It's been a while.
Well, I never got the seven reviews, and I've had this written for a while now, so I've finally decided to update, and hopefully, I'll get more people interested in this story. I'm excited to get this chapter done, because after the next chapter things are gonna start getting interesting.
Please let me know if anyone seems too OOC. So please read and review!
Disclaimer: QuinRose owns the characters, place, and everything else of the Heart no Kuni no Alice series. I only own Daphne and Deloris, so far.
I pause for a few more moments, then turn the knob and enter. I bite my lip, to keep myself from saying 'I'm home.'
I take a look around the parlor. I can envision Deloris standing next to me, looking to the stairs, waiting for me to come running down them, when we'd leave the house. I close my eyes as tears start to fall. Everything looks the same. But it's no longer the same home. Without Deloris here, everything is a reminder of her being here.
I realize I'm going to have to redecorate. I hang my head, tears still falling. This is going to take forever.
I walk through each room, trying to decide where to start. Once I walk into the study, I know that this is the room that needs to be done first. Ghosts of all my memories of studying with Deloris, and just reading on the floor as she worked at her desk, come to mind. I squeeze my eyes shut tightly to make the images go away.
When I open my eyes, I go to the desk and clear it off. Then I open the drawers and clean them out. Putting the contents in boxes I retrieved from the attic, intending to go through them at a later time period. Once it's empty, I start pushing the desk through the door. I get it to the stairs and start pulling it up them. I really could use another set of hands.
I huff and put my hands on my hips looking at it. I only got it pulled up the first three steps. I sit and put my back against it. There is no way I can get this up the stairs to the attic by myself. … I'm an IDIOT! I face-palm, then snap my fingers. The desk disappears, but I forgot I was completely leaning on the desk. So I fell down the three steps, hitting my back and head on my way down to the floor. Yep, I'm an IDIOT! I totally deserved that one. I roll over onto my stomach, and rub my back and head. That'll leave a bruise. I wince from the pain.
I don't know if I was going crazy, but I could hear Deloris laughing. I look up at the study door, and see a vision of Deloris standing in front of it, laughing into her hands. "Are you okay, Daphne? You really should think things through more." She says through chuckles as she moves towards me. She offers me her hand, and when I go to accept it, it disappears.
I blink and tears start falling again. Not from the pain of the fall, but from the hurt in my clock. I want my Dodo!
I curl up at the base of the stairs and cry. I see that the afternoon sunlight turns into moonlight, but I don't move. I just lay on the floor, and cry until I pass out from exhaustion.
I wake up feeling like something was off. It's still dark outside. I close my eyes, and feel like I'm hearing multiple voices wanting my attention. Wait... this feels like what Deloris explained as the voices of the forest. I push myself off the floor and walk over to the window. I see a campfire and a tent nearby. Ace. I shake my head, lay on a nearby couch, and pass out again.
I wake up when I feel sunlight hitting my eyes. It looks to be early morning. I stand and stretch. My back is soar from the fall. I go upstairs, intending to go to my room to get clothes, then shower, but stop when I reach the top. My eyes look at the door to the right. I walk towards my room, not taking my eyes off that door.
I don't think I can change her room. I think, as I look through drawers for something to change into. I'm just going to be working around the house so... sweats!
I exit my room and walk quickly into the bathroom, not allowing myself to look up from the floor. I haven't showered in like five time periods. Wow, you can tell by that, I'm depressed and unmotivated.
I stand in the shower and just let the water fall over me for a while. I wash my hair, and just lightly shampoo my feathers. They are tough to loose, but hurt like hell when they come out, so I just gently shampoo them.
I finish and get out of the shower. As I'm drying off, I look at my back in the mirror. Oh my gosh! My back is completely bruised! Starting from the base of my neck and all the way to my lower back, was purple and black.
Once I got over the shock, I quickly dress into sweat pants and a tee. The action making me notice the pain in my back. I find a bandana and put it around my head, and tied my hair up in a ponytail. I snap all the furniture out of the rooms up into the attic. Every room on the first floor was empty, except for the books in the shelves.
I was up in the attic dusting old furniture off and snapping it downstairs when the bell went off. Who's here? I wipe my hands on my pants as I leave the attic, walk downstairs, and down the ladder. I peak my head around the tree to see who rung the bell.
What?! No one's there?! I walk out from around the tree and look around the forest. Don't tell me I've been ding-donged-ditched?! I put my hands on my hips, looking hard at the doorbell.
I hear laughter, and look up into the tree. I see a bit of purple, and gold eyes. "Gray! What are you doing up there?!" I call.
He jumps down, landing in a crouching position in front of me. He looked up at me, an amused smile on his lips. "I'm practicing my stealth skills."
"What are you doing here?" I say emphasizing the forest around us.
"Checking up on you. Word spreads pretty quickly." He says, his smile becoming more gentle than amused. He straightens and hugs me. "How are you, Dodo?" Gray asks.
"Umm. Okay." I say tentatively, partly because I'm not 100% sure what to say, the other part being that I'm not sure if Gray will try any moves on me. He always loves to try his newest learned moves on me, and he always tries them when I'm at my least suspecting.
Gray pulls away, and looks at me, his amused smile returning. "What's with this?" He motions towards my appearance.
"Oh! I-I've been redecorating, and going through stuff in the attic." I say, feeling a blush start on my face. This feels familiar. I remember the day I met Deloris and looking like a mess.
"That sounds like a lot of work. Want a hand?" Gray offers.
"Sure." I say. Maybe having someone around will help me keep it together.
"After you." Gray motions for me to lead the way.
I lead him into the tree house. "Wow. This is pretty big." Gray says when we get inside.
"Yeah. Not very many people get to come in here, outside of the Dodos." I say.
"I'm honored." Gray smiles. "So, where do I start?"
"You might want to take off your scarf and coat." I say, and he takes them off and hands them to me. I hang them up in the closet. "We can start in the parlor, since I have all the furniture in there. It just needs to be arranged." I move to look and see how I want to arrange the furniture. Even though it's different pieces, I can't set the room up exactly the same. "Give me a hand with this couch." I say going to the biggest piece of furniture.
We work in companionable silence, except for when I give him orders.
"This looks pretty good, Dodo." Gray says as we survey our work.
"Yeah. I like it, and it's different." I smile. Who knew decorating could be so much fun?
"Where to next?" Gray asks.
We continue to work and get every room on the first floor finished in no time.
"Done!" Gray sinks onto the couch tired.
"Oh, come on! The assassin-in-training tired out from decorating?" I sit next to him and give him a playful jab in the side.
"Yes. It is a little sad when you say it like that. My master would probably say I need more workouts." Gray says.
"Wouldn't he consider this a workout?" I ask.
"Probably." Gray smiles and laughs.
"How is training going? I know you've made a lot of progress." I ask looking up at the ceiling.
"Yeah. Master says it'll probably take a couple more years before I'm ready." Gray says, I can see from my peripheral he's looking at the ceiling too.
"Do you know what will happen after that?" I ask.
"Well, I'll get to 'graduate', and for the ceremony I'll be marked with a symbol. Then I'll have to wait for an assignment to come in." I can hear the happiness in his voice as he talks about his future.
I close my eyes. Gray's so nice and kind, I hope becoming an assassin won't change that. I can't imagine him killing someone... Yeah, I can. When he was working with his knives and threw some at me, the look in his eyes... It looked more like a focused, deadly predator. He wouldn't, and still won't, tell me if him aiming for my head was an accident or on purpose. He apologized a lot when he realized it was me, but the cold deadly look in his eyes... I'll never be able to forget that look. In that moment, I was actually scared of Gray.
I never thought I would be. Though, I knew it could be a possibility. Since he's The Lizard, and I'm the Dodo. Every Dodo wrote about how there was a tension within their relationship with The Lizard. Whether its because birds and reptiles have a natural mixed predator/prey relationship, or if there is an intended connection, I don't know. Most Lizards found enjoyment in toying with The Dodo; which Gray does already, though it could get worse as we get older...
"Are you asleep?" Gray jokingly asks.
I open my eyes and look at him. "NO!" I say indignantly. "I'm not that pathetic!" I cross my arms and turn my head away from him.
"Calm down, Dodo! I was just kidding. I knew you weren't asleep." Gray tries to appease me.
"How would you know that?" I ask, looking at him over my shoulder.
"You weren't making your bird noises." Gray answers matter-o-factly.
"What?!" I ask.
"You don't snore when you sleep, instead, you make a sound like a cooing bird."
"Seriously?! Why hasn't anyone ever told me this?!" I ask stunned. I've never thought about the fact that I might make a noise in my sleep, and if I did, I thought it would be a snore like everyone else. I wonder how long I've done that?
"You've never asked, and its not annoying... It's actually kinda … cute." Gray turned away when saying the last word, but I could see his ears were red.
I bite my lip trying not to smile and laugh. I failed miserably. I started with a chuckle which turned into outright laughter. I fell off the couch and it the floor, but continued to laugh. His reactions are priceless! He doesn't even realize he has a fetish for cute things! And he's a future assassin! Plus, I sound like a bird in my sleep! How much more ridiculous could I get?! I was laughing so hard tears started coming.
"Dodo! Are you okay?!" Gray got down, and kneeled next to me, trying to make me stop laughing.
"I-I-I'm f-f-fine!" I laugh. It took a few more minutes before I calmed down. I wiped the tears from my eyes. I laid still on my stomach for a minute, breathing hard. I felt Gray lifting the collar of my shirt. I froze.
"What happened to your back?!" Gray is completely shocked.
"I fell. I wasn't thinking." I say simply.
"How?" Gray's eyes narrow. Uh-oh. This isn't good.
"I was trying to move the desk to the attic the 'manual' way. I got it onto the staircase, and was tired so I was sitting up against it, on the stairs, and realized I could just snap it upstairs, but I was still leaning on it when I snapped it out. So, I fell down a few stairs on my back." I answer quickly trying to appease him.
"How could you be that... that..." Gray still looked upset and was fuming.
"Stupid?" I ask.
"Yes!"
"I called myself an idiot. So, it's not really insulting. I know, I should have thought things through, instead I just starting doing something until I was having trouble. Then I stopped and thought it through, but not completely through." I shrug, which now that I am thinking about the fact that my shoulders and back are hurt, I feel the pain of all the work I've done today.
"Geez, Dodo. This looks really bad. Did you ice it at all?" Gray asks sounding a little parental.
"Ummmm..." No. But I'm not about to tell him that. He'll bite my head off, not literally, though.
Gray sighs. "Dodo, you're hopeless. I'll go make you an ice pack. Stay put." Gray goes into the kitchen.
Yeah, I am, aren't I? I never think about treatments. Deloris always took care of me when I hurt myself, right after the fact. I never had to think about what needs to be done, she would be there with what was needed. So last night, I just went on with my day, not thinking about needing to ice my back. Seriously, ice? Who thinks of that?!
I was brought back to reality when something cold touched my back. I flinched automatically, but it felt good after a minute.
I didn't look at Gray; I could feel the blush coming. "Thanks. For everything." I say sheepishly.
"I was glad to help you. I honestly question if it's a good idea to leave you alone." Gray says patting my head.
"I won't die. I'm not fragile, you know?" I retort.
"With you, who knows?" Gray joked.
"Hey!" I start to move to get up, but Gray's hands are on my shoulders keeping me down.
"Don't move! Actually, I better get you to bed, where you'll be comfortable." Before I could respond, Gray took off the ice packs and gently picked me up bridal style. He carried me up the stairs and stopped, once we were on the second floor. "Which room is yours?"
"First door, on the left." I say.
Luckily, I left my door cracked open, so he nudged it open with his shoulder. He laid me on my stomach on my bed and reapplied the ice packs to my back.
"Will you need anything else?" Gray asks.
"Nah, I'll be fine. You better get back before it becomes night." I tell him.
"I could make you something to eat?" He prompts.
"Never again in this lifetime!" I tell him, dead serious.
"What's the deal?" Gray asks completely unaware of his lousy cooking skills. They should make that one of the skills for an assassin to learn. Then again, killing people by bad cooking is less messy...
"You said you didn't want me to die, right?" I look at him.
Gray nods.
"Then never cook for me again!"I say recalling the ...I don't even know what it was!... It didn't look like any food I'd seen before. I smelled it and the smell was appalling. When he wasn't looking I broke a piece off and threw it to a squirrel. The squirrel actually wouldn't even come within five feet of it. That was not a good sign. I faked my way through 'eating' it, when I really stashed it into my sleeve and threw it away first chance I got.
"Okay, Dodo." Gray seemed hurt by my words, but I can not deal with him making some other ungodly, inedible 'food'. It shouldn't even be classified as that.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. I'll ice up my back, real good, and be good as new in time for the game. Besides, it should only take like, two time changes for this to go away!" I smile.
"Yeah, you're right. Okay. I'll let myself out. Night, Dodo." Gray smiles back.
"Night, Gray. Be safe on the way back!" I call to him as he closes my door. I hear him chuckling as he goes downstairs and leaves.
Before I know it I'm asleep. It was a nice peaceful sleep with no dreams or visits from Nightmare. Though, I thought he would want to check up on me by now.
I wake up the next morning, well actually afternoon. All the ice packs are now room temperature water. Luckily none of them popped or leaked. I stretch, and still feel pain, but it's not as bad as it was yesterday.
I go to shower and check my back. It's not as dark, but its still pretty bad. I decide to wear shorts and a tee. I fix myself some breakfast; toast, my favorite! I love bread!
Since everything is arranged the way I want I go into the study and decide to make up my own way of organizing all the books. I chose to put them into categories based on their information, then alphabetized them by title. Except for the Dodo journals, they went in chronological order. That took me the whole afternoon and morning time periods. I only took a break to eat and go to the bathroom a couple of times. There are a lot of books!
I finished just as morning went to night. I walked out of the study and saw a light outside the windows. I looked outside and saw Ace camped out, again. I felt it last night, too. He really shouldn't take the knight thing so seriously. I'm no where close to being a damsel in distress.
Even though, that's what I was thinking, I couldn't stop the small smile that came over my lips. I looked away from the window and down at the ground. I shook my head and went upstairs to my room. I had another restful night of sleep.
DODO
I woke up the next day period, this time being early evening. When I went to shower, the bruise had started to turn yellow and pink. It barely hurt. I smile as I look at it.
I decide on a sweatshirt and some denim cutoffs. I have no intention of going anywhere. I smile as I choose a book to read in the study. I was sitting at my 'new' desk. It's funny how just changing the furniture and set up of the room, make it feel new and different.
I had started reading the book, and gotten about two pages read when the bell went off. I huff. What now?! I close the book and set it on my desk.
I stand and exit the office. I peak out the windows and see something white and red. I tilt my head. Peter?
I get down on the forest floor and walk around the tree to see the white rabbit, impatiently tapping his foot and looking at his watch. "Where is that Dodo Bird? I don't have all day." Peter huffs.
"Peter." I say indifferently.
He turns and his cheeks redden a little. He must know I overheard him. "Dodo. You've been invited to tea with Her Majesty." He holds out a gold envelope with red roses decorating the front and the heart seal on the back. "Now." Peter adds not looking at me.
"Now?" I ask. Is Vivaldi serious? "Fine." I huff. "Should I change first?" I ask, though I already know the answer.
"No, Her Majesty said she had a dress for you." Peter says a little annoyed.
I nod. "After you." I motion for him to lead the way, though my path is still there.
"Why she couldn't send that obnoxious knight." Peter mutters.
I shake my head. It's always the same thing with him. "You know Ace isn't reliable, like you, Peter. Vivaldi trusts you to get something done in a timely and orderly fashion. Two things Ace can never do." I state as we walk.
Peter gives a real smile and chuckles. "Yes, he is quite incompetent."
"In those areas, but he has other qualities that are good about him." I say. One of Peter's annoying qualities, are that he feels so much superior to everyone else. He gets impatient easily, which is another. Though he, usually, has good intentions and a good heart.
"Always defending others. … I'm sorry about your loss." Peter's ears droop some.
My heart becomes heavier at being reminded. I know everyone's going to tell me this, though it doesn't make much sense. I wish they would just send a card and all sign it! Then they wouldn't have to bring it up upon seeing me! I can't move on, with everyone bringing it up.
"Um... Peter … will you do me a favor?" I ask tentatively.
"What?" Peter sounds like he's dreading my answer.
"Will you shift into your rabbit form? I'll carry you the rest of the way." I say not looking at him. It's when I like Peter most, but he hates shifting into that form.
Peter doesn't answer, but in my peripheral I see light, signifying that he changed forms. I stop and pick up the adorable white rabbit, wearing glasses, a red waistcoat, and a big gold pocket watch. I cuddle him to my chest, and put my cheek to his furry one.
He quietly lets me carry and cuddle him. He doesn't even speak when I start to cry, but I feel him squirm closer to me, and feel his little paws by my neck, as if hugging me.
I sniffle and calm myself as I reach the edge of the trees. I set Peter down, who promptly shifts back and is holding a red and white checkered handkerchief out to me. I take it and wipe my eyes. I blow my nose, then fold up the handkerchief and put it into my pocket. "I'll take it home and clean it before I return it." I tell him. He nods.
"Vivaldi is waiting in the throne room. I'm sure you know the way." Peter says.
I nod and we part ways after entering the gates of the Castle. I make my way quickly to the throne room.
"Dodo!" Vivaldi jumps from her throne and runs to me, in a very undignified manner. She tightly hugs me. "You've had us worried! How are you?" Vivaldi asks, and I can see the concern in her eyes.
"Alright." I give a small smile. At least Vivaldi gets how to ask, without outright bringing it up. She tightens her hug on me. "Can't... breathe." I wheeze.
"So sorry." She releases me, but grabs my hand and pulls me towards her room. "Let's get you changed. You know Blood hates to be kept waiting."
I hang my head. "I thought it was just going to be you and me." I pick up a stuffed bear and cuddle it as I sit down on her bed, watching her looking through her closet.
"We would rather it be that way, too. But we and Blood haven't had tea together in a while, and he wanted to after hearing about... well, you know." Vivaldi busied herself looking through the closet, as not to look at me when she said that. "Here! What do you think?" Vivaldi turned holding a silver knee-length satin dress.
"It's not terrible." I pout. If you haven't realized it yet, I hate dresses. They're so annoying!
Vivaldi keeps her smile. "Put it on! We knew when we saw it, that it'd be perfect for you!"
I sigh, and take my sweatshirt off, and shimmy out of my shorts. I turn my back to her to pull the dress over my head, and hear Vivaldi gasp. "Your back! What happened?!"
I froze for a second, then continued to put the dress on. "I fell down some stairs the other day, no big deal. Long story short, I wasn't thinking. Don't worry. Two more time changes and it should be good as new. … What do you think?" I turn so she can see me in the dress.
I can tell she's worried, but she lights up at seeing me in the dress. Vivaldi loves to dress me up. Honestly, I wonder if she sees me more as a doll than a friend, but I know we're like sisters.
"Let's do your hair, and accessorize!" Vivaldi called in a maid who began curling my hair, and then began holding up different pieces of jewelery to my face to see what would look good.
Vivaldi decided on a simple silver chained necklace with a blue stone that matched my eyes; the stone was the size of a quarter. There were matching earrings, and a bangle bracelet with the same stones and diamonds.
We came to our crossroads when it came to the shoes. "I'm not wearing those!" I stare distastefully at the strappy silver heels.
"Why not?! They're perfect!" Vivaldi whines a little.
"I'll break my neck walking through the forest in those!" I cross my arms.
"Fine! How about you wear your sneakers through the forest, but once we reach the Mansion, you put these on?" Vivaldi asks trying to compromise.
I tilt my head considering it. "Fine. Though, you'll have to help me. There's no way I can get them on by myself."
"Deal." Vivaldi smiles and hold out her hand daintily.
I smile and take it and shake normally. We laugh looking at each other.
"Now, shall we make our escape?" Vivaldi asks a mischievous glint in her purple eyes.
"We shall." I say taking her arm and looping my arm around hers.
We snicker as we make our way out to the maze, and I open up a spot that is along the outer edge. It opens right next to the forest. I create a path to lead to the secret entrance to Blood's rose garden. We walk arm in arm talking about what we've been doing, since last seeing each other. We soon are up-to-date, and walk in companionable silence, leaving me to my thoughts.
By now, you must have figured out that I know that Blood and Vivaldi are siblings. I've known since the day Blood received his Role, and Vivaldi did tell me a few months after that.
You see, Vivaldi had been the Queen of Hearts for about two months, when Deloris found me and took me home with her. Blood became The Hatter about a year after I received my Role.
So shortly after I received my face, and Deloris felt confident in letting me go out in public without making a total fool of myself, she set up a 'play date' with Vivaldi. Since we are the only female Role-holders within the country of Hearts and Clovers. In Diamond, there is only Crysta and I, though, Vivaldi really isn't fond of Crysta from the few times they have met.
Anyways, Vivaldi and I hit it off right from the start. Probably because I'm a girl; Vivaldi sees all men as inferior to women. So we told each other our life stories, within an hour of meeting. So we quickly got along and have just gotten closer with time.
I met Blood on the first day he became The Hatter; not my favorite memory. Since I have disliked The Hatter since before I ever met him. Which, can you blame me? Though, I knew Blood wasn't at fault, it didn't help that that was his Role. Deloris knew upon seeing him that he was the brother of the Queen of Hearts. She told me on the walk back home. She thought it must be important to The Game for this to happen. Though, she wondered why. She also told me to never acknowledge this fact, though. Unless one of them told me, then I could at least talk about it with them, otherwise nothing.
"You mustn't tell the other Role-holders, because they will see this as threat. For them to be siblings, if they agree on something, it could help with a majority vote and seen as them planning something. Or, the others might fear them combining territories. There are countless worries the others will have, so you mustn't acknowledge it, Daphne. Do you understand?" Deloris asked looking me in the eyes.
I nodded. "But how did you know? They look nothing alike." I say.
Deloris smiles. "You'll be able to tell one day, Daphne. It's part of being The Dodo. You can see who people truly are. Like when I was looking for you. I had to look at so many faceless children to see who had it in them to take my place."
"That makes sense, but how could you see a family connection?" I ask.
"It was something important about him that I should know. The Dodo knows everything that's important about the other Role-holders. Their deepest secrets, their deepest desires, anything that could cause a problem. It was why The Dodo was created first... with the companion of One That Is No Longer." She says quietly.
"You mean The -" I start.
"Shhh! You mustn't speak of Him. It could help resurrect Him." She clamps her hand over my mouth. I nod, and she removes her hand. "Those two created the other Role-holders, and were put in charge of keeping the peace. You'll learn more about it in your studies."
I nod, and we continued on our way home.
"It's about time." Blood says irritably, bringing me out of my thoughts.
So what do you guys think? I'd love to hear thoughts and/or comments.
TA: Also, I am adding an extra segment to the story called, "Questions for Dodo". Here you can ask Daphne the Dodo, anything you want to know. I do mean anything. She will answer to the best of her ability and knowledge. This will be an extra to all future chapters, so you can leave a question in a review, or if you want, PM me, but make sure to tell me it's a question for Daphne, so I'll know to add it. Sadly, we only have one question this time, but hopefully more people will ask questions.
Question from In the Forest: Did she {Daphne} ever make friends when she was faceless?
TA: Good question! Daphne?
Daphne: Of course! We faceless stick together! I was friends with all the kids at the orphanage, but that's too many to name. Though, before the orphanage, my main friend was my mom. She had a friend look after me when she worked, so I would consider her a friend, too. Her name was Eliza. Eliza was nice... *gets lost in thought, then shakes her head* So yeah, to answer your question, I had friends when I was faceless. I mean, I am the Dodo after all. Wonderlanders naturally like me, Role-holder and faceless. *SMACK* What was that for?! *rubs head*
TA: You're sounding smug!
Daphne: Sorry. I was just stating the facts. *hangs head*
TA: * ruffles Daphne's feathers* You're so ADORABLE!
Daphne: *Smacks my hand away* Stop it! Anyways... *turns to you* Thanks to In the Forest for the question! And I'm ready for anything you got for me so ask away! See you next time! *waves*
TA: Bye! *waves*
Like Daphne said, ask anything you want. Hope to get some more questions! Please review!
***Plans for next chapter: Tea Party with Blood & Vivaldi, Scene at the Gate with the rest of the Hatter family, and possibly the Baseball game that Dodo doesn't ever make it to. So please stay tuned!***