Minnie meets the Cheshire Snake

In a huge forest, there were colored trees that had various grey signs posted on them, which were pointing in many directions like the arrows on a compass. There were two more signs of the same color posted on patches of grass as Minnie was walking on a pink-colored dirt path.

"Now let's see. Where was I?" she said as she looked at the signs that were written "UP", "YONDER", "GO BACK", “"THIS WAY", "THAT WAY", and whatever else that had to do with the directions anyone wanted to go in big black letters. She had to make a big decision, and she hoped that the path she would pick may lead her to Kaa. That is, if she would be able to choose the right one. "Hmmm, I wonder which way I ought to go..."

Voice: '*Twas brillig, and the baby fawns*
*Did gyre and gimble in the wabe*
*All mimsy were the field mice, and Thumper's sisters outgrabe*

Then Minnie took a peek from behind the tree. Her hands were placed on the roots of an olive-colored tree, and she bent over to look right behind it as she asked herself, "Now, where in the world do you suppose that..."

"Lose something?" the same voice asked the female black mouse, startling her and thus interrupting her brief search. The female looked up to see a white big smile in the shape of an upside-down crescent moon hovering above a branch on the purple tree, and she let out a nervous chuckle.

"Oh! Hehe, Oh uhhh...hehe...I- I was...no, no, I- I- I- I mean, I uhh...I was just wondering..." she answered him.

"Oh, that's...quite alright," the voice said to her with a chuckle. "Oh, one moment, please."

A pair of white eyes then appeared above the mouth, and a silver harmonica materialized in front of it. A high note was played, even though the voice knew that it was the wrong one. He then played a few low notes before his snake body came into view, and the harmonica faded away.

The snake was an olive green one, wearing an orange-red cape and matching hat with a feather. His name was Sir Hiss.

Minnie knew that the new person she had met looked exactly like the snake she was going to talk to.

"Oh, second chorus," Hiss said, and he started to sing the same line Minnie heard earlier as he was sitting on the branch with one leg crossed over the other.

Hiss: '*Twas brilllig, and the baby fawns*
*Did gyre and gimble in the wabe...*

The snake's appearance was a major surprise to Minnie, as her eyes widened slightly and her mouth formed into a small "O."

"Why...Why, you're a snake!" she said to him, her surprised face shifting into a smile of amazement.

"A Cheshire Snake." the snake said to her as he tipped his hat to greet her. Then Hiss then resumed his song by singing the next line.

Hiss: *All the mimsy were the field mice*

As Hiss was singing the next line of his song, his tail waved in front of him, and he had disappeared in a flash. Minnie thought that he was about to leave her, though she had just met him.

"Oh, wait!" Minnie called out to him, "Don't go, please!" Hiss then reappeared behind his tail, peeking through it to see Minnie as he was in the same position as he was earlier.

"There you are," he said to her playfully, before his body completely came into view again when his coils were out of the way. "Third chorus."

"Oh, no, no, no," Minnie said to him. "Thank you, but-but I just wanted to ask you which way I ought to go."

"Well," Hiss crooned with a smile still on his face as he then placed his chin on the branch and lifted the lower half of his body in a vertical motion. His pupils rolled around in a 360-degree motion, and his tail lowered down partially. "That depends on where you want to get to."

Minnie started to say something to Hiss, "Oh, it really doesn’t matter, as long as I g..."

"Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go! Ah-hmm!" Hiss interrupted her. With that said, the snake did a back-flip and he faded once again, and his tail appeared in a straight line on the path and around a flabbergasted Minnie. His giggles ricocheted throughout the forest as he sang the same last two lines of his song.

Hiss: *All mimsy were the field mice*
*And Thumper's sisters outgrabe*

His tail then stopped right in front of her, before Hiss reappeared on the sage green tree. Minnie then approached him, still bewildered by his magic act and his playful voice.

"Oh, by the way," he said to her, placing one of his coils the tree and crossing another around his neck. "If you'd really like to know, he went that way."

Hiss' tail pointed in the western direction as his pupils moved to the right, then to the same direction as his tail.

"Who did?" Minnie asked him, feeling curious about who he was talking about as she raised an eyebrow.

Hiss was now sitting on the branch with his coils on his tail as he answered Minnie, "The Indian python."

A smile of delight formed on Minnie's face, and she held her hands together in front of her as she then asked him, "He did?"

"He did what?"

"He went that way!"

"Who did?"

"The Indian python!"

"What python?"

"But didn’t you just say...I mean...Oh, dear."

With a frustrated sigh, Minnie turned away from Hiss, folding her arms crossly as she shook her head in dismay. She was in for another baffling conversation with every person she had met in the odd world she had followed Kaa into the whole time.

Hiss took off his head and placed it on the branch, before his body stood on it as if his head were a ball. "Can you stand on your head?" he asked her with a wink.

Minnie turned to him again and scoffed, her hands at her sides as they were held into fists. Hiss' body then hopped off his head and placed it back onto him, looking left and right and pointing his left tail to the right as he added, "However, if I were looking for an Indian python, I'd ask the Bear Hatter."

"The Bear Hatter" Minnie repeated, as she then saw a pink sign with the Bear Hatter's name written in red marker posted nearby them. It was pointing in the eastern direction.

Then she glanced back at Hiss and then waved her hands in front of her, as she was having second guesses about whether or not she would take his advice.

"Uh...no, no, I don't- I don't..."

"Or there's the March Orangutan in that direction," Hiss added, pointing his tail in the western direction again as he was laying against the tree branch.

"Oh, thank you," Olivia answered him, giving him a quick curtsey. "I think I shall visit him."

"Of course...he’s mad, too." Hiss reminded her, much to Minnie's disgust when that grabbed her attention as she was about to leave. He was now laying on the tree branch with his tail wagging back and forth again.

"But I don't want to go among mad people!" she said to him, placing her fists on her hips.

"Oh, you can't help that. Almost everyone is mad here," Hiss said with a chuckle, before bursting out into an insane laugh and sticking his tongue out of his mouth. "You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself."

The snake continued to laugh as his body faded away into the darkness, along with his eyes and mouth. He sang out the ending of his song's last line once again, his voice reverberating throughout the woods.

Hiss: *And Thumper's sisters outgrabe*

Minnie was astounded by Hiss' insanity, him always smiling at her, and even his disappearing acts as she was still standing by the tree.

"Goodness!" she said as she started walking away from the tree, "If the people here are like that, I-I must try not to upset them."

Even though Hiss was gone for now, Minnie knew she had to take his advice and see the Bear Hatter and/or the March Oragutan, depending on where they would be.