Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the setting. Well, I own Tyipa, but that's all. The rest belong to the wonderful, magical, Lewis Carroll.
It was a cold, dark Halloween night. The screams of frightened and excited children filled the air. The moon was full, and it cast an eerie glow over a certain dark alley in the boot-shaped country known as Italy. It was on this night that the Cheshire Cat was born.
He wasn't born normally. He had no true parents. Indeed, the Cheshire Cat was simply a product of the full moon's boredoom. The conscious part of the moon had grown bored watching the traditional dressing up and trick-or-treating. It wanted to create something of it's own- it didn't even own the light that was reflected onto the planet. And so it was that the dust on the ground of Prickwillow Avenue began to unsettle, swirling around in spirals until, suddenly, the dust molded itself into the shape of a gray and blue striped cat.
Pleased with its work, the moon allowed itself to shrink into a crescent, apparently smiling at its creation. The cat, who did not yet know who he was, looked up at the moon and smiled back.
The Cheshire Cat lived the basic life of a stray, although he was uncommonly intelligent. He soon learned the proper way to get food from humans (meowing sweetly instead of loudly) through his observations of other stray cats. Every once in a while, when a particular person wouldn't consent to give him food, he would resort to his wide, crooked smile. This always worked. But he didn't like to use it often, because as far as he had seen, he was the only cat able of grinning so broadly.
The cat also became fascinated with his own reflection. More than once he was caught staring at himself in glass windows, and promptly shooed away. It seemed that humans didn't appreciate cats staring blankly into their respectable homes. But the Cheshire Cat was undaunted by this. He gradually noticed that he was the only cat with blue stripes. All other cats were rather boring colors, the most exciting of which being orange. He became more and more interested with himself, and love of mirrors quickly became an obsession.
On a particularly warm and sunny day, the Cheshire Cat was traveling through a crowded surburban neighborhood. Mothers pulled their children away from the blue striped cat, afraid that he might be contaminated with some foreign disease. The cat was rather offended by this strange behavior, and expressed his anger by violently hissing at any overprotective parent who tried to shove him away. He could tell that there was no hope of ever getting near one of the houses to look in the windows. Not with these people playing outside of them, anyways.
But while he was lamenting his annoying situation, he passed a house on the corner of the street. It had a huge sign in front which had a rather ugly woman's face painted onto it, but otherwise it seemed relatively normal. There was not a single parent or child near it, and, to Cheshire's delight, there seemed to be a small door built in to the human door. A cat door.
Cheshire slid effortlessly inside the house, and marvelled at what he found. There was a large room filled with comfortable looking chairs, and a rectangular black box on the wall. There was a lovely gold floor lamp in the corner, and in the center of the room there was a low, cherry wood table laden with magazines. Cheshire stared at the plastic faces on the magazines for quite some time. He didn't understand why people enjoyed embarassing themselves by layering their faces with makeup and sqeezing themselves into tight clothes.
Cheshire soon became bored with the first room, so he journeyed down a long hallway until he came to a tall staircase. He pranced up the steps and made his way into a room with a huge blue bed in the center. But the bed didn't matter to Cheshire, because on the wall beside it was a reflective device he had never seen before. It went nearly all the way down the wall, and accurately reflected everything behind him. Cheshire dashed up to the mirror and stood in front of it. He could see himself now more clearly than ever. The picture was sharper, and the colors were more vibrant. Cheshire realized in that instant just how blue his stripes were. No wonder the parents were afraid of him.
The Cheshire Cat leaned forward, examining his eyes. As his nose touched the mirror, he was suddenly sucked into it, feeling as though he had jumped into an ice cold pool. Not liking the odd sensation, he thrashed around uncontrollably inside the mirror, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get out. Realizing his hopelessness, he squeezed his eyes shut in hopes of ending the horrible nightmare. He was being sucked into a freezing cold world of blackness, and he didn't like it one bit.
Then it stopped. Cheshire could breathe again, and he felt a warm breeze ruffle his long fur. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. Once he saw what was in front of him, he felt like he couldn't possibly open his eyes wide enough. He was in a sort of exotic location he had never dreamed of...the grass was emerald green and soft on his paws, and the cloudless sky could not have been more blue. Odd, glittering flowers decorated the ground, and the tall trees bore huge leaves that seemed to change colors whenever they moved. The cat circled himself, trying to take in as much as he possibly could. He felt like he could stay there forever, and never once wish to go back.
"What in Wonderland are you chasing your tail for?" An strange voice called to him from behind.
"I was just admiring the scenery," Cheshire said. Shocked, he stopped speaking abruptly. His words had not come out as meows. He was talking in the language of humans. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he felt he should not look at the creature speaking to him without knowing its true intentions.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Oh, my dear old fellow, you don't know me? Pity...I know who you are..." the voice taunted him. Forgetting all safety precautions, Cheshire spun around to find himself facing a tall human with rather poofy black hair. He wore an extremely tall hat, a long purple jacket, and a belt made entirely out of spools of multicolored thread.
"What do you mean? You can't possible know who I am. I just got here!" the Cheshire Cat protested. The man shook his head in fake sympathy.
"Ah, but I do. I believe you are the legendary cat who was born from the moon a few years ago...yes, dear Tyipa has been worried about you, kitty. I think it quite naughty to wait so long, but no matter! You're here now..." The eccentric man skipped towards Cheshire and picked him up, much to Cheshire's dislike. But his irritation with the man had not yet overcome his curiosity.
"Who's Tyipa? And who are you?"
"I, darling kitty, am the Mad Hatter. Friends call me Hattie. Foes call me..." the Hatter hesitated, "the Mad Hatter," he finally decided. "And Tyipa is the moon princess who created you in her darkest hour."
"Her darkest hour?"
"Oh yes, she was bored, you see."
"She was bored?" Cheshire asked incredulously.
"It is dangerous to be bored in Wonderland!" the Hatter said, "If you become bored here, it is possible you may cease to exist!" The Cheshire Cat, on whom Wonderland was taking its toll, fully understood what the Mad Hatter was saying. What point of existing is there, if there is nothing to do that you need to exist for in order to do? However, there was one more question he needed answered.
"Er...Hattie, how Tyipa create me?"
"Oh, I like to think she simply wiggled her fingers a bit like so," he said, wiggling his fingers in demonstration, "and you materialized. For a princess like she, it is no great complication."
This made sense to Cheshire as well.
"Do I have a name?"
"Hmmm...now that you mention it I think she was going to name you Basma. But of course, that is a girl name, and you are clearly not a girl," he said, flicking Cheshire nose.
"So what am I going to be called?" Cheshire inquired.
"Well, I don't know...you're a very odd kitty," the Hatter said, flipping Cheshire around in his hands to examine him. "Any special characteristics you have?" he asked. Cheshire took this opportunity to put on his winning smile.
"Oh dear me!" the Hatter squealed, dropping Cheshire. "That's quite a grin you've got there, kitty." Cheshire grinned again, leaving the Hatter looking as though he was about to jump out of his skin. "You know what?" he said finally, "I'm going to name you Chess! I think Tyipa's second name choice had something with a C...and I do love a good game of chess, so your name is now Chess and together we shall journey far and wide until we find the dwelling of the noble moon princess."
"Well...I've always referred to myself in my head as Cheshire, so that'll work," Chess agreed.
"Oh, really? Well, come to think of it, I think that was Tyipa's name for you! You must have just...automatically known it! Genius...I must ask her how she did that. Now come along, we've got a long journey ahead of us!" The Hatter began strutting away into a grove filled with the color changing trees. He barely noticed that Chess wasn't following him.
"Well, what's got your tail in a twist, Chessie?" he asked, turning around.
"We have to go on a long journey? But Hattie, I'm tired! And I feel like I'm going mad...my brain's all fuzzy..."
"Dear, dear Chessie, we're all mad here in Wonderland! And yes, we're going on a rather long bit of a trip- you surely didn't expect the princess to live right over the rainbow? That's absurd!"
"She lives over the rainbow?" Cheshire asked wearily.
"Oh no, no, no. Much, much farther than that!" Cheshire suddenly understood what he meant; a noble princess such as Tyipa would surely not be easily reachable, no matter where you start from. That would have to be the best thing about being a princess. People must spend long, long, months to find you, and when they do, they've got absolutely no idea how the did so.
"Alright then, Hattie," Chess said, grinning. "Let's go! We won't find the princess standing around here, now, will we?"
"No we won't!" the Hatter agreed heartily. Chess allowed the Hatter to pick him up and perch him on top of his silken hat. He marched into the grove and did not stop walking for a great many weeks. For Wonderland is not easily navigated, and if you stop, you'll quite possibly forget where you are, and where you have been.
And so it was that the Cheshire Cat entered Wonderland, and embarked on a journey to uncover his history. Once he'd done that, he didn't know what he'd do with himself. Perhaps he would make a home in a dark tree and learn the tricks of befuddling passerby...