"Alice! Yer' late fer tea!"
As she approached the long tea tables, Alice Kingsleigh ducked expertly, as a tea cup came flying her way and smashed on a tree trunk behind her. The culprit, Thackery of course, let out a loud stream of laughter as the blonde Champion made her way towards the table, now restored to its former glory. The cups and plates were no longer broken or chipped, and the white table cloth looked crisp and brand new. The teapots were filled practically to their brims with piping hot tea, and the small pastries were as brightly colored as ever. Where there had originally been only three guests at the table, there were now quite a few more. Of course, Tarrant, Mallymkun and Thackery (the last of whom was looking rather peeved at Alice for being late) were present. But, they were now joined by the Hare, Hatter and Dormouse of Wonderland, or, what had been Wonderland. McTwisp and Rabbit had also seemed to have found time to drop by for a cup of tea.
"Well, it's about time you showed up."
The sound of the familiar, dry, sarcastic voice was enought to make Alice smile. Sitting near the head of the table, Alice Liddell raised her tea cup in greeting with a smirk, always to be translated into a grin. Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, Alice Kingsleigh took her place between her brunette friend and Tarrant, taking a cup of tea for herself. Glancing around at the table, she watched as Mallymkun attempted to teach Dormy to use one of her pin swords.
"Oi! Git up, ye' lazy creature!" Mally scowled, as Dormy fell sound asleep, the sword still grasped in his delicate pink paw. The female Dormouse was not amused, delivering a kick to her counterpart's mechanical leg. This, however, only caused her to let out a tiny cry of pain and indignation, clasping her now injured paw between her forepaws and hopping around for a few moments. Frustrated, Mally stalked back to her seat and grabbed her dormouse-sized tea cup, taking a few sips and glaring at the snoring Dormy.
Alice Kingsleigh held up her cup, as if on cue, to catch a sugar cube that Thackery had thrown her way. "How long have they been going on like that?" she asked, indicating Mallymkun and Dormy. Alice Liddell shrugged.
"Not sure. Quite a while, I suppose." she said, stirring her own tea. Alice was never one for talking, even to people she cared about.
The party continued on, with Thackery and Hare lobbing food, dishes and silverware across the table and the two Hatters exchanging riddles. The two girls, for the most part, joined in on a few occasions, every once in awhile suggesting the answer to one of the impossible riddles that Tarrant and Hatter proposed. All was peaceful (well, as peaceful as a mad tea party could be) and light, with the sun shining down on the table and a light breeze keeping anyone from getting too hot.
None of them saw the approaching storm clouds in the distance, or felt the sudden slight chill in the air.
It wasn't often that Margaret Manchester found time to take a lesurely stroll, and when the opportunity arose, she took it. What with the work around her home, keeping the servants in check and attending the multiple parties held by her friends and family, Margaret had little time for idle things such as this. However, it was something of a relief to be on her own to think, mostly about her now vanished sister. She hadn't been present at the party where Alice had run out of the Ascot's ballroom, and suddenly turned up on the grounds of the manor, apparently in the presence of a known lunatic. Alice had been bought back to the manor, completely distraught, only to run away just a few hours later. The only clues to her whereabouts were the open window, and the hastily scrawled note, saying that Alice couldn't tell where she was, but that she was safe.
All of it was rather perplexing to the entire Kingsleigh family, and extremely distressing to both Helen and Margaret. Helen had taken to wandering the streets at night, searching for her lost daughter, and Margaret, on the other hand, had thrown herself into her work at home, trying not to think about Alice. However, walking through the park now, she couldn't help but remember. This place had been a favorite spot of both Alice and Margaret when they were younger. On one occasion, when Alice had been six years old, she'd run off while Margaret was trying to teach her lessons, only to return a few minutes later with tales of an imaginary land that she had visited. At the time, Margaret had laughed, and chastised Alice gently for running off.
The familiar sights and sounds were enough to make Margaret begin to miss Alice more and more. She had tried to distract herself from her sister's disapperance, but she now found that she couldn't have gone on doing it for much longer. So lost in her thoughts was Maragret that she didn't notice the scenery around her changing until she suddenly snapped back to reality. The forest around her certainly wasn't the park she'd just been in a few moments ago. She looked behind her, only to see not the pathway, but an expanse of woods. The flowers blooming at her feet were much, much bigger than the ones in the park. Margaret peered closer at one bloom, only to find what looked like a face within. She gasped, jumping backward in suprise. Was she going mad?
Unable to think clearly, she took off running, faster and faster until the land began to blur before her eyes. Finally, she was stopped in her tracks by the back of a huge armchair, at the head of a rather long table. With a rather unladylike thud, she landed on the ground, the wind knocked out of her. Around Margaret, gasps rang out, one of which sounded familiar.
"Meg?" It was Alice's voice, and Margaret opened her eyes to see her sister kneeling next to her, a concerned and confused look in her eyes. "How...how did you get here? Was it the rabbit hole?"
"...rabbit hole?" Margaret, still in shock, looked around at the crowd beginning to form around her and Alice. Only one of the people looked relatively normal, a brunette girl, perhaps a few years younger than Alice. However, there were red splatters on her dress that looked suspiciously like blood, and the girl was carrying what seemed to be a rather large, stylized butcher's knife. The others were even stranger: a man with bright orange hair and a rather large top hat, another man with green skin and an even larger hat, two dormice and two hares. A pair of waistcoat-clad rabbit stood nervously off to the side, and Margaret suddenly remembered something Alice had said when she was younger. Something about a white rabbit in a waistcoat.
"Alice...this isn't...Wonderland, is it?" Margaret let Alice help her up and to one of the chairs, where a teacup was placed in her hand. She hesitantly took a sip, and found herself feeling a little more at ease. God, she iwas/i going mad. Going mad and dreaming that she was taking tea with her vanished sister in a fantasy world. "I feel like I'm trapped in a dream."
"So did I, but it was no dream," Alice replied with a small smile.
Before anyone could say anything else, thunder boomed in the distance and all present looked up to see dark clouds rolling towards them.
"Oh dear..." Thackery's long, brown ears twitched worriedly.
Margaret saw Alice's eyes widen slightly, as if afraid. "Alice, it's just a storm, why should we be-"
"We must get to Marmoreal," Alice's interrupted, tight and drawn with fear. "Mirana will know what's going on. McTwisp, Rabbit, go ahead and tell her and the White Queen that we're coming."
The two rabbits nodded in reply, and raced away, obviously faster than the others would have gone. Alice helped Margaret to her feet, and the brunette girl approached to walk beside Alice.
"I'm Alice...Liddell, by the way. We'll explain everything, but you may have to suspend your belief just a little bit."
