"Let me take him," Gryphon said quickly, spitting the eye into her hand, and she nodded. He scooped Cat up in his beak and bent. "Mount my back, and I will take you back to Caterpillar's plot," he said. But she shook her head.
"I'll get to the Queen my own way," she said determinedly. "You go on."
Faith wasn't entirely sure where it was, or what he was talking about. But apparently she'd been there before. Gryphon reluctantly nodded. "Remember, though," he said, "It is where all paths meet. I shall come back for you." He took off, and Faith was left alone. She glanced at the eye in her hand.
"Ew," she said, and assembled the pieces of the scythe: the body, the blade and the eye. It was feather light in her hands, though she had the feeling that if anyone else picked it up, they would find it rather heavy. There was a noise; as though the supports of the house were groaning, unable to do their job. She dashed outside, suddenly very nervous that the Jabberwock had seen Gryphon leaving without her and come back.
As she ran out the front door, the ground started shaking beneath her feet, and she looked back, trying to keep her balance, and saw her house collapse. She shuddered, when she realised that if she'd lingered much longer... and then she started thinking of what he'd said. How she'd killed her family... no, it was an accident. An accident...
She began walking, trying to force his words out of her mind, along with her own feeble arguments. Further up the mountain, she saw a village. Perhaps that could lead to where she needed to go, although how anyone could live there, she didn't know. At least the houses weren't burning down, she thought miserably.
She struggled her way up the mountain, until she came to it. It looked like it had been successful once... but now it was nothing more than a desolate waste; a ghost town. Nothing moved. There was no grass, not even dead grass; no people, even slaves.
She crossed a river of lava, and turned around in time to see the bridge burst into flame. That brought out an involuntary shiver, and a quick glance around. She was in the main residential area now, it appeared. The houses showed a lot of fire damage, and she looked into a window of one of them. The room inside was dark; everything inside scorched. The outside of the house wasn't much better. Holes had been burned into the wood in several places, and most of it was charred black.
She saw movement reflected in the window, and she whirled around, seeing nothing, and took out the ice wand. In a furnace like this... perhaps ice was best.
In the distance she heard flapping, and dived underneath the house, through one of the holes. She heard the sound of feet landing, and slowly walking around, and she shrank back. A low growl. Sniffing. She shrank back further. A claw landed, just in front of her hole, and the sniffing grew louder.
The Gryphon looked underneath the house, and saw Faith. "What are you doing?" he asked, confused.
"God, I thought you were the Jabberwock!" she hissed. Gryphon shook his head, and smiled.
"No, though I can see why you'd be nervous. He's gone back to his lair, deep underground, to nurse his wounds. He won't be out for a while." Nodding, she crawled out. He bent down, and she climbed onto his back. He started flying. "Why did you come up here?" he asked, frowning. "It's dangerous... I'm surprised that you didn't get completely ambushed, or send the Jabberwock investigating."
She laughed nervously, unable to say anything.
They soon landed where she'd first seen the trumpeting signs. She sighed and looked around, and saw several card guards guarding a strange little man. All four suits were there.
It was the club, surprisingly, that noticed them first. He ran over, poky spear at the ready, and Faith grabbed her knife, settling it in her hand. When he was close enough, she threw. It connected with his forehead, dead in the centre, and he fell back, curling over himself as he rolled.
The others stared at him, and the diamond and the spade ran, hoping to double-team her. She grabbed the demon die from her arsenal, but the spade fired at her, and the missile exploded, knocking her back. But they had forgotten the Gryphon. He jumped onto the spade and slashed at him with his sharp beak, and knocked off his head with a powerful thrust of his eagle's claws. Faith, meanwhile, landed on a rock jutting out of the lava, and a fire snark jumped up, trying to bite her. She sliced at it, irritated, and a dice flew out of the fresh hole in its stomach.
It landed on the ground just next to her, and she scooped it up. Now she had all three, and she looked over at the remaining diamond guard, which was staring at her, waiting for her to get off the rock. The heart guard, though, ran up to her, poised to fire.
She threw the three dice onto shore, and a new demon came out of the portal that they summoned. It was large, winged, and very mean, and it bashed the diamond's head against a jutting rock before he could blink.
The heart fired at it, and it screeched, wounded, and smirked at the offender evilly. Then it launched itself at it, and BAM!
The heart guard was no more. Then, still fairly fresh, the demon looked around for prey. And saw Faith. Gryphon readied himself to defend her, and she glared at the demon. It was about to attack her when it caught sight of a few Boojum a shorter distance away, and leapt at them instead.
Faith watched it until she saw the demon retreat into its portal, and gave a quick sigh of relief. That had been a bit close for her taste.
In a corner, underneath an old and rusty bridge with an old and rusty gate, sat a queer little man shaped like an egg, and she remembered reading about Humpty Dumpty in Alice's diary. She walked up to him. "Excuse me... are you Humpty Dumpty?" It would have felt odd asking that... less than a day ago, she realised.
He muttered something unintelligible. She leaned closer, bracing her hand against the wall, and was surprised when it sank in. As the brick sank in, another did, and another, until it gave her a tunnel just wide enough to go through. Gryphon looked at it, startled, but rather impressed. Faith turned to him, and he nodded, urging her forward. She walked in, looking around for anything besides the walls of the tunnel.
She eventually reached a small chamber, and was promptly startled by a tiny explosion going off at her feet. She quickly looked down and saw a horde of ants waiting at the ready, and their general, who was attacking. "Oh lord, you again?" she grimaced, and took out the ice wand, pointing it at the ground. The ants shrieked, but their general chattered something at them, and they stood stock-still, aiming their guns at her. She fired.
A few seconds later, she stepped over the chunk of ice and all the way into the chamber. There wasn't much in there besides a small table, but was on the table really caught her attention. It was a huge gun, not a rifle... it looked like something she'd seen somewhere in Wonderland before. In a painting or something, maybe in the Queen's palace while she had been dreaming (it seemed like a VERY long time ago).
Faith walked over to it and picked it up. "Ca-..." she stopped and trailed off, remembering.
She sighed and turned, and screamed when she saw several heart guards entering the tunnel, laughing at her. Obviously, they hadn't seen what she'd just picked up. She turned and aimed carefully. The grin melted off the face of the one in front, and he started pushing his comrades back, trying to get out of the way. She fired.
BOOM!! She flew back several feet, and they were obliterated. There was simply nothing left. She stared at the gun in her hands, not exactly trusting herself to breathe, and carefully strapped it to her back.
Outside, she saw Gryphon finishing off the last of three heart guards that had attacked him, and walked over to him. He looked up.
"Forgive me, Faith... these three attacked me. Then others..." he trailed off when he saw the gun. "You've found the Blunderbuss," he said, awed. She nodded. "That's the most powerful weapon in Wonderland."
"I kind of got that impression," she said, grinning slightly, "when first there were ten heart guards, and then there were none." He laughed.
She looked over at Humpty Dumpty, and was surprised to see him pointing to the old and rusty gate, and walked over to it. Vaguely he nodded, and she pushed at the iron bars, not really trusting them to do much. But they crumbled in her hands, and she was able to make a hole just big enough for her to get through. Gryphon leapt over, and they reached the other side at about the same time. There was a long, winding path through the cliffs, sometimes in the open, sometimes closely quartered, and the two were kept on the ready constantly through the various enemies they met. Faith turned a corner and was instantly thrown back by a Boojum flying at her and screaming, but Gryphon leapt at it and killed it very quickly.
Finally she reached a wide-open plain with a cave, wide open and black. The two looked at it, and stood at the entrance. "Faith," a voice said from inside. Faith jumped back a foot or two, and Gryphon perked up.
"Who's there?" she asked quickly.
"I am Wonderland's Oracle. It has been long since anyone has come, seeking my advice."
"Oh. I didn't know... well, that that was what I'd come for."
"Then you do not wish for my counsels?"
"Oh yes, I do, I do. I'd probably benefit more if I had a bit of advice." Gryphon looked over at her, a little startled. "Er... a different kind of advice." He shrugged.
"I am not offended," he said quietly.
"What would you have me advise you about?"
"Er... I didn't know I got to choose." There was a quiet laugh from inside. "Er, I suppose I'd like to know who Samien is. Who Maggot is. And why I fear Samien more than I do Maggot, even though Maggot seems to be the bigger threat."
"Samien is neither friend nor foe. Should you count him wholly as friend, you place yourself in great danger. Should you count him wholly as foe, you may lose a valuable ally."
"What?"
"Maggot, on the other hand, is entirely foe. His greatest wish is to be at the right hand of the Queen, and to have you dead."
"Somehow, that really doesn't surprise me," she said wryly. At least it shouldn't have. She'd had that feeling of simultaneous trust and mistrust of Samien deep in her gut since she'd met him. And the Pale Royals... or was it Caterpillar? had told her all of that about Maggot already. No, it had been both the Royals and Samien himself... that sounded much more correct.
"You fear Samien more than Maggot, because the two of you have established an element of trust with each other. You know that sooner or later, you shall have to break that trust... or that he will."
She nodded, not entirely convinced. "And... what is the Queen?
"The Queen is what you must face. She cannot be persuaded to surrender. She must die. Either she, or you will."
"But why? There is no reason that she can't be persuaded..."
"There is, but that should be told by another."
"If you insist," Faith sighed. "So this is the blunderbuss... the most powerful weapon in Wonderland, am I correct?"
"Of course the Blunderbuss is the greatest weapon known to Wonderland. The Gryphon has told you already... take his word for it. But you have the Eye Scythe?" Faith could practically hear the capital letters.
"Yes. Why are the two so different?"
"Only the Eye Scythe can be used to open the Queen's Gate... the Wall of Souls. No other weapon will do, regardless of the magnitude of its power. And regardless of how powerful the Blunderbuss is, the Jabberwock cannot be defeated without the Scythe that you have strapped on your back."
Who are you?"
"Who am I?" She could hear the smile in the voice. It was a totally unfamiliar voice, and she walked closer to the mouth of the cave. "I am Wonderland's creator."
"Alice," Faith whispered. Slowly Alice materialised at the mouth of the cave, wearing a blue dress with a white, bloody apron. Her dark red hair hung at about Faith's length, just to the shoulders, and her huge green eyes stared into Faith's.
"You must save Wonderland," she said, in a commanding voice. "You must succeed... where I failed."
"I intend to," Faith replied.
"Good," Alice said. "You have not faced the Jabberwock for the last time. He still lives, and rather sorely misses his eye."
Faith nodded. "I can imagine," she said, thinking back to his howl when Gryphon had torn it out. "Gryphon won't die, will he?" she asked quickly. He looked over at her again, then up at Alice. Apparently that question had been on his mind, too. He'd seemed rather nervous when he'd come in to save her, but that could just have been her imagination.
"Only time will tell," Alice said calmly. Faith nodded reluctantly. "You must go now, back to Caterpillar's Plot. The Queen awaits you."
"I look forward to our meeting," she said.
"I'll get to the Queen my own way," she said determinedly. "You go on."
Faith wasn't entirely sure where it was, or what he was talking about. But apparently she'd been there before. Gryphon reluctantly nodded. "Remember, though," he said, "It is where all paths meet. I shall come back for you." He took off, and Faith was left alone. She glanced at the eye in her hand.
"Ew," she said, and assembled the pieces of the scythe: the body, the blade and the eye. It was feather light in her hands, though she had the feeling that if anyone else picked it up, they would find it rather heavy. There was a noise; as though the supports of the house were groaning, unable to do their job. She dashed outside, suddenly very nervous that the Jabberwock had seen Gryphon leaving without her and come back.
As she ran out the front door, the ground started shaking beneath her feet, and she looked back, trying to keep her balance, and saw her house collapse. She shuddered, when she realised that if she'd lingered much longer... and then she started thinking of what he'd said. How she'd killed her family... no, it was an accident. An accident...
She began walking, trying to force his words out of her mind, along with her own feeble arguments. Further up the mountain, she saw a village. Perhaps that could lead to where she needed to go, although how anyone could live there, she didn't know. At least the houses weren't burning down, she thought miserably.
She struggled her way up the mountain, until she came to it. It looked like it had been successful once... but now it was nothing more than a desolate waste; a ghost town. Nothing moved. There was no grass, not even dead grass; no people, even slaves.
She crossed a river of lava, and turned around in time to see the bridge burst into flame. That brought out an involuntary shiver, and a quick glance around. She was in the main residential area now, it appeared. The houses showed a lot of fire damage, and she looked into a window of one of them. The room inside was dark; everything inside scorched. The outside of the house wasn't much better. Holes had been burned into the wood in several places, and most of it was charred black.
She saw movement reflected in the window, and she whirled around, seeing nothing, and took out the ice wand. In a furnace like this... perhaps ice was best.
In the distance she heard flapping, and dived underneath the house, through one of the holes. She heard the sound of feet landing, and slowly walking around, and she shrank back. A low growl. Sniffing. She shrank back further. A claw landed, just in front of her hole, and the sniffing grew louder.
The Gryphon looked underneath the house, and saw Faith. "What are you doing?" he asked, confused.
"God, I thought you were the Jabberwock!" she hissed. Gryphon shook his head, and smiled.
"No, though I can see why you'd be nervous. He's gone back to his lair, deep underground, to nurse his wounds. He won't be out for a while." Nodding, she crawled out. He bent down, and she climbed onto his back. He started flying. "Why did you come up here?" he asked, frowning. "It's dangerous... I'm surprised that you didn't get completely ambushed, or send the Jabberwock investigating."
She laughed nervously, unable to say anything.
They soon landed where she'd first seen the trumpeting signs. She sighed and looked around, and saw several card guards guarding a strange little man. All four suits were there.
It was the club, surprisingly, that noticed them first. He ran over, poky spear at the ready, and Faith grabbed her knife, settling it in her hand. When he was close enough, she threw. It connected with his forehead, dead in the centre, and he fell back, curling over himself as he rolled.
The others stared at him, and the diamond and the spade ran, hoping to double-team her. She grabbed the demon die from her arsenal, but the spade fired at her, and the missile exploded, knocking her back. But they had forgotten the Gryphon. He jumped onto the spade and slashed at him with his sharp beak, and knocked off his head with a powerful thrust of his eagle's claws. Faith, meanwhile, landed on a rock jutting out of the lava, and a fire snark jumped up, trying to bite her. She sliced at it, irritated, and a dice flew out of the fresh hole in its stomach.
It landed on the ground just next to her, and she scooped it up. Now she had all three, and she looked over at the remaining diamond guard, which was staring at her, waiting for her to get off the rock. The heart guard, though, ran up to her, poised to fire.
She threw the three dice onto shore, and a new demon came out of the portal that they summoned. It was large, winged, and very mean, and it bashed the diamond's head against a jutting rock before he could blink.
The heart fired at it, and it screeched, wounded, and smirked at the offender evilly. Then it launched itself at it, and BAM!
The heart guard was no more. Then, still fairly fresh, the demon looked around for prey. And saw Faith. Gryphon readied himself to defend her, and she glared at the demon. It was about to attack her when it caught sight of a few Boojum a shorter distance away, and leapt at them instead.
Faith watched it until she saw the demon retreat into its portal, and gave a quick sigh of relief. That had been a bit close for her taste.
In a corner, underneath an old and rusty bridge with an old and rusty gate, sat a queer little man shaped like an egg, and she remembered reading about Humpty Dumpty in Alice's diary. She walked up to him. "Excuse me... are you Humpty Dumpty?" It would have felt odd asking that... less than a day ago, she realised.
He muttered something unintelligible. She leaned closer, bracing her hand against the wall, and was surprised when it sank in. As the brick sank in, another did, and another, until it gave her a tunnel just wide enough to go through. Gryphon looked at it, startled, but rather impressed. Faith turned to him, and he nodded, urging her forward. She walked in, looking around for anything besides the walls of the tunnel.
She eventually reached a small chamber, and was promptly startled by a tiny explosion going off at her feet. She quickly looked down and saw a horde of ants waiting at the ready, and their general, who was attacking. "Oh lord, you again?" she grimaced, and took out the ice wand, pointing it at the ground. The ants shrieked, but their general chattered something at them, and they stood stock-still, aiming their guns at her. She fired.
A few seconds later, she stepped over the chunk of ice and all the way into the chamber. There wasn't much in there besides a small table, but was on the table really caught her attention. It was a huge gun, not a rifle... it looked like something she'd seen somewhere in Wonderland before. In a painting or something, maybe in the Queen's palace while she had been dreaming (it seemed like a VERY long time ago).
Faith walked over to it and picked it up. "Ca-..." she stopped and trailed off, remembering.
She sighed and turned, and screamed when she saw several heart guards entering the tunnel, laughing at her. Obviously, they hadn't seen what she'd just picked up. She turned and aimed carefully. The grin melted off the face of the one in front, and he started pushing his comrades back, trying to get out of the way. She fired.
BOOM!! She flew back several feet, and they were obliterated. There was simply nothing left. She stared at the gun in her hands, not exactly trusting herself to breathe, and carefully strapped it to her back.
Outside, she saw Gryphon finishing off the last of three heart guards that had attacked him, and walked over to him. He looked up.
"Forgive me, Faith... these three attacked me. Then others..." he trailed off when he saw the gun. "You've found the Blunderbuss," he said, awed. She nodded. "That's the most powerful weapon in Wonderland."
"I kind of got that impression," she said, grinning slightly, "when first there were ten heart guards, and then there were none." He laughed.
She looked over at Humpty Dumpty, and was surprised to see him pointing to the old and rusty gate, and walked over to it. Vaguely he nodded, and she pushed at the iron bars, not really trusting them to do much. But they crumbled in her hands, and she was able to make a hole just big enough for her to get through. Gryphon leapt over, and they reached the other side at about the same time. There was a long, winding path through the cliffs, sometimes in the open, sometimes closely quartered, and the two were kept on the ready constantly through the various enemies they met. Faith turned a corner and was instantly thrown back by a Boojum flying at her and screaming, but Gryphon leapt at it and killed it very quickly.
Finally she reached a wide-open plain with a cave, wide open and black. The two looked at it, and stood at the entrance. "Faith," a voice said from inside. Faith jumped back a foot or two, and Gryphon perked up.
"Who's there?" she asked quickly.
"I am Wonderland's Oracle. It has been long since anyone has come, seeking my advice."
"Oh. I didn't know... well, that that was what I'd come for."
"Then you do not wish for my counsels?"
"Oh yes, I do, I do. I'd probably benefit more if I had a bit of advice." Gryphon looked over at her, a little startled. "Er... a different kind of advice." He shrugged.
"I am not offended," he said quietly.
"What would you have me advise you about?"
"Er... I didn't know I got to choose." There was a quiet laugh from inside. "Er, I suppose I'd like to know who Samien is. Who Maggot is. And why I fear Samien more than I do Maggot, even though Maggot seems to be the bigger threat."
"Samien is neither friend nor foe. Should you count him wholly as friend, you place yourself in great danger. Should you count him wholly as foe, you may lose a valuable ally."
"What?"
"Maggot, on the other hand, is entirely foe. His greatest wish is to be at the right hand of the Queen, and to have you dead."
"Somehow, that really doesn't surprise me," she said wryly. At least it shouldn't have. She'd had that feeling of simultaneous trust and mistrust of Samien deep in her gut since she'd met him. And the Pale Royals... or was it Caterpillar? had told her all of that about Maggot already. No, it had been both the Royals and Samien himself... that sounded much more correct.
"You fear Samien more than Maggot, because the two of you have established an element of trust with each other. You know that sooner or later, you shall have to break that trust... or that he will."
She nodded, not entirely convinced. "And... what is the Queen?
"The Queen is what you must face. She cannot be persuaded to surrender. She must die. Either she, or you will."
"But why? There is no reason that she can't be persuaded..."
"There is, but that should be told by another."
"If you insist," Faith sighed. "So this is the blunderbuss... the most powerful weapon in Wonderland, am I correct?"
"Of course the Blunderbuss is the greatest weapon known to Wonderland. The Gryphon has told you already... take his word for it. But you have the Eye Scythe?" Faith could practically hear the capital letters.
"Yes. Why are the two so different?"
"Only the Eye Scythe can be used to open the Queen's Gate... the Wall of Souls. No other weapon will do, regardless of the magnitude of its power. And regardless of how powerful the Blunderbuss is, the Jabberwock cannot be defeated without the Scythe that you have strapped on your back."
Who are you?"
"Who am I?" She could hear the smile in the voice. It was a totally unfamiliar voice, and she walked closer to the mouth of the cave. "I am Wonderland's creator."
"Alice," Faith whispered. Slowly Alice materialised at the mouth of the cave, wearing a blue dress with a white, bloody apron. Her dark red hair hung at about Faith's length, just to the shoulders, and her huge green eyes stared into Faith's.
"You must save Wonderland," she said, in a commanding voice. "You must succeed... where I failed."
"I intend to," Faith replied.
"Good," Alice said. "You have not faced the Jabberwock for the last time. He still lives, and rather sorely misses his eye."
Faith nodded. "I can imagine," she said, thinking back to his howl when Gryphon had torn it out. "Gryphon won't die, will he?" she asked quickly. He looked over at her again, then up at Alice. Apparently that question had been on his mind, too. He'd seemed rather nervous when he'd come in to save her, but that could just have been her imagination.
"Only time will tell," Alice said calmly. Faith nodded reluctantly. "You must go now, back to Caterpillar's Plot. The Queen awaits you."
"I look forward to our meeting," she said.