Forgotten Memories
By Detafo
A/N: I am such a horrible author. I cannot keep a single plotline in my head these days… I really do apologise to all my lovely fans. I thank you for your dedication and ask your forgiveness for the long wait between chapters/stories. Hopefully, this will appease you. Instead of a new chapter, I have decided to start a new story... I hope you like it.
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Chapter One:
You Remind Me Of Someone
The pounding of hooves over rocky ground were enough to penetrate the darkness surrounding Straleigh's uneasy sleep. Jerking awake, she cowered against the rocks against which she had been placed and tried to accustom her eyes to the dim shadows of her surroundings.
The ropes that bound her legs and wrists bit painfully into her skin, and she felt her face grow hot as her temper rose. No matter how scared she was of her current plight, the six year old was angry. She wanted her Mammie, her Papa, her brother. But this … man…whoever he was… had brought her here, against her will… and had threatened her family.
The roaming thoughts ceased and faded away as the neigh of a horse sounded against the rocks which surrounded the girl and her captors.
"Wake up!" Hissed the voice of the one she'd named Eyeless. "Wake up, you fools!"
There was a snort, as Brawn woke up. "S'matter?" The voice said, thick with sleep.
"Horses!" The Ice-Voice said, quietly, its tone dripping with deadly malice. "We must flee!"
"I'll take the girl." Brawn said, his voice sounding far more awake than it had, not ten seconds before. "Ah'm tha quickest… Ah'll make sure ta git 'er ta tha Castle."
"Go! You don't have a second to lose!" Ice-Voice said. "Stayne! You must not be seen! Word will have already spread that you are not in your cell!"
Straleigh felt herself be lifted into the arms of Brawn, who then slung her across his back and began to run. If her mouth had not been gagged, she would have screamed… but alas… the Eyeless one that Ice-Voice had called 'Stayne' had secured a rough gag in her little mouth and had tied it tightly behind her head.
Muffled grunts issued forth as she bounced against Brawn's back, with his long, loping strides much different from Stayne's sure-footedness.
333
Back in Witzend, Alice hugged her son to her breast, stroking his strawberry blond curls, comforting herself in the knowledge that Prince Wynn and his soldiers were out looking for her baby.
"Mammie?" Ashtant asked, looking up from the coddling he was receiving.
"Yes, my darling?"
"Straleigh's gonna be all right." The little boy's confident tone made Alice smile. She didn't want to burden a six-year-old with her troubles. He was, after all, only trying to cheer her up.
"Of course, she will…" Alice blinked rapidly as the overwhelming desire to cry raised a lump in her throat. "Your Papa wouldn't have it any other way."
As if shaken from his reverie by his name, Hatter looked up from where he had been brooding in an armchair beside the fireplace. Mirana had forbade them to leave their house, just in case any news came. "Aye," He said hoarsely. "Straleigh is a Hightopp… she'll get through this and back to us before you can count to eleventy-one, Bug…" He managed a wan smile. Alice gave him a Look.
"Ashtant… why don't you go and look for Chess… I'm sure I saw him floating about upstairs before…" She allowed her son to get up off her lap and run upstairs. "Tarrant."
He grunted, his chin resting on his chest as it was wont to do when he was weary, worried or in one of his moods.
"Hatter." Alice managed to get up from her seat on the floor, putting a hand on Tarrant's shoulder, causing the man to look up from his ponderings. "Tarrant, we have to talk."
The man pulled his wife into his lap. Looking into his amber eyes, Alice could see the distress that lurked behind them, the madness and the badness, joined forces for now, lurking within their depths. Holding his face in her hands, she looked sorrowfully into his eyes. "What is it, Lass?"
"Tarrant…" Alice's lower lip trembled. "Oh, Tarrant…" She threw her arms around his neck and sobbed into his collar. The Hatter wrapped her into a tight embrace and rocked her soothingly until the sobs subsided.
"Alice…" He lisped quietly. "Oh, my Alice…" He kissed her. "Aside from the very obvious, my love… whatever is the matter?"
"Tarrant… I…" Alice hiccoughed. "I'm pregnant."
333
The journey to the castle wasn't a very long one. Straleigh, having heard muttered conversations throughout the night of a castle, had been expecting something like Marmoreal. How very wrong she was… the castle, or what was left of it, was little more than ruins, having been demolished soon after the Red Queen's imprisonment. The sight was still enough to strike fear in the young one's heart, however, from her perch on the man's back.
"They'll be here soon." The man said, as if talking to no one in particular. "Then we'll agree on the ransom."
Ransom?As the man lowered her onto an old and broken chair, Straleigh let a tear track down her dusty cheek. All she wanted was to see her family again.
"Oh, please don't cry!" Brawn seemed perplexed. "We won't hurt ye'… least, Ah won'… yeh too precious to look at." Straleigh's sobs were muffled by her gag, which only made the tears flow harder. Brawn seemed to get more and more distressed. "Ah, please, young'un… don' go cryin' now… yeh mammie and papa… they did somethin' to me friend… Stayne… he's just mad."
Straleigh shook her head emphatically.
"What's yer name then… Muscis wouldn't tell me nothin…" He smiled gently at the girl, taking care to get the grimy rag out of the girl's mouth so that she could talk.
Heaving a great sob, the girl looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. "I… I want my mammie."
"Ah know yeh do, little'un… but we need you for our plan. What's yer name?"
The little girl looked at him calculatingly. Why would this man, who spoke like her papa, and mingled with bad men, want to know her name? "St-Straleigh…" She said after a moment.
The man smiled softly. "Me Mammie's name… good name. Strong name. You look kinda like her, yeh know." His brow creased slightly. "If Ah weren't certain tha' me family hadn't been taken on tha Horunvendush Day, I'da said you looked like me mammie. 'cept much smaller, o'course."
Straleigh bit her lip. "What… what's your name?"
The man looked at her. "Oh, Ah ain't got a name, young'un. Ah go by Brick, mostly…"
"Why?" Ever curious, the little girl's mismatched eyes widened at the strangeness of the name. Why would someone be called after a building stone?
"Ah'm not tha bright." Brick smiled. "Muscis said I was thick as two of 'em… so he just calls me tha'."
"It's a silly name." Straleigh said stubbornly. Brick smiled, before a noise brought him to his senses. Hurriedly, he put the gag back in the little girl's mouth.
"Hush now, if Muscis or Stayne knew we'd been talkin', they'd 'ave me 'ead."
Straleigh decided if she hadn't been captured, she would have liked Brick… he was nice to her at least… and he hadn't threatened her family. Although her eyes changed to their angry colours, she allowed herself to be gagged and swallowed back the anger that coursed through her veins.
333
Tarrant had frozen stiff. His Alice? Pregnant? His eyes, though amber, softened slightly. "Oh, Alice…" He lisped. "My Alice." He kissed her soundly, hugging her to his being comfortingly.
"Tarrant… I…" Alice looked so forlorn. "I don't know what to do."
"What to do? Alice… this babe will be a gift. You'll see… Straleigh will return, and we will have another joyous occasion to celebrate. All will be well… I promise." He kissed her hairline.
"Tarrant, it's been two days… what if they never find her?" Fresh tears welled up in Alice's large brown eyes. "I don't know if I could bear it…"
"Wynn is one of the best trackers in all of Underland." Tarrant said with conviction. "He will find her, Alice. And Stayne will be brought to justice." He wiped away his wifed tears with a bandaged finger, lifting her chin and looking into her eyes. "We must have faith… you told me to have faith in your return… we must now have faith that our bairn will be returned to us."
Alice nodded forlornly. He was right. He was always right… she gave a watery smile. "I love you, Tarrant."
"And I you, Alice…" He allowed Alice to lean against his shoulder and listened to her breathing steady until she fell into a troubled sleep.
333
The dogs had run ahead to follow the little Hightopp's scent. They'd come to a campfire, its ashes not even cold. A Pawn knelt at the fireside and felt the ashes. "Not cold." He said softly. "They can't have started off from here long ago… two hours at most."
"Be thankful that Time is on our side." Wynn said. "If He had his way, or if it were someone with which he was currently quarrelling, we would be more lost than if we were in the Hedge Maze." Wheeling his horse to face the cliffs which ran along his right side. "Zeta, can you fathom which direction they might have taken?"
The Bloodhound sniffed the ground, her brother following suit. Soon, the pair of them howled, dashing toward the North.
"Where are they running?" The Pawn asked, standing up and mounting his stead once again.
Wynn watched the hounds disappear, a grim expression on his face. "Toward Salazen Grum."
333
It was getting late. Straleigh was afraid of going to sleep, but her eyes were so heavy. Having little to no sleep the night before on the cold, stony ground, it didn't look as though she was going to get much more sleep this night. Given only a crust of stale bread and a tin mug of water for supper, she knew her stomach would growl as though a Bandersnatch was roaming her innards. At least her captors had taken off her gag.
In the time that the four of them had been in the castle, Straleigh had learned that the creature Brick had called 'Muscis' was indeed a walrus, his long teeth yellowed and broken with age, and his whiskery face leathery and dry from not being in the water for many, many years. The man known as Stayne was abnormally tall, and Straleigh didn't like his very much. He was cruel, and even though he couldn't see, he was a good shot. There were welts on the left side of her face where he'd slapped her for whimpering, for her growling stomach, and for asking what he called impertinent questions.
Brick was the only one of her three captors who was nice to her. When Muscis wasn't looking, he slipped her another hunk of stale bread, made better with a slather of squiberry jam, and had let her drink some of his water ration. She made a note to ask that he be pardoned from the harshest punishments when she was found, for she liked him.
Although she was against the idea of falling asleep, her body had other ideas, and her eyes finally slid shut, despite her mental protestations. As her body relaxed against her will, she hoped that she would be found and rescued soon.