PRIDE (Leona x Reader) [Twisted Wonderland]

Chapter 3

You scouted around the landscape and tried to determine which way it would be. You were pretty good with direction, so it wasn't that hard to pinpoint which way it should be, even if you couldn't see the structure from here.

You cut apart from the path and into the grass--the fastest way between two points is always a straight line--until you came to a hill where you could look over and down. There it was.

You turned around and tried to see if Crowley was following. If he had been, he wasn't now. But he was magic, you reminded yourself, and for all you knew he could fly or teleport. You careened your neck as if you might spot him swooping down from the sky with bat wings, but he was nowhere to be found.

With a deep breath, you jumped, and slid on your heels down the hill. It probably wasn't good for your boots, but it was the fastest way to avoid falling on your face. Stumbling forward, you ran to the entrance way of the dome.

The mirrors were exactly as you'd left them. You doubled over and tried to catch your breath before examining them again. The weren't all the same. Or, they were, but their reflections weren't. One held a glorious castle, another an underwater cove, and one, the one you recognized, seemed to be a rocky desert, with a structure of sorts built into the stone.

That was were Leona had gone. He'd seemed rather unsatisfied during all of your previous time together, as short a time that may have been, but he had saved your life once, hadn't he? Maybe he would be willing to do it again?

Not wasting any more time to think twice, you pressed your hand through the mirror. It glowed the same way it had last time. Your hand passed through easily. It felt warmer on the other side. You followed it up with the rest of your arm, then dipped a bit of your toe through, just to make sure.

You held your breath when you stuck in your head. It felt like nothing it all, truthfully. The temperature difference was the only thing that confirmed to you that you had gone though. You stepped the rest of the way in and took in the sight.

It was a beautiful landscape, like nothing you'd ever seen before. A massive skull of a creature with tusks adorned the entrance to what must've been--well, you hadn't a clue. The only denotement of what this might be was a banned that hung from an uneven tree to your right. The face of a lion was embossed with crisp writing at the center of the yellow cloth. The scar along it's right eye reminded you of Leona. 'Savannaclaw'. He had mentioned that word. This was where he was from, then? Inside of a mirror?

There was no door. The entrance way was large and wide open. There didn't seem to be any candles lit inside. Should you go in? You didn't want to trespass, or do anything that would get you in trouble. But that witch that wanted you gone, you didn't know if he was following you. And you'd already come this far.

You took a step into the building. It was quiet. You called out to the into the hall. "Um. Hello?"

You heard something stir. "Go to sleep," said a voice through one of the walls. It wasn't Leona's. So, there were other people here after all.

"I'm... I'm a little lost," you tried. There was a few moments of silence, and then the door nearest you creaked open. A groggy face peered over at you, through the darkness. Another boy with animal ears, only these ones were larger, clearly not shaped like those of a lion. With his grey white hair and yellow eyes, he looked more like a wolf.

"I've never seen you before," he said. When he stepped further out of the doorway you realized just how tall he was. "Are you a Savanaclaw student?"

You purses your lips and shook your head slowly. "I'm looking for Leona Kingscholar," you said.

"This late at night? I'm sure he's asleep. He probably isn't even here. He's taken to sleeping elsewhere, recently."

You didn't say anything. You'd seen him enter the mirror, so he must be here somewhere, you thought. And if he wasn't, you weren't sure where else to go... You could just hide here, maybe. It was possible that that witch--Crowley--wouldnt know where to find you, or would give up looking. Did he even know about the magic mirrors? He probably did, but there had been so many of them...

"I'll take you to his room, I guess. Just to check, since you came here anyway."

"Thank you," you breathed, and the wolf nodded and led you down the hall.

His gait was slow, and from the halls you could see that there were quite a lot of doors and rooms here, some of them left open a creak so that you could see the sleeping, animal eared boys inside. Did everyone here have those? And were they only boys?

There were a few other types of rooms as well, open rooms that looked a tiny kitchen, or one with tables set up within it.

The one that you were led to was the door at the very end of the hall, just after the set of stairs taking you upward. The wolf boy stopped at the door and looked at you. He set his jaw and then knocked.

You took in a deep breath and as a few seconds ticked by. "Is he not here?" you whispered.

"I don't know." He knocked again.

Sheets rustled on the inside of the room. Someone let out a mix of a groan and a sigh. You heard his feet touch the ground and approach the door. The nob turned and the it pushed open. Leona's eyes narrowed on the wolf.

"Jack. I thought you all knew better than to wake me at night. What do you want?"

"You have a guest," said Jack, standing stiff. He was so much taller than Leona that you would have expected Leona to be the one intimidated by him. You certainly were. But, Jack wasn't intimidated either. It seemed less like fear that held up Jack's posture, and more like respect.

Leona turned to look at you. You saw surprise in his eyes. "Didn't you go back to your dorm?"

"I... I don't think I have a dorm," you said. "But I came to ask for help."

He eyed you blankly, like this didn't make any sense. "You what?"

You wrung your fingers together with nerves. Your head felt like it was floating. There was a lot resting on his reaction. "I think someone's trying to kill me."