Chapter 1: A new role
It was a new day in wonderland, the sun rose and shined through the blinds of the outsider's room. Alice groaned and rolled over, not wanting to face the day.
"Hey look brother! The lady is still sleeping."
"Should we wake her?"
The tweedles voices rang in her head for a moment before she opened her eyes. "Oh look, she's awake!" Alice shot up in her bed, gripping her sheets to her chest.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We came to see a friend!"
"Yeah! But Julius said we should wake you up first!"
A friend? Who could the twins known that would be staying at the tower? Julius certainly didn't seem like the one who befriended the twins. So unless it was Boris who had snuck in, the blonde had no idea. "Well, I'm up. Tell Julius I'll be out in a moment, I have to get dressed and make his coffee."
"You make Julius coffee~?"
"No fair!"
"Get out you two!" She shooed the blue and red twin out of her room with a sigh. Those two boys, she would never understand them. She quickly got her normal blue and white dress on, fixing her hair in the mirror before going down to the kichten to work on Julius' coffee. Hopefully she made a good one to earn more points than last time.
"Sorry Julius, I overslept again." She walked into the room with a tray holding three cups of coffee, she decided to go ahead and make the twins their own cups, but theirs were slightly smaller than Julius'.
"That's fine Alice - And that answer is wrong." Alice finally took in the room. For once Julius wasn't at his desk, though there was a half fixed clock laying on it. The twins were in their adult forms, which Alice had still not gotten used to. They had books laid out in front of them and were staring at the woman who sat across from them at the table. The woman who Julius was sitting next to was a little odd to Alice, but everyone was odd here.
The woman wore glasses, but Alice could see purple eyes hiding behind them. Her long snow white hair was pulled back out of her face, but one longer strand was held together by a purple ribbon. She wore a gray vest, white button up shirt with a purple tie, black slacks and purple dress shoes.
"What? But that's what it states right there!" The woman complained, pointing to the book.
"But this one states how it was revised." Dee handed the book over the table, and the woman quickly took it and skimmed through the words.
"Damn it, why didn't you give me this one then?"
"You're supposed to double check." Julius sighed heavily, "Now continue on, I need to get back to work."
"But we were gonna take Rain out-" Dum tried to talk but Julius cut him off.
"When she's done." Julius stated clearly before looking over at Alice. He raised an eyebrow and she quickly snapped out of her gaze and put the cup of coffee on Julius's desk. Alice walked over to the other table, putting the cups down on the small surface that didn't have books on it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't make a cup for you. I will if you want -"
"Nah, it's fine." The woman smiled up at Alice, "I'll just share with them."
"Thanks Alice." Dee took a gulp of his coffee.
"72 points."
"What?"
The woman laughed, "You grade her too uncle Julius?" 'Uncle?' Alice thought before her attention went back to the woman. "Don't mind him, his points don't really matter. I'm Rain Balkin, the Dodo bird."
"Dodo bird?" Alice tilted her head slightly, she hadn't heard of that role before.
"She's from the country of clovers, like Nightmare." Dum informed Alice, putting his coffee cup down next to Rain, who gladly took it and started to drink. "She's allowed over every now and then to study with Julius - but the jerk won't let her come play with us." There was the twin that Alice knew.
"Fine, you can go. Just let me do my work and you will be studying later Rain."
The three at the table cheered, "Thanks Uncle Julius!" She ran over, hugging the clock maker, who tried his best not to look disgusted. She then ran back to the table, grabbing a cane that was leaning against it. "Let's go boys!" The twins nodded, before the three took off out of the door. "It was nice to meet you miss alice!" Rain smiled towards her before completely disappearing down the hallway.
Alice smiled, "She seems nice." She turned back towards Julius, who groaned as he continued to work on a clock.
"She's annoying and a procrastinator, I blame nightmare." Silence came between the two, but Alice's curious eyes started to effect Julius. "If you must know, the dodo bird is the one who sets the rules for territories in stone. She's a lawyer of sorts, she has to learn every law from every territory. She also helps plan events."
"That's a big job.."
Julius sighed, "Yes, it is. and it doesn't help that she's so young."
"Young? She looked older than me."
"She's like the twins, able to go from a child to an adult. She wants to retain some childhood. She's actually around your age, I think." He tinkered with the clock for a moment more before setting it aside. "Nightmare and Gray have raised her well so far. But sometimes I think Nightmare goes to easy on her."
"I'm not surprised." Though she had to wonder about how nightmare and gray raised her as well. "Why did a kid get such a important job?"
Julius shrugged. "The dodo bird is a very rare role, there's one every few years. For some reason, it's the only role that isn't replaced right away. "
'That's strange...' Alice thought.
"Could I have more coffee?" Julius presented his empty cup to Alice as he grabbed another clock with his empty hand. "It's going to be a long day."
"Of course!"
Sunset came sooner than expected for Alice, but it still was a decent day. She went to Julius's office to tell him that she was probably going to head to bed soon. She walked into the room, to see Julius standing by one of the large windows. Alice couldn't read the expression on his face, but she knew something wasn't right. "Julius?"
"She's late..."
"Oh, you mean Rain?" Alice thought aloud, and took the twitch that came from Julius as a yes. "Well, I'll go get her for you."
"What?" He turned to face her. "Don't be ridiculous, it's almost dark." Alice couldn't argue with that, but her pleading gaze finally made the clock maker give in.
"Fine, but be extremely careful." Alice smiled and nodded before heading out of the tower. "I swear...those two are going to be the end of me."
The sun was almost completely down by the time Alice got to the mansion. 'I guess I could spend the night if I need too...' though she didn't feel comfortable doing that. The twins weren't at the gate, as usual, so she walked through and headed up to the mansion.
"Oh, Miss Alice." One of the servants walked up to her. "You're here awfully late, is there something I can do for you?"
Alice smiled at the male servant. "I'm here to bring Rain back to the clock tower. Do you know where she is?"
"Ah, she's with the twins. Probably in their room or the back yard, want me to fetch her for you?"
"No, I got it. Thanks though." She said her goodbyes to the servant as they took their separate ways down the main hallways. She barely remembered where the twin's room was, luckly there was another servant to help her find her way. She didn't need to knock on the door to know that Rain was in there, children's laughter was coming from the other side. She almost felt bad for having to take Rain back, but Julius did say she needed to study. She knocked on the door and barely two seconds later, the door flew open.
"Alice!" The twins tackled her to the ground, the three landing with out a loud thump. "Ow.."
"Good to see you too, but can you get off of me?" She chocked out, being crushed by the two small boys. They quickly got off of her.
"Sorry lady!" Dum said, "Wait...you're here to take Rain back aren't you?" Both of the twin's eyes saddened. Alice stood up and brushed off her dress and looked at the twins. Before she noticed their sad looks, she notices they were covered with cuts and brusies.
"What happened to you two?"
"Oh, we were just playing!" Alice heard another child's voice coming from the room. Alice looked behind the twins to see a young Rain standing there. She was just as tall as the twins, her white hair was shorter and a lock of it was still pulled back with the purple ribbon. She wore a gray jacket, a gold yellow looking shirt with gray shorts and gold and purple shoes. She also had a few cuts on her face. "And you can tell uncle Julius I want to stay for awhile longer!"
"I don't think that's such a good idea." Blood's voice cut into their conversation. The four looked to the right, to see the Hatter and Hare standing there. "Good evening Alice."
"Good evening.."
"Why can't Rain stay boss?" Dee asked.
"Yeah! The day was short so we didn't even get that long to play with her!"
"Yes, I'm aware. But last time you three 'played' together for a long period of time, you nearly killed some of my servants and cut up some of my hats." Blood's voice seemed very dark at the mention of the hats. "Not to mention you two were out cold for about two days afterward."
'What do these three do together?' Alice thought, looking at the smiling kids.
"That was a fun day wasn't it?" Rain smiled, but hid behind the twins at Blood's cold glare.
"Plus, I'm sure the clockmaker would not be happy with you staying over here. You may come back tomorrow but please leave for now. Dee, Dum, walk them to the gates please."
"Hey Blood, you think it's such a bad idea to let them stay the night?" Elliot chimed in. "It's pitch black out there."
The hatter seemed to think for a moment while Alice looked outside, she hadn't noticed the moon was already in the sky. "Very well," Alice snapped out of her thoughts when Blood spoke. "You may spend the night, but just this once." The kids cheered as Blood walked over to Alice. "You're welcome to stay as well."
"Thank you, I hadn't realized it had gotten so late." She laughed nervously, blood giving a smirk to her.
"I'll walk you to one of the guest rooms." Blood said before noticing dee and dum walking up behind him. "Stay in your room."
"Aw~ why can't we sleep with the lady?" Alice shook her head before noticing Rain clinging to a stuffed animal. Her eyes seemed sad as she stared at the twins.
"You guys have a guest!" Elliot picked up the twins and put them next to Rain. Alice noticed Rain instantly brightened up when they were with her. "So stay here!"
"And please put the weapons away for the night." Blood sighed. "I could hear you three from my office, on the other side of the mansion."
"Fine~" Dee said.
"Come on Rain!" the twins grabbed Rain's arms and pulled her back into their room, slamming the door behind them. Then Alice, Blood and Elliot started to walk down the hallway.
"Those two I swear." Elliot rubbed his head. Both the hare and hatter looked like they had a headache.
"I'm surprised to see those three are such good friends." Alice smiled as she walked next to the Hatter, who gave a small sigh.
"I suppose it's better for them to have more than just the cat." Alice knew he was talking about Boris. "But she's dangerous, there's a reason the dodo bird only exists every few years." Alice looked over at Blood with surprise, dangerous? How could a sweet girl like that - wait, this was wonderland. Anything could happen. "Anyways, here's your room." They stopped infront of a door and Elliot opened the door for her. "Our rooms are in the next hallway, call a servant if you need something." Elliot smiled as Alice walked in.
"Good night."
"Night Alice." The Hare said before closing the door behind her. The two then walked down the hallway together. "Hey Blood.." The Hatter looked over. "Why did you mention Rain like that?"
"Alice is a curious girl, she's bound to found out eventually."
"Yeah, but..."
"Either way it was bound to happen any time an outsider came and there was a dodo bird around." Elliot sighed, knowing Blood was right. "Go get those papers for me will you? I'll be in my office."
"Alright." With that the hare was off and the hatter walked into his office. He took off his hat and coat, hanging them up before sitting down at his desk with a smirk.
"Let's see if Alice can survive the wrath of the dodo bird.."