She looked into his eyes to make sure he was truely okay. She had not learned yet how to detect truth from lies with this man but hopefully over time she will learn.
âYour both people despite what you are. What you are doesnât make you any less of a person compared to anyone else. Remember that,â she said looking into his eyes to make sure he was listening to her words. Trying to change the subject she quickly spoke.
âSo the gathering, how do we get word around. I have my mobile phone but I donât think it will do us any good here. Since no one here owns a phone,â she said as she pulled out her iphone, the screen lighting up and she put in the passcode to unlock it.
âSurprisingly good service down here thoughâ.
âOh I could most definitely show you some later. Iâm just hoping if youâll even understand the words. The slang is quite informal and quite uh⊠personal these days. You can sing about anything, love, fear, depression, hatred, joy, freedomâŠâ she said as she walked over to a long table that had food along it for the guests.
âHere, I learnt this while I was on a trip to Australia! I-I mean a very strange place back on earth. Itâs called fairy bread. You put sprinkles on bread with butter! It doesnât seem to be too popular though, maybe itâs too foreign,â she said as she picked up a slice for her and a slice for Tarrant.
âI feel⊠I feel, despite the lack of magic, thereâs so much more to sing about. Perhaps different instruments to play with~? I suspect there would be much more variety.â
He took the slice and took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor.
âYou speak of no magic in Earth, but this is called fairy bread?â he chuckled.
âJust kidding, of course. Itâs quite good, but itâs definitely quite new to them too. Perhaps, with a little bit more sweetness, it would be quite the popular treat.â
âOh yes, there are so many things to sing about besides magic. Emotions and feelings go so well into rhythm and words,â she said taking a bit of her fairy bread and smiling.
âOh my, we wouldnât want to make it too sweet though. It might become a cavity fuel,â she said finishing off her fairy bread.
Eventually as the hour grew late everyone slowly began to leave, thanking her as they went. The only ones left seemed to be a few people a bit tipsy, the two queens, Alice, time and Tarrant. She began picking up a few of the trays to take to the kitchen. She sighed at the fact electricity was non existent much yet so there would be no dishwasher to provide her comfort.
He aided cleaning up with her, as Time, Mirana and Alice did, as well - Iracebeth merely got up and left the premises without a word, sliding between the tired guests as she left.
âPerhaps some of the Cards could help with managing the castle?â Tarrant suggested offhandedly as he helped wash the trays. He noticed that Time seemed to âflitâ in and out of time, parts that he were focused on neatly cleaned and put away in mere milliseconds; he looked on, without surprise, yet quite amused.
She noticed the Red Queen walk out and she bit her lip. She hadnât learnt to forgive as of yet but maybe time will tell. She then got back to cleaning and apologised to her friends when the cleaning is done.
âI should be able to manage, I mean till I find a trade I have no currency in which to pay them,â she says ad she took the last of the trays to the kitchen and came back into the ballroom. A few food scraps had fallen onto her dress but she hadnât noticed as of yet.
âI appreciate all your help, thankyou,â she said to the group with a big smile.
âDonât you worry about it, it was no problem at all,â Time responded, smiling. Alice and Miri nodded in response.
âIf you do so need any help, you can tell any of us, alright? Weâre usually never that busy. I could even send a few of my soldiers to help manage the place, if you so please,â Mirana offered.
She looked at the others and smiled. She knew her smiling might be a bit too much but she was truly happy. This place was very different from earth, but in a way still the same in a good way. And getting to step back through time was like a dream.
âOh I donât want to burden you at all. Donât worry I may not have skated a JaberâŠ. jaber⊠ah I canât rememberâ she replied to the white queen.
âBut that aside I should be alright. I think itâs just going to be strange living in a place so big alone. But Iâm sure itâll become homely in no timeâ.
âYouâll fit in seamlessly, of course. I know itâll feel all strange and such, but youâre our dear friend - weâll try our best to make you feel comfortable, alright?â Tarrant assured.
The rest of the group agreed to that as they did.
She gave an approving nod and a small smile. She dusted off her hands and escorted the guests to the exit. Once she shut the door she sighed and slid down the door onto the floor. She held up her hand seeing as her hand morphed into different shapes and colours.
âOh no,â she said, in slight fear but relieved that no one else was here to see what she might have become if not controlled. Maybe that trip with time did more than what she would have wanted.
As Time passed by, Tarrant, over some fun tea parties and hanging about at home making garments as he does, he felt⊠he felt like he must check up on her again.
Heading on over to the new castle, he knocked lightly upon the doors, and began to wander about the castle grounds.
When she woke up that morning she was confused, very confused. She looked down at her hand which had morphed into different shapes and itâs colour changed from pink to green to blue. This had become a regular thing now and had caused her to stay inside the castle rather than go out. She didnât know if she had control over it.
She heard a knock upon the door as she was moving dishes from breakfast to the kitchen. She had been working on morphing her hand into more of a flat surface to help carry things around. Without really thinking she opened the door and smiled.
âOh Tarrant! Hi! Itâs good to see youâ.
He noticed her hand, and almost gasped. Realizing that he must keep the situation cheerful until the opportunity to discuss this little mishap that has occurred, he greeted her.
âWhy, hello there, my dear Scarlett - I just suppose Iâd have a nice visit, of course.â
He subtly warped his own fibers in his hand, to signify that he knew.
âOh thatâs so sweet of yo-â she began to say then she saw his hand morph into threads and fivers. She was confused at first but then looked down at her hand and froze. She quickly tried to change it back as she did she dropped some of the plates. They crashed to the floor and one of them had broken into pieces.
âAh Iâm so clumsy haha,â she said trying to ignore the situation at hand as best she could as she knelt down and began picking up the pieces.
âOh, no, no, itâs okay,â he spoke as he used his own fibers to pick up and clean off the pieces.
Just like she did him in terms of controlling his primordial, unruly and chaotic state, he was sure to help her in her own peculiar little ailment.
âIâm quite sure you donât quite know how to control it just yet - knowing you were not perhaps some sort of primordial spirit, I assume, so Iâll try to help you in this, alright?â
Her eyes widened when she realised that he knew. She looked up quickly into his eyes, still kneeling on the floor from picking up the pieces.
âThatâs very kind of you, but Iâm looking for a cure than a control. Iâm hooked up to the colour of this world. One wrong move and I could drain that away. Thereâs an old library in here you could help me maybe do some research?â She offered, picking up the last of the pieces and putting them on the tray.
âWellâŠ.â
Tarrant put a finger up to his chin in thought.
âSince me and Time were, in a sort, supposed to be this particular way - you, on the other hand, might not. Of course we need a cure for this kind of thing.
The only solution we have is suppressing it by what was in that curious vial, but itâs effect wears off at extreme stressâŠ
We need another, better cure - yes, letâs head on over to the library, see what we can do.â
She nodded and quickly put the broken plate in he bin before leading him to the library. It was a huge library, well it is a castle after all so it was to be expected. She walked inside and looked round letting out a sigh.
âWe donât really even know what this is called, that takes out searching for them via alphabet,â she said as she grabbed onto the roll round ladders that rested against the wall and begun to climb up it.
Tarrant began to escalate the library books using some sort of âcrawlingâ - up between the shelves, he used his string to climb.
âSome mention of cures for ailments, I believe. Or something related to time travel - perhaps Time would have written some of these, a simple guess, but itâs entirely possible, you know. Travel guides and such, temporal displacement, all that.â
His eyes scanned the shelves, and used his fibers as feelers to âreadâ the titles of further books.
âTime probably wrote some of these yes. But if he hasnât tried to cure himself then I donât think heâs written the book we are looking for,â she said as she speed read through one of the books she had pulled out from the shelf. She closed the book and let out a sigh and put it back on the shelf. Suddenly as she was going through the B section she came across a book she was familiar with. That was odd, she knew none of the books from earth or her realm could be here, right?
âHey, this book is from earth. How did itâŠâ she said as she pulled the book out and brushed her hand over the cover. Beauty and the Beast was the title.
âPerhaps the same thing happened with other people he took with him, giving them his own incomprehensible power, then documenting on how to remove it afterwards,â he explained. âIt didnât quite work with myself, seeing as I⊠I remembered some odd things about my history.â
He heard about the little book she brought out, and climbed down to look closer.
âFrom Earth, you say? Curious, I never saw Alice with it at allâŠâ
She dusted off the cover over the book and coughed a little as she did. This book must have not been touched for a while, well I guess in a world filled with impossible things a tale such as this might have been no interest.
âOh, is Alice much of a reader?â She asked the Hattter curiously.
âOh, she is, certainly! She reads quite a lot, Iâm sure sheâll love this one - she never liked the boring literature of Earth, really.â
In his arm were a bunch of texts related to antidotes and cures, time travel and the effects of chronology - all bound together with a neat wrap of thread from his limb.
âWell Iâll definitely put this aside for her to read,â she said putting the book down on one of the tables. She then noticed the large stack of books the hatter had acquired.
âHey looks like youâve got a good start. We should check these first and see if there is any clues,â she said as she picked one of the books from under his arm and was about to pull it out but then realised all the books were attached together by thread.
âOh Iâm sorry, did I hurt you?â She asked worried that she might have caused him pain.
Tarrant winced, ever so slightly - it felt like a tiny little muscle pull, but that was as far as it went; his fibers let go of the books as he sat them down.
âNot at all, donât you worry,â he responded as his arm reformed itself properly.
âI bet weâll find quite a bit of detail here, maybe even more on dealing with our old man Time - but for nowâŠâ
He picked up one of the books, and started to search for any mention of any temporally related ailments, that which particularly altered the physical self - then he found it.
It came in stages, ranging from how far one would go into the future or the past; a few years meant some sort of time lag, ranging to several hundred meant actual configuration of the body. Any more, such as a millenia, meant sure death.
He found cures, some ranging from mere medicines, contact from Time himself for treatment, time crystals of monoammonium phosphate, which Tarrant was sure would do the thing, etc., but the only mention of the vial was in a little corner - an Earth resource meant for only the gods or particular spirits to ingest.
âSee here, I think I may have found somethingâŠâ
She read through some of the books Tarrant had pulled out.
âWow good find Iâm sure weâll find something,â she said as she opened the first book and began reading. She used a quick reading spell to interpret the information quicker as to not fall behind Tarrant. When he spoke to her she looked at him curiously and walked over to him. She bent over his shoulder and looked at the page he was reading.
âI seeâŠâ she said reading the information.
âBut it says only gods can take this kind of route for cure. I donât know about you but Iâm not what one could consider a god,â she explained.
âWhich is why weâre not going to take that vial, of course,â Tarrant said, putting his finger on where it said the contents of the vial - they were of luminol and phosphorus, which Tarrant was quite sure was something that humans should not drink.
âBut something surely says something about mild transfiguration - apply crystals to the affected area, and itâll all be fixed up in a few minutes or hours. Nothing so bad, now.â
âI suppose the only thing to considerâŠ
Oh dear, where shall we find this substance?â
She thought about it for a moment. Yes finding these substances was definitely going to be a challenge. At least by herself it would be since she didnât know Underland as well as other people would.
âWe need to look underground. Is there any tunnels or underground coves near the sea that could bare that kind of material,â she asked curiously sitting down next to the hatter.
