Author Note:

Would like to take a moment to say that I know my chapters are pretty short, but I assure you they will get longer when I get further on the story.
Also I would also like to take a moment and say thank you to James Birdsong for reviewing. That really made my day - also it was my birthday that I got your review, so it made my birthday too :)


Chapter Four


Well hadn't this gotten perfect – just so very perfect. She had first found herself talking to a cat, and now that cat had vanished in thin air leaving her to find the way to where he was going to take her by herself. He had disappeared whilst muttering something about her taking too long. Marianne couldn't help it – no really, she couldn't, she was finding it too enjoyable to drag her feet and looking at her surroundings.

This was especially true when she found herself at a flower bed with one single flower. It was strange because she was in what seemed to be woods – and the flower looked so out of place. How could she not stop and look at the flower. It looked – like her – out of place in this world. She soon found though, the flower wasn't out of place – because of the fact when she poked its petal – the flower scowled at her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

The words of her apology still rang in her head as she remembered apologising so profusely at the flower who wasn't too pleased at being touched and prodded by someone it never knew. She had never seen a flower with a face before – that whole aspect was new to her. A lot of aspects she had found here in this… world... were completely new to her. She wondered to herself, now just where that cat could have gotten to.


The Cheshire Cat however had disappeared from her and appeared sitting at the Mad Hatter's table. He was once again looking upon the Hatter's hat with such an interest it wouldn't be a complete shock to any of the ones partying at the table if he would try and swipe the thing again. The cat couldn't help but try and take the 'sweet hat' that he loved so much.

Whilst the Hatter's attention seemed to be dull and drab as always the cat disappeared from the end of the table and appeared before the Hatter with his paws extended to grasp the hat from upon the Hatter's head. The Hatter had turned his head just in time and his eyes flurried with a hint of yellow as he cautioned Chessur and pulled the hat away from the cat's grasp.

"We have a visitor" Spoke the cat, so calmly as if it was matter of fact and that the Hatter should have known this already. "We do a visitor from the Uplands." He spoke, not giving the Hatter a name – not saying it was Alice. Not saying it wasn't. This seemed to affect the Hatter in a way that neither the cat, nor the dormouse or the March Hare for that matter had seen in quite some time.

The Hatter's appearance which, as described was dull and drab appeared to change in brightness and contrast. He couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face as he moved up from his seat for a better look around the area. He couldn't see a visitor. The cat could have guessed instantly that the Hatter didn't believe him.

"Surely for that… I should get that hat." He purred, continuing his long battle with the Hatter to get the hat that had almost always been present on his head since the day he picked it up from the burning remainder of his village. The look he received from the Hatter was enough for the cat to know when to leave it. He didn't need to get the blame for that day again – although – as the cat always said – it wasn't his fault.

"Get lost ye bloody cat." The hatter appeared as mad as his name, that Scottish tint to his voice. It seemed he had gotten his hopes up on the fact that perhaps Alice had returned. There was no need for the cat to tell him who it was exactly that had made the journey to Underland – after all he would find out soon enough. The cat could tell that he didn't believe him simply because the girl wasn't here yet.

He left her because waiting for her to catch up with him was becoming a tiring thing. She always seemed to be touching or asking about things. His patience wasn't good for that sort of thing. He just wanted to get the girl to the Hatter and then leave – maybe if he was lucky – he would leave with that hat. He went through a lot already to get her through the mirror and to Underland.

It almost seemed as if she didn't know of the world after all. That indeed was a pity. She would be new to everything that was around her. This girl would try a lot of people's patience by asking a lot of questions. She wouldn't know any better. Chessur could tell that this girl was going to be a lot like Alice when she had first come back to Underland having forgotten all about the world and adventures she had already had had as a child.


Finally, she was out of those woods. Marianne never thought that was ever going to happen! She just kept looking around for a way out and it didn't seem to come. When she stopped caring to find the way out, that was where the gap of the trees appeared and she had found a little road. She followed the road, because she had nowhere else to go – and hoped that by doing so she might find herself face to face with that grinning feline again.

"Just, where are you now?" Marianne spoke aloud. She did not care for the fact that speaking to oneself was considered mad anymore. She would see herself as crazy for dreaming up such a world – especially when she didn't find she normally remembered her dreams – especially any dreams she might have had about this world. She couldn't remember any at all apart from that one with the cat this morning.

Was it still that morning that she had had that dream? She felt like she had been gone for hours – it could have been days since she had been in that carriage when she had fallen asleep. Keeping down that road, she found that coming closer there was a large table. More than one table, drawn together with a large tablecloth – she was mistaken to think it was one table. She was so confused – why would someone be holding a tea party outside?

Then again, why be confused at a world where nothing made sense?

Marianne shook her head. She recalled the story once more. There was an on-going, never stopping tea-party. Attending that tea-party was always the March Hare, the Dormouse and the Mad Hatter. She remembered how her grandmother said that she always enjoyed a spot of tea there with them. They were three of her favourite people that lived in Underland. Marianne never understood that – how could a mouse and a hare be considered people in her grandmother's mind?

As she scanned the characters sitting at the table… there was the dormouse, climbing sleepily out of a teapot, dropping itself onto the end of a teaspoon, which caused a sugar cube to go flying through the air and hit the hare in the face. The hare that appeared to have been daydreaming was caught off guard and a teacup went flying – and just near missed Marianne who was still walking closer. Then there were two more characters.

A man, with bright orange hair that appeared to go off in all directions, pale skin and he wore a top hat. The top hat alone gave her the conclusion that he was the Mad Hatter that her grandmother had told her all about. She had never really let her imagination decide just what they all could have looked like – so all this, seeing with her own eyes, was new to her. She didn't take a lot of time to look at what he was wearing, or his attitude, because once her eyes spotted the Cheshire cat, she found a new fire in her stomach that she hadn't felt before and with a louder voice than she could have mustered normally around new people she let out:

"How could you just leave me there?"