Cornflower yawned and woke up, stretching the sleepiness away from her body. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the…

Sky?

Trying to work out how she'd managed to fall asleep inside and wake up outside, she sat up and felt the ground around her.

Definitely outside.

She raised a paw to scratch her head as she tried to break through the fog surrounding her memories and realised that her movements were a lot… smoother than she remembered. Her bones ached less – not at all now that she pushed herself to her feet and straightened her…

Fur?

She was completely naked, head to toe to tail-tip. Feeling fairly self-conscious, she checked no one was nearby.

All clear. Just her and the sky and the grass and the trees.

Trees.

She realised with a gasp that brought her paws to her mouth and a tear to her eye. This wasn't Mossflower or anywhere she'd seen before. But she'd heard about it.

She sat back down, feeling incredibly weak despite her youthful body. The tear was running down her cheek when a gentle voice from behind her made her jump.

"Hello?"

Cornflower looked around and saw a mousemaid younger than she, with long head fur which was tying itself in knots and soft hazel eyes.

"Hello." Noticing that this other mouse was wearing a long lilac dress Cornflower once again became self-conscious and remained sitting, ignoring the paw that was offered to her.

"It's okay. We'll find you some clothes when we reach Noonvale. What's your name?" The mousemaid asked with a pretty smile. A beam of jealousy fluttered through her. This mouse was so confident and… clothed.

"Noonvale?" Cornflower had the feeling she'd heard that name before – perhaps in a story told to her years ago when she was a babe.

"Well, it's not actually Noonvale." The pretty maid said, smiling and holding her paws together. "But we made it look like it."

Cornflower nodded. She could understand wanting somewhere familiar to have in this unfamiliar place.

"My name's Cornflower." She said finally, finding the courage to stand up and bare herself to the stranger. "Your name?"

"Laterose." She said, smiling. And, Cornflower appreciated, only looking at her eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Laterose." Cornflower smiled and stood next to the mouse. "I suppose we should go to this Noonvale."

Laterose smiled and started walking, leading Cornflower through the trees towards – Cornflower hoped – some sort of clothing.