Malice in Wonderland Bundle 3

by Lotus Rose

  “So...she’s a traitor, then. But she’s not here to protect you, little jabberwock, so prepare to be kissed.”

  “Kissed?” But now he remembers—there is some kind of spell throughout Jabberwock Valley that causes little girls and jabberwocks to “fight” to first kiss.

  He holds his hands up. “I’m unarmed. Why have you drawn your swords?”

  “We keep hoping that one day the kissing curse will stop working and allow us to bathe in the blood of our enemies like real little girl warriors should.”

  “There is no reason for us to fight. Why not stay? We can cook you up some of our food. Many of my teammates are humans from Wonderland. You may find you have much in common.”

  “Quit trying to talk your way out of this, you creepily short jabberwock. Prepare to be kissed, just like all the others...” She reaches into a belt pouch, rummaging for something.

  “Is that what you do?” Jabby says. “Roam the forest in search of jabberwocks to accost?”

  “Something like that.” She pulls a little tube from the pouch.

  Jabby says, “The little girls and jabberwocks are at truce. You have no justification for forcing your kisses upon me, unprovoked.”

  “Oooh. Are you going to tell on us, like some little tattletale baby?”

  One of the other girls says, “He’s more like a toddler.”

  The redhead presses the tip of the tube along her lips—it’s red lipstick, and she presses her lips together.

  “What’s that?” Jabby says to the redhead.

  “Battle lipstick.” She gestures to her posse. They rummage and apply battle lipstick—one girl wears black lipstick, everyone else red.

  “Don’t I get any?” Jabby says.

  “You won’t be needing any, jabberwock. You won’t land a single lip upon us.” She raises her sword, and with a shrill war cry, she starts to charge toward Jabby—Jabby pops up on his feet in a fighting pose—but the girl only takes a couple of steps before she jolts to a halt. As if someone is pulling it, her arm lowers and sheathes her sword, though she struggles not to.

  “Drat!” she curses.

  “Seems the spell is still in effect,” Jabby says with a smirk.

  The redhead sticks out her tongue and blows a raspberry at him.

  Jabby does the same back at her while pressing his thumbs to his temples and waggling his hands.

  The redhead’s hands form into fists at her side, and she lowers her head. Under her breath, she mutters two syllables—Jabby can’t make out what she’s saying.

  He looks to the other three girls, who are watching their leader.

  A little bit louder now, the redhead repeats, “smoochie.”

  In one motion, the three girls sheath their swords.

  Louder now, in an almost conversational volume, the leader says, “Smoochie.”

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Jabby says. He twitches, looking at each girl—they don’t even seem to be watching him.

  Redhead turns to her right, takes a couple of steps and says, “Smoochie!” louder now, more forceful.

  “Smoochie!” the three girls repeat in unison. They turn and begin walking.

  “Hey now,” Jabby says with a quivering voice. “Control yourself, girls. I don’t want to have to beat you girls off with a stick.”

  He’d been hoping to lull them into conversation—expected her to say he doesn’t have a stick—the only sticks close by are on fire in the campfire. Maybe they’d laugh and say the kissing curse spell won’t allow him to use a stick, anyway.

  But they don’t even acknowledge he spoke. They’re walking in a circle. All four say, “Smoochie!” louder than before.

  “Smoochie!” they say even louder, with a downward pump of their fist as they walk faster.

  “Smoochie! Smoochie!” they chant as they pick up speed, circling Jabby.

  Jabby watches with a feeling of dread, trying to console himself with the fact that they’re only going to kiss him—at least, he hopes so.

  The girls shift into doing cartwheels, as they circle him, all the while, chanting “Smoochie!... Smoochie!”

  Now one of the blonds makes her move—she charges at him while screaming. He raises his fist and tries to punch her as she approaches, except his arms lock in place—he can’t punch!

  The girl stops a couple feet in front of him and leers.

  He stares back in a kind of daze, not knowing what to do, how to defend himself if he can’t punch.

  He feels two fleshy objects thump hard onto his shoulders, something soft touches the top of his head.

  A blond girl appears above him, completing a forward flip, it seems, she lands with her back to him, on top of the shoulders of the girl in front of him.

  He feels his knees go weak, and he sways. In shock, he presses his hand to the top of his head, as the perched blond leans backward to face him upside down—she grins at him with her lips covered in smeared black lipstick.

  He looks at his fingertips that are stained black.

  The two girls glare at him and shout, “Smoochie Smoochie!”

  Jabby swoons. Despite feeling weak in the knees, he knows he must defend himself—he must attempt to kiss these little girls.

  The two girls in front of him disengage and veer left and right by doing back flips in opposite directions, revealing their redheaded leader behind them, whose red-coated lips are twisted in a snarl. “Smoochie!” she exclaims.

  “You brat!” Jabby shouts. He charges forward, intent on kissing her, but his legs don’t cooperate very well. Before he reaches her, she cartwheels away to his left.

  “Smoochie!...Smoochie!” his accosters chant.

  He realizes his vision is blurry—had the kiss done that?

  “Smoochie frenzy!” the redhead calls out.

  The four girls erupt into a flurry of motion. It all seems like an overwhelming blur to him as girls cartwheel, perform jumping midair leg splits, somersault, and backflip all around him. He whips about to and fro, but he can’t keep track of any of them.

  He turns to his left, to see one of the blonds corkscrewing through the air. He’s alarmed as he watches her diving straight toward the ground—at the same time as he feels something soft press against his right cheek—he’s relieved to see the girl’s dive shift position, converted into a masterful forward roll on the ground.

  He feels suddenly more weak in the knees, more dizzy. He turns his head to the right to see one of the blonds backflipping away from him.

  With trembling hands he wipes at his cheek, looks at his fingertips, to see red there, mixed with the black from the previous kiss.

  He sees something strange floating in the air—a strange winged insect—a kind he doesn’t recognize—the same shade of bright red as the girl’s lipstick.

  He doesn’t focus on it, though—he can’t stop to wonder—and the insect flutters off.

  “Hey!” one of the girls shouts.

  He turns his head to look in front of him. He sees the mocking, smiling figure of the redhead. Her face is blurry though, and it’s hard to focus on her moving face—it’s moving because he’s swaying.

  “Smoochie!” the redhead shouts, and pumps her fist in the air.

  He knows he should be reacting quicker, knows his fate depends on it, and yet he can’t. And numbly, he feels a kiss upon his left cheek.

  He feels as if he is frustratingly moving in slow motion as he turns to his left, and watches in dopey wonderment as he sees one of the blonds, who launches into two backflips, followed by launching herself into a spinning jump in the air, and landing in full splits, while facing him. She lifts one arm in the air. “Smoochie!”

  Jabby grows even more weak in the knees—he fears he may fall over—his vision grows blurrier. And he sees another of those winged, bright red insects fluttering—it hovers in front of his face. Now he realizes, it’s not an insect—it’s a pair of flapping, floating lips! They’re not realistic looking, but are rather like symbolic depictions of lips
.

  But he doesn’t have time to ponder. He senses motion. He turns his head to once again face the redheaded leader.

  “Smoooo...” she’s yelling.

  It’s all in slow motion for Jabby. He can see her running, though she’s blurry. But he can’t move out of the way—his body is moving too slowly—and he knows it’s because he’s already been kissed three times.

  He feels like a spectator, merely watching something terrible about to happen.

  “chhh...” the redhead is shouting, while running.

  And all Jabby can do, is watch, and try to move—as little as he’s able—so at least he doesn’t get his neck broken in the collision.

  He lifts his arms in front of his body to try to catch her.

  “...ieeee!” she is shouting—she jumps up, lifts her legs and arms up in front of her body, sailing forward in a tackling hug.

  Her airborne body collides with him, and he catches her like a drunk would.

  His arms are wrapped around her back, her legs are wrapped around his waist as she presses her lips to his mouth.

  All the energy seems to immediately leave his body as he instantly becomes so weak in the knees, he feels he’ll topple in a few seconds.

  He feels the girl gnawing at his mouth, trying to slip him tongue.

  He sees one of the fluttering lips things flapping away from their mouths, but that’s the least of his concerns right now.

  The girl’s tongue probes, seeking his own.

  He struggles to try not to French kiss with her, but he’s weak, so weak.

  “Get your lips off my Jabby!” he hears Sleepy B’s voice call out.

  He sees the redhead’s face turn to the side to look.

  “Retreat!” the redhead calls.

  The redhead backward cartwheels off of him. He hears running footsteps, hears the voice of Humpty calling out, “Begone with you!”

  And now, at last, his knees’ weakness take over and he collapses on the ground.

  He hears Sleepy B’s comforting voice saying, “Shhh, Jabby they’re gone now.” As if to accentuate her point, he hears the sound of trotting horses, fading in the distance.

  A small hand grasps his own—it must be Sleepy B’s, though he can’t be certain, since everything’s so blurry and he is so dizzy from the kisses.

  “Yes,” says a young man. It’s Humpty. “They’re gone now. They can’t kiss you anymore.”

  “You’re the only girl I want to kiss me,” Jabby says to the blurry shape that must be his Sleepy B. He knows he might regret saying that later, but he is unable to stop himself in his present state—he almost feels drugged, and he knows he is slipping into unconsciousness.

  His eyes droop, as Sleepy B says, “Oh, Jabby! I only wish to kiss—” but he doesn’t hear the rest of it.

  He awakens a few hours later, feeling refreshed and hungry. He seems fully recovered, and his teammates resume their feeding regimen.

  The team stays put and continues feeding Jabby for the next three days. During the whole time, Malice fishes with Sleepy B, while the lads hunt—Malice avoids interacting with the boys, due to all the awkwardness caused by the changes the Wizard of Oz brought about. But one good development for Malice is that her cravings for the black rose seem to have finally disappeared.

  By the night of that third day, Jabby’s body has put on a lot more mass and he’s shot up to nearly six feet tall!

  After even more sleep that night, he declares that much of his energy has returned. He only sleeps half the day and even manages to do some fishing (whilst taking numerous nap breaks).

  The next day, he proclaims himself fit for trekking. He’s a little over six feet tall now, and his energy is at full capacity now, though he is still plagued by excessive hunger, necessitating numerous meal breaks. But, they’re on the move again, making their way to the royal caves to speak to the Emperor.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  AROUND MIDMORNING, the team comes across a dirt path, about five feet wide, exactly where Kartala told them it would be. The path can be followed to the royal caves of Nigmed, as long as certain turns are made.

  They travel about two hours without encountering anyone else, but now up ahead, they see a group of about twenty jabberwocks walking in the opposite direction—no, marching in the opposite direction. They all carry vorpal swords—every warrior jabberwock tends to have one—except for Jabby, of course.

  The two groups are too far apart to bother acknowledging each other.

  Jabby merely quietly says, “Just act like my servants and follow my lead. It’ll be fine.”

  When they’re about ten feet apart, Jabby calls out, “Hail fellow travelers!”

  They stop in front of each other. The group of jabberwocks is so large, they take up the width of the path. Grass and trees extend on either side of the path.

  One of the jabberwocks in the front speaks. “Greetings, we are soldiers for Emperor Goklam.”

  “Oh?” Jabby says. “Wonderful. We happen to be on our way to speak to him. Perhaps you can verify our directions are correct.”

  The jabberwock shouts over his shoulder to someone behind him, without turning around: “Is that him?”

  A jabberwock makes his way to the front and peers at Jabby.

  Jabby peers back, and says, “Anker?”

  “Eblis?” the soldier says back.

  “I no longer go by that name. Now, they just call me Jabby.”

  “Yes, that’s him,” Anker says. Now he addresses Jabby. “You seem shorter than I remember you.”

  “I had an encounter with a wizard. Long story. We are here on a very important mission, and it’s extremely important that we speak to the Emperor.”

  “We’d be glad to help you,” says the jabberwock in charge.

  “Wonderful!” Jabby says. “Thank you so—”

  But the jabberwock in charge gives a little flick of his wrist, and the jabberwocks of the group rush out, surrounding Jabby and the others.

  “I say!” Hatter exclaims. “What is the meaning?”

  The lead jabberwock faces them, sword drawn. “We shall take you to visit the Emperor. He has been expecting you, prince.”

  The team members gasp and turn their eyes onto Jabby.

  Through gritted fangs, Jabby says, “I am no prince. Just as I no longer have a name, I no longer have a title. Enough about me. We’re here to warn the Emperor of a threat to the jabberwocks.”

  “What threat?”

  Jabby sighs. “It is something we can only speak of with the Emperor, for now.”

  “Very well. The Emperor has ordered a search for you. You are to be captured and brought to him. You can explain it all to him. I don’t know what he wants with you, nameless one, but I have my orders. As I said, we will escort you, but you will have to have your hands bound. Lucky for you, we have rope.”

  “Yeah, lucky for us,” Malice murmurs.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  REALIZING THEY HAVE no chance against such a formidable force, the team surrenders.

  The soldiers confiscate Hatter’s satchel, but don’t search through it, because they are under orders not to. They do, however marvel at the magic and express envy that they don’t have similar items of their own—apparently, according to them, such magic items are only given to special or high ranking jabberwocks.

  And so the team become captives (except for the Cat, who apologizes, but claims he can’t interfere, and teleports away to avoid the verbal tongue lashing).

  The jabberwock soldiers are quite polite but unapologetic, saying they’re only following orders and shall remain polite so long as Malice and her team are compliant.

  And so Malice and her team (minus the Cat), make their way to their audience with the Emperor.

  Malice and team remain mostly silent, because the guards are listening. So the topic of Jabby being a prince remains unexplored, though the subject nags at Malice’s curiousity, and she has no doubts it nags at her teammates’ as well.

 
; When Jabby politely complains of extreme hunger and weakness brought on by his new body’s rapid growth, the jabberwocks obligingly stop to hunt up some food. All in all, the soldiers prove to be a quite considerate group of captors.

  It turns into another monotonous trek. It goes on for one long, boring day. On the second day, the caves come into view.

  The caves are set into the base of the Nigmed mountain that is part of the mountain range along one edge of Jabberwock Valley. The mountains are formed of black stone, rising into snow-capped peaks.

  The group approaches two large cave entrances about a hundred feet apart from each other. A large area of the forest has been cleared in front of the entrances, and a semicircular moat extends from the mountainside, making the wooden drawbridge over the moat the only way to get to the caves. Two jabberwock guards stand on each end of the bridge.

  As they approach the drawbridge, the Cat chooses to appear. Despite the jabberwocks’ effort to shoo him away, he doesn’t comply, and accompanies the team toward the royal caves. They’re still referred to as the royal caves out of force of habit, the soldiers explain, despite the fact the royal family no longer lives there.

  After crossing the bridge, the group of jabberwocks separates—most of them go to the left cave entrance—four remain with Malice’s team, escorting them to the right side entrance.

  It’s a huge cavern, with stalagtites and stalagmites. It’s dim, but fairly well lit, though not by torches—odd, glowing, probably-magical orbs float throughout the cave shedding light.

  The cave is sparsely occupied by about six jabberwocks spread out from each other, engaged in various leisurely activities.

  One of them is painting on an easel, two are engaged in some sort of board game—checkers or chess, perhaps. Another seems to be napping.

  One of the soldiers disappears into one of the numerous off-shoot tunnels. Several minutes later, he returns, stating that the Emperor shall speak with them privately in the throne chamber.

  And so that’s where they’re escorted—off into a side tunnel they go, then through meandering tunnels and chambers, all lit by those glowing orbs. Here and there they run across a few jabberwocks, watching them as they pass through, occasionally expressing puzzlement as to why humans are in the caves, but the soldiers don’t reply.