Chapter Text
Rin caressed the fluffy bunny absentmindedly. So soft… it was still sleeping, breathing a little fast for her liking. It had been trapped in the trees with Len; thank goodness he saved it. She didn’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if they left it to the thorns.
She remembered asking her parents for a pet, at least hundreds of times. Her father would happily give her anything if she asked… but it was her mother who usually put a stop to her endeavors. “I will not allow a filthy animal to even touch the grass of our estate!”
One day she even got Len to try and ask, but father gave him a strange look and mother outright ignored him. She supposed they were tired of hearing the same question…
Rin sighed from her spot, leaning against a thankfully not malicious tree. She still lacked a little context, but she took the executive decision to rest before interrogating her brother.
At least until he stopped dry heaving on the ground.
Her heart sank. They barely made it out with their lives… if she hadn’t reached him in time, he would’ve—
He would’ve…
Shivers ran down her spine. There’s no point in thinking about things that didn’t happen.
She was lucky they even found each other, even luckier that the forest suddenly became plagued with aggravated roses. Red roses.
The cat mentioned something about it… could it be related to the Queen of Hearts?
Alice… that’s what the tree called her earlier. Not her name, was she being confused with someone else?
Len coughed one last time before plopping next to her. His face was full of sap, as if he had drunk a bucket of tar. She ran one of her hands down his head, ruffling his messy hair. His tired eyes fighting to stay open.
She prayed he wasn’t getting sick. To be sure she touched his forehead, looking for a fever.
“…’mm alright…” he slurred his words a bit. “I just need a moment…”
Rin humored him for a little while. Just a little! They would need to find food and water soon.
Especially since Len hadn’t eaten anything substantial in days. And even if he had, it would've been gone with the sap.
She took the time to look around from where she sat. The grass from the forest was starting to give way to a much more rocky area. A light breeze brushed the colorful foliage of much smaller trees and flower patches, scattered around between the rocks.
Looking back where they came from, the silhouette of the forest stared back at her. Deep green, slowly turning red… she looked away.
Farther away, a thick veil of fog obscured what was ahead. If she listened carefully, she could hear the sound of running water. Perhaps a river, or even a shore.
Rin hummed, satisfied with her discovery. They’ll be heading in that direction next.
“Hmm…?” Rin felt something stir on her lap. The bunny! It was waking up!
Its shiny golden eyes fluttered open. Tiny nose twitching as it sniffed at the air, briefly revealing a pair of white bunny teeth. Rin had to restrain herself from snuggling the creature, it was adorable!
It let out a pained groan. “My stars… I thought for sure I had died…” the bunny said with the voice of a woman.
The bunny talks… of course the bunny talks. Of course, if cats could fly and spew riddles, why not a rabbit?!
“…I am eternally grateful, Len. You saved my life.” The bunny gave her a groggy smile. “Why, that’s curious, why do you look so feminine all of the sudden?”
Then, her eyes widened like saucers, ears perking up all the way. “A-Alice!”
The bunny squirmed out of the girl’s lap, stumbling into a clumsy bow.
“I apologize for my insolence, miss Alice—!” She cleared her throat, flattening her tiny red vest.
“I mean… miss Rin…”
That name again…
“I am the white rabbit. I’ve been sent on her majesty’s behalf, the Queen of Hearts, to retrieve you.”
She couldn’t believe her ears.
Had she heard that right? Rin’s eyes lit up. “The Queen?! You’ve been sent here by the Queen?!”
She jumped to her feet and tackled the rabbit. Hugging the creature with all her might.
Rin laughed. “Oh… thank you, thank you, thank youuuu!”
“We’ve been lost for so long! You wouldn’t believe it!” A new speck of hope began growing in her soul. They had a guide! Someone that could help them get out of that place.
She chose to place her hope in it, that the Queen would somehow be able to help them go home.
She rubbed her face into the soft fur. Giggling all the way.
The bunny croaked. “Miss Rin… Please… you’re crushing me—”
“Oh, OH! Sorry!” She let the other go, still with a radiant smile.
The creature brushed her frazzled fur. “I thought I was done being strangled today…”
Even when mildly annoyed, the bunny was as adorable as ever. She looked over to Len, hoping to share a knowing look.
Light snores escaped her brother.
He was lying on his side, his hurt cheek from the branch attack looked like a ripe apple…
It almost pained her to do so, but she shook his shoulder. “Len, come on, wake up!”
“Uh—ugh… hwhat?” He shook his head, disoriented, then his eyes shut again. “…five mmmore minutes—”
“No, we have to go. You’ll sleep later.” She yanked him up. For which he flailed around like a stringless puppet before somewhat regaining his balance.
“Rats… somebody tell the world to stop tilting, please…”
He looked like a wet cat. That had a tooth just extracted.
“My face hurts…”
Rin snorted. But kept her composure and let her brother lean on her for support.
The bunny, taken aback by Len’s appearance, yelped. “Goodness… r-right this way please”
(…)
Neru stared at the twins as they cleaned up in the river. Rin— Alice… had good instincts, she could quickly locate a clean river for them to drink from. Which both she and her brother needed desperately.
Mocking tree sap was no joke. Her father told her that it used to be used as a poison, back when rodents still had land to call their own and weaponized it against each other. It was particularly effective because rats had no gag reflex… thankfully Len did.
Neru had listened to Ri—Alice’s telling of the mocking forest attack. From the words of the trees, their trap, and the twins’ fight to free themselves, to the way the trees all died.
Her throat tangled up in a knot. She didn’t know Her Majesty’s spell would be that strong.
And it could’ve consumed her too if Len hadn’t grabbed her right out from the thorns… she had to be more careful.
She stared at the messy sibling, dunking his whole head in the river, then shaking his head like a dog to dry off, letting all the water rain over his sister. The girl yelled at him and splashed some water back. They both laughed as their wet hair stuck to their faces.
He knew nothing about her… and still chose to save her. Why?
His mistake. A voice deep inside of her whispered.
The children then took their shoes off and splashed away. Digging their hands deep in the water, droplets reflecting the light of the sun in a rainbow sheen. Their dirty clothes soaked most of it.
Neru caught herself smiling. She shouldn’t be.
It wasn’t long before Len stopped and plopped down at the riverbank, breathing heavily. Alice…no, Rin. She stopped and worriedly ran to his side, he must've been exhausted.
Neru absentmindedly ran her fingers through her yellow hair. Blond, just like theirs. Maybe in another world, she would’ve had siblings like them.
Letting herself lie down on the ground she stared at the sky. Pink clouds like cotton candy, the fading sun basking her in its gentle light.
What was she going to do? All that happiness, was she going to tear it away?
The clock in her pocket ticked.
When Rin became queen, would she still care for her brother?
She didn’t know… did her current Majesty even have someone that cared for her like Len did? Maybe she didn’t.
Maybe the fact that there’s two outsiders instead of one would change something this time. She could only hope it did.
She closed her eyes and breathed.
“Hmmmm…” a comforting tune her father used to sing found its way to her mouth.
“That’s a nice song.” Rin mused. Neru didn’t even hear the twins approaching her. They both looked down on her, their wet hair dripping down on her.
She sat up, startled. “W-what is it?”
“Apologies, didn’t mean to scare you,” said Len. The cold water had helped significantly with his swollen cheek. “But… we were wondering—”
“Do you know where we could find anything to eat?” Rin finished his question.
Oh… How could she forget? “Alright, follow me, this way.”
Among the rocky path, flowers bloomed even without dirt, their petals made from felt, in their center, sewed yellow buttons. At least these ones weren’t alive to turn away from her.
A path familiar to her began to appear between the stones. Red bricks marked the way to the old hatter’s house, hidden in the fog.
On the way, the sun started to set. Making their shadows seem bigger.
It had been empty for years. She’s heard stories, they say the hatter wanted to make a new life for himself, somewhere neither in the white or in the red kingdom. He announced this high and wide, to anyone who could hear. To the point even a crowd came together to watch as he left.
Whether he achieved what he set out to do, Wonderland would never know, he never came back.
They called him mad.
Neru never understood why. What was so wrong about wanting to live away from Wonderland?
It sure sounded like a dream to her.
However, everybody knew there was nothing beyond Wonderland… you can’t leave.
The house came into view. Old brick, beaten down by the wind, constructed poorly but still standing, even after so long. Its triangular roof barely touched the ground where the house’s foundation should be. Instead, the bottom of the house stood proudly, pointing at the sky, defying all sense of gravity.
She looked back briefly to the twins. Their mouths were wide open.
“Woah…” gasped Rin.
“How is that even possible?!” Mused Len.
What, did their house never turn upside down once in a while? She knew it happened at least a couple of times when she lived with her father.
Containing a smirk, she led them inside.
They had to use a window near the roof, since the front door was too high for the children to reach. Neru offered her hand to each of them, helping the twins reach the window sill. A polite “thank you” from both as they took her hand.
Crawling inside, they reached the hatter’s workshop. Naturally every piece of furniture was nailed to the roof, a common measure to prevent things from breaking.
A whole wall was lined with a shelf of countless cubicles, each one of them holding a hat, of every color and size.
“My bonnet!” Rin gasped, approaching a cubicle holding a white shapeless hat, with a matching ribbon. She reached for it. “Oh, how could it have ended here?” But when she tried pulling it out, the fabric resisted. It seemed stuck to the shelf.
Neru found it strange. She’d never seen that hat in the hatter’s collection before… How did it get there?
“I can’t… get it out—” the girl pulled until she heard a clear ‘rrrip’ from the fabric.
“Oh no…” Len walked over his sister, she held the broken half of the bonnet, looking at it with sad eyes.
He placed a hand on Rin’s shoulder. “Hey… maybe we could fix it. This place looks like a workshop, I’m sure there’s plenty of tools we could use!”
“You don’t know how to sew, Len.”
“B-but I could try!”
“Forget it. It’s just a bonnet…” she said, dropping the hat. “Let’s get going, the less we spend wandering, the sooner we get home.”
Although seemingly uncaring, an obvious bitterness escaped her voice. That hat mattered to her, for whatever reason.
Neru decided to ignore it and coaxed the girl into the stairway.
Len lagged behind for a bit. Kneeling down, he retrieved the ribbon from the broken hat, storing it in his pocket before following the girls.
An upside down house could be difficult to traverse if poorly designed. The hatter’s house happened to be one of those very long, vertical structures where the distance between roof and floor was absurdly far, making the stairs hard to reach.
Thankfully, other travelers built ladders to help with this problem.
They climbed the uneven, poorly constructed ladder, passing over abstract paintings and pictures, most of them of hats.
Walking through bizarre pathways and empty rooms, each more confusing than the last. Between convoluted passages, steep ladders and hat related memorabilia, finally, they reached the kitchen.
Poor children looked about to faint from exhaustion. Not that she could blame them, they were lucky Neru knew the way by heart.
She sat them down against the wall. All the chairs were nailed up, so they couldn’t even sit at a table.
Then, Neru bent her legs, preparing for a powerful leap. Jumping high, she took hold of the central table, and made her way from there.
After a few minutes of climbing and jumping to nearby cabinets, she finally reached the right one. Supporting herself with the oven door’s handle, she opened a tiny compartment under the stove and retrieved a basket.
She carefully let go and landed on the floor, properly cushioning her fall by rolling in the right moment.
Len clapped. “Woah! That was amazing—”
“Are you sure you aren’t an acrobat, miss Neru?” Rin asked, amazed.
The older girl blushed a little.
“Right? She almost looked like a spider!”
“Except spiders aren’t exactly graceful, how dare you compare a lady like Neru to a hideous bug!?”
“If you learned more about them, you’ll actually find them to be very interesting… I read a book about the subject not long ago, and I think—”
“Oh no! There is a spider in your hair!”
“WHERE—?!” Len yelled, frantically clawing at his hair.
Rin burst out laughing.
Len flushed. “H-hey… that was uncalled for…”
Neru cleared her throat. “Ahem… if you have time to be fooling around, better use it to have a decent meal.” She lifted the lid of the basket, revealing a full-sized baguette. The twins gasped excitedly.
Dividing the bread by three, she tossed the biggest piece over to Len, and kept the smallest for herself.
He examined it for a second and split off the end of his bread, giving it back to her. “There. Now we’re even.”
She stared at the piece, confused. “Why?”
“This part is too hard for me anyways, my teeth still hurt a bit.”
A warm feeling settled in her chest. “Thank you…”
“Huh, you could’ve done that with the pastries we shared back home…” Rin said, already with the bread in her mouth.
“Over my dead body.” He replied, immediately wolfing down on his own.
Then Neru started cutting up a piece of cheese. When she finished, she raised her head only to find the twins' bread had already disappeared, their cheeks puffed out like chipmunks.
“Uuh… I also had jam and cheese. For the baguette,” Neru said slowly.
“No!”
“What?!”
“You should’ve told us!” Rin pouted, her mouth full.
“Yeah— unfair!” Len eloquently stated.
Neru couldn’t help but snort. At least she could keep this happiness for a little while.