Ciel wasn't the only one who had fallen down the rabbit's hole. In fact, he wasn't even the only human boy that had fallen down the rabbit's hole. He was just the only human boy that had fallen down the rabbit's hole and had managed to refrain from adopting Wonderland's asinine way of thinking. This in itself was an amazing feat, especially considering that for an hour and counting his sanity had been on the wane.
The earl guessed it was around noon, considering that the woods he staggered and limped through were fairly dark. Nevertheless, he could still make his way through and was able to distinguish everything that his eye met.
"How big is this place?" he wondered to himself. "This place" of course meant Wonderland as a whole. He had been through an enormous room with the 'Drink Me' bottle and 'Eat Me' cake, along a sort of beach during a "caucus-race", then through a buttercup, daisy, and mushroom garden. He could have sworn that he had seen Tanaka, and then he had also seen Sebastian, and, the most recent, Lau. In Tanaka's smaller form, he didn't talk much anyway, so Ciel had no idea if Tanaka knew anything about this place or not. Then, he had yet to even say a word to Sebastian. And then, well, Lau was a walking paradox and most likely couldn't help.
Finding Sebastian was his best bet.
He also had never seen this part of England, where the food makes you big and sometimes small, and the drinks always made you shrink– to some extent. Was this even England anymore? There was no way it was a dream; he had already felt pain (the sting of that caterpillar), so pinching himself wouldn't do. But how could one fall through a rabbit's hole and end up in an alternate universe? It all made no sense.
"Maybe I'm reading too much into it," Ciel muttered, rubbing at his temples. But even he didn't believe that. He wasn't reading too much into it, he was simply try to piece it all together. Maybe this was all just some kind of "animal world"; animals (and larva) were all he had seen till then, anyway (excluding the Tanaka-doorknob).
That was, until he walked deeper into the woods, discussing with himself if Sebastian had ever hinting liking the direction of left or right better... Using that topic as a start, he was muttering, "Which way would Sebastian go?" and "The last I saw of him was after I had fallen down the hole into that first room..."
"There's no use in bothering with complex directions; each way leads to another that leads to another and leads to another which alternatively leads to the original which then leads to yet another."
The voice had come from atop a long, dark, and twisted tree. It was huge with dangling branches, so dark and dead and limp that it simply screamed the words 'horror story' (or something to that effect) to anyone who looked upon it.
When Ciel glanced upwards, he was surprised to see a boy around his own age. At least... he thought the boy looked around his age. He had a winsome, yet sly smirk, a fine complexion, and blonde hair. Like Ciel, his eyes were also blue, though Ciel's were more of a sapphire-blue, while this boy's were an ice crystal-blue.
The boy wore clothing of a wealthy person– this being thigh-high black stockings, (magenta ribbons wound around each booted leg), immensely short black shorts, a long, dark purple overcoat (though it was open to reveal a green vest atop a white, silk, dress shirt and a large inky-colored bow). On his index finger, a ruby red-gemmed ring, and, to top off the look, a nice black top hat with a scarlet ribbon wrapped around the middle. He was sitting on one of the bent, unpleasant-looking branches of the equally unpleasant-looking tree, but he was well-supported by it. He was sitting in such a way that his right leg lay diagonally atop the left casually. One hand lay flat on the same branch to keep himself steady, while the other gripped the brim of his top hat as he cocked his head, waiting for Ciel to respond.
All in all, by this boy's clothing, Ciel could tell he was something special. His costume was very different from the minute amount of clothing some of the animals had on. And his clothes were those of a wealthy person. One who was most likely from England.
Finally another human.
"Have you seen a male in a black tailcoat with rabbit... ears..." Ciel trailed off when he saw exactly what he was looking for, perched on the same branch next to this boy. The only difference was that this male clearly wasn't Sebastian. He did wear a black tailcoat, and he also had rabbit ears taking over his head. He was even wearing glasses, but this male's eyes were golden, his skin was a lighter shade, and his hair was shorter than Sebastian's.
The blonde boy shook his head, donning a frown. "You missed him quite a while ago."
"Tell me which way he went."
"He went that way," the boy replied, pointing with a finger to the left. "Of course, he then went to the right after that. And then, of course, the left again."
More complicated directions... Ciel grit his teeth.
"By the by," the blonde-haired boy said again, once more gripping his top hat's brim and glancing at Ciel, "I've never seen you. What do you call yourself?"
"Ciel Phantomhive."
The boy frowned again, almost as if he looked frustrated. Then, he tilted his head a bit more to the side, almost as if inspecting Ciel. "You look more like an Alice to me..."
Ciel glared at him, gritting his teeth harder. "Alice is a girl's name..."
But before he could actually finish speaking, the boy sprang down from the tree, falling directly in front of him. Ciel backed up from the uncomfortably close proximity, but the boy just took a step closer, all smiles.
"My name is Alois Trancy. That, up there, is my butler, Claude Faustus." Ciel's eye followed Alois's finger to the male on the branch.
A butler dressed in black with eyes of piercing golden, and a face of sober elegance.
'Claude'offered forth nothing more than a brusque glance in Ciel's general direction. Then he glanced back at Alois, almost as if this boy had the trigger in which he was allowed to speak and function.
He reminds me of Sebastian. Ciel thought, a cruel smirk lined his lips unknowingly. It didn't last long, though, because Alois started talking.
"Where did you come from, Ciel? How old are you? How long have you been here? Oh, did you ever get a chance to see the magnificent singing garden? Or the butterflies— of course you could never actually touch them or they may melt from your body heat. Oh!— and did you ever get a chance to view the Wonderland circus? Or dine at the table of the March Hare? He is a quiet one, now that I think of it. Not very mad at all. They do say that the March Hare and his companion are the maddest things here, but when Claude and I came for a visit, the March Hare seemed perfectly docile. Now, the Hatter is a different story. The Hatter is very mad. One might say insane. Oh, Ciel, tell me you got a glimpse of the Duchess's baby. Isn't she just a doll? Or he, I'm not really sure what gender the baby was. Then, of course, the Cheshire cat. He's a scary one. And-"
"Your Highness," Claude broke in. And almost instantly, peppy as ever, Alois turned around smiling and pleasantly crowing, "Yes, Claude?"
"Mr. Phantomhive has only been here for a mere hour and a half—"
"And if this is what happens when one stays here for longer I'd like to leave quickly," Ciel snapped quite viciously, glaring at Alois and wrenching his arm away from the boy's grip. His cheerful prattling reminded him of all the other happy-go-lucky animals and creatures there. It was immediately obvious that 'Alois' had already gotten sucked into Wonderland's way of thinking. And aside from that, Ciel didn't really care about the March Hatter, or whatever he was called. Nor did he want to hear about the Duchess's baby or wanted to discover what a Cheshire cat was. He didn't understand a word of what Alois was trying to say; it was all nonsense anyway.
"An hour?" Alois repeated, blinking.
'And how long have you been here?' Ciel wanted to ask, but he didn't, lest Alois try to tell him his life story. Sadly enough, Alois answered the question anyway. "Claude and I have been here all day." He turned to Claude with a smile.
Claude sat still.
Then, Alois leapt back onto the branch of the 'horror-story-tree'.
"Alic- I mean, Ciel, if you're looking for the White Rabbit (Ciel preferred the name Sebastian, or at least 'Black Rabbit'), you could go two ways. That way, over there," Alois paused to point in the direction he had pointed to afore, "will lead you to a fork in the road. Go right, and then left. Then you'll find them."
"Right? Then left? I'll just be retracing my steps."
"Well, you could go left, then go right. That's the second direction."
Ciel glared at Alois. "That's the same thing, you're just swapping the directions around."
Alois shrugged, laughing. "Well, at least I gave you two ways to find him. When you see them, ask for more directions. They've been here longer than I."
Ciel, still quite annoyed with this Trancy boy, didn't let the glare slip off his face. "Who's 'them'?"
"Ohh... I don't really remember their names. I wouldn't be able to anyway; their names were too similar. Ask them when you see them. Bye!"
Giving up, Ciel decided to take the parting invitation. He took one last glance at Claude, wondering why he didn't really talk much. Claude also looked back at him, serious-faced. However, as usual, he didn't say anything, though he looked like he wanted to. With nothing more said, Ciel took his leave, Alois smiling and waving pleasantly behind him.
"However hard you try, the dream will never break, Ciel Phantomhive."
Ciel whisked around upon hearing the voice. It had been too deep and creepy to be Alois', so he rightfully suspected Claude to have spoken. However, Claude was pointing out the time on a golden pocket watch to Alois. It seemed like they both hadn't heard the voice at all.
Lastly, Ciel suspected it was the tree of all things, but that would have been ridiculous.
A/N: I hope that Alois and Claude (though his speaking roles were sadly scant) were more or less in character. All I had to work from was the Kuroshitsuji II trailer, so I don't know if Alois is that peppy. This chapter was fairly short, but if any of the three seemed out of character, please tell me and I'll try to keep them in character for future chapters!
