Alice felt that Mary was old enough to take to the meadow where she first met the white rabbit, Mary was very much like she was when she was nine and she felt that she might enjoy the meadow. She had never told anyone about what happened in Wonderland, the secret belonged her alone. A smile spread across her face as she watched Mary weave a Daisy Chain over her book remembering the first time she fell down the rabbit hole that time was almost fun, then she didn't need to worry about the Jabberwocky or the Red Queen. Her eyes glassed over as she remembered the Mad Hatter, the White Queen, Bayod and his puppies, and Epsilon the wise caterpillar who she had left behind when she left for home, slowly she turned back to her book thinking that Mary wouldn't find herself in any trouble. Mary looking up from her Daisy Chain thought she saw a white rabbit disappearing around a small bush, but it couldn't have been wearing a blue tailcoat like she thought she saw. Eying the bush curiously she walked over to the bush and peaked around it. In the small clearing there was a white rabbit sitting with something gold in his hand his upper half was covered in something blue. She followed him as he hopped into another bush and tripped, suddenly she was falling. The rabbit hole was full of books, bottles, and even a piano, that were all spinning past her at top speed she bounced off a small bed and landed on a hard tied floor. On three sides she was surrounded by doors that were all locked, the only other things in the small room were a glass table and a heavy curtain. The glass table has two items on it a small key and a bottle labeled Drink Me. The key was way to small to fit into any of the bigger doors locks but when she peaked around the curtain she saw a small door with a lock that fit the key perfectly. The door was only a foot tall and a few inches wide but it occurred to Mary that the small bottle might help her, she found it and took a sip, in less than thirty-seconds she was no taller than a spoon. Moving quickly back to the door she stepped through it into a forest. The trees were dark and forbidding but the forest floor was covered in green grass and small flowers. Mushrooms grew all around in many different bright colors. A path cut through the forest and a little ways away she could see a fork and a sign post. When she reached the fork she could see a house at the end of one of the paths so she checked the sign post it read The Hatter's House. Mary decided to continue that way to seek help and information from whoever the Hatter was rather than continuing on the road to the Red Queen's Palace. The house appeared forgotten at first glance but she could hear laughing from the back of the house. When she turned the conner she saw a man sitting at the head of a large table she might have noticed more but she had to duck suddenly because a tea cup came hurtling through the air at her splashing hot tea over her dress. A hare sat halfway down the table and he appeared to be the cup thrower next to him sat a small dormouse with a needle at her side. Her attention was once again attracted by the man sitting at the table who she thought might be the Hatter, her yelled gleefully and started doing a strange dance where he wiggled his body around in strange ways and shouted "Alice you're back, I told you she would be back" to the other animals. Smoked streamed past Mary's ear and condensed into the form of a grinning cat who spoke which she thought was impossible "Alice how good it is to see you again."
"I'm not Alice," Mary said with a slight quiver in her voice "Alice is my mothers name, my name is Mary." All the people and animals sitting around the table froze in shock, then the Hatter spoke excitedly, "Your mother was a good friend of mine, I'm the Mad Hatter and this is the Cheshire Cat and the March Hare. He is named that because he went mad in March. We have been grateful to your mother since she defeated the Jabberwocky for us, and put our rightful queen on the throne." He said all of that in a very fast voice excitedly hopping up and down in his seat. Mary didn't believe him, sure her mother had said some pretty strange stuff over the years and sometimes said things like "oh right now I would like to see the Hatter futterwack," but she was not the kind of person who would ever be any-kind of dragon slayer, when she voiced those thoughts though the Hatter laughed, oh Alice never thought she could do it either, but she did and the White Queen regained the throne."
"Mom told me about the Jabberwocky once she recited a poem about it." Mary recalled, "There was something in it about eyes of flame at one point."
"I told her that poem," boasted the Hatter, "she learned it from me and passed it on to you she remembered."
"Hatter what should we do with her?" Questioned the Dormouse. "We can't keep her here we must return her to her mother."
"We shall bring her to the White Queen she will know what to do. Mary clime on my hat you can travel that way." Mary climbed onto the hat and settled down on a spot that wasn't to burnt. Soon the house had disappeared into the foliage and they were joined by two small men who looked like twins. They were arguing and slamming into each other over and over again. It was amusing to hear them argue because they would finish each other's sentences but were arguing for a different point. After what must have been an hour the dense foliage was opening up and Mary could see a pink road weaving through soft green grass and cherry trees that were in full bloom. The sweet smell of the flowers that would one day become fruit wafted through the air into the small parties noses. The notes of a flute drifted over the air accompanied by the strands of a harp. Out of the woods the Hatter strode over to the road then turned to face a castle. The castle was completely white stone that stood out against the blue sky. The guards standing around it reminded Mary of chess men, standing alert at their post. In the courtyard of white marble stood a group of people dressed all in white, in the center stood a woman with a silver crown seated on her head. She broke lose of the crowd and greeted the Hatter as she would greet and old friend. "Who have you brought with you this time she reminds me of Alice" she spoke smoothly but there was something that betrayed worry in her voice. "We found Mary, Alice's daughter, who followed the White Rabbit and fell down the rabbit hole. She is very much like her mother in that way." It seemed like she was not the only one to notice the worry in her voice because the Hatter then asked "is there a problem that has come up since my last visit?" The Queen looked like she didn't want Mary to hear her answer but she spoke anyway. "The Vopal Sword is missing and a dragon who we believe is kin to the Jabberwocky has been burning down forest on the outer most regions of Wonderland, slowly moving closer to the center of the country. I hoped that the white rabbit would bring back Alice so she might help us defeat him if you weren't so young Mary, I would ask you to do it but you must not commit such a deed until you are older." Mary wondered why, if she saw killing the beast was so bad, why she wanted her champion to return to slay it. The White Rabbit that she had seen earlier hopped up and turned to the Queen as if to speak to her, bowed, and reported to her. "I have fetched the Araculum for you it shows what you wished to see. The picture is of a girl pulling a sword out of the mountain were Alice killed the Jabberwocky the girl seems to be a much younger version of Alice. When I went to check on her Alice way reading and a girl who looked like her daughter was playing at her side but I have no idea how to fetch her." The Queen smiled and spoke to him with a slight laugh in her voice.
"Don't get worked up about it for without meaning to you did fetch the girl, this is Mary, Alice's daughter, she can help us." She turned to Mary and spoke, now seriously Mary the Bandersnap will take you to the battle field so you may fetch the sword but beware, the dragon may try to stop you for if he is related to the Jabberwocky the Vopal Sword is the only thing that may penetrate his skin. Do not try to fight him that must be done as the calendar foretold by your mother. Come I will take you to the Bandersnap now." The Queen danced through the passages with ease, she never once questioned which way she was turning and quickly they found themselves standing before a giant to that opened, creaking, to reveal a giant animal that looked like a snow leopard crossed with an oversized rotwhiler. Mary shrunk back in fear until he tilted his head and let the Queen rub behind his ears. The Bandersnap had a lumbering gate that shook the ground every time he took a step forward, Mary could see the paintings on the wall shaking and the doors quivering in their frames. She did not put together what the Queen had said until they reached the front door, she was to ride this creature all the way to the battle field. She mounted him and wrapped his fur around his finger and collar to give her a better grip and settled into him warm fur wondering if she was going to have a pleasant ride. His run was lumbering but surprisingly smooth, his back tilted with every stride but she found it easy to stay on. The landscape grew darker and more foreboding, the trees all had ebony bark and the ground was covered in soot. When the trail opened up she found her self looking at a giant chessboard. The squares extended on over the crest of a hill and must have gone on for miles. The white squared were gray with soot and dried blood. In the center of the checked squares stood a tower of stone that looked like a ruined castle tower. Small stairs wound around it and at the top Mary could see columns of stone that reached into the black stormy sky and something silver glinting at the top. Mary looked closer and could see that it was wedged into the stone floor and might not be possible to pull out so she figured that it was the sword so she stated across the chessboard to retrieve it. At the bottom of the steps she saw a skull with large fangs and bones that fanned out around the back of it she figured that it must be the Jabberwocky's head. The stairs were splattered with purple blood that stood out against the cold gray stone of the steps, some of them were crumbled in places as if something very heavy had stepped on something very old for a brief period of time. Mary thought the tower looked like the one she had seen on the Araculum with the girl and the dragon like creature, it occurred to her that it might have been her mother and the Jabberwocky's fight. She stared climbing up the tower, it was a dangerous job because some of the steps would crumble as soon as you put weight on them and if you didn't have a foothold you could fall straight off the stone ruins. At one point Mary had to jump across a rather large gap in the steps where they had crumbled down to nothing leaving a hole of jagged rock. The top of the giant rock mound was a ruined temple with one corner of it covered in blue smoke. In the middle of the ruins, sticking out of the ground, was the sword, shimmering with the light from the haunting sky. "No one has ever has been able to pull it out since Alice stuck it there" said a voice that seemed to be coming from the middle of the smoke. Mary started and made her way towards the voice, coughing as the smoke reached her lungs. The voice, Mary could see, came from a blue caterpillar that was smoking a hookah pipe and staring at her. "Who are you?" Mary managed to ask. "I am Epsilon" the caterpillar said, shooting smoke out of his mouth. "Who are you?"
"My name is Mary, my mother is the Alice you spoke of earlier."
"Then you should be able to pull the sword out of the rock" the caterpillar replied, looking not in the least surprised. "Take it your mother will need it if she is defeat the new threat." Mary, feeling like it would be an extremely smart idea to obey Epsilon, walked over to the sword and grasped the hilt, she expected the sword to resist but, it didn't it pulled out as if the hole had been rubbed with butter first. She hoisted the sword up and looked at it, the blade was silver and the hilt was wrapped with leather. Ruins were inscribed along the length of the blade in some language that Mary supposed was antique and never use anymore. There was one thing that she knew that the ruins spelled out though, that this was the Vopal Sword, the only thing that can kill the Jabberwocky or anything that shares the same blood. "No one but you or your mother could have pulled that out of the floor" Epsilon said calmly.
"I should return this to the White Queen she will need it" Mary replied "it was nice to meet you" and with that she turned and started back down the steps. Mounting the Bandersnap, she turned him back towards the castle of the White Queen. By the time they reached the palace it was dusk and the moon was slowly starting it climb across the dark color filled sky that would soon turn dark and finds itself sprinkled with starts. The White Queen was outside in the courtyard waiting for her,when she saw the sword she smiled and danced over to her, taking the sword and placing it in the hands of a suit of armor. "Now all we need is our champion to return, Mary would you mind if I bestowed upon you the task of fetching your mother?" The White Queen asked but she need to worry for Mary agreed instantly and was lead back to the small door that was the exit to Wonderland. Mary stepped through the door and found herself tumbling up through the rabbit hole onto the edge of the hoe where she tripped and feel into it in the first place. Mary ran, panting, back to the meadow to see her mother sitting there, still absorbed in her book, when Mary called out "Mom, I fell down a rabbit hole and Wonderland is in trouble, they need their champion." Alice just gaped at her daughter in wonder. "Well, I guess it is my duty to return and slay whatever they need me to" Alice half groaned.
"Come on I will take you to the rabbit hole" exclaimed Mary "come on now, hurry." The two of them rant o where the rabbit hole sat under the giant oak tree but the hole was gone,nestled in the interwoven roots was a patch of flowers and nothing else. "It was right here but now it is gone how are we supposed to go back to help them?" Mary questioned but she got no answer only an order, "Follow me, now, and hurry." Mary and Alice ran through the woods on the way back to their house where they ran up the stairs and into the Alice's study. Mary took in the familiar room and automatically her head turned to the paintings that she had spent many house looking at there were three of them next to each other that she knew her mother had painted. The middle one was of a tea party where there where cups flying and three people at an extremely large table. The second was of a crown floating in the air over a lady dressed completely in white with white hair and another lady dressed in red and black with overly large head and red hair. A girl was depicted in the last one holding a sword and cutting off the head of a dragon. Mary had often wondered why her mother had chosen the scenes but now she knew that she had been there for all of them and they were important to her. Alice took a small key off of her necklace and put it in the lock on the door of the Hatters house, when she turned it oat of the wall opened up to reveal a hall way. Mary realized that her mother had a secret entrance to Wonderland in one of her paintings so she could return quickly if there was an emergency and she was needed. The tunnel was dark in only the light of a candle but very quickly they found themselves at a giant hole that stretched down from the tunnel floor. It was very similar to the rabbit hole because when mother and daughter jumped together they found themselves spinning until they hit the tile floor of the White Queen's palace.
"Alice, it is so good to see you" said the White Queen as she floated over, "I take it that Mary has told you what is happening here."
"She went a retrieved the Vopal Sword on her own with the Bandersnap" came the Hatter's voice wail Alice greeted all of her old friends. "You didn't even notice me when I visited you but Mary did and she followed me" came the indignant voice of the White Rabbit.
"Of course I noticed you but I didn't respond because of Mary" Alice said soothingly. "Now what is the problem that has come up and is big enough that you needed to send someone to fetch me."
"A dragon has been slowly moving in from the out edges of Wonderland and I am afraid that he has spoken with my sister because he wishes to fight my champion. We believe that he is kin of the Jabberwocky, Mary retrieved the Vopal Sword from where you stuck it so now all we must do is meet the dragon." Alice's face turned grim at this but she walked over to the suit of armor and left the room, returning a few silent minutes late dressed it the armor complete with chain mail, the Vopal Sword in a scabbard at her side. "I am ready, now lets get this over with" Alice muttered grumpily. Alice mounted the Bandersnap wail Mary rode a horse that the White Queen had in her stables. This time the woods looked even more sinister with the black barked trees leering at the small party as they made the journey from the nice cheery palace to the dark foreboding forest. The chessboard that was the main battle field in Wonderland looked even more gruesome in the darkness of the night. The white squares glowed like ghosts and the ruined temple looked as if it was floating in the sky. Alice dismounted and strode out to the middle of the battlefield with the Vopal Sword, waiting. In less than five minuets a dragon appeared, climbing over the crest of the small hill he stepped onto the chessboard. "I can believe in six impossible things before breakfast" Alice shouted.
"One: my daughter went to a magical world."
She swung the sword and dodged when he tried to land a blow.
"Two: a talking rabbit resented me for ignoring him."
The sword bit into the Dragon's skin leaving a huge cut.
"Three: that a painting can turn into a door to a magical world."
Alice rolled to the side as the Dragon breathed fire in her direction.
"Four: I am a heroine in a magical world."
He swiped at her with his claws but missed as she brought the Vopal Sword up and cut off his tongue.
"Five: that I killed the Jabberwocky,"
Alice dodge again and the rolled under his belly.
"Six: and I can do it again."
Right under his heart she jabbed the sword upward and pulled back leaving a bleeding cut in the skin. In seconds she had rolled out from under him and stood up to watch him crumple to the ground, fully dead at last. Mary thought it was strange that instead of cheering the Mad Hatter started dancing a dance that looked absolutely impossible to do because his legs twisted around in so many weird ways and his head spun around multiple times. When she turned to her mother to ask about it she found her smiling a clapping "oh I love a good Futterwack" she laughed.
"Alice you must leave now" said the White Queen said sadly "I hope to see you again"
"I will return if you ever need help" Mary's mother answered. The White Queen handed each of them a vial filled with purple blood and told them to drink it and wish to return home. Mary watched as the scene dissolved into scraps of something that looked like paper and then reformed into Alice's office. Mary turned to look at her mother questionary and Alice sighted "Sit down and I will tell you a story that starts when I was six years old..."
Now I could tell you that story but I won't and let you figure it out for yourself.