❤❤❤
“IT’S so beautiful! And is that… a bunny!” Haigha’s excitement blew through the roof. “Alice won’t be here for a while. I’m safe!” Haigha bunny-hopped after it, making bunny ears with her hands. “Bouncy bounce! Wait up, Mr. Rabbit, let’s play together! Oh, I didn’t see you there, Mr. Fox. You want to play too? What’s that? You’d like to introduce me to a friend? I can’t wait to meet—” Haigha looked up, only to see Red standing right in front of her, “…th-th-them.”
“Something wrong?”
“What’re you doing here, R-Red?!”
“I’m here to bring you back. Alice changed her mind and said, ‘We’ll be leaving immediately, so go fetch Haigha.’”
“D-Did you…see?”
“See what? Oh, you mean how you were frolicking around with the bunnies?”
He saw everything!
“Y-You didn’t see anything, okay?”
“But you were so cute. I like talking with insects; I know how you feel.”
Don’t even go there, Haigha thought as she continued to plead with him.
“Please forget everything you just saw. Please forget everything you just saw. Please forget everything you just saw. Please, please, please!”
“Hmm…well, you know what, fine. I can do that…if you become friends with me.”
Haigha was suddenly faced with the toughest choice of her life, bar none.
He seems to get on well with Alice, she thought. But, judging by their difference in rank, he probably wouldn’t go as far as to call her a friend. If I accept, I’ll likely be his very first friend and, honestly, I don’t want him parading that fact around. But I guess we won’t be seeing each other often anyways, so I might as well go along with it.
“…Deal.”
“My very first friend! Oh, what a day to be alive!”
I knew it.
“Just think of all the things we can do together. We’ll moon gaze and write poems together! We’ll chase after the sunset together. We’ll scream into the big blue sea together!”
That’s not what friends do at all…but still, no thanks! Go do that stuff by yourself!
“I must get going now. The next ingredient isn’t going to find itself after all. Send Alice my best regards. Oh, and once I’m done with my assignment, let’s go do some friend things together, friend!” Red left, all smiles.
He’s not a bad guy. I just really don’t want to see him ever again. Haigha saw him off, praying in silence that her wish would come true
✦ ✦ ✦
❤❤❤
ALICE and the gang set course for the Land of Cards. Alice was dozing off, as always, while Haigha played with the onion monster she now lovingly called “Onion Boy.”
Can Seb really beat the Demon Lord? Hatta heaved a heavy sigh.
“How come you know where the Demon Lord’s castle is?” he asked.
“I just happened to pass by it some time ago,” Seb replied with the casualness of someone who spotted a nice inn on their way back home.
How do you just happen to pass by the Demon Lord’s castle? Haigha thought but chose not to ask.
“Haigha, do you know anything about the Poem of Jabberwocky, the one Cheshire brought up?” Hatta asked. “The name rings a bell, but I’m blanking on it.”
“The Poem of Jabberwocky is a blanket term for a series of ancient spellbooks written by a wizard of the same name.”
“Now it’s coming back to me. Those spellbooks contain a slew of forbidden spells that, by my understanding, can be learned but can only be cast under a certain condition…that I also can’t remember.”
“The spellbooks themselves act as a source of magical energy and, without them physically in your possession, their spells are rendered unusable,” Haigha explained. “The one we’re after dispels illusions, at least according to Cheshire. I’m getting a little excited just thinking about laying my hands on one!”
“You can have mine, if you’d like,” Seb, who never spoke unless spoken to, interjected.
“Wait, you have one?”
“Yes, please!”
Hatta, not being a magic user, wasn’t all that interested. But Haigha’s eyes lit up on the spot.
Seb pulled a black book out of his pocket and handed it to them.
“What kind of magic’s in here? Since it’s yours, I’m guessing offensive magic or maybe summoning magic.”
“Magic that allows the user to distinguish between a raw and boiled egg without touching them.”
Very funny, the siblings thought as they opened the book only to find out that it did, in fact, contain egg-distinguishing magic. The fact that it exuded powerful magical energy mystified them even further.
Why would I ever want to use this? Hatta thought as she closed the book, handing it back to Seb.
“What kind of a person was this Jabberwocky anyway?”
“I’d love to know myself….” Haigha’s inner thoughts leaked out for a brief moment.
“We’ve arrived. Wake up Princess Alice, if you could.”
“We’re there already? Oh! Yeah, we are.”
Just as the conversation had reached its natural end, they arrived at the Land of Cards.
“Hatta, will there be card soldiers?”
“Yeah, there will.”
“I hope they’re cute…” Haigha drifted off, fantasizing about the card soldiers.
They woke up Alice and headed to town.
“Halt! We are not allowed to let you through without a written invitation.” A group of soldiers stopped them.
“You can rest assured we mean no harm. Here’s our invitation, courtesy of the Red Knight.” Seb handed them the letter.
“The Red Knight?” They looked at the invitation. “We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience, Princess Alice and her entourage. You may enter.” They bowed, smiling.
Thanks to a surprise run-in with Red, they were able to get into town without a hitch.
They parked their coach at a local inn and headed for the castle.
“It smells of sugary goodness.”
“Alice, how about we grab a bite to eat?” The sweet, pervading aroma had gotten the best of Haigha.
“Sounds like a plan!”
They went into a nearby tavern and ordered tarts, as per the chef’s recommendation. The freshly baked tarts came in after a short wait.
“They’re good…but not ‘worth stealing’ good,” Alice muttered.
“What did you expect? They’re not the Queen’s tarts.” The tavern owner came up to them.
“There’s a difference?”
“The Queen’s tarts are on a whole ’nother level! They’re made by top-class chefs using only the finest of ingredients. No wonder somebody stole them! Though it hurts not having access to the castle.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve locked down the town as well as the castle ’til they find the perpetrator. They only allow potential suspects or helpers in. It’s a darn shame, too; selling sweets to card soldiers was really good for business. Now, we’re kinda in a tough spot.”
“What about the White Queen? She never would’ve allowed this! And she’s the only person who can oppose the Red Queen.”
“The White Queen left quite a while back. Apparently, she got so sick and tired of the Red Queen doing all the actual governing that she just up and left. She pops back in every once in a while and then leaves just as quickly.”
With no one to rein in the Red Queen, the tart thief hunt had grown into something much larger than it needed to be. If they couldn’t find a way in, the Poem of Jabberwocky was as good as lost.
“What’s the plan? Want me to sneak in?” Hatta offered.
“Don’t bother,” Alice said. “It’d be a complete waste of time. We don’t have even the slightest clue where it could be stashed. Let’s just try going there first. Maybe they’ll let us through if we’re lucky. And, if not, we’re forcing our way in.”
“Let’s get going, then.”
“Wait, Hatta,” Haigha pleaded.
“Don’t tell me you’re still eating.”
“I’m not. But he is.”
The onion monster munched ever so happily on a tiny piece of tart.
“Why won’t you just set him free already?”
“I tried; he just keeps coming back.”
“You just don’t get it, Hatta! She’s clearly trying to fatten the little guy up before feasting on his flesh.” Alice sized-up the onion monster, causing it to shiver in fear.
“I’d never do such a thing!”