Chapter 6: The history of hatter
One day when Alice, Hatter and Cheshire were out swimming in the river Alice was studying Hatters body again. He had grown since her time here, he'd become taller, more muscular and more handsome all together. She also noticed something about him that she never really paid much attention before; it was this necklace that he seemed to always be wearing. It was usually hidden under his shirt or behind his coat but he always wore it, even while out swimming.
Alice decided it was finally time to ask him about the necklace. "Hey Hatter, what's the story with that necklace? I mean your always wearing it." She said.
Hatter looked down at his Necklace and he seemed to go sad from thinking about it. He starred at the necklace that he was now holding in his palm for a long moment; transported to another time and place. Then he finally looked back up at Alice, sighed and said, "First thing tomorrow I'll tell you, and not just my story, the rest of the story about wonderland. I held back on it because at the time you seemed too fragile to handle it all."
Then Hatter climbed out of the river and dried himself off then put on the rest of his clothes and started jogging back towards the cottage. Alice called out to him as she was trying to dry off to run after him but he only waved her away. As Alice rushed to put on her clothes Cheshire said, "Don't worry he will tell you everything like he promised. He just needs some time alone to figure out how he's going to tell you it all."
When Alice returned to the cottage she hadn't seen Hatter at all, and March didn't know where he was either. Alice asked March about Hatters necklace but his expression only grew sad as well. Then he said, "Hatter just has some things in his past that he wishes he could change."
"What happened to him?" Alice asked.
"It's not my place to say."
As day soon turned into night Alice still saw no sign of Hatter, Cheshire only reassured her at dinner when he was gone; that he would tell her in the morning. Soon enough it was time for bed March was already fast asleep when Alice went to their room but neither hatter nor Cheshire were there. Alice crawled into bed reluctantly and starred at the beautiful ceiling that she believed would never become boring to look at, until sleep finally came.
Hatter sat outside on top of a hill gazing at the moon, it was full and blue with a tint of green to it. He held his necklace in his hands, his fingers rubbing over its design; a bronze colored fools cap with four bells. He sat alone in silent until Cheshire finally showed up.
"I knew I would have to tell her the truth about me someday. "Hatter said. "But I didn't think it would come so soon."
"Or perhaps you hoped you never would have had to." Cheshire replied.
"Do you remember that night? It was during the green moon festival, my village's most important celebration."
"Yes it's only held once every ten years when the green moon is present."
"Yeah, that's right, the greatest day for so many become the worst, I guess I just don't want to think to hard about it and all the horrible memories with it."
Hatter was in tears now; his heart didn't want to remember but still he did and was brought back to it all.
Hatter's earliest memory was of his parents, they were tall and thin with crazy hair, but despite there appearance inside something strong resonated within them. They gave this aura about them that people only felt around the white knights. Hatter and his parents lived in a small home and shared one bedroom but despite there poverty they were perhaps the happiest people in the entire village.
Hatter's parents were crazy, but in a good sort of way. They both had their own profound interests in things and took their love of it to the highest level. Hatter's mom loved tea; she loved it so much that she had her own little garden to grow tea, which as soon as the plants were ripe they were harvested immediately. She drank so much tea over the years she actually started to visibly shake almost all the time.
While his dad had an obsession with top hats, and shoes. Because his dad was relatively poor he could only afford one pair of shoes, and up too two new hats a year. But as time passed on his dad grew an expansive collection of Hats and when his son was born he named the boy after his love of hats. And that was when the young boy with the weirdest name in wonderland was born; Hatter.
The young boy's parents treated him like a king, and gave him all the love they had. They never pushed off their hobbies or personal interests on to him they gave him as much room to grow as possible. Soon enough though the young boy developed his parents' interests despite their intention of him having his own entirely. By the age of 6 he was drinking tea with his mom, and was trying on his dads top hats.
When Hatter was five he met a strange floating cat just outside the village he lived in. The cat called himself Cheshire and the two became best friends and played around all the time. Cheshire always looked after Hatter like a guardian.
One day when Hatter was trying on his dads top hats again he found that one of them was ruined completely and was barely scraps now. Cheshire brought Hatter a needle and some thread with the same color of the hat and taught him the basics of sewing. Hatter learned very quickly and loved repairing his dad's top hat.
When Hatters parents discovered his ability to sew and stitch anything they bought him some threads for his 6th birthday. Hatter used these threads to make his parents and himself matching gloves. The gloves were of the finest craft his parents ever had seen; their boy was a natural tailor.
Though being poor his parents couldn't afford the cloth for him to make things. Hatter's parents went to the villages tailor to see if they could have whatever cloth scraps he no longer could use for their boy. They never got much but Hatter made the most with what he had and would wait patiently for more scraps to stitch together then turn those into something else.
When Hatter turned seven his parent's bought him a small pile of good cloth, and told him that they wanted him to make himself the best outfit he could. When he asked what for they said it was for the village's most important celebration; the green moon festival. When Hatter asked them what it was they said they would explain after he finished his outfit, and that he had several months to prepare.
When his parents left Hatter alone Cheshire appeared. "Ohh I do love this particular festival I didn't think anyone held it anymore." Cheshire said.
"What is it?" Hatter asked.
Cheshire smiled his mischievous smile and thought about the question for a moment. Then he said, "Do you know what this village is named after?"
"No, but what does that have to do with the festival?"
"The village was named after the white knight who practically built it on his own. You do know who the white knights are don't you?"
Hatter only shook his head. Cheshire sighed then continued his story.
"The white knights are the people who were dedicated to order, justice, and peace, and maintained these things throughout all of wonderland for thousands of years. The strongest of them were paladins. These paladins had the ability to transform themselves into power beings of righteousness. Very few white knights ever became paladins.
You see what made the Paladins so popular were not their ideals, but rather what they accomplished together. Now Wonderland was not always the place it had been today, it used to be normal; there was no such thing as magic in this land and the people got along just fine without it. But then the Jabberwocky's came, and brought their strange magic to Wonderland transforming it and not for the better.
The Jabberwocky's magic changed the lands and made impossible things possible. Even the animals and plants were transformed by their magic, when the Jabberwocky's learned about what their magic was doing to the place very few of them cared. However there were those who did and they teamed up with a small group of mortals to help stop the Jabberwocky's madness in what became known as Wonderland. This group of mortals aided by the Jabberwockies became known as the first white knights.
Some of these white knights were influenced so much by the jabberwockies magic that it gave them the ability to transform into what they called paladins. A series of battles took place between the white knights and the Jabberwockies otherwise known as war. This war was long and endearing; the Jabberwockies even learned how to corrupt some of the white knights giving them the abilities of a paladin except there powers were darker, and sometimes stronger. Eventually the Jabberwockies were all defeated the last battle took place on a night where the moon was green; this night comes only once every ten years.
The Green moon festival is the celebration of that last battle with the Jabberwocky's and the peace from it. No matter where it's celebrated it's always so lively and the most fun you can ever have. I honestly thought that no one would celebrate it anymore after the queen of hearts took to power. It shall be a most memorable night for you."
Hatter got back to the cottage when everyone was asleep. It was late at night and he was tired. He silently crawled into bed and starred at the ceiling trying to get his mind somewhere else. Cheshire stayed with Hatter until he fell asleep like every night since they first met, then Cheshire left never sleeping always awake, going on some unknown adventures while everyone else was unconscious.
The next morning Hatter woke up and saw Alice sitting on her bed still in her pajamas. She was swinging her legs back and forth with her hands placed on the bed sideways. She starred at Hatter waiting patiently for him to wake up and get out of bed; to come over to her and tell his story.
Hatter Sat up in his bad, threw his feet over the side and slowly walked over to Alice. They both stayed completely silent as he took a seat next to her and sighed. After a long moment hatter finally said, "Alright it's time you learned my story."
As the days went by Hatter thought about what sort of design he would make his outfit. He drew up ideas on some old paper using whatever writing utensils he could find. Cheshire with his abilities to change shape and appearance entirely helped Hatter decide on the final product of his work.
A brown coat with a small mix of green blended into the fabric, and purple polyester inside, that reached down to hatters knees was his final product. He finished it on the day of the festival. Hatter went outside to excitedly show his parents the coat.
The streets were filled with people, and decorations of all kinds were placed on the shops, houses, or were propped up in the streets. Green lanterns hung from the roofs of every building lining up with every street giving the village a beautiful green glow. Hatter was so busy working on his outfit that he didn't even know any of this stuff had been set up and was able to view the completion of every ones hard and dedicated work to this festival.
It was the most wonderful thing that Hatter had ever seen in his life, everyone seemed so happy, and Hatter was so caught up in the village's euphoria that he almost forgot why he ran out of the house in the first place. Luckily for Hatter his parents anticipated something like this and found him rather quickly, as he showed them his new coat.
His parents took hatter around the village to play games, or enjoy the many shows performed in the streets as the hours passed away like seconds to him. Even Cheshire was enjoying things and on occasion would leave Hatter so he could play some games on his own or even take part in the performances. Everything was just so perfect that night until unannounced the cards marched through the streets slaughtering everyone in their path.
Hatter was too caught up in the festivities to notice the chaos happening around him. His parents noticed it almost right away, but Hatter was out of their sight playing games when it all started. They rushed to find their son amongst the chaos and blood shed.
When Hatter finally noticed what was happening around him it was too late. He saw a card soldier some distance from him knocking an arrow back in its bow, aimed at hatter; then it fired. The arrow was straight on course for Hatters head when out of nowhere his mother dived in front of him and blocked her son from the lethal arrow. It pierced her heart and went straight through her back, as she fell to the ground dead.
Another Card soldier came up at Hatter wielding a spear, and jabbed it at him. This time Hatters dad showed up the scene catching the spear around his arm but getting grazed in the side to do so. His dad turned around and shouted at him, "Run away!"
Hatter could only stand there horrified as his mom was dead and his dad fighting to protect him was quickly surrounded by other card soldiers. Eventually the cards overwhelmed him and one of their spears caught him in the back. He fell to his knees and gave one last look at Hatter; his eyes telling him to run away.
Finally Hatter found the strength to turn around and run for his life. Cheshire rejoined him moments later and started guiding him to wear he could hide. Hatter slipped through most of the streets unnoticed by the card soldiers who were too busy slaughtering his fellow villagers. When hatter turned another corner passing more buildings, Cheshire spotted the place he was looking for and said, "There it is."
Hatter picked up his pace, the road clear of any soldiers; soon to be hidden away safely when three card soldiers came running out from another street blocking his path. They almost didn't notice him but one of them did and stopped as the others backtracked to aid there fellow soldier. This time it was the end for him; Hatter thought.
He closed his eyes preparing for his impending doom when the sound of steel clashing forced him to open his eyes again. Hatter saw a Joker wielding two long knives fighting the card soldiers. Three against one the Joker was outnumbered but was holding off the cards. "Now is our chance." Cheshire said.
Then Hatter ran inside the house and hid, he couldn't see how the fight was going for the Joker, couldn't even hear, so he just sat in silent with Cheshire. Soon enough the sounds of Card soldiers running into the house caught Hatters attention. Cheshire then transformed himself into something Hatter couldn't see and covered him, telling him to be silent.
Whatever it was that Cheshire disguised himself as worked because when the card soldiers walked past Hatters hiding spot, they stopped only for a moment but didn't see him. They checked the entire house but when they found nothing they moved along. Cheshire kept the disguise up all night, as Hatter slept safe, until the morning came.
Hatter stopped telling Alice his story when he got to the end of the night of the green moon festival. After giving Hatter a few minutes Alice asked, "What happened next?"
"When I woke up," Hatter said. "The village was in total ruins and bodies lay dead in the streets. I called out to anyone who might still be alive but no one answered. As I walked around the village searching for any signs of survivors I heard a coughing noise and ran to it.
There, around the bodies of several Card soldiers was the Joker who saved my life. I ran to him quickly and he opened his eyes coughing out more blood. He told me he was relived to see id made it, and that the queen had come because of some rumor about a white knight living in the village.
At the time I didn't know what he was talking about, I knew nothing about the world outside my village, the queen, her kingdom, or the white knights. The man was dying and didn't have enough time to answer my questions about them."
Hatter then pulled out his necklace and held it in front of Alice. "Before the man died he gave me this necklace, told me that if I ever found his son to give it to him. I knew nothing about this man, in fact it was the first time we have ever met. But despite that he rushed to my aid and saved my life.
I wear this necklace all the time as a reminder of his bravery and strength, and as another reminder of the red queen's tyranny. From that day on I swore I would find a way to bring down the red queen and her house of cards. And that's when I met March Hair for the first time. Like you he found me in the ruins of that old village and gave me a home and love. He became like an uncle to me but still I was angry with the red queen and wanted her dead.
Three years after being with March I met his brother, the White Rabbit. They told me everything I know, and of his brother's true purpose for being under the queen's dominance, so he could spy on her. White Rabbit's ultimate goal though is to spark a rebellion amongst the lower class in the house of cards and cause a coupe.
My time here with March Hair changed me a little over the years. His natural kindness and good heart helped me out of my dark hole and slowly I cared less and less about revenge. Though I wouldn't search for the house of cards and kill the queen as I had originally intended all those years ago, if White Rabbit came to me and told me he was staging the coup I would have joined him in it in a heartbeat. But now, that you're here Alice, I'm not so sure.
I still want to kill the queen that hasn't changed, but you being around here its different. I mean its great living with you and our time together has been some of the best time of my life. You're a great friend Alice and I want us to live together for a while more, even if the queen lives as long as were all together I'm fine with that."
"So what you're saying is you like me?" Alice said teasingly.
Hatter didn't say anything or give any warning before he grabbed Alice and wrapped his arms around her tightly embracing her. Alice was in total shock for a moment but quickly settled into Hatters warm embrace. The two sat there holding each other tightly letting out all the pain and sadness from Hatter's story wash away.