Jennie was playing in one corner of the big room when she saw movement on the other side of the big smooth wall that you could see through. There was a cub over there! She stopped, startled for a moment. The cub saw her and stopped too.

Gem's mother had brought her over for a visit. They had met recently and discovered they both had children about the same age. She set Gem down on the wooden deck outside and exchanged pleasantries with Jennie's mother as she watched Gem carefully. Gem thought she saw something moving on the other side of a big thing she could see into. It was another cub! Frightened, she stopped and stared wide-eyed, leaning back and trying to scoot away.

Jennie had seen these before. The cub on the other side of these things always did everything she did, so she must be an excellent playmate, but she could never figure out how to get to the other side to play with her. She turned her head, and so did the cub on the other side. She blinked her eyes, but she didn't know whether the other cub did too because whenever her eyes were closed, she couldn't see anything.

Gem had also seen this sort of thing before, she realized. The cub on the other side always looked scared, which made her feel scared too and want to get away, but this time that cub looked curious and playful, tilting her head and blinking her eyes. Gem unconscously tilted her head too. She smiled a bit and reached out with her paw. As usually happened, the other cub did the same.

Jennie thought the other cub looked scared at first, so she reached out with one paw in a clumsy wave, smiling. The other cub did the same, as usual.

Both cubs and their "reflections" giggled together. Jennie and Gem made funny faces, sticking their tongues out at each other, and giggled some more.

"... looks like they're getting to know each other already," said one of the grown-ups, not that either cub noticed or could understand. Jennie's mother opened the sliding-glass door so she and her guests could come inside. Gem's mother picked her up just enough to lift her over the threshold and onto the carpet next to Jennie.

Gem and Jennie both gasped as the mirror opened up. That had never, ever happened before. Grown-ups were magic, of course, and often did amazing things that small cubs didn't understand. But suddenly the two of them were face to face. They were now each certain that their new friend came from the magical land on the other side of mirrors.

---

And you thought it happened like this. Well, maybe it happened any number of ways. Anyway, because I haven't had time to draw for a while, this is the first thing I've drawn for over a week. I'm amazed I remembered how. Anyway, this was entirely done in Sai, though the background objects were all done with vector layers while the characters were done with regular layers. Gem and I have a lot of things in common so at one point I said maybe I was her twin from another dimension, but recently I thought of this mini-story about that idea. I don't know whether the real-life is left-handed, but I'm right-handed. :)

By the way, is in the toy bag that Gem's mom brought with her, so don't worry, he's nearby.

Gem is © .
Jennie, this artwork, and this story are © .