REM Life Blendy

Below Clouds of the Mirror

Two enemies dance together in murderous synchrony and tempo as the cold air frosts their weapons. Rose taunts her opponent, and grins as her opponent blushes.

"That's one of your mechanisms; you take insults so seriously," Rose cheerfully pointed out.

“Mechanism, huh?” Wesley said, regretting losing his composure in front of Rose.

“Everyone has one, and you just now acted on yours after my insult.” Rose’s grin lit with 500 lumens of satisfaction over her moment compared to Wesley's embarrassment.

“ OK, well... prepare to die! Your dumb rule ends by the bite of my sword!” Wesley said, redirecting his embarrassment to aggression. Plastic swords with retractable blades lit by internal flashlights rose and fell. Their light trails grew longer with each passing minute.

“It’s getting late, I should probably be going home now,” Rose said in a dampened tone while stepping back.

“Okay,” Wesley’s disheartened response lost him the match as Rose lunged forward, stabbing his torso.

“I win!” Her victory smile ignored a reactionary swing from Wesley's sword lightly and quickly slowing to a tap on her shoulder.

“If you land a strike, you better make sure your opponent can’t strike back.” Wesley said, trying to hide his damaged pride from losing to an opponent who did a generic sword spin not five minutes ago.

“Eh, I still beat you.” Rose's grin also undefeated.

“...I WOULD BUTCHER YOUR CORPSE WITH THE LAST SECONDS OF MY LOSS!!!” Wesley replied.

“Hehe…” Feeling the cold air, the two calmed down and started towards their homes.

“Anyway, how far are you staying from here?” Wesley asked.

“About a twelve-minute drive – I mean a twelve-minute walk from here,” replied Rose.

“How early do you guys usually get back?” Wesley asked.

“Me and my parents usually drive back to the main building at around 8 o’ clock.”

“My parents and I,” corrected Wesley.

“No one cares, grammar Nazi.” Rose retorted.

“That only applies to the internet,” Wesley said.

“Oh really?" Rose asked.

“Improper grammar sounds stupid everywhere; my mom says so.” Wesley continued.

“Hehe, too bad I left my camcorder behind…”

“See you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah! See ya!”

“See you!” Concluded the two cheerfully.

"I like hanging around her, it’s too bad she’s out of my league though," Wesley thought to himself. The slush at the sidewalk edges glimmered in street light as it knelt down to the watery mirrors. Frost grew as the cold clutched the night, yet the puddles didn’t seem to freeze. In fact, they were so clear the ground under them became invisible. "I like how the puddles make the street look inverted." Wesley’s thoughts reflected on his recent friend based on their duel. "Rose’s better than me at my own craft… I’ll have to rethink how dueling works. The winter nights here sure do make the puddles look serene."

An icicle fell into a puddle, but no waves circled the surface. The reflection beckoned to Wesley, and his reflection wasn't there. "I wonder if Rose is seeing this?" Reflections in puddles everywhere became mirrors. The two hurriedly met up shortly after the reflections became alive.

"I put my hand in one of the puddles, and it went under the edge where the ground should be," Rose said in awe and fear.

"If we're meant to go through... how long would we be away?" Wesley asked. The two excitedly speculated what the phenomenon was, where it went, and almost began to wonder if they should stay until most of their important things were sorted. An approaching car interrupted the conversation.

"Let's step in together before that car sees us," Rose hurriedly suggested. They took each other's hands and stepped into the puddle where they fell through the other side. Rose and Wesley hugged each other for minutes until falling didn't feel scary; the earth they fell away from looked the same as their home side of the mirror. A moonlit cloud in the shape of a fish caught hold of them. There were no hard surfaces in it, but they floated partly inside its body. The fish carried the two into heavy clouds where they lost sight of inverted Earth.

The moon shined blue in the clouds around them while the fish carrying them "swam" fast into the night. Other cloud animals swam and flew beside them; other fishes, a few birds, a whale, and what looked like an eagle appeared. A glint of deep yellow light surged from inside the moon, and the yellow light shined upon a group of clouds in the shapes of wolves. The wolves joined them, carrying four dogs wearing vests. The four dogs weren't clouds, and after a few minutes they split from Wesley and Rose's group. After a while, the fish carrying the two descended to another planet, and into the water of a beach. Its waters caught Rose and Wesley where the cloud fish disappeared.

"That was amazing!" Rose exclaimed while helping Wesley get on his feet. "Where do you suppose those dogs went?" Rose asked while looking up to the moon. "Do you think they were from our world?"

"Good question, did you see any markings on those vests? I couldn't make them out if there were any," Wesley replied.

"No. Do you see Earth anywhere? This place seems like it's where we would've fallen under those clouds, but it didn't seem like Earth's other side had gravity," Rose asked curiously and worriedly.

"I can't see our world either. This place doesn't seem dangerous though. Let's get onto the beach," Wesley said. Three boys approached them from the beach. Two of them their age and one younger. One was wearing glasses, a tucked white shirt, a red bandana, blue pants, and a black belt. Another with brown hair was wearing a dark green shirt, blue pants, and a wrist watch, and the youngest with brown hair was wearing a dark blue shirt and blue pants. The dark green-shirted one stepped forward.

"Hi, my name's David. This good four-eyed man here's Timothy, and my younger brother here's name is Brav. What's yours?"

"Um, my name's Wesley, and this is Rose," Wesley said as Rose walked to his side.

"How did you guys get here? We got here through some puddles," Rose asked. David and Timothy glanced at Brav.

"Some cretins from school beat up young Brav here, so Davy and I tracked them down like bloodhounds and beat them up!" Timothy said proudly. "Shame my slingshot was a casualty of the skirmish."

"Timothy's kind of embellishing. My brother annoyed some of our classmates and they gave him a beating. Timothy went to get his slingshot and had to find us again. They walked away by the time he got back. We thought of leaving it there, but Brav found his locker door's drawings and pictures torn. We just had to fight back or he'd be the school stress ball next," David added. "They did have a point to not tease people for nothing, isn't that right, Brav?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's my fault the short one's face is meant for the dunce hat," Brav's sarcasm drooled like a dog's spittle. "No really, I confess! I stole his good sides!"

"Stop!" David gave Brav a shove.

"Both of his last ones..." Brav sighed under his breath; a chuckle escaped Rose's strained self-control.

"Anyway, last night we were on our merry way to impending doom until young Brav fell into a pond. We tried to get him back," Timothy said.

"What was this impending doom you three were going to? Detention? Your parents?" Wesley asked with raised eyebrows.

"Oh no, we were on our way to our last good prank before my upcoming birthday," replied David. "As I'm older, our mother and father expect more responsibilities and such."

"Oh haha, what were you guys going to do?" Asked Rose. "I flipped a table over in a park once."

"It's best we keep witnesses to a minimum," answered Timothy while Brav half smiled. Two more cloud fish dove into the water where two more bodies emerged. One dressed in all brown, dark brown hair, and green eyes, and the last wearing what the kids would've guessed was a white towel at his waste. He was mostly bald except for a lone pigtail portruding from the right side of his head, and black eye liners extended from the outer sides of his eyes. They walked up to the group while Wesley and Rose stood by Brav's side.

"And what are your names, friends?" David asked. "Unless you can't understand us, we all just got here and we're getting to know each other." Brav curiously glanced from one to the other since these were the most foreign looking. "We all fell through water, it seems. My name is David, this good man here is Timothy, this is my brother Brav, and this couple here are Wesley and Rose." Rose's blush hid in the poor light.

"She's not my girlfriend," Wesley replied dryly; Rose's blush vanished.

"Fine, fine-" David started.

"Liar," Brav cut off David boringly. David patted his brother on the shoulder and held it in a vice grip. Rose snuck a glance at Wesley.

"You'll have to forgive his rude behavior. He's not that bad once you get to know him," David said. The brown-clothed one stepped forward.

"The name's Bran. Bran Conner," Bran said. The last kid hesitated before joining the group.

"The name's Phanta," he started as he shook his white kilt cloth off. "Phanta Hagland." The kids asked these two the most questions, and they answered the best they could. Phanta was from a planet that didn't sound like Earth. If Connor was from the same Earth, it sounded like a place none of the first five had ever heard of. Wesley told Phanta he looked like an Egyptian. It was revealed that Phanta was attending a dress party in his world where he fell through a pool. He fell into space and through his planet's northern lights before falling to the cloud fish.

"By the way, did either of you guys see a group of dogs by chance? They joined me and Rose for a moment, but they separated on our way here," Wesley asked. "They were wearing dog vests, and they appeared after the moon shined a yellow light," Wesley looked from the first three to the last two kids.

"Can't say we have. Connor? Phanta?" David said.

"No, that seems a slight bit strange, does it?" Connor replied. Phanta nodded. After more talking, the group of seven laid out their outer clothes to dry. A woman walked to them from a place further along the beach.

"Rose is that you? Oh wow! I never thought I'd see you here after all this time! Are these your friends?" The woman asked.

"Do you know her?" Asked Wesley.

"No. I don't think so," replied Rose.

"Why Rose? I'm offended! Oh, it must've been some time," said the woman. "I'm one of your sister's friends from high school." The woman took a longer look at Wesley and straightened her face. "What's he doing here?" Wesley returned the sudden confusion with confusion.

"What do you mean? Did you see anyone who looks like me?" Wesley asked with concern, but the woman sighed.

"I'm sorry; you look like someone who came here a long time ago," said the woman. "Is your name Rose?"

"Yes, it is," Rose replied. "My grandma's name is Rose too; how long have you been here?"

"Years, oh! I'm sorry," The woman looked away, but she turned and took another look at Rose. "Hold on, your hair is black, not dark brown. Um, hm, this is embarrassing," the woman sighed with relief. She took a closer look at Rose; Wesley took a half step closer to Rose's side. "Your eyes too; they're brown. You must be from a different family then!"

"My grandma's eyes were brown too," Rose replied. The woman took a deep breath.

"Well then, anyway, I must take you seven to Winland," the woman said. "Also my name's Heather, thanks for asking."

"Lead the way," replied David. Brav grabbed Timothy and David's arm.

"Do either of you think those five from our side followed us?" Brav asked.

"They didn't look like they saw us fall; the trees were in the way," replied Timothy. The eight walked along the beach led by Heather. Timothy grabbed some rocks along the way while Brav kept up with David. Wesley and Rose walked alongside Brav talking here and there about where they came from before the mirror puddles. Further up, another group of five walked onto the beach behind a bend.

"Where are we?" asked the boy named Ralph.

"I don't know, but this beach looks well enough to dry off on," replied the boy named Jonathan. He glanced around. "Good, we're all here."

"What do you think happened to those dogs?" asked the girl named Estrella.

"Maybe they followed those two into the clouds. They seemed to be going in the same direction," said the boy named Dremmer.

"I'm not as curious about those dogs as much as I am about David's group," said the boy named Grant.

"Come, let's hurry up, I think I saw a pack of dogs above the beachline a ways back," said Jonathan.

"What was that?" asked Grant. Howls blared in the night and drew close to the group. "Not that way then, let's go," said Grant.

"Run," Jonathan agreed. David's group also heard the howls and started to run.

"Who's that?" Brav asked as he looked behind them. "That's Jonathan! What's he doing here?"

"What?" David glanced back Brav, then to where he looked. This new revelation would've meant a familiar shot of adrenaline for David's rivalry if not for the dogs' howls following them uncomfortably close. David's group came up to a patch of trees next to the beach, and all of them except David sprinted into them. Timothy stopped at a tree nearest to David.

"It's Jonathan's group, David! Wave them here!" Timothy shouted as he took out his broken slingshot.

"It's David and Timothy!" Jonathan said. His group of five caught up and followed the first group into the trees while David and Jonathan grouped up with Timothy.

"Nice seeing you people made it here. I didn't know you saw the water," David said to Jonathan.

"We'll sort this out later; I doubt those dogs will lose us," replied Jonathan. "That is, if your brother's still in a talking mood."

"Fair's fair only if it's fair to my little man. Here's a stick." David handed Jonathan a baton-sized stick.

"Thanks, but you need that more than I do for now," replied Jonathan as he drew out a wooden fishing club. The howls grew closer.

"Is Brav in a tree yet?" David asked Timothy.

"Yeah, Wesley helped him up and Rose is staying down here," Timothy replied as he found a suitable branch to repair his slingshot.

"Lucky man," David said.

"What do you mean? She's a girl," Timothy asked as Wesley jumped back down to them with a tree branch. "Oh," Timothy said.

"What's with the brush end?" Jonathan asked Wesley.

"It's more annoying to get past this mess," replied Wesley.

"Ok," said Jonathan while Timothy finished up tying a piece of broken slingshot to a Y-shaped branch. Rose, Grant, and Heather joined their group.

"The rest are around Brav's tree. Ralph told us two to help you here," said Rose while Timothy test fired his slingshot.

"Good, if they're any bigger than Labradors we should probably lead them to the water," suggested Timothy.

"Either way, let's keep the pack thinned out," said Jonathan.

"No, we'll probably end up climbing up these trees anyways and that'll depend on how many are coming," said David. The dogs came into view. They were medium sized with no distinguishing marks. They ranged in size, but not by much, and their eyes reflected what little light there was more than naturally usual in the poor light. Further inland the four vest-wearing dogs who some of them saw from before watched from a moderate distance. Their leader, "Columbo," of the vested pack recognized the familiarly clothed kids as human civilians, and the pursuing dog pack as aggressive in body language. He gave a look to the next senior dog of the unit and started forward. "Kona," vice leader of the pack, ordered her other two subordinates to follow. Adrenaline pumped through the four as they rushed to the groups of humans, and an unknown effect of arriving at this strange place seemed to have made them smarter than they would've remained in their world. "Baton" and "Deputy" loosely lined up beside their leaders.

"Let's hope none of them are rabid," said Jonathan. "That'd be bad."

"Let's hope not. Here they come," said David. Timothy opened fire; howls turned to growls as the dogs sped into the groups; deep, low growling resonated everywhere. The kids answered in screams as they fought back with sticks and rocks; a couple of dogs bit into Wesley's tree branch and pulled. It soon became too much for Wesley, so he stepped on it and broke the end off of the stick and swung at them. Yelping and screaming and growling clashed; Brav stood in his tree breaking off branches and throwing them at the glowing eyes surrounding them. It didn't take long for the dogs to drive everyone back to the trees; Timothy climbed first and fired his slingshot at those closest to his tree as best he could while David helped Wesley and Rose up the same tree. Jonathan defended them from dogs who Timothy missed. Brav came to his last sizable branch as Estrella climbed up his tree, and saw he wouldn't help up the others as effectively being the smallest. Brav descended onto two dogs who were biting at Ralph from behind and kicked a third away.

"Climb up Ralph! I'm lightest so I'll be last!" Brav said in urgency.

"Dremmer's next and you're following," Grant said to Ralph while punching a couple of dogs biting and pulling on his legs. Timothy stood highest in his tree and started to shoot dogs around Brav's group as Jonathan and David last climbed up. There wasn't enough room in Timothy's tree left for David, and he stood backed into the stump while Wesley gave Jonathan his longer branch to jab at dogs David couldn't punch or kick at. Heather hopped down from her tree she was throwing broken off branches from and rushed to David. Her slightly bigger size did a bit more for her as she kicked dogs away from David, and they retreated back to her tree. She climbed back up first as David kicked and punched a last few dogs away before more crowded to them. Heather then quickly helped David up, and deeper barks of other dogs approached the skirmish.

Columbo and Baton sped towards David's direction while Kona and Deputy charged the group surrounding Brav's tree. Most of the angrily glowing eyes turned to the vested dogs in momentary surprise and uncrowded the trees barking and growling. Columbo's pack having trained and served as service animals and faced human criminals, gunfire, and even lucky hits to some of their vests by bullets were veterans to combat. While the four mostly rely on human dog handlers for orders, the effect of arriving to this place seemingly increased their intelligence over time especially for Columbo as the senior service animal, but so has it also affected these wild dogs who lived here much longer and hunted groups of animals often bigger than themselves.

As soon as these new enemies arrived, the pack leader of the wild dogs rushed to the front where by chance Kona met it pawing and biting while growling. Deputy brushed past them both and ignoring the others and leapt onto the dog jumping and biting at Brav where there was just enough room in his tree to hold his smaller figure. Columbo and Baton also ignoring challenges of the nearer dogs sped over to David's tree and cleared its immediate surrounding of hostile dogs.

"Service dogs!" Cried a newly excited Dremmer. Those two words echoed in seconds among the kids.

"NO PRISONERS!!!" Shouted Brav as he was the first to leap at the nearest enemy dog. Everyone else soon dropped from their trees to help the dogs in vests except Timothy who climbed down to one of the bigger branches below to shoot in the more stable vantage point. Screams, barks, growls, and yelps intensified for minutes; any other pack of dogs would've fled the conflict at the arrival of heavier resistence, but these were more than wild beasts. Something in their eyes stung the nerves of any who bothered to look a bit deeper into them. Finally, when the pack leader of the hostile canines was incapacitated by Kona with the help of Estrella who was the first of the kids to fight their way to the service animals, it gave a nerve wrenching howl. The wild dogs started to leave, and their pack leader lied down for a minute. The glow from the pack leader's eyes went out as its bones made loud cracking sounds, and the unsettling glow returned to its eyes as it stood back up.

The pack leader faced the group who crowded around it in curiosity and started to paw its face off. The skin from its face came off, but instead of muscle red flesh under it, another face of clean fur looked back at them all.

"You shouldn't have come," it said. Most were taken aback as it put its first face back on, and ran after its pack.

"Punch yourself," Brav said in a delayed reply.