Thirteen Awkward Moments

The partition after this very emotional close moment felt awkward and embarrassing. None of them both knew how to handle it well, therefore they just sat stiffly beside each other, before finding an excuse to leave the scene, speaking it almost in the same moment.

Alice cheeks glimmered red and through it was harder to notice on the Hatters rather pale-again skin, he seemed to be kind of pinkish tinted, too. They stepped away, not yet able to just talk and release the tension of the past days, although the embrace had left a warm and calm feeling in their hearts.

Finally heading for her quarters, Alice realized the Hatter had taken the rag doll with him. Possibly it wasn't a good idea to leave a magical artifact lying around, however there were many questions: Where did he get it? What did it mean to him and whatever did the words he'd said mean? She still felt a shiver run down her spine when she remembered how lifelessly he had spoken them.

She felt better after she could clean herself up and sat down with the book Lystrat had revised her to. Alice had tried to contact the Hatter again when she felt stronger about talking to him, but she only got the information that he had left the castle for some time and Mallymkun was with him.

On the one hand she was upset that he was following his own agenda again, without letting her in, without caring how she put up with the entire situation. On the other hand, she was relieved that Mallymkun was with him, they were a well-oiled team and she would make sure he wasn't doing anything more dangerous than usual.

Deadly tired, Alice fell into her bed almost immediately falling asleep. The next morning came fast and with it the training. She could remember everything she had read and seen, but putting it into practice was a very different thing. Lystrat gave his best and pushed her to her limit, sadly her limit was reached fast. There was only so much an untrained body could endure before breaking down and Alice was near that collapse. They had to stop after two days; she needed rest or wouldn't be much of a champion at all.

Queen Mirana called for Lystrat to give her a status report- the lizard could tell easily that she wasn't pleased. He had never seen the benevolent Queen to show such a failed smile, there had to be more problems than he thought and that the prospects on Alice' training were not promising surely didn't help.

"There is nothing more you can do?" she asked and her brow twitched slightly, indicating a kind of migraine.

"There is nothing more –anyone- could do, Majesty" the lizard said bowed down. "I would love to do more, I would love to call any friend I knew who would be able to make that girl into a warrior during the next days. The Alice has proven to be determined and resourceful, but even she can't learn in a few hours what others learn and train for years. Such a task wouldn't imply skill or training, it would call for magic!"

"Magic, yes…" the Queen said slowly, her migraine seemed to worsen.

"Magic, yes," Lystrat shrugged. What could he do? He was no wizard and if the Queen, who everyone knew was a Healer, had had powers like that among hers, she would already have used them.

"Give her what you can and what she can learn, we have no other choice so I count on you," the Queen said. Lystrat sighed. Nobody could think of opposing Mirana when she laid responsibility on ones shoulders with a matronly glance.

After Alice had recovered from exhaustion and bruises, she was up again as soon her feet would carry her. Just two days after the conversation between the White Queen and Lystrat, she stood up against him on the training field again. Stood up against meant in this case: Being blindfolded during very hot sun hours and waiting to be hit and kicked by an unforgiving trainer who had left her with nothing more than a –stick-.

Lystrat had decided that she would use a staff during this exercise. First, the exercise was for her cognition in the dark, anyway, so her weapon didn't need to be a sword necessarily. Second, a staff was similar enough considering his use and third, it would be the best for the safety of her, the courtyard and of course his.

Because of the sun, the courtyard was rather quiet and she made it quite okay, Lystrat supposed. He had seen more experienced fighters loose their countenance if they suddenly were not able to trust their eyes but Alice seemed to be a natural talent for trusting her ears.

The lizard, of course, couldn't know the hardships Alice went through trusting any of her senses and trusting anything she experienced. Long enough she didn't knew what was right or wrong, real or fantasy and more often than not, she still didn't know it. Not having to see anything was a relief and she had the sentience that she was doing well.

Right now she felt that she had waited quite long for the next attack of her scaly teacher, he wouldn't just go for some tea and leave her alone like this, wouldn't he? Well, she supposed it would fit his sometimes mean attitude, which was his strange way of motivating her. However it was… really strange that she didn't hear him near.

Oh, there! She heard steps again, however sneaky they tried to float soundlessly over the grown, the sand made it impossible. She had the sensation that the steps sounded different, but that could be a trick of Lystrat or it could be caused by sneaking.

Alice felt the blow coming from the left upper shoulder and blocked – ouch!

The vibration moved from the staff through her hands to shoulders and it hurt a bit, more it was just a very unsettling feeling. Whatever hit her wasn't the sword Lystrat usually used while training her.

She hadn't much time to think about it because the next blow came fast and others followed rapidly, she had a hard time blocking them and thankfully not enough to think about what would happen to her if she missed one.

In the first moment she had to breathe, she ripped off the blindfold just to see the Hatter attacking her with a grand upper cut. She shrieked, ducked away under it, through up sand during this, and used the staff to first get up and second block another blow.

"HATTER!" she exclaimed, no wonder the blows were heavier as before – his sword was, too!

"Alice!" the Hatter exclaimed, imitating her tone nonchalantly.

"What are you doing?" she cried appalled, having to avoid the following attack.

"Testing you," he stated seriously and started a new attack with rapidly following moves. Alice could hardly get a hold of herself after the shock, but she didn't have much of a choice. She defended herself the best she could, seeing how the stuff was chopped down more and more – it was only wood, after all.

They moved almost across the whole training field, back to her old friend the tree. She used it to dance around and block the Hatters assaults, saving her staff for some attacks of her own. One time, she even hit him at the shoulder and didn't even feel bad about it – he didn't seem to be too worried about her safety!

It shook up her trust to him deeply, she wasn't sure how much of this was serious, he was attacking her after all – she would never have thought of this!

At one point she did lean out a bit to much and the he got her, she had to fall back quickly to not let her throat be cut, sadly behind her was only the tree and in front of her a sword was pointed at her… she breathed fast, trying not to let her eyes show the fear she felt inside.

Tarrant smiled at her "That was good."

Alice gasped, her voice failing for a moment, then she got a hold of herself, looking at him sternly:

"I would be dead."

"Maybe, possibly," he said tilting his head "But you would have put off a hell of a fight!"

He put away his sword and offered her his hand, which she took, pulling her nearer.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently with true worry in his eyes.

"I should ask you that," she replied, "Where have you been the whole time?"

His eyes darkened and Alice feared he would build a new wall between them, vanishing once again. She squeezed his hand "Please tell me what is going on, don't you trust me anymore?"

The Hatters eyes widened in a short moment of shock, then looking all the more determined and intensive. He held her hand with both of his, saying slowly in a dark voice "Of course I trust you. I wouldn't ever do anything else. You are Alice."

Said Alice felt her heart beating faster, possibly faster than during their whole fight, if he could hear it beating in her chest? Somehow she felt the notion that this was about more than their current conversation.

"Please tell me," she repeated.

"I will, but first take this." He took a necklace from his sporran, decent silver with a small, red stone on it. Alice was too surprised to hinder him from putting it around her neck; normally she would have blushed and being moved by it, never expecting something like this to happen, interpreting deeper motives to that action it was such an… un-Hatterly thing to do. It was very much –not- like the Hatter, it confused her and made her strained.

"What is this?" she asked a bit suspicious.

"It will help," he said assuring, still with that determined yet worried look on his face. Alice could watch that expression falling apart in seconds, forming the more insecure, intensively worried and seemingly jaded Hatter she knew more or less: "We should go now; the others are waiting for us."

"Others?" she asked disrupted.

"In the Oval Room, silly," he replied, smiling as if there had never been this upsetting, serious situation between them just now.

Another thing Alice had to put up with, she supposed. While thinking before that the Mad Hatter wasn't as mad as people thought, she now wasn't entirely sure of it. But however mad he seemed to be at times, most of the time he was her Hatter and she knew everything he did, he did out of loyalty - to his country, his Queen, his friends and … to her, wasn't it that way?

She really had to trust him more, even through she couldn't make out what was going on in his head, he had shown here this time and again that she could count on him and that he did everything with good intentions.

Hopefully these intentions wouldn't cause him to close up again or even more than in the past days. She saw the hope to see the reasons for his strange behavior now; it would surely make it easier for her to calm down again. Thinking this, Alice realized that she was already counting on him again – knowing that she wouldn't be a big help in a battle, she expected him hopefully to having found a solution in the fight against this witch which she was already sure he knew more about than he admitted.

TBC

A/N: This was a rather short one, I intended to write more but I felt it was better to make a break here, for the next chapter will dive into another topic, maybe leading to the solution?

Thanks again for the review!