As it turned out, however, she was out of the mines and on her way to the Fortress of Doors. After getting the pendant and escaping the guards, she had found a tiny key that she had been able to use on the second tunnel, whose door had closed just before she had entered. Behind that door was a portal. She had entered, not knowing what to expect, and had found a long tunnel that branched upward.
She found Rabbit waiting for her at the end. "You're LATE!!!" he snapped as soon as he saw her.
"And..?"
He glared at her.
"Not as late as Cat, though. If he doesn't hurry up, I'll be the one to roast him!" he muttered, checking his pocket watch. He stamped his foot impatiently and turned around, only to find Cat's eternal grin awaiting him.
"You're late, Rabbit," he smirked. Apparently he, or at least his grin, had been waiting the whole time.
When Rabbit recovered from the shock, he stood up. "Well," he said, "not as late as this snail," with a careless wave in her direction.
"I resent that remark!"
"And I resemble it," came a high, slow voice from a rock nearby. A snail was there, glaring crankily at Rabbit.
"Alright, Speedy," he said, annoyed. The snail thought for a moment, then glared at him.
"At least I'm not the one who's in trouble," he sulked. The hungry Cat advanced on him, grinning.
"Aren't you? You make quite the lovely supper for a hungry kitty cat."
Terrified, the snail squeezed himself into his shell, not saying another word. Satisfied, Rabbit turned back to Mara, leaving Cat to his lunch, and appeared to be quite angry that she was still there. "Well!? Get going!"
"Go, pet, and never take perceived reality for granted." Cat said between bites. She stared at him, but soon turned away as he dug in to his lunch with further gusto. He kept calling her that. She was a bit confused, but he offered no advice. Rabbit was tapping his foot against a rock.
Finally, she blurted out, "How? Everything's mad!"
"Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here."
She found herself in a long, one-way stone corridor. Torches lined the walls, flickering wildly as she passed. Blue, green, yellow, and purple flames created a surreal effect on the grey stone walls and floor. She peered down - there was no end in sight. Where was she? Where was she supposed to go? She turned, and was surprised to see the back wall was still very close to her. Then she realised that it was moving towards her, and started running.
"Cat!" she shrieked. There was nothing. The coward. Did he know what the hell was in there??? "Rabbit!" The pitch of her voice rose abruptly as the wall moved closer. It was so close now... she could hear stone scraping against stone now. "Anyone! Help!" she yelled.
There was nothing. She ran, glancing back to see where it was, and sped up when she found it gaining still. Would the hall just keep going until she collapsed from exhaustion?
She was horrified to find herself slowing, and the wall gaining. Soon, she stopped, too tired to keep running, and watched it approach. Faster and faster it went, until it was only a rapidly approaching blur. She shut her eyes and turned her head, hoping that she could avoid seeing the actual impact. Her eyes opened at the last second, and she was just in time to see the wall pass through her, turning the walls sepia and the flames to normal orange as it passed. She stared after it, disbelieving, and remembered Cat's advice.
"Well..." she muttered. Then she got the feeling that perhaps Cat and Rabbit had seen the whole thing and were laughing at her. She was embarrassed enough, already. "Well, sod him, then," she muttered, and started walking back, wiping sweat out of her eyes.
After walking for ten minutes, she had found nothing still. She was growing exhausted, and slapped the wall. The pain in her hand woke her up a little, but she only managed to walk another few steps before she had to stop for a breather. She started to lean against the wall, but fell through it instead, and hit the ground with a tiny shriek of surprise and an undignified "Umph!" Cautiously she stood, looking around again.
This hall was made of white marble with limestone walls, and was lit by large, glowing jewels on the walls. She didn't care for it much; the entire thing was too strange for her. But when she made to exit the way she had come in, she turned directly into a solid wall. She walked up and down the hall for a moment, one hand gingerly rubbing her nose and the other hand trailing along the wall and felt her heart speeding up again. She became almost positive that she would die of cardiac arrest within the hour.
Once again, she started walking, trailing both hands along the walls (it was a rather narrow corridor). A few times, she heard footsteps other than her own, and whirled around, looking for who they belonged to. Every time, she found no one. She continued , until the tunnel came to an abrupt end. She carefully felt it over with her hands, trying to see if it actually continued, but found that to be an incorrect assumption on her part.
She turned back, and minutes later was greeted with a large, square hole - in a place where she had just walked, no less. She shook her head, sure it wasn't real, and started over it. She fell in, but as she fell, she saw a portal below, and instantly prayed that it was real, too. When she hit it, she felt her fall stop, and the colours swirled around her like a rainbow that had been thrown into a blender.
When she fell out, she was in an unfamiliar area of the land; a building surrounded by a narrow walkway and around it a swirling, colourful void that twisted and turned in unknown directions. "That took much too long!" Rabbit snapped, and darted ahead before she could express what she thought of him at that moment. She got up and followed. Cat was strolling behind, casual as ever. Rabbit was several paces in front of her, always wanting to run, but seeing Cat he would get fidgety and wait. Then he would walk faster than both, and repeat.
When at last they stopped, Cat sat down and waited for one of them to speak up. When Rabbit made no indication of speech, she piped up.
"What do I do now?"
"You go to the fortress, and then skool, of course."
"Of course?"
"Naturally."
"Naturally?"
"Of course."
"Enough!!! We're late enough already, and the two of you can't just sit there with your naturallys and of courses! We have to get this done!"
"Of course, of course," Cat purred. Mara stared at him disbelievingly. Here was the one who constantly badgered her about rescuing this godforsaken place and here he was, just... she couldn't quite explain it to herself, not when she was so frustrated.
"How will I get into the skool?"
"The way-"
"No time for your riddles! You get in through the fortress, then go through the window!" Rabbit shrieked. Cat glared at him, highly annoyed at being interrupted. Mara rolled her eyes.
"And how am I to do that?" she asked sarcastically. "Climb?"
She noticed an opening nearby, and walked over to it. When she turned back to Cat and Rabbit for help, though, they were gone. Irritated, she finally went in, fully expecting to see something jump out at her and attack.
Instead, it was merely an empty tunnel. It appeared as though she could get to the fortress from there, but found that she was mistaken when a huge set of double doors slammed down. After she got out of the room, a sucking sound came from behind. She turned to see a large slimy tentacle protruding, not unfriendly, more uncaring. "...I guess not," she said to herself. Turning, she searched for another way through, and that was when she saw a doorway on the side. It was so... normal in the midst of this strange setting that she had to trust it. She opened it, and walked through.
Del was waiting there. Instantly she held out the pendant, and he took it, nodding. "All right, then. What do you need?"
"I need a potion that will make me small," she answered. She was so startled that she did not even bother to ask how he had managed to reach the fortress.
"For what?" he asked.
"For getting small. I need to follow Rabbit to somewhere I can't get to."
"You're going to need a potion, then. But be warned that you're going to meet a lot of card guards on the way."
Her mouth dropped open in surprise and some happiness. "Finally, someone's telling me something! And in plain English, no less."
"Don't get used to it," he warned her. "I've been in the mines, so I don't know much of what's going on with Cat and Rabbit. What I do know, I'll tell you, but don't always take my word for it."
They entered the room and she found herself looking for some sign of where to go. There were two corridors that branched off and she chose the left one and started walking. Del shrugged and followed. All the while, the two sought an entrance to the room beside them. She heard voices around the corner.
"DAMMIT! There's-" but Mara clapped a hand over his mouth, and put a finger to her own.
"Stay here," she whispered.
"Those are probably card guards," he whispered back uncertainly.
"Yeah, but they're easy." She peered around the corner, and her heart sank a little when she found not club guards, but diamonds. She took a few deep breaths and pulled out her knife. She took careful aim at a soldier and threw. It hit him in the back and he gasped in surprise. She had failed to consider what to do once she threw it, but to her surprise, she felt something in her hand again. When she saw what it was, the fact that it was her knife was rather surprising.
Mara threw it again, at the same soldier. He cried out, but the blade connected with his skull, and he sank to the ground, dead. The other soldiers flew into a rage but she had counted on this and she and Del were already running to the other side. She walked out into the open area, looking for the others. They were checking where she and Del had been. She stood there, decidedly childlike, with a little girl's smile and wide, innocent eyes. The bloody knife was clasped behind her, and one of the guards started walking towards her, while his companions elbowed each other and laughed.
They stopped laughing when he got too close and wound up with a long hole in his centre, blood flowing out in red streams. He stared down at it, shocked, and she attacked again, this time higher up. The knife carved a hole up to the base of his throat, and he fell to his knees. His head went flying, and Mara stepped across him, back to her original spot. Smiling, she cocked her head, asking, "Who's next?"
They fell on her at once, and she jumped away. To her delight, she found that she could jump high and far, and she jumped again, throwing the knife as she went. When gravity took place, she kicked her legs forward and fell back. A load of the diamond projectiles flew at her, and she hit the ground and rolled. When they stopped, she jumped up again and attacked.
Within minutes, the battle was over, and Mara hurried over to Del. "You all right?" He nodded, and they went to the entrance. Mara went in first.
Something screamed, and she was immediately thrown back several feet. "What the hell was that?!" she yelped, sitting up. Del peeked in.
"Boojum," he said casually, though he wrinkled his nose at the smell.
"What's a Boojum?" she asked, rubbing her behind, which was already bruised enough; she was certain it would be bleeding within the next hour.
"It steals souls," he said quietly. "That's what their scream does."
"How can I kill them?"
"I don't really know. We've never done it before," he confessed.
"Well..." she hesitated. "It appears that I'm the first time for everything around here then," and stepped inside. She spent the next ten minutes avoiding their screams.
It took her awhile, but finally she got close enough to one to slash at them. It screamed, and she went the only way she could to avoid it- forward, directly underneath. It screamed all around it, but she was untouched. Two more slashes and it vanished in a burst of flames. She assumed that this meant that it was dead, and made short work of the other one.
She took a moment to survey the room, and called for Del. No answer. "Del!" She took a step and the floor started opening beneath her, revealing a swirling void underneath. She began to run. The floor continued opening, and she ran to a stairway in the corner of the room, almost hidden by an alcove. She made it up onto a tilting platform that raised and lowered on its own accord. She ran onto it and was immediately caught off-balance and thrown. The entire platform started sinking then, and she got up and sprinted to the end, where there was another. She jumped, and her fingers caught the edge, just as the other completely fell out of sight.
Petrified, she stared down into the darkness, and finding a burst of adrenaline with her fear, pulled herself up. There was nothing in that place but a portal. She took a moment to rest and went over to it.
She found Rabbit waiting for her at the end. "You're LATE!!!" he snapped as soon as he saw her.
"And..?"
He glared at her.
"Not as late as Cat, though. If he doesn't hurry up, I'll be the one to roast him!" he muttered, checking his pocket watch. He stamped his foot impatiently and turned around, only to find Cat's eternal grin awaiting him.
"You're late, Rabbit," he smirked. Apparently he, or at least his grin, had been waiting the whole time.
When Rabbit recovered from the shock, he stood up. "Well," he said, "not as late as this snail," with a careless wave in her direction.
"I resent that remark!"
"And I resemble it," came a high, slow voice from a rock nearby. A snail was there, glaring crankily at Rabbit.
"Alright, Speedy," he said, annoyed. The snail thought for a moment, then glared at him.
"At least I'm not the one who's in trouble," he sulked. The hungry Cat advanced on him, grinning.
"Aren't you? You make quite the lovely supper for a hungry kitty cat."
Terrified, the snail squeezed himself into his shell, not saying another word. Satisfied, Rabbit turned back to Mara, leaving Cat to his lunch, and appeared to be quite angry that she was still there. "Well!? Get going!"
"Go, pet, and never take perceived reality for granted." Cat said between bites. She stared at him, but soon turned away as he dug in to his lunch with further gusto. He kept calling her that. She was a bit confused, but he offered no advice. Rabbit was tapping his foot against a rock.
Finally, she blurted out, "How? Everything's mad!"
"Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here."
She found herself in a long, one-way stone corridor. Torches lined the walls, flickering wildly as she passed. Blue, green, yellow, and purple flames created a surreal effect on the grey stone walls and floor. She peered down - there was no end in sight. Where was she? Where was she supposed to go? She turned, and was surprised to see the back wall was still very close to her. Then she realised that it was moving towards her, and started running.
"Cat!" she shrieked. There was nothing. The coward. Did he know what the hell was in there??? "Rabbit!" The pitch of her voice rose abruptly as the wall moved closer. It was so close now... she could hear stone scraping against stone now. "Anyone! Help!" she yelled.
There was nothing. She ran, glancing back to see where it was, and sped up when she found it gaining still. Would the hall just keep going until she collapsed from exhaustion?
She was horrified to find herself slowing, and the wall gaining. Soon, she stopped, too tired to keep running, and watched it approach. Faster and faster it went, until it was only a rapidly approaching blur. She shut her eyes and turned her head, hoping that she could avoid seeing the actual impact. Her eyes opened at the last second, and she was just in time to see the wall pass through her, turning the walls sepia and the flames to normal orange as it passed. She stared after it, disbelieving, and remembered Cat's advice.
"Well..." she muttered. Then she got the feeling that perhaps Cat and Rabbit had seen the whole thing and were laughing at her. She was embarrassed enough, already. "Well, sod him, then," she muttered, and started walking back, wiping sweat out of her eyes.
After walking for ten minutes, she had found nothing still. She was growing exhausted, and slapped the wall. The pain in her hand woke her up a little, but she only managed to walk another few steps before she had to stop for a breather. She started to lean against the wall, but fell through it instead, and hit the ground with a tiny shriek of surprise and an undignified "Umph!" Cautiously she stood, looking around again.
This hall was made of white marble with limestone walls, and was lit by large, glowing jewels on the walls. She didn't care for it much; the entire thing was too strange for her. But when she made to exit the way she had come in, she turned directly into a solid wall. She walked up and down the hall for a moment, one hand gingerly rubbing her nose and the other hand trailing along the wall and felt her heart speeding up again. She became almost positive that she would die of cardiac arrest within the hour.
Once again, she started walking, trailing both hands along the walls (it was a rather narrow corridor). A few times, she heard footsteps other than her own, and whirled around, looking for who they belonged to. Every time, she found no one. She continued , until the tunnel came to an abrupt end. She carefully felt it over with her hands, trying to see if it actually continued, but found that to be an incorrect assumption on her part.
She turned back, and minutes later was greeted with a large, square hole - in a place where she had just walked, no less. She shook her head, sure it wasn't real, and started over it. She fell in, but as she fell, she saw a portal below, and instantly prayed that it was real, too. When she hit it, she felt her fall stop, and the colours swirled around her like a rainbow that had been thrown into a blender.
When she fell out, she was in an unfamiliar area of the land; a building surrounded by a narrow walkway and around it a swirling, colourful void that twisted and turned in unknown directions. "That took much too long!" Rabbit snapped, and darted ahead before she could express what she thought of him at that moment. She got up and followed. Cat was strolling behind, casual as ever. Rabbit was several paces in front of her, always wanting to run, but seeing Cat he would get fidgety and wait. Then he would walk faster than both, and repeat.
When at last they stopped, Cat sat down and waited for one of them to speak up. When Rabbit made no indication of speech, she piped up.
"What do I do now?"
"You go to the fortress, and then skool, of course."
"Of course?"
"Naturally."
"Naturally?"
"Of course."
"Enough!!! We're late enough already, and the two of you can't just sit there with your naturallys and of courses! We have to get this done!"
"Of course, of course," Cat purred. Mara stared at him disbelievingly. Here was the one who constantly badgered her about rescuing this godforsaken place and here he was, just... she couldn't quite explain it to herself, not when she was so frustrated.
"How will I get into the skool?"
"The way-"
"No time for your riddles! You get in through the fortress, then go through the window!" Rabbit shrieked. Cat glared at him, highly annoyed at being interrupted. Mara rolled her eyes.
"And how am I to do that?" she asked sarcastically. "Climb?"
She noticed an opening nearby, and walked over to it. When she turned back to Cat and Rabbit for help, though, they were gone. Irritated, she finally went in, fully expecting to see something jump out at her and attack.
Instead, it was merely an empty tunnel. It appeared as though she could get to the fortress from there, but found that she was mistaken when a huge set of double doors slammed down. After she got out of the room, a sucking sound came from behind. She turned to see a large slimy tentacle protruding, not unfriendly, more uncaring. "...I guess not," she said to herself. Turning, she searched for another way through, and that was when she saw a doorway on the side. It was so... normal in the midst of this strange setting that she had to trust it. She opened it, and walked through.
Del was waiting there. Instantly she held out the pendant, and he took it, nodding. "All right, then. What do you need?"
"I need a potion that will make me small," she answered. She was so startled that she did not even bother to ask how he had managed to reach the fortress.
"For what?" he asked.
"For getting small. I need to follow Rabbit to somewhere I can't get to."
"You're going to need a potion, then. But be warned that you're going to meet a lot of card guards on the way."
Her mouth dropped open in surprise and some happiness. "Finally, someone's telling me something! And in plain English, no less."
"Don't get used to it," he warned her. "I've been in the mines, so I don't know much of what's going on with Cat and Rabbit. What I do know, I'll tell you, but don't always take my word for it."
They entered the room and she found herself looking for some sign of where to go. There were two corridors that branched off and she chose the left one and started walking. Del shrugged and followed. All the while, the two sought an entrance to the room beside them. She heard voices around the corner.
"DAMMIT! There's-" but Mara clapped a hand over his mouth, and put a finger to her own.
"Stay here," she whispered.
"Those are probably card guards," he whispered back uncertainly.
"Yeah, but they're easy." She peered around the corner, and her heart sank a little when she found not club guards, but diamonds. She took a few deep breaths and pulled out her knife. She took careful aim at a soldier and threw. It hit him in the back and he gasped in surprise. She had failed to consider what to do once she threw it, but to her surprise, she felt something in her hand again. When she saw what it was, the fact that it was her knife was rather surprising.
Mara threw it again, at the same soldier. He cried out, but the blade connected with his skull, and he sank to the ground, dead. The other soldiers flew into a rage but she had counted on this and she and Del were already running to the other side. She walked out into the open area, looking for the others. They were checking where she and Del had been. She stood there, decidedly childlike, with a little girl's smile and wide, innocent eyes. The bloody knife was clasped behind her, and one of the guards started walking towards her, while his companions elbowed each other and laughed.
They stopped laughing when he got too close and wound up with a long hole in his centre, blood flowing out in red streams. He stared down at it, shocked, and she attacked again, this time higher up. The knife carved a hole up to the base of his throat, and he fell to his knees. His head went flying, and Mara stepped across him, back to her original spot. Smiling, she cocked her head, asking, "Who's next?"
They fell on her at once, and she jumped away. To her delight, she found that she could jump high and far, and she jumped again, throwing the knife as she went. When gravity took place, she kicked her legs forward and fell back. A load of the diamond projectiles flew at her, and she hit the ground and rolled. When they stopped, she jumped up again and attacked.
Within minutes, the battle was over, and Mara hurried over to Del. "You all right?" He nodded, and they went to the entrance. Mara went in first.
Something screamed, and she was immediately thrown back several feet. "What the hell was that?!" she yelped, sitting up. Del peeked in.
"Boojum," he said casually, though he wrinkled his nose at the smell.
"What's a Boojum?" she asked, rubbing her behind, which was already bruised enough; she was certain it would be bleeding within the next hour.
"It steals souls," he said quietly. "That's what their scream does."
"How can I kill them?"
"I don't really know. We've never done it before," he confessed.
"Well..." she hesitated. "It appears that I'm the first time for everything around here then," and stepped inside. She spent the next ten minutes avoiding their screams.
It took her awhile, but finally she got close enough to one to slash at them. It screamed, and she went the only way she could to avoid it- forward, directly underneath. It screamed all around it, but she was untouched. Two more slashes and it vanished in a burst of flames. She assumed that this meant that it was dead, and made short work of the other one.
She took a moment to survey the room, and called for Del. No answer. "Del!" She took a step and the floor started opening beneath her, revealing a swirling void underneath. She began to run. The floor continued opening, and she ran to a stairway in the corner of the room, almost hidden by an alcove. She made it up onto a tilting platform that raised and lowered on its own accord. She ran onto it and was immediately caught off-balance and thrown. The entire platform started sinking then, and she got up and sprinted to the end, where there was another. She jumped, and her fingers caught the edge, just as the other completely fell out of sight.
Petrified, she stared down into the darkness, and finding a burst of adrenaline with her fear, pulled herself up. There was nothing in that place but a portal. She took a moment to rest and went over to it.