Author's note:
Today I'm a happy author; do you want to know why?
Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn't be reading the A/N. I got a present from my mother; a really nice scarf in my favourite colour, it makes me want to write loads! So it's actually good for both me and you! Let the show go on:
5. A Prince?
Things have a way of changing, whether you want them to or not. Like when you get up one morning, hurry out the door and find yourself to the chin with fresh snow. Or like when you're walking home in the evening, it's still not dark, and you think "Why don't I do this more often?" A few minutes later, the sun has set and it's pitch black, causing you to think "Now it's just getting stupid!" Or one of your friends could turn out to be a lost prince…
Isabel didn't know what to think of what she'd overheard. A prince? He didn't look anything like a prince. Not that Isabel had met a prince. (Actually, she had, but she'd been too young to remember.) And Will had never looked anything like his parents, nor his siblings. The more Isabel thought of it, the more likenesses she found between Will and the Queen.
If Will was a prince, would he still want to be her friend? And even if he wanted to be her friend, could he be? Isabel wasn't found of loosing friends. Thinking of it, she had lost a friend; she'd lost the Mad Hatter, hadn't she?
"I want to go see the Hatter!" she declared.
"It's not a good idea." the Cheshire Cat purred. "He's mad, you know."
"You've told me that already." Isabel sighed.
"I have?"
"Yes. Chessur, could you help me sneak into the dungeons?"
"What on earth would you want to go there for?" Chessur sounded genuinely interested.
"I want to see the Hatter!"
"It's not a-"
Isabel glared at the unhelpful cat. "Then I'll go by myself."
"Do that. Where're you going?"
Isabel didn't answer him; she simply left, leaving the cat floating around all by himself.
"This will not do at all." the feline tsked. "I'd better tell the queen." And he evaporated into thin air.
Chessur shouldn't really be able to show up at places whenever he wanted. Whatever had the one to give him these powers been thinking of? Now he'd interrupted and overheard some things he shouldn't be knowing. If Alice wanted him to know, she'd told him, hadn't she? There was nothing to be done about this now; all she could do was to send looks that could've brought a lesser being to tears. The cat, however, wasn't bothered. Cats are, after all, masters of murderous looks.
"How interesting." the cat had purred before hastily leaving the room.
"Whoever would present a cat with evaporating powers?" Alice asked, half to herself.
"One of my forefathers, I fear." Mirana chuckled and sat down again. "How are you feeling?"
"At the moment? Embarrassed, angry, relieved that I won't have to tell him myself."
"Yes. Chessur will have told him before I can say Futterwacken."
Both women laughed heartily at what expression he would have when Chessur told him.
Chessur would, indeed, have told him right away, if it hadn't been for Isabel. Somehow, she'd sneaked into the dungeons and was talking to Tarrant.
Ah, yes, I see it now.
Chessur could hardly wait to tell Tarrant, but he decided to wait until Isabel had left.
"I've missed you. It's a lot more fun when you're around." Isabel said fondly, smiling at Tarrant.
"I missed you too, Little Friend. You remind me of someone, but I don't know who. You don't happen to know, do you?" Tarrant lisped.
Isabel giggled. "Of course not, silly. I may be someone I don't know, and then how will I know?"
Now it was Tarrant's turn to laugh, and he -horror of horrors- placed his precious hat on top of Isabel's head. "I haven't the slightest idea. This is a very special hat; it's a buddy-hat. I'll get you one of your own, but this will have to do for now."
"I think it's a beautiful hat!" Isabel cried in joy.
She put her arms around Tarrant and hugged him through the bars. "Thank you."
That's about enough waiting.
Chessur wasn't a very patient being, and now he didn't want to wait anymore. Not another second. But he could also be evil when he felt like it, thus appearing quite suddenly next to Isabel.
Both Isabel and Tarrant howled in horror, and Chessur couldn't hold back a snigger.
"Hel-lo Tarrant, Isabel." he purred.
"You scuttish cat!" Tarrant growled, slipping into his Scottish brogue.
"Me?" Chessur said with faked innocence. "Oh, dear, what an insult. I am much hurt."
"I wish…" Tarrant muttered. "What do you want, Cat?"
"You really sound like Mallyumkun when you speak to me like that. I believe I prefer it when you're speaking like yourself, or what do you say, Isabel?"
"I'm not sure it matters. He's always himself, no matter what he speaks like." Isabel said in that special way only children, and Tarrant, do.
"Ah. But who is he, that's the real question." Chessur grinned.
"He's the Hatter, of course. My friend."
"Is he really? Are you really, Tarrant?"
"I-I think so…" Tarrant said hesitantly, confused by the floating cat. "Who else could I be?"
"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps," Chessur allowed himself a dramatic pause. "Isabel's father."
It was at times like this Chessur wished he could have a camera or its likes. This was really something he would've wanted to save for the future. He hadn't had any idea a chin could actually drop that far, but now he was proved wrong, not once, but twice. Thrice if you'd count the guard, which Chessur did. Now he had used his time in a good way. He'd been sure his evaporating powers could come in handy many times, and they just did once more. It was a nice feeling.
"B-but, she, I, how?" Tarrant stuttered sheepishly.
"Oh, I'm quite sure you remember how…" Chessur smiled wickedly.
Tarrant did remember, he could tell, the usually pale face blushed as red as the bloody red queens hair had been.
"I'm a father." Tarrant said, as if he couldn't believe he could have such luck. "Isabel's my daughter."
Author's note:
Blast that Chessur, right? If you wonder where the text in the beginning came from, you're not alone. There I was, minding my own business, on my way home from school. Somehow those sentences clinged on to my brain and refused to leave unless I wrote them down somewhere. Well, this is somewhere. There will, sadly, not be a new chapter tomorrow, I won't have access to the internet until Sunday. But I'll probably upload two chapters that day.
Till then!