Chapter 2: The cottage
March's cottage had a nice green patch of grass in a small circular area around it. There was no fence blocking it off but from the lack of other creatures around it was not necessary. The tea table though curvy, was very neat and clean and reached about 25 feet out extending to the ends of the grass.
March checked each of the several tea pots and dozens of little tea cups but could not find any tea around. "Well now this is embarrassing." He said. "You find yourself a seat anywhere you like and I will be back shortly."
Then March; carrying as many tea pots as he could in his arms slipped into the cottage. Alice looked around the table that had a tea cup at every chair as if expecting many other guests. Eventually Alice found a spot in the middle of the table facing the cottage and pulled out a chair.
Her feet hung in the air with her toes only a couple inches from the ground, so she swung them back in forth when March came back outside with a deep blue colored tea pot. He walked over to her and filled her tea cup up, set the tea pot down next to her and ran back inside. Alice took a sip of the tea, it had the strong taste of blueberries and she quickly finished her cup.
It was an overly delicious drink to her and she poured herself another cup, and then finished that quickly as well. When Alice was onto her fifth cup March had come back out carrying a platter of treats. There were a few dozen slices of some pinkish sliced up meat, with some carrot cubes, and slices of dark bread.
March set down the tray in front of Alice and said, "I'm not sure how hungry you were so I just brought out some appetizers."
March took a seat across the table in front of Alice as she immediately started digging into the food. The slices of meat tasted similar to ham and turkey, it wasn't overly delicious but it was still good, and with how hungry Alice was to her it was like heaven. The bread tastes like normal wheat bread but with a strange hint of cinnamon in it which made her mouth water. March sat there enjoying his carrot cubes as Alice stuffed her face.
When Alice ate everything that March brought to her she sat back, let out a small burp and thanked March greatly for the meal. March seemed delighted to have her and simply smiled. Then he got up and said, "Sounds like your ready for dessert."
"Dessert?" Alice asked incredulously.
March nodded at her and went back into the cottage taking the dirty tray with him.
When he came back out, he was holding a smaller tray with small plates that held three different slices of cakes. There was two slices of each cake on the platter each on there own separate plate. Alice's face lit up with utmost delight as March passed her a few plates of cake and then sat down with his cake slices.
Unable to contain her delight Alice began to cry. March saw her tears and asked soothingly "Now, now what's wrong dear?"
Still crying; Alice said, "You're just so nice to me and you don't hardly know me at all."
March laughed lightly as he passed her a handkerchief to wipe her tears away with. Then he said, "Well in dark times like this someone has to be able to always show kindness to anyone. Otherwise I fear the entire world would be swallowed in sorrow and madness. I only wish there others like me out in the world. But enough of that lets eat, and by the way the carrot cake is my favorite, you should try it first."
Alice finished wiping away her tears and grabbed one of the forks on the table, and as March suggested she started with the cake that had a carrot design on it. To her surprise it tasted exactly like carrot cake from her world. The next cake had what looked like a puffy strawberry designed into the top of the frosting. It tasted like a very rich and creamy strawberry almost like she was eating a pudding instead of cake.
After finishing two of the three cake pieces Alice finished her eighth cup of tea and went to pour some more but the tea pot was completely empty. She turned to March, whom was still enjoying his carrot cake and was just now taking the last bite of it when Alice spoke; "excuse me March? Can I have some more of, um well whatever was in this tea pot?" Then she lifted up her empty tea pot and leaned it down to show him it was empty.
March grabbed the empty pot and said, "Its moon berry tea. Not one of my favorites but Cheshire absolutely loves the stuff, and I am guessing at your rate of consumption you do to."
Then March went back into the cottage with the empty tea pot. He returned with two teapots though and set one down next to Alice and the other next to himself. Then he poured some tea from his pot into a cup, sipped from it and began eating his other slice of cake.
When they both finished their cake, March invited Alice inside the cottage to show her around. She accepted gracefully so as to not be rude, but wondered how much could there be to be shown around in there. The cottage was about 12 feet high and looked to be only 20 feet or so in diameter.
Very much to Alice's surprise the cottage was enormous on the inside. In fact it was several times larger inside than it was outside. Alice wondered how that was possible while she inspected the place. The first room they were in was like a large circular living room lined with purple carpet and had several doors with different design patterns and colors. The doors actually circled the entire room, including the door leading outside.
Alice simply stood inside the first room gawking when March began to talk, "Well I was most certainly not expecting a reaction like this. Then again you are completely unpredictable so far."
"How is this even possible?" Alice asks.
"In truth I am not entirely sure. I didn't build this place; my brother and I just discovered it many years ago. It is said the Jabberwocky's built it, and that this place is intertwined through different zones. Which would not surprise me at all it took me a few years to completely learn where everything is and how to safely navigate my way out. Although I will admit I get lost incredibly easy."
Then March led Alice to the door directly across from them, it opened up into a long slanted hallway that had three more doors in it. The first door was directly at the end of the hall way, while the other two were on both sides of it about 6 feet apart from each other. The hallway was a little small and only had enough room for one person at a time, and walking down it felt really awkward.
March took Alice into the door on the left; it was a normal sized square shaped room. There was a small bed with a white sheet on it sitting in one of the corners to the end. The rest of the room was filled with shelves that reached almost to the ceiling. The shelves were stocked with what looked like various medicine supplies as well as various bottles of medicine.
March sat Alice down onto the bed while he left the room, and then returned a few minutes later holding a bucket of water and some rags. He set the bucket of water down next to her and dipped one of the rags into it. Then He took her hands and started wiping away the dirt and blood that had accumulated over them.
"I'm sorry I had completely forgotten about your hands up until just moment ago, this should have been my first priority." March said as he continued cleaning her hands off.
"My stomach begs the differ" Alice replied.
March finished cleaning her hands and was now drying them with another rag. "Yes well this could get infected I will have to pour some anti germ on them before wrapping them up." March said.
Then when he was finished March walked over to some of the shelves on the wall to the side of Alice and, to her total surprise jumped up almost hitting the ceiling and grabbed a vile filled with orange liquid from the top most shelf. He landed silently then walked over to Alice uncorking the vile.
As March kneeled down to her he said, "Don't worry this will not hurt at all." Then Alice offered her hands out to him. The cuts on her hands were small and covered mostly her palms. March poured a bit of the orange liquid onto her hands, and as he promised it did not hurt, she didn't even feel it.
The liquid sizzled over her wounds and March put the cork back onto the vile and set it aside. Then he grabbed a neat white cloth and waited for the anti germ liquid to stop sizzling and dissolve. When it finally did he wrapped up the palms of her hands very gently, and then asked her if it was too tight. When she said, "no" March grabbed the bucket and tossed the other rags into a small trash tin next to the door. Next March left the room again leaving Alice alone but this time only for a minute. When he returned they continued the tour.
Each of the doors in the living room led to some place new and completely different from before. They usually led to some type of hallway with even more doors in it, but a couple times the doors led to a single massive room. The first single massive room was the kitchen where there was dozens of plates, tea pots, tea cups, and plates stacked around waiting to be washed. There was also several rags, or scrubs just lying around.
Next March led Alice into the library which was absolutely enormous; it was the biggest room in the entire cottage. It was circular and over 100 yards in diameter; it spiraled upwards for at least 9 stories. Each floor had the same type of book case that reached up to the ceilings and spiraled around the room leading to the next set of stairs. The bookshelves were also completely filled with books; there were millions of them in the library.
"This is the most important room in this house." March said. "It contains all the literature, art, and history of wonderland that was not destroyed by the red queen. This is just a fragment of the vast knowledge and cultures wonderland has to offer."
"But why did the red queen destroy the other stuff?" Alice asked.
"Simple." March said. "Knowledge is power and the queen wants to keep the people ignorant so they can never get the inspiration or hope needed to rise against her. Though from what I understand no one would want to, the people live in paradise in her kingdom. Still I hope one day to create as many copies of all of this a possible and spread it out all over wonderland."
Alice took in the amazement of the library for a few more minutes until they moved on. The next place March took her he said was the most dangerous rooms in the entire cottage. The door had two black arrows curving into each other painted on vertically.
When they opened the door the hall looked as normal as any hallway at home, it was long and wide and had about eight doors in total four on each side. Alice began to walk into the hall but March stopped her. She looked up at him and he jumped into the hall and instead of landing right away, he dropped down a few feet.
March helped Alice down into the hallway and for the first time she saw through the optical illusion. The hallway was actually three feet deep and the painting all around it was made so perfectly that from the outside you could not tell that the room was lower. Even the bottoms of the doors were painted the same color and pattern as the floor to complete the optical illusion.
March opened the first door on the left, but they did not go inside. Instead he kept it open and let Alice peer inside; the entire room was upside down. There were long tables, round tables and chairs all five times the size of Alice just sitting on the ceiling like it was the floor. Even the lamps were bigger than Alice and hung upside down as if gravity was flipped.
As Alice leaned into the room wondering if indeed gravity was flipped March came up beside her and tossed a coin into the room. The coin fell straight down to the ceiling, which for that room served as the floor. Alice then understood the dangers of that room, a straight fall down about six stories, it wouldn't kill you but it would hurt a lot and surely break some bones.
The next room March led Alice to was entirely white with a black ripple pattern on the walls. "This room is another optical illusion" March said. "From the outside it just seems irritating to the eyes but there's actually several hallways and passages inside that look exactly the same. I got lost in here for two days until I found my way out again out of pure luck. The danger isn't immediate in this room but I know nothing of how deep it goes."
Then March led Alice to a room that was pitch black entirely, just like the other rooms they didn't go inside just sat outside of it starring in. "I've never been in this room something about it creeps me out." March said. "Normally I wouldn't let that stop me forever my curiosity would have gotten the better of me and I would have at least tried to go in once. However Cheshire warned me to never set foot in this room, he rarely gives such warnings but they are best heeded." Before Alice fully knew what was happening she found herself leaning in further and further into the room without stepping foot inside while March spoke. Something in there was calling to her.
Two red gleaming eyes appeared in the dark room beckoning to Alice. As she was about to set foot inside she was suddenly grabbed by the back of her shirt and tossed away from the room. She fell hard on the ground of the hall when the door slammed shut; March stood with his back against it his eyes wide with fear. Before Alice could speak something slammed against the door making a loud thud sound. For a moment all was silent then a low growl was heard through the other side of the door gradually becoming quieter until it faded entirely.
March Helped Alice up and checked to see if she was alright. She asked him what that thing was he just nodded his head and told her he did not know; it was the first time he saw it as well. March led Alice to the last door then said, "As for this last room here, well it's a mystery. The door is locked and I do not have the key. Cheshire says there are some unspeakable horrors behind there but I believe he's just messing around with us."
Finally March Led Alice to the last door in the circular living room; "This is my favorite place in the entire cottage." He said. Then he opened the door and Alice was led into a small rectangular room with five more doors; three in the middle and one on each side. The door to Alice's right was colored pure green with different shades of it in the patterns of trees, leaves, and flowers.
March opened the door and revealed a beautiful expansive field of flowers, oak trees, and various other rows of plants. The place was like a farm teeming with glorious agricultural life. "This;" March said gesturing to everything in the green room, "is where I grow all of the fruits, berries, and other ingredients for making tea, bread, and my various other sweets."
"This place is beautiful." Alice Admired.
"This room is rather special." March replied. "It has its own sun and moon, and even rains whenever it needs to for the plants. Somehow this room knows what plants are placed where and exactly how much sunlight or rain they need, and adjusts itself accordingly. I planted some flower beds over the hill on the right, so you can go enjoy them sometime. But make sure not to wander too far in here this place seems to almost go on endlessly, I haven't traveled too far into it just far enough to plant what we need.
One day though I hope to gather as many different plants from wonderland as I can and fill this entire room up with them so in case anything every happens to them there will be plenty of extras in here."
When Alice finished Admiring the 'Green room' March led her to the other room on the opposite side of the 'Green room'. This door was multicolored with patterns of, a needle and thread, a ball of yarn, and scissors. Before March opened the door he turned to Alice and asked, "Can you guess what might be in this room?"
Alice studied the design patterns on the door for a moment then said, "The sewing room?"
March smiled at her and gestured for her to open the door. Alice did so and despite all of the things she saw she was still surprised when she opened that door and looked inside. There were stacks about two stories high of neatly folded cloth, with a variety of colors, all around an expansive room. "This is where Hatter designs new hats, or makes us whatever clothing we may need on his free time. If you asked kindly I am sure he would gladly make you a new set of clothes since yours are, well dirty and a little worn."
"You keep mentioning other people, but I haven't seen anyone else here." Alice said.
"Ahh you think I have gone mad?"
"Well no, its just you're the only other person I have met here and this place is enormous. Like this place is its own universe in here."
"Hehe, I was just messing around with you a bit. But Hatter and Cheshire are out hunting right now. They should be getting back by now it is almost nightfall. Would you like to meet them?"
Alice closed the fabric room door behind her, and then looked at the other three doors left unexplored. Two of them had simple brown color with no special designs on them. The middle one was the same except there were paintings on it not as neat as the other designs of every other door. These paintings were, a brown rabbit head facing to the left, with a white rabbit head in symmetrical opposite to it. Then there was a black painting of a top hat that was tilted, and finally a purple headed cat with pointy ears and a very mischievous grin.
Alice starred at the Cat's head, trying to figure out why it was so familiar to her when there was some noises coming from outside. "There here." March said. Then he grabbed Alice's arm and led her back outside.
March and Alice emerged from the house to see a young boy around Alice's age, and a strange type of cat on his shoulder. The cat had a purple head with long pointy ears, a blue body with stripes a lighter color then its face, and a tail that curled almost into a question mark. It had no fur at all but looked naturally so, and its eyes were purple.
Alice recognized the cat right away. "You!" She said accusingly towards the cat. "You're the one who startled me into that hole a couple nights ago. You're the one who brought me here!"
The cat turned its attention to Alice. Its body disappeared leaving only a head. Its eyes became narrow slits and its mouth widened in a large grin with dozens of sharp little teeth. Then the cat spoke saying, "Hello again. Alice."