Wonderland (Intergalactic Fairy Tales Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

energy that felt like a boy. It was entirely possible that he was neither, being a ship and all, but it felt rude to ask.
    The tendrils emerged from their holes and started disgorging the various boxes and bags from the ship’s hold. Despite their large quantity, and in some cases, extreme weight, they were removed with impressive speed. In a matter of a couple minutes everything inside the ship was put out on the pavement, including a large pile of mushrooms.
    Alice had lost sight of the approaching shape while watching Rabbit unload. She peeked through the left—no, starboard—hatch and found him standing there. He was on about a hundred tiny legs that still didn’t seem sufficient to support his dark blue bulk, half of which arched up into the air in an S shape so that he could face them.
    “Hello Absolem,” said Rabbit, a nervous hitch in his voice.
    “You’re late,” said the creature. His voice was a smooth rumble. It soothed Alice, despite his strange appearance.
    “Yes, I had a bit of a complication,” said Rabbit, nudging Alice out onto the pavement with a few of his tendrils.
    “Oh, what have we here?” asked Absolem, eyeing Alice in a way that no longer left her feeling soothed. He held up a hose with a metal mouth piece on one end and sucked on it. “You would fetch quite a nice price.” Each word was punctuated with a ring of smoke as it exited his mouth.
    Alice coughed and waved her hand in front of her nose. The smell was heavy and sweet, like pipe smoke. Then she recognized the device the creature was using. It was a hookah. And a second later she realized that the creature was, in fact, a giant blue caterpillar. “This is the strangest dream.”
    “If this is your idea of a dream, then I’d hate to see your version of a bloody nightmare,” said the caterpillar, a soft laugh coloring his words.
    “What use could a caterpillar possibly have with all of this stuff?” asked Alice, stepping closer to Absolem, her curiosity getting the better of her.
    Slightly behind Absolem, in his considerable shadow, were two average looking men. They stood there as if waiting in line for a particularly fascinating show. Not bored, excited. They didn’t look to Alice like they wanted to make conversation, or like they considered her someone to make conversation with. She decided to ignore them, but rested her hand on her sword just in case.
    “I don’t have use for most of it. That’s why I’m probably not going to pay the ship very much,” said Absolem, idly chewing on the mouthpiece of his hookah. “Now you, on the other hand, may be valuable. You surprise me, ship.”
    “Wait,” said Alice, stomping her foot. “Are you trying to buy me? I’m not for sale!”
    “Everything is for sale,” said the caterpillar, puffing more smoke in Alice’s face. “The only real question is, ‘How much?’”
    Alice spluttered and coughed and then turned to Rabbit in disbelief. “Is that why you brought me here? To sell me to some mad blue caterpillar? I bet you only told me to get off in order to make sure I would stay.”
    Rabbit laughed rather rudely. “You’ve only been in Wonderland for a few minutes and you’ve already gone mad. That has to be some sort of record.”
    Absolem silently puffed on his hookah until they’d finished their exchange and then spoke up again from behind a haze of smoke. “So, like I said, how much do you want for the girl?”
    “The girl isn’t for sale. She was just a passenger. You know that I don’t traffic in people, Absolem. Never have and never will,” said Rabbit in a bored tone as if he’d had to repeat himself a hundred times over.
    “Well, I’d give you two hundred for her,” said the caterpillar.
    “Just give me whatever you’ll give me for the rest of the stuff, and I’ll be on my way.”
    “Fine, I’ll put a hundred on your line of credit for the rest of this sorry lot. If you want to deal on the girl, get back to me.”
    Alice let loose a scream