Ciel continued to walk through the over sized forest garden, scowling when the rocking horse flies would brush their noses against his hands as if begging him to pet them. He stopped abruptly when the garden opened up into a wide plain, a tree lined road splitting it down the middle. He ran towards the road a smirk on his face when an awful stench hit him. He turned sharply to face the smell and noticed a caterpillar-man smoking a hooka with a little lady bug woman on his hip. A blue noble's out fit on the mushroom upon which they sat.
"Who are you?" Ciel asked, he looked at the out fit, it was perfect, sapphire blue with ruffles at the neck, a coat, shorts, black high heeled shoes, blue stockings, a black top hat with a blue ribbon, and a small cane, just the right size.
"I? I am Lau, this is Ran Mao. Who are you?" The caterpillar chuckled.
"I am the Earl Ciel Phantomhive, I wish for you to give me those clothes there please." He gestured and sneezed at the god awful stench.
"Why should I little girl? You don't even want to tell me your real name."
"I'M A BOY! And because I'm naked and need clothing." He growled and then added "And Ciel is my name!"
"I'm pretty sure your name is Alice and you are a girl." Lau said cocking his head to the side.
"My middle name, unfortunately, is Alice yes, but I am a boy!" He pouted.
"Really?" Lau questioned.
"YES!" He growled.
"Very well Ciel Alice Phantomhive, you may take the clothing simply because when you were a child you introduced me to my lovely Ran Mao." He smiled and placed a kiss upon said girl's forehead.
Ciel nodded stiffly, remembering that he had in fact in his dreams introduced the two. He got dressed behind the mushroom and stared toward the road. It seemed a million miles away due to his diminutive size, and he'd been short even at his normal height.
"Those clothes will shrink and grow with you Alice." Lau called, Ciel nodded already getting used to the fact that everyone here would most likely call him Alice. He bit into one of the cookies and found himself normal size once more, all his clothing and accessories with him. He sighed grateful to be his appropriate height again, in this clothing he at least looked more masculine, perhaps the people here would begin to believe him when he claimed to be a boy. He strode down the dirt road, an air of arrogant indifference surrounding him, his cane tapping away at the ground.
Ciel spent maybe ten minutes along the road before a small pained mewl drew his attention to his left, a hunched over figure sat below a tree just a little off to the side. Ciel walked cautiously towards the figure, his loss had left him cynical and anti-social but he was still kind deep down and he felt he needed to help. He reached what appeared to be a black haired man with cat ears and a tail, the pathetic mewling grew louder in his ears.
"What's the matter sir?" He asked, stepping around to face the man. He seemed to be holding his ankle, rubbing it soothingly.
"I believe I've sprained my ankle, who are you?" The cat man questioned tersely.
"I am Ciel Phantomhive, I'm just a lost man trying to find his way back home." He held up his hands as if to show he was not a threat and then continued. "I can help you with that, I've got a rather large handkerchief, and a couple of twigs from that tree would make a good splint to keep the swelling down." He offered, bending to grab a few of the twigs, making sure they were sturdy.
"I suppose that would be acceptable, my name is William T. Spears, however, I prefer you simply call me the Cheshire cat." He spoke, adjusting his glasses.
"Alright, it's a pleasure to meet you Cheshire Cat, now please hold out your foot so I may bandage it."
William stuck his leg out and looked away haughtily, all the while wearing a I'm-a-boring-stick-in-the-mud face, how he pulled that off Ciel would never know
.
"Thank you Phantomhive. In exchange for helping me, I shall help you." He spoke in monotone once Ciel had finished bandaging his ankle.
"Well, I've been trying to get home, you see I was following a white rabbit man and I ended up here." Ciel thought for a moment, in his dreams Sebastian, or the Mad Hatter as he was known, had always been the one to greet him and escort him between the trips home. "I was wondering if you knew the Mad Hatter."
"Well Phantomhive, that is simple enough. Follow me, we shall go straight until we reach up, then turn left and continue until we get to nowhere, and finally turn down until we get to the Mad Hatter's tea party." He spoke in monotone and began hobbling forward, leaning on Ciel. The duo made their way through the long yawning plains, the great forests, and the lakes of crystal water. They passed several wooden signs with odd names such as "Somewhere", "Diagonal", "Up", "That-a-way", and "South-North". There were many people who seemed to have animal appendages, he did not see a single normal human being, most of them wore very depressed expressions, they were the unwashed masses of this land. Queen Victoria would not have allowed such unkempt poverty to line the streets of England.
Finally they reached a clearing where lo and behold there sat Sebastian the Mad Hatter, a red haired girl with glasses and mouse ears, and a boy with blond hair, three red bobby pins and long brown hare ears. Sebastian looked up when William grunted and dropped his tea cup, he stood and ran over to Ciel, kneeling beside the boy, though it wasn't quite necessary, Ciel was only a head or so shorter than him.
"Ci-Ciel? How.. but... how ... I thought... when you didn't come back... how?" He stuttered but crushed the boy against his chest as though if he let go Ciel would simply vanish.
"This is impossible! When you stopped coming back we thought you'd left forever, we kept waiting but you never came, why? Why now? How? Ciel what happened?" He questioned the boy rapidly.
"That's not important, right now I wish to know why a man in a top hat and white rabbit ears was at a party years after I stopped dreaming this place up." He demanded of the hatter, pushing himself away roughly.
Sebastian's eyes saddened but he stood and answered the boy's questions with a sigh.
"I'm not sure why, I know the white rabbit, Undertaker was his name remember, I know he had been captured by the red Queen and is being forced to do her dirty work. Perhaps she sent him to your side of the rabbit hole. Otherwise I have no clue why he went to your side of the rabbit hole. Generally it is illegal to cross over, only in special circumstances is it allowed. If Undertaker went to your side and you saw him it would be in direct violation of the law which would explain why he ran away and tried to come back. He may have been hoping that you would convince yourself you were seeing things, he most likely did not expect you to not only follow him through the rabbit hole but let alone get past the door room." He mused out loud. However, these were just theories there was no way to prove them without first catching and questioning the White Rabbit.
"Perhaps, Sebastian, I order you to take me to the white rabbit, I must know why this is all happening now at such a time as this." He barked out the order, clenching his small fists. Sebastian's red eyes grew cloudy, where was the kind, sweet, innocent little boy he'd come to love? The child who had so openly told him that he was his very first friend, the child that loved games and sweets. Was this young man that same boy? Would there be any hint of that kind little Alice if he looked close enough? Sebastian had no way of knowing other than to remain by his side.
"As you wish, my lord." He bowed elegantly, one hand over his breaking heart