It took a lot less time to get down. She landed with a thump after a minute or two on something soft...right back in the same hall they left. “What in the hell are we doing here?”
“Could you please get off?” Marcia rolled out from under her. “What do I look like, a pillow?”
“Well,” Brett smirked, brushing dirt off her pale blue sleeves, “you always were a soft touch.”
“Mom,” Adam whined, “could we not fight now? Those guys could still be after us!” Orson tried to lift the Doormouse to his paws, only for him to fall back, while the White Rabbit gave them a nervous apology for landing on the Doormouse's tail.
Dickie's younger son Gary looked around, worried. “Where's Dad? He's the only one who isn't here!”
“I'm coming!” Dickie slid into the rest of them, rolling up in a loud clatter against the table in the hall. His sons helped him to his feet. “We must flee as quickly as possible. It won't take them long to figure out where we went.”
One last squawk followed Richard. “Watch out below!” Jimmie toppled onto Orson and the sleepy Doormouse. “The Black Prince didn't want to go extinct twice, so he followed all of you down here!”
“And if he can,” Dickie added, “others will be able to, too. Let's get out of here.”
“That's everyone but the Cheshire Catwoman.” Marcia looked up where they fell from.
“Oh, don't worry about her.” Dickie grinned knowingly. “She'll turn up when she wants to be found.”
He marched them all to the nearest door, the one that in Wonderland led to the throne room. “Now, keep in mind that time and travel works differently here than it does in Wonderland or the Land Above. Many things will be the opposite of what you're used to. For instance, in the hall, you may have noticed that the door pushes inward. Here,” he grabbed the knob, “it pushes out.”
And when they walked out, they emerged into a splendid bright garden. It did somewhat resemble Betty's garden at Heart Palace, but without the heart gewgaws everywhere. As Brett stepped along the path, she thought she heard giggling in the flower beds.
“What's that?” She looked around, stepping among the hollyhocks and daisies. They were all so bright and sweet smelling, and...human. “What did you say?” Each and every one of those flowers had the face of a gorgeous human woman. It was a bit unsettling.
“Uh, Mom,” Adam sighed with an eye roll, “the flowers didn't say anything. They can't talk.”
“Of course, they can talk!” Mark giggled himself. “Most flowers here can talk, or could.”
“If,” an especially tall and haughty Iris added, her indigo petal in the air, “there's anyone worth talking to!”
“Or about!” said a daisy with a center round as a penny and just as bright. “I'm Trish,” the daisy added. “We know Sir Dawson, but the rest of you are new.”
Jimmie kissed the hand of a small purple pansy. “We're mere travelers, girls! Just tryin' to get away from some bad mojos in Wonderland.”
“Ladies, please.” Richard turned to the curvy rose with the soft golden petals and big white grin. “Elaine, you're looking especially beautiful. Did you take in more sunlight?”
Elaine preened, fluffing her soft petals. “Oh, go on, you flatterer!”
“Sir Dawson,” the Iris with the string of dewdrop pearls around her petals intoned, “I thought you were in Wonderland imploring the King and Queen of Hearts to stop the Red King.”
He kissed her velvety purple petal. “Kitty, we tried, but the Red King chased us out before we could get to them. In fact, I suspect they may be in his clutches now.” He bowed before her. “Mistress Kitty of the flowers, you and your ladies hear everything that goes on in Looking Glass Land.”
“We used to!” Kitty's petals turned down. “Fewer of my girls can talk now. I think it's the soil. Feel the soil under me.”
Brett tapped at the dirt. “It's hard as a rock.”
“That's because the soil is too soft in your world,” a tiger lily with the softer face of Donna Mills explained. “Our soil is thick and hard, and it lets more nutrients flow into our stems. And it lets us talk just as well as you do! When the Red King passes through, he softens the ground and takes our nutrients, so many of us can no longer speak for ourselves.”
Brett turned around to face the others. “Do all of you talk, when your soil's good?”
“We do!” snapped a red ruffled hollyhock who looked a lot like Jo Ann Pflug, “and with a great deal more sense than you!”
Brett glared. “What was that, pollen breath?”
“Mooom,” David muttered, “you're insulting a flower.”
“Watch it!” Marcia glared at them. “We could pick every single one of you, you know! And we wouldn't be afraid to do it!”
That quieted them down. Richard frowned. “Have you seen any humans around, ladies, or are they all in hiding?”
“There was one near-by.” Jonelle the Pansy raised her little leaf. “She looked like you, but she was redder, and her stem was shaped differently.”
“And her petals were done up close,” said Donna the Tiger Lilly, “not loose, like the lady's and Duchess Marcia's.”
“Come to think of it,” Kitty added, “she more closely resembled the Red King. Same shape as him, but red all over, including the petals on the top of her head.”
“She has thorns, too,” Trish the Daisy added helpfully. “On the top of her head.”
Jonelle peered around Brett's head. “Don’t you have thorns? We figured it was standard for all humans.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, ladies,” David grinned, “but some of us don't rate thorns.”
Bill the White Rabbit looked up from nibbling at the soft green grass around the flower beds “Hey, what's that sound? It's like thump, thump, thump.” He shuddered. “I hope it's not the Jabberwock. I heard he's a real mean monster, or so they say. He has teeth that can shred your ears in five seconds flat...”
“Bill!” Orson yelped, throwing his hands over his long ears. “I don't want to hear it! It's bad enough the Red King sent Charles there. The last thing I want to even imagine is what the Jabberwock and his teeth will do to the rest of us!”
“What's a Jabberwock,” Brett demanded, “and why are you all terrified of it? I know it's a monster in the poem, but...”
“It is a monster!” Bill nattered. “Teeth like swords, body the length of Hearts Palace and covered in spines sharp enough to cut three adult rabbits in half, eyes of flame. It's said he guards the Vorpal Sword in Limbo, and it's the only thing that can destroy him.”
“'Tis true, good lady,” Richard added, “all in the Underground Lands fear him so, none have attempted to rescue the sword. Limbo is a rocky wasteland, a world of gray gloom where nothing grows and few survive besides carnivorous creatures like the Jabberwock and Bandersnatch.”
Brett made a face. “Sounds like fun. And The Red King sent Charles there?”
“We'll figure something out,” Dickie assured her. “We won't let him languish forever.”
“Daaaad!” Dickie's boy Gary pulled out his smaller sword. “That thumping is coming closer!”
“Wait!” Marcia made a face. “It keeps moving away.” She ran closer to the hill and the thumping, but the closer she ran, the further away it got.
Dickie chuckled. “That's because we're in Looking Glass Land. If you want to find someone, you don't walk towards them.” He started away from the garden, out to the hills beyond the gates. “You walk away.”
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