I know it been a week or so but the next Chapter is finally out! Oh and did I mention how very much I love messages and reviews? So leave them if you please! Thanks!
The Hatter stared daftly into the distance for a long moment leaving the White Rabbit and Alice curiously waiting awaiting his response, this silence remained until he was startled by the rather unpleasant taste of his first sip of tea.
"Well, I do say a plan should be formulated."
"Yes, What asplendid idea" The Rabbit commented hopefully.
"First I feel we should awake the brigade, if they are truly lost in slumber. Think of it!all of Underlands inhabitants lazily napping, a horendous thoughtdon't you agree?" The Hatter answered without waiting for a reply.
"Of course you do! McTwisp! And further more Ide beleivethat thisis a job worthy of yourself, don't you?"
Again he awaited no protest, which there rightfully would have been concerning The Rabbit worries ofAlice's safety upon being left alone with The Hatter.
"Splendid! Then you must leave at once!"
The Rabbit said nothing, but instead looked about hastily almost as if he was looking for an escape andcaught Alice in his peripheral vision, Hesympathized withthe unsteady look she had upon her face.
"Does ther be a problem?" The Hatter abrubtly asked the reluctant Rabbit.
The White Rabbit stammered out, finally, after deciding that questioning the Mad Man might be a drip more dangerous than leaving him be with Alice;
"Not in the slightest, Tarrant…" And with that hebegan to hop off, looking periodically over his shoulder to see a painstakingly frightened Alice ever so slightly reaching out to him with a delicate hand.
When the Rabbit was all but gone and the only remains of his presence were the dulling pitter patter of his feet in the distance, The Hatter turned to Alice, his face stern and hard to read. The moment grew more and more tense, and Alicepondered what his might move be and upon realizing he might soon have another fit, decided shemight tryto smooth him over.
"You know my mother is quite the Story teller?"
His eyebrow raised slightly and with the most sarcastic of tones did he utter;
"Oh, you don't mean, My Alice? Do say?"
Alice Anne cleared her throat and began again, ignoring the previous remark.
"Yes, quite the story teller. She's told me tales of a White Rabbit before, and of two fat twins by the names Of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (She had barely noticed yet, but her memory of Wonderland seemed to sharpen the longer she visited) Of the Jabberwocky and the Bandersnatch… and of a man... a Hatter of sort's that seemed to be very dear to her…"
She paused only for a momentto seea soft, sorrowful cringe sweep across The Hatters face, the idea of his dear Alice soothing her child with stories of him melted his heart in a bittersweet sort of way,
"And sometimes, when it's dreadfully boring at my Nanna's estate, I write story's of such a place, and such characters.."
The Hatterwas distracted from his longing, intrigued by the thought of himself in one of herstory tales;
"And do tell me of one of these stories."
Alice almost began before she remembered they'd a task to do;
"I'll make you a bargain, Hatter. I'll tell you story after story on the way to the White Queens Castle!"
He thought deeply for a moment before plucking her up and placing her on top one dusty shoulder.
"I do love to be entertained while I travel."
And so it began, Alice professed one colorful tale after another;
"in this story The Hatter's Hat is stolen by the Tricky a Cat who's name escapes me..." "in that story the Dormouse's been eaten,and longs to be set free!""And another of the Bloody Red queen who's eaten entirely to many tarts and finds, though, bloated and full, shecannot seem to…"
"My, my what a wonderful talent you've got! A whole library I'm sure!" The Hatter praised the girl quiet honestly.
"Yes, well. I haven't written stories of Wonderland in quite a long while" Alice admitted, a bit regretably.
"Oh, Well, Never the bother!" The Hatter nodded;
"I'm sure you'll pick the hobby again one day." A Pensive look took his face for but a moment;
"In fact! Why don't you begin to ponder such prose now! A new tale of Underland with Hatter as the availing hero!"
Alice thought about the idea andthenremmbered whyshe'd stopped writing of wonderland to begin with and beganto explain herselfwispily as she gazed on to a strange forest that seemed to slowly retain its color;
"Well, I haven't quit my prose all together. I still write of things, just not so much of Wonderland."
His nose twitched in a giddy little way at the way she referred to it as wonderland, like a girl who he once loved called it.
"What sorts of things? And why not 'Wonderland?"
"WellI write of things that make me feel the way Wonderland used to make me feel...Wonderland seems to be just, such a silly childish dream now, much of a muchness, if you may..."
"Now I write of real things, like being madly in love with a Frenchman in Paris… or of wildly lively parties. You know? Tangible things. Things that are one of a kind, and not much of a muchness..."
The Hatters breath grew short, and he halted immediately. Unfortunately Alice did notnotice. What Alice also didn't know was that The Hatter had once before taken on the role of a figment of someone's imagination, inside what someone thought was a dream, and since he had grown quite sour to the idea as being taken as a silly dream orany sort of common delusion and by now his eyes were a-blaze, and if you could get a word out beneath his dragon breath it'd be in a deep Scottish brogue. It was only when the hot breath was upon her did she notice the flame she'd started.
"Oh, Dear…" She said in a hushed voice.
"Dare I say I said something to offend you?" Try as she might to remain calm and cordial, her voice shook an her hand's trembled.
"Nea Lass, ye cannae offend a thing that dinnae exist…"
"Oh… but I didn't mean to…"
A feeling like being smashed against the a wall tremored through her frail little body and before she knew it, she crashed to the ground.
"What do ye know of muchness, wee li'l bajin?"
She waited a good full minute or two to open her eyes after his breathing had seemed to calm and upon doing so and scaned her surroundings for his hot Scottish fury, She surprisingly found not a thing but silent sleeping tree's in silent sleeping slumber. Now, although she was frightfully afraid of The Hatter at the time, she was also frightfully afraid of being lost and began to call out his name;
"Hatter?" but to no avail.
After whatseemed like an eternity of ceasless calling Alicedecided her odds were better if she kept walking, rather than if she kept still, although walking or not she felt quite hopeless.
During her walk she attempted to bring herself to the brighter side of thingsandriminded herselfabout how she'd liked strolls in the past, but then sinking into uncertainly, noted how this was more a pilgrimage than a stroll.
She then ponited outhow without The Hatter around, there was nobody to bat her around but then realized she'd loveed his audience to her stories.
Mile, after mile, after mile (Which was liable to be, all and all an acre at best considering her size) Did she plop on herthe forest floorand curse herself saying;
"Why! Walking without The Hatter is as dreadful as walking by myself!" And upon speculating how mad she must have gone did she hear a voice.
"That is exactly the sort of logic I like to hear"
She looked up to see not a thing but the treesand then crossed her arms feeling rather confused and pitifull;
"I will not, no matter how lost or madi've gotten,believe in talking tree's!" She scoffed.
"And who, may I ask, asked you to?" The voice hauntingly asked, she silently searched the landscpae with her eyes when suddenly aface of a cat with a wild smile slowly began to form in front of her. Startled, she gasped.
"Oh! Who are you?"
The reply was nothing but a yawn and;
"I am just awaken from a very long nap, apparently. Now tell me, are you who they say you are?"
She thought the question over before answering;
"Well, I guess that all depends who you've heard from. If you've heard from the garden patch I'm a liar, and The White Rabbit believes I'm somebody to do with something and The Hatter… The Hatter, well, he must believe I'm a fly because he's taken to swatting me like one…. But in all truth I'm Alice!"
"How interesting and are you quite certain of that?" The cat said, his face unwavering.
"Yes and I'm also terribly lost at the moment…" She searched around for a trail of some sort.
"Do you think you might be able to take me to the White Queens Castle?"
The Cat (Now full in his form, and floating about, looking rather like he was interested in his claws) replied;
"Oh that's so far… But I suppose I can take you to The Hatter, but no further I can't be bo.."
He was cut off by a groaning Alice, incredibly put out by how this placewas sononsensicle.
"Oh, not The Hatter!" Almost instantly there was silence and The Cat seemed to have dissapeared.
"Oh! The most bothersome characters about here!" She blurted out.
"Oh, and by the way. Your mother used to call me 'The Cheshire Cat'" was the last fading call of The Chesire Cat.
"The Cheshire Cat... of course" Alice speculated, realizing that the lovable characters described to her in her mothers stories were quite far from the turth.
A noiselike footsteps sounded in the distance, disrupting her thoughts.
"Hello? Mr. Cheshire Cat?" Momentarily forgeting The Ceshire's prefrence for floating.
Emerging from the bushes was indeedno Cheshire cat, but a tall, slender, rather Mad, Hatter.
"I see you've made almost no progress. Typical for a girl so small, tell me Alice, why do you insist on such a preposterous size?"
"Well, I hardly insist..." She said noticing his tantrum had passed.
"Yes well, shall we continue along?"
And with that he picked her up and placed her on his shoulder again.
She thought to protest but decided against it,realizing that aside from that travel with The Hatter was much quicker, and besides the fact that she didn't overly enjoy his company, that he seemed to bethebiggest sorce of help in this topsy turvy place.
After a moment of consideration she spoke;
"Hatter?" She asked.
"Hmm? Yes?"
"Emiting the fact that you swated me like a fly, and that you are a terribly sensitive man, I realize what I said was troubling for you and well... I mean... Well, I'm dreadfully sorry for upsetting you before…" His silence led her to expect a heart felt acceptance of sorts or of another outburst, but instead he replied;
"What? Upsetting what now?" she sighed and almost giggled.
Almost at once the White Castle appeared on the horizon and after a moment of rejoicing Alice realized (although she didn't know how or why) that this... place... would never had let her find the castle until she'd reconciled with The Hatter... What a Mad sort of man.
Next Chapter: To the open door.