Here's chapter nine—added at the same time as eight to help soften any hard feelings? :D
Some questions/confusion should definitely start clearing up from here on out.
Also, I use too many commas. This is another thing I'm trying to fix.
"Alice! …A-Alice!"
A magnificent set of white doors crashed in. A half dozen white Chessmen filed in, followed by a panting, positively frantic White Rabbit.
Three bodies turned abruptly from a daunting throne to meet the voice.
"Your majesty….m-maj-majesty… Alice…Alice is alive!"
The White Queen's eyes grew wide. The Hatter's—not far from her, his fists coiled. The March Hare crouched behind his friend and cried out in shock.
"Impossible," the Hatter snarled.
"But she is! Your majesty, please," the Rabbit repeated, bowing quickly before he blurted, "Alice…she's being kept in the Red Queen's castle…the Knave…the Knave is poisoning her and making accusations that the two are in love!" Another quick breath, "He's trying to trick her into thinking that she is the Red Queen!"
The Hatter mumbled something about the 'bloody Red Queen' in the background while the White Queen's eyes flickered here and there, processing the Rabbit's accusations.
"How can this be so?" the White Queen mumbled.
The poor Rabbit looked to be on the brink of tears.
The White Queen's castle had been hurt quite a bit—the walls had lost their luster and began to turn gray, the trees soured and bent in the hot, thick air, the grass had started to brown around the lawn. The Queen herself looked older—more lines had appeared on her worn face. The March Hare had taken shelter in her kitchen though he was a terrible chef; he more often broke things than actually concocted them. Mallymkun and Bayard posed as messengers and protectors of the outer reaches of the White kingdom, but their forces had grown quite weak and numbered as of late.
The Hatter looked the same, just more bitter. He hadn't been able to shake the anger that struck him that night, one that festered with any thought of Alice. He had only been there a day or two and already was beginning to recall Wonderland due to his fortunate remembrance of the White Queen. So when the Hatter had returned, the Queen had done everything in her power to help him, to repair his horribly shattered memories and broken mind, but it was to little avail. He insisted Alice was dead, and each time he did so it was as if he was losing a part of himself.
Thus, here was the Hatter, his face gone dark, clutching a long sword, and obsessed with ticking clocks. He hardly strayed from the White Queen, fearing what would happen should he be left on his own again. She did not mind, not in the least—it was good to have such colorful company—but each time she glanced him standing there, feeling such vengeance, her heart tore a little.
"I-I…I-I do not know, your majesty. But it is Alice, this I swear to you… But she does not recall…" the Rabbit whimpered, feeling as though he was shrinking in her gaze, "Please, you must do something!"
"I cannot change what she has done to this place," the woman replied in a hollow voice. "If she is in love with Stayne…"
"But she isn't, your majesty! Our Alice would never turn to such scum," he insisted.
The Hatter turned away, his head going this way and that. He was suddenly in search of an invisible clock. Mirana glanced to him and sighed heavily.
"It is taking all of my power to keep this kingdom from crumbling, Nivens. Between the madness of the Hatter and the Hare and the decrepit state of Wonderland, I haven't anything left in me. And my vows forbid me from setting foot in the Red castle unless my sister has completely vanished. Alice…" the Queen murmured, her eyes fell closed as if she was concentrating on something very far away, "Alice…her embrace of the Red Queen's castle…her ways…"
"What ever do you mean, your majesty?" the Rabbit pressed.
Mirana's face was split between pain and anxiety. She chewed her lip a moment, glanced to the Hatter again, who was now searching behind her chair for the non-existent clock, and then back to the Rabbit.
"I…I do not think I can fix her. Do you recall the last battle for Wonderland?"
"Certainly," he replied.
The White Queen looked terribly frightened, but her voice remained entirely even. "The Red Queen struck Alice with her staff, did she not?"
"Yes…and we all thought the girl was dead," he confirmed quietly, his long ears drooping at the thought.
"Alice rose and became our champion, and perhaps she is even the true Queen of Wonderland…this place makes her more herself, it seems, as she does not fear the land or the creatures here. And Wonderland has in turn accepted her, a girl from the other world you spoke of…" the White Queen sighed gingerly and her fingers twitched a bit, "It makes me think…that some how…Wonderland must live through Alice."
The Rabbit's heart sank a bit further, but he could not explain why. "It seems impossible."
"Not impossible," Mirana replied, "it was she who the prophecy spoke of all along. Wonderland has known, even before us, that she was meant to be here."
The Rabbit shook a little. "But, your majesty, what does that have to do with Alice 'embracing the Red Queen's ways?' She would never--"
The Hatter stood straight up, glanced side to side, and then frowned a bit. The clock still eluded him. The White Queen brushed him off just this once, muttering, "Perhaps it's best if he does not know." She knelt to the Rabbit's height and continued slowly, "Alice is not herself. The Red Queen's staff…it was her most beloved possession. When our parents gave me the crown, she fled from us and took up that staff. No one knows where she got it from, but everyone in Wonderland knows the Queen would not be parted from it. Even the Knave was not so privileged as to hold it."
The Rabbit's eyes implored her for more.
"I believe that whomever gave it to her cursed it. The thing was so close to her heart and she was so obsessed with it… I feel as if part of her lived in that thing."
"Like her soul?" the White Rabbit suggested quietly.
Mirana did not reply. Instead her face turned sad without so much as moving a muscle, and then the Rabbit added drearily, "And she struck Alice and it must have went into the girl…"
"I'm sure she was not expecting Alice to rise again…perhaps the Red Queen had begun to fear the thing and wanted the curse dispelled elsewhere. But now…if you speak the truth, the Red Queen may very well be back again in Alice…which would explain why I feel her presence so."
"How will we stop this, Mirana?" the Rabbit barely breathed.
"Stop what?" the Hatter chirped. The ticking had subsided, if only momentarily.
The Rabbit and the Queen looked to him sadly. Excuses ran wildly across their thoughts. Mirana was the first to shake her head and rise to her proper height before explaining, "The Red Queen's forces are on the rise again, Tarrant."
His eyes glimmered a moment before going a shade darker. "Down with the bloody Red Queen," he simply replied.
Mirana nodded, looking frightened and perplexed. Yet, after a moment of silence from the Hatter's end, she turned back around and spoke to the Rabbit, "We haven't the proper forces but I'm sure that the Gryphon will be able to help us…"
"Off with her head, we ought to kill her, damn well strike her dead… Kill her bloody red head!" suddenly the Hatter was snarling, brandishing his sword and tromping angrily to the White Queen.
"Tarrant—" the Rabbit squeaked. The March Hare yelped and ducked away.
The Queen turned on a dime, her mouth in a little 'o' before she barked, "Hatter!" But he was still drawing his sword, as if she was his opponent.
"Look out!" the rabbits cried in unison.
Mirana just had time to duck the sword's sweep. When she found her feet again, she screamed, "Hatter!"
His eyes went wide and turned the brightest green in an instant. The blade trembled in his hand. The Hatter said nothing—he simply stepped away and clutched the sword close to him, looking tired and dejected.
The White Queen drew a slow breath and watched him retreat with tired eyes of her own. She only had so much strength. She only had so much patience. Soon the woman was turning away from the Hatter again, this time much more slowly should he dare to step forward again, before she began again, "Let us go to the garden, Nivens."
So they retreated to the outdoor sanctuary, the courtyard looking so serene versus the angry, grumbling sky. It had since dyed itself a deeper shade of orange, and as the two looked for the sun lost behind a thicket of black clouds, the Rabbit shivered once again.
"Has the Hatter truly gone around the bend, then?" he asked in a small voice.
"He is most certainly trying," the Queen muttered darkly. She placed two fingers to her lips and blew out a most shrill whistle, one that cut the sky and the clouds to summon the magnificent beast overhead. It only took a mere moment for him to come sweeping from the sky, and what a streamlined, deadly thing he was.
With a triumphant screech and a dull thud echoing under their feet, the Queen and Rabbit found themselves in the company of a particularly large, bird-like beast. Snapping at the air with his great sharp beak, the Gryphon gave a short nod and a deep bow before grumbling, "How may I help you, your highness?"
The White Rabbit almost seemed to cower away from the thing, as he was always forgetting just how big the Gryphon truly was. However, the last either creature had laid eyes on one and other was well in the past—the Gryphon had only been freed at the last battle for Wonderland where Alice had slain the Jabberwocky. The story had said that long ago the Gryphon and the Jabberwocky had been tangled in a tragic battle—one that the majestic bird-beast was destined to lose. But he had challenged the Jabberwocky for Wonderland's sake, he too trying to do something, anything at all to save his home and his friends. The Gryphon had been beaten badly and shamed by the Jabberwocky, and soon after was imprisoned within the mountain that the Jabberwocky had bound himself to. The dragon fell asleep for many a day before Alice reappeared, bearing the Vorpal Sword and challenging the dragon to yet another duel to the death. When Alice had vanquished the beast, his spell on the Gryphon shattered, freeing him from his rocky prison just as little Alice collapsed on the battlefield.
The Gryphon since had felt forever indebted to little Alice, but never managed to meet her before she slipped back into the other world. Instead he gave his gratitude to the White Queen, allying with her should she ever need advice or defense, whatever it was she so desired.
"Please," the woman began, "Please sir Gryphon, fly far and wide, gather our men. We must do everything in our power to revive the White kingdom so that we may rescue Alice."
"Alice?" he replied, his talons dug into the earthy ground.
"She has come back to us, dear Gryphon," the White Queen continued, "but has been taken under by the Knave of Hearts."
"Then I will slay him myself, and have it over and done with," the beast snarled. He had not even met Alice and yet he was willing to risk death for her safety.
"No, Gryphon," the White Queen cut in, "Rally our troops, and then your battle can proceed. We mustn't walk out unprepared. The Red kingdom has grown strong in Alice's absence, and I am certain they will do everything in their power to keep the girl hidden away there."
"Yes indeed…" the Gryphon murmured, "We must fight. I will search for allies if you wish, but I cannot guarantee for how long. If little Alice is in trouble, then we must certainly reach her sooner rather than later."
It was rare that the Gryphon would compromise if he did not like a plan, so Mirana gave a little smile and motioned him to the skies again. "Fairfarren and a safe voyage to you, sir Gryphon."
