Return to Wonderland

Return to Wonderland
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.
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Return to Wonderland
AJ Angelique

Chapter 6: The Queen's Court

Needless to say, the servants were surprised to find their queen return to the castle with a young woman in hand whom they were make ready for breakfast. So they followed the queen and Alice to one of the nearby rooms where the queen hand picked an outfit of a red and black corset with black silk cords laced up the front and back, a ankle length black skirt and red slippers. Alice's hair was then pulled up into a bun and held back by a silver clasp with red gems on it. Finally, the queen took out a black clasp on chocker encrusted in red gems and placed it around her neck. The neck adornment felt cold and heavy to Alice and a shiver went down her spine as she heard it click, as if it was locking itself around her neck.

"Follow me Alice," the queen said the moment she was dressed and led Alice out of the room as the servants began to whisper amongst themselves in excited tones. At first, Alice kept a few feet behind the queen but was soon ordered to keep up. Alice did just that and the two were soon side by side as they approached the set of doors which led to the Grand Hall. A pair of club cards stood by the doors and opened them for the two woman. Alice then took in the sight of a large room dressed in various tapestries depicting various things to the Heart fmaily creast to mythical beasts such as grins, ns, unicorns and chimeras. In the middle of the room was a long table, about twenty feet long, dress in red linen. Placed on the table were white china, silver eatery and crystal goblets. Seated at the table were twenty people of various ages who were quietly chatting as they waited for the queen to arrive and start breakfast. Yet they went silent when they looked up and saw Alice standing next to the queen.

"Come," the queen said and led the way into the room as Alice merely nodded and followed her. As she did so, she noted how eveytone stared at her and began to pass whispered comments to one another...yet this all stopped when the two reached the head of the table where there were two empty chairs. One was at the very head of the table, this is were the queen sat.

"Sit," the queen said as she gestured to the empty seat to her right.
"Yes your majesty," Alice said and did as she was instructed. Before the room erupted into aligations and accusations, the queen held up her right hand and gave that ever famous glare before she would sentence an execution.

"This is Alice and she is my guest. Any questions?" the queen asked. The table was very quiet as Alice looked around and noticed something.

"I do your majesty," she said.
"Yes, Alice?"
"May I inquire as to where is the king?" Alice asked. The moment thos words passed through her mouth, the tension in the air got so thick that one could cut it with a knife.

"Alice...the king became ill and passed away a year after you vanished from my kingdom," the queen said, almost sadly.

"I'm sorry your majesty," Alice quickly appologized.
"It's allright, it's a perfectly normal question," the queen said and Alice was surprised by this.
"Now, I'm sure we're all hungry so let the meal begin," the queen said. With that, everyone turned their attention to the food before them as light conversation was made about the current affairs of Wonderland. Just as breakfast was nearing its end, a dimaond card entered the room with a peice of paper which he took imeditally to the queen.

"Sudden news your majesty," the card said as he held out the paper to her. The queen glared at him and snatched the peice of paper out of his hand. She scanned it over and there was a deep frown on her face that Alice couldn't help but notice.

"Is it being taken care of?" the queen asked after a couple moments.
"As we speak your majesty," the card said.
"Good, make sure that the families are notified," the queen said. The card bowed and then left as more servants entered the room to clean up the table as everyone else began to leave the table.

"Alice, please stay seated and read this," the queen said.
"Yes your majesty," Alice said as she sat back down and took the paper. Alice read the paper and found it to be what looked be a police report. Delving deeper, Alice's grew wide as she found that it was a report about the death of the Mad Hatter and the discovery of his body in the hedge room with the dead bodies of girls with blonde hair.

"From that look on your face, I take it your remember the Hatter," the queen said and Alice could only nod.
"Shortly after you vanished from the courtroom, young girls with blonde hair had been vanishing in my kingdom. An investigation was launched but no clues were ever found," the queen said and Alice snapped her head up to look at the queen.

"No clues? Didn't you conduct any searches?" she asked.
"Yes Alice, I did. I of all people here wanted this case solved becuase my own neice had vanished several years ago," the queen said. At that very moment, a young girl in a red dress walked towards the queen. Alice's attention snapped to her now as she watched the young girl approach the queen with a sad look on her face.

"We looked all over Wonderland for those girls but we found nothing, he hid the room to well. If that mob didn';t kill him, I surmise we never would have found them," the queen said as the young girl placed a ghostly hand on her left shoulder.

"Mob?" Alice asked.
"Yes, the Hatter was found early this morning in that secret garden of his laying dead on some bed. He was looked over and it appeared as if he was killed by some sort of mob," the queen said and let out a small laugh, "I'd like to meet them though. Thank them for their service to the kingdom."

'No you wouldn't,' Alice thought, knowing now that the girls didn't just warn her about the Hatter, they attacked him as well. The only question was though, did they finally exact their revenge or were they just protecting her?

"Protect," the girl said and Alice looked back up at her.
"We were protecting you Alice for your place wasn't with us...or here with her," the girl said. Yet before Alice could ask her the meaning of this, the girl walked away from the table and vanished as she did so.

"So, what's going to happen now your majesty?" Alice asked.
"The bodies will be sent to their families and the Hatter will be cremated," the queen said, the last part bitterly.
"And what of the Hare and the Dormouse?" Alice asked curiously.
"Nowheres to be found...its almost as if they never existed," the queen said and Alice could feel herself go pale at that moment.

* * *

The moment passed and Alice was kept by the Queen's side the whole day as she tended to her royal duties which highly bored Alice. Finally, it came the time of day to head outside to place a friendly game of croquet with the flamingos and the hedgehogs. As before, the game was still chaos as everyone took their turn when they pleased, the cards moved around for certin people and the hedgehogs ran off rather than getting hit by the flamingos. Only the queen and a choice few others appeared to have complete control over their flamingos as Alice and the others had to chase down their flamingos which hid among the various trees and bushes.

"Alice," called out a voice as she was looking for her lost flamingo among the trees. Alice looked up and saw the Griffion standing over an archway carved out of the hedgewall.

"Did you call me?" Alice asked as she approached the Griffion.
"Yes, now keep quiet and follow me," the Griffion said and turn to its right. Alice did as she was told and followed the Griffion as it led her way from the croquet game and deep into the garden maze where an old friend and a new face waited for her.

Next) The Queen's Chamber

PS:
Look out for some of my Alice in Wonderland art at:
The Tangled Web
www.angelfire.com/ok5/tangled_web