Continuing Tales

Bonkers To Be Late

A Alice in Wonderland Story
by RosieLilyIce93

Part 44 of 48

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"So now ye feel my fear, do ye?" A madness roughened voice rasped in Alice's ear. She shivered at the darkness behind that tone. She didn't get more a chance to contemplate it before she was spun onto the bed and the lamps in the room came on.

Tarrant towered above her, his eyes a furious orange. He stood between her skirted knees and bent down to put his face within a hands-breath of her own. Her husband's breathing was ragged, though still tempered with the tea he had drunken this morning.

Ahh. The tea.

That's what this is about.

She swallowed audibly.

"Hello Tarrant. I'm glad you're up and about." She said breezily.

Tarrant blinked at her, as though he couldn't quite believe she was calm in the face of his temper. A small ring of red began to rim his pupils. Alice held her breath for the rest of his reaction. The Hatter took a deep breath of his own and let out a low growl.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Each word was punctuated with a deeper breath as his volume increased. Alice raised an eyebrow at this rather backwards question.

"I would think that obvious. I put you to sleep." Tarrant blinked at her again, his eyes now swirling between orange and red.

"Why?" He asked in that low growl she was coming to associate with her making bad choices …

"Because I was protecting you." She stated stoutly. Tarrant slammed a hand against the bed covers and whipped away from her. He began to pace quickly in front of the door, thus preventing any chances of escape. With his orange hair and flashing eyes, Tarrant distinctly reminded her an angry tiger she once saw pacing outside its food door at the London Zoo.

It was not a comforting thought.

"I mean it Tarrant. I WAS protecting you. If you had walked into that building and tried to hold a conversation, they would have carted you off to examined and put in a straightjacket. This world has no tolerance for madness!"

Tarrant stopped his pacing to stare at her. His eyes had shifted dramatically from that angry orange to depressing grey.

"I thought you always told me that all the best people are mad."

Alice sighed and stood up. She held her hands out to Tarrant, silently beckoning him to come toward her. He was slow to go to her, proving that he was still mightily upset with her, but at least he seemed calmer.

"For me they are. But not here, not in Above. That's why I left. That's why I returned to you!" She tightened her hold on his hands. "I could not risk losing you! Not to a place like that."

Tarrant sighed and shook his head.

"It was also something I had to do on my own anyway." His head snapped up, the orange of his eyes returning as quickly as it had left.

"Yer ma wife Alice. We made a vow to be there for each other. What could possibly make you take something like this on by yerself?"

Alice closed her eyes and counted to ten in her head. She had been nervous about broaching this subject with her husband.

How the devil was one supposed to explain the need to save the man who had once presented himself as a suitor?

When she opened her eyes again Tarrant was peering at her curiously, as though trying to watch the wheels in her head turn.

"I owed it to Hamish to do this myself."

"Why?"

Such a straightforward yet complex question.

"Because without Hamish I would not have returned to you the first time or the second time. I would not have been able to chase my father's dream halfway around the world without him and I would not be the woman you fell in love with without him." Alice took a deep breath before continuing.

"I went down that rabbit hole three years ago because Hamish, plain, boring, snobbish Hamish proposed to me. Don't growl, you know I refused him or I wouldn't be standing here! That proposal scared me into fleeing the dratted engagement and I then fell down the rabbit hole. When I got back, it was Hamish's sneering countenance that spurred me to get on that boat to China, just to prove to him that a woman could do anything a man could do and do it better. It was that same uppity attitude from him that made me realize I couldn't stay here. He made me realize I belonged in Underland with you and all of our friends. I could even go so far as to say that I am your wife because of Hamish Ascot. He made me realize what I wanted in a husband. He made me realize I would always hold out for you!"

She was out of breath at the end of her speech and realized that tears had begun to trail down her cheeks of their own accord. Tarrant reached out a trembling finger to wipe them away.

"Alice lass, I don't understand. Why would ye want to help a lad who seems to care nothing for ye?"

Alice let out a breathless laugh.

"Because he wasn't always that way Tarrant. He was once my best friend. Hamish Ascot was my one and only childhood friend in this world. We grew up together, doing practically everything together seeing as our mothers were always with each other. He was the best person to play hide and seek with. He was the one who snuck books from his father's library for me. It was Hamish Ascot that defended me whenever I was teased for talking about my dreams of my Wonderland. I left for finishing school when I turned sixteen and even then, he was the only person I trusted with my secrets and dreams. Not even Margaret knew me as well as he did. When I came back though, everything changed."

Tarrant was cradling her face now, just as she had done to him so many times. His thumbs were softly stroking her cheeks.

"Why?"

That complex question again!

"In all honesty, I don't know. I never got the chance to ask. Every time I saw him after that, he acted the part of the pompous lord's son. Gone was the little boy who would help tie the ribbon of my pinafore after chancing me through the mud. He's been a prick since, but I know a piece of the fun childhood Hamish is still inside him, just as the scared child Alice is still in me. I owe it to the memory of our friendship to get him out of that place!"

Her final statement rang with the authority of not only a friend but a Champion .

Tarrant nodded, his eye finally back to emerald, though she thought she detected a faint ring of yellow worry.

"Alright my Alice. So what happens next?"

"Next? Next we convince Lord Oliver Matthew Ascot that what his son saw was indeed the truth and not a figment of his imagination."

Tarrant raised his bushy eyebrows and frowned.

"Just how do you intend to do that?"

Alice reached into his coat and pulled out the bottle of potion the White Queen had given them from his inner pocket.

"With a little bit of magic and a large portion of persuasion."

Tarrant's mad giggle followed her as she made her way over to the full length mirror across the room.

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Mirana sat at her tea table, silently contemplating her steaming cup of ginger tea. Lily sat next to her, her nose in a book. Ever since her reentrance into the world of the White Court, the young girl had developed a desire to read every book in the library.

It was understandable of course, this intense desire of hers to learn everything that had Iracebeth had denied her.

Mirana's mouth pulled down into small frown.

She had taken the liberty and visited her sister in the dungeons yesterday afternoon.

It had not been a pleasant experience.

Iracebeth had at last descended into true madness. At first she had not spoken at all and had merely stared at the ceiling while rocking back and forth. It had broken the Queen's heart a little to see her proud sister dressed in a torn gown and her hair mussed beyond redemption.

Without warning, Iracebeth had fallen to the floor of her cell and started drawing on it with the gravy from her lunch tray. Mirana thought she had heard the vague humming of a lullaby from their childhood.

When she had tried to gain Iracebeth's attention by calling her name, all hell had broken loose. Iracebeth had thrown the tray at her (staining her favorite dress!) and then ran at her. Thank the Fates the chains on her ankles had prevented her from reaching the opposite side of the cell.

The White Queen closed her eyes, trying block out memories of gnashing teeth and indiscriminant shouts of "Off with your head!" and curses not even the foulest creatures in Underland would utter.

Chessur had asked her after she had fled the dungeons just why she had gone down there. At the time she had not answered, but now she knew why.

Mirana, the White Queen, supreme ruler of all Underland, was bored.

Dreadfully, horribly, bored.

"It's so quite here lately. Too quiet."

Lily gave a distracted noise of agreement. It only punctuated the ever oppressing silence that had overtaken the White Castle. Oh, Thackery still banged pots and pans while Mally strutted about challenging people to fights, but something was missing!

"Truly though Lily, what could fix this? What can bring some life back to our little world?"

"Alice."

Mirana's frowned deepened and she shook her head.

"That's not possible at the moment darling. We need something now."

"No mother! I mean Alice is here!" Lily nodded toward the door. The White Queen's mouth formed an "o" of surprise to see her Champion standing in the parlor doorway.

"Alice! What are you doing here? Where's Tarrant? Are you alright?" Mirana floated over to her while rattling off her questions. Alice simply smiled and embraced her.

"Everything is well your Majesty, Tarrant included. It is urgent I speak with you though."

Mirana looked over her Champion carefully. Her dress was cut in the Above style, though she was happy to see it was a happy forget-me-not blue. There were fine lines of tension around Alice's mouth and eyes though.

"Follow me." The White Queen said softly.

They made their way into the Queen's office and before she could gesture her into a chair, Alice launched into her story.

For a solid hour, Mirana let Alice tell her every thought and feeling that had occurred while she had been Above. As her story lengthened, Mirana felt the stone in her stomach become heavier and heavier. When Alice finally asked that fatal question, she had to put her head in her hands.

"Please Mirana, let me bring Oliver here for half an hour at most. I need to make him understand for Hamish's sake."

The White Queen could not answer immediately. Without looking up, she finally found her voice.

"You do realize what you are asking of me, right Alice? You are asking me to expose our world to the man you claim to be the most ruthless businessman you know. You are asking me to risk our exposure on the most brutal level."

"I know." Alice reached across the desk to capture her hand. "But I am also asking you to trust me as you always have. I will keep Oliver in line, I guarantee it. Please your Majesty, I am asking you to save a life."

Mirana finally looked up to stare hard at her Champion. The burning hope and desperation in Alice's made the decision for her.

"Very well. Allow me a couple of hours to fix up the appropriate potions and then we shall prepare to welcome Lord Oliver Ascot to Underland for the first AND last time."

Bonkers To Be Late

A Alice in Wonderland Story
by RosieLilyIce93

Part 44 of 48

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