Chapter Text
Oz
Something had just happened. Something happened recently
a long long time ago
and he needed to do something
it’s far, far too late
or else something
really really awful
would happen and if only he could just
remember
.
If he remembered, what was supposed to happen?
He blinked, slowly opening his eyes to sunlight shining through the trees, casting a shimmering pattern onto the bumpy ground. His body was sore, as if he had been walking for a long time, but he couldn’t recall anything at all. “Am I… real?” he whispered to himself. He stood up, looked at his hands and pinched them, wincing slightly at the sting. These hands were very real, but there was also something very wrong about them, like the way they were missing something they were supposed to…
A sharp pain shot through his head, and he flinched, stumbling back. He buried his face in his hands. There was something he needed to remember, but he couldn’t remember what it was. The thought pounded through his head, repeating, asking, begging him to remember, remember, remember.
But nothing came through.
What’s the point in panicking? His thoughts whispered. If you can’t remember, you can’t remember. If you calm down, you can think better.
Taking a deep breath, he forced all of his panic down and pushed the nagging thoughts to the back of his mind. He looked up at the sky, watching as the leaves fluttered in the gentle breeze. Despite not knowing anything at all, he felt right at home in this quiet, almost ghostly forest.
Slowly, as the trees shivered around him, and the birds twittered and echoed amidst the branches, a small thought began to piece itself together. He frowned, pulling that tiny little idea close and closer. “Oz…” he muttered. “Oz, is that my name?”
“Oz,” he repeated, and a blossom of warmth erupted within him, but also a faint twinge of something else, something more bittersweet.
Something had happened, and he needed to remember.
Exhaling sharply, Oz grinned, and faced the trees. “I can do this,” he exclaimed, pumping his fists. Determined, he wandered into the shaded growth, shoving back the little voice in his head that whispered, are you ready for what you’ll find?
Gilbert
Gilbert came to awareness with a single, urgent thought: I need to find Oz.
He didn’t know who Oz was, nor why he was running, but he figured since he wanted Oz so badly, he must be running towards Oz, and maybe Oz could give him some answers.
But what if Oz is in trouble? A voice inside his head screamed. Gilbert furrowed his brows. He didn’t even consider that he might be running from something, or that something might be going towards Oz, who he seems to care deeply about. But then, what if I’m leading the thing right to Oz?
Panicking, Gil began to run even faster, breath becoming ragged as he sped blindly through the forest. I can’t lead whatever’s chasing me to Oz! But I can’t run in a different direction either. What if the thing catches up to me faster? What if I die here? I don’t wanna die! I still have things-
From what seemed like nowhere, a tree appeared right in front of Gil, and he slammed into it, falling backwards. “Ow,” he groaned, rubbing his nose.
A crack came from behind him, and he froze. Is this the end? Is this where I die?
Shakily, Gil turned his head around, eyes squeezed shut and body braced for impact. When nothing happened, he slowly opened his eyes. Nothing was there. He turned his head back towards the tree, then shrieked.
A girl was leaning over him, long brown hair dangling in his face.
Gil scooched back, kicking a few granules of dirt in the mysterious girl’s face. “Who- who are you?”
The girl blinked, then stood up straight, putting her hands on her hips as she balanced on a tree root that stuck out of the dirt. “I’m the rabbit fairy!” she declared.
Gil stared at her, dumbfounded. “No you’re not,” he replied instinctively. “Fairies aren’t real.” Some part of that sentence felt wrong to him, but as of right now, that’s the explanation that made the most sense to him.
The girl scowled. “You don’t believe me? I can show you my magical fairy powers. Once I remember how to use all of them, of course.”
“Why would you need to remember how to use them?” Gilbert asked. “If fairies are real, shouldn’t they know how to use them already?”
“Well, it’s not like all of my powers are gone, dummy,” the girl replied, twirling her finger. A patch of grass sprouted where Gilbert was sitting, and slowly, a pale rabbit emerged from the woods, cautiously approaching the sweet greenery.
“See?” the girl smirked, hopping down onto the ground. “I can’t remember anything from before these past few days, but I know I’m a fairy. I just can’t remember some of the bigger things I can do.”
“If you’re really a fairy…” Gilbert started, then hesitated.
“Just spit it out,” the girl scoffed.
“CanyouhelpmefindOz?” Gil blurted out. “I don’t remember much either, but I think he’s important, and-”
The girl laughed, a loud, confident laugh that rang through the forest and shook a flock of birds into flight. “Oh, that’s easy! You just want me to find someone? I can do that for sure!”
Gilbert sighed in relief. “Thank you so mu-”
“But I won’t do it for free,” the girl continued. “Right now, I don’t remember how to use my powers to find people, so I want you to help me remember.”
Gil bit his lip. “How exactly do I do that?”
The girl shrugged. “I don’t know, but you’re stuck with me now. You need to find Oz, and I need to find my memories.”
Gilbert opened his mouth to argue, maybe to say something like how am I supposed to help you find your memories when you don’t even know where to start looking, but he thought better of it. After all, this mysterious ‘rabbit fairy’ did agree to help him find Oz, and if Oz can help Gil get his memories back, maybe he can solve the fairy’s problem too.
“Alright then,” Gilbert pushed himself off the ground, scanning his surroundings. “I think I was running towards Oz maybe? So he could be… oh.”
As he turned around and around, the trees began to blur, and every single way seemed to look the same.
Gil looked back at the fairy. “I don’t suppose you happen to have a map power?”
Alice
Alice woke up slowly, curled up in a ball in a shallow pit. “Is this what death feels like?” She wondered. Alice laid there for a few more seconds before jerking up violently.
“No, I’m not dead,” she huffed, annoyed. “Why did I even think that?”
Her head felt blurry, and all her thoughts were flying around in scraps, none of them making the slightest bit of sense.
“Damn it,” she muttered, standing up and stamping her feet. “Damn it! This isn’t fair! This isn’t fair at all!”
Tears welled up in Alice’s eyes, although she didn’t understand why. “Damn it! This is stupid. First I can’t think properly, and now I’m crying for no reason! Next thing you know all my powers will be gone, and what sort of fairy would I be if I didn’t have powers?”
As Alice stood there, sniffling, what she just said pieced itself together in her mind. “I’m a fairy,” she repeated.
A smirk started to grow on her face. “That’s right! I’m a fairy! The rabbit fairy, no less! And there’s no way my powers are gone. I can feel them! Come to me, my rabbit minions!” Alice raised her arms above her head, ready to greet the hordes of rabbits that she knew would be stampeding out of the vegetation.
The bushes rustled, and a tiny rabbit poked its head out of the greenery, squeaked, and promptly ran off in a different direction.
Alice’s smile faded, and she scowled, crossing her arms. “Well, my brain is still fuzzy, so it makes sense that I can’t do big things like that right now,” she grumbled.
A faint image of someone flashed through Alice’s mind, and she perked up. The memory was brief, but as soon as it had entered her brain, her thoughts swirled and combined into a singular, desperate need to find that person.
“Maybe that’s the person that can help me use all of my powers again!” Alice exclaimed. “But… what does that person look like again?”
She looked around the ditch, then shrugged. “I’m sure I can find them.” Alice stretched, walking off into the distance. “How many people could be in this forest anyways?”