Disclaimer? Again, I don't own the original Alice, nor to I own many of the things mentioned in the worlds. Lewis Carroll rocks my socks that way, if you understand what I mean. HOWEVER, I DO own what Alice has become as well as the storyline. The crow, which is Lewis' originally, will gain more personality here, and that personality belongs to me. Anyway, ONWARD.
To my faithful and much loved reviewers: Suggestions and criticism are appreciated, though I do love all the compliments I'm getting. And Kel, yeah, I know I made that mistake. For all who caught this misstep, Alice is 14, and I'm too lazy to go back and change it. Swordsrock, I think I might put you in the story just to kill you off… for fun…
Sorry for the hold up, I have to study for high school entrance exams
Chapter 3, Being
Alice leapt from one square to the next with all the grace of a small, green, lithe serpent. Well, snakes didn't precisely jump, but they were certainly graceful, and certainly lithe. She barely teetered a bit after having made that impossible leap over the brook, onyx hued dress billowing up about her like a sea of black fabric. Her cold eyes flickered about. What would this square be like? The entirety of the Looking-Glass World seemed to be one big chess board, and each square was rather large enough to harbor anything from forests to castles. She was certain that this forest would lead to the Tweedle home, for the far off scream of the crow reached her ears. Once she had that crow, she could simply fly to the eighth square, the place where one was crowned queen.
Alice strolled aimlessly along the woodland path. This forest was unsettlingly dark. She loved it, though it could have certainly used some work. Her steely eyes chanced upon this tree or that, and without even a word, the said tree became a twisted, gnarled image of its former self. Very soon, the forest was seething with dementia. Song-birds screamed something unearthly and twisted. Small mammals, once cute and cuddly, were blood sodden, half rotting zombies that roamed their contorted habitat with indifference to their pains. The undergrowth writhed and wriggled with black snakes. The place had become a death trap to all that Alice did not particularly favor. Years before, the girl had not realized the length of the power of her imagination, but now that Dinah had told her, she knew precisely what to do, how to do it. While her family wasn't watching, Alice had thought and seen a number of terrible people, places, and things.
Now she could execute these fantasies upon this world, and even the next. Alice giggled maniacally and moved on. Her work in these woods was done, and the girl did not even cast a second glance in the direction of the forsaken place, though the "songbirds" cried after her in voices rent from all sanity. She only laughed a high-pitched, squealing laugh in reply.
The evening was upon Alice and "Dinah" far more quickly then she could have hoped. The Looking-Glass world was really a splendid place during the night, lit up as though from the inside. Alice had hardly the time or patience to notice. "Dinah, I'm sure the crow went in this way. Why is it that I do not hear him?" The girl's voice was growing shrill and angry and a rosy coloration was rising to her impossibly pale cheeks.
It had been far too long since she had seen or heard anything from the massive black bird and at this point, any living, moving thing that decided it would be a good idea to get in her way was either hacked to pieces by her sword or distorted by her deranged visions and fantasies. Alice had been in such a blind rage that she did not even notice the signs pointing to the home of the Tweedle brothers.
Alice only realized what she might have stumbled upon when she heard two voices break through the dense foliage. They were arguing…. Over what? It seemed as though a lost lollipop was the overall subject. Alice glanced over in the direction where she had heard Dinah's claws scrabble, eyes falling on the cat that only she could see lounging on a nearby log.
"Dinah, they do not even acknowledge that I am here! How very rude! What do you think the Kitties would say back home?" She swung to face the cat with sinuous grace akin only to the movement of a serpent, halting only when her sword planted itself in the forest undergrowth to stay the swing of her body.
The cat merely grinned in reply and licked a paw. It seemed for a moment as though that was all "Dinah" would do, but Alice knew better. "Well, my dear. You know what you must do. They disrespect you. Make them respect you." The feline's tail twitched from one side to the next, feral grin spread more widely across her face. That voice of hers wasn't distinctly feminine, but as Alice had learned not to take things for face value, she didn't find Dinah's voice at all unsettling. She simply nodded agreement with the cat's words.
"Yes, I dare say they must pay for this mistake. Oh do look at them Dinah! They are quite greedy, fighting over sweets like that. I shall have to punish them for this as well, I suppose." Though her words could have been said in a tone of regret, they were distant, made eerie by the fact that a malicious grin pulled at Alice's lips. The grin was twin of Dinah's own, distorting the pretty face of an "innocent young lady" into that of an insane murderer.
Alice stepped through the thick brush surrounding where the Tweedle's were arguing beneath the rapidly darkening sky. The moon and stars were vacant from it. Alice preferred clouds in the sky, and so there they were. The brothers turned to face her the instant she came upon them more visibly, each standing perfectly straight, parallel to the other, glaring at her as if she had made some mistake by interrupting their fight. That glare was their mistake.
"You mentioned," Alice began in tones so measured as to shock anybody who had seen her previous mood, "a lost lollipop?" Alice had long since passed the stage where she would do her best to inspect the Tweedle's attire and the strange way they stood. They managed to look at her with a sudden interest, exchanging glances and nodding at Alice, encouraging her to continue. She simply stood before them in a stately manner. "Well," she continued in light, composed tones, "I just happened to have something so sweet that you'll never fight over candy ever again. How would the two of you like that?"
Well, they had certainly discovered a new respect for the girl. The one who had the name "Tweedledum" embroidered on his collar spoke first with new enthusiasm.
"That kind of thing doesn't exist, nohow! We have to fight for our sweets. How did you get yours?" The plump little man took a step towards Alice and looked up into her face quite seriously. Once she might have laughed at the grave expression, now only a thin smile graced her red lips. None but the cat in the trees behind her saw her fingers tense about the hilt of the sword witch was held ready behind her back.
"Why," Alice began,"In the graveyard, of course." Her words were flighty, tantalizing, even dangerous.
"Contrariwise!" objected Tweedledee, becoming animated once more, "The grave people living there would not give away sweets! They're much too serious." He nodded… gravely, to be sure.
Alice's quiet smile flourished into a malicious grin. "Well then you haven't been to the graveyard I have. Would you like to have the sweets, my dear little Tweedles?"
The brothers exchanged excited glances and embraced each other as Alice had witnessed them do time and again on her first visit to this place. This would be the last time they did. "Of course we would! Anything for the lollipops anyhow!" Tweedledum declared heartily for the both of them. Tweedledee nodded fervent agreement.
Alice looked utterly and manically pleased. "I am quite happy that you both agree on the matter. Now only if the two of you would come a little closer you'll get your promised rewards."
The two fat little men leapt forward; obviously eager for whatever treats Alice might be willing to dole out to them. Neither expected a flash of silver that darted from behind Alice's back, cleanly hacking of Tweedledum's round head and sending it rolling through the undergrowth. Tweedledee looked confused, horrified, and furious all at once, screaming "Contrariwise!" again and again, as his stubby legs carried him about in frantic circles until Alice brought her bloodied sword into his belly with a sickening squelch and the stench of torn bowels. Alice smiled softly down at the man writhing in pain for only a moment. The movement stopped and the smile became a smirk.
"Dinah, do you suppose they'll like their sweets?" Alice whirled with the flutter of her skirts to face the cat. Surrounding the feline were all things wonderful. Dead flowers, bones, rotting carrion. She smiled a distant, unnerving smile. Were these the things she could have if she killed enough?
"Of course they will, Alice. You heard the way they screamed." The cat leapt from the log that had served as a seat, grinning up at Alice in a way that could only warrant a returning grin. Suddenly, however, the cat was consumed in darkness that was sweeping down upon them far too swiftly to be natural. Well, the Tweedles weren't fighting anymore, but what did that matter to a scavenger like the crow? He was hungry and now that the brothers were dead, he could feast without worry of them running away again.
"Crow!" Alice's head tilted back as she shrieked the creature's name, "Come down from there my dear, I have prepared for you a meal!" The speed with which the darkness had impended upon the world increased considerably and Alice laughed with demented satisfaction.
She waited patiently while the crow feasted, undaunted by his size unlike most girls her age would have been. The beast was larger then an elephant, to be sure, by at least a foot and a half. Indeed, the girl was enthralled by the beauty of the gleaming black bird, with feathers akin to wet ink and a beak that looked quite like sanded ebony. Said beak dipped into the corpse of one of the brothers and Alice giggled an incomprehensible giggle as "Dinah" assured her that she had done quite well. Alice was far too elated with her prize, far too gone from herself, to note that she had not had anything like an "episode" since before she killed the portrait. But then, this made sense. Alice was able to bring about all the things she would have otherwise imagined, and so she was content as trees with deadly, groping branches appeared all about her and the crow. Still, none dared scathe either of them, lest they feel the wrath of their God, their creator.
Finally, the crow had picked the two fat bodies clean, and they were nothing more then revolting, viscera speckled skeletons with bits of rotting flesh hanging limply from them. "So, my dear, shall we fly? Dinah says it is preferable that we fly, and I most agree." The crow seemed to understand, blinking his cold black eyes at her and shuffling his wings with satisfaction of a full belly. His whole body bobbed up and down in something of a nod.
"Yesssh," He trilled in the way that only a crow could, in a voice that nearly shook the forest itself.
"Good then, my dear. There shall certainly be more meals for you in the future. Don't eat the kitties, though, or I shall have to cut your head off." Alice was far beyond finding it strange that an animal could speak. Indeed, she managed to pass right over the fact as most of the residents of her "nonsense" worlds would have.
The crow, unlike Alice, was as sane as one in the Looking-Glass world could be, and understood deals. Not only this, he feared the girl, rightly so. Could Alice see that? Somewhere within she must have known that she inspired fear. This was the fuel on which the girl ran. The massive bird fidgeted in the presence of a small girl with a sword likely too heavy for her to wield to its full potential.
"Where shaaall we goooo?" The great scavenger cawed, shifting his weight from one sharply adorned foot to the other cautiously. For now, the creature would have to play it safe and resist the natural instinct to taunt and tease.
"Why, the eighth square, my silly Crow!" Alice stumbled forward and twirled with a serpentine grace to the side of her new steed. A wing spread downward to provide the girl with a stairway to the crow's back. "What pretty feathers you wear, my dear…" Alice trailed off as she settled herself in the hollow between the bird's wings… Alice's wings. "Away we go!" She ordered sharply, grinning down at Dinah, who watched them with a satisfaction that was certainly not for Alice's sake as Crow jolted from the clearing now choked with Alice's fantasies.
Flying was like nothing Alice had experienced before and the laugh that tore past her small, red lips was high-pitched and elated with lack of sanity. Below Alice was somewhat infuriated to see that there was so much more work on the land to be done, enough so that benevolently green fields of soft grass were suddenly strangled with venomous bunny-rabbits and stinging sparrows. "I like Crow. Don't you?" Alice asked her steed.
He glanced up at Alice and offered a conversational nod. "Indeeeeeed I doooo," He beat his wings that remained bright with luster though the sun did not pierce the clouds, and continued that practiced crow's glide. "Yesssssh, I like Crow verrry much."
Hmm, Crow would be a nice companion. Dinah seemed to think so…… No time to think of that now, not really. Her eyes chanced upon what was invariably the eighth square. Crow saw it too, and banked his wings in a manner that would bring his claws to meet the soft earth and rip it away from itself.. Alice giggled once more, an unsettling, violent sound. Something weighed heavily down upon her head, comfortable sitting atop those pale silken tresses. A crown, she knew. Already, she was queen, although THIS time, things would be different. Her dress remained the same funeral grown, as she preferred it to the queen's garb. A black scepter rested in her smooth white palm and the crown upon her was of the purest onyx in the land. This was a start. Now, Alice was being. She had power that was rising, writhing within her, fighting for release.
"Thank you, Crow. Stay with me?" Alice slid down an outstretched wing and onto the grass that shied from her touch as her feet met it. The crow, of course, knew better then to defy Alice and wobbled up and down. She let a small hand pat his beak with impossibly boldness. After that, the eighth square, indeed, the whole chess board, would never quite be the same again. Blood spouted from the earth as water would from a geyser where she willed it. Ah, the metallic tang of blood was so nice. Why hadn't she realized this before?