||Episode 3 - Part I: Tumble Down the Rabbit's Hole||

*Tricksy Clock*...[Wonderland]

Our descent down the giant hole was strangely pleasant. The fall slowed down as if we were being lowered down by strings. Making some fun out of it, Sora and Goofy were doing flips and other tricks as we approached the ground. I noticed something else, too. The walls were covered in furniture. Lamps, broken fences, and other objects. Down below, I could see a couch and pots of flowers, but they were sunk into the ground.

"Oof!" Goofy landed on the checkered floor with a thud. The rest of us were on our feet, wincing in response to his terrible landing. "I'm okay!"

"What part of the world are we in now?" Sora wondered, looking around. "This place is so weird."

"Oh, my fur and whiskers!" We looked at each other when someone spoke up in a frantic tone. It was neither of us, nor was it Donald or Goofy. During our confusion, a white rabbit wearing a yellow shirt and red blazer ran passed us. He was carrying a large pocket watch. "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!"

Not sure of what just happened, we decided to follow the rabbit. He looked like he was in a panic about being late for something and getting in trouble by some queen. Whatever he was rambling on about, it sounded like he was worth following. It was possible that he or his queen knew something about our friends. If they did, then that was more luck for us.

The winding path down a hall led us straight to a giant door. It and a series of smaller doors opened up when we approached, giving us access to the next area. I was glad to be leaving this strange room. All of these ticking clocks on the walls were getting on my nerves.

"Hey, we're in a kitchen," Goofy stated. He was right, or so I thought. There was something bizarre about this room we were in. Not only was it hardly big enough for the four of us to stand in together, but there were a number of things that didn't fit. A stove and oven made up the kitchen, and there was a round dining table flattened to the ground. What was weird was the bed up against the wall and the oddly placed chairs.

The rabbit we were chasing after was here, too, but he was much smaller than before. He was barely the size of a raisin, but the white rabbit was the perfect size to fit through a small brown door with a golden knob. That didn't make any sense, though. How come we were so huge and he was small like that?

"He's so small," Sora muttered, kneeling down to get a closer look at the door. Looking around, there didn't seem to be anything that could make us small like the rabbit. "This door is way too tiny for us to fit through. I could probably fit a finger..."

"Nonsense!" The doorknob suddenly blurted, yelling at Sora. We jumped back in shock when it spoke. That was no ordinary doorknob. It had a mouth that moved and eyes. "The problem is... you are simply too big. And, little boy, you had better not put one of your fingers in-"

"It's a talking doorknob!" Donald quacked.

"You, sir, are terribly loud," the doorknob complained and sent a glare to Donald. "I was just about to take my midday nap."

"G'mornin'!" Goofy smiled.

"Goodnight! I'm going to sleep," the doorknob closed his eyes. He was yawning and relaxing once again. I bet he thought we were just going to leave him alone, but he was wrong. We had to get through and follow that rabbit. There was still a whole world to search in order to find Riku and Kairi.

"Hold on a second!" I dropped down to my knees and jabbed the doorknob's knob with my index finger. He woke right up form the rude awakening, but I didn't care about what he had to complain of. "Tell us what we have to do to shrink down. We need to get through and find that rabbit."

"My nose!" he shrieked. "Oh dear, why don't you just try the bottle over there...?"

"Bottle?" I turned around in time to see the table and chair rising from the ground. Sitting on top of the table were two bottles. As for the doorknob, he fell asleep the second I turned back around. Now we couldn't ask him which bottle would make us smaller. "I guess we just try one out to see if it will shrink us."

We gathered around the table and investigated the two bottles. According to Mr. Doorknob, it was one of these that would do the trick. I noticed the simplistic illustrations on the blue and orange labels. The orange one depicted a small plant growing into a large tree, and the blue labeled bottle was the other way around. So, if we drank this orange bottle, then we would be growing even bigger... I didn't want to know what would happen if we did that.

Here goes nothing, I took a sip out of the bottle. In an instant, after all of us drank from the blue bottle, we began to shrink down to a very tiny size. We were the right size to fit through the door that rabbit went through. I stepped over to the edge of the tabletop and gazed down at the talking doorknob. Don't tell me... He's still asleep. Looks like we're going to have to find another way through.

"Uh, guys," Sora spoke up, gathering everyone's attention. I spun around to face Sora as he pointed down at something near the giant stove. "We've got trouble!"

Heartless were spawning all over the bizarre room, and some of them were heading toward Mr. Doorknob. He had no arms or anything to fight with. It was ultimately up to us to save him, so we all jumped down to confront the band of Heartless. Shadows and fire-casting nocturnes. The enemies we fought were fairly weak and quick to deal with. Once we were done, we found a way out of the bizarre room to get after the rabbit again.

I found a doorless entryway to someplace else at a corner adjacent to the doorknob's door. Not knowing where it would take us to, we hurried through to find out.

*Music End*

間

"It's a giant maze," Donald grumbled. "And how are we supposed to find that rabbit in there?"

Grassy hedges zigzagged throughout a vast field. The four of us stood atop a hill overlooking it all, and we saw no end to the maze. In the distance was a huge castle but with no path leading straight to it. What is this? I gritted my teeth. We stumbled on a huge headache, that was for sure. It'd probably take us days just to get through to the other side, and that was if we took the right path.

This was our only way, but there were multiple paths to take through the maze. Chances were that all of them connected to each other and the castle somehow. But, part of the maze was moving toward a forest nearby, so we still had to be careful about which way we went.

"C'mon, let's go this way!" Sora opted to the second route in the maze.

One way or another, we had to start somewhere and figure out how to get through this place. I followed after Sora in a bid to find the right path to that white castle. Donald and Goofy were following close behind, pointing out the routes we haven't yet tried taking. Surely that white rabbit was headed for the castle we saw. Unfortunately for the likes of us, it was no easy task reaching the castle. Each turn through the maze took us to one dead end after another, and we were getting tired of the seemingly endless walking. It was bad enough that we had more of the Heartless to deal with at the same time.

"So, are we going to circle back again yet, Donald?" Sora asked, bringing a prominent frown to Donald's face. He and I were walking side by side, while Donald and Goofy remained by each other during our stroll through the unforgivably dreadful and cruelly crafted maze. "I'm starting to get hungry..."

"Grrr... We might as well leave this world!" Donald grumbled. "I don't see the King anywhere, and we're not any closer to that castle."

King? I raised a brow, curious and a little annoyed at the expression of impatience. Well, who was I kidding? This place was already beginning to drive me a little nuts. But had they mentioned anything about a king before? This was a little new coming from his mouth. I was a certainly a little more curious about this duo we were traveling with. Might be worth questioning them about it.

"Say, Donald..." I started, painting my visage with a plain expression. "What kind of world did you two come from? Did the Heartless destroy it, too? And, this King-"

"What?!" Donald quacked. "What did I say about keeping the order?"

"...I didn't think asking about you guys would bother the border," I sighed quietly. "Geez."

"I said order!" he retorted.

"Aw, I don't think it'd be that bad to tell them a bit about us," Goofy cheerfully favored sharing the details. Definitely out of the two of them, Goofy was a lot more kind and open toward us. Of course, his consideration was an irritating nag for the magic-wielding duck. He was allowed to talk nonetheless. "The King was the one who sent us to look for the key- uh... keys? Gwarsh, but he didn't tell us there were two. Queen Minnie tasked us with finding the King and all. Guess "

"That's a simple way to put it," Sora blinked. Leaning closer to me as we followed them down the grassy route, Sora whispered quietly in my ear. "I thought that he wasn't all that smart, but it seems like he's smarter than he looks."

"Agreed," I nodded. There was something more that I wanted to say about it- about Donald and Goofy. My mouth cracked open, but failed to utter a sentence when we turned a corner. To my eyes, it was a grand spectacle so amazing to see. They widened, as did Sora's. I could also hear the sound of trumpets in the distance. "It's a castle! Do you guys see that?"

"Sure do!" Goofy responded excitedly. "I wonder what's goin' on down there."

"No point standing around here, let's go check it out," Sora shook his head, running ahead of Donald and Goofy. Favoring the idea of investigating the place, I followed behind him while the other two hustled to keep up.

Those look like cards. I noticed before we got to the entrance that there were peculiar guardsmen at the front gate. Human-sized cards wielding polearms, an axe and a spear. Well, that about made Wonderland seem like a world of completely bizarre... I didn't know what word to describe it as. Nonetheless, this world had some strange residents alongside the talking doorknob and the white rabbit.

"Halt!" shouted the black spade card. We all slowed our approach and walked up to the guards outside the castle. They were cautious and crossed their weapons to show their lack of interest in letting us through. "Who dares trespass on the queen's land?!"

"Oh, uh..." Sora was at a loss and turned to me, Donald, and Goofy for support. This wasn't something we were prepared for in the slightest. "We... came to see the queen? Y-Yeah, she invited us for-"

"Ah, you must be the royal audience!" the other guard declared, pulling back his axe. I felt a bit anxious, but somehow Sora got us out of a heap of trouble. They thought us to be some part of an audience, though I had no idea what for. It was relieving that we weren't going to be pushed aside so easily. "In that case, welcome to the queen's castle. Hurry inside. The trial is about to begin!"