Blood of the Forgers

Chapter 4

Down the Rabbit Hole

Sora's POV

After receiving some farewell gifts from Leon and the others, learning a magic spell from Donald, and perfecting the Dodge Roll, the four of us headed over to the exit of the First District, where Donald and Goofy's ship was docked. Dipper and I could only stand there, staring at the ship in awe, taking in the red blocks that made up the majority of the body, the yellow strip near the tip of the nose, and the dome-shaped cockpit at the top of the ship.

"Oh my god…" I heard Dipper mutter under his breath. He suddenly dashed forward, looking like a kid left alone in a candy store as he excitedly examined every square inch of the ship, speaking so fast I couldn't understand a word. It got even worse when he saw the interior of the ship. He was running around completely detached from reality until he hit his head on a low-hanging pipe. I ran to his side in concern.

"You okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah… I'm fine," he answered back. Donald led us to the cockpit shortly after this, ending any further fanboy moments he could have had. Donald took a seat at the front of the cockpit, where the controls were, Goofy sitting off to the side a little. Dipper and I sat in the back, though I noticed Dipper had a hard time getting comfortable because of those wings on his back.

"Uh, Dipper, wouldn't it be easier for you to just take the wings off before getting into your seat?" I asked him. He looked at me strangely at that question. Suddenly, however, he started chuckling humorlessly.

"Oh, I get it… you think these wings are fake, don't you?" I nodded hesitantly. "WELL, THEY'RE NOT!" He was getting right up in my face now. "I WOKE UP IN THAT TOWN WITH THESE THINGS SPROUTING FROM MY BACK! I HAD TO GET MY SHIRT AND JACKET TAILORED TO ACCOMDATE THEM! DO YOU HONESTLY THINK I ENJOY HAVING THESE THINGS!? DO YOU!?" Donald and Goofy were staring at us now. I pushed him away from my face as calmly as I could.

"Dipper, calm down. It's not like you have those wings because of me." He took several deep breaths to calm himself down before responding.

"You're right. Sorry for flipping out on you like that." He mumbled, finally getting comfortable in his chair. "Oh… I almost forgot, we're all looking for someone, right?" Donald, Goofy and I all nodded. "Well, who exactly are we each looking for?"

"Well, Donald and I are tryin' to find The King of our home world," Goofy responded. "He left to investigate why the stars were disappearin'."

"Right… we're looking for a king… what about you, Sora?"

"I'm looking for my friends from my island. Their names are Riku and Kairi." I answered. "What about you?"

"Well… there are seven people I should be looking for," Dipper started. "I'm part of a group known as the Dream Keepers. There were originally ten of us, including me, but two of them aren't in anymore. One of them is dead, and I'm pretty sure the other fell victim to the Heartless." He paused to pull out the crystal I saw him use against the Heartless from earlier. "They'll all have crystals similar to the one I have." I nodded in understanding. But, since that's still a lot of people to look for, I wanted to know the ones that took the highest priority for him.

"Um, Dipper… which of these 'Dream Keepers' are you worried about the most?" I asked. He looked down before he answered.

"The one I'm worried about the most is… my twin sister, Mabel."

"Your sister?"

He nodded solemnly, but before anything more could be said, the ship began to take off, and I was immediately drawn to the view passing by through the window.

I wanted to take a moment to speak with Dipper a little more, but Heartless ships started coming into view right then, and I was interrupted by the beginnings of an interstellar dogfight.

Eventually, we arrived at a new world, one the Gummi Ship's computer identified as "Wonderland". Donald parked the ship near the world, preparing to disembark. I exited the ship first… or at least, I would have been, if the ship hadn't been parked in the middle of a big hole going I-don't-even-know-how-deep. But then Dipper bumped into my back, Donald bumped into him, and Goofy crashed into him, sending all four of us falling into the hole.

"Gwarsh…" was the only comment Goofy had on the situation at hand. It was right about then that I noticed that we were falling pretty slowly… a little TOO slowly to be obeying the laws of physics.

"Well… anyone want to pass the time by telling stories or something?" Dipper asked, prompting Donald, Goofy and I to stare at him oddly. "Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I fell down an infinitely deep hole in the ground." As we continued falling, we it started getting dark, but Dipper switched on a lamp that just so happened to have been suspended in the air right next to him. "Though last time, there weren't random pieces of furniture littered around the sides of the hole."

"You talk as if it's completely normal," I noted.

"It's not. But then again, I did have to deal with a carpet that can switch people's minds… and a horde of gnomes that wanted my sister for their queen… and the crazed AI that developed an obsessive crush on my friend…"

"AI?"

"…and those weird crystals that shrink and grow things… and a bloodthirsty monster made of candy… and those wax figurines that came to life at night… and a vengeful lumberjack ghost that was always rhyming and turned me and several aristocrats to wood… and a five-hour zombie apocalypse… and this insane cult that tried to forcefully make me and my friends forget everything I mentioned earlier… and a merman my sister had a crush on… and a shapeshifting monster… and-"

"We get it," I interrupted him. "We get it, your home world was messed up."

He looked ready to say something more, but he suddenly glanced down. "Hey, looks like we're reaching the bottom." I glanced down at his words, and indeed, we were getting close to what had to be the bottom of the hole. Thanks to how slowly we were falling, we were able to land safely on the ground… except Goofy, who somehow managed to fumble around at the last second, and landed on his stomach. Before I could really register that, I saw something incredible, something bizarre, something I never thought I would sever see: a white rabbit in a waistcoat rushing past us.

"Oh, my fur and whiskers!" I heard him shout to himself. "I'm late! I'm late! I'M LATE!" We could only stare after the rabbit in confusion. "I'm here! I should be there! Oh, this is really bad! Oh, the queen! She'll have my head for sure!"

"…Should we follow him?" Dipper asked seconds after the rabbit disappeared around the corner.

"I don't think there's much else we can do right now," was all I said in response. "But we might have to save it for the next chapter, the fans are getting a little edgy."

"What?"

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