In this episode of Monsters of the Dead, everything is fine.
Now, just follow me down this nice, non-suspicious little rabbit hole...
Alice didn't like this game very much.
Mommy had told her that they were going on a 'secret family picnic' which was always super fun because the 'courters' would always scold Mommy for sneaking out of the castle without telling anyone.
Except Mommy hadn't gone with them and she didn't like that nearly as much.
The secret door had 'broken' before Mommy could get through, so she would catch up later and they should save her some tea, was what Mommy had told her and Daddy and Zeke.
Then they'd gotten to a little tunnel and Daddy was too big to fit through because he was a grown-up, and so he'd told her he'd take the grown-up passage and catch up.
Alice was a big girl, so she could boil water and make tea just fine all by herself, and she wasn't lonely because she still had Zeke with her.
The reason she could still go places grown-ups couldn't, even though she was a big girl, was because she was a big girl who hadn't had her growth-spurt yet.
But when she did, she'd be super tall and pretty just like Mommy! … But she wouldn't be the Duchess because Mommy was the Duchess- she didn't have to be Duchess until Mommy 'untired' to spend more time with Daddy.
But when she was Duchess she could stay up late and have fancy snacks and grown-up drinks like the funny tasting grape juice, and, and-
… She hoped Mommy and Daddy didn't take too long to catch up.
If they waited too long the tea would get cold, and Zeke would get lonely.
It was the largest known landmass on the planet, and the infected had the run of almost two thirds of it.
It was most often referred to as 'Order lands' despite the Order not necessarily controlling the continent itself, but the actual name of the land was Albion.
Albion was home to the largest 'sanctuary' on the planet, the largest safe haven from the infection.
Because Albion had something that nowhere else had.
Albion had Lescatie, and Lescatie had Druella.
Fourth Princess of the Demon Realm, a Lilim born of the Monster Lord herself.
In the Kingdom of Lescatie that she had plucked from Order control with her own two hands, referring to Druella as its ruler, as its queen, was to downplay her station to an almost laughable degree.
In Lescatie, Druella was the closest thing to a goddess that remained.
And that was why the infection gained not the slightest foothold within the walls of Lescatie, even if she could not extend the same protection to the land surrounding it.
The infection did not have the slightest foothold within Lescatie's walls, for no other reason than that Druella did not wish to allow it one.
… And her loyal subjects were far too grateful of that fact to wonder the price that their goddess need pay to keep them safe.
It had been a few days since the group had encountered the infected in any large quantities- Saeko had discovered a trio of Werecats while scouting ahead, but it could hardly be called a fight when she sliced through two of them before they knew she was there.
Given that, Rika had decided to ask a favor of Shizuka, one she'd wanted to take care of sooner rather than later.
One that Kohta especially found intensely interesting- Rika wanted to replace her bow.
Normally, the process was rather involved, even provided an archer had the necessary crafting skills (which Rika did), or a proper workshop (which Rika didn't)- naturally, the wood of some trees was better than others, and even if she found a suitable type of tree, it did Rika little good if the branches weren't suitable.
It was true that such issues could be partially circumvented by creating a laminate bow, made of multiple layers of wood, or horn.
It was also true that every issue with how the wood grew could be circumvented by having Shizuka ask a tree nicely.
The trees even guided her to the most promising candidate of the area- an unusually old and large yew tree that was more than happy to offer one of its larger branches to a Titania, after Shizuka encouraged the limb to grow to Rika's specifications.
Shizuka took care of the bowstring as well- it was a line of spider silk that she encouraged to be extra tough while Rika was carving her bow stave.
Somewhere along the way it became a group activity that took most of the day, a distraction that everyone deeply appreciated- Kohta helped with the bow staff, and with the guidance of himself and Rika, Saya added appropriate enchantments. Saeko slipped off into the forest canopy and returned with feathers for fletching (and pheasants for eating), while Takashi and Rei found a bamboo grove to supply materials for the arrow shafts.
So it was with no small measure of excitement that they watched Rika string the finished weapon for the first time- more than a few appreciated that Rika's new bow could only be called 'monstrous'.
"Hmm, I noticed this earlier, but that's not a Zipangu design of bow, is it?" Saeko noted curiously- she was the only member of the group who had never been out of Zipangu. "It's quite long, but it's too symmetrical to be a yumi."
The Zipangu yumi was meant to be used from horseback, so it was said- and so the grip was about two thirds of the way down the bow- allowing the archer to switch sides more efficiently.
"Nope, that's a longbow," Kohta pointed out. "It's the most common type of bow used on the mainland, both for hunting and fighting, though there are smaller ones. Err… I guess I should have let Rika explain that."
Rika chuckled and shook her head, testing the draw of her bow.
"Nah, it's cute how excited you got," the Ocelomeh teased. "Longbow is probably my favorite, I've tried probably everything from the yumi to the elven recurve over the years, but the longbow takes the cake, even if it's not the kind of bow I grew up with."
Kohta, immediately recovering from his embarrassment, regarded the cat with gleaming eyes, while Saya rolled hers in fond exasperation. He wasn't the only one interested though- having an interest in weaponry was pretty standard for any Hero that wasn't a mage or a healer, and Saeko was interested both in other lands and anything to do with fighting.
"Heh, our bows weren't all that different in comparison to the longbow," Rika explained cheerfully, enjoying the audience. "Smaller though- jungles have a lot more underbrush to get tangled in compared to forests, and it doesn't let you shoot as far to begin with. Then again, I'm pretty tall and stacked for an Ocelomeh to begin with, maybe why I like the longbow better."
Even strung and bent, her bow was taller than she was- making it taller than the rest of the party, and well over a foot longer than Titan, or even Shiro.
Dark-reddish brown wood, decorated near the notches for the bow string with feathers, and carved with runes and blocky, bestial symbols from the jungle's of Rika's birth. Despite being relatively thin compared to its length, the bow itself was thicker than Saya's wrists, and the arrows were closer in length to her legs than her arms- before the fletching was put on, they looked more like thin javelins than arrows.
"Welp, time for the fun part!" Rika grinned as Shizuka fluttered back from placing targets, the blonde giggling cheerfully at how excited everyone was.
Everyone coming together to make something had done them some good- and it meant everyone was going to be safer as well, because Shizuka knew how good Rika was with a bow.
That was why the target Rika was aiming for were little more than a hastily woven little straw archery target set up upon a tall stump on the other end of a long field… a target about a third of the size of a normal one, and far enough away that even with supernaturally keen vision being the norm, the bullseye took concentration to see.
Rika, with one arrow nocked and two more held in her leading paw, drew the arrow back smoothly and slowly, with a faint smirk on her lips.
Beneath dark, silky skin, corded muscle quietly proclaimed its existence as cat-like eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
When the bow finished languidly being drawn to its apex, the arrows just seemed to vanish, a faint hiss and a chorus of muffled 'thunks' marking their flight.
Rika lowered her bow with a grin as the gaze of the audience slowly found its way towards the target.
Rika hadn't hit the bullseye, but saying she missed would have been laughable- she had framed it with a near perfect triangle of arrows.
Everyone clapped appreciatively but Shizuka- when her lips were unoccupied once more, the slightly out of breath Titania declared that a focused Rika was a sexy Rika.
"Sexier," she amended with a giggle a moment later.
Rika blinked slowly in disbelief.
Kohta being able to handle the draw weight of her bow was impressive enough, but the weapon was too long for him- the tip of the bow almost brushed the ground before it bent with the draw.
And while he couldn't fire as quickly, sure, none of those things had stopped Kohta from matching her, creating an upside down triangle with his three arrows to overlap hers.
Rika let out a whistle, giving the Incubus an impressed look.
"Damn kid, where'd you earn to aim like that?"
Everyone noticed but no one pointed out how cute it was that Saya was the one smug about Kohta's performance.
"Ah, it's my Blessing, no big deal," Kohta said, scratching his head ruefully.
"Oh?"
"'Hawkeye'- I have pretty good aim with… well any projectile really." Kohta admitted. "I think it's much more impressive to shoot like that without it."
Saya's smug expression gave way to a scowl- this was an old argument for them. For the first time though, someone else beat them to it.
"So does Hawkeye teach you how to shoot or does it just help your aim?" Rika asked with hands on her hips, her tone suggesting the question was rhetorical.
"The second?"
"Yep, that's what I thought- I don't think your Blessing is doing as much of the work as you think," Rika claimed, before turning her gaze to the one she suspected would understand what she was getting at the most.
Giving a thoughtful hum as the Ocelomeh looked her way, Saeko gave her own impression.
"Your shooting posture is flawless, Kohta," she gently pointed out. "You took your time shooting, so once I was able to watch you in action, I realized that both you and Rika give off the same impression."
"Impression?" Kohta tilted his head quizzically. "Whaddya mean?"
"As if I didn't need to look to tell that you'd hit your targets- watching the two of you shoot gives off the impression that success is a foregone conclusion," Saeko mused. "Perhaps you are aided by your Blessing, but it's impossible to ignore that there's a great deal of time and effort put into your art. Have more confidence in yourself."
"E-errr… uh, thanks?" Kohta replied bashfully, scratching his head again with a lopsided grin as Saya, once again smug, stood beside him with arms crossed beneath her bust, shaking her head empathetically.
"You're welcome," Saeko offered with a soft smile, but the expression turned rueful as she turned to Rika. "As much as I'm curious, I don't believe I'll be able to handle something that large. I have some confidence in my strength, but I'll have to concede here."
It wasn't that she didn't think she could draw the bow- but a smooth draw was necessary for proper archery, so she'd learned. Saeko did have some small skill at archery, but it would never feel as right as a katana would in her hands.
The rest of the girls naturally passed as well, having less physical strength than Saeko to various degrees (though Shizuka at least had a more appropriate height), which left only-
"Sure, why not?" As Takashi said that, Rei felt a half-remembered chill run up her spine.
Not being an archer, Takashi decided to plant his arrows by his feet, actually taking things slowly and steadily.
It wasn't until he'd nocked an arrow that Rei and Saya's eyes met, and they remembered an important little detail.
Saeko kept her silence, but gave a puzzled look as Rei calmly steered her behind Saya, while Saya reeled in Kohta and Shizuka.
Rika, standing further away, didn't quite get caught in time- Takashi effortlessly drew back the bow and took careful aim.
"... Um, I don't suppose you'd tell me what-?" Saeko hesitantly ventured as Saya began casting a spell.
"You won't believe it until you see it." Three voices drily answered in unison.
Rika gave a wry smile and a snicker as Takashi's arrow missed the target by a good five feet.
A hearty thunk of wood echoed out as the arrow disappeared into the trees- she couldn't help but snicker as that thunk was followed by another.
And then another.
Rika's fluffy ear twitched in confusion- the fourth impact sounded closer than the others.
… And so did the fifth.
Rika's wine red eyes shot open wide, and she ducked with a startled screech as a dull streak lanced through where the top of her high ponytail had been, seconds before.
The streak then came to a halt after burying itself into the dirt.
It was, in fact, the arrow that Takashi had fired. The one that he had, of course, fired in the opposite direction.
Everyone slowly turned to look at the arrow, buried deeply in the earth.
"Takashi?"
"Yes, Saya?"
"Did you forget why you're not allowed to shoot bows?"
"I forgot why I'm not allowed to shoot bows."
"No no no hang on, that doesn't make any sense! That is not how arrows work!" Rika protested.
"Ufufu~ I think your arrow disagrees, Rika~" Shizuka sing-songed.
"Yeah, weird things happen when I shoot bows and stuff," Takashi shrugged. "My bad for forgetting."
"And yet your throwing arm is excellent," Saeko suggested, muffling her chuckles behind her hand.
"Takashi's always been great at throwing things most people can't even lift," Saya recounted. "It's just when he tries to fire something, anything from a bow to a wand, the result is…"
"Awesome?" Kohta grinned.
"Hilarious?" Rei teased.
"I was going to say catastrophic, but all of those are true as well," Saya nodded with a cheeky half-smirk. "My theory is that Berserker doesn't like weapons that it can't use the brute force approach with."
With a sheepish grin, Takashi handed the bow back to Rika, who stared at the weapon in silence for several moments.
Then she looked Takashi square in the eye, and burst into laughter that echoed off the trees.
It wasn't long before everyone, including Takashi joined in.
It was a good feeling... to be able to just laugh without fear.
"Takashi's… eccentricities aside," Saeko smiled as she led them into the trees, "I found a stream while I was out hunting, so I picked out a suitable campsite while I was at it."
"It's in the right direction too, convenient," Saya approved with a nod.
They had a semblance of a plan- risky but necessary.
Even with what they'd seen so far, saying they understood the situation within Zipangu, or anywhere else, was foolish at best.
Though they had their suspicions that the infection was widespread, given it was in the oceans, it wasn't as if they were the only ones who would be willing to do anything about it. In fact, it was more than likely that there were many out there that could do more than their little group could ever pull off, regardless of how generally exceptional the party was.
Even putting aside Takashi's Berserker-borne ability to resist the infection and pass that immunity on, to a degree.
Which Saya and Shizuka reluctantly agreed they needed more information on, which Takashi had waved off their apologies for.
But, the odds of the entirety of Zipangu being overrun were poor- not when mamano surpassing Queen-class and generally benign to the weaker beings around them, whether they be Human or Yokai, lived in these lands.
There were the Dragons of Zipangu- the Ryu. Not only did they wield power that placed them among the upper echelons of their already mighty race, the Ryu were among the most open and companionable amongst Dragonkind. Though that didn't actually make them all that open or companionable, given the standards, it was true that their 'hoards' were often communities that they nurtured and protected, rather than more literal varieties of treasure.
There were also the Inari- fox-like Yokai who reflected their power and age by the number of tails they possessed. A five-tail was worthy of being called a Queen-class monster, the few nine-tails, the Tenko with their golden fur, were Yokai who approached the realm of gods.
Those two races, small though their numbers were, along with the serpentine Otohime ruling deep beneath the waves, and the many ancient Spirits roaming the woods and waters of Zipangu was known as the 'Land of Many Gods'.
Surely there had to be safe havens upon the island.
Even if things seemed bad now, it was ridiculous to think that everywhere had been overrun.
… Even Saya, who strived to be as objective as she could, tried her best not to dwell on what might happen if this infection reached one of Zipangu's 'local gods'.
Nevertheless, Zipangu's problems weren't fated to be their problems for much longer.
Naturally, it was Shizuka who noticed it first. For a Titania; it was nearly impossible to miss when something about the forest 'changed'.
"Oh, a bunny!" The Titania gasped excitedly, turning suddenly to follow the glimpse of white fur. "Huh? Where'd we go?"
The group, who had been watching her with varying levels of fondness and exasperation, stopped in their tracks.
… Her puzzling comments aside Shizuka managed to get the message through in her own way by bursting into laughter.
"Ehehe! The trees here are so silly!"
"... And purple. They're being purple." Saeko noted with a wry smile, though her eyes were roaming constantly as she tried to make sense of what was going on.
Rei slapped a hand to her face, and Kohta let out a nervous chuckle as the thud of wood heralded Saya's staff tumbling from nerveless fingers.
After several moments of silence, Saya gave a wooden chuckle. "... I can practically smell how illogical everything is." She muttered, in a curiously toneless voice.
"... Would this be a bad time to mention that I've always wanted to go here at least once?" Takashi casually asked.
"So it is your fault!" Saya whirled on him, forgetting her sudden bout of mental trauma in favor of being mad at Takashi.
Out of her sight, Kohta flashed his friend a grateful thumbs up.
"Blossom, you're not allowed to wander off, it's gonna take forever to find you if you do." Rika sighed, hands on her hips and fluffy cat tail wrapped around the waist of the Fairy, who of course had already started to drift off.
More curious than anything else at that point, Saeko let her eyes wander.
The forest around them seemed normal enough, if one discounted that the colors were a little more vivid and a lot more incorrect, or that the randomly colored trees were also of random species- she had only ever heard of palm trees in Mai-Sensei's stories, but she was fairly confident they weren't supposed to be pink and blue.
"You kids figured it out pretty fast, huh? Any of you been here before?" A grinning Rika asked.
Just her and Blossom, it turned out, but she wasn't all that surprised the kids had guessed.
If you looked around in every direction and found nothing that made sense, you were probably in Wonderland.
That was an actual saying that had been around longer than she had.
… Not that she'd been around for all that long or anything.
The wilderness of Wonderland somewhat resembled a forest from a children's book- strange trees of strange shapes and colors, with strange objects scattered around.
So far, they'd passed two upside down oak trees, one building block the size of a house, and a scattering of Saya-sized chess pieces.
No sign of any people yet- and Shizuka's ability to listen to the forest wasn't of much help when the forest was busy telling jokes.
It came as almost a relief as the sound of dozens of clacking heels echoed from around the bend as the road the noises were coming from covered itself with yellow brick of its own accord.
"Let's get out of sight," Rika murmured, steering the group into the trees. The scents were all wrong, here and it was confusing her poor nose, but for just the briefest of instances she'd caught wind of something that made her tail stand on end.
The group hid in the garishly colored brush as a group of a dozen Mamono marched into sight- they were slim and shapely women without any obviously inhuman characteristics, dressed in what kind of looked like matching, fetishized courtier outfits- white minidresses with card patterns in red on their front, and feathery berets on their heads.
In contrast to the thigh socks and high heels adorning their long legs, the mamono had red armored gauntlets upon their hands, and carried long spears.
The only blatantly supernatural element was that each woman had a giant card floating behind her, the suit matching the pattern on her uniform.
They were Trumparts, the soldiers of Wonderland, though the term 'soldier' really meant 'enforcing the whims of the Queen and or Alice'.
But, the most worrying factor was that every single one of them was wounded and bloodied, and their smiles were painfully wide.
A sickly sweet aroma followed in their wake, like rotten fruit.
The group shared alarmed looks at what they were seeing, but they didn't have the luxury of looking away for long.
The only flaw in their formation was that it was made up of eleven Trumparts, one grinning mamono was lagging about two dozen paces behind, dragging her mangled left leg and using her spear as a crutch.
When she tripped, fell, and lay giggling upon the ground, the entire patrol halted in unison, and turned on their heel to march towards her.
The eyes of the watcher widened in horror as the Trumparts silently surrounded their fallen sister, joining in on the laughter.
They looked away when the Trumparts cheerfully lifted their spears in perfect unison.
When the eleven Trumparts marched away, they left behind bloody footprints and a shredded, giant card, slowly being soaked through by the crimson pools staining the yellow brick road.
… The sounds that intermingled with the receding clack of heels suggested the Trumparts had decided to eat on the march.
They had found themselves in Wonderland, but the infection had found its way there first.
It quickly became apparent that they'd just been lucky in where they'd entered Wonderland- perhaps a lingering effect of Shizuka being beloved by the forest, even if this forest couldn't focus long enough to be helpful.
First it was a small flock of Harpies with ditzy smiles and fluffy pink wings, singing nonsensical rhymes as they dive bombed the party out of the sky- Jubjubs, a species of Harpy unique to Wonderland.
The ensuing fight lured in a small troop of four Trumparts with the Suit of Clubs on their dresses, loudly demanding that they submit to a strip search by order of the Queen. This apparently meant lashing out with their thin, graceful poleaxes at anyone in reach that wasn't a Trumpart, and so it quickly devolved into a messy threeway melee.
Dropping from a tree branch, Saeko slammed feet first into a low gliding Jubjub and sent her crashing into the ground, but, rather than finish her off, she instead leapt away as a Trumpart brained the downed birdwoman.
The Trumpart struck the twitching corpse again, thanking her for participating in the annual census as brain matter flew into the air.
Then it was her turn to go flying as Titan smashed into the Trumpart's narrow waist, lifting her off her feet and hurling her away like a broken toy. Another Trumpart thrust the sharp spike of her weapon at him, but Takashi didn't even need to look as Rei parried the attack and kicked the Yokai away.
Another Trumpart's shouts of 'stop, thief!' dissolved into wet gurgles as one of the Jubjubs clawing at her slashed open her throat- as the soldier collapsed to her knees, her attackers vanished in a puff of feathers as Gjallarhorn's emerald lightning and Saya's wind blades tore them apart.
A snarling Ocelomeh, her war club buried in a Jubjub's rib cage, whirled and pounced, smashing another out of the air and tearing it to pieces with her claws before they'd even hit the ground.
The last Trumpart left alive parried a slash from Saeko's katana, and then another, nimbly spinning her weapon to ward away the Kunoichi.
The first, the second, and even the third strike being unsuccessful didn't even slow Saeko's blade for a moment, and so the fourth strike took fingers, and the fifth strike robbed Saeko's target of her head as she overwhelmed the Trumpart in a blinding flurry of Demon Realm Silver.
A severed head, its glossy lips still stretched into the rictus of a grin, thudded to the ground and bounced once, heralding the end of the fight.
"... I am immensely annoyed by the fact that Wonderland can even make a virus of apocalyptic proportions weird." Saya complained with a scowl.
Her scowl was wiped away a moment later, giving a startled flinch as Saeko whirled upon her with a cold glare. Before anyone could speak up, Saeko plunged her sword forward in a merciless thrust that Saya couldn't even have begun to react to.
Saya gave a startled yelp as her cheek was bathed in blood, and then she went rigid as a weight slumped heavily across her back.
A set of purplish pink paws slid from her shoulders and a quiet thud followed as Saeko withdrew her blade with a relieved sigh.
Laying on the ground behind Saya, with a neat hole in her throat was the smirking corpse of a Werecat with purplish pink hair and fur, wearing a skimpy bustier and checkered stockings.
"Apologies for startling you," Saeko grimaced with a brief bow, producing a cloth from her belt pouch and stepping up to the still frozen Dark Mage.
Saya's cheeks colored as the Kunoichi began to wipe away the blood on her cheek with a concerned frown on her elegant features.
"Saeko, you're my second favorite person right now," she managed a moment later, meekly allowing Saeko to wipe the blood away.
"Well, I don't fancy my odds competing with Kohta, so I'll proudly settle for second place," Saeko replied with a calm smile.
Kohta who had naturally appeared at Saya's side as if teleporting, flashed the dark haired beauty a beaming, grateful smile before turning his focus fully to his girlfriend.
Saya, suddenly being fussed over by two people instead of one, blushed even more while her uninvolved friends tried not to snicker.
Once they were more or less done, Takashi piped up with "sooo… good time to point out that the world moved a little?"
Or they did- before the fight they'd been surrounded by woodlands on all sides- now, the northern side of the clearing was leading into an almost comically large hedgerow maze, with no indication of where it was supposed to lead.
"Oooh, mazes are fun!" Shizuka exclaimed, clapping her hands together as her long ears twitched up and down.
"... What are the chances that if we ignore the maze it's going to follow us?" Saya said with slumped shoulders.
"You're just going to be more annoyed if you think about that," Rei pointed out helpfully.
Saya gave a loud, long sigh.
"Well, look on the bright side," Takashi grinned.
"Oh, do tell?" Saya drawled as she gave him an unimpressed look.
"At least it's not raining?"
Drip, drip.
"Takashi?"
"Yes, Saya?"
"You're not allowed to say things anymore."
To add insult to injury, the steadily intensifying rain ended where the maze began, as if Wonderland itself was telling them to hurry things up.
This was scary.
The Trumparts were acting strange- one of them had tried to poke Zeke with her spear!
Alice was scared, but Zeke had beat up the Trumparts that were being mean by becoming big.
He didn't bite them though because Zeke was nice like that.
But she didn't understand what was going on anymore- when someone became 'strange' it made them sick and they stopped being themselves, even if they still looked like themselves- their colors went all dim and they became hard to recognize.
It was scary, why was everyone fighting?
She wanted to tell them to stop fighting, they were supposed to listen to her because Mommy was their boss, unless they were somebody important who worked for Queen Sis because Queen Sis was the most important girl in all of Wonderland.
Zeke thought that was a bad idea though, and she didn't want to worry Zeke, so she kept quiet.
Zeke led her into the Maze to sneak away from a mean Wonderworm, which turned out for the best, because-
"Daddy!"
Daddy gave a big sigh as he saw her, and crouched down, opening his arms wide, and even though she could tell he was a little worried, Daddy still put on a big smile for her as she ran into his arms, Zeke darting at her heels with a quiet, happy bark.
When Daddy's arms closed around her, Alice felt safe for the first time since she'd snuck out of the castle. Zeke gave a happy little whine as Daddy scratched behind his ears, and Alice used one hand to scrub away the dirt that had gotten in her eyes.
"Am I ever glad to see you, Alice," Daddy said with a smile, before winking and saying "and you too of course, Zeke, have you been doing a good job as my daughter's knight?"
Zeke gave a proud little yip, of course he had done a good job.
Daddy put both hands on her shoulders, and gave her a serious look.
"Alice, you've probably noticed that the people around us are… sick." He told her calmly. "I won't lie to you, things are pretty dangerous right now," his expression turned proud at her little nod- Alice was still young, but she was being raised to be the future Baroness of Hearts- she was a lot more grownup than other ten year olds.
"But you don't have to worry, between Zeke and I you've got nothing to worry about," Daddy's voice dropped into a low whisper, and he cupped his hand to make it extra secret, "well, mostly Zeke, Daddy's getting old."
Alice giggled, happy that Daddy wasn't too worried to be making jokes.
"Alright, we should get moving, and let's try to be sneaky, okay?" He rose, taking her hand in his much bigger and warmer one.
Alice nodded as she obediently followed, whispering when she spoke.
"But Daddy, where's Mommy?"
Daddy sighed, rubbing his head with one hand.
"I don't know, Sweetie." He admitted honestly. "Your mother can take care of herself, but that doesn't help Mommy's awful sense of direction."
"Hehe, Mommy probably got lost, the courters are gonna scold her again," Alice giggled.
"They might not even let her have any cake with her tea," Daddy agreed with a grave nod.
"We'll look for her as we go," her father explained, "but we're going to head south for now, do you remember what's south?"
Alice gave a big, delighted gasp, barely remembering to speak in a whisper as her excitement boiled over.
"Are we gonna visit Big Sis Sen!?"
"Yeah, you bet, your big sis is almost as strong as Mommy, so I'm sure she's doing just fine as well."
Alice couldn't help but smile wider, she didn't get to play with Big Sis Sen nearly as much as she liked to because Big Sis Sen needed 'lots of space'.
Probably because Big Sis Sen was even taller than Mommy and had super big wings.
… Alice had never understood why Big Sis Sen lived in a cave though, she was sure Mommy would give her a castle with much bigger rooms if she asked.
The woman before them was a statuesque blonde, wearing a red dress with a bell shaped skirt and short puffy sleeves. Her white apron was spattered with blood, and her long, sculpted legs were clad in white stockings and red high heels.
In her hair was a dainty silver circlet centered around a red ruby heart, that complimented her outfit and curling ivory horns strangely well. Blending in with the bow tied at the small of her back were small bat-like wings, and a heart-shaped tail not all that dissimilar to Saeko's weaved around behind her.
She was an Alice- a breed of Succubus unique to Wonderland, and she was most certainly infected.
Not only was there blood on her apron, there was blood on her arm, oozing sluggishly from the gruesome bite wound in her bicep. It didn't seem to deter her at all from pulling a massive, bloody silver battle axe from behind her back.
A distant, composed smile upon her lips and angry veins in her ruby red eyes, the woman offered a dainty little curtsey.
"Have you seen my darling and our little Alice?" The woman politely inquired, her gleaming weapon dragging bloody furrows in the dirt as she advanced. "You see, it's almost tea time, and I need to kill them before their tea gets cold."
Yeaaah, there was no way I was gonna pass up on the chance to write a zombie-monstergirl Wonderland.
It's supposed to be bizarre and confusing because it's Wonderland gone crazy, but to lay things out just in case, the little girl Alice is Alice Maresato from HOTD, while the big girl Alice is her mother.
Alice are confusing because that's the name of their species, but they also call themselves Alice. But, as long as you remember that every Alice is Alice, you should be fine.
Make sense?
Heh, anyways, gave you guys a snapshot of the wider world as well- the safe havens in the world are way more interesting, but... just imagine what might happen if one of those god-like monsters gets infected?