The fourth Chapter.
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It was Momiji, trotting slowly back again, and looking curiously about as he went, as if he had lost something important (Like a sweet of some kind). He was also muttering to himself, something like "The Duchess! Oh dear! I do hope she won't be angry with me! Oh nein! Where are they?"
Yuki guessed in a moment that he was looking for those gloves and the fan, and being a good-natured boy (Most of the time); he went looking around for them. Alas, they were no where to be found- everything had seemed to change after his swim.
In fact, the great hall, the glass table and the little door had vanished completely.
Very soon, Momiji noticed Yuki, and called out "Hallo, Mary-Ann, what are you doing out here? Go run home this instant, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick now!"
And Yuki was so shocked, that he ran off at once in the direction Momiji pointed to.
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"Momiji mistook me for… ugh…" Yuki didn't think he wished to admit it. It was something that he had to constantly battle against. Unlike his elder brother, who seemed to enjoy it, Yuki wasn't at all comfortable in being told that he looked like a… like a…
"A girl. His housemaid, to be exact." Yuki's conscience butted into the Nezumi's thoughts. Yuki was, once again, surprised, as he had forgotten entirely about the annoying little creature. He quickly became annoyed again, however, when he noticed how the creature was sniggering to itself.
"He made a mistake, though a large one, that's all." Yuki said protectively, and at once realized that they had reached a large house.
'Large House' was much of an understatement: This place was more like a mansion than a house. But this didn't faze Yuki; after all, he was part of the Sohmas, and was used to large households. The little Momiji owning a house might not be the most likely of things, at his current age anyway, but Yuki reminded himself that this place seemed to make no sense at the best of times.
On the door was a bright golden plate, which had 'M. SOHMA' engraved upon it with slightly milky highlights. Yuki went in without knocking, as he thought that if Momiji was going to be so rude to him, then he wouldn't mind much if Yuki went inside the house without knocking.
The cursed-one ran upstairs, wondering what should happen if he found the real, female Mary-Ann, and was thrown outside before he could find Momiji's fan and gloves.
"How stupid." Yuki sighed, to himself more than his very unhelpful conscience "I'm taking orders from Momiji."
"I don't see why you ever listen to Me." his conscience complained, looking at its charge resentfully. "Really," it continued "I'm trying to be helpful, and all you do is think about how irritating I am!"
"Have you ever thought," it spat, enjoying its moment of spite "About how annoying you are! Just running off where you please, taking orders from everyone but your conscience who knows best!"
"Oh," Yuki murmured, feeling a little guilty "Well, what should I be doing, then?"
"Hey, you can go jump off a cliff for all I care, little Nezumi." his conscience grinned, fluttering off to investigate something that interested him more than this hopeless charge.
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Yuki wasn't in a particularly good mood when he found Momiji's room. It was painted various bright colours, and his favorite sun-hat hung on the corner of a velvet-covered chair. A pretty array of flowers (Quite a few of them were lurid Pink Roses, Yuki noticed) rested in a lovely crystal vase. Yuki didn't care much about that, though. What he did care about, however, was the single fan, and a couple of pairs of kid gloves, lying innocently on Momiji's bedside table.
The Rat quickly snatched up the items, and was about to leave the room, when he spotted a little flask, which stood near Momiji's Mirror (Or "Looking Glass", as one might say).
It wasn't labeled 'DRINK ME', like the last horrible concoction, but nevertheless, Yuki uncorked it, and put it to his lips.
"Something is going to happen, when I drink this." Yuki reasoned to himself "Because whenever I do something that is traditionally simple, like drinking something, something odd happens." He quite hoped that it would make him taller again, for Yuki did not in the least seem interested in being so small for an extended period of time.
It did make Yuki grow larger, and much sooner than he had counted on: Before Yuki had even finished half the bottle (Which tasted much like more of that Red Cordial stuff), he found his head pressing against the ceiling, and had to stoop down immediately to stop his neck from being broken.
Yuki quickly put down the bottle, saying to himself, "That's definitely enough- I really do hope that I don't grow anymore- I can't get out the door now, anyway!"
Unfortunately for the poor Juunishi, he went right on growing, and soon had to sit down to still fit in the room. But in another minute, even this was not enough, so he tried partially lying down, with one elbow against the door, the other out of the window, and one of his feet up the chimney.
"Now I can't do anything!" Yuki sighed, wondering how he was going to get out of this one "What is going to become of me?"
Luckily for Yuki, he did not grow any more. Nevertheless, it was very uncomfortable. No wonder he wasn't very pleased!
"How strange this is;" Yuki commented to himself "I used to dismiss fairy tales as stories, and now I'm in one! Imagine, someone might one day write a story about me…
"Of course, that would be a silly idea." Yuki corrected himself "I don't really think anyone would be very interested in me…"
Yuki continued thinking on this subject for quite some time, and was eventually broken from this train of thought by a rather cross-sounding voice calling out.
"Mary Ann!" came a genki sounding voice "Mary Ann! Please get me my gloves, Mary Ann! I reeeeeally need them!" Then came a pattering sound of little feet coming up the stairs. Yuki knew that it was Momiji coming up to open the door, and he glared, realizing it was Momiji's stupid drink that had placed him in this predicament in the first.
Presently, Momiji came up to the door, and tried to open it. Alas for Momiji, as Yuki's elbow was most uncomfortably pressed against it, the door would not budge. Yuki heard Momiji sigh, then brighten and say to himself, "I know! I'll go round and get in by the window! Yay!"
"Hmmm, just you try." Yuki thought to himself, and waited until his battle-perfect ears could hear Momiji just under the window. Then, he quickly made a grabbing motion. He did not get a hold of anything, but he heard a little shriek and a fall, and a crash of some sort. Yuki felt a little pang of guilt as he realized that it must have been a garden cucumber-frame. He had not intended on wrecking a vegetable garden.
Next came an angry voice- Momiji's –"Gardener, Gardener! Come here!"
Then came a voice that Yuki was sure he recognized, but couldn't quite put his finger on it, "Well, of course, I'm here. I've just been digging for apples like you told me to do. You really should pay a little more consideration for your staff, since we're here, serving you, even if you don't deserve it."
"Ah, yes, whatever." Momiji dismissed, nevertheless sounding rather unnerved from his gardener's rapid criticism "Here, please come and help me out of this! It hurts!" (Insert more sounds of broken glass here)
"Now, tell me Hiro-chan, what's that!"
"It's an arm, 'Your Honor'. Anyone could see that."
"An arm? Really! I've never seen one that size! You're pulling my leg!"
"No, I'm not. It's an arm. You should really be more trusting of your staff."
"Well, at any rate, that arm has no business here! It was mean! It hurt me! Get rid of it!"
There was a great deal of silence after this, and Yuki could only hear a great lot of whispering, and occasionally caught things like "Sure, I don't like it. What do you take me for?" "Please do as I tell you!" and at last he spread out his hand, and made another little snatch, and with it came two little cries, and more sounds of broken glass.
"Momiji seems to have a terrible lot of cucumber-frames. I never knew Momiji liked big gardens…" Yuki mused "I wonder what they're going to do now. As for the matter of pulling me out of the window, I wish they could! I don't want to stay here!"
He waited for quite some time without hearing anything, until there came the rumbling of cart-wheels, and the sound of many voices talking together. He made out the words: "Where's the other ladder? –Well, I only had to bring one; Kisa's got the other one -Kisa! Come here! Come and put both of them up on this corner here, you two! –I think we should tie them together first –Ummm, they don't reach high enough, sir… -They'll be fine! Don't be so fussy! –Don't be mean to her. Would you like it if someone was like that to you? –Oh, fine, fine. Here, Kisa, catch this rope! –Mind that Loose slate! –Oh, it's coming down! Heads below!" (A loud crash) "Now who did that? –I think it was Kisa! –Don't be mean to her… Now, who's going down the chimney? –I'm not! My jacket will get dirty, and I still have to meet up with the Duchess –Well, I'm not! –Kisa shall go down –Here, Kisa! 'The Master' says that you have to go down the chimney. Be careful!"
"Oh, so Kisa is going to come down the chimney, is she?" Yuki said to himself. "Poor Kisa- everything seems to be put upon her! I don't think I would really want to be in her place: The fire place is going to be narrow, but I think I can kick a little…"
Yuki drew his foot as far down the chimney as he could, and waited until he heard a little animal (He wasn't too sure what this Wonderland-Kisa was, but if she was named Kisa, he had a good idea…) scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above him: then, saying to himself "That must be Kisa," he gave one sharp kick, and waited to see what would happen next.
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The first thing he heard was a general chorus of "There goes Kisa!" then Momiji's voice alone "Catch her, you by the hedge!" then silence and another confusion of voices- "Hold up her head- Brandy now- Brandy! You know she's far too young to drink alcohol!- Cordial then! –Don't choke her –How was it, Kisa? Are you alright? –Tell us!"
At last came a feeble, soft-sounding voice ("That's Kisa" thought Yuki) "Well, I-I'm not sure –No more, thank you, I feel better- All… all I can remember, is that something c-came up like a jack-in-the-box, and up I went, l-like a sky rocket!" And Yuki heard the sound of sobbing, to which the voice of Hiro began trying to soothe the creature.
"We will BURN THE HOUSE DOWN!" Momiji announced, sounding most fierce. Yuki quickly called out, as loud as he could, "If you do, I'll send everything I can think of after you!"
There was dead silence immediately (Aside from the occasional sobbing), and Yuki thought to himself, "I wonder what they're going to do now? If they had any sense at all, I guess they'd take the roof off."
After a minute or two, they began moving again, and Yuki heard Momiji say, "A barrowful will do, to begin with…"
"A… barrowful of what, exactly?" wondered Yuki, but soon did not need to wonder, for a moment later a shower of pebbles came rattling in at the window, and some hit him in his beautiful face.
"I'll put a stop to this," he said to himself, and shouted out "You'd better not do that again, you little runts!" Which Yuki thought was quite rude, but he could not stop himself at the time. This produced dead silence.
Yuki noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all turning into little biscuits on the floor. "Maybe, if I eat one of those, it should make me smaller, because I can't possibly grow bigger!"
So Yuki swallowed one of the biscuits, and to his delight, he began shrinking. As soon as he was small enough to get out of the door, he ran outside, and found quite a large crowd of various creatures outside the house. The poor little Tiger (Who really resembled a little kitten more than a tiger), Kisa, was in the middle, being held up by a little Ram and a little Hare, and the Ram was giving her something from a bottle. They all made a rush at Yuki as soon as he appeared, but Yuki ran off as fast as his legs could carry him, and soon found himself in a thick wood.
"Well, at least I lost that Akito-creature…" Yuki commented, stopping to regain his breath.
As if Yuki had called for it, the conscience was now sitting on his shoulder. "I can see you missed me greatly." It said in a withering tone, and would not speak for quite some time, despite Yuki attempting to apologize.
"Well," Yuki said, sighing "I suppose the next thing I have to do, is grow to my right size again, and then find my way to that pretty garden…"
It sounded like a simple plan, and very easily laid out. The only problem was, Yuki had no idea how to do either.
He was pacing about for quite some time, trying to figure it out, when he came across a large mushroom.
It was about the same size as Yuki, and, when he looked under it, and on both sides of it, and behind it, it occurred to him that he might just go and see what was on top of it.
He stretched himself up on the tips of his toes, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and his eyes immediately met those of a creature, which slightly resembled a large blue caterpillar, which had been cloud-watching, and taking no notice of him or anything else.
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Finally! I stayed up late typing this one! I hope you all like it! Get ready to meet one more Juunishi in the next chapter, and a lot of vague-ness!
Z-chan.
