The 100th Alice
Notice: LEWIS CARROLL CREATED WONDERLAND AND ALL ITS ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. I own only some characters.
Hello again everybody! I am really sorry for not updating this story sooner. Also, I want to quickly thank everybody who has reviewed "The 100th Alice". I really appreciate your feedback and I'm very happy that you enjoy it. Since the last time I updated this story, my writing skills weren't very developed so hopefully future chapters are much better. So, with all that said, here is the fourth chapter of "The 100th Alice"!
Chaper 4
The Witch
The white rabbit, Broderick, hopped around frantically on a little patch of dark purple grass right next to The Hole that led from Wonderland to Overland. He had jumped into the other end of The Hole in Overland and landed back in the dark, eery Tulgey Wood. The Alice was supposed to have followed. She hadn't.
What was stopping her? There had never been an Alice that didn't jump into the hole after a white rabbit. It was a known fact that Alice's always followed the white rabbit down the hole. No question about it.
Broderick frowned and scratched his fluffy white ear with a small white paw. The first Alice had fallen into the hole. Maybe this one had too? He shook his head. If she had, she would be somewhere here, and Broderick had searched around Tulgey Wood and even a bit of Overland to find the Alice. Still no trace of her.
Where could she be?
Emmeline was slung over the knight's shoulder, a brown sac over her head. Her arms were in the bag too. If it weren't for the bag, she would be flailing her arms and beating the knight.
Instead, she squirmed in the knight's firm grasp. "Put me down!"
"You're just going to have to trust me. Now quit moving around so much, or I'll drop you," the knight grunted in the same husky voice.
Emmeline didn't stop. She wanted him to drop her. He didn't.
They continued on like that for a while until Emmeline finally stopped squirming. She was beginning to feel tired. She wished desperately that she could at least see where they were going. She had no idea how far they were from the garden of rose bushes or where she was for the matter. All she remembered was falling through the hole and... the figurine! She felt around in the pocket of her blue lace dress and felt the cool porcelain material the figurine was made of. Her fingers brushed against it. It was an odd little thing. She thought for a bit and wondered why she hadn't been able to take her eyes off of it earlier.
After another long while of being hauled around on the knight's shoulder, Emmeline was put down. She was unsteady on her feet at first but then found her balance. She felt her heart beat faster as the bag was removed from her head.
As her eyes adjusted to the light, Emmeline saw that they were at the door of a cottage surrounded by hundreds of dark trees. The trees were so abundant that they blocked out the little sunlight there had been completely. A white horse grazed calmly in a grass patch next to the cottage.
After taking in her surroundings, Emmeline seized the chance to tell the knight off. "You have no right to dump a dirty sac over my head and take me to some stupid cottage! Why did you bring me here? " she snapped, flipping her head to her side where the knight was.
The knight ignored her and gripped her arm firmly. He opened the door to the cottage and pushed Emmeline inside, closing the door behind them. Emmeline thought it best not to resist considering she had no idea where she was and didn't like her chances of escaping.
Inside, it was still dark; the whole cottage was lit with a mere wavering candle. Nothing could be seen. The scent of cinnamon wafted around the room and softened the unsettling atmosphere of the cottage.
Emmeline suddenly felt uncomfortable. The knight was the least frightening thing to her right now. At the moment, he seemed almost friendly. She reached her right arm to her left side to check if the knight's hand was still there. It was, his muscles tensed and she quickly pulled her hand away.
"Strange, nobody's here," the knight said, his brows furrowing.
Then, the door creaked open slowly. Emmeline spun around and faced the entrance. The bright glow of a lantern pervaded the room making the pair squint.
A figure halted at the door. "It's about bloody time, Nicholas."
Relief flooded through Emmeline as she saw the figure in the doorway. It was an elderly woman who seemed rather ordinary. She was wearing a saggy black cloak and had a seemingly glowing red pendant around her neck. Her hair was pulled into a messy updo and her eyes were a bright amber. There was something about her features that made it seem like there was more to her.
The knight released his grip on Emmeline and took a step towards the elderly woman. "There's no need for the disguise, Gwen, it's just me," he said with a slightly mischievous gleam in his emerald eyes.
"And her," she said, lifting an eyebrow before she began changing. Her black cloak fell to the floor revealing a long red dress. Her hair became a dark shade of red, her body stretched until she became taller and slimmer, her wrinkles vanished until her skin was smooth and flawless. In less than a minute, a young radiant woman with amber eyes, auburn hair that fell to the bottom of her back, and elegant features had replaced the elderly woman from just several seconds ago.
The knight grinned and took a few steps towards the woman before landing a kiss on the top of her hand in a gentlemanly fashion. "A pleasure to see you again, it's been a while," he said, raising his head.
The woman's rosy lips pulled into a pleasant smile as he did so. "It's nice to see you too, Nicholas. What took you so long?"
Emmeline stood there silently, a few steps away from the two as they conversed. "So the knight in white armour's name is Nicholas," she thought to herself.
"I actually arrived here several hours before, left my horse behind, and continued on foot to the Labyrinth of Roses. The new Alice took forever waking up and when she actually did she did not cooperate whatsoever. I had to carry her here, defeating the purpose of waiting of her waking up in the first place," the knight – Nicholas – said, glancing quickly at Emmeline as he spoke.
Gwen turned to her, acknowledging her for the first time since she'd changed. "A feisty one isn't she?" she said turning back to Nicholas, "The journey to the White Kingdom from here is a day's ride. Do you think she'll cooperate long enough to get there on time? Before the winter solstice, that is."
Nicholas set his helmet on a wooden table next to a dusty-looking bookshelf. "She'll have to, she's the Alice. It's her responsibility," he gave Emmeline a pointing look.
Emmeline had no idea what he was talking about. Why did they keep on calling her Alice?
"But then again, she hasn't yet been told what this is all about," Nicholas added as if he's read her mind.
Gwen nodded. "You're right, perhaps we should explain everything to her."
Emmeline perked up, she was finally going to find out what was happening, where she was, why she had been brought here. She looked up at Nicholas and Gwen, awaiting their explanation.
Gwen pushed the door closed. She hung her lantern on a peg on a wall and lit a few others that were hung all around the room.
Now, Emmeline was able to see the cottage in detail. On the left wall, there was the dusty bookshelf and wooden table. On the right, a hearth with a cauldron, an oven, a table with cinnamon rolls set on plates on its surface, and a cupboard. In front was a door and an odd looking painting of a village hanging above it. Four soft, patched chairs were arranged in a circle in the centre of the room. The cottage had but one window that was shut off by a black sheet.
Gwen motioned for them to have a seat in one of the chairs. They did as she gathered three cinnamon rolls and handed one to each before settling into one of the chairs.
Nicholas took a bite of his cinnamon roll and gave Gwen an approving look. "These are better than I remembered them to be!"
Gwen smiled at him before turning to Emmeline. "Why don't we start with introductions, I doubt Nicholas has properly introduced himself given you seem as if you have no clue what is happening," she said in her silvery voice. "I am Guinevere The Red, I'm a witch. This is Nicholas, Nicholas West. He is a knight of the White Queen's army."
Emmeline took a few moments to take it all in. The woman in front of her right now was a witch. The man beside her was a real knight. She couldn't be certain they were telling the truth but something told her that they were and she trusted that instinct. She swallowed and then nodded.
Gwen continued, "you are the 100th Alice. Every few decades, a young girl is selected and brought from Overland to Wonderland. You may not have seen much of it but you will soon find that Wonderland is riddled with problems that must be fixed. That is why we've brought you here, like many others before you."
"But I still don't understand why you keep on calling me Alice. My name is Emmeline."
Nicholas snapped his fingers. "Ah, that's what I was forgetting. I could have sworn the White Queen told me your name was Emily."
Gwen nodded. "A great many years ago, there was a girl, much like you now that I think of it. You may have heard of her, her name was Alice. She followed a white rabbit into The Hole and was transported to Wonderland. Alice was the first to have been brought to Wonderland, despite the fact that it had been an accident that she had even come here at all, to help improve our world."
"And boy did she, Wonderland lost half of its problems after she was done with it," Nicholas said with a whistle.
"Alice swore loyalty to the White Queen and protected our world for a long time. But after Alice became too old to continue with her service to Wonderland, there was no smart, clever, pretty little girl to help us. We soon realized that, without her, the problems just kept piling up. So, one day, the White Queen decided that we could no longer go on like that. She called on the white rabbit and instructed him to bring her back another "Alice". For many years, this went on and it became a tradition to bring Alices from Overland to Wonderland. Every Alice brought here was just the same as the first although they were all different in their own little way," Gwen continued.
"Who is this White Queen you keep mentioning?"
"The wisest being you'll ever meet, that's who," Nicholas said.
"The White Queen is our ruler. She is the good that keeps Wonderland from going completely mad. A very long time ago, there were two queens presiding over Wonderland; the White Queen and the Red Queen. They were sisters but, like most siblings, they fought constantly which lead to problems for Wonderland. The Red Queen did many horrible things and had to be imprisoned for all her wrong doings. She still is to this day."
"Anyways, as I was saying, you have been brought here for a reason: to help save Wonderland once and for all. In twenty days time, the winter solstice will be upon us. The winter solstice is the only time madness isn't under the control of the White Queen, the only time her enchantment is put to sleep. All the outlaws in Wonderland will be free to do as they please," Gwen said, her face grave, "including the Midnight Sorceress. Let's just say she's extremely dangerous, one of the most dangerous in the land, and we need you to keep danger at bay. It will be your first mission as the 100th Alice."
Emmeline paled. She was going to have to deal with outlaws in a world that she'd only heard of in storybooks! Not to mention one of the most dangerous villains in the land. It was too much for her to take in, she had just found out she was in Wonderland, Alice in Wonderland was real.
She took a few shaky breaths. "Look, I just found out that I'm in a strange world with people whom I barely know. You can't ask me to fight for a queen that I haven't even met yet let alone expect me to agree to all of this."
The witch and the knight stared at her blankly before breaking the silence.
Gwen sighed and pulled a few auburn strands of hair behind her ear. "The queen should never have chosen us to retrieve the Alice, Nicholas. We aren't the right people to explain everything to her, to convince her to save Wonderland."
Nicholas stood up and glared down at Emmeline. "Do you understand what's at stake here? Our world is on the brink of destruction, we are about to become goners! The problems in Wonderland are becoming so big that last few Alices haven't been able to succeed in their missions. Wonderland is getting closer and closer to the end and if you don't decide to help us before the winter solstice, you'll go down with us."