Chapter two! Up and upper! Feel free to leave reviews and comments!
Hope you enjoy!
"Hatta!" I turned to see the March Hare bounding over from behind the house. "The White Knight again!" He stopped and fell to his knees in front of Hatter and me. "Who are you?"
"I'm-"
"Never mind! Help me get him into the house!" The hare took hold of him by the legs, and I managed to carry him under the arms into the house. "On tha couch! Place him on tha couch!" As we laid him on the couch, a woman rushed into the room with a small black bag.
"Oh no…Hatta?" She picked up his wrist to take his pulse. She sighed in relief as she laid his wrist back down. "He's still alive. Haigha can you get the kettle for me?"
"Of course."
"This one is deeper than the last one he brought home." She said as she began to unbutton his shirt. "Shoot…"
"Here you are." The Hare bounded in again and quickly handed off the kettle to the strange woman. She carried a satchel at her side and from it she took a handful of what looked like some kind of plant and dropped it into the kettle. Then she turned towards me. "What happened? He usually isn't banged up this badly."
"Usually? What do you mean usually?"
"Well, I mean, it's not often I have to worry about whether or not he comes back alive. He can usually handle himself."
"HE CAN WHAT?!" I'm not quite sure what had gotten me so angry…Perhaps it had been the fact that I had been there and seen what the Hatter had gone through, and the fact that she had the audacity to say that he could handle himself in a fight…I think it had all finally come crashing down.
"I'm sorry?" She took a cloth and dipped it into the kettle and put it directly on his wound. "All I did was-". A hiss of pain escaped the lips of the Hatter.
"Stop! You're hurting him!" I snatched her hand away from him, accidentally knocking the kettle over into her lap.
"AHHH! OH MY-! OW!" She stood up quickly, tripped and fell backwards into the coffee table. Suddenly the Hatter sprang off of the couch.
"What's going on!? Bunny?!" He spotted her lying on the floor and went to bend over her. "Hello Bunny…are you alright?" He looked almost as if he had never been injured. Then only sign that he had, was the blood stain on his jacket. Of course even then, his jacket was red, so it was still difficult to tell.
"Hello Hatta…yes I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm quite alright, but, you see, I haven't had my tea yet." He began to chuckle and she to giggle. "Up we go Bunny!" She put both her hands up and he pulled her to her feet. "How many is that this week?"
"Um…four I think."
"Five." Said the Hare. "Ya' forgot about the one on 6th Sunday."
"Oh, right. Five then." Then she looked at me. "Hatta, why was she yelling at me?" Her eyes seemed to grow and become glossy. She looked like a puppy that had been kicked, or more appropriately…a bunny that had been kicked.
"Yelling?" He turned back towards me. "I…So…" He walked toward me and slowly placed a hand on my shoulder. "You…you are here?" I nodded slowly. "And...you are real?" I nodded again. His other hand came to rest on my other shoulder. "Alice…is it really you? The little girl at my tea party?"
"Yes." Before I could say anything else, he wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. We stood there very silent for a while. And then he spoke…
"You've been gone far too long Alice…"
"So she is alive?" Bunny walked up to me. "You're the famous Alice I've heard so much about. It seems like the entirety of Wonderland thought the worst of your absence."
"Bunny's right." Hatter, or rather Hatta, released me from the hug. "You never came back Alice…We all thought that it might have been because you forgot about us but..."
"Hatta was sure for the longest that you hadn't forgotten about them. But then, if you hadn't forgotten about them…what else could have happened?"
"Them?" I noticed that she hadn't included herself in any of her previous statements. "Why do you keep saying them?"
"Oh, well, I'm not from Wonderland." She said. "In fact, I'm from a place a lot like yours!" She smiled and picked up the kettle. "Except where I'm from, you're as made up as Haigia and Hatta here."
"Oh! Really?"
"Yes really. I suppose you could imagine the surprise I felt when I fell down Rabbit's rabbit hole." She took the kettle and hung it up over the fire and poured some water out of another pot into it. "Then again. It's been changing ever since you left." She turned back around as her smile fell. "Do…d-do you know what's been happening Alice?"
"Now, now…One thing at a time my dear." Hatta walked over to her and enveloped her in a hug. "Besides that, from what I can tell," He turned his head towards me. "Alice probably doesn't know any more than we do…Am I correct in saying so Alice?"
"…Unfortunately…yes, I don't know what's going on at all. Take for example, I don't have the slightest clue as to why you were fighting out about the town. I thought you were a Hatter!" I huffed. "Since when do you make it your business to go about fighting off knights?"
"I didn't…the Red Queen did." He sighed and sat back down on the couch. As I looked harder at it, I could see multiple dark-brown stains…dried blood probably…I thought to myself. He continued. "After the Jabberwocky attack, things went back to the way they were before you visited wonderland. But then…something started to…spread."
"Spread? What do you mean?" I sat down next to him on the couch.
"I…" He looked towards Bunny for a moment and then back at me. "I don't know…It…It fades in and out sometimes." He stood up quickly and walked to go stand by the window.
"What does?" No answer…
"He…" Bunny took Hatta's place by me on the couch. "He mean the…madness." She whispered the last part. "It's still there…but sometimes it'll just…it messes with him. No one can afford to be mad anymore, for the risk that they might end up a very different kind of mad."
"Different kind of mad?"
"Yes…the dangerous kind." He turned back to face us. "I'm sure you have noticed I'm not exactly as you remember." I felt it appropriate to chuckle at the comment.
"Quite, sir. Of course, it's hard not to." He chuckled and wiped his hands down the front of his coat.
"No, I'm sure it isn't. But I think…That is, you believe that I'm talking about what can be taken at face value." His smile fell slightly. "What I meant was…well…I don't sound exactly as I did before…Do I?" I took a moment to think. No… I don't suppose you do… You sound more…
"Lucid? I that an appropriate word for this? For the way you sound?" He put his hands in his pockets and nodded.
"Yes…I suppose that would. By any means I sound much less…" He stopped for a moment in thought. "Oh…what was the word you used Bunny?" The female in question was currently picking up the pieces of the table she had fallen into.
"I think it was potty, dear." She giggled. "Yes, that was it! I said you were a rather potty gentleman and in turn you called me a barmy maid!" She stood up from the floor. "Excuse me while I put this away!" She disappeared into the kitchen
"Of course." I said meekly. I felt rather bad at yelling at the woman earlier. She seemed quite sweet.
"Oh, don't you worry Alice, she holds no grudges." He walked up to me and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. "Such is her gift." He looked into the direction of the kitchen and smiled gently. "She truly is something…special."
"Hatta…Where did she come from?" I asked, slowly growing more and more curious at about the newest addition to wonderland.
"She…Well…I…" He scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "I'm not sure. She simply dropped in one day, and never got the inclination to leave." He smiled brightly and chuckled again. "Right onto the table she did. Broke half my tea cups."
"She fell onto your table?!" I said amused. "How did she manage that?!"
"As I said, she's a very special-!" A crash came from the kitchen. He laughs outright. "And there goes the other half! Everything alright Bunny?!"
"Yes dear! Just fine!...Where is the glue by the way?!"
"The ceiling, as always!" He rubbed a hand over his face and smiled at Alice. "As I was saying…She's a very special girl." She walked back into the room, still smiling brightly.
"I fixed the cups, or well, I will. I stuck up the bits that fell with the glue so I can put it back together later." As she talked I took the time to looks at what she was wearing. From the look of the way she dressed, you would have thought that she was one of those ladies whose father's owned large plantations where the cotton grew before the revolutionary war. However, her skin revealed that she would have been working those fields than walking about them idly. She continued to talk, and I did my best to listen, however, a small emblem on the shoulder of her sleeve caught my eye. "Alice?" A unicorn insigma. "Alice is something the matter?
"You're…You're…" I looked at her curious expression. "You're with him?"
"W-what do you mean?" She looked at me innocently. She looked at me innocently with that terrible insignia on her shoulder.
"How dare you? With that animal on your arm, how dare you?!" She took a step back as I took a step forward.
"What do you mean?!" She looked towards Hatta for help. "What is she talking about?!"
"Alice! What's gotten into you?!" He stepped in between Bunny and I, and put his arms up in front of her protectively.
"She's with him! The white knight! The man who nearly killed you not more than an hour ago?!" Frustrated I stomped my foot, effectively spooking the woodland creature shivering behind Hatta.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" She clasped onto the back of his jacket.
"She's with the white queen! And her knight nearly-!"
"Now just a moment!" He shouted. "You know very little of what has been going on here in Wonderland, Alice, and it would be very good of you not to make quick accusations about things you know nothing about!" He looked at me sadly and sighed though his nose. "But...perhaps if I explained…you'd understand…" I crossed my arms and looked up at him, still very frustrated.
"Perhaps you should." He sighed again and slipped off his jacket and walked over to the other side of the room. "Yes…she is. She is a member of the White Queen's Army. But…She had no choice…"
"Hatta…" Bunny walked over to him slowly and took his coat. "Perhaps we should talk about this later. You should be in bed…" It was the first time all afternoon she had looked anything other than cheerful. Somber was an expression that fit poorly on her round face.
"Just after this dear…" He looked down at her smiling softly. "It's alright Bernice…I'll be fine, just as usual." He cupped her cheek with a tender hand and sighed once more. "It seems since the start of all this, sighing seems to have become one of many new habits for me." He looked back at me and snickered. "Forgive me, I suppose I'm not making any more sense than usual…Am I Alice?" I gave a small smile back to him.
"I'm afraid not."
"Well…" He scratched behind an ear and shrugged his shoulders, "Perhaps it would all be easier to explain over a cup?" He looked back to Bunny. "Do you mind love?"
"Of course not." She walked back to the kitchen and hung up his jacket outside the door. "I'll only be a minute." And she disappeared again.
"Join me on the ottoman, won't you Alice?" He sat and patted the space next to him. I did as he asked and sank into the worn cushion. "Forgive me for the furniture being less than the current, but perhaps it will be enough for you to say what I have to say…" He looked at me meekly. "I need your word Alice, that everything I tell you will stay in this room."
"You have it." I said.
"Here we are." Bunny walked back into the room with a tray. "Shall we then?" And she handed a cup to Hatta and I, and kept one for herself.
"We shall." He sipped from the cup and sighed before speaking again. "Now I-" There was a rough knock at the door.
"Hatta, were you expecting company?" The knocks turned into hard whacks against the wood.
"IN THE NAME OF THE WHITE QUEEN, WE DEMAND ENTRY, OR WE SHALL BREAK DOWN THE DOOR."