Hunters in Wonderland [plot: invite only]

With exhaustion beckoning them to rest, the group retreats to the tents and fall soundly asleep within moments, welcoming this moment of peace. The only different one was Hunter who decided to make the ground his bedding and fall asleep staring at the sky. Even Alice who was determined to keep look out soon found herself curled up in a fetal position and breathing softly in her own slumber. David is the only one who remains awake, taking it upon himself to keep watch for the group. The night was still and quiet. David could not even hear the wind. Purgatory itself would not be so still as this. This being so, it was only that much more of a surprise when he heard familiar chuckling coming from nowhere.

"Well, you had quite an experience didn't you?"

The voice came from a disembodied mouth floating a meter behind him. Above it was a single yellow eye that glowed like gold, staring at him along with the toothy grin.

"Did you miss me~?"

David looked to the face. "Well hello again. I have a quick question for you. Before he showed up you told me that riddle. Did you know Humphrey was coming? "

"Mmm~ maybe," the disembodied eye and smile replied cryptically. The body parts starting spinning in the air. "I may have seen that Humphrey Dumpty had a few of his pieces in the middle of your path and I may have figured a fight was inevitable. I may have decided I would give you a heads up, but I also may have just wanted to share riddles."

The floating smile chuckles.

David just gins. "Ah, as mysterious as the midnight sky. Anymore riddles?"

"Eh heh," Cheshire laughs sweetly, stopping the spinning. "Maybe I do and maybe I don't. Question is, are you interesting enough for me to WANT to tell you some of my riddles?"

The eye and smile slowly inched a little closer towards David and looks up and down at him.

"Tell you what, I'll tell you this little riddle. If you manage to answer it correctly, you may prove to keep me interested. Get it wrong though and you're on your own from here on. Here goes..."

Cheshire stares at you with a glowing yellow eye.

"A man went to visit St. Ives,
On his way he met seven men each with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cats had seven kits.
Kits, cats, men and wives,
How many went to St. Ives?"

David thought on this long and hard. He came up with his answer. "Well logically one. Only one was said to be heading St. Ives. The others were just there."

Cheshire giggles at David's answer. "Ah~ bingo, bingo, bingo! You win!" The disembodied smile and eye floats closer to David until it was only a few inches away from his face. "Now you've caught my interest little birdie..."

Suddenly David can see an image slowly manifest itself before him, the eye and grin melding back to fit into place into a full body and floated in front of him mere inches away from his face.

Spoiler:

Cheshire slowly inches closer. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

Cheshire sticks its tongue at you mischievously. "Or do you want a cat to get your tongue nyan~?"

In David's head he was confused beyond believe. In real life he was as calm as ever. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON! "Not at all. I have seen many a Faunus. Just not one who could come and go as they please."

"Mmm~ you're going to make me lose interest if you keep acting macho like that~" Cheshire giggled sweetly with a bright smile. "So little birdie, what would you like me to do for you? Make any command you want of me nyaa~"

David just blushed. "Well...I was wondering. Byron was just about to say something a warning. Would you have any idea as to what he said?"

"Aw~ is that all? How boring," Cheshire pouts. Shrugging its shoulders, Cheshire begins explaining. "Yeah, I know what he was going to say. Every thought begins with imagination after all. Byron's warning was going to to be..."

Cheshire materializes a red top hat from thin air and places it on her head. "No matter what, you must remember not to," Cheshire quotes doing a terrible impression of Byron, ".... forget that Wonderland's reality is not the same is the outside. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

Cheshire floats back a bit, sitting indian style while floating in the air. It does this despite wearing a short skirt right in front of David.

"That's it, word-for-word. You understand?"

David's face is bright red now. "Uh...yes...I got. One last question. Why did you just show up for me, and not the others?" By this time David's face was just a slight red color.

Cheshire smiles sweetly at David. Raising a finger to her lips she says with an innocent tone, "Because you. Are. Inter-est-ing....."

With a smile she slowly floats away another few feet.

"I can be stolen or given away and you will live, yet you cannot live without me~"

With that last phrase, the girl disappears once again, not a trace of her left behind. The only evidence that she was there was a disembodied laugh that lingered before disappearing as well.

David watched Cheshire leave. All he could think about was that last riddle. "I can be stolen or given away and you will live, yet you can't live without me." That's going to bug me "Well that was interesting." David laid down and stared at the sky thinking about that riddle. He soon drifted off.

That night goes by without any more events. The sun seemed to have risen in the cotton candy cloud filled sky though the group still sleeps. The smell of veggies and spices begin to waft in the air though. Outside of the tents, Alice is stirring a pot cooking over an open fire.

"Carrot curry, carrot curry,
Everybody loves some carrot curry!
Get some bread, get some rice,
Whatever's fine, it will tastes nice!

A plate of rice or a toasty bun,
Tastes like cooking from your mum.

Cooking up some fun.
Cooking up some fun.
Now let's take a break,
To see what we have done~"

Alice's innocent singing goes on as she tends to the curry.

David woke up where he was. I can be stolen or given away and you will live, yet you can't live without me. Hm? He looked over at Alice cooking and singing. Heh, such a free soul...wait...Alice is the interoperation of Byron's...heart. It then hit him, a heart could be stolen, not literally...well in a few cases, but as in love when someone steals your heart and you give it away. And if one had no heart, one would die."Clever one Cheshire." He stood up walked over to Alice. "Good morning." He said happily.

"Good morning," Alice smiles at David turning away from her cooking temporarily. "I'm making curry for everyone's breakfast. It'll be ready soon.... Um, thanks for keeping watch..."

Alice looks to the side shyly, a slight blush on her cheeks. "I'm sorry... I fell asleep even when I said I would watch over everybody... Did anything happen?"

David shrugged. "It's fine...nothing really happened." Until anything happens probably shouldn't say anything about Cheshire. Last thing I need is that scorpion chick on my case.

"You're lying," Alice comments while stirring her pot. "As the embodiment of kindness, I'm connected to the heart. From the feeling I get from yours I can tell you're lying."

Alice dips a small sauce bowl into the curry and sips it to taste. She pulls a pepper shaker from out of the ground like a carrot and shakes it over the pot.

"I won't tell the others and you don't have to tell me anything, but I think you should always be honest and tell the truth."

Taking another sip, Alice nods her satisfaction.

"Perfect," she smiles. "Let's let everybody wake up on their own and we can all eat together."

David simply rubbed the back of his neck. "Fair enough. Let's just say I saw a familiar face last night.

"I think you need to be more descriptive than that." Hunter had standing behind the two for a while now, keeping his eyes closed beneath his sunglasses while facing the direction of this world's light. "Every day, I wake up as the sun rises, then lie in my bed until it's time to eat." He walked over and sat down next to the fire, smelling the pot's contents. "Aside from preferring a bit less pepper, no offense Alice, I'd also prefer you to tell me more about who you were talking to last night before everyone wakes up." Hunter began holding his hands near the flames. Morning cold and his fingers do not agree well. "Not a version of what happened. Everything, David. Remember, truth is singular. Its versions are mistruths."

David looked at Hunter. "Relax, I was just talking to a friend about riddles." God, I hope Alice knows what I mean.

Alice glances at David from the side but goes back tending to breakfast.

Emerald wakes up and walks out of his tent, thinking, You guys ready for another day of fighting? What I'm ready for is getting out of here! Can we sleep in? No, we have to continue, or else we won't be getting out of here. Same as usual, I guess.

He walks over to the trio that were awake and asks, "What's for breakfast, Alice?"

"Curry," Alice answers with a smile. "I didn't know what everybody's taste is so it's mild."

Alice produces eight plates of curry and rice, laying them all out on a checkered picnic blanket. She hands one to Hunter, David, and Emerald.

"Sorry if you prefer it spicy, but I did not want somebody who can't eat spicy food to go hungry."

Alice picked up one of the plates herself and starts eating spoonfuls with a smile on her face. "It's too bad I couldn't make it spicier..."

Just then a drop of the curry sauce dripped from the edge of her plate and fell on the ground in front of her. The moment it touched the grass the ground suddenly caught on fire with a fiery pop. The flames died out on their own quickly enough, but the effect the sauce Alice considered "mild" was not going to be forgotten anytime soon.

"Hm~ fifty billion scoville just doesn't give that much flavor," Alice hums as she eats another spoonful. "What's wrong? If you don't like mild curry I can make your plate spicier for you."

Hunter, noting the curry was literally hot, took a spoonful, wiped the bottom of it on the edge of the bowl so the underside of the spoon was completely dry, and, after a few seconds of hesitation, shoved it into his mouth. In less than a second the curry had been swallowed, not a single taste of its spice touching his tongue, followed by him downing a bit of his own saliva to help digest. Hunter continued this process until the bowl was empty.

David watched the grass burn. "Dang it.........just a bit hotter." He pulled out a small container with the words 'pure evil' on it. He pulled out a small bottle with a dropper. He threw the dropper out and poured the whole bottle in. A small mushroom cloud appeared over his curry. "That's better." David then jugged the whole bowl in under twenty seconds. Not bad. could have been hotter still.