Alice and the Looking Glass (Clockwork Wonderland Book 1)

In Which Cat Goes Behind

"I hate this!" Cat cried, tossing the rusty trowel she'd managed to steal from town to the ground.

Mirror groaned. She'd already thrown three similar tantrums that day. As much as he tried to remain patient with her, knowing Druids weren't expected to plant their Seeds alone, the child was grating on his nerves.

"What is wrong now?" he ground out.

"It is not even!"

"Even?"

"Yes!" Cat gave him a suspicious look, as if he was teasing her. "I can't get the sides to match. It's supposed to be round, and then there's a path..." She trailed off, staring at the two halves of the bed.

Her planned layout, which Mirror found flattering, was a traditional oval garden, except with one of the narrow ends cut off to butt up against his mirror frame. A walkway down the center, in case anyone needed to step close to him, made him the focal point of her garden. But, looking at it, he had to admit the thing was not really an oval at all. More like a rounded triangle.

"It looks fine, Cat," he sighed, just wanting to skip this nonsense and get the hard part over with. They'd procrastinated on retrieving the seeds far too long.

"Well, it's not fine. This has to look perfect." She pouted at him, trowel still forgotten at her feet.

"No one but you and I are going to see it, I'm not sure why it being lopsided matters."

As Mirror was learning, he said a lot of wrong things, and this was one of them. Letting her stay was the right thing to do but he'd been on his own for so long that dealing with anyone, let alone a temperamental youngster, made him long for the endless solitude of long ago.

"I knew you thought it was lopsided! How could you say that?" she demanded, her eyes glittering with wrath intermixed with tears. Her skin turned a sort of a muted beet color.

"I'm sorry." Mirror stammered, hoping to rush through the whole tiring apology part. "Look, the thing will look, uh, good when it has plants. So, don't you think it's time to retrieve those seeds?"

Now, Cat paused, unsure how to proceed. Curiosity and fear warred in her boiling stomach, but at least she forgot her previous upset.

"How do you know I'll be safe?" she demanded at last. "Who knows what's behind there."

"I know what's behind there!"

"How can you be so sure? You've never seen it, have you!" She screeched.

This was getting out of hand, Mirror thought. He groaned. "I've told you, it's not dangerous, just alien and very...personal."

"Personal?"

"It's a reminder of things I'd rather not remember."

"If you don't remember it, then how do you know it won't hurt me!" Panic took over, twisting his words and her voice pitched even higher.

"I didn't mean-" he huffed, "never mind."

Mirror gazed off into the red mist and Cat glared at him, eyes wide and accusing. The adult part of her knew he would never send her somewhere unsafe, and had, in fact, granted her a great honor, but her child's mind refused to believe anything so strange wouldn't hurt her. In the end, the adult part won.

"Ok, I trust you. I am ready to go now."

The sudden declaration stunned him into silence. He blinked at her like a dazed owl. He'd expected more fighting.

Then, his mouth set to a hard line. "All right, Cat. You will know the Seeds when you see them. Nothing will harm you. Do not explore. Get the Seeds and leave. Yes?" He barked out the orders, to relieve his stress more than anything.