Chapter 5: A Night with an Outsider

I'm back! :D

Two weeks of exam. but I'm free now! :D

I just have to tell you guys this. That on last Thursday, our class got Drama exam performing Trumpets and Raspberries by Dario Fo. And my lecturer was catching up his plane. So we have to perform in only 20 minutes. 20 minutes! Dx

We ended up cutting some lines and improvizing almost everywhere, everywhere. But still, it caught only one hour and he left in hurry after taking three quick photos with us. But we're sooo happy that he ended up laughing so hard :"D

I hope it's a good farewell :"3

Aaand I also got sick last week, made me late in submitting two of the last assignments of the same lecture. I already sent my apology letter to my lecturer, I hope she approves :")

Aaaand yeah that's the story of the past weeks. I'm so glad I can go back to you guys :D

Hello for the new readers! And here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own HNKNA or any characters in it, they belong to Quinrose. I only own my character and this story.

Remy sat on the tree branch and looked at the stars in amazement. Seconds ago it was noon, now it's night. She was surprised at how the sky turned to night in a very short time. It was like tiny little stars jumped up and crowded the sky in a fast but smooth way and poof! It's night. It was interesting to watch it, but Remy prefer how the sky changed color slowly like back in her home. It was more beautiful.

Home.

Now that was something she forgot when she woke up. That's what had been missing. She needed to get back home or she will make her siblings very worried. But how can she get home? She didn't even know where she's now. She didn't even know how she got here. Maybe the kind man can help her?

Her salmon orbs glanced away from the sky to the small hole in the end of the branch she was sitting. Recalling how the man asked her to wait here for a bit, because he needed to get the room ready for resting. She could hear some pounding and rustling from there, but she was not suspicious. The kind man helped her enough and she thought she will trust him. He didn't know her, yet he's so kind to let her stay in his home. In this tree. With her in a size as small as a mouse.

The second thing that amazed Remy for the past minutes, err time changes, was that the man could do magic. He could shrink the both of them into small size and took them up a tree with ease. She didn't know how he could do it. But it was so cool and she liked it. It felt like...this was just a dream, a very good dream and she did not want to wake up. She pinched her arm with very little power as to not injure herself, just enough to make her feel the pressure, and she was sure that this was not a dream.

It was real.

"Come on in chu! The room's ready chu!" shout the kind man. Remy giggled at his voice. It was so high even her sister's was deeper than his.

She rose up and slowly made her way to the small hole. When she stepped inside it, she couldn't see anything beside her shadow. After she stepped aside, she could make out some outlines shone by the moonlight. The place was hollow, like an empty room, but there were a lot of leaves in the middle of the room. Along with some... Acorns? And something that looked soft and light colored which she didn't know what. And there, in the middle of those light-colored thingies, leaves, and acorns; sat the kind man with his hat off. And Remy could make out round lines on top of his head. What is that?

"Are you okay chu~? Sleepy? Or hungry? I can open the acorns for you if you're hungry chu~" said Pierce in his usual unique way of talking.

Remy giggled again at how he talked to her. He's so kind and cute. She's not that sleepy, but her eyes were pretty tired after all that crying back at Nightmare's house.

Remy shook her head, "I'm okay. Not sleepy, but tired. And not hungry." She tried to answer the questions in order.

There was a pause for a second before the man said, "We can go to sleep chu~ The cat won't find us here. A-and if h-he did, then... I'll protect you chu!"

Remy smiled. She liked this man. Even though she didn't really understand what he's talking about. There is no cat here. Why does he have to worry about cats anyway?

"Thank you." She smiled and inclined her head.

Pierce smiled back at her. And then gestured her over. "Come here chu~"

He was trying to be a good host. He didn't know how to handle a child, but he tried his best and it seemed working. He did not want the little girl to start crying again. Even though her cries weren't hurting his ears, it was still not pleasant to hear someone crying. It made him want to cry too. His profession aside.

They sat together on the piles side by side and she turned her head toward him. She was looking at something above him. He was sure there was nothing above them. So what is she looking at? He craned his head back and raised it a bit to see what she was looking at.

She couldn't see it pretty clear because the lack of the light, but she could remember where that weird-thingies on top of his head were. She couldn't help but feel curious about what it is.

Then, after a few seconds of silence and Pierce found nothing above that could've caught her attention, he turned back his head to look at her. She was watching closely at something. maybe on top of his head? His ears?

Pierce decided to ask, "Are you looking at my ears chu?"

The girl blinked and tilted her head. "Ears?" she echoed.

"Yes." The man inclined his head and Remy could see it more clear now in the light line.

The man had no ears in the place where ears should've been. She instinctively touched her ears and wondered whether they're still intact. They're there. Then she looked back at where his ears should be and did not see anything but hair and skin. Where are his ears?

"Um... Mister? Where are your ears? What is that on your head?" Remy asked. She rubbed her own ears to emphasize.

Pierce cocked his head to the side. Didn't she notice it already? They were on top of his head. They weren't covered by his hat and she should've been able to see it beforehand. Yet she didn't seem to notice.

Pierce pointed to his ears, "These are my ears chu."

She tilted her head, "Why are they round?"

"Because I'm a mouse...? ..chu..?" Pierce blinked. What's wrong with this little girl?

Remy simply stared at him and soon her face grew...confused. He's a mouse? But he looked like people. Human. Then Remy tried to think about all that had happened.

First, Nightmare appeared in her dream and talked with her, it felt like real yet it was a dream, and he talked the same like he was in the dream when she woke up. Second, the sky changed in a strange way. And last, this man could shrink the both of them.

Well all of this was so strange if she was to think about it all over again. She felt her head ache a little from all the thinking and looked away from the man but still tried to think. That's when she saw something swaying behind the man. It was almost like a tail. Then questions popped up inside her head. Is he really a mouse? But he looked like people. Human. And where is she now? Can she get home? How can she get home? Where are her siblings?

She moaned a little when the pain increased and shut her eyes. This was all too much.

Pierce looked at her with a bit of worry, "D-Does it hurt again chu? H-Here, l-lay down chu." He helped her laid her head on the makeshift pillow that he made out of folded leaves.

"D-Don't push yourself chu. Just rest. I'll wake you up when the sun comes out chu." Pierce rubbed her back softly as to reassure her.

She didn't fight back because she didn't have the energy. It was all too much to swallow and she didn't want to think anything else again at that point. She just hoped that she would meet Nightmare in her dream. The thought of meeting Nightmare made her calm a bit. She tried to relax, trusting the kind man on his words, and not long after that, she went to sleep.

Pierce stopped his rubs after a few more minutes after she was asleep and kept silence. Not because he didn't want to wake her up, but because of the sound he heard.

Thump thump thump.

'What is that?' he asked himself.

He never heard that anywhere.

He tried to listen again, to hear if anything or anyone was close by or even under the tree he's at, but he heard no sounds like that outside. No heavy footsteps or clicking shoes or even rustlings of clothes. Only the rustlings of the leaves and bushes and the wind blowing. He can differentiate those.

Instead, the sound came from inside the tree. Right beside him.

Pierce looked at the little girl. It couldn't be her right?

And as if to make sure, Pierce leaned down. He put his face closer toward her chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His eyes opened again. What's that? He didn't know what it was, but it was like ticking of a clock, but...different. Is her clock...broken? He had never heard a clock that ticks like that. They were always light. Tick tick tick...

But this, it was thump thump thump... Not like the clocks he had touched in his life.

He thought for a second. Could it be... Could it be that she's a foreigner?

He ever heard that foreigners don't have clocks like they do. They have... What was it called? A heart.

He never heard a heart ticks before. He had never met a foreigner before. Except for Alice. And even he didn't have the chance to hear it because he could never get too close to her.

'Is this... Is this what heart is chu?' he thought as he listened to the soft thumping sounds of her heart again and smiled. 'It's so calming chu..'

But then she's a foreigner..? But how could it be? What was she doing here? How could she get here? What will happen to Alice if she's here now? And more importantly, what will happen with her being here, in Alice's game?

The rules didn't mention anything about a second player, and Pierce replayed the rules inside his head just to make sure. He might just be a mouse, one of the minor role holders, but he's still a role holder and therefore, must know and bid to the rules. In fact, all of them in Wonderland too.

Pierce wasn't sure about the answers to those questions, but his mind went back to the girl. Now that he looked again, her wound didn't seem to heal fast. Wonderlanders could be wounded but they could be recovered fast in a few time changes and the progress could be seen. He remembered Alice ever said that foreigners heal slowly if they're injured, that's why they tend to avoid fights. That only adds the fact that the little one's a foreigner.

Then he thought back to when he met her at the hallway of the Clover Tower and came up with assumptions. Pierce didn't see anyone chasing her in the hallway. And the first role holder to step out the meeting room was him, so she couldn't be running from a role holder. Probably a faceless? But she managed to lose them in the tower and came across him. And then the wound probably hurt when she was walking and made her dizzy, that's why she crashed to the wall and fell. But then how did she get the wound? Did Nightmare know? Did the residents in Clover know about her?

He looked at her again.

He got so many questions inside his head. But he noticed how the girl would occasionally looked in pain when she was silent—which Pierce took as she was thinking something; and couldn't bring his own heart(clock) to ask, even when she would wake up later. Maybe he should make sure the wound would heal first before asking anything that leads her to think so hard.

He planned on taking her back to Clover, but decided to save it for later and lie down. As he laid his head on the piles of leaves, he heard a soft sound coming from her and a sigh. He looked at her again. Maybe she was having a dream? Pierce smiled a little. At least she didn't feel hurt. Then came the feeling. He wanted to hear her heart again.

Pierce wanted to put his head closer and listen to that soft thumping inside her chest. It was so interesting, so distracting, and at the same time, soothing. It was like a song that tugged him to reach out and listen to it again. And he let himself draw closer to the girl to comply. He closed his eyes to get ready to listen again, but when his forehead touched below her chin, he opened them again.

She's so warm. Pierce couldn't help but took her in his arms. Feeling her warmth transferred to him, he sighed. It's nice. He enjoyed the moment for a few minutes and pulled her closer. Soon, he fell asleep too, with the sound of her heartbeat as his lullaby.