Maggie In Wonderland
CHAPTER 1
It was a regular, ordinary, boring sort of day, and Maggie had decided to finish some work on her contribution as Water Keeper in the Keepers' Garden, a whole mess of cats following along like the most interesting field trip. They loved the gardens! Mayflower went to bask in the light of a glowing rose bush, and the littlest ones had decided to disappear into the little patches of giggling ivy to see who could make the least noise stalking through very ticklish leaves. Maggie was working quite diligently when she heard the rustle of something much bigger… and when she looked up, a strange white rabbit was staring back at her with her trowel in its mouth.
"Oh! May I have that back please?" she asked, but the rabbit just twitched its pink little nose at her. She tried to reach to hold her hand out very slowly to ask again, but the rabbit startled, and hopped away with her trowel. Maggie stared, dumbfounded. It was the only one she'd brought! "I'll be right back…" she said to Mayflower, and the cat twitched a back paw, her belly up and whiskers twitching. Off in dreamland, warmed by the fire roses glowing gently over her. So off she went after the rabbit, weaving through plants and decor after it, until she found it sitting in front of a tree she didn't quite remember being there with a den in an old knot, perhaps. The trowel was in front of the rabbit, and it was pawing at one ear, sitting on its haunches. When it saw her, it picked up the tool, and disappeared into the hole!
Maggie knew she had it cornered! She went up to the hole and got down on all fours… and then wondered if the hole in the tree seemed this large when she'd spotted it. It was like she could crawl right in! She gave a small laugh, and did just that, going after the shiny metal she saw lying on a bed of dead leaves near the back of the hollowed tree. "I wonder how long this has bee— AAAAH!" Maggie cried out when the ground seemed to crumble beneath her, and she fell. And fell. And kept falling. In fact, at some point, she stopped panicking, and had time to look around. Was she not falling very fast at all? How deep was this hole? Had she reached terminal velocity? But no. It didn't feel so fast. She thought she might even see some light below, coming up slowly. She made sure to have her feet down, so she could possibly at least land on her feet.
And so she did! Very gently, the rubber soles of her sneakers touched the leaf-littered floor that quickly transitioned to tile and parquet in a very large room. And she even saw a fluffy white tail disappear into a tiny rabbit-sized door! "This seems familiar…" she murmured as she started toward it. And then she realized she was passing a table with a vial and a little cake. The vial had a tag that said "Eat Me" and in icing on the small cake were the words "Drink Me". Maggie narrowed her eyes. That was all wrong. That's not how it went! It was supposed to be the other way around! Right? She shrugged. This was RhyDin, after all. No telling what was happening. She took both from the table and sat down next to the little door, and lifted the cake to her mouth to take a bite. As soon as it went in her mouth, it turned to liquid. Some splashed from her mouth to her jeans, and she looked down in surprise to wipe and pat. "Oh. They meant it…" she mused aloud. Sure enough, she was able to drink the rest of the cake. It was so delicious, and she was so amused by it, that she didn't realize she was outgrowing the room until her head brushed the vaulted ceiling.
Maggie didn't panic, but instead looked around for the bottle that said "Eat Me." It was very small, and she was reminded of the little wax drink candies the older folks reminisced about in shops sometimes. She couldn't remember if she'd ever actually had one. Maybe it was not different than that. Carefully, she put the whole bottle into her mouth, and bit down, ever so slowly. There was no shatter of glass, but it was more like a fruit gusher… and it was also quite delicious! When next she looked around, she found she'd shrunken down to normal… no… she was very small now. Maybe even rabbit sized! To test her theory, she ran to the door, and found it was just the right size to walk through! She reached to turn the knob… but it was locked tight. Her lips pursed as she fell into thought, looking around and trying to remember if she had seen a key… and then the thought occurred to her. Wasn't there one around her neck? On an off-chance, she stuck it into the lock. It fit. She turned. It clicked! Hooray! She opened the door, and a warm breeze blew in, comforting and smelling sweet as roses.
She heard a rustle, and saw a little white tail disappear down the path and out of sight. In she went, into summer and bright sunshine, blinking against the sudden brightness and shielding her eyes until they adjusted as she moved down the path. "Where are you, bunny? I just want my trowel back! I don't want to hurt you, I promise!"
"I don't think he's worried." Came a voice, from just above her head on the branch of a tree. She looked up, and there perched a cat, licking at his golden paw.
"How do you know?" She asked. She didn't seem surprised by a talking cat. She heard them all the time, after all. She could speak multiple dialects of cat, even!
"I know everything." He replied, looking down with a grin. "Of course I know everything. I'm the Tasschire Cat." Really, he sounded as if he were maybe a little offended she didn't know!
"Then where is he going with my stuff?" She asked. Since of course Tasschire Cats must know everything, and so he would obviously know!
"Hmmm. It looked like he was thinking of taking up gardening." Maggie looked down the road as the cat started to laugh, and her brows knit.
"That's ridi—" she did not finish her sentence, however, for she looked up and the cat was still laughing… but only his grin remained… until it didn't. "Well." She huffed, brushing her hands on her blue jeans determinedly. "I guess I'll just have to find that rabbit myself."
And down the road she went, to do just that.
(no idea if my emoji popped up properly but it’s the smiling imp.) In that case any of mine are fair game, including but not limited to, Haru, Luna, Kairi, and the Roomba.
