As always, thank you all for reading!
Snowflakes began to accumulate on his eyelashes.
His teeth chattered, and his breath came out in the form of small clouds.
Tarrant put one last handful of ice inside his bag, it was made of red creepers.
His bones screamed in pain.
If he didn't move at once, he would become a giant Popsicle with a hat on top.
"A warming hat." He said as he forced his legs to move. He rubbed his arms with his hands. The landscape became less white and grayer the further he walked. The small snow sheets that had formed on his kneecaps shattered and formed an icy path below him.
"That shall be my next creation. But how will it produce heat? Maybe it can have burning logs stuffed inside; that way, the wearers can burn marshmallows while they get warm! It would be like having a campfire on your head… and a fire in your hair."
He needed to polish a few details, but he liked the concept.
More importantly, a warming hat was more of a necessity than a whim. He needed one if he wanted to endure his daily expeditions across the Outlands, especially when they took him to the gelid mountains near the frontier.
He stopped for a moment and looked into the distance. He still had a long way to go.
The temptation of using his Gyre Hat almost overtook him, but Tarrant decided to keep walking instead.
There was no hurry in getting back to the castle anyway. Though not as cold as the skirts of the mountains, the rest of the Outlands was a chilling, windy place, as if winter and autumn had fused into a new season where nothing could grow and prosper.
The ice inside his bag wouldn't melt so quickly.
More importantly, his legs needed to get stronger, his body more resistant.
He wouldn't last long in his new home otherwise.
He scratched his forehead and flinched. It was easy to forget the big bump his last landing had given him when he had so much else to think about.
"How would it create heat? And how will I craft it in the first place, if I don't have any silk or needles with me?" Tarrant bit his nails in excitement, trying to keep his mind busy and far away from his situation. It worked well. "I wonder if I can use these bloody red creepers. Yes, yes, let's try it! As long as they are not pink. It is a vile color, more than red, it truly is…"
A group of fruit people sowed seeds in the Outlands' unforgiving ground. They unrooted weeds and broke the frozen earth.
One of them oversaw the process from the entrance of the castle.
Tarrant approached her as he watched the workers, and wished that their harvest would finally produce something alive.
"Here's your daily ice delivery, my fresh green lady!" Tarrant made a reverence and kissed the fruit soldiers' hand. "And let my add that you look absolutely ravishing today!"
"Stop it." The soldier flustered and put a hand on her cheek.
Tarrant spent some more time making remarks of the same sort, accompanying each with another reverence and kiss.
She laughed every time.
They seemed to make her happy. It was the least Tarrant could do for his host; he didn't know if he would have survived his first days in the Outlands if it hadn't been for her and the rest of Iracebeth's fruit army.
If there was anything good and worthwhile that the Big Head had and would ever add to Underland, Tarrant knew it was them.
Once compliment time was over, they went together inside the red heart-shaped castle. It still reeked of humidity and was crawling with blue bugs, but the fruit people had added a more upbeat atmosphere to it, with tones of green and vegetable decorations in every wall.
They had also removed the heads of their fallen comrades that didn't survive their service under Iracebeth' tyrannical fist.
It was just one more reason for Tarrant to dread the Bloody Big Head.
After climbing numerous stairs, falling into a hole once and getting lost a couple of times in the organic corridors, they reached the Red Queen's former chamber. It now belonged to the Ravishing Schnozzless Soldier.
It was fitting. She was the closest thing the fruit people had for a leader, and she had proven to be more than capable for the job.
"Come here. It finally happened!" She grabbed Tarrant by the hand and led him to a desk. It was the same desk where he had found the Ant farm, but now, rather than a small prison, it had a small flowerpot filled with humid earth. It laid right on a spot where the dim light touched it. "Look!"
Tarrant saw a small sprout hatching from the soil, and he couldn't help but to smile from ear to ear.
"At last! My most frabjous congratulations." He spread his arms and tried to hug the Ravishing Soldier, but he fell flat on the floor . She was too busy putting the ice in a watering can and feeding the sprout the few drops that came out.
Ice took a lot of time to melt in the Outlands, sometimes an entire day. It was also the only nourishment the fruit people needed to survive, other than the few sunbeams that managed to get through the Outland's eternally clouded sky.
In his first days after crashing at the red castle like a falling star, Tarrant was fed only bowls of freezing water. To his good fortune, he discovered the red creepers were edible. Their taste was nauseating, but they also were as filling as a banquet, and killed his hunger for days.
Eating wasn't as enjoyable for Tarrant anymore, but if he was to live with the fruit people for an undetermined period of time, he'd better get used to it.
Tarrant stood up, dusted off his clothes and watched his friend water the tiny bud. She did it lovingly and with great care. He would have gladly watched that scene for hours, but he had things to do.
"Time to get a good sleep! You know where to find me if you need me." He stretched. Before he left, he grabbed the flowerpot and patted the sprout with his finger. "Good night, little buddy. May you grow fast and healthy so we can play together one day!"
"It will happen." Smiled the Schnozzless soldier.
He left the room and went to the roofless top of the castle, where the fruit people had improvised some sort of room for him, with only one bed made of, what else, red creeps.
Tarrant laid down and put his hands on his chest. He looked at the sky and then at the two thrones in front of him.
One was destroyed, as a result of his crashing landing.
The other was empty.
He had asked for the skeleton of Stayne to be put at rest somewhere outside the castle. The fruit people had thought of it as a honorable gesture from the hatter, almost too noble for them to comprehend.
In reality, there was no honor involved in the whole matter. Tarrant just had wanted it out of his sight.
He already had problems falling asleep in his hardened red bed; the thought of a skeleton watching him didn't help.
Tarrant was starting to think that getting Stayne buried had been in vain. He still couldn't get any sleep. It's not that he couldn't endure a few days more without it; after all, he had the record for the more days in a row without sleeping in all Witzend.
What he truly longed for were his visits to the Palace of Dreams, especially since he'd listened to her voice the last time, even if it was just in the form of a whisper.
"Okay, this is it! This time, I will not fail." Tarrant said, closing his eyes tightly.
Nothing happened.
He then tried to count borogoves flying over a fence. It had always worked when he was a child.
But it was to no avail.
Then he sung himself a lullaby.
"Twinkle ,twinkle little bat. How I wonder where you're at…"
His voice was in tune, but he was still awake.
"Perhaps a bed time story will do the trick. Once upon a time…"
He told himself the fable of the Unicorn and the Lion caught in an everlasting battle for the crown. He had fun, and was even surprised by how good of a storyteller he was, and gave himself congratulations.
That was all too good, but…
"AGHH!" He got up and pulled his hair. Golden covered his eyes as he shouted to the sky. "Why isn't it working?! What am I doing wrong?! Why?!"
The sky, apparently, became offended at his attitude, and answered back with a strenuous thunder that almost deafened him.
"Geez, no need to get that angry." Said Tarrant, realizing he was giving some advice he certainly didn't follow. Recovering his calmness, Tarrant laid down on the bed again and sighed.
"Why?" He said with a weak voice, so low he could barely hear himself. "Why don't you come back down, Alice? Here, with me."
"Uhm…"
Tarrant opened his eyes and looked at the newcomer. It was the Schnozzless Soldier.
"Hello!" He sat down on the bed and changed his gloominess for happiness. "What can I do for you? Do you need me to get more ice from the mountains?"
"No, we have enough." She hesitated and offered Tarrant a cup of water. "Here."
"Ah, much appreciated!"
Tarrant accepted it with joy, though he didn't have any thirst to quench. He smiled and was expecting her to leave, but instead, she sat next to him.
"Alice. Is she the girl with banana-color hair?" She asked, playing with her thumbs the whole time.
"Indeed she is." Answered Tarrant, trying to hide his mixed feelings . "She is larger than life and twice as natural, if I'm allowed to quote the Lion and the Unicorn's tale."
"And do you miss her?"
Tarrant felt as if someone was squeezing his heart.
"Yes, I do." A short answer, but it summarized his feelings.
"So, why isn't she here with you?"
Strange, thought Tarrant, that questions so simple were so hard to answer.
"Well, she has her family in another place." He pointed at the sky. "Right up there."
"Did they die?" She asked with sudden sadness.
Tarrant put on a blank expression.
"No… They are in Upperland. She is from there."
"Oh, so that's why she can't be here." The Schnozzless concluded. "But…"
Tarrant waited for her to say more, but it soon became obvious that if he didn't talk first, then both would spend an eternity waiting for the other to say something.
"But what?"
"Uhm. It never rains in the Outlands." She said.
Tarrant was taken aback by the change of subject.
"True enough." He said, finding no way to refute the statement. "And yet the sky is always cloudy. Maybe the sky has a cruel sense of humor, don't you think?"
"Yes, that's why we need to get ice from the mountains..." She looked at Tarrant and came closer to him, so close that their eyes were just an inch from touching. "If water doesn't come to us, then we go to the water."
"Well, it truly makes things all the more difficult." Tarrant laughed. "But I guess it also makes it all the more rewarding once you- "
He shut his mouth, realizing the magnitude of the idea his fruit friend had granted him.
Without distancing himself from her face, Tarrant grabbed her by the cheeks.
"Alice can't come to me, not even in our dreams." He said with contained enthusiasm that was about to burst inside his chest. "But maybe I can go to her. Up."
His hair became more orange that than fire, his eyes greener than grass.
Without any warning, he hugged the Schnozzless and raised her up until her feet departed from the ground. He then began to dance with her in an impetuous waltz, the two of them jumping and laughing across the room as if all the troubles in Underland had faded away from existence.
For Tarrant, that was almost the case.
After months of being lost, he finally had a path to follow.
He would no longer search for Alice in his dreams; he would no longer lie down and wait for her doing nothing more than sleeping.
It was time for him to act.
But how?
He was proud of his Gyre Hat, but he doubted it could take him up enough to reach Alice.
No, he would need something else. Something that moved quicker than the wind, something that he could control.
A machine.
He needed…
"Of course!" Tarrant's dancing came to a stop. His fruit friend was still laughing in his arms, surrounding his neck with her green arms. "I should have thought of it sooner!"
Very gently, he departed from the embrace and put his hands on her shoulders.
"My Ravishing lady." He said. She looked at him expectantly. "I need you take me to it."
"To what?"
Tarrant whispered it in her ear.
She gasped in fear and had to ask him again to know she hadn't heard wrong.
In the end, she couldn't deny the hatter his wish, and with unpleasant memories invading her mind, she led him through the corridors, towards the place he wanted.
It probably wasn't the most sensible of actions, but that mattered not.
Tarrant was happy.
For her, that was enough.
It took them hours to remove all the creepers from the clock.
It was so infested by them that none of its original black color was visible, and some bugs had nested on top of it.
"You should give some mantainance to it every once in a while!" Suggested Tarrant as he scrathed away a caterpillar crawling around the clock's hands. "I don't think there are many of these things lying around , you know. Just this one, and the other one in Mirana's castle. It is valuable, and you could visit him once in a while!"
"Nobody wants to. He is scary." Schnozzless said.
Tarrant could see the fear painted in her face.
"Well, he is just a bit rude , and he is not very patient at times. But he is not so bad after a few tea parties..." Tarrant tried to explain, but his friend didn't listen to him. He didn't know if she couldn't understand him, didn't want to, or if she had memories as proof for her judgement.
"He is scary." She repeated, and Tarrant saw no point in trying to convince her otherwise.
The clock's entrance was finally free from the red plague. A strong blow of wind came out of it after Tarrant opended the pendulum's door.
He adjusted his hat, took a deep breath, clenched his fists...
And in he went.
"Be careful." Said Schnozzless.
Tarrant winked and smiled at her.
"I'll be back in no time." He laughed and went deeper into the pitch black space that had engulfed his reality.
He expected to find some obstacles along the way, and was ready to jump from one hand of the clock to the other while trying not to fall into the endless pit
of blue matter below, as he always did whenever he asked Mirana permission to go and fetch Time for a tea party at Thackery's.
It would also be a good excersise to see if the Outlands had made his body more agile.
He walked and walked .
Eventually, he could hear the swinging of a pendulum and a ticking.
He then saw a small light amidst the darkness. It was the other side of the entrance, completely free from deathly obstacles, except from the swinging pendulum, but that was easy to dodge.
'No wonder the Big Head never had trouble coming to his castle', Tarrant thought. 'I could come here with my eyes closed!'
When he reached the entrance, he found out it was impossible to open.
It was locked.
"Nothing is impossible!" screamed Tarrant, retreating a considerable distance. He bowed his head a little, closed his eyes and charged at the door with all of his speed.
He needed to use his head to open the door, in the most literal of ways.
"Knock, knock!" was Tarrant's battlecry.
He dogded the colossal pendulum, crashed against the door , broke the crystal into tiny pieces... and made the greatest entrance anyone in Time's Castle had ever seen.
"HOLY TEA TRAYS!" He shrieked in pain and covered his forehead with his two hands. He really needed to find a way to remeber his bump. "That hurt so much I could cry a sea of tears-"
He stopped his dramatic fit when he saw two small mechanical beings in front of him. Their emerald eyes were fixed on him.
Steam came out from the little valves on their heads.
"Hello there, Seconds!" Greeted Tarrant, forgeting at once about the burning pain spreading across his head. "I haven't seen you in a while. How's everything ticking?"
He tried to reach them, but the Seconds escaped from his grasp and left the room , screaming and ticking in horror.
"Wait! It's me. Tarrant. The Hatter? Come back!" He explained , but the Seconds never came back. "Was it something I said? Maybe it was the time pun... it's always the time puns."
He meditated about his possible offense as he scracthed his chin. Little by little, his mind became too distracted by the overbearing redness of the room.
When he took a better look, Tarrant noticed everything in it resembled the Big Head, from the heart-shaped door and the sickeningly sweet stench of red roses to the pattern of miniscule hearts carved in the walls.
They were millions, and appeared to be handmade.
Out of curiosity, he inspected them. Each heart had a perfect construction, made with great love and art. They also had something written inside.
Tarrant had to squint his eyes to see.
It was a couple of letters.
"T & I... Time and Iracebeth." Tarrant read. All the hearts had the same message. "Good thing he is eternal, because I don't see how else he found time to do all this. He has a lot of free of himself."
Something ticked near his feet. Tarrant stopped admiring the walls and looked down.
It was a small Second, the one that resembled an oil can. Unlike the other two Tarrant encountered before, this one acted as friendly as ever.
He picked it up. The Second's ticking sounded like a laugh.
"If it isn't my favorite Second of them all! Say little one, is there a chance you can take me to Time? There's something really important I need to tell him. No, it's not about a tea party, though those are very important matters too..."
"You again? I'm afraid he is not willing to see you today, or tomorrow, or the day after." Said a squeaky and oddly stern voice. It came from the entrance, and belonged to an unique and mustachoied Second.
Tarrant sometimes liked to call him The Second, since he was their leader.
But Tarrant mostly called him by his name.
"Wilkins! For a second, I thought it had been my favorite Second who was speaking, but it was you, The Second, all along!" Tarrant put his favorite Second under his arm and went to greet Wilkins properly. He offered him his hand and showed him the brightest of his smiles. "That may sound confusing, but actually it isn't. Anyway, can you take me to-?"
"No, I can't."
"Uh?"
Wilkins grabbed his hand with more strenght Tarrant knew him capable of, and with his head steaming like a ready kettle, he dragged Tarrant towards the clock he had come out from.
"Wait, what are you doing? Wilkins, this isn't like you."
"No more interlopers... not ever again." Explained Wilkins with only half of his breath. The hatter was too heavy for someone that looked so skinny. "Please sir, just leave and don't come back."
"I can't do that! I must speak with Time. Please." Exclaimed Tarrant, digging his heels into the ground. The Second under his arm was starting to get anxious and twitched its legs in the air, as it he was trying to run away.
"He said he no longer wants to go to your silly tea parties." Wilkins explained with the politeness he had left.
"First of all, how dare you put the words 'silly' and 'tea parties' together in a sentence? There's a law in Underland against it... or there should be, if there isn't!" Tarrant finally lost his patience and began to fight back, but Wilkins was too stubborn and just wouldn't let go of his hand. "Second, I won't believe that until I hear it from himself, so I am going to speak with Time whether you want it or not."
"Sir, just leave." Wilkins pleaded, with his metalic eyebrows coming together in a frown. "Don't make me tell the Seconds to form the Minutes, or the Hour. I won't ask you again."
Tarrant didn't understand why Wilkins was being so hard-nosed, but he knew he was talking seriously. Tarrant only had to look at the Seconds standing by the entrance, with their eyes red and ready to follow their leader's orders.
"Yeah? Well, don't make me sing a song!" Said Tarrant. It was his last resource.
"What?"
Tarrant took the deepest breath of his life and brought the song to life.
"TWINKLE ,TWINKLE, LITTLE BAT! HOW I WONDER WHERE YOU'RE AT!"
"Hush, you fool! Seconds, transform into the Minu-" Wilkins however, saw his order interrupted when the oil can Second escaped from Tarrant's arm, fell on his head and shot oil into his mouth.
The rest of the Seconds, now without a leader to give them orders and confused by Tarrant's loud singing, began to cry and run in circles like headless chickens.
"UP ABOVE THE WORLD YOU FLY! LIKE A TEA TRAY IN THE SKY!" Tarrant sung the last word with so much intensity that it transformed into a scream.
"Enough!"
Silence devoured every other sound in an instant. The Seconds, including Tarrant's favorite, went back into their senses and left the room forming a straight line. They moved with precision and swiftly, and were out of sight in the blink of an eye.
The only one that stayed behind was Wilkins, who was still coughing drops of oil.
"No more of that stupid song. I hate it so much! Damn it, I can't sleep for a moment without all of you imbeciles wreking havoc."
A silhouette, the reminiscence of a hourglass, spread across the floor in the form of a imposing shadow.
It was him.
He quickly went from being an ilusory shadow in the halls to his Timelessness presence in the red room.
There was nothing different about Time. He was always the same, and he would ever be.
"What is going on and why are you here? Curtsey while you are thinking what silly excuse to say, it saves me!" Time ordered while ignoring Wilkins , who was trying to explain him about the return of their usual interloper.
At first, Time expression's denoted nothing but annoyance, but when he saw who said interloper truly was, he loosened up a bit.
Just a bit.
"Hatter?"
For Tarrant, that was better than nothing. He decided to do as Time ordered and made a great reverence before him.
"The one and only, unless you go to my family's shop in Witzend. They are all hatters there! But you already know that,you've seen them yourself." Thinking about his family still saddened him, and he knew Time wasn't fond of digressions, so he cut to the chase. "I-"
"No." Time said and turned his back on him. "Leave."
Tarrant's words froze on the tip of his toungue. When he tried to answer back, Time was already gone.
He really passed by quickly.
It wouldn't be true to say Time's attitude didn't extinguished some of Tarrant's enthusiasm.
"Sir, I told you." Said Wilkins with sympathy. "Please, leave now."
Tarrant wavered.
Should he?
Then he remembered Alice, and knew he shouldn't
He would remain in Time's castle all of eternity if it was necessary, but he wouldn't leave until he had the chance to speak with Time.
It was his decision.
And like Time himself, there was no turning back.