She smilled thank you little light,and Derick she said.

She came back the next night,Little light,Derick are you there my friends she inquired,

Along the way he found a little lantern, shaped like a pagoda. He bent down and picked up the thing, then realized he had a little flint among the few things he was carrying. He opened the lantern, and tried to light it, but he was terrible at striking the flint. It felt like hours of trying when really it was only about ten minutes worth. He finally gave up, and then remembered that this world was different.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and the lantern lit all on it's own.

Picking it up, he moved further in, listening for the dog's barks. He had lost his animal sense of smell when turned into a human, so he had a difficult time keeping up, especially since he stumbled often trying to keep his balance. Shadows appeared on the trees from the flickering light within his lantern.

"Where did you go, little one?", he called out


((I picked a new color for Quad Human so that's why the change. I hope you're not getting swamped, Chickenwhite. It looks like you're doing four of these all at once))

As the girl vanished from Kaoori's sight, she realized she was suddenly alone. Ears pricked, then pinned to her head, no scent of the girl was carried on the wind. She slowed her run, now standing alone.

@Quad: ((5, actually, but it's okay, it's imagination-exercise : D))

Somewhere in the distance the dog barked back, and there was the tell-tale sound of a sliding door being closed.
The barking stopped.
But soon Quad the samurai reached a small thicket of the woods in which stood a grand, old, oriental house, weathered and falling apart in some places but reaching a very special level of splendour which only time can bring to a building.
There were sakura blossoms and petals all over the front porch and a tiny, little path went through them to the front door... a tiny little path made by the paws of a bounding puppy.

@faunet: As soon as she entered the mirror she was met by the smell of fire. She stepped out into an old field with stacks of sticks bundles up together in the darkness, a village in the distance and a bonfire lighting up the buildings with black shadows dancing around it, their echo-like voices laughing in their ghostly chorus. On closer inspection, the sticks were not just sticks... They looked like old-fashioned, crude broomsticks.

@Kaoori: ...Silence surrounded her...
Then suddenly out of the creeping darkness came a low, humming purr of a voice.
"Hello, little lady..." -and out from the shadows stepped a stag, tall and dark, black from top to toe, his only features being a wide, calm smile and slanted eyes, both glowing a ghostly, white colour.
Like the little girl, he seemed to be made of something not entirely physical.

@Terabetha: The mirror's surface shimmers and flows like liquid where it is touched, leaving rings to spread to it's edges like rings in water.
A low giggle is heard, something that sound far-off and near at the same time, ghostly and merry all at once. The reflection of two big, white, round eyes is seen briefly before they disappear in the silvery reflected world in the mirror.

The creature shifts sunken eyes closer, trying to catch glimpses of the mirage like world through the mirror. Carefully it dips a leg through the liquid glass, taking a moment to feel the substance against its leg. Then, steeling its resolve it steps through.

The samurai smiled slightly here. He was very intrigued by old buildings, it made him dream about the people who lived there before (hence why Quad as a deer loves the old Ruins). He steps on the porch, looking into the old place. "Hello? Is anyone here?", he calls, his left hand is holding on to the end of his katana while the right hand holds the lantern forward. No reply, though he does hear a chilling wind deeper in.

He takes a step inside of the building, following the tracks leading in. In the corner of his eye, he swears he sees three shapes - three animals. He turns, only to find an empty room illuminated by the flame of his lantern.

He could have sworn he just saw himself there, three times. Antelope, wolf, tiger...

@faunet: The ghostly dancing of the people in the distance continued for a while, the light of the bonfire making their shadows stretch and twist into ungodly shapes on the ground and buildings but soon a taller shadow appeared before the fire.
It was a man, tall and slender-limbed. He was standing on a box, saying something... But it was impossible to make out what at the distance Tazanna was at.

@Terabetha: The feel of the mirror is cool and soft, like a gentle flurry of snow. And what the corpse emerges to see is astonishing. A dream-like world, shimmering at the edges of tall, liquid trees, ponds made of silver and butterfly-like little beings flitting through the still air on thin, delicate wings made of the petals of flowers.
The sky above is pitch-black with thousands of stars blinking brightly... Yet something seems odd.
Maybe it's the vapour-like fog among the trees or maybe the mirrored moon... Or the fact that not a sound can be heard in this unreal wonderland.

@Kaoori: The stag's lips curled in a white, glowing smile.
"What's a tiny doe like you doing here, if I might ask?..." He said, that deep, raw voice somehow ensnaringly soothing... Like the purr of a cat or the low hum of a dog.

@Quad: But there is nothing. Only night-deep shadows and a strange, white fog mingling into the dust on the old furnishing. Everything seems old and worn from the many generations who might have lived in this place. There is even an old, black camera laying on a shelf, an object which seems strangely out of place in its ancient surroundings.
A small, playful giggle is heard and a light briefly shifts the shadows on the walls and objects, but as the samurai turns around there is nothing... Nothing but a dainty trail of sakura petals in a hallway on the other side of the room.
Everything is dark again.

@Bayleen: Tilting its head as she went, the fawn was quick to follow, the water reaching its chest as it touched halfway up the doe's legs. It seemed to struggle slightly against the current, but nothing to stop it giggling and giving a soft, playful splash with one foreleg. The drops hung in the air like pearls on a string, shining in the moonlight, moving down in slow-motion, as if time had truly been stopped or halted at this very moment.

He didn't like this. If this was some kind of a game, he was not enjoying it at all. He does notice the odd camera there, and approaching the shelf, he picks it up, blowing the dust off. He strangely knew what it was, despite never using one in any of his forms.

Another sound startles him. He put a hand on the handle of his katana, expecting something to jump out at him in this place. The old building has gone from a place of interest to a place of terror for him. Even samurai can be afraid.

The man continued down the hallway, following the sakura petals to where they led. He has one hand on his blade, the other is holding the old camera...

@Kaoori: Following her gaze, the stranger frowned lightly.
"The mirror... She tricked you in here, didn't she?..." He said, a bitter tone in his voice...

@Quad: As he walked the old building seemed to become gradually more and more decrepit, as if the first room had just been a pretty mask or a thin layer of makeup to hide the true nature of the building below.
The shadows were gathering, the hurried scurry of a rat through the walls once in a while echoing through the hallways and bringing with it the constant, chilling feeling of being watched... But the darker the surroundings grew, the more vividly the sakura petals seemed to stand out on the dusty floor. They even looked like they might be be glowing... Like tiny, little, pink hearts.
The sound of a tiny bell.
A tiny glow illuminating the walls.
And there was the girl! Standing at the end of the hallway, holding her white ball, one bright, white eye visible behind her curtain of hair. She giggled playfully. Apparently the darkness didn't bother her one bit.

@Bayleen: Only to see it struggling to keep up with her. It was obviously a very young fawn and was not particularly strong. But it soon reached her, putting its forelegs on her back, clinging to her, panting softly. The waters were very dark indeed and the fawn was almost invisible against them.

There is an intolerable stillness to this place, the corpse notes with displeasure. It desires a slight breeze to stir life in the air, but settles for investigating the mirror stillness of a nearby silver pond. The familiar scent of silver, clean and crisp, a natural anti-biotic it recalls. Still, flesh remembers the hot-flash burn of molten metal all too well. The corpse keeps to the bank, steel hooves safely at ponds edge.

Taking a deep, echoing breathe Teradeer raises its eyes from the pond. Where are the milk-white eyes that drew it here? Where is the host?

@Bayleen: all the while the fawn watched peacefully, a warm, little, limp thing on Mariposa's back.
After a while it sighed... It sounded rather sad.
"...You have to go soon..." Said the white, floating words.

@Terabetha: And, as if on cue, in between the trees shimmer those eyes, big and curious...
A small gasp is heard and the eyes shrink back, as if their owner had retreated a few steps.
An uneasy wind blows across the tops of the strange-looking trees...

@faunet: And to her great surprise, the man turned out to be Derick! He was rousing the crowd, some of them holding pitchforks, the last of his words being the first Tazanna heard.
"...-And free this village from her evil clutches!"
The crowd cheered.

She smilled recognizing him she stood up to reveal herself.
She didn't come closer seeing as she did not know the others "Hello Derick "she said

@faunet: As he spotted her, Derick smiled. "You came back!" He said, getting down from his box and approaching her.
His voice seemed lighter today.
"-And just at the right time too... We need all the help we can get to catch her..." He said, a slightly dark frown entering his face.

@Bayleen: But the fawn sighed, shaking its head.
"You can't stay... If you stay you'll lose yourself..." the white writing said, floating a few inches before the fawn's black face.
Suddenly it let out an angry huff.
"It's not fair, it isn't! I wanna play with you more, I want you to stay!..." It sobbed, trembling lightly, only to take a deep sigh and be back to its calm self yet again.
"But you have to leave... You can come back tomorrow night and we'll play more!" The writing said while the fawn smiled and a light shone a little way away, starting to form a large, square object...

Mariposa walked towards the square object. Then she stopped a few feet away and lowered the fawn off her back. Then she nuzzled the fawn and whispered, "It isn't fair...for the both of us." She kissed the fawn on its cheek and then faced the square object.

With a sigh, she murmured, "I wish I would lose myself." The doe stepped through.

His senses were getting the better of him. He was starting to see things that weren't there. He swore he saw people walking by out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't bother to look. He just had his eyes fixed on the little girl.

He was convinced that she was nothing she appeared to be.

"Little one...this has gone far enough. Please talk to me. Please tell me what all this means!", he pleads. He takes his hand off of his katana, his body unable to control the following movements, for he has no idea why he even does this.

He takes the camera in his right hand and looks through the viewfinder toward the girl...

She wasn't sure if she should trust him or not. She stepped forward, tilting her head. "She? is 'she' the child who ran from me?'

@faunet: Sighing, Derick looked to the side.
"She's... she's just been tormenting this place for so long..." He said, a deep sadness in his voice, as if old scars had re-opened by the mention of this female individual.

@Bayleen: The fawn shook its head in sadness and as Mariposa passed through the mirror and back into the forest, a few, white words appeared on the slick surface just below the glass;
"I don't want you to loose yourself... Then I'd loose you too..."

@Terabetha: A small whimper is heard from the darkness between the trees and the branches rustle. The host is moving, albeit slowly, retreating even more from the approaching corpse.
But as the rustling stops, those eyes appear yet again, watching vigilantly... The fear in them evaporating, if only slowly.
The silver in the pond moves quietly in the moonlight, like waves and ripples in water.

@Quad: And what he sees is something completely out of this or any other world.
Hundreds of arms and hands with an eye in each palm sprouting from the little girl's back, The little girl who no longer looks like herself; The kimono is a dusty grey, torn at the edges. The ball is the grinning skull of a human being. Her tiny body is weighted down by thick, heavy steel chains, restraining her arms, feet, neck and waist... And a pair of downy, little wings on her back, hardly even big enough for flight. She is a cluttered mass of limbs and eyes, all the while her own eyes have been torn from her face, the blood running down her cheeks in tear-streaks as old as time itself.
She moves back, hesitantly, the giggle fading...
Giving a heart-wrenching sob, she hides her mutilated face in her hands, dropping the skull on the floor and runs off crying... through the nearest wall.
A voice echoes through the house...
"I don't like this game!..."

@eyestrain: No longer where he is at all.
In place of the reflected forest in the water-like surface of the object, there is a world made out of white, black and grey...
A jet-black sky above with stars that seem much closer than usually and a moon so big it almost looks like one could jump up and land on it.
The ground is soft and looks like thick fog, but has the shape of curly hills and the fleece of sheep, all in a never-ending landscape stretching as far as the eye can see.
The ground seems to move ever so slowly in a constant waltz of movement so tiny it is hardly even visible to the naked eye.
There are no clouds in the too-close sky...

@Kaoori: The stag nodded solemnly.
"She's the creator of this world..." He made a gesture with his partially-shed antlers.
"Everything you see is a creation of her imagination. You could say you're inside her mind right now..." He sigh-huffed and moved one hoof, breaking off a few blades of crystal-grass. They instantly re-grew.
"She's a cunning, little witch... You best be keeping away from her or she'll lure you in a trap..." He said, voice strangely bitter and dark.
It seemed like he had been trapped her for a long time...

@010: Go right ahead, the more the merrier!~ ^w^

Mariposa entered the forest world and the mirror was no longer there. The beauty the forest brought no longer entertained her. All she wanted was company, which she did not have often.

@faunet: Tilting his head, Derick gave a confused expression.
"Who're you talking about?..."

@Bayleen: All the while inside the now-gone mirror, a tiny voice sobbed in a lonely, eternal blackness.
[Aww TwT Feel like skipping to the next night, or have you had enough for now? >w<]

@010: The surface of the mirror is cool and smooth. Tiny ripples run through the glass as the young girl touches it and a soft, little giggle resonates from its silvery depths.
"Hello!" white words in the mirror spell out, flickering slightly at the edges, as if the very letters were giddy with anticipation.
"Wanna play with me?" new words replace the old one, a pair of big, round, white eyes shining just below the surface of the clear glass.

@eyestrain: When suddenly, not long after he initiates his gallop, something moves in the white, soft dream-world.
It looks like a fawn... But it's made out of the exact same as the ground, tiny stars as its eyes.
It calls back.
Looks curious.
Smiles sweetly.
And approaches with a soft giggle, treading lightly on what can only be described as the clouds that this world is made of.

@Kaoori: But the stag only gave a deep chuckle.
"Don't worry, little lady, I'll help you out of here..." He said, lips curled in a wide, calm smile.
"I know this witch and her tricks. She won't be able to fool me." He said, carefully stepping closer, as if testing to see if the tiny doe would pull away.
Around his pitch-black body, the shadows flickered like moths or nervous fog.

(YUSH EPIC SADNESS ;; Well I guess this would be kind of...what happens out of the mirror or at least after this incident. If you wanted to join that, your more than welcome. Otherwise, we can continue onto the next night ^^)

@010: The eyes narrow as if their owner was smiling.
"Come on, it'll be fun!" The words usher soundlessly as the eyes shift around inside the barely reflected world in the mirror. The moonlight seems to be caught in it, giving it a constant glow, white and eerie yet strangely beautiful at the same time.
The owner of the eyes giggles excitedly.

@Bayleen: [Unfortunately the fawn can't leave the mirror TwT But I'd be happy to continue to the next night >w< It really sounds like she could need some company... T__T]

@faunet: Her light protest made Derick give one of his deep, melodically raw chuckles.
"Truly? Then we may just stand a chance!" He said, a light shining in his eyes, dark brown and deep as his voice. He looked hopeful, like a bird after a long, cold winter having just spotted the first rays of spring sun.

@eyestrain: The fawn is quick to reach the startled stag, becoming more solid and real as it approaches.
It blinks and the stars blink with it.
It reaches out a cotton-soft nose, sniffing the foreigner in its strange, unreal territory.
But it says not a single thing... It only sniffs and after a while, giggles, moving closer for a nuzzle.

@Quad: The ball was laying peacefully on the ground, back to being just a white ball... but as the samurai reached down and touched it, it slowly transformed, gaining sunken-in eyes and protruding cheekbones... and finally showing its true colours, the ones the camera revealed.
A skull.
Bleached white to a glow and grinning ominously...
And suddenly, it sighs!
"...Samurai..." Its voice is eerie; dark and low, raw and raspy yet strangely melodious at the very same time. It's sounds like the ghostly echo of a big cat's purr.

At his chuckle she eased and smilled.
"Truly"she said once

The samurai jumps back for just a moment, but then he kneels down before the skull and says, "Spirit, I hear your voice. What will appease you? What is it you wish?"

He was shaking by all the strange sights here, but he was brave, and he had grown into a humble, compassionate man from his recent devotion to Buddhism. He no longer saw others as potential threats, but as equals. Even this skull and the strange little girl he had compassion for, since he understands that they are suffering.