Chapter 1

The old inhabitants of this home had left far too much to the imagination. Each room was run down and dirty. The wallpaper peeled from the walls, the floors squeaked, and every time someone walked above, dust showered below. Several of the rooms held furniture, covered in white sheets and a layer of dust. The pots and pans in the kitchen had not been cleaned in years, many of them even beginning to rust.

It was from the hectic servants and cleaners that Ria fled. She had always felt more comfortable outside anyways. The gardens were vast, and just as untamed as inside. Here, however, it seemed more like a natural jungle than a decaying home. She wove her way through the overgrown maze, occasionally back tracking when she ran into an impassible wall. On a few occasions she found herself lost, but after some pushing and squeezing, she forced herself through the thick branches, and back into the yard, once meant for entertaining.

An old gazebo stood near the back of this area, the paint peeling and vines overgrowing part of the floor. A large spider had made it's home in the leaves, turning Ria away from exploring the small building.

Nearly an hour passed as she wandered from attraction to attraction. There were withered white roses mingled with red, which caught her attention for a few minutes, before spotting another trail she had not explored. It seemed to lead into a part of a forest that no one had even tried to tame. There was a small trail, but branches hung low and trees obscured much of the sunlight. As she followed the trail, however, she felt more drawn toward where it would lead. The maze and paths through the garden had let her dream of adventure. This itself was an adventure.

When she finally found when the trees parted with just another tree, much wider and stooped than the others. It twisted oddly, it's roots forming humps in the grass. She circled around it, and was shocked to find a huge hole nestled between two of the roots. It was far too large to be a rabbit hole. Maybe a badger? The thought of such a viscous animal nearly sent her scurrying away, but she gathered her courage, took a deep breath, and edged closer. The pull that brought her here pulled again, and with a grin of excitement, she fell to her knees, looking into the gloom.

A pinprick of light appeared, so tiny Ria thought it might be her imagination. Then it grew. The size of a penny, of a ball, a bowl. Finally it grew to the size of the hole, and yet, she could not see what was down there. She frowned, leaned in closer...

The ground gave away. She screamed in shock as she began to plummet into the light. There was no noise, not even the rush of wind, though it grabbed at her light blonde hair. Her plain black and white dress whipped around her legs, tangling them up. Finally, after what seemed like whole minutes, the light began to dim, and shapes emerged. They looked like...

Bricks? Yes, rectangular, dirty, grimy bricks, blackened with smoke. Ria hardly had time to wonder what that would mean when she landed, sending up a cloud of soot and ash.

It took her a few seconds to realize she had landed in a fireplace. Luckily, it looked like it had been cold for days now. She crawled out, coughing as she inhaled the ash. Well, there went one of her favorite dresses. Unlike her sister, Ria adored her dresses, even if they were a little unusual.

"Hello?" she called hesitantly. Clearly she was not in her home anymore; none of the fireplaces held ash, just dust. A look outside a window hold her she was not underground. So... where was she?

Stayne walked through the halls of the castle glancing at all the dressed up people chatting to themselves. How he hated the fakeness of their over large costumes, he never could understand how naive the Queen could be at not seeing how fake these body parts were. It disgusted him how anyone with an over large body part could take part in this Castle and in the war without actually earning their parts. The Queen just wanted to be loved by all and was blinded by her arrogance's to not see what people thought of her. How he wanted to be King and show her how to really run this Castle and this land.

But alias, he could not. Not without marry that wrecked women and her extreme large head. That, he would not sink down and do. He will just have to find a new way to become King and avoid the Queen at all cost. He looked down the hall only to see the wrecked women herself walking towards and dove into a random room praying she had not seen him down the hall.

At the sound of someone entering the room, Ria stopped her exploration of it and spun around. Her eyes widened at the sight of a man. A very tall man. He didn't look very friendly, with a disfiguring scar running across one of his eyes. Instinctively, she backed away, only to walk into a small table holding a heart shaped vase. It teetered for a second, and then crashed to the ground, sending water and red roses splaying across the floor.

Stayne spun around when he heard the vase crash and growled under his breath."You fool what have you done!" He shouted at her and looked back at the door heard the Queen outside the door yelling his name. He ran over to the girl and hid in the closet while putting his hand over mouth as the Queen walked into the room.

After a few minutes the Queen left the room with her flowers in her hands. He signed in relief and pushed the girl out of the closet. "Who are you and how did you get in here?" He took a second to take in her appearance and saw that she was normal, no over large body part of any kind. It was almost a nice site to see someone normal.

She tried to scream when he grabbed her and covered her mouth, but eventually fell silent when another woman entered. She looked... disproportionate. Her head was far too large, and in comparison, the crown looked tiny.

"I'm Ria... I think I fell through the chimney." She knew it sounded ridiculous, but as far as she could tell, that is what happened. "Where am I? I don't recognize anything here." It couldn't possibly be anywhere in England; a quick glance out the window proved that.

Stayne blinked confused and began to get angry thinking she was making a joke as he looked over at the chimney then looked back at her dress and saw smudges of ash on it. "Um...Ria..you are in the Red Queens Castle in Underland. I am Stayne and you my dear are...normal." He says walking around her examining all of her. "No large head, nose, or ears. You are defiantly not from around here."

"You will have to meet the Queen but not now. I can't stand that foul women." He mumbled under his breath as he looked at the broken vase and walked back into the closet and took out another vase from the top that looked exactly like the first one and placed it where the original one was.

Involuntarily, Ria's hand had strayed up to her nose, though she covered the movement by pretending to rub it. She had always thought her nose was slightly to bony and large to make her beautiful. Hearing now that she was normally gave her a bit of a confidence boost.

"Queen?" She repeated, assuming it was the woman with the large head. "Calling your queen something like that is terrible. Men have been arrested for saying less." Then again, from the look on the woman's face, this man might not have been too far off with his description.

"People don't get arrested here in Underland, they get their head cut off." Stayne said bluntly as he rubbed his forehead roughly. "And besides you don't know this women or heard the idiot things she says."

He says opening the door and looking around the hallway to make sure it was empty. "Come I will find you a place to clean up while I avoid the Queen." He says grabbing her wrist and walking down the hallway. "I'd avoid touching anything else in this place."

The thought of anyone getting their head lopped off made Ria's face pale. "Perhaps I will stay away from her." She agreed as she hurried to keep up with Stayne. "You said Underland? Where is that?" She had not heard of any place like that in England, and any place that had a castle this large and preserved would have to be known.

Stayne looked out the window past the Castle wall at the dead empty fields that showed little life of anything." That." He said motioning his hand to the window. "The misery and woe that has come from the Red Queen taking- I mean gaining the crown which is rightfully hears and ruling all the land till it reaches the White Castle." He says walking into a wash room with a row of red sinks and a giant heart bath tub against the wall.

"But... where?" She asked, still not grasping that Underland was a whole world. "Where on the map is this located." Perhaps in Africa? It sure looked barren enough. She hardly even seemed to notice where they had arrived.

Stayne raised his eyebrow confused on how naive this girl was asking this questions about maps. "You can clean up in here i will send someone to retrieve you knew clothes if you wish, then we'll take you to see the Queen and see what she does with you. I suggest you not mention the size of her head if you'd like to keep your attached." He says walking out of the room and shutting the door behind and goes to fetch some new clothes.

She nodded, not bothering to bring up the map again. Once he was gone, she slipped into the tub and began scrubbing at the ash on her skin and in her hair. She would need new clothes, since her dress was also covered in ash, and ripped in a few spots. Once done, she got out and dried herself off, then waited for someone to come back with new clothes.

Stayne walked up to the wash room with another women who had giant fake ears and knocked on the door then let the women in the room with the new clothes. Smiled as she walked up to her holding out the clothes, "Everyone is to wear some sort of red so here is a red and white dress with hearts on it. I hope you like it." She says handing over the clothes then walking back out of the room.

Ria couldn't help but gape at the size of the woman's ears. They couldn't possibly be real. She even saw a tiny bit of the fake skin pealing where it connected to her real skin. But she just thanked the woman and waited until she was out of the room before putting on the dress.

It was far more constraining and heavy than any dress she owned. The designs were gaudy, and the colors hurt her eyes, but if she was going to meet the queen, then she might as well be wearing red. She left the room to find Stayne there.

"Will this be good enough to meet the Queen?" She asked. Her hair was still damp, which flattened the curls until they were hardly more than waves.

"Yes that will be fine but since you are the only normal person around here who does not wear a fake disguise to look beautiful we are going to have to make up something." He says putting his hand on his chin to think.

"I've got it, the Queen needs to see that someone is deformed in some way to make herself happy so...you will be blind. She think's you can't see how enormous her head is and you will get past with your head. Fair enough?"