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Nene flips the page in her book, studying the way the sunlight falls through the trees onto the pages in dappled patterns. It's an interesting book, but…
She plunks her head onto Rui's shoulder. "I'm bored," she groans.
Her childhood friend hums nonchalantly. "What are you reading?"
"It's a book on mechanical stage systems," she mumbles, "but I'm still bored. Isn't there anything to do around here?"
Rui puts a hand to his forehead. "Oh, the fair lady Nene, bereft of her game consoles, finds aught to do at the poor alchemist's hovel—"
Nene elbows him in the stomach, her face turning red. "Oh, stop that. Your place is really nice." Although she's not sure about the whole alchemy thing. The last time she went in Rui's workshop, her favorite sweater stunk for a week.
"Hmm. If you say so," Rui teases. He snaps his own notebook shut. "I've got a friend to visit this afternoon. You should be fine here, but…" He studies her thoughtfully. "Be careful not to trip over anything. You might fall harder than you thought you would."
Nene scrunches up her face. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Rui drops a light kiss on her forehead. "Just don't get into too much trouble." He waves as he walks back towards the house and workshop, humming to himself.
Nene sighs and slumps further down against the tree trunk. There's probably all sorts of dirt in her hair, but… whatever.
Hm. A spring loaded trapdoor that's activated by pressure? Nene reads on.
Gradually, Nene becomes aware of a horrid crick in her neck. She blinks her eyes open, vision fuzzy…
Ah. She fell asleep, didn't she?
She raises her head from where it was resting awkwardly on her shoulder, stands up, and stretches. She groans as she notices the book she was reading splayed out on the grass upside down, the pages crumpled beneath its own weight. She crouches down to retrieve it, checking over the cover and flipping through the pages to find where she was reading.
She looks up and sees a rabbit.
It's sitting up on its hind legs, looking at her, cute bunny nose twitching. That's not too weird—sometimes rabbits sit up to see their surroundings better.
The weird part is how its fur looks silky smooth and golden, with reddish tips on the ears and paws. It looks like some sort of lop, with its soft ears hanging down on either side of its head, but no other rabbit she's ever seen looks that color. And its eyes are golden around the edges where the irises show up, too.
Nene is reaching out to pet it before she realizes what she's doing. She freezes, but not before the bunny hops away from her a few feet.
"I'm not going to hurt you," she says, making her voice as calm and soothing as possible. She continues holding out her hand, loose and nonthreatening, while she picks up her book with the other arm.
The bunny looks at her and hops sideways towards the hedge.
Nene is seized with disappointment. Animals usually like her! She's better with animals than with people, so why—why doesn't this one trust her? "It's okay," she says softly. She moves towards it on her knees, shuffling through the grass.
The bunny stretches out, sniffs her hand, and hops away. Just as Nene is celebrating her small victory, the bunny hops again—and disappears into the ground.
Nene scrambles after it, dropping her book again, until suddenly her arm slips down into a hole in the dirt and she's falling, falling, falling.
She squeezes her eyes shut. Wind whistles past her as she falls, and dust stings her arms. She doesn't scream—she doesn't want to get dirt in her mouth—but she feels her heart leap into her throat.
Then she does yell in shock and pain as she bounces off something and then the hard packed dirt, landing hard on her back. Oof. She sits up, blinking until the world stops spinning.
Great. She's in a hole.
Specifically, a hole in the ground—dirt and all, and only a little bit of light filtering down from the air above, surrounding her and illuminating every sharp rock sticking out of the dirt and roots.
Wait a minute. It's super bright down here.
Nene turns around so fast she hears her neck crack. Sure enough, behind her is another source of light: a tunnel, lit by glowing blue moss. The azure light makes the bunny look more green and purple than yellow and red, as it looks at her curiously.
"Of course you're fine," Nene mutters disparagingly. "You're a rabbit. You probably live down here." She scrambles to her feet, and looks up to see the rabbit bounding away. "Wait!" she shouts. "Don't go!"
The rabbit stops and looks back at her, tilting its head to one side as if to say, What are you waiting for?
Nene stumbles after it, bumping her head and shoulders on the roof of the tunnel. The moss falls off and dies after she touches it, so she tries to stay away from the walls, but that gets difficult fast as the tunnel gets smaller. The rabbit hops onward, unbothered, and Nene swears she sees it get smaller as it gets farther away from her; but that's just the distance, right?
Soon she's covered in dirt and dead moss and crawling on her belly through the tunnel. She scrapes her elbow on a rock and curses more in annoyance than in pain as the rabbit gets farther away.
She hits her head on the tunnel ceiling, and it gets a little bit darker. "Wait," she croaks, throat dry and dusty. She never should've followed that rabbit, but now that she's down here, she's not going back. She only wishes she could get a sample of the moss…
Nene inches forward, and her shoulders hit hard dirt. She scrabbles away at it, and manages to eke out another foot of distance.
The rabbit, ahead, turns around. It must be getting smaller. Right? It's not that far ahead, unless Nene is getting delirious from dehydration (she can't remember the last time she drank anything that morning), and she can see a miniscule doorway framed by shapely roots and lovely little flowers.
"I can't go any farther," Nene calls to the rabbit.
It hops back to her, the journey seeming to take ages as the tiny hops cover a few inches at a time. When it's close enough to Nene to nuzzle her hand encouragingly, she can see that the bunny is the size of her thumb. She holds a breath and moves to pet it, and the animal races off and disappears through the doorway.
"Wait," Nene says, too quietly and too late. She slumps down, resting her chin on her forearms. "Look where curiosity got you," she tells herself, in a scolding tone. "Stuck down a hole." As if that wasn't bad enough, she's scraped off all the glowing moss, so the only light comes through the doorway at the end of the tunnel. "Weird rabbit," she continues. "I swear it got smaller…" Her throat is dry. She licks her lips and realizes just how thirsty she is. Her eyes are dry and dusty, too. She blinks a few times to get the dust out.
There's a bottle in front of her.
Nene stares at it. The vessel is short and fat, round and shiny. There's a miniature ship inside it, but it's not like the usual ships in bottles where it's an old sailing vessel suspended in dust: this boat is a fancy new-looking yacht, and it's gently sloshing around in a blue liquid.
The weirdest part is that Nene is sure it wasn't there two seconds ago. There was just dirt ahead of her, and a few rocks, and then she blinked—and lo and behold, a bottle.
She gets her arms out from under her, lying flat on her chest on the dirt. She pokes the bottle—yep, real glass, cold to the touch and everything. She picks it up and turns it to inspect it, sloshing around the ship inside, and notices a tag attached to the cork.
DRINK ME, it reads.
Nene thinks about it for about a second. She's underground, stuck in a tunnel. She tries to scoot backwards; no luck.
"I'll try anything once," she mutters, and yanks at the cork. It's hard to get any leverage in the small tunnel, but she wiggles it until it pops and takes a long sip. She grimaces; it tastes like saltwater. But as she swallows, the taste changes in her mouth, becoming more like saltwater taffy, and chewy like it too. Nene swallows the rest of the mouthful with some difficulty, hiccups, and finds that her shoulders aren't hitting the sides of the tunnel anymore.
In fact, the tunnel is growing bigger around her; or is she growing smaller? She feels dizzy, and decides it must be the latter. By the time her head settles down, the tunnel ceiling is well above her head, and the doorway looks just big enough for her to fit through. She gets to her feet and races towards it, then pauses, one hand on the roots of the doorway.
She looks back. The bottle is about the same height as her now, and she can see more details on the yacht, including lifeboats on the lower deck and a captain's wheel on the top… and what looks like tiny people running around on deck.
Nene bites her lip. The rabbit is getting farther away, but…
She jogs back to the bottle and presses her face to it. A few of the people—too small to make out any features—group together and point up at her. At least, she thinks they're pointing. They could be gesturing for her to go away.
"Hold onto something," she warns, and moves to the neck of the bottle. Some of the liquid inside has trickled out, but she picks up the cork—as big around as her, now—and shoves it back into the bottle's mouth. Then she wraps her arms around the neck and drags it along the tunnel with her. The journey to the doorway feels like it takes an hour this time, but she gets it through—
And promptly falls down a set of stairs. She has got to stop falling down places, she tells herself.
Nene stands up and looks around. The bottle has slid down the stairs next to her, only looking slightly worse for wear. The stairs she'd fallen down are black and white marble, like the floor of the room she finds herself in. It's massive, compared to her, but it's probably not all that big normally. The round walls are made of brick, and theres a chair and a small table on the opposite side, right next to a much taller door. Behind the chair, a series of bricks are set slightly out from the wall, like a curved staircase.
Nene tries pushing on the tall door first. it's doesn't budge at all.
She eyes the stairs. She could probably make it up each one with a little climbing, but they're awfully close to the wall. It would be precarious.
Then again, she's done more dangerous things with Rui. What else can she do? There's no way she could climb back up the hole she fell down, if she could even make.it back there in the dark.
"Here goes nothing," Nene mutters, and runs for the steps. She leaps up the first few easily, and starts to breathe heavier by the time she's halfway up to the tabletop. The bricks are about half her height, and she scrapes up her palms trying to climb a few of them, but she makes it to the top, leaping with her shaky legs to the table.
She falls to her knees and pauses, breathing hard. The table is a cool black paint, peeling slightly to show the wood underneath.
Nene lifts her eyes to see a plate. It's the right size for her now, which is strange, but no stranger than shrinking to this size in the first place. She walks over and circles the plate. It's plain white ceramic, but what really catches her eye is the plastic-wrapped cookie with a tag tied around the center.
EAT ME, the tag reads.
"I don't want to be ant-sized," Nene sighs. She flips the tag over. "Maybe it has instructions…?"
Sure enough, as she looks at the paper tag, words start to write themselves before her eyes in a spidery cursive. "Sugar cookie," Nene reads aloud. "Use: a tasty treat for all your hasty needs. Side effects…" Nene squints as the letters get even smaller. "May cause sudden growth spurts." She pumps her fist in the air. "Perfect!" she exclaims, tearing away the wrapper and biting into the cookie. Her fingers start to feel tingly first, and the room shrinks around her. She hops off the edge of the table and lands gently on her feet, back to her regular height. (At least, she's pretty sure it's her normal height; she doesn't have a ruler to check.)
"I'll take you with me," she decides, slipping the bottle with the ship into one of the pockets of her dress. She pushes the large door open and steps out into the sunlight.
The scene before her takes her breath away. It's like a vast storybook forest sprawling before her, but instead of being painted in browns and greens, the trees and grass are vivid shades of red, like if you asked someone who's never seen autumn to draw a red tree.
Nene steps closer to a young tree on the edge of the path, leaning in to look at a leaf. It's bright red, but the red seems to be peeling off like paint to reveal a striking cobalt beneath. Nene puts her hand under it to look more intently.
"NO TOUCHING," someone shouts in her ear, as loud as a speaker on full blast.
Nene flinches away and turns to see—a giant red megaphone, wide enough to hide whoever's using the thing. Yeah, that'll do it.
The megaphone moves aside to reveal a girl about Nene's height with the worst dye job she's ever seen. It looks like she dipped her hair in hot pink paint, although Nene can see the blue underneath clearly. The second thing she notices is the wings: massive blue butterfly wings, sort of like a blue morpho but the wrong shade. The girl leans close to Nene's face, staring at her with solid yellow bug-like eyes. "You're not from around here, are you?"
Nene shakes her head. "I'm—"
"Sorry? Yes, yes you are," the butterfly girl says, nodding solemnly. "Well, I'll let you off for the first offense, but if you touched the trees again I'd have to take you to the queen, and she doesn't like people touching her trees."
"Oh," Nene says, a little overwhelmed by the force of the girl's personality. "Are there, um… any other rules I should know?"
The girl shudders. "Rules?" she whispers. "Why would you say such a horrid thing? We don't have rules here, no no no."
"But you said—"
"The queen doesn't like anyone touching her trees," the girl says, nodding sagely. "That's not a rule, see. Although if you touched the trees again I'd have to take you before the queen, and… well, no matter, because you won't do it again. RIGHT?" The last word is shouted through her megaphone.
Nene steps back. "Right. Is there anything else… the queen doesn't like people doing?"
"Oh, for sure. No touching, roughhousing, defecating, watering, or shouting at the plants in the forest. If something's on the path, though—" She points out the edge of the brick pathway they're standing on. "—that's fair game, because it's not part of the forest." She whips out the megaphone and takes a deep breath.
"I get it! I get it," Nene hurries to say, waving her hands. "There's no need for the megaphone."
The butterfly looks crestfallen, her wings drooping. "Really? But I like the megaphone."
"It's, uh, great," Nene reassures her.
"THANK YOU," the girl shouts into the megaphone, grinning widely and perking up.
Nene winces. "Listen, I'm looking for, uh… someone. Have you seen a—"
"Oh, I make a point of not seeing anyone," the girl says blithely. "Just like I didn't see you."
"...Right."
"But… I do know some guys who see lots of people. Like, probably all the people. They might know where your friend is."
Nene straightens up. "Could you give me directions?"
"Nope!" the butterfly girl says cheerfully.
"Oh." Nene slouches.
"You'll find them," the girl says confidently. "Or they'll find you. Tell the boys An sent you!" She gives Nene a light shove down the path.
"O—okay," Nene responds, turning to wave goodbye hesitantly. She blinks once, twice. The door and the tower she came out of is nowhere to be seen.
An waves goodbye. "Go, go!" she shouts. "DON'T STAY OUT IN THE FOREST AFTER DARK," she adds through the megaphone.
With that warning, Nene continues down the path. The forest gets thicker around her, and as it does, there are more blue leaves than red. The sunlight filtering through the leaves is still bright, so she figures it's not getting dark yet, although she was sure it was late afternoon when she had first seen the rabbit.
Then again, she has no idea where she is. Surely this whole forest wouldn't fit underneath Rui's house; it would make a sinkhole sooner or later. And there's sunlight. But it isn't anywhere near his house aboveground, either, because Nene has explored everything around for miles and she's never been here before.
Besides, trees aren't blue. Nene inspects the bark of the closest one, and it's purple.
She pinches herself. "Ow," she says, and looks around. Still blue trees as far as she can see.
Nene sits down on a bench on the side of the path. "This place is weird," she sighs. And she's totally lost the bunny she was following, too. She rests her chin on her hands and closes her eyes. The wind through the leaves is such a peaceful sound…
"I don't know, Toya," an uneasy voice says quietly. "We've never seen her before. And anyway, she's busy sleeping."
"She might know something about Tsukasa," a second voice says.
A sigh. "But she's not from around here."
"Exactly." There's a moment of silence. "I'm waking her up. Hey, girl."
Nene stirs, her eyes fluttering. She yawns.
"You can't just say that," the first voice hisses. "That's rude." He clears his throat. "Excuse me, miss, we'd be glad if you could wake up and—why are you staring at me like that?"
Nene opens her eyes to see a fat orange cat draped across a branch a few feet away.
"It's strange to hear you talk like that," the second voice says. Nene turns her head to see… some sort of blue catlike creature, hanging by his tail from the same branch. "Oh, hello. You're awake," he says.
The orange cat grins wide, showing all his teeth. "Great," he says sarcastically. "You woke her up from her nice nap."
The blue one unfurls dark, furry wings and lets go of the tree, drifting down to the ground. He pads over to Nene and sits politely with his tail over his paws. "Have you seen Tsukasa Tenma anywhere?"
Nene stares at him blankly.
The orange cat sighs and drops to the ground. "Toya, she has no idea who Tsukasa is. And where's your manners?" He looks up at Nene. "This is Toya, and I'm Akito. We're looking for our—his friend. Your size but a bit taller, seen him anywhere?" He flicks his tail around as he talks.
"He's got blond hair," Toya adds.
"With red tips."
Nene continues staring at them. "What are you?" she says finally.
Akito's tail swishes back and forth, and she could almost swear he looks annoyed. "Cats, of course."
"But cats don't talk," Nene protests.
"And people do?" Akito mutters.
Toya fluffs out his wings. "Well, I don't know where you're from, but in Wonderland, of course we talk."
"Cats don't have wings, either," Nene says, knowing it's a moot point when a cat with wings is, in fact, right before her eyes.
"Cats don't have wings," Akito repeats mockingly. "They usually do, actually. I'm just the odd one out here. But hey, I get to laze around all day and watch people pass, so who cares."
"You—do you see a lot of people?" Nene asks, heart in her throat. She leans forward in anticipation. "I'm looking for someone too—well, a bunny rabbit, actually. I think An said I should find you two."
Akito relaxes visibly. "Shiraishi, huh? How's she doing?"
"Loud," Nene answers immediately, then lets out an embarrassed giggle. "I mean—she's doing good, I think. She certainly likes that megaphone."
"Does she ever," Akito says sympathetically.
"A rabbit, you said?" Toya asks.
Nene nods. "A cute little lop-eared rabbit, with yellow fur and pink ears. Well, last I saw it, it was about an inch long, but it's probably bigger now."
"Most likely," Toya agrees. "Well, I haven't seen any bunny rabbits around here."
Nene sighs. "Alright. Will you keep an eye out?"
"If you look for Tsukasa, then certainly." Toya flutters up to sit in a fork in the tree. "Good luck," he tells her. Akito nods.
Nene stands up. "I guess I'll keep going, then."
"Don't get lost."
"Or do," Akito suggests. "Getting lost is always interesting."
Nene sets out down the path, then turns back. "One more thing. What did you mean, in Wonderland, cats talk?"
Akito huffs. "We talk. Deal with it."
"No, I mean… the Wonderland part."
"That's this place," Toya says calmly. "Wonderland. Have a good day."
Well… alright. Nene waves once more and sets off walking again.
In a few minutes, the trees change from blue to purple. There's less paint here, but more undergrowth, catching on Nene's leggings as the path narrows. Soon after that, she has to push branches out of the way so they don't hit her in the face, and she hopes no one is around to get her in trouble for touching the plants.
It's also quieter here. A few times, Nene thinks she hears quiet voices echo through the trees, but she leans closer and all she can hear is her own movement through the bushes.
She hears a laugh. Loud and clear, she's certain this isn't a trick of the forest. She starts walking towards it, stumbling through the undergrowth. It isn't until she comes to a high fence that she looks back, and realizes she left the path.
"Uh oh," Nene whispers. She's debating whether to go back, when she hears a voice: Rui.
"Rui?" she calls out. She doesn't hear it again, but she's sure that was him; only, what would her friend be doing here?
His voice had come from inside the open gate of the fence. Nene looks back at the forest again and rushes forward.
"Rui," she calls again, right into a hedgerow. She curses and edges sideways, in between the hedge and the fence. She hears laughter again, and a high pitched voice saying, "Goodbye!"
She stumbles out of the hedge into a clearing, with a long table in the center of it. Rui is nowhere in sight.
Nene falls to her knees on the ground. She wants to scream. First she lost the bunny, now she hears Rui and then loses him, too. "Wonderland sucks," she yells at the ground, punching the dirt.
"Aww, don't say that!" A girl tips Nene's chin up with her gloved fingers. Her eyes are peach colored but seem cold, and her light pink hair falls around her face in ringlets. "Wonderland is fun, silly girl," she chides Nene.
"Do you—" Nene starts.
The girl stands up and twirls. "Welcome to Wonderland! We're all mad here, but we have fun, don't we, Yuki?" She shakes the hand of a stuffed doll with purple hair sitting at the table. She turns back to Nene, her ruffly skirt swirling around her and her tophat nearly falling off her head. "Now, come sit down, silly girl. You look terrible. Aren't you thirsty?"
Nene suddenly realizes just how very thirsty she is. She looks down at her dress, cheeks burning, and notices that it looks more brown than green from all the dirt on it. "Um. May I?"
"Of course, of course!" The girl hops up to sit on the table and kicks a chair away from the table. It threatens to tip over, and Nene rushes to catch it. She sits down, and the girl is already pouring her a cup of some hot liquid. "Silly me," she giggles, "I almost forgot to introduce myself! I'm Mizuki, what's your name?" She slides off the table into the head chair. "Let me guess. Ariel? Alice?"
"No—no, it's, my name is Nene," she stammers.
Mizuki taps a finger on her chin slowly and theatrically. "Nene… Nene… where have I heard that before?" She shakes her head. "Probably just sounds like a birdcall."
Nene scrunches up her face in confusion. "Not any birds I've heard, but… this is Wonderland…"
"Exactly! Everything here is wonderrific! Ah, except for your outfit… hm. I have just the thing." Mizuki practically lifts Nene out of her seat and herds her towards a door, set in a free-standing wall that looks fresh out of a life-size dollhouse.
"Um… can I have something to drink, first?" Nene pleads.
Mizuki scoops a cup off the table and deposits it in Nene's hands. "Here you go, on the go, let's go!" She shoves Nene through the door into a sprawling room filled with racks of clothes.
Nene looks down at her dress. It's a plain green one, with short sleeves and a gathered waist and a few pockets, but she thinks it's nice. Then she looks at the clothes around her, all in lurid colors and dizzying fashions. "Is this really necessary…?"
Mizuki looks around, flipping through the dress racks. "Oh, of course, you wouldn't want to spoil the mood, would you?"
Nene decides not to answer, and instead sips the cup of tea. She looks at Mizuki's outfit: a multi-layered black dress with purple and pink and brown ribbons dangling all over it, and a deep purple velvet jacket on top that matches her maroon velvet tophat. She's not sure she trusts this girl's fashion sense.
Mizuki turns around holding an outfit in each hand and one in her teeth, by the hanger. She holds up a bright pink kimono with blue fabric inside the sleeves. "No, no," she mutters, voice distorted by the hanger in her mouth. She holds up the outfit in her other hand: a bright red ballgown with what looks like miles and miles of fabric cascading down the skirt. She shakes her head and drops both of them on the floor.
Nene gulps down the last of her tea.
"Here we go," Mizuki murmurs. She's taken the third outfit out of her mouth and holds it up to Nene. She snaps her fingers, and suddenly Nene's dress is on the hanger, and she's wearing the dress that was on the hanger.
Nene looks at herself in the mirror. The main body of the dress is a light blue woven fabric, with navy blue ribbons around the neck and sleeves. It feathers out into three layers of petticoats, cut jagged on the bottom edge around her knees. The pattern of them reminds Nene of a stormy sea. The top layer of the dress is a long purple vest, laced together loosely in the front with a lavender ribbon, and spreading wide over the skirts.
"Oh," Nene gasps, teacup falling from her hand. She hears the crash and pats down the skirt, relaxing when she finds pockets in the vest, along with the ship's bottle inside. "It's gorgeous," she says hesitantly. "Are you sure…?"
"My gift to you," Mizuki says, tipping her hat and bowing. "Oops," she giggles, and switches to a curtsy halfway through, wobbling precariously. "Take a few more, if you like."
"I couldn't," Nene protests. "Besides, I could never carry them all."
Mizuki holds up a finger. "One moment. I have just the thing." She pats down her jacket and skirt pockets, pulling out various things and tossing most of them onto the floor. She pulls out a long chain attached to a pocket watch and holds it up to the light. "Too fast," she announces. "You'd always think you were late to everything." She tosses it aside. "Is this your card?" she asks abruptly, holding up a queen of hearts. The queen on the card winks.
Nene is stunned. "Um… no?"
"Hmm. Shame. That's a good one. Keep it anyway, that's a love." She tucks the card into one of Nene's pockets and keeps looking. "AHA! Here it is," she cries triumphantly. She holds out an acorn, beaming.
Nene takes it in her open palm. "What… am I supposed to do with this?"
"Just open it up," Mizuki explains proudly. "The dresses will slip right inside. It fits three, I think. Been ages since anyone used it."
Nene inspects the acorn. Sure enough, there's a tiny golden hinge on one side for the cap to open. "Thank you," she murmurs, and starts to wander through the racks of clothes in a daze. There's so many gorgeous dresses, she could never try them all on if she was here for the rest of her life.
A flash of aqua fabric peeking out catches her eye. She pushes the other clothes aside to reveal a shimmering suit, with flared pants made to look like a skirt and a flowing tulle capelet on top of a simple linen shirt. It reminds her of a mermaid. She lifts it off the rack; it feels nice too. She flips open the acorn and holds the whole set close, and it feels like a miniature vacuum sucks the clothes into the acorn. Nene peers closely into the acorn, and she sees a flash of teal.
Mizuki nods approvingly. "That's a very nice one." She tilts her head towards the door. "I think I have visitors. I'll be right back."
Nene nods as she goes, hardly paying attention. She feels like she could drown in fabric here. The sunlight catches another piece, a teal and black diagonally striped t-shirt dress. Nene hums approvingly and slips that one into the acorn as well.
One more…
The door bangs open and Mizuki races through, barely stopping long enough to lock it behind her before she shoves Nene back into the maze of clothes. "Quick," she whispers, her voice shrill. "Hide! The queen's soldiers are here!"
"Wha—what?!" Nene flings her arms out to stabilize herself. "Why are they here? Why do I have to hide?"
Mizuki spins her around and grips her by the arms, staring into her eyes. Nene swallows hard—Mizuki's gaze is unwavering and completely terrified. "Listen to me," she says, and her voice shakes. "I know I'm not the most… put together, these days. You want to know what happened to make me this way? The queen's soldiers took me, and they put me in her maze. They did this to me: watch." She hits her palm against the side of her head, and her left eye falls out, a shiny glass ball rolling around her palm.
Nene lets out a strangled involuntary gasp. Mizuki's eye socket is smooth porcelain, no blood or nerves to be seen.
Mizuki pops her eye back in her face. Her gaze is as firm as it was before. "They know you're not from Wonderland. They'll take you, too. Wait until I'm distracting them, and go out the back door." She shoves Nene further into the rows of clothes. "Go!"
Nene sits there for a moment, trembling in fear. She is filled with conviction that she's gotten herself into more than she expected down here.
She takes a few deep breaths, and scrambles on her hands and knees back through piles of fabric on the floor. She burrows into a pile of dresses and waits there in the dark. She hears loud talking: probably Mizuki.
She doesn't even know where the door is, she realizes. She pokes her head out, and sees it.
Not the back door. But a dress.
It's a silk ballgown, silver and dusty teal. It's sleek and lovely, with a gathered section of teal fabric falling over the pleated silver skirt. The bodice is teal as well, dotted with what looks like emeralds in the pattern of constellations.
Practically holding her breath, Nene slips this dress into the acorn. She sees the back door a few feet away just as the front door crashes open, and sprints for it, shouldering it open.
Although the sun was still shining in Mizuki's clearing, Nene bursts out the door into a forest where night has fallen. Stars clamor for room in the sky overhead and reflect in every dewdrop, making it look like a thousand eyes are watching her.
Don't stay out in the forest after dark, she remembers An saying. Too late, Nene thinks.
She runs.
She doesn't care where she's going: she just runs. Away from the soldiers, away from Mizuki and her tea and dresses—Nene feels a pang of guilt at leaving her behind, but there had been no choice. She runs, ignoring the branches slapping her arms and face. She runs until she can't run any farther. Then she runs some more.
Nene finally stops when she reaches a starlight pond, falling to her knees and heaving rough breaths. She starts to cry and can't stop.
By the time she starts to calm down, the stars above her have rotated, and she's even more out of breath. She lies down on her back on the grass at the edge of the pond, exhausted.
She pulls the bottle out of her pocket. All the lights in the boat are off. "Sorry about all that mess," she mumbles, holding the boat close to her.
She drifts off to sleep with the stars watching her.
In the night of the forest, a golden-haired rabbit with red-tipped ears and paws hops into a clearing. He smells the clear water for a moment, nose twitching, and hops over to the sleeping girl. Her face is streaked with dirt, tears, and quite a few scratches. The bunny licks her cheek, in an attempt to be comforting that goes unnoticed, since she's asleep. Then the bunny curls up next to her shoulder, and falls asleep as well.