Disclaimer: Yes Feather and Lewis are STILL mine! XD
This chapter is dedicated to ignorance! Muahahahahaha1 God I need to buy this game I have NO clue what I'm writing ;_;
Kat23a: ^_^ Aw thanks for your review, The game'd be easy to get if I wasn't after the mac version *runs away from angry Windows users* ;_; The hatter scares me…. *twitches* It's that 'Business Unfinished' fic….I love it but ish so scary….
And so, with my random pluggage of someone else's fic accomplished….^_-
^_^;;; I got the wrong suit of cards?! Argh NOOOOOO! I'm always saying 'Spades' when I mean 'Clubs'…XD As you'd imagine I suck at card games….thanks for pointing it out.
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Chapter 5: Pyrophobia
Lewis was waiting for Alice to come back. She was investigating the shattered remains of a house, it had probably been attacked by the ladybirds. They'd come across more of the simple, grey mud huts earlier on, and after seeing what was inside them, he was glad Alice had decided she should go to look by herself.
Alice walked back out of the ruined hut through a large gap in the wall, and walked up to him, shaking her head.
"The same as the other ones."
"No survivors.…"
"There has to be someone somewhere....they couldn't have gotten them all."
"Alice! Look!"
Lewis rushed over to another ruined hut and started pulling at a section at the wall, Alice followed and saw why, saw the mouse trapped under the rubble.
They managed to lift it just enough for the rodent to roll aside, then dropped it again, exhausted.
The mouse dusted itself off and bowed to the two children.
"I thank you both. Please, follow me."
exchanging confused glances the two children did as they were told, following the mouse to a hole hidden among a clump of grass to one side of the wrecked huts.
They were led down some stairs to a thick wooden doorway, the mouse produced a key from somewhere about it's person and opened it, bidding the children to enter, they all walked in and the mouse, shutting the door behind them, lit a lamp, using it to light torches lining the walls.
They were in a fairly large room, at least twice the size of one of the huts. A large wooden table dominated the centre of the room and the walls were lined with shelves, filled with fruits, berries, seeds and vegetables.
Alice dismissed this detail as unimportant and turned her attention to the mouse, Lewis however, was much more interested in the food, barely stopping himself from rushing for it.
"Your friend seems quite starved Alice." The mouse noted, nodding towards Lewis.
"How...do you know my…" Alice stopped, "A stupid question right?"
"Only had you finished it." The mouse smiled.
"Help yourself." The mouse called over his shoulder to Lewis, who was happy to do so.
"Lewis?" Alice stared at her friend in surprise.
"Al...rmph...ice…" Lewis hastily swallowed whatever it was he'd been eating, "I haven't eaten in over 10 years."
"That's impossible!" Alice exclaimed, "You'd have died of starvation long ago if that was true!"
"Not quite dear," The mouse shook it's head, "It's quite feasible to live off meta-essence, you'll just wish you didn't. It'll keep you alive, but it doesn't ward off hunger, that vile little gnawing sensation in your stomach. There are stockpiles like this all through the Vale, in case of attack."
Alice nodded slowly.
"Little mouse, I do not believe I know your name."
"Oh dear, how rude of me...I am Linswe."
"I believe you already know my name Linswe, this is my friend Lewis."
Lewis merely waved, his mouth still full.
"Why were all the huts attacked?" Alice asked.
"Well, we were told to keep something hidden here for you Alice…" The mouse began sadly, "But s-somehow the queen found out and sent her....sent her ladybirds to destroy all the villages looking for it."
Alice found herself hugging the little mouse as it started to cry.
"And...and," Linswe sobbed, "We've got it here for you Alice just like we promised....but...they're all gone...because of you!"
The young mouse leaped back and pulled out from behind one of the shelves what looked like a croquet mallet made from the corpse of a flamingo. A blue flamingo. Alice had no time to think about the colour of flamingos though, as the crazed rodent swung the bizarre weapon at Alice's head.
She only narrowly avoided the attack. The mouse was a poor fighter, but Alice hadn't been expecting it. She wondered where Lewis was, surely he must have noticed what was happening, first meal in ten years or no.
She gave herself a second to glance in his direction, pulling the knife from her pocket as she did so. She saw him lying unconscious at the table.
"What happened to?!"
Linswe glanced at Lewis too, she seemed surprised.
"He must've been eating too fast and choked on something…"
Alice swung the knife at the mouse but she dodged aside, swinging the mallet again, leaving a trail of sparks behind it, hinting that should she be hit the weapon was more deadly than it appeared. Alice dived under the table, sliding out on the other side, happy to have the obstacle between her and the electrically charged flamingo. Linswe jumped onto the top of the table and produced a rolled-up hedgehog out of nowhere. Before Alice could question the absurdity of this it was hurtling towards her, she dived again and the ball missed, but it hit the wall and bounced back off it, hitting her in the back as she was beginning to pick herself up.
She fell again, the shock running through skin and bone, she lay there twitching, her body refusing to move as her mind screamed at it.
"They're all dead...because...because of you…" Linswe stood over Alice, the mallet raised to strike her vulnerable back, smash her spine and end her life.
Blood splattered her face, she blinked and stared at the mallet, lying on the floor next to her, blood running down it, one of Linswe's arms still gripping the weapon tightly.
Her body slowly recovering from the shock she managed to look up and see Linswe staring in disbelief at Lewis, his spear having severed the mouse's arm at the elbow, blood fountained from the wound, and the mouse screamed in agony.
He swung the blunt end of the spear into Linswe's face and the mouse crumpled, unconscious.
He helped Alice to her feet.
"Sorry, I don't know what happened, I just blacked out. I guess my body couldn't handle so much food after so long…."
Lewis stared at the mallet, lying in a pool of blood, he shook his head sadly.
He slung the mouse over his shoulder and carried her outside to one of the many pools, washing her bloodstained fur. As Alice came out of the hidden room, the mallet in her hands, she saw Lewis tear a strip of his jacket off and tie it round the mouse's wound, stemming the flow of blood.
Linswe's eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head weakly, looking around.
"I'm…You…saved me?"
Lewis nodded.
"Why?"
"Because you're only a child. Because you had to see everyone around you die. Because it wasn't your fault…" He held the little creature in his arms and buried his head in her fur.
"…And because I hurt you. I'm sorry…."
Alice took a deep breath and walked up to Linswe, holding the now cleaned mallet in her hands.
"Linswe….I'd…I'd like you to keep this."
She held the mallet out to the little mouse, who gasped.
"But…it's…for you…that's why we kept it…"
"No, I can't take it…not now…" Alice shook her head, "You keep it. Be safe."
Linswe took the mallet with her one arm and clutched it to her.
"I'm going to go….I know there'll be others hiding in stockrooms like mine…"
The mouse hugged Alice again.
"I'm so s-sorry for what I did Alice…Thank you…Thank you!"
The little mouse waved and scurried off into the mist, Lewis stood up from the edge of the pool and joined Alice.
"Do you think she'll be okay on her own?" Lewis asked Alice.
"With her arm wounded like that?" Alice paused, having noted the concern in his voice, "I…I don't know…"
"We'll camp here tonight." Alice said, stopping suddenly.
"Night?" Lewis looked up at the grey sky, it looked the same to him as it had before, but then again, the sky over the skool had always looked the same too. And after walking, not to mention wading, across the vale for so long Lewis wasn't inclined to argue.
He sat down on a log, catching his breath. Alice collected a pile of sticks and motioned for him to use the spear on them, he fired a card into their midst and the twigs burst into flames.
Lewis turned aside slightly, so that his weary body was warmed by the flames, but so that he didn't have to look at them. He noticed Alice doing the same, and wondered what her reason was. His own was simple enough, he had always linked Wonderland's decay to the fire that had swept through it ten years ago. Now that he thought about it Alice had acted oddly when he'd mentioned both the fire and the fact that it occurred ten years ago, could there be some kind of connection?
He thought about meeting Alice back when she had been a curious and imaginative seven year old. It seemed so long ago now, before Wonderland's corruption. He vaguely remembered how she had passed through the skool briefly, following the White Rabbit. The children had still convinced her to stay awhile and she had taught them how to play hopscotch…Lewis smiled at that. He looked at Alice for awhile, he wondered if she remembered, or if that memory didn't mean as much to her.
Alice sat, avoiding looking at the flames, or Lewis, her mind wandering, inevitably leading to the one thing she didn't want to see. A memory that despite the best efforts of a series of doctors, not to mention Alice herself, she had never been able to forget. The harder she tried to lock it away, the more it plagued her. That night was stuck in her mind as clearly as the day it had happened, ten years ago…
Flames licking her heels, rushing to her parents room, just in time to see them burning. Their last words to her screams of agony, begging her to save herself. She remembered not how she had gotten out, only lying in the snow outside, letting the cold ease the burns that covered her body. Lying there half dead, clutching her little stuffed rabbit to her chest.
She had woken the previous day in the hospital, and had cried every waking second for her parents, knowing it was too late.
Everything afterwards became a blur, the doctors feeding her so many chemicals that she barely knew the ceiling from the floor, but still she couldn't escape that memory, every night haunted by her parent's screams and the never ending flames.
"Alice?"
Alice jumped and spun around, knife in hand.
"Alice? What's wrong?"
She slowly lowered the knife as Lewis wrapped his arms around her.
"What…are you doing Lewis?"
Lewis pulled back, embarrassed.
"Sorry, it always calmed Feather down when she was upset…and…" He trailed off.
"We'll get her back….Um…Lewis?"
"Yes?"
"Does the fire bother you?"
"It's…the fire that made everything go wrong. Made wonderland go wrong."
They sat in silence for awhile as Alice thought about this, finally, she spoke up again.
"Ten years ago…my house was destroyed by a fire…my parents were killed by fire….Everything I'd ever known was taken away from me in the space of one night…by that fire…my life ended that night….it left something dead inside me…."
Alice stared at the floor, tears running down her cheeks as she spoke.
Lewis hugged her again. She didn't stop him this time, he held her in his arms until she cried herself to sleep.
Lewis was sitting keeping watch as Alice slept.
"Cat." He whispered.
"Yes?" The Cheshire Cat appeared by Lewis' side, warming itself by the remains of the fire.
"This can't be coincidence cat," Lewis stated flatly, "Ten years ago a fire tainted Wonderland with madness. Ten years ago a fire claimed Alice's parents and destroyed her life."
"It is often the case," The cat said softly, "That those who say they are mad crave attention, while those who are truly mad will try their hardest to deny it."
Lewis stared at the cat, the cat maintained it's grin, but it seemed strained.
"You know the truth cat. Don't try to hide it behind riddles. What is the connection between these two events?"
"The connection is in your mind only." The cat replied, a menacing undertone in it's voice.
"Cat. If Alice can return Wonderland to the way it was, will she go back to being the way she was too?"
The cat could hear the desperation in Lewis' voice, he wanted the Alice he remembered.
"You may as well ask, if Alice were healed would Wonderland go back to normal too."
"So there is a link. Cat….What happens to Wonderland if Alice dies?"
The cat seemed to think about this question for a moment.
"I don't know. Maybe Wonderland would die with her and just….disappear."
On the word 'disappear' the cat vanished, leaving Lewis to think about what it had said.
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NOTE: Linswe is also my own character, but was missing from the disclaimer as it's like holding up a sign saying 'New character appears in this chapter!'
This chapter is dedicated to ignorance! Muahahahahaha1 God I need to buy this game I have NO clue what I'm writing ;_;
Kat23a: ^_^ Aw thanks for your review, The game'd be easy to get if I wasn't after the mac version *runs away from angry Windows users* ;_; The hatter scares me…. *twitches* It's that 'Business Unfinished' fic….I love it but ish so scary….
And so, with my random pluggage of someone else's fic accomplished….^_-
^_^;;; I got the wrong suit of cards?! Argh NOOOOOO! I'm always saying 'Spades' when I mean 'Clubs'…XD As you'd imagine I suck at card games….thanks for pointing it out.
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Chapter 5: Pyrophobia
Lewis was waiting for Alice to come back. She was investigating the shattered remains of a house, it had probably been attacked by the ladybirds. They'd come across more of the simple, grey mud huts earlier on, and after seeing what was inside them, he was glad Alice had decided she should go to look by herself.
Alice walked back out of the ruined hut through a large gap in the wall, and walked up to him, shaking her head.
"The same as the other ones."
"No survivors.…"
"There has to be someone somewhere....they couldn't have gotten them all."
"Alice! Look!"
Lewis rushed over to another ruined hut and started pulling at a section at the wall, Alice followed and saw why, saw the mouse trapped under the rubble.
They managed to lift it just enough for the rodent to roll aside, then dropped it again, exhausted.
The mouse dusted itself off and bowed to the two children.
"I thank you both. Please, follow me."
exchanging confused glances the two children did as they were told, following the mouse to a hole hidden among a clump of grass to one side of the wrecked huts.
They were led down some stairs to a thick wooden doorway, the mouse produced a key from somewhere about it's person and opened it, bidding the children to enter, they all walked in and the mouse, shutting the door behind them, lit a lamp, using it to light torches lining the walls.
They were in a fairly large room, at least twice the size of one of the huts. A large wooden table dominated the centre of the room and the walls were lined with shelves, filled with fruits, berries, seeds and vegetables.
Alice dismissed this detail as unimportant and turned her attention to the mouse, Lewis however, was much more interested in the food, barely stopping himself from rushing for it.
"Your friend seems quite starved Alice." The mouse noted, nodding towards Lewis.
"How...do you know my…" Alice stopped, "A stupid question right?"
"Only had you finished it." The mouse smiled.
"Help yourself." The mouse called over his shoulder to Lewis, who was happy to do so.
"Lewis?" Alice stared at her friend in surprise.
"Al...rmph...ice…" Lewis hastily swallowed whatever it was he'd been eating, "I haven't eaten in over 10 years."
"That's impossible!" Alice exclaimed, "You'd have died of starvation long ago if that was true!"
"Not quite dear," The mouse shook it's head, "It's quite feasible to live off meta-essence, you'll just wish you didn't. It'll keep you alive, but it doesn't ward off hunger, that vile little gnawing sensation in your stomach. There are stockpiles like this all through the Vale, in case of attack."
Alice nodded slowly.
"Little mouse, I do not believe I know your name."
"Oh dear, how rude of me...I am Linswe."
"I believe you already know my name Linswe, this is my friend Lewis."
Lewis merely waved, his mouth still full.
"Why were all the huts attacked?" Alice asked.
"Well, we were told to keep something hidden here for you Alice…" The mouse began sadly, "But s-somehow the queen found out and sent her....sent her ladybirds to destroy all the villages looking for it."
Alice found herself hugging the little mouse as it started to cry.
"And...and," Linswe sobbed, "We've got it here for you Alice just like we promised....but...they're all gone...because of you!"
The young mouse leaped back and pulled out from behind one of the shelves what looked like a croquet mallet made from the corpse of a flamingo. A blue flamingo. Alice had no time to think about the colour of flamingos though, as the crazed rodent swung the bizarre weapon at Alice's head.
She only narrowly avoided the attack. The mouse was a poor fighter, but Alice hadn't been expecting it. She wondered where Lewis was, surely he must have noticed what was happening, first meal in ten years or no.
She gave herself a second to glance in his direction, pulling the knife from her pocket as she did so. She saw him lying unconscious at the table.
"What happened to?!"
Linswe glanced at Lewis too, she seemed surprised.
"He must've been eating too fast and choked on something…"
Alice swung the knife at the mouse but she dodged aside, swinging the mallet again, leaving a trail of sparks behind it, hinting that should she be hit the weapon was more deadly than it appeared. Alice dived under the table, sliding out on the other side, happy to have the obstacle between her and the electrically charged flamingo. Linswe jumped onto the top of the table and produced a rolled-up hedgehog out of nowhere. Before Alice could question the absurdity of this it was hurtling towards her, she dived again and the ball missed, but it hit the wall and bounced back off it, hitting her in the back as she was beginning to pick herself up.
She fell again, the shock running through skin and bone, she lay there twitching, her body refusing to move as her mind screamed at it.
"They're all dead...because...because of you…" Linswe stood over Alice, the mallet raised to strike her vulnerable back, smash her spine and end her life.
Blood splattered her face, she blinked and stared at the mallet, lying on the floor next to her, blood running down it, one of Linswe's arms still gripping the weapon tightly.
Her body slowly recovering from the shock she managed to look up and see Linswe staring in disbelief at Lewis, his spear having severed the mouse's arm at the elbow, blood fountained from the wound, and the mouse screamed in agony.
He swung the blunt end of the spear into Linswe's face and the mouse crumpled, unconscious.
He helped Alice to her feet.
"Sorry, I don't know what happened, I just blacked out. I guess my body couldn't handle so much food after so long…."
Lewis stared at the mallet, lying in a pool of blood, he shook his head sadly.
He slung the mouse over his shoulder and carried her outside to one of the many pools, washing her bloodstained fur. As Alice came out of the hidden room, the mallet in her hands, she saw Lewis tear a strip of his jacket off and tie it round the mouse's wound, stemming the flow of blood.
Linswe's eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head weakly, looking around.
"I'm…You…saved me?"
Lewis nodded.
"Why?"
"Because you're only a child. Because you had to see everyone around you die. Because it wasn't your fault…" He held the little creature in his arms and buried his head in her fur.
"…And because I hurt you. I'm sorry…."
Alice took a deep breath and walked up to Linswe, holding the now cleaned mallet in her hands.
"Linswe….I'd…I'd like you to keep this."
She held the mallet out to the little mouse, who gasped.
"But…it's…for you…that's why we kept it…"
"No, I can't take it…not now…" Alice shook her head, "You keep it. Be safe."
Linswe took the mallet with her one arm and clutched it to her.
"I'm going to go….I know there'll be others hiding in stockrooms like mine…"
The mouse hugged Alice again.
"I'm so s-sorry for what I did Alice…Thank you…Thank you!"
The little mouse waved and scurried off into the mist, Lewis stood up from the edge of the pool and joined Alice.
"Do you think she'll be okay on her own?" Lewis asked Alice.
"With her arm wounded like that?" Alice paused, having noted the concern in his voice, "I…I don't know…"
"We'll camp here tonight." Alice said, stopping suddenly.
"Night?" Lewis looked up at the grey sky, it looked the same to him as it had before, but then again, the sky over the skool had always looked the same too. And after walking, not to mention wading, across the vale for so long Lewis wasn't inclined to argue.
He sat down on a log, catching his breath. Alice collected a pile of sticks and motioned for him to use the spear on them, he fired a card into their midst and the twigs burst into flames.
Lewis turned aside slightly, so that his weary body was warmed by the flames, but so that he didn't have to look at them. He noticed Alice doing the same, and wondered what her reason was. His own was simple enough, he had always linked Wonderland's decay to the fire that had swept through it ten years ago. Now that he thought about it Alice had acted oddly when he'd mentioned both the fire and the fact that it occurred ten years ago, could there be some kind of connection?
He thought about meeting Alice back when she had been a curious and imaginative seven year old. It seemed so long ago now, before Wonderland's corruption. He vaguely remembered how she had passed through the skool briefly, following the White Rabbit. The children had still convinced her to stay awhile and she had taught them how to play hopscotch…Lewis smiled at that. He looked at Alice for awhile, he wondered if she remembered, or if that memory didn't mean as much to her.
Alice sat, avoiding looking at the flames, or Lewis, her mind wandering, inevitably leading to the one thing she didn't want to see. A memory that despite the best efforts of a series of doctors, not to mention Alice herself, she had never been able to forget. The harder she tried to lock it away, the more it plagued her. That night was stuck in her mind as clearly as the day it had happened, ten years ago…
Flames licking her heels, rushing to her parents room, just in time to see them burning. Their last words to her screams of agony, begging her to save herself. She remembered not how she had gotten out, only lying in the snow outside, letting the cold ease the burns that covered her body. Lying there half dead, clutching her little stuffed rabbit to her chest.
She had woken the previous day in the hospital, and had cried every waking second for her parents, knowing it was too late.
Everything afterwards became a blur, the doctors feeding her so many chemicals that she barely knew the ceiling from the floor, but still she couldn't escape that memory, every night haunted by her parent's screams and the never ending flames.
"Alice?"
Alice jumped and spun around, knife in hand.
"Alice? What's wrong?"
She slowly lowered the knife as Lewis wrapped his arms around her.
"What…are you doing Lewis?"
Lewis pulled back, embarrassed.
"Sorry, it always calmed Feather down when she was upset…and…" He trailed off.
"We'll get her back….Um…Lewis?"
"Yes?"
"Does the fire bother you?"
"It's…the fire that made everything go wrong. Made wonderland go wrong."
They sat in silence for awhile as Alice thought about this, finally, she spoke up again.
"Ten years ago…my house was destroyed by a fire…my parents were killed by fire….Everything I'd ever known was taken away from me in the space of one night…by that fire…my life ended that night….it left something dead inside me…."
Alice stared at the floor, tears running down her cheeks as she spoke.
Lewis hugged her again. She didn't stop him this time, he held her in his arms until she cried herself to sleep.
Lewis was sitting keeping watch as Alice slept.
"Cat." He whispered.
"Yes?" The Cheshire Cat appeared by Lewis' side, warming itself by the remains of the fire.
"This can't be coincidence cat," Lewis stated flatly, "Ten years ago a fire tainted Wonderland with madness. Ten years ago a fire claimed Alice's parents and destroyed her life."
"It is often the case," The cat said softly, "That those who say they are mad crave attention, while those who are truly mad will try their hardest to deny it."
Lewis stared at the cat, the cat maintained it's grin, but it seemed strained.
"You know the truth cat. Don't try to hide it behind riddles. What is the connection between these two events?"
"The connection is in your mind only." The cat replied, a menacing undertone in it's voice.
"Cat. If Alice can return Wonderland to the way it was, will she go back to being the way she was too?"
The cat could hear the desperation in Lewis' voice, he wanted the Alice he remembered.
"You may as well ask, if Alice were healed would Wonderland go back to normal too."
"So there is a link. Cat….What happens to Wonderland if Alice dies?"
The cat seemed to think about this question for a moment.
"I don't know. Maybe Wonderland would die with her and just….disappear."
On the word 'disappear' the cat vanished, leaving Lewis to think about what it had said.
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NOTE: Linswe is also my own character, but was missing from the disclaimer as it's like holding up a sign saying 'New character appears in this chapter!'