So, another chapter.
Please Read and Review! It helps a lot!
The dream amazed me. I loved it, yet it was so mysterious, I didn't know whether it was a good dream or not. I wandered out of bed, and wanted to see the sun. I ran over and opened the curtains, but I only saw the gray clouds that covered the entire city like a blanket. I closed the curtain, dismayed. I wanted to see the golden rays of the sun again very badly. I then heard a peculiar noise, and I looked to the chimney. It was a scratching, animal-like sound. I crept over as I saw cold coals be tossed out, as scratching sounds continued. The thing inside continued to dig out dirt and coals. I knelt down and crept closer. Then I jumped back! A clock flew down, no a pocket-watch. I knelt down again and a small white paw reached out quick as a flash and grabbed the silver handle, pulling it into the chimney again. I got onto my hands and knees and crawled in closer to the coals. I watched as the scratching and scattering animal dug the dirt out faster, as if trying to escape. I poked my head into the chimney to see what was going on, and I felt soot fall on my head. I backed out, brushed my hair of and waited as the scratching continued. Then it stopped. I poked my head in and this time I put my hands on the wood. I looked up, and found that scratching was going on. But then all of a sudden- I fell! I was falling, so I let out a yelp. I scrambled to find a footing, but where? I kept falling and falling, but as I fell I noticed that a strange thing was happening. There were pictures! Floating pictures of rabbits and monkeys, pictures that had all appeared in my dream. I looked up and down the walls of the chimney and watched for the portrait of the man with the hat. I drifted down and still all I saw was a chair, some flatware, a table, a cabinet, a lamp, and some pictures of mice. So many strange things happened as I continued to fall, down. Down to where? What was at the bottom of a fireplace hole? I'd never heard of such a thing. I wished I would stop falling. It seemed to go on forever, as more frames fell up, and I fell down. I landed, finally on something hard. I go up and found myself in a hall, a very dark hall. I saw a light at the other end so I ran to it. I found something so surprising, I jumped. A cockroach that was as big as myself and dressed as a fine gentleman stood on its hind feet, and had a match in one claw. He put the match to his mouth where he was holding a pipe. He smoked the pipe a few puffs as I watched him. He turned to me, staring with his beady eyes. I said nervously,
"Hello."
"Hello, my dear, what brings you down to this dark and cold tunnel of the lonely cock-Beadle? And what is your name?" "I-I fell down the chimney. My name is Lily." I said it nervously and quietly, so that I wondered if he even heard me.
"Fell down a chimney? Tut-tut, shouldn't you be out in the Land? Underland, that place of nonsense. Why the whole place is nuts, and by George that loon the Mad Hatter, why he-"
"Did you say Hatter? Is he slightly queer looking? With hair all up strait out?"
"Slightly queer? Why the man's nuts! Completely bonkers, always going around asking batty questions about ravens and writing desks."
"Mr. Beadle, could you take me out of here? It's quite cold."
"Ah, yes I should take you out of the chill, lass, it gets almost frozen here in my home. Come, take the arm of the cock-Beadle and we shall make a merry away to the Wonderland."
"Will you take me to the Hatter, sir?"
"The Hatter? No, no that Hatter and the Hare are not the brightest candles when it comes to treating young ladies, we ought to go to the queen. The Red Queen, ah, she'll treat you nice and proper."
"But please, I want to know who the Hatter is!"
"Silly girl, he is crazy! You meet him, and you may never get to come back to London! Come with me to the queen and she'll protect you from his...wrath."
"Wrath? But I thought the Red Queen was bad, at least she looks that way in her picture."
"They still have her picture up there?" he whispered to himself so that I could barely hear. I asked what he said, but he didn't answer, just gently took my wrist in his claw and lead me down hall to a large room. There was the tiniest door at one wall. There was also a table with a bottle that had a label on it. "DRINK ME" I turned around to ask the Beadle what it meant, but he was gone, only a burnt match in his place. He was gone. I yelled out for him, but there was nothing but an echo to answer me. I took the bottle and opened it. I took a tiny sip. It tasted wonderful, like apple cider or pumpkin pie. But then it happened. My body shrunk, and with that my clothes stayed the same and seemed bigger. In fact they were bigger. I had to tie my underclothes so the fit on smaller once I was small enough and stopped shrinking. I ran to the tiny door and tried the knob. But I jumped back when the door squawked.
"Hey! That's my nose!"
"Sorry, but I've got to get through."
"Oh, gone to see Underland, have you that desire?" I didn't know there was such a place, Wonderland? Isn't that what he said? That's what the Beadle called it right? But, oh where was he?
"Yes, I wish to see the Mad Hatter, sir." then a large white foot with long full claws flopped down behind me. I turned and saw the tall giant form of a white rabbit. He had a watch in his hand and was checking it every few moments. He then picked up a shiny thing off the table. He bent over, and I exclaimed as I jumped away from the door, for he was so large. He put the shiny item into the keyhole, at which the knob opened his mouth very wide. The rabbit then drank some of the liquid in the bottle and placed the key and bottle back on the table. He shrunk down, clothes intact and came over to the door. Upon spotting me, he said,
"Well hello! I am called McTwisp, the royal White Rabbit. And you must be an Alice. Of course you're not the Alice, but-"
"I'm not Alice, I'm Lily." I said the last part quietly. Maybe a little too quietly, again.
"All right, Little, but come we must hurry!" he hopped to the door, expecting me to follow.
"Lily, not Little!" he still didn't hear me as I followed. When I came through the door, I was unable to breathe. There were flowers as tall as the church steeples in London, and the sky was teal and magenta and tangerine and all sorts of odd colors. There were horses with wings that were as big as flies. And there were chickens with hawk beaks, and a turtle with wings. And most of all I saw that there were so many amazing animals. They were all strange and wonderful. One was pink and had fuzzy fur all over it, except for its eyes which were green like the brightest leaf. I smiled.
"It's wonderful." a flower then snapped at me,
"No silly girl, it's Underland."
"Oh, sorry, didn't you mean Wonderland?"
"They all think it's 'Wonder'. Stupid foolish girl. And who are you anyway, may I ask. I think you look like some other silly girl I've seen before. What was her name?" Another flower answered the first. "Alice? Oh yes, that silly little nit! All confused and such. But how could you be confused about such a place as this? Are you confused? Golly, is she tiny, look at those little arms."
"My name is-"
"It's Little, she's no Alice, I'll tell you." the rabbit, in fact all of them seemed confused.
"But-" the flowers interrupted me,
"You ought to take her down to the Caterpillar."
"Yes! Yes! I'll do that straight away! He'll know what to make of her." So McTwisp took my hand in his paw and led me down a trail through the tall flowers. I followed him as the flowers started to curve and make a canopy. The rabbit let go of my hand and dropped to all fours to hop along, his coat falling to trail the ground under him. I had to half run to keep up with him as he hopped up and down the trail. It seemed to get very dark as the intense tree-like flowers towered over me. The shadowy light held a whitish-gray smoke.
Then I saw him. The Caterpillar.
