“You’d miss me too much,” said White Robert, “And besides, our cheeks never touched. It would be nice to try though.”

He snuggled against her cheek with his own.

“You are such a sneaky boy,” said Alice, and then they landed on a tiled floor in a very large room with no windows. It seemed to curve around and out of sight.

Robert noticed a glass table, with two small items on it. One was a small glass of liquid, labelled ‘DRINK ME’. The other was a small piece of cake, with the words ‘EAT ME’ marked on it in icing. Robert snatched up the cake eagerly and ate it. Then he offered the drink to Alice, who swallowed it all in a gulp. Robert suddenly found himself uncontrollably shrinking down to tiny size.

“You’ve shut up like a telescope,” said Alice in surprise, “In fact you’re no larger than that piece of cake now. I do wish I’d had something to eat as well. There doesn’t seem to be any more food here.”

“Maybe I should have given you half of the cake,” said Robert, “It’s just that it was so small to begin with, that it didn’t seem worth breaking in half.”

“Perhaps I might still have all of it,” said Alice, “If you have eaten the cake, then the cake is now inside you. I could have the cake inside me, simply by eating you. Besides, the cake does contain the words ‘EAT ME’ and so those words are now contained in you. It would seem that you’ve become a very suitable size for eating.”

“It does not seem suitable to me!” said White Robert.

“But I can gulp a little and you’d go down smoothly,” said Alice, “For you, going down inside my throat will be not that unlike the journey we just made down the Robert Hole, and coming to land in my tummy will be not unlike the way we came to land in this room. I should think you’ll find plenty of room inside me at your new size.”

“I was hoping to spend more time outside you,” said White Robert.

“Little Robert, it was chasing you that brought me here. You have partaken of the pleasure of my kisses and you have enjoyed the cake. Now it would be of some help to me to swallow you. I shall not cause you any discomfort, just a quick journey down into my tummy, where you shall nourish me.”

“No,” said White Robert, “Let me go!”

“I won’t!” said Alice sternly.

Her eyes bored mercilessly into him, as he looked at her mouth and then at her neck. She really meant to make a quick treat of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nils heard the voice of the forest giantess and felt himself being lifted up along with the fish, and carried away. The big woman took him home and set a fire going at the stove, filled it with water and plopped the fish down into it. Very little water dripped in through the fish’s closed mouth. Nils would not drown. Yet he could not climb out of the fish and try to escape the pot, in case the woman was watching. She had made him only too aware that she had intended to be cooking him in that pot in the first place and eating him for her supper.