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

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. [i]Quest? Need? This is ridiculous! You've always lived in the past, Snow; in the world of fairy stories![/i]

Snow stilled the turmoil of his thoughts, even as the Mad Hatter stepped forward, giving them a respite. [i]Dormouse, Baldersnatch, I remember the former from a reading of Alice in Wonderland long ago.[/i] 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. [i]We are in a quest now, a quest where death is a real possibility. But for what and why us?![/i] 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. [i]Quests that begin this way usually end in tragedy.[/i]

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 [i]stories[/i] where nothing was guaranteed. Not survival, not success...

[i]And not defeat.[/i] 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 [i]is[/i] 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]