Hentzau: Are you ready to commit?

Nerron: Like, a crime or to a relationship?

Nerron: I never understood why people get best friends until I got a best friend myself. This is Will and if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.

Nerron: My momma always told me I could become whatever I wanted. So I became a problem.

“The gift” (Fox’s first transformation as written by Cornelia Funke in “Palast aus Glas ”) - English version by me

She was so glad her brothers hadn’t found it before she had. Perhaps the vixen knew that they never sneaked out of the house during the night the way she did. The way she had always done. To escape the yelling, the drunken monologues in which her stepfather bemoaned the cruelty the world showed him. As if he himself didn’t make sure it remained cruel.

Celeste didn’t care whether he hit her older brothers. Gustave was just as cruel as his father. And the second one, Rene, was willing to do anything to please them. But when her stepfather hit Thierry, her youngest brother, or her mother, she ran outside and crouched under the window, listening as if she could comfort them like that just a little. She listened to her mother’s cries and pleas and hated her for being so weak. Hated her for having married and still loving him. Celeste would have fought him! But what could these fists do if they belonged to a girl that was just six years old and so tiny and thin that her stepfather would be able to break her in half like one of his sticks?

It was horrible to feel so much hatred when all the heart wanted to feel was love.

So she ran into the night as soon as her stepfather had fallen asleep, outside where the stars wrote peace into the sky so the dark would swallow all the hatred. Embellish it with stars and wash the hatred off her heart until it was warm and soft again.

Celeste was a quick runner. At least her stepfather had taught her that. She loved running, through grass that was wet with dew, over moss and leaves and even the rough pebbles on the road leading away from the house.

*Run, Celeste. Feel the wind and the night on your skin.*

*Never let him catch you.*

He was drunk and snoring, one arm thrown over her mother’s naked shoulders -owning her even in sleep- and her brother was whispering in his sleep as usual when she found the dress. He didn’t flee into the night like her. Thierry escaped into his dreams.

She was on her way back from the well. She had used the cool water to soothe her aching hand. The vixen had bitten her the day before, when Celeste had protected her and her cubs from her brothers. But she had been sorry. Celeste had been able to see it in her eyes. Such beautiful eyes. Like they had been made of gold and autumn leaves.

The vixen’s teeth had left a mark like a tattoo on her hand even though they had barely broken through the skin. Celeste would bear that mark for the rest of her life.

The dress was lying on the threshold.

She nearly tripped over it in the darkness.

It was so beautiful that she hardly dared to touch it. It was made from fur of the same fiery red as the vixen and softer than anything Celeste had ever touched. The red moon bathed it in its light and the white one flecked it with silver.

It was hers.

She knew it as soon as she saw it.

Thank you!, it whispered.

As soon as she picked it up, there was no greater fear in her heart than that of losing it. She sat down outside the door and placed it over her naked knees. Stroked it with her hands, dug her fingers into the soft fur and smiled. Celeste felt the smile like a new face. One made entirely from happiness.

She gave that smile to the trees, the fields and meadows, the night sky above her, hoping the vixen would see it.

Inside the house, her stepfather got up, stumbling around on his search for more wine. Celeste pressed the dress against her chest and didn’t dare move a muscle, but eventually he returned back to bed with a grunt and she was alone with the silence of the night again.

*Put it on*, something in her heart whispered. *Put it on, Celeste.*

But where? She heard her stepfather’s snoring behind her and one of her brothers grunted in his sleep.

There was only one place where she felt safe. She had met the vixen there, surrounded by three cubs that had been as fiery red as their mother. Her brothers feared the crumbled house and its ghosts. They only dared to enter the garden. They threw stones through the shattered windows, but they never went near the grave. That had made the task of protecting the cubs easy. Celeste had used her brothers’ fear of the spirits of the dead. She herself had never feared the dead. She loved them. After all, her father was one of them.

The gras around his tombstone was white with frost when she climbed over the remains of the wall that surrounded the house where he had lived with her mother. The spot under the bush of wild roses where the vixen had lain with her cubs was the only place where the leaves on the ground were still brown and dry. She had been hoping for the chance to say thank you, but they were gone.

*Put it on, Celeste.*

It was so warm on her cold skin.

And the way it clung to her thin frame. As though it had been tailored to fit her perfectly. Thank you, she whispered even though the vixen was gone. Thank you, as her hands ran through the silken fur that filled her with a warmth she had never felt before; not even in the arms of her mother.

But there was more than warmth.

There was strength.

And wisdom.

And something wild that made her feel so free.

So ancient.

So young.

And suddenly, her body was light and quick. The fur was no longer a dress but her skin. Her eyes drank up the light of the stars and the night turned bright as day. The air was heavy with the scent of rabbits and birds. She wanted to roll in the grass and curl up to sleep in the womb of the earth.

Oh the bliss!

She wanted to forget her human skin, throw it away like a threadbare dress. And with it all the fear and anger, all the loneliness, even her own name.

No longer Celeste.

Fox.

She was Fox.

She was free.

Will: Come on, Jacob, no one thinks Nerron is my boyfriend.

Jacob, turning to the rest of the group: Put your hands up if you think Will and Nerron are boyfriends.

Everyone: *raises their hand*

Will: What the f- SIXTEEN, PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN.

Fox: *walks into the kitchen where there’s spaghetti on the stove, counter, walls, and ceiling*

Fox:why

Jacob: Sorry about this you know how it is with spaghetti

Fox: No, I don’t.

What music genre do Goyl enjoy the most?

Rock.

Nerron, to Jacob: Let’s tell each other a secret about ourselves. I’ll go first: I hateyou.

Question: What did you do at your wedding that made a family member upset?

Nerron: My brother-in-law really didn’t like the part where I married my husband.

Just a friendly reminder that Nerron the bastard is a mommas boy.

All three mirrorword books with spayed (painted) edges.

Jacob Reckless is not stupidly fearless. He knows that whatever he is going to do is most likely to get him killed. But he does it anyway. Just for the funsies. And for the kick and to prove to himself that he CAN do it. Like “Look at me, I did it anyway!”

The attitude!

Friendly reminder that Jacob Reckless is still in the possession of Fox’ mother’s glass ring (the one that is able to steal years).

I’m not worried - I’m horrified!

If anyone is not suitable for a magical thing like this it is Jake.

Hey fellow mirrorworlder!

Can we Start calling Orlando Tennant like that, please?

Thank you.

Dear God,

when I asked if my life could get any worse, that was a rhetorical question and not a challenge.

- Jacob, probably

There it is.

The cover of the fourth mirrorworld book!!!

Isn’t it the most beautiful thing ever?!

Look at fox! And the gold!

The title is “On silver track” btw.

Fox: You are loosing a lot of blood! Quick, whats your type?

Jacob: brave, intelligent, red-headed, shape shifter -

Fox: I meant blood type.

Jacob:Oh

Jacob, looks at wound:Red.

Will: [screaming in the background]

Clara: What happened?

Jacob: I don’t know, I think he saw himself in the mirror.

Will, in the distance: JACOB! THERE’S ANOTHER ME ON THE WALL!

Jacob: It’s okay, Will! Just introduce yourself, I’m sure they’re nice.

inkweaver:

schleierkauz:

inkweaver:

Contemplating starting on the reckless series because I’m so curious like what’s in there

That’s what I’m doing right now! I really only started for research purposes since Cornelia keeps connecting the Inkworld to the Mirrorworld more and more, but the first book was actually really enjoyable. (I read the revised version since I tried and failed to get into the original like a dozen times lol).

At this point I don’t particularly like Jacob Reckless or his fucked up brother but Fuchs (Fox?) is cool and all the fairytale stuff is fun. My favorite was the Sleeping Beauty scene.

Also the dwarf. I forgot his name but godspeed to him.

That’s really interesting! She revised one of the books? I guess she is all for quality at least. And yeah- that was my thought too, if she keeps connecting the worlds I want to be able to understand what’s going on:p