TAoP Chapter 30

Important Information

Cards brought over a pack filled with many different colored flamingos and pillows with the same colored hedgehogs. The Queen chose the green flamingo while Alice, reluctantly, chose the bright pink one. Penny shook her head when one was offered to her, but the Queen wouldn't allow it.

"Come, my dear. Please join us," she kindly asked Penny.

"If it pleases you, Your Majesty, I would prefer to—"

"PLAY THE GAME!"

Penny quickly grabbed the blue flamingo and waited. The Queen smiled and took her place to start. While the Queen was getting ready, Penny talked to Midnight.

How's it going?

Could be worse. But they seem to be getting weaker. How's the Heart?

Currently playing a game with the Queen. The Queen herself, completely missed her hedgehog, but the little animal ran anyways and the Cards jumped to make sure it went passed them.

Anything else there? Midnight asked.

Nope. Not really, but I'll keep my eyes open. Come quickly. This lady annoys me.

Alice's turn was up and, after much fussing with her flamingo, she managed to hit the hedgehog. Even though the hit was good, the Cards ignored the creature and dodged it. The Queen laughed and smirked.

"Nice try, dearie. Perhaps next time."

"Yes, I must be having an off day," Alice replied.

"NOW!" Penny flinched as the Red Queen looked at her. "It's your turn."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Penny bent down and hit the poor blue hedgehog, without paying much attention. The same thing happened to her as it did to Alice. The Queen, smugly, went to take her next turn.

"I'm sorry about this," Alice whispered to Penny as they watched.

"Don't worry about it. This isn't so bad," Penny whispered back, but quickly looked at something over the hedges. Something black was lurking there, waiting and watching. The Queen passed by, her shadow showing up on the hedge and the black thing reached out to touch it.

Penny immediately went into action. She ran towards the Queen, pushed her down, and attacked the Shadow. She had managed to destroy it one hit and quickly looked for more. As she searched, the Queen's face slowly turned red until she practically exploded.

"WHO DARES TO PUSH ME DOWN?"

Penny mentally kicked herself as she forced herself to turn around. The Cards were all trying to help her up, but she pushed them down. She glared at Penny, pointing her scepter menacingly at her nose.

"OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

Cards surrounded Penny, as she watched them, feeling slightly annoyed. Alice tried to reason with the Red Queen, but she wouldn't listen. As the Cards came closer, Penny let her whole left arm go aflame.

"Come anywhere near me and you will get burned," she threatened. The Cards glanced nervously at one another. One hand they can have their heads chopped off or on the other hand they could get burned. Neither sounded better than the other.

"Listen to me, Queen, I only came here to ask a few questions and you will answer them," Penny said, pulling something out of her pocket.

"YOU DARE QUESTION MY—" The Queen stuttered and threw her hands to her mouth in fear as Penny suddenly towered over her. She had kept some of the mushroom from the forest and ate it. The Cards scrambled over each other to get away from her. Penny knelt down in front of the Queen and Alice.

"Now, my Queen, if you would be so kind as to answer some of my questions, I won't bother you anymore."

"Y—yes dear. Anything you say," the Queen of Hearts said. Alice beamed at Penny for her cleverness.

"Alright, I came to this world to hunt for Darkness. My friends and I ran into some Shadows when the Cheshire Cat mentioned you. Would you know anything about the Darkness or the Shadows running around in your domain?"

"Me? Why-why I don't know what you-you are talking about—SQUEE!" Penny had reached over and neatly picked her up by the back of the dress. "Alright! Alright! PUT ME DOWN AND I WILL TELL YOU!" Penny gently set her back down.

"Tell me what you know."

"They wanted me to join them, but I told them I don't like people ruling over me. I rule people. They weren't happy with me, so they started sending the Shadows to see if they could control me," the Queen finally admitted.

"Who's 'they'?"

Before the Queen could answer, the others had arrived. They stared at Penny and Midnight groaned internally.

Didn't I say not to do anything stupid? He said as he sat next to her.

Well, I got some information, so it wasn't stupid. It was necessary.

"Penny, did you really have to do this?" Max asked.

"Yes, yes I did. Oh the cleverness of me!" Penny crowed.

Jayden sighed, "Fine, please, continue."

"Now, who's 'they'?" Penny turned back to the Queen.

"I'm not sure! I've never seen them," the Red Queen answered harshly.

"Why don't I believe you?" Penny reached back over to her, but the Queen stood her ground. "Hmmm….perhaps you are telling the truth. Alright, you gave us some good information, so now you have to do something in return. Once we leave, you must take care of Alice."

"What? Why should I do that? Remember, I'm the Queen of Hearts." She was starting to get some of her composer back.

"Because if you don't, I'll know about it and I will come back here and destroy your castle," Penny said smoothly.

The Queen thought about it for awhile, "I will accept these terms on one condition. You must come back to continue our little game."

Penny smiled, "Of course, Your Majesty. Now I was hoping you would have something to make me smaller…"

Once Penny had returned back to normal and Illiana and Max gathered all the information they could from the Queen and Jayden had laid a couple of spells against the Darkness around the castle, the team was ready to head out. Alice had taken Penny to wonder a bit in Wonderland. She had shown her all the spots she had visited and told her stories about what happened. When they had come back, the Queen demanded they have tea before they went. The crew couldn't deny her since they had finally gotten on her good side, so a table was set and they had a tea party.

They had just stared when two new people showed up. Alice ran to meet them and introduced them as the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. The Hatter had a rather large green hat to match his yellow and green suit. He was smaller than Penny and talked in nonsense and riddles. The March Hare was well…a brown rabbit. He wore a red suit and passed tea to everyone. Penny soon had taken a liking to them and was laughing and talking to them. At the end of the rather long tea party, everyone had their fill, except for Alice who didn't have a single cup of tea for the Hatter kept calling out, "Clean cup! Clean cup! Mooooove down!"

The group was finally getting ready to leave in the courtyard. Alice had come to say good-bye.

"Are you sure the Queen will keep her promise?" she asked as Penny put on her pack. It was getting heavier and heavier every trip.

"Sure I'm sure! This will be the safest place for you. If not then we shall move you somewhere safer," Penny said.

"Alright, if you say so…"

"If anything happens, contact Penny. She will always answer," Illiana said.

"Yes, I shall do that! Well good-bye everyone! Thank you for finding me when I was lost!"

They all waved good-bye and in a flash of light, they vanished.