Let's just say the Queen of Hearts was not happy to have us literally drop into her reception. I landed first and rolled. Edmond sailed over the top of me, and Lord Snow made an odd huffing sound as he hit the ground -- but he was on his feet faster than me.
People, and other things, were gathered around in groups. We had not landed on any of them, I was glad to say. Most stared in shock, but a few showed outrage.
The Queen of Hearts was over the edge from outrage. She stood, a tubby little woman who didn't look at all frightening to me.
"How dare -- How dare!!!!!!!" the woman screamed. "If she kept true to form, I knew what was coming next and seeing the number of soldiers she had, I didn't think it wise to stick around.
There was no clear map to Wonderland. I wondered how hard it would be to find her rabbit hole and get out. Elsewhere was difficult enough, but I didn't need a whole new 'land' to go explore, and especially one from someone's imagination.
The Queen's soldiers were already heading straight for me -- though they gave Lord Snow a little distance. That was, I thought, my best hope. I moved closer to Lord Snow. I did not look around for Edmond, hoping he would stay out of sight until we needed him.
I had no doubt we'd be desperate enough to call him in soon.
"Capture them! Off with their heads!"
"Well, that's not very polite," Lord Snow said as he came to stand by my side.
Everyone in the area froze. It was surreal and scary in a whole new way. Lord Snow gave me a quizzical look, too.
"I think you're out of character -- except that you were never a character in this story. But then, neither was I."
A couple of the guards moved. Lord Snow looked at them. "Don't come any closer. I don't know where I am, and I don't much like your attitudes. I think it best if my friend and I just walk on, don't you?"
"This is my place. You dared to intrude." The Queen stood from her throne -- but there was something odd about her, even for this place. She seemed to waver, and for a moment he thought she faded a bit.
"Let's go," I said. I started to walk away, a steady pace, out of the courtyard and into ... a void. That was not much better, and for a moment, I panicked. "Edmond!"
"Oh good, there you are," he said and swooped down, missed my shoulder (thank you), and ended up rolling across the ground. Or at least where I imagined the ground to be. "I really need to learn how to land."
"I don't understand what is going on," Lord Snow said. "That was not elsewhere. It had magic, but it was not our magic -- and it was real and not real --"
"It's the story from a book in the human world," I said. I grabbed Edmond up before he wandered off into the fog of this void. "It's about a girl who falls down a rabbit hole --"
And we were falling again.
"Damn!"
We dropped into the reception once more.
"You again!"
"Sorry, sorry," I said and held tight to Edmond. "We'll just go now."
The Queen looked irate. I feared what would happen if we dropped in a third time, but right now, we rushed out into the fog and left that madness behind.
"It's keyed to something in my thoughts," I said. "So, let's try this. I'm thinking about home."
It didn't work, of course. That would be too easy. And I feared where my mind might take us. Alice in Wonderland was a relatively safe story --
"I'm late! I'm late!"
He was a rather giant white rabbit, his ears reaching my shoulders. He stopped and frowned, looking at the gray fog around us.
"This is not where I should be."
"Probably not," I agreed. "But, I need some advice."
"You need the Hatter then," he said with a bob of his head. "Not the rabbit."
"The Hatter is mad."
"Most people are, you know. Mad in one way or another. He's human -- mostly. After a while, it's hard to remember. Go talk to him. Now I must go."
"I just want to know the way out."
"Oh, that's easy enough. Close the book." He stepped closer and reached up to jab me in the head. "Use your brain, boy."
Then he hopped away.
Close the book?
"What do you think is going on, Edmond? Lord Snow?"
"We are in a patch of unformed Elsewhere," Lord Snow said. "It's an undefined, and lucky for us, it takes more than one fae to make a new pocket of existence."
"So, how do we get out?" Edmond asked.
"I tried to think about the castle, but I couldn't get it to take."
"It couldn't. It already exists."
"Then we can only go places that aren't real? We can't get out?" Edmond asked and sounded more than a little upset now."
"Others have wandered in. Some have stayed long enough to make their own reality -- but that's not something any of us would like to endure. No. I need to think. You, Mark, need to come up with somewhere imaginary but safe."
I had read a lot of books and some of them ... no, not where I wanted to go for many of them, and I feared even thinking --
But there was one. Beautiful gardens, golden towers --
We were moving again. Edmond made a sound of complaint, but I could already tell that we were going somewhere else, and I only hoped that I had it right -- and that we would not run into trouble.
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