Chapter 14 - Back to skool.
Alice lay on the carpeted floor of the skool face up next to the Gnome elder, who was lying among pieces of broken mechanism from the propeller of his zeppelin. His feel still in the pedals attached to his feet. (Though not the bike frame anymore!) Alice stirred momentarily nursing a ferocious headache and sat up her head spinning. Her disorientation passed after a few minutes and she went over to the Elder who was still unconscious and cut in several places. Alice guessed that the injuries were not immediately life threatening so tried to rouse him by tapping his face gently. This did not work unfortunately. She looked around and gathered they had landed (more to the point, crashed) in the central hall with the fire blazing. She listened carefully listening for Boojum wails and they were only a whisper from their current position. They must be further inside. A bucket was hanging from the wall with the message "Just in case" stencilled over the side. It was a fire bucket kept for emergencies. She grabbed it off the wall, swung it three times and sloshed the water over the elder who woke with a surprised gargle.
"Ouch!" he shouted holding his arm covered in scratches. He analysed his surroundings and came to the following, obvious conclusion. "We're in the skool!"
"Really?" asked Alice sarcastically. He must have knocked his head somewhat.
"I know that, I'm surprised we made it, we were running our of air too fast!"
She changed the subject. "Are you alright?"
"I think so, all my limbs here as long with most of my head. Where do you want to go now?" He asked
"Well, I would like to go to the library to see if there anything about the religion in there."
"Fair enough. Any signs of any boojums?"
"Not here and they wont be in the library either. Getting out of the fortress might be a problem though."
"We'll just have to risk it. Still got your ice staff?"
It wasn't in her pouch so she began to look amongst the debris of the crashed zeppelin. They both over turned broken wood and timbers until Alice found it resting underneath the basket which was not attached from the rest of the balloon (like everything else all over the floor.) She strapped it around her skirt and they set off for the library together.
The skool was a virtual labyrinth of corridors and staircases all leading different places. The skool was one of the most unusual places of learning Alice had ever come across. From all the rooms they walked past, there were no classrooms. Where in this mysterious building did the actual learning take place? The facilities were all there, along with plenty with materials, but nowhere to actually sit and learn it all. They approached a large red door after what seemed to be miles of corridors. The notice above the door read the following:
"Library, Please be quiet or get expelled!"
They entered the library and instead of a corridor, were several large shelves that were covered books of all different topics, colours and sizes. To the left Alice picked up a book entitled "Everything you wanted to find in a library, without getting lost" which was the skools equivalent of an index. The library being the size it was, having hundreds of thousands of volumes on everything, this book was one of the most unusual. No matter what page you started on, you would find what you were looking for without rifling through flimsy pages forever. Alice had never met a psychic book before.
"Where do we go?" asked the elder. "I hope it not somewhere on the top! I can't be bothered with the climb.
"There's a lift." Answered Alice. He had obviously not been here before.
Alice opened the book and instantly found the section she was looking for. "Religion, Mythology and Metaphysics" She fan her finger down the list of available books on the subject until she found,
"The Religion: 2nd floor, 5th shelf, 12 book from the left."
"We have to go to the second floor, head towards the lift." Alice ordered
The lift was extremely simple. You stood on a stone slab, told it where you wanted to be and it spiralled up to the desired floor. One of wonderlands amazing little quirks. Alice arrived at the second floor (mildly dizzy) and proceeded left to the 5th shelf.
She opened the book and began to read:
"The Religion of Wonderland
The religion of wonderland is a modified version of Christianity with a militaristic order.
It was formed during the corruption of wonderland by the Red Queen of hearts but failed to actively influence the population as the queens cards forced the populace into slavery according to her whim.
The Hierarchy of the religion begins with the supreme cleric although this position is extremely sceptical as the priests and congregation pray to this person during sermons and celebrations.
The priests are the next stage down from the mythical cleric. They are responsible for the sermons and the communion of prayers in the gatherings. The main place of worship has been established in the newly built Cathedral city (but it has been rumoured to have stared through the great looking glass.)
The religion is awaiting for an opportunity expand its influence but the Queen forces constantly prevent this happening. The religions' primary goal is order amongst chaos. Communion takes place by offering a blessing to the supreme cleric and drinking the water of purity."
A loud shattering noise de-railed her train of thought followed by a large piercing, shrieking noise.
The Elder was pacing impatiently while Alice was studying. This ended abruptly as they stared into each others eyes in total dread.
"BOOJUMS!" the both screamed.
Alice dropped the book (which strangely enough, put itself back on the shelf) and rushed behind the shelf knocking on the handle of the staff, waking it up.
"I'll just check the library, see where they are?" said her little friend and he dashed off.
Alice hated boojums. When they screamed, it was like having your eardrums reach into one's head, trying to strangle your brain. Also they were incredibly hard to attack as they didn't stop moving until they attacked and by then, it was usually too late. The ice staff had a powerful effect on them, but for the wrong reasons. Being not entirely there, the particles of ice interfered with their manifestations and with enough interference, they became unable to sustain themselves and died and after all, an ice staff can put out a lot of interference.
She heard a scream. But it didn't belong to a Boojum. She turned around the bookcase and saw her older friend running towards her with his arms flailing in the air, running as fast as he pedalled when under fire in his now wrecked balloon. He was under pursuit by a single Boojum floating in the air towards him in the same way a fish does when it swims. The pointed the staff at his attacker and opened fire. The Boojum seemed to distort and write in the air as if some great force was pulling it apart at the seams until if finally dropped onto the ground, screaming energy. It shrank into oblivion and disappeared in a whirl of energy.
"Thanks." Said the troll, slightly out of breath. "I didn't get my pack of cards from the wreckage."
"The person who said toys were a waste of time, was seriously mistaken!" was Alice's comeback.
He simply nodded in agreement.
"I need to find a book on this "Water of purity" I'm sure it'll be in the same section somewhere?" Alice no longer had the index book so finding it could have been a problem. However it's not just the books in the library that have a mind of it's own. A single book flew out of the shelf and almost collided with Alice's head. It landed on the floor with a thud and opened by itself. "Try this?" the book appeared to say. Alice looked at the open page while the Elder just looked confused.
"Water of purity:
A chemical combination of certain unique elements and minerals diluted with water. It has been suggested this unique formation originated in the other side of the great looking glass in contrast to ordinary water. It's exact chemical structure is unknown as certain elements within it are constantly changing. When consumed orally or nasally, it hightens the telepathic communication centres of the brain that normally lie dormant within ordinary humans. Although this does not allow the victim telepathy, it does allow them susceptible to external telepathic or hypnotic suggestions. Can be deadly if entered into the bloodstream as it can suspend cardiac activity."
"That's how they're controlling the people!" exclaimed Alice. "It's mind control, but I don't know anyone who's psychic enough to do it!"
"Maybe if we, destroyed the water source, it's effects would wear off." Suggested the Elder
"It means a trip through the looking glass. At least now we know what to look for and what to do when we find it!" replied Alice. She then remembered there was a portal from the observatory nearby to the fungiferous forest. Caterpillar would want to hear of this. When they did find the source of the water, they would need something to neutralise it.
"We'd better go to the chemistry lab and make some sort of distillation for the water" suggested the troll.
"As long as I don't have to wear a pinny, lets go!" replied Alice.
Alice lay on the carpeted floor of the skool face up next to the Gnome elder, who was lying among pieces of broken mechanism from the propeller of his zeppelin. His feel still in the pedals attached to his feet. (Though not the bike frame anymore!) Alice stirred momentarily nursing a ferocious headache and sat up her head spinning. Her disorientation passed after a few minutes and she went over to the Elder who was still unconscious and cut in several places. Alice guessed that the injuries were not immediately life threatening so tried to rouse him by tapping his face gently. This did not work unfortunately. She looked around and gathered they had landed (more to the point, crashed) in the central hall with the fire blazing. She listened carefully listening for Boojum wails and they were only a whisper from their current position. They must be further inside. A bucket was hanging from the wall with the message "Just in case" stencilled over the side. It was a fire bucket kept for emergencies. She grabbed it off the wall, swung it three times and sloshed the water over the elder who woke with a surprised gargle.
"Ouch!" he shouted holding his arm covered in scratches. He analysed his surroundings and came to the following, obvious conclusion. "We're in the skool!"
"Really?" asked Alice sarcastically. He must have knocked his head somewhat.
"I know that, I'm surprised we made it, we were running our of air too fast!"
She changed the subject. "Are you alright?"
"I think so, all my limbs here as long with most of my head. Where do you want to go now?" He asked
"Well, I would like to go to the library to see if there anything about the religion in there."
"Fair enough. Any signs of any boojums?"
"Not here and they wont be in the library either. Getting out of the fortress might be a problem though."
"We'll just have to risk it. Still got your ice staff?"
It wasn't in her pouch so she began to look amongst the debris of the crashed zeppelin. They both over turned broken wood and timbers until Alice found it resting underneath the basket which was not attached from the rest of the balloon (like everything else all over the floor.) She strapped it around her skirt and they set off for the library together.
The skool was a virtual labyrinth of corridors and staircases all leading different places. The skool was one of the most unusual places of learning Alice had ever come across. From all the rooms they walked past, there were no classrooms. Where in this mysterious building did the actual learning take place? The facilities were all there, along with plenty with materials, but nowhere to actually sit and learn it all. They approached a large red door after what seemed to be miles of corridors. The notice above the door read the following:
"Library, Please be quiet or get expelled!"
They entered the library and instead of a corridor, were several large shelves that were covered books of all different topics, colours and sizes. To the left Alice picked up a book entitled "Everything you wanted to find in a library, without getting lost" which was the skools equivalent of an index. The library being the size it was, having hundreds of thousands of volumes on everything, this book was one of the most unusual. No matter what page you started on, you would find what you were looking for without rifling through flimsy pages forever. Alice had never met a psychic book before.
"Where do we go?" asked the elder. "I hope it not somewhere on the top! I can't be bothered with the climb.
"There's a lift." Answered Alice. He had obviously not been here before.
Alice opened the book and instantly found the section she was looking for. "Religion, Mythology and Metaphysics" She fan her finger down the list of available books on the subject until she found,
"The Religion: 2nd floor, 5th shelf, 12 book from the left."
"We have to go to the second floor, head towards the lift." Alice ordered
The lift was extremely simple. You stood on a stone slab, told it where you wanted to be and it spiralled up to the desired floor. One of wonderlands amazing little quirks. Alice arrived at the second floor (mildly dizzy) and proceeded left to the 5th shelf.
She opened the book and began to read:
"The Religion of Wonderland
The religion of wonderland is a modified version of Christianity with a militaristic order.
It was formed during the corruption of wonderland by the Red Queen of hearts but failed to actively influence the population as the queens cards forced the populace into slavery according to her whim.
The Hierarchy of the religion begins with the supreme cleric although this position is extremely sceptical as the priests and congregation pray to this person during sermons and celebrations.
The priests are the next stage down from the mythical cleric. They are responsible for the sermons and the communion of prayers in the gatherings. The main place of worship has been established in the newly built Cathedral city (but it has been rumoured to have stared through the great looking glass.)
The religion is awaiting for an opportunity expand its influence but the Queen forces constantly prevent this happening. The religions' primary goal is order amongst chaos. Communion takes place by offering a blessing to the supreme cleric and drinking the water of purity."
A loud shattering noise de-railed her train of thought followed by a large piercing, shrieking noise.
The Elder was pacing impatiently while Alice was studying. This ended abruptly as they stared into each others eyes in total dread.
"BOOJUMS!" the both screamed.
Alice dropped the book (which strangely enough, put itself back on the shelf) and rushed behind the shelf knocking on the handle of the staff, waking it up.
"I'll just check the library, see where they are?" said her little friend and he dashed off.
Alice hated boojums. When they screamed, it was like having your eardrums reach into one's head, trying to strangle your brain. Also they were incredibly hard to attack as they didn't stop moving until they attacked and by then, it was usually too late. The ice staff had a powerful effect on them, but for the wrong reasons. Being not entirely there, the particles of ice interfered with their manifestations and with enough interference, they became unable to sustain themselves and died and after all, an ice staff can put out a lot of interference.
She heard a scream. But it didn't belong to a Boojum. She turned around the bookcase and saw her older friend running towards her with his arms flailing in the air, running as fast as he pedalled when under fire in his now wrecked balloon. He was under pursuit by a single Boojum floating in the air towards him in the same way a fish does when it swims. The pointed the staff at his attacker and opened fire. The Boojum seemed to distort and write in the air as if some great force was pulling it apart at the seams until if finally dropped onto the ground, screaming energy. It shrank into oblivion and disappeared in a whirl of energy.
"Thanks." Said the troll, slightly out of breath. "I didn't get my pack of cards from the wreckage."
"The person who said toys were a waste of time, was seriously mistaken!" was Alice's comeback.
He simply nodded in agreement.
"I need to find a book on this "Water of purity" I'm sure it'll be in the same section somewhere?" Alice no longer had the index book so finding it could have been a problem. However it's not just the books in the library that have a mind of it's own. A single book flew out of the shelf and almost collided with Alice's head. It landed on the floor with a thud and opened by itself. "Try this?" the book appeared to say. Alice looked at the open page while the Elder just looked confused.
"Water of purity:
A chemical combination of certain unique elements and minerals diluted with water. It has been suggested this unique formation originated in the other side of the great looking glass in contrast to ordinary water. It's exact chemical structure is unknown as certain elements within it are constantly changing. When consumed orally or nasally, it hightens the telepathic communication centres of the brain that normally lie dormant within ordinary humans. Although this does not allow the victim telepathy, it does allow them susceptible to external telepathic or hypnotic suggestions. Can be deadly if entered into the bloodstream as it can suspend cardiac activity."
"That's how they're controlling the people!" exclaimed Alice. "It's mind control, but I don't know anyone who's psychic enough to do it!"
"Maybe if we, destroyed the water source, it's effects would wear off." Suggested the Elder
"It means a trip through the looking glass. At least now we know what to look for and what to do when we find it!" replied Alice. She then remembered there was a portal from the observatory nearby to the fungiferous forest. Caterpillar would want to hear of this. When they did find the source of the water, they would need something to neutralise it.
"We'd better go to the chemistry lab and make some sort of distillation for the water" suggested the troll.
"As long as I don't have to wear a pinny, lets go!" replied Alice.