Disclaimer: All characters belong to Lewis Carroll, Tim Burton and the Disney Corporation.

This short chapter we're flicking back to Underland. Some might consider this chapter maybe a tad gory.


"This had better not be a joke Simmons," said Lieutenant Thorntyne. He had been taking his job very seriously since his promotion and the last thing he needed was his infinitely annoying low-ranking cousin pulling jokes on him.

"Don't worry Johnny, this time I'm serious."

"I am your superior, you must address me as Lieutenant Thorntyne," he ordered exasperated. His cousin Ethan Simmons knew that Jonathan couldn't fire him – because his parents would kill him – and Ethan loved rubbing the fact of this in his face.

Ethan had been annoying him since they were kids, they'd grown up together since they were small children. Ethan's parents had died when he was young leaving him to be raised by his aunt who had clawed her way up the social ladder enough to marry a lord and thus Ethan had entered Jonathan's life and never left. He had then made it his mission to make Jonathan's life miserable. Once he had deliberately drove the neighbours crazy shouting 'wolf' out for days and leading them to nothing. As it happened one day he did come across a real wolf and if it weren't for a random woodcutter who had a history with gutting wolves Ethan would have been eaten there and then.

A certain part of Jonathan wished he had.

Anyway the wolf incident had taught Ethan nothing and to this day a key way of annoying his cousin was by pulling him out of work on imaginary missions which led nowhere. If Ethan hadn't looked so freakishly pale and shaken Jonathan wouldn't have bothered coming.

He followed his cousin out of some fern trees.

"What do you think the odds are he's telling the truth?" he muttered to his horse Gideon.

"I think we should be back in the tent doing something useful not following your clown of a cousin on another wild goose chase," he replied moodily. He'd never liked Ethan, mainly because when Jonathan and Ethan were teenagers training for the guard and Gideon was just a foal Ethan used to enjoy yanking on his tail to see what interesting noises he could make.

"Look, there, I told you. They're dead!" Ethan said pointing at the figures before them as if Jonathan couldn't see them.

Before them were two figures. He jumped off Gideon and went to investigate. Whoever they were they had been dead a while, the smell told so. Flies had gathered around their carcasses hungrily.

"What do you think happened to them?" Ethan said keeping a wide birth from the corpses.

Jonathan looked at the bodies keeping one hand over his nose. One was clearly that of a horse, the other was a little harder to confirm but he was pretty sure it was a rabbit or a hare of some kind. They were both likely from the Queen's court, she prided herself on having lots of pure white things and amidst the blood he could see their colour.

"Perhaps a wolf attack, or worse. They look like they've been half eaten," he said examining the jagged bite marks. The horse's head had been completely torn off its body and as for the rabbit, well there wasn't much of him left at all.

Gideon walked over as Jonathan was looking at the horse's body. "I can't believe it...he was telling the truth."

"Do you recognise this horse?"

Gideon looked at his head from different angles with evident disgust and eventually nodded.

"I think it's Julian."

"Julian?"

"I knew him a few years back. I'm pretty sure that's him."

"You were friends?"

"No, not really," Gideon shook his head. "I mean I knew him, he seemed nice and all but we weren't close. He seemed a good guy...he had two foals last I knew..."

"And the other one?" Ethan said and Jonathan and Gideon turned both completely having forgotten he was there.

Jonathan shook his head. "I can't tell, he's been chewed up too bad. It must have been a few days since they were killed, with this level of rot I'd say about a week or so."

Ethan turned slightly green and Jonathan wondered for the thousandth time how he had ever made it to become a soldier. He didn't have the stuff. It was some debate on who should go and alert their superiors. In normal protocol the lower rank would be the messenger but there was a good chance the others wouldn't believe Ethan on the other hand Jonathan was concerned if he left Ethan here alone he might faint.

In the end Ethan went back with Gideon and thankfully when they returned they were flanked by a large number of other soldiers. When they arrived though and looked at the bodies, new information spread and Jonathan was informed of just how serious the situation was.