Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure (Part 1)

(12) WttVW: Selfishness in a Tough Spot

The wood was silent at that time. Not even the sound of an owl could be heard. The entrance Dwarfs' Mine was dark and cold. The ratty wooden bridge that connected the mine to the Silent Woods was on the verge of collapsing. There was only a little water in the river and even the waterfall didn't sound that loud.

Green gas suddenly came out on the ground in front of the Dwarfs' Mine's entrance. As more and more smoke came out, it swirled into a small tornado. When a wind blew, the smoke disappeared, revealing three children and a cat.

"This is the Dwarfs' Mine," Deuce said, announcing their presence to the wood. The other three followed Deuce's gaze, looking at the dark cave in front of them. "Long ago, this place seemed to be a bustling place to mine for magic stones."

Grim shivered. He got himself out of Jonah's hand and hid behind the boy's back. "Y-You wanna go into that pitch-black cave?"

"What, ya scared?" Ace taunted, grinning at the cat.

"What?! I-I'm not scared!" Grim snapped, flying in front of the gang. "Since I'm so great, I'll be the leader! All of you, follow me!"

Ace snickered, Deuce rolled his eyes, while Jonah didn't say anything. In the end, the three of them followed Grim inside the mine. It was dirty, not surprisingly. There were spider webs on the ceilings and between the woods and wall. They could hear water dripping, echoing in the quiet tunnel.

Grim was flying slow, clearly afraid. But they didn't have time to slow down and Deuce couldn't take this snail-speed search. "Let's keep going," he said, shoving Grim behind him, making him in the lead. "We don't have much time."

Ace huffed, folding his hand behind his head. "I'd rather you not be actin' all tough and ordering me around," he said, rolling his eyes. "This never would've happened in the first place if you weren't acting like an idiot."

Deuce stopped his track, making Grim bumped into him. "If we're going down that route." He spun around, stepping closer to Ace and glaring at him. "You're the one who started this for skipping out on cleaning!"

Ace glared back. "Okay, well, this furball over here is the one who burned the statue of the Queen of Hearts first!" He pointed accusingly at Grim.

Grim, of course, took the bait, flying toward them, smoke coming out from his ears, forehead-to-forehead with Ace. "You were making fun of me first, so that was your fault!"

"Guys! Do you know the situation we're in right now?" Deuce yelled, pushing the two away from each other. "We're going to get expelled if we don't bring back a magic stone by morning!"

Ace pushed down Deuce's hand from his chest. "So, stop patronizing me! It's really ticking me off!"

Deuce was about to say another comeback when a voice stopped him and all the others' arguments.

"NoT... gIvE... Nn... nOt..."

All of them froze in place. Ace was the first one to respond, voice softer than before. "W-Who...said that?"

"StOnE... uUuUuUu... MiNe..."

The children took steps back, their backs pressed against each other. More like Ace and Deuce squeezing Jonah and Grim between their backs.

"It kinda... sounds like it's getting closer..." Ace whispered again, his eyes darting from one corner to another.

"StOnE... iS MiIiInE!"

Something unimaginable appeared. From the shadow, emerged a figure. It had a head made out of glass, shaped like a bottle, black ink spilling from its teeth like cracks. It had a plump body, gooey arms with long tentacle-like fingers. Its right hand was holding a purple lantern while the right one had a giant pickaxe. Its bottom part was just slime as its feet. It wore a red coat with golden buttons and a small elf-like hat on top of its glass head.