Minho finally opened the door to the secret stash where Brother Yuan kept his savings chest. The hidden location was ingeniously disguised as part of a large, ancient tree, its thick trunk concealing a cleverly camouflaged wooden door. If someone didn’t know what they were looking for, they’d easily pass by, mistaking it for just another tree in the dense forest. Minho had spent a good amount of time and energy struggling with the door before it finally creaked open, revealing the hidden room inside.
Panting from the effort, she stepped into the hollowed-out trunk, her eyes scanning the stash. The space was filled with crates stacked high with grains, dried fruits, and fermented vegetables—supplies meant to last through the harsh winter months. But Minho's eyes were drawn to the far corner, where a large chest sat, looking unremarkable at first glance but housing something far more precious: Brother Yuan’s personal savings.
"I found it! Hehe," Minho giggled, a sense of victory washing over her as she tiptoed toward the chest. Her small hands moved quickly, fumbling with the crude lock that secured it. She liked to pretend that she was an expert lock-picker, imagining herself as a sly bandit sneaking into a royal vault. In reality, the lock was simple and poorly made, easy enough for her to open after watching Brother Yuan do it a few times.
"I'm such a cool bandit," she whispered to herself with a mischievous grin, though deep down, she knew these “skills” wouldn’t work on a real lock. Still, the thought amused her.
Opening the chest with ease, Minho peered inside. Silver coins, small trinkets, and other bits of valuable but random items glittered in the dim light. But what she was really looking for was the small bundle of firewood at the bottom, the one on which she had carved the mysterious symbols from the mirror.
"There you are!" she exclaimed softly, pulling the firewood out carefully. She sat down in the middle of the room, the quiet hum of excitement building within her. The symbols carved into the wood were still intact, their strange shapes filling her with curiosity.
Minho placed the firewood beside her, then reached into her bag for the mirror. Its dark surface gleamed, reflecting the faint light filtering through the cracks in the wooden door. With a deep breath, she turned the mirror on and tapped on the familiar floating icon labeled [Camera]. Her fingers moved deftly, pinching and zooming in on the grain sacks stacked against the walls. The clarity of the image still amazed her, as if she were standing right next to the objects.
"Alright, let's see what new secrets you have for me today," Minho muttered, her voice tinged with excitement. Now that she had the firewood with the carved symbols back in her possession, she could resume exploring the full potential of the black mirror.
She carefully examined the symbols she had carved, her brow furrowed in concentration as she tried to grasp their meaning. It was still difficult for her to fully understand the characters, which looked similar to the Han language but were far more polished and refined, making them hard to decipher. Despite her limited understanding, she knew that these symbols held the key to unlocking more of the mirror's mysteries.
After reviewing the symbols on the firewood, she decided to tap on an icon that looked like a map. Although she couldn’t read the word, the image seemed familiar enough for her to take a guess. As soon as her finger touched the screen, the mirror responded, "[Maps] helps you find the perfect routes to your destination," a text appeared. It then displayed a finger tapping on a white bar at the top of the screen, with instructions: "Tap to search for your destination."
Minho's eyes widened as the mirror once again taught her something new. With a deep breath, she set about carving the new symbols into her firewood, carefully trying to replicate the polished letters. Despite the difficulty, she was determined to make sense of what the mirror was showing her. While the characters were somewhat similar to her language, their elegance made them hard to imitate, and the occasional appearance of random symbols from the Kalie language only added to her confusion. Nevertheless, she pressed on, noting that this time the grammar seemed less chaotic, though still difficult for her to fully comprehend.
Once she felt she had grasped the basic idea, she followed the mirror's instructions and tapped on the white bar at the top of the screen. Immediately, a box appeared at the bottom, displaying letters from both the Han-like language and the Kalie characters, written in the same polished style.
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At first, Minho hesitated, puzzled by the appearance of these symbols. But as she tapped on each letter, they formed words in the white bar, and she quickly realized that the mirror was asking her to input a destination. Excited by the possibility, she began selecting letters, amazed at how this strange device allowed her to form words without physically writing them. It was a unique way of creating text, and Minho couldn’t help but wonder if she could use this method to her advantage somehow.
With a sense of curiosity, she typed out "Thunder Sky Village," the name of her settlement and pressed the large [Search] button. As soon as she did, the screen displayed a swirling symbol, much like the one she had seen when she first discovered the mirror. She remembered that it had shown this same swirling pattern when it told her to "please wait a moment," so she sat back and waited patiently.
After a few moments, the mirror responded: "Error. Cannot find your current location. Please check if your [Device] has [GPS] turned on."
Minho blinked in confusion, the strange message leaving her more puzzled than before. She didn’t understand what "[GPS]" was or why the mirror couldn’t find her location, but she dutifully carved the symbols into her firewood, trying to make sense of them. All she could deduce was that the mirror was having trouble with the map, and it needed something to work properly—something she didn’t quite understand.
Undeterred, she tried typing in the destination in different ways, hoping for a different result. But each time, the same error appeared. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that perhaps the mirror was from a different era, one where the world’s locations had changed. Maybe it was having difficulty functioning because the maps it was trying to display no longer matched the current world.
Minho couldn’t quite piece together the exact meaning of the message, but she knew the word "error" meant something was wrong, and that it couldn’t find what it was looking for. She sighed in frustration, realizing that without a better understanding of the foreign words, she wouldn’t be able to fully decipher what the mirror was trying to tell her. For now, she decided to leave the [Maps] function alone and explore it another time.
With a small tap on the back button, she navigated back to the mirror’s main screen, and then, with a final press on the side, she turned off the device. The room had grown dim, and when she looked outside the hollow tree, the sun had already dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows across the forest.
"It’s already getting dark," she muttered to herself, her stomach growling slightly. She didn’t want to miss dinner, and besides, staying out in the forest at night wasn’t a good idea, especially with the Greenwood Bandits rumored to be expanding their territory.
Tucking the firewood and the black mirror safely into her bag, Minho stood up, brushed the dust off her clothes, and made her way out of the tree’s hollow. The quiet of the forest was starting to feel eerie, but with her discovery in hand, she felt a sense of triumph. It was time to return to the village, eat, and prepare for tomorrow.
After about an hour of walking, Minho realized just how late it had gotten. The moon hung high in the sky, casting a pale light over the landscape, and judging by its position, she figured it must already be past midnight. She groaned inwardly, knowing that she was in for a scolding once she returned home. Brother Yuan would not be pleased, especially if she came home this late after wandering the forest alone.
Her pace quickened, her mind racing with excuses she could use to avoid punishment. Maybe she could say she had been chased by a bear? Or that she fell into a deep hole and struggled to climb out? Anything to avoid the inevitable work on the farm as a consequence of staying out past curfew. The thought of endless days laboring in the fields made her wince, but she was determined to soften Brother Yuan’s temper with a well-spun tale.
As she continued down the familiar forest path, something odd caught her attention. The smell of smoke. At first, it was faint, just a whiff carried by the night breeze. She dismissed it, thinking it might be from a campfire nearby—after all, travelers and hunters often passed through the woods and made camp for the night. But soon, the smell grew stronger, more acrid, and far too thick for a simple campfire.
“Is there a forest fire?” Minho thought, her heart skipping a beat. The scent of burning wood was unmistakable, and the volume of smoke she was smelling was not normal. Panic began to bubble in her chest as she picked up her pace, her mind racing with concern. If there really was a forest fire, the village would already be scrambling to put it out.
As she pressed forward, the smell of burning grew more intense. Her pulse quickened, and a gnawing sense of dread settled deep in her stomach. The closer she got to the village, the more overwhelming the smoke became, the scent now choking her lungs with every breath she took. It wasn’t just a distant fire; it was close—too close.
A terrible realization began to creep into her mind, one she didn’t want to acknowledge. She shook her head, trying to dispel the thought, but it clung to her like a shadow. The fire wasn’t in the forest. It was coming from the village.
“No... no, it can’t be,” she whispered to herself, her voice trembling with fear. Her legs moved faster, carrying her toward the village, even as her heart screamed for her to stop, to turn back. But she had to know. She had to see it for herself.
Finally, as she crested a small hill, an orange glow appeared on the horizon, flickering against the backdrop of the night sky. The sight of it made her stomach drop. It was like being pulled into the current of a raging river, her body frozen in place as she watched the flames dance in the distance. The village was on fire.
Minho’s breath hitched in her throat as she stood there, motionless, her eyes wide with shock. The orange hue wasn’t the warmth of a friendly hearth or a controlled fire—it was the wild, chaotic blaze of destruction. The flames rose high, licking the sky, casting an ominous glow across the night.
For a moment, she couldn’t move, her feet glued to the ground as the weight of the realization crashed over her. Her home, the place she had always known to be safe, was burning.