The twins looked at her like she was crazy. Then they turned to look at the place she pointed to. Then back at her skeptically. Birdie narrowed her eyes, wondering if a joke was being played. Basil thought that he might have read her lips wrong. Larue was beginning to understand that their mother had only taught them barest minimum about what magic could do. It was probably for the best though. Their lack of understand in the mystical world made them seem like most other gifted humans. Most gifted people today could only perform small feats of magic. If the twins knew of their full capabilities, they would stand out – and not in a good way.

“I know I might be tired or whatever,” Birdie started, taking in the patch of forest floor in front of her. “but, you are literally pointing at nothing.”

Basil’s internal voice flowed into her head, voicing the same concerns as his sister. “I might not have read you correctly, but there’s nothing there.”

Larue shook her head. When these two were with Mapiya, it was okay for them to be this ignorant. Out here though, ignorance would get them killed. To make matters worse, the sun had just dipped below the horizon and the moonlight was beginning to trickle down onto them. Night in Yosemite was something to be feared if you were weak or, in the twins’ case, ignorant. There were things in these woods much more frightening then bears and coyotes. She had to get them inside.

“Your mother has done you a disservice,” she said, making sure project her words to Basil as she spoke out loud. “From now on, believe in mystery. Understand that, more often than not, the inconceivable is often very, very real.”

She took both of them by their arms and walked forward, practically dragging them behind her. As they got closer to the clearing within the trees a noticeable film appeared to rest over the air. It looked the same way oil or gasoline did when dropped into water. A kind of opalescent shimmering barrier. When Larue walked through the film with the twins in tow, it briefly resisted her before letting her through. If anyone, or anything, else attempted to do the same thing they would be repelled. The barrier was designed to induce extreme nausea and disorientation far worse than what someone would experience with a summoning coin. While Larue was unaffected, the twins immediately began to retch and fell to the forest floor clutching their stomachs. She found their suffering somewhat entertaining.

“Oh god,” Birdie moaned before retching again. “What the hell was that? Ah…my head!”

Basil was dry heaving beside his sister, but nothing came up. He was too sick to even think. Larue heard nothing from him. Birdie was the first to stand-up, wiping her mouth in disgust. Larue silently praised her. The girl was strong, even with the currently green hue of her face. Basil on the other hand was having more difficultly, taking about five minutes longer than his sister to stand up. Larue smiled at both of them. It might have taken them nearly ten minutes to recover, but normal humans would have been out of commission for at least a day.

“That was the inconceivable,” she said, answering Birdie. “A Fae-gate, if you will.”

“A what?” Basil asked her. He looked positively pitiful at the moment. Birdie asked the same question.

“A Fae-gate is like a barrier that leads to another place,” Larue told them, explaining as best as she could. “Fae can create doorways to other places. You were technically right when you said there was nothing there, because before we crossed the barrier there was nothing. This place exists outside of time and space.”

Birdie scrunched up her nose. “How can something exist outside of time and space.”

“Oh, come now, you should know the answer by now. Believe in the mystery,” Larue scolded.

“It’s like a pocket dimension,” Basil theorized, thinking and signing his words.

“A pocket dimension?” Birdie questioned, assuming that only she could understand Basil at the moment.

“Yeah, I read something about them once,” Basil explained. “They’re portions of our space that have deliberately been cut off from the rest of universe. It’s like they exist right next to or completely outside of our own reality. But, it’s assumed that pocket dimensions were naturally formed during the creation of the universe. What Larue is saying is that she made her own pocket dimension. It’s like she took space and ripped a hole through it.”

Birdie just stared at her brother. She took a moment to relay his words to Larue before turning back to him. “You’re such a damn nerd.”

“Fae-gate, pocket dimension, tomato, tomahto,” Larue said with a shrug of her shoulders. “It’s all just magic to me. Plus, this space is very small. I’ve heard that some gods and goddesses have created entire worlds within their spaces. I’m nowhere near strong enough to do that.”

Larue thought that Basil was very smart, but she knew that if he tried to use logic to navigate his way through the mystical world he would be a disadvantage.

“You need to believe in things you don’t understand Basil,” she told him. “There are things you won’t be able to explain using what you know. You are intelligent, but you must get used to not taking things at face value or from a scientific point of view.”

Basil looked a bit chastised. “Okay.”

“Let’s go inside,” she said motioning to her quaint one-story cabin.