Chapter 6 Alice in Wonderland
“Hey!”
“. . .”
“Hey! Are you still ‘there’?”
“Kai?”
“Wrong! Guess again. Hahaha!”
“Urghh...” Allen groaned, trying to adjust his eyes to the dim light in his surroundings. In front of him was a shadow of a man, from what he was able to make out he was not too old, also not too young. Judging from his voice, he was probably around his mid-twenties. “Who are you?”
“Who are you?” the man repeated. “You clung to life longer than I expected.”
“Umm... What?” Allen rubbed his eyes a few times. The image of the man was becoming more vivid to his eyes. Allen stared at the man. “My mom told me not to talk to strangers...”
“You just did,” the man laughed but Allen was not at all amused.
“Where am I?” Allen asked, looking around in confusion.
“Now, now, do you realize you are talking to a stranger?” the man shot back. Allen simply grumbled in response and turned away. The man sighed and said, “Ok. Ok. Fine. You’re in a rabbit hole.”
“Rabbit hole?!” Allen yelped, turning his attention back to the man.

“Yes, you fell into a rabbit hole,” the man answered, suppressing the urge to laugh but ultimately failed.
Allen was confused and could not help but ask, “Why are you laughing?”
“Did you really believe that?” the man continued to laugh. Allen tilted his head to the side in confusion and the man laughed impossibly harder. “HAHAHA! Oh my! Honey. Haha! This isn’t Wonderland and you’re not Alice!”
“Fuck you!” Allen sneered. “You lied to me? I was being serious!”
“I’m just joking,” the man chuckled, annoying Allen even more. “Geezzz. You’re no fun. You should be laughing at a joke.”
“It’s not even funny,” Allen hissed but the man still lets out a small laugh. “Stop laughing at me! Damn you! Go back to your hole!”
“Which is in the middle of your panties?” the man simply responded.
“WHAT THE FUCK! YOU PERVERT!” Allen was furious, he tried to stand up to escape from the man but he felt a sudden pain in his ankle. “Ooooucchh!”
“What’s wrong?”
“My ankle really hurts.”
“Let me see it,” offered the man, trying to reach for Allen’s leg.
“Yah! Where are you touching?” Allen snapped at him. “Stay away from me, you pervert! Ouch! Ouch!”
“Don’t be stubborn. Let me see it.” Without waiting for Allen’s response, the man reached for his ankle and examined it. “You sprained your ankle. It’s swelling pretty bad.”
“Ouch! Are you a doctor?” Allen asked, curious since this was the man who was offering to tend his injury.
“Sometimes,” the man said.
“What the fuck is that answer? It’s either a yes or a no.”
“So sure of that huh?” the man whispered with a chuckle. “What’s in your bag?”
“What? Why do you want to know what’s in my bag?” Allen questioned the man. “Stop avoiding my question.”
“What’s in your bag?” the man repeated, still avoiding Allen’s question but sighed and answered anyway when he saw that Allen really would not budge until he got the answer. “I want to know if there’s something I can use to wrap your ankle. Unless you have a bandage.”
“Umm. No, I don’t,” Allen mumbled, feeling a little guilty for suspecting the man when it was just his intention to help him. “There’s only clothes and a towel in my bag.”
“Give me your towel,” the man demanded. “I’ll cut it and wrap your ankle with it.”
Allen pouted but nonetheless opened his bag and gave the towel to the man. He watched as the man took something that seemed like a knife from his right boot. “This is Judge,” he showed the knife to Allen before cutting the towel into a straight line. Allen watched with interest and asked, “You gave a name to your knife? Why do you have a knife with you anyway?”

“Hmm? People bring a knife to the forest. How are you supposed to cut anything in the forest if you don’t bring a knife with you?” the man paused and looked at Allen. “Don’t tell me you brought scissors?”
“No. I uhh… didn’t bring anything sharp,” Allen confessed. The man did not respond. He was too focused on wrapping the towel around Allen’s ankle as a bandage.
“If you have a knife with you, name it,” advised the man after finishing the wrap on Allen’s ankle.
“Why?” Allen asked.
“Because if you don’t...” the man paused. He looked at Allen in the eyes and studied him. “If you don’t, it will turn against you as soon as you try to use it. Remember that, okay?”
Allen nodded slowly. That sounded terrifying, but that was the truth of those words. As a chef, sometimes it did feel as though his knives would turn against him. Now he knew it was not because of the issue of trust but probably because he never named his knives. That was why he did not carry around anything sharp with him. It was probably truer now because of the nature of the place he was in as of the moment.
“I’ll get some white willow bark for you,” the man interrupted Allen’s thoughts. “White what?”
“WHITE! WILLOW! BARK!” The man repeated, enunciating every word louder. “It’s an herb. The same as rosemary but rosemary doesn’t grow in this forest. It’s for your ankle, in case you were wondering. It helps speed up the healing process.”
“Wait! Don’t go!” begged Allen. He did not want to be left alone in the dark unknown place he was in. “I”ll go with you. Ouchhh!”
“Stay here, Alice. Don’t move.”
“I’m not Alice!” Allen corrected.
“Then what’s your name, my dear?” the man smirked.
Allen’s mother always reminded him not to talk to strangers, especially giving personal information to strangers. ‘Not your whole full name’, his mother used to say. But this man, could Allen actually trust this man who’s actually done nothing but offer his help? He hesitated but spoke anyway, “I am...Lun. You can call me Lun.”
“Okay, Lun-Lun. Lie down,” the man commanded. When Allen looked at him with a suspicious look, he said, “I’m not going to rape you. Lie down and put your ankle up here. It should be higher than your head.”
“Tsk...What’s this for?” questioned Allen, turning his head away but let the man lift his ankle on top of a round thing that looked like a white rock.
“Decreases the swelling and bruising,” the man let out a sigh and nagged. “You don’t know anything medical? How could you carelessly go into the forest without knowing anything? What are you doing here anyway?”
“Umm...I-I’m looking for a mushroom,” muttered Allen, knowing the man was indeed right. How could he go into the forest not knowing anything or prepare anything? Then it dawned on him. The man seemed to know about many things that mean he should probably know about the mushroom that he was looking for. “Do you know or have you seen any mushrooms that have bright red droplet-like pigments on top of it?”

“You mean the Devil’s Tooth?” the man raised his brow at Allen. On Allen's face was a shock but it quickly turned into a huge smile and a few fast nods. At last, he had found someone who knew about the mushroom he was looking for. The man rolled his eyes and mumbled under his breath, “Awesome. You fell into the Devil’s hole and now you’re looking for the Devil’s tooth...”
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing, nothing.” The man looked at Allen’s confused face and said, “Kaien. My name is Kaien.”
“Kaien?” mumbled Allen.
‘Kai.’
Stunned, Allen was speechless for a long moment. Did he hear a voice or was it just in his head? The name sounded familiar to him and he felt more connected to this stranger than anyone else. How strange.
“Is something wrong?” Kaien added when he saw Allen’s eyes widen and looking seemingly lost.
“Nothing, i-it’s nothing,” Allen shook his head and Kaien raised his right eyebrow at his action. “I-I thought I remembered something but it’s nothing. Really.” Allen tried to convince Kaien that he was fine and tried to change the subject. “Kaien, how come you know everything?”
“How come you don’t know anything?” Kaien replied, fast.
“Arggghh!” Allen looked at Kaien with an annoyed face and grunted under his breath. “Forget it! You’ll only bring out more riddles and not actually answer.”
That drew another cackle of laughter from Kaien. “Haha! Okay then, stay here,” Kaien preferred not to argue or ask any more questions. “Count to sixty and I’ll be back.”
“Okay,” Allen obliged. Before he started to count though, he called out Kaien’s name, “Hey Kaien...”
“Hmm?”
“Is it true...” Allen paused. Knowing he might not get an answer from Kaien, he still shot the question, “Is that true...that anyone who goes into the forest won’t be able to get out?”
“Don’t be silly. Of course, everyone can get out.” Kaien stated. He turned away from Allen and took off to look for the herb. What Allen could not hear and see were the next line and grin on Kaien’s face when he said, “They just don’t get out alive. Hehehe. . ."