…Ugh! I thought. This wasn't the right one! Now I was growing as well as dying! My limbs stretched, and I could not only hear, but feel the seams of my clothes ripping. Good lord, that cure-all potion had to around here somewhere! I paused for just a second, trying to clear my head. The Mad Hatter had said that it was blue, and sparkly; I searched the shelves lining the walls for just that. Well, only one was even close, a deep azturpealean. I grabbed the potion and drank it, then smashed the bottle against the wall, just as he had said…and sank against the wall, back to my normal size and health. Dang that White Queen! Jabberwocky venom along with one of her tears burns like hellfire through your veins!
"I feel bad for all the others before me who couldn't escape…" I muttered, shuddering at the thought. I stood on shaky legs, gazing around the old castle's laboratory. When I raced in here for the cure, I had thought that it was dingy and ugly, but now that I could see, and wasn't on my deathbed, I realized that it was actually a beautifully intricate design. The ivy that had grown since the castle was abandoned covered everything, and the pearly flowers that grow off of it reflected the sunlight coming through the broken glass windows. However it was evident that there had been some sort of disturbance, as glass shards and old tools littered the stone floor. Lurching out into the hall, I walked through, looking for the courtyard exit. It was such a shame that the castle, what was once a beautiful home, had been left to rot, its previous inhabitants dead, banished, or insane. One day, I vowed, I'd come back to this place and clean it up. Finding the courtyard, I came out and sat in the warm air, allowing some time before I headed back. Travelling by hat magic is fun, but entirely dangerous. Hatter had made my hat to be forgiving, but in order to stay in existence one must be entirely focused. Once I felt the last of the nausea fade away, I stood up, straightening my skirts and brushing off my sleeves. Then I held my hat in my hands, concentrating on our beloved hidey hole, picturing everyone sitting at the expansive mahogany table, the mismatched tea set thrown haphazardly across it. Having that set in my mind I whipped the hat out, almost throwing it like what's it called? Right, a Frisbee. Gads, I was forgetting my existances before! Never letting go of it, I was sucked along as it whistled into its world and then back into ours. I popped into existence and, without meaning to, scared the life out of the March Hare, Mally, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. After I reassured them that it was me, Giavanna, and not the Queen's chess piece soldiers, they calmed down and settled back into tea time.
"You guys know where Tarrant is?" I asked, as Thackery handed me a biscotti.
"Last I saw he was storming out of here to find you" Mally said, spearing a pickle with her needle. She tends to be very ferocious, even when around comrades.
"Where did you go?! Why were you purple?!" sobbed the Tweedles.
I hugged them all tight (even Mally, who shoved me off), told them I'd talk when I found Tarrant, then I went outside and held in tears at the desolation of the once beautiful Underland. Since the White Queen's descent into insanity, she had destroyed all the pretty things that everyone had held dearly, she had imprisoned anyone who was beautiful, and she had put everyone in fear of their lives once again. Woe behold those who she deemed more astounding than her…many were never heard from again. Things hadn't been so bad since my grandmother, Alice, defeated the Red Queen a century ago. Luckily the banishment of her majesty and the Knave seemed to have been upheld pretty well by her cards, who despised her. But I wasn't so sure that what was happening now was any better than those days of torment. I sighed, then I dried my eyes and scanned the area for signs of Tarrant Hightopp, otherwise known as the Mad Hatter, although he really wasn't that mad, just an out-of-the-box thinker. I looked around carefully, my tracking skills sharp as ever. I caught a glimpse of color, and I pulled a scrap of his favorite magenta hat fabric. I reached up to touch the steampunky hat he made me, knowing that I would cherish it, and love the surprises hidden inside. I continued on, following the scraps that he leaves everywhere, and his footprints, all around the forest. Along the way, I ran into Chessur, smiling wide as ever.
"Gia-sweet-vana, why I haven't seen you around for a while!" He twined himself around my shoulders, and I just knew he was after my hat again. The devil never does keep his grubby paws to himself.
"Underland's been, well, Underlandy lately" I smiled, while I lifted a hand to take my hat off and tuck it under my arm. That way he couldn't reach it.
"No fair love" he pouted, purring and rubbing his cheek against mine affectionately.
"Mmmmm…you should really ask Hatter to make you one" I picked him up, and cuddled him in my arms before he could protest the way he does.
"Maybe" He said, turning over so that I could scratch his belly.
I sighed, "Speaking of Tarrant, have you seen him?"
He rolled his eyes "He just asked me about you, say, an hour ago…I told him I hadn't seen you for a week."
"Thanks…it looks like he went that way" I scratched his chin, then I lifted him high into the willow tree, his usual spot since the tumtum trees got uplifted.
"Come back aaaaannnnnyyyyttttiiiimmmmeeee, my darling" He smiled widely again, then faded away.
I grinned and rolled my eyes, but then I resumed my tracking, seeking out the lightly crushed undergrowth from Tarrant's funky shoes. I traveled on for a while, missing the adorable little mimsys that used to play by what was the lagoon, but now is a big, smoking hole, with all the mimsys either deep underground or…I didn't even think about it. I shut down my thought process, taking out my little music box to listen to from the secret pocket in my steel corset. I twisted the key, and the first sounds of "Cornflower Air" came from it, the soft melody helping me focus. I continued on with my trek, through sucking mud (noted to self: clean when home), up and over the fallen statues of town mayors, and finally to exactly where I thought I'd find him: the burnt out, fallen down town, from as long ago as the Red Queen's reign. He swears that he's gotten over it, but whenever he's upset, you can count on him heading here. I slowly walked closer, being careful that he doesn't hear me. As I get closer, I heard him mumbling to himself, voice thick with barely held back tears.
"Stupid fool…should've followed her…shouldn't have let her insist on going alone…now she's probably dead in a ditch…stupid, stupid dunderhead…just like them…" His breath hitched, and my heart broke a little more for this poor man. I step quietly out, then I sat down beside him.
"Go away" he said violently, not looking up.
"Hmmm…I could…but then, my hat needs some more abracadabra, so I wouldn't get far" I said, nudging him.
His head shot up, then his eyes widened "Gia!" He choked out, before picking me up and swinging me around. I laughed, feeling myself get dizzy. He set me down, then smiled his cheeky smile "I knew you'd come back"
"Callo, callay" I say, then I threw my head back and laughed "It's kind of a given"
He stood up, and put his hat on "Mally probably wants to hear this too"
"Of course she does" I stood up, and took his offered arm "Let's not waste time"
But before he could cast his hat magic, both the Jub Jub bird and the Bandersnatch burst from the trees, followed by chess soldiers.
"Peachy" I said to no one in particular, hands already activating my piston powered sword cane, blade extending to its deadly length.
"Well it's no vorpal sword, but it'll do" chuckled Tarrant. He unsheathed his sword-cane as well, and leaned against my back "I'll leave you those two." He pointed to the wicked creatures, the White Queen's bidding in their eyes. I rolled mine, then I pushed off against his back, racing towards my opposers, only to slide right under and grab the underside of the Bandersnatch. He roared vehemently, rearing up and exposing his belly, and me, to the Jubjub bird, who's immediate response was to claw it. Her lethal claws raked down the weak spot of his, but I wasn't there, having leaped onto one of her legs. The Bandersnatch roared in fury, coming down hard, but painfully getting back up to attack the bird, who only just realized her egregious mistake. I had let go, falling with a hard SMACK to the ground. I groaned, sitting up to watch as the beast clamps onto the bird's leg, where I just was a second ago. Blood spurted as his sharp teeth tore into the meaty flesh, and they both went down. The bird let out a screech, as her life ebbs from the mortal wound. He had hit a major artery. The Bandersnatch, however, attempted to charge me again, before his wounds open wider, bleeding profusely. I backed away, a deep regret panging within me. It's not in my nature to kill, and even if I didn't deliver the deathblows, I knew their deaths were my fault. I walked over to the panting beast, who snarled at me. Tears flowing freely, I whispered wishes for a happier place to him, and I gently and carefully slit his throat. There's no way that I could just leave him to suffer, and die a slow, painful death. It isn't his fault that the White Queen has caused all this…he's just trying to do his duty to the queen they all loved. I stood up, then jumped into the fray that Tarrant had managed to get himself in. Ducking and slashing, I made my way over to him just as he finished off the final one. I looked around, checking to see that there weren't any more in the trees. When I saw none, I snapped the sword back into place inside the cane, Tarrant doing the same.
"Should we head back?" he asked me, and I nodded. Then he held out his hat, and I took it with him. A second later, we were hurtling into existence right outside the hole. Tarrant went first, and I followed, sliding down the dark tunnel, and landing on top of him in the pile of pillows.
"I found him!" I called out, laughing. And that's how I ended up here, sitting with my friends, enjoying the last bits of their teatime feast.