A/N: For those that have been reading this, for at least a while, I've been doing a lot of revisions to get the transition in one area to work. It's not all that much, but I did move a page or two around(not here yet, but I'll get there in a few days). Also, I've changed it so that Chapter 2 is now Chapter 2 and 3, which is because of the revisions. So those that think they missed a chapter, you haven't.
Alice stumbles closer to Loki,
staring at the floor. Pondering over the letter, she plops down on the bed and
snatches it from Loki’s hands. Again and again she reads through it and
panics.
Loki digs through the white envelope,
pulling out the last letter. It’s much longer than the first. He waits for
Alice to pause her thoughts before reading it aloud to her. Loki begins, “Ah Loki, there’s a few last things I forgot to
mention. First, I want to tell you where you’ll put the pocket watch. I want
you to place it at the base of the tree outside your window sometime this week.
Do not make us wait.” Loki stares at the letter and mouths the last few
sentences over again to make sure he read it correctly.
Both Alice and Loki’s trail outside the
window and down the bark of the tree. Gradually, he blinks his attention back
to the letter. “I take it that you’ve
checked the tree. The second point I want to make, is about your friend, Alice.
However, before I do, I want to ask you: Do you know about Wonderland? If you
don’t, then ask Alice, she knows all about it. Or you can ask your other buddy,
the one with the dark sunglasses and shameful scar. Raven’s his name, right?
“However, Asgard
doesn’t call him Raven. To us, he’s Thor. It’s the same for you and Alice: Loki
and Midgard Serpent. Though, you probably know her best by another name—Lacie.
It’s been a long time since you’ve called her that, hasn’t it been? Two years
ago, if I am correct. Speaking of which, you’ve changed her name quite cleverly;
I’ve always loved an anagram.
“Now, for the main
point that I’ve been meaning to tell you. There’s something I must warn you
about--Alice’s mission given by Wonderland. She has been given orders to
retrieve your pocket watch and hand it over to her superior. I warn you for
your own good: Don’t fall for any tricks she might throw at you to get your
pocket watch. I know I don’t seem very trustworthy, I’ve even threatened you in
my previous letter, but I advise you to heed my warning. The Queen of Hearts,
the leader of Wonderland, will stoop to dirty tricks to get what she wants.
Wonderland is a very dangerous place, and their plans are always rotten. I
don’t want you be another victim of them. Well, until I see you, this is
goodbye Loki.”
Loki stares blankly at the long letter, as
does Alice. Then a knock on the door takes them out of their trance-like state.
Sliding the letter back in its envelope, Loki hides both envelopes in his
pocket. He half-hesitates to open the door, fearing that Asgard is at the door.
Before Loki says anything, the man on the
other side makes his complaint. “Hey! I was beginning to think that no one was
home.” He strides in and leans against the wall near the door.
Loki clicks the door shut while breathing
out a relief. “What brings you here so early in the morning Raven?”
Swirling around a nearby chair, Raven sits
himself down and leaning back, raising the front two legs off the ground. “I
had a feeling like you might need my help soon, but never mind about me,” Raven
points to Loki’s pocket with the envelopes. “Seems like you’ve got something
interesting. Hand it over, I want to take a look.”
Shrugging at Alice, Loki hands over his
share while Alice is reluctant to hand over hers. However, she gives in. When
Alice spots the black envelope, her eyes twitch and her head throbs. She gets a
sense of Deja-vu. As soon as Alice focuses on something else, the pain
subsides.
A few minutes later, Raven finishes the
letters and hands them back to Loki. “Looks like you have trouble all right. I
thought so.”
“So,” Loki slips the envelopes and letters
into his back pocket. “Do you know about this Mad Hatter from Wonderland? Is he
like the book?”
“Yeah, I know him. More than I would wish
to; but no, he’s not mad like in the book. He’s worse. Yet, of the people you’ll
meet from Wonderland, he’s probably going to be the least of your problems.”
The conversations stops unfinished. Alice
motions to leave the room and take a walk. Raven agrees. They exchange similar
glances. Watching them eye each other strangely, Loki begins to suspect
something between them, but he gets no chance to say a word. Alice and Raven
start to leave. Usually Raven doesn’t go with Loki and Alice on their daily
stroll, but today he has a suspicion that he should.
Making her way to the park, Alice
occasionally peers behind her at Loki. He’s falling far behind both her and
Raven. Far inside the park, they encounter a problem. Or rather, three of them.
Wonderland shows up. Three members stand
in their path. One is a man with a black top hat, which has a card that says
‘10/6’ protruding from the brim, appearing elegant compared to Loki. Yet, while
he seems like a gentleman, standing rigid in his long coat, but his wild
hairstyle and dirt on his coat implies otherwise. Loki determines his identity
to be undeniable: the Mad Hatter.
Beside him stand two adorable looking
identical twin boys. Giving the impression to be around the age of ten, they
are roughly half the height of the Mad Hatter. Their blonde hair and deep blue
eyes are nearly kept the same as the other. The only difference between them
are where they part their hair, one parts on the left, and the other parts on
the right. However, since they’re with the Mad Hatter, they’re bound to be more
vicious than they look. They’re Wonderland’s own Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Silence from the accidental encounter is
quickly broken by the Mad Hatter. “How do you do, Loki? It’s such a pleasant
encounter to have the chance to see you. We have heard that you have received a
letter from Asgard.” The Mad Hatter releases his hands from Tweedle Dee and
Tweedle Dum’s while pausing. He ends his introductions. “Yes, we do indeed want
the pocket watch as well, but stay rest assured, we do not want it to do such
evil deeds as Asgard wants to. It would be unspeakable Wonderland to do quite a
thing.”
The Mad Hatter pauses nudges Tweedle Dee
and Tweedle Dum closer to him. They cling to his pockets. He rubs their back to
keep them quiet. Tweedle Dee digs his head in the Mad Hatter’s side while
Tweedle Dum glares at Raven.
Holding the twins lovingly, the Mad Hatter
continues his speech. “However, the vile Asgard has committed a sin so
atrocious that we must now eliminate them. Their plan is to destroy the town
that we live in, then the world, one city at a time. They will only leave a
safe haven for themselves, all the way up in the realm of Asgard, their own
namesake. They perform their evil deed with your pocket watch. It’s the
legendary watch that can connect to Ragnarok, the weapon of ultimate
destruction, and it can lead the world to its salvation or its doom. I don’t
expect you to believe me at this moment, but let these two explain the details.”
The twins take a shy step forward after
several gentle nudges. They continue to cling to the Mad Hatter’s front pocket.
Tweedle Dee combs his to the side with his fingers, parting his hair to the
right. “Aw, why us Hatter? We don’t know these people. They’re scary.” His
bother encourages him on.
The Mad Hatter holds their shoulders
firmly while shaking them reassuringly. They stare at the ground continuously,
until their courage gathers. Tweedle Dee raises his head quickly, clenching his
free hand into a fist while avoiding eye contact with Raven.
Nearly whispering, Dee slurs the longer
words he tries to speak. “Fine, we’ll talk.” He rudely points to Loki. “Okay,
this introduction is going to be short and sweet. You better listen or you’ll
miss out. I’m Tweedle Dee and this is my brother, Tweedle Dum.” Loki’s mind
gives himself a short praise.
Dum continues instantly where Dee leaves
off, slurring his long words and over exaggerating. “Yup! But just because
we’re ten, doesn’t mean that people
aren’t scared of us.”
Dee finishes off the introductions. “Any
questions about us before we move on?”
“Now,” Dum jumps in right away, “I’m
supposed to tell you about some important stuff, so let’s start.”
“Well,” Dee switches off with Dum, using a
lot of hand gestures while he speaks. “You see, this pocket watch of yours can
open this really big pathway,” He
holds his arms out wide and his mouth wide open for a few seconds. “And
somewhere along it, before reaching Asgard, is Ragnarok. But unlike what most
people think of it as, Ragnarok is a weapon that can cause the end of the world
and the end of the Gods. It doesn’t have to kill.” Dee shakes his head.
Dum takes over rapidly enough that it
gives the impression that the same person is speaking and doing the hand
gestures. “Yeah, and we’re not really sure what this weapon looks like, no human does, so we can’t tell you what it
looks like. Oh well.” Dum gives a little shrug. “But the problem is that we
don’t know even how we’re supposed to open this pathway, only that we need your
pocket watch and a song to do it. The
song.”
“The
song?” Loki interrupts, speaking his thought aloud.
Dee answers Loki’s question. “Yeah, Alice. You’ve heard of it, right?”
Loki jumps at the mention of the name,
then Dum continues where he left off. “So, somehow we need to connect the song
to the pocket watch before the watch strikes midnight. We don’t know when the
watch will, and that is why we’re asking you now because it could strike
midnight at any time. We need you to
figure out how to connect the song to the pocket watch.”
Stepping closer, Dee grins with
excitement. “So, that’s about it. Any questions?” When no one speaks during the
few seconds given, Dee makes his final reply. “No? Good. Well, we’re done,
Hatter!”
The twins turn to the Mad Hatter,
expecting praise. He kneels down at them and knocks their head against his.
“You two did wonderful. See? I knew you could talk to strangers just fine.”
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum giggle. The Mad Hatter stands back up while the
twins cling to his jacket while hugging him around the waist.
He holds them close again, but takes his
hand off of Dum in moments, holding it out to Loki. “So, will you help us? Will
you let us have the pocket watch so that we can protect this town and its
people in your steed? I don’t want to dirty your hands.”
Loki’s eyes waver, glancing down at his
watch. His fingers follow the lines of the engravings. The chain rattles
silently against his leg, similar to the silence in the discussion.
Alice breaks in, “Edwin, I know these
people, they’re trustworthy. They’ll keep your pocket watch safe; you’ll be
fine.”
His eyes change their focus to Alice. It had
never been matter of trust between Alice’s words or of Wonderland’s, but of
himself. His heart hesitates, inquiring what he should do. Asgard wants the
pocket watch, but from what Loki gathers, they don’t seem like that bad of a
group. Wonderland doesn’t seem all that harmful either, but the groups’ words
conflict with each other.
However, he doesn’t want to regret his
actions. This watch is the last thing he has left from Lacie. It’s a battle
between his feelings and what seems right. Yet, even with all the thought he
put into a decision, he knew what he was going to say from the start.
Peering over at Raven, Loki notifies him
of his decision. A nod is response. Then Loki smiles at Alice, which she
returns. He tries to voice his decision as soon as he turns to the Mad Hatter,
but something strikes within that they’re extremely dangerous. His breath
leaves him.
Loki gulps the knot down in his throat. “I
know what the possible travesties that I may cause because of this, but I still
cannot hand it over.”
The Mad Hatter lightly taps the twins’
shoulders. They let go of him. “Is this final?”
Loki replies calmly. “Yes, it is.”
Taking a few steps back, the Mad Hatter slides
his hands into his pockets. “Very well.” He hands each boy a pair of white
gloves, similar to the pair he’s wearing. While they slip the gloves on, the
Mad Hatter continues, “It is most unfortunate that we could not come to an
agreement, but I did make it your choice. Now it looks like I’ll have to make
one myself. Please excuse me as I will have to take the pocket watch from you
by force!”
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