Week 13 Story: Where am I?

 After what felt like an eternity, James somehow managed to land on his feet.  He stumbled, but then regained his balance.  

"That was some fall," James said aloud.  

James had been doing homework with his older brother outside of their garden when he wandered off.  He had decided to go climb the big oak tree as he normally would, but noticed something different about it this time around.  A hole--just big enough for him to crawl through--had seemingly appeared out of nowhere from the day before.  James didn't have high hopes for the hole.  He assumed it would lead to a dead end after just a foot or two.  But the further James crawled in, the more it expanded.  After snaking around for several meters, the hole suddenly became very steep.  Before James knew it, he was tumbling down--and then free falling.  

James blinked several times as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness that he found himself engulfed in.  Squinting, he made out a light at the end of the tunnel. Shrugging to himself, he began to march towards it.

After a few minutes, James crawled out of the hole.  Looking around, he appeared to be in some sort of courtyard.  Nearby, he heard some voices.  James turned around and saw two gardeners planting flowers. No, wait, they were painting the flowers.  Confused but intrigued, James stepped close enough to hear what they were saying but not close enough to be seen.  

"Do you want to end up like D? Then paint faster!" He heard one of the gardeners ask.  Peering closer, the gardeners seemed to look more like fruit than real people.  They were round and brightly colored. The one who spoke appeared to be blue, while the other one looked more orange.  

"No! But I would worry more about yourself if I were you, B.  I heard word that the King wasn't pleased with how you trimmed the hedges," the orange one scoffed back.  

"Well the King will have both of our heads if you don't start painting FASTER!" The blue one screamed back.

James, more curious than scared, quietly voiced aloud "Why are you painting those flowers?"

The two gardeners looked taken aback at first, as though they had never seen a boy before.  After a couple of seconds the blue one responded back, "Well, isn't it obvious? We were supposed to plant red roses but this buffoon painted the white ones! If we don't make 'em red before the king sees them, we're both dead where we stand."

Before James had five seconds to think about what he had just heard, trumpets sounded as a man with a ridiculously tall crown came around the corner of the courtyard.  James assumed this could only be the king.  He was being carried by two...strawberries? At least that's what James thought they reminded him of.  But they looked close to bursting, as the king was rather large.  

The king began to berate the two gardeners about the state of the flowers. This went on for several minutes before the king slowly noticed James, who had been trying to look as small as possible.  

"What is that thing!?" The King snarled loudly. He then cried out, "Off with his head," as though he had been waiting to say that all day.  

Before he knew what he was saying, James blurted aloud, "Are you scared of a little boy?" He sounded braver than he felt.

So many thoughts were flying through James'  head.  What had he gotten himself into?

Bibliography:  The Queen's Croquet-Ground by Lewis Carrol

A cool, but kind of creepy, Alice in Wonderland poster.

source: commons