CHAPTER 3: WONDERLAND: first princess
CHAPTER 3
WONDERLAND
first princess
THE GUMMI SHIP HURTLED THROUGH THE OTHER SKY.
“So, how does this thing move?” asked Sora.
“Well, it—wak! Can’t really talk much right now!” Donald replied, gripping the control stick, and the ship banked a full forty-five degrees.
When Sora looked past him to the expanse of the Other Sky, he could see big rocks like meteoroids and strange shapes floating around. It did look like piloting would take some concentration.
“Let me fly the ship!”
“No way!”
“Hmph.” Sora moved away from the cockpit and plunked himself down in a corner of the little ship. Donald could let him try it a little.
Goofy saw him sulking and went to sit next to him. “Hey, Sora…”
“C’mon, don’t you think I could do it for a little bit? Donald’s so mean!”
“Well, y’know, I’ve tried it before, and it’s not that easy, flyin’ the Gummi Ship.”
“Really?” Just as Sora said that, the Gummi Ship made a huge turn, and he nearly fell over. “I bet I’d be better at it…”
With all his attention on the control stick in his hands, Donald didn’t seem to hear them.
“Maybe he’ll let me try it soon?”
Jiminy hopped out of Sora’s pocket. “They say this Gummi Ship runs on some mysterious power.”
“That’s right,” said Goofy. “That’s why it can go between different worlds.”
“Hmm…” Sora looked around the cabin. There was plenty of space for them to move around, but it had the feeling of any other vehicle.
“The stuff used to make this ship is pretty special,” said Jiminy.
“Special? What is it?”
“It’s made of a particular material called Gummi blocks. And this material—”
Jiminy, explaining with his memo in one hand, found himself interrupted by Donald’s shout.
“There’s something up ahead!”
Sora and Goofy went running into the cockpit.
“Is that what a world looks like from outside?” said Sora, fascinated. He’d never seen anything like it before. The world floating there in the Other Sky was covered in a heart pattern, and there were green arches and a castle. Somewhere he’d never been before—never even dreamed of. He wanted nothing more than to land there.
“Yep,” said Donald. “The worlds are all like this, floating here and there in the Other Sky.”
“Wooow.” Sora’s eyes shone with wonder.
Goofy and Donald exchanged glances, and the Gummi Ship swooped down to land.
The Gummi Ship touched down in the middle of some strangely colorful fog. They couldn’t see far ahead of them.
“Okay, we’re off!”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy waved to Jiminy, who stayed to watch the ship, and looked around them, then finally stepped off the ship.
And—
“Whoa!”
There was no ground. The three of them drifted softly down and down into a deep hole.
“It kind of feels like we’re flying…” A strong wind coming up from below buffeted Sora in the face.
“Hey, watch this!” Goofy waved his arms as if he were swimming, then he rested his head on his elbows in a napping pose.
Then Sora and Donald landed lightly on their feet, and Goofy crashed spectacularly into the ground.
“Owww…” Goofy staggered to his feet, rubbing his side. Even the Gummi Ship had floated down next to them.
“Whoa!”
“Gee, that sure was a surprise.” Jiminy poked his head out. And then, right in front of them, a white rabbit went scurrying by.
“Oh, my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late! Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear—I’m here, I should be there. I’m late, I’m late, I’m late! The queen—she’ll have my head for sure!”
The white rabbit disappeared down a hallway and around a corner with his glasses and his giant watch.
“Why’s he in such a hurry?” Sora wondered, staring after him.
“Well, let’s find out!” said Donald. “The ship’s all yours, Jiminy!”
The trio ran after the rabbit and finally came to a stop.
“A door!”
It looked like they should be able to get through it.
“Well, there’s no keyhole,” said Goofy. “But looks like that white rabbit went through here.”
He opened the door, and beyond it, they could see another door through which the white rabbit was just running.
“Let’s go!”
They went through that door and then another… And then they came into a big room.
It had a fireplace and a clock, like someone’s living room but a little bit off—there was a giant faucet.
“Hey, there he goes!”
Goofy pointed at the white rabbit, which shrank to a fraction of his size, then opened a tiny door and ran through it.
“He shrank?!” Sora ran to the door and crouched down. The door was definitely too small for him to fit through. “How did he get so small?”
As he peered closely at the little door, the doorknob moved drowsily and spoke. “No, you’re simply too big.”
“It talks!” Donald shouted.
The doorknob looked annoyed and made a huge yawn. “Must you be so loud? You woke me up.”
Goofy moved closer and said cheerfully, “Good morning!”
“Say, have you seen a girl and a boy about as old as me?”
“Or the king!”
“Or a Keyhole maybe…”
The three of them had burst out with questions, but the doorknob only yawned again.
“Well, don’t ask me all at once. I have seen a girl. The queen must know more.”
“It has to be Kairi!” Sora exclaimed.
The doorknob’s eyelids drooped. “Good night! I need a bit more sleep.”
“Hold on! Where do we find that girl and the queen?”
“Why, don’t ask me.”
The doorknob had nearly dozed off already. Sora leaned in closer. “Wait—what do we have to do to get small?”
“Why don’t you try the bottle…over there?”
The three of them turned to look, and indeed, there on the table were two little bottles, one with a red label and one with a blue label.
“We should drink these?” Sora asked, but the doorknob was fast asleep.
“He said something about a queen, right?”
“But, Sora, we’re looking for the king.” Donald and Goofy both looked at Sora, a little anxiously.
“But…he said there was a girl…”
“Gawrsh, I guess he did, but…” Goofy folded his arms, thinking.
“Besides, isn’t it suspicious how that white rabbit was in such a hurry?”
“Gee, it was a little odd.”
“And we do have to look for the Keyhole,” said Donald, picking up the bottle with the red label. “Hey, it says something.”
Goofy looked closer at the label. There was a picture of a small tree growing into a bigger tree. And on the blue label, there was a big tree shrinking into a smaller tree.
“So, if we drink the red one, we’ll get bigger, and if we drink the blue one, we’ll get smaller?” said Sora.
“It’s okay to drink, right?” Goofy stared uneasily at the bottles.
“The doorknob said to. So it must be fine.” Sora picked up the blue one and put it to his lips.
“Whoa— Sora!” Goofy yelped, and right before his eyes, Sora shrank down.
“All right. Our turn!” Donald drank it, too, and likewise shrank. Still looking a bit worried, Goofy finally followed suit.
“Well, it looks like everything’s in order.”
“Except that we’re tiny…”
They looked at one another, making sure everything was in one piece. The table was the size of a house now and the chair next to it like a very odd tree. Only that door with the talking doorknob on it was the right size for them now.
“Let’s go!”
Just as Sora began to run toward the door, they heard a strange noise—and Heartless appeared.
“Wha-hoooey!” Goofy jumped back. These were different from the Heartless they’d fought in Traverse Town—some looked like dragons floating in the air, some were squat and round. But what they had in common was that they had no face. Just two shiny little eyes.
“They’re over here, too!” Donald shot magic at them and the battle began. And just like in Traverse Town, as many as they defeated, more kept appearing.
“We’d better get moving!” Donald yelled, fending them off. “There’s no end to ’em!”
“I wonder if there’s a big Heartless around here, too…,” said Goofy.
“Let’s just go!” Sora pushed him along and went up to the doorknob again. “Hey, let us through!”
He knocked and even tried kicking, but the doorknob wouldn’t wake up.
“What do we do…?”
“Sora! There’s a tunnel over here!” Donald had found the way out—a hole in the wall. They headed into it.
Through the tunnel, there was a garden full of greenery. The shrubs were neatly trimmed into leafy arches shaped like hearts.
“Gawrsh… It kinda looks like the gardens at our castle!”
“Wak! Disney Castle’s gardens are definitely more impressive!”
Bickering, Donald and Goofy walked under an arch. Sora hardly heard them as he turned to and fro, gazing around him. He had never seen anything like this before.
This was Wonderland—a mysterious place ruled by the Queen of Hearts. And they were in the queen’s enormous courtyard.
“Hey, look!” Goofy pointed to a dais, atop which a rotund woman sat with an air of puffed-up authority—the queen.
Some playing-card soldiers holding spears shaped like spades were blocking the way through the next arch. “Aw, let us through,” said Donald, but they didn’t even look at him.
The white rabbit ran up to a platform beside the queen and sounded a bugle.
“What’s going on?” Donald wondered, watching the scene unfold.
“Court is now in session!” cried the white rabbit.
“I’m on trial? But why?” said a girl with blonde hair, who stood atop some stairs in front of the dais. She wore a light blue dress with a white apron over it, and her shoulders were bunched up in anger.
“A trial?” said Goofy.
“What’s a trial?” asked Sora. He’d never even heard the word on Destiny Islands.
“Well, it’s kind of like a meeting to decide whether to punish someone for a crime.”
“So that girl did something wrong?”
“Maybe we’ll find out…”
Sora decided he’d have to see.
“Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!” the white rabbit announced.
The queen loudly cleared her throat. “This girl is the culprit. There’s no doubt about it. And the reason is—because I say so, that’s why!”
“That is utterly unfair!” the girl cried.
“Well, Alice, have you anything to say in your defense?” the white rabbit asked.
“Of course! I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong!” Alice glared back up at the dais. “You may be the queen, but that doesn’t give you the right to be so mean!”
Hearing her forthright speech, the white rabbit ducked his head fearfully, anticipating a fit from the queen.
“Silence! You dare defy me?!” The queen snapped the fan she held and jumped to her feet. “The court finds the defendant guilty as charged!”
It sounded as though this was an awful sort of trial, in which a single word from the queen decided the verdict and everything else.
“Hey, we should help her out,” Sora said, gripping the Keyblade.
“Yeah, but, uh… That’d be muddling,” said Goofy.
“Meddling!” Donald corrected him with a jump.
“Oh yeah! ’Cos we’re not supposed to get involved with stuff on other worlds…”
The queen’s booming voice cut off their hushed conversation. “For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart…!”
“Theft of her heart?” said Sora.
“That must mean Heartless!” said Donald. The three of them nodded. If there were Heartless involved, they couldn’t stay out of it.
“Off with her head!” the queen bellowed.
“No, no! Oh, please!”
At the queen’s command, the playing-card soldiers began to close in on Alice—but Sora, Donald, and Goofy got there first. “Hold it right there!”
The queen scowled at the three running up into the clearing. “Who are you? How dare you interfere with my court!”
“Excuse me,” Sora loudly addressed the queen. “But we know who the real culprit is!”
“That’s nonsense. Have you any proof?”
“Umm…”
They might have known that Alice was innocent, but they didn’t have any proof at all. There was just the fact that only the Heartless would try to steal hearts.
“If you don’t have any proof, the verdict is guilty!”
“Then we’ll find some!” said Sora.
“A-hyuk! Yeah!” Goofy agreed.
“Bring me evidence of Alice’s innocence! Fail, and it’s off with all your heads!” the queen declared. “Court is now adjourned!”
The playing-card soldiers returned to their posts—after Alice was placed in a prison cell, which looked more like a giant birdcage.
Goofy spoke to her first. “Are you okay? We’ll find the evidence for sure!”
“My name is Alice. Who are you?”
“I’m Sora.”
“I’m Goofy. And this is Donald.”
She smiled a little. “Pleased to meet you.” Then she looked down, speaking quickly. “I do wish we hadn’t met at a time like this… I’m sorry to get you all caught up in this strange trial.”
“Why are you on trial?” Sora asked.
“Well, that’s what I’d like to know! The moment she saw my face, the Queen of Hearts decided I’d done something wrong. But I’ve never seen her before!” Alice sighed.
“That’s terrible!” Donald stamped his feet. “We’ll bring charges against her!”
“How did you get here?” asked Sora.
She had to concentrate a little and then spoke hesitantly, as if choosing her words. “Hmm… Well, I don’t really remember. I was sitting in a meadow, with the older girls reading to me, and then I found a mysterious hole in the ground.”
“A hole?”
“It must be the same hole we fell into!” Goofy said, exchanging glances with Donald.
“When I tried to look inside, I just tumbled in…and then I woke up here.”
Goofy cocked his head and murmured, “Gawrsh, it almost sounds like she came from another world…”
“That’s funny,” Donald whispered. “People usually can’t travel between worlds.”
“Well, why not?”
They wouldn’t have been able to come here themselves without the Gummi Ship. How Alice could have made it here from a different world, they had no idea. Maybe she had some kind of secret power, like Sora had the Keyblade.
“What do you mean by another world?” asked Alice.
“Err… That’s private.”
“The defendant will remain silent!” shouted one of the playing-card soldiers standing guard. The trio moved up closer to the cage to whisper to Alice.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find the evidence!”
“Thank you. I hope so.” Alice shrugged, then finally smiled.
“No loitering! You’re all an eyesore! You want to be thrown in prison, too?!” The playing-card soldiers chased them off. The three ran into the shelter of a heart-shaped arch to hold a strategy meeting.
“Evidence… Does that mean we’ll have to bring a Heartless into court?”
“Even if we showed up with a Heartless, that wouldn’t necessarily prove anything…”
As Donald and Goofy discussed, Sora folded his arms and thought. “Well, what about their smell…or claw marks… Wouldn’t that be more like evidence?”
“Have you seen anything like that around, Sora?” Goofy asked.
“Well, not around here, but…” Sora pulled at his own sleeve and showed them.
“Oh…it’s torn!”
“One of them got me when we were fighting just before. So, if we look around, I bet we can find some more traces like this here in this world.”
Goofy sniffed at Sora’s sleeve. “They do have a weird smell…”
“Maybe that’ll work for evidence!”
The three looked at each other and ducked back into the hole beside the arch. They emerged into a forest thick with giant water lilies.
“Sure would be nice if there was something around here…,” Donald said, looking around, and then— “Waaaak!” he shouted and jumped behind Sora.
“What, Donald?”
“Th-th-th-there!” Donald’s trembling hand pointed at a disembodied cat’s head floating in the air.
Goofy yelped and ducked behind his shield and Sora.
“Who are you?!” cried Sora.
The cat’s head drifted to and fro and settled at last on the ground. “Who, indeed?” The cat’s plump, striped body appeared, balancing on the head and rolling it around, as if it were a ball in a circus trick. “Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she’s not guilty of a thing!”
The cat’s head floated up again and stuck properly onto his body. He grinned down at the trio from up atop a lily pad.
“Hey, if you know who the culprit is, tell us!” said Sora.
“The Cheshire Cat has all the answers…but doesn’t always tell.”
“Meanie!” Donald yelled.
The Cheshire Cat only grinned. “The answer, the culprit, the cat all lie in darkness…”
“Wait!” Sora called. If they couldn’t find any evidence, they wouldn’t be able to help Alice.
The cat’s disembodied voice echoed in the lotus forest. “They’ve already left the forest. I won’t tell you which way. But even I don’t know whether there might be anyone else who knows…”
“Should we trust him…?” Donald said uneasily, and then the Cheshire Cat appeared again right in front of him.
“To trust or not to trust? I trust you’ll decide!” Grinning, the cat vanished once again.
“I guess we should go through this forest,” said Sora.
“Do you believe the cat, Sora?” asked Goofy.
“I think we’ve got to!”
Donald nodded at Sora’s determination, then looked around again. “So…which way is through the forest?”
“Hmm… let’s try that way.”
They started deeper into the forest, but Heartless popped out to waylay them.
“Whoa!”
“Gawrsh, these things are following us everywhere…” Goofy took a breath and readied his shield. He still didn’t like fighting the Heartless, but now that he was getting used to fighting alongside two others, they didn’t scare him so much anymore.
“Of course they are! Aerith said they’d follow the Keyblade wielder, and that’s Sora!” said Donald, attacking with his magic.
“Guys…I’m sorry,” Sora told them sadly, even as he finished off a Heartless.
“Aw, don’t feel bad, Sora,” said Goofy. “We serve the king, and he sent us to find the key, so we’re stickin’ with you. There’s nothing for you to be sorry for!”
Sora’s face fell. “But…”
So if the king hadn’t sent them, these two wouldn’t be going anywhere with me at all… It was a terribly lonely thought. They’d only been together for a little while, but they were fun to be around—hot-tempered Donald and easygoing Goofy.
Of course, they didn’t compare to Kairi and Riku…
“Augh!” While he got lost in thought, a Heartless swept him with its claws, and Sora fell backward.
“Hang on, Sora!” Goofy ran to him and gave him a healing potion.
“It’s not a good idea to be spacin’ out like that!” And Goofy dashed off to help Donald fight. Sora got up, too, and rushed at the Heartless.
Having finally defeated all the Heartless, the three collapsed on the spot.
“Whew… A little tired now.” Goofy sighed, looking up at a big lotus blossom above his head.
“Quack…” Donald flopped back as if he’d overspent his magic.
And then they heard a tiny voice. “Thank you.”
“Huh?” Sora sat up, glancing around.
“Over here…”
“Who is it?” Donald asked rather nicely, and the lotus blossom above them gently swayed. “The flower?!”
“That’s right. I’m a lotus blossom!” The blossom slowly opened.
“Wooow…”
A sweet fragrance filled the air. Pollen fell on their heads, and somehow, it made them feel more awake.
“We couldn’t open with those things around,” the blossom said.
“Those things—you mean the Heartl—” Goofy started, then covered his mouth with both hands. They couldn’t even tell anyone about the Heartless. That would be meddling.
“Those dark things!” the blossom explained.
“Hey, have you seen a great big shadow?” Sora asked.
“A big shadow…?” The blossom seemed to think for a moment. “Well, perhaps… That way…”
The blossom pointed with its biggest petal to a lily pad not far away.
“Up there?”
“This should make it easier to climb.” As the blossom said this, a lotus stalk rose up out of the ground and spread out a lily pad at the right height for Sora and the others to jump to.
“Thanks!”
“Our pleasure,” the blossom replied and closed again.
The trio leaped onto the lily pad and from there to a higher one. And there was another lily pad above that, which looked like they could just barely reach it.
“Wow, that’s high up!”
“We can make it!”
There were more lily pads up at the top, surrounded here and there by bushes. They looked around for where to go…
“There!” Donald pointed to a hole in the greenery that looked like it could lead somewhere else.
“Gawrsh, d’you think it’s safe to go in…?” Goofy looked a little apprehensive again.
“That flower didn’t seem like it would lie to us,” said Donald.
“But the Cheshire Cat could’ve been…”
“Well, let’s go see!” Sora urged them, and they all headed into the hole.
“Whoa!”
Through the hole there was no floor. They fell through the air and landed in another odd place.
“Are we…on top of the faucet in that funny room?”
Just as Donald said, somehow they’d come back out into that first room where the bottles were. “Wow, we sure are!”
“Shucks, we got turned around…” Goofy’s shoulders drooped.
“Hold on!” Sora stared at the cupboard, which it looked like they might just be able to reach with a jump. “Isn’t there something over there?”
“Footprints!” cried Donald and leaped to the cupboard. “Look at this! Great big footprints! Definitely from a Heartless!”
Sora and Goofy jumped over to join him.
“If we take off this piece and bring it back, we’ll have some evidence, huh?” said Goofy, rummaging around.
“Why, look what you’ve found,” a voice said out of nowhere. “Nice going.”
When the three turned to look, the Cheshire Cat was sitting on the faucet, grinning away.
“Now we can save Alice!” said Sora.
The cat only grinned and stood up on his hind legs. “Don’t be so sure! She may be innocent, but what about you?”
And the Cheshire Cat somersaulted in the air.
“What’s that mean?” asked Goofy.
“I won’t tell,” the cat replied, floating playfully around, and then he disappeared again.
“What was that about…?” Sora tilted his head as Goofy went back to pulling off the piece of the cupboard. “Well, there’s no reason to trust anything he says! This’ll let us help Alice!”
Goofy finally pried it off. “We’ve been lookin’ around here and there, but we haven’t seen any Keyholes yet, have we…?”
“We’ve found some evidence, but we still haven’t beaten the Heartless that’s trying to steal hearts… Oof.” Sora jumped down to the floor.
Donald followed. “Leon said there’d be Heartless around the Keyholes, right?”
“So that means…maybe we’ll have to fight another big Heartless…” Goofy leaped down, carrying the piece of wood over his shoulder.
“I don’t know…,” said Sora. “But let’s go help Alice!”
They headed back to the queen’s court.
“We’ll help you, I promise!” Sora told Alice, who was still shut in the birdcage prison. The Queen of Hearts glared at them.
A curtain fell over the bars, and the cage was lifted up high, out of reach.
“Court is now in session,” the white rabbit cried. “Counsel, step forward!”
Holding the plank with the footprints on it, Sora stepped up to the defense podium. Donald and Goofy took seats in the jury. The Queen of Hearts was leaning forward from the bench, already in a foul temper.
“Now, show the evidence you’ve found!”
Sora offered the plank.
“Hmph… Is that all? Compared to what I’ve gathered, it’s as good as junk. Cards! Bring forth my evidence!”
At the queen’s command, the playing-card soldiers brought out a big box. Then they put the plank from the cupboard in another box and spun them around out of Sora’s sight. He couldn’t tell which box was which now.
“Hey, what are you doing?!” Sora shouted.
The stubborn Queen of Hearts was deaf to any protests. “Why don’t you choose which one has the correct evidence! I’ll decide who’s guilty based on that!”
“After we went through all that trouble of bringing it?!”
“Didn’t I just say I’m allowing you to choose? Do you dare object to the rules of my court?!”
“All right…” Helplessly, Sora stood in front of the boxes and craned his neck, staring at them. He had no idea which one it might be.
“No way, the left! Definitely the left!”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the right!”
Goofy and Donald argued from the jury. Sora stood the Keyblade up in front of him, closed his eyes, and took his hands from it.
The Keyblade spun around for a moment as if it was confused and then fell over to the right.
“Are you certain?” snapped the Queen of Hearts. “No second chances!”
“Yeah, I’m sure!” Sora picked up the Keyblade and looked straight at her.
“Now we shall see who the real culprit is.”
A playing-card soldier opened the box Sora had picked. A Heartless jumped out and disappeared.
Even the queen couldn’t hide her shock. “What in the world was that?!”
“There’s your evidence. Alice is innocent!”
“Yeah! That’s right!” Goofy and Donald cheered from the jury.
“Rrrrgh… Silence! I’m the law here!” the queen bellowed. “Article Twenty-Nine! Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!”
Donald jumped up and down. “That’s crazy!”
“Seize them at once!” The queen raised her heart-shaped fan, and playing-card soldiers rushed at Sora.
“You guys help Alice!” Sora shouted to Donald and Goofy and launched out of the defendant’s stand.
“Got it!” Donald and Goofy ran to the tower that held Alice’s cage.
“Cards! If they touch that tower, you’ll lose your heads!” yelled the Queen of Hearts.
Donald jumped at the handle on the side of the tower. “It won’t turn!”
“Let’s break it!”
Goofy and Donald worked on breaking the handle while Sora kept the playing-card soldiers away from them.
“There, it’s broken!” With the handle broken, the winch chain went slack and Alice’s cage lowered again.
“Alice!” Sora ran toward the cage and threw off the curtain…but Alice wasn’t there. “She’s gone! Alice?!”
“Did she run away while we were fighting…?” Goofy wondered.
“Or maybe—she was kidnapped by the Heartless!” cried Sora.
The Queen of Hearts yelled over him, “You fools! Find the one who’s behind this—I don’t care how!”
The card soldiers all stopped fighting and scattered. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were right behind them, heading back into the lotus forest.
“Gawrsh…I can’t believe she disappeared…”
“Well, c’mon, let’s find her.” Sora walked ahead.
“But how do you know it was the Heartless?”
“Who else could’ve kidnapped Alice?”
They had been right there when the cage went up the tower with Alice in it and when it had come back down empty. That could only mean that whoever had gotten to her must have done so while she was up in the air.
And only the Heartless could pull off something sneaky like that, Sora thought.
“Let’s go and ask the flower that told us about the shadow,” he said.
When they came upon the lotus blossom that had spoken to them before, it opened with a poof. But what appeared was the Cheshire Cat.
“I don’t really like him much…,” Goofy grumbled.
But Sora took a step closer. “Have you seen Alice?”
“Alice, no,” said the grinning cat. “Shadows, yes!”
“Where’d they go?” Donald demanded.
The cat stood up and swayed to and fro.
“This way? That way? Whichever I say, I can only tell you lies.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sora shot back a little angrily.
“Up, down, left, right—all mixed up thanks to the shadows. Step deeper into the forest, to the deserted garden… And you might find shadows in the upside-down room.” Twitching his tail, the Cheshire Cat vanished again.
“…The deserted garden?”
“He said deeper into the forest. Let’s go!”
They started to go farther but ran into trouble.
“Aw, more Heartless…” Goofy sounded reluctant but dashed into the fray, only to bounce off a Heartless with a big round belly. “Huh? Do they seem stronger to you this time…?”
“Ack! These ones shoot fire!”
It seemed they wouldn’t get deeper into the forest that easily.
Goofy rammed himself into a Heartless and asked Sora, “Farther in is…this way?”
“Looks like it…! Let’s hurry up!” Sora ran, swinging the Keyblade.
“Fire—I’m on fire! Gwaaaaak!” A Heartless had caught Donald on the tail with a burst of flame. He put it out with magic. “Blizzard!”
“This way, Donald!” Sora jumped up onto a lily pad and stretched out his arm for Donald.
“Wa-ahoooey!” Goofy climbed up frantically, pursued by magic-wielding Heartless.
“Bah…what a disaster…” Donald’s shoulders fell.
Sora was already climbing onto the next lily pad. “But we still have to find Alice.”
“Right. A-hyuck! There’s a damsel in distress!” Goofy jumped up after Sora.
“Quack! I know that!” Donald waddled over and jumped, too. “Over there… There’s another hole.”
“There’s gonna be a floor this time, right?” Goofy worried.
“Let’s go!” Sora ran in.
Sight rushed back all at once after the darkness of the tunnel, making them blink. A big table set with plates and teacups sat out in a garden.
“Gawrsh, is somebody having a party?” Goofy wandered around the table.
Sora stared at it, too. But no one was here. “Maybe this is the deserted garden.”
“It’s kinda quiet, huh…? It looks like they went back to the castle.” Even Donald seemed to relax a little, since there were no Heartless to be seen.
Sora followed the other two in walking around the table. A plate in the center was heaped high with cookies.
“They can’t be bad to eat, right?”
“Nah, it’s fine!”
With that brief exchange, Goofy and Donald were already popping cookies into their mouths.
“Hey, no fair! Me, too!” Sora ate one himself. “…It’s sweet!”
The sweetness was somehow familiar and very elegant, and without thinking on it, he reached out to take another one.
“They’re pretty tasty.”
“Yeah! Hey, this kind’s got fruit in it.”
Hungry from all the running around, the trio had finished off the whole plate in no time at all.
“Wow. It’s been a while since we’ve had a treat like that!” Goofy crunched down on the last cookie—and the table tipped over. “Whoa!”
Heartless jumped out from under it.
“Aw, no way!” Still munching, Donald took out his wand.
“Over here, Donald!” Sora took his hand and pulled him into the little house beside the garden. Yelping, Goofy practically fell in before the Heartless could attack.
“Wait, huh…?”
There was something strange about the room. The floor had a door in it, and the fire in the hearth was burning sideways. And the back of the chair was resting on the floor.
“Whoa… It’s makin’ me dizzy!” Goofy wobbled, trying to look around.
Sora tilted his head. “Things that go on the wall are on the floor, and things that go on the ceiling are on the wall…?”
Donald did the same. “But it feels like we’ve seen it before somewhere…”
Goofy struck his open palm with his fist. “Isn’t this…the same room we were in before?”
That made Sora think of what the Cheshire Cat had said. “Up and down, left and right, they’re all mixed up… Gah!”
Right in front of his face, the cat’s mouth appeared—and nothing more. Sora jumped back. “Hey, don’t scare people like that!”
“The shadows are hiding somewhere. And the momeraths outgrabe. Why don’t you try turning on the light?” Swaying, the cat’s grin floated toward the lamp in the middle of the room.
“All right, leave this to me! Fire!” A ball of fire shot from Donald’s wand and lit the lamp.
“Still too dim.” Now the Cheshire Cat’s face appeared in front of Donald. “You’ll have to make it brighter.”
“There’s another lamp over there, Donald!” Sora pointed.
“Okay, here goes! Fire!” Another fireball set the other lamp alight, and brightness filled the room.
“You’ll see the shadows soon. They’ll arise in this room…but somewhere else. And they might go after that sleepy doorknob, too…”
With that the cat disappeared again.
“This room, but somewhere else… What’s that mean?” Goofy cocked his head.
“Where the doorknob is!” Sora and Donald said at once and jumped back out of the room.
“H-hey, wait up!” Goofy scrambled to follow them.
“Gee, all this runnin’ around…is pretty exhausting,” Goofy panted as they ran through the lotus forest.
“And this world is just one weird thing after another!” Donald said to Sora.
“It’s like a land of wonders,” Sora replied.
“Yeah! It’s crazy! I hope we can find the king and go back to our castle soon…” Donald trailed off with a sigh.
Once Donald and Goofy find the king, will I ever see them again? Sora wondered sadly.
“Our castle’s the most fun anywhere,” said Goofy, “and the fanciest and the most exciting!”
Sora broke into a smile. “Well, our island has an amazing beach, where you can swim all year round!”
Even though he didn’t know if it was still there.
But he’d promised Kairi they would go back.
“Gawrsh, that sounds nice. We don’t have a beach…” Goofy sounded especially envious.
“When I find Kairi and Riku, you should come visit!”
“You can come to our castle, too!” said Donald, glancing at Sora. “And meet the queen and Daisy!”
Even if they found the king and Kairi and Riku, and he went back to Destiny Island, he wouldn’t forget this. He’d keep this memory of running through the lotus forest with Donald and Goofy. When Sora realized that, it lifted his spirits.
They would lock the Keyholes to keep the Heartless from coming, and then they’d find everyone, and his connection with Donald and Goofy wouldn’t disappear.
“Promise, Sora!” said Goofy.
They grinned at one another and ran back through the court of the Queen of Hearts to the room with the talking doorknob.
“Whew… Doesn’t look like there are any shadows here.” Donald looked around and let out a breath. “But we gotta keep on our toes!”
Goofy ducked behind his shield and inched into the room.
“You’ll have a better view from higher up.”
Sora looked up at the voice to see the Cheshire Cat lazily stretched out on the table.
“Should we really listen to the cat, Sora?” said Goofy, as if he really would rather not.
“You’re the fraidycat, Goofy!” Donald teased and looked at Sora. “Well?”
“Yeah, let’s go!”
Sora jumped up onto the table. Donald followed him, and then Goofy gingerly climbed up.
The Cheshire Cat stood and pointed at the ceiling. “The shadows should be here, so…are you prepared for the worst?”
“We’re ready!” Sora replied, even though Goofy was still cowering behind his shield.
Seeing him, the Cheshire Cat grinned mischievously. “Well, if not—too bad!”
Then the cat disappeared and down from the ceiling came a huge Heartless. The Trickmaster. Its long arms stretched out like springs, and it held clubs in its hands. Moving like a dance, it stepped closer to the trio.
“This must be the one that kidnapped Alice!” Sora leaped down from the table and headed straight for the Trickmaster. It whirled its long arms, bringing the clubs down at him, but Sora dodged and closed the distance.
“Quack! Wait up, Sora!” Donald rushed in after him.
“Gawrsh, it’s huge… I don’t like this…”
“C’mon, Goofy, you too!”
Goofy groaned and finally jumped off the table, but the Trickmaster’s arm batted him away. “Yeeeow!”
“Goofy!” Sora ran over to him.
“Ouch…” A lump was rising on Goofy’s head.
“Hey! This is for Goofy! Fire!” Fireballs shot from Donald’s wand at the Trickmaster—but all that did was to light the clubs it held aflame. “Wak?!”
Then the flaming clubs flew at Donald’s head.
“Gwaaaak!” He ran away with his hat on fire.
“You can’t use fire magic on it, Donald!”
“Waaaak!”
“Water! Where’s some water?!” cried Sora.
Donald ran under the faucet and turned the handle. Water gushed down on him and doused out the fire on his hat.
“Looks like it’s another really strong one, huh…” Goofy sighed and stood up.
“Are you okay?” Sora stared with concern into Goofy’s face.
“Well, not really… But if we don’t beat it, we won’t find Alice or the king or your friends, either! And if we don’t lock up the Keyholes, the Heartless will keep on coming. So here goes!” Raising his voice, Goofy jumped at the Trickmaster and landed a hit.
Goofy’s fighting for Alice and to find my friends, Sora thought. And I have to fight so Donald and Goofy can find the king, too.
We’re not just fighting only for ourselves…
Sora went after Goofy, and one after another they struck the Trickmaster.
“Wak! Leave some fighting for me!” Donald joined in and this time attacked with ice magic. “Blizzard!”
They jumped out of the way of the Trickmaster’s long arms and wore it down bit by bit.
“Now, Sora!”
At Donald’s words, Sora climbed back up on the table and took a flying leap to swing the Keyblade into the Trickmaster’s face. He felt it clang all the way up his arms.
“Hah! We did it!” Donald jumped up in joy as the Trickmaster fell to the floor with a huge thud. And a heart floated up out of its body, the same as the Guard Armor.
“I wonder if that’s a heart it stole from someone…”
The trio watched the heart float up and up. It was sparkling beautifully—one could hardly imagine that it came out of something as terrible as a Heartless.
As the heart seemed to vanish into the ceiling, the Trickmaster’s body turned into motes of light and disappeared. All that remained was silence.
“Oh yeah—Alice! Where could Alice be?” Donald ran around the room, searching.
“I thought we’d find her once we defeated the Heartless…” Dejected, Sora hung his head. Just then they heard a yawn.
“What a racket… How’s a doorknob to get any sleep?”
The doorknob yawned hugely again, and inside its mouth—
“A Keyhole!” Donald shouted.
The Keyblade pointed toward the doorknob and a beam of light shot from its tip. “Whoa!”
The light shone into the Keyhole, and with a click it disappeared.
“Did that just lock the Keyhole?” Sora stepped closer and tried to look inside the doorknob’s mouth.
“Now go on and let me sleep!” the doorknob complained and refused to open its mouth again.
Sora gave up and shrugged to Donald and Goofy. “Well, it looks like we locked the Keyhole, but Alice isn’t here…”
“We haven’t seen the king, either.”
“Or Sora’s friends.”
A little discouraged, they looked at one another, and then the Cheshire Cat appeared between them.
“Splendid. You’re quite the heroes.”
“Wak! You again!” Donald lunged to catch the cat, to no avail.
“Oh, dear. Defeating me wouldn’t do anything for you. …Or maybe it would.”
“You’re just talking nonsense again…” But Goofy didn’t seem to mind the Cheshire Cat much anymore.
“By the way…” Now only the Cheshire Cat’s head was floating there, looking down at the three. “If you’re looking for Alice, you won’t find her here.”
“What do you mean?!” Sora tried to grab the cat’s head, but it just floated away out of their reach.
“Alice isn’t in this world at all.”
“But normal people can’t leave their world—”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” The rest of his body materialized, still floating. “Alice is off with the shadows, in the darkness…”
And that was their only hint before the cat disappeared.
“What…did he mean by that?” Sora folded his arms. They’d been trying to help Alice all this time, but now they couldn’t even find her.
“…Maybe there’s something we don’t know about Alice,” said Donald, putting a hand on Sora’s shoulder.
Goofy tried to cheer him up, too. “Well, it might feel like giving up, but let’s go back to the Gummi Ship. Maybe we’ll find her on another world. …Once we get back to our normal size!” He jumped up on the table and picked up the bottle with the red label.
“I guess so…” Sora stared at the bottle.
“Not with a gloomy face like that, though,” said Donald. “If that’s the face you’re making…”
“I know, I can’t get on the Gummi Ship.” Sora looked up with a tiny smile.
“Right, only smiles!”
Sora stuck out his tongue at Goofy, took the bottle, and drank from it. Before their eyes, he grew bigger and bigger, back to normal.
“Us, too!” Donald and Goofy drank it in turn and grew.
“Okay, let’s go!” They ran back out of the strange room.