Poppycock! How could I own anything of Alice or of Wonderland? They are their own entities and they own only themselves! On the other hand, I'm not quite sure why people insist this Disney person owns them. Is it some sort of new fad?

Oh well, on with the story!

First Come

"Ah, but it's awfully rude to sit down without being invited!"

She honestly hadn't known. True, she should have had better manners than that but, "It was such a delightful song!"

An appreciative smile took over the human-like rabbit's muzzle. "Did you hear that? She likes our singing!"

"What a kind, delightful girl!" Alice tried her hardest not to giggle as the man in the funny top-hat wedged his elbow into a nearby teacup. "You must join us for tea!"

She had no idea at all what she'd be in for the moment she said "yes."

xxx

First Serve

"Clean cup! Move dooooown!"

"But I haven't had my cup!"

That fact of reality didn't matter. Why—because anything of reality itself didn't matter...

Reality held no relevance here, as Alice should have already learned after all her experiences through this mad wonderland. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare, like their fellow inhabitants, couldn't care less for what reality dictated. Whatever they'd say themselves—that was their reality—nothing at all like the rules Alice would have followed in her world.

In short, these two madmen made their own rules.

The young girl couldn't decide whether to fear the off-kilter, ad lib sense of freedom these men had...or admire it.

xxx

Excuse Me

"She's stark-cravin' mad!"

Alice could only huff in dignified outrage at such a foolish accusation! The Hatter had asked her a riddle! She had only been trying to solve it! 'Mad!? Why I—'

"Now, now, calm down!" Hatter shakily stuttered as the little, old man backed away from the infuriated blonde as if she were a time-bomb awaiting its designated implosion. Alice felt anything but amusement.

The final straw, though, came because of the March Hare. "P-Perhaps you would like a s-spot of tea?"

That tore it! Alice slammed one of her dainty hands onto the table and huffed out, "Hmph, tea indeed!" and stomped out like the frustrated young lady she'd been reared to be—for the most part.

She did leave one last comment before departing for good—a parting gift, one might say.

"This is the stupidest tea party I've ever been to."

xxx

Sorry

"Oh Alice, wake up!"

The loud voice, though controlled, rang with impatience in the ears of the young girl who immediately jolted up in utter surprise.

The disapproving face of her frustrated sister was the first sight to greet her.

For reasons Alice could not began to fathom, the disappointment of not being bombarded with something unexpected and silly came over...and went away just as quickly.

'Oh, honestly, it was just a dream! None of it could have been real!' This very thought ran through the mind of the demure child as she apologized to her elder sibling for her earlier dozing off. Aside from a sigh and light scolding, Alice was let off the hook as easy as anything!

...Except...she found herself staring back at the tree where she'd slept...and wondered why she felt as if her sister wasn't the only one who deserved an apology.

xxx

Someone

"Oh Alice, you're already past twenty years of age and yet you still have no husband!"

"Mum! Please!" A twenty-one year old Alice pleaded both firmly and desperately. "I've already told you before. The husband I want will come to me one day! I just have to wait!"

The elderly woman sighed heavily, no doubt exasperated at her daughter's headstrong personality. "You know as well as I do there's no guarantee or certainty in that. You'll be lucky to even find a man of appropriate standing!"

At the last two words, Alice finally backed off, her mouth agape at what she'd just heard. Reality, as it always did, hit her hard. She couldn't exactly brush off the truth behind her parent's words. Nevertheless, although her expression became neutral, Alice scowled in her mind.

'Appropriate standing...' she mocked in genuine disgust. In other words, Mother would have her marry one of the wealthy heirs, those snobby men who wished—no, demanded to have they believe what they had coming to them! A spouse like them would only treat Alice as a possession, a trophy wife! She would never have the time of day, even when she and her future husband would be alone in more intimate quarters. Such men would indubitably spurn any girl born to them and, God forbid, attempt to mold the boys the unfortunate woman would bear to be miniature versions of themselves! And where would she, Alice herself, be in the end? Would she even "be" at all anymore?

The very thought sent shivers down the young woman's spine.

"Alice, dear, are you alright?" her mother worriedly asked, having taken note her daughter's sudden discomfiture. She appeared to be severely spooked by something.

If only Mother knew...

xxx

True

Love could take so many forms...but, ah, it could be so very, very blind, as countless people over the centuries have testified.

Ironic yet somehow also fitting, therefore, how the love of a certain mother was trying to carve down a path for a daughter whose vision of the future entailed visions of laughter and smiles, the joyous cries of infants as they playfully clutch at their mother's dress for attention, mirth and humor to be shared between a wife and a husband bonded not only legally but spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually as well...

...only the path Mother and her love were carving promised none of that.

And so Alice, despondent and gradually losing hope, sat, for reasons she could only label as sentimental, at the same tree as from her childhood fantasy, which seemed an eternity ago. According to her sisters, her mother had arranged for her to marry a rich heir by the name of Hamish Ascot. Alice had caught enough glimpses of him—and obtained plenty of encounters— to know her worst fears were going to become reality—her new life.

But no tears escaped the frowning maiden. Her mother, for her societal delusions, had been right about one thing: Alice was not a little girl anymore. She was a full grown woman. As such, she needed to handle this situation in a controlled, mature manner. 'Even if I don't particularly agree with this arranged marriage...!'

Then for no reason in particular, a little chuckle escaped Alice's lips. She gasped a light breath, surprised at her behavior, though not necessarily in a negative way, and then put a hand to her lips. 'I almost wish I were back in Wonderland!'

Alice shook her head at the preposterous thought. "But I could never do that—not to my family. However...I simply can't bring myself to go through with this dreadful marriage either. Oh dear, what am I to do?"

She never anticipated anyone to answer back to this rhetorical question, especially not one whose voice had not entered her ears for a decade. Yet it was that exact voice that brought a past once thought imagined crashing down on Alice...hard.

"You could never do what you don't do. If something's never done, what could one ever do in the first place?"

xxx

Who

Her breath halted in her throat in such a way that Alice feared for a brief second that she might choke. Fortunately, such did not become the case, but, nevertheless, the sudden return of the Cheshire Cat, even after so many years, failed naught the slightest in startling the unprepared woman.

Startled as she was, though, Alice dared not turn around. Whether because of denial or because of dread, the idea of looking back, only to once again see the cartoony, yellow eyes that the blonde could never picture, no matter how long the absence, without that same crescent moon grin that once guided her child self both into and out of trouble during her wayward journey, instilled an strange yet potent sense of finality in her. Something deep in her soul was warning her: the moment she'd face the enigmatic cat, there'd be no turning back. Her life might very well never be the same again.

'Why...do I feel...relieved rather than scared then?'

Perhaps the answer was so simple.

Wonderland, for all its eccentric characters and frightening moments, had, at times, proved to be a rather exciting and interesting place. Dream or no dream, that land of oddities in some ways felt like a haven to the English girl, even though such a perspective had never occurred to her prior to this moment in time, especially not back then. Whenever she remembered past the seemingly offhand and sometimes rude conduct of the quirky denizens, even when growing up, the young woman, ever the imaginative one in spite of her upbringing and her own insistence of the entire experience being only a fantasy, could never stop smiling at her memories of the beautifully surreal world. Surprisingly, two certain characters stuck out in her reminiscence the most—two mad tea lovers, as a matter of fact. For reasons unexplainable, the thought of the two gentlemen ignited a spark of comfort...almost as if they were old friends from long ago. Alice took comfort in that thought and used it as courage to face the wide-smiling feline, not a single trace of apprehension on her face.

"It's...been a while, hasn't it, Cheshire?"

Ever the one for teasing, the Cheshire Cat, detaching his head from his body, which proceeded to walk down the length of the tree branch above Alice without a single hitch, sang out "A while, away, a wee step back in time, perhaps? Time escapes you, no matter how hard you try to hang on. The heart, on the other hand..."

Alice tilted her head in a way that she hadn't done since her childhood. "The heart...? Whatever do you mean?"

Body reattaching to head from upside down, Cheshire Cat, hind in the air and arms crossed, gesturing with this feet, replied, "Anger and joy, hate and love, toss and turn—the heartstrings can never seem to decide, can they?"

What on Earth was Cheshire talking about? What was there to decide at all? And what did it have to do with him being here in her world?

"Oh how those who wish freedom are so bound by obligation and family...while those who wait for it waste time never searching, fooling themselves into accepting feigned content."

Alice narrowed her crystal blue eyes a bit. She never heard the Cheshire speak in such riddles before. Oh yes, Cheshire always misled and confused her most of the time before he gave any semblance of a hint. Now he sounded more as if he were intentionally guiding her to decide something personal to her—very personal. She understood, without a doubt, that he was describing her situation in the first half...but to whom was the second half referring?

Cheshire, as if reading Alice's thoughts, spoke the sentence that would lead to the most unexpected wonder of all.

"Oh smiles, smiles, smiles—all hide the March Hare's mad, sad heart."

xxx

Back There

A stunned Alice slouched against the tree as the Cheshire Cat's words continued to ring in her memory. Interestingly, the young woman was seated upon the same root as where she'd experienced her fateful dream.

'Sad? The March Hare seemed like such an optimistic man—uh, rabbit when I last saw him; the Mad Hatter as well.' Then again, ten years was a long time. There was no telling what could have happened to the March Hare—or the rest of Wonderland—in Alice's absence. And if the remainder of Cheshire's words were true, then odds are that events were not going well there—no doubt because of the ever-temperamental Queen of Hearts.

Ah yes, Alice recalled the mean-spirited queen quite well. The thought of that woman still gave her shivers. Right after befuddling her with his strange love hint, Cheshire left behind with it several stanzas that, as far as Alice could decipher, detailed some sort of prophecy. As far as she could figure out, she was to be the hero of Wonderland by slaying some sort of creature of the Queen's called a...Jabberwocky. At first she wished to chuckle at such a ludicrous name, but then remembered the dark, chilling tone Cheshire's voice took on when mentioning that name. In spite of the cat's perpetual grin, Alice had a feeling this Jabberwocky was nothing to take lightly, much less laugh at.

As mad as the whole idea sounded, Alice knew one thing: she couldn't leave Wonderland under the tightening tyranny of the Queen and her "pet" if life there had become as difficult as the feline hinted.

But wait—'How can I return to that place? Since it's real, after all...then perhaps...'

With this thought in mind, Alice scanned the area for any suspicious-looking openings. She came up short after an hour of searching, her mind briefly wondering how her family—her mother, in particular—must be faring right now. Alice clasped her hands in worry. 'Oh dear, I hope she's not too worried over me.' The marriage aside, the woman only wanted what she believed would be best for her daughter. The thought of being so passively aggressive (even if only unintentional to an extent) by being out here brought a wave of shame crashing down on the young woman. She closed her eyes in regret.

Here she was: caught between two sides, both of which she cared much too much for. What was the right thing to do? 'Oh dear...'

"Well now, missy, why the long face?"

xxx

Back Here

"March Hare!"

She turned as her voice rang out those words like the toll of a bell on Christmas Eve and...There—there he was! She simply couldn't believe her eyes! There he was—same clothes, same wild, unkempt yellow hair, that same childish grin. Judging by his appearance, the rabbit didn't look to have aged even a day!

'Perhaps time flows differently there,' Alice mused in wonderment. Either way, her heart soared at the prospect of seeing another familiar face. Perhaps a number of the other denizens were safe as well.

Her heart overrode her mind as she dashed to the male hare and scooped him up in her lean yet strong arms. Alice giggled at how tall she had always been compared to him, even as a ten-year old. Now the man's furry head barely reached her knee.

Even so, though, the drastic height difference did nothing to dampen her joyous mood—or that of the March Hare for that matter. For the first time as long as Alice had known him (or remembered him, at least), the wild light in the hare's greenish blue eyes dimmed...but that wasn't from sadness. Oh no, Alice, if she had looked him in the eyes this very moment, would have seen a look that cheered "at last," a look of requited content. His soft hands met silky, sunlight hair as he reciprocated the embrace in full.

And just as quickly as his calm demeanor came, it vanished.

"Next stop Wonderland! Move down! Move down!"

Alice's eyes shot open in startled swiftness, the impact of these familiar words invoking her to suddenly hold the rabbit at arm's length and plead in a rushing voice, "No wait—"

Her words fell on deaf ears as a gaping, black hole suddenly materialized under her feet, taking her and March down before the former could ever emit a single yelp.

xxx

Full Story

"Here now, a spot of tea ought to do you some good!"

If the recipient this chipper assurance had been anyone else, the cheery rabbit would have surely received a less than pleasant response. But Alice wasn't "anybody else" now, was she? She accepted the warm cup of tea with open hands and smiled kindly at the hare. "Thank you, March. That's very sweet of you."

As if not even hearing her statement of gratitude, March Hare plopped his elbows onto the table and eyed her with a curious stare, his blue eyes straying askew for a second before righting themselves right again. Alice stifled a giggle at the sight. "Tell me, what brings you down here?"

She paused in her consumption and gaped at him for a second as if he'd gone daft. 'Oh wait, of course, he's not daft...just mad.'

"Well, according to Cheshire," the young woman explained as she set the cup down, figuring that to drink while talking would have been rude, "I'm meant to play a role in a sort of...prophecy, I believe. I couldn't leave something so crucial up in the air, you see, so I decided it best to come down here as quickly as possible." She wisely avoided the point that her way down here had been involuntary rather than voluntary.

March Hare, eyes closed and smile still present, nodded his head in firm understanding (or at least as far as Alice could discern). "Ah yes, quickly as possible, quickly as possible, indeed."

"March Hare, if you don't mind me asking, do you know anything of this Jabberwocky I'm meant to face?"

Once again, the rabbit nodded in the affirmative...for the first few words. Only when he finally registered the last word in, "Ah yes, the Jab—...JABBERWOCKY?!" did his eyes dilate and expand, his mouth comically contorting into a gasping frown. Like a shooting star, March barreled into the air, screaming the dreaded "J" name over and over at the top of his lungs.

And as if this familiar madness couldn't prove enough to endure watching, an even more familiar mammal—a tiny dormouse—popped out of a purple teapot nearby, also wailing, "JABBERWOCKY?!"

Alice leaned her chin on one hand and sighed wearily.

This adventure was going to take a while.

xxx

Lead

"Lead them? Oh no, no, no, I can't be a leader! I'm not certain I have the proper qualities..." Indeed, there must have been some mistake. Prophecy or not, she struggled to fathom the idea of her leading an entire world, much less a ragtag group of rebels, to freedom. No matter how she tried to see the nobility in her being here, the only thought she could chalk up was, 'It just isn't me. I'm...simply Alice.'

March Hare would not give an inch. He stuck a finger in the air for each syllable as he energetically inquired, "Ah, but you're the hero the prophecy speaks of, aren't you?" He leaned towards her on the last two words.

Alice fiddled with her fingers. Uncertain..."Well, I wouldn't call myself a hero, but..."

"And you willingly embraced the idea of saving this world from the Queen and her pet, did you not?"

Alice opened her mouth to protest...only to stop and think over the hare's words more carefully. March had made a valid point. Although she still felt her way back into Wonderland had been rather rushed, Alice knew full well she could not truly turn away from the thought—no, the duty of being this land's savior. The idea both amazed and mind-boggled her—yes—but she, as the rabbit put it, "embraced it with open arms." She could have simply disregarded the words of the Cheshire Cat and returned to the sanctity of her nice, warm home...yet she never did. Even now, the thought of committing such, such...betrayal sickened her. Leaving this place to ruin and misery, regardless of the troubles it inflicted on her years ago, sounded like an atrocity of a heartless decision, to say the least.

"You're right, March," the determined woman agreed, nodding her head...but then she crossed her arms and gazed up to the starry sky, lost in thought. "I just wish I had the faintest idea of what we should do."

A sudden rush of warmth overtook her when March took her larger hands into his smaller ones.

"I have faith in you, Alice—just as the others do." His velvety voice stroked her nerves as softly as did his soft, soft grip.

Alice felt a smile took hold of her lips; her heart couldn't help but flutter at this rabbit's trust in her.

xxx

Injury

"I'm sorry this happened. You shouldn't have taken that hit for me." She finished wrapping the bandages on Hare's sling. Shockingly enough, his trademark grin showed no signs of waning, an utter, stark contrast to when he'd been struck at the time hours earlier today.

The mission had been simple enough: find Hatter, who had been the primary leader but then captured in a failed raid a few days prior to Alice's return to Wonderland—or Underland as the Cheshire Cat, another member of the resistance force, reminded her— and return him to HQ. Distracting the guards had been easy; finding the Hatter's cell and freeing the jolly man had been easy, too; finding the way out past all the Card Soldiers...not so easy...

Although all of the rebels managed to escape, most of them unscathed, in fact, this outcome only came about due to Alice, the March Hare, and a few mercenaries choosing to serve as distractions. All in all, Alice endured great difficulty in the battle that ensued, the main reason being that that time had been her first experience of using a weapon. In retrospect, she supposed she should have found the fact that she'd need a sword, or at least a weapon of some kind, to accomplish her liberation of the Underland rather obvious. Even so, though, the reality of this prospect hadn't truly dawned on her until March began tutoring her in swordsmanship a week ago.

And how did the heroine repay the rabbit's kindness? By allowing him to shield her from a brutal sneak attack...? She felt as if she herself were the one responsible for his injury. Thank goodness, the damage wasn't too severe, at least.

March Hare dismissed the concern with a cheerful wave of his right hand (the undamaged one). "Oh, think nothing of it! Manners I say those soldiers should learn."

Hatter, who was sitting in a chair right next to Alice, nodded in fervent agreement, none too abashed at his friend's injury as well. "I'll say. Assaulting a woman—very rude indeed!"

His lapine companion nodded back just as passionately and comically. "Very, very rude indeed...!"

"Especially when her back is turned—it's not just rude; it's cowardly!" Alice found herself blurting out in additive agreement. A few seconds was all she needed to register what she'd just said and cover her mouth in shock! 'Oh dear, I shouldn't have intruded like that!'

Her fears slowly dissipated when the sound of raucous laughter reached her ears. Mad Hatter and March Hare were throwing their heads back in hysterics, regardless of the limitations forced upon the latter by his injuries. Alice had half a mind to scold March for being so careless with his wounds...she didn't do that.

Rather she sensed something...something bubbly arise in her chest and effervesce up her throat. Before she could stop herself, she found her own twinkling laughter joining in the euphoria of emotions and good humor gushing forth.

And the craziest part: she didn't mind one bit this time how loony her friends were. Those were the parts that made her fall in love with these two lunatics from the very beginning, after all.

xxx

Almost There

"Is that where it is?"

March hummed to himself in thought, a hand to his furry chin. "Hmm, let's see. Dark, brooding atmosphere, yes...impending sense of peril, oh definitely...and, ah ha, viscous globs of meat being deposited by the Queen's soldiers in a rather hurried and frightened manner!" March pounded a fist into his other hand in genuine excitement. "Yes, my dear, this is the place! I know it!"

His exuberance did not go unnoticed.

Alice held back a chuckle at the child-like adorableness March was emitting...but then silently gasped once she realized what she'd just been thinking. 'No, no, no, Alice, don't be silly! You know it could never work out!'

She stole a glance at the non-austere hare, whose excited glance remained fixed on the gigantic, gloomy cage. 'No matter how much you wish it could...'

Why were her thoughts pursuing such an emotionally dubious subject? March Hare, for all his liveliness and mania, time and time again had proven himself a kind, supportive and trusting friend and comrade. Granted, Hatter, Cheshire, and all the other rebels, each in their own way, accomplished no differently...but Alice still wondered to herself...

'Why does he have such a profound influence on me?' Instantaneously, her thoughts reverted to the riddle Cheshire shared with her when they'd first reunited: "Oh smiles, smiles, smiles—all hide the March Hare's mad, sad heart."

A pensive frown coincided with Alice's train of thought. 'I think I'm starting to understand now. He missed me the most out of anyone here. What I can't quite understand is why?'

'You know quite well why,' replied a sudden voice in her mind in a teasing, singsong tone. She had to shake off its eerie resemblance to the voice of a certain feline.

'I was a child back then, for goodness sake! He merely missed me as dear friend.'

'You're right,' the voice continued, 'He did miss you that way, and he still saw you as a close friend the next time the two of you found each other again...but what about now?'

Now...well, Alice...Alice...wasn't sure anymore. Just not sure.

xxx

Accept

Hare hung back for a moment as he watched her tread down the hidden trail for a closer look of the cage, intending to figure out a bit more about the Jabberwocky's habits and traits. She'd promised to be extra cautious, of course, but still the rabbit, despite his supportive grin, worried deep down. Only when the blonde moved out of sight into the dark woods did March allow his emotions to manifest into a heavy sigh and frown.

Hatter took notice and walked up to his best friend in concern, knowing full well such moments of melancholy in the hare were rare at best...the old man understood full well the reason..."Certain you don't wish to tell her?"

Hare, twirling his hand in the air dismissively, "Well, wishing and telling are so menial sometimes."

Cheshire faded in on a nearby branch, his face eye level with those of the Hare and the Hatter. "Then why not through action? Why not capture the heart of the maiden you seek and prove your own heart to her? Or instead let her wander away to be snatched off be a less worthy hand and let her light drift away from this mad, mad world?"

March shrugged his shoulders, even though the weight of his affections' situation still hung heavy in his heart. "Our world isn't hers. The Overland (1) is. She has family waiting for her up there." And he would do no such thing as keeping the subject of his never-to-be affections away from her loved ones. In a return of his characteristic bravado, the March Hare puffed out his tiny chest, his lean body regaining its proper posture. "As a gentleman, I am to respect her wishes, no matter what they will be. As such, my emotions are to be of no consequence."

Cheshire nodded his head solemnly, his grin gone for once. Hatter merely smiled and patted his lapine friend on the back heartily; March gratefully returned the smile back. "Spoken like a true man of honor, Thackery!"

The mood shattered when and a shrill, piercing scream, followed by a blinding flash of light, shot up from the trail Alice had just gone down.

'Alice...!'

March Hare swore he'd never run so fast in his life.

xxx

Unexpected

Colors and shapes passed before Alice's eyes as swirling, melted blurs. A soft whirlwind of voices reached her ears as the face of a certain rabbit faded into her view. For the first time, Alice saw genuine relief in the March Hare's verdant azure eyes. The smile on his muzzle radiated soft-hearted tenderness the young woman knew she had never observed before as the brown hare lifted a hand to her cheek and held it in a gentle grasp as its twin lifted a cup of water to Alice's lips. The tired blonde's lips accepted the liquid without the slightest trace of hesitation.

She lived. She still lived. This piece of news brightened her mood greatly, inciting a smile upon her face.

Yet...something felt...off.

Was she imagining things or did her face feel different in the March Hare's hands? What should have felt like fur against skin felt more like fur against...fur? Plus, the way her smile formed and her lips moved sent a sense of unfamiliarity...as if her own lips didn't belong somehow. And why was her nose twitching so much?

The final cause for concern came from the mystified stares she caught from Hatter and a few of the other patients. They still seemed capable of recognizing her...yet somehow also didn't. Something had happened...happened to her, to be more exact...but what?

Alice gripped onto March's red jacket sleeve to lift her own self up. Being the gentleman he was, March put an arm around her waist and gave whatever assistance he could. 'Strange, his arm should barely go past my hip. What in the world could have happened to—"

Her reflection in a nearby full-body mirror gave the answer...and it sent her gasping with something in between disbelief and horror.

In the mirror, its reflection returning Alice's stare right back...was a rabbit.

Snow white fur, flowing blonde hair, sparkling sapphire eyes, a delicate snout that ended at a tiny pink nose—only the shrunken clothes—the blue dress snug around the short, supple body, the black Mary Jane shoes, the ankle-length socks, and body-length white apron—retained a shred of familiarity.

Only when her hand and that of the reflection joined at the boundary between reality and illusion did understanding finally dawn upon her.

This was her reflection.

This was her.

xxx

Home

And there March and Hatter found the transformed mistress...all alone on the log...nighttime on the horizon...her dress, ears, and hair ruffling in the chilly breeze...thin arms wrapped around her torso in meager self-comfort...

If one listened close enough, one's ears would detect the stifling sniffles and heartbreaking sobs that lingered in the air as their source rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

Reality always strikes hard...especially during times of adversity—now was no different. Alice couldn't return home now—not like...like this! All anyone would see would be an oddly dressed rabbit...no telling how people would react...

The only consolation in her heart's possession would be that she'd no longer have to fret over marrying Hamish. After all, what person in their right mind would honestly go and marry a rabbit?

Regardless, the situation struck Alice harder than any catastrophe she'd ever endured before; only the death of her father, years ago, could cause this situation to pale in comparison. Even worse, her current condition exacerbated the issue of her saving Wonderland from the Jabberwocky. How on Earth could Alice possibly hope to silence the Queen's behemoth monster now?

All of a sudden, the scent of carrot cologne inundated the air; a bantam shadow crossed the log as its origin neared in proximity to the lady rabbit. No one needed to guess the identity of the distraught doe's visitor.

"I believe it's time we talked, Alice."

xxx

Let It Be

"Come, come now—dry those tears." March, his face sympathetic in expression, whipped out a white handkerchief from one of the breast pockets of his jacket and kindly offered it to the weeping lapine. Alice paused long enough in her lamentation to notice the offering and humbly smiled in gratitude before taking the handkerchief and mopping up the facial mess incited by her emotional breakdown.

'I must look terribly unbecoming right now,' she mused in regret as she laid the soaked handkerchief upon her lap. "I'm so very sorry, March," her voice still trembled a tad, "I wasn't thinking."

March's sea emerald eyes lit up at the familiar words. "Well, if you don't think..." he tapered off softly and kindly with a strong hint of suggestion involving continuance from the other end of the conversation. His smile hinted at no malice or taunt.

Alice sniffed once more before weakly returning the expression; the manner in which she finished the sentence proved no different. "I shouldn't speak." 'Maybe that's why I could never marry anyone, let alone someone like Hamish. I always go with what comes to mind so naturally rather than looking ahead and considering my choices. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm too much of a free spirit for my own good.' That last sentence of her thought, unfortunately, revived the plaguing sorrow; Alice attempted her hardest in fighting back the second wave of tears.

Did that mean she'd always be alone then?

Well...did it?

But her companion was far from finished...as evidenced when he slipped an arm around Alice in a gesture of comfort, the gentleness of his tone wrapping the doe into its embrace and guiding her from the dim-lit recesses of her saddened heart. "Yet you speak, all the same."

'What does he mean?' This question caused Alice to gaze up at March in great confusion; the buck caught the great trust behind the perplexity, all the same. "I-I'm afraid I don't understand."

Back in a flash, March regained his trademark grin. Now as he spoke, his voice became supportive, as if nudging Alice to take a metaphorical step forward. "Ah, there you go thinking again! Any idea on what you can speak now, my dear?"

In the following space of silence, everything clicked. The clicking itself was not something of a spontaneous nature; its emergence into epiphany resulted ultimately from the fateful accumulation of events and goings-on Alice, at the times, mistakenly took for happenstance or simple choice.

Now she realized...now she knew...nothing about her journey, even this transformation, was either happenstance or simple. 'Father used to tell me that Fate always has its reasons. For the first time...I actually understand.'

This memory-thought ignited something in Alice. Though its name escaped her, the doe nevertheless looked past the cloud of adversity and discovered that "something"...staring back at her in the form of two emerald-water eyes. Yes...now she saw. Now she could see this wonderland and its inhabitants—her friends—for their true value and worth. In a rush of uncontainable emotion, Alice propelled herself forward, her arms linking around March's thin neck, and squeezed enough to reveal her undying gratitude to the male rabbit without hurting him. Despite her unindenting to seem so forward, the pristine beauty whispered a wispy "Thank you" into the buck's facing ear.

All the while, March ignored the fiery blush seeping deep beneath his fur and awkwardly and slowly reciprocated the embrace. All his eccentricities in consideration, the March Hare never possessed sufficient experience in being a comfort to women; to say he felt shock at having been able to placate Alice so easily would have a gross understatement...but the buck quickly dismissed that feeling and smiled again.

"Oh you're quite welcome...," one of his thick, black eyebrows perked up due to puzzlement, "um, what am I welcoming you for?"

Light giggling emanated from Alice like pouring sunshine from the clouds as she loosened her grip on March yet kept her hands on his sinewy shoulders so she could face him at arms' length.

"For being such a wonderful friend..."

xxx

Compare

"So then, you were saying you were set to marry this...," Hatter paused for a spell to recall the name of Alice's fiancé, "Hamhead fellow?"

The doe, sitting at the head of an oval-top dinner table somewhere below the Resistance HQ, March to her left and the top-hat man to her right, held back a giggle, amused at and not at all degraded by Hatter's mispronouncing the name of her definitely-not-going-to-be husband. Even if the hat-lover committed the slip by accident, the doe would have carried out no correction still. Snobby ol' Hamish deserved the insult anyway.

A shiver went up the doe's tiny spine as she set her now half-full cup of tea down, an indirectly displeased frown on her face, memories of the arranged "get-together" swarming in her mind. "Ah yes, dreadful person—a horrible stiff, he was. This one time, I saw a Scotty dog rolling around in the ground like a pig in the mud. It was so adorable I laughed!"

March tapped a chocolate biscotto to his groomed chin in thought, nodding. "Well, can't say I've ever met this Scotty, but he sounds like a fellow who knows a good time!"

Alice responded with an eager nod back. "Exactly—and rolling and laughing are more alike than most folks might think!" She had no idea why she just said that...and, quite frankly, she couldn't have cared less. "Anyway, Hamish took notice of my action immediately. You'll not believe what he did next!"

Hatter shot up to take the first guess. "Rolled down a hill in an oil barrel?"

March was up next. "Pirouetted flamingo-style across a field of snapping cockatoos?"

Growling down her temper, Alice balled her hands into fists, furious—but not at the absurd guesses of her companions. "Oh, if only! He had the audacity to demand what I was laughing at! When I pointed out the dog, he huffed at me!"

For the first time since the conversation began, the two gentlemen lost their grins and stared at Alice in disbelief. Predictably, they didn't remain silence for long.

Hatter frowned pensively, appalled at the behavior described. "Oh dear, he wouldn't happen to be the King of the Overland now, would he?"

The wintery rabbit huffed and crossed her slender arms across her chest. "With an ego like his, he might as well have been in his mind! Not only that, he was hard to please, rarely smiled, and, ugh, held such a cruel disposition to animals, especially to rabbits!"

Neither the Hatter nor Alice ever noticed the manner in which the March Hare's eyes suddenly lit up after the lapine heard that last bit of the statement.

xxx

Name

"Alice...since we'll be closer than close acquaintances in the trials to come..."

"Yes, March...what is it?" the blue-swathed doe asked in her characteristic curiosity. Her daring rescue of the buck had been only five days ago—just after the tea party discussion about Hamish, in fact— and yet March had been acting out of his personality ever since then. The other anthropomorphic lapine coughed his throat and adopted a serious expression (well, okay, more of a serious attempt at a serious expression) as he leaned a bit towards the snow-furred beauty.

"My dear, it's time you learned a most personal secret of mine." He whispered in a voice almost...tempting...maybe even sultry to an extent. Alice tried not to shiver. She subconsciously gripped the male's hand even tighter, as if doing so would alleviate the tension. In an odd way, it actually helped. Syllables as smooth as melting chocolate seeped into her elongated ears as the buck's crimson red vest glimmered in the dimming red sunlight.

Yet as the words the syllables themselves formed jumped into her long ears, Alice gradually knitted her thin eyebrows before fixing a perplexed stare upon the March Hare.

"Thackery Earwicket?"

The buck merely nodded with an "mm-hmm" full of satisfied conviction.

Alice half-smiled in amusement. "Well then...I should have expected you'd have such a—MMM!"

A pair of lips stronger than she could have ever imagined abruptly claimed hers, muting her voice as her senses all shut down. Hands found her waist and caressed it with gentleness and ease; her body arced forward, her squeaking coinciding with March—Thackery's pleasure-sounding growls. She could feel his tongue stroking her front teeth, begging her sweet, succulent entrance. The last image her eyes caught before she melted in blissful oblivion: Thackery's face, eyes shut, set in the fiercest and most passionate expression she'd ever seen him create. His moaning merged into her mouth with warm, moist breath and snaked down her throat. Though her throat dried at the sapping heat, Alice paid no mind to it.

Sensuality finally succeeded.

Alice smiled through the kiss, and gingerly raised her hands to the buck's chest, rubbing circles into the fabric and the body underneath. Before long, her hands snaked around Thackery's neck, bringing his lips closer and deeper into her own. Closer and closer, the two rabbits drew themselves to each other, the savored warmth escalating against the chill of the late evening.

Then in one long, sizzling second, the two rabbits finally parted.

Alice reopened her eyes and witnessed the greatest smile she swore she'd ever seen in her life slide across the sides of the buck's face. For the first time, the March Hare gave her a grin of absolute calm.

Then reality hit.

Thanks to that kiss, she'd just admitted to being in love with the March Hare...and he'd returned the feelings in full!

This should have felt so wrong—so very wrong. It didn't. The euphoria of being in this enigma's grasp affected her in a way inconceivable to her sense of logic...which is why every part of her—her body, her soul, her heart—pleaded to stay with Thackery...even as the male nuzzled his nose into the plushy fur of the doe's neck.

All the beaming doe could do—and willed herself to do— consisted of giggles and playful reels back of her head—though not too far, much to a certain buck's delight. "This...This is insane."

"Oh, but my dear...," he cackled lovingly before delivering a swift peck to her nose, "The insane relationships are always the most fun!"

xxx

Knight

'Six impossible things before breakfast... Six impossible things before breakfast...' Alice chanted the mantra over and over, never forgetting that single piece of advice March gave her on the first day of training. If she ever through this ordeal...'No, don't think that way, Alice! You will survive this!'

Besides, this moment right here, amongst the shouts and battle cries of her allies waging against the Queen of Heart's forces—the lady knight's lover one of those countless participants—right here...was the endgame.

This was it.

What everything had boiled down to...

The Jabberwocky...even uglier than she imagined it to be...the vicious dragon-like creature emitted a haunting bellow as it registered the sight of the harmless-looking morsel standing before it, believing the pitiful peon to be simply waiting to be slaughtered without so much as a second thought.

Alice called upon all her available willpower and spirit just to resist the instinct of flight.

Flight...flight during night...Soaring above just out of sight...comes the valiant knight...

Knight...

That one word repeated in her mind over and over.

Knights are heroes...

With one final breath, Alice gripped her sword. "And heroes do the impossible."

xxx

Fate

The beast sealed its fate the moment it flung the two rabbits high into the air.

Ropes of all kinds entangled the Jabberwocky, the creature, lured into the trap that had been lying in waiting for it, struggled against the bonds, both repulsed and pride-broken by the reality of two mere hares being able to outsmart it.

The dreaded pet of the Queen assumed for so long the Vorpal Sword was its true enemy. For countless centuries, it truly believed that weapon was its destined opponent, the only threat to his continued might.

That belief proved grossly erroneous.

Now here the ill-fated beast stood, its great wings pinioned tightly by more even of the accursed ropes, its ability to maneuver greatly hindered by the confines of the canyon to where it, in its binding rage, followed the two rabbits. Even without these bindings, the opportunity to fly out of this tight quarter would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for something of the Jabberwocky's size.

Victory should have been his. It should have been his! Others continuously called him the Queen's "pet," but that association held no actual substance. The Jabberwocky was the real ruler of this land! That Queen was only one of the numerous insects of which the Jabberwocky allowed to live under his rule.

None of that mattered now.

The Jabberwocky...had lost.

And thus the last words it would ever hear descended, uttered by the rabbits like merciless hexes as the liberated blade came upon the monster's neck.

"Off with your head."

xxx

Brave

Alice, for years to come, would never come to understand what exactly led to that one solitary moment in the dethroned Queen's courtroom. Where could she go from here? She had already clarified to her mother her intentions to remain in Wonderland. She and her friends had vanquished the dreaded Jabberwocky and subsequently restored the White Queen to her proper place.

'Six impossible things before breakfast...'

The pearly furred lapine steepled her hands in a thoughtful manner as she closed her sapphire eyes to the dim surroundings. "One: there's a place called Wonderland. Two: flowers can dance and sing. Three: Cats can talk and disappear. Four: There are drinks that can shrink you. Five: I've slain the Jabberwocky." Alice grinned to herself at that fifth item. "And Six—"

"It's very, very, very possible to fall in love with a madman."

From the cologne to the clanking footsteps, Alice never needed to turn to uncover the identity of the man behind her. She did, anyway...because she was just as silly as him.

There he stood, hands behind his back, his blonde mop-hair swaying in the breeze like sunlight made solid, the light behind him illuminating his figure from behind, turning him into a shadow bathed in a warm halo. Though his build appeared lanky and comically short, the sheer confidence and eccentricity he emanated in droves brought a shine to his character that even the Sun could never hope to compare to. Even his drooping ears somehow added appeal to his kooky gentleman-style flair.

With a confident gait, he crossed the empty courtroom and took his newfound love's hand in a gentle grip. "By the by, pretty desolate place for the heroine to be spending her celebration, don't ya think? Shadows don't make very good conversationalists, ya know?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm well aware of that." Alice's giggles slowly and gradually subsided into a deep, meaningful sigh, the doe taking in one last sweeping view of the spacious room. "I only came here for memory's sake, actually."

She squeaked when Thackery, without warning, literally swept her off her feet and cradled her bridal-style, his endearingly wide grin for her eyes only. "Time, my dear, is a ladder. Memories can be nice, but they only go one way: down. Remember the magic words!"

Alice teasingly glanced at her fiancé with a knowing smirk. "Move down?"

"Nope," he kissed full on the lips just before tightening his grip on his future wife and dashing like lightning out of the courtroom and into a glorious future, "Move up!"

Oh hey, what's that pretty, pretty button down there that says..."Review" for? Quick, press it so we can find out!