one day violaine was reading her favorite author (edgar allan poe, of course) in her usual hangout deep in the woods when a handsome transient appeared on the path and asked her if she know where to find adventure and maybe some coffee and a piece of pie.  “my friend and i,” he said, gesturing to hedgie the hedgehog was was standing next to him still glowing from the excitement of leaving his native milkland, “have just, er, hopped off a train a mile or so from here.  we were in danger of being discovered as stowaways and thought it’d be better to avoid trouble.”

still stunned by their appearance in her secret reading spot, violaine only managed to say, “if you’re looking for something fun or whatever, i heard there’s a circus five miles or so from here.  just follow that path through the forest and you will find your way.”

and so tom and hedgie follow the path and find a small village where they encounter alice who is on her way to bring some “beautiful soup” to her mad lover (some know him as the mad hatter, but he’s not really all that mad).  she tells tom that he is indeed going in the right direction.  “keep following this road and about 2.5 miles west of here you will find your way.”

and precisely 2.5 miles west of alice’s front doorstep, tom and hedgie find huxter’s amazing traveling carnival.  they meet hazel and olive (conjoined twins, stars of the show, and both “dazzling dancers”) and boris the bear, who works as the musical accompaniment to hazel and olive’s act.  boris has recently found himself in need of a banjo player.

luckily for boris, tom has brought his banjo along; so perhaps the vagabond and his hedgehog sidekick have found a home at last…

the end (for now).

***some details and all dolls from the imagination of emily winfield martin and her book the black apple’s paper doll primer.  story from the minds of kaycie hall and zita white.  scenes conglomerated by zita white.

by Zita

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