"C'mon Claire, it's not that far away. We go this way and we will be there in no time! Quit complaining!" Heather explains to Claire, pointing down a very narrow wooden bridge that swayed back and forth every time the wind blew. Just across the bridge there was an island that as far as Claire could tell only contained dark red and green trees on it, as tall as Auradon's many castles. Claire looks at Heather funny.

"Funny, because I am pretty sure you were the one complaining about taking the long way to get to Wonderland. Are you sure this is safe?" Claire questions her.

Heather starts laughing hysterically, then realizes Claire was being serious. Heather puts her hands on her hips and replies, "Since when is anything in Wonderland safe?"

Claire nods, realizing that was true. Claire is the first to step on the bridge and it creaks as she sets her foot down on the first ring. Claire takes a deep breath in and steps forwards to the next wooden panel. Claire keeps her balance and looks behind her at Heather, just as the wooden panel beneath her front foot gives out and breaks in half where her foot had been. Heather squeals and grabs Claire's arm before she could fall through the new hole in the bridge. Heather pulls Claire backwards so far that they both tumble backwards onto the grass. Claire looks around her, thinking she was falling to her death, but then realizes that she was sitting on the mini island they had landed on originally.

"So... How exactly do you plan on getting us across?" Heather asks Claire. Between the two of them, Heather seemed more frazzled by what had just happened than Claire did.

"I have an idea. But you have to turn into a bird again, or at least something that doesn't weigh as much," Claire says as she stands up and brushes herself off.

Heather nods and reaches for her bag and looks inside and rumbles her hand around in it before growing a very concerned expression. Claire quirks an eyebrow at Heather as she dumps out half of the bag and continues to rummage around in its containments. Claire kicks around the things she had dumped on the ground, and realizes that it is all jewelry. Claire puts a hand on her forehead when she starts thinking about how not resourceful Heather was.

"I don't have it!" Heather exclaims.

"Don't have what?"

"The tea pot! I must've forgotten it!" Heather groans.

Claire takes her hand off her forehead only to slap it back on again as she starts thinking about how not resourceful Heather was AND how stupid she was in general.

"Alright, then we'll have to do this the hard way. Step on the exact boards that I step on. Take one wrong step and you are done for." Claire turns towards the bridge again and swishes her arms out to her side and purple smoke like mist swarms around her and when it disappears, a purple striped cat is in her place. Heather gathers up her jewelry on the ground and stands behind Claire-Cat. Claire starts running along the bridge and as she runs, some of the boards fall out of place, but the cat was quicker and didn't fall through the holes. Heather quickly walked on all the boards that hadn't fallen down and began to realize that Claire's plan was actually working.

Claire-Cat makes it to the other side and turns back into herself again and Heather pops off of the bridge just behind her as she becomes a person again. "That was fun!" Claire smirks at Heather, who looked as if she was going to puke from fear.

Heather rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath in and out and tells Claire, "Alright, time to navigate the Tulgey Woods. Don't step out of my shadow, otherwise we will lose each other."

"And you know how to get through here, how?"

"I stole a map, don't judge me. You just turned into a cat, so it's obviously not that crazy," Heather says as she flips her hair, nearly swatting Claire in the face in the process.

Claire shakes her head as Heather starts walking forwards and almost immediately as they cross into the woods, fog swarms around their feet and across their surroundings, making it hard to see where they were stepping. Heather starts explaining something else to Claire before her voice fades away as if she wasn't really there anymore.

"Heather?" Claire questions, getting worried that she had already lost her in the woods. Claire sees Heather's shadow like figure in front of her and she reaches forwards and touches her shoulder and turns her around. But instead of Heather, she saw Ben staring back at her with cold blue eyes.

"Ben? Wait what are you doing here?!" Claire jumps back from the sight.

Ben chuckles and shakes his head, "What do you mean? Claire you're in Auradon. You never left and we will never let you leave ever again."

"We?" Claire mutters and backs up into someone else. She spins around and sees the Red Queen looming over her, staring her down with an ugly smirk. The Queen's black hair was curled and laying across her shoulders and along her back, with her blood colored iris' staring down at her, making her shiver in fear. The Queen wore a black dress with red hearts and a red and white fluffy robe carried across her arms and dragging on the floor as she walked forwards. Compared to Claire in this case, she was a good two feet taller than poor Claire.

"Cheshire! There you are! You'll never leave Wonderland ever again! You are too important! Of course, your daughter will never come back to save you either. Don't forget Chesh, you are my prisoner." The Queen's voice boomed through the forest. Claire almost thought that her tone might knock over a few of the trees.

"No, I'm not my mother!" Claire yells out.

Both the Queen and Ben laugh. The Queen points her tall heart shaped staff towards Claire and says, "Don't try to trick me Cheshire! You have no power over me! I control Wonderland so I control you!"

Claire's face is drained of all color as she runs towards the opening in the forest and trips over a tree root. Claire tumbles several feet before running into a tree and she looks up to see two sets of black shoes in front of her face and she looks up to see Will and Morgan standing in front of her.  They were both dressed in Wonderland attire, checkered shirts and pants and a white apron or vest with a red heart in the center. Morgan's once beautiful brown hair had now turned a very vile shade of green and grey and Will's hair had turned a similar shade of grey. Claire stood up quickly and took Morgan by her shoulders, realizing that she was real.

"What happened to you guys? You're suppose to be back in Auradon?!" Claire shouts out.

"You couldn't save us, Claire. It's no use. You are just like your mother, you promise too much and can't give back what you promise," Morgan shakes her head.

Will takes a hand and wipes something off his forehead, but leaves red paint on his forehead instead. Claire looks at his hands and realizes they were coated in red paint, probably from painting something of the Queen's red since that was the usual craft of most boys she had under her control.

"Will," Claire mutters as she looks at him in sadness.

"It's okay, Claire. You tried your best. But maybe your best wasn't good enough," Will sighs.

Claire feels tears welling up in her eyes and she backs up into a tree and leans against it, "I never wanted this to happen. You guys are suppose to be safe, in Auradon. I am not my mother, I swore I wouldn't turn out like her. I am no one's prisoner... This isn't right."

Claire felt her legs give out and she slumped to the ground along the tree trunk. Claire buries her face in her hands and let the tears fall from her cheeks. She could hear the slow and quiet footsteps of Will and Morgan as they walked away and she felt a new figure looming over her, in their shadow. Claire looked up to see her mother looking down at her.

Cheshire was dressed in a pink and black striped dress that dragged behind her as she walked and was short in the front to reveal black leggings just underneath and black boots. Her dark pink hair was braided along her back with her bangs tucked behind her ears and black sleeves making sleeves underneath the sleeveless dress. Her mother kneeled down so she was eye level with Claire and sat on her heels and smiled at Claire, giving away her white moon shaped smile.

"My kitten, you have made it so far," Cheshire said soothingly, brushing a hand underneath Claire's chin to wipe away the tears.

"Mom?" Claire squeaks out accidentally.

"You have come to save me, am I correct?"

"Yes of course! I got your letter! I came to--" Claire starts off, feeling a smile growing on her lips before Cheshire cuts her off.

"You will fail," Cheshire sighs.

Claire's expression drops again as she feels a sinking feeling in her chest. None of this seemed real, and Claire knew it, but she couldn't see past it with her emotions clouding her vision. "W-what?"

Cheshire shakes her head and her moony smile grows as if she was playing another riddle, "You... Will... Fail." Claire shakes her head and stands up as Cheshire rises.

"But... No! I can't fail!"

"Kitten, I am telling you, you are going to fail. You don't trust me?" Cheshire raises an eyebrow at her daughter, crossing her arms across her chest.

Claire blinks and stutters, "W-what? No of course I trust you!"

Cheshire chuckles again and nods, "Yes, just like you trusted that letter so quickly."

Claire's mouth gaps open and she fails to begin another sentence. Cheshire shakes her head and chuckles again, "Mhmm. That's what I thought."

"You sent that letter."

"Did I? It did seem quite odd, kitten. I know you thought so too, I can see it in your eyes," Cheshire takes a hand and takes Claire's chin in her hand and moves her head from side to side, looking into her eyes from all angles. Claire scoffs and swats her mother's hand away, gaining her courage again.

"Don't mess with me, Mom. I know you sent that letter!" Claire demands.

Cheshire frowns and her moony smile disappears, and the light in her face seemed to disappear with it as well, "Believe what you will, kitten. But don't forget. You will fail."

Claire has had enough of her mother's constant tricks. Claire stomps her foot on the ground, closes her eyes, and yells out, "MOTHER!"

She hears a high pitched squeal in front of her and she opens her eyes curiously, knowing that didn't come from Cheshire. Standing in front of her was Heather, with the most shocked expression as she stared at her funny.

"Heather?" Claire mutters, questioningly.

"What?! Why are you screaming at me?" Heather demands.

"Um... Sorry?" Claire blinks. She looks beyond Heather's head and sees the light of the other side of the island and realizes that they had reached the end of the woods. Heather had led them out and Claire had been following her the entire time, without knowing. At the end of the island Claire could see another bridge, that was wider this time and was made of stone rather than wood and was painted red and black like checkers. Thankfully, it even had rails on either side to keep people from falling to their deaths.

Heather rolls her eyes, "Yeah you should be. Okay let's go! I want to make it there by tea time!" Heather flings her arms up in the air and drops the map as she does so and runs out to the start of the bridge. Claire just stands there shocked for a moment.

Everything she had just seen, wasn't real. It was all just a hallucination. Claire believed that meant that everything that was said in the forest was just the opposite of what was really going to happen. Claire reached a hand up to her cheek and felt a single tear and wiped it away. The hallucinations definitely weren't real, but she found out that she had weaknesses in her emotions. Claire shakes her head and picks up the map Heather had dropped and runs across the bridge, following Heather.

As they ran across the bridge, it started slopping downwards and Claire saw that it wasn't ending on top of the island, but just underneath the actual ground of the island. "Heather? Where are we going?"

"Under and up!" Heather exclaims and she runs even faster and they end up staring at a dirt wall. Claire stops and stands next to Heather and looks at her funny. Heather frowns and then takes out a green vial from her bag and pours it over the dirt in front of them and the dirt dissolves, revealing a black wooden door.

"What's that? Shrinking potion?" Claire points at the vial in Heather's hands.

Heather smirks at Claire and hands the vial to her and reveals, "Mhmm, the magical properties of water."

Claire laughs and throws the vial to the side and opens the door slowly and they both run through. They run up a spiraled staircase made up of the same wood as the door, and it was almost pitch black besides the light coming through from the door they had just opened and a faint bit of light from the top of the spiraled staircase. They make it up the steps and Heather pushes up on the ceiling on top of them, that was now black marble instead of the wood they were standing on. The ceiling lifts up and Heather climbs through the hole and Claire follows behind her.

Heather closes the ceiling back up and gestures her hands towards their surroundings. "Welcome back to Wonderland."

Claire looks down at her feet seeing the black and red checkerboard floor they were standing on and realizes that they were right in front of the Red Queen's castle. In front of them was a looming red and black castle that had it's center and main fortress in the shape of a heart with a crown over top of it, that held the Queen's chambers inside of it. There was a large green maze and garden behind the castle in the middle of the chess board and a moat in front of the castle's front doors. The moat was colored red with paint (not blood) from the red-painted roses dripping into the water and coloring it the same shade. Beyond the red castle, Claire could just barely make out the White Queen's castle on the other side of the chess board, sitting in the middle of it like the Red Queen's castle. The red castle was facing a black and red colored town that had normally shaped houses and buildings which Claire found very disgusting. It was like a smaller version of Auradon.

That miserable town had 'the Civils' living there. Claire absolutely hated each and every one of them, but they were favored by the Queen of Hearts, so she had to see them nearly every day when she was in Wonderland. You can imagine who you might find in that town, based on Claire's feelings towards them...

"Let's go! I don't want to miss tea time!" Heather grabs Claire's wrist and pulls her towards the castle.

"We are going there... Right now?" Claire questions as Heather leads her across the moat where a black wooden bridge was covering it.

"Course! That's where we will find both our moms. And I want biscuits," Heather smiles.

Claire laughs. As much as she hates to admit it, Heather wasn't all that bad now. "You sound like Morgan!"

Heather snorts and looks behind her at Claire funny, "Seriously? I am not that weird."

Claire tilts her head to the side and frowns. Nope, she takes it back. Heather is still terrible.

(To be continued...)

Sorry... Chapter 4 was getting too long so I am just going to finish it and make it into chapter 5! Don't worry! : )
~KK