Testing

The moment I fell asleep, I started dreaming. I was back in the dream that I had had earlier today when I had fainted. I was falling.

I was falling towards the ground above a great expanse of forest, in the night. There was a glowing pit with people around it. Old people. Some wore hoods and cloaks, while others wore thin cloths that hung from their shoulders. The same man from earlier was staring up.

I blinked trying to comprehend what I saw. I reached over and quickly pinched myself. Wake up. I thought. Wake up. Nothing happened. My eyes widened as I came closer to the ground. I was going to die. I closed my eyes in fear.

Whoosh!! A quick burst of air was shot up from under me and my momentum slowed down. I opened my eyes and saw that I was hovering 2 or 3 feet above the pit. The man who had been staring up at me stood there nodding his head. He walked around as if inspecting a new species and finally stopped in front of me.

He spoke in a deep soft voice, “Welcome Mirror Mind. Welcome. You have been summoned as the Fourteenth Mirror Mind in Edlin.”

Weird dream. I merely nodded and looked at where I was hovering. The pit stopped glowing and started refilling itself with dirt. My eyes widened. The man spoke again, “Yes, you may not be accustomed to this new life. I am Ducal, the sixth elder.”

I nodded again and wished that I would stop floating. Suddenly I fell to the dirt ground onto my bottom. “Ouch…” I muttered standing back up. The old man, Ducal, stood wide eyed. I blinked, not understanding what he was staring at me for, “Umm…hi.”

Then I noticed something. I could feel my weight pressing into the ground. I could feel the coolness of the fresh air in my nostrils. I swung my arms freely without feeling like I was in jelly. The light from the moon that shone through the trees was shining much too bright. This was no dream.

Ducal raised a hand and put it on my shoulder, “Yes, young one. You are not in a dream. You are in fact very much awake, Charlotte.”

“How’d you know my name?” I asked dumbstruck. This whole thing was hurting my head. “Where am I?”

Ducal chuckled and pulled at his white beard. “I know your name because I was the one who summoned you. You are on Edlin, as I said before. Would you like me to explain what a Mirror Mind is before we continue?”

I gulped and realized that I was also wearing a dark leotard-ish outfit with a belt. I finally looked back up at the sixth Elder and nodded. “Sure.”

Ducal nodded and put a hand around my shoulder, “Let us walk.”

---

“The Mirror Minds are a very powerful people,” Ducal said as we strolled through the forest. “They were the saviors of our kind in many occasions. You are the fourteenth in all of Edlin history. The Mirror Minds were known to have special powers and control massive amounts of magic.

“Now you may be wondering how you came to be here. Well, Mirror Minds “Planet Travel”, as we call it, through their sleep. On their home planet, when they fall asleep, their spirit departs from their body and goes into their other body, here, in Edlin. When they fall asleep in their body here on Edlin, they spirit once again departs from their body and goes back to their body on their home planet, where they then wake up there and continue their normal life. So in a way, they live two lives: One on their home planet and the other, here.

“Many of the Mirror Minds in the past have spoken of being thrust into a mirror, and therefore went on being called Mirror Minds. Most of the Mirror Minds said that their powers came from deep within them. Things happened at their will and therefore added the “Mind” in Mirror Mind. They also added that they were more athletic and powerful than they were at the home planet.

“And last of all, the time. Think about this, when you fall asleep and dream, it is timeless. You can dream of living a couple of years of your life and wake up finding that you have only been asleep a couple of minutes. Or you will have a short dream of you petting your pet and you wake up and find that you have been asleep for hours. Just like that, time here in Edlin is different. You may be awake only five minutes here on Edlin and wake up on your home planet hours after you went to sleep. Weeks could go by here on Edlin and it has only been an hour on your home planet. Most Mirror Minds, found a way to control it however.”

Ducal suddenly paused and gazed hard at me, his piercing hazel eyes locked onto mine. “You are one of them and have a great responsibility that you must carry out. Even though you may be young and small, your role here is crucial. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” I said even though I was still trying to process what he just said. I was still trying to convince myself that this was a dream.

Ducal raised his eyebrows. “I see you are not sure if this is real or if it is a dream. Come; let me give you something to prove it real.” I swear, this guy was a mind reader.

He reached into a pocket of his cloak and pulled out a necklace. It was a long string with a silver pendant of a swirly thingy on it. He unclipped it and put it around my neck. “There, you will later find out how that is proof that this is real.”

I held it up to my face to get a closer look. On one of the swirly parts, there was a picture of a tiny clock etched onto it. I smiled at Ducal, “You guys really are prepared for all of this.”

He laughed a deep rolling laugh and smoothed out his sleeve. “Come, there is much to see.”

We took a short walk through the forest and came upon a big cliff. A river that flowed by took a sharp turn and then plummeted off the edge. It was surprisingly quite for a waterfall even though it was about a hundred foot drop.

“Nice,” I breathed. Around the lake below there was more forest and rocks. “I think I’ve seen pictures of waterfalls, but not as nice as this one.”

Ducal chuckled some more. “Yes, this is the Waterfall of Billund. Legend has it that a young prince named Billund once took a stroll here and created it as a gift for his mother’s birthday.”

I stifled a laugh, “Billund? That’s his name?” I burst out laughing. “Hahahaha!!! Billund?!”

Ducal gave me a weird look. “Many of us could say that the name Charlotte is weird.”

I smirked, “Yeah, but seriously, ‘Billund’?”

Ducal rolled his eyes, “Names are names, young one. Many stories claim they have great power. Do not turn a name into a joke.”

“Okay, okay….” I said still trying to keep quiet. I decided to change the subject. “This is so beautiful. By the way, if this place is like some “Holy” place, why did you bring me here?”

Ducal held out his arm over the edge of the cliff where the water plummeted down. “For a test. To see if you are a true Mirror Mind.”

“Whoa-“ I said backing off. “I literally just got here like…five minutes ago. You can’t just expect me to do something big. Look, I barely know you-“

Ducal fixed his cloak and sighed. Suddenly I realized that the sun was starting to rise up behind the mountains. The air started to warm up and a small breeze started to blow through the trees. “Umm…exactly how long have I really been here, Duke?”

“About an hour. By the way, it is Ducal. The walk through the trees seemed shorter than it really was for you.” He said scratching his chin. “Whatever, let’s get on with this to see if you are really a true Mirror Mind. If you are, I will teach you more and you will be accepted. If you do not pass this test…well, you will be sent back to your home planet and will never see Edlin again. Understood?”

“Wait…I thought I was already “chosen” to be the Mirror Mind dude.”

“You have,” Ducal stated firmly. “But you still have to prove yourself before I continue with teaching you things.”

I guess after seeing my nervous face, he added quickly, “Don’t worry. It’s really easy and only one person has ever failed it.”

I gulped and nodded, “Okay, what do I have to do?” My mind pictured running around or climbing up some tall tree. The answer he provided though was totally unexpected.

“You have to jump off the cliff.”

---

Ten minutes passes and I was still standing at the edge of the cliff, not willing to even bend my knees. Ducal had gotten tired encouraging me and just leaned against a nearby rock and waited. I never had expected to ever jump off a cliff in my entire life. Much less, wake up in a new world where some old guy starts calling you a Mirror Mind.

I was surprised that I wasn’t shaking like a wimp and tried to bend my knees. They locked into a straight position and would budge. I knew I had to jump or I wouldn’t come back. I considered purposely failing the test, but Ducal explained that that would mean I died. I gulped and turned to Ducal.

“Is it possible that you could push me off?” I said weakly. He shook his head and leaned back looking bored.

I turned back and looked over the edge. Just pretend you’re jumping off the high dive. Just jump before you can think of anything else. Now you have to understand, jumping purposely to your death is a lot harder than it sounds.

I finally loosened up my legs. I stood up high and bent my legs. Then with all my might, I pushed off and was rocketed into the sky. I gasped and looked down. I had just jumped about twenty feet in the air and was starting to fall down.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I screamed in my head. I had to do something. My mind flashed to a time when I had watched Superman in a movie. I remembered how he flew through the sky like a rocket. Then I had an idea.

I opened up my arms and spread out my body as if I were sky diving. I took a deep breath in and willed to stop falling and float in the air. I started slowing down and I realized what I had just done. I was now floating in mid air. I laughed at how easy this was. I willed myself to move forward and I shot forward.

“Yeah!!” I whooped and turned to look up at Ducal. “That was easier than-“

Ducal held up his hands to silence me. Then the boulders at the edge of the cliff started to rise off of the cliff and fall towards me. I realized that Ducal wasn’t raising his hands to silence me, but to throw off the rocks. The dude also had powers!!!

I screamed as one barely missed me and crashed into the water below. “WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “ARE YOU CRAZY??”

He merely ignored me and sent more boulders flying off the edge. I will myself to veer out of the way. I dodged left and then shot to the right to avoid another boulder. I scowled and shot upwards and to get closer. I only met another shower of boulders and was soon pushed back down.

I finally looked at the waterfall, if only I could use the water to help me get the boulders out of the way. Then I had an idea, just like I had willed the air to make me fly, I willed the water to move. As if it were part of my body, the water started to rise high into the air into a gigantic wave. I raised my hands and thrust them forward, flinging the wave at a wide eyed Ducal.

The force of the water flung him backwards as he was engulfed in the water. I could feel his body hit the water and get churned in it. I finally put down my hands and let the flow drop. Ducal stood there, drenched from head to toe. His beard was dripping wet along with his cloak.

The boulders that were flying suddenly dropped to the bottom of the waterfall and ceased to move. The water fall returned to its normal flow and the place was quiet again.

I smiled weakly and raised my hands to pull the water out from Ducal’s clothes and beard. It came off in a blob and dropped back into the river.

Ducal cleared his throat and I winced. Attacking him was probably the worst thing I could do. He spoke in a gruff voice, “You have passed. And you have control over the wind and the water: The second Mirror Mind to control water and the eleventh Mirror Mind to control air.” He smiled. “You have passed, Charlotte. And you are very powerful…”

I spun around in the air, “Nice! It’s like the wind and the water are a part of my body. Neat!”

Ducal nodded and stared at me. He froze and folded his hands behind his back as if waiting for something. By the looks of it, he probably was…I just couldn’t figure out what.

I stayed in the air at the edge of the cliff and looked behind me just in case he was staring at something behind me: Nothing; just the mountains standing tall above the forest and the lake silently flowing into another small stream at the bottom.

I turned back to him and he was still gazing at me with searching eyes. I cleared my throat, “Umm…what are you doing?”

He gazed for another second and sighed, hanging his head low. “Do feel any fatigue? Are you tired? Are you fine?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond. I didn’t feel tired at all and if anything was still a bit shaken from the falling boulder thingy. I thought for a moment and finally spoke. “No.”

He nodded and brought out a small notebook from his pocket that I assume was somewhere in his cloak, hidden. He silently murmured something and closed the book, returning it to its place in his clothes. “Now,” He said straightening out his outfit. “What I was doing was seeing how long energy you spend before you get tired and have to rest. It looks like you are barely spending any energy levitating and the wave you had thrown was the largest I have ever heard of or seen. You are very powerful.”

I nodded and grinned, “So what next?”

He reached up and unbuttoned his cloak. He set it on the floor next to him and tightened his belt. “Part two of the test.”

“Wha-“ I stammered. But before I could say anything else, Ducal raised his hands and the boulders rose again from the cliff. He thrust his hands forward and I dove out of the way. I yelped as a boulder almost smashed me against a tree. I managed to jump to the side as the boulder stopped an inch from the tree and flew up again to hit me.

I raised my hands and swerved through the trees. I turned around and dropped to the ground to avoid another boulder. I threw my arms forward, blasting a surge of wind at Ducal. He swiped an arm across his body and a wall of dirt appeared in front of him and blocked the wind. It dropped and he stood still, poised, waiting for me to launch another attack.

This time, I took advantage and brought my hands to the sky. The air seemed to grow humid and the wind started to swirl around. A dark cloud began to form over our heads and lightning crackled. Thunder boomed as the wind started to pick up. Little droplets of rain began to fall and I gathered up the lightning that was made. A snarl formed on my face and my body felt fired up as if I was a wind-up toy that had just been given batteries. I swung my arms forward and the lightning shot down at Ducal. In the blink of an eye, he moved the dirt to form a tunnel and he dove into it. A boulder closed the opening just as the lightning smashed into the ground. Only then did I realize what I had done.

My breathing slowed down and I let my hands drop to my sides. The clouds almost immediately began to turn white and float away. The wind died down and the sun started to shine again. I stood there in shock for a moment and finally walked over to the boulder. I pushed against it and with surprising ease, managed to push if off. I blinked again in surprise and peered down the hole.

“Hello?” I called. I heard my voice echo down. I squinted trying to see past the darkness. “Umm… Ducal? Where are you? You can come back now… Ducal?”

There was no response. I frowned and jumped down into the hole.