Chapter 1
If you have ever been lucky enough to have dreamt the most wonderful dream, and experienced "lucid dreaming" within it, you'll know how Alice felt whilst climbing out of the rabbit hole. If not, then you can not possibly imagine the feeling of freedom and adventure. It is a feeling not unlike when you watch a firework shoot up into the sky, and when the screeching ceases, the very moment before the firework bursts, and every fibre and liquid in your body seems to hold still. Not unlike that, except heightened ten-fold. But of course this feeling doesn't last for ever. It blossoms and fizzles out as soon as you wake up and swing your legs over the edge of the bed, ready for the real world.
Alice had been trying profusely to recreate that feeling in Overland. She knew "The real world" was full of loop holes back to Underland, but they had all been sewn up. The hours Alice had spent peaking down rabbit holes and gazing into looking glasses. She had been staring into her mirror for so long, willing for it to show her a different room on the other side, to such an extent that her mother had been heard to remark: "How can a girl be so vain and still refuse to wear a corset?"
Alice had been confined to her mother's estate since she had returned from her trip to China. Which, despite Alice's protests, had been cut short due to Lord Ascot sending her back to England after just over a forthright into the voyage. Truth be told, Alice had been struggling with almost every aspect of the trip. Firstly, the people Alice was dealing with were men, greedy exasperated men, greedy exasperated Chinese men who only spoke the most basic of English (and the most unpleasant of swear words that they didn't mind sharing with such a lady as Alice.) Secondly, her crew had been extremely unsupportive; they'd constantly look to her for answers she also needed and was certain they already had. Thirdly, Alice suffered from sea sickness (Of course she didn't know that before she set off on the rather long voyage.)
She could handle riding a Bandersnatch with no problems at all, but the ship seemed intent on swaying and shaking the muchness out of her. The Asian climate was also rather intense for a girl who had only graced the rain-cloud-shaded plains of England before (Underland also had quite a cool climate.) The Chinese sun seemed to be trying to melt her into a small bedraggled puddle of Alice. Despite all of this Alice was still determined to get through it. If she could slay a Jabberwockey she could trade with China, right?
But no matter how headstrong she was, her body still got the better of her. When she had only been on the trip for just a fortnight, all the pressure and stress that had been piled upon her seemed to all shift to the middle and top of her brain. The heavy weight pushed and pressed down and down until Alice's vision became distorted and shadows swallowed the room as it slipped away from her. She had blacked out. She couldn't believe it. Alice had never once blacked out in her entire life, until then. She couldn't have been out more than ten minuets, but it was enough to send Lord Ascot into a panic. Before Alice had a chance to lift the drowsiness from her mind she was being dispatched back to England; Special delivery, first class post with a "Fragile. Please handle with care." label attached.
Alice's mother had kept her under house arrest since she had arrived back at the family estate. Although everyone pretended to be sympathetic, Alice could detect a note of triumph in their voices that seemed to say: "I knew she couldn't manage it; that silly girl had ideas above her station." which made there company all the more insufferable. They had all made their feelings rather unsubtly clear: She should have been obedient and predictable and married Hamish; because he was a Lord and he was rich and that was all Alice was supposed to want in life. A rich shallow existence with a man she even didn't like, let alone love.
As Alice stared up at the patterned ceiling from her bed she assured herself for the 54832nd time that she had made the right choice. Not in declining Hamish's proposal, no, she had never needed to rethink that. She needed to assure herself that she had made the right decision in leaving Underland in the first place. The expression on the Hatter's face as he asked her to stay was burned on the forefront of her mind; every time she blinked it seemed to flash momentarily before dissolving into darkness. Why was it his expression that pained her more than the fact that see may never return to that wonderful world? Alice pushed that question to the back of her mind for the 54832nd time and tried to think of something else.
Her mind turned to the inconvenience she must have caused the rabbits on her family's estate. She had lost count of how many times she had poked her head down the rabbit holes and into the rabbits private business in her searches for Underland. If she was a rabbit Alice would feel quite annoyed at someone if they were regularly dipping their head into her home, without knocking or apologising for intruding. So as a form of apology Alice decided that she would make some carrot cake and drop it down the rabbit holes tomorrow and hope that they would forgive her and open up a passage to Underland.
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In the four long hours Alice had been awake she had managed to make a whole picnic basket full of carrot cake with creamy white icing spread on top. She had been awake since six o'clock in the morning after a very short nights sleep, because she had been up all night waiting for the dreams of Underland that never came. She wrapped each individual cake in a napkin and stacked them carefully in the basket before setting out over the meadow gardens of the estate to dispatch her apology confectionary to the rabbit population. As usual she had refused to were a corset that day, but her mother had insisted on twisting Alice's hair into a tight bun using the most garish of hair pins. But as soon she was out of her mothers sight Alice liberated her tangled mass of blonde curls and let them cascade about her shoulders.
The day was clear and bright as she made her way from rabbit hole to rabbit hole tossing her cakes into the earthy caverns, her skirts billowing with every step she took. As she got further away from her house the trees became more dense and untidy. Alice knew that under a rather droopy sad looking willow was the last rabbit hole. She had mapped them out in her mind early on in her search. Alice knelt down and gingerly parted the hanging branches to get a view of the burrow. She reached into her basket and withdrew the last cake and threw it into the black abyss. Instead of the usual soft earthy thud the other cakes had produced this one gave the distinct clunk of a cake hitting something that was not the smooth soil of a rabbit hole. Alice leaned closer to the burrow and squinted to see what was inside. She could see nothing but dense shadow. Alice reached into the darkness and felt around the walls of the hole searching for anything. Suddenly she froze. Her hand had met with something. She walked her fingers across it's top to brig it steadily towards her before lifting it out of the dimness.
It was a small cardboard hat box, no bigger than a trinket box. Dust and grit covered the stained green rather battered looking lid that was a little too big for the box it concealed. Alice tentatively opened the lid for fear that something had taken up residence in it. To her surprise nothing jumped out to frighten her. Instead of any unpleasantness, however, inside was quite a large cocoon. Bright white threads glistening like mother of pearl made up it's exterior. Right down the centre of the cocoon's stomach like bulge was a tear that had been sewn up neatly, as if a machine had done it(far too expertly done for any human hands to have accomplished it). Alice recognised it at once. It was Absolem's cocoon. This package had certainly come from Underland. Alice's heart expanded with joy as she made the connection and allowed a smile to spread across her face.
On the end of the silvery thread that had repaired the burst cocoon was an all too familiar label; but instead of the typed words "Eat Me" or "Drink Me," this label read in flourished scrawled hand writing "Open Me". As Alice lightly stroked its silky edges she thought it would be a shame to pull apart such a beautiful cocoon, but she could never just leave it as it was. She began to pick at the stitches gently, but it was sewn so tightly, they would never budge if she carried on being so careful with them. There was no way around it, she would have to rip it open. Alice followed the stitches to there beginning and pinched the top of them with her forefinger and thumb, the fabric of the cocoon felt like dried glue on her fingertips. She closed her eyes and tore quickly, as if bracing herself for pain.
When she opened her eyes Alice saw that she had torn the stitches clean off and the walls of the cocoon had already began to collapse in on themselves. From within the cobwebby mess a shard of glass glinted in the sun. Alice reached into it and removed the glass which turned out to be a small vial with a silver lid and stopper shaped like an Indian palace roof. The elegant vial was half filled with a bright purple liquid: Jabberwocky blood. Without a second thought, Alice swept all notions of staying with her family from her mind, popped the stopper open and threw the bitter blood down her throat. All light and shadow seemed to burst into smoke and compete for space in Alice's vision. For a moment it looked like the brightness would win but then the darkness swept in from the edges and consumed all but a small spot of light - the top of the rabbit hole. Alice was going back to Wonderland.
