The World In-Between

Chapter 8: The Guides And The Memories

The Guides And The Memories

They stepped forward like shadows made curious.

Unlike Fen and Lys, who have genderless appearance, the three of them were distinguishable but neither were children nor quite grown; they were the kind of faces you couldn’t place an age to, but they were small in stature. One had a crown of twigs tangled in her hair, as if the forest had claimed her thoughts. Another wore layers of woven cloth that shimmered faintly when she moved, the colors shifting like rain-soaked stone. The last was the tallest and slight, with a fox’s wariness in his eyes and a slingshot at his belt.

Alex straightened instinctively, frozen on her spot in surprise, heart thudding with a sharp awareness. She had spent so long surrounded by people who didn’t see her that the feeling of being truly noticed startled her more than she expected.

The girl with the twig crown tilted her head. “You’ve heard the Lake, didn't you?”

“I… what?” Alex asked, thrown off balance by the directness.

“The Mirror Lake,” said the one with the shimmering clothes. Her voice was soft, almost like it was layered with distant echoes. “It calls when someone’s ready.”

Alex glanced at Fen and Lys, but they only watched with the same unhurried calm as the trio walked towards her slowly.

“I—I didn’t hear anything,” Alex replied, stammering but didn't know why. “At least… not like that. I heard about it—from Fen and Lys.”

“No. It was before you came.” The fox-eyed boy gave a little shrug. “Sometimes it’s not a sound. Sometimes it’s a pull in the chest. Or a dream. Or a name humming in your ear. Doesn’t really matter how it comes.”

“We weren’t sure you’d come this far,” the twig-crowned girl said. “Most don’t. They get scared and turn around.”

“Well, I almost did,” Alex admitted. Her hands tightened slightly in her lap. “A dozen times, actually.”

There was a beat of silence, and then the girl smiled. A quiet, approving smile. Not patronizing but… kind. Like she understood more than she let on.

“Well, we’ve been watching,” she said.

“But not in a creepy way, no, no,” she added quickly. “More like… er, making sure the forest didn’t swallow you whole.”

“Which it might’ve,” remarked the fox-eyed boy, “if you weren’t meant to be here.”

Alex frowned, her heart lurched. “What does that mean?”

But they didn’t answer directly. Instead, the girl with the twig crown knelt near her, studying her face with a sort of unfiltered wonder like Alex was a story unfolding.

“Hmmm, you don’t see yourself clearly yet,” she said, “But the Lake might help.”

Alex’s stomach flipped. “So it does give you something?”

“Not necessarily, no,” the one in shimmer-cloth said. 

“And it isn’t always what you expect,” chimed the fox-eyed boy.

Alex looked from one to the other. None of them felt threatening, but they didn’t feel completely safe, either. Not in the human sense. Not in an uncanny feeling as well. They seemed different from Fen and Lys; they were kind of wild in an unusual way, like the forest itself, with rules she didn’t know, patterns she couldn’t predict.

Still, something in her leaned forward.

“Will you take me there…?” she asked quietly.

“No,” said the girl, rising.