Dragon Mirror- Ties Between the Veil
Chapter One - A Death, A Dream, And A Hike

She had always thought that people were supposed to cry at funerals. At the least, most certainly, not smile. Yet, she constantly felt the beginnings of a grin as the priestess spread her grandmother’s ashes out over the peer at Lake Erie. The sermon, written by the deceased Panillia Holliday herself, was plucky and upbeat.

Her grandmother had spent her last months in hospice writing letters and taking visitors. Drawing closed the social webs she had woven over a lifetime. Raina ached with her loss.

The pagan priestess, who had been one of Panillia’s closest friends, wept openly with a smile tugging at her lips as each word spoken begged her to remember how wonderful her departed friend had been. Panillia’s childlike zest for life shone through the dour moment like a shaft of sunlight in a rainstorm.

“…So, don’t think that I am in a better place, for you all know, I am busy at work behind some heavenly desk, pencil pushing for the gods, ensuring the earthbound of my blood are prepared for their spiritual journey.

I toil as you dream, and I can only hold open the gates for so long. You have the key to fulfilling your life, so make the most of it, and I will be there to guide your sorry hides to the other side.

Remember, my children, my grandchildren, I love you, and always will, even though you siphoned life from me over the years. No matter the Price that must be paid. For as you all can see, I finally hit pay dirt.” Selene, the priestess, finally closed Panillia’s journal and last testament. She lowered her head, her grey locs veiling her tear streaked smile.

Raina jumped a little as cold fingers intertwined with hers. Her blue eyes blinked down at her younger sister Tanya. Strawberry hair with green and blue highlights whipped about in the wind, catching on pursed lips glossed a dark purple and black.

“Why did Pani insist on being ridiculous and silly, even till the end? The woman had no respect for the people she’d leave behind.”

“Shush, Tito. It wouldn’t have been right any other way.” Raina tugged at one of her sister’s unruly green tangles, smiling sadly at the memory of sitting on her Grandmother's kitchen counter as “G’ma Pani” bustled about her sister’s head. Bottles of dye and bleach from Hot Topic had lain haphazardly strewn across the table top as each strand was tugged and painted. Their mother had been anything but ecstatic for Tito’s new fashion interest. The style had only snowballed over the years into a strong preference for gothic punk. Dyed wigs and color pop conditioners had replaced the damaging Splat! Which had only added to the teenagers varied style.

Tito, as she liked to be called, scrunched up her face, puckering darkened lips as her hazel eyes began to mist. “It’s just not fair.”

“It’s never fair, Squirt. You get old, you get sick, you die. Just appreciate who she was and the life she lived.” Zhao, Raina’s boyfriend, put an arm around Tito as he offered his words of wisdom. Only Raina saw her sister roll her eyes and scowl.

The man's spiked raven hair stood out stiffly from a bronzed complexion, reminding her of a languid, black maned lion.

Raina shared a small intimate smile with him as he kissed the top of Tito’s head. With a shuddering mew of despair, Tito turned her face into his pressed suit, unintentionally smearing her makeup.

The procession began to break up, hushed murmurs interspersed with soft laughter flying away on the lake breeze. It was chilly, and a cold mist began to solidify as it began to rain. Numb fingers burrowed into pockets, and Raina found herself tracing the designs on the pendant her grandmother had bequeathed her on her death. Her fingers tangled in the twisted gold and silver chain, withdrawing the precious keepsake.

The five-inch pendant was constructed of two pieces made from a strange green tinted metal. She could remember marveling over the beautiful crystal centered in the convex saucer shaped inner disc.

The gem sparkled as if a will o’ wisp was caught dancing in the facets of the pentagram within a pentagram cut. Her grandmother once sat with her and told her that their secret heritage was sealed in the dynamic symbols that circled the set gem.

Raina hooded her eyes, running her fingers over the outer ring. G’ma Pani had also spun fantastic tales of her supposed homeworld, and the secret pact engraved on the outer ring of the pendant. The price her G’ma had agreed to, to escape her past mistakes in her home world.

The woman had loved to tell stories, interweaving reality and fantasy with such a seamless blending, that often Raina had nightmares. Her mother had repeatedly admonished G’ma, but the stories had never ended. Only her perception of them had.

The outer ring was fastened to the inner disc by an amazing gold and silver filigree dragon. Celtic twists and dizzying knots depicted a proud creature with its head thrown up, claws holding the inner disc, tail curled, and wings mantled in rampant denial of its inanimate state.

The pendant was a masterwork, and the only jewelry her G’ma Pani had never removed from her person. Except when death had taken her.

Tears mingled with rain as she turned the pendant over. How many times had she sat in her G’ma’s lap as a child, mesmerized as Pani had dangled the pendant on its chain, allowing it to dance and spin? The back of the inner disc was polished like a mirror, and the outer ring seemed to contain a similar script from the front embedded beneath the surface, as if beneath glass.

The inner disc surface was gently curved, but the reflection was not diminished, but created a smoky ripple, as if gazing through a hazy fog. Twin crescent moons, pointed toward each other, embraced a small swirl of two pieces of opal. One black, and one white, the opal pieces met in a sinuous S, creating a symbol similar to yin and yang.

She found herself staring into the back of the pendant, watching the sultry shadows slip and slide within. Her G’ma had called it the Dragon Mirror.

Droplets of rain struck the mirror, causing it to shimmer in the setting sun. She ran her thumb lovingly over one of the crescents and frowned slightly as a rainbow chased her touch across the curve. Raina shook her head, and she tried to wipe away the sleepless nights from her eyes.

Zhao moved up next to her, and gently took the Dragon Mirror from her stiff fingers. He pulled back her long red gold hair and clasped the pendant around her neck.

“I want you to come with me this weekend, you need a break.” His soft words melted into her ear as his warm breath caressed her cheek. She could only nod numbly as she leaned into him.

“Ahhhiiiii!” Terror and panic mingled with a sense of purpose as Raina fled her pursuer. The earth trembled, the foliage swaying in the dim glow surrounding her. She didn’t dare look back, already knowing what she would see as she ran through the surreal world she was trapped in.

A rumbling, growling roar reverberated down into her very bones, spurring her flight into a more fevered pace. Raina was suddenly opening a doorway, appearing before her as if risen out of the ground. She slammed the door, skirting the small table and chair in the one room cabin, to huddle next to the blackened hearth. Breath was gasped in tiny bursts.

Time shifts and she is throwing a hoop with a serrated metal edge out the gaping hole in the cabin wall at…

Raina was shaken roughly awake. She flailed in her groggy stupor, and felt her limbs connect. The rude shaking immediately stopped, and hands withdrew.

“Dangit-, Raina! You were having a bad dream!” Zhao’s irritated voice broke through her confusion from the side of the bed. Raina opened her eyes, the memory of the dream fading as Zhao’s comical glare made her giggle sheepishly. She groaned as she became aware of the pins and needles in her legs.

The cause of discomfort was sitting regally on the end of the bed, washing her black paws. The twenty-six pound Maine Coon was sleek and jet black, exempting a white crescent moon splashed across her chest like a tabard.

Pale blue eyes regarded her in kitty contempt. Deciding to make a formal greeting, she sashayed across the blankets to head butt Raina in the face.

She seemed determined to jam her fluffy fur up Raina’s nose in her morning greeting. “Luna, get out of my nose.” She swatted at the offending cat, who promptly swatted back. Zhao watched the exchange with a bemused look plastered across his face.

Raina looked over at the spiderman alarm clock, grunting in annoyance as the relic from Zhao’s childhood revealed a stoic 4:15 AM. Luna head butted her again. “I should have left you at home with Tito!” Her threat earned her a reproachful gaze and questioning trill.

“Are we goin’ hiking this morning? ‘Cause you may as well get up.”

Raina rolled over and tried to drown out his perky inquiry in the pillows. Luna peeped in irritation as she was knocked off the bed, her tail lashing in feline indignation.

“I guess, lemme take a shower.” Zhao nodded, and abruptly left the room. A frustrated sigh flew from her lips before she could snatch it back. Yesterday, when she had come to Zhao’s parent’s cabin for the first time to spend the night, she had expected… Well she had expected something more to happen. They had had a wonderful dinner, spent the night talking, and she had even slept in the same bed.

Yet it had never gone further than the breathtaking make out sessions. Raina tore off her overlarge Happy Bunny T-shirt that doubled as a nighty. She flung it at the door Zhao had decisively shut behind him. Luna fluffed her fur, frolicking in mock attack at the fabric.

“What is his problem!” Raina flicked her hair over her shoulder. She got up and stood in front of the full-length mirror outside the bathroom door. She turned to look at herself, glancing down the length of her body. She was eighteen, and still a virgin. It was infuriating. Her expectations for this trip had been great. She had spent hours talking with her G’ma about this topic before she had taken ill a month before her death. Pani laughed, and told her to go after someone special, and to hold no regrets.

She had been dating Zhao for two years, he was twenty-two, and insufferably polite. Raina had waited until her eighteenth birthday to try and seduce him. She had assumed that him being older and her being below the legal age had put him off. Her birthday had come and gone by almost six months, but he was still holding her at arm’s length.

He would say, “I don’t want to mess things up.” and “It doesn’t seem right to do this now.”

She felt a chill. What if he was one of those guys that wanted to wait till marriage? Oh my GOD. Bullshit.

Her mom had been so angry when she found out they had been dating. Privately ranting, accusing him of grooming her, until Raina had blown up on her mother about being a hypocrite. Her own father had been twelve years her mothers senior, and Raina had asked him out.

Zhao had almost broken up with her two weeks into their relationship when she told him she was sixteen. She had had to fight him about it, and last year had had to fight his mother when she found out.

Raina turned on the shower with an agitated twist, as if wringing her stubborn boyfriend’s neck. Her nerves were only calmed marginally by the hiss of the falling hot water. Pale skin flushed pink as she slipped under the shower head. “Cherry Mischief” was the body wash she had bought just for the occasion. She scrubbed the scent into her skin relentlessly.

Was the man still hung up on a few years difference? She tried to banish it from her mind and luxuriate in the hot water.

Steam swirled and swam about her arms, dancing with her frenetic movements. Her eyes were squeezed shut against the suds, but she imagined she could feel the fluttering of wings.

She pictured the sweep of the wings of tiny steam creatures as they flowed about her. A smile tugged at her irritation as her imagination ran wild, picturing Zhao stepping into the shower, his strong hands gliding down her back.

G’ma Pani had always told her that if enough will power were put into thought, and enough thought was put into a desire, that amazing things could become reality. She believed that this was how miracles happened, how certain religions generated faith and wondrous happenings.

Everything dissipated when she washed away the suds and opened her eyes. Plush rug met wet feet with a quick step out of the walk-in shower. The air inside the bathroom was hazy, bestowing a dreamlike quality.

Steam obscured the mirror, a thick blanket enveloping her reflection. Raina brushed her teeth quickly, staring at where her reflection should be. She blinked in confusion when a wave of movement roiled behind the fog on the mirror.

She spit out the winter mint toothpaste into the sink, and then reached out, wiping away a streak of steam. A strangled gasp emitted when virulent green eyes stared back from her reflection, framed by wild golden hair shot through with silver and black.

Raina leaned back, and the image leaned back, revealing an opalescent garment with a grain similar to scale chain mail. Behind her altered reflection, there was a blue green haze that sharpened into the pattern of feather edged scales.

Suddenly there was a flash of golden wings, and the head of a snarling dragon obscured her reflection.

“Shit!” Raina shrieked and fell backward with a SPLASH right into the open toilet bowl. Rushing footsteps herald the arrival of Zhao, his voice coupled with his frantic knocking, and Luna’s yowling as she pawed underneath the door. She raised her eyes to the mirror, but the images vanished with the dissipating steam.

“I… I’m fine. You left the toilet seat up!” She hauled herself out of the toilet, grimacing in disgust. So another shower would be had. Yup, a quick cold shower.

“Fleet of foot.” Raina mumbled, as she watched Luna’s plumed tail disappear into the bracken at the top of the ridge they were climbing. This was one of those irritating moments in which she wished she didn’t take her cat wherever she went. Any irritation at the show of feline grace was eradicated as her foot slipped on loose loam. Lips parted in a terrified squawk as her heavy pack tipped her balance even more.

“Whoa, there!” Zhao’s hands grabbed her pack and Raina thanked her lucky stars she had listened to when he told her to secure the waist strap.

“Merrow?” Luna’s head peeked from out of the foliage. Her tail whipped about in agitation for the inconsiderate holdup. Raina’s heart leapt into her throat, staring up into Zhao’s eyes. She got her bearings, gently grasping his wrist, turning to rest her cheek on his arm.

“Thanks, thought I was a goner.”

Zhao smiled down at her, his other arm wrapped around her pack. “I agree, you dropping in on me is totally cliché, I like this much better.” Raina flushed and laughed.

Rocks fell, pelting them as Luna began to knead the dirt at the top of the ridge. Her rumbling purr could be heard, seeming to escalate as more rock and loam was displaced by her attention.

“I am going to fucking kill that cat.” Her glare fell on gently waving ferns as the furry feline face vanished. The sounds of rustling foliage faded as Luna shot ahead. Zhao pushed her ahead of him. “Although cliché, for the sake of safety, keep ahead of me. That way, if you plummet to your death, you can take me with you.” Raina rolled her eyes and only succeeded in expanding his grin.

“How far- shit- far away did you say this place was?” They had been climbing, down, and then up, since five in the morning. The sun was well past noon. The woods about them had been steadily thickening. The trees, now rising to the sky as gargantuan giants, were full of birdsong, and leaned precariously out and over the valley below.

She tried to divide her attention between where she was going and ogling all the beauty about her. This conveniently included coveted glances behind her at Zhao, who smiled reassuringly.

A minute rustling was the only forewarning she had before a black streak capered out of the underbrush. Raina shrieked as Luna tackled her feet, causing her to pitch forward over the crest of the ridge. The weight of her pack crushed the breath out of her in one great whoosh.

With her face pulled tight into something akin to a raging hurricane, Raina rolled to her side, feeling like a turtle. Luna was crouched several feet away, out of “Supreme Beating Range”. Zhao’s worried inquiry was lost within the torrent of rushing blood in her ears from her rage.

“I- I am going to skin you- YES, YOU- ALIVE!” Pale blue eyes blinked in indifference. Raina watched the wily cat's eyes narrow in amusement. She could hear the purring rumble of pleasure. She tried to scramble up to her hands and knees. “I am- ugh- I will remove every single hair from your- meh- tail… as slowly as possible! Would you like that?!” As she got to her knees, the retreating appendage in question was the only response she received. She was suddenly lifted to her feet by her pack.

“Your familiar will be the death of you, my darling witch.” Zhao chuckled, running his fingers across her cheek after she got her bearings. “You look like a wood nymph, all covered in your dirty splendor.” He leaned forward, and Raina closed her eyes, expecting a kiss. Instead, his lips brushed her ears.

“Look.”

He turned her face to look over the summit they had just conquered. On the other side of the valley crest, the ground gradually sank into a bowl. The forest floor was covered with low lying flora, including creeping ivy and moss. But most awe inspiring was the break in the trees. The tree line formed a circle of clear space; branches arching to form a lacey dome overtop a perfectly round spring of water. The surface was dappled in patches of sunlight, highlighting the smooth, rippleless surface.

Luna was sniffing around the edge of the tree line, the earth around the spring covered in a green carpet, interspersed with bright flowers. The large cat crouched down, springing away to pounce on the flowers dancing on a slight breeze.

Zhao shrugged off his pack, setting it under one of the trees. Raina’s brow furrowed as she watched Luna, and it burgeoned into a full blown scowl as she noticed that the zephyrs her pet were chasing in the blooms caused no movement across the surface of the circular pool.

Distraction tangled with her attention as she turned to see Zhao unfold a blanket, smiling at her as he spread it across the soft forest litter. Her heart began to race when he gave her a direct significant look.

Luna rubbed against her legs, assuming that all was forgiven. She trilled as she began to lick at the dirt on Raina’s pants. Raina’s fingers immediately went to her face, and she felt her skin heat as they came in contact with grit. She was filthy after her clumsy hike! She felt a little surge of embarrassment.

Raina shrugged off her pack as she turned to scurry down to the water’s edge to wash. She was mortified, she was dirty and sweaty and hot and -OMG- Zhao had said he wanted their first time to be special for her. For the life of her, she could think of no other place more beautiful and romantic. Panic began to raise its ugly head.

This must be it! This is it! Ohmygawd Omigawd Omigawd!

She stumbled closer to the pool and she felt as if her skin were on fire. She felt a wrenching sensation in her balance. Confusion clouded her eyes and displaced her panic as the sunlight grew stronger. Her reflection flashed blue white in her eyes, and she gasped in pain. Her pendant went dreadfully cold on her fevered skin.

She felt as if she was flying out of her body, and could see Zhao get up, calling out to her. His words sounded muffled and echoed as if under water. Everything spun and danced in inverted colors. The world slowed around her and she lost her balance and fell yet again, straight into the bright pool that seemed to stretch upward in a column of light.

As she made contact with the glasslike surface, she thought she saw Luna leap and spread golden wings. As her familiar seemed to pull the shining water upward in a stream of light, the world as she knew it shattered around her like a broken mirror.

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