When Alice awoke she found the room empty, though a change of clothes had been draped over one of the chairs. Mirana's potion, it seemed, had done its job; she felt a bit sore but otherwise fine. Still better be safe than sorry. Actually no, that is an entirely untrue saying. Better to be sorry and to have experienced something than not at all. Still, Alice cautioned herself, throwing myself out of bed only to fall incapacitated on the floor hardly counts as a worthwhile experience. Thus it was a slow and deliberate slide out of bed. Standing, she found, was pleasantly easy, and though her legs were a little shaky as she moved towards the chair, Alice felt no more unsteady than she did walking onto land after a month at sea. What if, she thought, the sea was the still one and the earth the one to rock? Then we would be the ones living on waves. The mental image of sailing carriages and horses with captain's hats kept a smile in Alice's eyes as she slipped into her clothes. The dress was blue, of course, quarter-sleeves, and with a ankle-length skirt that had just one petticoat to give it volume, a subtraction of fashion for practicality that she appreciated. The only delicacy in the dress was the subtle twirling pattern in fabric. Another highlight: though the outfit had a sash it was delightfully corset and stocking free. Properly attired, though Alice briefly wondered if running around in bandages and pantaloons counted as properly dressed somewhere in the world, she headed towards the Queen's throne room.
McTwisp, naturally, was the first thing Alice ran into upon leaving her room. Literally.
"Dowatchwhereyouare - Alice!" The White Rabbit's speech slowed slightly now that he had found his objective, "You are already awake!" He grabbed her hand urgently, though when did he not do anything urgently? "You are not as late as you would have been yes. But you are still late. Come on now. Hurryhurryhurry!!"
Alice allowed herself to be hurried through the hallways of Marmoreal, but it was hard not to be hurried with exclamation marks nipping at ones toes. They arrived with expected quickness to the throne room and Alice could see a gathered group of familiar characters waiting for them.
"BERRY ALICE! A BERRY HAPPY DAY!"
Alice ducked the strawberry tart aimed (with joy) at her head and greeted the March Hare with a quick, "nice to see you too Thackery," before spying the White Quite tending a plant near the windows.
"Ah, here you are," Mirana twirled a few leaves from the peculiar plant she was pruning to Alice. The growth had one stalk, with leaves protruding only from the top, curving back down so that they hung in a straight line. The leaves near the bottom, like the leaves in Alice's hands, were larger than those nearer to the top of the line and were covered in writing. The top leaf was both the smallest and blank.
Alice looked at the leaves, "what is this?"
"A wvordvwine."
"A wordvine?"
"No dear, a wvorvwine, you must pay attention to the silent constants or it gets a bit uppity with you. Refuses to print properly and such. Luckily this one and I have an understanding." Mirana caressed the air around the plant in such a way that left Alice convinced the uppity wvordvwines made excellent potions. "However the important things for you are not the leaves themselves but the words on them," the Queen said, both her gaze and her wrists looking down at the leaves.
Alice quickly read the leaves, "Entry One, As requested by your Majesty…" Hatter's. Tarrant's words. These were all his, all his rambling, increasingly angered words scrawled across leaves until all that was left was the constant error message: "this wvordvwine is not suited for outlandish, please hold until sender switches back to plain speech, thank you for your patience." Alice had not realized how strongly she had been forcing herself to not think about Hatter until the writing on the leaves suddenly forced her to do the exact opposite. Worry – why were there error messages? Had something happened to him? – and hint of annoyance – of course he'd get himself into a mess – washed over her and for a second it became very hard to breathe. She stared at his words, as if the etching in the leaves would part and show her his green-eyes smile, that little sly one he reserved just for confiding in her. This of course left Alice back where she had started, breathing but still very much constricted with longing for a man and his wonderfully oversized hat. The longing quickly morphed back into worry and oxygen was once again abandoned as possible scenarios ran rampant through Alice's mind. The most heavy-footed of these was one of the Hatter not in Wonderland at all but, instead, lying cold on London's streets, stabbed as Alice had been, the color in his face seeping out along with his blood. Breathe Alice, she attempted to steady herself, breathe. There is are a plethora of circumstances where an over-active imagination is a blessing but I daresay this is not one of them, even Hatter would agree with you on that. Alice stopped herself at that thought, well he might not, but it would be an interesting argument either way, he always has interesting arguments.
"What happened?" Alice asked from behind clenched teeth, afraid that her mouth would run away with her emotions if she gave it more room. Though if it did run away with them at least she would be able to think straight again, might be worth the price of one mouth.
The White Queen sighed gracefully, "I thought he needed something to occupy his mind so I requested he go on a routine border check, to make sure my sister and her favorite assassin were where they ought to be." She glanced at the error messages, "I guess it was not enough of a distraction." Mirana's brow furrowed slightly, hands drooping in empathy, "Even still, short-tempered or not he should have been around the same time you arrived yesterday and I cannot fathom what is keeping him unless there has been some sort of trouble."
"Which is why we need to go find him!" Mallymkun shouted from the side where she as well as the Tweedle brothers and Baynard had been silently standing.
"We?"
Mallymkun glowered, "yes we. The Queen said I wasn't to set off without you."
"If you feel up to going that is," Baynard interjected, pointedly looking at the bit of bandage peeking out from beneath the collar of Alice's dress.
Alice and Mallymkun's responses came simultaneously: "Of course I do/she does!"
Mirana laughed, scooping the mouse up and depositing her on Alice's shoulder in one fluid twirl of her hands. "Well then I would say our search team has been decided." Her other hand arched forward with a small drawstring bag in its palm, "Alice this is for you. In the bag I have placed three vials, medicine as you still have not fully recovered. It is imperative you drink one vial each day. I only had enough ingredients for three days so be sure to find our missing Hatter by then." She smiled comfortingly at Alice's worried look, "I did not mean to alarm you with a time limit; three days should be more than enough."
The White Rabbit hurtled back into the room, breathing as though he had run miles though Alice knew he had been gone for only a minute and so could not have run so far as to warrant his current hyperventilating . "The Bandersnatch is ready your Majesty."
"To the front gates then, follow me." Mirana glided quickly out of the room, the others following her with less a refined sense of urgency.
"Not traveling by hat then," Alice joked softly as she followed the Queen out. Mallymkun must have heard the sadness poorly hidden in her voice because the little warrior responded with what almost sounded like compassion, "no, not this time."
So I did not plan to have this chapter done until tomorrow but as I was sitting here watching reruns of Psych a little voice in the back of my mind was constantly going "but what about the readers - they deserve prompt updates you lazy bum!" Thus you have my guilty conscious to thank for this update.
Also: Dear Readers and Reviewers, You Rock!
Cheers,
- Savi
Edit: Jaehn pointed out that I had written Bandercoot instead of Bandersnatch. Thanks for catching that - it's fixed now. Bandercoots may or may not exist but it was not my intention to have them show up here. Oops.
