Painting the Roses Blue (wonderland au)

Chapter 2

Stuart woke once more in his little flowerbed. It seemed that all the staff had completely ignored his presence, he wasn't even called in for dinner. The sun was far gone, the moon having replaced its light. The moon illuminated the garden beautifully, but the newfound aesthetic of the garden wasn't sufficient enough to let the rabbit see nearly five feet ahead of him. The night brought cold weather, and soon the man was shivering, wrapping his lanky arms around himself to try and create some friction.

His black eyes widened to try and make sense of the black world he was now engulfed in. He couldn't see anything, much less a dark castle. It was apparent that he wasn't going to be able to find his way back home, although he didn't entirely mind the idea of a new life. Life in the White Kingdom was alright enough, but he couldn't fit in even if he wanted to. He was tall and skinny, with bright blue hairs and ears. To finish it off, his teeth were busted and eyes were black as the night sky itself. The White Kingdom was bright white, white as the snow that blanketed the ground during the cold months. The Queen would explode in a rage of fury at the sight of the slightest stain on her precious white kingdom. Stuart was a big blue stain in her kingdom. The only reason he was ever kept around was his angelic voice. His voice, while singing, could easily be mistaken for a siren calling in those within earshot to their doom, except he wouldn't want to kill anyone, especially with his voice.

Stuart's ears perked up involuntarily, immediately bringing him out of his train of thought. His ears focused in on the sound he heard, a rustling, coming from the nearby shrubs. His heart started racing. Oh god, oh fuck, oh god, this was it. He was going to die. No doubt about it. He was literal prey, he couldn't defend himself. Maybe he could run, that was it, he was going to run. Run far far away from any possible danger.

The noise grew louder and he immediately spun on his feet, sprinting in the opposite direction of the noise. He navigated the garden quite easily, having ran through this garden thousands of times. The trouble really began when he left the perimeter of the garden, venturing into the unexplored forest. The darkness consumed him and his surroundings. Stuart yelped as he brushed past a branch that hit his arm, the temporary distraction causing his balance to falter, stumbling and falling flat on his face. He heard more rustling, and he scrambled to his feet, resuming his running away.

"Fuck fuck fuck!" He screamed, branches hitting his face at a constant rate. He knew that if the White Queen saw him all dirtied up he would be dead, but he also knew that if he were anywhere else that he would also die. He figured he was dead either way, but instead of accepting it, he just kept running and running. He ran as fast as he could, feet flying out from under him as he came to a sudden and unexpected halt. He ran into a solid red brick wall, screaming from initial shock and pain.

He stood straight up and looked around his surroundings. A tall, taller than the White Kingdom's, wall stood ahead of him, dark red covering every inch of the wall. His ears perked up again and he frantically stretched his arms out, feeling the wall for any possible way of entry, trying as hard as he could to delay his inevitable demise. He turned a corner and finally found an entry gate- locked.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! Fucking locked? I'm about to die, bitch!" A string of curses slipped out of the rabbit's mouth, reaching up to determine how high the gate was. He paused, taking a deep breath before jumping as high as he could to try and reach the inside of the wall, despite not knowing what could be lurking behind the wall. No matter what it was, he wanted to escape the suspicious noise. His height allowed him to jump fairly high, high enough to easily see over the wall. However, his jump wasn't high enough to safely propel him to the other side, instead his chest hit the flat top of the wall, flopping onto the other side of the wall successfully.

He landed in a bed of flowers once more, this time some soft red geraniums. He was focused on trying to regain the breath that was knocked out of him due to the impact. He was so focused that he didn't notice the large guard at the gate staring at him like he just fell from the sky, though it could be debated that he actually did fall from the sky. Stuart only took note of the man as his eyes were slowly closing to capture him in a deep sleep once more.

Russel's eyes were wide as he watched the scene in front of him. A skinny blue bunny just hopped over the fence and fell asleep in the flowers. He looked to have just been in a fight, face bloodied and bruised from the impact of his many falls. He couldn't just leave the man to be found by someone else, so he picked up Stuart as carefully as possible, quickly running to find Murdoc.