Return to Wonderland

Return to Wonderland: Land of Chess
based on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass"

Disclaimer:
The original story belongs to Lewis Carrol (god rest his soul) and I'm only borrowing the characters.

Author's note:
I have decided the cut this whole story into two sections. The first taking place in 'The Land of Cards' and the story continues in 'The Land of Chess' or Mirrorland as some people so aptly call it. Well, hope this clears some things up and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.
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Return to Wonderland: The Land of Chess
AJ Angelique

Chapter 3: Humpty Dumpty's Challenge

The Chesire Cat was alone and lost in a vast golden desert. He didn't know what time of the day it was but he knew that it was hot by the fact of the cloudless sky and the searing sun high above his head. As he sheilded his eyes with his right hand to look up, he stumbled on the sand dune he was walking on and fell down to the dip that was close to ten feet below him. His patience was wearing thin, needless to say, but the one thing that kept him moving was Alice.

"I swear Alice, I will find you and make up for this whole mess. I never should have let you out of my sight," he said as he got back up on his feet and dusted the gritty sand out of his fur the best he could. Then, with a single step back, he found the exit and fell backwards through it as it pulled him to the next square...

* * *

At the same time, Alice was falling through the hole in the floor and into an darkness that yeilded to clues as to what may be inside of it save for her and Dinah who followed her into the hole. Yet they didn't stay in the hole long as the scene quickly changed to an bright grassy place with birds chirping. Alice landing face down on the ground with a single "umph".

"Ow," she whined under her breath as she got up on her hands and knees while Dinah walked over to her and let out a worried whine.

"I'm fine Dinah," Alice said as she shifted to a kneeling position. "Nothing's broken" she said as she stood up. One could swear that Dinah let out a small breath of relief before she fadded away into nothing again. Remebering what Time had told her, Alice didn't worry abour this as she looked around herself. She was indeed outside someplace a q a quant little clearing with some trees and various sleeping flowers. But right behind her was this weather worn brick wal that was two feet taller than her. Oddly enough though, the wall looked familar to her...somehow.

She looked to the left...and she looked to the right, yet she couldn't see a close enough way to walk around it since the wall seemed to strech on for miles. So, Alice decided to climb over the wall. She crouched down and jumped as high as she could, thankfully it only took a short jump to get her hands on the ledge of the wall. Yet it still took a little work to actually get up the wall, but she did it by cordinating her feet to walk up the wall and inching her hands further up the ledge untill finally she was belly down on top of the ledge...and looking down at the handsomest guy she had ever seen in her life!

He appeared to be at least 5ft and 8in tall with deep blue eyes that seemed more like pools of water, pale flawless skin that appeared to be makeup but wasn't. He had a lean yet muscular form and wore a strange white suit with silver trimming with what appeared to be a eggshell for a hat and various egg type adornments such as cufflinks, an earring in the right ear and the pin on his tie. He looked like the nicest person one would...

"Excuse me," the man said, soudning highly annoyed, "but what do you think you're doing on MY wall like that?" The man demanded with his hands on his hips.

"I'm sorry but it was the only way to pass it," Alice said as shifted to a sitting position and jumped down on her own.

"Oh is it?" the man asked and pointed back at the wall. Alice looked and her jaw dropped to see that the wall had changed somehow from miles long to only fifty wid wide. She would have felt humiliated at the time save for the fact that she was scared by the roaring lion and the neighing unicorn who were chained to the wall, one animal one each side. As if they were being delibratly kept apart for some reason.

"The Lion and The Unicorn," the man said with a smirk on his face.
"THE Lion and THE Unicorn? The ones who fought over the crown?" Alice asked.
"Yes, but what everyone didn't know was that not only were they enemies on the battlefeild but lovers on the side. So, the king finally ordered them to be seperated, so they were chained to my wall," the man said. Alice turned back to the man and gave him a good hard look.

"Then, that would make you Humpty Dumpty," she said.
"Yes, when I fell from the wall all the King's Men found me inside that egg shell. I've been a free man ever since, so to speak," the man said.

"I can see," Alice said in reply and it was his turn to give her a good hard look in return.
"Do I...know you?" he asked.
"You most certainly do, I am Alice."
"Alice!? My, how you've grown," Humpty Dumpty gasped.
"Give her to me!" Lion called out with a roar.
"No! Let me have her!" Unicorn called out. Alice looked at each creature and feared that these requests were not a good thing for her.

"No, I challenge her to a chess match," Humpty Dumpty said.
"What? Whatever for?" Alice asked.
"It was you who caused me to fall. Yes, I should be gratefull but I still blame you for it. So now you must defend youself against my wit," he said.

"If this is a competition, there must be terms to meet or awards to give then," Alice said.
"Yes. If you win, you may leave here unscathed," Humpty Dumpty said and the two beings behind him let out angry noises.

"And if you were to win?" Alice asked and imeditally regretted asking this for a leary smile painted itself on his face.

"If I win, you must submit to my wilt'st's been awhile since a woman has passed by here and those two aren't the only ones who would like you," he said as he looked over her body. Needless to say, Alice began to feel self consious and grabbed the sides of her cloak to cover herself up.

"Fine, I accept your challenge," Alice said defiantly. Humpty Dumpty only grinned as a table and two egg shapped chairs appeared out of thin air, soon to follow was a rather large chess board with white and yellow chess peices...none of which were alive, to Al's r's releif. So the two took their seats across from other, Alice with the white peices and Humpty Dumpty with the yellow peices. For the next hour, the two played a very strategic game of chess.

"My compliments, I never expected the game to last this long," Humpty Dumpty said.
"Thank you, I took an interest in the game after I returned home," Alice said.
"I see," he said as Lion and Unicorn made impatient noises behind him. Humpty Dumpty frowned at this, knowing exactally why the two were impatient...and he wouldn't blame them. He had to admit, Alice had grown into the quite the woman and the outift she was wearing showed that off very well. He couldn't wait to pull it off of her...no, tear it off. That way she couldn't dress again. Put a collar around her neck and keep a leash on her, his own personal pet that everyone would envy. A leary grin painted itself on his face as he felt his member press against his pants. So he opened the tent and released the little camper to massage it awake. Alice noticed the slight change in his deminor and that one of his hands was in his lap. She peeked under the table and sat back up with a blush when she saw his engroned member. Humpty Dumpty grinned as Lion laughed and Unicorn frowned.

Yet Alice didn't let this bother her game as it lasted only a couple more minutes before she pulled off the finishing move and won the game.

"Checkmate," Alice said with a pleased look on her face.
"You...won," Humpty Dumpty said, highly stunned.
"Yes. Now, if you excuse me. I will be on my way," Alice said as she got up from her seat and began to leave. But Humpty Dumpty wasn't going to let her leave.

"No!" he shouted and lunged at Alice all his cloths flew off his body. Alice shrieked as he tackled her and they fell to the ground where he wildly gropped her. He was was about to tear off her cloths when the sound of breaking chains came from behind them. Humpty Dumpty rolled off Alice to see what was going on only to scream as Lion pouned at him and teeth sank in his neck.

"Alice!" exclaimed Unicorn as he dashed towards her. She scrambled to her feet and quickly got on Unicorn's back. Once she was sed, ed, Unicorn dashed away from Humpty Dumpty's glen. But Lion didn't waste his time whenkillkilled Humpty Dumpty and chased after the two.

"Hang on!" Unicorn shouted and Alice grasped his mane as he ran as fast as he could from the Lion. Then, all of a sudden, the two crossed over from Humpty Dumpty's square and appeared in a feild with golden long grass. If this didn't surprise Alice, then she was when she saw that orn orn had changed to into a more human form...yet the only human thing about him was arms, hands and the ability to walk upright. The rest was still unicorn and she was clinging to his back as he came to a stop.

"Get off and hide, I'll distract him," Unicorn said. Alice didn't say a word but did as she was told. She slid down his back and quickly hid in the long grass as Lion jumped into the feild out of nowheres. Alice pulled the cloak tighter around her self and tuged the hood over her head and the cloak did the most cus ths thing, it turned the came color as the long grass. She looked up and saw that the same had occured with the Lion as well. When he arrived in the feild, he turned into the same kind of hubrid as unicorn...there must be a certin magic about these squares that she didn't know about the last time she was there.

"Where is she?" Lion demaned of Unicorn.
"Gone," Unicorn said defiantly and Lion growled as he stood right up to Unicorn who just glared back at him. Alice watched this silently and noted that Unicorn was a couple inches taller than Lion.

"You knew I wanted her," Lion finally said after a moment.
"Yeah, so did H.D. But you were never big on sharing were you," Unicorn commented. Lion let out a small roar as he moved forward and the two were soon on the ground. Unicorn on his back and Lion on top of him. Alice started to gasp but quickly stopped herself. As she held her breath, Alice silently prayed that no harm would come to Unicorn.

Next)
Chapter 4: Dee & Die, Cousins to Be

The pictures have finally been posted!
www.angelfire.com/ok5/tangled_web