Okay, in case you didn't already catch it, I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!
***
"Precious and fragile things
Shouldn't know suffering"
Precious ~ Depeche Mode
Elsie woke up in a white room, as white as the rooms aunt Margaret had warned her about that were for people like Elsie apparently. Panicking, Elsie got up and looked around.
She found that she was now wearing a long, silver, loose-fitting dress with flowers embroidered around the edges. It was on hearing the two people talking outside the slightly ajar door that she remembered the events of the previous day. Or was it a day ago? It could have been an hour, or a few hours, or a few days, or a week.
Elsie smiled as she remembered what she had found out yesterday. If she did say so herself, the man had looked a lot like her. Messy red hair, unnaturally pale, bright pink lips, gappy teeth causing a slight lisp, the only thing that didn't match were the eyes, Elsie had the woman's brown eyes.
Brushing a bit or red hair behind her ear, Elsie noticed that her fingers were in a right state. The few fingers not covered with bandages had peeling skin and were tattered, red and sore. There was a pinkish coloured line going right across her right hand from where she'd got it caught in a sewing machine. She remembered the horrible fright she'd given herself and Gran.
At the thought of Gran, Elsie found herself collapsing on the ground in tears. She wasn't over the loss of her parent figure just yet. Her parents rushed in, concerned about her.
"What's wrong?" asked her mother softly.
"I'm sorry," said Elsie, "it's just, I lost someone pretty close before I came here."
"Shh, shh, it's okay," said her father, looking concerned.
"W-where am I?"
"You're in Marmoreal," said a new voice that Elsie didn't recognise, "My palace and home."
"Where is this though? It's not like anywhere I've ever seen." The woman laughed.
"In Underland, which is where we all are. I'm the White Queen by the way, but you may call me Mirana when we're in private."
"I'm Elsabeth Hightopp, but everyone just calls me Elsie, they have done all my life. Gran said it's because Elsabeth is a bit of a mouthful."
"May I ask what your Gran's name was?"
"Helen Kingsley." Alice looked very taken aback.
"Helen Kingsley," said Alice, "was my mother."
"So you're the Alice she was always talking about. Aunt Margaret was being mean to me because she thought Gran was replacing you with me, I heard her say so."
"Really, Margaret should know better than to be cruel to people for things like that."
"She thinks I'm odd."
"Well, all the best people are odd, or mad, or-"
"Hatter!"
"Fez," said the hatter in a raspy whisper, "I'm fine." Elsie couldn't help but laugh a little at this, for she was exactly the same.
"C'mon," said Alice, "let's go join the tea party."
Elsie was led out to the gardens where there were flowers, trees and bushes of all shapes and sizes, and right in the middle of the garden was a long table set out with scones, muffins, pike lets, tea pots, cups, sandwiches, biscuits and all sorts of other things associated with tea parties. Seated at the table were a grey hare with a mad glint in his eye and fur matted with jam and icing and he had a terrible twitch, and a little dormouse wearing what looked like an apron and had a sword at her hip.
All of a sudden, the hare threw a teacup at the Hatter, who ducked just in time to miss it.
"Now Thackery," said the dormouse, "you mustn't throw your tea cup, we have a guest."
At this the hare bowed very gentlemanly, but the twitch was still there.
"Mallymkun, Thackery," said the Hatter, "I'd like to reintroduce you to Elsabeth Hightopp, or Elsie as she prefers to be known as."
"Elsie!" they cried out in unison. "It's so good to have you back, we thought you were dead!"
"No," said Elsie, "not dead, just a bit… lost."
"Tea?" offered the Hatter.
"Oh, yes please! I love tea, although I've been told I drink far too much of it."
"Nonsense, you can't have too much tea. Now, would you like green tea, earl grey, lady grey, assam or jasmine?"
"I'll have some jasmine please."
"Excellent choice," said the Hatter, sitting down in the big arm chair at the top of the table and pouring out some tea from the oriental looking peacock blue tea pot."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome my dear, please, sit." The Hatter indicated for Elsie to sit down on the pouf between himself and Alice.
"This really is a curious place, I've never seen architecture such as this."
"Well, anything's possible here you know. In Otherland you have such limits on what you can do."
"I know, and it's all endless balls and dullness."
The day went on like this, Elsie talking to her parents, Thackery and Mally, until it was quite dark, and she fell asleep.
Tarrant carried her up to bed, placing her gently on the soft bed.