Chapter 4 - Fishing for clues!
Alice had not thought this morning that she would be talking to an enormous fish but she was determined to try and learn something about the bandersnatch sooner or later and this leviathan was her best lead do far.
"Did you frighten my friend at the bottom of the lake and if so why did you do that?" she asked
"I didn't mean to frighten him," whispered the fish "I just appeared quickly and stared at him. He must have been afraid as I've never seen a turtle swim that fast."
"He's a mock turtle, you know!"
"Oh, alright. Did you throw the knife at me?"
"Yes I did" said Alice apologetically "But I thought you were attacking him. I gave you my friends tail by way of apology."
"I've never been by the way of apology, what does it look like and who lives there?"
"Never mind!" Alice redirected the conversation "Do you know anything about some people called the Bandersnatch?"
The fish narrowed its eyes and it's gills bristled as it sat in concentration, occasionally flapping it's fins on the shoreline.
"Yes, I have" replied the fish.
Alice's heart jumped. "Oh good! What can you tell me please?"
"Well The bandersnatch are quite small beings to ordinary sized people but they have great numbers so I'm told. Also they're very machine people."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand you?" replied Alice, confused.
"They like to build machines and they're always building something with their hammers."
"Anything else you could tell me? It would be helpful."
"I'm sorry but that's all I know. But I could take you to tortoise if you want?"
Alice had never met a tortoise in Wonderland so he must live under the sea, which was odd for a tortoise. He must be very clever.
"Where is the tortoise?" Alice asked, but she was interrupted by a wailing sound getting louder and louder.
Alice looked over the fishes shoulder and saw the turtle running back this way, still screaming with fright. He was running towards her direction and approaching the pond very quickly, Alice assumed he would stop think that he wouldn't want to see the giant fish again.
Alice stood amazed as she saw her friend run straight over the surface of the water as if it was a large sheet of glass, not one foot submerging in the water below him. He landed on the riverbank and collapsed with exhaustion in front of her, panting to regain his breath. He looked up for a moment into Alice's eyes and spoke in a very tired voice.
"I forgot to take you with me!" he said and collapsed again face up. He jumped up once more and hid behind a nearby rock at the sight of the large fish and whimpered in total cowardice. The rock (doing what rocks do, of course) simply sprouted its legs and moved away behind the house. Alice took this opportunity to tell the turtle what had happened and maybe to try and calm him down. She explained that the fish didn't mean him any harm and certainly didn't mean to shock him so much. Turtle nodded in agreement (and bewilderment0 and approached Alice and the giant fish.
"So now what are you going to do?" asked turtle to no-one in particular.
"Well Mr fish here says he's going to take me to the tortoise so he can tell me more about the bandersnatch." Said Alice
Turtles whole frame perked up.
"Tortoise?" he exclaimed. "The one who taught us?"
Alice nodded
"Well what are we waiting for? Lets go!" and began to pace impatiently.
Alice gestured towards the fish and then the lake as if to signal her readiness. The fish wriggled about on the shoreline and began to slowly move himself back into the water, nut he was having difficulty.
"Could you give me a push please, I'm finding it hard to get back."
Alice nodded and placed her hands under one of his fins and pushed as hard as she could with Turtle pushing on the other side with equal effort until the fish wriggled a lot more than he should have done.
"What's the matter?" asked Alice
"Your tickling me!" replied the fish!
Alice and Turtle shook in disbelief and with an almighty push, splashed the fish back into the water. He turned his head and dived underwater.
"I think he want's us to follow him?" said turtle and waded in after him with Alice.
The world under the lake was very unusual. The whole lake was shrouded in a new form of mist which blocked everything from view until you were six feet away from it. Alice was now swimming more comfortably as her reptile shell had appeared on her back and she could now hold her breath for much longer. A few stray snarks tried to intercept them as the travelled deeper and deeper and further and further downstream but were frightened off by Alice's vorpal blade. She had to come up for air several times on their journey and for her it was a relief because the mist of weeds and fungus under the water was making her a little drowsy and the fresh air rejuvenated her before she dived back down after the fish. Each time Alice popped up for air, she noticed she was getting further down the land and it wasn't long before they reached the ocean and swam further away. Alice wondered to herself if Cat would still be able to appear amongst the fishes beneath the waves and weighed up the possibilities. Cats didn't like water, so he'd make an effort to stay away from it. Also Wonderland was getting further and further away so he might not be able to traverse the distance.
At last, a dim light met her eyes through the murky water and they seemed to be heading towards it but the blur of the waters made it indistinguishable other than the fact that it was there, however, Turtle swimming next to her seemed very exciting about whatever it was they were swimming into and looked quite enthusiastic.
As they approached it, Alice began to make out a building of some sort with light coming from all the windows. On further inspection of the structure, Alice thought that it looked like the skool in the fortress of doors. If Turtle and Gryffon DID come here to be educated then this would be the place as it was the only building she could see (mind you, she couldn't see underwater very well). The giant fish had stopped moving and was gestured towards the building with one of his fins as if pointing with a finger, Turtle waved a fin at the fish who then disappeared back into shallow waters leaving Alice and Mockers in the middle of the ocean next to a building Alice knew nothing about, but swam towards it anyway.
After swimming towards the door of the building, Alice suddenly realised she was no longer swimming through water and was suspended in mid air. She looked down and crashed into the moist earth on the sea bed closely followed by the Turtle. She looked behind her and noticed a shining surface curved around the building that was not unlike a large, inverted goldfish bowl.
"A building in a gold fish bowl?" she said to the Turtle
"Oh no" he replied, "It's a giant air bubble but there's a lot of moisture so the fish can breathe in here too. This is the underwater skool! It's been a long time since Gryffon and I were here last. Come on in, I just hope we don't interrupt any lessons."
Alice followed the turtle through the door into the skool and noticed this was the happiest she had seen him for a long time. They walked into a grand hall which was empty save for one rather old looking turtle sitting in an headmasters chair dozing loudly. Alice wondered if anyone came here any more as the hall looked like it had been unused for a long time as all the wooden chairs of all shaped were covered in dust and the black board was chalky but had no intelligible writing on it.
Meanwhile, Turtle had moved over to the old person sleeping in the chair and tapped him on the shoulder, with no significant effect. Turtle seemed more surprised than Alice by this. It was apparent that when Mockers had been here, the skool was quite full and the teacher was a hive of knowledge that he taught to his students. Now in this old building with it's single sleeping occupant, much of the places pride had left with the students on the last day of term.
Alice walked up to the old reptile and gave him a knocking on his shell in an effort to rouse him. It worked surprisingly well and he stammered his voice while awakening sounding very gruff. He rose out of his chair slightly, brushed himself down and turned to Alice with a very stern expression on his reptilian face. Before he began to speak, Alice looked at the old turtle. He was a real turtle (unlike her mock friend) with a very distinguished face as far as turtles go. He had small tufts of white hair protruding from the back of his head and he carried a walking stick in his right hand.
"Now see hear young miss!" he began, quite angrily. "In all my tears as teaching I've never seen such rudeness on behalf of any student of mine. Either two hundred lines or ten strokes with the cane! Which will it be?" and he gestured his cane in her direction.
Before she could answer (or draw her blade) he turned around and his face went from anger to delight at seeing the Mock Turtle.
"Well by Jove!" he screamed in delight "If it isn't Mockers himself!"
"Hello Tortoise sir." Said the Mock turtle and they both shook each others hands vigorously.
"So then me young fellow! Where's Gryffon and what are you doing with yourself lad?"
"I'm keeping busy," he replied "but my friend Alice wants to talk to you. She needs lessons, sir"
"Does she now? About what young miss?"
"The Bandersnatch if you can sir." Alice replied somewhat meekly.
Alice began to grow tired (or maybe more intrigued) by the fact no-one seemed to know anything about the Bandersnatch when she asked as the Teacher did exactly what everyone else did when asked. He stroked his chin and thought deeply to himself. Suddenly he said something Alice didn't expect in the slightest.
"Well come along young miss! You first class begins in 10 Minutes!" and he stormed off through a door in the back of the hall, towards a classroom she assumed.
"You won't regret his lessons Alice." piped up the Mock turtle. "Look how I turned out!"
Alice had the feeling this would be interesting, but the turtles remarks didn't exactly fill her with confidence.
Alice had not thought this morning that she would be talking to an enormous fish but she was determined to try and learn something about the bandersnatch sooner or later and this leviathan was her best lead do far.
"Did you frighten my friend at the bottom of the lake and if so why did you do that?" she asked
"I didn't mean to frighten him," whispered the fish "I just appeared quickly and stared at him. He must have been afraid as I've never seen a turtle swim that fast."
"He's a mock turtle, you know!"
"Oh, alright. Did you throw the knife at me?"
"Yes I did" said Alice apologetically "But I thought you were attacking him. I gave you my friends tail by way of apology."
"I've never been by the way of apology, what does it look like and who lives there?"
"Never mind!" Alice redirected the conversation "Do you know anything about some people called the Bandersnatch?"
The fish narrowed its eyes and it's gills bristled as it sat in concentration, occasionally flapping it's fins on the shoreline.
"Yes, I have" replied the fish.
Alice's heart jumped. "Oh good! What can you tell me please?"
"Well The bandersnatch are quite small beings to ordinary sized people but they have great numbers so I'm told. Also they're very machine people."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand you?" replied Alice, confused.
"They like to build machines and they're always building something with their hammers."
"Anything else you could tell me? It would be helpful."
"I'm sorry but that's all I know. But I could take you to tortoise if you want?"
Alice had never met a tortoise in Wonderland so he must live under the sea, which was odd for a tortoise. He must be very clever.
"Where is the tortoise?" Alice asked, but she was interrupted by a wailing sound getting louder and louder.
Alice looked over the fishes shoulder and saw the turtle running back this way, still screaming with fright. He was running towards her direction and approaching the pond very quickly, Alice assumed he would stop think that he wouldn't want to see the giant fish again.
Alice stood amazed as she saw her friend run straight over the surface of the water as if it was a large sheet of glass, not one foot submerging in the water below him. He landed on the riverbank and collapsed with exhaustion in front of her, panting to regain his breath. He looked up for a moment into Alice's eyes and spoke in a very tired voice.
"I forgot to take you with me!" he said and collapsed again face up. He jumped up once more and hid behind a nearby rock at the sight of the large fish and whimpered in total cowardice. The rock (doing what rocks do, of course) simply sprouted its legs and moved away behind the house. Alice took this opportunity to tell the turtle what had happened and maybe to try and calm him down. She explained that the fish didn't mean him any harm and certainly didn't mean to shock him so much. Turtle nodded in agreement (and bewilderment0 and approached Alice and the giant fish.
"So now what are you going to do?" asked turtle to no-one in particular.
"Well Mr fish here says he's going to take me to the tortoise so he can tell me more about the bandersnatch." Said Alice
Turtles whole frame perked up.
"Tortoise?" he exclaimed. "The one who taught us?"
Alice nodded
"Well what are we waiting for? Lets go!" and began to pace impatiently.
Alice gestured towards the fish and then the lake as if to signal her readiness. The fish wriggled about on the shoreline and began to slowly move himself back into the water, nut he was having difficulty.
"Could you give me a push please, I'm finding it hard to get back."
Alice nodded and placed her hands under one of his fins and pushed as hard as she could with Turtle pushing on the other side with equal effort until the fish wriggled a lot more than he should have done.
"What's the matter?" asked Alice
"Your tickling me!" replied the fish!
Alice and Turtle shook in disbelief and with an almighty push, splashed the fish back into the water. He turned his head and dived underwater.
"I think he want's us to follow him?" said turtle and waded in after him with Alice.
The world under the lake was very unusual. The whole lake was shrouded in a new form of mist which blocked everything from view until you were six feet away from it. Alice was now swimming more comfortably as her reptile shell had appeared on her back and she could now hold her breath for much longer. A few stray snarks tried to intercept them as the travelled deeper and deeper and further and further downstream but were frightened off by Alice's vorpal blade. She had to come up for air several times on their journey and for her it was a relief because the mist of weeds and fungus under the water was making her a little drowsy and the fresh air rejuvenated her before she dived back down after the fish. Each time Alice popped up for air, she noticed she was getting further down the land and it wasn't long before they reached the ocean and swam further away. Alice wondered to herself if Cat would still be able to appear amongst the fishes beneath the waves and weighed up the possibilities. Cats didn't like water, so he'd make an effort to stay away from it. Also Wonderland was getting further and further away so he might not be able to traverse the distance.
At last, a dim light met her eyes through the murky water and they seemed to be heading towards it but the blur of the waters made it indistinguishable other than the fact that it was there, however, Turtle swimming next to her seemed very exciting about whatever it was they were swimming into and looked quite enthusiastic.
As they approached it, Alice began to make out a building of some sort with light coming from all the windows. On further inspection of the structure, Alice thought that it looked like the skool in the fortress of doors. If Turtle and Gryffon DID come here to be educated then this would be the place as it was the only building she could see (mind you, she couldn't see underwater very well). The giant fish had stopped moving and was gestured towards the building with one of his fins as if pointing with a finger, Turtle waved a fin at the fish who then disappeared back into shallow waters leaving Alice and Mockers in the middle of the ocean next to a building Alice knew nothing about, but swam towards it anyway.
After swimming towards the door of the building, Alice suddenly realised she was no longer swimming through water and was suspended in mid air. She looked down and crashed into the moist earth on the sea bed closely followed by the Turtle. She looked behind her and noticed a shining surface curved around the building that was not unlike a large, inverted goldfish bowl.
"A building in a gold fish bowl?" she said to the Turtle
"Oh no" he replied, "It's a giant air bubble but there's a lot of moisture so the fish can breathe in here too. This is the underwater skool! It's been a long time since Gryffon and I were here last. Come on in, I just hope we don't interrupt any lessons."
Alice followed the turtle through the door into the skool and noticed this was the happiest she had seen him for a long time. They walked into a grand hall which was empty save for one rather old looking turtle sitting in an headmasters chair dozing loudly. Alice wondered if anyone came here any more as the hall looked like it had been unused for a long time as all the wooden chairs of all shaped were covered in dust and the black board was chalky but had no intelligible writing on it.
Meanwhile, Turtle had moved over to the old person sleeping in the chair and tapped him on the shoulder, with no significant effect. Turtle seemed more surprised than Alice by this. It was apparent that when Mockers had been here, the skool was quite full and the teacher was a hive of knowledge that he taught to his students. Now in this old building with it's single sleeping occupant, much of the places pride had left with the students on the last day of term.
Alice walked up to the old reptile and gave him a knocking on his shell in an effort to rouse him. It worked surprisingly well and he stammered his voice while awakening sounding very gruff. He rose out of his chair slightly, brushed himself down and turned to Alice with a very stern expression on his reptilian face. Before he began to speak, Alice looked at the old turtle. He was a real turtle (unlike her mock friend) with a very distinguished face as far as turtles go. He had small tufts of white hair protruding from the back of his head and he carried a walking stick in his right hand.
"Now see hear young miss!" he began, quite angrily. "In all my tears as teaching I've never seen such rudeness on behalf of any student of mine. Either two hundred lines or ten strokes with the cane! Which will it be?" and he gestured his cane in her direction.
Before she could answer (or draw her blade) he turned around and his face went from anger to delight at seeing the Mock Turtle.
"Well by Jove!" he screamed in delight "If it isn't Mockers himself!"
"Hello Tortoise sir." Said the Mock turtle and they both shook each others hands vigorously.
"So then me young fellow! Where's Gryffon and what are you doing with yourself lad?"
"I'm keeping busy," he replied "but my friend Alice wants to talk to you. She needs lessons, sir"
"Does she now? About what young miss?"
"The Bandersnatch if you can sir." Alice replied somewhat meekly.
Alice began to grow tired (or maybe more intrigued) by the fact no-one seemed to know anything about the Bandersnatch when she asked as the Teacher did exactly what everyone else did when asked. He stroked his chin and thought deeply to himself. Suddenly he said something Alice didn't expect in the slightest.
"Well come along young miss! You first class begins in 10 Minutes!" and he stormed off through a door in the back of the hall, towards a classroom she assumed.
"You won't regret his lessons Alice." piped up the Mock turtle. "Look how I turned out!"
Alice had the feeling this would be interesting, but the turtles remarks didn't exactly fill her with confidence.