So, hello again! I originally intended to leave Our War Torn Earth as the final installment of the World Traveler series, but someone at school dared me to do this (scowl). So, this is the first chapter, so reviews are very good because not only do they encourage me, but they help direct where I will go with the rest of the story.
*Authors note on names: The Hanging Man— a rather ominous name, no? This title comes from the tarot card The Hanging Man, which is the image of a man upside down hanging from a tree. He represents the idea of paradox— nothing about him is what he seems, and though his card is rather simple in appearance, there is much more to him than meets the eye.
This first chapter I dedicate to ElTangoDeRoxanne, Krjs, fallacies, and emeraldonyxdragon, my most faithful reviewers and kindest supporters.
Alice Kingsleigh was not pleased with the turn of events that had recently happened in her life. In fact, she was as far from pleased as a person in her situation could be. She had just escaped Hamish Ascot's proposal party, leaving the young, priggish Lord hanging in suspense while she chased after a white rabbit in a blue waistcoat. From there, her day had not gotten any better. The rabbit vanished into a rabbit hole in the base of a gnarled tree just as she almost caught up to it.
She sighed, gazing at the hole. It was a rather large hole, for a rabbit. Perhaps it was a different animal's hole, she thought as she got down on her knees and braced herself against the sides. In fact, it seemed large enough to swallow her up. Cold air wafted up from the inside, and she leaned forward further, peering into the depths, uncertain if what she felt was real or not.
Her hand slipped. Alice screamed as she fell down the hole, the entrance rapidly fading to a pinprick of light far, far above. Other things tumbled down with her, a piano missing her head by inches, chiming menacingly. Roots scratched at her dress and arms like claws.
After what felt like an eternity of falling, the bottom was finally in sight. She braced herself for the impact, only to find that the earthy floor shattered as soon as she hit it. Alice collapsed to a much harder, much more solid tiled floor, stars swimming before her eyes.
With a quiet moan, she pushed herself up, looking around the room with wary eyes. "Passing strange," she whispered. The chandelier stuck straight up out of the ground, and the doors were upside down. She looked up; there was a table on the ceiling, and her long, golden tresses reached for that table as if it had a mind of its own.
It was not the room that was upside down. It was she.
Alice took one final plunge to the ground, this time noting that everything was right side up. The room was strange, just as she had thought it was. There were no windows, only doors. Big doors, small doors, thin doors, fat doors, doors surrounded her on all sides of the tiny room. The only break from the walls of doors was a rich, red velvet curtain. Uncertainly, she began to try the handles of all the doors. They were locked, every single one of them. In desperation, she tore the velvet curtain aside. Nothing. A wall. She looked down— it was not really a wall, it turned out, but a very tiny door, the top of the frame no taller than her knee. Nevertheless, this door, too, was locked. She rocked back on her heels, biting her lip, and looked around the room again. This time, a tiny iron key glinted at her innocently on the glass table. She took the key in her hand and tried the doors again. On the smallest door— her heart sank— the lock clicked. Only managing to shove her head through the frame, Alice stared at the new world in which she found herself.
It was a garden, with towering plants and buzzing insects. Birds and strange creatures she knew not the names of fluttered back and forth amongst gigantic flowers. She withdrew her head back into the room, turning to the tabletop once more. As she expected, help had come once more. Leaving the door open, she picked up the little vial she found on the tabletop, turning over the tag. Drink me, the bottle said. She sniffed the contents, wrinkling her nose at the sharp, medicinal smell, and looked back toward the door. Light spilled over the doorway, and cool air wafted into the room through the opening. Pinching her nose shut, Alice swallowed the contents of the vial.
She coughed, and the room began to grow larger. Her clothes did not shrink with her— Alice's world became one of blue satin and white and black silks. She crawled out of it, looping an undergarment about her neck and body to form a sort of dress, and took her first steps into the world outside.
The door shut behind her, and she heard the click of the lock. Alice quietly descended a flight of stone steps, gazing about in wonder. There was a narrow dirt path in front of her, and not having anything else to do, she began to follow it. Things slithered in and out of the huge, exotic underbrush, brightly colored things with shining skin. She trembled in her thin dress, fear making her heart beat fast.
"Are you Alice?" a voice suddenly asked. She stopped sharply. On the path in front of her was the strangest party of beings she had ever seen.
There was the white rabbit she had chased, but it had been joined by a blue Dodo bird taller than she, a small dormouse with a rather vicious looking sword, and two very fat little boys whose faces seemed too small for their heads. To her relief, a normal, if very tall, man stood with them, armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows. He was clad in the most outlandish of garments: black skin-tight trousers that showed off thin, but muscular, athletic looking legs, and on his chest, an impeccably white, high-collared shirt. What caught her attention though, was his vest. It was a very fanciful vest with gold embroidering and a black backdrop, though the sides and back were jade green. Everything about him seemed to be in perfect order— from the methodical rows of his short, golden brown hair to the dangling multitudes of earrings spaced exactly a certain distance apart. It was this paragon of order that, seeking some manner of sense, Alice addressed. The rabbit looked rather put-off.
"Yes, that is my name, but… I think you are looking for another Alice," she said in barely more than a whisper.
The party blinked, and the Dormouse jumped onto a fallen log to gain some authoritative height. "McTwisp, you've brought us the wrong Alice!" it hissed, and drew its sword, which was a sewing needle. Alice took a hurried step back.
"No, no, no, no! I'm certain she's the right Alice, Mally! I waited so long; I followed every Alice in the country! And those two girls in the pond...! Do they allow girls to do that nowadays?" McTwisp shuddered, covering his eyes. The immaculate man looked toward Alice, who returned his steady, golden gaze with her own pleading one.
"I am certain this is the right Alice," he said, diverting the mouse's wrath from the harried rabbit.
"What would you know, Balthier?" it squeaked. "You just got here two weeks ago! How would you know she's the right Alice?"
"We could always bring her to Absolem. He would know." the Dodo said, advancing on her with its stick-like legs.
"Please, who are you? What do you want from me?" Alice pleaded.
"Nothing if you're not Alice!" the Dormouse snapped.
"Please, be polite!" The Rabbit burst out. "I am McTwisp. This fellow over here is the Dodo, and that rude little creature over there on the log is Mally." Mally huffed, turning her back on them and jumping into a hole in the log. "You'll have to excuse her, we've had so many failures…"
"Hey! We didn't get—"
"—to introduce ourselves!" the two fat boys cried out. "I'm Tweedle-Dee, and he's Tweedle-Dum."
"And conversely, I'm Tweedle-Dum and he's Tweedle-Dee," they said with identical grins.
"I still can't tell the difference between them." The immaculate man said with a charming smile. "The sky pirate Balthier, at your service, my lady." With a flourish, he bowed, taking her hand in his own and kissing it. The brush of his lips against the back of her hand felt like the freezing touch of falling snow, and touch of his fingers like ice; she shivered, goose bumps rising on her arms and legs. He seemed to notice, and gave her a tiny smile. "My apologies," he murmured.
"Now, if you are finished seducing the poor carbuncle, let's get a move on. I want to get her out of here." Mally said, prodding Balthier's shin with her sword. The needle scraped at his metal shin guards.
"Yes, yes, we're coming," he gave a long suffering sigh and offered her his arm like an English gentleman, and she took it, clutching to this semblance of normalcy like a lifeline.
"I was supposed to take Alice's arm—" Tweedle-Dee (or was it Tweedle-Dum?) protested.
"No! I was!" Tweedle-Dum (or was it Tweedle-Dee?) argued. The two boys began pushing and shoving, and Balthier shushed them irratibly.
"Why don't you both take her hands?" he said, propelling Alice towards the brothers. She clung to Balthier, not caring that he winced when she tightened her grip about his frigid arm, giving him a terrified look, and he winked, patting her hand. "Don't worry— they don't bite."
The two Tweedles attempted to hold their arms out in the same way as Balthier had, turning his elegant gesture into more of a comical show. The pirate buried his face in his hands, stifling a groan, and followed as the Dodo and McTwisp led them deeper into the woods.
The scenery gradually changed from towering trees and looming bushes to bulky mushrooms. Alice gagged at the pungent scent surrounding them. Finally, they stopped in front of an especially wide mushroom with an awful lot of the pungent smoke hovering over its dome, and McTwisp cleared his throat nervously.
"Absolem, we've brought her!" he announced. "Is she the one?"
The smoke cleared, revealing a tiny blue and yellow caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of the mushroom.
"We shall see… Bring forth the Oraculum." The creature proclaimed in a voice that suggested boredom bordering annoyance. Mally vanished into the undergrowth and returned, staggering under the weight of a large scroll with silver handles.
"The Oraculum, detailing the all the important days of Underland—" Tweedle-Dee began.
"From the beginning to the end." Tweedle-Dum finished.
"That means that it can—"
"Not only tell the past—"
"But the future, too!"
"Open it." Absolem ordered, and Alice helped Mally unroll the scroll. It was very long, stretching from where they unrolled it underneath the mushroom to the toes and talons of Balthier and the Dodo, standing some ten feet away. "Show her."
"Let's see… there's where you came to Underland, twelve years ago." McTwisp said, wringing his paws.
"And there's Horunvedush Day, the day the Red Queen took control of Underland." Mally said darkly, pointing to a moving picture of several creatures fleeing a rather ridiculous figure with a large head. One picture was of a young girl with long curls, clad in armor and raising a sword to bear against a dragon that descended toward her.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Frabjous Day." Absolem remarked, crawling to the edge of his mushroom to see what she was looking at.
"The day you kill the Jabberwocky," the Dodo explained. "With the Vorpal Sword." Alice looked up at them sharply.
"I can't kill anything!" she cried, wringing her hands. "I do not know what you are expecting of me, but I am no hero. I will not go with you, and I will not kill any Jabberwockies!" Balthier went pale beneath his tan, and Tweedle-Dee looked taken aback.
"But you have to!" he said, and his brother nodded.
"No!" Alice exclaimed. "I don't have to anything! This is all a dream— it is my dream. And I'm going to pinch myself and you are all going to go away." She shut her eyes, pinching her shoulder until she winced, and waited. When she opened her eyes, they were still there. The Tweedles looked at her expectantly, McTwisp looked ready to cry, and Balthier raised an eyebrow.
"You are not dreaming, my lady," he said quietly. "We are all quite real."
"Talk to her, Absolem!" the Dodo begged, and Absolem only laughed.
"She is not hardly Alice yet. Not hardly." He vanished in a puff of smoke, and they waved it away, coughing.
"Well, if she's not Alice, no need for her." Mally said, twirling her sword menacingly. Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum advanced on her, cheery grins belied by the fact they were saying,
"Off with Alice—"
"Off she goes!"
"Wait!" Balthier protested, attempting to shove them aside, but Mally jumped onto the Dodo's back, just in front of his face, and she waved her sword at him. He leaned back before she could put his eye out.
"Wait, the tip of me tail! You don't know anything! She's not Alice!" the mouse sneered, but Balthier shook his head.
"It's not that, it's—"
At that moment, the bushes parted, admitting a large force of strangely flat soldiers completely in red armor.
"Card soldiers!" the Dodo gasped, and Mally cocked an ear.
"No," she croaked. "Something even worse."
The nearest mushroom exploded as a huge creature with white fur and black spots jumped through it. It was hideous, with enormous shoulders and a small head. Its hindquarters were disproportionate to its body, forcing the creature to move with a galumphing gait. Alice froze as the creature paused in the wreckage of the mushroom, glaring around it hatefully. Then it roared, hot breath rolling over them.
"Bandersnatch!" McTwisp shrieked.
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