Lucy in Wonderland
Summary – Alice and the Mad Hatter unintentionally conceived a child, and Alice didn't find out until after she returned home. Alice named her Lucy. Now that Lucy is six, Alice believes it's time to let Lucy and The Hatter meet. But, things in Wonderland don't stay happy for long. The Red Queen is plotting revenge against Alice, and sometimes, a child's curiosity can be extremely deadly.
Authors Note – hmmmm. Curiouser and Curiouser… Who could be the mystery Bethy and Mira, and what do they have to do with this story?
Disclaimer – I don't own any versions of Alice in Wonderland, nor do I own the Characters, animals, plants, tea time, or the suite of hearts in a deck of cards. :P I do, however, own a poster of the Mad Hatter. That's right. Be jealous.
Chapter 5: A Much Less Nameless Place
The White Queen peered at Alice, and then turned her gaze on Lucy. "Ah! Excellent, you're here. I was beginning to wonder. Weeks and weeks passed by from Absobrillig Day, and now, you're here! Let us get down to business."
The Queen clapped her hands three times. A small woman bustled forward, holding the Oraculum.
"Oh, right… Chessur told me there was…. Some predictions in there." Alice stated vaguely.
"Yes," The Queen stated curtly. "For some reason, the Oraculum has taken a liking to you and seems to have days for you as well as us." She gave Alice a look, her eyes amused. "Perhaps you've been spending too much time here."
"Ah – Uhm, not too much time." The Hatter put in nervously.
The Queen ignored this. She set the Oraculum on the ground and nudged the flap. "Go on." She whispered. To Lucy's delight, the parchment that seemed only a few feet long stretched out pass the entrance to the Queen's grounds.
"Now, see here, this is today, Voltourno, the day Alice Returns and Lucy Visits. And tomorrow Cayantesguin, the day… of unleashing. And in a few days time, Quessolirk, The day we got to War, again, unfortunately. The question is who is in the drawing, Alice or Lucy?"
"Me," Alice said at once. "Lucy is much too young."
"Neither, I'll attack." Tarrant said. "Lucy and Alice are too precious."
"Lucy," The White Queen proposed unhappily. "It's much too small to be Alice, and Tarrant, you are not an option." The Hatter scowled.
"Well," said Nivens, peering into the Oraculum, "Who is it, Alice or Lucy." Lucy leaned towards the White Rabbit and said, "That seems to be the question in debate."
Immediately the four of them began arguing. Lucy grew bored and wandered down the rows of pictures and it didn't take her long to come across one that was interesting. Lucy peered at the picture. It was a picture of The White Queen, and she was riding away on a horse. Lucy leaned closer and touched the picture lightly.
The Oraculum began to speak… Lucy had to strain to hear it over the argument. It was a poem, Lucy realized with a smile, and it went something like this:
"The Queen speaks to her fellow ruler, 'There is a story you must hear,
A story of two little girls who traveled down the rabbit hole'
One had stayed, the other left, and a special child was born.
The Queen returned to Underland and her sister's crown she stole.
Alas, the time has come.
The people are all num,
As their beloved queen leaves for home.
As it is depicted in this poem
And before the world turns grey and down,
The child will rule and gain the crown.
Lucy didn't quite understand the poem, in fact, the poem made her quite upset. Their queen wasn't supposed to abandon them, she was supposed to stay and give her people a sense of comfort. And who is this child? Certainly not Lucy, obviously, because Alice isn't queen.
Lucy would have to ponder over these questions later. The argument was resolved: Only the Oraculum knew if it was Alice or Lucy. And now a new sort of chaos has taken over; apparently, it was time the Queen should ride through the forest on her horse and greet whatever creature she met.
The White Queen asked Lucy if she had ever ridden on a horse. Lucy was tickled pink at the idea. "No, your majesty, I have never ridden a horse."
"Well, we must fix that immediately! I shall ride Allegra, and Lucy shall ride Isis, if I think correctly." The White Queen clasped Lucy's hands in between the two of hers. "Call me Mirana, or Mira for short."
Lucy smiled and the two of them went hand and hand together down to the stables. They didn't notice the look of confusion that crossed Alice's face for the name Mira jogged her memory, though she wasn't quite sure why it was familiar
"Will you stop trying to open the doors. I told you, they are all LOCKED!" The red haired, fiery tempered girl shouted at her blonde little sister. How annoying. One moment she was chasing after a curious rabbit, and now she's stuck in a locked up room with none other than her sister.
The fair-haired girl, on the other hand, was in hysterics. "Bethy, this is your entire fault!" she cried out. She sat upon the floor and began to weep.
It took Bethy approximately 3 whole seconds to get annoyed with her sister's weeping. "Stop that!" she shouted. "Hush! Mira, you're so annoying!"
The older girl needed out of here, before the weeping drove her into madness. She stood up and looked around. A key was on the table, a key that was very much not there before. Bethy took it upon herself to find the door and unlock it. "Look, Mira, a way out. Now shut up."
Mira stopped weeping, but she wasn't convinced that it was a way out. "The door is too small."
Bethy turned and shouted at her sibling. "I KNOW THAT, YOU FOOL!" she lowered her voice. "Now, I have some sort of plan. Maybe if we squeeze…"
But Mira wasn't listening anymore. Instead, she noticed a bottle with a message on it reading "drink me" and Bethy seemed completely oblivious to the whole magical bottle. "… Or, maybe there's another way out of here." Bethy continued.
"Or we could just drink this." Mira held the bottle up and dried her eyes.
Lucy was walking with her escort through the meadow. Her escort was her favorite new friend, except maybe The Hatter, or rather, her father, (he's quite funny) and Mira, or rather, The Queen. (Who is quite nice.) But this character, he was very, very, very kind.
"And so then, they performed that funny dance, the Lobster Quadrille. I have never seen such a Curiouser dance." Lucy explained. The White Queen had taken her to meet the Mock Turtle, and oh, quite the character he was. "Have you ever seen that dance?"
The droopy eyed dog looked up at her and spoke gruffly. "I live here. Everyone her knows what the Lobster Quadrille is."
"Well," Lucy said, quite offended. "It was new to me." They walked in silence for the next few minutes. Then, they came upon a sign pointing into the pathway "Tulgey Woods". "Tulgey Woods? Quite a strange name."
"What's even more curious is that a place without names is a place that has a name." Bayard spoke.
"A place without names? So when I enter, what will become of my name?" Lucy inquired.
Bayard shrugged (How curious, Lucy thought, A dog who can shrug! It was quite the humorous sight; he had an odd way of shrugging.) "Nobody knows. But things here have different names then where you're from. For example, give me a name of something."
Lucy paused and thought this over. "Well, we have dragon flies."
"Well, if you look in the branch above you, there is a snap-dragon fly." Bayard pointed out.
"And horse flies?"
"Near your foot is a rocking horse fly." Bayard said knowledgeably. Lucy, however, moved her feet. She didn't like bugs very much. They walked into the forest, and Lucy waited for a moment, and then frowned.
"I don't suppose I feel any different. But I don't remember my name… It starts with an H, I suppose." Lucy was filled with…. Oh, what was that name of that emotion? Did it began with a K?
Throughout the whole walk through the woods, and it was a very short one, they argued over names. According to Lucy, her name ought to be Helen, but Bayard disagreed, no, he thought her name was to be Dora. Once they exited the woods, they were slightly embarrassed to find that they were both very far off.
"Lucy doesn't start with an H or a D." Lucy said gently.
Lucy came to a halt for she nearly rammed into a very large young boy, no, two very large young boys. She looked behind her to see that Bayard had stopped a few feet ago. "Well, why didn't you warn me?" Lucy shouted.
"Not my job." Bayard shrugged (And once again, Lucy was giggling, for it really was a strange shrug. His hind end seemed to go up with his shoulders.)
Lucy turned back to the twin boys. "Look, it's wrong Alice." One said. "I disagree, she's not Alice at all so we cannot call her 'Wrong Alice'" The other reasoned.
"My name isn't Alice. I'm Lucy." Lucy stuck out her hand. Both the boys grabbed her hand at the same and shook it so hard that it lifted the small girl right off the ground and jostled her around!
"Pleased to meet you, Lucy." They said in unison.
"And who are you?" Lucy inquired. Lucy remembered meeting them, but she didn't quite remember their names.
"Now that's not how you start a conversation, you start it with Howdy'e do?" One said.
"Go on, go on! Say it!" The other said.
"They are so pushy!" Lucy thought, then she added out loud, "Howdy'e do?"
"Just fine, thank you very much." They said in unison.
"And your names?" Lucy asked.
"I'm Tweedlehe's Tweedledum," The one with "Dee" sewed in on his collar.
"Contrariwise, I'm Tweedledum. He's Tweedledee." The one with "Dum" sewed in on his collar. (And how convenient! Now, Lucy can tell them apart!)
"Well, what interesting names!" Lucy commented aloud.
"You like poetry?" Dum asked.
Lucy was about to answer but Bayard interrupted. "Lucy, I have to have you home by tea time. Perhaps another time."
"Right then, I will surly visit you another time." Lucy told the boys. They grabbed her hand and once again, jostled her about.
"Goodbye! Toodleloo! Ta, ta! Another time! Unhello! See you later! May your mouth never be taken over by frumious Vikings!" and so on.
"They are very strange." Lucy commented later while Bayard and her mad their way through a different, less nameless forest.
"You're in Underland. It's neither the first nor the last strange thing you'll see." Bayard told her.
Lucy however wasn't listening, for something shiny lying in the grass caught her attention. She stooped over to pick it up and she brushed the dirt off the cold metal. It was a key, but a key for what, Lucy did not know. The handle of the key, however was a heart and there was a string attached, big enough to fit around her neck.
"Wonder what it's for?" Lucy asked herself, now that Bayard and stopped by a river to get a drink a few yard ahead of her. "Could be important, thus I shall keep it." Lucy slipped the string around her neck.
"Lucy, please keep on track!" Bayard called out.
"Coming!" Lucy raced forward to catch up. They did not know that tomorrow was Cayantesguin, the day of unleashing. And, for something to be unleashed, there was to be a key… correct?
Thanks for reading! You are all amazing!