Joan

Chapter LII

As I collect my bearings, I glance around at my new surroundings. It's not the sight that hits me first, but instead the sounds. I'm usually as unobservant as a brick, but after traveling through a relatively quiet jungle for a majority of this journey I'm a little more aware than usual.

A whirlwind of birds cry out to one another- high pitches, soft hums, melodic tweets- and the buzzing hum of insects out of sight in the bushes and trees is constant yet soothing. It's like the entire jungle has been trapped in this glass bubble. This place resembles an indoor greenhouse with its frosty dome glass ceiling (hence the glass bubble mention). It's amazing how much can fit in here, with trees towering up to the top of the ceiling to the metropolitan of a jungle in here.

Tymos keeps getting odder and odder with every room I discover. It's like the missing pieces of the jungle have been sucked from outside and placed inside this palace because in comparison to in here, the only thing going for the jungle out there is the humidity and that's like living in Satan's asscrack.

I begin aimlessly wandering, trying to find a way back into the palace so I can finally confront Tymos. I'm positive if I find him, I'll find the others and, more importantly, Brent.

Meandering through the tall, thick trees where birds cry overhead, I make sure I still have my sword on me- I don't trust anything around me being in Tymos' backyard. As I walk, my dad's ring gently bounces against my chest as it dangles from my neck.

The further I venture into this place, the denser it becomes, causing the light to be slowly suffocated out by the trees overhead just like in the jungle outside. The cries of the birds also become less condense, instead of sounding farther off and more like an echo- the only constant is the buzzing of the insects.

Suddenly, I pause.

As if this couldn't get any weirder...

Sticking out like a stripper in a bingo hall, hanging on a nearby tree is a mirror. Like, an actual, vanity type, oval mirror, just chilling there as if mirrors in jungles are a common occurrence. I dunno if Tymos just prefers having his mirror out here or whatever but it's bizarre, even for him.

Approaching the mirror to inspect it, my eyes catch sight of something else that makes me stop again. Hanging up on a nearby tree is another mirror, this one a different shape and smaller size than the first, but still a mirror nonetheless.

Two mirrors out here?

I can't even begin to start piecing this out- and I don't as I notice yet another mirror! It's only once I begin to become aware do I start to spot the numerous and various mirrors scattered straight down the path I'm on. They're all different sizes and styles and heights on the tree from one another, but they all seem to lead down the path as far as I can see.

Immediately, I'm on high alert.

Still...I want to know the purpose of this and so I curiously (first mistake) turn look at the mirror I originally noticed.

Seeing as it is a mirror, one would expect it to do what mirrors are notorious for doing: reflect. But as I peer at it, I'm surprised to see a toddler-aged me sitting on the kitchen floor with mud caked all over the place. I recognize the scene instantly. Why I'm seeing it, though, is beyond me, but I watch, transfixed on my mischievous self slapping around mud that I had carried from outside where it had just rained.

Not entirely sure if I should be proud to say it, but I was as much of a handful- if not more- at that age as I am now (can't say I'm inconsistent).