Saving Hearts

Chapter Four

Hitting the ground below, Alistair looked around. His head spinning and brain rolling around in his skull.

"Ugh." Alistair groaned, rubbing his face and feeling the belt unbuckle, he stood up. Leaning on the wall for support. "Mister Wonderland, are you okay?" White Rabbit's voice drawn him in from his state of nausea. Nodding, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just dizzy."

"Follow me please, whenever you're ready." White Rabbit waited. A minute passed and Alistair was walking beside the group. "So we're meeting with Caterpillar?" the teenager asked. White Rabbit nodded. "This should be interesting." Alistair whispered to himself.

They entered another room. It was lit by luminescent mushrooms and fauna and the overwhelming stench of tobacco. "Mister Wonderland." a deep voice spoke from the fog of smoke. "Mister Caterpillar." Alistair stood in front of him. The smoke dissipated and a man in a blue kimono sat upon a large mushroom. "I already know about the Queen of Hearts." Alistair looked at him. "Well, let's see your physical and mental strength." Caterpillar said, in a sighing manner, gesturing to a door.

Alistair entered the room. A single light fixture hanging from the ceiling illuminated it. Caterpillar's voice came through the walls. "Okay Mister Wonderland, answer these three riddles." Alistair waited. "I talk, but I do not speak my mind. What am I?"

"An actor."

"What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?"

"A river."

"If you break me, I do not stop working; If you lose me nothing will matter."

"Heart."

Suddenly a practice dummy was launched out of the darkness and Alistair quickly responded. Countering it. Then another and three more.

"I think he's ready." Cheshire whispered.