Oooh, looks like Robin's finally updating on a fairly regular basis - two chapters two weeks! Hopefully she'll have the third chapter up next weekend... and stop talking in third person. oO Unfortunately for you all, this chapter is all about Robin & Erindi... but please don't skip over it! It's pretty bloody important, and you'll need to read it to understand the rest of the story! So please, accept my apologies, read the chapter, and be comforted in the knowledge that you will definitely hear more from Jack and Aragorn in Chapter 3. I promise!
Disclaimer: I own neither LotR nor PotC nor Alice in Wonderland (you'll see). At least I own my interpretation of the goddess of chaos... yippee.
Chapter Two: A Change of Scenery
Jack and Aragorn arrived at Minas Tirith nearly two months later, bedraggled and ready to kill each other, but otherwise unharmed. At about the same moment that they were riding through the gates to the White City, something magical was happening in Robin and Erindi's world, though they hadn't yet noticed it. They were standing together in Robin's bedroom, Erindi having been dragged in by Robin to critique a painting she was working on. "Robin, I told you, it looks good!" Erindi said for the hundredth time that week.
Robin shook her head. "Something's wrong with it, I know it. I just can't figure out what it is. Are you sure you don't see anything?"
"Robin, all I see is a good painting you should put in your gallery before you mess it up!" It had been an entire year since their separation from Jack and Aragorn, and even though the wounds were scarring over, they were still quite visible, even to an outsider's eyes. Robin worried about everything she did, always feeling as if it wasn't good enough. Erindi, conversely, cared less and less about what she did or what happened to her, though she kept an eye out for Robin, and vice-versa. Aside from this change in attitude, Erindi had also noticed that, over the past months, both she and Robin had slowly been withdrawing from their other friends – not in an antisocial kind of way, but rather like friends who knew it was time to say goodbye, to move on, because they wouldn't be seeing each other again. Despite the fact that no one had moved or had any other reason for losing touch, they were drifting apart, and if she or Robin happened to suddenly move, it wouldn't hurt nearly as much as it would've before Eris had entered their lives. In fact, she realized as she thought it over, it did seem as if they were both getting ready to leave. Erindi's band had broken up recently (amicably, yes, but definitely permanently), and Robin had hired an assistant in her bookshop six months ago who would now be quite capable of taking Robin's place if she were to leave.
As Erindi was mulling this over, the corner of Robin's eye was caught by something strange. Frowning, she turned to face the source of her confusion – her mirror. At first glance, she saw nothing amiss, but as she took a closer look, her eyes widened with surprise. She saw herself in the mirror only as a ghostly image; through her own pale face, she saw not the room behind her, but something else entirely: a forest. Before her eyes, her own image faded, and the image of the forest became more distinct, until she could see it as clearly as if it were really a reflection of the space behind her.
"Robin, what's wrong?" Erindi asked, noticing her friend's sudden silence.
Rather than answering, Robin pointed at the mirror. Erindi gasped, glancing behind her instinctively to look for the forest that still was not there. "It's not supposed to do that," Robin murmured, stating the obvious as she sometimes had a tendency to do. Slowly, she reached a hand out to touch the glass. Her heart skipped a beat as her fingertips passed through the glass, causing it to ripple like the surface of a pool of water. The sounds of birdsong and rustling leaves echoed in the room until Robin withdrew her fingers again, her lips parted slightly in awe.
"What's going on?" Erindi whispered to no one in particular.
As if in reply, Robin and Erindi suddenly heard a laugh like the tinkling of a thousand bells above them. Craning their necks up in search of the source, their eyes lit upon a very familiar winged figure sitting upside down on the ceiling above them, completely defying all rules of gravity. "Eris," Erindi and Robin said together, their tones a mixture of surprise, joy, and apprehension.
The goddess smiled down at them, her teeth an almost blindingly perfect white. She looked much the same as she did the first time they'd met: a blend of sickeningly cheerfulness and pixie-like mischief. "Miss me?" she asked in her old high-pitched voice. Her purple eyes were aglow with amusement.
"Depends on why you've come back," Erindi replied honestly, having noted the absence of the goddess's wand, which she had used in previous encounters to inflict pain often.
Eris laughed again, and, doing a neat little summersault, landed gracefully between the two mortals and the suddenly magical mirror. "Is that any way to treat an old friend?" she chastised merrily.
Robin and Erindi shared a wary glance. Whenever Eris began beating around the bush, it was certain she had something important to say. "As much as we've pined over your absence," Robin began dryly, "we all know you only show up when something extremely… chaotic… is about to happen. So forgive us if we're a little impatient to know what it is."
"Silly mortal!" Eris flicked Robin's nose in a most annoying fashion. Robin grimaced but did not retaliate. "I'm getting there, don't you worry!"
"Do you think you could get there a little faster?" Erindi put in.
Eris raised an eyebrow at her, adopting the look she had often had in the past just before hitting someone over the head with her wand. This time, however, she seemed not to be in the mood to smack people, and she let the moment pass. "All right, mortal children, I shall tell you why I'm here." She paused for dramatic effect.
"Yes?" Robin prompted when the moment began to drag on.
Eris blinked, as if she'd been lost in thought, and continued. "I am here to give you a choice. You may stay here, forever, or you may discover what lies beyond the looking-glass." The goddess smiled at the familiar reference.
"I knew the mirror-thing seemed a bit familiar," Robin commented. "Although, the world on the other side of this mirror doesn't look like the mirror-world Alice saw."
"That's because it's not, silly!" Eris replied, also a master of stating the obvious. "This is another world entirely."
"We can see that," said Erindi edgily. "Would you mind telling us which world?"
Eris smiled serenely at the query. "That is for me to know, my dears, and for you to find out." Giggling to herself, the goddess began to fade.
"Wait!" Robin exclaimed, a panicky edge to her voice. This was a life-changing decision, and knowing hardly anything about it was not making her feel any calmer about it. "If we step through, can we come back?"
Eris shook her head, her visage no more visible now than warm breath on a cold winter's day. "This is a one-time opportunity, an interminable contract. Take it or leave it!" And with that, she was gone.
Robin covered her face with her hands. "What are we going to do?"
Erindi stroked the brass edge of the mirror thoughtfully. "I think we should go," she answered after a long moment.
Robin looked through her fingers at her friend, her green eyes wide with worry and indecision. "But we don't even know where it is we're going to!"
Erindi shrugged. "So what? At any rate, it looks like a nice place to me. At least it's not another smog-choked city."
Robin's fingers slid from her face to clasp nervously in front of her stomach. "But… we can't come back…"
"Come back? Come back to what, Robin? Is there anything you'll really, truly miss here?" Though she knew the answer already – it was the same as her own – she knew Robin hadn't thought about it yet. She watched now as the expression on her friend's face transformed as she considered her options.
Slowly, a bit reluctant to admit it, Robin shook her head. "I… I guess you're right." She smiled almost sheepishly at Erindi. "So, what should we take?"
Quickly, the two of them grabbed each of their old backpacks from high school and packed away as much as they could carry that they felt they would need – clothing, some food, water bottles, and their journals. Robin frowned, however, when Erindi returned carrying not only her backpack, but her guitar case. "Erindi… do you really want to drag that for who knows how long through a bloody forest?"
Erindi glared at her defensively, and Robin sighed. She understood, even if it was impractical. She was taking her paint set along with her for the same reasons. Though her paints were certainly a lot smaller than the guitar, she knew she wouldn't be able to convince Erindi to leave it behind.
"Wait," Robin said suddenly as Erindi stepped towards the mirror. Erindi sent her a questioning look.
Ignoring her, Robin hastily grabbed a pen and paper from her desk and began to write. "What are you doing?" Erindi asked softly.
Robin didn't answer right away, choosing to finish whatever she was writing before she replied. "It's a note to everybody, telling them why we left." She left the room for a moment to gently place the note on the table in the living room before returning to Erindi's side. "Now we can go."
Hesitating only for an instant, Erindi stepped up to the mirror and pushed her fingers through the surface, watching with fascination as the surface rippled once more. Sensing no danger as of yet, she shot a reassuring grin at Robin before stepping through to the other side. Robin watched anxiously for any sign of trouble, but when mirror-Erindi gave her a thumbs-up sign, it became evident she was all right. Glancing only once over her shoulder at the life she was leaving behind, she took a deep breath and followed her friend through the glass. Once she was safely through, the image in the mirror faded, and it became just another ordinary looking glass once again.
