Cheshire made breakfast and tea for the both of them.
"Your house is very interesting looking." Lane said.
"Thank you. I decorate it with items I pick up during my travels." Cheshire said.
"Do you travel for work or do you just do it for yourself?" She said.
"I do it mostly for myself but there are times where it can be part of my work." He said.
"What job do you do?" She said.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" He said tapping her on the nose while winking at her.
Lane rubbed her nose and couldn't help feeling more curious about Cheshire's answer.
Cheshire had decided to take Lane fishing with him in exchange for telling her story.
"So what I ate was full a psychedelic ingredients?" Lane said.
"Yes. They're called psychedelic sweets. If you know what to expect the experience can be pleasant. You weren't supposed to eat all of it so fast." Cheshire said.
"I've never worried about people lacing my snow cones with drugs before." She said.
"Most people enjoy the feeling." He said.
"You're all really strange. So kids eat this stuff too? It's available to everyone?" She said.
"Of course it's a normal treat." He said.
"Well we have ice cream. It's a dairy product." She mumbled.
Hatter POV
Hatter came across a building called Dee & Dum's Cigar Lounge. It had an animated neon sign of the brothers each smoking a cigar. He was never one to really come to this part of town, not unless it was important. He thought that even if he didn't find Ace here that he would find where she went. He entered the lounge and was immediately overwhelmed with thick clouds of smoke. Most of the men were in suits, and most of the women that were there were cigar girls, dressed in classy lingerie to appease the customers and keep them coming back.
"Look who it is." A female voice said.
Hatter turned around to see one of the cigar girls walk over to him. The woman had brown skin; reddish-brown kinky hair fashioned in a curly afro, and looked like she could be about 5'7 if she wasn't wearing heels. Her outfit had red and white vertical stripes making her torso look a bit longer than it was.
"Hello, Aria." Hatter said, greeting her with a brief hug.
"I wasn't expecting to see you back here so soon." Aria said.
"Ah yes, I came looking for someone that might be here now, or might have been here before." He said.
"Wow that sure narrows it down." She said sarcastically.
"I'm looking for, Ace." He said.
Aria's face paled slightly before she spoke up.
"A- S-she left not too long ago." She said.
"Do you know where she went?" He exclaimed.
"Um, not really, maybe someone else saw which way she went." She said, walking backwards having started tending to a customer that just entered.
"Cripes, alright." He said waving bye to Aria.
Hatter had been asking around for about two more hours before he caught a glimpse of a girl that could've been Ace.
"Hey! Stop! Someone grab her!" Hatter shouted out pointing in the girl's direction.
There was confusion all around due to the calm demeanor of the girl compared to the frantic nature of Hatter. The girl stopped to look at him as he approached.
"Bleeding hell! I've been looking for you for days!" He exclaimed seeing that it had, in fact, been Ace once he was closer.
Ace stood and watched as Hatter caught his breath in his doubled over position.
"You need to run more, your stamina is terrible." Ace said.
"Very funny." He said standing up.
"Why were you looking for me?" She said placing a finger under Hatter's chin so they made eye contact.
"There's a situation at the castle that only you are qualified to handle." He said.
"That could mean an array of things." She said starting to walk away.
"Doppelganger!" He yelled after her.
She stood in place for a moment before turning around.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She said glaring at him obviously annoyed.
"Yours." He said.
Her eyes slowly began to widen as his words sunk in.
Lane's POV
Lane was watching the fire crackle in front of her while waiting for Cheshire to come back with "some cracklings", as he called them.
"How long exactly does it take to get cracklings, whatever the hell those are?" Lane said out loud to herself.
She heard the sound of the door sliding against the wooden floor as it opened. She turned sideways to see who it could be.
"I'm back." Cheshire called from the doorway.
"Glad to see it's you and not some stranger." She said.
"I'm glad that you're glad. I hope you're even gladder once you see what I've brought." He said.
Lane got up to see what he had brought back after all that time. She stuck her hand in the box that was placed on the table and managed to pull out what looked to be fire crackers.
"Are these actually fire crackers, or something else?" She said while turning the box over in her hands.
"Those are cracklings. I thought you'd enjoy them, especially since the weather hasn't been too dry lately." He said pulling more out of the box.
"Where I'm from we call them fire crackers." She said placing them back on the table.
Cheshire and Lane had gone outside to a clearing and started to light the cracklings. He handed her a zippo of her own so that she could light ones she thought were interesting. He was the first to light one labeled 'Moon Dragon.' She was expecting for it to start making noise and flashing, but what happened next was much more impressive and unexpected. The fuse started to take shape and the crackling started to move about. There was a small white dragon dancing about as the fuse continued to burn, it made little roaring sounds as it flew about in tight figure eights, and sometimes doing loops. The crackling lasted for about 30 seconds before burning out.
"That was freaking amazing!" Lane exclaimed eager to light another one of her own.
Lane looked over each one before choosing one that was labeled 'Fire Crab.' She lit the fuse and then placed the crackling on the ground. The fuse started to burn like the other did before a bright red burning crab silhouette started to move about in normal crab fashion. The crackling would snap at blades of tall grass it side stepped next to before finally going out.
"Holy hell! How many boxes did you get of these?" She said.
"There should be enough to last us almost all night." He said.
"How many can we use?" She said.
"As many as you'd like." He said.
Lane's eyes lit up with childlike wonder as they continued to light fuses all through the night, watching as 'Purple Rain Wolves' and 'Golden Falcons' did their respective dances. There were even 'Silver Deer', 'Mountain Octopus', and 'Coral Leopards' to entertain them for hours. She found that the 'Ice Tortoise' cracklings were her favorite so far. They would glide through the air the way they would in water; they were an iceberg blue color and had spiked shells.
"I'm really glad I ended up meeting you." She said grabbing Cheshire's free hand.
Cheshire jumped at this unexpected action. He looked at Lane who was still watching the cracklings go off and smiled at her before giving her hand a small squeeze.
"Likewise, my strange little friend." He said.