Alice felt the cold, moist air around the exposed parts of her skin and the shivering awoke her as she opened her eyes to nothing. In fact it was a white/grey nothing which resembled a deep fog in all directions. She rubbed her eyes to be sure and looked again. Yes, it was a dense fog. A deep fog all about her reducing the vision to nothing. Alice thought to herself and pulled out her blade and began to cut a square in front of her so she could see what was behind the gloomy vale that surrounded her. She cut out the square which then proceeded to fall out into her outstretched hands in readiness. The cube of mist simply landed in her arms and began to bleed away onto the floor and turn back into the mist from whence it came, Alice looked through the square she had cut in anticipation but found only more mist which was now creeping in to replace the hole in its dense bulk. Alice shrugged her shoulders in futility and began to walk through the mist, her arms outstretched in case she ran into something hidden by the fog.
"Hello?" she shouted, "Is anyone there?"
And for a while there was silence, and the silence continued for along time only to be broken slightly by the occasional draught of wind that carried the fog along with it and made her shiver. Her surroundings were quite depressing for her in a way. She couldn't see anyone as there was nobody to be seen, she couldn't hear anyone except the of the wind ghostly whistling past her and she was becoming more and more cold as the dampness of the fog nipped her exposed flesh and began to dampen all her clothes with the exception of her leather boots. Suddenly and without warning, a small wind crept past her neck and breezed past her ear, it seemed to be saying something in a familiar tone but the fog was interfering as well as the wind.
"This way Alice." the voice seemed to say and the dense fog parted slightly. Not to reveal anything except a faint, vague glow of green and purple shapes changing in the air. She reached out her arms towards the small dent in the mist and began to move slowly towards the lights glowing through the dull surroundings, not knowing what to expect. "
The lounge room of the engine room was colder than other parts of the engine room," she thought to herself "so maybe the condensation has risen too much and this is all cool steam? Or maybe the engines have cooled from the slower speeds and this is the side effect."
All these possibilities kept her mind warm while her body was getting colder and colder, and it was now to the point where she had to wrap her arms around herself. The only thing she had encountered in her travels was when she was in the ice caves deep beneath the ground, but in there it was so cold she couldn't even think and it was a miracle she had been forced out by that giant marble dropped by the ladybug troops. That was the only good thing that they had done for her (accidentally of course since they were trying to kill her in anyway possible!). Alice often thought back to the time in that cold place, and each time, she thought she could remember less and less. She always supposed that being to cold to think would eventually freeze her up but she was now concerned with what these ever growing lights were through the fog.
After a few minutes the fog began to clear and she was greeted by a vast ocean of a misty floor with plumes and groups of fog, intermittently and irregularly placed within feet of each other. She could finally see a sky and it was bright blue but there was not a single cloud to be seen. She turned on the spot with her head craned up into the heavens but not a single cloud found her eyes, which she found disappointing as in wonderland, there was always harmless clouds in the sky and not a drop of rain fell while Alice was in a certain place . (The skies wouldn't want to disappoint such an idyllic background while she was present and having a good time.)
Suddenly a bright globe became apparent in the distance of the skies as there were no clouds to obstruct its view and it seemed to be coming towards her. Alice had also notice that there were no stars as well as clouds but she imagined that it was still the daytime so they couldn't be seen for the rest of the light. (She had once learnt this in school a long time ago).
For a moment, Alice stared at this oncoming globe of light as it silently approached her. It didn't seem to be moving with a purpose so she reasoned that it was only heading in her direction from an amazing coincidence. But the coincidence soon disappeared as the globe fired a beam of light at her from it's ever moving body! Alice moved to the left lightly and the beam harmlessly thudded into the ground (mildly disturbing the mist on the floor, but as always , it reset itself almost instinctively.) Alice pulled her knife out quickly as the second beam pulsed from the globe, but Alice raised her blade in response and the beam struck the shiny surface of the blade and reflected back towards the globe which then burst with a loud pop. (That Alice found very amusing !)
"You handled that very well, the voice spoke. It was clear, distinctive and recognisable now that it wasn't being distorted by the fog patch. Alice turned around to see a great mass of grey fog matter begin to open up. Its two opening sides both recalled all the matter with a swirling motion and a rush of wind was heard as they were being swept back, revealing something Alice didn't recognise for a moment until it breathed a puff of extremely colourful smoke.
"Hello Caterpillar," begin Alice "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here all the time," he answered confidently: "the trouble with your question is that you don't know were you are to question my reasons for being here? Do you?"
That was a good point. As far as Alice was concerned she was totally lost, so she had no right to ask her insect friend what his business was here. So she decided to kill two birds with one stone.
"Well where am I then?" she asked rather aggressively.
"You have our head in the clouds!" he replied, somewhat surprised. "Haven't you been here before?"
"I've had my head in the clouds before but it was a long time ago and it was nothing like this" she answered, somewhat humbled and embarrassed as she examined her surroundings that went on for miles around her with no end in sight. "What was that glowing thing that attacked me?"
"That was one of your stray thoughts. Haven't you found that when your concentrating on something there's always a stray thought that interrupts your concentration?"
"Yes I've found that often, but how did I get here?"
"Well I get here often by smoking my hookah, but as for you since you don't smoke, I don't know." And he took one large puff and breathed a rainbow of colours above his head. "What's the last thing you remember Alice?"
"I was in the engine room of the Bandersnatch cargo ship and I'd just swallowed a small glass of Bandershock." She began to explain. "Then all of a sudden my breathing became extremely difficult as some fumes crept up my windpipe and I passed out. I opened my eyes in a patch of dense fog, then I followed your voice to you."
The Caterpillar listened intently to her stories of Bandersnatch and how she had started to travel to their homelands aboard a great ship. She managed to leave out the part about the attempts on her life and the fact that almost every Bandersnatch she had come into contact was armed in some fashion but as per usual, she couldn't hide everything from the wise insect, and after a stern look she revealed about the attempt on her life. To her disappointment, he didn't seem to bothered about the fact she had nearly been killed. (the look on his leathered face suggested a tone of "I told you so!")
The Caterpillar looked into the air with a faraway gaze in his eyes and took another long inhale of his hookah as his eyes began to glow white, brighter than any star. Alice stood amazed and aghast at the spectacle.
"I didn't know you could do that!" Alice managed to say as her mouth was drooped open, but from the caterpillar came no reply as he gazed into the heavens, his eyes as bright as the clouds beneath them.
Then his head bowed and his eyes closed as he returned to his usual state, his expression looking slightly drained of energy.
"I could see a ship moving along the waters away from wonderland," he spoke "but it just moved out of my vision and I cannot see it anymore." He sounded disappointed and looked it too. She assumed it was because he felt he know a great deal, but all his abilities had let him down for the first time. Alice tried to be reassuring to her dear friend as best as she could.
"Don't be sad, I heard my destination is a great distance from Wonderlands shores and that's probably why the Bandersnatch are so secretive and mysterious."
"I do know of the Bandersnatch, but they reside a long way beyond my reach even here. So I cannot help you until you come closer to this world."
"But your talking to me now. That's good isn't it?" Alice began to worry. If the "Oracle" of this land didn't know about a certain something or item, it was seriously disturbing for her.
"Only because we are in the realms of a heightened imagination. My smoke does that for me but I doubt that liquid will return you here again."
"Why is that?" If Alice was going to be totally isolated from her friends she had second thought about her curiosity. It had led her into trouble before many years ago, but in the same place. Caterpillar took one more deep breath and gave a large exhale with all his might and the ensuing smoke formed a shape on a patch of elevated cloud (similar to a small hill) next to him. The smoke compressed into the shape of a crescent moon, shining a bright shade of yellow. Alice found this strangely familiar but turned her head to follow the shape as it began to turn on it's side. A whispering, swishing noise appeared from the silence from somewhere below her feet. Alice suddenly stepped back as she say 3 holes appear next to her feet. She instinctively pointed her knife towards them and they began to move slowly away from her in a straight line towards caterpillar. He had noticed their arrival and appearance (and the unnerving noise they made!) but he paid them no heed as he continued to smoke his hookah.
The lines rapidly increased their locomotion toward the patch of cloud the caterpillar was resting on as they formed 6 great lines all pointing in the same direction as they travelled, created by some invisible force. Suddenly as they approached Caterpillar, they swerved towards the floating, glowing moon shape and started to gather into a menacing black cloud that formed a small but long sphere around the moon (now laying on its side). The cloud then began to change shape. It writhed around like a fly would in the spiders web as trying to escape, but this was quite the opposite. It wasn't trying to escape the moon shape it was trying to build something around it. As Alice crept closer to examine the swirling cylindrical shape it had temporarily assumed and she looked deep into the boundaries of the cloud, the shape of the sideways moon still glowing brightly. Alice was no closer than 1 foot away from the now calming cloud still gazing wit curiosity into it's depths.
She leapt back in total shock and fear as two bright bulbous and slit eyes suddenly appeared accompanied by a deep laugh. Alice landed on the floor with a soft thud (she was landing on a cloud after all) with her only injury being her nerves which were moderately strung and some of her pride.
The moon split down the middle and began to move with a familiar, if not slightly sadistic voice.
"I hope I didn't shock you" it said. Alice recognised that voice and looked as the could settled into a familiar shape. With his eyes glowing brightly and his incisors all adjoining his other teeth in a menacing smile his body formed into an arched back with his claws extended. (Alice realised that it had been drawing his claws along the floor leaving the lines which faded as he now appeared)
"Next time, warn me when you bring old friends along!" complained Alice to the caterpillar. "His appearance was quite unexpected"
"Your lucky you are speaking to me at all, Alice" started the Cheshire cat. "If it wasn't for Caterpillar here, you wouldn't be hearing from me for a long time!"
The Cheshire Cat lied down in a cats relaxed position on top of the tuffet of a cloud and smiled to himself in his usual menacing way.
"Well I'm here now, what do you want to talk about?"
"Hello?" she shouted, "Is anyone there?"
And for a while there was silence, and the silence continued for along time only to be broken slightly by the occasional draught of wind that carried the fog along with it and made her shiver. Her surroundings were quite depressing for her in a way. She couldn't see anyone as there was nobody to be seen, she couldn't hear anyone except the of the wind ghostly whistling past her and she was becoming more and more cold as the dampness of the fog nipped her exposed flesh and began to dampen all her clothes with the exception of her leather boots. Suddenly and without warning, a small wind crept past her neck and breezed past her ear, it seemed to be saying something in a familiar tone but the fog was interfering as well as the wind.
"This way Alice." the voice seemed to say and the dense fog parted slightly. Not to reveal anything except a faint, vague glow of green and purple shapes changing in the air. She reached out her arms towards the small dent in the mist and began to move slowly towards the lights glowing through the dull surroundings, not knowing what to expect. "
The lounge room of the engine room was colder than other parts of the engine room," she thought to herself "so maybe the condensation has risen too much and this is all cool steam? Or maybe the engines have cooled from the slower speeds and this is the side effect."
All these possibilities kept her mind warm while her body was getting colder and colder, and it was now to the point where she had to wrap her arms around herself. The only thing she had encountered in her travels was when she was in the ice caves deep beneath the ground, but in there it was so cold she couldn't even think and it was a miracle she had been forced out by that giant marble dropped by the ladybug troops. That was the only good thing that they had done for her (accidentally of course since they were trying to kill her in anyway possible!). Alice often thought back to the time in that cold place, and each time, she thought she could remember less and less. She always supposed that being to cold to think would eventually freeze her up but she was now concerned with what these ever growing lights were through the fog.
After a few minutes the fog began to clear and she was greeted by a vast ocean of a misty floor with plumes and groups of fog, intermittently and irregularly placed within feet of each other. She could finally see a sky and it was bright blue but there was not a single cloud to be seen. She turned on the spot with her head craned up into the heavens but not a single cloud found her eyes, which she found disappointing as in wonderland, there was always harmless clouds in the sky and not a drop of rain fell while Alice was in a certain place . (The skies wouldn't want to disappoint such an idyllic background while she was present and having a good time.)
Suddenly a bright globe became apparent in the distance of the skies as there were no clouds to obstruct its view and it seemed to be coming towards her. Alice had also notice that there were no stars as well as clouds but she imagined that it was still the daytime so they couldn't be seen for the rest of the light. (She had once learnt this in school a long time ago).
For a moment, Alice stared at this oncoming globe of light as it silently approached her. It didn't seem to be moving with a purpose so she reasoned that it was only heading in her direction from an amazing coincidence. But the coincidence soon disappeared as the globe fired a beam of light at her from it's ever moving body! Alice moved to the left lightly and the beam harmlessly thudded into the ground (mildly disturbing the mist on the floor, but as always , it reset itself almost instinctively.) Alice pulled her knife out quickly as the second beam pulsed from the globe, but Alice raised her blade in response and the beam struck the shiny surface of the blade and reflected back towards the globe which then burst with a loud pop. (That Alice found very amusing !)
"You handled that very well, the voice spoke. It was clear, distinctive and recognisable now that it wasn't being distorted by the fog patch. Alice turned around to see a great mass of grey fog matter begin to open up. Its two opening sides both recalled all the matter with a swirling motion and a rush of wind was heard as they were being swept back, revealing something Alice didn't recognise for a moment until it breathed a puff of extremely colourful smoke.
"Hello Caterpillar," begin Alice "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here all the time," he answered confidently: "the trouble with your question is that you don't know were you are to question my reasons for being here? Do you?"
That was a good point. As far as Alice was concerned she was totally lost, so she had no right to ask her insect friend what his business was here. So she decided to kill two birds with one stone.
"Well where am I then?" she asked rather aggressively.
"You have our head in the clouds!" he replied, somewhat surprised. "Haven't you been here before?"
"I've had my head in the clouds before but it was a long time ago and it was nothing like this" she answered, somewhat humbled and embarrassed as she examined her surroundings that went on for miles around her with no end in sight. "What was that glowing thing that attacked me?"
"That was one of your stray thoughts. Haven't you found that when your concentrating on something there's always a stray thought that interrupts your concentration?"
"Yes I've found that often, but how did I get here?"
"Well I get here often by smoking my hookah, but as for you since you don't smoke, I don't know." And he took one large puff and breathed a rainbow of colours above his head. "What's the last thing you remember Alice?"
"I was in the engine room of the Bandersnatch cargo ship and I'd just swallowed a small glass of Bandershock." She began to explain. "Then all of a sudden my breathing became extremely difficult as some fumes crept up my windpipe and I passed out. I opened my eyes in a patch of dense fog, then I followed your voice to you."
The Caterpillar listened intently to her stories of Bandersnatch and how she had started to travel to their homelands aboard a great ship. She managed to leave out the part about the attempts on her life and the fact that almost every Bandersnatch she had come into contact was armed in some fashion but as per usual, she couldn't hide everything from the wise insect, and after a stern look she revealed about the attempt on her life. To her disappointment, he didn't seem to bothered about the fact she had nearly been killed. (the look on his leathered face suggested a tone of "I told you so!")
The Caterpillar looked into the air with a faraway gaze in his eyes and took another long inhale of his hookah as his eyes began to glow white, brighter than any star. Alice stood amazed and aghast at the spectacle.
"I didn't know you could do that!" Alice managed to say as her mouth was drooped open, but from the caterpillar came no reply as he gazed into the heavens, his eyes as bright as the clouds beneath them.
Then his head bowed and his eyes closed as he returned to his usual state, his expression looking slightly drained of energy.
"I could see a ship moving along the waters away from wonderland," he spoke "but it just moved out of my vision and I cannot see it anymore." He sounded disappointed and looked it too. She assumed it was because he felt he know a great deal, but all his abilities had let him down for the first time. Alice tried to be reassuring to her dear friend as best as she could.
"Don't be sad, I heard my destination is a great distance from Wonderlands shores and that's probably why the Bandersnatch are so secretive and mysterious."
"I do know of the Bandersnatch, but they reside a long way beyond my reach even here. So I cannot help you until you come closer to this world."
"But your talking to me now. That's good isn't it?" Alice began to worry. If the "Oracle" of this land didn't know about a certain something or item, it was seriously disturbing for her.
"Only because we are in the realms of a heightened imagination. My smoke does that for me but I doubt that liquid will return you here again."
"Why is that?" If Alice was going to be totally isolated from her friends she had second thought about her curiosity. It had led her into trouble before many years ago, but in the same place. Caterpillar took one more deep breath and gave a large exhale with all his might and the ensuing smoke formed a shape on a patch of elevated cloud (similar to a small hill) next to him. The smoke compressed into the shape of a crescent moon, shining a bright shade of yellow. Alice found this strangely familiar but turned her head to follow the shape as it began to turn on it's side. A whispering, swishing noise appeared from the silence from somewhere below her feet. Alice suddenly stepped back as she say 3 holes appear next to her feet. She instinctively pointed her knife towards them and they began to move slowly away from her in a straight line towards caterpillar. He had noticed their arrival and appearance (and the unnerving noise they made!) but he paid them no heed as he continued to smoke his hookah.
The lines rapidly increased their locomotion toward the patch of cloud the caterpillar was resting on as they formed 6 great lines all pointing in the same direction as they travelled, created by some invisible force. Suddenly as they approached Caterpillar, they swerved towards the floating, glowing moon shape and started to gather into a menacing black cloud that formed a small but long sphere around the moon (now laying on its side). The cloud then began to change shape. It writhed around like a fly would in the spiders web as trying to escape, but this was quite the opposite. It wasn't trying to escape the moon shape it was trying to build something around it. As Alice crept closer to examine the swirling cylindrical shape it had temporarily assumed and she looked deep into the boundaries of the cloud, the shape of the sideways moon still glowing brightly. Alice was no closer than 1 foot away from the now calming cloud still gazing wit curiosity into it's depths.
She leapt back in total shock and fear as two bright bulbous and slit eyes suddenly appeared accompanied by a deep laugh. Alice landed on the floor with a soft thud (she was landing on a cloud after all) with her only injury being her nerves which were moderately strung and some of her pride.
The moon split down the middle and began to move with a familiar, if not slightly sadistic voice.
"I hope I didn't shock you" it said. Alice recognised that voice and looked as the could settled into a familiar shape. With his eyes glowing brightly and his incisors all adjoining his other teeth in a menacing smile his body formed into an arched back with his claws extended. (Alice realised that it had been drawing his claws along the floor leaving the lines which faded as he now appeared)
"Next time, warn me when you bring old friends along!" complained Alice to the caterpillar. "His appearance was quite unexpected"
"Your lucky you are speaking to me at all, Alice" started the Cheshire cat. "If it wasn't for Caterpillar here, you wouldn't be hearing from me for a long time!"
The Cheshire Cat lied down in a cats relaxed position on top of the tuffet of a cloud and smiled to himself in his usual menacing way.
"Well I'm here now, what do you want to talk about?"