Chapter Three
Devorian
Mary Jane screamed. The sound was shrill and cut through the thick air of the attic like a knife. Her feet were rooted to the ground, but Jack lunged to grab Maude. He caught hold of her by both shoulders and pulled backwards, trying to draw her back from the mirror. Maude's arm was pushed in up to her elbow now. As it started to pull back out of the mirror, the mirror's surface rippled like a lake where a pebble has been thrown in. Still, her arm slid easily back out. Jack had caught Maude by surprise, and now she ducked away from him. Inside the mirror, her hand jerked to the side.
Distracted by the sight of Maude's hand moving, all three stopped at once, to gape at the mirror. Inside it, they could see Maude’s pale little fingers clearly; they had become part of the forest scene. Maude closed her fingers into a fist and opened them again. She wiggled them. The action reminded Jack of what he had been doing, and he pulled her away once more, this time causing her hand to be drawn out of the mirror completely. Jack stared at the mirror fearfully, but Maude was calm.
“It’s warmer there,” Maude declared thoughtfully, turning her hand back and forth in front of her face.
Jack stared at her hand, then at the mirror, too shocked to speak.
“She went right through it,” Mary Jane murmured in amazement. “Her hand went through the mirror and into that place, wherever it is.”
“It was probably a trick of the light,” Jack said weakly, his face completely white. “Maude’s hand couldn’t have gone through that mirror; that’s impossible. It's a mirror, not a…a…”
He couldn't finish the sentence because he didn't know what else it could be. According to everything that he knew, it was impossible for Maude's hand to have passed through the mirror. And yet, he couldn't deny what his own eyes had seen.
“Jack, you saw it,” Mary Jane replied. "If Maude's hand didn't go through, what did it do?"
"I don't know," Jack replied miserably.
Neither of them bothered to ask Maude what she thought of the mirror, although she had been the one with her arm stuck through it. Mary Jane was more headstrong than her brother, and so to prove to him that Maude's misadventure hadn't just been some sort of optical illusion, she marched right up to the mirror and stuck her arm in all the way to the shoulder. She immediately felt the difference between the slightly humid heat of the forest and the dry, cool attic air. The difference made the tiny hairs on her arms stand on end. She shivered nervously and pulled her arm out quickly.
“It’s real,” she gasped. Even though she had believed that her arm would be able to pass through the mirror, she was still surprised that it did.
She whispered fearfully, “What do we do, Jack?”
“Cover the mirror up and let’s go back downstairs. We don’t know where it came from or what lives in it. It could be dangerous,” Jack said gruffly.
He refused to look at the mirror and fixed his eyes instead upon the floor.
“It’s a magic mirror,” Maude breathed, her dark eyes shining brightly. “And it’s wonderful.”
“It’s not wonderful. We should forget that it's here and never look at it again. And certainly never touch it!” Jack exclaimed.
He rubbed the heel of palms against his temples nervously.
“We don't know that it's dangerous,” Mary Jane suggested.
“We could go through it!” Maude exclaimed.
Her voice vibrated with excitement. Her siblings looked at her aghast.
“Go through it?” Jack repeated dubiously. "As in, entirely?"
“Yes. I think we should see what's on the other side,” Maude said.
“We don't know anything about that mirror,” Jack all but wailed. “We didn't know it even existed until yesterday. There could be anything on the other side. We could become trapped in it. What if it only works one way and we're stuck forever on the other side? How would we ever get out? Mother and Father would never know what became of us.”
Mary Jane looked at the mirror thoughtfully.
“What if we did go in? We could use a rope,” Mary Jane suggested practically. “One of us could go through the mirror, and if something happened we could pull her back out.”
"Absurd!" Jack scoffed. "Let's stop this nonsense and let it be."
"Well I don't think it's dangerous," Mary Jane announced, forgetting that moments before she had been much less certain.
She and Jack proceeded to quarrel hotly about the mirror and its alleged dangers. Mary Jane became increasingly bold in her assertions that exploring the other side of the mirror would be an excellent adventure, while Jack detailed at length all of the dangers and catastrophes that could befall them if they did so. As they bickered, Maude slipped past them unnoticed and walked bravely straight through the mirror. It was only several minutes later that Mary Jane glanced at the mirror and saw her sister inside, touching the leaves of the trees with gentle hands. Mary Jane started in surprise.
“Jack! Oh Jack, Maude’s in the mirror! We have to get her out! Maude, can you hear me? Maude!”
Maude had her back to them and showed no sign of having heard her sister’s cries. She lay down on the grass and ran the palm over her hand over the individual green blades, enjoying the feel of the wind across her face. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting the sun warm her.
“She can’t hear us. We'll have to go rescue her. We need to find a rope,” Jack said.
He began pawing through the trunks and boxes next to the mirror in the attic, sifting through years and years of accumulated junk and knickknacks. He threw empty cans, old glass bottles, tattered bed sheets and fragile ceramic figurines carelessly to the floor as he searched. When he could find no actual rope, he began to tie shirts and pants together into a makeshift rope.
"This will have to do," he said, chewing on his lower lip.
“I’m coming with you,” Mary Jane announced.
Jack frowned, still hastily tying clothing together to make the rope as long as possible.
“You have to stay. Otherwise who will pull us out? It will do no good if we're all trapped inside the mirror.”
“We’ll pull ourselves out. Look, we’ll tie one end of the rope to something in the attic and hold onto the other end once we go in.”
Jack nodded, and looked for something heavy to tie the rope to. He decided upon a large, red, metal trunk. He and Mary Jane worked together to drag it closer to the mirror and Jack tied the rope to its steel handle cinching it in as tight a knot as he could make. He was skeptical that the trunk would be heavy enough to hold their weight. He suspected that if they did have to climb back out, they would find themselves instead dragging the trunk through the mirror with them, but they had no other choice. He threw the other end of the rope into the mirror. It passed through easily and landed next to Maude, who, hearing the sound it made as it struck the ground, looked at it with confusion.
Taking a deep breath, Jack jumped through the mirror. The feeling of passing through completely was exactly like that of jumping into water, only when he arrived on the other side he was not wet. He tumbled to the ground, and when he rolled to his knees he looked up to see where he had come from. He expected to see the mirror, with Mary Jane standing on the other side and the dimly lit attic behind her, but instead all he saw was a tree. It was a fat tree, full of knots and gnarled branches, and the rope of clothing that he had thrown through the mirror moments earlier seemed to grow right out of its center. Then he saw nothing because Mary Jane hurtled out of the tree and crashed right into him. Maude, who had been watching it all, looked at the two of them lying on the ground and giggled.
“See?” she said. “It’s not dangerous.”
Jack slowly got to his to his feet and walked over to where the rope emerged from the tree bark. Though the tree looked solid, his hand passed through it as effortlessly as though it was air.
He muttered anxiously, “We should leave now, while we know we still can.”
“It would be a
shame to leave without looking around a little first,” Mary Jane said. “Must we go so soon? We could stay a little longer."
“It’s like a fairytale land,” Maude agreed. “Oh Jack, please can’t we stay for a little while more?”
"It can be our secret place," Mary Jane added. "We can come here to escape from Mrs. Peters.”
Jack frowned.
He said reluctantly, “Fine, but we must have a way to find this tree again. If we don't, we may never get back and we could be trapped here forever.”
“We can leave a trail, like Hansel and Gretel,” Maude suggested.
She looked around, then began to break off small twigs the length of her index finger from the trees around her and stick them in her pockets.
Holding one up, she said, “We can use these. If we drop them as we walk, we can follow them back to the tree.”
"It won't work, Maude. We'll never be able to see them to follow them back," Jack said.
Mary Jane knew that it would be almost impossible to find the tiny sticks again, but she wanted to explore.
Taking Maude's hand, she said breezily, “I think it's a wonderful idea, Maude. Let's go. Who knows what we might find!”
They began to walk away, Maude carefully dropping the broken-off sticks as she walked. Jack hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the not-tree and the strange rope of mismatched clothing protruding from its trunk, then chased after them. The forest was bright and sunny and cheerful. The trees were spaced far enough apart that the children could see large patches of bright blue sky above them filled with fluffy white clouds. They walked on thick green grass that was occasionally dotted with small white and purple flowers and they could hear the sound of birds calling to each other in their musical songs far away. When they came across a small brook running through the forest, they knelt down to drink.
“I’m hungry,” Maude said, her stomach rumbling.
She swept her fingers through the cool water, watching as it eddied and swirled in response. A swarm of tadpoles rushed past, the tiny tails waving behind them like flags. The water was cool, but not cold.
“Maybe there are some berries or mushrooms in the forest to eat,” Mary Jane replied.
She had never before tried to eat things that she found outside, but she had read about it and knew it was possible.
“You had better not eat them if there are,” Jack warned. “They could be poisonous. How would you know?”
Then Mary Jane had an idea.
She asked almost nervously, “Jack, you don’t suppose people live here, do you?”
“In the forest?” Jack asked, perplexed.
“No, in…well, wherever we are,” Mary Jane replied.
“I don’t know,” Jack said slowly.
He looked around with new eyes. It had not occurred to him that they might not be alone in the forest. The idea was not a pleasant one to him and he frowned.
“In any case we might as well keep walking,” Mary Jane said lightly. “Maybe further on we’ll find people, and they might have food.”
And so they did, not knowing whether they were moving deeper into the heart of the forest or out towards its edge, if indeed it had one. They were grateful that the forest floor was so grassy and soft for, not having expected to leave the attic when they entered it that day, they were not wearing shoes. They were also glad that the weather was temperate, and that there was neither rain nor excessive sunlight, because they were prepared for neither. As they walked, they guessed at the time by watching the path of the sun as it moved in an arc across the sky above them.
The novelty of this new world quickly wore off, however, and the children found themselves wishing that the quiet and serene wood would reveal to them some strange and wonderful surprise. After all, they had seen nothing yet that they could not have seen if they but traveled several miles from their own home at Baker's Row. They had been walking for perhaps half an hour when they came upon a furry, medium-sized animal sitting on the ground eating something in its front paws.
“Oy there, you lot! Oy! Tripping over me while I eats me dinner,” the creature protested, placing the piece of fruit that it had been eating in a wicker picnic basket sitting on the ground before standing to get a better look at them.
“Jack, what is it?” Mary Jane gasped.
“That’s manners for you, calling me an ‘it’ like I can’t hear ye,” it grunted.
“It’s a badger,” Maude said matter-of-factly.
“It talks!” Jack exclaimed.
The badger, with its distinctive black and white striped face, walked over to Jack standing on its back legs and peered up at him. The badger barely reached past Jack’s waist. Its black nose twitched as though it were smelling Jack.
“Of course I can talk. What do you takes me for, a fool? Oy, you’re a funny lot now, aren’t you? You lost?”
The badger’s nose twitched again as he looked at the three children with his beady black eyes. Despite his gruff tone, he didn't seem dangerous.
Mary Jane answered bravely, “Yes, we are. Or rather, we’ve come from someplace else and we don’t quite know where we are.”
“Don’t know where ye are, luv? We’re in the Green Forest, o’ course. You must be right turned around if ye didn’t know that. Well, I don’t blame ye what with things a-changing in the past few days, but ye’ve got to keep yer head set on straight; no use losing one’s head I always say. Now where’s me manners? The name’s Hamish Bushy, and it's a pleasure to meet you even if ye are lost.”
The children smiled at the badger's good manners and introduced themselves. Then the badger gathered up the black and red plaid blanket that he had been eating upon and folded it into a wicker picnic basket. The children saw no silverware, for apparently he had been eating with his paws. Only a small white napkin, which he now gently picked up with his sharp black claws and used to daintily wipe his mouth.
Jack said in his most respectful voice, “Mr. Bushy sir, we don’t know where the Green Forest is. Certainly I've never seen it on a map before.”
The badger looked at him, his head cocked to the side, then drawled, “Well bless me soul, ye really don’t know where ye are? The Green Forest is in Devorian, but surely ye’ve got a notion of Devorian, haven't ye?”
The children shook their heads.
Mr. Bushy looked more closely at each of them and then muttered, mostly to himself, “But surely ye can’t be hummans. It’s been a hundred years since hummans were last seen in Devorian if it's a day.”
The children began to smile and nod.
Maude said encouragingly, “Yes, Mr. Bushy, we are. Only it’s not hummans--it’s pronounced humans.”
“Well bless me soul,” the badger said in awe. “To think that I'd see the day when humans were in Devorian again. But you’re such small humans—I thought you lot were bigger. Taller, that is.”
“We’re children,” Maude said.
“You what? I thought you said you were humans.”
“We’re like cubs,” Maude offered. “Baby humans. We’re not all grown up yet.”
The badger sat back on his haunches and considered them thoughtfully.
“Well so ye are,” he said at last. “Humans.”
Questions swirled in the children's minds, so many that they crowded together and bumped into each other and left the children speechless. Nor was the badger much less amazed, although for different reasons.
Mary Jane spluttered, “If not humans, who lives here?”
“What, in the forest? All sorts of creatures: deer, squirrels, rabbits, bears. There's plenty o' folk wandering around these parts,” the badger replied.
“And they all talk?” Jack asked incredulously.
“Some o' them won't stop talking,” the badger said, clearly amused by his own joke.
Maude giggled.
“Is there anyone else?” Jack asked.
“What to you mean?” Mr. Bushy asked.
"Things other than animals," Jack tried
to explain awkwardly. "Things like…other humans?"
"Oh no, no, not here."
“Mr. Bushy, you said there used to humans here. Where did they go?” Mary Jane asked.
The badger flopped down heavily on his rump on the grass and motioned with his big paws for the children to do so as well. Maude and Mary Jane sat down on either side of him, but Jack remained standing, shifting his weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably. Maude reached out to take the badger's paw, and he allowed her to do so. She kept it in her lap, stroking the top absentmindedly.
“Oh my. Let me see now: a very long time ago, in the time of me very great grandfather, there used to be many a human roundabout these parts. Aye, mayhaps as many as there are animals now. But then the wild magic came to Devorian and changed everything. Turned it upside down, ye might say. Wild magic, as ye know, is unpredictable. That means no one can control it, and no one can say what it will do. So the story goes, when it touched the humans, it turned them into brutes. Overnight they became wild. They left their cities and homes and scattered like seeds in the wind No human's been seen since. If any are still alive, they're not in Devorian, I kin tell ye.
'Bless me, these are all tales I heard as a wee youngling. I haven't thought of them in years. Me pa used to tell 'em to me when I was sitting on his knee. Well, begging yer pardons, but I’ve really got to be getting back to me work now. I’ve got holes to dig, ye know, and the Missus will be upset if I'm home late again. If yer be wanting to know more about the history of humans in Devorian, there’s what ye might call a historian right near to here. So follow along if ye like, otherwise good day to ye.”
He stood, quickly smoothed his fur with his paws, then picked up the picnic basket and began to trundle off through the woods in the curious rollicking gait of a badger. The children looked at each other wordlessly, then seemed to reach a silent conclusion to follow him. Intrigued by the short tale of the downfall of humans in Devorian as told by the talking badger, Maude forgot to keep dropping twigs.