The Magic Mirror

A Hopeless Situation

"BACK YOU WICKED BEAST! FANGED ATROCITY! YOU DO NOT SCARE ME!"

A growl. Teeth. Audrin fell back into a bush and cried out in alarm as she felt the thorns tear into her clothes.

"Thornbrush!" she seethed. The growling was nearing. She held her breath as the creature pressed low to the ground and watched her with it's menacing dark eyes. Her heart raced, she held it's gaze and moved her hand slowly so that it would not notice. "Easy now..." she grit her teeth and her fingers wrapped around a stick lying nearby. She snatched it up and got to her feet with a valiant and daring grin, "This thornbrush may have me doomed," she declared with a shuddering breath. "But I'll be damned if I don't drag you to hell with me!"

She lunged forward with all of her might and promptly tripped over a tree root.

"Ouch.." she grimaced through a mouth full of leaves. She rolled onto her back and was greeted by a cold black nose and a warm, foul smelling tongue to her face, "Git off me, Dumpling!" she huffed. "You're supposed to be a beast not a big fat dog!"

Dumpling the dog tilted its enormous, black head and got off of her, tail wagging.

"AUDRIN!" a voice shouted through the woods, shrill and angry.

Audrin grimaced.

"AUDRIN! Where are you?!" it continued.

"Coming mother!" she called back. She got to her feet and sighed, "C'mon Dumpling... back to our chores."

The forest was everything a good forest ought to be. It was alive with the last green of summer and the sounds of sparrow songs and squirrel chatter. Audrin ran through it pulling twigs out of her long brown hair and stumbled at least a little over every root she encountered on the narrow path. Dumpling barreled ahead of her with its nose planted firmly against the ground. They came to the forest edge and Audrin found her mother waiting patiently by the open chicken coop. Her mother was tall and thin framed, with a long gaunt face that perpetually made her look tired. She stood in her mud hemmed, shapeless gray dress and tapped a boot expectantly.

"Oh my..." Audrin grimaced, upon seeing the pile of white feathers on the ground between them.

"Oh my?" Her mother raised a stern brow and shook her head. "Is this not the same chicken coop I asked you to clean an hour ago?"

"Well we only have one chicken coop," began Audrin, flustered. ".. Look, I was just taking a little break and I must have forgotten to shut it properly-"

"Oh please, Audrin," her mother huffed. "You've barely even attempted to clean it! What happened? Did you mistake a cricket for a knight as it hopped by? Or maybe it was another wounded fairy queen that looked suspiciously like a butterfly!"

"Those were both understandable mistakes," Audrin insisted. But shut her mouth as her mother shot a ferocious glare at her. "...How many chickens did we lose?"

"One." Her mother's gaze softened and she handed Audrin a shovel. "A hawk got it. Be thankful that it wasn't more and finish this... the garden still needs weeding."

"Can't Eber or Clyde do it?" asked Audrin.

"Your brothers are in the field with your father- and none of your sisters can help you either! ...oh Audrin..." She shrugged her shoulders. "You're almost seventeen. I was always happy that you had such a ..vivid imagination but I also thought you might have outgrown it by now. You're nearly an adult! Please, promise me that you'll try to act like one."

Audrin stared at her mother and nodded blankly. She didn't have a clue when it came to acting like an adult but if agreeing to it made her mother happy then she was certainly game for feigning the attempt.