(Other Author's Note: I was in the middle of writing this last night when I fell asleep. So obviously, I didn't post it in time. Sorry for the inconvenience and I'm going to try to post every night again. On with the story!)
"Footsteps... footsteps... why now?" you mutter under your breath. You look down towards the bend and hear the footfalls echoing down the corridor towards you three. Given by how loud they are, you guess you have about a minute before the mysterious approacher turns to corner and sees your little group. Looking to the right, you just see a long hallway, unmarred by any doors along the stone walls. It curves into it's own bend about 500 feet down. Straight ahead of you, Leona, and Cain, set into the wall, is a tall, ornate mirror with a gold frame decorated with many designs of different kinds of flowers. Looking into it and see you, your wings folded back, Leona, looking terrified as she shifts uneasily on her paws, and Cain, scampering and jumping around your feet, tail wagging happily but making no noise.
"What are we going to do?" Leona moans, her snake hissing behind her. The footsteps are launder. Thirty seconds, at the most. "Uh... which way do you want to go? Left?" you ask her. "Right." She says. Nodding, you go to turn left and she goes to turn right. Misunderstanding each other, you smack into her, sending both of you stumbling towards the mirror. Closing your eyes, you wait for the pain ,the shattering of glass, and the revelation of your group's location.
Except none of these come. Instead, you feel a cool breeze wash over you and you keep on stumbling. Your foot strikes something and, letting out a yell, you land hard on your stomach onto a cold wood floor. Leona screams and lands on top of you, her lioness body hitting your stomach. "Leona, get off!" You mumble, trying to push her off you. Cain scampers up and begins licking your face. You push him away as Leona slides off and gets to her paws. You get up too, putting a hand to your head. Turning to see what happened, you are greeted by a strange sight.
Set into the wall of this room is a doorframe, right behind where the mirror was in the corridor. Puzzled, you reach your hand out and feel a cool breeze and the sensation of your hand passing through a thin film outlining the doorframe like bubble soap in a bubble wand, except it doesn't pop. With drawing your hand, you realize that it wasn't a mirror at all, but a secret door leading to the room your group now finds itself in. That was strange, because it looked like a perfectly normal mirror from the other side.
Suddenly, a footfall strikes much closer to home than a few seconds ago. You silently pray to the lords above that this is a two-way mirror. The footfalls gets closer and closer until one huge golden-furred paw strikes the floor. Then the figure takes another step forward, and comes into your view. Leona gasps in shock behind you. It's an eight-foot tall anthropomorphic lion. It's wearing soldier's dungarees with the typical light green cameo jacket and pants, with a rip in the back made for it's tail. It's pawish feet lack combat boots. Gripped in it's pawish hands is an assault rifle.
It's massive lion head turns and sees the open door to the bedroom. His face screws up in confusion and suddenly his golden eyes go wide. "Escapers...why now? Now I'm going to have to search for them. As if I needed more shit to do tonight..." he mutters under his breath. He's about to keep walking down the hall when he suddenly turns and looks directly at the mirror. You and Leona clap hands over your mouths to stifle your screams. His face makes a puzzled expression again and he approaches the mirror. Pointing the rifle downwards, he cocks his head. You breath a silent sigh of relief when you realize that it looks like a normal mirror from the other side. His face gets closer, muzzle about two inches from hitting the film and revealing the secret door. But, in the end, he draws away with a puzzled expression and turns, running down the hallway now. You wait until his echoing footfalls can be heard no more.
"Whew... THAT was a close call..." Leona says. "Yeah, but... where are we?" you ask, turning and seeing just what room you, Leona, and Cain have stumbled into.