[center][i]*~*Collaboration Between Ghost Shadow, YoshiSkittlez, Tanderbolt, Major Ursa, and Guardian Angel Haruki*~*[/i][/center]
Lying facedown on a smooth tile floor, Edric slowly raised his head up off the ground, looking around him with keen interest. Perhaps sometime during the trip he had lost consciousness, he wasn't sure. It had been so long...so, so long since he had journeyed through the Looking Glass. Wondering how the others would fare for their first trip, Edric rose to his feet, a wide, Cheshire-like grin appearing on his face as he realized where he was....only to falter as he realized *where* he was. 

"Oh...." was all he mustered to say as he scampered about, looking for the others. "Up! Get up, get up!" He whispered harshly, his tone sharp and commanding. "We're not safe here, we have to get out of here, [b]now[/b]." He added, looking around frantically for any sign of guards, or worse. 

Snow felt dizzy stepping through the portal, and closed her eyes to alleviate the nausea. She opened them when she heard Henry's voice. The sights were bizarre to her, but she  couldn't look at them for long because she turned her eyes to her friend. She tried to calm him down, only he knew what to do next. "Henry, Henry, where are we? Where should we go?" 

Killian shakily stood up from the floor after hearing Henry whisper harshly. It felt like he was going through another hang-over and he winced. He looked around, knowing full well where he was, but he looked very confused as he did. He looked to Henry and Snow and he whispered "Anywhere but in plain sight, I'm guessing," 

A few moments after stepping out of the portal, Jill wobbled to the nearest corner of whatever room they had all landed in, dropped to her knees and vomited up whatever she had foraged for and eaten the night previously. After some additional heaving, she wiped her mouth on some of her leathers, she looks around and mutters a few things incoherently as if looking for something. Not finding it, apparently, she abruptly opens the door loudly and leaves through.

The new room had only the mirror, and that ridiculous number of candles. Reminded him of the box of candles he bought for that charity, though such things seemed so...beneath him now. This was far from the truth, and keeping this understanding would also keep him 'human', in some sense though he didn't understood how, himself. Knox stepped into it, and was immediately feeling better about his situation, seeing as the smoke thick aura of darkness was already thinning out...but it gave way to his notice of the fact he, himself, had no shadow attached to him. Ah, that's right, shadows couldn't grow they own. Frowning to himself, this only served to depress him even just slightest, just one more thing to set him apart from humans.

Brushing that aside, the shadow man really hadn't paid much attention to the girl giving their position away with her loud door opening, and instead he dropped two bottle of wine out from the dark ceilings. Catching them in each hand, he examined them for any damages, "Shaken, but unbroken." Holding them up so Snow could see, "I've been nice. We can open them both once you get me to Storybrooke." Dropping them into a flickering shadow, Knox crossed his arms and gestured with his chin, "'Edric', I though you were going to lead the way?" There was a distinct feeling of...well...'fools rush in where angels fear to tread'...staring at the door Jill just fled through.

Edric's expression twitched slightly as he saw Jill's most....disgusting entrance. First-comers couldn't be expected to take their first trip unheeded. 

"Stay quiet!" He hissed to his companions, wincing sharply as Jill quite loudly left the room. "We....are in the Queen of Heart's castle. The most dangerous place in Wonderland." He added, explaining where his fears had come from. 

Boredly, silently, Knox pulled out his spare leather gloves. Putting them on, he held his hands behind a larger candle and flame, making shadow puppets in the candlelight. First a duck, then a deer...a dog with a fluffy tail and sharp teeth, then a serpentine dragon moving fluidly, and lastly a feathery pheonix flying against some wind. Some of the flames of the smaller candles flickered at his movement, but the shadow man paid no mind as he waited.

Killian heard Edric and he raised his eyebrows in concern. He hissed in clear worry, trying to keep quiet, "Then what are we standing here for?! Let's go!" He looked to Edric expecting him to lead the way. 

Snow also looked at Edric, giving him a look that seemed to say "You're supposed to know what to do, now do it" She was careful not to make any more noise, and also made note of all the entrances and exits of the room.

"Alright...come with me, stay quiet, don't look at or touch [i]anything[/i]....Don't breathe too loud." Leaving them with these sparse, if strange directions, Edric slowly crept towards the now-open door Jill had previously burst through, making a 'come on' motion with his hand to the rest of the group as he left the mirror room, entering a long, immaculate hallway. Like the rest of the castle, it seemed sparsely decorated, the only decorations to be found being the occasional end table, suit of decorative armor, or candleabra. Blood-red curtains bordered each window, matching the black-and-red tile floor, patterned into hearts every few steps. 

Edric's lip twitched as not-so-fond memories of this castle entered his mind, but a look out the window seemed to calm him. Were one to look out and see the surrounding wilderness, they'd say it was a fever dream mixed with a bad LSD trip. Everything seemed bright...[i]too[/i] bright, as though colors were amplified times two. The skies were a teal blue, void of everything but a few clouds shaped into odd forms, some even appearing to be interacting with each other. Giant toy jacks floated about, encased in bubbles. Stranger still was the way all the wildlife seemed to be bigger than it should have been. Flowers stood at least twice as tall as Knox, and appeared to be moving on their own accord, though it was impossible to hear what any of them were saying. Tall blades of grass stood like dense forests, leading into God knows where, as any and all directional signs were muddled and mixed together so that one couldn't tell if they were going left, right up, or down. 

The hallway in the castle seemed to stretch on some time until coming to a four-way intersection, seemingly endless hallways spanning on all sides. Though there appeared to be no guards patrolling the halls, one could swear the portraits that appeared randomly on the wall would change their expression, or turn to look at these strangers in the castle. 

"Get it to work. Get it to work. Get it. Work. To. Work to get... GET IT TO WORK!"

The otherwise soundless corridors echoed the soft mumblings of a male, pinpointed not too much further down the hall if you listened close enough. Although his words were almost incoherent, there was a clear sound of distress behind them, as though he were going through a great deal to speak.

Killian heard the words echoing down the corridor, and he commented with a smirk on his face "Someone must be having a lot of trouble over there. I feel bad for the unlucky lady," 

"You know, your assumption of this _worst possible scenerio_ first and foremost, above all other possibilities is leading me to believe you experience this regularly yourself?" Knox quietly remarked back, as easily as if he were talking about the weather.

Standing by, leaning against the wall beside a display suit of armour...the shadow man's sensibilities were telling him it would probably be wise to destroy the suit of armour, less misfortune of all that could go wrong possibly driving it to be enchanted by magic and attack them...right. Less paranoid, less paranoid please...gods, the Sun, the stars, and the moon be damned.

"Shh shh shh!" Edric hissed, too tense to laugh at Killian's jape. "I know that voice..." He added on in a tone that sounded as if it was more directed to himself than to anyone else. 

"No...it can't be." He commented, slowly following the voice until approaching a single door, strangely unlocked. 

"Oi! It's bad form to be intruding on a [i]vulnerable[/i] couple!" Killian hissed at Henry, continuing his jape.

Turning the latch, Edric slowly opened the door, in case anything undesirable was on the other side. Until he caught glimpse of the sole resident of the room......"Jefferson."

The room was large, and would have looked much larger if it weren't filled with so much clutter. From floor to ceiling in almost every area were stacks upong stacks of items; which upon further investigation were nothing but hats. Hats! Mountains high of various shapes, sizes, color... all hand made by the lone figure sitting in the center of the room. Needle in hand with one eye squinted closed, the Hatter furiously threaded the top hat in his hand that took on a striking resemblance to the hat on his own head. The purple bags under his eyes were heavy, as if he hadn't slept for days, the stubble on his face and stringy hair from under his hat indicating that he hadn't been properly washed or groomed in some time. He paid the group no mind, however, his opened eye solely on the hat in front of him repeating over and over,

"Get it to work! Get it to work! Work. Work! Get it to work!"

"Well, we at least have good fortune to run into him right here. I think that indicates that we are not in the worst possible circumstances" Snow said, shooting a glance in Knox's direction.

Eyes flicking over to where Snow stood, an eyebrow raised for a fraction of a moment before the shade realised what she was talking about, "Oh, for the love of--please sense the mood a little better, I was merely poking fun at the blacksmith's expense." 

She tried to keep her back to the wall to avoid someone catching her from behind.
"Do you want to handle approaching this, Henry? I think you know him better than I do, let me know what you want to do."

Edric remained silent, his expression could only be described as horrified. *This* was what became of Jefferson...all this time. 

Not even bothering to look at his companions, Edric slowly walked forward, his leather shoes echoing off the stone walls as he moved closer and closer to the one man he could call a trusted friend. 

"Oh no...this is my fault. I should have acted sooner..." Edric muttered to himself as he maneuvered around the mountain of hats that were piled to the ceiling. "Jefferson? Jefferson, it's me...Edric." Taking a moment to look back at the group before focusing on the Mad Hatter once again, Edric inclined his head down to see the man who was so normally filled with swagger and wit reduced to little more than a mumbling wreck, lost in his own mind. 

Killian picked up a hat and he asked "All of that commotion was over a bunch of hats?" He then shrugged and commented again, continuing his joke, "Whatever gets him excited, I guess," before just dropping the hat to the ground. He looked to the door in case someone came near the room.

"I can't... it won't..." Threading the hat mercilessly in his hand, Jefferson didn't even so much as flinch as Edric approached. His eyes, now both open and wide in a crazed, glossed over look staring only at the hat he was desperately trying to do... something with.

"Get it to work!" With a frustrated cry, Jefferson threw the hat from his grip and shot both hands to his head, knocking off the top hat on his head to pull at the roots of his dark brown curls and began to rock back and forth in his cross-legged position, head hanging low and eyes shut tightly. "Can't get it to work... it won't work... it won't work..."

Edric's mouth had formed into a thin line as he watched the display in front of him. It was one thing to torture someone, to kill them; but it was another thing entirely to strip them down into little more than a hollow shell of their former selves. 

"What has she done to you?" Edric asked quietly, though it was unknown if such an inquery was directed towards Jefferson or towards himself. "Jefferson...look at me. Please." Edric requested in a serious tone, his mouth twitching on occasion though his general expression remained blank as a stone. 

His rocking seemed to slow, but before Edric could even blink Jefferson had hopped up onto his knees, hands closing around the front of Edric's shirt pulling it tight. His eyes, wide, confused and lost looked up to Edric, almost pleading for him to do something.

"It can't work. I can't make it work. You can't make it work... can't be here... no... Grace... Grace can't be here. Edric.. Little Rabbit... Lost. Gone. THE QUEEN!" He released his tight hold on Edric's shirt and slumped back down on his knees, his hands now shaky trying to hold onto his head but unable to find it. "Go away. I have to make it work!" Scrambling over onto all fours, Jefferson moved over to a pile of fabric and started to pull some out, frantically searching for the scissors that were right in front of him.

Edric's mind raced as Jefferson rambled on to him: about his daughter, about the Queen, about...Alice; before seeming to lose any semblance of rationality once more. 

Edric attempted to place a hand on the Hatter's shoulder, as if trying to keep him seated without applying any true force. "It won't work...none of these have the magic required, it's impossible." He confessed quietly, hoping to not send his old friend on another rave. 

"Impossible... impossible... get it to work, that was the task. Not impossible. Need to get out!" Jefferson replied, still on his hands and knees not at all seeming to have noticed Henry's hand on his shoulder. Finally, Jefferson found the scissors and sat back down, cross legged and pulled a square of fabric into his lap and began to cut into it.

Hook looked outside of the room, and he looked back to Edric as he pointed out, "Hey, cat. Maybe we should keep moving. Especially since you were all worked up about getting caught for being here,"

Snow said "I wonder what could've happened to him, is this kind of thing normal in this realm? If it is, then I think we have made a mistake by coming. I hope we can get him well enough eventually, but if the queen is as dangerous as you say, we should get out of here as soon as we can."

"Hush up!" Edric commanded sharply as he turned to look at both Killian and Snow, a venomous edge to his tone as he spoke. "This man....is our key out of here." Standing up and turning to face his companions, Edric expanded, "Jefferson and I have known each other for years...even after I left Wonderland to the Enchanted Forest. He's....my best friend. I don't know what they did to him, but I'm not leaving this place without him." He finished soberly, looking between Killian and Snow for any reaction. 

Killian gestured towards Jefferson with an open palm, and he asked Edric skeptically, "Is he even going to [i]listen[/i] to you? Let alone, does he even [i]want[/i] to leave this place?" In all honesty, to Killian, it didn't look like Jefferson was going to be leaving any time soon.

"Oh, he wants to leave. I know Jefferson...never one to be locked up by [i]anyone[/i]. Besides..." kneeling down again to speak to Jefferson directly, Edric continued, "I know where Grace is." 

The scissors dropped from Jefferson's calloused hands and into the fabric draped over his lap. He kept his head up, staring out straight in front of him at the piles of hats as if they were bay windows with the most glorious view.

"Grace... my Grace?" Jefferson shut his eyes tightly, a single tear being pushed from his eyelid and fell down into his lap. Opening his eyes after a short pause, Jefferson turned his head to look back at Edric, tears filling his eyes as awareness finally began to slip into his consciousness.

"Edric? You're... [i]really[/i] here?"

Smiling softly as Edric saw his friend slowly but surely regained awareness, he simply said, "Hello, old friend." 

Closing his eyes for another moment, Jefferson pushed himself up from the ground and stood at his full height. Opening his eyes back up he cleared his throat and brushed off his frock a bit awkwardly, shifting his weight from one leg to the other until finally, Jefferson opened up his arms and pulled Edric into a tight hug, face burried into his friend's shoulder, sobbing and holding onto Edric as if he would suddenly disappear.

"Edric!" Jefferson managed to choke out in a strangled gasp and hugged his friend to him tighter still.

Edric let out a heavy, somewhat shaky sigh, accepting his friend's hug as he let out his grief. "I'm so sorry, Jefferson...if I'd have known. I'd have come sooner." He tried to plead, make a case for himself. How else could you excuse leaving your friend to suffer at the hands of the Queen of Hearts for five years. 

"R-Regina... she lied to me..." Jefferson began to explain, eventually easing up on his hold on Edric and took a step back to keep a respectable distance between the two of them. "S-she had be bring her here and then... left with someone else... took my hat. She has Grace... The Queen, she... tasked me with making another..." Jefferson lamely gestured to the multitude of hats decorating the large room. "I can't get them to work."

"Come with us, we're getting you out of here." Edric offered sympathetically, quickly looking behind him to make sure the group was still alone. "We're on a little quest you see, have to find Alice....then we're going to a World [i]Without[/i] Magic...that's where Grace is." Edric informed with a reassuring smile. 

"Alice... Little Rabbit..." Jefferson raised his hand to rub at his eyes, the dark bags underneth them giving way to the fact that he hadn't slept in quite some time. "Grace..." Lowering his hand, Jefferson closed his eyes and breathed out a deep sigh. "Little Rabbit is gone, Edric. All I have left is Grace. But... you know where she is? How is she? Has she asked about me?"

"She's fine...last I checked. Everyone in this Land was affected by Regina's Curse, got false lives and memories...she's safe, and relatively happy. I'm sure she's missing you right now." Edric reassured with a soft smile. 

At this Jefferson could only nod once, his thoughts and worries neither confirmed nor denied on Grace and only further confused with Alice. Looking past Edric's shoulder The Hatter caught his first sight of the others, realizing now that he and Edric were not alone. Eyes widening and a grin worthy of Edric's Cat form as his eyes came across Snow. Arms extending out, maintaining his grin he pushed past Edric as if he were no longer there and approached Snow, pulling her into a hug and lifting her small frame off of the ground a few inches.

"Snow! My darling Snow! And in Wonderland of all places!"

"I've been wanting to bring her here for awhile. I figured sibling kidnapping and lives in peril was the best time to do so." Edric commented with a smirk, planting his hands in his trouser pants pockets. 

Snow hugged him enthusiatically, but eased up rather soon, she didn't want to wait for too long. She said "This was a time when we had to come, not when we wanted to come. Edric's been a friend for years, and I never let friends down. I'm sorry we can't stay longer, but if what Edric's said about The Queen of Hearts is correct, we'll have to get going very soon. We'll have plenty of time to catch up on the way, and I'm very glad to have someone I can trust with us."

"The Queen?" Jefferson asked, letting Snow back down and stepping back to put a respectible amount of distance between them again. "No one has seen The Queen for a few years now..."

Looking past Snow for a moment, Jefferson then caught a good look at the other companions that had accompanied Edric and Snow to Cora's castle. Drawing his face back in a sort of grimace, the veins in his neck protruding some in his hesitance he took another step back taking in the shadowed appearance of a very tall man near the corner of the room. "Who is he?" Jefferson asked skeptically, taking another step backwards for good measure before looking towards Killian giving him a less surprised look, though still held his confusion.

Standing by with his arms crossed, the security guard cast a longside glance to the others as the man before them addressed them one by one, before taking notice that it was now his own turn. "Knox." Saying this quickly, he realised a name...that name, his name, it just seemed so hopelessly meaningless to 'who' exactly he was. But that wasn't important at the moment.

Rubbing his chin with the back of his hand thoughtfully, "Shouldn’t we get out of here? I mean we, afterall, are in the dead center...the heart of enemy territory." With a saying 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread' being the most applicable prior to their entrance into the mirror portal, what could be said about lingering here?

"Listen, it doesn't matter [i]where[/i] we go...we're under threat anywhere here. The Queen's regime has spread throughout the entire realm." Edric explained to Knox in a voice that was less-than-polite. 

"We need to get Jefferson out of here, then we need to find Alice. Then we can find a way back to Storybrooke." Edric added on, this time speaking to the entire group. 

"But, the....shade, is right. We have to get a move on." 

"Edric, Alice is- [i]My hat[/i]!" Jefferson exclaimed after scratching his chin for a moment of contemplation. In his excitement, he crossed back over to Edric, holding him by the lapels of his shirt and shook his friend a few times. "Regina had it last, took it and left me for The Queen. If she still has it..." His eyes widened a bit, remembering that Regina was no longer at her castle, but an entirely new world. Releasing Edric from his tight hold, Jefferson took a step back, eyes wide with his mouth parted slightly. "Please tell me she didn't take it with her... otherwise I'm afraid we're stuck here for a bit longer than just tea time..." He took another step back, glancing between Knox, Killian, Edric and Snow again, then made a wide, sweeping gesture with his arms as though he were just now realizing he had missed something important. "How [i]did[/i] you get here anyway?"

Killian had been listening to the discussion, while keeping an eye out for any of the guards that may arrest them. When Jefferson asked as to how they got here, and he answered "We came here through a mirror. We can use that to leave this bloody place,"

After another moment of internal diliberation, ignoring the interaction amongst the others, Knox commented, "Shouldn't we have someone stay and secure the mirror...no. More to the point, shouldn't we secure the mirror?"

Killian rolled his eyes at the shade and pointed out, "Stay with the mirror? That's an easy way to get captured. So long as none of us get caught, nothing should happen to that mirror," He then looked at Edric and added "Unless the cat thinks otherwise..."

Raising a brow, but more interested in leaning toward some candlelight to play with shadow puppets, "Hence my 'more to the point' question of securing the mirror. And captured? For you, perhaps...[i]perhaps not[/i]?  If Edric is right and we're not safe anywhere, it's not a question of where we can be safe, but how quick we can get out when the time's right."

An immaculate shadow of a dove taking flight, done just with his two hands, Knox finally turned from the candle and back to the group again. Crossing his arms again, breathing out a short sigh, the darkness of his had thinned out greatly already...but it was evident he was looking in Edric's direction, "Less talking is the solution. Come on and lead the way. We've been waiting minutes...a same number of minutes it takes to successfully torture a prisoner of war, burn an innocent woman, murder young and old alike...we're wasting time. I can grab the mirror on our way out."

Snow frowned at Knox's words. "I see you're your usual cheery self, Knox. Even with a magical curse, I don't see how anyone could've thought that we were married, but now's not the time for that. I think we should get some advice from Jefferson before deciding on a course of action, he knows this place better than we do. I would like to get back to Storybrooke, I can't leave my husband and my people alone for too long. Hopefully they'll do something productive in my absence, like maybe getting rid of Regina."

"I doubt that's going to be possible, given that magic's now returned to Storybrooke...she'll have just as much power, if not more, than she did before. Unless Rumpelstiltskin gets bored and deals with her for us." Edric replied dryly. 

"But yes, Jefferson, we need your help getting out of here...once we're in the Wonderland Wilds, we can work on finding Alice." He added.

Shaking his head no with enough vigor that made his mop of brown hair toss about, Jefferson threw up his hands in the air in defeat. "And I was the one locked up for five years." He said out loud to no one in particular, letting his eyes look up to the vaulted ceiling above them before turning his attention back to Edric. "If we can find my hat, then I will help you back to Storybrooke; if that is where my Grace is, then I wish to do so as quickly as possible, but Edric, Alice. Is. Dead!"

At this, Edric looked at Jefferson with an initially blank expression...then, his expression split into a wide grin, "Oh, that's what we both thought, you and I, but no...she's still alive, I've seen her...that's why we're all here in the first place! We're going to find her!" Edric boisterously replied, his grin not fading. 

Jefferson opened up his mouth, a small sound coming out though was unable to form it into the words he was looking for, his mind completely drawing a blank for a moment. "I- what?" He managed after a few moments. "How? You were there! You saw the whole thing! You-"

"No...no, I didn't see the whole thing." Edric replied, his voice suddenly becoming quite heavy as he let out a sigh. "I ran...played the role of the coward...which was exactly what Rumpelstiltskin wanted. He...plucked her from the chopping block and kept her hidden away, wanted to make sure there was [i]nothing[/i] for me to hold onto...turn me into a tool for his own uses." Edric finished, now looking very guilty. 

Balling up his fists, Jefferson turned and kicked over a pile of hats, sending them flying in various ways as he let out a frustrated shout.

"Of course he did! That Imp has his hand in everything! And Little Rabbit... she... we thought... for years now I thought..." Glaring over at a second pile of hats he had made over the last five years, he instead attempted to control his breathing, though nostrils still flaring and turned back to Edric. "Where do we find her?"

"I don't know where to look. But, I know how to find out." Edric replied, waiting a moment before speaking again, "I need you to fall asleep." Edric ordered soberly, nodding slowly to accompany his words. 

"You know she always had a knack for dreams. [i]That's[/i] how we'll find her!" He added with a bit of gusto. 

Looking back at his friend, Jefferson blinked... twice. Using his arms while he spoke for emhpasis, he swooped his arms around so that his pointer fingers were pointed at Edric before bringing them back for his thumbs to point back at himself.

"[i]You[/i]... want [i]me[/i] to fall asleep...?" He asked, though sounding  more like a statement than a question, ending his question by putting his palms together and pretending to use his hands as a pillow with his head tilted a bit to the side. Closing his eyes for a moment, looking as though he were praying for patience, he opened his eyes back up to look at Edric. "We are from [i]Wonderland[/i] and I think this is the strangest thing you have asked me to do." Looking over at the others, mainly Snow, he nodded his head a couple times. "Alright, we gotta get out of here first though. Even though no one has seen The Queen of Hearts for a while now, her guards are still lurking about. We gotta be quiet, so step where I step; and do what I do."

Jefferson stood stock still for a few moments, as if he had forgotten that he had named himself leader for a moment and they were waiting on his command. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline, a quiet 'oh' coming from his lips as he then suddenly remembered and with a long gait began heading towards the doors in which the small group had come in.

Edric heaved a sigh and followed behind, both him and Jefferson looking like some strange circus duo in their odd mannerisms and dress. "You know I'm serious, we can find her in our dreams...at least theoretically." Edric spoke up, mouth twitching slightly. 

Snow followed, doing her best to keep quiet. She did have a question to ask Edric as they went. "So, if worst comes to worst, does it matter how a person gets to sleep? Because if things get dicy, say Jefferson isn't on our side after all, maybe we could give him a good knock on the head. I trust him, but it has been several years, you never know what he might be doing now."

Edric remained unusually quiet, but fixed Snow with a glare that delivered his reaction far better than words could. "There are three people I wholeheartedly trust...he is one of them." Edric finally replied, his tone implying that it was the final word on the matter. 

Killian listened quietly to the conversation Edric and Jefferson had about finding Alice. He couldn't help but let out an amused scoff at how the Hatter named himself leader, only to forget and realize it again. After Snow made her comment, Killian commented with sarcasm under his breath, "Wow...No wonder people love you," He then asked Edric "Hey, cat. What do you mean when you say that she had a knack for dreams?"

Knox followed in the rear as they stepped through the threshold and back into the hallway, Jill joining in and being quiet for once, letting the others talk.

Turning towards Killian, Edric's expression lightened slightly as he began another drawn-out explanation, "Ever since she was little, where I could cast illusions, Alice had a penchant for dreams...every single dream I had, she had a tendency of being there...changing things inside it. I can't explain it well, and it's not a form of magic I know well, if it even constitutes [i]as[/i] magic. But it's come in handy more times than one." Edric finished, almost proudly as he spoke. 

Closing up the distance of a few feet between himself and Edric, Knox stepped beside the temporarily disbanded leader, his looming figure enough to get the Cat's attention.

"So whats your plan? After you find your sister, what then?" He asked a bit cryptically. "We're to stay in Wonderland until we find a way back to Storybrooke? Return to The Enchanted Forest? We've only the one way back; through that mirror, we can't risk our only way out if you don't have an idea as to what is next."

"After we find Alice, we're gonna use that Mirror. Which you and Jill will be guarding here." Edric replied with a small smile (one that lacked much warmth). 

Jill, upon hearing this, stuck a few fingers in her mouth (enough to speak semi-coherently) before replying, "Aye Aye, Your Majesty! Long live the Queen!" 

With that, she promptly plopped down on the ground, staring blankly into space. 

Knox, stopping his strides to stand beside Jill, nodded promptly to Edric before looking at the woman at his feet, issuing out a long, berated sigh. 

"Henry is not the Queen, he-" Stopping himself, Knox sighed out again and shook his head knowing there wasn't any way he could get through to the deranged woman. Stooping himself down, he picked Jill up, throwing her over his shoulder and headed back to the mirror room, Jill swinging her legs and arms back and forth and retelling Knox grand old tales of days long past when the grass was not greener on the other side. 

“Ayeeee th’ dreaded butt shark! It ate me left testicle after ah fought it wif me walkin’ stick!” She declared vehemently before promptly slapping Knox straight on the rear. 
 
“DEFEND ME MARIA!” She screamed before vomiting on the ground and falling asleep on Knox's shoulder.  

"Wonderful story!" Declared Edric from ahead before turning the corner, following Jefferson's path through the castle , sounding clearly quite amused despite the sound of sick hitting the stone floors. 

"Well, I sure am glad to be getting going. You guys are ok with this, right? Remember, it's our only way back, if you're not sure you can keep it safe, we can try and figure out something else. I don't want to leave until you guys are sure you're up for it." Snow said. She was glad to have someone guarding it, but was worried that they might not be up to it. At least this way they'd be away from the rest of the party, which helped ease Snow's mind a little bit. She trusted Edric and Jefferson, and Killian to a lesser extent much more than these two. 

Knox simply stuck up a hand in the air in a sort of wave with his back to the larger group, assuring Snow that all would be well before taking himself (and Jill) around the corner and back towards the mirror room.

Killian watched as Knox and Jill disappeared before he followed after Henry, Jefferson, and Snow White. He kept a wary eye out for any of the guards or anything else that could cause trouble for them later on as they headed out of the castle.

Finally feeling like he was breathing for the first time, a wide grin spread across Jefferson's features as the small group finally exited the castle by means of a couple different secret passages. They weren't quite in the clear yet, but it was a start, and the first [i]real[/i] outside experience Jefferson had come under in over five years. The thought alone nearly made him cry.

"Not too much further." He said quietly to those behind him and began to navigate the small group through the elaborate hedge maze of The Queen of Hearts' garden that would have otherwise had Snow, Killian and Edric lost within for days upon days. Even still, with Jefferson knowing where he was going, it took a considerable amount of time but they finally came to the exit just as the sun started it's descent back down to the earth from high-noon. The moment Jefferson's boot came into contact with the soft grass that was no longer in posession of the Queen of Heart's Castle, Jefferson ran out into the open field, tumbling himself over in a summersault and coming to a stop on his back, moving his legs and arms back and forth like one would do whilst making a snow angel.

"Ah, fresh air, freedom, a severe lack of hatting material..." Jefferson exclaimed up to the sky. "Isn't it wonderful?" He then asked, turning over onto his side to look upon Snow, Edric and Killian, keeping his boyish grin.

Snow said "This the first time you've been out in a while? I imagine it must feel pretty good. Heck, even I'm glad to be somewhere where were aren't running the risk of waking up some rampaging ogres. Do you have an idea of what's nearby?"

Killian nodded as he felt the wind blow through his hair. He looked around the area, and he asked as he did, "Where are we going exactly?" He thought that this Alice would be in the castle's dungeon, not out and about to go as she pleased. 

"Well, that's where the fun part comes in." Edric began, turning towards Killian with some flourish in his movements. "We don't know [i]where[/i] Alice is, but we will. What we need to do is find a safe haven somewhere, or rather...just away from this castle. Then, good ol' Jefferson here will fall asleep and find Alice. If you don't understand, then that means you're starting to understand this world." He finished with an almost childlike smirk, as though he were genuinely pleased at the blacksmith's confusion. 

Smiling somewhat to Snow's comment, though not fully understanding what she meant by Ogres (perhaps that one shadowy fellow?) he turned his attention back to his childhood friend.

"I stopped understanding the day before my conception. So I suppose that's what makes me a choice candidate..." Jefferson remarked, keeping his white smile. "But if it's asleep you need me to be, I have to tell you now that it might take a bit; re-occuring nightmares of carnivorous hats you see... though to speed the process along I could do with a glass of warm milk, a soothing hand massage, someone to run their fingers through my hair. Oh! A lush pillow would be nice, a warm blanket--"

"Oh, we don't need to worry about any of that." Edric interrupted, bending down to pick something up off the ground. "You'll forgive me later, I promise." He said lastly before raising his fist, a large rock held in-between his fingers. With another small smile, Edric slammed the rock into Jefferson's head with much force, though (hopefully) not enough to cause any real damage. 

The Mad Hatter had a rather confused look upon his visage, until finally after it seemed like Edric's plan hadn't worked and he had dislodged Jefferson's brain instead, the hatter slumped down onto the soft patch of grass, out like a light and resting soundlessly.