"….ey! Hey, wake up! …dangerous to….here!" A light, carefree voice exclaimed with a giggle. I groaned, my head spinning like a tornado. I opened my eyes, only to close them again as the world spun. It was a good thing I wasn't standing up; I would've collapsed, or threw up, or both.
I squeezed my eyes tight, then opened them, trying to stop the world from spinning.
"J..Jou? Where..are you?" I asked quietly. I was answered by a snore. Figures. I heard a giggle somewhere above me. When I tried to sit up, a hand gripped my back and shoulder, helping me up.
"Oh, do be careful! You could hurt youself! No worry, I help you! Akarui help everyone! By way, why you two in Wonderland? You not from here; you must be from other world. Ooh! You hair so pretty! Just like Hatter's! 'Cept his got yellow spikies, you no got yellow spikies. What you name? I Akarui!" Startled, I looked behind me, finding one of the prettiest girls I've ever seen in my life smiling at me.
This Akarui girl had curly red hair, mixed in with a little blonde that went to her waist. It had a rainbow bow in it, holding a little braid on the side of her head up. She had a heart-shaped pale face, though not as pale as mine, with a few freckles smattered here and there under her eyes and over her nose. Her eyes were a beautiful hazel; green, grey, and brown all swam together, her eyes were shining brightly; they were so open, it felt like I could get lost in them.
Her pink mouth was set in a happy smile, her whole face was aglow with childlike innocence and happiness. All in all, I kinda thought she was an angel.
When I realized I was staring, I snapped my head down, blushing like crazy. She just giggled, "Awww! You sooo cute! Akarui like you! But what you name? I make one for you if you no have one!" I shook my head, and with a smile I introduced myself.
"Oh, there's no need for that, Akarui, was it? My name's Yugi Motou; my friend is Katsuya Jounouchi, but everybody calls him Jou." I found myself enveloped in small arms, as well as a heavenly aroma.
"Yugi! It nice to meet you, Yugi! You name mean game right? I love games; they the best!" Akarui laughed, hugging me closer to her, she was starting to prevent oxygen from reaching my lungs. I gasped, tapping her arms and wriggling around to try to get the message across.
"Oh! I sorry!" Akarui dropped me with an apologetic smile. I landed on the grassy ground with a thud. Gasping, I looked up at her, finally noticing what she was wearing.
'Well, that's curious.' I tilted my head in curiosity as I gazed upon Akarui's dress. It was different colours, like a rainbow. It was in a pattern like a patchwork quilt. There were slim straps that slipped over her shoulders like a sundress, and the dress fanned out like a tutu at the knees. Her legs were clad in red stockings, and her shoes were in black penny loafers.
"You like my dress? I made it myself!" Akarui giggled, spinning around and showing off her bright dress.
Still coughing, I stood up.
"Should we wake you friend? It not safe to sleep here." Akarui said with a shake of her head. I nodded, looking for my blonde friend. I found him just a few feet to the left from where we stood, sleeping, his mouth open and snores emitting from his nose. He was mumbling something about food, a rabbit, and me.
With a sigh, I walked over to Jou, bending to his level. "Jou, Jou wake up. Jou, come on! Wake up Jounouchi!" I shook Jou's shoulder, but all he did was groan and turn over. With a sigh, I stood up. "Guess I gotta wake him up the hard way." Akarui looked at me with confusion etched across her face.
"Why Jounouchi no wake up? He need to wake up." I nodded at her and said, "Trust me Akarui, I know he needs to get up. I need you to step back a few feet; it'll be fine, Jou's just a danger to people when I wake him up this way." Her greyish-green eyes widened in understanding, and she skipped back a few steps. I joined her, then cleared my throat. After I took a deep breath I yelled, "JOUNOUCHI! WAKE UP! THE PIZZA'S HERE!"
The result was absolutely hilarious. Jou immediately jumped up; an insane glint in his eye as he spun around frantically, searching for said food. He was practically foaming at the mouth.
"Yug'! Where's da pizza! Wait…Yug'? Where are ya? Where are we?" I couldn't answer, me and Akarui were too busy rolling on the grass laughing our asses off.
"Ahahahaha! You right! It, hahaha, funny! Ahahaha!" Tears were going down our cheeks, we clutched our sides from laughter, all the while Jou stood there confused. His face just made us laugh harder.
Finally, after a few more minutes of uncontrollable laughter, Akarui and I managed to compose ourselves enough to stand up, wiping the tears away as we held onto each other for balance. Jou's pouting and confused face set us off into fits of more giggles.
"Yug', who's dis? And where are we? What happened?" Jou's questions were like sub-machine gun fire. Akarui spoke before I could.
"Hi Jou! I Akarui, and you two in Wonderland! Yugi told me about you, hehe, you funny!" Jou looked at me with his eyebrows raised. I shrugged, and mouthed, "Why not?" to him. He sighed and shook his head.
Just then a loud rustling followed by low growling sounded from the bushes a few feet away. Akarui squeaked, then grabbed our hands and began running in the opposite direction.
"Oh, no no no! Not good! Chased by Bandersnatch!" Akarui cried as she pulled us after her, charging into the woods. Different colors of trees flashed by us; the leaves big, thin, wide, long, sharp, fuzzy, and other textures and colors brushed by us. If we weren't running for our lives, I'd be amazed.
Behind us, growls came forth, making me tremble. I didn't dare look back, too terrified of what might be chasing us. Claws the size of my hands, giant teeth, mean, black eyes, and fur filled my imagination.
We were gasping for breath; my sides were aching, my legs were about to give out, but there was absolutely no way in Hell I would stop running. Jou looked like he was having the same problem.
Akarui on the other hand just looked frustrated. "Why you no leave us alone!" She snarled quietly, swerving us to the sides frequently. We veered to the left, sprinting towards what looked like an overhang of tree branches.
'Hey, Akarui, jus' where are we headin'? And what's dat thing behind us?" Jou panted, sweating bullets as he tried to keep up with us.
"Um, we going to find a friend! Yeah, his territory fierce! Nobody dare go in his land without chance of being hurt! Now hurry, before Bandersnatch gets us!" The colorful girl exclaimed, trying to pull us even harder.
'Jeesh! What's chasing us anyway? I should turn around, it'll be just a second…' I thought, and whipped my head to the side, just enough to see a horrendous sight. There, just ten feet behind us, galloped what looked to be a chimera; the head was that of a lion, the tail was a scorpion's, the body was a dog, and the legs were a goat's. The eyes- oh the eyes! They were big, black, and furious! Saliva dripped from the snarling teeth-filled mouth.
'Oh…okay, I feel lightheaded…let's not look back, hmm?' My eyes, now wide and filled with terror, started to fill up with tears. Here we were, me and Jounouchi, in a strange world, with a strange girl, most likely going to be eaten by a strange monster that was quickly gaining on us.
The distance between us and the copse of trees was closing fast; but not fast enough. With a final growl, the Bandersnatch launched itself forward, its teeth scraping across my arm, causing it to feel as if acid was being poured onto it. With a scream, I fell forward. Jou picked me up bridal-style, and took off yet again, we only needed about ten more feet, I just had to hold on long enough, but it burned so bad! The pain was more than I had ever experienced in my life; my body was on FIRE, especially my right arm, which I thought hurt worse than dipping it in liquid iron.
With blurring vision, I watch as we run into the shade of the trees, Jou collapsing as soon as he stopped running, Akarui following. When we looked to the Bandersnatch, he was pacing the tree line, looking quite pissed off I might add.
Out of nowhere, Jou started laughing. "Whooo! Take dat bitch!" He yelled, laughing. Then he looked down at me with his eyebrows scrunched together.
"Are ya alright Yug'? Ya don't look so hot." I smiled weakly at him, despite the pain, I was amazingly happy that we lived.
"Y-yeah, I'm a-alright Jou. I can't f-feel my a-arm though…" Akarui crawled over and said seriously, "Let me see arm." I tried to move it, but white hot pain shot through, making me gasp and tears to fall down my face. She crawled around to where she could see my arm, and I felt her stiffen.
"Is i-it b-bad?" I whimpered, leaning heavily on Jou. "No! No, it not bad at all, just a tiny scratch!" She said, her voice trembling slightly.
"Now, come on, we gotta go find my friends. We not safe yet." With that being said, she stood up, helping Jou stand while holding me. With my vision going in and out of focus, we walked quickly along the beaten dirt path.
After about five minutes of walking, we came to a crossroad. Pointing to the left a sign read 'Snud' while the one pointing ahead read 'Queast'. Without hesitation Akarui went forward, Jou following her with me bleeding in his arms. "I guess we're headin' ta Queast." Jou chuckled.
It started getting darker, and darker, and darker still, until it was so dark I could barely see Akarui's dress in front of me! Of course, it could have been the blood loss… Either way, it was dark.
We walked on, hearing strange mumblings and purrs coming from the darkness. Jou and I cowered closer to Akarui, if anything happened to her, we were screwed. Fortunately, we were safe….for now at least.
Akarui led us on the path for a few more minutes, I'm pretty sure I passed out for a few minutes, because I don't remember some parts of it. What I do remember is when we heard whining and gasps. A sob and an unintelligible beg.
Without a word, Akarui jogged ahead, peeking around the bend with caution and curiosity. She immediately turned back and sprinted to us, a blush on her face.
"U-uh, i-i-it okay, j-just, well…c-come on." She stuttered, waving us to follow her. When we turned the bend, we found something I don't think either of us were prepared for.
There, on the ground, with a blush on his face, was the Rabbit-boy. The blush was most likely caused by the darker look-alike sucking on his neck and rubbing parts of his body. Akarui giggled.
"Bakura! Quit embarrassing poor Ryou! We have guests!" She giggled while skipping to the two whitettes. The meaner 'Ryou' I guess, lifted his head with a growl, showing fangs and white cat ears, but reluctantly let the poor Ryou go.
'Okay, there are too many animal-people here! Ohh, I'm getting…dizzy…' I thought with a groan, Jou stiffening above me.
"Hang on Yug'! We'll get ya help as fast as we can!" The frantic teen clutched me tighter to him, then looked to the girl trying to pull the so-called Bakura off of Ryou. "Hey, Akarui, Yug' needs help fast! He don't look too good." The redhead turned, looked at me with a tilted head; she turned to the still-blushing Ryou.
"Ryou? Yugi need healing. You help please?" The boy shook his head, his chocolate eyes widening and portraying every emotion.
"Oh, n-no I c-can't! I'm a-already s-so late! Th-the Queen m-must be v-very angry.." He trailed off, biting his lip. Ryou backed away; he kept his eyes on the taller cat version of him, who was smirking at him, licking his lips in lust; his reddish-brown eyes were alight and observing every inch of the rabbit-boy's body.
"Please Ryou; he got slashed by Bandersnatch, you only one who know how to heal! He don't got that much time left." Akarui begged, turning to me and stroking my face, her fingers like ice to my burning face. I sighed in relief and closed my eyes. I so badly wanted to sleep, and I nearly did, but a light couple of slaps to the face caused my eyelids to flutter back open with a weary groan. Akarui and Jou looked down at me with pure worry. I tried to smile; it only made Jou frown deeper.
"Why should my little bunny care about that shrimp? In fact, why are he and his bumbling fool of a friend here in Wonderland anyway?" Bakura snapped, glaring at me and Jou. Akarui stamped her foot and placed her hands on her hips. "Bakura! Why you so mean? It not their fault they fell in the hole; they were chasing Ryou!"
Ryou stopped backing away, studying me and Jou. Then his eyes widened in recognition.
"Ohh, I remember you! I fell on you two!" He came forward, smiling apologetically. "I guess I do owe you two, it is my fault after all you two are here! Here, set him over here," Ryou said, walking over to a patch of grass and kneeling on it. Jou followed him, and tried to set me down gently, but I hissed in pain anyway. I was starting to see black splotches in my line of vision.
'Okay, just breathe, in…and out….in….and out…' I thought to myself, taking in deep, soothing breaths.
Ryou got on my right side and looked at my arm, then hummed.
"Okay, Yugi, this is gonna hurt like bloody hell, but I need you to stay as still as you can for me. Can you do that?" I nodded in answer, and tried to brace myself. Ryou shook his head. "No, don't stiffen up; that makes it hurt worse," I sighed and relaxed.
Ryou took a deep breath and lowered his hands over my wound, making me scrunch my eyes in pain. I started to scream when he began to squeeze and my arm began to feel as if it were about to melt.
I forced myself not to move, to stay still like he said, but it hurt so damn much! Jou held my other hand, trying to comfort me; Akarui was with Bakura, biting her lip and trying not to cry. Bakura had his arms crossed and was leaning against a tree, looking bored. Bastard.
My arm began burning even more, and I began to thrash. Jou grabbed me and tried to keep me still; soon, though, the pain was too much, and I gladly sank into the welcoming darkness.