Listen to me. Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear or feel.

~The Doctor

She watched as the long-haired blonde, dressed
in a white bunny-girl outfit with black nylons, a
white, form-fitting, sleeveless coat with tails,
carrying an oversized gold pocket-watch on a
chain ran past her.

After seeing this, she leaned back, rested her
head against the tree and folded her hands in
her lap. She closed her eyes and breathed in the
gentle, alluring fragrance of buttercups that filled
the air.

'I don't even care.'

After a few moments, she heard a soft footfall
coming from behind her.

She opened her right eye and looked up at the
girl peeking out from behind the tree.

"Um…you're supposed to follow me."

"Why?"

"Because that's how the story goes."

"What if I don't want to be a part of this story?"

The bunny-girl's fake ears drooped a little and a
forlorn look crossed her face.

"Please do. If you don't I'll be…I'll be…"

Small tears formed in her eyes and her voice
began to crack.

"I'm still not going to do it."

After letting out a sigh, the bunny-girl continued.

"I suppose I will need this then."

With those words, she hoisted a large wooden
mallet over her right shoulder.

"Wait! What's that for?"

"I'm…um…I'm…what's the word?" She put her left
hand up to her chin in a thoughtful manner. "I'm
fretting? Treading? Threading? Threaten- That's
it! I'm threatening you," she said happily.

"That doesn't sound very convincing."

"Oh please," she begged.

With a sigh, Azusa stood and dusted off her
dress.

"Alright, where are we going?"

"This way!" The bunny-girl happily tossed the
mallet to the side and ran deep into the woods.

Azusa watched the mallet land on the grass with
a muted 'thump' and stayed where she was.

Again, the bunny-girl softly came back.

"You're supposed to chase me."

"Can't you just lead me there normally?"

She smiled with closed eyes, shook her head 'no'
and waited for the reluctant heroine to accept
the terms of their story's progression.

"Alright, fine. The sooner we do this the sooner I
can go back to my normal life…right?"

She nodded.

"I'm most likely going to lose track of you after I
fall down the…well…you know…so why don't you
tell me what to do afterward?"

"I'm sure you can figure it out on your own."

The girl's head sank and she stared at the shiny
toes of her shoes.

"Whenever you're ready," she whispered, and,
by the time she looked back up, all she could see
was the bouncing cotton-tail of the bunny-girl.

With another sigh, Azusa ran after her.

'How can she run so well in high-heels?'

It was not long before the bunny-girl
disappeared behind a tree and Azusa lost sight
of her. When she made it past the tree, there
was a large opening that would have been more
suited for a well than a rabbit-hole.

After peering into the darkness, she called down,
"I'm not jumping in there."

"Very well…"

With a push from behind, a startled Azusa fell
into the abyss.

She looked back up to the opening to see the
blonde bunny-girl smiling as she waved to her.

After tumbling for some time, she finally righted.
Azusa resolved herself to the fall, crossed her
arms and frowned, her dress magically staying
down to preserve her modesty.

"No, I won't say 'latitude' or 'longitude' in an
inappropriate way," she declared to nobody in
particular, however, reason began to take its
hold. "But…terminal velocity occurs at–Ooomph!"

With that, she landed face-down on a bed of
straw.

With a few grumbles, she stood and walked to
the end of the long passageway, swiping the
cold metal key from the glass table as she went.

"I am NOT going to do this more than once," she,
again, declared to the author of this cliché.

She placed it forcefully into the key-hole, turned
back to the table to pick up the bottle that had
magically appeared, removed the cork, and took
a small sip.

After the dizzying transformation, she turned
back to the door only to see that the key was
gone and had been replaced to its previous
location.

With her grumpiest face, she shook her tiny right
fist up at the ceiling.

"Well my clothes shrank with me; did you ever
stop to think about the physical impossibility of
that?" she shouted upward.

Without warning, her attire returned to its
previous state, leaving Azusa lost within the folds
of the dress.

"I'm Sorry! I'm Sorry! Please change it back!"

After much rustling and fidgeting, she was soon
properly dressed once again.

When she looked back down the hall, the door
had been opened, revealing a bright garden.

She smiled up at the ceiling. 'Thank you,' she
mouthed and walked to the opening.

"Wait, I'm supposed to get wet from a pool–"

Azusa was interrupted when a bucket's worth of
water fell on her head.

She narrowed her eyes and looked straight
forward.

"I take back my 'thank you.'"

With that, she stalked through the door and into
the sunlight.

"My, my," came a truly concerned voice from
above her, "how did you get wet?"

Azusa looked up to see a short-haired girl with
glasses holding a clipboard and pen sitting
gracefully upon a toadstool. The long, flowing
robes she wore and the ornate design that
covered the blue garment gave her the
appearance of a caterpillar.

"I thought there was supposed to be a pool
and–"

"A pool? Oh, yes…we moved it. Too many people
were falling in. It just wasn't sensible."

The girl let out another sigh. She had been
sighing a lot since she woke up.

"Anyway…wasn't I supposed to find a caucus
race and the rabbit's house before I met you?"

"You were," a voice interrupted from her left, "but
there was a limited cast."

She looked over to spot the chrysanthemum that
had spoken up.

"What about the other classmates?" suggested a
petunia.

"But nobody really knows their names," a lily
offered.

"Will you all shut-up?" interrupted a daffodil.
"You're breaking the fourth wall!"

"Look, she clearly understands that this is a
dream, and a poorly devised one at that. We're
not even in the first story."

"Neither are those two numpties that are going
to show up later, but nobody really knows that."

"I blame Disne–."

"Hey! We can't say that! It's a copyrighted
name."

"Will all of you shut-up?"

The bickering ceased after they were given one
cross look from the toadstool's occupant.

With the flower bed silenced, she looked back to
Azusa with a smile.

"How can I help you?"

"Well, I suppose I need to find the Duchess'
house, get the baby that turns into a pig, release
it into the woods, and then find the tea party."

"You're making things too complicated for
yourself," she said, politely dismissing the girl's
plans and looking over her notes. "I think we can
cut these out of your schedule," she said,
crossing a few items off the list, "if you want to
get to the tea party, it's that way."

The girl looked in the direction that the robed
one was pointing before turning back to her. She
was now writing even more in her notes and
paying little heed to Azusa.

"You're very strange," the twin-tailed girl said.

"I suppose I could say the same of you," she
said, looking up with a friendly smile.

Defeated by the logical one, she tore two pieces
from the toadstool and placed them in her
pockets.

"Why are you doing that?"

"So I can eat them later. I'm supposed to,
aren't I?"

"No," she said with much concern, "you should
never eat mushrooms unless you know they're
safe."

The girl took the two pieces from her pockets and
let them fall to the ground. When she noticed
that the girl had returned to writing in her notes,
Azusa left without another word.

As she passed a clearing, she spotted two
figures in the field happily playing leap-frog. They
were wearing matching red jumpers, yellow
shirts, and little red and yellow caps. One had her
short, brown hair tied into a sensible little
pony-tail and the other had her somewhat short,
frizzy brown hair tied into a tuft on each side of
her head.

Very quietly, Azusa snuck past the two and
continued on her way.

"They aren't in this story. They aren't in this
story. They aren't in this story," she repeated to
herself softly as if it were a mantra.

When she finally walked from under the dark
canopy of the forest, she saw a table surrounded
by an assortment of chairs and set with a wide
variety of cups, saucers, plates, and teapots. The
house behind them very much resembled a large
yellow drum kit.

Those seated around the long table were as
varied as the china itself.

A girl with short, brown hair, wearing mouse ears
and a grey sleeper was dozing peacefully with
her face in a plate that was covered in crumbs.
The fork in her hands held one final bite of
strawberry cake. Her sleep was disturbed every
now and then by an outburst from the other two
who were seated at the head of the table.

One had short, brown hair and wore a
golden-hued bunny-girl outfit and matching ears
that were slightly crumpled. Her untidy
appearance matched the rambunctious
personality of the wearer. Her white cuffs were
tea-stained in a few places, her bow-tie was
crooked and she did not fill out her costume as
well as the final guest did.

Her companion at the head of the table wore
almost the same outfit, but her suit was a light
maroon and she wore a white and black
checkered coat with tails and wide lapels that
she would, it seemed, try to pull closed so she
could hide what the garment underneath did not.
She wore a matching checkered bowtie and
perched atop her head of long, silky, dark hair
was a tall, widely flared, black top hat with a red
band around it.

Azusa approached, it seemed, in the middle of a
conversation.

"…but he never actually referred to me as The
Mad Ha–"

The speech was cut short upon the arrival of the
final guest.

"Well, well, well, well, well, well," the spunky
rabbit said while eyeing their new visitor, "who
might you be?"

"I'm–"

"A KITTY!" the napping one suddenly exclaimed
before pouncing happily on Azusa.

It was at this moment that the white rabbit from
before came running up to the table, out of
breath as she clutched her watch to her chest.

"Thank goodness!" she cried, "I though I would
be late."

Carefully, Azusa took the watch from her hands
and studied it.

"This is a pocket barometer."

"So it is," the bunny-girl agreed with a smile after
giving it another glance, "I suppose there was
nothing to worry about after all."

"No," the girl disagreed, "maybe there's a lot you
should worry about now."

After they had settled down, another serving of
cake was passed around.

"You're not eating yours," the golden rabbit
teased her friend.

"We haven't left this table for a long time," her
hatted friend defended, "If I eat too many
sweets I'll…" her voice trailed off.

"Hmmmm...will it go here?" the other girl said
while playfully poking her friend in the side. "Or
here…or here…or here?"

Each new attack brought a shriek from the
helpless one who now had her eyes closed as
she tried to curl into a ball on the chair, facing
away from the rabbit.

"Or maybe it goes here," the rabbit proclaimed
while groping the girl's chest from behind with
both hands.

A heavy left fist to the attacker's head brought
her down to the feet of the girl who was now
standing, seething with anger.

After a few moments, she composed herself
while the rabbit meekly slipped back into her
chair.

"I have a question for you," the well-endowed
girl asked, changing her focus back to the girl in
the blue dress.

"Because Poe wrote on both!" Azusa shouted
excitedly.

Everyone in attendance looked at the girl with
wide eyes.

"No," the girl began again, only slightly
unnerved, "how do you like your tea?"

The white bunny had finished pouring each cup
and was now ready to add any sugar or cream
that Azusa wanted.

"The cake was so dry without you here to serve
tea," the mouse whined.

"You ate it anyway," reminded the short haired
rabbit.

"When's The Queen supposed to show up?" the
mouse said, changing the subject.

A shriek came from the one seated at the head
of the table.

"She won't make me wear anything even more
embarrassing this time, will she?"

"She was supposed to be here at 1011 hPa. Do
you think she got lost?" the white bunny-girl
asked anxiously.

"That's possible with her sense of direction,"
sighed the other rabbit.

Almost on cue, there was a rustling in the woods
behind them...

...then She appeared.

The Queen wore an elegant, though slightly
disheveled, red dress adorned with ribbons and
hearts. She was tired, out of breath, and
appeared to be on the verge of tears as she
stumbled out of the wood.

She spent a few moments adjusting her clothes,
then the Queen turned her attention to the
members of the tea party.

After just one glance at each guest, her eyes
finally came to rest on Azusa. They narrowed
behind her small glasses as she licked her lips.

Instantly, she pointed her scepter at the girl and
shouted:

"Off with her clothes!"

Before Azusa could protest, the two bunny-girls
and the mouse were holding her down to the
table as the Queen closed the distance between
them in just two long strides. The last member of
the party curled as far into her chair as she
possibly could, trying to make herself go
unnoticed.

Without a wasted motion, or moment of indecent
exposure that can be mentioned here, the pale
blue dress, white pinafore, long white stockings,
and black shoes were replaced by a snuggly
fitting body-suit and long tail both with broad
bands of alternating light and dark purple. Her
hands and feet were covered by large plush
paws and a nekomimi took the place of the
unnecessary ribbon.

"Perfect!" was the Queen's only reply as she
gazed at her work, and the three responsible for
her capture were now around her; fawning over
her, petting her, scratching her behind the fake
ears, and tempting her with a cat toy.

'Just disappear,' she thought to herself as she
hung her head and closed her eyes, 'I just want
to disappear.'

When she opened her eyes again, she was
alone in a familiar upstairs room with wooden
floors and large windows that let in the setting
sun's light and dressed in her usual school
uniform.

Frantically, she was turning, wandering,
searching all about the room for the other usual
occupants.

It was at this moment that Azusa realized she
was completely alone.

"NO! DON'T GO AWAY!"

She fell to her knees on the clubroom floor and
covered her eyes.

"I won't get mad at you anymore for drinking tea
in the clubroom and goofing off -sob- just please
don't leave me!"

"You're a good girl, Azu-nyan. Don't cry."

"We will always be with you."

"Don't go!"

Their voices gradually faded away.

"Don't leave me!"

This could be the dream. I told you, trust nothing we see or hear or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true.

~The Doctor