Rix and I were walking for a while until we started to approach the dark forest. I was mostly in awe at the scenery of wonderland, and every time it changed Rix would just say don't let its looks fool me and that wonderland can actually be very dangerous if you're not careful. I still did not yet understand her hatred of wonderland or more so her mother. She basically told me her mother was a greedy, selfish, self absorbed tyrant. Her card servants and soldiers only respected her because they feared her, feared getting their heads chopped off. And also because of how hot headed her mother was as she described, her father barely had control of anything, he was like a walk in the park. Along the way she described her story of how she grew up, she was basically the black sheep in her family.
She wanted nothing to do with family affairs and because of that, she was treated differently, as opposed to her older brother, Jack. Who has apparently done far worse than Rix ever could, and he seemed to never get caught or blamed. He was their golden boy. She described him to be a rebel, she even thinks he was the one painting the roses red and doing who knows what just to get her in trouble. While she suffered the punishments her mom gave for whatever reason, even if whatever Rix did wasn't that bad, harmless even. Rix told me that the happiest day of her life was the day when Axel came and got her. But all that sounds like it could be a simple relationship between siblings....even though I don't have any.
Celty was like a sister to me, even though I'll admit I had a bit of a crush on her older brother Cal, but it was just admiration at the most. But Celty and I bickered like sisters sometimes. I wonder how they are....if they're alright? They may not have even survived. I felt kind of bad and I didn't. This was the first time after a couple months that I had even thought of them at all, but at the same time they were the part of my old life that I put away.
It was just a pastime now. They didn't matter anymore. I did have thoughts of finding them one day...but it didn't matter anymore...they didn't matter. I had a new life, new mind set, and new goals. By the time this was all over I would probably have new things to do anyway and would have forgotten them by then. But like I said they may have gotten their hearts taken, they may not even exist anymore anyway.
"Her and her blah blah painting the red roses mess..." Rix continued on. "If you don't mind can we stop by and see The Chesire Cat, The Mad Hatter, and the hare first? I don't want to see my mother just yet."
"Sure, I don't care," I shrugged.
"Oh one more thing," Rix started. "You have to get Alice's heart, since she's a princess of heart and all. She's always around here somewhere, she's probably with The Hatter actually. "
"Alright then, thank you for telling me."
"Sure thing."
As we walked through the dark forest we approached a wooden sign with arrows pointing in two different directions, the left and the right. It was standing at the base of tree. Both paths looked questionable. The sign looked pretty old and wore down, so wore down the writing on it was barely visible.
"So, which way?" I asked Rix. By the time I had asked she had already started making movement toward the right path.
"This way," she said. "That dreaded path leads to my mother, the Hatter and Hare are this way."
"Ahh, so back again I see? Oh we all have missed you Rix, mostly me. I've missed you the most." A creepy but yet very cheery voice spoke out of thin air.
"Who?....what? Who was that?" I asked.
"Its the Cheshire Cat. Cheshire even after all this you're still not my favorite." Rix told me.
"Cheshire Cat? Where is he?"
"Playing a hoodini somewhere around here. Come on out you bothersome Cat?"
Then the head of a deep purple and pink striped appeared at the top of the tree. "Bothersome am I?" the head spoke with a creepy smile. "How do you know you're not the one bothering me? You called out or me, did you not?"
Rix rolled her eyes and shook her head as the full body of the cat started to appear. "Ayame this is the Cheshire Cat."
"Your name is Ayame? Strange name."
"Is not..." I said.
"Says the one carrying a big key.....ohhhh a key like those Sora and Riku fellows."
"Do you know them?"
"Do I know who?"
"Sora and Riku? How much do you know about them?"
"How much or how little do I know about who?"
"Ugghh! What is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with you? why are you so flustered? I'm just asking a question."
"He's big on riddles and confusing people, driving them mad." Rix told me.
"I see that....so you know RIku right Cheshire?"
"Perhaps. What do you want to know?" he asked as he turned his head to the side smiling.
"Who is he? What has he done? Is he good or bad? What do you know?"
"I do not know all that. But he was quite the confused fellow, Dawdling around with a woman in black, quite ugly she was. And suddenly slaying the shadows instead of making them. Quite confused like I said before."
"What...?"
"You're not gonna get anything else outta him, lets just go." Rix said as she started walking.
"You're just as confused as he is, aren't you Ayame?" Cheshire said as his voice went to an echo as he disappeared and the last thing to disappear was his wide, creepy smile. We kept walking along the dark path, that nothing but trees all around. As we walked along I started to hear music, very happy and cherry music. As we approached a small wooden gate Rix stopped me.
"Get ready," she said. When we walked through I was brought to an interesting sight. The sight of an elderly looking man with white hair and a brown rabbit jumping around a long pink table, singing and circling around a big cake.
"A very merry un-birthday to you!" the rabbit sang.
"To me!" the man sang. When they realized Rix and I were there they screamed happily as they ran to her.
"Rix!" They both said. They both pulled her by each arm and started talking really fast.
"Its great to see ya Rix!" the Hare said.
"Why yes it is, where have you been? You must come sit and tell us all about it."
Then randomly the rabbit hopped over to me and stuck his nose in my face and sniffed. "Hey! Who's this Rix? We don't like outsiders!"
"Its fine," she said. "She's my friend Hare."
"Well," the hatter said. "A friend of Rix's is a friends of ours!" the Hatter said smiling. They both sat me down in one of the chairs. "How about half a cup of tea?"
"Half a cup?" I asked.
"Why of course? What will you have? A whole cup?" He and the Hare laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. Then he sat a cup of tea that was literally in half. I couldn't believe how it was sitting perfectly in a cup that was cut right down the middle. Rix and I sat there for awhile and had tea and cake while the Hare and the Hatter sang their odd birthday song. It turns out the little white mouse was hiding under a cup of tea the whole time.
"Alright guys, its time for us to leave," Rix said. "We have things to do. We'll come back."
"Where are you going?" Hatter asked.
"To see my mom."
"Ew! Your mother! That vile woman! Why would you want to see her?!" Hare said.
"She's such a mad woman. Maybe she needs a merry unbirthday," Hatter said.
Then they started to talk amongst themselves as we easily left, back the way they came. We then went the other direction toward her mother. As time went on as we walked the trees started to slowly become withered...and soon they weren't there at all. The ground wasn't as green. It was an off green to a light brown. We then walked across this dead, abandoned land as we approached what looked like used to be a maze full of lush green bushes....but now that was dead and deteriorated. And there was the castle of hearts, far off in the distance, to itself surrounded by barren and vast land. It really looked like such a sad and lonely sight.
"Hmph," Rix chuckled. "No wonder why she wants your help...she would only ask for help when it was beyond her reach. Makes sense."
"Are you sure you want to see your mother again?" Cheshire said as he appeared. "You can always turn back now, I never liked that fat old beast."
"So she's let herself go has she? This I've got to see. Why not? But are you ready Ayame?"
"Now Rix," Cheshire smiled as he danced on his toes. "She may not be as you remember. She has perhaps become the maddest of all here."
"Yeah, I'm ready. " I said. "It's now or never. Now lets go see what your mom wants."
"Oh sure, go on and see what she wants," Cheshire said amused. "But will you be able to get through her demented loyal servants?" he turned his head to the side. "They have gone quite mad as well. But not as mad as the queen..."