I sighed and fiddled with the hem of my dress, tired of being fussed over like some doll that will soon be forgotten and tossed aside like paper. I stood up and my brother looked up at me, for, seemingly, the first time since designing some dress that I most likely wouldn't like.
"What's wrong, Lenalee? Is something bothering you?" He pushed aside the papers cluttering his desk and folded his hands under his chin to look at me. I brushed my dress off. "You seem to not like it." He commented, hurt apparent in his voice. I wavered slightly at it.
"I'm going to the garden." I said, then exited before he could tell me not to, running down the hall, nothing on my feet but my blood-red bangles that hit my ankles with every running step I took. Once I made it outside, I sunk down on the cool grass and looked around. At least he wasn't having one of his odd parties where he was the first drunk, and the one who regretted it the most. I worried for him.
A flash of blonde hair out of the corner of my eye made me turn around completely. A boy with blonde hair, gray eyes and twitching white rabbit ears stood in the bushes, tapping a watch impatiently, then he turned, and ran into the bushes, disappearing. I stood up again and ran after him. If my brother found him, he would probably kill him for trespassing, oh, and looking at me.
He stopped again, looked at me, tapped his watch once more, then ran around a tree, his white fluffy tail twitching. Who was he? As I ran around the tree, I found no one there. Where had he gone? All there was there was a hole. I knelt down and peered into it, a hand on the root by my head, the other on the dirt.
A sudden barking made me jump and fall into the hole. I squeezed my eyes closed and attempted not to scream bloody murder. Then I hit a floor. Hard. I sat up, rubbing my head, and noticed a bottle and a key by a door. The door was way too small for me to fit through, but what was the bottle for?
I picked it up and read the little tag. Drink Me. It read. I set it down and looked around for any other doors. The other doors wouldn't open, and that little door was the only one that key fit in, so... I drank the bottle's contents and coughed at the bitter taste – it was like cough medicine. I looked up at the ceiling. Was it me, or was it getting farther and farther away?
I looked around me, noting that everything seemed the right size now. But the bottle was much more bigger than me. I looked at the door – I was the size of it. Great, I'd shrunken. Oh well. I lifted up the key and stuck it in the lock, turning it until the door opened. I tossed the key down and opened the door.
A little boy with blue eyes, brown hair and mouse ears and a tail stood there with the rabbit-boy and two weird-looking boys with golden eyes and a row of crosses across their foreheads. "Is it her, Rabbit-chan?" The little boy asked, a possibly French accent apparent, earning a small snort from the rabbit. I stared at them. Who were they?
"My name's Bak Chan, Dormouse." The rabbit turned to look at me. "I mean, she even looks like her."
"Looks aren't everything." "Everything aren't looks." The twins stuck their tongues out and poked each other with their toy guns. "Do you think it's her?" "She looks odd." The twins laughed and walked away before the rabbit could berate their rudeness.
"I suggest you ignore Jasdero and David." The blonde boy rolled his eyes, then remembered I was there. "Manners, manners. I'm Bak Chan. Also known as the White Rabbit. That mouse-eared boy is Timothy Hearst, also known as the Dormouse. The two twins are Jasdero and David (Jasdevi), and they're known as Tweedledee and Tweedledum." The rabbit took a breath to continue, but I stopped him.
"Where am I?" I questioned, worried that I was losing my mind. "And, more importantly, why do you keep tapping that old-time watch?" I brushed back the curls my brother's friend, Anita, had done. She enjoyed playing doll with me, especially with my hair. She thought it was beautiful long, and not short as it was before.
"Oh, you're in–" The rabbit-boy cut the mouse-eared boy off with a hand covering his mouth. The Dormouse-boy licked Bak's hand and he let go scowling. "Bak-chan, we shouldn't stay here too long... There's the Darkness..." Bak looked to the distance and saw something I apparently didn't. Timothy took my hand and pulled me along after Bak, who was looking at his pocket watch again.
"Don't tell her. It's not safe for her right now." The blonde boy said absently, glancing behind us once more.
"Shouldn't you tell her what the Darkness is?" Bak's ears twitched as a male a little older looking than him appeared, back to a tree, black ears twitching against just as dark hair. His golden eyes focused impassively on me, then something brushed my cheek; a tail. I moved back.
"Tyki. I don't think it will be a good idea to, stupid Cheshire." The new arrival's eyes glittered dangerously. "...fine, then." Timothy tugged at Bak's sleeve, looking in the forest instead of the distance.
"We should get her to him, 'cause it's closer – in the forest there, White Rabbit," Bak's gray eyes flashed towards the dark forest and nodded. "C'mon, um..."
"Lenalee." I said automatically as the newer arrival twined his tail around my waist and pulled me along.
"I'll stay here. Dormouse, go with Cheshire and Lenalee." I stopped and took the youngest boy's hand, pulling him along with me as the cat-boy lead me along. "Don't worry … I'll be fine." A look of worry flashed across Bak's face before he walked into the forest, vanishing into the Darkness I was never told of.
Timothy sniffed and Tyki placed a hand on his head, the only comforting he seemed to be able to do. "He'll tell you of the Darkness, and the one sending it..." The sniffling boy said, blue eyes on the ground beneath his bare feet.
"Tyki Mikk," The cat-boy answered my unspoken question. "Or Cheshire, which is my nickname." I nodded, hoping I would be able to return to my original size soon. "Hey, Hatter," I looked up to notice a boy with a top hat, snow-white hair, and glittering gray-purple eyes.
"It's Allen. Can't you remember it, Cheshire?" He countered. "Where's Bak?" The white-haired boy's eyes focused on me; something I couldn't make out flashed in the grayish-purple depths. "The Darkness – he went into it?" Tyki nodded, tail twitching.
"Get over it. Bak was an idiot anyway." A voice sounded from the shadows – it was laced with s serious temper. "He's a fool for sacrificing himself for a girl." The voice was scathing and aimed at me. Instead of being cowed, I stepped towards the shadowed voice.
"As far as I am concerned, Bak was a better person than you seem to be, and if he's a fool, then why are you hiding in the shadows, like some beast ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey?" I challenged the voice, scowling into the shadows; no reply came. I turned and walked back to the table with all the tea cups and food on it.
"Oh, the dog-boy has decided to join us. Such an honor." Allen taunted the male who stepped from the darkness. He had ears like a Shiba Inu, triangular and pointed, and a curly tail like one.
His ears twitched when Timothy shifted on the table, but didn't turn to me.
The dog-boy bared his teeth in a snarl, then turned his attention to Tyki, who was looking at the dog-boy in cool teasing. "The fuck're you looking at, cat?" The dog finally snarled out, a vein pulsing on his jaw.
"You, but you're not too interesting, mutt." Tyki replied calmly, and I remembered I was the size of the Dormouse Timothy. I pulled out a pin I kept with me all the time, walked towards the dog-boy, and sticked his shin sharply with it. He looked down at me and snatched me from the ground. We had a scowling contest, his hand never loosening from my waist, my own small fingers closed around the sleeve of his shirt.
"Stop fighting." The boy with the hat spoke up, standing and placing Timothy in the breast pocket of his coat. "We have to go. If what our new friends say is true, then Bak is in the Darkness' control for now. Hopefully the White Queen can do something about her sister-in-law."
Tyki's tail twined around the dog-boy's hand and I began to fall when the dog dropped me in suprise. But I didn't hit the ground, no, but landed on something about the size of a dodge-ball, something with little horns I nearly speared myself on.
A golden golem? Great, was I officially insane? Golems were often the product of a sacrificial soul and the blood of the person who was sacrificing the victim. From the looks of it, the white-haired boy was the golem's owner, so he must have suffered because most of the human offerings were very, very dear family members to the person who was doing the golem creating. I sat up, rubbing my arms and stomach, and looked around. It seems the golem was resting on the cat-boy's head between his black feline ears, but the golden ball wouldn't remove its tail from my waist.
Allen, or whatever the white-haired one's name was, must have told the golden ball to keep me from moving. Great. "Hey, is it too much to ask if I can get some better fitting clothes? That dog-boy tore mine when I grabbed me." I sighed, and Allen's shoulders rose, then dropped. A sigh? A shrug? Taking a breath?
"Alright, here." A small rustle caught my attention, and I looked at the clothing in Tyki's hand. It looked like it would fit me. "I doubt anyone'll look, and Kanda's a perv, so be careful." Tyki dodged the punch aimed at his head and I took the simple black and green cloth dress from him. It'll do.
Stripping down, I quickly changed and sighed in relief when I found that the dress fit perfectly. But I still had no shoes, only the blood-red bangles. I hoped my brother wouldn't be angry that the dress Anita made was shredded, ruined, and left behind on the worn path Tyki, Kanda, Allen, and the smaller three of us (Timothy, the golem, and me) were currently walking on.