Chronicles of a Royal Pet- Heroes Collide

by Ian Rodgers

  I caught glimpses of some of Dora’s reflections as well as we trekked across the mysterious and magical bridge. In one particular image, she was twice as tall! In another, she was a full orc with very impressive tusks and dark green skin. I particularly liked the images that showed her in different attire. In one reflection she was dressed in knightly full plate, in another she was barely clothed and wore crude furs, and wielded a big, spikey club like it was nothing!

  The scene that made me chuckle the most was the one where she was dressed in a stereotypical Bardic outfit, her plumed hat and brightly colored clothes clashing badly with her mint green complexion. When Dora saw herself wearing that costume she paled and shivered, before looking down at her dirty white robes to make sure she was still in them, and not wearing what the mirror had shown.

  “I dunno, that look sort of worked for you,” I said with a laugh. Dora glared at me, unamused, and rolled her eyes.

  “Why couldn’t you have been cute and cuddly, like that version of yourself?” she asked, gesturing to a mirror where I was reflected as a Dire Squirrel.

  “Huh, that’s… certainly a unique look for me,” I mused, noting with interest that instead of the red eyes a normal Dire breed had, mine were purple. A side effect of having the soul of a Chosen One?

  We continued walking along the Wanderer’s Bridge, the air ringing with our mirth, and spent some time pointing out interesting sights and reflections as we went.

  “Heh, look! I’m a cube!” I giggled, seeing myself as a strange box-shaped purple goo creature.

  “That’s nothing! I look damn good with wings,” Dora chirped, admiring the reflection of herself with a pair of large, green feathered wings.

  “You look like a parrot,” I replied, not liking the clash of colors the two differing shades of green made on her.

  “Yeah? Well, in that mirror, you look like…” Dora retorted, jabbing a finger at a distant mirror, only for her words to die on her lips and trail away into nothing. With a numb look on her face, she staggered over to the edge of the Wanderer’s Bridge and stared long and hard at a particularly large mirror that was floating through the shard filled region.

  “Dora? Is everything okay?” I asked worriedly. When she didn’t respond beyond a grunt, I rolled over to her side, and took a look at the reflection that had engrossed her.

  Shock stabbed deep into my core, followed by a strangled gurgle sound I wasn’t even aware I could make.

  There, in a suspiciously undamaged ten-foot-tall oval mirror, was the reflection of two humans.

  Dora looked quite beautiful. Her straw blonde hair was still pulled back into a ponytail, and her skin was a healthy tanned color, clearly the result of being under the Dreadland’s sun for days on end. Her bust as a human was quite a bit larger than the one she had as a half-orc. Dora’s new form as a striking young woman was free of blemishes and dirt, and in the reflection carried herself with pride and confidence.

  Her Healer robes were different as well. They were crisper, whiter, less tattered and dirtied. She proudly wore a necklace that had all the emblems of the Divine Family, had a crossbow hanging from her belt, and held a coiled whip loosely in her left hand. Above all though, Dora’s reflection was smiling. It was a true, honest smile, making her look radiant.

  As stunning as she was, I only spared her image a brief glance. The reflection I was most interested in was my own.

  I looked a lot like Prince Julius, Liliana’s younger brother. I had neat, straight brown hair identical to the two royal siblings, but my eyes were a rich purple hue, rather than the famous Roan iron grey.

  What truly took me back was my age in the mirror. I was six years old! Not quite a toddler, not quite a child. I had plenty of baby fat, which made my face look round and adorable, and my overall body shape was pudgy.

  I was smiling, though. And what a smile! It was full of joy and contented peace, sheer, unbridled, and simple child-like happiness shining through the expression.

  “This…” I struggled to form words. Fought to speak my mind. But there was nothing to say. Only a bitter and painful longing that pierced my very soul.

  I wanted it! I wanted that image, that world, reflected in the mirror to be real! To be my reality! But knowing it would never be caused me to feel weak and pathetic and drowning in sorrow.

  (This could be yours, you know.)

  Dora and I both stiffened in shock as the voice trickled into our minds, but were unable to look away from the mirror that showed us as humans.

  (You don’t believe me? Well, that’s alright. Suspicion is after all a perfectly reasonable response when suddenly offered your greatest dream.)

  “W-who are you?” I managed to get out, still enraptured by the image in the mirror.

  (How rude of me! I’ve shown you your deepest, most true desire, and yet I haven’t introduced myself,) the ‘voice’ chuckled, though there was a hint of mockery in it.

  With a tingle of unease coursing through my soft, jiggly body, the source of the telepathic voice appeared before us. Slowly, yet with a sense of elegance and refined poise, a chalk-white skinned creature stepped out from behind the mirror. Each movement was exaggerated, but showed off the creatures muscular, humanoid body to full effect. Despite being utterly nude, the entity had no sexual characteristics, but that only heightened my sense of discomfort. Through the whole display, the creature kept its head hidden.

  Only when the rest of its body was in full view did it reveal its head. Or rather, its complete lack of one! The neck was little more than a stump, though without a drop of blood or ichor, or any injury to be seen at all.

  The headless humanoid floated over to the Wanderer’s Bridge, and the mirror followed behind it obediently. As it did so, the oval mirror distorted, and proceeded to bend and curl up in on itself until it was a perfectly spherical shape, just the right size to be placed on its empty neck.

  Indeed, the entity did just that, taking the mesmerizing mirrored orb and placing it atop the stump. Then it leered at us, which was quite a feat for a creature without eyes or even a face.

  ‘A Mirror Soul,’ I realized. ‘This is the creature they warned us about!’ But try as I might, I couldn’t break away. It was too mesmerizing… too perfectly beautiful.

  (If you want, I can give you what you see, what you seek,) the mirror-headed entity told them.

  “And what would the price for something like that even be?” Dora demanded hotly. She was slowly shaking her head, as if emerging from a dream and trying to figure out what was real.

  I realized that the strange feelings that had come over me earlier had dimmed. They were still there, and I couldn’t help but continue to sneak glances at the shiny, reflective surface of the entity’s head where the tantalizing image of my human self still was, but the pull was no longer irresistible.

  ‘Which means it was magic of some sort,’ I thought to myself, and began to grow worried. ‘And if I fell for that spell so easily, how powerful is this creature?’

  Wariness soon flooded me as I glanced at the bizarre humanoid entity who was leaning forward towards Dora.

  (What I ask for is something worth the reward,) it simpered. (All I ask for is eighteen years of your lifespan, and all the memories you have of being a half-orc.)

  “What?!” Dora and I exclaimed as one.

  (Oh, yes, and when you get your beautiful new body, you’ll only remember being a human your entire life,) the creature hissed. (It’s quite the deal, don’t you think?)

  “That’s insane!” I shouted, glaring angrily at the con-monster. “No one would pay that price!”

  (Oh, is that so?) the Mirror Soul chuckled, turning its attention to me. (Now, I admit, you are an odd case, but I can genuinely provide what it is you’ve seen. An Ooze into a human? Tricky, but not impossible.)

  I stifled my emotions when it told me that. A pang of longing ran through me, and it seemed to notice as it made a low chuckling.

  (The price would be a bit more exp
ensive, though. Mere years won’t be enough for you, I’m afraid. The cost of your transformation would still require your memories as an Ooze, but also… your core.)

  It pointed a smooth, pale, and perfect finger at golden sphere bobbing around in my gelatinous form, and I drew back in panic.

  “That would kill me!” I cried.

  (No, it’d kill an Ooze. As a human, you wouldn’t need it anymore,) the mirror-headed entity whispered.

  ‘That makes sense…’ a traitorous part of me thought, but I squashed that thought before it could form any further.

  ‘NO! No, it does not!’ I shouted at myself. ‘I am me! No matter how much I might’ve wished I could be more human in the past, that doesn’t change who, or what, I truly am!’

  ‘Besides, it’s because I’m an Ooze that Liliana loves me,’ a semi-traitorous part of me pointed out to the rest of my subconscious.

  I wobbled violently back and forth, and managed to break free of the honeyed words the creature had tried to ensnare me with.

  “NO!” I shouted. “No! I don’t want to be human! I want to be me!”

  The creature recoiled, taken aback by my sudden anger. In the mirrored surface of its spherical head, the illusion of human-me narrowed his eyes in disappointment and anger.

  (So be it,) the entity hissed, its tone dark. (At least my other customer can appreciate the beauty of the offer…)

  The Mirror Soul turned back to Dora, and the image of her human form imposed on his reflective face beckoned sweetly towards the half-orc. (Well? What’ll it be, my dear?)

  Dora trembled slightly, hands clenched tightly into fists, and to my shock, I spotted a few red spots marring the gold of the bridge’s surface.

  “I-I… I don’t… I can’t…” the Healer muttered, her voice shaking. She looked torn between accepting and denying. I couldn’t let her fall prey to this malicious predator!

  “Don’t do it, Dora!” I shouted at her. “You can’t trust it!”

  (SILENCE!) the entity screeched at me, and I flinched as a painful wall of noise smashed into my thoughts, disorienting me.

  That seemed to snap Dora out of any confusion she might have had, though, and she narrowed her eyes in determination.

  “I am Dora Halfmoon! I am who am, and I’m as sure as the Hells are horrible that I don’t need to be told I could be better!” she retorted.

  The image of human-Dora flickered, the expression on her face one of rage and disbelief. The reflection abruptly vanished as a keening wail of fury rang out from the entity we’d just denied.

  (YOU COULD HAVE BEEN BEAUTIFUL! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN PERFECT!) the Mirror Soul shrieked, lashing out with a fist towards Dora. But the golden aura of the Wanderer’s Bridge countered the attack, and cracks spread out across the hand and arm of the mysterious entity when it impacted the barrier, thick clear fluid oozing from its wounds.

  The howl of pain echoed throughout the Field of Mirrors, and the reflections in the surrounding shards of glass suddenly looked agitated, and began to act in strange manners.

  Without warning one of the glass shards exploded, and a reflection of me – this one depicting myself as a strange animated pudding – that had previously been on impressed on the glass shard suddenly manifested into the real world and flung itself at the Wanderer’s Bridge.

  Nearby, another shard of mirror exploded, releasing a reflection of Dora dressed up in a futuristic doctor’s garb. And with that, a chain reaction went off with the sound of countless mirrors shattering all around us, unleashing dozens of false images of ourselves.

  “Holy…!” Dora swore in shock, wincing as she watched a reflection of herself slam into the golden aura of the magical bridge. It tried to break through, but the radiance and power of the Wanderer’s Bridge repelled it, smashing it apart into fragments of glass that rapidly disintegrated into motes of light.

  Yet the reflection kept coming, pouring out of the surrounding mirrors, their frenzied attempts at breaking through unceasing. And throughout it all, the mirror-headed creature continued to emit a horrid screeching.

  “Jeez, this is unsettling,” I said, wincing as another copy of me broke apart into flakes of energy.

  “At least they can’t get through,” Dora said, though there was a note of uncertainty to her words, and I couldn’t help but agree with it.

  “Let’s keep moving,” I suggested, and rolled off along the golden path. “I don’t want to be here if they do find a way past the bridge’s barrier.”

  “And hopefully we can get out of this place before anything worse happens,” Dora added, briskly walking away from the screaming. I bobbed up and down enthusiastically in agreement. We still had a long way to go, but hopefully nothing exciting would happen in the meantime.

  Chapter 5: First trip to the Hospice

  “Well, this is the end,” I said. My words were unnecessary, as Dora could also clearly see that the golden road we’d followed through the Field of Mirrors had come to an end directly outside of the region of shattered glass and broken mirrors. But I felt like I had to break the silence that had been suffocating us ever since we’d run from that Mirror Soul.

  “Wonder how much further we have to go before we reach the Hospice?” the half-orc wondered, squinting into the distance.

  “Not too much more, I’d hope,” I replied as I stretched out and morphed into my equine shape. “Care for a ride?”

  “One day I will find a way to fly on my own,” I heard her mutter under her breath. Still, she hopped onto my back with the practiced ease of an equestrian, and kicked me gently with the heels of her boots. “Giddy-up.”

  “Ha. Ha. So hilarious,” I uttered in a deadpan tone. Even she couldn’t resist a snicker at my expense, and the Healer gave me a grin for the first time since we’d run from that mirror monster.

  I flew off the Wanderer’s Bridge, and behind me the golden construct faded into nothingness, its aura vanishing and the solid cloud-like surface we’d been walking on just moments before dissolved back into particles of mana. It was humbling, seeing that majestic structure disappear as if it’d never existed.

  Dora was clearly not of the same mind, as she kicked me in the ribs and told me to keep moving. I complied, but only because I too was interested in finally getting to our destination.

  Flying through Luminoth again was as boring the second time around as it’d been the first. Just bright white light constantly, with floating discs of gold in varying sizes to distract us.

  But as we continued to head towards where the Hospice was supposed to be located, more and more discs began to display signs of habitation.

  “That is odd,” Dora agreed when I pointed it out. “But, on the other hand, it makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean, I’d want to live near a place that has the reputation of being able to heal all wounds! And I certainly wouldn’t want to travel through the Field of Mirrors each time to do so.”

  “You might be on to something, Dora,” I mumbled. She just snorted.

  “Of course I am! I’m Dora Halfmoon! And I am on something. You!” We shared a laugh at that, which brightened up our moods considerably. Bathing in the energy of the Elemental Plane of Light was also helping get rid of the dark thoughts we’d been harboring since seeing the projections of us as humans.

  After a couple of hours, a humming sound grabbed my attention, and I extended my senses to locate it. What I found was a massive golden boat sailing overhead!

  It resembled a covered canoe, but made completely from gold! The oars were crafted from some exotic crystalline material, and they seemed to generate their own currents which propelled the flying craft through the air. That act was creating the pervasive hum that I’d detected.

  The whole vessel was probably a good thousand feet long, and about two hundred in height. Yet it moved with a graceful smoothness I wished I could pull off.

  “What is that?!” Dora gasped, staring at the vehicle as it sailed through the sky.

  “I think it’s a transport sh
ip of some kind,” I guessed. We watched as it slid through the air perfectly and without issue, before descending towards one of the larger golden discs that had a sizable town built upon it.

  “Whoa,” I breathed. “I think we’re finally in the more civilized part of the plane.”

  “What do you mean, Jellik?” Dora asked.

  “Based on my own travels through the Elemental Planes, most settlements are either widely separated from each other, or clustered close together around a city or important structure. Here in Luminoth, the latter seems to be the case for this stretch of its domain. I think the Field of Mirrors might act like a natural sort of boundary. Your idea that people want to be close to healing and safety supports this hypothesis.”

  “And what exactly does that mean for us?” the half-orc questioned.

  “It means we can ask for directions!” I said cheerfully. “Or read the signs.”

  “Signs?” she uttered, confused. I grew a pseudopod and pointed down towards a fairly small golden disc. Planted on top of it was a sign post – also made of gold – the size of a two-story house which had elegant runes carved into it.

  “Huh, I didn’t think I’d see the Holy Speak out here, but then again, this is the Elemental Plane of Light, which is all about ‘good,’” Dora said aloud.

  “You can read that?” I asked, intrigued, and she nodded.

  “Some of it. Holy Speak is the tongue of angels and the Heavenly Lands. Back when I was still learning the ways of the Healer, my mother made sure I could understand the basics of it, since a lot of the more advanced grimoires on Light and Healing magic are written in Holy Speak,” she revealed. “Anyway, my vocabulary is a touch rusty due to a couple years being out of practice, but the sign is saying ‘No littering,’ and that a town whose name I cannot decipher is up ahead.”

  She scratched her chin in bemusement as she continued to read. “Also, according to this, there’s a warning about the Field of Mirrors. It says ‘Beware of Illusions and Mirror Souls.’”