WonderLand

The next few minutes passed in a whirl of panic, half-hearted reassurances, angry accusations, and a few belated tears. Eventually, of course, the Cheshire Cat managed to get things calmed back down. We were sitting cross-legged across from each other on the dirty floor, and I had settled into a miserable heap, wrapped up in the Cat's jacket while he tried, once again, to explain to me exactly what I had done.

"You're not from here, Alice- no, don't try to deny it, I can tell just be looking at you. You're from the Other Place. Every few hundred years, someone from the Other Place will stumble into WonderLand accidentally. Their presence always causes a stir- it upsets the balance here. WonderLand revolts, tries to... expel the 'bad blood', if you will."

"Gee, thanks. By the way, my name is Alex." I sniffed, glowering at nothing in particular.

"Most of the time, the Outsider manages to find their way back home sooner or later, and things return to normal here- until the next one shows up. However, there are ways for someone from the Other Place to... assimilate to WonderLand." The Cat went on, ignoring me. Absently he picked up one of the cookies from the tin that sat between us and stared at it for a while contemplatedly, before popping it into his mouth. "Food, mostly." He said while chewing.

"Food?" I repeated, dully. "Like eating food?"

"Unless you have some other purpose for food, yes. Eating it." He nodded. "Once someone from the Other Place eats WonderLand food, they become anchored here. Of course, more often than not their frail little imaginations can't stand the strain and snap, and they eventually are consumed by madness becoming nothing more than gibbering husks of their former selves; but WonderLand stops rejecting them." The Cat explained.

"How wonderful." I grimaced. "So that means this place won't try to kick me out anymore?" I asked. The Cat looked uncomfortable.

"Ye-es..." He said slowly, drawing out the word. "But-" He broke off. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"But what?" I pressed. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked up at the ceiling.
"Well, you also can't go back."

"What?!"

"Like I said, you're anchored here. Now that you've eaten WonderLand food, you're part of WonderLand. And She doesn't give up her prizes easily." The Cat shrugged. I fumbled for words, trying to take in what he had just told me.

"But... but I thought people from the Other Place- I mean my place, my world- were always accidently winding up here! Why can't I go back?" I argued. The Cat sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It isn't that simple." He said. "People from the Other Place aren't always winding up here- Like I said, hundreds of years can pass without someone showing up. As far as I know, people from the Other Place don't even live that long. And besides, it's a one way mirror. They can come here, but no one from WonderLand has ever been able to cross over. That's just how it is." He fell into silence, gazing over my shoulder at nothing in particular.

For my part, I was stricken with the horror of the implications of what I had just done.
"This can't be happening. This is a dream. Of course, this is all just a stupid dream." I told myself. "None of this is even possible. This is all just one seriously messed up dream. Oh Lord, I'm really stuck here? Because I drank that stuff? Why didn't you warn me?" I dropped my face into my hands despairingly.

"Well, I didn't exactly think you'd go around eating whatever random food you found laying around, now did I?" The Cat countered, heatedly. I flushed- when he put it like that, it did sound pretty stupid.

"But the Pig-Baby said it was okay!" I pointed at the creature who sat beside us, crunching on some of the cursed cookies noisily. I looked up at me with it's beady eyes.

"I'm just a pig. What do I know?" It shrugged, and went back to eating the cookies.

"Please, Alice, next time don't take advice from farm animals without consulting me first." The Cat chastised me. I didn't reply- I felt too ridiculous. Instead, I tried to change the subject.

"Why didn't you burst in here sooner to stop me?" I grunted, pulling the Cat's coat tighter around myself. Dream or no dream, I didn't like the idea of being stuck here indefinitely.

"Well, it's not like I knew you were getting into trouble." The Cat said defensively. "I just had a hunch something was about to happen. You were already chugging the stuff by the time I got here." He kicked out at the little empty bottle, which clattered and rolled away into the shadows of the room.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked, sullenly.

"Exactly what we were planning on doing before you started taking advice from pig-babies." The Cat said decisively. I shot him a glare. "We'll rest for the night, and head out for the Hatter & Hare's tomorrow morning."

"Will they be able to help me?" I asked hopefully.

"Probably not," The Cat replied.

"Oh."

"But you might be able to help them, and they can at least make it worth your while," He went on, raising a thin eyebrow.

"Oh, you mean about that rebellion thing you refuse to tell me about." I sulked.

"Exactly." The Cat patted me on the head, and rose to his feet. "Now come on. You need to get some sleep." He held out his hand to me, and after a moment's hesitation, I took it. He hauled me to my feet and propelled me across the room, to where he had laid out the old blanket on the floor. "It's not great, but it's better than nothing." He said. I looked at it with distaste, but in all honesty he was right. With a sigh, I sat down on the blanket, and glanced up at the Cat.

"Are you going back outside?" I asked.

"And leave you alone so you can do something else stupid? Not a chance." He shot back. I said something particularly nasty to him, but he ignored me and instead pulled one of the rickety looking chairs over to my makeshift bed. "I'm staying right here, where I can keep and eye on you." He said, leaning back in the chair. I rolled my eyes, but decided against arguing.

In all honesty, I was a little bit glad he was there. In spite of my better judgment, I felt safer- even though I was more or less being kidnapped. Like he said, it was better than nothing.
So I laid down and rolled over, so my back was facing him, still enveloped in the Cat's coat. I noticed that it smelt good- like the forest, and a sort of musky smell; and for some reason cinnamon.

"Good night, Cheshire Cat," I said without turning over.

"Good night, Alice," He replied quietly.

I told myself I would little sad that when I woke up in the morning he would be gone, and I would be back in my bed in the trailer at the Circus. You don't meet strange men in purple suits and pig-babies and White Rabbits everyday, even in a circus. So I told myself I would sort of miss this silly dream.

♥ ♥ ♥

When I awoke the next morning, blinking in the early morning light that was splayed across my face, the first thing I saw was a wet, twitching snout.

"So you're awake then?" The Pig Baby asked roughly. I groaned and rolled over, pulling the Cat's coat over my head.

"Are you still here?" I asked in a muffled voice, desperately wishing I was wrong.

"Well of course I am. There are all sorts of nasties out in the forest. It'd be my bacon if I went out there at night." It replied gruffly. Funny how I hadn't noticed how disconcertingly deep its voice was before. "Now hurry up. The Cat said he wanted to start out as soon as possible. He's waiting outside."

I sat up, pulling his coat off of me and stood up, achingly.

"When did he leave?" I asked, stretching out the kinks from the hard floor.

"Ten minutes ago. He didn't leave you alone at night, if that's what you meant." The Pig Baby snorted. I shot it a look.

"That's not what I meant at all." I lied. I considered folding the blanket and putting it back in the cupboard, but decided against it. I didn't much fancy the thought of digging around those dark cavities. Leaving the crumpled blanket where it laid, I gathered the Cat's coat in my arms and made my way out of the little house, and into the clearing outside.

I blinked in the bright morning sunlight, and looked around for the Cat. He was no where to be seen, and for a split second, I thought he had deserted me. But then suddenly there was a flash of purple and something large fell form the sky and hit the ground in front of me, making me start backwards in surprise. The Cat rose to his feet, brushing twigs and leaves from his suit with characteristic nonchalance.

"Ready to go?" He asked, politely.

"Where did you come from?" I got right to the chase, peering up at the sky. The only tree branches that stretched above us were too high up for any normal person to survive a jump from unharmed.

"I was making sure the way to Messrs. Hatter & Hare was clear." He said, answering my question without actually answering it at all.

"Well, here's your coat back." I handed it to him, deciding not to bother to try to get a straight answer out of him.

"Thank you," He replied shortly, taking it and pulling it over his shoulders. There was a brief but awkward silence.

"Erm, did you sleep well?" He asked.

"No," I replied honestly.

"Ah." He fiddled with one of his jacket cuffs. "Well, there should be an actual bed waiting for you at Hatter & Hare's place, so you wont have to sleep on the ground again as long as we make good time."

I shrugged, and clasped my hands behind my back.

"Oh, I don't particularly mind sleeping on the floor. Back home I'm stuck on a lump futon. But, well, that's sort of where I expected to be when I woke up this morning," I explained.
"On a lumpy futon?" The Cat cocked his head to one side.

"Home," I clarified. I looked out towards the line of green, mossy trees that lined the edge of the forest. It looked far less threatening in bright daylight, I noticed vaguely. "But then, I've had dreams where I thought I woke up, but was still asleep after all." I said. The Cat cast me a curious look.

"I don't suppose you would believe me if I told you this wasn't a dream?" He asked.

"Probably not." I replied. "That's just the sort of thing people in dreams say, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is." The Cat looked as if he wanted to say something more, but he held his tongue.

"Well, the Pig Baby said you wanted to get going as soon as possible." I said, changing the subject and steeling myself for another day of trekking through the forest undergrowth. "We'd better get going then, if these Hatter and Hare people are waiting."

"Yes, we'd better." The Cat nodded, and held out his arm for me to take.

"I think I can manage," I said shortly, without taking it. He shrugged and dropped his arm.
"I was only being polite." He replied, a tad defensively. I ignored him, and looked around the clearing.

"Hey, where did the Pig Baby go, anyways?" I asked, remembering what the Cat, the Dodo, and the Pig Baby itself had said about WonderLand being a dangerous place. I didn't like the thought of the Pig Baby, as unpleasant as it may be, getting eaten out there.

"Who knows," The Cat answered. "It keeps strange company."

"Will it be all right?" I pressed. The Cat rolled his eyes skyward.

"Of course. Don't worry about it- one of the advantages of being a Pig Baby is that you're half pig." He explained. My brow furrowed into a frown.

"How come nothing you say ever makes any sense?" I huffed.

"We can't stand here gabbing away about pigs and babies, or any combination of the two, all day," The Cat said, waving my words away. "Let's go."

With a sigh, I straightened my dirt stained and wrinkled dress, put my hair back up out of my face with my ribbon, and nodded at the Cat.
"All right then, let's go meet Messrs. Hatter & Hare. I dare say they must be eager to finally meet me."

The Cat flashed me a sharp, sudden grin.
"You have no idea, Love." He leered.