Screaming, there’s lots of screaming as I run through an opulent palace. Blood splatters the walls around me, coating the floor, causing me to slide when I try to gain purchase. But I’m not moving, not as I should. Instead, the laughter grows louder behind me, the sound evil and terrible, and I know I’m in danger.

“Catch her,” the voice commands. “Off with her head!”

I push myself harder, and I slip, slamming down into the warm blood. It’s still fresh, thick enough to coat my body.

Just when I’m about to scream in terror and the laughter draws closer, the scene fades away until I’m lying in nothing but darkness. I push myself to my feet and look around in confusion.

A woman steps out of the shadows, clothed in a colorful jeweled dress. Her eyes are large and intimidating, her face sharp like a bird’s. Feathers lay on top of her hair and surround her face. The woman’s head cocks to the side, studying me as I do her.

“Who are you?” I ask hesitantly.

“I could ask you the same, Fire Child,” she says, her voice lyrical and laced with permanent pain.

“Can you make this nightmare stop? Can you make it go away?” I take a step towards her, studying the different colors on her dress and in her feathers. Bright greens, blues, yellows, reds, almost like a parrot.

She frowns and shakes her head.

“My poor sweet child.” She takes a step closer. “If you can’t wake up from the nightmare, then maybe you aren’t asleep.”

I wake with a start, my heart beating a rapid rhythm in my chest. I gasp at the feeling, as if I have just broken the surface of a lake after struggling beneath it until Death reached out and stroked his fingers down my spine. Beside me, White springs to his feet at my sudden awakening, tense and ready to fight.

At first, I don’t understand what drew me from my nightmare. The cave is near silent, the storm no longer raging outside and beating against the entrance. Vaguely, I recall the dream and the strange woman who had made an appearance there. I turn towards White, who’s still prepared for a fight, about to tell him the odd things I’d seen, when there’s a shuffling from the entrance. I jerk my head towards the sound and clutch White’s waistcoat against my naked chest. Shit, we are not prepared for a fight. Neither of us are wearing any clothing. Stupid thing to do in such a hostile situation.

A large shape shifts in the dark opening, and I squint my eyes as the form grows bigger, moving closer. Whatever it is, it’s massive. Its head goes to the top of the cavern, its body wide and imposing.

“What are you doing in my cave, Fire Child?” a husky voice echoes throughout the stone room. The voice sounds hoarse, as if it’s been screaming in agony for decades, and it’s definitely feminine. “And White? I really hoped I would never see you again.”

White winces, the dying campfire still glowing enough to show me the expression on his face. He immediately stands down, his entire body relaxing. I have no idea why he isn’t worried when he’s naked and facing another creature.

“Doe,” White whispers and inclines his head in a bow towards the mysterious voice. “We didn’t know this was your cave.”

“Of course, not,” the voice replies, and then the shape is moving into the light.

I can’t stop the gasp that slips past my lips. As the form comes into focus, I see her feet first, giant eagle-like claws, pale and razor-sharp. Those claws are longer than my forearm, and they dig into the dirt floor, leaving little tracks that I quickly realize repeat around the cavern, proving she frequents the area.

Her body is next, a giant pale form, riddled with scars, a few lone feathers sticking out in odd places. It’s as if she’d been plucked, her body naked without what once must have been magnificent feathers. When her face comes into view, I instantly know who she is. The Dodo bird looks like she’s gone a few rounds with a lawnmower, but she’s unmistakable. Her large, pronounced beak shows even more divets and scars, and I frown, trying to imagine how she could have turned into this. She’s intimidating, and when her eyes narrow in on me, I immediately attempt to cover up even more, to hide my nakedness from her gaze. Then she focuses her attention completely on White, and I scramble to pull on my clothing as fast as possible, hiding behind his broad shoulders.

When I turn back around, Doe is still staring at White, and I can’t tell if it’s in hatred or just distaste.

“Funny,” she says, tilting her head to the side. Her eyes flick to me once before returning to the Rabbit beside me. “The last time I saw you, Rabbit, you were watching as the Red Queen stripped me of my feathers to make herself a bonnet. I would have been roasted over a fire pit if it wasn’t for the Hatter.”

I jerk my head towards White in question, my eyebrows raised high. He stiffens but doesn’t meet my eyes, and I suddenly know there’s many things I still need to learn about Wonderland and the White Rabbit himself.

“You know there was nothing I could do, Doe.”

She harrumphs rather rudely before turning her attention back on me. I force myself not to stiffen under her intense gaze.

“Tell me, Fire Child, what are you doing with this rodent?”

White frowns at the word but doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t disagree. I watch his face closely, searching for any sign of cruelty, or any clue as to a man harboring evil. I don’t expect to find any, and I certainly shouldn’t be able to tell after hardly knowing him, but my instincts scream at me to step forward. I listen to them.

I thread my fingers through White’s where he stands as still as a statue. He jumps the tiniest amount at the contact and looks down at our joined fingers in surprise. I curl my lips the barest amount at him before facing off with the roughened Dodo bird in front of me.

“Apparently, I’m prophesied to be here. I’m Jupiter. How do you feel about helping us take down the Red Queen?”