Move
Grandma had mentioned forests in Wonderland but never had she described them and for that I was grateful. I didn't think any amount of words could do this place justice. Beneath my feet the grassy earth felt as soft as bunny fur, the trees were heavy, thick with dark bark and were as round as eight men stretched hand to hand. Their canapes were a brilliant smoky jade color and the closer I looked I soon realized that the leaves were not ordinary leaves but they were made of jade stone! As soft, warm breezes loped through the forest it would knock and rub the leaves together creating a surprisingly relaxing solid tinkling sound instead of the brushing one I'd become used to back home.
In the few breaks in the canape I could spy clear, cloudless blue-purple sky and corners of the dual suns; one shinning bright orange and the other bright blue. What a strange place indeed, Grandma. Even though the canape was thick overhead, blocking only nearly all the light except for a few stray bars, it was surprisingly bright here in the forest. Softly in the distance I could hear soft voices singing pleasant tunes although I had no interest in following them. In fairy tales people who followed disembodied voices often ended up cursed, dead or worse-I was not planning on joining that list.
Bushes, thick with long red thistles and purple vines, rattle and shook as I passed by them. One even took a swipe at me with a long vine trying to snatch my ankle. I needed to find the tower but with no way to get above the canape I headed in the direction I thought was best and was hoping I didn't run into anything nasty. A monkey tail fern growing in the middle of my path suddenly yawned, a loud boisterous yawn, and unfurled its brown tipped tail. With a shiver and a shake the tail dropped down to the ground while its bottom side rose up to reveal a very strange monkey-like creature. Its skin was green, like the skirt of bush growing around its butt, its arms were gangly, almost too much so, and its body was very lean. The creature turned its head towards me, regarding me with depthless black shark eyes, so I gave a little wave and my most polished smile. It was yawned, pulled its flat scaled feet up out of the earth, and tottered off through the thistles and shrubs until it disappeared. I wonder if Grandma ever explored the forests of Wonderland. It was something I couldn't recall her describing other than "I always stuck to the path".
Elliot kicked at a rock that then shook its fist and scurried away. What a crappy day! First he got caught naked, every shot he missed, the staff and his boss got to see his naked ass in the hall and now he was on some wild goose chase for some Outsider who was definitely not Alice. As he was leaving The Twins had laughed and he was planning on making them pay. Those little brats would rue the day they mocked him!
Quietly his feet shuffled over the grass, swiping it with his boot, as he listened slightly attentively for anything that would sound like a girl stomping around the forest. Much to his surprise when he'd come out here he figured he could track her easily enough but she'd been careful, it seemed, to leave no foot prints or snapped twigs or broken branches. The skill had heightened his interest.
Still he couldn't help but wonder how someone, other than Alice, had found Wonderland. And if Blood was right and Peter White had not been of aid to this Outsider finding her way in that would mean that she would have to be made of something very special. Elliot stopped walking and listened carefully to the forest around him. In the distance he could hear a Hammer Jammer knocking away at a tree before squawking about it. Closing his eyes he thought back to the girl…Long legs, thin, athletic with the silhouette of an hour glass and very long hair the color of gold.
In a way she looked a little like Alice but at the same time it was very obvious she wasn't. Alice had always had a sweet, kindly look to her while this Outsider looked more voluptuous and rugged. Where Alice's had been a soft sky blue this girls eyes…..A shiver rolled through him as he recalled this Strangers eyes. They were bright and intense and observing, speckled with blue and green and brown and amber and gold….they had fire in them. Once more he shivered at the idea and listened to the woods.
My stomach growled angrily at me. I couldn't help putting my hand over it, as if that would silence the nagging thing, only to receive another angry growl. When was the last time I had eaten? The week leading up to that night I hadn't had much of an appetite and couldn't stomach water although it seemed said hunger was back. The purple-blue hue that lit up the place, like a snap, went to pitch black-
"OW!" pushing against the tree I'd just walked into I stepped back a few feet, "Son of a-What the hell just happen?!"
Looking up I could spy the tiniest bit of sky that was completely black but the massive silver moon, seeming to eclipse this land, provided an eerie light. Scratching at my head I sighed and stared into the forest in front of me. Unlike the two suns the one moon didn't seem to have enough power to penetrate beyond the jade canape but its rays were just bounced away by the stone leaves. The air that had been warm, tropical had now turned icy cold and the strange coos and caws I'd been hearing all day stopped. This place was deathly silent and still….and unnerving.
Night was when the big critters usually came out to hunt, right? A shiver ran down my spine as I heard shifting in the grasses around me. Okay! Time to move. Urgently I rushed forward, out of the beam of moonlight, into the darkness of the forest. As I hurried my eyes adjusted to the darkness and as I passed by the trees their bodies would light up with a soft neon glow only to fade away at my passing. To my left the grasses in the distance shifted, I hurried my pace, then the branches overhead rattled angrily, I hurried faster still, a tree ahead of me on my right suddenly lit up and I caught the faintest outline of someone.
My heart leapt into my throat. Swiftly I adverted my direction heading back the way I'd come and that's when the world abruptly rumbled angrily. It shook the trees, smashing the jade leaves and they burst like bloated jars, I lost my balance and fell to my knees. Soft neon light was flickering as the trees seemed to be talking with one another. Someone grabbed my upper arm pulling my attention back over my shoulder.
"There you are."
I kicked at his ankle and yanked my arm free from his huge grasp. The ground gave out a horrid tearing sound as I charged ahead further into the forest, trees fell away in the direction I had come, I looked over my shoulder. The earth opened up and a sour red glow erupted into the night chasing the shadows away-
"AHHHH!"
The one who'd grabbed me fell into the cesium that had opened up in the ground, as he'd tried to follow me, but hadn't quite made the jump. In the molten glow of the worlds core I could see ginger colored hair and long floppy ears-
"ELLIOT!"
I ran back towards the open wound as it continued to open more and more. Elliot was scrambling to hold onto anything to pull himself up but the grass was too weak and the earth to soft. I dropped onto my knees, skidding across fresh earth a few inches, and grabbed hold of his forearm. The ground rolled as if marbles had been placed under its skin nearly sending me over the edge. Without warning Elliot fell down the wall further dragging me towards the edge until I dug my heels into the ground stopping us.
"Elliot hold on!"
"Are you insane?!" he barked up at me.
I snorted as I worked my hands down his forearm pulling me closer to me, "I am the one saving you, you know! You might want to be a little kinder!" I grunted down at him.
The heat rising from the depths of the gouge was stifling and it was making me sweat. Elliot clawed at the dirt wall trying to assist me with his rescue but it did little good. I could feel the strain in my back and shoulders from holding his suspended weight.
"Let me go! If you get pulled in you'll die for certain Outsider!"
Reaching down I grabbed hold of his coat and slowly came up onto my knees so that I could look down at him over the edge.
"I won't let you die!"
All around us the world was tearing, shaking, rolling, falling apart without warning. What was happening?! I grabbed hold of his other shoulder and dug my elbows into the ground. Across form us the opposite side of the world seemed to be moving further and further away.
"I'll come back!"
I inhaled and gave my tired muscles a heft lifting his chest above the earth, "No you won't! I want to know this Elliot! I want to know fi what my grandmother said was true!"
His soft blue eyes, nearly washed-out by the hellish red glow, showed obvious shock at my statement. My arms started to shake and they dropped a bit but I held strong to Elliot.
"Let me go! You can't do it!"
Gritting my teeth in inhaled again, "I WILL!"
Elliot gave a yelp as he was suddenly propelled by an invisible force up, out of the open cesium, and over my head to land a few feet away. I scampered away from the edge afraid it might collapse to where Elliot was lying on the ground.
"Elliot! Elliot!"
He was breathing but he seemed a bit stunned. I relaxed, flexing my aching fingers, and stared across the distance as I watched the land simply drift away then slip off an invisible edge leaving nothing was empty space in its wake. The world was once again very still and silent.
"What the hell was that?" I couldn't help but pant.
Elliot sat up next to me.
"That was a move."
Both of us jumped at the sudden voice behind us. We both turned and faced its source to find a very sour looking man standing next to a tree. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he was wearing strangely formal clothes.
"Who're you?" I asked gaining his attention.
Elliot hid behind me for some reason.
The man looked down at me, "I am Julius."
