The Roar In Her Voice

Welcome To Wonderland

My eyes snapped open. What happened?

I was lying on the ground in a beautiful place filled with colorful flowers sprouting from trees of all sizes. Exotic plants could be found everywhere as birds sang melodic songs irresistible to the ear.

Everything was organized, though. Plants and trees were arranged in a specific order.

This place was very familiar.

I sat up straight, realising where I was.

This was the place in my dreams. I scrambled up. No no no no no, I thought, this must be another dream. Calm down.

I felt my muscles relax as the tension fled from my body. Of course--I had the dream twice, who's to say I can't have it again?

Although the former dream was vivid, this one was certainly the most realistic, I thought. Of course, maybe the others were as clear as this one, I just forgot when I wake up.

I looked around. I felt very, very comfortable, as if I belonged here. Probably because I visited this place already.

I contemplated the beauty of the nature surrounding me. It certainly looked much more breathtaking if the rain wasn't here to blur the scenery. I took in a deep breathe. Guess I would wait here until I wake up. But to be honest, I didn't want to go yet. I had never felt so relaxed.

This place was intoxicating. It didn't feel like a trap intending to charm you into staying forever. It felt welcoming. Unless I had fallen into the trap?

Questions invaded my mind and flew around like a whirlwind, clouding my ability to think. I started panicking, the possibilities of an ambush haunting me most of all.

I pressed my palms to my forehead, forcing myself to clear my head. I needed to recall. What happened before this place? I didn't remember much. I just remembered Katt's voice screaming. Another voice yelling.

And blood on my hands.

Blood. Fists. Cries of pain. It rushed back to me, making me stumble backward as I realize what I had done. I stared at my hands and saw that the dried blood was still there.

I screamed, in fear of what was going to happen to me, and of myself. I kicked at the rocks nearby me as tears forced their way out of my eyes. I would've stayed that way forever if a rational part of me hadn't told me to snap out of it.

Shut up and calm down, I thought. You're being ridiculous. I inhaled and exhaled, closing my eyes, trying to calm myself down.

After some time, I shakily stood up. So what would I do know? If I were in a normal forest, I'd start looking for shelter, water and food. Since this isn't a normal forest, this is some special garden, then I'm clueless.

I pondered my possible options, which were narrowing down to small numbers. Then, a thought popped out: if this were a garden, who was the gardener?

Where was he? Could he help me?

One way to find out. I had to talk to him. It wasn't not much of a plan, though. Where to start in this humongous garden?

I looked around and whistled in awe. There were paths here, which would make it easy to walk on, but there were tons of them. Which one would I take?

Maybe I should look at the part of the garden that seems... I don't know, looked after. Newly cut grass. Wet plants.

I looked at path number one. Hmm. Tall grass.

I looked at path number two. Well, wild grass, but not as tall.

I looked at path number three. Straight up grass which is taller than the other two.