Finally, a happy ending for me. Though, it was only the beginning of everything, so it's better we call it a happy start. Even though it wasn't technically a start either.

It was a second chance. A granted wish.

It was a thousand year old dream come true.

/

I became aware of a good many sensations all at once. The chill of the stone floors, the stirring of air when I moved, the numbness that filled one leg from sitting on it for too long. There I was: human.

Incredibly and impossibly human.

I laughed, and laid my hands against the cool stone, finding now I had grown accustomed to it, and it felt rather pleasant in it's own way. Joy was filling me now, more potent than anything I had ever felt, for it was pure, true joy, the kind of happiness that only humankind can feel. The sheer join of what it is like to exist in the world. "Amazing." I whispered to myself. "Amazing…so amazing."

Then I became full of giddiness and began to jump around like a child. "Amazing." I repeated. Why had I never done this before?, I thought as I began swirling and hopping and occupying myself with constant motion. Surely there was just enough space in the looking glass to do this. Maybe not to this extent…I mused as my arms swung and I ran throughout the room.

This was freedom, this was what it felt like to not be confined any longer…

"Freedom." I grinned, as I continued my running. "At last." I bolted straight for the door without a single care in the world and pushed it open and continued my running down the halls. Joyous, spirited, guilt-free. I began to laugh, happiness being so overwhelming and new, and bolted down different halls and corridors. My dress was billowing behind me, and my long sleeves flowing like wings.

I was running and leaping and twirling around…well, like an idiot, really. I know that now. But imagine lying in a box for a thousand years and then finding you had the space to do anything you liked. It was a liberated feeling, and so such actions will have be excused.

Regardless, I had absolutely no idea where any of the halls and corridors led to, so I was running around in circles, ignorantly blissful, until I heard some of the servants coming through the halls, wondering who was causing all the noise in the middle of the night. This stopped my lovely rampage and I had to duck and hide behind a floor length tapestry, hoping the tips of my toes would go unnoticed by the sleepy-eyed servants who were coming down the hall. I managed to keep quiet as they passed, and stayed hidden for a good five minutes afterward.

By now I was beginning to realise the repercussions of all my running. My legs, unused to such activity, were tingling, and not in an entirely good way. I was also finding it a bit more laborious to breathe now, my chest heavy with excursion. Eventually I thought it safe enough to move on and began exploring the castle halls at a slower rate, in search of an exit. If I was to find Snow White I had to get out of here, and quickly before someone noticed me or my empty mirror.

I got lost a number of times, and became a little discouraged. "Oh, if only I had asked questions she could actually answer, like how to find my way out of here!"

After some more puzzled stumbling around, I finally found a small door, which I decided to go through, and realized it had been a servant's passage into the front courtyard. The main gate was closed at this hour, but there was a small building at the gate in which a man sat guard. There was sure to be a door on the opposite side as well. It was all a matter of sneaking past…

I stepped over to the little building in the side of the gate, using the tips of my toes to do so quietly. There was a low, rumbling sound in the air, like rocks being thrown down a grate, accompanied afterward by an unattractive snort.

Eventually I crept close enough to the doorway to realise that the guard was sleeping. How his snoring at such a volume didn't wake him was beyond my understanding. He was an elderly fellow, who was lounging back in one chair, with his feet propped up on one opposite him, almost as though he had tried to make a bed out of the two seats.

He didn't seem very intimidating so I ceased walking on tip-toe and began to actively search for the key to the second door. Whatever noise I made was surely quieter than his snoring, so I felt safe in exploring the drawers and cabinets of the little room for a suitable key.

The drawers were empty, much to my surprise. I glanced around the room, looking for a hook where one might hang a key on the wall perhaps, but found bare walls instead. A rather loud snort from the elderly guard made me glance back at him and I saw he wore a metal key on a string, round his neck. For a few seconds I tried to figure out how I may get it off him without disturbing him, but eventually I just quickly removed the key from his person, and hoped that the quick action hadn't awoken him. He snorted three short times in succession, but did little else.

I smiled down at him as he kept slumbering away, completely oblivious. Humans were so adorable. I quickly kissed the top of his head in a small show of thanks and unlocked the door, making sure to place the key gently back around his neck before making my exit. "Thank you." I whispered, and snickered a little to myself.

Then I ran, compelled to move as quickly as I could and put a large distance between my old home and I. This was what it was like to run…to feel the chill of the night…what the soft ground felt like beneath your shoes. Snow White had been right all along, there were just some things that you could not rightly describe with words.

Like the way darkness looks outside. My chamber had never been dark, always lit with a few braziers that lasted through the night. The darkness outside was softer I found. Candlelight on stone was so harsh in the darkness, but the light of the moon and the stars was far more natural and ethereal. When the road gave way to grassier meadows and the first trees I was delighted, and took off my shoes for the first time and walked on the grass, and touched the trees. For something that looked rather pointy, grass was awfully soft and pleasant to walk on. I made sure to touch every tree, noting that the ones with thicker bark were rougher than the ones with thin bark.

Yes, yes, I was acting like a baby when you bring it outside for the first time, but I really was outside for the first time, and I had wondered what such things were like for an entire millennium, so what else would I have done?

I glanced up and beheld the stars for the first time in a thousand years. "It's been a long time since I've seen you." I grinned up at the night sky. "Far too long." My mind drifted back to the slight shaking in the wagon, and the sound of horse's hooves on the ground, and Portly being so kind.

The memory of my first companion brought my attention back to my second. Snow White was lost somewhere, and didn't know the Queen was still searching for her. She needed me…and I could feel keenly now that time was slipping away. Three months was all I had.

With a sense of duty in my heart I put my shoes back on and found the road again, commencing the long journey ahead.

Now feels like a good time to mention that most people traveled by horse when going to the castle. The road was long, and I had no cloak to ward off the chill of the night, so I very quickly learned what it was like to be uncomfortably cold when you expose yourself for too long to the night air. I also learned what it is like to be tired, and to have sore legs after running around. And to feel very, very along and rather exposed to nature.

Fear was a new, and terrible, emotion for me. When one is a mirror, all one has to worry about is having their glass smashed up to shards, but when you happen to be a magic mirror, such things are usually avoided. Out here, hearing the call of night birds and the occasional scuffle of something else in the dark was nerve-wracking. I expected something to jump out at me. Sometimes a sound would be so unexpected that I'd freeze up (almost literally, when you stopped moving the cold took the opportunity to seep inside your bones) in the middle of the road for a good moment or two. Fear and everything else was so new to me, that I had not learned to refine them yet. What I should have been would be 'nervous' or 'cautious' but no, I was afraid, like a child.

It was a relief beyond words when I finally saw a light in front of me. It was but a pin prick in the distance, but it was light…and it was moving. I watched as it wondered back and forth for a moment, and then was gone. Relief gave way to fear again. I then felt a drop of rain for the first time and blinked in surprise. Another splattered on my nose. It was the strangest sensation. It came down slow at first and I was intrigued about this new phenomenon…and then buckets started to come down and I was no longer so fascinated.

Truthfully, I felt as though there was no worse combination than being cold and wet for the two sensations just seemed to make each other worse.

I began wondering back and forth, pacing along the road, trying to find a big tree to hide under. I ran to a mediocre one, and tried to ignore how out in the open and cold I still was. "Oh no…" I sighed. "Snow White could have at least mentioned that rain wasn't as lovely as I thought it was…" I looked around more. "There has to be someplace better than this…"

My eyes fell upon something a short distance away, and at first I thought it only part of a hill, but as my eyes adjusted to the dark I was able to see it was a building. That had me running all over again, over the grass, soaking the hem of my dress and throwing myself against the door to furiously knock on it. "Hello!" I cried out. "Hello, could you please let me inside?!" I knocked with my fist again. There was no reply, and I stood on the tips of my toes to look through a window. The inside of the building was dark. Perhaps everyone inside was asleep?

I debated what I should do, keep knocking or see if there was some shed where I could hide from the downpour, when there was a loud clap of noise, and a strike of light across the sky. "Oh!" I gasped, quite drenched now. I shook the door, but found it locked. After a moment of more fretting, I gathered an empty crate from the side of the house, placed it against the side of the building, and climbed atop it to push open the window I had looked through. I then made my less than graceful entrance into the building, and found it empty.

I closed the window behind me softly and then climbed down from the table placed against the wall. The inside of this house was not like what I had pictured. Snow White had talked of kitchens and cozy hearths and nicely made beds. This home seemed rather…industrial. There were no beds or kitchen. There was only a single chair, and a few stools to serve as seating. But it was dry.

A cloak, large and heavy, was hanging on a hook by the door and I took it for the night, wrapping myself in it. There was no one living here, I realised. Perhaps it had been an unsuitable home for everyone.

There was no hearth (not that I knew how to start a fire anyway), but I found the cloak warm enough. I sat myself down in the lone chair as more thunder was heard overhead. "I suppose it could be worse." I muttered. "Hopefully Snow White is sleeping somewhere cozier tonight."

I sat there, trying to go into my usual trance when I was left alone, and found that my head kept falling back, and my eyelids were heavy, and the rest of my body slow. So this is what it felt like to be tired…quite relaxing really, I thought. I suspected I would dose off any moment.

Carefully the stools were lined so that I way lay myself, all wrapping up in the cloak, across them and the chair, the hood being folded into a tiny pillow of sorts for my head. "Not bad." I smiled, when I found it impossible to keep my eyes open any longer. The old guard had clearly had the right idea with his own makeshift bed. "A rather suitable place to sleep, I should think." I concluded, before falling to sleep for the first time.

/

"Hey!" The harshly spoken word woke me. Being forced to wake up was a bad feeling in itself I soon realised, as my brain struggled to keep up, and my body jolted in response. I wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep more. "What are you doing in here?"

"It was raining…" I yawned, bleary eyed and quite incoherent too, for the yawn distorted my voice. There was persistent knowing sensation in my stomach, which I tried to ignore.

"Well what would bring you out so far from home in the middle of the night?" I looked up from my little 'bed' and saw a girl with hair that was bright red, and neatly braided beneath a handkerchief which she had tied about her head.

"I couldn't find my way."

"Couldn't find your way?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'm not from here." I tried to explain. I kept staring at her hair, for I had never seen anyone with hair so amazingly red. "Is your hair naturally that color?" I asked.

"My hair?!" She was surprised by the topic I brought up. "How did you get in?"

"The window." I answered honestly.

"The window?!"

"Well it was raining quite hard, and there was this flash of light and this loud noise, and it didn't seem like a good idea to remain outdoors." I tried to explain, suddenly feeling silly. Embarrassment at being caught doing something I perhaps shouldn't have. Embarrassment wasn't a very pleasant feeling either.

"You mean thunder and lightning?" The girl asked.

"Oh! Yes! Thunder and lightning, that is what they are called!" I remembered, having heard such terms from Snow White.

I received a very strange look from the girl. "Do…do you live here?" I asked. "I'm sorry, no one was in here so I made a bed and slept."

"No one lives here, it's the mill." The girl told me.

"Oh…I wondered why there was no hearth or kitchen…" I muttered aloud.

"Are you alright?" The girl seemed more concerned now than angry with me. She placed her hand over my head. "Do you have a fever or something?"

"No, I don't believe I'm ill." I answered. "But then again…I've never been ill before so I wouldn't know what it feels like to be sick." She seemed all the more confused by me.

"You don't feel warm…" She sighed. "Maybe I should bring you to the doctor all the same…a few days rest-"

"Oh no, I can't spent days resting." I answered. "You see, I'm looking for someone, and I only have so much time."

"Who?"

"A friend."

My stomach emitted the strangest of sounds then, a light but audible rumbling. "Perhaps I am ill…" I muttered, rubbing my stomach lightly.

"No, you're not ill, you're just hungry." The girl informed me.

"Hungry?" I replied. I suddenly realised how much maintenance a human body required. Nourishment and sleep and warmth. I had never worried about such things in my mirror before. I had no need to.

"Have you any food with you?" The girl asked.

"No." I shook my head.

"Well I suppse you could buy some…the shops will open in town soon. Did you enough money with you?"

"Money?" My tone implied I hadn't.

"Good lord, how did you come this far without food or coin?" She asked.

"I walked." I answered.

She sighed, more exasperated. "No food, no money, and no horse either." She mumbled to herself. She looked over me again. "And no coat."

She continued to look me over, and I gazed at her expectantly, as my new-found guide. "How did you get here?" She asked. "And don't go telling any lies! If you just wandered in aimlessly, full of spirits, I want to know."

Then the whole story came forward, interrupted twice by more obnoxious stomach rumbling. I told her of the Queen, and how I had been in the castle a thousand years, how I had befriended Snow White, how my friend had fallen into trouble (leaving out the bit where I was partly at fault and leaving most details to the imagination, lest some hunter ask her of my friend's whereabouts), and finally of the funny little man who gave me freedom from my mirror and three months' time to find my friend.

She stared at me for a long moment afterward. "Full of spirits…I might have known…" She mumbled. "What a tale of tales!"

"It is no lie." I shook my head. "I am a magic mirror."

"Tale of tales…" The girl repeated, under her breath. "What to do with you? If I had any sense I'd have shown you out and not even listened to that story of yours."

"It's not just a story." I pressed. "And please…I need help." I admitted. "I'm no good at being human…I'm not used to having to eat or rest. And I have no bearings out here, it will take me forever to find Snow White and…oh please you mustn't tell anyone anything about Snow White or I. You'll get us both killed." And then two large tears fell from my eyes, and the girl turned soft again.

She patted (somewhat awkwardly) my shoulder. "Oh…there, there…" She seemed to have no idea what to do with me, lost, helpless, sad.

Not to mention my story was the stuff of myth and fable.

It was obvious from my words though that I did need help. And though the girl seemed a bit reluctant, she finally said "Well, I suppose there's nothing else that can be done…come with me."

"Really?" I asked.

"We'll get sorted out who you really are…" She said. "Perhaps you hit your head along the way…"

She took hold of my wrist and brought me outside the mill and then I saw that just beyond, nestled among hills, was the town. I had been rather close, after all. I left the cloak back inside, and the girl seemed all the more curious of me, looking at my white dress. She shrugged, and continued to pull me along to the town. "C'mon, I'll see if I can get you cleaned up before my family comes home. They'll just kill me for bringing a strange lady into our house."

"That is so kind of you." I thanked her. "What are you called?" I asked, friendly and thankful.

"Rebecca."

"Oh, that's a pretty name." I smiled.

"My father thought so too." She answered. "He's the miller." She nodded back at the mill, growing smaller and smaller behind us. "And what about you? Do you remember your name?"

"Mirror." I smiled back.

Rebecca sighed, her eyes rolling slightly in her head. Perhaps she had expected me to have a different name. "Are you sure?" She gave me the chance to correct myself.

"Yes." I simply nodded.

"Oh well…" She sighed. "Let's see if we can find you some breakfast, Mirror."

Rebecca has red hair because in some of the earlier versions of Rumplestilskin she's not the miller's daughter who apparently can magically turn things to gold, but is actually thought to be a witch. Having red hair could get you convicted of witchcraft as well as having birthmarks, green eyes, being left-handed (which I think Rebecca will be), daydreaming too much, having milk spoil in your house, or looking too old or young for your age. The list goes on and on.