Lucky Rabbit {Twisted Wonderland} [Various X OC]

A Suspiciously Dwarf Themed Mine

The darkness of the gate gave way to a slightly less dark and very silent forest. Elle was suddenly very glad that her sweater was as warm as it was. She glanced around, seeing Deuce slightly to her left, and Ace and Yu approaching from the right. Grim had once again stationed himself on Yu's shoulder, which the boy in question didn't seem all too concerned about. Maybe it was because Grim was warm and on fire while Yu was stuck with short sleeves.

Deuce looked over at the nearby mountain, where presumably the mine should be.
"So this is the Dwarfs' Mine... Long ago, this mine was flush with magestones."

Grim shuddered, further nestling against Yu.
"Urgh... Who knows what lurks in there now?"

Ace, noticing a building a short ways off, pointed it out to the rest of the group, jabbing his thumb in its direction.
"Look, I can see a house. Let's see what the people there have to say."

Elle really did not like the sound of that. Asking questions was usually her last resort. She would rather use context clues and figure it out herself than go out of her way to talk to someone. She anxiously drifted over to Yu, trailing near the back of the group in order to subtly use them as a shield.

Nobody really seemed to notice, much to Elle's relief, and the group quickly reached the front door of the cottage. The girl's eyes immediately darted to the windows, searching for any signs of life. Hopefully, nobody would be home, or better yet, the place would be abandoned.

Completely oblivious to any of Elle's concerns, Deuce confidently knocked on the door, pausing once it simply swung open from the force.

"Hellooo? Is anyone home...? Must be empty. It looks like it's been abandoned."

Elle let out a sigh of relief. Yu gave her a concerned glance, but didn't do anything else. Ace, however...

"What, are you scared of talking to people? Is that it? Seriously?" He wiggled his fingers at her, "Oooo, I want to have a conversation with yoooouuuu~!"

"You truly are the pinnacle of comedy, Ace." Elle deadpanned. She then turned to face Yu. "Hey, Yu. Did you bring a bag or anything? If there's anything still in good condition, we can take it back to the dorm."

Ace blanched. "What are you, a buzzard? What's with the scavenger attitude? Or are those just your janitor habits kicking in again?"

Deuce hit him in the shoulder, shooting him a small glare.
"Don't be rude! You don't know their situation!"

"Yeah! You've been nothin' but hot air since- Bwah! I got a spider web on my face! Ptchoo! Ptchoo!"

Grim quickly hopped off of Yu's shoulder, swatting at his face. Elle shook her head, opting not to participate in the conversation anymore. She really wasn't hurt by Ace's insults so much as she found them somewhat amusing. Like a fourth grader trying to insult their teacher despite knowing nothing about them. She examined a mug on the incredibly low table. It was in decent condition, albeit covered in webs. She liked it.

"Look how tiny these desks and chairs are. Did children live here? One, two... Seven! It's like a clown car in here!"

"Ace, love, why do you think it's called the Dwarfs' Mine?"

Ace began to sputter, jumping to defend himself, but Elle wasn't really listening. She was more focused on the extremely obvious 'seven dwarves' elephant in the room. Is this...the actual cottage? She could only assume so, considering Disney villains were real people who existed in this world apparently, but maybe dwarves just all lived in groups of seven, and this was just some random cottage. She had no idea what the actual cottage from Snow White even looked like, so she didn't exactly have anything to compare it to, and she didn't want to jump to conclusions.