As he stood expectantly awaiting the information he'd just requested, Rhys could not help but wonder about the reason that this group of people had been brought here. Surely there was an explanation, such an event rarely occurred as the result of pure and whimsical chance. Why us... There must be some significant reason behind this gathering... His self-interrogation was cut short by a new voice questioning if the Rabbit could even be trusted in the first place. Rhys could not help but internally sigh as he heard the other voice's question, looking the Rabbit over as he thought to himself.

Though his appearance and demeanor are admittedly... strange, He is our only source of knowledge in a completely alien world. I'd rather hear what he has to say for himself first before being blindly skeptical of his intent.

Aside from that, he was the White Rabbit and if they were truly in Wonderland... he would be amongst the least of threats to them. Almost as if on cue the Rabbit spoke his piece... and subsequently dodged the questions he was asked. Opting to instead give the group a piece of largely useless information, along with the proclamation of an imminent threat and the need to get away. Butter Daisy Forest didn't exactly sound like the most grandiose of names, especially for a place called Wonderland. Regardless of that, the threat of an immediate danger was far more prevalent than paltry naming conventions. Though before Rhys could ask just where this safety was, yet another voice unrecognized by him chimed in and declared that the group should not move until the Rabbit had given them a reason to trust it.

Rhys simply looked on as the disagreement between the two rapidly devolved into full on yelling from one party. He looked to the source of the other voice, a boy likely his age. His cold green eyes looking the accuser up and down. What was a civil discussion mere moments ago had been plunged into childish bickering. This was not good, discord and doubts would only deliver them unto destruction in this sort of scenario. What they needed was to unify and leave the area before this supposed danger could discover them. Besides, if the White Rabbit turned out to have ill intent, there were many more of them than there was of him.

A sudden thunderous crash near the edge of the clearing brought Rhys to his senses, and he turned to face the sound. What he saw stole the breath from his lungs. From the writhing black abyss that had landed seconds ago emerged a titan of a man who seemed to know the White Rabbit. As the newcomer looked over the group, Rhys's eyes eventually met his and for a brief moment Rhys felt the mountainous man's malefic intentions. It took nearly all of his willpower to not drop his stone-faced charade and remain unflinching, though internally he felt incredibly on-edge.

I suppose that this is the aforementioned immediate danger.

Not long after, the blonde boy from earlier attempted to rally the others first into running, and then into protecting one of the other members of their group. While Rhys was all for getting away from the monstrous man, he wasn't exactly looking to risk his life for someone he'd just met. He watched as a few of the others bolted into the verdant landscape that surrounded them. He wanted to stay and attempt to reason with the creature, yet something in the back of his mind was yelling at him that this was a life and death situation. One false move could end everything if he did not proceed with a degree of caution. Summoning what courage he had, he announced to those who were left in the clearing.

"Stick by skepticism and risk your life, or suspend your disbelief and live. It's not a difficult choice!"

Following that he dashed off to join the others who had already fled.

@The Jest@CronicCrystalis@Loki Odinson@Crimmy@Petulant@Letter Bee@Duoya@rebthewriter@Etranger@Avant@Suku@Windstormugly

Nicola Khumalo

This really was one dull dream. It even seemed like everyone else was taking this situation way too seriously. What kindof dream was she having where people acted like real people? The bulk of these people were acting as though there really was a talking rabbit in front of them. It was on this line of thought that Nicky got to thinking. At first, she shrugged the idea off as absurd, but the more she thought about it, none of this had the hallmarks of a dream. In spite of the absurdity of a talking bunny, everything else was all too sensible and predictable. If this really was a dream, she would have expected something wacky to happen by now, like everyone falling into the sky, or an ice cream salesman passing through. This was too boring, too normal.

The clincher came when the huge, black rabbit showed up on the scene. While this was a strange turn of events, Nicky did not feel at all comforted by it. This thing was intimidating, and many people were starting to flee from it as prompted. An overwhelming sense of reality washed over her, and she decided that she was going to make tracks too, following behind those already running in search of safety in numbers. She didn't honestly know for sure if this truly wasn't a dream just yet, but if it was, it was a nightmare, and she was going to treat it like one.

The whole situation was growing more ridiculous, some of the kids starting to bicker with the rabbit, questioning his motives. And the thing responded like an untrustworthy character in a story. Jeremy thought to himself that he really needed to stop listening to his students talking between themselves about the latest childrens-movie or computer game. And when had he last read Alice in Wonderland, in his opinion the second book was much more engaging from an intellectual standpoint. The fact that many of the youths around him were advocating for his own thoughts of this as a dream kept striking him as self-critical. Was this his minds way of showing that he had doubts about something? A stupid notion to be sure, must have been something else, like how he should deal with his fellow teachers always mentioning that P3 syndrome. It was simply some new disease affecting young kids, they'd eventually find a cure.

As the big fellow arose from a pool of shadows and started talking with the rabbit. Was this supposed to be some monster of the dream? The reaction of his surroundings would indicate such, some of them even starting to run away.
But Jeremy didn't feel that usual urge to flee that instilled itself in a nightmare, looking at the man, and his eyes...
Something was strange about this dream, why hadn't he woken up yet. As he had all his wits about him it should mean that he was about to wake, but even thinking of it and trying to open his eyes didn't do anything but make him seem silly widening his eyes.

Opting for the logical conclusion, that the dream was simply a weird one, Jeremy turned around and started walking away from the big man, following the others running ahead. It couldn't hurt to leave, right?

These were the types of situations Hector hated to find himself in. As expected, the rabbit thing provided no satisfactory answers, and gave them some vague warning about something coming for them. Most annoyingly, something did come for them. Now it was a matter of pure chance. They could trust blindly in the white rabbit, and get out of here, and they might all run headfirst into a trap. Alternatively, they could choose to take a chance on this newcomer. He looked as suspicious as it got, but on the other hand, "looks can be deceiving" was a common adage for a reason. He had absolutely no idea what could happen with either of them, and that fact was excruciating. A decision had to be made with no facts or rationale, only instincts and assumptions. If there had been an appropriate opportunity, Hector would have spat on the ground in disgust and protest at this.

He decided to go with the obvious choice and trust in the rabbit, as many others seemed to be doing. He did not actually trust the thing one bit, but he didn't have a bit of a shred of info to go on here either. If it was potential death on either end, he may as well throw in with the one that seemed the least suspicious on the surface. If this came to bite him in the arse, then he would have to live with that...or die with it, as it were.

Gale Aldrich Eden wasn’t a bad person. On the contrary, he was actually quite pleasant. He laughed when it was appropriate, he comforted in the unfortunate times where it was necessary. He was his parents’ pride and joy, he had a tight-knit circle of friends. He was “normal”. He was “good”.

Today, he was walking home from book club, coat slung lazily over his shoulder. They were preparing for yet another fundraiser, and Gale had been tasked with the effort of compiling the presentation. It was packed nearly to the brim with the smiling faces of the children affected, the tearful statements of their parents. He was quite proud of his work, really. It was hardly his magnum opus by any means, but it did its job well enough. He unlocked the door to his house- a nice little two story thing in the suburbs- and knocked on the doorframe before sauntering inside.

“Mom? Dad? I’m home.” He smiled at the sight of his father’s head peeking out from the couch, and, moving forward, his mother snuggled into her husband’s side. They were watching some sort of B flick that Gale held no interest in, the sort that was so bad it was good.

His mother lifted her head a little, returning Gale’s smile. “Oh, good. Was wondering if we should call you. How was book club?”

“It was fine. Made a lot of progress on the thing.”

“You’ll have to show it to us once you’re done with it.” It was his father, now, idly rubbing his nose with his sleeve. “Might have to pass it to the folks back at the office.”

Almost immediately, Gale shook his head, nose wrinkling. “Okay, no. I’ll show it to you, but that’s it. Final.”

They talked for a bit. It was mostly the sort of casual chitchat he had expected, which went by without any trouble. He ate the dinner that had been stored away for him, watched some of the B flick, then excused himself to go to bed. All his homework had been taken care of at the school itself, so Gale had little else to do but brush his teeth and bury himself deep under the covers.

The day had gone as usual.

His dream, however, did not.

---

Gale’s mind was blurry. He had gone to sleep, and had dreamt of a mirror- none of which explained why his head was now resting somewhat awkwardly on a pile of soil. He pushed himself into a sitting position, squinting a little as he picked leaves from his hair.

Had he been kidnapped?

The thought made him jolt to his feet. It seemed near impossible- they lived in a good neighborhood, and he doubted that anyone would be able to get past his parents- but everything was far too vivid to be excused as a dream. A quick glance at his hands, which were completely unchanged, only served to reinforce the notion in his mind that he was wide awake. Before Gale could get too far into his musings on what could’ve happened, the faint sound of voices had caught his attention. Eyes widened, Gale slipped behind one of the nearest trees before anyone could catch sight of him.

There was...a rabbit. A talking rabbit. There were other, regular people around, many in various states of shock or panic, but there was still a talking rabbit chattering on. Gale watched the little beast with a sort of minute interest for a while, before lifting his gaze just in time to see a strange, vaguely humanoid shaped figure emerge.

Some started running.

Gale didn’t need to know what was happening or where he was to tell that was his cue to flee, as well. Turning on his heel, he made for the same direction that the others were heading in, keeping to the sanctuary of the grove.

He could find out what was happening when the risk of danger wasn’t hanging over his head.

Butter Daisy Forest

Oh no...

This was the only thing running through the White Rabbit's head the moment he heard the arrival of the mass of black. He knew exactly what it was; his eyes closed as he sighed before turning to face this giant behemoth of a man.

"...Black Rabbit." He simply said, as if trying to inform the others quickly as to what this...thing was. It was honestly not surprising that this monstrosity would come in so fast, but he hoped he had at least a minute more of time before he arrived. But now he has arrived, talking down to the White Rabbit for bringing the humans here, as a parent would to a troublesome child. The White Rabbit, trying to stand his ground while on shaky legs, simply said nothing, reaching his arms out to the sides of him as if prompting the humans to get behind him, trying - and failing - to look towards those yellow eyes he feared. As soon as this giant asked his question towards the Rabbit, that the rabbit immediately responded.

"Now's the time for running, everyone, Get going!" He said to the humans. At the very least, it seemed most of them finally believes him now, and fortunately enough, already began to retreat before he could say his order. He knew what the giant saw - but of course he would - so he had to get them all out of the giant's sight as quickly as he could, he himself hopping in the same direction once everyone else did so as well, not even giving the giant an answer to his question - not that he'd listen to a word he'd have to say about in his defense anyways.

Adam looked at this giant with considerable awe, he didn't need much more than this guy's appearance, this intimidating aura he displays by simply standing there and talking to the actual rabbit. The rabbit's affiliation with this one was something of note, and it seemed the kid figured that part out as well, but clearly, this wasn't the time for 20 questions.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Adam said to Rhys, as he made a run for deeper into the forest.

Alice was petrified with fear, she really wanted to wake up now, yet couldn't find any of the normal mental means of doing so working for her. This was getting too crazy for her to comprehend even as a dream; if this was truly a dream, why does this ominous feeling of dread this...thing give off, feel so real? Before she could even hear the Rabbit give his order, she felt the boy tug at her right arm, disorientating her for a second before getting back to her feet and running as soon as everyone else did so as well. It should be noted, she noticed the boy talking about protecting her, but she had no clue why this interest in her safety all of a sudden.

"Any idea if we can out-chase that thing!?" Adam asked the White Rabbit as he ran.

"Losing him is difficult even for us, let alone humans like you. The moment he comes running, he won't stop." The WR responded.

"What? Then what the hell are we suppose to do!?" Adam yelled back...For him, this really was like a dream, a nightmare of being chased by something that would eventually catch up, only for some reason, there's no feeling he'll wake up just before that happens.

"Don't worry, I did not make the effort of summoning the looking glass for such a long time to bring you all here without a plan for this situation. But until it can be sprung, just keep running." The rabbit said, not just to Adam but to everyone else as well.

@rebthewriter @CronicCrystalis @Crimmy @Petulant @Letter Bee @Duoya @Etranger @Avant @Suku @Windstormugly @CriticalHit @EchoicChamber

Crobalt Nicholas Crystalis - The Sun

"I have a long day fighting off street punks harassing one of the people I'm helping find their footing, I lose track of time doing some paperwork... And now I'm running for my life in some bizzare world from a behemoth of a man who answers to Black Rabbit. What a day..." Cronic said to himself as he ran, aiming to keep himself as far out of the reach of the "Black Rabbit" as he could.

"So just keep going until we can reach safety? Here's hoping our physical limits don't come into play here. Makes me wish I'd practiced throwing rocks at targets more. Though that would probably just make him mad." Cronic said to the White Rabbit, keeping his eyes focused on the path in front of him and the ground, that he might better evade anything that would cause him to stumble or fall.

Looking-glass...plan...bringing us all here... Snow was running, his hand still grabbing Alice's wrist. He would however gasp out at the White Rabbit, "So it wasn't an accident! You were going for us all along!"

Another set of hard breaths as he kept running. Then he smirked. "Well, that actually makes me optimistic. If you summoned us here for a reason, with especial focus on the lady here, it must mean that we have something special or are suitable for your purposes otherwise."

He dropped the stick he was holding with his other hand, even as he looked behind him at the 'Black Rabbit'. "Do not scatter, everyone!" Snow said in as commanding a voice as he can muster. "Keep together and keep calm!"

@CriticalHit@Windstormugly@Suku@Avant@Etranger@Duoya@Petulant@EchoicChamber@CronicCrystalis@The Jest

While everyone else seemed to be running, the obviously smart thing to do, it took several seconds for Luke to begin his own escape - in fact, it wasn't until the smaller white rabbit called out for everyone to begin running that Luke finally snapped out of it and began his run. Normally, Luke would have no doubts that he could have escaped - he had been running for years by now, and he was very physically fit. Today wasn't one of those days - not only did he feel horrible from vomiting earlier, his legs felt like sacks of bricks.

To be quite honest, Luke really didn't even feel like running away - while the guy was even more muscular than Luke, muscles meant little when their were such a large number of people. If everyone ganged up on the man, then he'd be easy to defeat - that didn't matter though. After all, this was all a dream - of course things wouldn't go his way. Thinks never went Luke LaMotta's way in his dreams. The only reason he was running in the first place was because he was truthfully scared. This was clearly a dream, but he's been creeped out from the news for awhile now - P3 syndrome made dreams feel much more menacing. Who knows - maybe it's like in movies, and when you die in the dream, you die in real life.

Even being late to start running and holding himself back to not sprain anything, Luke quickly caught up with the rest of the runners - fear and adrenaline is a great motivator. He continued to run, and by the time he had tied himself with the last person in the group, he called out.

"Be sure to have rhythmic breathing - Don't run out of breath early!"

White rabbit mentioned something about glass, but Luke completely ignored him - he was busy keeping his breathing in time with his steps.

Strength - Chase Rivers

Chase was still stuck in place. He stared as this behemoth of a man as everyone began to flee. The titan only raised one hand, as if to swipe them aside. "Kagutsuchi." He commanded and a a card manifested by his hand. The picture was too far to see. This Black Rabbit crushed the card in his hand, which was followed by black and red flames erupting round and behind him. A figure full of infernal, blue flame emerged from the fires with great orbs surrounding him. A ball of orange fire fit in front of the figure, so bright and hot Chase had to avert his eyes. The heat was beyond anything he had encountered, Chase felt like it would burn his skin and clothes clear off. Thus, he ran. He turned on his heel and began to run away. But he saw someone else, who had not run yet as everyone else had.

"Run, damn you! Run!" His cowardice betrayed him, he did not turn back to save them, but instead kept running.

"Ragnarok." He heard from behind him. And then there was fire. He felt over his feet from the shockwave as he heard the sound of impact, like metal hitting metal. He looked behind him and saw a barrier, like a mirror between him and the flame. But the kid who had not run was no longer there, consumed by the hungry flames. The grass around him had been lit from the fire that had spilled past the barrier and trees groaned and cracked as they exploded, the water inside them instantly evaporated. Chase looked up from the ground and saw three figures amidst the smoke and flame. One stepped forward, an old man dressed in a coat that was like a chessboard, checkered in black and white. He had a a tall tophat on his head and a cane in his hand.

"Hatter." Chase heard the behemoth speak from behind him. "Hatter. The Mad Hatter." Chase thought. Apparently his saviour.

"Run, young one. No one else need die today. Dorm Mouse, Bandersnatch, lead them to safety." The elderly man ordered the other two figures obscured by smoke and fire. They went off after that. Mad Hatter stepped forward, drawing a thin sword from his cane. "GO!" Chase did not need to hear that twice and ran after the others.

--

The others saw a young girl dressed in a red tweed jacket run past them. She was wearing a bowler hat, had mouse ears and pink eyes. "Follow me to safety! Quickly!" She yelled and ran in front of them, far faster than they were as she jumped past the tall grass and roots.

Crobalt Nicholas Crystalis - The Sun

"Don't have to tell me twice! I could feel the sheer heat from that, from here!" Cronic shouted out, doing everything he could to keep himself on the trail of the girl with Mouse traits. Crobalt himself was in decent physical shape. Mostly out of necessity because although he helped people down on their luck, he still had to pay for everything out of his own pocket, in addition to his bills. The job he held to fix that problem was largely down to manual labour.

"I don't wanna be around to find out what happens when you get caught in that!" Cronic shouted out to himself as he hopped over a tree root, continuing to keep pace. Though he had no qualms running long distances at a time, his formal attire wasn't really meant for that, so he wore a tracksuit instead.

"Anyone who got caught in THAT... I doubt there'll be anything left." Cronic thought, suppressing a shiver.

A certain line of thought entered Hector's head as the explosion behind him signaled the death of one of their number. The rabbit had claimed to have brought them all here with his "looking glass" or whatever. None of them would have been here if he had not done this, if all was to be believed. Thus, it was entirely his fault that they were in the cross-hairs of that black beast. These selfish gits had caused the death of a person for their hidden agenda. Whatever shred of sympathy Hector might have been willing to give to this lot was as roasted to a crisp as whoever had perished in that inferno. The black one might have been the killer, but these people had tied them to the tracks.

For all the disdain that was building in his head, Hector kept running. He was under no illusions that the black one was nothing other than hostile to them, and while he had a newfound contempt for their seeming allies, they weren't actively trying to kill them right now. He followed, as prompted, into the tall grass, but as he ran, he called out to the white rabbit. "You had better have a bloody great explanation for all this!" There were only a handful of good reasons that could assuage his ire at this point. God help them if this was all orchestrated for some trivial whimsy on the part of these animalesque wankers.

@The Jest

The lingering belief that this might have been a dream after all faded with the sound and sight and force of the explosion. Katsuguchi and Ragnarok, Snow Cecil thought, storing the words in his head. I was right. There was no victory in the thought. Did someone just die? If so,why am I still running? For what reason is this happening?

He looked at Alice, whose wrist he still held. For a moment, the boy was tempted to latch onto the thought that his warning had saved her, had saved the others' lives, that his group was far-better prepared for the quest they needed to undertake. Quest? Need? This is ridiculous! You've always lived in the past, Snow; in the world of fairy stories!

Snow stilled the turmoil of his thoughts, even as the Mad Hatter stepped forward, giving them a respite. Dormouse, Baldersnatch, I remember the former from a reading of Alice in Wonderland long ago. He followed the pretty girl who may have been around his age as she wove through the tall grasses, all the while making an assessment. We are in a quest now, a quest where death is a real possibility. But for what and why us?! He looked at Hector, whose face was clearly livid, and knew that a deep seed of mistrust and even hatred had been planted by the death of the tall Chinese teenager. Quests that begin this way usually end in tragedy.

He let go of Alice's hand, and ran to where Hector and the Dormouse were, he also glanced at the rest of the group; how many of them hated the 'Wonderlanders' already? Snow knew he had to nip this in the bud, but also did not want to utter foolish words. Exhausted, his leg muscles burning with pain, he would finally bark out at Hector: "Does it - Does it matter right now?! We've been thrown together! We're all one group now!"

Snow Cecil, for the first time in his life, had to be strong, truly strong. He had a group that he had to stay with in order to survive. No, there was more than that. This was one of those stories where nothing was guaranteed. Not survival, not success...

And not defeat. Snow pursed his lips at that. He explained further. "I am young enough to believe in magic, smart enough to...exploit it, and what we saw is Magic. One of us is already dead, but although it's easy to hate each other for it, we need to -" his breaths were huffing and puffing now, "- We need to work with each other!"

Spots were dancing in front of his eyes now; he wasn't used to running like this, and talking at the same time.

@CriticalHit@Windstormugly@Suku@Avant@Etranger@Duoya@Petulant@EchoicChamber@CronicCrystalis@The Jest

Maria Kusonoki

"Ok what the fuck what the actual fuck is going on here. Between Lewis Carrol characters running around and a giant monster chasing after us can I at least get a answer on what in all honesty is going on here?!! I CAN FEEL MY SANITY SLIPPING ALREADY!" Maria yelled in frustration at the situation she found herself in this was way above being some odd fever dream this was seriously draining her sanity points rapidly and it was starting to annoy her. She wanted answers something like how was actual lewis carrol characters talking and living like its nothing she was pretty sure she didnt fall down a rabbit hole. Though with how fast she was pretty sure was her sanity leaving her she was mad already afterall as a certain cat said we are all mad in wonderland or something like that which she felt was a pretty good statement to sum up the situation so far.

@The Jest@Petulant

The High Priestess - Meredith Fong

The first thing that struck Meredith Fong was the heat of the explosion. Even though she'd started running really hard the moment the big and buff Australian fellow strolled onto the scene, the intensity of the blast was still great enough that she could feel the ends of her furred coat fray and singe as wild sparks leapt out to lick at her clothes. Which was a big no-no, because she quite liked her clothes. It was a really vivid experience, and even if her clothes were just fake, dreamy ones (that had stolen away her PJs when she was getting in some Z's earlier), so much heat wasn't very good for her at all.

Getting scorched wouldn't help her live longer, right? The youth sped up as the heat reached her, each stride growing longer. She didn't look back, but from what she could hear, somebody had been hit. Her heart sank as the realisation made itself known in her mind. That wasn't good. That wasn't a good way to go out at all. Humans weren't supposed to go the way of roast chicken.

She had to wonder though if the weirdos who'd popped up to help out were supposed to be human too. All the strange names could really be funky nicknames for a fancy costume group that really liked Carroll (and if they had been she'd have to give another gold star for their super unique and vivid style of dress), but looking at that girl telling them to follow, those ears were really realistic. Very mousey. That was the Dorm Mouse, right? Pink eyes didn't look very healthy on humans.

It was a hypocritical observation for Meredith to make, given her own crimson eyes, but she hadn't realised that.

"Just follow along," she said aloud with a firm nod to herself, her movements increasing in speed. She was totally clueless about what was going on, and she couldn't blame all the other people for the confusion and anger, but she figured that doing the entire follow instructions things was their best bet. Turning into a fireball was a no-go, so the opposite to that was just to keep on running!

Nicola Khumalo

Now she was really sure this wasn't a dream. She could feel the heat on the back of her neck as she ran. They were being attacked. Someone was trying to kill them, and she had a feeling someone had indeed just died. This was an insane situation and they had no business being here. Nicola liked to try and put a positive spin on any situation, but here, she had no idea why any of this was happening and she just felt so overwhelmed by it all. She didn't care that they were busting out allies to help them or whatever, she just wanted to go home and leave all this madness far, far behind. Quietly muttering prayers and curses under her breath, she ran feverishly in the same direction as the others, hoping that there was an end laying beyond the long grass...or better yet, an escape.

Sunny warmth pushed against Gale’s shoulders as he sprinted forward, accompanied by the distinctive smell of roasting meat. Of charring meat, of burnt hair and boiling fat. He didn’t need to look behind him to know that one of their number had fallen- the stench, and the panicked cries of those left, was more than enough evidence.

He was forced, rather unwillingly, out of his grove by the voice of a young woman calling them to safety, and the trees snapping behind him. Much to Gale’s surprise, one of the younger looking of the group was managing to pull off a sizable monologue while still running for his life. To be entirely honest, Gale was more impressed by the lungs on the boy than anything that was actually coming out of his mouth. Being able to both run and ramble like that was a talent.

Whoever the child was, he was evidently trying to take over the role as leader, regardless. Something Gale doubted would go unchallenged. There were others talking- one screaming about Lewis Carroll and monsters, most notably- but Gale had already started tuning them out for the most part, focusing on navigating the meadow.

The idea of dying in such an anticlimactic way wasn’t something he was particularly a fan of.

It was just a dream, albeit very realistic, still a dream. He still had his dignity however, and as he knew it was a dream, there was no reason to lose his composure. Like maybe start running instead of walking, as all the others seemed to do, going past him on the sides. Jeremy would not allow himself to do such a thing.
The wave of heat and sound hitting him from behind did a very good job of breaking that composure, and the smell, him having so far only walked, the distance was not yet enough to shield him from it. Looking back over his shoulder was not greeting him with a pleasant sight, and that did make him start running. All to the proper atmosphere of the dream, still a dream. Those words were slowly becoming a failing mantra in his head. And the newfound doubt made him pay a bit more attention to the others running with him away from the... Black Rabbit, was that what the white rabbit had called him? Well that was a very lazy name if he ever heard one.
Having decided for himself to follow the dream better, following the girl with the mouse ears that suddenly showed up didn't seem like a bad idea.

There seemed to be some kind of commotion among those running ahead of him, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was about, having not heard much more than the boy wheezing uselessly.

This is certainly not my most elegant moment.

Rhys thought to himself as he sprinted towards the others who were fleeing from the 'Black Rabbit', apparently the name of the hulking man from mere seconds ago. While Rhys was nowhere near what one would call athletic, he could run at a surprising speed. He could only hope that the towering brute would not give chase, though that ember of hope was swiftly snuffed out by the White Rabbit. A wave of dread washed over the boy, what was the point in their flight if their pursuer was inescapable? Thankfully, just as quickly as he'd extinguished the boy's hopes the White Rabbit announced that he had a plan for such a contingency. All they had to do was run.

A way to escape the inescapable?

Rhys considered just how impossible that sounded as he narrowly ducked a low hanging branch. If they had indeed fallen down the rabbit hole, than the very concept of impossibility should be thrown out the metaphorical window. Wonderland was a world of madness and strange occurrences, by it's very nature anything would be possible. There was way to outrun the beast, but how?

He was ripped from his concentration by the familiar tense voice from earlier uttering a single word, turning to look over his shoulder.

"Ragnarok."

As if in response to the titan's command a great flame was born, and only then did Rhys realize that there was one missing from their group. He looked back in horror as the one who failed to run was utterly obliterated by the all-consuming inferno. Trees, grass, everything around the beast had been immolated to nothing but ashes. Rhys pried his eyes away from the grisly scene and redoubled his efforts to keep running. The shockwave from the great conflagration carrying with it a scorching reminder of their pursuers terrible power. If he stopped, even for a mere moment, he could end up sharing the same fate. In that moment, the danger of Wonderland became clear, each tree root could cast him unto oblivion if he tripped.

In vain, he attempted to suppress the outright fear rising within, but he found no success, save for barely keeping up his facade. The panicked cries of the others reaching him, but truly not being heard.

A flash of red stole his attention, as a girl with mouse ears quickly overtook his pace and directed the group to follow her. She was presumably, one of White Rabbit's associates? Perhaps a part of the plan to escape the murderous giant chasing them? Rhys could only hope as he complied and followed the mouse girl's lead. Composing himself as best as he could Rhys would shout to the rest of the group.

"Panic is our nemesis in such a situation! It may sound foolish but we need to trust the mouse!"

The reason he said this however eluded him, perhaps he was unconsciously spurred on by the blonde boy trying to take charge. That was irrelevant though, as the only thing that mattered at the current moment was that he kept running.

@The Jest@CronicCrystalis@EchoicChamber@Crimmy@Petulant@Letter Bee@Duoya@rebthewriter@Etranger@Avant@Suku@Windstormugly

She kept running and running. Her adrenaline was pumping through her entire body, trying to keep herself from dying today. She kept running, hearing a kid trying to yell at another person to keep running. It reminded Hitomi that she couldn't let herself get frozen in fear like a couple of minutes ago. She panted, continuing to run from the Black Rabbit.

She suddenly felt heat behind her and realized something was going to happen to the kid that was frozen, and his fate, well, didn't look really nice. There was another that was going to get caught in the fire too.

She forced herself to move even faster. If she didn't speed up, even more, it would've burned her for sure. How much? Well, that part she didn't want to know. She forced herself not to look back. She couldn't, she would get frozen with fear again. She gulped, trying to fight back tears welling in her eyes, grieving for someone she didn't even know. She didn't even need to look. His fate was sealed.

There was a little girl standing there, causing her eyes to widen at the sight of her. She was telling them to follow her. It wasn't like any of them had a choice right now; they needed to get out of here. So Hitomi ran over to follow the girl, hoping the rest of them would at least get out of there alive.