We ran along the narrow side walks, the grass almost tripping me multiple times, and I would have fallen twice if Spinner had not been holding my hand.

"Faster, or he'll catch up with us."

"Who will?"

"Mud. Now hurry up."

As we ran, I knew that we weren't going to last long; we needed to find a way to go faster. As we turned the block, I saw our ticket out of here. I started to pull on Spinner's hand and headed toward the square. In the middle was a market where multiple horses were tethered. I snuck in and grabbed the reins, getting on the horse as Spinner untethered the horse. I looked up to see what Mud really looked like in the sun. He was in the shape of a man, but it moved, constantly, propelling him forward and gaining size by collecting dirt from the ground.

"Get on!"

I reached for Spinner's hand and helped him up, turning the horse around so that we could get away from that creature. I spurred the horse on, urging it to a gallop and managed to get out of the city gates.

"Get into the forest."

"Wouldn't that just increase him in size?"

"Maybe, but no one knows the Wild Woods as much as I do."

I nodded and spurred the horse into the woods, feeling a chill as the sun diminished and it suddenly colder.

After a good fifteen minutes of hard riding, I slowed the horse down. Enough so that I could get off.

"What are you doing?"

"No need to kill the horse. We should walk; give her a rest."

"I don't think I can."

"You were running a minute ago."

"I had to. Here, let me down and I'll show you."

I took his arm and helped him down, tripping at the last minute so that I ended up on top of him. "Oh my god, are you alright?"

"No. My shoulder." I opened his jacket and found blood stains all over his left shoulder.

"What happened?"

"She must have got me right before you kicked her."

"Well, good thing I jumped in."

He laughed and then cringed when the pain swept through his body. "Look through the pack. I must have some bandages and salves in there."

I opened my pack and found a bundle of clean white cloth and some lime green gel in a jar. "This it?"

"Yeah. Cut my shirt open and apply the salve on the cut."

"Do you want me to clean it first?"

"No time. Just apply the gel."

I took the dagger that I stolen from Mud and cut the shirt so that I could get to the shoulder. As I applied the salve on his shoulder I couldn't help but notice how, well… how strong he looked. I found it a little ironic that he had gotten hurt. He winced when I started to wrap the bandage on his shoulder.

"You'll be okay. It's just a cut."

"How did you learn to do that?"

"Took some first aid training. This is the first time I've ever been able to put it into practice."

"Makes me feel so much better." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

I smiled, "Well, depending on how strong that slave is, you should be fine in a day or two. I'll reapply it tonight and we'll see from there."

I stood and extended my hand to help him up. After a few seconds of tugging, I got him to stand.

"You can walk, right? I don't think it would be a good idea to be riding again."

"Yeah, I can walk."

We walked in silence for a few minutes while I listened to the happy chirping of the birds and the wind that ran through the trees. It had been a while since I had been to a forest and I was surprised by how much I missed it.

"So… I think I owe you an explanation."

"You owe me multiple explanations."

He gave a small chuckle and asked, "So, which one do you want first?"

I thought about the one that had been bothering me since I had first entered Wonderland. "Why did people keep calling me Oyster?"

Spinner sighed, "That's fairly simple, really. We call people from your world oysters because inside you, you carry pearls. In the past, with the Queen of Hearts, she used the pearls to collect emotions of humans to satisfy us Wonderlanders with a quick fix. That's how she would control the people."

"And now? What are the pearls used for?"

Spinner looked away. "I'm not sure if I should tell you. It's quite scary and gave me nightmares for a month when I found out."

"Spinner, just tell me. I'm not a child."

He gave me a I-warned-you look and explained, "The new ruler of Wonderland, he is more interested in gold and enjoys rare objects that he can look at and touch rather than emotions that could play with his judgement. He… he takes the pearls out of you Upperlanders, rips them out and uses them for games, clothes, whatever suits his fancy."

I felt myself getting sick and I had to use a tree to support myself. Spinner stopped and helped me up.

"I told you it wasn't something that you wanted to hear."

"It was necessary. How can a Hero save anything if they don't know the problem. Uh… my second question was…. Right! What's on my neck? When you talked to the General, you used it as proof of me being the Hero.

Spinner's eyes traveled to my neck and and I could feel my face burning up. "You Upperlanders don't do so well in our sunlight. The first time you get touched by it, you get a tattoo burned to your skin."

I reached for my neck and tried to feel and difference.

"It won't come off. But the strange thing is that an Upperlander usually has a green leaf-like mark. You, however have a the mark of a white snowflake. No one has had that mark before."

I nodded, wondering if it would disappear when I got back to my world.

"Okay, well then, last question: What now?"

Spinner smiled and gave a small laugh, "That I don't know. We should probably head to the castle, but that's too dangerous, especially since we have no weapons and no one to help us."

"Well, then, let's find someone who can." I started to walk faster, gripping the horses bridle harder in my hands.

"In the forest? Are you mad? There's no one here for miles around except the Bandersnatch, the Jabberwocky and the JubJub Bird. It's too dangerous to walk farther in."

"You have a better plan? If this is the dangerous part of the forest, than the guards won't follow us since they think it'll be suicide."

Spinner stopped and looked at me with some awe, "I didn't even think of that."

I just smiled and we kept walking through the forest, heading probably into certain danger…