Hiya! Here's the next part to my story. It seems that I'm quite nasty to Miaka in this chapter, so be forewarned. Slowly but surely, we're approaching the more interesting parts to this story. So sit back and have fun reading.

***All Alice in Wonderland and Fushigi Yuugi characters and plotlines belong to their respective creators and I own nothing, except a computer, some twisted ideas, and on occasion, some original characters.***

4) "TAAMMAAHHOOMMEE!!"

Miaka climbed down off the roof of the house, and was finally able to see the house that had saved her life. It was a one-story, small cottage, and had a centered door with windows placed on each side. From the door of the cottage a small path led through the front grass to a white fence and gate. Curious as to who lived here, Miaka knocked on the door.

No one answered. Miaka then tried the doorbell. A familiar tune rang throughout the cottage.

"I can't quite place it," she said as it played, "but it sounds like the music that always plays when Tamahome gets that funny symbol on his forehead and fights bad guys. Hmm..." As she pondered this further, Miaka opened the door and walked over the threshold.

"Heelllooo," she called out. "Anybody in heerree?" she said.

She peered inside. Seeing no forms of life, she walked in and began exploring the cottage.

A kitchen, a sitting room, and a bedroom made up the cottage. The rooms were all empty of any furniture. Only a chair and a small table with a pouch lying on it, placed in the sitting room, showed that someone lived in there.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Miaka thought to herself.

Walking closer to the table, Miaka found that she had overlooked a bottle of liquid. ( or had it mysteriously appeared when she wasn't looking?) The label on it read, "Drink Me."

Whether or not it was the result of eating and drinking the enchanted food and drink, Miaka's brain's gray matter was now considerably smaller than it was originally. This and the fact that it was filled with one long term goal: find Tamahome, and one short term goal: find drink to stave off thirst, led to Miaka's inability to process complex information. Thus, when she saw the bottle, she only processed the simple data (Drink Me) and the complex info (the drink might possibly be enchanted; remember the last time you drank something with a "Drink Me" label on it) was left to diffuse through her brain and skull back into the open air.

Miaka picked up the bottle and uncorked it. Raising it to her lips, she prayed that the owner of the house wouldn't come home while she was drinking it and demand her to pay for it, seeing as she had spent the last of her money on sweets. As she licked the last drop of the tasty liquid from her lips, she felt a tingly sensation in her fingers, toes, and nose. The tingly sensation spread to her arms, legs, and the rest of her face. The tingling grew stronger, and she watched in horror as her arms and legs began to increase in length right before her very eyes. Her torso also increased in size, and she felt the walls of the cottage trying to resist her ever expanding self. Soon she became so big that her arms and legs were pushed into the other two rooms. Then an arm was forced out the window and a leg out the door. Her left odango pushed out the sitting room skylight.

"Oh dear. Now how am I supposed to get out of here?" Miaka thought. "Perhaps I can just break the walls down and free myself." Then she remembered a certain wandering monk's advice. You need to learn to take responsibility for your actions. If you don't, innocent people will suffer on your account.

"I can't break the walls!" she wailed. "What if some poor family with ten children lived here? Then they'd have no place to go and might freeze to death at night!" Miaka' s sympathy for all things animal, vegetable, mineral, living, dead, good, evil, possessed, etc. overrode her want to get out of the house, and she decided to wait until she got smaller so she wouldn't have to break the walls down.

Seconds passed. Then minutes. Miaka' s neck began to ache from the weird position she was in. When she felt she could last no longer smashed up inside the cottage, she heard a familiar voice outside.

"I'm late and I can't find my money pouch! He's gonna kill me if I don't get the money to him in time! He's gonna whip me, beat me, and make me clean out his refrigerator if I don't..."

The voice trailed off, and Miaka heard footsteps approach her leg. "What in the world is this?" she heard the voice say.

"TAAMMAAHHOOMMEE!" Miaka yelled with glee.

"What?! It talks too? And it knows my name? What is this thing in my house?!

Miaka moved her leg with impatience. "It's me, Tamahome!" she yelled.

"AGGHHH! It moves too!" Tamahome screamed.

Miaka heard Tamahome's footsteps as he ran off. "Where's he going?" she thought to herself.

Just when it was beginning to get quiet, she heard someone running and screaming like a banshee.

"TAKE THAT YOU EVIL BEING!"

"What is...OUCH! That hurts!" Miaka cried as Tamahome attempted a flying kick at her leg.

"Stop it, Tamahome! Stop it!" Miaka yelled. Tarnahome began karate chopping her.

"I SAID STOP IT!" she screamed. Using the hand that had been forced out of the window, she made it into a fist and pounded it on the ground. Suddenly, it became very quiet. For a while after, Miaka heard nothing. Then, she heard him running around the house, picking up things from off the ground.

"Now what is he doing?" she muttered.

"Evil being!" he called out after some time. "I want my house back! I want my money pouch! I want to be on time so I don't have to clean out his refrigerator!" With that last remark, Miaka felt something pelt her arm and leg.

"Owwwww...that hurts! Tamahome!"

Tamahome, as a last resort to evict the monster from his house, began throwing stones at the arm and leg hanging out of the house. Miaka picked one up with the idea that she would throw them back at him, but found that the stones were now squishy. Twisting her neck so she could look at what she was holding, she found that the stones were not stones, but glazed donuts.

"Hmmm...perhaps if I eat these, I'll shrink down to a more manageable size?" Miaka thought. The author of this story raised her hands to applaud Miaka for finally using her brain when Miaka added, "Besides, I am hungry ." A huge teardrop

appeared on the author's forehead and she was unable to see the computer clearly for several minutes.

The author's vision cleared, and Miaka proceeded to stuff her face with the glazed donuts. After her tenth donut, she felt a tingly sensation on the left side of her scalp, but none on her right. "Mental note, " she said aloud, "change shampoos."

The tingly feeling then spread throughout her body and she began to shrink.

Unfortunately, Miaka ate too many donuts, and she shrank down to the size of an insect. Fortunately, by the time she finished her size change, she was right by the door, and was able to get out of the cottage with some ease. As she began her journey across Tamahome's front lawn, Miaka hoped she wouldn't run into anymore strange people or events.

The author laughed.

Remember, I enjoy reviews, both positive and otherwise. However, constructive criticism is preferred to just flaming. Thanks!