Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews! I'm really glad people are enjoying the story so far. Sorry if it seems slow right now. It will be picking up shortly.

Do not own Alice in Wonderland. That belongs to the masterful mind of Lewis Carrol.

Now, on with the story. Please read and review!

Dolose- having evil of malicious intent.

Audrey followed McTwisp silently staring at the dirt road in a complete daze. Without noticing she ran into the large rabbit as he was staring at the sign before them. Leaning to the side she peered up noticing they were in a fork in the road. One side of the arrow pointed towards Queast while the other side pointed towards Witzend.

"Alright, everything's seems to be in order", as McTwisp began hopping down towards Witzend.

Audrey ran to keep up. "What was that all about?"

"Well, you can never really be too sure of where you are going. Things are not always where you leave them", he answered back logically as Audrey just quirked her eyebrow at him. How could that even be possible? Lands such as these can't just move around.

As they continued down towards Witzend she immediately realized that her landscape of once pretty toadstools and flowers had changed. Looking up she realized the sky had darkened as twisted, mangled trees blocked her view. Glancing around she tried to look pass the trees but it seemed to be a deep dense forest as a small fog rolled in. To say the least Audrey felt the slight bit of tension.

"So, what's wrong with the Queen?", Audrey asked as McTwisp stared at her surprised. He stopped for a moment his nose and whiskers twitching as he looked around him quickly as if expecting something to jump out and scare them.

"Let us continue walking and I shall tell you", he said in a hushed whisper as Audrey nodded her head.

"A few days ago our Queen had fallen ill which is very unusual in Underland", as he continued to glance at his surroundings.

"She is slowly dying and we are unsure how".

"Well, what of the Red Queen? Couldn't this be her doing?"

"Surprisingly Audrey, we had thought this ourselves but when we had sent out some of the Queen's army to the Outlands we had actually found the Red Queen and Knave, her second in command both dead. It seems that they had both ended up killing each other", as McTwisp shook his head sadly.

"Who else could possibly have anything against the Queen?", as she saw something in the corner of her eye and stopped to look.

"Audrey?"

"Didn't you see that? I could have sworn I saw something staring at me…", as McTwisp stood on his hind legs sniffing the air. He sighed.

"Chessur, must you sneak on us?", as a large smile appeared right before Audrey's eyes. Wisps of gray and turquoise smoke appeared to form large emerald eyes, and a striped body that belonged to a large cat.

"Greetings all", as he twirled in the air glancing at Audrey curiously. His voice was deep and smooth. She could picture an older gentleman in a robe smoking a pipe reading the newspaper by the fire asking for another cognac. Audrey couldn't help but smile. He definitely gave off an air of deviousness but he was just adorable to look at.

"And who might you be? I most certainly have never seen you here before", as he floated closer to the girl before being blocked off by McTwisp.

"It's none of your business Chessur! I am ever so sorry but the young girl and I are quite busy and you are delaying us!", as he grabbed Audrey's hand to continue their destination.

"Oh you silly Rabbit! I was only asking a question. But, if you are going to Hatter I would be weary if I was you", examining his claws as he glanced coyly up noticing McTwisp stop.

"Whatever do you mean?", as he stared suspiciously at the floating cat.

"He's in one of his moods of course, and the girl is so tiny. It would be most horrible if he angrily stepped on her", as he made a crushing motion with his foot.

Audrey's mouth dropped horrified. No one said anything about the possibility of her being crushed. This was not in the fine print!

"He may be mad but he would never cause harm to the poor girl!", McTwisp shouted back furiously.

The feline only smirked as he floated in circles till he became nothing but a gray mist and disappeared.

"Mr. McTwisp? This, this man or Hatter as you call him is suppose to help me right? He isn't going to crush me is he?", as panic set in her voice.

"No, no, no, no of course not. He would never do that. No of course he wouldn't. Yes, he may be a little mad. But not a bad mad. No of course not you are completely safe", trying to reassure himself more then Audrey.

"I'm dead. I'm so dead", she whispered to herself sarcastically.

"Alright we must really continue! That flee bitten hairball is nothing but trouble. Do not listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about".

"So, back to the White Queen. Who else could be doing this?"

"We are unsure. There's a great possibility that it is someone in her court. Someone or something is poisoning her. We simply do not know who it is and we do not know how to help her", as the Rabbit sniffled.

"So there's a deceiver in the group. Is that why you didn't tell the cat what my name was?"

"Precisely. Dark times have befallen us again. We were once a trusting world but now it seems everyone is looking behind their backs. Someone amongst us that we trust cannot be trusted and we don't know how to find whoever it is. And as each day goes by our Queen gets weaker and weaker", he replied wearily.

"Would it be such a bad thing if he knew my name?"

"The Chessur is not a bad cat. But he is a selfish thing and when things get bad he will turn on anyone or anything to save his own hide", he whispered back furiously.

"You are something that we haven't received for a very long time. Not since Alice. It is most unusual so I cannot help but feel for some reason that you are important. Maybe you were sent here to help save our Queen?", looking on hopefully.

"I'm sorry Mr. McTwisp but you are wrong. I can barely help myself yet alone help a Queen and her world. Little people like me in the world not figuratively speaking don't do things like this. I wake up. Drink coffee. Go to my crap job. Get paid crap money. Go home alone. And wallow in my depressing life. And the process continues the next day", as she named off things on her fingers.

"I'm just like everybody else. I'm not special. I'm simply another person in life trying to get by and get my shit together".

"Maybe that is why you are here? Maybe your reason to in life is to help us in ours. You are something special though you may not believe so young Audrey. You are from the Otherworld. We do not receive creatures like you to ours. There must be a reason as to why you have come and we shall find out your purpose here", as Audrey could only nod morosely. The area started to clear as they found themselves in a large field.

If front of Audrey was a worn down wind mill that had seen better days. It stood on an angle and she was pretty sure that if there was a strong enough gust of wind it would go down like a house of cards.

What really caught her eye was the long table before her. It was a large wooden rectangular table covered by a stained tablecloth that was once white. The table was covered with all sorts of china. Small cups, large cups, big teapots, small teapots. Dozens of forks, spoons, knives. Sugar cubes littered the table, as plates upon plates were covered in deserts from biscuits, cookies, scones. In the background there was a phonograph playing scratchily something that sounded from the 20s'. Something she would hear in her grandmothers home on a Sunday as grandma would smoke up her Audrey Hepburn like cigarette holder. It was an interesting tea party to say the least.

"Are we intruding on some party?", as she turned towards McTwisp who only shook his head.

Coming to the end of the table she noticed another creature. A hare who sat there staring intensely at a stained spoon in his paw. On the other side of the table she noticed a tiny dormouse taking quick sips out of her teacup.

But what really caught her attention was a man. If that's what you could call him because she had never seen a man like him before in her life. He was staring at them but wasn't. He was in a daze of sorts, as no smile graced his mouth. He simply stared as if expecting something to distract him. Suddenly the hare yelled, pulling on his long ears as he took his tea cup and chucked it at the strange man. Without blinking he moved his head to the side the cup almost grazing his outlandish orange hair as it flew pass him.

Suddenly he smacked himself in the face causing Audrey to jump slightly. Blinking quickly the man realized there were guests here. Standing up on his chair he started walking across the table as cups and plates shattered beneath his shoes. Audrey stared on in shock as the man smiled a small gap between his two front teeth. Jumping down from the end of the table he kneeled down before Audrey ignoring McTwisp.

"What do we have here?", as bright green eyes twinkled before her.

SO YEAH!! WOO!!! WE FINALLY HAVE THE HATTER! PLEASE REVIEW LOVLIES!!!