Hours turned to days. Days turned to weeks. Finally the weeks turned into a month. Tick, Tock, Hide, and Seek returned back from their mission a week just as Eyes had said. And just as he had said, they were all notified of their arrival. Princess caught a glimpse of each of them as they walked past the corridor to their own rooms. That was all she had seen of them since. She did, however, hear Tick and Eyes quarrel once in one of the many libraries of the castle. She guessed it was about the glass orb Eyes had re-stolen but she hadn't stuck around to verify.
Truth and Liar had returned back to their old ways, almost as if the mission had never taken place. Princess found it peculiar, to say the least. She met with them every morning for breakfast and every evening for dinner. That was the routine. Though usual, it had gotten awkward. She was unable to tell who the true Cats were. Were they simply putting on an act so she wouldn't be afraid of them in the castle? Were they really as cruel as they had acted at the Lluvia Library? How badly she wanted to confront them about the mission. She was allowed to, after all. They were Underground Wonderland higher-ups, just as she was. She wouldn't be breaking any rules. So what was holding her back? Was she still so terrified? She needed someone to speak to about that day. Anyone who wasn't a higher-up.
Princess sat in the center of the flower garden at the back of the castle where the maze rested. Azaleas, roses, lilies, lilacs, iris, carnations, lavenders, rhododendron, and many more variety of flowers surrounded her. Their soothing scents made her relax as she lay back on the warm grass, her blond hair appearing white in the gleam of the sun as it lay spread out. She was tired of feeling so anxious. She just needed time to herself to think over everything more clearly. Closing her eyes she began to lightly hum a tune.
She remembered her mother singing the very same song to her when she was younger. Before she died near her eighth birthday. She had no photos of her. Not even of her father who had passed onto the next world when she was two. All her photos had been left behind at her aunt's home in Hayren, which had been burned in the fireplace by said aunt. Were it not for the Cheshire Cats, she would still have been living with her. She'd be locked in her room doing schoolwork with the windows chained locked. Oh how cruel her life had been with her aunt. She adored the castle and enjoyed the company of those she called friends. Still, it couldn't stop her short instances of longing for the old house she once called home with her mother.
"What ever is the matter, Princess Alice?" said a small voice to her right. She turned, seeing a golden lily sway back and forth, pedals shut for a moment before opening, the same voice resonating. "What has brought tears to your lovely brown eyes?"
"Has someone been cruel to you, Princess Alice?" asked an orange carnation.
"Has the day not gone right?" asked a white rose.
"Please, tell us what has made you cry," said a pink azalea.
This wasn't the first time the flowers had spoken. After the first five times she became accustom to them. Though the first time they spoke she ran back into the castle to tell the Cheshire Cats, dragging them back into the garden. The flowers didn't speak when they were there. It was silent. They explained to her how the flowers spoke only to those who were in need of being heard. Someone who needed to speak to another to let something out. Otherwise they were no more lively then a piece of wood. "They weren't always that way," Liar had said. "They use to always speak when spoken to, despite who the person may have been. They use to be very chatty. They could even sing. But time seems to have hushed them. For what reason the world hasn't one. Only the flowers know." She never did ask the flowers why and by the third time the question completely slipped her mind.
Princess sat up, feeling the warmth of her tears spill down her cheeks. Quickly she wiped them away with the back of her hand. "No one's been cruel to me and the day's been going just fine," she answered, smiling a bit. "I was just thinking about the past. I use to live with my aunt in Hayren."
The flowers gasped.
"You once lived in the town where the Wonderland Hunters reside?" asked a white carnation. She nodded. "How ever did you come to live here? Did they not try to rescue you from the claws of those terrible Cheshire Cats?"
"They tried but these 'terrible' Cheshire Cats managed to escape. I only really saw the Cheshire Cat Hunters following after." She hadn't spoken about that day to anyone. Not even to Charles, the Jack of Spades. It felt nice to finally speak about it to someone, even if those listening to her story were flowers. "That was actually the first time I ever saw a hunter. I didn't even know they lived in the same town as me. It was shocking. Less shocking than when Truth and Liar saved me from my misery there, of course. No, they freaked me out."
"Sounds so frightful to be plucked from your old home," said an iris in a soft, shy voice. Princess didn't disagree for it had indeed been frightful. The images of that day were fresh in her head, as if the event had barely happened not too long ago.
"It's odd to think that I was so scared of them back then," she said. "I didn't actually know anything about Underground Wonderland. I only knew what my classmates knew. They always talked about them during our small breaks in class. 'The Mad Hatter struck again!' Or 'The Cheshire Cats were spotted near Brim Forest!' Or 'Underground Wonderland stole something from blah, blah, blah.' My aunt read the newspaper and didn't allow me to watch anything on television, so I'd no idea of who they were or the people they talked about. It was a mystery." She leaned back on her hands, staring at a white cloud as it passed by, creating a cool shadow over her and the flowers. "It was only after I was saved that I learned who they were," she continued. "Truth and Liar, the Cheshire Cats of Underground Wonderland, a notorious criminal organization that's been around since way before I was born or even conceived. It took a while to get use to things but now…"
The flowers leaned forward. "'But now' what, Princess Alice?" they all said simultaneously.
"But now I think I'm scared of them again." When the sun beamed down on the garden again she squinted and looked to the marigolds, roses, and daffodils in front of her. "I'm not meant to speak about the mission we went on to anyone but the other higher-ups. I guess it's because they don't want anyone to tell others of the missions. Still, I don't want to speak with any of them. Not now and not about that, anyways. I also don't want to get anyone into trouble."
"We won't utter a word," said the orange carnation. "We will also not be harmed as we are but mere flowers in the eyes of others."
"We promise," said a daffodil. "You can trust us."
She trusted them. She was sure the flowers could keep her secrets secret. Looking left and right to make sure no one was around to listen she began to tell the flowers of the mission and of how the Cheshire Cats acted. She told them of Milady Archer and the things she had told her, and of the lie Truth had told (which she was still a bit angry about). "Have there…Were there any other Alice before me?" She had been wondering so much and that was one of the questions that lurked in her mind from what Milady Archer said. "I mean, any girls before who were like me? Called Princess, Alice, or something like that?"
Everything fell silent. Princess looked around at all the flowers. Had she asked the wrong question? Were it not for the shy iris the anxious feeling would have returned. "There were other girls, Princess Alice. They did not speak to us as you did, however. They did not visit us in need of being heard. Not often, anyways."
"Each girl was the same age, though," spoke the golden lily. "They even disappeared at the same age. Poof! Without a trace."
"Wh-What age was this?" Princess asked, staring at each flower as it spoke.
"We do not know, but the willow most certainly does," said the white rose. All flowers turned to the weeping willow that stood at the right back corner of the castle. "Willow, do you remember the age all Alice girls disappeared?"
The willow's branches swayed with a passing wind before ceasing and returning to hanging down. Princess had no idea of the trees speaking. She had never once heard them. The flowers enough were an amazement not soon forgotten. Again the willow's branches swayed. It took a moment for Princess to realize that a wind had not passed by as before. Nothing was said in the silence as the flowers turned back to her. Her eyes darted back and forth, wondering what had happened.
"The willow says the Alice before you were fifteen," said the white rose.
Princess looked from the rose to the willow and back, pointing to the tree once done. "Are you sure that's what the willow said, because I didn't hear anything." The flowers giggled. It made her feel like an idiot at that moment, hands moving to her lap as she moved the pale pink dress over her legs to hide them while she sat crisscross.
"No one can hear the trees speak because they know only the language of nature," said the pink azalea. "They do not know the language of beings such as yourself."
"Because we flowers know the language of beings such as yourself," spoke a white azalea, "we are able to translate for the trees. But because you know not the language of nature, you are unable to hear the trees speak." Princess understood, looking at the willow and waving. A branch swayed, waving back to her. It at least understood a greeting which made her more than happy.
Her mind snapped back to the answer she had received from the willow. "You said the girls disappeared at age fifteen and you're absolutely sure?" she asked. Her own fifteenth birthday wasn't far off. Would she disappear just as the others girls had?
"The willow says he's quite sure that the girls disappeared at that age," said the daffodil, translating. "We ourselves trust what the willow says. It is up to you whether to do the same or not, Princess Alice."
"No, no! I trust all of you. I trust what you've told me, willow, and I thank you!" The weeping willow gave a wave of his branches in response. She guessed that one of the flowers translated what she said. "It just worries me. I'm fourteen right now so it'll only be one year– or rather less than a year –until I'm fifteen. Until I…Until I probably disappear like those other girls. But the thing is, that worries me so much more because of what the woman Archer told me. She told me to escape. To go with the Wonderland Hunters. But I can't. They're out to get anyone from Underground Wonderland so going to them would be suicide."
The white rose turned to the red rose, turned to the marigolds, turned to the daffodils, and finally back to Princess. They had exchanged quick words in their language.
"If Hayren is your original home," began the white rose.
"Then quite possibly they won't harm you," continued the red rose.
"Though it be wise not to go alone should you decide to act upon the doubt of a thought," said a red carnation.
"Whatever your decision may be, we all wish and hope for your safety, Princess Alice," said the shy iris.
She smiled at the flowers. They were so kind to her. "Thank you. All of you." She stood up, brushing stray strands of grass off her dress. It grew silent and the flowers no longer moved. They were back to being ordinary flowers. Back to no longer speaking. She peered at the weeping willow, watching as he no longer moved either. It saddened her for a moment, but just a moment. She would talk to them another time, even if they did not speak back unless she truly needed them to. With that she walked back into the castle.