CHAPTER 28
In which we travel through glass, water and thin air.

You will recall, of course, that of the four colors on the wheel above the door on the windmill, only three have been tested thus far. What's more – you may never find out where that fourth color leads, because the Exposition, which now included Yuki, Kyo, Tohru, Kagura, Kisa, Hiro, Hatsuharu, Ayame, Hatori, Shigure, Momiji and Rin, was not very interested in finding out where that fourth color led to. George, the Amazing Ball of Yarn (formerly known as George, the Amazing Shape-Shifting Giant) could probably tell you, but as he had spent the past few days stuck on the ceiling, he had decided that he actually was quite fond of traveling, and maybe whenever he became unstuck, he would change himself into a butterfly and ride the breeze to some exotic island, and so if you wanted to ask him where the fourth color led, then too bad because you will have to wait until he comes back from his vacation.

In any case, the Sohma family members plus Tohru weren't going to go through the North Pole's door, anyway. Instead, Hatsuharu opened up the Felix the Cat bag to the walk-in closet. The mirror in the closet reflected the image of the group as they hesitated in front of it.

You see, the tower where Akito lives is very far away. The fairytales that begin with "Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom" refer to the world where Tohru and company live, and you, dear reader, may never be able to reach this place even if you started walking in the right direction now and kept walking for three thousand years. Akito's tower is like that for Tohru, but for the Sohmas, there is a shortcut they can take.

You have probably guessed by now that mirrors play a significant part of the Sohma family. Akito, for example, can see through mirrors to the other side. Now you will learn that the rest of the Sohma family is able to physically pass through mirrors. It is not a very pleasant experience, but it is the only way.

Yuki, of all people, was the first to step forward. He stared at the mirror for a few seconds as everyone else stared at him, and then he turned and smiled.

"Well," he said, and if he were a little nervous, nobody thought anything of it, "let's go, then."

Tohru watched as Yuki let his smile falter a little as he stepped backwards into the mirror and disappeared.

"Oh!" Tohru gasped quietly, because even though Shigure had explained to her about the mirrors as I have explained to you, it still hadn't quite prepared her for seeing it. Also, Tohru was still getting used to seeing everybody in their human forms, and even though her feelings for Yuki were perfectly platonic and whatnot, he was very handsome, and his smile was very beautiful.

"Don't worry about him," Kyo grumped next to her, and he must have at some point slipped his hand into Tohru's hand because… well, there was his hand, and Tohru was grasping at it pretty hard.

"Should we go next?" Tohru asked. Shigure had also explained that Tohru should be able to get inside the mirror so long as a Sohma was holding her hand. Shigure was also about to offer his help when Yuki and Kyo, both scowling, had pushed him out of the way and told Tohru to ignore him.

"Go ahead," said Hatori, as he was standing nearby eavesdropping on the conversation. Hatori was quite handsome too, Tohru thought. She wouldn't admit in a million years that he made the cutest seahorse she had ever met, too. Somehow, she figured Hatori wouldn't have appreciated that compliment.

And so, with that thought, Kyo and Tohru stepped through the mirror.

---

Meanwhile, as Kyo and Tohru walked into one side of the mirror, Yuki came crashing through the opposite end. He had to take a few steadying steps forward to regain his balance, and he was very lucky that it only took a few steps as opposed to several steps, because he was now standing precariously close to an odd little pond. In fact, his toes were inches away from the bank.

Yuki, who hadn't traveled through the mirror since he was maybe eight, took in the scenery as he waited for everyone else. First off, he was in a clearing. A very quiet clearing. A very quiet clearing surrounded in impossibly straight, tall trees that seemed to grow much taller than any normal or enchanted forest Yuki had ever seen.

What was odd about the clearing, though, Yuki noticed as he looked back down at the ground (looking up at all those trees gave him a rather unpleasant feeling of vertigo), was that it was filled with little pockets of water, like the pond he had almost tripped into. Each pond also reflected odd bits of light, as if...

Yuki wasn't able to finish that thought, however, as something crashed into his back.

---

When Tohru came through the other side, she landed face-first in Yuki's back, and Kyo, half a second behind, collided into Tohru and knocked everyone backwards.

"Oomph!" said Yuki in a somewhat princely tone just before all three splashed into the pond Yuki had been previously standing in front of but was now falling into.

"I'm so sorr--" Tohru began, but since they were surrounded in water, Tohru wasn't able to finish her apology.

"-rry!" Tohru finished anyway, because suddenly they weren't surrounded in water anymore. Rather, they were surrounded by a lot of air. A few miles to Tohru's left, Kyo's right and beneath Yuki's head and rapidly approaching was the ground of some foreign place.

"Oh dear," Tohru said.

"Hey, there's the tower!" Kyo exclaimed, pointing to a spindly-looking tower that undoubtedly belonged to Akito.

"Oh that's helpful," Yuki mumbled, or might have mumbled. It was hard to tell, since they were still falling.

"There's a giant flying fish," Tohru added.

"Huh," Yuki and Kyo said, because, well, there was a giant fish, and it just so happened to be flying towards them.

"Yo," said the giant flying fish when it reached the trio. "Want a ride?"

"Yes, please!" Tohru exclaimed.

"Could you take us to that tower?" Yuki asked politely as wind whistled through his hair.

The fish shook his head.

"Nope, today is Wednesday," he said sadly, and maybe that explanation made sense to him, and I hope it makes sense to you too, because he didn't explain it. On their part, Yuki and Tohru and Kyo didn't really understand, but they decided not to press the matter for the moment.

"Could you please take us to the ground, then?" Tohru posed.

The fish thought that Tohru's request was rather silly, seeing as how she and her two friends were already heading in that direction. The fish had, however, been raised to show respect and display good manners, so he didn't point that out.

"Of course," the fish said. "Hop onto the Flying Fish Express! Please keep your arms and legs to yourselves and hold on!"

The flying fish was rather large in size, as previously mentioned, and his back was covered in four neat rows of three very comfortable sofa chairs each. It took some tactical mid-air maneuvering, but eventually Tohru, Yuki and Kyo had each found a sofa chair and had buckled themselves in with the seatbelts provided.

During the descent, which was now a more leisurely and less terrifying affair, Tohru and the flying fish, whose name was Merlin, had somehow struck up a conversation on alternate energy sources. While they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Mako energy versus hydroelectricity, Yuki and Kyo just sort of glared at each other from their respective seats on either side of Tohru. Yuki and Kyo were doing a good bit of glaring before Yuki got bored and let his attention wander. Yuki's apathy only increased Kyo's glaring, but since Yuki seemed determined to watch the scenery, which involved a lot of clouds and a few smaller flying fish, Kyo had to turn his glare towards his own feet.

Merlin dropped the three adventurers on the ground and, with a friendly wave of his fin, floated off into the sky again.

"It was lovely meeting you," he called after them. "Good luck!"

"Thank you!" Tohru called back. Yuki waved his good bye, and Kyo continued to glare at his feet.

Yuki, Kyo and Tohru were now all alone in a small clearing in a larger wood that was very unlike the forests in La La Land. In this world, for example, it was winter, and the ground and trees around them were covered in a heavy blanket of snow. Most of the trees were thick with green pine needles (it smelled quite nice here), although there were a few spindly trees who looked rather cold and like they would rather it be spring already.

Luckily, everyone had brought their respective winter gear from the North Pole. Even if they hadn't, though, there was apparently a species of tree in this world that specialized in bearing coats instead of pine cones. There was also some evidence that someone besides flying fish ought to live around here, because there was a lamp post burning in the middle of the clearing.

The lamp post, Kyo thought, was very comforting in the middle of the wood, though he wasn't able to explain why. He, Yuki and Tohru sort of migrated towards it even though it gave no light the sun couldn't compete against nor heat that could significantly push the cold away.

"The tower was in this direction, wasn't it?" Yuki asked, nodding his head in a general Northern direction. Now that they were on the ground, it was difficult to see the tower, what with the forest through all the trees and whatnot.

Yuki had crossed his arms over his chest, and Kyo noticed that his face was pale. For maybe half a second, Kyo was able to look at Yuki without glaring, but then Yuki noticed and looked back without glaring, too. Then Kyo went back to glaring at his feet.

"Uh… yes? I think it was?" Tohru volunteered.

Tohru's statement with a question mark at the end did not exactly inspire confidence, but since there wasn't much else they could do but pick a direction and start walking, that's what they did.

...

Moral of Today's Story: When swimming, don't forget your parachute.