SIX

AN: So sorry if anyone thinks these installments are too short. I'm purposefully keeping them that way, as I hope it will keep me on better track, more concise and to the point. As well as for you guys to get more updates more often. (though that hasn't been the case yet, sorry!) As well as to fit the style I've laid out. Slightly sarcastic, sweet and to the point as well as descriptively flow-y and mysterious yet not confusing, but circular script. Or at least, I hope that's how it seems... hehe... if not, oh well, on to the story!

And then his fingers hit the reflective surface of the mirror that made it a mirror and not just another shiny object that happened to do the same thing. He thought it had something to do with metal and sand and whatever else made a mirror a mirror.

Nothing happened. It was completely bogus, what he felt happening, was what he wanted to happen, and nothing more. Actually something did happen, he was made to look like the fool. Luckily nobody was there to witness his incredibly bizarre behavior. If this was all some elaborate joke by Jadeite, when he got through with him, Endymion sighed. If it was a joke, he made himself the target by seeking out everything first. It wasn't like Jadeite hinted at anything and made him curious and had him follow the path that lead him here.

Endymion pulled up a chair and sat in front of the mirror. Trying everything he could think of, then sitting there, looking at it, trying to think of more things he could try. He also tried not thinking and just doing, but it was no luck either. In fact, he became far more obsessed with this mirror now that he wasn't drawn to it in quite the same way as before, than before when he was drawn to it... um yeah, he was definitely going crazy, he was thinking in circles now.

He was about to give up and go to bed, or go to see his grandfather again, when he remembered he still had two books he could reference through to try and find the answer.

It took him two months. TWO bloody months to finally come across the answer. And that's exactly what he did, he cameacross the answer. He didn't figure it out. He didn't do anything that made him worthy of the mirror in the first place, and then he just stumbles upon the answer by accident felt pretty cheap to him.

All right, maybe he had more to do with it then just stumbling upon the answer. He did work very hard to try and figure it out. Two months in and he checked his pocket of the clothes he was wearing that day and they were the unwashed set from over or under two months, give or take a few days. He found a perfectly formed red rose with not even a petal bruised, much less a pile of dust from how fast roses died and wilted. It wasn't even the dried version, but still perfectly intact, and excuse the pun, petal soft.

In his hand it looked more delicate than it had upon the rows in front of him when he plucked it that night so long ago. In between his desire to solve the mystery that day and today, he had conformed to the rest of his princely duties. That included here at the castle, abroad, keeping the peace and also hunting trips. Of which he narrowly avoided complete disaster as two dukes suddenly took at each other while he was having a diplomatic meeting, and saw the disapproving look in his father's eyes at his ability to handle such a situation. And then the actual fight, the hunt for the latest animal, put the approval back in his father's eyes as he easily sacked the largest game and the meanest.

So he was now back in his chambers for a week, having already wasted three days, wandering around the grounds, and talking to those he missed while he was away. Not very many, as he was used to being away and didn't like many people, hadn't really had a chance to get to know them either.

When he found the untouched rose, he thought back to the garden he visited just that morning. There hadn't been a morning moon, though there had been a day moon, after he left the place, and the roses had been moved around. He began to suspect that they could not die, and that's why the gardener shuffled them about, trying not only to kill them, but also account for something he had no basis to understand.

They could very well be ancient roses and still looked fresh. But that didn't explain the new rose-buds about to bloom, they had to be able to die off somehow, if this one wasn't a freak among the rest, at the very least.

He put it on the table as he sat before the mirror again, but he could see the reflection of it through said mirror. His eyes moved back to his favorite flower, looking no less beautiful and perhaps as strange as before.

It actually, if possible, looked even more beautiful in the reflection. He glanced back at it and it didn't look any different than when he plucked it, but when he looked in the mirror again, it positively glimmered. He picked up the flower and took it out to the balcony.

The moon was high in the sky and as soon as it was uncovered from the shadow of the building, it started to glow. It was not on the same par as the mirror, but it was definitely a change from when it was in his room.

He wondered what would happen if it was actually on the moon. It couldn't possibly be from the moon, could it? If it had some type of kinship with the Moon, how did it get to the Earth, how did it-

But he was thinking too far ahead, there were plenty of flowers on Earth that were always naturally here, and did odd things. Like Sunflowers, they followed the movement of the sun, bending and aching to touch it. There were also moon flowers and flowers that were phosphorous and glowed neon when the moon was out.

Why would this flower be any different? Despite that it was under the full force of the moon now and it still glowed less than in his darkened room with only a mirror near it. However it could very well be the key to unlock everything.

He didn't know what to do with the flower, but he would try different things. He touched it against the glass, but all that it managed to do was make a smudge on the pristine surface. He ran the rose all over the entire frame and surface of the mirror, but still, nothing happened.

Then he sat there again, tearing into his hair and looking at it completely aghast. Perhaps it was just a mirror after all. He was about to give up and go to bed when his eyes caught sight of something he had not seen before. There, on the top right corner, was a rose, the only one in the entire frame, but hidden amongst the other flowers. He rose to his feet again and touched it there, holding it against its match. Still it did absolutely nothing. Frustrated, he picked up the mirror, having every intention of throwing it off of his balcony, and hoping it would smash into a thousand pieces and so he could forget about this silly fantasy forever.

The mirror this time reflected the moon and blinded him for a moment, and so he rested it against the balcony rail. He bypassed everything else and tried the rose against the rose first. There was a light, that stemmed from the mirror before it came out and absorbed him.

How did anyone find this before? Especially if the roses were from the moon in the first place? How could anyone have gone from the Earth to the moon?

It was his last conscious thought before... well, really, it was his last conscious thought as he didn't know what happened next.

EAN: I was going to have a comment here about the title of this story, but I think it is too early to tell you the original title.