Lost In Wonderland

Chapter 8

We found my phone. Barely. The screen was blinking and vibrating, alerting me it was nearly dead. I sighed and turned it off, putting it in a small side pocket of my bag. I turned to Cory. "Where to next?"

He sighed. "Well. The clearing is that way," Cory pointed to the direction we ran from. "So I thought we'd just camp here tonight. Sleep in shifts."

"Shifts? How dangerous can Wonderland be at night?"

"Ever heard of a jabberwocky?"

I shook my head. "I never saw the film... s."

"There's films?"

I nodded. "Disney, Tim Burton. Lewis Carroll wrote a book." I shrugged and sat down on the sand. "Are you taking the first shift?"

Cory nodded. "Yeah. You sleep. I'll wake you in a while."

I nodded and used my backpack as a pillow. "Goodnight, Cory,"

. . .
My dreams were sparse, but vivid enough to remember. When I woke up, the sun was starting to rise and Cory was leaning against a tree, leaning his head on his hand, blinking slowly, keeping his eyes shut more each time.

"Cory!"

He glanced up and smiled seeing I was awake. He stood up and shook. "Morning, Aero,"

"You didn't wake me up?"

He shook his head and walked over to the water. "Thought I should let you sleep." He took off his shirt and dunked his head into the water. "I'm fine, really. You needed the sleep more than I did."

He put his shirt back on and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. He grabbed my backpack and put it on. "Let's get moving. We should be there today."

I nodded. "Good. I want to get back home."

Cory nodded and started to walk. I followed him, still tired from the bad night's sleep.

. . .
By midday I was starving. I was going to say something, but my stomach spoke for me, growling loudly.

"Hungry, my dear?"

I nodded. "Missed breakfast, and dinner." I shrugged. "I don't supposed you know where an all-you-can-eat buffet may be?"

Cory laughed. "We can try to catch something, but I'm not crazy about the idea of a fire. We should be at the castle soon."

I sighed. "Tell me if you see any berries I could snack on."

"Will do."

Another hour passed and Cory never pointed out anything. I didn't know if he wasn't looking, or was just blind. I saw plenty of berries, but each time I asked, Cory shook his head. "Not if you want to turn blue, my dear,", "I wouldn't if I were you, screws with the stomach,", "I mean, if you really want, makes your tongue swell and causes hallucinations."

After a lull of silence, I finally asked about the books. "So, if Wonderland is real, and all secret-y, then how come Lewis Carroll wrote a book?"

"He didn't mean to let the world see it. Legend goes, he was writing for the queen about Wonderland. I think he dropped the book into the Human world. Queen found out and threw him out. To spite her, he published it as fiction. That really pissed her off. She was annoyed that her kingdom was fiction to humans and not truth."

I smiled. "Wonderland is famous where I come from. I just never read the books or saw the movies."

"Well if they're as famous as you make them sound, how come you haven't read or watched them?"

I shrugged. "I have too many books to read, and Alice in Wonderland never got to my list. Plus I'm too busy reading to watch movies. The books are always better anyway."

Cory smirked. "You really are something,"

I smiled. "I'll just take that as a compliment."

Cory chuckled. "Okay. It's a compliment."

. . .
Hours passed and the sun refused to set. I swear it does not set at the same time every day. I made a mental note to ask Cory about it.

By the time it did set, the Castle was in the distance. We set up our camp, nibbling on some leaves. Tonight, I forced Cory to sleep. Reluctantly, he laid down and shut his eyes, muttering, "Call me if you see anything weird," before starting to softly snore.

I leaned against a tree and started to hum to myself. I wanted to turn on my phone and listen to music, but it didn't end well last night. So I just kept on humming to myself pretending what I was seeing was a dream.

An hour or two passed when I noticed a few lights from the castle. I didn't think much of it. Another hour later, the lights were closer, slowly creeping their way towards us.

I shook Cory. "Cory, wake up,"

He moaned but sat up. "Hm? What's up? My turn?"

"There's lights coming towards us." I pointed to the lights. "They've been coming our way for an hour or so,"

Cory stood up and squinted. "Hmm..." He kept looking, then his breath hitched in his throat. "Get down," He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ground.

"What? What is it?"

"Should've waken me when you first saw them," Cory said, tsking.

"Sorry. I didn't know they were coming towards us when I first saw them, otherwise I would've."

"They'll be here soon."

"What is they?"

"They are the knights. They mean no good. Are you sure they're coming for us?"

"I said towards us, not for us. I could be wrong."

"Think about your gut feeling. What do you think? Are they coming for us?" Cory asked, side glancing at me.

It took me less than a second of thought. "How often do humans come to Wonderland, Cory? She probably knows I'm here. They're coming for us."

"Then we shouldn't hide. It'll only be worse." Cory stood up. "Grab your bag, my dear, unless you want to leave it behind."

I sighed. This would be very interesting.

Dun, dun, dunnnnnn!

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(Shout out to Josh Dun)