At the main camp, where tents stood row on row on row, Jack gazed at Alice with cold green eyes, chewing his lip. March had gone off to collect herbs to drug the girl. That'd make their trip a whole lot easier. Alice glared back at the black-cloaked man but didn't ignore the faint mutters of conversation from the black card reinforcements. In particular, two cards playing a gambling game. She had studied their game play for a while now, and slightly understood…
Standing, she strolled over, painfully aware that the Jack of Diamond's eye was upon her. She sat down, and the cards glanced at her.
"What you want?" one asked accusingly.
"I want to play."
The other smirked, "What you have to wager?" Motioning to a little pile of small arms and trinkets, he eyed Alice cautiously.
This was Jabberwocky's girl, he knew that.
Alice pursed her lips, pondered, than finally undid the sapphire ribbon in his hair. Laying it down on the pile, she smiled, "That do?"
"Sure…" Dealing the pieces out, the one to Alice's right smiled.
Alice glanced at her tokens, upon which were printed numbers. Apparently, the player with the least number won. Added up, she had nine: a four, a three, and two. The card at her left put one of his tokens down and slid it forward, "I'll trade."
The dealer took the token and gave him a new one. Turning to Alice, he asked, "You?"
Alice slid her four forward for a new one, and got a two. Now she had a seven.
"Put your tokens down. Let's see who won."
All of them put their pieces out on the table. Dealer had nine, the one to Alice's left had fourteen, and Alice…
The dealer nodded glumly, "You won." Pushing the pile towards her, he frowned.
Alice retied her ribbon back up in her hair and glanced at the other things. A small dagger caught her attention, and she took it slowly. The other stuff she pushed back to the cards, "I don't need this."
The card to her left smirked, "Thank you, Alice."
Snorting, Alice silently went back to her tent the Jack of Diamonds had stationed her in and plunked down, fuming. No one was even remotely naturally nice here! She felt Jack's eyes on her and scrunched her knees up to her chest.
Minutes later, a beat of hooves, and a large blue-black stallion horse-fly thundered down the lanes between the tents. Hatter held the steed up in front of Alice's tent. The horse-fly neighed as it danced to a stop, the bit of the reins biting deep into its gum. Hatter leapt off with a curse.
Alice stared in horror. Hatter's armor was spattered with crimson, and his mouth-visor showed the evidence of a horrendous meal. Spitting, Hatter glared at Alice before turning to the Jack of Diamonds, "Four ships were burned. The governors escaped, as did Cheshire and the others." He glanced again at Alice before growling, "There's roughly 100 prisoners."
Jack crossed his arms and sneered, "Before or after you ate some of them?"
Eyes glinting, Hatter growled, "Before. Scared them so they wouldn't try to escape."
"And if they do? Don't tell you threatened you'll go after them."
Hatter nodded and turned back to the horse-fly. Snapping off the saddlebags, he rummaged through them and drew out a bottle of liquor. He tossed it from one hand to another, gazing at Alice, then spat and stomped over to the gambling cards, grumbling. They froze and slowly looked up, faces terrified. Hatter sat, put his bottle on the pile, and demanded, "Deal!"
Hastily obeying, the dealer slide out three tokens to himself, his comrade, and his angry commander. Alice sighed and turned away, watching a ladybug with sad eyes.
Truth was, she was a captive…
Nothing more…
She heard a strangled cry from behind her and whirled to see Hatter extracting a knife from the dealer's throat. The other card scrambled away in terror as Hatter tore off the dealer's armor and bit ravenously into him. Grimacing, the Jack of Diamonds took a step to shield Alice from Hatter's sight, "I thought you ate someone already. And you're still hungry?"
Hatter swallowed what he had in his mouth and scowled, "I'm hungry. And angry. I can't kill Alice. Tell me, why can't-"
"Ah! Hats! You've come!" Smiling, March trotted into the clearing, paused when he saw Hatter's meal, then glanced at Alice, "You alive?"
Alice clung at Jack's cloak, shivering, "Y-yes…"
"Hats…" March sighed, "Take your food somewhere else. Alice doesn't like it."
Snarling, Hatter spat as he began to drag the dead man away, "Don't be surprised if there's an apple shoved down your throat tomorrow!"
March called after him, "Tell me if you fall asleep tonight!"
Mutters, furious and sullen.
"So… how do you know how to make this stuff?" Jack inquired, gazing into the clear contents of a small vial as March held a struggling Alice down.
March grimaced as Alice tried warding him with the dagger she had won. Prying it from her grasp, he growled, "I made tea before this. You need to know which –UGH!" He wrenched Alice's head back as she bit at him, "-which plants are poisonous and how they work!"
"What is it?"
"A compound of Radalac moss and – STOP MOVING! – some grain extract. Would have used Holligur berries if we were anywhere near the cursed forest!"
"Need some help?"
Forcing the struggling girl's mouth open, March hissed, "Just put it in!"
The Jack of Diamonds uncapped the vial and tipped its contents down Alice's throat. The girl gasped and gave one last kick before dropping, faint, to the ground. Clapping his hands together, March gently moved Alice onto a blanket, "There. Won't wake up till I give her some Rodna."
Jack spat in disgust, "Hate the stuff. Can't even make good candy anymore, those commoners."
"Candy's candy, and it's really only salt and Silverrod buds mixed together. Well, anyways, this'll keep her out of Hatter's sight." March wrapped Alice up till it appeared she was but sleeping peacefully and sighed, "I'm going to go out and hunt now. Don't leave her alone. And if Hatter comes looking for me, tell him I went out."
"And if he tries to kill her?"
"Two words: 'Jabberwock' and 'torture'."