Wonderland Was Never Enough C1

“This is ridiculous.” Kat sighed, frustrated with it all as she walked through the thick forest, keeping to the path biblically. “First I follow that absolutely impossible White Rabbit, and fall through his blasted hole…Next thing I know I’m in this place. I swear if that stupid Rabbit hadn’t goaded me into following him,” She complained as she walked, unaware that having been in Wonderland was starting to affect her way of thinking. In reality the innocent White Rabbit hadn’t done a thing to convince her to follow him through the Rabbit Hole, and actually hadn’t the foggiest idea that she was following him.

Yet that’s what happens when you visit Wonderland…your common sense is the first thing to go, if you even have any for following a talking rabbit into it’s hole, which on the whole is a very stupid thing to do. However, we must continue on, or else we shall forever leave Kat standing in the forest, complaining about the White Rabbit.

She continued walking, her flowing red hair almost completely matted with leaves and branches, so much so that once or twice in her search for the way out a bird had tried to nest. Her once-beautiful sky blue dress had been ripped in numerous places, exposing slightly tanned skin and slight whispers of scars, “This stupid forest is never going to end, is it?!?”

This was when the forest seemed to finally get fed up with her complaining, and upon the path a sign appeared. Well, that is what she said when she retold the story to anyone that would listen. In truth, she just had impeccable timing. The sign was bare, though shaped like an arrow. It pointed down a narrow path, at the end of which she could see a small pool of water. With determination, she set off down this path, only now realizing how thirsty she was.

In no time at all, she had reached the pool of water, which was surrounding by a clearing. The trees here were all cut down to stumps, save one in the center. Around this, there were several signs, pointing directions out to different locations. Some of the signs were either missing completely or half of the name had fallen off, yet there were two here that stood prominent. In the center of the clearing, the water was as reflective as glass, thus hiding from her anything that would be below the surface.

One read ‘TO THE MARCH HARE’, and the other ‘TO THE MAD HATTER’. “Well…I’ve already seen a hare before, but I really wouldn’t like to be around anyone that’s mad…Oh, what will I do?” She sat down before the pool of water, staring at her reflection. “I guess I will just go to the March Hare,” She looked idly off to the path shown, when suddenly a voice came as if from nowhere, the very tone seeming to drip with malice.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” It echoed off the trees eerily, causing Kat to jerk around and look for the cause of the voice.

“Who’s there?” She called into the infinite darkness.

“Who’s where?” The voice answered back, teasing. Kat thrust her head about more, until settling it upon her reflection again with frustration. Her eyes opened wide with shock as the voice came again. “No matter where you go, you will run into someone that is mad.” The voice was coming from her reflection!

“But the Mad Hatter lives that way!” She pointed off down a separate path, frustration beginning to show in her voice.

“Yes, but my dear girl, everyone here’s mad. The Mad Hatter’s mad. The March Hare’s mad. I’m mad. Even you’re mad.” Her reflection laughed, a chilling, disembodied laugh.

“How do you know I’m mad?”

“Well, if you weren’t mad, you wouldn’t have come here now would you?” They, whoever they were, did have a point.

“Well, how come you’re mad then?”

“I’m trying to talk some sort of sense into a madwoman, aren’t I? For we have already made it positive that you ARE mad. And everyone knows that only the crazy ones will attempt to talk anything sensible to a mad person.” Her reflection grinned, a grin that threatened to swallow it whole for it was so large. And swallow it did! Before she could wonder how a grin could be so large, her reflection was swallowed up into the mouth, leaving behind a quite different image.

Lying in the water in place of her reflection was one of the oddest crossbreeds, if you could call it that (for it is what he looked like), Kat had ever seen. He possessed the body of a man, however he had a purple tail along with matching catlike ears and claws. His silvery hair was spread out in the water like so many spider webs, rippling with the slight wind that passed overhead. Blood red eyes penetrated her as he stared, slowly rising. His head came first, completely dry despite the fact he had just been engulfed in water. Following quickly was his body, which proceeded to defy gravity and sit atop the pool. “So, who are you?” He asked, a wide grin upon his face.

“Well, you know, I’m not quite sure!” Kat protested, holding her head in her hands. “I think when that stupid Rabbit lead me down here my name was Kat, but now I just can’t be sure! Everything’s all wrong, and nothing is as it should be. I mean, look at you! You’re half man, half cat!” She spoke slowly as tears fell to the ground.

“No, I’m not.” He grinned that wide, almost sinister, grin again, “I’m a can…or a mat, I haven’t decided yet.” He mused to himself.

“But you most certainly don’t look like a can, or a mat at all!” Kat remarked.

“And you don’t look like a cat,” He stood, walking onto land and holding out a claw. “Come on, then, get up.” She took the offered claw, being pulled up.

“But you see I’m not a cat! That’s my name, Kat! K-A-T!” She looked at the thing before her stubbornly.

“Whatever you say…if that means anything here,” He spoke calmly, his eyes wandering to the forest.

“Why would it mean nothing?” Kat asked.

“Because, dear, you’re in Wonderland. Everything that should be, isn’t, and everything that shouldn’t be, is.” The…thing, for lack of a better name, explained.

“Wonderland? Where’s that on the map?” Kat had studied geography her whole life, yet the name escaped her.

“A map? Never heard of one of those before. Wouldn’t need one, neither. Wonderland is all that there is. I remember dreams of a different place. With tall buildings, and lots of people…people a lot like you. Creations that brought people places, and did stuff for them. Even creations that could talk! But that’s all they were: dreams.”

“But they weren’t dreams, you see! You’re thinking of the real world!” Kat argued.

“The real world?” He shook his head, “No, this is the world, real, fake, or otherwise. There is nowhere else.”

“But I didn’t come from here! I know there was somewhere else!!” Kat tried to reason, albeit it was to him just the word of a madwoman.

“I didn’t come from here either, I don’t think. Or at the least, I used to think that. Now I don’t know anymore. Everything’s just a blur.”

“Are you saying, you don’t belong here?” Kat asked.

“No. Obviously I belong here, and so do you, or else we wouldn’t be here. What I’m saying is that I don’t come from here…I don’t think,” He shook his head, “I don’t know!”

“Well, look, then, we’ve been talking and I still don’t know who you are. What’s your name?” She asked as he regained his composure.

“Juu.” He didn’t seem quite focused on his answer as he stared off to a path.

The name struck Kat as familiar…she knew a Juu. Or did. Maybe that was all just a dream, she couldn’t be sure. “So, which way are we to go, if we don’t want to visit the March Hare or the Mad Hatter?”

Juu jerked his head behind him, “Come this way. Sixir will know what to do!” He began running off without warning towards a path that hadn’t been there before. It was all Kat could do to run after him and keep him in her sight as he dodged past trees and over bushes, for what seemed like hours…when at last, they stopped. Juu had stopped suddenly, turning around to motion for Kat to stop.

She didn’t get the motion in time however, for she quickly came running into Juu, knocking him over. The two fell to the ground together, Kat on top of Juu. They were inches away from each other when Juu noticed the awkwardness of it all.

“Oh…sorry,” Kat mumbled, standing up and looking down to her dress. She had run with it, she had searched through the forest with it…now it was nothing more than mere shreds, barely covering her body. She reached her hand out to help Juu up as he replied.

“Don’t worry about it,” Juu assured her, looking around. They were in a graveyard, and Juu’s head had just barely missed smashing itself open upon a tombstone. It was akin to a giant maze of tombs and crypts, with not a soul in sight…not that one could see far with all the heavy mist setting on. Kat turned around to look into the forest, to reveal the clearing they had been in not ten meters away.

“How could that be? We’ve been running for hours!” Kat exclaimed, bits of annoyance staining her voice, at which Juu laughed.

“Time works differently in Wonderland. You’ll get used to it.” Juu walked forward into the mist, somehow navigating around the plentiful tombstones. Kat, however, was not so graced as she tripped every couple of steps, being saved from falling by a quick grab from Juu. Soon (Or soon as we would think it. It had actually taken quite a long time) the two came upon a crypt with an open door. Juu lead the way in, where among the bones sat a woman.

She was quite lithe, beauty hanging in the air all around her. Vibrant blue eyes moved to look at them, although the rest of her body did not. Long blonde hair sprung from her head, flowing like a long blanket down around her on the floor. “Juu, it’s great to see you again,” She managed out.

“Sixir,” Juu kneeled before her, so that their eyes were level. “I know you have said for so long that my dreams of a different place on just that, dreams. But you must help me now. This girl right here, her name is Kat. She seems to think of the same place that I dream of. She claims she has come from there! I know you are holding something from me, Sixir. I want the truth.”

Sixir merely shook her head, at which Juu placed his hand on her shoulder, “Come on, Sixir! You know magicks that haven’t been practiced in millennia. I know that if you do not know more than me, then you can use your magicks and find the truth.” He then realized something. His hand was wet. He removed it to reveal blood thick on his hand, as if painted. He moved Sixir’s hair to the side so he could examine her neck.

He had realized all too late the fatal wound on his friend, and the bulky man standing in the shadow.