Fit the Fourth: Aware
The Royal Library was the largest room Alice had ever seen. Shelves and shelves of books stacked from the floor to the high ceiling stretched as far as the eye could see. The bookshelves were monuments in themselves. Rather than ladders, each shelf had a horizontal bar along the bottom edge, making the shelves themselves climbable.
Tarrant and Alice stepped inside the library and paused. Animals and fantastic creatures busily ascended and descended the shelves or read stacks of thick tomes at various desks. A human-shaped creature covered entirely in black and white feathers glided from a shelf toward them, trailing behind her what was either cape-like wings or a wing-like cape (Alice couldn't tell which).
"Any progress, Margaret?" the Hatter asked her.
"Not much. Pepper is still trying to chart a course on the map, but that can be done when we're on our way. This must be that famous Alice of Overland?"
"Quite."
A large pink pig walked up to them. "If Alice is here, we can be on our way right away. The boat is ready; we can leave first thing tomorrow."
"Hold on, Pepper. Alice hasn't even agreed to join the snark hunt yet," Tarrant objected.
She turned toward him huffily. "Of course I'll go! How can you think I wouldn't? I'll do anything I can to help Mirana."
Tarrant looked at her with deep concern or sadness in his eyes, then turned back to the scholars. "Well, if we're to be on our way tomorrow then we best be getting ready."
The moon shone bright over the white castle. Alice gazed at it from the same balcony she'd looked out from the night before the Frabjous Day.
A movement of air and the soft fall of footsteps alerted her to the fact that someone had joined her on the balcony. She didn't need to look to see who it was.
"Do you ever wonder what causes the stars to shine in Underland, Tarrant?"
"At times," he said. "It's enough to drive a person mad."
She looked toward him, smiling. He looked exactly the same as he did that other night, except he was wearing his hat. "I'm sorry I ever believed you were a figment of my imagination," she apologized.
"Don't worry, lass. If I were a figment of anyone's imagination, it would be an honor to be yours."
She turned to face him fully. Her heart fluttered at its nearness to him. "I wonder, Hatter, have you missed me as much as I've missed you?"
"It doesn't seem possible," he answered. "You would have flown to me a thousand times."
She dropped her eyes to her hand, which she examined like some novel specimen. "I find that hard to believe, as I was under the impression that you don't really want me here, or at least that you don't want me along for the snark hunt."
"I don't want you to go on the snark hunt!" The exclamation escaped from him like some wild beast let out of a box. He saw Alice startle at its bluntness.
"You don't think it will help Mirana?"
"Well, yes. And of course I would sacrifice almost anything to save my Queen. But not you."
"Are snarks quite dangerous, then?" she asked.
"Snarks themselves are usually innocuous, but the island where they live is perilous. That's where the Red Queen captured her bandersnatch and her jubjub bird. There are cliffs and crags and calamities, and sometimes snarks are boojums."
"What does that mean? What is a boojum?"
The Hatter suddenly turned to her and grasped her by the arms. His eyes bore into hers. "You're just so beamish, Alice. What would I do if you vanish away?"
"I imagine the same thing you did the last time I vanished away," she replied in bemusement.
Tarrant laughed. He dropped his hands from her arms, turned away, and laughed.
"What is a boojum?" Alice repeated.
"A boojum is what a snark sometimes is, and then you will softly and suddenly vanish away."
"I think I shouldn't like that at all," she said. "But one does what one must." She smiled at him reassuringly, even though he wasn't looking.
The Hatter was now resolutely not looking at her.
"Did I tell you," Alice said in the tone of a quick change of subject, "that after much scholarly research I have discovered how a raven is like a writing desk?"
He turned back toward her, wearing a dizzy smile on his lips that seemed to have forgotten the distressing words they had just been articulating. "How is a raven like a writing desk, Alice?"
"They both have two legs, two wings, black feathers, and fly...well, except for the writing desk." She couldn't suppress her own smile when Tarrant burst into a hearty laugh.
He rested his forearms on her shoulders. "What an adequately mad answer," he said approvingly.
Alice gazed at him in the ice-white moonlight. It reminded her very much of a scene from some Chinese romance, but what would the Hatter think of her if she took the next step towards him and did what her lips were aching to do? Was kissing allowed in Underland? Was it even known?
He seemed equally as frozen, staring at her like he didn't know what to do next, or like he was trying to solve a riddle.
"Well," Tarrant finally said, drawing away from her. "We should both be getting some rest. We have a long day tomorrow. And many more after that."
"Yes," she agreed reluctantly, and she watched as he disappeared through the door.