Hello, readers! Here's the next chapter of this story, brought just after Christmas. A very merry Christmas to you all!
I was actually hoping to get this chapter posted on Christmas, but time constraints, and traveling over the holidays have made things difficult. They may also make things difficult in the posting of the next few chapters. Just warning you, the next few chapters may not be posted on schedule. But, they are being worked on; I have some time in the holidays to plan ahead with the story.
Also, this story will introduce some custom ideas! I know, that's a new thing! Just letting you know ahead of time, and I hope you enjoy what you find here.
Now, for the DISCLAIMER: 'Alice: Madness Returns', and the 'American McGee's Alice' series, are owend by Spicy Horse and EA Games, including any beta content not used in the final version of the games. The author owns their OC and any custom elements they introduce into the story.
Onward to the Chapter!
After we arrive back into the 'Mysterious East', we move over to the Pressure Pad amongst the tiles. Standing on it causes the large statue of a smiling man at the back end of our path to rotate in place. A small hole appears at the statue's bottom. The hole looks large enough for us to enter, and Alice attempts to do so after placing a Clockwork Bomb on the Pad. I follow her over to the hole, and slip into a small corridor that seems to loop all around the statue's bottom.
I look to Alice for an explanation, but she just smiles at me as she detonates the Bomb remotely. The statue rotates to its former position, with us inside it. The door in front of us now reveals a small cave with a blue mushroom spring.
"Warn me the next time you do that," I say to Alice. "I thought we were going to be trapped in here!"
"Oh, please," Alice responds with a wave of her hand. "I knew that was going to happen the moment I saw the statue rotate like that. You really do need to make decisions quicker."
"It's not as easy as you think," I mutter as we walk into the cave. Nothing is here for us to collect, or fight, so we take the blue mushroom into blinding white light.
When the light clears, we stand before another large, multi-path slide. This slide's path is made up of white pottery, blue flowers and birds adding extra color. A few trees with bright-blue leaves rest on small stone spaces by the slide. The rest of the horizon is the same grey clouds as before.
Ruin patches provide obstacles for us to avoid. I also don't see any rails along the path's edges, and I certainly don't want to fall into the mist and lose the progress we've made.
Alice says a quick, "Let's go," before she jumps onto the path. She slides down like before, and takes the left path when a fork comes. I follow her, and take the right path when the split comes up.
I force myself to slow down as much as I can, but the Ruin patches still burn my ass a bit. However, these patches also bubble and hiss, which is new.
As I slowly slide down, the words of the Elder Ant's 'quest' come back to me. I feel pretty pissed off that I have to go on some journey that I don't entirely remember, and face threats I don't ever recall meeting before. I'm being pressured to do this, which I don't like… but a part of me wants to finish it. It's some kind of paradox that I don't know how to solve. I'm not sure Alice would know, either, and that makes me feel even worse.
The end of the path comes up sooner than I anticipate, and there's no space for me to jump off of. So, I tuck my legs in, channel my mists into my feet, and launch off the path towards an oversized wood cabinet. The impact I make sends shockwaves through my body, but the desk doesn't look damaged at all. Alice just gives me a look before she turns her gaze elsewhere.
A few things quickly reveal themselves to us from where we stand. I can see a giant hookah at the mountaintop; Caterpillar's sanctum. A series of snorts directs us to a flying Snout near a large spire of rock. Alice draws out the Grinder and fires, even though we are quite far away from the Snout. To my surprise, the Snout actually gets hit by the pepper and sneezes itself into the sky. Stone grinds for a few seconds, but I don't see anything change.
Alice dismisses the Grinder with the comment, "The Duchess certainly has her uses!" I smile back, and then follow her over to a nearby Pad.
Alice drops a Bomb on it, and two drawers on a nearby cabinet open up for us to use as stairs. We do so, and cross the cabinet to reach a series of wooden bridges with thatched roofs. The bridges seem to hang on air alone. Will they break apart if we get on them?
It turns out, no; two Samurai Wasps walk across the bridge towards us just fine. Black smoke briefly fills the space where they appeared from, but it vanishes a moment later. Alice jumps at the Samurai without hesitation, her improved Hobby Horse in her hands. Once she lands, she knocks them both back against the bridge's railings with three powerful swings. I summon the Hammer and add in a charged shot from range to blow the insects into giblets of flesh.
I jump over when the explosion clears, and stop when I see Alice has Wasp blood and body parts all over her dress. I blush as I realize I made that happen. However, she just wipes her hands along it, and then moves on without any complaints. How is she this used to bloodshed?
I don't get an answer as Alice jumps off to the right, onto a stone platform. A breadbasket, probably left by the Snout we shot earlier, is there for her to slice. I wait for her to return, and no new enemies attack us as we cross the rest of the bridges. Midway through our journey, I note a fish-chain statue on an isolated platform, but the gap is too far for us to jump without some kind of platform midway.
We then reach two large stone spaces with angry faces carved into the rock. A set of small stairs connects the two together, one platform slightly overlapping the other. Several cries overlap each other the moment we climb the stairs to the second platform. I feel a twinge of fear as Samurai Wasps, Archers, Ink Wasps, and a Daimyo Wasp all appear around us.
We barely have time to draw weapons before we fight for our lives.
The Ink Wasps catch my attention, first. Alice had dealt with them by smashing their tablets, so that means more tablets should be around here. I teleport to the far end of the higher platform, and quickly spot two such tablets near each other. I smash them with the Hammer; each one takes one blow to break. I focus my gaze across the battlefield, and spot two more tablets on the opposite end. But, I've got to get past all the other enemies to get there.
I take a quick breath and teleport forward several times in quick sequence. Burning arrows, the Daimyo's naginata, and one of the Samurai's katana all phase through me as I flash by. Once I reach the tablets, I smash down both tablets as quick as I can. At the same moment, the Ink Wasps all latch onto me at once. It takes me a few seconds to smash them all off, which earns me an extra slash along the arm by one of the Samurai. I sprint to a safe spot, and drop to all fours to avoid the Daimyo's swing.
I glance to the sky. Alice is now against the Archers. She uses the Grinder to swiftly pepper them down one-by-one, even as the Samurai and Daimyo approach her. I summon the Ice Wand and fire bolt after bolt of frigid cold at the Archers. They slow down and turn blue, and I hear the Hobby Horse let out fresh grunts amidst the breaking of Wasp bones.
I keep my attention on the Archers. Each time one of them starts to move freely, it gets another bolt. I keep them all under control, because so few are left. Cries reach my ears, but I stay focused on my current goal.
The ground beneath me shakes; white-hot light sears into my skin. I scream in pain and fall to the stone, my vision nearly completely white. I feel the urge to Unleash, show my true power to these insects. They don't hold a candle to Alice's, or my, real strength. I should rip them apart, humiliate them!
My anger cools, oddly enough, by a blast of warm tea. Warm to me, at least; the Daimyo standing over me yells in apparent agony as the liquid burns through part of his armor. The fear of death makes me get up, run back, and switch to the Hammer's melee mode. Anger takes over. I swing again and again into the Daimyo's armor. It doesn't matter that he's at least twice my size, he needs to die!
The Daimyo blocks my swings with his naginata, blow-for-blow. Each impact makes a shockwave of air as we switch between offensive and defensive states. The Daimyo's size proves to be a weakness; I can dodge his attacks far easier than he can dodge mine. Even so, he uses his weapon's blade and handle to block my swings with expert skill.
Our stalemate is broken when the Daimyo suddenly howls from an attack I can't see. A telltale neigh reveals Alice is here to help with the Hobby Horse. With the insect distracted, I do a quick spin before I swing a hard blow into the Daimyo's chestplate. The insect falls back, and then forward as a second impact makes its mask fall off its face. I jump back as it slumps down, stars around its head.
Alice teleports over to my side, and we both deal blow after blow after blow to the Daimyo's face. Blood, bone, and goopy brain matter fly onto me, coats me in insect juices. I only stop when Alice and I start to hit the stone beneath us. I wipe my eyes clean with the back of my hand. My limbs heav from the strength I had to exert. Once again, we've won.
Then, I notice a tightly-bound scroll in what remains of the Daimyo's chestplate.
"Any idea what this is?" I ask Alice this as I walk over to the Daimyo's corpse and pick up the scroll.
She replies with a quick, "No idea." But, she silently beckons to open the scroll's silk thick rope binds. I hand the scroll to her, and she rips the binds open with a deft pull. The scroll rolls open a small bit, and Alice narrows her eyes at what's on it.
She stares for several seconds before she angrily says, "I can't read this. I know it's Chinese, but it must be in a rare dialect."
She then hands the scroll to me, for some reason. I take it, and look at the black characters written onto the paper. I see word after word, phrase after phrase, reveal itself to me. Each new discovery slams itself into my eyes; I have to blink to keep tears from streaming out.
"I… I understand this." I say this once, quietly, doubting myself. Then, I say it again, louder. "I understand this!"
"What?" Alice asks in surprise. "Since when could you understand advanced Chinese characters? You couldn't identify more than a few when we first arrived here. What's with the sudden increase in knowledge?"
"I don't know," I reply as I look to Alice's shocked face. "Honestly, I don't. I just know how these words go together, what they're supposed to mean."
"Well, then, read the scroll out," Alice insists. "What does it say?" I look back to the scroll and slowly read out the words. I enunciate syllables, and pause at key sentences, without knowing it…
"Great Warrior,
If you are reading this, then you have defeated the soldiers I sent to kill you. Congratulations. However, your little battle has cost you valuable time against me. Caterpillar's artifact will be mine, and this Grove will have a new Queen once that smoke-belcher meets his proper end.
I won't back down from a challenge. If we cross paths, I will kill you. My Wasps have spoken of your skill, but a mere child like you has no chance to defeat me.
If you choose to challenge me in this race, you must cry your acceptance to the sky. Someone will hear you. Those damnable Ants pop up everywhere, no matter how much of their hope we squash. Show me what you're really made of."
The scroll is signed with the emblem of three masks; one sad, one happy, and one angry. It must be the 'Witch with Three Faces', since this letter address the 'Great Warrior'. Me.
I look up from the scroll, and turn to Alice; she probably has some questions she wants answered. I freeze up at the blackness in her eyes, like the white-clothed woman from my nightmares. She looks as angry as when I fought with suicidal tendencies in the former Vale of Tears. I don't know how to react to this look.
"Let me guess," Alice slowly states, enunciating every syllable. "You're supposed to be this 'Great Warrior'."
I just nod, unable to speak up against Alice's intimidating presence. She lets out a heavy sigh and covers one side of her face with her hand. She doesn't seem to mind that Daimyo Wasp blood is still on her face.
"Tell me everything about this quest," Alice then orders me, her one uncovered eye holding me in place with its gaze. "Everything."
I open my mouth and tell her everything the Elder Ant told me. I include my own suspicions and questions into the explanation. Alice lowers her hand from her face as I talk. She doesn't clean up the Daimyo blood still on her.
When I finish, Alice stands still with her eyes closed. The unchanging grey sky matches Alice's unchanging expression as the seconds ever-so-slowly tick by. I keep my mouth shut tight. Soon enough, Alice opens her eyes and strides up right to my face.
She asks a question that I can't directly answer: "Why didn't you tell me about this quest when you first heard about it?"
"I didn't want to trouble you," I quietly reply. "You've got your own goals, anyway."
"And, you're absolutely certain you need to undertake this quest?" I flinch as I hear Alice's anger in her words, but I answer as confidently as I can.
"Alice, each memory I regain shows me more and more proof that I have spent time in Wonderland. It may have been a few months, or a few years, I'm not certain. The Origami Ants treated me with similar respect to you when we first arrived, and I'm inclined to accept that respect."
"Of course you accept respect," Alice counters. "Denying respect to the sender's face is one of the worst offenses a person can do." She then falls silent, which allows me to continue.
"Think of this in the long term Alice. We've been separated for a time in most of Wonderland's realms, and we've always found each other again at a later point. The only difference this time is that the separation will be voluntary."
"That doesn't make it any better," Alice comments. "But, I see what you mean. You could even consider your arrival into Wonderland 'accidental'. But," she then states with a raised finger. "Your memories seem to show that you are, in fact, returning to Wonderland. This world seems to accept you, in a way neither of us understand. I just don't like it when my friends leave me, even for a short period of time."
"Wait… you consider me a friend?" Wait, why did I have to ask that question?
"You show an honesty in your actions that doesn't really exist in London," Alice explains. "I know I need that honesty to be the best I can be, but a part of me doesn't want to accept that I'm weaker without it."
"But, if I go on this quest, I could be killed. This 'Witch with Three Faces' commands the Wasps we've been fighting. What if I don't survive against her?"
"Do you really think that you'll be killed without a fight?" Alice looks at me with angry eyes, and a dark smile. I don't need to answer her question, because I already know the answer. I may not like the answer, but I know it.
I quickly nod to Alice, and then walk to the edge of the platform. I take a few breaths, and then hold the scroll up in hand as I shout what I need to say to the horizon: "Hear me, Witch with Three Faces! I, the 'Great Warrior', accept your challenge to acquire Caterpillar's artifact. I will find it and save this Grove, or die trying!"
A loud bong echoes in the distance just after I finish. Then, a bit of stone grinds open near where I stand to reveal a set of stairs. These stairs go down into a dark passageway, curling around some unseen pillar. I look to Alice, and she gestures to the stairs without a word. I enter the hole in the same silence.
The stairs wind down, down, down, seemingly without end. The light from above doesn't reach all the way down, so I take slow steps. I keep a hand on the stone wall for balance. Falling down them would be a terrible start for the 'Great Warrior's' journey.
The hairs on the back of my neck start to rise. Something pushes against my back each time I slow down. Did anyone come in after me? I want to turn around, but my feet just go forward.
When I eventually stop short to see if this someone will bump into me, I feel wrong. The strange feeling goes away, and I quickly continue. A few minutes later, I hear footsteps ahead of me. That makes more sense; someone had to have walked up these stairs in order to open the path for me. Maybe it's an Origami Ant leading the way?
A light comes from below me, but I force myself to keep the same pace. Soon, the light blossoms into an open doorway. I step through that, and shield my eyes from the new light. I soon make out small plants around an equally-small lake. The greens and blues are dazzling, and a fresh smell of leaves tingles in my nose. The leaves almost completely cover the sky from view, like a layer of armor against the air itself.
"Welcome, Great Warrior," a deep voice says from very close by.
I turn to see a tall and muscular Origami Ant monk. He wears the same robe as the other monks, but he certainly seems stronger than them. Despite his size, he looks at me without any sort of anger or hostility in his eyes. He won't hurt me.
"I am XiaoZhun," the Ant says in introduction. "The Elder tasked me with making sure you begin your quest properly. First, we must pray to Caterpillar, he-of-many-good-things, for his blessing."
I snort a bit at the monk's description of Caterpillar—he seems to know about the Elder Ant's constant descriptions of the wise insect. Even so, I follow XiaoZhun by the side of the lake.
We soon reach a small shrine, consisting of a bowl with several smoking sticks placed in front of the carved image of Caterpillar. The monk clasps his front legs together and bows before the statue with elegant movements. My head pounds as I kneel down onto the grass beneath us and bow my head. Words come to me, words I instantly speak alongside the ant.
"Oh mighty Lepidotera," we chant together. "Oh sleeper in the mountain, many-legged lord of the lake and peak, divine benefactor, protector of the frog and tree, on your humble ants look kindly."
We repeat this chant three times, and the pounding in my head changes into a calm tingle. I feel like I'm actually being blessed by something, as odd as that sounds. I don't even change the word 'ants' from the chant each time I say it.
When we finish, XiaoZhun silently guides me down a path behind the shrine. The grass and leaves around us form a tight barrier that forces me to walk behind the monk. A few droplets of water rub onto my robe and skin as I pass through the vegetation. I almost lose sight of XiaoZhun once.
We soon enter a small stone space with a risen platform. My eyes instantly lock onto the many red eyes of a large dragonfly that rests on the stone. The creature has brown-and-green scales, silver-tipped wings, and a long straight tail. It chitters to me the moment we make eye contact.
My head pounds once, brutally, as images of this creature come back to me. I see us talking together, eating together, traveling together. In short, I remember this creature as a friend. Its name comes to me a second later.
"Chouku… my mount…" I say this out loud, and the dragonfly's wings flutter in what I instantly know as happiness. I walk up to it without fear, and it lets me rub my hand along its scales. They feel hard, firm, strong. More images come back to me, and I bask in the memories for as long as I can.
"We kept your mount ready for your return, Great Warrior," XiaoZhun explains from what sounds like a mile away, when it's actually just a few feet. "The Elder knew you would come back to us, that you would complete what you began. Chouku has waited with the rest of us for this day."
I nod in silence, happy that a friend like this, a friend that I had forgotten for what feels like forever, still kept me in mind. It reminds me of how Alice seems to care about me whenever we take separate paths, whether by accident or voluntary choice. It makes me feel like I'm important, in some way.
I press my hands at Chouku's neck, and he bows his head for me. I slip onto his neck like I've done it a thousand times before. I grasp the sides of Chouku's neck, and brace my feet there as well. Chouku raises his head up, and I hear his wings begin to flutter behind me. A feeling of nostalgia races through my limbs, along with an exhilarating hope for what might be about to happen.
"Thank you, XiaoZhun," I say with a glance at the monk. He bows back to me as I press my heels against Chouku's neck. Chouku's wings buzz loud and deep in my ears as he takes off, a steady rhythm against the wind that rushes in my ears.
I hang onto Chouku mainly with my legs, and feel the air blow through my hair. Chouku's wings quickly reach a faster pace, and I have to lean forward to avoid getting hit by them. Other than that, I am free to see the sights around us as we climb higher and higher into the air. I resist the urge to spread my hands in joy at the power of flight, and settle for a wide smile.
We soon cruise off at a stable altitude and fly by a few rows of falling characters. I reach out to touch them, but my hand just phases through them. The red characters burn slightly when I reach for them, but not seriously enough to force my hand back. Chouku chitters urgently to me after a short while of my indulgence, and I let him slowly bring us back to the Grove.
A loud buzzing makes me tense up and look around. A few Samurai Wasp Archers, in the same red armor as before, climb up from the Grove towards us. I try to summon the Ice Wand to fight back, but Chouku makes a sharp dive before I can focus. I have to hold on as tight as I can as Chouku slips into a covered forest path ahead of the Archers.
A stream below us flows in the opposite direction we fly. Stone statues of lions and dragons rest along the stream's bank, their angry faces very highly detailed. I duck under a stone arch as we fly underneath. The buzzing comes back, stronger this time. I look back to see a squad of four Archers following us. One soon flies close to me, an arrow drawn and aimed at my face.
I summon the Ice Wand before the Archer can fire, and fire an Ice Bolt at its face. The bolt instead hits the Wasp's shoulder, but it's still enough to make it lose speed and fall back. Another arrow zips by my head to remind me of the other archers. If they can match us in speed, how will we be able to escape them?
An idea comes to me as Chouku dodges a large tree branch that pokes out from the canopy towards us. Once we fly stable again, I lean down to where I think Chouku's ear is and shout the plan to him. He doesn't give a verbal response, but I feel the muscles in his neck twitch in answer. I sit back up, and then cry out as a burning arrow lodges itself into my back.
I pull the projectile out and blindly hurl it back at the Archers. It misses them all. Then, I fire an Ice Bolt at them. That also misses. I turn forward as Chouku climbs up and over a toppled statue. The Archer's buzzing continues, as do the burning arrows that fly past us. Amazingly Chouku's wings haven't been hit by a single arrow, but I'm not sure how long that will last.
As we duck beneath the extended neck of a stone dragon, I cry out, "Now, Chouku!"
The dragonfly heaves its body up, up, and around in a long loop through the air. I clutch Chouku's neck with my legs as I feel my body start to fall off his body. Then, I have to hold on with my hands as we dive back down with eye-watering speed. We level out behind the Archers, who just manage to duck under the dragon's neck.
As Chouku and I pop up behind them, I summon the Ice Wand and call out, "FREEZE!"
I fire an arc of cold at the Archers, and it hits them all in certain spaces of their body. They all fall like rocks into the stream below, too cold to concentrate on flying. Chouku and I fly on, but the energy I used in that attack leaves me barely able to keep on my mount.
Chouku's wings flap at a far-slower rate than before. I look to his face and notice his eyes are glazed over. He must be tired, too; that loop must have been more stressful than I thought. I rub along the space between his antennae, as I used to do when I really appreciated something he did. He thrums his wings with a surge of energy that rockets us forward.
The stream now starts to climb up a slope. The angle isn't hard for us, but I feel Chouku soon start to weaken over time. He drops lower and lower to the rushing waters, which makes me more and more worried that our attack tired him out. Thankfully, we reach a waterfall just when my feet start to skim the water's surface.
I give Chouku a quick tap on the side, and then jump off into the pool beneath the waterfall. The water is pleasantly cool to my skin, but I flounder for a moment when images of the stormy London waters come back to me. I break the surface and look for Chouku. Turns out he found a patch of dry land to land on safely. His body has a few burn marks from Archer arrows, but he mostly looks tired.
I swim around for a moment, easing my limbs to move after such a chaotic flight. As I slip under the falling water, I notice a large hole in the rock behind it. A cave, maybe? There's a faint, smoky smell coming from inside hole. Someone else could be down there. The Witch, maybe?
I swim back out for the moment. I can deal with all these 'maybe's' after the absolutely-certain things are resolved. The first of these is Chouku; I can't leave him abandoned where he is. I swim back to my mount to see him lie flat on the wet ground. His wings are flat against his back, his antennae twitching at a rapid pace. My memories tell me that this means Chouku is high-strung, and will need some time to rest and recover his energy.
"Man, Chouku," I say as I walk up to him and place a wet hand by one of his mandibles. "That was a nice way for us to be reunited, hmm?"
Chouku clicks his mandibles together in response, a sign that says he agrees with me. I rub my hand along the mandible while I look into his many compound eyes. The light from the waterfall is enough for me to see myself in them.
Actually, I think I see myself; the person reflected back to me looks younger than me. There's a light in his eyes that says he's enjoying himself. I don't think that light's in my eyes, now. Not after what I've experienced in London's smoggy streets. Certainly not after I've seen Wonderland be consumed by the evil Ruin.
"Listen," I say to Chouku as I break my gaze from his many eyes. "I found a cave behind the waterfall. It might lead me to the artifact, it might not. I'm going to check it out, anyway. You stay here and rest. Just be ready to come when I call you."
The logical side of me questions that last sentence. How can this dragonfly come to me when I call it, if it isn't near me? The memories of my time with Chouku tells me that isn't important. Chouku and I have been together for so long, we can recognize when the other is in danger. The other Ants call it a 'psychic sense' between us, one of the deepest of bonds. I remember myself simply caling it the greatest of friendships.
I hold my hand out to Chouku, and he rubs his mandibles along the limb. This should disgust me, but my memories remind me that this gesture is an act we worked on to show our gratitude to each other. It doesn't even matter to me that some saliva from Chouku's mandibles remains on my hand. It'll wash off in the lake, anyway.
I give a bow to Chouku, and then swim back over to the cave. The thundering falls fill my ears as I surface behind the curtain of water. Once I step onto the uneven stone path, the smoky smell from before returns stronger than before. Someone else has gone down here, that's for sure. It might be the Witch, it might not, but I can't just leave it alone.
'Hope you're doing alright, Alice,' I think as I start down the path. 'I wonder what threats you're facing on your quest…'
Alright, that's all for now. Kyle's quest has begun. What will the 'Witch with Three Faces' bring to the table? Will the presence of Kyle's dragonfly mount, Chouku, be any help? Please stay tuned to find out!
As usual, any reviews, comments, constructive criticism, and feedback are well appreciated. I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season.
Draconos is taking off... into whirling snow!