With a Knock

In the morning, Tarrant had just slept a few hours; he went and got together what they possibly needed. It wasn't much, as they had arrived without much on them. One could never now, through, what leered back in Underland. Something had brought them here and played them in an evil way, so it possibility of something evil waiting for them wasn't too low.

He caressed the still enshrouded blade of a skene* he had secured in a way he didn't intend to talk about before he hid it under his pants beneath the shin. Mallymkun was already ready; she got rid of all unnecessary parts of her clothing and was quite happy to have more mobility. She really felt better and more herself again, yet she still held the broomstick which's bristle she had kicked off with a lot of joy. It made her more comfortable, as a sword was hard to obtain.

Tensed they stood in the kitchen, watching each other, watching out of the window, waiting. While Mallymkun checked again and again the direction they had to walk, it didn't escape her sharp eyes how the Hatter grew more and more stressed. He really wanted to believe in Alice, but he had done once and got burned.

A knock.

Mallymkun wanted to turn to the Hatter, but he was already gone.

The door opened in front of Alice, who tilted her head when she saw the lean man in front of her. Somehow he looked different from before, his expression had changed, was very serious and she didn't know that side of the Hatter well.

"See? I'm here, as promised."

Tarrant smiled and led her in "You are."

"Where do we go now?" she asked while the Hatter fiddled with her fingers to take the suitcase. Something in her fingertips tingled and she felt almost like blushing, before asking him stupidly what he was doing there, she let go and decided this was the best way to do it, as the Hatter seemed calmly satisfied now, knowing she wouldn't die from exhaustion of carrying a very small and light suitcase.

"Follow me," he said and led her to the backdoor, which was open to the garden. Mallymkun was waiting there.

"So we are really going…" Alice said quietly, more to herself than to the others.

Hatter watched her suspiciously and worried at the same time, bit his lip, frowned and when they reached the door he said in a smoky voice, which derived from his dry throat: "If you don't want to go, this is your chance. I won't pressure you this time."

"I appreciate that," she responded calmly "But I already made my decision. I'll come with you, you didn't pressure me." She looked up to him "I know you never would've forced me to go. Yet I feel responsible for what happened to you and I want to help you find out who caused this. I want to find out if Wonderland is in danger and if it is…" the strength that Tarrant had always described as 'muchness' came back to her eyes "I will fight for it's welfare as I did before. This is my big task, isn't it?"

"Your main task is coming back," the Hatter said evasively, "Everything else, we will see when we are there. It could be dangerous Alice," just in this moment, the moment one would have least expected it, the confident expression crumbled and a more worried and anxious one took over.

"I trust you. I know I can count on you however dangerous it may become, I could count on you during the fight with the Jabberwocky which was one of the darkest hours of Wonderland. I could count on you now." She lay one hand on Tarrants arm "I'm sorry for my reaction from before. Hatter, I am –very- happy that you came, no matter what the circumstances are." He had taken her out of confusing and heart breaking misery; he had proven she wasn't crazy. She saw a light at the horizon and she was sure whatever there would come, they could find out what happened and take care of it never going wrong again. She didn't know what would happen afterwards yet she also didn't want to think about it now.

The Hatter smiled upon this confession and Mallymkun pointed towards the garden "I don't want to interrupt your extensive conversation but… are actually going somewhere today?!"

They moved out and she closed the door "Besides that, I would of course defend you whatever dangers there are."

"Thank you, Mallymkun," said Alice with a smile and the dormouse accepted it with a brusque posture but slightly pink cheeks.

"We really have to go now," she said and went ahead, they followed her to the farthest edge of the garden.

"You really think it's here?" Alice asked and regretted the question right the next moment when Mallymkuns nose began to twitch nervously, but she didn't answer but pointed to an old tree which had developed huge aerial roots.

"It… looks somehow familiar," admitted Alice, it remembered her of the tree she woke up at the Ascot estate.

"It is the only chance we have," Mallymkun said, "The whole time it was directly in front of our eyes but I only found it when you came back in town. Somehow it has to be connected with you; we couldn't use it without you.

"Then how do we go in?" Alice tilted her had but aside from the familiarity to the other hole it looked perfectly normal, nothing strange about it.

"I thought you could tell us," the Hatter interfered, "You always told us about Otherland and how you came to Underland, you are the most experienced in these things."

The young woman made a face "It is not exactly a science…" she thought about it: "Can you get in?" She asked Mallymkun who was the smallest of the lot.

The maid tried to jump in – her feet now stood exactly between two big roots but she was still there and it didn't seem as if the hole was deep enough.

"You're sure it was here?"

"Of course I am!" the dormouse snapped at Tarrant, now HE doubted her again, she was really fed up with all this, it didn't help her mood. As a dormouse she always had to proof her worth and talents, she didn't want to be queried by Tarrant of all persons. He had never doubted her before they came here, ever. She stepped out of the whole when Alice came near.

The other woman knelt down and put a hand into the hole. The hand went in far deeper than Mallymkun had stood before. Obviously they were right; it really was connected with her!

She stood up again and extended her arms "Hold on, I will try something."

Tarrant and Mallymkun both took the hand on their side: "What are you going to…" the Hatter wanted to ask, but Alice had already closed her eyes and jumped.

Everything around them turned black, smoky and they felt like falling. They lost each other due to several pieces of furniture they rammed against and caught several bruises. They fell deeper and deeper; the room around them became brighter. Alice remembered this 'fantastic' (painful) way of travelling but suddenly they were engulfed by a thick cloud of dust.

With a loud sound of THUMP! She found herself on a dusty way among two overgrown meadow. With a light shriek Mallymkun landed somewhere near her and with a louder, deeper scream the Hatter followed and fell into the high grass on the right side, the suitcase followed at once and according to the painful "UGH!" sound coming from her right, it landed right on him…

While Mallymkun got up with no problems, Alice went to help the Hatter. She had to look for him because the grass was high and thick, but found him eventually. She helped him up, he stroke the dust from his clothing and with a rather het up expression he went back with her.

Mallymkun stood on the path, broomstick in hand and pressed at the ground, her head lowered depressively. Alice heart ached, she approached her "What is it, Mallymkun?" She could've sworn there was a sob, but the dormouse didn't look up and if it was indeed a sob, she wouldn't.

"Why do I still look this way?" she whispered with a broken voice "We are back in Underland, aren't we? I should be a dormouse again, right now."

Alice lay a hand on her shoulder, took a look at the Hatter – he was still unchanged from before, still wearing 'the wrong skin' like he had called it. He looked downright miserable, possibly not only over his own missing retransformation, but out of compassion.

He, at least, was still human. Mallymkun in the opposite was in a body not even similar to her own.

It took a moment till she was ready to go on and silently, a bit disgusted by herself, took the handkerchief Alice offered her.

"We should head back to the Queens court," she said, still sounding a bit puffy, "If something happened while we were away, the twines will knot together there." She looked around and wrapped her arms around herself "Everything looks so different now, but I think we should take this path."

No one could disagree with her reasoning, Alice approached Tarrant: "Hatter, do you know the way."

"Yes, I do," he said, still worried about his friend, then taking a look on the landscape "She is right, we take this path to the red fields over there, then there should be a crossway."

They started walking and Alice took a look around. The sky was dark blue, white pollen flew through the air, accompanied by the usual weird insects and flying rocking horses. The farther they went the more flowers appeared in the fields to both sides, however there were none of the big speaking flowers among them. Alice felt awkward; usually the flowers were the first Wonderland inhabitants she met.

"This is strange," she started.

"Why?" the Hatter asked, "I think it is a quite wonderful night and we haven't been attacked yet, to be honest, everything looks very calm around here."

"But it never was that way…" she said.

"How can I tell? You are the expert on this."

"Usually we should have fallen in a small room with many doors…" she said "I've never before fallen directly into Wonderland," she looked up "And wasn't it morning just a few moments ago?"

"Morning? I don't know, wasn't it dark?"

"The sun had already risen...."

Alice felt a shiver running down her back, but this time it wasn't a good one. It was upsetting her; the Hatter couldn't remember the time they just left London? And from the look of Mallymkun she had a hard time remembering as well.

This wasn't a good sign, not a good at all.

--

The little flying rocking horse just zapped away before it could be hit by those giant people suddenly walking in the way. How annoying they were! It had to fly a big loop now to get to its destination. Horrible, horrible giants! All that time it had felt free to fly wherever it wanted and suddenly they walked by and hindered it! What impertinence!

After the little rocking horse calmed down from its encounter with near-death it continued its way to lick some honey-milk from its favorite plant. It had to be fast; everyone loved the honey-milk from that plant! If it didn't hurry there would be nothing left for it and that would be a pity.

Suddenly it nickered, had it heard some talk about a hatter? Wasn't he approached with a hatter as its name? Was it that Mad Hatter everyone was looking for at every corner of the kingdom?

The small thing was just a stupid little flying rocking horse, but as the benevolent Queen Mirana loved every living being, including planting big, flowery meadows where once only battlefields lay, the small flying rocking horse felt a deep sense of responsibility out of gratitude.

It snuffled, took a deep breath as well as all the strength it had to power it four wings, then it buzzed with the fasted speed possible through the fields.

The delicious plant was forgotten, or at least cast aside, should the others have it – it had a mission.

The mission was to tell all its little friends about the news, who would tell it to all their friends until the message reached the castle. Then the little flying rocking horse would have done a deed for the kingdom and maybe it would cause the benevolent Queen to plant more of these delicious flowers.

TBC

*A skene is a kind of broad, short dagger which is a traditional Scottish weapon; the skene dhu is the kind of dagger that is traditionally worn in the stockings of kilt wearers. It's also written "skean" but I've found that skene is the Scottish spelling.

A/N I'm happy this fic got so many story alerts, it makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

If you spot something that you think is awkward or not understandable, feel free to point it out!

I've corrected some of the earlier chapters, during that I've realized that I spelled Alice last name wrong; it's Kingsleigh, not Kingsley. I have corrected it now in all chapters except the last one, which will be corrected tomorrow.

Now our three heroes are back in Underland, but the problems aren't solved yet, especially Alice realized that there are possibly even more to come. We will find out more tomorrow!