AUTHOR'S NOTE

Greetings my readers, followers, fangirls (and boys? Not judging!), and favorite-rs! It's been such a long time, as usual, but here's the next chapter. I've been busy with church and school and balancing my free time with my homework time (#teamprocrastination) that I've been neglecting this story. :') Someone had mentioned to me that it should be like a TV show and each chapter was an episode. That's so true! :D Hahah, I can just imagine how cool that would be, huh? ...Anyways, I love you guys and hope you enjoy Chapter 35.

Chapter 35

"Hey you," Cat Boy said from in front of me. I had slowed down to the point where he gave up holding on to my wrist. He figured I'd keep following them anyway. He was right. "You hungry? Do they feed you at the Queen's lair?"

I clenched my fists and began to fall into a steady jog. Dang these Wonderlanders walk a lot. Do they ever get tired? "You'd be surprised. The staff is treated pretty okay."

"Pretty okay?" Shire repeated as his slim purple and black tail swung just a little as he walked. "So you got fed or not?"

"Yes." I rolled my eyes. "Did you even plan on getting me food anyways?"

"Does it look like I have food to spare?"

Okay. So he was just messing with me. Not a surprise.

Before I considered responding, the sky dropped to a dark hue. The ominous one that causes the naked trees to look angry and black. I rammed into Shire's hard back; his fitted Tyrian purple shirt didn't make him any softer—which wasn't very good for me considering he was pretty bony. His muscles didn't help either.

"Oh look—we're in WOL."

I rolled my eyes and stepped back from him. "Ya think?"

"I didn't notice how close we were," Shire replied with a faint shrug.

Still a little bad with directions, I see. Well, that was the only thing I could see in this terrible lighting. I squinted in the nightfall. "Wasn't Jax leading us? Where'd he go?"

"You don't see him? He's over there," the boy replied as he raising his finger ahead of us. Like I could see anything out here.

"I don't have your weird glowy eye powers," I groaned. "I can't see him."

"Right… Humans are so weak."

"No we're not. We're capable of many things."

"Such as?"

"Disguising myself as another gender and a completely different person, sneaking into a castle with the excuse of being a squire apprentice, conjuring a fake murder, and causing a controversy for Wish Pond—all to rescue a friend from an amputation that will remove what's left of his freedom."

"Two things," Shire stated and turned on his heels to look at me with his bright eyes. "One, it's not exactly rocket science to figure out how to make you look like a guy. Two, you're the one who put that Yellow Shield in that position in the first place."

Thanks for keeping it real, Shire. I didn't answer him.

"In conclusion, I'm still not convinced, sweetheart."

We walked in silence as we started making our way through the cemetery. The trees never ceased to spook me. I jumped at the sound of a faint growl in the distance.

"Could you relax, kink?" Shire spat.

I could tell he looked over his shoulder at me because I saw one of his eyes. "Sorry, I heard something. Didn't you?"

"Of course I heard it," he said.

I noticed his ears twitching for a moment just to prove that his hearing is much better than mine. I hunched my back a bit, going tense. "Where are we going, Shire?"

"I don't know."

"Surprise, surprise," I groaned.

"No, I mean I'm considering our options. We could either follow Jax all the way to his home to pick up his henchmen, or we could wait for him out in the light. It could save us the walk."

"I think I like the second option," I said rather quickly. Sorry, call me lazy, but the walking reminded me of my first trip to Disney World. "Actually, I—"

"Too late, we're turning around."

"No, I think we should just hang out in here and wait instead. We don't have to necessarily walk back out."

"Weren't you pissing your pants a minute ago? Now you want to stay?"

Well, I admit that I was scared earlier, but I realized that nothing in Wonderland's Once Lived could hurt me—I had befriended Mister Bandersnatch already. Plus, I wanted to see if I could find the Queen's assassinated sister. "I find this place interesting."

Shire faced me, his eyes narrowing. "So we're going to stand around and wait here because you think this place is interesting? You can't even see, and that bandersnatch could find us and rip us to shreds for all we know."

"You lived in Wonderland much longer than me and I know something that you don't," I snickered, trying to get the upper hand. "Listen, the bandernsnatch may seem like he'll kill you on sight, but that's not the case. He chases, yes, but he doesn't attack right away. You have to pose some kind of threat. What if you were just dropping by to visit a deceased loved one? He won't kill you. He'll track you down and determine whether or not you're a threat. Have you ever been attacked by him?"

"He ran after me a couple times when I made trips to Bandit County. Obviously I got away."

"Did he chase you immediately?"

"What do you think d—"

"Shire, what exactly happened? Did he chase you immediately, or did you hear his growling from far away and when you started running, it was then he started to chase you?"

There was no yellow light in front of me. His eyes were probably closed. "Fine. He only chased me when I started running."

"Don't you think seeing someone run all of a sudden can be taken as suspicious?"

No answer. Got him.

"Exactly."

The yellow light appeared again. "So what? You're the expert on it now? Because he spared you once?"

"No. But I've talked to him, and he's really down to earth," I replied calmly. I noticed that it doesn't help when I'm intense in my responses—Shire will fire right back. Stubborn… Just like me. "Do you want to talk to him?"

"Not really."

"Good. So where's the middle of the cemetery? There should be a really big tree, like the biggest one in here."

"A big tree."

"Yes—biggest tree in WOL."

"Biggest tree, even better," Shire said quietly as he continued to lead me.

Our walking halted for another second when we heard the growl again.

"So this…this stalking thing…" Shire began nonchalantly. "He's just checking to see if we're gravediggers or not?"

"Pretty much," I replied, glancing around. I knew that if the bandersnatch decided to show his face, I'll be ready to confront him and calm him. Assure him that we come in peace.

The growling came to a cease and I crossed my arms triumphantly. "See, Shire? Nothing to worry about. He's concluded that we're just—"

"Grrrrrr—AHHHHH!"

I screamed and jumped backwards. I felt something warm zip to my waist and told it tight as we stared into the darkness. I squinted.

Shire pulled me into his chest. "Just…?"

"I-I don't know," I croaked. "I-I've never heard him make a noise like that. H-he sounds so—"

"Pissed off?"

I gulped. "Well…well yeah."

"….AWRRRRRRRRRR!"

I didn't jump at this one. Shire shuddered a bit, but I wasn't startled. I frowned and pushed off from Shire. "Wait."

His hand slid from my waist to my lower back. "I know. He doesn't sound angry anymore."

"Shire, you're right. He sounds…he sounds like he's in pain!" I cried out and started running towards the wail. I didn't have to look back to know the Cat Boy would follow after me. The way he was holding on to me a minute ago? Yeah, he's not letting me run off just yet.

One of the hardest things I've ever done besides dressing drag and faking a murder is running through a cemetery in a different dimension, pretty much blind. The rush of adrenaline I had, though, was making my agility slightly better…emphasis on slightly. I tripped over a tree root and stubbed my toe against a fist-sized rock. Before my body leaned enough to make me collide into the dirt, Shire grabbed me by my shirt (his shirt, actually) and tugged me to balance. I quietly thanked him and we continued running.

I didn't even have to see where I was going to know where I should be going. My ears were a total radar for the bandersnatch's call. When I saw an elephant-sized shadow moving back and forth frantically, I knew we made it.

Shire's eyes widened at the sight of the creature. Unlike me, he could see him just fine.

My eyes needed a second. My head had been spinning from all the sprinting and attempting to avoid disasters. "What do you see?" I asked as the fuzzy spots in front of me diminished. The fazed vision I was experiencing was going away.

"I can only see the thing's back. I don't know what's happening."

"Okay, c'mon, we have to get closer," I said. I was a little frightened by the idea of approaching a beast who was in some sort of vulnerable state. You never know, when an animal feels threatened, they could totally burst at you. The bandersnatch is huge; he could knock me over if he sneezed in my direction.

As we got closer, I started to make out his coat color. We jogged around his exterior until we found ourselves staring at his face.

"He's supposed to have one eye?" Shire asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, look he's missing that one. And then that one is—what the hell? He's bleeding out!"

My current vision wasn't as good as the boy next to me, but I could see the poor thing's left eye was bleeding. Its usual bright white-yellowish color with the tiny black pupil was bloodshot, the corners gushing thick blood. When he noticed us, he arced back and twisted in a weird fashion—he was freaking out and couldn't control his movements very well as a result.

"Bandersnatch!" I yelled, waving my hands in front of me. I had to use a big range of motion so he could see me better. He probably couldn't see much at all. "Bandersnatch, relax, it's me. It's Anastasia. Let me help you, boy." I shushed. I knew that he never learned my name up until this point, but that was okay. I just wanted to tell him things so that he could recognize my voice.

Mr. Bandersnatch stopped his panic and slowly lowered his backside onto the ground. I felt his eye on me.

"Oh," I murmured. I was heartbroken at the sight of his suffering face. "W-what happened?"

"He can't talk, Ana." Shire was standing a few feet behind me as a safety precaution, but he walked forward now and put his hand on my shoulder. "He must have been attacked."

Bandersnatch moaned and his little, little ears pointed downward as much as they could. His teeth were visible—but not completely. He was cringing.

"We have to stop the bleeding," Shire said.

"I know. H-here, let me…" I reached for the bottom of my shirt and began to pull it upward. The hand on my shoulder gave me a squeeze. I paused what I was doing and eyed Shire. "What?"

"I know you're freaking out and everything, but I think it'll be better for everyone if we just use my shirt." He threw his shirt off in an instant, as if he was used to spontaneous stripping. Suddenly I found myself angry at this Claudine chick. "Come on, you're the woman here," he said a bit louder as he shoved the shirt into my stomach.

I made an unattractive grunt as it bashed into me. Good old Shire. I stepped closer to the bandersnatch white raising the shirt to the corner of his eye. After a few seconds, I unfolded the shirt more and more to get more coverage. "Good thing we got here when we did. There was no way the blood would stop without applying pressure. You know the head bleeds a lot; it makes injuries seem far worse than they actually are, but we still have to—"

"Ana, you're nervous." Shire sighed. "You're rambling."

He was right. I was nervous. I really didn't want the bandersnatch to lose his other eye. It's one thing to be born blind. It's another thing to experience the beauty of sight and then losing it in an instant all of a sudden.

"How does the eye look?" I asked.

"It's just bleeding and irritated," he replied. "I don't think it's as serious as it seems."

"He's panicking because he doesn't know what's happening," I concluded. The shirt was soaked in the areas that contact the bandersnatch's fur. I removed it from his face for a moment and stared at the eye. "I think it stopped bleeding. I'll keep it on just in case."

"Here," Shire said, taking the shirt from my hand. He positioned himself beside the creature and wrapped the shirt lengthwise across his eye. Behind his left ear, he tied the top and bottom of his shirt together. "What should we do with him, then?"

I bit my lip. I honestly didn't know. "As far as I can tell, no one else in Wonderland likes this fella… I don't know where to put him."

"He's just another mortal of nature here, so let's just let him fend for himself."

His answer seemed blunt, but he was right. The bandersnatch was an animal (?); animals back on earth got injured in their natural habitat and managed to heal. Not all of them heal successfully, but it was clearly possible. "Okay," I agreed. "Alright."

"Ana," Shire stepped away from the bandersnatch. "Now you need to relax. We did as much as we could. Let's just leave him alone. No one will bug him."

No one will bug him, I repeated in my brain. I furrowed my eyebrows and jabbed my fingers into Shire's chest. His bare chest. I forgot he was shirtless. It made me blush for a second. "Ah." I coughed and snapped my hand behind my back. "T-that's where we're wrong. Someone attacked him remember? Now we don't know if he's going to be attacked again. We've got to take him somewhere," I pleaded.

"Well he sure as hell can't fit in my tree," Shire retorted.

"Think. Where could we put him?"

"…"

"You have an idea don't you?" I smiled.

"Unfortunately," he grumbled. "Jax isn't going to like it, though."

"Bandit County?"

"Yeah. Sneak him in. The bandersnatch is big but not too big to fit into one of the shacks."

"What about the doorway, though? He's too big for that."

"Don't you realize that Bandit Country is just poverty heaven? You could have a door today but not tomorrow. That's just how it works. The shacks are unstable and easy to mess with. We'll find somewhere."

"Fine, good idea. Plus it's dark there. It won't be too much of a change for him." I gave the bandersnatch a small smile and petted the side of his face. "Okay, Mr. Bandersnatch. Stand up. We're just going to move you somewhere less in the open. Sound good?"

The bandersnatch slowly raised from his bottom and stood to his feet. He slowly but surely looked (moved his head in the general area of the person—his eyes were covered) between Shire and I before bowing in my direction. It was the slightest bow, but it still counted. He was a reserved creature. Didn't seem like he wanted to get close to anyone. That's okay.

"Sit down if you need a break," I told the injured victim as I turned on my heels and peered beyond some crooked trees in the distance. "That way is Bandit County right?"

"Sure," Shire said quietly.

Well, that was convincing. I was going to ask Shire to lead the way but he didn't seem like his mind was on earth right now. Er, whatever planet thing we're on. I figured forward was the best shot. "Come on," I urged, kind of on the loud side to jostle Shire a little. He didn't budge much, but he did manage to place his hand on the side of the bandersnatch's thick, furry neck. I took a hold of the other side, and we went forward.

By the time we neared Bandit County, I realized the biggest obstacle we had to face: the seven-feet tall fence. It was hard enough for me alone to get over that thing—now I had to take an elephant-sized victim? Excuse me, an elephant-sized flightless victim?Yeah.

"Looks like you didn't think this through," Shire chuckled.

"You must be a good climber, right?" I whined. "Do you think you could—"

"Honestly." Shire let go of the bandersnatch and walked around the front, all to place his hand on mine, "We're in way over our heads with this one, Ana."

"We have to keep him safe," I replied.

Mr. Bandersnatch was not just another living proof of the Queen's brutality towards what she believes is injustice and unlawful—he was also a sign of hope. He was misunderstood. Everyone thought he was some ferocious monster waiting to kill them all. I didn't want him to die knowing that no one bothered to know him. If that's how he was supposed to die, then what was the point of him living in the first place?

"Ana, you're not listening…as usual."

I blinked a few times before realizing that Shire had been talking to me while I was having an internal monologue devoted to the bandersnatch. "I'm sorry, I'm just…" I didn't even know what I wanted to say in that sentence.

"Yeah." He had already taken his hand off of mine by this time. "I said we have to keep him in WOL."

"Shire! Look at him! He's in no condition to—"

"He's in no condition to be anywhere right now, but the best bet is to keep him where he always is. The only people who pass through here are the ones who live outside the kingdom. Outsiders don't have time to attack the WOL guard. Whoever did that to him must have pissed their pants and took a lucky swing at him, that's all. His eye will heal on its own time."

To me, Shire was known for sarcastic, pessimistic or sassy commentary directed against me—but it didn't necessarily mean he was a liar. He has wisdom behind his words, whether I want to admit it or not.

So in the end, we agreed and took the bandersnatch back into Wonderland's Once Lived, except we made sure to situate him near the biggest tree we could find. We had him lean on it. Then, after checking on his eye again and testing his ability to respond to my voice (if his eyes followed me), we went over to the fence again, where Jax was already standing on the other side of, along with his matching henchmen whose names have yet to be defined.

Raccoon Boy looked at us through the barbed wire. "Runnin' a little slow, are we?"

I ignored his saucy statement. "I don't have to climb over this fence again, do I?"

Shire held back a smile. "Humans can't climb either?"

I frowned and clung my fingers in between the wires of the fence. "Let's do this."

Shire accepted my challenge. We took our starting positions at the bottom and on the count of three, we bolted up the fence. Well, he bolted up like the cat boy he is. I shakily made my way to the top. Once I reached there, Shire leaped off from it and landed right on his feet. There was no way in Hell I was jumping down. My kneecaps would rip through my skin. Instead, I shimmied my way down the side. Halfway down, that is. I just had to lose my grip five feet off the ground and fall on my backside. Not the first time I've fallen in Wonderland. Kind of used to it by now.

Shire did, though, have enough respect to hold his hand out to help me up. "Did you really think you could beat me?"

"Honestly?" I coughed as I wobbled to my feet. "No, not really." Dang, my bottom was throbbing. I wondered if they could tell. I was standing with a bit of a hunch after all.

Just then, Jax started clapping his hands together. It wasn't the applauding kind of clap either, it was the slow, impressed-but-not-really-impressed clap that has three seconds between each sound. "Well that was fun." He brushed past us and pressed his hand against the fence. "But we were headed this way."

Shire and I looked at each other with sheepish expressions. Mine lasted much longer than his considering he shrugged it off and made his way back to the other side of the fence.

"You're next, Dunce," Jax said as he stared at me. His foot was no propped up on the fence.

I shook my head. "No, I think I'll stay here for a bit." I didn't want to move yet. My butt was hurting. I wasn't going to tell them that. That wouldn't end well for me. Throb, throb.

"Fine, then stay there," Jax replied. He climbed over the fence just as easily as Shire did, and his henchmen followed right behind him. While he began to walk off, Shire was still looking at me.

"Are you really staying over there, Ana?"

I nodded. "Yes, yes I really am staying here." Throb, throb.

"It's Bandit County, and you're by yourself. That's stupid."

"I can find my way back just fine." Throb, throb. Please turn around so I can fall back to the ground again and relax.

"Idiot," Shire scoffed and turned on his heels. "Just watch your back and don't get killed."

Once he was out of sight, I lowered myself against some thin tree near the fence. I let out a sigh of relief as the pain eased just a little. My hands folded onto my stomach and I shut my eyes.

Why does he keep assuming I'd get killed here?

Who would kill someone from the prophecy?