Princess of Hearts

Chapter 3

"You fell down a rabbit hole?"

As I stood before this guy, a sense of curiosity pulsed through my veins. Where had he come from? Who was he? What was his name?

" Yes. I fell down a rabbit hole and I have no idea where I am right now."
His eyes were pleading for some answers. I couldn't tell him how he got here or why, but I can tell him where he was. First, I needed to know his name.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"What is your name?" He questioned back.

"That's not fair, I asked first." I threw back at him giving a slight smirk.

"Fine. It's Alister. My name is Alister. Now can you tell me yours?" I could tell he was getting impatient with me.

"My name is Laye Hearts, daughter of the Red Queen." Even if my mother was dead, and no longer a queen, I still introduced myself the formal way.

"Oh! So you're a princess! Of what kingdom may I ask?" He was desperately trying to pull information out of me without trying to sound too crazed.

I looked at the clock. We had been talking for 15 minutes. I felt bad for the guy, he had no idea where he was or who anybody was. He would for sure get lost, if not hurt. Could I take the day off and help him a bit?

"Why don't we go for a walk and I'll tell you everything you need to know?"

"That's sounds great. I just stumbled upon this shop and I thought you can help. I need to find a way back up the rabbit hole or even just a place to sleep!" He looked terrified. I couldn't imagine being in that kind of situation.

"If we don't find a way, you can sleep here tonight." I offered as I opened the tiny shop's door. A familiar ding echoed throughout the shop.

As we both walked outside, I felt a warm breeze flutter my plain red dress.

"Let's walk around a bit." I looked over at Alister. His platinum blonde hair looked a bit ruffled, as with his slightly wrinkled black pants, and white dress shirt poking from underneath and expensive looking black wool peacoat. His clothing was a stark contrast to his face, which held two bright blue eyes under his gorgeous hair.

"First things first. This is Wonderland, ruled by the white queen." This was the most basic of information, but hopefully he could tell me where he lived in relation to where we were.

"Wonderland? I must be dreaming. There is no such place as Wonderland."

"Listen, I don't know where you came from, but you need to listen and accept what I am telling you in order to get back. You are definitely in Wonderland right now so I don't know why it wouldn't exist." I kept us walking towards a forest growing in the distance. I kept my shop a distance from the main kingdom where the White Queens castle, which was on the other side of the forest.

"Ok. Wonderland. Got that." Out of the corner of my eye I saw his face, deep in concentration.

"I have a friend I would like you to see, he is extremely intelligent and can see what we can do to get you back to where you belong."

"Thank you so much. What's his name?"

I quickly remarked back:

"What makes you think it's a he? Her name is Maddie. She is a little weird at first but you get used to it." At this point we were entering the forest. Alister took a look around and finally looked up, to see sunlight peeking through the tall trees.

The forest was my special place. It was the barrier between my tiny shop and the rest if Wonderland, which made it my saviour. The nature was magical; and it always seemed alive. Alister ran ahead of me and touched a bunch of roses growing at the base of a large oak tree.

"Oh don't do that Alis-" It was too late.

The roses quivered and started growing. Dew on the petals sparkled and the petals fluttered open growing inch by inch, bigger and bigger. Soon, the roses were a few feet tall and their flower the size of a beach ball. Still the roses moved. They were looking for something to eat. I frantically looked at the ground and found a good sized blue beetle munching on a leaf.

"Sorry buddy." I whispered as I picked up the leaf and dropped it into the centre of the rose head. The rose engulfed the beetle and quivered, shrinking back to the ground and returning to how it was before.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Alister was petrified.

"It was a rose, stupid. Why would you touch one?"

"We'll roses don't grow and eat things where I come from! I don't know it was going to try and eat me!"

"It wasn't going to eat you. It just thought you were a bug or spider or something. If that scared you, you are in for a lot of surprises my friend. "

"Oh god. " Alister stepped a little closer to me, as if the tree branches were going to bite him next.

"Let's keep going. " I said as I started walking.

Alister walked cautiously behind me.

I took in the beautiful nature around me as we made our way through the forest to Maddie's house. The lack of sunlight made the forest mysterious. I pointed out a flock of humming keys to Alister and he was intrigued. He mumbled something about taking a picture for proof.

Finally we arrived at Maddie's. She lived in a tiny wooden house that housed her and some of her animal friends.

I went up to the wooden door that was tilted a tiny bit to the left and knocked. I heard a more than one voice inside ( a particularly loud squeaky voice yelled "MADDIE!") plus some thumping a a crash of something falling inside. The door flew open, making Alister jump a tiny bit.

The sight to behold was a girl, a little taller than me, with frizzy, fire engine red hair and black lipstick. Her enormous purple coloured eyes lit up when she saw me.

She stepped aside to let us in and clapped her hand as we entered.

She exclaimed:

"Welcome to Maddie Hatter's, what can I do for you?"

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Tori xx