Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

The shadow looked to the bunny and gave a nod to the welcome and a hand motion of the apology before she turned to the blonde’s question. If she wasn’t in her shadow form…

She gave the best deadpanned look she could give in the form before she pointed to the direction of the school below… only to see a shroud of darkness around a certain patch of the forest.

The mirror continued to speak for her…

     ❝ Then good luck in NOT getting possibly lost in the dark forest.                       Do you want to get to the school or not? ❞

♖— Alistair could feel the attitude radiating off of the shadow, but he didn’t immediately apologize for his skepticism. Yes, if it were any other day he’d gladly follow the shadow out of pure curiosity, but he currently had a mission that he took very seriously: Returning the Storybook of Legends to its owners. The sooner the better.

“Now hold on, you can’t blame me for being cautious when it comes to strange talking magic mirrors! For all we know, you could be trying to get us lost for some reason!” He countered, his voice the smallest bit petulant. Surely he wasn’t being unreasonable! And it wasn’t as if he’d said he wouldn’t help her!

“C’mon Alistair, we really should get going. And if she does get us lost, I’m sure you can figure out how to get us un-lost!” Bunny interjected, completely ignoring the ominous sight being pointed out. She was starting to get impatient again, and there wasn’t any time for a potential argument.

The shadow figure gave what looked to be relieved eyes before she pointed back to the mirror in Alistair’s hand…

      ❝ Tell the bunny I said thank you for not taking forever to get my bag. ❞

Knowing she would get a reaction from the remark, the shadow waited before stretching to the tree next to them so she could be visible to both. As she motioned with her body, the mirror wrote to them in return with her words…

      ❝ You both are from Wonderland, correct? I got to Ever After High so I can gladly lead you back there. Though as of right now, I am trapped so in return, you’ll have to hold only my mirror and things till I can break free. ❞

♖— It certainly was a curious sight; a shadow without a bodyattached. It reminded Alistair of one of the stories his mother had read to him as a kid, but somehow he doubted this was a ‘Peter Pan’ situation. I don’t have any thread or needles on me in any case... Still, the shadow clearly wanted something from him, and at it’s gesturing his eyes returned to the mirror in his hands.

“It...No, she.”—It looks like a she at any rate—“She wants me to thank you for finding her bag.” He said, relaying the information to an impatient Bunny as she strained to read over his shoulder. He almost went on to explain to the shadow why he’d hesitated to open the purse, but it moved before he could get another word out.

“You’re uh, very welcome...” Bunny nodded a little awkwardly, watching the mysterious form with slight apprehension. She wasn’t scared, so to speak, but she couldn’t help expecting the rest of the stranger to appear at any moment. Smile first, of course, in proper Cheshire fashion. “...I’m really sorry I almost stepped on it.”

Inside the bag would reveal a mirror to be the source of the glow. This mirror was different than any wonderland mirrors or ever after mirrors seen. It’s antique design looked something… exotic and foreign.

Should one of them dare to pick the mirror up, the reflection would stop glowing before fogging up and revealing the message: a RIDDLE.

    ❝ I AM  YOUR   F O L L O W E R   IN THE    L I G H T                                                  yet I am   i n v i s i b l e   in the  n i g h t                     AT  V A R I O U S  SIZES, I  A P P E A R                                                  I won’t   h a r m  you, have no  f e a r .                       W H A T   A M    I  ?  ❞

Should one of them figure it out, they would see the answer shift from underneath their feet and form the female shape of such…

♖—  “How curious...” Alistair remarked, leaning closer to study the bag. It was clear the glow’s source was coming from something within the purse itself, but he couldn’t just go through someone’s bag. If his mother found out he’d invaded someone’s privacy like that, she’d be very cross with him! ...And yet, he found himself grabbing the bag by it’s straps and picking it up. 

But he didn’t open it! He even glanced over at Bunny, as if to confirm she saw him decidedly not going through the bag. It would be horribly rude of me to search through another’s belongings just because I’m curious...

“Perhaps we should find the owner... They might be near—” He began, staring down at the purse in his hands with a visible longing.

“Oh for Grimm’s sake! Just open it already!” Bunny blurted after a moment, gently socking the young man in the arm. She’d started bouncing on the balls of her feet, the anticipation and curiosity overwhelming her small frame. If Alistair didn’t open the bag, she was going to! Even if there’s something with teeth in there!...

But she needn’t have worried; Once he felt he had her permission, he didn’t hesitate to open the handbag and pull out the glowing mirror. It was definitely not of this realm, or any other he was familiar with. It didn’t seem to be any form of mirrorphone/pad either, though a message did appear on it’s surface. Reading the riddle, Alistair let out a triumphant little laugh.

“Oh give me a hard one, won’t you? You’re a shadow of course!”

“...Um, Alistair? I’m not sure if that was the best idea...” The lapin-girl interjected, tugging on his sleeve before pointing to the shifting shadow on the ground as it took the form of...a young woman?

“I would have you know I did ask the bench before you good sir.” The Jabberwock replied taking another bite of his lunch, whilst his tail flicked in curiosity. “The last I checked the dear bench appeared perfectly open to someone sitting on it.” Mal assured taking a moment to sip his tea.

♖— The young adventurer wasn’t sure which was more surprising to him; that the boy sitting on the bench had answered him or that the bench itself hadn’t. But, he reminded himself, he was in Ever After again and not very many benches or chairs were alive here.

Ah, so they were heading to Ever After High. Perfect!  If she can lead them back, maybe they can help her get out of this trapped state!

Now she needed to find a way to get their attention and quick. But how?

The shadow looked around for anything to use. The branches? No useless, she couldn’t pick up anything! If only she had a… wait! The bag nearby she brought with her. She hoped it was still in there.

Looking from the tree, she watched before there was glow coming from the bushes near the two wonderlanders…

♖— As embarrassing as it was to admit, the young explorer wasn’t particularly familiar with this section of Ever After. He’d hardly had enough time to explore the land, and the twin forests hadn’t been very high on his list besides. Still...

“I might have a map in my bag... It’d be unfinished but every little bit helps...?” He replied, shrugging off his backpack so he could search through its contents, “Thank goodness nothing in here got wet or we’d really be sunk, huh?” 

As Alistair busied himself with searching through his belongings, Bunny decided to take a look around. It astonished her how un-Wonderland-like everything was here. Maybe I can open up a rabbit hole? But I still don’t know where we’re going though and I doubt we can get there by simply—“Oh!”

"Bunny? What’s wrong?” Asked the young man, his bag momentarily forgotten in favor of seeing what had made his friend call out. Without a thought, he dropped to one knee beside her and held a hand out to help her up from the bushes.

Oh Grimm. Just how many photos had fairytales taken of a certain prince during the whole Topsy-turvy curse? Daring had been completely focused on scrolling through the feed upon his MirrorPhone, not believing just how many images were circling around the MirrorNet. He had to do his best to maintain his composure, trying not to show just how deeply it bothered him. Just remind everyone of how perfect you are, and they’ll all forget, he told himself.

A voice snapped him out of his trance, and out of reflex, readied a smile towards it. To his surprise, it was that adventurer he met that day, before everything went terribly wrong. “Well, well. We meet again, my good man.” He said, putting away his cellphone. “Let me congratulate you in having the best class ever after–Hero Training! And with the best hero around; me.”

♖— It took him a moment, but Alistair did notice that the person he’d approached seemed rather pre-occupied. He almost backed away to find someone else, lest he get caught up in something he needn’t be, but before he could make up his mind it was too late. The prince was looking at him, and in that moment recognition clicked.

“It really was the Storybook, you know. Before Kitty’s mother switched them.” The words left his mouth before he could think them through, but he felt compelled to say something on the matter. It had hurt how quickly everyone—excepting his friends—had turned on him that day, and Alistair supposed he still wasn’t over it.

❛     forgiveness  was  out  of  the  deck  the  moment  she  tried  to  steal  my  destiny  !     ❜  never  mind  everything  else  she’d  done  in  the  process  ——  your  largest  issue  with  her  lies  there  .  ❛     i’ll  never  understand  why  my  mother  didn’t  demand  a  harsher  punishment  .  she  would  have  gotten  her  way  .     ❜

♖— Now probably wasn’t the time to question whether or not she’d have actually been successful in that or not, though that thought had occurred to him as well. He hated to think what would have happened to Lizzie had Courtly managed to sign her name...

“I don’t fully understand that myself. My mum told me multiple times that the Queen of Hearts would have someone beheaded for much less.” 

One sometimes wonder… how does this happen?

And by this meaning being entrapped and then spit out of the magic fountain of Wonderland without a solid form!

Unbelievable and purely ridiculous!

Proof once again there was never a moment Ever After would give her some peace!

The only grateful moment was not feeling any pain when the shadow form landed on the grass next to the well. Shifting carefully, the female shadow figure moved to the nearest tree in sunlight. Now… how to go about this… she needed to get back to find someone.

But then two sounds caught her ears: the screaming of not one but two teens nearby and the sound of them landing in the bushes below. Shadow eyes watched them and pondered… perhaps they can help.

♖— It was only by sheer dumb luck that Alistair managed to land without breaking anything, and just in time to catch Bunny (as she fell in rabbit form) on top of that. Regardless, the young adventurer gave a little triumphant chuckle.

“We did it!” He crowed, lifting his friend into the air again for a moment before setting her on the ground. With a ‘poof’, rabbit turned back into girl and the pair took in their new surroundings. There was no mistaking it, they were in Ever After again! ...And on the edge of the Dark and Enchanted forests.

❛     i  think  she  should  have  been  executed  !  off  with  her  head  !     ❜