Hello again, for the four-thousandth time. Please, please, PLEASE leave reviews. I live and breath for them. Seriously, they are the ring to my Golem, but not nearly that creepy.
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/*\
Blood wanted to compromise. He needed to have leverage over the Jabberwocky. Yes, he knew how to send the Liddell family home, but so could Joker, if Alice were to offer him something he wanted. He needed to keep at least one of the new foreigners here. However, it didn't take that much time to figure our his argument. The little girl, Edith, had fallen ill with a cold, in the manner of all children. It wasn't severe, but there was no way she could travel in one such condition. The maids attended her well, and there was no way Henry would leave her in the sole care of the Mad Hatter. He looked over Alice's letter once more. She had asked that he send her family to her territory, saying she wanted to reconnect with them.
The Hatter knew that she was trying to play it humble. She was 'letting' him think he had an advantage. For a moment he felt wounded, and a little confused. It would hardly benefit him to carry out his plans if he were to harm her family. Then there was the fact that she appeared to think that little of him. But then, as his sister had pointed out, he was a selfish man who didn't think about the consequences his actions might have on other people, even those he loved. He had something she wanted. More than one something. So he sat down, and composed his own message. He then walked down the hall to the guest room that currently housed Charles and Lorina.
/*\
Alice was awakened in the dead of night to Pierce banging on her front door.
"Ugh," She groaned. She threw off her blankets, letting them turn into a pile on her small bed in the corner of her room. She stumbled into the nightstand, her vision not having quite adjusted to the pitch-black, and she pulled open the drapes of her one window facing parallel her bed to let in the moonlight, almost hitting the door to her tiny closet. She slipped into her dressing gown, and stomped through the open living space to her front door.
Throwing it open, she was confronted with the sight of Pierce raising his hand to knock once more. Sensing the woman's displeasure, his eyes went wide and he held his hands up in surrender.
"I'm sorry, I know you were sleeping, but we have visitors." And once the mouse explained the situation, she swiftly re-entered her tiny home and dressed. She then accompanied Pierce to welcome her family to the mountains. She led him down the mile-long hiking trail to the main city. Once there, she was greeted by the sight of a Hatter carriage with two horses and a mortified looking maid, who apologized for arriving at such a ridiculous hour. If Alice wasn't mistaken, this was the woman who had been the housekeeper for her room when she had lived in the mansion. She'd even helped when Alice had been down with a fever, and fetched her cool water every half hour to dab her forehead with.
"Matilda, it was?" Alice asked the faceless, and the woman smiled. Even after all that had happened, Alice was still able to tell all the faceless apart, which both flabbergasted and pleased the populace. Strangely enough though, none of the four new foreigners replicated the ability, as evidenced by the next set of events.
The carriage had sat in the roundabout circling a large, ornate marble fountain with designs of dragons and angels spewing water, with a statue of a woman adorned by a simple robe standing on the top. The roundabout was made of crimson bricks, circled by closed shops all in the same shade of chocolate brown with family apartments above them, and only a few streetlamps assisted the moon and stars with lighting.
Alice had expected everyone, but instead, only the married couple exited the vehicle. Matilda had assisted Lorina out, and bowed her head respectfully to Charles.
"Thank you, Allison." Lorina had said,
"Um, no," the faceless had said awkwardly, "My name is Matilda." She corrected shyly,
"Oh! I am so sorry! All the faceless just look so much alike!" Lorina had exclaimed, distressed.
"It's fine, we're all used to it. In fact, Madam Jabberwocky is the only person in all of Wonderland who can tell anyone apart." And the faceless woman gestured respectfully to Alice, who was growing ever more uncomfortable by the minute.
"Really?" Lorina looked to Alice in awe, who was quick to change the subject.
"Where are Edith and Father?" The dragon had asked, keeping to the shadows, and holding her wings in tight, trying to look as normal as possible. Lorina looked a little uncomfortable, and Charles intervened for her.
"They are still at the mansion. Edith came down with a cold and was rendered unfit to travel the distance. Naturally, Henry would not leave her alone." Alice nodded.
"Makes sense," She stated, "Anyways, I would like to thank you for agreeing to come live in my territory as opposed to the manor. As soon as Edith is well, I look forward to her and Father's arrival as well." Alice's voice was stiff and formal. More as though she was addressing a diplomat, rather than her sister and brother-in-law. "I will show you your room in the Tower. I don't know why the Hatter instructed you be dropped off here, it's still a couple streets down."
"If you'd like we'll take you straight there. The boss won't need to know." the driver stated, "If it means anything," he continued, softer, "None of us in the mansion wished for this to happen to you. Not even Blood." Alice stiffened, and Charles and Lorina appeared confused.
"...It was not your doing. Your boss however, knew better. He made his bed, he can lay in it. But if you would please bring them to the tower, I would appreciate it." The driver nodded, and Matilda beckoned the couple forwards, and re-entered the carriage after them. Once it headed off, she held her hand out to Pierce,
"Ready?" She asked, grinning. Pierce took it and sighed,
"I hate teleporting." And the two vanished from the quiet street in a flurry of sapphire-blue flame.
/*\
After the carriage had departed, Pierce picked up the one suitcase of belongings that Charles and Lorina had accumulated - primarily clothes - and Alice led the way up the stairs to the Tower.
"I apologize for having so few guest rooms." She said, "This place was designed for the owner to be fairly solitary, so there are only three bedrooms."
"Father will not be pleased to be sharing a room with Edith." Lorina joked. Had Alice still been human, Lorina would have teased Alice about having to share a room with the girl, but in her...condition, it was safe to say that Father might not want the youngest Liddell that close to her. Alice giggled,
"Actually, I do not reside in the Tower. I use the office and the bath, but that's it. I live in a small house in the woods." She could feel the couple's puzzled stares, "I dislike the clutter of the city." And she proceeded to show them to the master bedroom, with all three people in tow. Pierce had set down the suitcase just inside the door and left. He figured his presence might make some things feel more awkward for Alice.
The room was completely white. White walls, white carpet, white black-out curtains, white four-poster bed with a white canopy and white sheets. Even the dressers and walk-in closet were drowned in white. Not a speck of color to be seen. The room was pie-slice shaped, with two straight sides, and the last bending with the structure of the tower. The curved portion, which the bed was set up against, was completely made up of a window, with but two embellished Greek pillars separating the top of the frame from the bottom. There was no glass in the windows, leaving the room exposed to the cold of the mountains. In fact, the two people were wondering why Alice wasn't cold, and Lorina was about to ask when,
"Dragons are fairly immune to the harsh climate of the mountains, so this place wasn't really built with warmth in mind, but there is a fireplace, and there is glass in the windows. It pulls down like a curtain." And as she walked up to the nearest absence of wall, she flicked a lever that neither individual had seen before, and three panes of glass decended, shielding the couple from the freezing night air.
"...That's good to know..." Charles said, a little unevenly. Alice pretended like she hadn't heard him. "And in here is the bathroom." Like the bedroom, everything was white. The room was a square fifteen feet by fifteen feet, and almost twenty feet to the ceiling. There was a sink, and a toilet, both relatively average-sized sitting next to each other, but the rest of it was taken up by two eastern-style changing screens, and the bathtub. The ceiling was made up completely of glass, taking complete advantage of the natural lighting present during the day.
"It looks like a swimming pool!" Lorina had exclaimed, "A little like the bath at the mansion!" Alice hid her grimace,
"Yes, but you see how it's raised up?" Alice gestured to the stairs leading to the edge of the bathtub, and then the space separating the bath from the ground. "See that plate underneath it? Don't ever light it, even if the bath gets a little cold. It's meant to boil the water."
"Why would it boil the water?!" Lorina asked, dismayed, Alice raised an eyebrow.
"Weren't you listening? Dragons can't feel the cold, similarly, heat doesn't affect them either. The bath is designed for the comfort of a non-human creature." Then quietly, she lost the even formality, replacing it with slight embarassment. "It is one of the only times I can feel physical warmth." The two were silent, and Alice exhaled, "I'll give you a tour of the rest of the house when the time changes. It's dark out and I'm sure you're tired." She moved to leave, when Charles grabbed her sleeve. She looked at him, surprised. He hadn't touched her since the day he'd told her he wanted to be with Lorina instead of her. He handed her an envelope.
"He told us to give that to you." He said softly, while Lorina was inspecting the mirror above the sink.
"Lovely," she drawled sarcastically, and took her leave.
/*\
Alice had completely forgotten about Blood's letter, which she'd left on her nightstand to read in the morning. She was too worried about the events of the day. She needed to explain to the two people in the tower why she'd have them live here instead of a luxurious mansion with heating, she needed to deal with forty pages of paperwork, and she needed to re-light the lamp on top of the Tower.
The lamp on the tower is what allowed the mountains to be warm. Last night, she'd thought nothing of the cold becuase, well, it was night, and she couldn't feel it. She hadn't realized that the lamp had gone out, and fixing the issue would take time.
She went and bathed in the stream behind the cabin. The current occupants of the tower wouldn't appreciate her coming over and demanding to use the master bathroom first thing, and she couldn't use the guest bathroom because she simply wouldn't fit in the shower. Alice took a short bath. She washed her hair and skin, and rinsed the dirt off and out of her scales. She dried off and dressed, and filed her talons to keep the appearance of regular nails. They were still sharp and could do some damage, but she'd taken to filing them. It both helped her feel normal, and it also made things more convenient. It was very, very hard to do paperwork and mind a set of claws. Once Alice was done, she brushed out her hair, and adorned her circlet. She then teleported to the Tower's office.
She listened for footsteps, any sign of life, but heard only one set. That meant someone was awake. She quietly slipped into the hall, and approached the door to the living area, and knocked softly. When the door opened, it was Charles. Alice had really been hoping to see Lorina. He was still in his nightclothes, and his ice-blue eyes looked down at her. A little uneasy, but friendly. He shoved his brown hair out of his face as he addressed her,
"Oh, hello Alice, sorry we weren't ready for you. Lorina's not awake yet." She nodded,
"I know the two of you have a lot of questions. Granted Blood probably answered many of them already, but if you need anything, I'll be in the office." She pointed to the door. "I am also going to have to leave soon, as I have to relight the lantern on top of the tower. In the event you cannot find me, you can talk to Pierce. He should be arriving at the tower to help me in just a few minutes."
"Alice!" A voice shouted down the hallway. The mouse was bent over panting, holding onto his knees.
"Did you run here?" Alice asked, a little worried.
"Um, yeah, but don't worry, I drank five cups of coffee this morning, chu. I'm good!"
"The bruises under your eyes beg to differ. I keep telling you Pierce, you don't need coffee, you need sleep." She said, gently poking his chest. The mouse shrugged and straightened,
"I'm alright, I swear. Anyways, I have a present for you, chu." and he pulled out a set of...boy's clothes. "While this isn't exactly proper attire for a woman, it's much safer to fly in. Also, I'm really tired of patching up the wing holes in my shirts, chu."
"Shirt." Alice corrected, "I only ever steal the one." And she smiled up at him cheekily. The mouse snorted,
"Says you," he muttered, and then he noticed Charles looking at them, an eyebrow raised. Alice had forgotten he was there.
"Your ears, sir, are they real?" Pierce's ears flattened a little. Last night, he'd been wearing his hat, so his mouse ears hadn't been visible. Right now his head was bare, and Charles's eyes had widened considerably.
"Well, yeah, why wouldn't they be real?" Pierce had asked, extremely confused and clearly uncomfortable,
"Charles, that was exceedingly rude." A voice from within had scolded, "If Alice has...extra appendages, then why can't other people?" Lorina had shown up, wearing a dressing gown over her pajamas. A little bit of banter between the two of them, and Lorina urged both Alice and Pierce to come in. Well, so much for getting some work done before dealing with her sister. Lorina had made tea, and everyone sat in the lounge, a little uncomfortably. Alice and Pierce were sitting on one side of the table, Lorina and Charles at the other. The way they were looking at her, it almost felt like Us vs. Them. Alice did not like it.
Naturally, their first question was how Alice herself had gotten to Wonderland. She'd explained about her would-be stalker, Peter White. She told them about her time in the Clock Tower, she explained about the vial, and said that when she'd lost it, she'd moved to Hatter Mansion to find it. She'd stated that as much as she disliked Blood, she'd started to warm up to him. Once he'd broken the vial, she'd flipped out and locked herself in her room. She told them about the Warden appearing in the mirror, and then about the transformation.
"Once I got out of the mansion, I headed here for the mountains. Upon arrival, the people were terrified, and wouldn't let me anywhere near the city. I built a small cabin out in the woods to live in, and once the people realized I was the Jabberwocky, and not some random dragon out to terrorize the town, they allowed me to go on with my duties. Now that they've gotten to know me, I'd like to think they do more than tolerate me, though sometimes people will still cross the street to avoid me." She finished. Next they asked why there were animals that looked like people. Pierce answered that question.
"Why, in your world, are there animals that don't appear humanoid? It's just how things work, chu."
Next they asked what Alice's job as the dragon was. She explained about the magic of dragons fire.
"The light of dragons' fire is supernatural. It can make anything grow, and bring warmth to the coldest of regions. For instance, at the top of the tower there's a lantern. When I breathe fire to light it, it allows for the entire region to become warm. Also, it's like a miniature sun, but more powerful in it's positive effects. When I first showed up, the people here were starving becuase they couldn't make any food grow. The light from the fire can grow plants in minutes."
"Is that all?" Charles asked,
"It is also my duty to, basically, protect and rule the mountains." Alice stated carefully. "All of these people have to listen to me, because that's part of my Role, just like how the faceless in Hatter territory have to listen to Blood. In turn, I protect them from potential enemies who might wish to harm us."
"That reminds me!" Pierce piped up, "You have to have tea with the Queen today!" Alice's eyes widened,
"I forgot." She said, and then made gestures of apology to the two people sitting opposite them. "I'm so sorry, I have to leave, Vivaldi is expecting me in..." She counted in her head, "Three hours!" And she made to rush out of the room when,
"Stop!" Lorina had ordered, and as Lorina's younger sibling, rather than the Jabberwocky, Alice halted, "Tea with the Queen?"
"Yes. The Queen of Hearts and I scheduled to have tea together today." Clearly, Alice had forgotten that this might come off as a little odd. "She and I are tired of territory negotiations with people we don't like, so we've arranged to spend some time together in order to relax." It was only then that her sister and brother-in-law started to realize the true extent of Alice's power in Wonderland.
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So yeah. I want to know how Charles and Lorina might react to Vivaldi, and in turn, how Vivaldi might react to the man who stomped all over Alice's heart! This is going to be fun...R&R! :3
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