Wonderland (Intergalactic Fairy Tales Book 1) Read Online Free

right, here we go.”
    In front of the ship appeared a ragged tear in space. An orange glow seeped through the crack, which gradually widened into a round hole just a bit larger than Rabbit himself. The view through the ship’s eyes was amazing. Inside the hole was a swirl of colors twirling through an orange glowing mist. They plunged forward and the mist engulfed them, whipping by at immense speed. It was the most beautiful and terrifying thing that Alice had ever seen. Traveling through space was very different than the Tunnel. Large shapes constantly formed in the mist, looking like solid objects. Every time, Alice would hold her breath and wait for them to be obliterated, and then the ship would pass through them unharmed. Rabbit was heartily enjoying himself, letting out a cheer as they passed through each cloud of insubstantial matter and Alice gripped her seat even harder.
    After what seemed like an eternity, they passed through the other end of the Tunnel and into the black of open space again. This time though, there was immediately something else in their view. It was a small circle in a red hue that steadily grew closer and closer. As they approached, Alice could see two smaller white circles around it. Planets. No, not multiple planets. Just one planet being orbited by two small moons. They grew larger and larger and eventually the moons had some color too. One was a light blue and the other a pastel green.
    “Is that Wonderland?” asked Alice, barely above a whisper.
    “Oh, yes, it really is quite beautiful from up here when you see it for the first time. It’s been so long for me that I can barely remember.” Rabbit’s tone was somber and it felt to Alice that he was moving slower than before.
    “You don’t seem happy to be back home,” observed Alice, finally loosening her grip on her seat.
    “Not particularly, but what else am I supposed to do?”
    “You’re a ship that can travel the whole universe, why not strike off on your own and see where the wind blows you?”
    “Oh, don’t think I haven’t tried, dear Alice. She always finds me. If I run off again, I’m certain I’ll lose my head,” said Rabbit, no hint of a joke in his tone.
    “That’s just silly, nobody does beheading in this day and age. Nedra hasn’t even executed a prisoner in a hundred years. Father says that execution was the most barbaric thing our society ever came up with and that it was never even proved to be an effective deterrent.” Alice nodded as if she were rather satisfied with herself and her knowledge of politics.
    “Well, you’re not on Nedra any more, and the queen of Wonderland doesn’t care about whether it’s an effective deterrent. She just likes the dull thud a head makes when it hits the ground. I’m sure mine would make a particularly loud one and she would laugh her head off. Not literally of course, she’ll never lose her own head. She’ll live forever with her collection of hearts.”
    Now Rabbit was speaking plain nonsense. “I think you may have gone a bit mad, Rabbit,” said Alice, shaking her head.
    “Oh, I’m certain of it, as has all of Wonderland. If you point out everything that’s mad on Wonderland, you’ll never do anything else.”
    Rabbit was silent for a few moments, and Alice didn’t know how to respond, so she waited and watched the red planet draw near. It was so different from the pictures of Nedra she’d seen from space in school. She felt a little cheated that she’d gone into space and not even gotten to see her planet before they set off. It was always a blue-green in the pictures in school. The deep crimson of Wonderland seemed so exotic by comparison. And also, a bit intimidating. It reminded her of the velvety coat of one of the terrifying Colarians that had been making war on her planet. Her mother had told her the war would be over soon. Alice still shuddered whenever she remembered the image of that dark red beast charging down the street, its mouth