They had slowed to a fast walk, and Alice was tending to the White Rabbit's grievous wound, which was a bit hard to do on the back of a moving tiger. Meanwhile, one of the cards was berating the Cheshire. His emblazoned card number was the 10 of hearts with a tiny 65 next to it. "Darn it, Ches! We went into the God-forsaken tea party with 20! And look at this mess now! We have 11! Thos two blasted freaks killed 9 of us in three minutes!"
Cheshire's smiled was small, almost nonexistent, "Yes… And that's better then what they did to the last card regiment."
The officer pales and groaned, "Oh yes… the tea incident."
Curious, Alice pursed her lips, "What happened?"
Cheshire huffed, "Cursed Jabberwock banned tea –what?- seven months after he took over. And it was the week Hatter and March went back from their training. Drinking their souls out to their tea. Well… Jabberwock heard and sent a card regiment to seized their tea, but it was a full month before Jabberwock realized that they were even missing! He sent two messengers, and those maniacs sent one back. Ate the other. Anyway, the one came back and said what those two had told him: 'If we can't have tea, than we'll be having blood!'"
The captain crossed his arms, scowling, and added, "I was one of the ones who went with ole Jabber when he was out to reprimand them. Got there, and we find our friends' corpses on the ground and those two totally miffed about the 'quality of the flesh', of all things. But they'd been making wine from the blood, judging from all the blood in the glasses and on them."
Alice blanched, "So this was actually better than what they usually do?"
"Listen, girl, those maniacs have a never-ending appetite. If they had really been out to get you, you'd have been bones in minutes."
"Hatter wanted to eat my legs. But he and March said that this… Jabberwocky thing or another wanted me alive."
Cheshire paused, grin becoming a bit confused, "That confuses me. How could Jabberwock know of our plans to bring Alice back and sabotage it?"
"She's not the old Alice, if you haven't notice, Ches. I was one of those she saved in the Rose Garden when the old Queen Heart was all uppity for us painting the roses the wrong color. But I'm still eternally grateful to her and her relatives." Switching his glare to appraise Alice from underneath his helmet, he cocked his head, "You are a relative of Alice of Wonderland, yes?"
"She was my great-grandmother… if you're talking about the one from the book."
"Was?"
"She died quite a few years ago."
Cheshire, the captain, and a few of the others froze to a stop and stared at her. "D-d-dead?" the card captain stammered, "But-but… she's Alice. I never got to bliddy thank her!" Yanking his helmet off, he threw it to the ground, cursing. Brown blond hair fluttered round an enraged face.
Cheshire turned to the captain, "Now, Hubble. There's no reason to get so angry. If you really want to repay your debt to Alice, than help me keep her alive!"
"Yes, sir!" But Hubble evidently was still deeply disappointed.