Kingdom Hearts

Wonderland

Ch. 12

Tea and Flowers

Sora and Alice made their way down the white path through the woods. In a distance, they saw a mailbox pitched on a fence. Written with white paint on the mailbox was the name "The Mad Hatter." The mailbox was built next to a pink gate connected to a small wooden fence that circled the perimeter.

The two came closer to the gate as they heard singing from the yard. They looked passed the gate down the walkway. At the end of the path was a large table placed in the yard next to a house on the right. At the end of the table sat two crazed characters singing something about an 'unbirthday.' They were spastic and wild as one balanced a teapot on his hat while the other stick out his tongue. He poured the tea by tilting his head. The crazed man tilted too far forward dropping the tea pot on the ground. Then the two went back to singing and drinking tea.

One was obviously the hatter with his giant green hat placed on his head. He was a short stubby man with a big head. Around the same height as Alice. The other was a brown bunny in a red suit.

Sora turned to Alice, "Well he's called mad for a reason." He opened the gate proceeded to walk towards them.

"I don't think we should," said Alice grabbing Sora's hand.

"Don't worry, remember what the cat said, 'Everyone's mad here.' We already encountered a bunch of crazies. What makes these two any different?" said Sora walking towards them. Sora heard what they were singing and decided to play along. He called out to them like an old friend "Happy Unbirthday."

The two noticed him and came dancing over. One handed him a cupcake while the other threw confetti on him. "Ha-ha he what are you doing?" he asked.

"Why it's your unbirthday today" said the Hatter holding the cake. "March Hare" he continued "Give this boy some tea."

The Hare handed him a cup full of tea. Sora not wanting to offend them drank the tea and began to celebrate with the two crazies.

Alice walked over feeling left out came over and said "Why, it's my unbirthday too."

The two crazies preceded to perform the same dance to her as Sora. After that the Hatter called out "Oh, Dormouse. Oh Dormouse." As he did a sleepy mouse limped over by a record player. "It's time to dance put on some music."

The Dormouse started up the record as music began to play. The Hatter and Hare began to dance with each other. Sora grabbed Alice by the arm as he pulled her to dance. The two bowed as they enjoyed partaking in the madness.

After about 15 minutes of celebrating they stopped and sat down as they all exchanged conversations. They asked each other riddles like "How is a raven like a writing desk?" which no one could answer.

As the minutes turned to hours the two kids forgot why they came here and continued to party until the Hatter brought out the cake platter. The platter was huge rising up nearly 8 feet in the air. The Hatter struggled to bring it out. A sliver lid covered the cake on the plate.

He set it down on the table as he said, "This is the main course."

Sora grabbed a fork and knife but had no plates because they've all been broken. The three waited to lay eyes on the cake as the Hatter climbed up a tall latter to the top of the lid. He placed his hand over the handle lifting the lid. Alice's face froze as not a cake laid on the tray but a big fat Heartless burping with cake crumbs around it. It padded it's tummy satisfied from the cake it devoured.

The Hatter and Hare took their forks and knifes preparing to consume the enemy believing it was cake. Until the heartless began to beat them up. The two laid on top of each other beaten down before the heartless jumped in the air. It stretched its arms and legs as it slammed on top of the two. Crushing the Hare and Hatter leaving them as flat as pancakes.

Alice screamed as Sora stood in front of her. He summoned the keyblade and prepared to defend. He swung at the heartlesses body. But when the keyblade made contact with the creature it deflected his weapon.

The large belly of the creature stood out from its red vest with its gray hat that stood upon its head. It launched its fist at Sora hitting and pushing him. "Holy cow that hurt," he thought as it he tried to recover.

It launched another attack only for Sora to "Dodge Roll." He rolled behind the heartless countering the creature from the back. When Sora hit the creatures back it reacted. It actually did a little damage. At that moment Sora knew how to defeat it. The heartless proceeded to attack so he kept his distance. He dodge rolled and tried to strike at its back whenever he could. After a few minutes of the same strategy the creature began to shake.

It waved it arms in the air as it looked a bit steamed and without hesitation it bumped its belly with its arm. It then charged at Sora with blistering speeds. Sora had no time to dodge. It hit him with its large belly knocking him down. Sora's body ached with pain struggling to stand. Alice standing behind a bush with the Dormouse watched in suspense. She screamed at the sight of her knight being struck, but the attacks didn't stop. The creature charged again striking him in the back. Then it charged again hitting him a third time. Sora toppled to the ground as the creatures attacks pervaded. He laid on the ground bloody and broken. The fat Heartless bumped its stomach in victory as it heard a scream coming from the bush.

The creature sees Alice with her hands covering her face. It walks towards her slowly. Alice mortified was unable to move her legs, she froze in fear in front of the monster before her. It raised its arms as the Dormouse hid in her pocket. "Hey" cried a voice back behind them.

Alice looked behind the creature. Her eyes opened wide as her knight stood behind the creature with keyblade in hand. The creatures yellow eyes burnt at the sight of its foe. The two lunged at the other, the heartless tried to throw a punch at him. Sora dashed forward jumping high into the air. He did a 180 flip in the air having his shoe deflect the punch by jumping off it. Launching him into the air both hands grasping the keyblade as he lifted it behind his head.

Screaming as he shifted the blade striking the creature on its head. It fell backward as Sora fell on the ground unable to get up. The heartless whaled in pain, it wobbled back only to fall over. As it fell, the creature burst into shadows only with a heart popping out rising into the sky.

After it disappeared, Alice came running over to Sora to see if he was all right. "Sora are you okay?" she said frantically. Sora raised his arm and stick up his thumb and smiled. Alice relived began to cry over him.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out a little golden bottle with the word elixir written on it. She gave it to Sora by feeding it to him. She held his head up as she helped him drink. Then she ran over the Hatter and Hare. She proceed in the same act giving them the liquid in the bottle.

In a few moments Sora rose from the ground, he felt no more pain with all his wounds healed. The same happened to the Hatter and Hare jumping to their feet and began hugging each other gleefully.

"Oh thank you, thank you," said the Hare happily rejoicing.

"You're welcome," replied Alice happily. Just as she said that a pair of hands rapped around her waist. It was Sora's also getting in the action. He gave a big smile thanking her for helping them.

She turned to him hugging Sora as well. "Thank you, my knight," she said softly.

"H-how did you heal us?" he asked.

She lifted the golden bottle, "This is an elixir. Something that can cure any injury. It was given to me by my sister and I was only supposed to use it when I needed it most," she said gripping it.

Sora grabbed her shoulder and said, "You didn't need to give it to me. You need it more, besides I'm a fast healer."

She looked at the now empty bottle and gave it to him. "This bottle is special it was my sisters. She was a very gifted cleric. She'd always carry it around in order to heal anyone that needed it. She gave it to me awhile back and that's the last time I saw her."

Sora stared at the bottle and replied back "I have a sister too. She's younger though. I remember when they brought her home. She was so small and cute. I was 6 at the time but I still remember that day."

-Destiny Islands 6 Years Ago-

It was raining, my Grandmother was watching me at home as my parents were at the doctors place. I waited and waited. I didn't know if it was a boy or girl yet. I looked out the window waiting for them to walk back until I heard the phone ring. My Mam-mam picked it up, after she hung up, she threw me a raincoat and some boots. She said "Time to go meet your new sister." Being a kid at the time and also the fact that I hate walking in the rain. I protested, demanding that they come to me. My Mam-mam forced me to get dressed as she grabbed her umbrella and then opened the door.

She held my hand leading me to the doctors. It's a bit of a ways down, getting sleepy and board I splashed my feet in every puddle I came across. My Mam-mam pulled my arm to get me to stop. We finally made it to the doctor's house while it was clearing up a bit as I went in the house. We walked in as Mam-mam talked to the doctor's wife to see where my family was. She pointed over to a door at the end of the hall. She took our coats before we walked down to the room. My mind wandered not paying much more attention to what was going on. Mam-mam opened the door and let me go in first. I wandered in the room seeing my Father standing by the bed. Noticing the door opened he turned around and moved over. On the bed laid my Mother holding something in her arms. It looked like a purple blanket but then I heard a noise. My Dad walked over and picked me up.

He took me to my Mom. Her eyes were fixed on the baby until I came over. She raised her head at me, her glasses were a bit crooked probably because her hands were full. She turned the blanket towards me to my surprise there was a face. "This is your little sister Hikari," my Mom said softly. The baby was sleeping soundly as the rain poured outside. I smiled at my new sister and without a moment passing she opened her eyes and smiled back at me."

Sora finished his story to Alice as he handed back her bottle. She smiled at him as each thought about their kin for a moment. They looked over to notice the two crazies have gone back to partying as they did before.

"I think I had enough partying for today," said Sora. He grabbed Alice's hand as the two left without a word. The Hatter and Hare continued with their tea party as if the two had never shown up at all.

The two went on their merry way down the path as it dawned on them why they went there in the first place. "Wait a minute, we're still lost," cried Sora. "Where do we go. Will never get out of here," said Sora desperately.

"Well why don't you skip to the end," said a familiar voice. The two looked at a branch high in the air. The head of the Cheshire Cat appeared before them followed by the body and then tail sitting on the branch.

"What do you mean the end?" asked Sora.

"Well the last place for one to travel. The Queens Palace. I bet you can eventually meet your friends there. All stories end at the Queens Palace. No doubt they'll arrive sooner or later," he added refusing to let down that grin.

Sora turned to Alice whispering, "Do you think we should trust him?"

Alice whispered back "I don't think he means us harm. Besides we don't have many other options."

The two nodded and turned to the cat. They agreed and asked which way to the Palace.

The cat smiled back "Well some people go that way," he pointed to the right. "While others go that way," he pointed to the left. "But for me I like to take the short cut," he pulled on a branch like a lever as a secret door plopped open out of the trees trunk.

Inside lay a beautiful garden with beautiful red flowers as far as the eye can see. But that's not saying much since the door is quite small. Sora smiled and tried to thank the cat, but it was gone with a giggle.

Before going in Sora asked Alice a question. "Hey, Alice what are you going to do after we get out of this place?"

She shrugged a little and answered back, "I don't know I guess I'll go back to living on the meadow above this place. But it will probably get lonely and I can't go back to my world."

Sora jumped at the opportunity, "Why don't you come with us. We have this really cool rocket that we use to travel to other worlds."

"You'll really let me," she said subtly excited.

"Yeah Goofy and Jiminy will be more than happy to let you aboard. But Donald will probably need some convincing," he proclaimed confidently.

Alice a bit grateful bent a little like how a woman shows gratitude. The two agreed and they both walked through the door wondering what other crazy characters they'll meet.