A Plan

Alice and I stared at the people circling us. Each villager armed themselves with stakes and pointed objects. There were only two people who had guns in their hands. The villager had a pistol, and the father, who we had met before. Behind Clint was his wife, Lorraine, and her daughter, who were finally awake.

"Mom, Dad, what's happening? Who are these people?" the daughter asked, as she stared in our direction. She was also the girl that we saved moments before.

"Sweetie, these two are not people. One of them is a mage, and the other is a puppet," the father answered. "They're monsters. Get away from our village! We have our hands full of the monster in the forest! We don't have time to meddle with you."

"We aren't monsters! I'm here to help you! Mask and I are not here to harm you! All we want is a peaceful village!" Alice retorted. "If they're monsters in the forest, we swear in the name of Wonderland to eliminate those beasts from your town!!"

Her confident voice rattled throughout the village, with the villagers' ears pointed at us. However, none of the townspeople believed our words. These people only raised their pitchforks and advanced in our direction, not until Clinton stopped them from pursuing any further.

"I need no help from strangers like you. You saved my daughter's life. It's only fair if we let you live." The father turned and faced the crazed villagers. "Lower your weapons. These CREATURES found my daughter in the woods. As my debt to them, we will spare their lives and let them leave."

All the villagers who listened to Clint's speech did what he said. The townspeople lowered their weapons and returned to their huts, with their families walking at their side. Alice wanted to retort, but we knew her words would not reach the people's hearts.

"You two, leave this place! We do not welcome monsters in our town," Clint remarked.

He waved his hands and motioned us to leave this place without coming back. Clint's eyes were blood-shot red as he glared in our direction. Lorraine averted her gaze and embraced Rowana in her arms. Their daughter, Rowana, couldn't do a thing about the situation.

"Mom, are these two people bad?" Rowana asked, and pointed her forefinger at me. "They don't look like bad guys. Why is father asking them to leave? They helped us defeat the monsters, right? Why is dad calling them a monster?"

Lorraine couldn't answer her daughter. She just stood up from the ground and went towards the barn, which the monsters from before covered the roof with holes and cracks. This family might risk themselves for staying inside that shelter for tonight, since the ceiling might fall from above.

Despite this possibility, the three went ahead of the house and expected us to leave right now. Alice, who remained standing beside me, couldn't do a thing but watch them leave.

"What's your plan?" I asked, and gave Alice a light tap on the shoulder.

My sudden hand resting on her body jolted Alice awake. She swivelled to her side and met my eyes, flustered and tempted to cry. After seeing my face, a cascade of tears fell from her eyelids. Alice could not hold her dam and poured a billion drops of water on her face.

It was like the rainfalls I had seen on the internet in my previous life.

"We helped them kill those monsters! We saved the daughter, or the girl, or Rowana, whatever her name was! Clint sounds like a nice guy. And even his wife, Lorraine, looks kind too!" she said, and burst into tears. "I told them we're not monsters! I told them I could help them! I even swore to defend this village!"

Alice raced around me with her hands extended in front of her. It was as if she was chasing an imaginary thing that she could only see. I could only guess she was chasing after her emotional baggage that would not leave her mind.

"Do I look like a monster, Mask? I'm a beautiful... princess... Does this gothic dress make me look like a witch? Tell me, Match! Tell me!"

I heaved out a sigh and gave Alice my answer. "Yes, you are pretty. But these people aren't looking at the outer appearance, I think."

"THEN WHY ARE THOSE PEOPLE SAYING WE'RE BOTH MONSTERS!!!"

If it were not for my puppet ears made of cotton, my eardrums would have exploded.

"Maybe these villagers treat people who could yield magic as monsters," I expressed, and pondered to myself. "It must be related to the war happening right now. They mentioned something about the magical kingdom attacking the surrounding villagers, right? That must be their explanation why they called us monsters."

…..

The trees surrounded us with the leaves covering the skies. With the moon paving our paths, we moved onward to our destination. Despite our trek, we did not move far from the village. Alice told me she needed to prove something to Clint and the rest of the villagers.

She wanted to promote peace to their dictionaries, hoping that these Detroit people would listen. Alice wanted to make the two factions coincide with one another. However, she failed to persuade them in the end.

The villagers treated us as monsters despite our human looks. Well, apart from my mechanical body, Alice was a human being. But Alice was far from those beasts. She had a goal to unite the Detroits and Wonderland together.

The thought was still her dream.

Throughout our journey, Alice stomped her feet and pouted her lips. It displeased her to hear my explanation because "It was too logical and correct! I hate it when you're right," was what Alice told me.

After our exchange from before, we headed out of the village. We trod towards the forest and opened our map once again to view our surroundings.

However, something kept bugging Alice. It was the same village that we had been to before. She refused to leave them behind from the close by monsters attempting to destroy their hometown.

As soon as she couldn't handle her mind, Alice shuffled her hair. It was as if lightning struck Alice's hair follicles, making them point skywards. She did not mind her looks, given that this thought alone pushed her to the corner.

"You need to calm down, Alice," I suggested. "There might be a way to change their ideals, right? It's not the end of the world. If there's a will, there is a way."

"And that's the problem! I don't know how to do it! I've been thinking about different things that we need to do, but all options lead me to one answer."

I stopped walking beside her and raised a question mark above my head. "You have a solution already? Wow, that was fast."

"I know. But I don't think those Detroit people would appreciate our work. And it's a bit risky for us to do this, not unless we have a death wish."

I ran towards her and latched my hands onto her shoulder. Alice widened her eyes at the sudden actions I did, but she did not feel any discomfort. She had a shocking expression carved on her face to feel my hands gripping her shoulders.

"You're the princess, and I am here, your bodyguard. If you want to pursue that peace, we will have to earn it. Even if it's a battle that we cannot win, all that we can do is try."

Alice did not give me a reply. She could not think of something as a reply to my words. That girl processed the lines I mentioned and nodded her head. She narrowed her eyes, determined to do what she wanted to achieve.

And that was the plan she was about to explain.

"Yeah. Maybe you're right," Alice said, and laid out the map in front of us.

Her eyes wandered across the sketch, looking for something I did not know. After a few seconds, Alice finally found the location and flashed me an excited smile.

"I found it!" she ejaculated, and pointed her forefinger at the blackened spot.

"What am I seeing?"

"It's a cave! Clint said that there is a hobgoblin lurking in their vicinity. I tracked down all the trails that the monsters would camp on. And it led me to this site. All we have to do is go there and kill the hobgoblin," Alice explained. However, her previous delighted expression changed into a worried one.

Her eyes looked at the ground as if all the feral energy left her body. Alice's hands flailed at her sides, which I needed to take the map from her grasp.

"But that's the problem. The hobgoblin is ten times more powerful than the regular size goblin. It can use weapons, wear armour, and even use magic. Besides that, a hobgoblin controls at least one hundred goblins to his will. He can manipulate those monsters and attack them at a specific location without being there on the battlefield."

"Sounds like an overpowered monster to me?" I gulped.