I bet that last chapter had you guys a little confused! Haha! Anyway, this chapter is a little longer to make up for the previous two short ones. This one was way too much fun to write. The Cheshire Cat gave me nightmares when I was little, and Lucile gives me nightmares now! It's the perfect match ^.^

Ferris?

"Hey Ferris! Get off your ass and help me with these backpacks!" The sleepy guy looked annoyed.

"My name is not Ferris. I am Dango God," said the Dango God.

"Whatever. Just come help me!" snapped the Sleepy Guy.

How could anyone dare to boss around a Dango God? And why would anyone need so many backpacks? She picked one up and peeked inside.

"They're full of dango? That seems perfectly reasonable," said the Dango God as she swung the backpack over her shoulder. This Sleepy Guy was clearly a follower of the ways of the dango. A loyal worshipper such as this one deserved her assistance.

"Huh," the Sleepy Guy said, puzzled, "I didn't actually expect you to help."

Well, if he didn't need help, there was no point in wasting precious energy. The Dango God gently set her backpack on the ground, careful not to damage its sacred contents. The Sleepy Guy sighed as he picked it up and threw it on his back along with the other 10 backpacks. Then he began to walk away.

The Dango God hesitated before following. She shouldn't be wandering off in the forest with strange men—he might be a pervert or something!—but she really had no other choice. She was in a strange world, unable to get home. This guy might be able to help her. "Hey Ferris, hurry it up, would you?" the Sleepy Guy called back to her. The Dango God, having made up her mind, ran to catch up. "I told you, I am Dango God," she reminded him for the second of many times that day.

OOO

Ferris, content to finally be back to her normal size, strolled a little more comfortably down the path. How terrible it had been to be three inches tall! She had had to take twenty steps to equal one of her normal steps! She wondered briefly why she hadn't stayed giant and simply stepped over the forest. That would have been a much easier way to catch up to Ryner. Ferris dismissed the idea. Better to stay out of trouble.

Ferris, head down and lost in thought, failed to notice the large tree dividing the path down the middle. "What? Who? Huh?" the surprised Ferris shouted as her head collided with the stump. She prepared to draw her sword. Who dared get in the way of a great beauty such as herself? "Prepare to die!" she shouted at the aggressor. She swung, and her sword dug through the bark with a thump. "Huh?" Ferris said again as she realized her mistake. At least nobody was around to see the embarrassing episode. Or so she thought…

"Good afternoon, Ferris," an all too familiar, emotionless, downright creepy voice said. Ferris turned to see her brother standing a little way away from the path. He smiled at her. Ferris had seen that smile a million times before, but it never failed to send a chill down her spine. Of course she loved her brother, but something about him was…off?

"I frighten you?" he asked in his monotone voice.

"N-no," Ferris stuttered. It was like he could read her mind or something.

"I'll go away, then, if you don't want my help…" Lucile's image began to fade, at first becoming translucent, and then disappearing altogether. "Wait, please" Ferris begged her brother.

"Yes?" asked Lucile.

"Where am I?"

"You are here."

"But where is here?"

"Here."

It seemed that no matter where Ferris was, Lucile was still a weird guy.

"Iris said you were looking for me," Ferris prompted. Maybe she could get a real answer out of her brother.

"Did you get Sion's letter?" he asked. It seemed Ferris wouldn't be getting any answers after all. But she could hardly tell her scary brother that she had let Milk and the others burn the super important letter.

"Yes, I got it," she answered. It wasn't exactly a lie. She did, in fact, get the letter; she just didn't get the chance to read it. Lucile smiled again. Did he know that she wasn't telling him the full story? Probably.

"Since you're not busy today, I have a favor to ask," said Lucile. Was he trying to sound less scary? It certainly wasn't working.

"Why do you think I'm not busy?" Ferris asked.

"You read the letter, didn't you?"

"Of course."

"So you're not busy."

Ferris decided to play along. "You're right. I'm usually busy, so a minute ago I forgot that I'm not busy."

"Good," said Lucile. "I would like you to meet some friends of mine. You'll find them if you follow the left side of the path."

Ferris didn't even know Lucile had friends. She had to find Ryner, but she couldn't say no to her brother. "Okay?" she said, sounding like she was asking a question. "But if you see Ryner, can you tell him where I am?"

Lucile looked at her for a moment. 'Look' perhaps wasn't the right word, since his eyes were closed. Somehow, Ferris knew he could see her anyway. "I will tell him," said Lucile, finally. He started to fade again.

"By the way," he said as he disappeared, "All my friends are mad."

OOO

"So where are we, exactly?" asked the Dango God. She and the Sleepy Guy had been walking for about an hour through a thick forest. The surrounding trees were comforting. Trees looked the same no matter what world you were in. However, curiously, the Dango God and the Sleepy Guy had passed by a river flowing with, not tea, but water. Curious indeed.

The Sleepy Guy gave her an odd look. "We're in Nelpha, idiot. You should know. You beat up the border guards to get us in." The Dango God couldn't recall beating anybody up. Certainly not somebody as important as border guards. The Sleepy Guy continued, "Pretty soon Nelpha's military is going to catch up with us. We'd better get mov …"The Sleepy Guy's words were cut off.

"This is Nelpha's military! Stop where you are!" The Sleepy Guy was right. It seemed the head of the military was calling to them with some sort of megaphone to amplify his voice.

"Shit," whispered the Sleepy Guy.

The Dango God was surprised to see that there were no carts full of dango among the soldiers standing a little ways away. Perhaps they had not been brought over to the ways of the dango? The Dango God saw an opportunity.

"Good afternoon, friends," the Dango God waved to the men in front of her, "Have you heard about dango? I can teach you, if you'd like!"

"What do you think you're doing!?," the Sleepy Guy smacked her arm, "aw, forget it. WHAT I SEEK IS THUNDER! IZUCHI!" Lightning shot from the Sleepy Guy's hands and struck the centre of the opposing army. The soldiers scrambled to avoid the attack.

"Don't just stand there! Help me slow them down so we can escape," commanded the Sleepy Guy. "Uhh, okay?" said the Dango God. She began to wave her hands wildly like the Sleepy Guy had done a moment ago. "I.. uhh.. WHAT I.. uhh.. THUNDER! KABOOOM!" the Dango God yelled. Of course, nothing happened.

"Ferris?! Do you even know how to use magic!?" The Sleepy Guy looked somewhere between annoyed, angry and panicked. "Use your sword, idiot!"

The Dango God was about to remind him that she was Dango God, not Ferris, but the look on his face made her keep her mouth shut. For the first time, she touched the sword at her hip. Surprised to discover how strong her body was, she lifted the heavy sword above her head. "THUNDEEEEER!" she screamed as she charged at the enemy. She swung her sword at the first soldier…

And missed. The sword made contact with a large tree, the blade digging deep into the trunk. The Dango God pulled and pulled but the sword wouldn't come out.

"Ferris! Stop messing around!" she could hear the Sleepy Guy behind her.

"I am not Ferris! I am Dango God!"

The Dango God had a brilliant idea. She was a Dango God, and dango would be her weapon. She rushed back to where the Sleepy Guy stood and opened a backpack of dango. She hurriedly ate every last ball of dango, leaving nothing but the sharp sticks.

"Ferris, that has got to be a dango eating record, but is this really the time…"

The Dango God wasn't listening. Once again, unleashing what she believed to be the customary battle cry of this world, "THUNDER!", the Dango God charged at the army. With inhuman speed, she began to throw the sharp dango sticks. One by one, the soldiers around her fell unconscious on the ground. Before long, the entire army had been defeated.

Content with her demonstration of the power of dango, the Dango God let the Sleepy Guy help her pull her sword from the tree and they continued on their journey.

OOO

The Elderly Innkeeper arrived at a crossroads in the path. Before her was a large tree, dividing the road in two. A sign was nailed onto the tree. The arrow pointing right read "Castle", while the arrow pointing left read "Mad-". Mad what? Moss covered the rest of the sign. Looking down both roads, the Elderly Innkeeper eventually decided to travel to the right. After all, why would a pretty young girl like that want to visit somebody who was mad?