After departing from the Tweedles and walking past the caucus 'race' she had seen, AJ was starting to get tired again. She had sat down on one of the large mushrooms that was growing up on the side of the path she was on when she looked up at the sky and saw that it was a very pretty shade of purple, blue, pink, and white mixed together. She also happened to notice that there were clouds in odd shapes, such as hearts, cats, flowers, and stars. Another thing that she happened to notice was the fact that there seemed to be letters in different colors of smoke floating across the sky.
"Wow, that's odd," AJ said. "I've never seen smoke in different shapes before. I wonder where it's coming from."
Curiosity taking over her, AJ got up and continued on her trek down the path in the direction of where the smoky letters were coming from. She walked past more of the strange animals she had seen when she first entered this world, but instead of trying to stop and communicate with any of them, she kept going in the same direction she was headed.
"So weird. It's almost as if everything around me just grew feet higher than what I'm used to. Doesn't really help that I'm stuck at being, like, two or three inches tall. I wish I had another one of those cookies with me right now," AJ said, as she pushed aside what she was guessing to be blades of grass and several flowers. As she got closer to the source of where the letters were coming from, she kept hearing what she thought was the singing of two men.
A,
e i o u,
u,
u,
o,
a,
u e i a,
u...
"Strange song. Who'd be singing a song about the vowels in a place like this?" AJ mused out loud, before bumping into a large mushroom. Looking up at the towering mushroom, AJ saw that standing on top of it were Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd, except they looked as though they had taken on the characteristics of caterpillars-they were both a shade of green-blue and had multiple arms and legs and antennae. And they were both noticeably smoking from something that looked like a small chimney.
Looking down to AJ standing there looking up at them, Justin looked down and asked "Whooo arrre yooou?"
"Justin, I mean, my name is AJ," AJ said.
"And what may I ask brings someone like you to a place like this?" Tyson asked.
"Well, I was following a friend of mine when he went through a door and the next thing I know, I'm bringing myself down to his size and now I've just been walking around in this weird place, wherever the hell it is," AJ said.
"If you must know, to ease your curiosity, you're in the glorious realm of Wonderland. Here everything is what it isn't and everything isn't what it is," Justin said.
"That sounds confusing. And everyone's OK with living in a freaky place like this?" AJ asked.
"What you call freaky, we call the usual," Tyson said.
"Certainly different from where I'm from. And to think, one minute I'm waiting for a meeting with my boss and the next I'm walking around in some place where stuff's alive and people are all nuts," AJ said.
"It seems as though you have something weighing on your mind. Care to talk about it?" Justin asked.
"Well, like I said, I was waiting outside of my boss's office for a meeting and now I'm just wondering if I'll ever get back in time for it," AJ said.
"Is this meeting important?" Tyson asked.
"You could say it is. I'm, well, I guess you could call it being an actress and the next role I have to play is having to date another guy. But the thing is I've been playing this role for months and, to be honest, I'm tired of it," AJ said in frustration.
"If you despise your roles that you have to play, then why not voice your dislike of what you have to do?" Justin asked.
"Because my boss intimidates me. I mean, he makes me feel like I'm so inferior," AJ said, dejectedly.
"Then you should work at trying not to be so intimidated. After all, you're only as much of a person as you think you are. And it appears to us, that you don't really seem like all that important of a person," Tyson said, taking a drag out of the hookah.
"Well, excuse the hell out of me for not seeming like I'm as high and mighty as you two would want me to be!" AJ shouted before she turned around and stormed away.
Looking down to see AJ leave, Justin smacked Tyson upside the head and said "Smooth move. You've gone and upset the poor dear. Say, you, AJ. Come back!"
Hearing Justin call after her, AJ didn't know whether she wanted to turn and go back to run the risk of getting intimidated by the caterpillars again or try to make her way back to the path to continue her search for Punk. So, going against what she really wanted to do, AJ went back to where the caterpillars were. Sitting on the mushroom in front of them, AJ looked at them with a questioning look in her eyes and on her face.
"You'll have to forgive my friend. He's a bit too vocal when it comes to voicing his opinions about certain matters," Justin said.
"It isn't my fault the girl couldn't handle what I had to say," Tyson said, earning another hit to the side of the head.
AJ laughed, causing the two to look at her, before turning back to take another drag from the hookah and Justin said "Keep your temper under control."
"Well, I wouldn't have to worry about trying to control anything if I could just get back to the way I was?" AJ said.
"Whyyy?" Tyson asked.
"Well, I really sick and tired of being the way I am right now. I mean, being, like, three inches tall has really gotten me in a bit of a bad mood, not to mention it's so awful, so I just want to get back to my usual height," AJ said.
"We both are exactly three inches tall! And it is a perfectly good height indeed! The nerve of this girl calling our heights awful and borderline wretched! The nerve indeed!" Justin and Tyson said, puffing furiously on their hookah, causing a purplish red cloud to start to swirl around them.
"Wait! You two misunderstood me! Please stop!" AJ yelled, blowing away the smoke that was surrounding Justin and Tyson, only to see, that there was nothing where they previously were aside from what looked like their skin and multiple pairs of shoes.
"Say, AJ. A little word of advice," Justin called down to AJ.
When AJ looked up to where she heard Justin's voice calling to her, she saw that Justin and Tyson had turned into butterflies, just not typical butterflies-both were wearing black skinny jeans, plaid shirts, and their wings were a rainbow of colors.
"One side makes you grow taller," Tyson called down.
"One side of what?" AJ asked.
"And the other side makes you grow shorter," Justin called down.
"The other side of what? What are you two talking about?" AJ asked.
"The mushroom, of course!" both men shouted, as they flew down to AJ's level before flying back up to the sky.
Bending down and breaking off a piece of mushroom from both sides, AJ said "Now, which piece should I try first? Eeny, meanie, minie, the left hand piece." Taking a bite and swallowing, AJ said "Stupid butterflies, I mean, Justin and Tyson. I can't believe they told me to eat something that'll help me grow and I'm still the same heiiii-" before she started to grow, shooting up through trees until her head was sticking out of a tree.
"Help, help! Someone help me! A serpent is trying to eat my eggs!" a bird cried as she flew around trying to collect her eggs from her nest.
"Serpent? I'm a woman, thank you very much! I'm just having a really weird growth spurt is all. Now to eat the other piece of mushroom," AJ said, before biting the piece of mushroom in her right hand. Taking a bite and swallowing, AJ immediately started to shrink, causing the bird sitting on top of her head to fall and, hurriedly grabbing her eggs, the bird flew away. Once AJ finished her shrinking, she landed on the same mushroom she had broken the pieces off of. "Wow! That was an awesome ride! But there's no time to think about it now. I think I've got this right, so if I don't bite the left hand piece, I'll probably go back to normal." This time, instead of biting the mushroom, she licked the left hand piece and immediately she shot up to her regular height. "Yes! I'm back to my regular height. Now to go back to looking for Punk." Throwing the pieces of mushroom she had to the side, she continued back on the path she was, hoping to find her Punk bunny soon before she got too lost in Wonderland.
One by one, AJ's meeting all of the residents of Wonderland. She's one hell of a trip now. R & R please. =)