Page 54 of Knot My Wonderland

Itried to stifle a yawn, it’s been thirty minutes and I still wasn’t fully awake. As I glanced around me, I blinked several times to bring my vision back to focus. The Hatter was gathering a few items before we made our way to the Caterpillars place.

Chi materialized beside me, his form unusually solid in the pre-dawn light. "Having second thoughts about our little expedition?" he asked, his voice low enough that Varik couldn't hear from across the room.

"Just wondering if the Caterpillar serves coffee," I muttered, rubbing my eyes. "Or whatever the Wonderland equivalent is."

Chi's smile widened. "The Caterpillar offers many substances, though I wouldn't recommend most of them for the uninitiated." His tail curled in amusement. "His hookah alone has been known to make visitors speak in colors and see through time."

"Fantastic," I sighed, smoothing down my clothes – a silvery-blue tunic and fitted leggings that the house had somehowprovided during the night. They felt like silk but moved like second skin, the fabric subtly enhancing the silver patterns beneath my skin.

"The house has excellent taste," Chi observed, his teal eyes appreciating how the fabric seemed to shimmer with my movements. "Those garments will help stabilize your form in the Caterpillar's domain—the silver threading acts as an anchor to this reality."

Varik approached, carrying a small leather satchel and a thermos that steamed despite being sealed. "Tea for mental clarity," he explained, offering me the thermos. "And a few other items that might prove useful." He hesitated, then added, "The Caterpillar's realm can be... overwhelming. If you need to leave at any point, tell Chi immediately."

I accepted the thermos, feeling its warmth seep through my palms. "What exactly should I expect?"

"Impossible conversations," Chi replied cheerfully. "Questions that aren't questions. Answers that create more mysteries." His form flickered slightly.

"Philosophical riddles disguised as casual observations," Varik added, adjusting his hat with practiced precision. "The Caterpillar doesn't think linearly. He experiences all moments simultaneously, so his conversation jumps between past, present, and future without warning."

"Wonderful," I said, taking a sip of the tea. It tasted like mint and starlight, if starlight had a flavor—crisp and ethereal with an aftertaste that seemed to clear the fog from my mind. "Anything else I should know?"

Chi's tail swished thoughtfully. "Don't be surprised if he addresses you by names you've never used, or references conversations you haven't had yet. Time is more of a suggestion in his domain."

"And whatever you do," Varik added seriously, "don't accept anything he offers to smoke. The Caterpillar's... recreational substances can trap consciousness between realities for days."

I shuddered, imagining being lost in some drug-induced vision while Queens and Kings hunted me across Wonderland. "I'll stick to tea, thanks."

Chi materialized closer, his form solidifying as he offered his arm. "Shall we? The path to the Caterpillar's domain is most accessible during the liminal hour between night and dawn."

I glanced back at Varik, who stood framed in the doorway of his impossible house. In the pre-dawn light, he looked older somehow, burdened by knowledge and memories I couldn't fathom.

"Be careful," he said, his wild green eyes holding mine with unexpected intensity. "The Caterpillar sees truth, but truth isn't always kind."

I nodded, taking Chi's surprisingly solid arm. The moment our skin made contact, the world around us began to shift. Colors became more vibrant, edges more defined, as if reality itself was sharpening around us. The silver patterns beneath my skin flared in response to Chi's touch, creating intricate designs where our bodies connected.

"Hold tight," Chi murmured, his voice vibrating through me rather than simply reaching my ears. "The transition can be... disorienting."

That proved to be a spectacular understatement. One moment we were standing in Varik's entryway, and the next—

Everything fractured.

The world split into layers, like pages of a book fanned out before me. I could see Varik's house behind us, but also beneath us, above us, around us—existing in multiple states simultaneously. Ahead stretched a path that wasn't a path, more a suggestion of direction through swirling mist that containedfragments of landscapes, snippets of conversations, echoes of laughter and tears.

"Try not to focus on any single layer," Chi advised, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Let your consciousness drift between them like a leaf on water."

But it was impossible not to stare. In one fragment, I saw myself as a child, reading Alice in Wonderland beneath my grandmother's quilt. In another, an older version of myself stood in what looked like a throne room, silver light cascading from my hands like liquid starlight. A third showed scenes I didn't recognize—a woman with my face but different clothes, speaking to creatures I'd never seen.

"Are those... other versions of me?" I whispered, my voice seeming to echo across dimensions.

"Possibilities," Chi replied, guiding me forward along the impossible path. "The Caterpillar's domain exists at the intersection of what was, what is, and what might be. Every choice creates ripples that flow backward and forward across time."

I tried to follow Chi's advice, letting my vision blur slightly so the fragments became a kaleidoscope rather than distinct images. It helped, though occasionally a scene would catch my attention with such vividness that I couldn't look away—my mother's funeral, a moment I hadn't thought about in years; myself in a wedding dress I'd never worn, facing more than one whose faces kept shifting; a silver-haired child with teal eyes hand in hand with a red haired child with blue eyes running through Varik's garden laughing.

"The last one isn't real," I whispered, though something in my chest ached at the sight.

"Not in your current timeline," Chi agreed, his voice gentler than I'd ever heard it. "But possibility is a powerful force in the Caterpillar's domain."

The path narrowed, the fragments of reality pressing closer until they formed a tunnel of shifting images. At its end glowed a warm, golden light that pulsed like a heartbeat. As we approached, the fragments began to slow their chaotic dance, settling into a more stable pattern.

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