first_in_time | Zagreus Sits Inside Your Head (for Splendid

Barbara looked out at the view as Ian put the last of their things in the car. From the front door of the little Bed and Breakfast, she could see beautiful rolling hills for miles. The last of the morning was being chased away as the sun rose higher in the sky, thawing everything out. Even the cows seemed more active on one particular hill.

"I wish we could stay for a little longer," she sighed to Ian, turning her back on it all so that it might be easier to leave. Her arms folded, one hand still held on to the key they were yet to return. "I don't suppose your car has a secret time traveling device so we can spend an extra few weeks here?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

first_in_time

"Yes, fine," she panted. Dirty paw prints lightly dusted one shoulder of her dress from where the cat had used her to jump from one tree to R. The weight had made her fall to her knees.

It appeared that nothing else was going to jump out at her, and Barbara stood up with the help of Ian. "Is the car fixed? Can we go home?"

"Oh, there's no getting out so easily," the cat purred at them.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian privately agreed - he had a feeling that although the forest looked similar, it wasn't the same one.

Looking around for the source of the voice his gaze found the cat. Which grinned at him. With that shock Ian could just about manage to point, open-mouthed and blinking.

"I don't know why you're so surprised," the cat said. "You've read Alice in Wonderland, haven't you?"

From:

first_in_time

Barbara seemed to recover a little faster than Ian and, once she'd gotten her head around the fact that a cat was talking to them, she replied: "Yes but Alice in Wonderland is a fictional story." Perhaps they'd inhaled too many fumes from passing cars.

From:

splendid_roman

"Is it?" The cat sounded surprised. "Then we must be in a story."

Ian shook his head. "That's not possible."

"If you say so." The cat didn't sound like he cared and folded his front paws under himself.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara looked up at Ian, then back at the cat. She took hold of Ian's hand and turned back the way they had come.

"We should be getting home. It'll be dark before we get there, otherwise," she said and gently tugged Ian's hand, trying to make him follow.

The cat yawned, its tail still swishing lazily. It didn't say a word but watched them from under its eyelids. Barbara found that she didn't like the cat. There was something about it that she found quite obnoxious.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian followed, with glances back over his shoulder at the cat. As much as they needed to get home, he wanted to know what was going on. But he hoped that they could just get out of here the same way they got in.

And they could, sort of. They came to the end of the forest and the trees gave way to a library. If they looked behind they'd see the library was all around them, as if the forest had never been there and they were standing in the middle of it.

The cat was on top of one of the bookcases. "Still here, are you?" it said.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara liked libraries, but not enough to accept that they had just walked into one in the middle of a small forest. She looked around, astounded and a little frightened.

"Ian, what's going on?"

"You'll figure it out," the cat said and purposefully knocked a copy of H.G. Wells' 'Time Machine' off a shelf.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian had to keep calm for Barbara's sake and he let go of her to go and pick up the book. When he opened it he found that it had been annotated in various different, but similar, hands. "The TARDIS?"

"Very good." The cat grinned wider.

"Disguised as a forest?" Hadn't the Doctor mentioned something about the TARDIS beign supposed to blend in, before it got stuck as a police box?

"You're so wrong, you couldn't be wronger." Somehow, without the cat moving, it was now on a different bookcase further away.

From:

first_in_time

They were meant to have left the TARDIS and all of its troubles behind them, and start a new life back home. Barbara tries to swallow the horrible feelings back before she started screaming at the cat. But a very small part of her was excited that they were on another adventure with the very great and very terrible Doctor.

"Could you please tells us, then? We'd like to oboe where we are an how we might get back to the car."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian kept hold of the book, but returned to Barbara's side and took her hand.

"Down the rabbit hole," the cat replied, before disappearing bit by bit, the grin being the last thing to go.

"This is strange even for the TARDIS." Adventure was one thing, but he liked to know when and where he was, to say nothing of what was going on. But there was no use staying here and he tugged on Barbara's hand, wanting to go over to the bookcase the cat had been sat on, which had now turned into a door.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara wrapped her free hand around Ian's arm as they walked toward the door. "Perhaps the Doctor is going through some kind of phase?" she suggested, eyeing the door as it became impossibly small the closer they got. "Or the TARDIS, for that matter."

From:

splendid_roman

"Whatever it is, I don't like it." By the time they reached the door only a mouse could have got through it. It was worryingly like Alice in Wonderland, which was fun to read but not as fun to live through. "Someone must be doing this on purpose," he concluded.

But it didn't help them much and he looked around in search of another exit. Behind them had appeared a small table. On it was a piece of cake marked "Eat me," which Ian eyed suspiciously.

From:

first_in_time

She spied the cake and knew what Ian was thinking. "We're going to Jane to play the game," she said, not sounding at all pleased. "I'll go first."

From:

splendid_roman

He shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. We don't know what might happen if you eat that."

From:

first_in_time

"Since we're following Alice in Wonderland, I'll shrink. If I eat too much, I'll be so small that I won't be able to reach the door's key upon the table and then we'll be in a great mess. So I'll drink and then you hand me the key."

Barbara sounded rather definite about that plan because in her mind it was a rather good plan, but a small voice spoke up from near Ian's shoe.

"So you think that will really work?" it said. Barbara rolled her eyes and kissed Ian's cheek for luck.

From:

splendid_roman

"I'm not sure it's a good idea to get separated," he said, but didn't stop her. He knew that if she was determined to do something she would do it.

He looked down at the owner of the small voice and eyed the caterpillar, wondering where it had found a mushroom in the library. "Do you know something we don't?"

"Lots of things," it said and puffed on its pipe.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara tsked and broke off a piece of the cake to eat. She was beginning g to see why Alice was so frustrated with Wonderland. Everyone gave half answers and spoke in riddles. Fun for the observer, perhaps but not so much as the main character. Or one of them, at least.

Once the piece of cake had slid down her throat and began to digest, Barbara felt a fizzing sensation in her stomach. The world around them seemed to jump around for a moment, like a fuzzy picture on a television set, before righting itself. Everything was the same except that Barbara was now so tall that she had to duck or else hit her head on the ceiling. She realised that she stood over both Ian and the caterpillar, and crossed her legs, holding her dress closer to her legs.

"And this is the part where I cry a small ocean?" she asked, sounding displeased. She couldn't hear the caterpillar's reply, being so tall, but she could hear a thunderous voice shouting in the distance. It sounded like a man's. Barbara couldn't make out what he was shouting.

From:

splendid_roman

"Barbara!" Had Ian not been so worried about Barbara growing he might have questioned the caterpillar more. "I knew you shouldn't have eaten it," he grumbled to himself.

She was, he thought, saying something, but it sounded rather like "Fee Fi Fo Fum" - or from a giant at any rate that it made Ian jump. Realising they couldn't communicate he stopped trying and looked around for a bottle of something Barbara could drink, but if there was one, he couldn't see it down here.

"In the book the cake made Alice grow," the caterpillar pointed out.

Ian was tempted to kick it off its mushroom. "Why don't you either help or leave?" he said to it, annoyed.

From:

first_in_time

"Why didn't you consider all of your options?" the caterpillar asked, as he blew a puff of smoke out of his nostrils and formed a figure of Barbara as a stomping giant. "And why eat something without asking what it does first?"

From:

splendid_roman

"At the moment all I'm considering is how to get Barbara back to her usual size." He was hardly going to go off somewhere and just leave her here.

The caterpillar was really annoying him now and he stepped closer so he loomed over it, brow furrowed. "Why don't you tell me where the 'drink me' bottle is?"

From:

first_in_time

With very intentional casualness, the caterpillar slowly sucked on his hookah and let the smoke curl out and away.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

From above, Barbara grumbled something. She possibly sounded impatient. Or hungry.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian made an annoyed sound and turned his back on the caterpillar. There had to be something here to make Barbara the right size again. The only thing on the table was a key, which was worth a try. He put it in the lock of the tiny door and peered through it. It looked like there was a forest on the other side. And just inside the doorway was a tiny bottle. If that was supposed to get Barbara back to her usual size he didn't see how - the whole thing fit into his palm. She probably wouldn't even be able to see it.

From:

first_in_time

Very carefully, Barbara began to kneel. She had to keep pausing to see where things were so that she didn't accidentally squash anyone or break any of the furniture. She bent down to try and look Ian in the eyes and ask: "what are we going to do?"

From:

splendid_roman

It was strange looking at Barbara so close and so big. And frustrating that he could tell she was saying something, but not make out the words. "Drink this," he said, holding out his hand, with the bottle in his palm. It was worth a try.

From:

first_in_time

Ian was mumbling something but Barbara couldn't make it out. He held out his hand and after a closer look, she noticed the little bottle. The only way she could pick it up was by pinching it between her thumb and forefinger.

"Is this the 'Drink Me' bottle?" she asked