Alice's Sister's Adventure In Underland

Chapter 3: Meeting HIM

           

We finally stop running when we reach a split in the road. In the middle of the two roads is two signs saying names of places and the twins say it out loud, but I'm barely listening. At the moment all I want is to catch my breath, because I haven't ran that much before, because I spend all of my time in the Kingsleigh library and my study. After Charles died, none of the Kingsleigh women knew how to take care of the funds and the books, but from watching Charles maintain them I was the only one who could continue to take care of them, so I got Charles's old study. I was teaching Alice how to take care of it, when all of this stuff happened. Looking over at Alice, I notice that the twins are pulling her in different directions, probably arguing again.

            Before I can stop them, I hear this enormously loud caw from a kind of bird. The bird is something I have never seen before, because it isn't a normal bird. It has bright sapphire blue feathers, but rainbow colored feathers in the wings. It has a long, narrow yellow beak and sharp teeth. It has a bright red streak from the beak up, in between the eyes, and down the head. Another name pops into my head, and I find out that the bird is called the Jubjub bird. The Jubjub bird takes both of the twins away by their ankles, and we are left alone.

            "Which way do you want to go, Alice?" I ask her, as I step next to her. We start walking on the road that leads to the right, where the twins were taken to. As we are walking, neither of us speak, because I focus more on walking than anything else. My whole body is screaming to just stop and sleep, but I can't do that I have to keep moving forward.

            "Are you alright, AnaBeth?" she finally asks me, and I shake my head from side to side, "What's wrong?"

            "I don't know, sister. One minute I am fine and the next moment I feel déjà vu. This déjà vu feeling gets worse, and then my whole body feels like it just wants to crawl into a hole, and then die," I try explaining to her, but it doesn't sound right, "For example, right now my body just wants to stop and fall asleep forever."

            Pretty soon the road is canopied by arched dead trees, and the setting sun finally dips behind the land making the sky into the night. There is a crescent moon hanging high in the sky with a bunch of little stars. This sky reminds me of the night sky back home. Now, along with everything else I am feeling homesick. Thankfully, it isn't too dark, so Alice and I can continue to follow the road through the forest. The smell of trees is really comforting and so is the sound of the night birds calling.

            "It seems that you two ran into something with long claws," a deep voice says behind us making us turn around quickly. Instead of seeing a man behind us, we find a light blue cat looking at us on top of one of the tree branches. Its tail wages back and forth, as it looks at us. The cat opens its mouth and instead of a meow, the cat starts to speak.

            "What was it?" the cat asks us. Alice tries saying its name, but after a few beginnings I tell the cat myself.

            "It was called the Bandersnatch."

            "The Bandersnatch!" the cat says with surprise in its voice, "Well, let me take a look." The cat disappears and reappears next to Alice looking at the wound, but the cat's body is not there, only its head.

            "What are you doing?" Alice asks him.

            "Well, the wound has to be healed or it will putrefy. The wound has to be healed by someone with the ability to disappear and reappear," the cat explains, but Alice doesn't seem like she is going to have it.

            "I would rather you not," Alice tells him, and the cat just bandages it up instead. Disappearing, the cat reappears next to me looking at my arm. He asks me if I wanted the same thing as Alice, and I shake my head. I want him to cure the wound, because I don't want to worry about the wound.