Rial and I finally reached the doorsteps of our shaggy brick shack after a long, stumbling walk of unease and anxiety. Creaking open the wooden door, we each almost collapsed into a chair. Rial muttered as she rubbed away at her face with both her hands.

"By the light..."

I, equally exhausted and unweary, stared blankly off into the corner of the house, in an endeavor to comprehend what just happened. Rial once more mumbled about, this time with a nuance of disbelief.

"It sang."

It did. It certainly sang. It sang in such a ominous, otherworldly tone. No matter how uniquely a human sings, we can still expect the melodies to resemble that of a person; resonating from the throat and vibrating with a familiar tone.

Yet the melodies from that previous cluster of twitching tendrils differed to a great extent from the lyrics of man. It was as if the entire body trembled to resonate off a haunting tune. Deep, ear-piercing tunes, radiating away from its flesh. Malformed and disgusting. Unsettling to the point of utter terror.

"It sang the Song of Flames."

The oddest part. It uttered the lyrics of a hearer, with successful effects. Every moment of our last hour was completely devoid of hope of reaching it with our puny capability to understand and grasp.

We both sat still in absolute silence, surrounded by confusion and unease.

Then Rial stood up and spoke.

"I'm getting a drink. Mun, you're going to be worse than hearers if you try to stop me right now."

I glanced upward, making eye-to-eye contact. Her expression held a fatigued, frustrated look; intent on devouring something to quench away the problems in the mind. She could, while I still wouldn't feel the best, use a drink for sure. Turning my gaze back down, smirking, I voiced my approval.

"Sure, Rial. I promised to be a bit more lenient. Go ahead and wash down some worries."

A subtle smile emerged from her lips.

"Just clean yourself up before you do; not everyone else at the bar's going to be as blind as Drak." I added.

The subtle smile developed into a moderate giggle. Along came some words laced with playful sarcasm.

"You calling me dirty, Mun?"

"We're both filthy, aren't we?"

Rial, sniggering, swooped toward where I was resting at, grabbed me by the arms and pulled me outside.

"Bath time; brothers and sisters."

Having dragged me out the door, Rial had me stand on the grassy dirt facing away from her. Hearing some sloshing of water behind me, I turned my head to observe what Rial was up to.

"Rial, when you say bath, you don't mean that usual thing you do where you just splash a bucket of water to your fac-"

Then a hunk of water flown out of a dipper Rial was holding abruptly lunged and blasted at my face. Sputtering, and hastily wiping away the residue liquid, I shouted.

*gurgle* "Rial!"

An explosion of laughter was let out of her, as she too scooped another generous dipper full of water and downed it all on top of her. She shook her head like a wet dog and with dripping hair, glossed over me who was also drenched from the waist up. Rial chuckled.

"What, you got a problem? It's fast and efficient."

Turning away from the grumbling and sodden me, Rial carried her steps to the north.

"I'm going, Mun!"

"You're not even going to dry off?"

"It'll dry off on the way."

As I watch Rial walk off, a sudden notion popped into mind.

"Rial!"

Rial answered, slowing herself down but neither stopping or looking back.

"Yeah?"

"If you're going to Drak's, could I take a second visit to the mirror?"

I immediately regretted my statement as Rial froze in her tracks, dead still. One, two, three seconds passed in stillness. She held up her right hand, still not facing me, and made a circle with her thumb and her index finger. Surprising, what came out of her mouth was in a strangely pleasant tone.

"Whatever floats your boat, Mun."

Rial disappeared far off into the distance.

How curious that was. For the second time, Rial willfully approved of me visiting the mirror. Yet only around five years ago, the same wouldn't have had happened.

For a period I recalled how Rial and I were like before the five years had passed. She had a much more frozen gaze. Were we moving on now? After all this time?

MUN!

The shatter of glass. Rial heaves heavily as she marches toward my direction.

SHUT UP! I said SHUT UP! Do NOT bring up that damn subject ever again!

She grabs my shoulders and shakes me, as she screams in lunacy.

Do you hear me, MUN? Keep that damn mouth SHUT!

Confused, shaken, and frightened, I nod my head in fearful submission. I instinctively crunch up my body in a scared posture.

Rial's eyes twitch. She stares at how I am acting.

Mun?

The violence and anger in her voice instead replaces with deep sorrow. With fleeting expressions, Rial shouts.

Mun..? Oh god, Mun. Mun I'm sorry!

Uncontrolled weeping follows.

We no more had those outbreaks, at least none as untempered. Perhaps time did happen.

I picked up the dipper full of water, and washed my self clean once more. This time much more thoroughly.

Time to get ready.

One more visit.

To the mirror.