Almost Alice

I am the red in the rose, the flowersOn the blankets on your bedroom I am the gray in the ghost that hidesWith your clothes behind your closet door.I am the green in the grass that bends backFrom underneath your I am the blue in your back alley viewWhere the horizon and the rooftops you cut me I suppose I would bleed the colorsOf the evening can go anywhere you wish cause I'll be there, wherever you are.(Wherever you are) (I will always be your keysWhen we are lost in the Technicolor phase)I am the black in the bookThe letters on the pages that you I am the orange in the overcastOf color that you visualize.I am the white in the walls that soak upAll the sound when you cannot I am the peach in the starfish on the beachThat wish the harbor wasn't quite so you cut me I suppose I would bleed the colorsOf the evening stars. (my darling)You can go anywhere you wish cause I'll be there, wherever you are. (my darling)(Wherever you are)

The Technicolor Phase - Owl City

Alice woke alone, looking around the bright white of the room until her eyes fell on a brilliant green splash. Her clothing for the day. She dressed quickly and went in search of her friends. After long minutes of wandering she found them gathered around a large table, the top of which held a moving map of the worlds.

McTwisp noticed her first, "Good morning Alice!"

The others raised their heads to look at her, "Morning everyone."

Alice accepted an apple from the smiling rabbit, and moved to stand beside Tarrant and stared down at the map. She traced her fingertip around the dark line that surrounded Underland. "What's at the edge of the world?" she asked.

"Outlands of course" Mally replied.

Alice drew her finger higher, "And here to the far north?"

"Highlands" the dormouse replied, looking over to Tarrant.

"That's were the Hightopp clan hails from, in the days before we were hatters." Tarrant offered.

Alice tapped the map, "I need to go there."

Mally's eyes went impossibly wide, "But thas wild country it is."

"I don't care."

Tarrant moved slightly closer to Alice, "E'en the red queen would not push her armies there." he said in that rich brogue. But his eyes were still very green.

Alice took a deep breath, "I believe the Oraculum is there."

All eyes snapped to her, "What?" they asked in unison.

"Well the trees said last night.."

"Did they mention where Alice? Did they?" Mc Twisp asked eagerly.

She shook her head.

"Trees will say anything for a kind word they will." Mally muttered.

The others nodded and agreed but Alice spoke up again, "They said to ask the blue lord."

"Absalom." Tarrant mouthed to himself, eyes sliding to the side in his nervous habit. Then he giggled before he could stop himself.

McTwisp wrung his white paws, "Well that settles it, until we speak to Absalom we cannot rule it out."

One day until Absalom might arrive. Alice was a ball of nervous energy, a thousand questions swirling in her mind, demanding to be asked and answered. She paced the terrace, wringing her hands. There were so many things to consider. She cast a glance from the corner of her eye at where the hatter sat swinging his pocket watch. His eyes hovering between yellow and green.

He seemed to show his mad side more and more. She'd mentioned it to McTwisp and he had merely shrugged and said the hatter was likely hiding something that had been on his mind for some time. When she pressed, he refused to say further.

Tarrant sat at a small table watching her with sad eyes. Pocket watch back in place. Where was her comforting stillness?

"Alice?" he called and she paused, turning to look at him over her shoulder. He caught his breath at how lovely she looked beneath the brim of the polished little hat he'd made for her. She gave him a wobbly smile. "Won't you sit down? Pacing won't make him arrive faster will it?"

She moved to sit across her him, and those now green eyes bored into her. "I'm sorry. I just have so many things on my mind.".

He nodded, "Shall we sit and consider things that begin with the letter B?"

She blinked at him.

"Blonde, boy, ball, bat, butter, biscuit, bandersnatch, butterfly, beagle…beautiful."

She smiled a little at him, "Bend, bonnet, Black Pepper, Banyan Tree."

He beamed at her, before he went quiet for a moment, "What is a …Banyan tree Alice?"

She waved her hand, "A tree I saw on my travels."

Tarrant was silent for a long moment, "You…You never speak of it. The time away from Underland." His voice was soft and he wouldn't meet her eyes, "You must have liked it very much to stay away so long."

"Tarrant?"

"You said you'd be back before I knew it. But I did know it Alice and it was awful." His eyes flickered to yellow.

Here was the thing then.

"I did everything as quickly as I could Tarrant, I really did."

"Ye forgot." His tone held a dark note that dared her to deny it.

Alice sighed unhappily, "After a time, yes, I did Tarrant. Not that I wanted to. I'm sorry."

He shook his head then, forcing the orange out of his eyes. "Not your fault, Underland slides away from memory. It can't be recalled outside of the realms for long. I told you when you left."

She looked down at her hands in her lap, her bandages were still clean, at least that was going right. "I didn't understand it at the time."

The hatter saw her slip into gloom and sat up straighter, "But you did remember and you came back." His tone hopeful now, cheerful.

She met his eyes and smiled then, "I did yes. Though you don't look much like you did the last time I had seen you."

He touched his hair with an nervous hand, "Yes. Well had to clean up a bit you know. And you're one to talk, look at all the changes you have made."

"Changes?"

He nodded, "I'm quite sure you didn't have so much…ehm… before." he said waving his hands before his chest.

She fixed him with a stern glare and he looked at his cup again.

She leaned back in her chair, "You make a very dashing hatter, Tarrant." And he blushed a little at her words, unused to such compliments anymore.

"Will you tell me Alice? About the Overland?" he asked, "I should very much like to know."

And when he asked so sweetly, who was she to deny him? So she began to tell him tales of the wide sea and the strange lands. Mally joined at some point, listening raptly to the stories. Soon the hatter couldn't stand it. "One moment please Alice."

He jumped up from his seat and dashed into the castle only to return brandishing a paintbrush imperiously. "Paint the story." he said passing her the very dry brush. She stared at him and then at the brush.

"Oh yes!" Mally said, "Please do!"

Alice wasn't sure how to go about this. But she dutifully lifted the brush to the air and began to speak again. As the words left her mouth, colors spilled from the brush, translucent and shimmering. "Oh!".

She painted the dusty silk road, the gray harbors in London, the misty green mountains of China, the bright blue seas near Sumatra. She painted cherry and plum blossoms, placid lakes. She painted odd clothing and strange hats that made the hatter and the dormouse coo with delight.

She painted the colorful spice markets, the fragrant tea shops, laughing with delight when the scents rolled back to her. She painted the dense jungles and lush bamboo forests, she painted the Sikhs and the Punjabs in their colorful silks and festivals. She painted dervishes whirling in prayer.

She painted golden deserts that stretched like vast oceans, and ancient stone palaces. She painted shaggy mongol ponies and the delicate court dancers. She painted the ocean lapping at the hull of the 'Wonder'. She painted the day she had frolicked in the surf near a small island with the sailors.

She painted the large kelp beds, the swift dolphins, the large and gentle whales. The bright fish that could fly. She painted storms at sea. Like the one that came from nowhere, like a great swirling wall of cloud and turned the whole sky an eerie purple gray. She even painted the St. Elmo's fire that lit the sky with electric current and danced across the ship like fae flame in a myriad of colors.

She painted the orange and black tigers, the great gray elephants, she painted the temple cats of Siam. With large, intelligent blue eyes and chocolate faces. She painted their large soft paws against her own small white hands.

She painted temples and monks wrapped in bright robes and all the animals she'd seen. She painted ships and stars and night skies. She painted the faces of friends she had made. She painted the dreams she had had at night when Underland wanted to be remembered. She painted the journey home, the fire and the room of doors.

And at the very end she painted her most favorites places of all. An overgrown temple being taken over by Banyan trees covered in rolling mists, and the hatter's brighter tea parties. She turned to look at Tarrant and Mally who stood watching with wide eyes and huge smiles.

"Oh Alice" Mally said, "Its wonderful."

"This, Tarrant, is a banyan tree." she finally said.

He nodded, "Yes, its very…ehm..banyany."

Mally asked at least a hundred questions about the images shimmering in the air. And Alice dutifully answered every one, much to the delight of her small audience. She even painted the Ehru playing woman she'd met in a garden once, the sad plaintive notes ringing through the white terraces.

Alice sat beside the hatter now, sipping her tea and watching as the colors slowly danced away on the breeze. As she watched the last three years slowly vanish she was struck by one simple thought. "I missed you when I was gone. Even when I couldn't really remember."

And Tarrant smiled widely at her. Feeling as though his very chest might burst from the great wave of happiness that filled it.

They sat for the rest of the afternoon, sharing tea and cakes and stories. Remembering memories apart and together and for the first time in a very long time, Alice felt very nearly whole.

Stayne prowled the corridors of the red palace. That insipid color was slowly giving way to the deft strokes of painters. He hated red, always had. His long legs carried him in a awkward swaying swagger as black slowly covered the crimson.

The hedges had long since overgrown. There was not to be any indication of the bulb headed woman who once ruled here. He made his way to the royal chamber where he had whored himself for power and shouted to the servants to burn the heart shaped bed.

They didn't speak, couldn't. They were lumps of cold flesh driven with only a purpose. To serve him. To any end by any means. They stank of course as all dead things did, but he ordered more windows knocked into the walls and figured he would just have to deal with it. For now.

"Lord Stayne." came a sultry voice and he turned to see one of Midwidgen sisters approaching him. She was tall as well, though not as tall a he. Her long violet hair and orange eyes striking against her pale flesh.

"Yes Witch?" he asked. They were a bit creepy even for him, but he dared not cross them, just yet.

She eyed him, "There is a champion in the white court."

He laughed, "Impossible. I burned the passage myself, and the only other means of travel here is the looking glass. That's been at the bottom of the sea for some time."

"Be that as it may, the Alice has returned."

His face flushed, twisted with fury. "Go, leave me."

The witch turned and sauntered away, the champion was the least of his worries as she saw it. It was the champion's champion that proved most dangerous.

Stayne punched the wall, uncaring when he felt the bones of his hand shift. "Damn you Alice!" She would have to die of course. He knew he could not turn her to his will or whims. Pity, she was very lovely. So spirited, such a fantasy to break.

The legend stated the Champion was a danger to one of the rulers. Did it really matter which side? The more he considered it, the more a dark, wonderful, mad idea took root.

He had always wanted Alice. Even as a child, though he kept those thoughts to himself. Such things were not accepted, not even in Underland. Even when he thought she was Um from Umbrage, he'd found himself so painfully hard with want of her, that he'd closed his eyes and nearly pounded the large headed queen through the mattress of her bed.

Of course the hatter wanted her too, there was no doubt of that. "Ehm, witch!" he called sheepishly.

Those orange eyes fell on him and she gave a smirk, "Still want her?"

Absalom arrived in the evening, lighting on the terrace railing. Alice rushed forward to greet him. "I have so many questions."

"Of course you do."

"I need the Oraculum. The trees said to ask the blue lord and you are the only one I can think of who is so….blue."

The butterfly laughed and took to the air to land on a the white jasmine blossoms, "Clever girl." he replied in his deep voice, "You have found the queen's letter and spoken to the trees."

"Yes. But I don't really understand."

"I thought not, stupid girl."

Alice frowned, first she was clever now she was stupid again. Hmm.

"What is the fire of Underland?"

He arched his brows at her, "You of course foolish child."

"But how?"

"I cannot tell you everything Alice. There are some riddles you must solve for yourself." Absalom sounded impatient with her.

"Well how am I supposed to be the fire if I don't even know what that means?" she snapped.

He chuckled then, "It will come to you Alice. In time. Though you don't have much left. Underland is already starting to wilt and wither."

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"Find the Oraculum."

"But where?

"To the north on Banganesh field. The hatter knows it. But it will not be easy. You will have to fight Alice."

"But I don't know how to do that." She was getting frustrated, this was all so overwhelming.

"Again, the hatter knows it. You did see him on Frabjous day didn't you? Most impressive. Not ordinary hatters are Hightopps."

Alice paused to consider it. Then lifted her amber eyes to the blue butterfly, "And Stayne?"

Absalom shook his head slowly, "Twisted, sick, dangerous. Very dangerous. Beware him Alice."

She nodded. "Thank you Absalom."

"Best hurry Alice."

She spun from him, nearly colliding with Tarrant who steadied her with a slight chuckle and then she dashed past and flew up the stairs of the tower.

Tarrant watched her go. "What did you tell her Absalom?" he asked.

"Only what I could. You must teach her Tarrant. Her very life will depend on how well she wields the vorpal sword of her own will."

Tarrant's eyes flickered orange to green and back again, "Why can't she just …be?"

"That isn't mean to be. Not at this moment. You mustn't interfere."

"Ye great blue bam pot!"

"Hatter!"

"I'm fine"