The fifth chapter.
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The 'Caterpillar' and Yuki looked at each other for quite some time in silence. Yuki was sure he had seen this creature before. But where?
Since this 'Caterpillar' didn't seem to be very talkative at the moment, Yuki took the time to try to remember where he had seen it. It resembled a human more than a caterpillar, really, as its features and body shape was like one. However, sprouting from its head, were two long, curly, blue antennae. Yuki wasn't sure what to classify the creature's hair under: Black or White? He couldn't be sure. It was wearing an electric blue dressing gown ("I suppose it is because it could still only be the morning, and this fellow is a late-riser." Yuki thought), with little minute wings sprouting from its back, and seemed to always have a vague expression on its face.
At last, the creature unfolded its arms, and addressed him in a indolent, sleepy-sounding voice, devoid of much personality.
"Who… are you?" said the 'Caterpillar'.
This was not Yuki's preferred opening for a good conversation. "I… I'm not really sure anymore." Yuki replied, feeling stupid "I mean, I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I've changed much too many times to know who I am now."
"What… do you mean… by that…?" asked the 'Caterpillar', who Yuki realized reminded him very much of Haru Sohma at this present time "Explain yourself."
"I'm sorry, I can't really explain myself, Sir." apologized Yuki, wondering if this creature's name really was Haru "Because I'm not myself, you see."
"I don't see." replied the Haru-Caterpillar, yawning slightly, but never blinking.
"I'm afraid, Sir, that I can't really put that more clearly" Yuki said politely, frowning a bit "Because I can't understand it myself. This place is so strange! Being so many different sizes in a day is so confusing!"
"It… isn't." said the Haru-Caterpillar.
"Well, you're a Caterpillar, aren't you?" Yuki asked, thinking of a way to make it simple.
"Of course…" the creature replied, glaring at Yuki as if he had suggested something awful.
"Then I suppose," Yuki began "That you don't know what it's like to change size yet. You will, once you turn into a chrysalis, and then into… a butterfly?" Yuki stopped at this, trying to imagine Haru as a butterfly. He decided he couldn't, and continued "I suppose you'd feel a little strange, wouldn't you? Changing into a butterfly?"
"Not at… all." said the Haru-Caterpillar.
"Well, perhaps your thoughts may be different," Yuki sighed, looking a little bothered "but all I know is that it would feel very strange to me."
"You!" said the Haru-Caterpillar suddenly "Who are you?"
Which, brought them right back to the beginning of the conversation. Yuki decided that he did not appreciate this Haru-look-alike in the least, as he was most annoying for making such very short and useless remarks.
He drew himself up, thinking that he looked assertive, and said, very gravely, "I think you should really tell me who you are, first." ("I wonder if his name is Haru" Yuki wondered, while he said this.)
"Why?" said the creature, more of a statement than a question, which confused Yuki thoroughly.
This was yet another puzzling thing, and since he couldn't think of anything to say, and he did not really enjoy being around this creature any more than he liked being around his own conscience (Which had fallen asleep on his shoulder, curled up in a lock of Yuki's hair), Yuki began walking off.
"Come back…" the Haru-Caterpillar called out, sounding a little displeased "I've… got something important… to say…"
This sounded a little promising, so Yuki turned and came back again.
"Keep your temper." Haru said.
"Is that all?" Yuki said very sweetly, stamping down his anger as best he could.
"No." the Haru-Caterpillar said.
Yuki decided he might as well wait, as he really didn't have anything else he could or had to do, and maybe after all the Wonderland-Haru would tell Yuki something useful. For some minutes the Haru-Caterpillar sat there, looking up at the clouds drifting by, before he finally looked back at Yuki, and said, "So… you think you've changed, do you?"
"I suppose I am." Yuki admitted. "I can't remember things as well as I used to, and I can't keep the same stupid size for ten minutes!"
"Can't remember what things?" said the Haru-Caterpillar.
"Well," Yuki began, sounding a little embarrassed "I tried to recite 'How doth the busy bee', but it all came out… odd!"
"Repeat 'You are old, Father William," said Haru, folding his arms neatly.
"…That wasn't said right…" said the Haru-Caterpillar, the same blank expression still on his face.
"Not quite" Yuki sighed "Some of the words came out a little wrong. You must excuse me, my English isn't perfect…"
"It was wrong no matter what language it was in." his speaking-partner replied, looking at him matter-of-factly, and there was silence for quite some time.
Haru was the first to speak. "What size do… do you want to be?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't really mind," Yuki quickly said "I just don't like changing so quickly without reason, you know."
"I don't know." said the Haru-Caterpillar.
Yuki couldn't say anything. He had never been so contradicted in his entire life, not even when trying to exchange intelligent conversation with that Baka Neko Kyou, and he quite felt that he might lose his temper very soon.
"Are you happy now?" asked Haru, fixing his emotionless eyes on Yuki critically.
"Well, I would really like to be a bit taller than I am now." Yuki sighed "Three inches isn't really a great size to be."
The Haru-Caterpillar's mood changed immediately. He narrowed his eyes, and sprang to his feet easily. "It's a damn great size to be, shorty!" he snapped, making a fist, and glaring daggers into the poor Nezumi (He was exactly three Inches tall).
"I'm not used to it!" Yuki said quickly in a piteous tone. "I really wish these creatures wouldn't be so easily offended!" Yuki thought to himself.
"You'll get used to it." the Haru-Caterpillar said simply, and sat down, obviously calm again, and not ready to… beat the living daylights out of poor Yuki-chan.
This time Yuki waited most patiently for him to speak again. In a minute or two, the Haru-Caterpillar got up and yawned once or twice, adjusted the sleeve of his dressing gown, and shook himself. Then he got down off the mushroom, and walked away into the grass, calling out in vague sort of way as he went "One side will make you grow taller… the other side will make you grow shorter…"
"One side of what? The other side of what?" thought Yuki to himself.
"Of the Mushroom, Yuki-chan…" said the Haru-caterpillar, just as if Yuki had said it out aloud; and in another moment he was out of sight.
In about a minute, Yuki froze.
It occurred to him that he had not once told the Haru-look-alike his name.
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Yuki remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out where there were two sides of it, and as it was perfectly round, he found this a very hard task indeed. However, at last he simply stretched his arms around the mushroom as far as he could reach and broke off a piece of either edge with his hands.
"Now, which one is which?" Yuki asked himself, and tried nibbling a bit on the right-hand side, and felt an awful, sudden blow underneath his chin. It had struck his feet!
Yuki was most shocked, and a little unnerved at the sudden change, but he realized that he must act quickly, and he set to work at once, nibbling at the other bit. His chin was pressed so closely against his foot that he hardly managed to open his mouth to fit a piece in, but eventually he did so, and managed to swallow a morsel of the left-hand piece.
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"Well, that seemed to work!" Yuki smiled, but his expression quickly changed to alarmed in another moment, when he found that his shoulders were no where to be seen: All that he could see, when he looked down, was an immense length of neck, and a great deal of trees, stretched out under him like a large leafy sea.
"This is most strange." Yuki commented, looking about "Where are my shoulders?" He folded his arms as he said this, in a hope that he might notice this, but nothing happened, except for a little rustling below the leafy canopy.
As he found that he couldn't get his arms up to his head, he might as well try to get his head down to them, and was quite happy, if a little stunned, to see that his neck could bend around easily in any direction, like a serpent.
"This does contradict all sensible thoughts of the human anatomy." Yuki commented, as succeeded in curving his neck down in a graceful zigzag.
He was about to dive down into the leaves, when a sharp his made him draw back in a hurry: A rather large pigeon had flown into his face, and was beating him violently with its wings.
This caused Yuki's Conscience to wake up, and it immediately detached itself from Yuki's hair, and flitted about, inspecting the situation, and muttering to itself.
"Serpent!" screamed the Pigeon.
"I'm not a serpent" said Yuki, feeling most offended "Leave me alone!"
"Serpent, I say again!" repeated the Pigeon, but more in a subdued tone, and said with a sob "I've tried everything, but nothing seems to suit them!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Yuki said, raising one of his eyebrows.
"Hmph, as usual." remarked his conscience, glaring at Yuki with his midnight-pool eyes.
"I've tried the roots of trees, I've tried river banks, and I've even tried hedges," the Pigeon went on, without listening to either Yuki or his conscience "but all of those serpents, there's no pleasing them!"
Yuki was getting horribly curious as to what these Snakes from hell were not being pleased about, but he decided that there was no point in talking until the pigeon was finished ranting.
"As if it wasn't enough trouble hatching the eggs," said the pigeon "but I must be on guard constantly from those serpents day and night! Why, I haven't slept at all for three weeks!"
"I'm very sorry that you've been annoyed…" Yuki said, and felt that he was beginning to understand what the pigeon was so distressed about.
"And just as I've taken to the highest tree in the wood" it continued, raising its voice to a shriek, "and just as I was thinking I would be free of the damn things at last, one comes wriggling down from the sky! Ugh, Serpent!"
"But I'm not a Serpent, I tell you!" Yuki glared "I'm a, I'm a…"
"Well! What are you?" said the Pigeon "I can see you're trying to invent something!"
"I'm… I'm a human." Yuki said, rather doubtfully, as he remembered how many times he had changed throughout the day.
"A likely story indeed!" snapped the Pigeon "I've seen a great deal of humans in my time, but none with a neck like that! Serpent, I say!"
"Why are the Serpents bothering you so?" asked Yuki quickly, trying to change the subject.
"Hmph! Trying to steer away from the truth!" accused the Pigeon, but nevertheless, answered Yuki's question "It's been terrible lately! Those Serpents, there never used to be quite as many! But now, now that the Queen has taken the throne, their population has risen threefold!"
"How could a new Queen ascending to the throne increase the population of Serpents?" Yuki asked, as this really did not make sense to him at all.
"It's because he cuts the taxes for all of them! Living is ever-so-much easier for those wretched Serpents!" replied the Pigeon, sounding most annoyed.
Something struck Yuki. "If it's a male, shouldn't he be a King?" Yuki asked, looking confused.
"Oh no, don't say that!" the Pigeon said urgently, quickly covering Yuki's mouth "No, no, he prefers to be called by the old title- Queen. It's an old tradition in his family, apparently. Something about an imperial cousin or something. Anyway, never call him by any other title! You're lucky none of those damn serpents were around! They would report you, and you'd be missing your head very quickly!"
"Ah, well, thank you, I suppose." Yuki said, bowing his head down as slightly as he could.
"It was only because of my good will that I said so!" sniffed the Pigeon "I could have gotten rid of egg-stealing serpents like you easily, otherwise!"
"I am NOT a Serpent!" Yuki glared.
"Hmph, and I suppose you wouldn't cheerfully steal my eggs, hmmm?" asked the Pigeon.
"Of course not!" Yuki snapped, half in anger, and half in irritation.
"He wouldn't eat them anyway," piped up Yuki's conscience, looking smug.
"And why not?" asked the Pigeon, sounding a little offended.
"Because he doesn't like rotten, raw eggs like yours!" answered Yuki's conscience, making a rude gesture, and looking most pleased with himself.
This angered the pigeon. "Well, be off then!" it hissed in a sulky tone, and settled down in its nest once again.
Yuki had it in his mind that he might scold his conscience, but as he wasn't it a very good mood with that wretched Pigeon, he decided that he would let it go, just this once.
Yuki crouched down in the trees as best he could, for his neck kept on getting tangled in the branches, and he had to stop and untwist it. After a while he remembered that he still had the two pieces of mushroom, and set to work at once, very carefully nibbling at each, until he was down to his usual height again.
It had been so long since he had been anywhere near the right size, but the Nezumi quickly got used to it, and began thinking of what to do next.
"I think," Yuki mused "that the next thing I should do, is find my way into that garden. I'm sure there's someone who can help me get out of this stupid place in there!"
"Why would you want to leave?" asked his conscience "You've always been here."
Yuki decided to ignore it, and realized that he had suddenly come across a little house, about four feet high.
"Whoever lives there," Yuki said "I doubt they would be very pleased to see someone at this size. They would be frightened to death!"
So Yuki began nibbling at the right-hand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house until he had shrunk to around nine inches high…
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Ah! Finally finished! Since I have to bring the book back to the library in a week, I'm typing these up fast. You'll probably get them later on, though, since it's good to have little breaks between chapters, but yes, I hope you are all enjoying this!
I certainly am! ˆˆ
And now, some illustrations! I love drawing, so I decided to draw the characters. Due to web-link restrictions, I have placed unnecessary spaces in the links. Please remove them, and take a look, if you wish!
Yuki's conscience: Yuki's conscience: http :www .deviantart. com/ deviation /16050879/
The White Rabbit, Momiji: http :www .deviantart. com/ deviation / 16848108/
His Staff, Kisa and Hiro: http :www .deviantart. com/ deviation / 16848812/
The… Mouse, Uo-chan: http :www .deviantart. com/ deviation / 16919754/
The Caterpillar, Haru: http :www .deviantart. com/ deviation / 16919436/
Michyo Saruwatari: Yes, the title, at least, is a take on Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. I had a feeling that I would like to do a Fruits Basket take on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and when I saw that manga title (I have yet to read the manga, but I have seen reviews), I decided to indeed write a fic.
Also, thank you all of you for your kind reviews so far!
Z-chan.
