Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Alice

by Roy A. Mauritsen

  “You have a lot of work ahead of you. Alice has left much broken. But Wonderland will heal, as it always has,” the Caterpillar replied, suppressing another cough. “It is up to you to make a new Wonderland.”

  “It won’t be the same without you,” said Lily.

  “Lily, I am proud of you, daughter,” Lily heard her mother’s voice say. Shifting around on the rubble looking for her, Lily did not see her familiar sheep mother. It took several moments for Lily to register that standing with Jack and Haigha was a confident, yet frail woman dressed in white. Her mother was no longer a sheep. Lily’s eyes widened happily as a huge smile came across her face; her mother was no longer a sheep! With a shout of excitement, Lily nearly fell several times as she scrambled quickly down, racing over and hugging her now human mother.

  “Easy dear,” cautioned Lily’s mother with a laugh. “I am just turned back to human form and you would have broken me already!” Then with her human arms she hugged her child, placing a warm kiss on Lily’s forehead. A tear of happiness slipped from her mother’s eyes and rolled warmly down her cheek.

  “I can’t believe it!” said Lily. “In all my life, you’ve been a sheep!”

  “I saw no more reason for her to hide as such any longer,” offered the Caterpillar.

  “Thank you!” cried Lily happily as she buried her face against her mother’s neck.

  “Yes, thank you, dear Caterpillar, for this,” whispered the former White Queen as she wrapped her arms around her child.

  Haigha bent down solemnly upon his knee, and bowed his head dutifully, “my queen,” he said.

  “Get up, you crazy Hare!” ordered the former White Queen happily, “and give us a hug!”

  “Besides,” added Lily, “I’m queen now, and if I ever catch you bowing like that to me…” Lily broke out into laughter at Haigha’s panic stricken look that he’d already offended some sort of protocol. Then realizing he was not in trouble, Haigha wrapped his arms around them both.

  Another coughing fit overcame the Caterpillar, his breathing labored and after a moment to recompose himself, he turned his attention to Jack.

  “Offlander, the Looking Glass may be broken, but with what little life is left in me I can still use this remnant to get you home.”

  How?” asked Jack dejectedly. “It’s shattered into tiny pieces. You said there is no way back.”

  “The mushroom!” Lily realized. “Do you still have it?”

  Jack did, and pulled it from his pocket. “But I don’t know which one is which. I was hoping it was going to be the one that makes me grow larger. Might have come in handy when I got back home.”

  “Or,” said Lily excitedly, “it can make you grow smaller and you can use one of the broken pieces of the Looking Glass!”

  “Very good, Lily,” said the Caterpillar.

  “Thank you,” said Jack humbly to the Caterpillar. “I hope there’s still time.”

  The Caterpillar started to laugh, which turned into more coughing, as he explained.

  “Time? Time never really developed here in Wonderland; like a plant trying to grow in weak soil,” he said. “The inhabitants of Wonderland never really took to it and thus time has never taken hold here in the way it has in other places.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean,” said Jack.

  “I’ll explain it differently, so that you will understand differently,” the Caterpillar rolled his head closer to Jack, “In Wonderland, time is as much of a place as it is a time. Time is anything you want it to be, too much time, never enough time. All the time in the world, it’s almost time, lunch time, just the right time; these are all the trappings of a person. Your time is a place- a where, if you will. Your kind tends to only focus on the when aspect which is a very small and not as important part of it. If you need to be somewhere at five o’clock, you are limiting yourself to a point of time and place. But, if you need to be somewhere at just the right time lets say, then from Wonderland, you can arrive anywhere.”

  “So I can’t go back in time and stop myself from say, planting the beans of the beanstalk, but the mirror can bring me to where or when I need to be in the present.”

  “Correct,” nodded the Caterpillar weakly. “It’s up to you, to know what you want.”

  “But time cannot turn back death,” Jack said casting a grim tone. “Not even for you. I am truly sorry,” he offered.

  “What is death to a caterpillar but another metamorphosis?” The Caterpillar replied, “but while I am still alive the magic of Wonderland will function, at least enough for a small sliver of the Looking Glass to function.”

  Jack gathered his sword, picking up the sack that held the belt, shoes and his invisible cloak. Turning to Lily, he held out his hand. “Good luck with the whole queen thing.”

  “I think my first order as queen is to outlaw all offlanders,” Lily replied with a smile and a wink.

  Jack withdrew his hand, slightly embarrassed. “See, you are already a wise queen,” Jack said, and he and Lily shared a laugh.

  Then Lily stepped in close to Jack, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him close, and placed a lingering kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for your help, Jack. This wouldn’t have been possible without you,” she said softly and sincerely.

  “Good bye, offlander,” Haigha suddenly interrupted and extended his paw, Jack reached out and the two of them locked forearms in a firm shake.

  The former queen stood nearby offering a warm smile, “You are a good man, Jack, whether you believe it or not.”

  Jack offered a faint smile, “Someday I’ll believe it.” Then Jack added, “Your daughter will make a great queen.”

  “Jack,” Lily reached out and touched his arm, “are you going back to save Alice, or back to the Ella you spoke of?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess I won’t know until it’s time to make that choice,” Jack sighed, looking up at the rock where the shattered slivers of looking glass remained; pausing for a moment to consider Lily’s question. Jack offered one last smile and started to step among the broken stone. Jack traversed the rocks, heading towards the looking glass shard that would lead him back home.

  “I am tired, dear queen. So tired…” mumbled the Caterpillar.

  Then the Caterpillar strained his head and focused his gaze of the Looking Glass shard upon the rocks. The pieces of mirror flashed and shimmered, finally flickering back to life as portal. “Offlander, once you step through, the portal will close,” explained the Caterpillar..

  Finally reaching the area where the Looking Glass shards rested, Jack stood on a slab of rock near the mirror shards, his pack slung over his shoulder with his sword in one hand he turned to give a final wave.

  “Sleep now, my friend, you may rest now, God of Wonderland, blind to this world for you have gazed at the universe far too long,” the former White Queen whispered. Knowing that only the Caterpillar could hear her last words to him, her eyes quietly filled with tears.

  The Caterpillar raised his wrinkled face to the sky, feeling the warm sunlight on his chaffed wrinkled skin one last time and whispered, “I am a butterfly,” he said as his blind eyes sparkled with a vision only he could see. “A butterfly that dreamt…” Then slowly he lowered his head upon the rocks “I dreamt… I…was an emperor.” Then his body went still.

  The great Caterpillar of Wonderland was dead.

  As Jack turned back from looking at the Caterpillar’s body one last time, the air next to him shifted.

  With an angry roar, the Cheshire Cat suddenly materialized in front of Jack, his great teeth snapping just in front of the surprised offlander. Jack stumbled backwards, seemingly pushed, which would have been an impossible feat from the intangible cat. Jack lost his footing and tumbled down the rocky pile, his sword flying from his hand, falling out of reach with a loud clang amongst the rock and debris. Jack landed hard at the bottom, and he lay there unmoving.

  The Cheshire Cat with his large tiger-like stripes rippling across his body, walked effortl
essly down the rubble, his incorporeal stride disconnected from the rocky landscape.

  An arrow, whose mark would have been true otherwise, sailed harmlessly through the ghostly cat’s head, ricocheting away against the rocks behind him. Haigha notched another arrow anyway.

  “Mother, stay back!” Lily ordered as she and Haigha rushed over to Jack.

  “Oh, I’m not after such a feeble prey as the White Queen. In time, perhaps,” Cheshire growled.

  “It’s over, Cheshire,” said Lily, as she pulled her sword and kept it in front as the Cheshire Cat approached. “I am to be queen. Keep your dignity and your life by keeping your distance,” she ordered.

  “If nothing else, I will rip Jack’s heart out for his interference!” he roared again. “If it’s the last thing I do!”

  “We all know you can’t touch him, ghost cat, or any of us,” Lily said defiantly.

  “Oh? So sure about that?” growled the Cheshire Cat. “Then why do you have your sword out?”

  ***

  marchenton castle, 2 nights prior.

  “I see you still bear the scars from the last time we met,” the Fae Gaia observed. “I left you alive but incorporeal. You have not learned your lesson to stay away.”

  “Yes, that was a long time ago. I have learned to live with my intangibility issues since then. I’ve even made some improvement in recovery. Have I told you I’ve regained partial tangibility in my claws?” With a glint, several long razor-sharp claws popped out from Cheshire’s front paw. The Fae knew Cheshire’s claws could slice through anything, as it had been the main reason they rendered him intangible. Indeed, now the claws looked very real.

  ***

  wonderland, present day.

  With effort and focus, the translucent forearm of the Cheshire Cat began to materialize, and in seconds was fully solid and very real. Four razor sharp claws popped out of the Cheshire Cat’s right paw. The cat raked his claws across a nearby chunk of onyx, gouging deep marks in the hard stone as the Cheshire Cat gave a very wide, devilish grin of satisfaction.

  “Aahhh,” the cat purred. “I had forgotten how good that feels.”

  Lily flashed her sword defensively in front of the Cheshire Cat. “Stay back!”

  In a swift strike, the Cheshire Cat lashed out, his claws rang against Lily’s sword, instantly severing her blade into pieces that clattered to the ground. Stepping menacingly forward, nearly on top of Jack where he had landed, the Cheshire Cat walked with an unnatural limp caused by the discrepancy of mass of his solid paw and the ethereal visage of the rest of his body. Jack shifted and groaned.

  Haigha stepped in front of Lily and leveled his bow at the Cat. “Do not take another step toward the new queen, Cheshire,” he warned, but the cat was not concerned, Haigha had shot at him before with no effect.

  “I shall kill you all!” The cat grinned as he took another step closer.

  Haigha loosed his arrow directly at the Cheshire Cat, who did not bother to dodge; many years of being intangible had either dulled the cat’s reaction time to such attacks or enhanced his arrogance that he no longer had to worry about avoiding them. But this time it was Cheshire’s mistake. The arrow dug through the very real and tangible right forearm sticking out through the other side and the Cheshire Cat reared up, howling out in pain as blood trickled down his fur.

  “Did you forget how pain feels?” said Haigha with a serious tone as he notched a third arrow.

  Cheshire’s whole body seemed to shutter and flicker. He shook off the pain, and began to rise into the air. Then the Cheshire Cat paused.

  Jack had disappeared.

  “What?” said the Cheshire Cat in disbelief, “No!” He raged. Then he turned his anger at Haigha, “You will pay for that!” with rage that seemed to shimmer the air around him, the Cheshire Cat leapt at Haigha, who instinctively pulled his bow up in front of him.

  “I can play your hide and seek game too!” Cheshire heard Jack’s voice say. Then the air parted in front of Haigha and Jack appeared, pulling off his invisible cloak from himself and grappled with the cat as he floated in the air, quickly using the cloak like a net entrapping the Cheshire Cat within.

  Though the Cheshire Cat was intangible, he seemed to have mass underneath the magical cloak. The two of them landed hard on the ground in front of Lily and Haigha. It was all Jack could do to keep both arms around him as the Cheshire Cat hissed, growling angrily and bucking with ferocious strength. The cat’s one corporeal paw slipped out from the invisibility cloak and slashed painfully down the side of Jack’s face. Jack struggled against the one paw trying to get it back under the invisibility cloak.

  “Haigha! He can’t see—I got him pinned down! Shoot him!” Jack yelled desperately, as he rolled on the ground, grimacing and straining with blood running down the side of his face from the deep claw marks, as the Cheshire Cat struggled to get free. It was almost comical as Jack struggled, his arms wrapped around a cloak that seemingly held nothing but empty air, as if he was miming a bar room brawl. Except for a disembodied cat paw that floated in the air close to him angrily try to swat at him.

  Haigha raised his bow, “Shoot at what? It’s invisible and moving!” he said.

  “You’ll hit Jack!” Lily yelled.

  Haigha drew back the arrow, trying to time his shot, when the whole cloak suddenly shifted and became visible. The Cheshire Cat began a muffled scream beneath the cloak. Jack wrestled with the struggling cat and he could hear the cat suddenly panic and screech again “No!” it hissed. The Cheshire Cat’s shouts began to dim and fade, and then suddenly the cloak collapsed as if nothing was underneath. Jack fell abruptly to the ground with a grunt.

  Quickly scrambling to his feet, Jack pulled the cloak back, revealing the only thing left of the Cheshire Cat— the corporeal right paw and forearm that was not covered by the invisible cloak.

  “He disappeared?” said Haigha with measured surprise.

  Jack shrugged his shoulders, “I guess he escaped again?” Jack held up the grey plain looking cloak and inspected it, having never seen what it looked like as it had always been invisible. He shook his head at the cloak. “Looks like he ruined my invisibility cloak, though,” Jack used a corner of the grey cloak to wipe the blood from the side of his face.

  “I’d wager he’s gone for good,” the former White Queen said.

  “How do you know for sure, Mother?” asked Lily.

  “The cloak was drained of its magic in the process. What happens when you take something that is essentially intangible, and force it to also become invisible?”

  “It becomes an intangible and an invisible something?” Jack offered, still somewhat puzzled.

  “It ceases to exist,” Lily’s mother answered simply.

  “Except for this part,” Lily kicked the severed arm that lay on the ground where the Cheshire Cat had been.

  Then the former queen’s tone shifted, and the old woman touched Jack’s shoulder. “We’ll handle it from here Jack; you need to get back to your world. Hurry, with the Caterpillar gone, that portal won’t remain open much longer,” she reminded him.

  Jack nodded, “Good luck.” He said and gathered his things quickly, then on his way to back up to the portal, he stopped briefly to retrieve his dropped sword. He looked back at Lily and the others and then reached into his pocket and pulled out the chunk of the Wonderland mushroom cap. With a moment’s hesitation Jack then popped the earthy tasting mushroom in his mouth. Almost instantly, he watched the world grow large around him. The small sliver of the looking glass became large enough for him to walk through. With a deep breath, Jack stepped through the Looking Glass shard.

  ***

  Lily and her mother watched as Jack stepped through, the mirror shard shattering to even smaller pieces moments after.

  Then Lily was aware of something over her head, looking up she saw a golden, glowing ethereal crown materialize. The Crown of Wonderland, once worn by Alice, descended and came to rest upon Lily’s head. It stayed fo
r a moment, as Lily reached up, trying to adjust it upon her head. Then, like a wisp of a cloud, it vanished from sight. Off in the distance she saw a Lion walking side by side with a Unicorn, disappearing between the hedges of the Royal Gardens of Castling. Though the crown was not visible unless Lily wanted it to be, all of Wonderland would know of Lily, Queen of Wonderland & Daughter of the White Queen.

  The White Queen smiled and wrapped her arm around her daughter’s shoulders, giving her a loving squeeze.

  “It’s official now. You are Queen, just like it happened to Alice. But, this isn’t your Mother’s Wonderland anymore. No more Caterpillar, Mad Hatter or Cheshire Cat... and no armies.”

  “What about the White Rabbit?” asked Haigha.

  “Jack will deal with him in his land, I’m sure. That little white shit would be a fool to show his face around here again,” Lily’s mother said confidently. “But things here have changed forever. Indeed, the Gods of Wonderland have fallen,” she said, distracted by her own private thoughts, bemused at the Caterpillar’s words.

  “Well, then we’ll have to make a fresh start of it,” answered Lily, then after a pause, “do you think we’ll ever see Jack or Alice again?”

  “Jack? I doubt it,” said the White Queen. “And if we are lucky, we shall never see Alice again.”

  CHAPTER 47

  CHARGE OF GOLDENHAIR

  Marchenton, Near Hubbard’s Ridge, 2 Days Prior.

  “Mother Dryad, there is a war coming to this land. My friends will need help.”

  “The Pines in the mountains speak upon the winds of strangers among them. Mavor Goldenhair, the dryads will not interfere in these matters. Our people will not leave the trees. Unless there is another way, we cannot help you.”