics. Let me explain,” Fay paced for a few seconds, clearly trying to figure out what to say. She didn’t look much older than Lucas himself, and she had just mentioned how rare his situation apparently was.

  “So… The Mirrors are what we call the portals between this half of the world and the half that you came from. We call them ‘Mirrors’ because each side of the portals is basically a reflection of the world on the other side, or at least, a reflection before and after humans settled in areas. This side,” She gestured around her to the towering trees and abundant forests. “Is what happens when humans leave most of nature alone, while your side of the Mirror had people building everywhere.”

  “So, you’re saying that I’m not on some sort of alien planet? This is still Earth?” Lucas questioned, more than a little confused by Fay’s explanation.

  His question just made the girl laugh as she looked at Lucas, the amusement clear across her face as if he’d just suggested something truly absurd.

  “No, we’re definitely not on an alien planet. The way that my parents explained it, and had it told to them, was that long, long ago, possibly at the beginning, the world split in two. The world you came from became the Ordinary world where everyone was born and lived. But there was also this side of the world, the magical side. It’s only accessible through portals, the Mirrors, and the only people and creatures that can get through them are the ones with magic. To anyone without magic, the Mirrors aren’t visible and can’t even be interacted with. Essentially, it’s like you took an actual mirror to the entire planet, and then made the reflection itself a whole new world to live in.”

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  The explanation left Lucas’ head spinning and he struggled to understand it all, but the general idea managed to stick.

  “So why is this side so much weirder? I mean, we don’t have any trees with glowing leaves where I came from and there was a forest right here on my side of the portal.”

  It was a good question, especially since Lucas had never seen any signs of magic being real before, and he absolutely refused to count any stage magicians as actually being magical.

  “Ah, that. Magic is to blame for that. On your side, there’s some magic in the air, but not really enough to cause any weird things to happen or influence the world that much. On this side of the Mirrors, magic is everywhere and there’s a ton of it. Far as we can tell, it’s influenced practically everything on this side. That’s why animals and trees tend to be larger on this side and might look different. It affects people, too, but you’ll probably notice that as you get used to your magic.”

  “My magic?” Lucas looked like he’d been slapped when Fay mentioned that.

  “Yes, your magic. Lucas, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have magic. It’s literally impossible for someone without magic to travel across a Mirror from the ordinary side to the magical side of the world. Plus, this literally marks you as a person who has magic. It’s the only way you’d have it.”

  She reached for Lucas’ right arm, tapping his wrist. With the sleeve of his hoodie gone, the chain tattoo was in clear view. And Fay then revealed a perfect copy on her own wrist as she pulled up her own sleeve.

  “That’s a sign of magic?” He couldn’t help but ask.

  “Yes. Nobody knows why, but when someone awakens their magic, this mark appears on their wrist. It’s how you can tell if someone has magic or not,” Fay explained.

  “And if all that wasn’t enough proof for you, your little fox friend is the biggest tell,” The blonde added.

  “Dusk? How is she proof?”

  “Yes, her. She might look like a normal fox, but she’s magical too. She’s-“

  Before Fay could finish her explanation, a howl off in the distance echoed through the forest, soon joined by more echoing howls. And a quick look at Fay revealed that she looked just as tense as Lucas felt at that moment. More Direwolves.

  “We need to go. We’re deep in Direwolf territory and we need to get out of here before more of them show up. You’re not in any condition to fight, yet. We can talk more later, but we need to get somewhere safer first. Come on.”

  As Fay spoke, she grabbed the larger of the two dead Direwolves. Pulling it by the back legs, she brought the body towards a large sack she’d pulled out of her cloak and laid on the ground. Much to Lucas’ shock, the sack easily fit the legs of the wolf and more as Fay quickly started to stuff the body into the bag. There was a weird warping effect in the air around the mouth of the sack that hurt Lucas to focus on, so instead he focused on watching the wolf quickly getting forced into a sack that showed no visible signs of holding something much larger than the sack itself.

  As Fay grabbed the wolf’s head to stuff it into the bag, Lucas caught sight of those sharp fangs, a beam of sunlight glinting off them and he flinched hard.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Though he didn’t jump, Lucas did flinch hard as the memory of the wolf’s fangs flashed across his mind. The attack was still fresh in his mind and without the adrenaline pumping through his veins, the memory of nearly dying to the huge wolf was terrifying and hard to get rid of. Every time Lucas closed his eyes or got lost in his own thoughts, eventually those huge fangs would flash, and those growls would sound in his mind, and he would remember nearly dying again and again. He could still smell the carrion breath from the beast’s maw as it loomed over him, even hours later.

  The closest that Lucas had ever come to dying had been during a hunting trip where he and his father had encountered a bear out in the woods. But even then, the bear had been a distance away and the father and son duo had simply remained still and silent until the massive beast passed.

  This was different, though. Lucas had been inches from death with the Direwolves, and now he was having to deal with that close encounter. On top of that, he now had to struggle with the knowledge that magic was real, and that he apparently had magic too.

  The sound of leaves crunching underfoot caused Lucas to tense, though he kept himself from jumping again. He wasn’t in any real danger, he knew that. Fay had explained that Dove would be around to keep him safe, and that she wouldn’t have been going very far from their small camp. And that seemed to be proven true as he turned and spotted the girl making her way out of the dense forest, carrying a pile of branches and wood.

  “This should be enough for the rest of the night. Now that we’re out of Direwolf territory, we should be safe to rest. The fire will keep pretty much everything else away, long as we keep it fed.”

  The explanation made sense to Lucas, as he and his father would often do something similar when they went camping. Though, with the world he was now in, he wasn’t so sure how much of his camping knowledge would apply.

  Even after being told that they were safe, it was hard for Lucas to just relax after what he’d been through. And even in the flickering firelight, Fay seemed to be able to notice how tense Lucas was.

  “Are you doing ok? Direwolves can be terrifying the first time you see one. And you got a lot closer than anyone would want to,” She asked. The concerned expression Fay wore was hard to miss as she got a bit closer.

  “It’s fine. I’m fine,” Lucas replied immediately. There really wasn’t much that he could say, not while trying to make it seem like he wasn’t on the verge of falling apart and freaking out.

  But deep down, as much as he might have tried to deny it and put on a brave face, Lucas knew the truth.

  He was not fine. Not at all.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~