It was late morning. There was a knock on the door of the Hightopp cottage. Tarrant opened the door to find a frog messenger there.

"Are you Tarrant Hightopp?" the frog said.

"Yes, can I help you?" Tarrant said.

"You have received a message from the queen of Marmoreal. She has asked you to accompany her during a conference," the frog said, handing out the message to Tarrant.

Tarrant looked over it. "A conference for what?" he asked.

"A conference to discuss the plans of our Underland's freedom," the frog said, wisely.

Tarrant was silent. He knew, that the White Queen knew that he never left his cottage. "This must be a mistake..."

"No, Mr. Hightopp. It is not. She wants you to be at her conference tonight. She will send a carriage if you accept. Your daughter may come too"

Tarrant hesitated. He did not want to bring his daughter all the way to Marmoreal. He got jittery at just the feeling of taking her out of the cottage. "Why must the queen have me there?"

"She knows you have potential. She knows you have no love for the Red Queen as well."

Tarrant got chills at that name. He knew that it must be a very important conference to attend to, but how important was it compared to his daughter? Tarrant thought for a moment. He realized that the best idea would be to attend to the conference, but he didn't know what to do with his daughter.

He most certainly did not want to leave her home, but he could only think that was the best choice. "All right, Mr. Messenger. Let me think about it. I will get word to you."

"Very well. If you decide on doing it, your carriage will be waiting for you."

"Thank you," Tarrant said, and he shut the door. His mind was racing. It was a large decision to make. He assumed that the safest place for his daughter, was at home with all the windows and doors locked.

...

After some long thinking he decided that, that was what he was going to do. He walked up to Cailin's room and knocked on the door. Then he entered.

"Hello, Father," Cailin said. She was occupied with a little heart pillow, that she was almost done sewing together.

"Hello, Cailin." He sat beside her. "Look, Dear...I have a very important meeting to attend...and I will be gone tonight."

"Where are you going?" Cailin asked in an excited tone.

"To the White Queen's land, Marmoreal."

"The castle?!" Cailin said excited.

Tarrant shook his head.

"Oh, Father...Can I go with you? I always wanted to see what the white queen's castle would be like!"

Tarrant was silent. He knew that Cailin would be excited if he told her where he was going, and he didn't want to tell her 'no' ether. "Cailin..." he sighed. "You know that Underland is dangerous...I have told you that many times..." he said, in a troubled voice.

Cailin's head lowered, and she was sad. "Yes, Father," she said sadly.

"But,...you see? This meeting is very important. It might make us all free forever..."

Cailin's face lit up again. "So you will be a hero?!"

Tarrant chuckled a little. "Well,...not me...I don't know. I can't really know anything yet. But I am doing this, because I have to. Not because I want to."

"Oh..." she said.

Tarrant rubbed his hand on her cheek. "Well, Dear, I want you to stay here. I am going to lock all the doors and windows. So don't go out side, all right?"

"Yes, Father," she said sadly.

"Don't worry, Dear. Some day we will live the way we were meant to. Then I will take you everywhere. But Underland is filled with Red Nights, guards, and solderers. And...I don't know what I would do if I lost you...So you stay in side, and if anyone comes to the door, do not open it. Act like you are not here." Tarrant started to get nervous.

"All right, Father," she said, sadly.

"Good Girl..." he said quietly, and he stroked her cheek. Then he leaned forward and kissed her. "I will be back, Dearest."

"All right."

"Don't be afraid."

She was silent for a moment. She had not given much thought to the fact that she would be all alone in the house. Suddenly, it did scare her.

"Cailin, trust me. There is no safer place, then here," Tarrant said, gently.

"All right, Father."

He gave her one last hug and kiss good bye, and then he left. He left the lonely cottage in the woods.

...

Cailin did not know what to do in the cottage, all alone. She felt a little scared, in fact.

She stepped down the steps, and went into the kitchen. She was hungry and wanted to find something to eat.

Then all the sudden, she heard something. It was in the house, in the kitchen. Cailin froze. "Who's there...?" she asked fearfully.

There was no answer. But Cailin heard it again. This time, it sounded like it was coming from the cookie jar. Cailin stared at the cookie jar for a couple of minutes, waiting for whatever it was in there, to come out.

After about three minutes, it still had not come, but it sounded like it was eating the cookies.

Cailin went over to the cookie jar, and quietly, slowly opened it. She peeked in, to find that a little mouse, wearing and cute, pink dress was in there. The mouse was munching on the cookies.

Cailin gasped. "You Thief! How could you just invite yourself in, and eat all of our cookies?!"

The mouse looked up. "Calm down. I've been waiting years for your daddy to leave you all alone, so that I can eat whatever I please."

"Well, I am still here, you know?" Cailin said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Yes, I can see that. But you're a little girl. You wont hurt me. I know it!"

"Mouse, go home!"

"Oh, come on, Girly. You are all alone at home."

"So what?"

"Well, you must be bored, scared, upset...all kinds of things. I can play with you, keep you company, and make sure that everything will be okay."

Cailin thought for a moment. She realized that the mouse could at least keep her company. "Well...okay then. What do you want to do?"

"Well, first of all, I want to eat these cookies. Then after that..." The mouse scratched her head in thought. "Let's go exploring!"

"Exploring? What do you mean?"

"Oh, never mind that. I'll get to it later. But first, let me eat these cookies," the mouse said. munching on a cookie at the moment. "Mmm, mmm, mmm! You sure do make good cookies!"

"Oh,...actually...my father made them."

"Mmm, mmm, mmm! Your daddy sure does makes good cookies!" The mouse munched on many, many cookies. Soon, there where only three left.

Cailin gasped, when she saw how many were taken up. "Oh, you Pig! You ate all the cookies!"

The mouse looked at Cailin, while licking her lips, and fingers. "No I didn't you Dimwit! There are still three left!"

Cailin gaped at the mouse.

"Oh, never mind!" the mouse said, and she hopped out of the cookie jar. Then she dashed up the stairs.

"Hey, Mouse! Wait, where are you going?!" Cailin yelled, and she ran after her. She followed the mouse all the way up the steps, into her father's room. She found the mouse's tail, sticking out from under the bed. "Mouse! You can't be in here! It's my father's room!"

The mouse was not paying any attention. She was too busy, looking at Tarrant's trinkets and other belongings. "Ooo! Look at this! Oh - this is lovely...Oh, interesting...Oh, my...lookie!" the mouse was mumbling to herself.

"Mouse!" Cailin pulled on the mouse's tail, and dragged her out from under the bed.

"What?!" the mouse said, with a temper. Cailin saw that the mouse was wearing a crown on her head...or, at least it looked like a crown.

"What is that?" Cailin asked, pointing to the crown.

"It's my crown! Don't I look just gorgeous?" The mouse curtsied.

"Give that to me!" Cailin snatched the 'crown' off the mouse's head.

"Spoil Sport," the mouse said, rolling her eyes.

Cailin looked at the little 'crown.' She could see now, that it was a gold ring. She could see that, there were letters engraved into it. Cailin walked into the light, so she could read what the letters said.

As she set the ring into the light, she read, 'My Love Forever.' The words were written in beautiful cursive. "Oh, my...This must be Father's wedding ring. I didn't know he had one..." Cailin said.

"Your father's bedding wing?! What in Underland is a bedding wing?!" the mouse spat.

"Wedding ring!" Cailin snapped. Then she looked back down at it. She ran her finger along the letters. "I wonder if Mother made this for him..." she said.

"Your mother, what? Girl, you need to stop talking to yourself!"

"You need to get your rude self out of our cottage! Now where did you find this ring?!" Cailin said.

The mouse ran under the bed again. Then she pushed a large box out. "It was in this box," she said.

Cailin knelt beside the box. She saw that there were many other things in the box as well. She knew that she was probably not supposed to be looking at them,...but she was so curious...

Carefully, she set the ring on the floor beside her. Then she looked into the box. She found a book in there, a journal to be exact. The journal was brown, with hearts on the front. The ends were a little scourged. "This looks like it got burned," Cailin said.

She pulled it out. It was locked shut. Cailin was very curious about the journal.