Pitter patter, Pitter patter... The drops of rain fell down ever so constantly... but all the time, none of them hit her as she was lying asleep on the ground... or so she thought.

The droplets of water came down on the large bright red tent as the knight of hearts Picked a stray leaf out of the girl's hair. Julius had told him to have an eye out for the new foreigners, and he gave him specific directions not to let them get in the way of his job. Julius didn't want the foreigners harmed. he understood that, of course, because the foreigners didn't have clocks. Since they didn't have clocks, they couldn't come back if something happened to them.

He guessed that letting one sit out in the rain wasn't a good idea either, wouldn't she get sick? He had to wonder how she got there, and why she was alone... Didn't Julius say that they were in a large group? Finding one straggling along by herself, asleep in the rain was odd. He poked her face gently, before going and drying her hair off with a spare towel he had packed... He looked at her again in confusion as the wet purple mess of hair fell off her head to reveal a mess of curly brown hair that was tied back to accommodate the apparent wig. He sat the wig off to the side, being as quite as possible as not to wake her... though secretly, he really did wish that she would wake up...

Emma rolled over, facing away from ace now, and bumping into the tent wall, and tangling herself in the blankets which ace had placed on top of her. This caused her to stir a little bit, but ace did nothing, only watching her out of pure curiosity. Her hands went up to her head, as if feeling for something before jolting awake. Her Wig! Her Wig and her Cat hat! They were gone! Who- What- Why- Wait What? She looked up, seeing the red, and down seeing the blankets. Hands still on top of her curly brown mess of hair, she looked starteledly over at Ace.

Ace smiled over at her, waving and saying "Hey, Nice to see you finally woke up," He laughed, pouring a dark brown chocolaty liquid into two cups, handing one to her as she just sat there, staring ever so surprised at his appearance. "C'mon, your hot chocolates gonna get cold if you leave it!" He moved the cup closer to her, as she gradually seemed to relax a little, lowering her hands from her head and down to the glass. She of course knew who it was in front of her; it was Ace the knight of hearts...

"Do you know how I could get to the amusement park from here?" She asked, before then regretting it remembering the knight's horrid sense of direction. "Or do you by any chance have a map..?" She then corrected herself, she knew if she got stuck taking directions from Ace, she'd be stuck in the forest for the next week probably...

"Woah, Don't I get an introduction first?" He sipped his glass of hot chocolate, sticking out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Ace, the knight of hearts at the palace,"

"Ah, I guess..." emma sighed, shaking he knights hand. he had been up on her list of favourite characters, but Boris was defiantly her number one... "I'm Emma... Comic artist slash otaku costume designer for myself?" She thought the words through, looking off to the side as she did... The warm hot chocolate was ding wonders for waking her up, and she in deed was very grateful for it.

"Well that explains the wig..." Ace said looking over at the purple mess that sat off to the side of the tent. The wig her now understood, and he understood completely about wanting to be something you are not. that of course, was the reason he was working for Julius. "So... You want to be a cat?" He asked pointing to the button covered hat which he had managed to dry off why she was asleep.

"Ahh, Well... Kind of... I guess..." She looked down a little embarrassed at the notion of wanting to change who she was... or the fact that who she was, was so odd. She had been told it multiple times back in her world. By her sister, by kids at her school, by her younger brothers... by practically everyone except her close friends. But well, that was the reason they were her close friends, they accepted her for who she was, a crazy, weird Otaku.

"Aw, no reason to be shy, hey, if you like cats you should go see Mr. Kitty cat over at the amusement park!" He said happily, "Once it stops raining, I'll take you there myself! I know the Perfect shortcut," Emma Almost fell to the ground in reluctance to wanting to say yes to going along with the knight, but hurting his feelings was not something that she wished to do.

"Ah, sure..." She smiled reluctantly at him... but hey, even if she was going to be stuck in the woods a little while longer, at least she wouldn't be alone in them. She knew that they could be an awfully dangerous place here. Many... Bad things, happened there regularly, and it was much safer for her to keep to paths, and to stick with someone at all times. But hey, at least she knew she wouldn't get hurt staying with Ace, unless he decided to go nuts again like in the manga when he decided he wanted to try and kill Alice... That bumped him down a few slots on her list for a while after that... but if Alice trusted him, couldn't she?

"Okay, well, the rain should be stopping with the next time change, so drink up, We'll get going right away," She smiled, packing up his things into his bag as Emma finished her hot chocolate and picked leaves out of her wig, as well as clumps of dried dirt and mud... Once it was relatively clean again, she neatened it up and slipped it back onto her head along with her hat.

Oh how good it felt to be herself again.