CHAPTER 2
We wandered for a long time, Hannah and I. When we finally both agreed we were lost the sun, as much as we could see it through the trees and slightly heavy clouds, had already begun to set. We didn't know where we were, or how we got here, or what dangers this place could send our way. We momentarily panicked, but quickly I remembered all the survival shows and lectures I have heard and read about. Now the only problem besides being lost in a random forest was figuring out what to do first.
"Alright, I'm hungry, tired, and it's getting darker by the minute. I say we light a fire." A logical opinion, as always, came from my friend. Quickly thinking through the idea of a fire, I almost immediately mewed and started rambling.
"Yeah, OK, let's think that through. Pros: we're warm, we have light, we have a place to cook possible food and sleep, someone might see the fire and help us out, forest animals would be scared off and wouldn't bother us -"
"Exactly, let's do it!"
"Unfortunately there are also many cons generated by my paranoid mind: we could set the forest and ourselves on fire, we could attract unwanted and possibly danger bearing attention, and, of course, we also have no idea how to start a fire in the woods."
"I thought you said you know how to do all this survival stuff!"
"Yeah, I know how, I just fail whenever I try" I snorted a little, amused of Hannah's annoyed expression, which really was her normal face around me.
"So, no fire" Looking peeved at the shake of my head, she spun around in place and started looking around.
"We need at least a relatively safe place to sleep, start looking around for some kind if shelter."
"Can't we just sleep in a tree?"
"If you wanna try climbing up one of these just to fall down and die while trying to sleep, be my guest!"
"Geez, no need to be so snappy..." Frowning at the red head, I started walking and looking around, trying to stay close enough to her so we wouldn't get separated, yet far enough to be able to see further ahead through my glasses in the quickly diminishing light.
"This is fucking useless, we're gonna die because you wanted coffee!" I guess the famous ginger temperament counts even if you simply dyed your hair a reddish color.
"Oh shut up, you wanted coffee more than I did! Besides, once we find a place to sleep, like a cave or something, I'll stay closer to the entrance, ok?"
"Fine, but take out your knife just in case, it's dark and it's creeping me out, just don't kill me."
Digging into my small leather bag, I pulled out an old switchblade that once upon a time was decorated in horn detail and was shiny, but now was missing half its ornaments. The blade jumped out after I pressed a button, slightly startling me with its speed.
"I regret not taking any other 'survival' gear of my brothers." I laughed. Of course, I had no way of knowing we would get lost, but it was a nice thought.
"Mhmm, I totally agree."
Since the darkness of the night was upon us faster than we expected, we forgot our dreams of a cozy cave and huddled under a half fallen tree branch, leaves and sharp branches covering our backs and hiding our view of the sky. As per agreement, I lied closer to the 'entrance', knife held tightly in my hand. We huddled into our hoodies and said our goodnights. Soon, my friends breathing slowed and evened out, letting me know she was asleep. Slowly I rose from my place next to her, senses alert, and sat down in a more comfortable position to spring out of just in case. I was not about to fall asleep in an unfamiliar place with no protection. This was going to be a long night.

Ever so slowly, dawn approached. Fuck, staying up all night with nothing to do but sit and stay alert fricking sucked, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the night was uneventful, besides Hannah's snoring that is. As light started to spread across the sky, a thought about food came to my mind. We needed to drink, or at least eat something. Deeming it safe enough to leave my companion alone, I covered her up in some more discarded tree branches, just in case, and ventured forth, trying to locate some kind of source of water. I hoped Hannah would be smart enough to stay in one place, it probably wasn't smart to not leave a note.
"Here, water water water..." The lack of sleep made me slightly wonky, but not so much more than usual. I cleared my dry throat, glancing around, listening for any sound that could be caused by water. Venturing further west, where the forest seemed more luscious and the ground more damp, I heard a trickle of water.
"Success!" Mentally jumping around I quickly located the source of the wondrous liquid: a stream that could be considered a small river. Despite my throat screaming at me to take a sip, I carefully looked around and in the water, not wanting to poison myself. Not having a way to boil it or clean it through, I gave up the idea, scooped up some water in my palm and after careful inspection gulped it down. Tasting nothing wrong with it I drank some more and turned around to go back to my friend, trying to memorize the way to the stream as best as I could, while also looking around for any form of food.
"Wait, is that a chicken?!"

"Oi! Wake up, narwhal-face!"
Low mumbles of curses flowed out of Hannah's mouth as she hid her face into her elbow, away from me.
"There's a spider on your shoulder."
That got a reaction. Screaming, she immediately jumped of, brushing off her shoulders in frantic movements, while I laughed in the background.
"Is it gone?! Is it gone?!" Noticing my red face her panicked expression soured. "There was nothing there, right?"
"Yup!"
"I hate you."
"I know!" I answered her glowering stare, cheerful as ever.
"You'll be happy to know, that while you rested your tushy in a calm sleep, I protected the camp!"
"What camp, it's just a bunch of branches." Deadpanned Hannah, still not amused of my antics this early in the morning (though who knows what time it is, my iphone is dead). "What do you mean protected it?"
"Oh, I didn't sleep and kept watch on the surroundings." I grinned, trying to channel my inner happy puppy, despite feeling like keeling over and dying just to get some sleep.
"You are crazy, woman."
"Yeah, but you're still glad I did it."
"Kinda, yeah."
"Good. I also thought ahead about water and food. There's a stream up ahead and I found some food, it should be there too if some animal hadn't found it."
She raised her eyebrow.
"You left the food unsupervised?"
"Well sorry, I thought you'd be freaking out over me not being here, you sleepy head!"
"Why didn't you just bring it here?"
"Oh, you'll see." Hardly containing my amusement, I rose from my crouch beside her. "Let's move, unicorn! Go go go!" Grabbing her arm and raising her up, I chanted, ignoring her whining.
"Move it, move it!"
After some feet shuffling and tripping over a root or three, we barged through the bushes near the stream.
"Tadaaaam! You can drink it, I don't think it's poisonous. It's a bit cold, so washing up is a bit hard to do without freezing. You can go though, I washed up after I caught lunch, breakfast and dinner for today."
"Good job, my monkey slave!" Patting my back, Hannah leaned over to the stream for a drink. "What is that food you mentioned?"
"Here, I killed it myself" I grinned, showing her my prize, hanging off a stick.
"Holly crap is that a chicken?!"
"WAS a chicken. I buried all the intestines and feathers and the head and stuff further away, so animals can't smell it and if they do they're not immediately on us. I washed it off too!"
"You killed a chicken." She seemed in shock, her face pale and mouth open; I was so proud of myself.
"Yup! Now all we need is a fire and we are in business!"
"Good luck with that. You said you can't do it yesterday."
"Oh, I did, I just lied because I'm paranoid! Now go wash up, you stink."

Making. Fires. Is. Hard.
After about an hour and a half, by which time I was already starting to fear my meal decomposing without a refrigerator, I got a fire going. Hannah tried to help, but failed miserably and let me try myself. Our makeshift fire pit surrounded by rocks was filled with dried up branches and cracking, illuminating my discarded rock and knife, which was most likely chipped beyond salvation. Soon enough, the chicken was sizzling, giving off a delicious smell even without the help of spices.
"Food, glorious food.." I sang under my breath, not taking my eyes off the food.
"How long until it's cooked?" Our bellies started rumbling ages ago. Fortunately I was smart enough to divide the chicken into smaller peaces so it would roast on the sticks faster.
"Soon" I said, looking at her with wide eyes, which thankfully caused her to laugh. The fact that after so much time no one has found us really worried us both, especially now that the fire was lit. Could nobody see it? The park we walked through the day before was not nearly large enough to hide us for so long, and I was pretty sure it didn't have a spring flowing through it. There was a river, but it flowed near the roads full of cars, so we would have heard them by now. Despite this worrying us both, I tried to amp up my carefree persona, to relieve the tension at least somewhat, no need to make Hannah panic.
The food was finally cooked, and we ate it with an animalistic appetite, teeth gleaming.
"Phew, that was yum!" I grinned.
"Yeah, good thing you're crazy enough to kill a chicken. Where the hell did the chicken come from? I don't think there are wild chickens in the local park." I sighed, guess there's no avoiding it.
"Hannah, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
"Kansas, why would we ever be in Kansas?"
"Stupid, what I meant was we're not where we were before but I have no idea where! Nothing here looks like anything back home!"
"Shit."
"Correct."
"So how do you think we got here?"
"I dunno, magic? Seems as good an answer as any."
"Sure, magic, why not."
"We should put the fire out and keep going, maybe we'll find something before sunset." I sighed, and rose from my place on the soft ground.
"Yeah, ok."
As soon as we put the fire out, something happened. A rumbling sound approached from the east, like tons of small feet hitting the ground and something big hitting bushes askew. I grabbed my knife, raising it in front of me.
"Hannah, hide behind something big!" she quickly stepped behind me. "Thanks.." I tried to glare at her, but something bursting through the bushes shocked me into forgetting about it.
We gaped at a sledge, pulled by BUNNIES, on which a small, dirty old man wearing a hat and a brown dirty...cloak? stood. His face, though looking like it would normally be very happy and pleasant, was turned into an angry frown as he came off the sledge and closer to us.

This was the oddest situation I had ever been in. The old man, after climbing off his old and over-used looking sledge, immediately started screaming at us for disrupting the peace of the forest in his quivering and stuttering voice.
"What-what are you d-d-doing here?! The nerve- the blatant disrespect to the forest! A fire! A-and you k-k-killed! A chicken!" The poor, crazy looking old man was shaking, red faced, stomping around our camp site, waving his hands. Hannah and I looked at him, eyebrows raised at not only him, but the bunnies and the birds that appeared out of nowhere, chirping and jumping around as if expressing their dislike of us invading their territory.
"Oh, the poor chicken..." Shaking his head he looked down, tears flooding his eyes. Seeing them and fully understanding that this man was not all right in the head, Hannah and I panicked, glancing around and at each other.
"Um...sir?" That got his attention, if only slightly, just to turn his head more into our direction, still sniffing and sorrowfully moaning about the chicken under his breath.
"My friend and I are very sorry for whatever we did to hurt, insult or inconvenience you or the forest, right Alice?" Throwing the last part of the sentence along with a glare to me, Hannah tried defusing the situation.
"I regret nothing" Cue a sharp elbow to my side; "But I apologize nonetheless, sir." Our faces betraying nothing but innocence, our words calmed the man considerably.
"Oh, it-it's alright, I accept your apologies." He shuffled around in place, jittery, and glanced around before turning to us. "Wha-what are you doing here? These parts of the woods are much too far away from any road for a traveler to pass by!" He gestured around, his huffy puffy voice expressing his confusion.
"We seem to have gotten lost a day ago while walking through a small park, sir...?" I raised my eyebrow, trying to not be very rude.
"O-oh yes, do excuse my manners, ladies, I am Radagast, the Brown Wizard of Middle Earth." He bowed. For a man who stuttered so much he seemed quite confident.
Hannah and I glanced at each other wearing identical surprised and disbelieving expressions.
"It is an honor to meet you, Master Wizard, I am Alice, and this is my friend Hannah." I smiled, trying to bow or curtsey. I don't know why, but calling him Master Wizard seemed appropriate. Hannah on the other hand, just gaped at Radagast and I. I understood that the idea of him being a wizard was completely insane, but I didn't want to provoke Radagast, and I figured as long as we played along he could maybe help us out. Throwing a look that obviously meant 'play along' to Hannah, I turned to Radagast, who seemed pleased at my manners.
"If you are a wizard, maybe you could help us understand what happened?" Hannah finally realized what I was trying to do, it seemed.
"What do you mean, dear girl?" He seemed quite surprised that him being a wizard could help us.
"You see, we got lost on rather unusual circumstance. A day ago, we were walking through a small forest near our homes, when oddly, the forest changed before our eyes. We tried to go back the same way, but no matter how much we walked in the direction of home we could not escape the forest."
Apparently, that had interested him a lot. After some bumbling under his breath and some rather odd facial expressions (though everything by then seemed so strange it didn't stand out much), he nodded.

"Yes, yes, that does seem unusual... Where did you say you live?"

After telling him our addresses, we seemed to have encountered another problem. He had no idea where our town was or that it even existed. The same went for our country, continent, and pretty much any other location we could think of. Either he was really loony or we were in some deep shit.

"I am sorry, dear girls, but I'm afraid I have never heard of these places before... But maybe... Maybe you could point them out in a map?"

Almost immediately agreeing in a flurry of shouts, nods and gestures, we decided to follow Radagast to his home.

Riding a sledge led by rabbits was a lot more different than I thought it would be. I figured, anything involved with bunnies would be fun, but boy was I wrong.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The echo of the combined screams of Hannah and I flowed through the forest. One thing the rabbits didn't lack was speed, and given Radagast's slightly mad persona, it was safe to say he was not the most reliable driver.

After what seemed like ages but must have been merely minutes we stopped and got off the sledge with shaky legs. Looking over it I could hardly believe the three of us could fit on the small contraption, let alone be able to fly at such speeds. By the look on Hannah's face, she was thinking the same. Ignorant of our trembling knees Radagast cheerily stepped closer towards his house. Our gaze following him, my friend and I stopped to stare yet again. I gaped for almost a minute, vaguely hearing the red head next to me gasp and mutter something under her breath.

Radagast's house seemed more like a shack at first glance. The wood was old and falling apart, dark and worn from years of standing. But we were gaping at another aspect of the house. From inside of the house, a great tree was growing, breaking the roof and forcing through the walls. It was quite a unique sight.

Eventually, Hannah and I walked in through the crooked doorway. The inside of the shack looked eerily similar to the outside, besides the roots of the great tree peeking through the furniture. Radagast was running around, opening cupboards and drawers, shuffling pieces of parchment and mumbling under his breath.

"Ah! Here we are..."

He quickly faced the table in the middle of the room and carelessly swiped his hand across it to remove any unneeded objects which clattered onto the floor. Seeing the big map already lay onto the surface, our gaping mouths snapped shut. Glancing at each other briefly we hurried to stand next to the supposed wizard.

"Now, where did you say your village was? Rohan, perhaps?"

Once again, my friend and I were left completely baffled.

"B-but... What is this?"

"Well it's a map of Middle Earth, of course!"

Hannah continued to stutter expressions of confusion, while I took the time to analyze the map as much as I could. Maybe the old man was trying to fool us? But the map looked far too old and detailed to be merely a tool to trick us with.

"I'm sorry, Master Wizard, but we don't recognize any of the lands on this map. In fact, even the shore line for the sea is unfamiliar, and we have been taught to recognize any land in the world just by their country lines." I shook my head, my voice low and vibrating with worry and confusion.

"Hmm... that is very concerning..." After some squabble, I agreed to draw rough sketches of maps of the world, our country and mark where we were when we got lost. Radagast would then try to compare them to his own various old maps. So, now armed with pieces of parchment and charcoal I dragged the still shockingly silent Hannah outside and sat on the lush grass.

"Where are we?" A hushed question reached my ears, startling me out of focus. I looked up to Hannah, sighed, set my half finished drawing aside and tugged Hannah down to sit beside me. She flopped down like a bag of potatoes.

"I don't know. But we'll be fine. We're always fine." I smiled, trying to encourage her. Unfortunately, she still looked out of it, but threads of anger started to seep through her facade.

"How? And how do we get back home?"

"Well, I figured that our earlier guess was right when I saw the sledge with the rabbits. Magic. If everything Radagast says is true, it's not too far fetched to think we somehow magically traveled from our world to this one. Like in Alice in Wonderland. Or, if you prefer, we could've fallen through a rift in dimensions like in Doctor Who." An amusing thought, but a possible explanation nonetheless. Apparently, it was good enough for Hannah.

"So... now what? How do we get back?"

"Simple really. We either try to live here forever, or we go on some epic adventure, defeat a dragon or something, and find a magical way back home. Usually, once an adventure ends, the hero, or heroes, go back home. But this is just my fairytale logic." At this, she perked up considerably.

"Think that would work?"

"It should, but if it doesn't: hey, we get to see a dragon or go on an epic adventure! It would be dangerous as hell, but we could learn a lot, you know, character building!" I happily swung my arms around, leaning back into the grass.

"So that's our plan? Find an epic adventure to go on and hope we'll return home that when it's over?" She looked a bit skeptical, but determined enough to go through with it if needed.

"Yup! Unless Radagast knows another way. This reminds me, I need to finish these drawings for him." Grabbing my tools I resumed my task, sketching the World.