Blaze wished there was a third option. He had no desire to meet his demise by either ice or fire, but there was no way he would risk leaving the path for the overgrown wildlands.
Everything about these woods made him uneasy and less than eager to head farther in, but there was no point in turning around and trying to find his way back to the garden. Somehow he doubted that turning around would lead him back there at all.
Being a Life wizard, Blaze was ordinarily very in-tune with nature, especially forests. But here it was different. When he reached out with his magic, hoping to sense the hidden pathways only visible to plants, the roots that stretched deep down into the soil, the trees seemed to not only recoil from his magic, but also block it off. Hard as he tried, he couldn’t get the plants to cooperate, leaving him feeling essentially stranded in what should have been familiar territory.
He crouched over a patch of scraggly grass, concentrating as hard as he could. A thin sliver of a root pushed its way to the surface, immediately keeled over and died.
Blankly, he stared at it. “This is officially the worst day ever.”
“Wow, that’s rough,” commented a voice from behind.
Blaze spun around. “I thought you left!” He searched the nearby branches for the signature shadows, but received no further reply.
At this point, he had all but forgotten which way led to which end, so he took the road right and hoped for the best.
The surroundings began to change again, and Blaze was hit with the feeling that he wasn’t simply passing through the scenery, but the scenery was shifting around him, altering on its own. His shoes crunched on the grass, and as the temperature began to drop it was quickly discovered that he had picked the “ice” option, whether he had known it or not. The path was spread with a layer of frost, and crystals of frozen water dangled from the trees. He reached up and snapped a brittle twig straight off of its branch.
Up ahead he caught the sound of cheerful voices, but instead of chasing after them like he might’ve usually done, he slowed his walk and cautiously peered forward.
In a small clearing appeared to be a tea party. There was a rectangular table, lightly dusted with snow, and laid out with small cakes and pastries, each place set with a teacup and saucer. The pastries, in particular, enticed him a great deal.
Though it was a large table, there were only three occupants, sitting at one end of the table. It might not have been the wisest idea, but Blaze decided to approach the tea party. Surely if they had so much they’d be willing to share a few cakes with him?
The first of the party guests to notice him coming over was a pale girl with sky blue hair tied into twin tails, a small, blue top hat with a snowflake pinned to it resting on her head. She nudged the shoulder of one of her companions, and he turned his head of crimson hair to stare at Blaze sceptically. The third person at the table, noticing his friends cease in conversation, glances at him with curious green eyes.
Blaze pulled out a chair and sat down, too tired and hungry to care much about crashing someone else’s tea party. The three party-goers were whispering amongst themselves, but they weren’t telling him to leave so he helped himself to a large slice of Victoria sponge.
“Should we offer him some tea?” murmured the red-haired boy, which didn’t quite make sense as when he’d sat down, Blaze had noticed that there wasn’t actually any tea anywhere on the table and the group had in fact been eating ice cream out of their teacups.
“No,” the girl said, scoffing. “he probably likes coffee.”
“Excuse me,” Blaze cut in, offended. “I’ll have you know that I prefer tea.”
“Really? You? You don’t seem like you have the right kind of character to appreciate tea,” the girl argues back.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said indignantly. “And it’s perfectly rude of you to assume things like that. You don’t even know me.”
The girl raises her eyebrow. “I’m Kimberly.”
“Blaze.” He meets her gaze. Kim stares back at him for a moment and then shrugs off her serious expression, switching emotions in less than a second and seeming unbothered by it.
“And now we know each other! Would you like some tea?”
“Do you have tea?” Blaze asked, looking down into his teacup filled with mint chocolate chip ice cream.
“No, I don’t believe so. Jake, do we have tea?” Kim asked the boy with red hair.
Jake surveyed the table. “Nope. We have chocolate cheese milk though.”
Blaze frowned. “Chocolate cheese milk?”
“Are you referring to milk made of chocolate cheese or cheese made of chocolate milk?” questioned the last member of the group. Kimberly considered this, looking deep in thought.
“I suppose it might refer to chocolate milk made with cheese,” she answered after a minute. “We don’t have any though. That doesn’t sound real.”
“I thought Jake just said you did?” Blaze was getting more and more confused by the second.
“Jake also said we have tea, which we don’t,” Kim countered. “Did you bring some?”
“What, some tea?”
“Obviously. This is a tea party, after all.”
Blaze hesitated before laughing nervously. “No. It’s not like I was invited.”
“It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,” said Jake.
“Was I invited?” the green-eyed boy asks tentatively.
Kimberly reached over and grabbed a butter dish, passing it to Jake, who in turn passed it to Luke, who attempted to pass it to his right, and, finding no one there, left it sitting in front of Blaze in almost exactly the same spot it had started in. “Of course, Luke. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t meant to be here,” she reassured him.
“Why doesn’t that logic apply to me?” Blaze argued.
“That’s not logic,” replied Jake, “that’s just how Wonderland is.”
Blaze put down the iced bun he had been eating. “It doesn’t make sense. What is this place? Who even are you guys?”
“Kind of rude of you to barge into our tea party demanding to know who we are,” Luke put forth.
“Don’t change the topic! I just want to know why you three are sitting out here in this frozen forest with all this food. And how I ended up at your tea party. And where we are. Actually,” Blaze paused, considering. “Yeah, actually, if you could answer several questions for me, then I’ll be on my way and never bother you again.”
“Those questions are nonsense,” Jake dismissed. Kim nodded in agreement.
Blaze scowled. “You’re nonsense.”
Luke set his spoon down to contemplate his questions. “Wonderland isn’t… it’s probably not the place you were looking for when you came here. But,” he stopped, thinking. Blaze could practically hear the sentences constructing themselves in Luke’s head. “but, because you came here, it means that somewhere along the way you decided that it was important enough to stay. Maybe it’s a stupid reason, like you lost your hat or something. But because of that, Wonderland is exactly the place you’re supposed to be. Which makes it exactly where you were looking for in the first place. Does that make sense?” He looked over at Blaze expectantly, like he had just handed him the meaning of life on a silver platter.
And Blaze stared back blankly. “Uh. No. That was probably the least helpful thing anyone has said to me since I’ve arrived.” Luke looked disheartened.
“It could be Morganthe,” Jake said suddenly.
“Jake!” Kim said sharply. “Don’t. Not here, not now.”
Impatiently, Jake interjected, “It’s always now, Kim! It’s always going to be now if we don’t do anything about her, and you know it.”
“He’s right, Kim,” added Luke. “Maybe Blaze can help. Somehow.” He sounded very unenthusiastic, but Blaze appreciated the support.
Kim snorted. “And how would he help? He doesn’t even know what chocolate cheese milk is.”
“None of you know what chocolate cheese milk is!” Blaze exclaimed, exasperated. “Who is Morganthe, and what does she have to do with this at all, whatsoever?”
“She’s the Queen of Wonderland,” Luke spoke up.
“Okay. That’s good. That’s a start,” said Blaze, dreading the moment when straight answers turned to gibberish.
“She’s also fond of executing people.” Well, not what he was expecting, but he could see why this would be an issue. “And she trapped us here because Kim almost beat her at tennis.”
“Croquet. It was croquet,” Kim said, looking shaken.
“What do you mean, trapped here? In Wonderland?”
“No, here,” answered Jake, gesturing to the snow-covered forest around them. “We can’t exactly leave. We’ve been at this stupid party for weeks now.” Well, no wonder they were all bonkers.
Luke insisted, “Which is why he can help us, Kim! He could ask for an audience with Morganthe. Ask for our freedom.”
“Um, excuse me. I’m right here,” Blaze said sarcastically. “I’m also not volunteering for any of this. She sounds insane.”
“She is,” the trio said in unison.
Blaze sighed. “What about me? I’m stuck here too. Not here, specifically, but in Wonderland.” They looked at him curiously, like it hadn’t occurred to them before that other people besides themselves could have problems.
“You want to leave Wonderland?” Luke asked hesitantly.
“Yes, I want to leave. I have a life. I go to school. I didn’t ask to be dropped in here--- although actually I suppose it was my fault for jumping down a hole like an idiot in the first place,” Blaze finished, trailing off as he realised how ineffective the argument was.
The group sat in silence. More than anything, Blaze wished he could have a cup of tea to occupy himself. Or really anything warm. He was cold, and near miserable, and just wanted to go back to school and sit under the beautiful willow tree. The tree’s beauty was so exquisitely different from that of the drooping, snow-covered pines, and all Blaze wanted was to run his fingertips over its soft, flowing leaves.
“I followed someone down here,” Blaze said calmly. “A girl. Amber. I’ve been looking for her because she might know how to get out. The last person I asked about her was… less than willing to tell me, but… do you know where I can find her?” That question prompted some perked heads, and Kim, Jake, and Luke blinked aggressively at each other before engaging in an even more aggressively whispered conversation.
“That’s silly,” he overheard Kim declare. “Blaze, Amber works in Morganthe’s court now.” He gave them a sceptical expression.
“We’re not just saying that to get you to go to Morganthe for us,” Luke assured him.
“We’re not?”
“Jake!” Kim said. “No.”
Whatever had remained of the civil conversation from before was quickly dissolving into more arguments. Blaze tried to tune it out, gazing around at the scenery of the ice forest. He was just about to open his mouth to break up the fighting when his eye caught on an unfamiliar wooden door hammered into one of the trees that surely hadn’t been there when he’d arrived.
No one noticed as he got up from the table, leaving his dishes behind and only tucking a small blueberry scone into his pocket.
The door was unlocked when he tried it. Blaze took a deep breath and looked back at the tea party. Kim had climbed on the table and was gesturing wildly, a teacup in each hand. Jake was adamantly arguing back, whilst Luke was sitting back with his arms crossed and a defiant expression on his face.
There was no point in staying here. But would it be wise for Blaze to throw himself deeper into the tangled web of Wonderland? Everything here seemed like it had been turned on its head, so he figured that the only way for him to get out of this mess would be to fall further into it.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
