A gloved hand reached out and grasped her arm, then dragged her to the side. "Lovely! Let us have tea, then."
Naraya let herself be dragged, once again, through the tiny gate and into a clearing, where a long wooden table had been set up, and a large tea party lay out on it. Chairs were distributed around the table, all in different styles, most unoccupied, accept for one. A young girl stood on a chair, pouring herself a cup of tea from a china set. Peculiarly, she had a set of light brown rabbit ears perched on her head. Her tea cup and kettle didn't match—her cup was a sky blue and the kettle was white with flowers. The figure lead her over to sit across from the girl, who then stepped on the table after placing the blue cup down, and filled every single cup on the table. It seemed that one pot of tea was endless.
"Miss Hare, we have guest!"
"A guest?!" she exclaimed, stopping in her tracks and staring down at the girl. "Are you sure she's worthy?"
Naraya frowned.
The figure stepped into the light, and Naraya almost felt like laughing. He was wearing clothes that didn't match at all—a green shirt, with a purple vest over it, with an orange coat over that. And his pants were an eye-killing shade of green. And too top it off, no pun intended; he wore a green top hat.
The bunny girl was dressed in a similar fashion. She wore a very short skirt that was polka dotted with blue spots, while the main color was red. Her blouse was white, and sported an orange bow tie that was just a tad crooked. She looked down at Naraya in curiosity.
The mad man nodded and jumped into one of the seats, the signaled the Hare to sit next to him. Then he picked up a cup and took a small sip. "So, miss. What is your name?"
"Naraya," she responded as kindly as she could.
The man slit his eyes at her as if he didn't approve her name but then shrugged, taking another sip of tea. But when he put down his cup, Naraya realized there wasn't any tea in it at all. Peculiar.
Miss Hare moved down the table, still walking on top of it, until she was closer to Naraya. She bent over close to Naraya and pulled out a cup out of nowhere, and poured tea into it. "Tea?" she asked curiously.
Naraya shook her head. "No thank you," she said softly.
"No tea? Move down." The man jumped up and raced to the next seat, and before sitting, bent over and looked into the tea cup, then grinned almost delightfully and sat down.
Naraya moved to the right of the Hare and sat down softly, then listened to the two talk and bicker among themselves, quietly analyzing their words.
"There's tea," the Hare said calmly, showing him a cup and then dumping it over and watching the liquid fall out. "See?"
"Not here," he man said, then jumped up and ran to the next seat, yelling, "But there's some here!"
Miss Hare walked down the table and filled up the cups that the man had emptied. "You drink too fast," she said calmly, overflowing the cup and watching it drip onto the floor.
"Yes, I do," he said, then double back on what he said, "I mean, not generally. But we have a guest!"
"Yes, I guess that would be an honorable occasion," she said, jumping down and pulling out some of the tea kettles from underneath of the table. "More tea?"
"Yes, please." He said and then turned to Naraya. "Have some tea," he exclaimed, sliding a full cup down the table. It sloshed and fell over halfway. "Oh, dear. What a waste of tea." He jumped up on the table and walked over to where the tea had fallen, and then placed a large kettle over it. When he picked it back up, the spill was gone.
"Oh, wow," Naraya said in surprise.
"What?" The man said, walking back down the table and sitting down in his seat, "The kettle was thirsty. And we only feed them leftovers, or else they will get too fat and then burst!" The man waved his arms.
"Oh, mister…I didn't catch your name." She said innocently.
"It doesn't matter," he said, picking up a new cup and taking a long gulp, then held out the cup in front of the table, turning to Naraya. "Tea?"
"No thank you," she repeated herself, sighing slightly.
Miss Hare jumped up on the table again and it shook under her weight. "Well if the guest does not want tea then the guest should leave!"
"Yes, most impolite," the man exclaimed then turned and yanked Naraya out of her seat and proceeded to push her through the gate and into the forest. He said, "Ta-ta!" Then turned and almost hopped back to the clearing.
Naraya stared back as he settled down and poured a cup of tea on to the saucer and then took a sip from it. She shook her head and made her way into the darkened forest.