In wonderland, water seemed to fill ships much faster and laws of physics seem to just be denied. Half of the ship was now underwater. Desperately hanging on to the side of the ship, Alice Reggie and the dodo tried, and failed to cling on. As the three fell in the ocean made of Alice's tears, natural instinct kicked in and they desperately tried to reach the surface. Each gasped in a breath of air after reaching it. Luckily, the storm blew the ships onto rocks near the island. "Quick the island!" Alice pointed. All three tried to swim to swim but kept being pulled under by the current. Alice grabbed onto a rock that she was pushed by just in time, and used all the strength she could muster to climb herself up on top the rock.
She desperately looked around "Reggie! Mr dodo!" The last of the ship succumbed to the tide and was taken underwater by the sea. "Mr dodo! Reggie!" she shouted again becoming more and more terrified that they didn't make it. Suddenly, upon another wave, the blackbird with the dodo sat on top of him. "Ho ho! Look who came back for me eh!" the dodo laughed. "A storm has never gotten the best of me before." "Mr dodo! Have you seen Reggie!" Alice shouted getting straight to the point. "The boy? Not since he was dragged underwater by the current." "What!" Alice exclaimed. "Oh no no no no no! Reggie!" she called out again. Under the water, Reggie was slammed into the wall of rock that was the island and pushed against it. Although weak from lack of oxygen, he climbed up, or more like swam up whilst grabbing the rocks, to the surface and gasped in air when he did, and tried all he could to climb onto the island, which he luckily succeeded.
He knelt there coughing and his back aching from being slammed against the island, but he was still in one piece. Alice finally looked over to see him, and her wave of relief was greater than any of the waves crashing around her. Barely managing to stand up, Reggie stumbled to the edge of the island and saw a long strong branch in the water. He reached down grabbing it, and managed to place it across to the rock Alice was on. "Alice! Use this to get across!" yelled Reggie. Alice glanced down to the raging ocean that she made. Reluctantly grabbing hold of the branch, she jumped in and held on with all of her strength, and slowly made her way across to the island. Reggie stood on the rocks on the edge, but steadied himself when he remembered what happened with Dinah. Alice was almost there, Reggie outstretched his hand and the two reached for each other, and thankfully, they grabbed hold of the other's hand. Reggie pulled her up.
Alice fell forward onto her knees coughing, her blonde hair in a mess. Reggie slumped down against a rock and the two tried to catch their breath. "Well i see you two have made it after all!" the dodo called from the sea. "Good luck in your quest children!" the dodo sailed away as it started to rain on the sea of tears. The island Alice and Reggie were on was fairly small, it just had one large cave in the middle with a tall spire. Both of them ran inside the small entrance to the cave to shelter from the rain. "I'd never would've imagined i could drown in my own tears" Alice rinsed out her skirt, which surprisingly became completely dry after she did so, and sat down against the wall of the cave entrance. Reggie sat down beside her running his hands through his wet hair. "We barely made it out of there" he had a distant look on his face, lost in thought how he and his friend almost, almost drowned.
First Dinah almost drowning, now themselves. He was lost in thought until he realised his friend sat next to him holding her arms shivering and tried to hide it. Reggie just took his brown jacket off, rinsed it out as best he could, which also became completely dry, and put around her shoulders. "Thank you" she softly said. Luckily Reggie's white scruffy shirt was long sleeved too.
"Alice, this is getting too dangerous. We could've died."
"I suppose we are not meant to carry out a simple quest in a land which is anything but simple" she admitted.
"We'd better decide what we want to do soon, there could be no turning back from this" Reggie realised.
Alice began to think at this. She had only originally come here to prove to herself she wasn't mad, ironically. But all this then happened, and she and her best friend just nearly drowned, which she felt guilty about since she's the one who dragged him into to this. This Jabberwock staff and going on this quest, it was too much-, Jabberwock. Alice remembered him, how vulnerable and depressed he looked when talking about having to attack members of the chess kingdom, how all he really wanted was to be free, free from that castle and presumably, the queen of hearts. She knew if she left now it would be the same as abandoning Jabberwock. Reggie was having the same thoughts too. He sought to himself that he would complete this quest, and never give up, despite how many obstacles got in his way, and protect the creature in need, in this case Jabberwock. That's what makes someone decent, that's what makes a man, that's what makes a hero.
"Alice" "Reggie" they both said each others names in sync. "We can't give up, despite the danger" proclaimed Reggie. "Yes, i'm not prepared to abandon Jabberwock just like that. It's not right he has to be trapped in that castle for being what he is" declared Alice. "It's funny isn't it" Reggie stood up. "Everyone just assumes he has all the power to do what he likes and has a lot of privilege just because he's a Jabberwock, but if they bothered looking they'd find that he's the one with the least amount of freedom, trapped in a life he can't escape and everyone thinks it's okay to bash him because, well he's a Jabberwock." Reggie offered his hand out to Alice. Alice smiled at his very true statement and took his hand. "Let's continue, we are so close now anyway." As both children turned towards the tunnel in front of them, one sentence came to them both "A place of darkness, where light turns to dark and revelations come to light" as they both finished saying this, all the light in the tunnel faded out.
The only light was a silver faded light at the end. There was nothing to make a torch out of, so they relied on the slight light at the end of the tunnel. They stepped carefully and slowly, holding each others hand. Neither of them said a word until the end of the tunnel, which approached them, instead of them approaching it. The end of the tunnel revealed a room, well, more like a cave, a rather large cave, with silver light from the roof of the cave shining on the centre of the room. In the centre, was a large pile of rocks taller than Alice and Reggie, and at the top of this pile, some sort of staff with two upward curved metal parts sticking out the top of it, was wedged between the rocks. Alice and Reggie approached the rocks slowly and stared at the, what they now realised was what they were looking for. "Is this?" "The Jabberwock staff" Alice finished Reggie's sentence.
Indeed it was the very thing, the very object of their quest, standing there up on the rocks, like Aladdin's lamp or king Arthur's sword, calling to them. "Oh we found it! We really found it Reggie! How wonderful!" Alice clasped her hands together in happiness. Reggie just smiled still looking up at the staff. He was still very wary though, as he remembered what it did: control Jabberwock's power. He and Alice stepped into the light shining on the staff, and slowly and carefully climbed on the rocks to reach their goal. Very slowly, they got to the top and, although hesitantly, put their hands on the staff. "Careful Alice, we don't know what this thing can do" "On three, one, two, three!" They both pulled and although they struggled, they broke it free, causing the rocks they were resting on to tumble. Both children fell, and braced themselves when they fell, but remarkably, the staff in Reggie's hand fired a beam of light down at the rocks below them, and turned the rocks into several layers of feathers.
When they landed on them, it took a while to realise what just happened. They both were kneeling now, looking at the feathers below them, and then turned back to the staff. "Did it just?" Reggie was speechless. "That's, incredible" Alice expressed. Both examined the staff, wondering if that is how it used the Jabberwocks power. Alice took the staff in her hands and stood up. "We have to handle this carefully, we don't know what else it can-" she was cut off as a beam of light shot from the top of the staff to the wall next to them, blasting a hole to the outside of the cave. Both just stared wide eyed at the now hole in the wall. "Um, you hold it" Alice gave it back to Reggie. "How did you?" "I have absolutely no idea" she admitted.
"We have to get it back to Jabberwock, we don't really know how to use this thing" proclaimed Alice as she made her way to the hole in the wall she accidentally created. Reggie stood in thought for a second, and his facial expression changed. 'What if this is all a ruse? What if he want's us to bring him the staff to just free him, then go completely back on his word and attack the rest of Wonderland? He said himself he was raised by the queen.' "Reggie" Alice calling his name shook him out of his thought. "Are you coming?" she stood by the hole in the wall. "Uh, yeah yeah, i am" he walked over to the outside of the cave with Alice where it was still raining, and to the edge of the island. "Any ideas?" asked Alice looking down at the raging ocean. Reggie looked the staff in his hands and thought of an idea. "I don't know how exactly to work this but-" he pointed the staff at the sea and to both of their amazement, it did exactly what Reggie wanted it to do.
It froze a path of ice right across the ocean to the land they originally came from. Both of them gasped and smiled looking at each other, both suddenly jumped back when a massive wave, quite literally, swallowed the ice path. "Oh fantastic" remarked Alice looking down at the floor. "Where is that chess square when you need it?" Then an idea came to Reggie. "Alice, you remember that story we learnt in sunday school?" he asked standing on top of a rock holding the staff with both hands. "You're not planning on what I think you're doing are you?" but as soon as Alice said that, Reggie put his arms out together and moved them apart while holding the staff. He didn't expect it to work, but to both children's surprise, the ocean in front of them started to part, but not in a straight line but more of a zig zag. "It, worked? It actually worked?" Reggie, although in disbelief, started smiling.
"Why that's, incredible" Alice was almost speechless. "C'mon, we'd better hurry back to Jabberwock, he's been waiting for our return no doubt" Alice started to climb down into the pathway where the sea had parted. Reggie thought to himself whilst climbing down 'Jabberwock did look very genuine when he told us about the chess people and wanting just to be free. Maybe he was telling the truth, and we were the ones offering to get to him, before we give it to the white and red king and queen.' He caught up with Alice and the two walked side by side, observing the strange creatures in this society of an ocean. A shark's body with a cat's head swam by, a dolphin wearing a top hat whom occasionally put his head out the water to breath and a figure of a human swimming on top the water who put his head in the water occasionally to breath.
A snake with wings swam through the waters and so did fish with legs, all sorts of creatures were living there. The children finally made it back to the land, and once they did, the sea reunited into one ocean. Alice and Reggie simply stepped out of the storm and back into the woods that wonderland seemed to be populated with. "That staff certainly is very powerful. We'd ought to learn how to control it and keep it out of anyone's way" Alice suggested. "Yeah i agree, but i think we'd better get it back to Jabberwock first, he might know how to control it properly" Reggie figured. Both children turned back to the forest for their journey back. "If only we knew how to get to him" Reggie remarked. And with those words, a light started shining from the top of the staff, a flew down leaving a streak of light behind it, revealing a pathway underground to what the children assumed, was back to the Jabberwock's castle. Alice gasped in surprise at this "Oh! Why how convenient. C'mon Reggie, time waits for no man, well maybe it does here i suppose?" She entered the tunnel and Reggie followed suit, holding up the staff which was shining a bright blue light.
At the queen of hearts castle which was still shaped in every shape possible, loud cheers came from the castle grounds and gardens and mazes. All the card guards and associates of the wonderland royal family were there attending a spectacular celebration, in the form of a croquet game. All sorts of creatures were playing, whilst the royals themselves watched from a long table on a raised platform, accompanied by servants,including the white rabbit. The old tyrant herself, raised a glass. "This a time for peace for us now my subjects! since a war is about to begin, well, a slaughter anyway" she chuckled. "Yes" said the king. "Jabberwock has achieved what you raised him to do nine tenths of his life so far my dear." "Of course, thanks to my incredible servants here" she motioned to the two servants who had led Alice and Reggie to the Jabberwock's castle. "And to my ingenious thinking, Jabberwock has most probably, and most defensibly have murdered that Alice girl and that little friend who was with her. After such a long time i will finally be able to put that blonde haired head onto a spike, and a brown haired one too."
"Might i suggest congratulating Jabberwock on this achievement, you have to visit him later or sooner anyway to prepare him for the attack or take over of the chess kingdom" suggested the white rabbit. "You didn't say your majesty." "Oh, your majesty." "That's better, but the attack on the chess kingdom, i'd ought to leave soon to deliver Jabberwock the good news that he is now free from that castle, since he has drawn his first blood now anyway."
I'm sorry for waiting so long to post another chapter, and i know it's a short one. I've been working on my other story on this site. Anyway, our two heroes have finally found the staff, at last i know. I do want to focus on my other story since it's a christmas story for a while, but i'll try and update this as soon as possible. Please rate and review.