The Tumultuous Teapot of Tarrant Hightopp
Chapter 9: Rosehip
"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
AN: sorry for not putting a quote up for the last chappie! Also, I would love for my newer readers/subscribers to review! I love to read your opinions. One last thing! I would love for y'all to check out my Harry Potter fic! I hope this chappie doesn't disappoint! Much Love.
Dear Fair Alice,
From the day I met you so many years ago I found you were different. As the years passed and I saw you become a woman my feelings for you changed. You are a lass that has so much..muchness. I cannot even begin to describe all the things I love about you. Your hair, fair skin, face, but most of all I love you for you. So, this is my pleading request. Don't marry that slurvish man, and come live with me. That man does not deserve someone as lovely as you. Consider all these things, but I have something else to say. I could never hate you as long as I live because I will only ever love. The reason my heart beats is because I know you're okay, and the hope that one day you will return to me.
Fairfarren,
my lovely Alice
P.S. Where roses may be red and violets blue, I shall forever love you my queen, my love, protected by the sky of blue.
Alice was not sorrowful anymore, but she began to radiate with pure joy. He loved her! She could not believe what she read! He told her he loved her! Alice began to formulate a plan inside her head. She would escape the fate she was doomed to have. Alice would leave this terrible world and find her beautiful Hatter.
~.o.O.o.~
Chess flew through the vast woodlands of the Tugely woods trying desperately to get back to the kingdom of Maromeal. Usually Chessur would have materialized back to the kingdom, but something was inhibiting him from doing so.
Was it the worry he felt for his friend? Did Chess not want to see such a great man go? What Chessur still afraid of the stony gaze the Hatter gave him? Chess was broken from his thoughts to meet up with the familiar tea table of the mad posse.
Mally the door mouse sat at the table staring at her empty teacup, and Thackery was sleeping, or snoring, quietly obnoxiously might I add, over his saucer. Chess winced at the loud sounds emitting from the hare. Chessur then cleared his throat.
"Hello you two, either of you wouldn't happen to know where Mirana is?" Chess purred adding a bit of mischief to his voice.
"Oi! What are ye doin' with the Hatta's hat?" Mally asked walking closer to the feline.
"Tarrant gave it to me." Chessur said to the tiny door mouse not wanting to further elaborate on the subject.
"No he didn't! Give me 'is hat!" Mally said with more force trying to retrieve the hat from Chess.
"I most certainly will not do so. Tarrant gave it to me because he told me where he is going he will not need is." Chessur then smacked himself for letting to much slip from his mouth. Or was it not enough?
"Gimme it NOW!" Mally screamed as she threw her saucer at the hovering cat. Chessur evaded the attack by disappearing, but he left the hat behind.
Mally went to the hat and began to brush the wretched cat hair off of it when she realized it. The fabric on the hat began to grow dull. She had seen this before, but only once. All she knew is that she needed to get to Maromeal fast before it was too late.
Mally and the now coherent Thackery made it to the kingdom gates of Maromeal. The raced through the pristine halls when the met up with Mirana and her court.
"Hello my dear friends! It is so lovely to see you!" Mirana said with poise and grandeur as her eyes slowly fell upon the hat of her dear friend. Her eyes widened slightly as she realized what was beginning to happen to the hat. That was not a good sign, but she tried to remain composed.
"My dear court, would you please leave me to have a moment with my dear friends?" Mirana questioned properly without breaking her serene façade. The group left the Queen without a complaint.
"Follow me." Mirana said with a sense of urgency in her voice, but still with a collected undertone. Mally and Thackery followed the fair Queen to another room that was heavily guarded by the knights of White.
The door looked like an enormous bank vault that opened and locked in multiple forms and fashions. As the group entered the dimly lit room the large door closed with a loud clank! Once Mirana was sure the group did not have any nosey eavesdroppers she spoke.
"When did you get it?" Mirana asked with worry gracing her usual fluid and soft voice. The two were taken aback by her reaction, but remained solemn.
"Today." Mally answered simply looking at the now distraught Queen. She paced gently through the room that held many precious Underland antiques.
"Not to sound completely out of the loop ya, but wha' is goin' on?" Thackery asked scratching his ear with a perplexed look on his hare face.
Mirana laughed, but this was not a graceful reassuring laugh. This was a manic, dark laugh. She was angry, but she would not let Thackery know that because she was after all the 'Fair Queen.'
"I have seen this once before. Many years ago when the Horunvendush day ruled over our land I saw a hat like this. You know that our dear friend is a hatter, or shall I say was a hatter." Mirana had to take a deep breath to regain her ability to speak. The soft sobs of her broken heart were caught in her throat.
"As I was saying. Tarrant's father Charles was also a milliner. He was just as raging mad with all the mercury that surrounded him. He was the one that taught Tarrant his trade you know. He was simply talented. When the Horunvendush Day came upon this fair land Charles died beneath the raging flames of the Jabberwockey. All that was left of him was his hat, but you see a milliner's hat is his life. When Charles Hightopp died his hat turned this dull color."
Mirana had to stop again. Tarrant the man she loved, the man she held nearest to her heart was dead. Then she realized it, the flare of color that lay on the dull colored hat. Mirana had to know for sure that he was or wasn't dead. She then walked brusquely through the room as she approached a small hand mirror.
She picked up the hat and then threw it through the small mirror. The hat floated in the black oblivion the mirror reflected. The mirror then tried to find a location, as the hat tired find a head to rest upon. There was no hat, there was no mess of red hair that the hat found, but the final spark of color on the hat died out.
Mirana dropped the mirror on the white tiled floor looking at the hat that fell out of it, and whispered.
"My dear friend, what has happened to you?"
~.o.O.o.~
Alice tried to breathe as she stood before the large double doors that would soon be opened. Her mother forced her into another one of those uncomfortable corsets. She was dressed in a gorgeous floor length gown, her wedding gown. She could not believe the idea she had. It was positively mad.
Yes. She thought. But it's an idea….a crazy, mad, wonderful, idea. Mrs. Kingsleigh walked up to her daughter as she wiped her face with a blue handkerchief.
"To think my youngest daughter to be wed! And to a Duke at that! How wonderful!" Mrs. Kingsleigh cooed at the thought.
Alice nodded at her delusional mother, and she was trying to be agreeable. She would not give her plan away. This time Alice would have a say in her life. The double doors then flooded open streaming the radiant sunlight on her ivory dress.
Alice walked down the long isle that sat ahead of her. All the heads of the wedding's spectators turned as they looked at the radiant lass. She saw William standing there waiting and all the poor girl could do was think of her Hatter. That's when she prayed.
Dad, I don't know if you can hear me, but if you do I have one more impossible thing for you….
The music ceased and the spectators faced the front once more. The wedding began as the priest opened with a prayer, and then he asked Alice. "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
I, Alice Kingsleigh, am running from my own wedding.
Alice looked out at the crowd that sat behind her. Her mother stood at the end of the isle looking at her daughter slightly encouraging her to say yes. They all looked at her expectantly, and that's when she saw the beautiful teapot that lay on a table on the distance. It glimmered like all the colors of her beautiful Hatter, and she could have sworn she saw a familiar feline's smile.
"No, I do not." Alice said turning to face the crowd. William tried to rationalize with the lass, but she would not have any of that. Mrs. Kingsleigh began to run up the isle fussing and raging toward her UNWOMANLY daughter.
Alice then tugged at the fabric that lay underneath the feet of her mother causing the older woman to trip.
"I will have order." Alice said smirking and pulling off the restricting shoes she was forced to wear. Many of the wedding's audience stood shocked, and the scene began to erupt with chaos.
"I'm sorry everyone! But I have a bigger Jabberwocky to slay!" Alice screamed as she saw the fluffy white tale of a familiar rabbit.
