Hello everyone! Again, I feel like we've been here before, but I'm terribly sorry for being a month late in updating. Especially with that cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter. I'll try not to take so long next time though I say that everytime don't I. I'll be sure to update sooner next time.

But anyway in this chapter we get to go on a ship ride, and by the way, have you all ever listened to the full Yankee Doodle song?

Listen to this: watch?v=qYcy0Y9Hu-A Whilst reading the song part, it'll give you the full experience as if you're actually watching a movie, believe me.

Anyway sorry again. Alice in Wonderland belongs to Lewis Carroll, this version Disney.

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"They're back! They're back! The dragonflies are here!" The ants scurried around frantically upon the four dragon insects breaking through. There was yelling and shouting from the leaf cutter creatures as they were filled with fear.

Alice and Reggie were pushed back against the side of the dirt wall in the chaos. Watching the dragons shoot fire from their nostrils at the ground.

"Quick, hide you children!" they were both carried off by the swarms of ants heading their way.

"But what do they want?" Alice managed to blurt out whilst being carried by the stampede.

"Our fungus of course! They want our fungus!" Suddenly they came to split in the tunnels, and Alice and Reggie were both carried off by separate streams of ants.

"Reggie!" "Alice!" They both called out for each other.

Eventually, both stampedes came to a halt, cowering at the ends of their tunnels. The working class boy managed to roll off of the ants and regained his footing, and finally managed to take a decent look at the situation. The tunnel they were currently sheltering in was not suitable enough for protecting themselves against the fire-breathing dragonflies, who were currently setting alight the main entrance of the ant hill.

"This, happens often I take it?" Reggie assumed.

"That depends on what you mean by often."

"Don't you have some sort of escape tunnel for situations like this?"

"Well of course we have those."

"Really?" Reggie had a quick moment of thought. "And, where do you put the soil from all these tunnels?"

"Oh that's easy. We dug other tunnels above these ones, and put the soil in there."

Pausing at that oxymoron for a second, the boy decided not to press it further and instead picked up a stick from the ground and stepped toward the exit of the tunnel.

Alice fell off the stream of ants in their own respective tunnel, quickly standing up and dusting herself off, glancing around at the tunnel's entrance to check if they were truly safe from the invaders. "Why'd you stop running? They could still easily catch us from here."

"Well we can't defend ourselves anymore than we already have can we?" said an ant coming up beside her.

"Why?" Alice wondered. "Don't you have enough resources? Don't you have enough men-, uh, ants, to fight back? I thought all ants had armies."

"We do. But we can't fight back against the dragonflies, that would be rude."

This left Alice dumbfounded. "Because that would be rude?" She looked up at the ant and placed her hands on her hips, repeating what he had said. "But they might possibly kill you!"

"Yes, but it'll hurt their feelings if we ever strike back against them." As soon as the ant had said that, he immediately glanced up and gasped, and Alice, who was still on the floor, turned to look too, only to see one of those dragonflies flying down the tunnel straight towards them. She let out a sharp scream and flung her arm in front of her face in attempt to shield herself.

However before the winged creature could even reach them, a rope that seemed to be made of tied together grass blades, latched around the fly's snout, right between it's teeth, forcing it's body to come a forced stop, jerking upwards and being flipped upside down.

Alice lowered her arm, and saw at the end of the tunnel, her bold friend holding the other end of the grass blade rope, looking intensely at the dragonfly. He then, without taking his gaze off the beast, slowly bent down and grabbed a stick off the floor, and started to back away.

"Reggie no" Alice realised what he was doing.

The Dragonfly wriggled it's way upright, and buzzed straight back down the entrance of the tunnel and following the boy into the main cavern of the ant hill, where all the other entrances to the tunnels were.

The boy stepped cautiously in the middle of the cavern, hitting his stick against mounds of dirt to attract the other insects attention. He offered himself up as bait, and once all the piercing hungry eyes of the flies were on him, he darted in another direction, heading to an entrance to an abandoned tunnel. The flies did the same, following him, closing their prey down and making attempted swoops like a hawk trying to catch a mouse. He ducked at every swoop, even hitting the flies on the snout on attempts when they got too close. The fire they breathed from their nostrils just barely missed him, and he only narrowly avoided a blast by finally reaching the tunnel, in which he proceeded to run down.

'I hope this works' he thought with slight fear filling him as he jabbed the stick upwards piercing the roof of the tunnel cutting it along as he ran, like a knife cutting through sellotape on a sealed box. He stopped when he got to the end. The dead end. The dragonflies were hot on his tail and were so close to catching him, just when, the roof of the tunnel caved, and piles upon piles of dirt spilt through like water coming through a broken sunroof, burying the dragonflies in a huge mound of soil.

From the outside perspective, the ants peered out from the other tunnel entrances they originally ran in to hide. They had seen the tunnel that the boy and the flies had sprinted into collapse, and gazed on in shock and held their breath not quite sure what to do.

Alice herself had made her way to the tunnel exit and clasped her hands to her chest when she saw the cave-in.

"Quick! Dig the boy out!" one of the ants finally shouted. And the creatures nearest the cave-in jabbed away at the dirt with their two front legs, and crawled into the soil. It was just a few seconds, but being Wonderland that could've been any amount of time. But either way the boy was pulled out by the ants much to the relief of his worried friend, letting out a breath of relief.

Immediately she ran to him and helped him stand up after he had stumbled out of the hole the ants had dug to reach him. He coughed a bit and was covered in earth. In his hair on his face and everything. He rubbed the dirt away from his face with his sleeves.

"Reggie are you alright? Those terrible beasts chased you! They preyed on you. You could've been eaten and gobbled up! They could have turned you into ashes with their breath! That was a very dangerous thing to do! It was, it was…"

Alice remembered it. How Reggie offered himself up like that without the slightest look of fear on his face, or at least from her perspective. How he held a rope of tied together grass blades like a lasso from those stories he told her from the far west. How he wielded only a stick against these monstrous creatures, which at this size were a lot bigger than him, and led them right into a trap putting his own life at risk to save other insects he'd only just met.

"...It was very brave."

She had listened to him talk about facing up to big terrible creatures before, how he would tackle them in a battle. About fighting large beasts and saving the native people of the land from such demons. But she always thought it was all talk and games. Not that she discouraged that in him. She always loved playing along with it at the meetups when the two would have play sword fights. But she never actually imagined a situation where he would come up against such an antagonist. Sure it was only tiny fire breathing dragonflies, but at their current size still.

"Ho Ho what a lad! He took care of the dragonflies who wanted to kill us without even having to offend them! He shall be taken to the Queen!" declared one the ants.

"Queen?" Both Alice and Reggie said at the same time a bit startled.

"She's down in the lower caverns, just finishing laying her eggs for the year. You shall meet her!"

The children were slightly relieved as they realised it was the Ant Queen they were talking about. And they soon found themselves being carried by the ants and down to the lower levels. All the way down, Alice couldn't get the thought of how impressed she was of her friend's heroic deed.

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They were carried into a large cave, probably the largest in the Ant mound. They were placed down in front of a large pile of larvae, which Alice and even Reggie couldn't help but feel slightly sick at the sight. And the top using it as some sort of throne, sat the largest Ant out of all of them.

"Your majesty, may we present the two humans, one of which saved our nest from the Dragonflies."

Alice and Reggie almost forgot their manners, only just remembering to bow and curtsey in front of her.

"Ah how wonderful!" The Queen responded in a kind older voice. "I'm very grateful to you for saving our colony. If there's anything you want from us, you're welcome to it."

This was their chance to ask. "Hmm, there is one particular thing actually your majesty" Alice stepped forward. "You see, we know how you leaf cutter Ants like to grow fungus. May we have two pieces of that?"

"I don't see why not." The Queen clapped her two front legs together as two worker Ants carried two pieces of fungi to the children.

"That's very kind of you your majesty, but, just a suggestion, perhaps you should, prepare," Reggie tried to find the right words. "For another attack like this."

"But we might offend the Dragonflies!" replied the Ant Queen.

"Ah but, aren't you offended when they attack you?" Alice pointed out with a rhetorical question.

Every Ant had to pause at that for a second, as if they were just figuring it out. "Interesting thought children" said the Queen. "We'll consider it."

"And just one thing more, I really, really want to know what a Jabberwock is. You see we found the Jabberwocky poem and-"

"Jabberwocky poem! G-Get them out! Get them out my sight!" ordered the Queen stuttering slightly.

The children glanced around them, and noticed that all the other Ants were visibly terrified too. "And to think from the same people saved us!" one of the Ants exclaimed, as two or three of them scurried toward Alice and Reggie, lifting both of them off the ground. And similar to what Reggie had done earlier, one of those Ants cut a line with his leg in the dirt ceiling above, opened it up, and threw the children upwards, with both pieces of fungi still in their hands.

Although they must've been several caverns down, they ended up straight back on the surface in the tall grass blades, and the hole closed up behind them. They struggled to get up for a few seconds as the whole ordeal just now with the Dragonflies had shaken them a bit.

"I don't understand it" admitted Alice. "What could possibly be so petrifying that the mere mention of it could turn a whole colony against you?"

"It must be a helluva beast. Far bigger than those ones the Carthaginians used I should think" Reggie said dusting the dirt and soil off his jacket and trousers, which was difficult because they were the same colour as the soil.

Alice suddenly remembered the incident her friend had just gone through and immediately became concerned about his well being again. "Did those creatures hurt you Reggie? Did the fire from their nostrils reach you? Did they claw at you?"

"No no Alice it's fine really" he smiled continuing to dust himself. "Just a couple of winged pests, no problem. I don't mind the dirt. Similar to the chimney sweeping anyway."

"Well, okay, just make sure you don't hurt yourself alright."

Reggie laughed. "Honestly Alice you're starting to sound like my mother. Now," he picked up his piece of fungus. "How do we become big again?"

"You have to lick it" Alice instructed, doing it herself and suddenly shooting upwards. Watching his friend quickly spurt up, Reggie copied her and at last the children were again regular height. "Better keep these" advised Alice putting the fungus in her apron pocket. "They came in handy last time."

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Remembering the instructions given by the Butterfly, both humans carried on with trying to reach the next chess square. They had almost forgotten after the whole mess with the Ants that they had a chess game to complete. One where they were the pieces. They were only still on the fourth square, and had yet to even cross the halfway crook.

Thankfully it wasn't much longer before they reached it. However what they didn't expect was when they came out of the forest, they were met with a very wide and long river, with the other side only just visible in the distance.

"Hmm. Bit of a snag this is" remarked Reggie.

The river stretched left to right as far as both of them could see, with no noticeable sign of a bridge anywhere. Besides even for this land the river was too wide for one anyway.

"Oh dear, how are we supposed to get across the halfway crook now?" sighed Alice.

And almost as if her prayers had been answered, immediately over the waves of the river a large vessel appeared out of nowhere. Literally nowhere as neither of the children saw it despite having just observed the entirety of the river. It was a proper ship, like an old naval one, used in battles and warfare. Though it looked similar to something pirates used.

Thankfully it wasn't pirates, more or less sailors who were all ampormorthic animals, and at the steering wheel of this ship, the Dodo in his captain's uniform brought the vessel close to the bank stopping just beside the children. Alice and Reggie, but especially Reggie, were in awe at the sheer might of a ship right beside them. Of course this wasn't new to him. He had been near, and even on some ships down at the harbour before. He volunteered in his free time to help out on some in terms of loading goods off and on. He was introduced to the work by his father and the boy was quick to make friends with most of the dock workers. He was quite used to this by now, but he loved it every time.

"Way Ho there! What do we have down here lads!" The Dodo in a delightful tone announced to his sailors.

"It's the Dodo! Mr Dodo! Could you help us?" Alice called up.

"Huh, I guess you were right they still do exist" remarked Reggie.

The ship hoisted a tiny anchor into the river bank and the Dodo captain peered over the side. "I say, you two look a little lost. May we be of any service to you?"

"You'll never hold the ship with just that" said Reggie quietly inspecting the anchor.

"Uh yes Mr Dodo, we would like some help crossing this river if you don't mind?" Alice quickly interrupted her friend.

"Crossing the river? Ho ho, surely it's not that far, you could probably swim it if you tried" he said it quite encouragingly observing the river behind him.

"How 'bout it Alice?" smiled Reggie clearly being sarcastic.

"I'd, much prefer it if we travelled by boat way."

"Hm, some people aren't meant for the sea I suppose. Hop aboard children!" The Dodo captain ripped a wooden plank off the deck and threw it over the side of the ship acting as some sort of ramp. Alice had some trouble balancing whilst walking it up, whereas Reggie did so perfectly he could've powerwalked it if he wanted to.

Hopping aboard, the tiny anchor was discarded and the plank was pulled back and placed into the deck again. "Right then men!" the Dodo addressed stepping back behind the captain's wheel. "Across the river it is!"

The anthropomorphic animal sailors hoisted the sails on the masts and the ones in the lower decks began rowing as the Dodo spun the wheel turning the ship away from the bank.

"You might want to hold onto something" Reggie advised to his friend, grabbing a hold of one of the shroud ropes. The ship jolted port side and Alice lost her balance temporarily, quickly grabbing ahold of the same ropes Reggie was holding. "Don't worry" he chuckled. "It should be smooth from here on."

The ship started to sail outwards, heading for the other side of the vast river. Once it became a bit more easier to stand, the children let go of the ropes and went for the side of the deck. They leaned on the edge looking down at the never-still water, violently hitting the ship, splashing and leaving stain marks against the hull.

"How on earth are we moving? There's no breeze" Alice observed.

"Sometimes you don't need a breeze, the current is strong enough to push it" Reggie explained.

"But the current is going against us" the girl pointed.

"Hm, must be some strong rowers-" the boy looked down only to see that they were no oars sticking out the sides of the ship. In fact, all the crew seemed to be on deck. "Anyway, I always wanted to take you on a ship Alice, show you around, see what it was like in person rather than just showing you pictures in textbooks. I just never thought it'd be like this." He leaned his back against the side with his hands in his jacket pockets. "Come to think of it, I've never actually been on a sailing ship myself. This is my very first time being on one on the open sea, well, river."

"In other words, you can list the facts logistics and procedures of a ship but never the actual emotional experience" observed Alice, a smile forming on her face.

"She's right me boy!" The Dodo appeared behind him and slapped him on the back. "I overheard what you said about the current. You claim to know the insides and outs of vessels like this, and yet only on you're first time being on one do you finally realise what these waves can really do. My boys should know, isn't that right lads?"

"You can say that again sir! Millar over there had trouble finding the north earlier" replied an ampromorthic racoon.

"Old Johnson got the mast and hull the wrong way round when we were building the ship!" shouted out a ampromorthic leopard. Of course there were some creatures there that Alice and Reggie didn't even know existed.

All the crew were engaged in some sort of duty, whether it was mopping the deck or lifting barrels or tucking the sail away, or any other meanel job.

"I didn't think it'd be this much work on a ship" Reggie looked around at the crew. One other thing he also noticed was although the Dodo himself spoke with a British accent, the crew all had American ones. "You aren't committing Impressment are you? Because that lead to a war y'know."

"I'll have you know son that we volunteered here" chastised an Echidna overhearing him.

"Oh we're all friends here me' lad! And it's not all work y'know!" proclaimed the Dodo.

"Are there games on this ship?" asked Alice hopeful.

"Games yes, but more so, singing too, shanties! What's that one you boys all love?" the captain asked turning to his crew.

The crew, upon hearing this, immediately all smiled to each other and sang the line:

"Yankee Doodle came to town A-Riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni!"

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All the sailors were climbing the ropes and some were dancing and moving along in tune with the song. As the lizard whom took over from the captain at the wheel lead the shanty.

"Father and I went down to camp along with captain Goodwood, And there we saw the men and boys,"

The crew all sang together:

"As thick as Hasty pudding! Yankee Doodle keep it up! Yankee Doodle dandy! Mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy!"

The Lizard once again lead:

"And there they'd fife away like fun, and play on cornstalk fiddles, And some had ribbons red as blood all bound around their middles"

They all sung rather quietly:

"Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy, Mind the music and the step and with girls be handy."

The children watched in sheer bewilderment at the show going on before them, not knowing whether to join in or keep watching in awe. It wasn't long though before they were eventually dragged in as two sailors each, picked up either child and carried them on their shoulders, bringing them to the middle of the deck.

"And there was captain Washington upon a slappin' stallion!" the crew harmonized.

"Giving orders to his men!"

Not being able to help it, Alice joined in too. "I guess there was a million!" she sang.

The chorus was sang again, as they all used the barrels as drums and the shroud and mast ropes as guitar strings. Reggie couldn't help but feel a little awkward right in the middle of all this. This was something that pirates did not sailors. This was, improper. But it wasn't until he felt a hand on his.

"C'mon Reggie, you're first time on a ship at sea, you should being having amounts of fun" his blonde encouraged him, so he relented and listened to the rest of the song.

"And everytime they shoot it off it took a horn of powder" the crew sang once again quietly as the lizard then continued at normal pitch:

"It made a noise like father's gun!"

And too at normal pitch the crew belted out:

"Only a nation louder! Yankee Doodle keep it up! Yankee Doodle dandy! Mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy!"

Then the lizard:

"It scared me so I hooked it off, nor stopped as I remember, nor turned about 'till I got home"

And to finish on a big finale:

"Locked up in mother's chamber! Yankee Doodle keep it up! Yankee Doodle dandy! Mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy!"

Toward the end of the crew's song, which at the end became more harmonized, Reggie couldn't help but find some sort of catchy rhythm to the patriotic song. A patriotic song of a revolution that had been against the very thing he loved and believed in. Yes it was in its infancy back then, but compared to the revolutionaries it was still a giant. He had to admit, there was a level of respect he had for said revolutionaries for achieving such a feat, and if it wasn't for that then it wouldn't have inspired the French revolution leading to the rise of Napoleon and the battle of Waterloo, which in his opinion was one of Britain's finest hours.

"Is it like this on other ships Reggie?" asked Alice approaching him, clearly having enjoyed herself in this little musical.

"It's-" he paused. Of course he didn't know the answer. And by the expression on his face and remembering that this was his first time on a ship Alice quickly realised this too.

"Well, I've heard from the sailors down at the docks, that they occasionally sing shanties."

"Ah you're never a true frogman until you've got salt water in your veins" proclaimed the Dodo in his accent coming up to them again. "Just ask old Robertson over there!" he pointed to ampromorthic frog with his pipe. "Now, any questions?"

Reggie looked over with a skeptical face at Alice who herself had one in return.

"Any point?" he asked.

"None whatsoever" she replied.

There were still many things though that the boy knew about ships, still in the facts and figures of things, and also in the weather. The sail which had now been hoisted on the mast began blowing rapidly, and any birds in the sky which had previously been there had flown away.

"There is a question, are you sure we're sailing smoothly?" he eyed the captain.

"Well of course we are lad" boasted the Dodo heading back to the steering wheel.

Even a land girl such as Alice was noticed something off too. "The ship seems to be rocking an awful lot doesn't it?"

"Not to worry, it's just the storm up ahead. No little bother at all."

"Oh well that's alrigh-, storm!" Alice exclaimed as she and Reggie shared a quick worried glance and turned their heads toward the bow to see right in the middle of the river, a large dark cloud on it's own producing gales and rain at an incredible speed.