A/N; Hi everyone….sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up, I've had a number of projects going on at once. I'll try not to take a whole week getting the next installment posted _. In the meantime, thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! Your feedback and ideas are very helpful, especially in catching little snafus and crooked plot points I may have missed. Enjoy chapter 10!
Disclaimer; I own nothing. Alice in Wonderland the book belongs to Lewis Carroll, and the film belongs to Tim Burton.
Dreams of a Memory
Chapter 10
As soon as the palace attendants had gently laid Alice and the Hatter down on top of two neighboring beds in the dazzlingly white infirmary, Mirana shooed them hurriedly out into the corridor and shut the door behind them, closing the three of them together inside the room and floating quickly back to the beds.
Alice propped herself up on her elbows, glancing down at her wounded ankle and wincing. A dark round bloodstain had seeped through the makeshift bandaging of Tarrant's hat tail, and the whole mess was swollen so thick she could scarcely wag her foot. Steeling herself determinedly against the ever quickening, throbbing ache, she turned to the bed next to her to look at the Hatter, and the already present pit of worry in the bottom of her stomach grew larger.
"Hatter?" she said, leaning as far as she could on the edge of the bed, but still feeling as if the few feet of floor between them was as wide as an ocean, "Hatter, what's wrong? Are you feeling ill?"
He showed no sign that he heard her. The Hatter was laying flat on his back just as the attendants had placed him, his hands folded calmly over his stomach and his gaze pointed straight up at the ceiling. One wouldn't have guessed there was anything wrong with him at all, were it not for the troubling, distant expression on his face…his features were wrought in a combined grimace of both pain and abstract wonder, as if he were looking up at something so strange, so intensely bizarre that it caused him a physical ache. As Alice peered closer, she realized with a jolt of anxiety that his eyes were changing colors in a slow, continuous cycle…first green, then yellow, orange, pale blue, then green again. There was a glistening sheen of sweat gradually brightening on his forehead, and he began to move his lips as if he were muttering frightened, rapid instructions to himself, but he made not a single sound.
Alice turned desperately to the White Queen, who had drawn a low stool up to the edge of the bed and was tenderly undressing her bad ankle.
"What's wrong with him, Mirana? What's happening?" she begged, pushing herself up further on her arms.
"He's becoming feverish," the Queen answered, casting a worried glance over her shoulder at him. "…but I don't know why---I can't see any serious injury on him. Alice, you must tell me exactly what happened."
Alice felt herself beginning to tremble all over, an inexplicable shiver seizing her entire body as her eyes remained fixed on the Hatter's sweating, frightening expression. She swallowed dryly and wet her lips.
"We were attacked by the Jubjub bird."
Mirana's hands froze in midair with the bloody bandage, whipping her gaze towards Alice with parted lips.
"The Jubjub?" she repeated, raising her eyebrows as if demanding absolute clarification.
Alice nodded. "It…it just appeared above us from nowhere as we were walking back to the castle…the Hatter…he pulled me into the brush, to hide from it, but it circled back again and swooped down on us, and….." her voice was beginning to break, sudden waves of crippling fear and apprehension welling up inside of her. "…but…but he said he was alright!" she cried. "I don't understand, the Jubjub's claws only grazed him….no more than the tiniest scratches, and he insisted thathe felt fi---"
"Its claws?" Mirana interrupted abruptly. "You mean the talons? The Jubjub pierced Tarrant's skin with its talons?"
Alice jumped at the sharpness of her inquisitive tone, giving the Queen a perplexed nod. "Yes, but only the slightest bit."
"And that's all that happened?"
Alice blinked. "Well…yes, I suppose, but….isn't that bad enough?"
Instead of answering, Mirana held her gaze for a moment longer, then draped a palm over her heart and breathed out a long, slow exhale, briefly fanning herself with her other hand and rolling her eyes with relief. She took a few deep breaths and gave her a bright smile, then calmly resumed her removal of the bandaging as well as Alice's shoes.
"Goodness," she gasped, almost laughing. "For a moment, I was worried!"
Alice stared at her blankly in disbelief. "What….what are you saying? What's wrong with him, why is he---?"
"It's alright, Alice…there's nothing to fret about. Tarrant is going to be just fine," the Queen explained, standing up and crossing the room to toss the used dressing over the crackling fire in the hearth. The flames flared up brightly to consume it, and the acrid smell of burning crepe and blood wafted past Alice's nose. The Queen only smiled and moved to open the window between their beds, taking a deep breath of the damp, cool air. Alice's eyes followed her with an anxious stare.
"You see, dear," she continued, sitting back down on the stool and smoothing her white gown over her knees, "…the claws of the Jubjub bird contain a poisonous toxin that is injected into its prey upon contact. A small scratch is enough to do the trick…just one little prick, and the venom is secreted instantly into the victim's flesh."
Alice's jaw dropped and her face twisted in horror. "Then, he's….you mean he's been poisoned?" she cried, seething incredulously, baffled that the White Queen could wear so placid a smile as she spoke such horrifying words.
Mirana only laughed lightly at her reaction, placing a calming hand over her leg. "Yes, he has. But there's no need to panic. The poison in itself, you see, is not at all dangerous…it is merely an anesthetizing and discombobulating agent. It works in such a way that by the time the Jubjub has carried the victim back to its nest, he has no sense of reality or coordination, and will not try to fight back while the Jubjub pecks out his eyes and devours his organs."
The White Queen spoke as lightly and gaily as if she were recounting the details of bedtime story. Alice cringed sharply as she was assaulted by the unwelcome mental image of the Hatter suffering such a gruesome fate, and she shot him another uneasy glance just to remind herself he was still there beside her. Her poor friend was now pouring sweat, his color-changing eyes still fixed on the ceiling and his fingers beginning to twitch violently over his chest. Her eyes darted back and forth between he and the White Queen. She gave Mirana a dubious scowl, still somewhat incensed that she was handling the situation so casually.
"Then, you're….you're absolutely positive it isn't going to do him any harm?"
"None whatsoever," Mirana smiled. "You have my word."
"But…but just look at him! Isn't he in pain? What is it doing to him?"
"Oh, no, darling, he isn't in any pain. He's only severely disoriented. Normally, the primary effect of the poison is stupefaction…the victim falls limp and physically catatonic," Mirana answered, rising to her feet and leaning over the Hatter's bed. She felt his forehead gently, wiping great beads of sweat from his skin and flicking them from her hand. "…but since he was able to make it all the way back to the palace without collapsing, it would seem the wounds must have been too shallow for the toxin to circulate directly into his bloodstream, foregoing this stage."
"Then what will happen to him?"
"Nothing terribly serious…he'll have a short bout of rising fever----there…I think it's already begun to break, as we speak----followed by disconnection of the nervous functions, accompanied by mild---"
But at that instant, the White Queen was sharply interrupted as the Hatter let out a wild, manic cry of alarm and rocketed bolt upright in the bed, jumping and thrashing his arms all about. Alice and Mirana yelped in unison, watching him with wide-eyed astonishment as the Hatter began furiously swatting himself all over with his hands, brushing his sleeves and chest aggressively and uttering frightened sounds of shock.
"----hallucinations," Mirana finished quietly, taking a step back from the bed and holding her fingers gingerly in the air.
Alice's mouth hung open in both fascination and concern as she watched the Hatter swing his legs over the side of the bed and begin tearing frantically at his coat, ripping his arms from the sleeves and flinging it away from him with a mortified yelp, then grabbing his hat and tossing it across the room as if it had threatened to bite him. His eyes moved constantly up and down over his own body as he jerked and squirmed, swatting himself as if trying to shake off crawling swarms of live insects.
"Easy, Tarrant, easy! Be still!" the Queen hushed softly, trying to get close enough to take hold his shoulders. "What's the matter?"
He jumped at the sound of her voice, looking at her with crazed, flashing eyes. "Don't come near!" he shouted, his voice high pitched and frenzied. "Mome raths! Mome raths, mome raths everywhere…..scurrying, scuttling, slithering all over me! Horrid vermin! Get them off, get them away!" He yelped and thrashed against the invisible creatures, making horrified faces that reminded Alice of the time her sister Margaret had found a large brown spider wriggling in her water glass at dinner.
Alice sat up quickly in the bed, a strange mixture of relief and bizarre awe tingling in her chest. His antics made her want to laugh with absurdity and cry at the same time. "Hatter, it's alright, there isn't anything there," she tried, forcing her voice into a reassuring tone.
The instant she spoke, he froze stock still in mid swat, turning to pin her with a stunned expression of total confusion. After staring at her for a split second in shock, he suddenly leapt to his feet and dove towards her with his hands outstretched, crashing onto the bed and seizing her by the arm before the White Queen could stop him. Alice yelped slightly in surprise as his fingers locked around her upper arm and he began tugging and pulling at it as if trying to remove it from her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" she asked him incredulously, almost more curious than stunned.
"Please, Alice, hold still!" he grumbled, sitting on the edge of the bed and wrapping both arms around hers with his back to her, then tugging on each of her fingers one at a time. "If you don't cooperate, I shall neverfind the release switch. You do want this dreadful machine taken off, don't you?"
"Perhaps you'd better lie down, and leave the machine for later," the White Queen suggested softly, extending her hand toward him. The Hatter glanced up at her and stopped his exploring machinations on Alice's arm, narrowing his eyes at Mirana with an intrigued squint.
"I say, your Majesty," he muttered in fascination, rising slowly to his feet and leaning in inches away from her face, tilting his head sideways and inspecting her pale, spotless chin, "…how long have you been cultivating that magnificent beard?"
"Oh, quite some time now," she coaxed gently, taking him by the shoulders and guiding him to sit back down on his bed. "But we can discuss that another time. Why don't you wait here until the doctor comes, Tarrant? I'm sure he won't be long now."
No sooner had he been lowered down onto the mattress, however, than the Hatter's eyes shot wide opened and he hollered loudly with alarm, flipping himself backwards straight over the bed and crouching down to hide behind it on the other side. He peeked cautiously over the edge at Alice, but as soon as she sat up higher and leaned forward to look back at him he let out a startled yelp and ducked back down. Alice gave Mirana a dumbfounded look, but she simply shrugged.
"Your Majesty!" the Hatter hissed, frantically gesturing to her with one hand. "Your Majesty! Hide, quickly! Get down!"
"Why?" she asked.
"Why? Don't you see it? There's a jumpufferwhot in the room!" he pointed to Alice. "It's staring straight at us! Hide, or we'll frighten it away!"
A jump-puffer….what? Alice quirked an eyebrow curiously, cursing her bad ankle and wishing tremendously that she was able to stand up and go to him, to try and help calm him down.
"Hatter, it's me, Alice," she said softly, but firmly. "Please, try to listen to us….you need to see the doctor now."
The Hatter peeked back over the bed, his eyes now bright with excitement and his mouth open in a broad grin. "Oh, your Majesty…listen!" he whispered, inching slowly higher until his shoulders were over the bed, and he spread his hands cautiously over the blanket, gaping at Alice as if she were some rare exotic creature that he had spotted in the wild. "Listen…listen, it's singing now! Isn't it the most beautiful sound? Why, fewer than half a dozen milliners have ever heard the jumpufferwhot's song before! Quickly….quickly, before it stops…find a bottle!"
The Hatter then leapt to his feet and threw the blankets off the bed, patting down the whole of it rapidly with his hands, then jumping over it and crouching down on all fours to peer underneath the nightstand. Finding nothing there, he sprang back up and ran on tiptoe to the other side of the room, disheveling the other beds as well in his frenzied search.
"A bottle, a bottle, a bottle," he was muttering to himself over and over. "What nonsense, there simply must be one here someplace…."
Alice and Mirana watched him and he went round and round the room, checking every nook and cranny, and then going back and starting again at the beginning. Mirana slowly sat back down on her stool, heaving a small sigh as the Hatter suddenly flopped down on one of the beds and began trying to pull his boots off without untying the laces, tilting further and further backwards until he fell flat on his back with one foot in the air.
"I thought you said he would have mild hallucinations?" Alice muttered, her eyes glued to the Hatter in perturbed fascination.
Mirana touched her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Well, they ought to be mild……but then, I suppose we must take into account that he was half mad to begin with."
Yes…I suppose it only makes sense. When one is already half-mad, in such circumstances, there's nowhere else for one to go, but all mad. Alice pursed her lips concurringly, nodding as she watched Tarrant finally succeed in flinging one of his boots over his head. It knocked over a vase of white roses on the mantelpiece and he quickly scrambled up to retrieve it.
"At last! I've found one!" he cried, gripping the boot in one hand and suddenly dropping face down on the floor, crawling stealthily toward Alice's bed like a snake. When he reached the edge, he cautiously popped his head up and held the toe of his boot up to her face, watching her with gleeful expectance.
"Come on, lovely," he whispered coaxingly, as if talking to a dumb beast. "Come on, sing your song again….sing for the bottle…that's it, pretty darling, go on…."
In spite of everything, Alice found herself struggling with all her power not to burst out laughing. The sight of him sprawled on the floor, gazing up at her like that was almost too much….coupled with the overwhelming relief that he wasn't in any real danger, it was all Alice could do to maintain her composure. Swallowing a thick snort and clearing her throat, she carefully put her hand over the boot and pushed it down from her face. The moment her eyes met with his, the Hatter gave a great start and shook himself, climbing to his knees and leaning towards her with wide-eyed surprise.
"Alice!" he stated blankly, as astonished as if she had just materialized out of thin air in front of him. "Whenever did you get here?"
"Only just now," she played along, taking the boot from his hand and dropping it quietly on the floor. "I came to tell you that you ought to sit down and wait for the doctor to come."
"Oh, Alice, you've only just missed it….it was here not a moment ago, the most beautiful jumpufferwhot I've ever seen! Teeth like daisy petals, scales like tea spoons!"
"That does sound lovely. A pity I didn't see it," Alice murmured, jerking her head discretely toward Mirana, who slipped quietly around the bed and took the Hatter beneath his arms, helping him to his feet. She tried to walk him toward one of the other beds, but he spun gracefully away from her, dodging her grasping hands, and sat back down heavily beside Alice, his weight bouncing them up and down on the mattress springs. He leaned almost uncomfortably close to her, narrowed his eyes at her face in a queer fascination, then pinched a thick lock of her hair between his thumb and forefinger and began playing with it, weaving it up and down and across her forehead.
"Remarkable," he muttered to himself.
Alice blushed faintly, gently trying to pull his hand away, but he simply lifted the other and began prodding her on the bridge of her nose, pushing her head first slowly away from him, then back and forth, back and forth, his brow furrowed in amazement.
"Simply remarkable. How did you learn to do that, Alice?"
She had just opened her mouth to try and placate him again when all of a sudden there came a loud, wooden knock, knock, knock, bursting out of nowhere. It degenerated into what sounded like paws scuffling against floorboards, and Alice could hear a muffled voice grumbling from some invisible source.
"At last!" Mirana sighed with relief. "That will be the Court Physician."
Alice watched curiously----absently failing to fend off the Hatter as he continued to poke her in various places, her shoulders and cheeks and the tip of her nose, making small noises of rapt enthrallment each time----as the White Queen moved to the left side of her bed, bent down and lifted the edges of a pale rug lying on the floor, pulling it back to reveal a little trap door with a brass ring handle. Alice realized that it was against this wooden door that the disembodied entity was banging. Mirana took the handle in her fingers, gave a small, hearty wrench, and the trap door jerked open with a trembling wooden squeak.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Alice stared at the dark hole in the floor, brushing the Hatter's exploring fingers away from her hairline and narrowing her eyes, waiting….when all of a sudden, out of the trap door popped the dark, brown little head of a complaining, beady-eyed creature, followed by his paws and arms and a round, stout body covered down the back, head and tail with a fanning bouquet of long, vicious-looking needles. It was a porcupine. It climbed up through the trap door and stood beside Alice's bed, brushing itself off with its paws and muttering irately under its breath, its quills rattling as it moved. Through the hole, she noticed a little ladder leading down into what looked like a warm, furnished den, just before Mirana closed the hatch and smoothed the rug back over it.
"Thank you for coming up on such short notice at this hour, doctor. Alice…" the Queen smiled, straightening up and dusting her hands, "…this is Dr. Flinspint, the royal Court Physician."
"Your Majesty," the porcupine grumbled, cutting a small bow in her direction, then inclining its head half-obligingly toward Alice. "Sir Alice. Nice to see you've returned to grace Underland with your presence. Now what's all this commotion that's worth waking me from my nap for?"
Alice blinked once and returned the courteous gesture, lamenting briefly to herself how much she ought to be puzzled and put off by the idea of a porcupine for a doctor, and in actuality how very little it puzzled her at all.
Spend long enough in Underland, and I suppose one could become accustomed to anything, she thought.
"Please, er….doctor," she said as politely as she could, "You must help him…" she motioned her head toward the Hatter, who had lost interest in her hair and her nose and was now concentrating intently on her bare foot, tilting his head this way and that and staring at her toes as if they were the most bizarre things he'd ever seen. "…he's been poisoned out of his senses by the Jubjub bird."
Mirana cleared her throat quietly, folding her arms and shooting Alice a reminding glance.
"Oh….and…afterwards, I suppose my ankle will want some patching up, as well," Alice grudgingly admitted.
Flinspint did a small double take at the Hatter, blinked, then shook his head and muttered darkly, turning to open a cabinet in the nightstand beside the bed and pulling out a small black leather satchel.
"Blooming idiots….nearly two years without one spot of trouble from that blasted bird….sensible folks know enough to keep well away from it….and now you show up, and in two days go and get yourselves all banged to pieces by it. The Court Milliner will be lucky if I've got any antidote in store….haven't needed it for so long."
"Somebody, quickly!" the Hatter hissed suddenly, his eyes fixed on Alice's foot but one hand gesturing urgently in the air. "Name something that starts with the letter 12!"
Alice gave the porcupine a reproachful look, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "I'm terribly sorry for the trouble. I assure you, we didn't mean to---"
"Eh, I know, I know, save your sorries," Flinspint mumbled. "Your majesty, if you would be so kind as to help me restrain him…?"
"Of course. Tarrant," the White Queen said sternly, seizing the opportunity of his intense distraction with Alice's foot to grab him firmly by the shoulders and lift him to his feet, marching him to sit back down on his bed and holding him in place. "It's time for you to behave now."
"Right," Dr. Flinspint said, pulling from his black bag a pair of long silver scissors, a sponge, a pair of copper tongs, a large spoon, and two glass jars, one that was full of an acrid-looking yellow liquid and another that was filled to the lid with a dark, nearly black substance that Alice couldn't quite recognize. "Show me the point of entry."
Mirana gently turned the Hatter to sit with his scratched, blood-splotched back to the porcupine, who shook his head as he dragged the stool over and climbed on top of it.
"He got off easy. I've seen people gored to ribbons by those bloody talons," Flinspint remarked as he took the scissors and cut away a large square from the back of Tarrant's vest and shirt, revealing a great patch of bare, white skin from his neck to his belt, smudged here and there with dried blood. Alice stared and shuddered involuntarily at the sight of the Hatter's back, a fresh wave of guilt and worry rising in her stomach. There were four clear scratches he'd received from the claws of the Jubjub, and though they were rather small and shallow, the skin around them had begun to bruise and mottle with infection, his abnormally pale complexion turning a sick yellow and purple around the edges of the cuts. "Yes, ma'am…" the porcupine droned on, now cleaning the skin with the damp sponge as Mirana sat on the opposite side of the Hatter, keeping him distracted with her darkly painted fingernails, which he seemed to enjoy counting over and over. "….poor fool should thank his lucky stars the beastly bird didn't get any closer. I remember the last sorry blighter it got hold of…pulled the heart straight out through the windpipe. Nothing left to do but clean him up for the coroner."
"You ought to have something done about these garden snails, Majesty," the Hatter murmured thoughtfully, stroking Mirana's hand and studying her fingers as his eyes shifted once more to a bright yellow, oblivious to the porcupine's paws working carefully at his back. "They're frolicking about completely unclothed. Hardly proper. I could see my way to fashioning them some very small hats, if you'd like."
"That would be wonderful, Tarrant, thank you," the Queen answered, glancing over his shoulder and nodding to Dr. Flinspint. The porcupine nodded once in return, then put down his sponge and picked up the black jar. Alice leaned as far over the side of her bed as she could, eager to see what was inside…Flinspint carefully unscrewed the lid, picked up his copper tongs, and plunged them into the jar. After a moment of poking about, he drew them out again, and pinched firmly between the ends of the prongs was the fattest, more horrible looking leech Alice had ever seen in her life. It was a dark, rich shade of purple, almost black, nearly six inches long and writhing and stretching in midair like a sliver of living mud. Alice cringed and covered her mouth with her hand as a strong, sour smell wafted past her, and she noticed the White Queen turning her face away and gagging politely.
Flinspint leaned the Hatter a few inches further forward, and then with a delicate precision carefully touched the fat end of the leech to his skin, laying it lengthwise across the first of the Jubjub's scratches. The slimy creature immediately latched on and stuck there, a dark purple blob in the middle of Tarrant's back, stark and bulbous against the white of his skin. Alice recoiled with both revulsion and overwhelming sympathy----she had always had a remarkably strong stomach for nasty things, especially as far as girls went, but----oh, leeches! Why did it haveto be leeches? Any other loathsome creature, she could handle…spiders, worms, toads, centipedes, slugs, none of them bothered her one bit….but leeches….they positively sent shivers down her spine. She had always hated the ghastly brutes, ever since she was a little girl and had somehow gotten one stuck to her neck while swimming in the pond at her family's summer cottage. She'd ignorantly tried to pull it off with her fingers, and then ran shrieking with horror up the hillside after only succeeding in stretching its rubbery body out to a grotesque length.
The Hatter, however, didn't seem to notice at all as Dr. Flinspint proceeded to drape three more of the leeches across his scratches, until the whole of his back was like a bulging, striped, purple and white corkboard. Alice could practically see the wriggling things growing rounder as they slowly, greedily sucked out swallow after swallow of his blood. The porcupine wiped the scum from the end of his tongs with a rag and closed the lid back on the evil-smelling jar, dusting his paws.
"And that's that. How long since he was poisoned?" he asked of no one in particular.
"About….I'd say nearly three hours, now," Alice answered, grimacing at the poor Hatter's back, but unable to tear her eyes away.
"They'll need to stay on for a good thirty minutes, then…just long enough to extract the brunt of the poison. He'll grow quite sleepy after five minutes, and in ten he'll have to take a dose of this," the doctor tapped his claw on the glass bottle of yellow liquid, handing it and the spoon over to the White Queen. He took up his black satchel and climbed down from the stool, moving it over to the edge of Alice's bed instead. ".…in the meantime, let's have a look at that ankle."
A jolt of queasiness suddenly overtaking her, Alice flinched uneasily away from him, an apprehensive wince crossing her face.
"You….you aren't going to have to put any of those on me, are you?"
The porcupine snorted derisively, climbing up on the stool and chuckling to himself. His prickly disposition seemed to be growing slowly friendlier.
"For a bad ankle? Of course not," he groused heartily, lifting his bag onto the bed and rummaging through it. "What are we, medieval?"
"I should hope not," Alice murmured, well beneath her breath. She watched as the doctor pulled out a roll of white bandages, a vial of some clear, thick liquid, and a small tin box. He squeezed a few drops of the transparent elixir into her wound, and she bit back a gasp when it stung smartly. He then took a clean sponge and began swabbing the puncture.
"This won't take long at all," he assured her, opening the tin box, which turned out to be full of a course, pale green powder. A took a small teaspoon and began gently packing scoop after tiny scoop of the stuff directly into the wound. "Pokes like this are an inconvenience at most. You'll be walking on it as soon as the dressing's in place."
Alice lifted her brows skeptically as the porcupine closed up the tin and began meticulously winding the cottony white gauze round and round her ankle, but sure enough….by the time he had finished binding and securing it, the swelling had gone almost completely down, and the pain was fading fast. As Flinspint nodded in approval of his handiwork and began packing up his things, Alice timidly shifted her legs and lowered her feet to the floor, slowly pressing her heels and toes flat. Inch by inch, she gradually leaned forward and straightened up until she was standing fully erect on both feet. She gaped down at the bandaged appendage for a few seconds, then shifted her weight back and forth, side to side…she took a few cautionary steps forward, and discovered that she felt no pain at all. Her ankle seemed as good as new.
"Incredible!" she muttered, taking a small jump and twirling a circle between the two beds.
"Not at all," the porcupine sniffed pompously. "Routine patch-up, nothing more."
Alice smiled at his poorly concealed pride, and bent forward with her hand extended to his paw, carefully avoiding his sharp-ended spines.
"I think it's incredible. I…we…can't thank you enough, doctor."
For an instant, Flinspint actually seemed to fluster with embarrassment…then he quickly regained himself, clearing his throat and consenting to shake Alice's hand once. He then snorted dismissively and waddled past her, climbing up to perch at the foot posts of the Hatter's bed.
"Feh. Well, now that you're up and about again, you can help with this one," he jerked his head toward Tarrant, whom Alice abruptly realized had been completely silent for some minutes. His head was hanging low, his shoulders slumping and his eyelids beginning to flutter spastically. "Lay him down front-ways on the bed, if you please," the porcupine directed. "And mind you not to disturb the leeches."
Alice didn't have to be told twice. She held her breath against the bloodsuckers' acrid smell, keeping her fingers as far from them as possible as she and Mirana carefully lowered the Hatter's torso down to the mattress and lifted his feet---still with one boot missing---from the floor, arranging his legs neatly behind him so that he was lying on his stomach with his head turned sideways on the pillow, his eyes---which had finally ceased their sporadic cycle of color changes---half glazed over and staring blankly at nothing. Every few seconds he would mumble some indistinguishable noise beneath his breath, but it was clear that he would be dead asleep within minutes. Alice couldn't resist stroking a tender hand along his arm, wincing empathetically as one of the fatter leeches made a sudden writhing squirm over his back, quickly resettling itself and latching back on for a second drink.
Flinspint cast a quick glance towards a clock on the wall, then turned and pointed to the bottle of yellow liquid on the nightstand.
"It's time. He's got to get two spoonfuls of the antidote down before he falls asleep."
Mirana nodded in response, quickly taking up the spoon and the jar, opening it and pouring out a careful dose of the serum. She crouched down close to the floor beside the Hatter's pillow, her hand held beneath the full spoon.
"Tarrant? Can you hear me?"
His eyelids were flickering dangerously now, his eyes beginning to roll back in his head. "Collymoddle," he murmured half-audibly in response.
"Good," the White Queen urged, setting down the jar so that she could gently slide her fingers beneath his cheek, lifting his head just far enough off the pillow. "That's good. But it's time for you to take some medicine now. Come on, now….there you go, just like that."
Clearly grasping only the barest fragments of what was happening, the Hatter obediently opened his mouth and took the dose, closing his eyes tightly shut and making a sour face as he swallowed. For a moment he seemed to be choking on it, and Alice immediately began rubbing her hand in small, soothing circles at the base of his neck…then he burst into a sudden fit of coughing, lifting himself up onto his elbows and hanging his head, his back rising and falling with the rattling gasps. Alice bent further over him, forgetting all about the proximity of the leeches and holding his shoulders as he coughed, wishing in vain there was something more she could do for him, and knowing painfully that there wasn't.
Mirana wore a regretful expression, but she dutifully poured out another spoonful of the vile yellow medicine and held it toward him.
"I'm sorry," she frowned apologetically, "…but you've got to have onemore."
The Hatter turned a wary eye in her direction and began shaking his head through the last lingering coughs. Mirana pursed her lips, rubbing his arm understandingly with her free hand.
"I know, I know…it's loathsome stuff…but I'm afraid you simply must take it. Please Tarrant, just one more and it's all finished!"
He turned his eyes miserably toward her in an expression of distaste and confusion, and for a moment he seemed as if he were going to refuse…he was growing visibly hazier and more disoriented by the instant, and he turned his head in the other direction to face Alice, surprising her with his sudden gaze. Swallowing thickly, she lowered down to her knees and gently laid her hand over his cheek, smoothing the thick tufts of orange hair back from his face and looking deeply into his pleading eyes.
What a horrible, beastly time of it he had had….and all because of her, because he had been protecting her. It was her fault that he had been poisoned, her fault that he was in such a disheveled condition.
The guilt of her own thoughts in combination with the piercing gloom of the Hatter's wide green eyes as he blinked blearily at her was too much to endure in silence. A thick lump catching at the back of her throat, and forgetting completely about Mirana and the porcupine at the foot of the bed, Alice found herself suddenly closing her eyes and leaning so close toward Tarrant that their foreheads touched ever so faintly. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and buried her hand in his hair, holding his head gently and ignoring the steady, quickening pace of her own heartbeat as he reciprocated the gesture and tilted his head towards her.
"Hatter," she whispered, softly enough so that no one else could hear, the words spilling out before she even thought about them, "I…I never thanked you…."
"Alice," he murmured, interrupting weakly, and to her astonishment his voice was calm and even again, his tone abruptly absent of the mad sing-song that had marked his delirium. She leaned back to look at him, and a layer of the dazed fog in his stare at been replaced with dawning, squinting self-consciousness. "Alice….we did make it to the castle, didn't we?"
She laughed briefly in spite of herself, instantly squeezing her eyes shut and stifling it, sniffing loudly and massaging the side of his head. "Yes, we did. Thanks to you, we did."
He sighed lowly, letting his head fall face first back into the pillow, his mouth barely accessible to the air. "Good," he muttered, almost breathlessly. "That's very good."
His intoxication of venom was wearing off rapidly before her eyes, the garbled bit of his old near-sanity piecing back together. He raised his face again and dragged his hand over it, groaning softly and rubbing his temple. He looked toward Alice, a weary gleam of understanding slowly filling his expression.
"There's no such thing as a jumpufferwhot, is there?" he murmured.
Alice smiled sadly and shook her head, an overwhelming relief flooding through her as she smoothed her fingers again through his tangled hair. "I have no idea."
He gave her a weak smile, then turned back to Mirana and glanced reluctantly at the medicine in her hand, his shoulders heaving with a heavy sigh. Then he abruptly raised his hand, took the spoon from her, and threw back the last noxious swallow, shutting his eyes and covering his mouth with his fist, as if it were taking all of his will power not to be sick. At last, he looked back up, blinking and coughing a final time before hanging his head with exhaustion. Mirana smiled appreciatively and closed up the medicine, laying her hand for a few seconds on his arm before drifting away. The Hatter turned his face toward Alice and laid his head on the pillow, still grimacing and sucking his teeth.
"I think….I may have just swallowed tortoise bile."
Alice opened her mouth to assure him he hadn't, but then quickly realized that given what she knew about such things in Underland, it was a distinct possibility that he very well had. So she rubbed his shoulder instead, and gave him as comforting a smile as she could.
"It's all over now, though," she said softly, her smile widening as he closed his eyes and drooped deeper into the pillow with a tired sigh. "Nothing left for you to do but rest."
"Alice…everything….everything feels so blue. I….I feel as though I've missed something," he mumbled, his voice growing quieter and disjointed the nearer he drew to unconsciousness. "Something amusing."
"Don't worry. I'll tell you about it when you wake up," she answered.
"Mmmm," he made a small noise through his lips. "That….reminds me….there was something…something….I wanted to say…"
"Shhhh," Alice hushed, gently stroking his cheek bone with the back of her knuckles. "It can wait."
"No…no, I'm sure it was important…" he narrowed his brow over his closed eyes, concentrating even as he was falling asleep. His words lit a small spark in Alice's mind, and with a brief, nervous glance toward the White and Dr. Flinspint at the end of the bed----they both noticed her looking at them and hurriedly turned away, politely averting their eyes and talking to each other about some inane subject----she leaned in close to his face, putting her lips gently to his ear and whispering.
"Thank you, Tarrant," she breathed, an exquisite feeling of release following behind the words as they finally escaped from the confines her thoughts. "For saving my life."
"I remember," was his answer, his eyes suddenly opening the smallest fraction, just wide enough for her to see that his irises had inexplicably turned an electric ice blue. "I wanted to tell you….that you, Alice, have exquisitely.…fantastically, magnificently….beautiful………toes."
With that final breath, his eyelids fluttered closed and he fell completely limp and silent, dead asleep on the pillow. His breath grew shallow and even, his be-leeched back rising and falling gently as he began to snore quietly.
Alice stared at him for a moment, her cheeks flushing a brilliant red and her hand frozen at the side of his face. Slowly, thoughtfully, she drew it back, watching his closed eyelids with an astonished feeling that she couldn't quite define.
It….it was the Jubjub venom, of course…..he was still coming off the delirium, he was just rambling out whatever came into his head. Of course….that's all it was, the poison. Nothing more.
Her gazed lingered for a long moment on his face, and she realized with a sudden start that she was staring at his lips.
Just as her heart was beginning to pound with a heavy, hot sensation that she was not at all certain she liked the feel of, she heard the White Queen hissing politely behind her. She looked over her shoulder, and Mirana was gesturing calmly with her hand for the two of them to step outside. With a final glance at the Hatter's peacefully snoring face, Alice reluctantly rose to her feet and followed the Queen to the door, remembering to pause and give the porcupine doctor a respectful curtsy of gratitude. He waved her away with his paw, but failed to hide a small smile as he turned back to watch over the sleeping Hatter, glancing every few minutes at the clock, doubtlessly waiting for the minute he could remove the ghastly bloodsuckers and return to his den beneath the floor.
Once safely in the corridor with the door to the infirmary shut silently behind them, the Queen breathed out a long sigh of relief.
"That was certainly….interesting," she smiled at Alice, turning her back to the door and stretching her arms downward. "I do hope you don't plan on having such wild adventures every afternoon."
A sharp jolt of memory shot through Alice's brain, and she immediately steeled her gaze into a cold stare of determination, reaching out and taking the Queen hand to secure her attention.
"Mirana," she said seriously, causing the Queen to blink curiously at her. "There's something you and I need to talk about."
"Yes?" she replied, raising her eyebrows with intrigue. "What is it?"
Alice wet her lips, steeling her resolve and looking Mirana straight in the eye.
"I need you to tell me everything you know about the Oraculum."
A/N; I keep getting carried away with wild fluffy tangents in each of these chapters, and I never seem to get as far with them as I'd like! I'll try my hardest to get back on board with the actual plot next time, and hopefully we'll make it further than a little half-assed backtrack at the end. Reviews make me smile!