A tray with deliciously sweet biscuits and savory tea was set down on a golden table. The tea was made of a delectable combination of roasted peppermint and orange peels that whisked its aroma around the room, and the biscuits were filled with blueberry chips that floated into the sky whenever someone took a bite.
“Order for Winston?”
“Walter,” Walter said with a groan. He threw off his purple duvet and sat up in his bed, a caterpillar blanket wrapped loosely around his shoulders. He didn’t want to admit how embarrassing his heart-covered pajamas were.
“Right!” the waiter said, sprinkling powdered sugar over the biscuits. “Walter is your name. Honestly, there are too many guests in the castle this time of year.”
“How many rooms have you been to?” Walter said with a yawn, studying his fingers. He remembered that this waiter specifically was very talkative. Hopefully, he would save the other guests some time by getting out the man’s itch for conversation.
“At least twenty-five! I’ll tell you, Walter, the Queen demanded you be served first or she’d have my head, but some of the other guests made worse threats. I suppose everyone really wanted a hot cup of tea.”
“Indeed.” Walter smiled and grabbed the porcelain tea cup. “Have a fine morning, sir.”
“And the same to you.” The waiter shuffled off with his tea cart and walked down the hallway.
Walter was about to press the cup of tea to his lips when he saw a nose poke out from his tea. He eyed it curiously and waited for something to appear. A boot floated to the surface as a little creature awoke from its sleep with a yawn.
“Good morning!” Walter whispered. From the looks of it, a little brown mouse had stowed away in his tea. It blinked its eyes a few times before taking Walter in and pressing itself to the sides of the cup.
“Goodness! I am incredibly sorry,” the mouse said.
“It’s quite alright,” Walter chuckled. “You are a guest in my room.”
“Thank you. The tea was just so scrumptiously warm and I was banished to the servant’s rooms and-” the mouse paused in the middle of her rambling, staring into Walter’s eyes.
“Wait a second,” she said slowly.
“What? Is something on my face?”
“You…” the mouse began, raising up her tiny, furry finger, “are the prince! Prince Walter of the Heartish Wonderlands!”
Walter pressed his lips thin.
“I’m no prince. Simply an esteemed guest of the Queen.”
“As was I, according to Her Majesty.” The mouse scrambled out of the cup and shook herself off, drying herself with Walter’s covers. “But look where that got me; feeding off servant scraps and waiting for the Queen to ‘send’ for a new room.”
“Well, you’re here with me now. We can have a lovely tea party and find you a new room.”
“How wonderful!” the mouse dove into the tea and let out a sigh of relief.
“Perhaps the tea can be for just you.” Walter gave the mouse a small smile, which she replied to with a grin filled with buckeye teeth.
“So tell me, Mr. ‘I’m not the Prince,’” the mouse began, tottering over the edge of the cup to grab a floating crumb, “how did you get on such delightful terms with Queen Cordelia? A fine young man like you would surely be locked away in her prison so she could keep you to herself.”
“It’s strange, yes. I’m not entirely sure how it happened myself. But I’m just glad I haven’t been executed. So many poor citizens have met that fate.”
“Perhaps it has to do with your card.” The little mouse fumbled through her tiny red coat until she pulled out an even tinier card. Walter could barely read it.
“What is it, a single heart? Aren’t those the lowliest?”
“Worse,” the mouse whispered. “I have a diamond card, and Queen Cordelia seems to hate Queen Diamas.”
“So it seems,” Walter said, studying the card. “But The Queen is just. I’m sure she’ll work things out.”
“I do hope.” The mouse put her card back into her pocket and looked up at Walter. “Now, show me your card. It must be quite luxurious.”
Walter sighed and started to fumble through his nightstand. “I forgot where I put it.”
“Better find it, then. You’ll probably need it for the ball later this week.”
Walter sifted through his nightstand to find the card. It was littered with sickly sweet or dangerously dark notes from the Queen; he never knew how she felt about him. He finally moved enough out of the way to grab his card. He pulled it out and set it on his covers for the mouse to study.
“That is quite the card.” Her voice was soft and silky, filled with awe for a simple piece of paper. The card was black as night, filled with embellishments of purple roses and what looked like a silhouette of The Looking Glass. “Surely this card means you’re a prince.”
“I’m not quite sure.” Walter tapped some of the writing on the corner of the card. “All it says is ‘Hatter’. But who has met a hatter?” He shook his head and put the card away.
The door slammed open as the Queen strutted in. Today, she was fashioning a pale red, nearly pink dress with broken hearts on the skirt and a collar so large it nearly covered her face, which wore a scowl that would plague Walter’s memory for centuries. She stomped over to Walter and grabbed the collar of his shirt.
“Still in your pajamas?” she scoffed. “Ridiculous. Get up. We’re going somewhere.” She walked out of the door with a huff.
“Huh. She seemed excited.”
“That’s just her personality.” Walter got up, out of his bed, and headed over to his closet. He decided to wear a pale pink, checkered suit to match the Queen. “Close your eyes, will you?”
The mouse turned around and held her ears over her eyes as Walter changed. He ran a comb through his pale red hair and found some shoes before tapping the mouse’s shoulder. She opened her eyes and gave Walter a cheeky grin.
“I can see why the Queen likes you.”
Walter rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t be the first to say that. But the Queen took me in as a baby. We have no interest in each other.”
“Right. If that’s what you say.” The mouse climbed up his shoulder and pruned her whiskers. “Now, do I get to go on this secret meeting?”
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“Walter, what is that rodent doing on your shoulder? How disgusting.”
“She’s not disgusting at all, Queen Cordelia.” Walter stroked the mouse’s head and gave her a pleading look.
Don’t speak, his eyes seemed to say. She nodded curtly in response.
“Hmm. If you say so.” The Queen walked to a pair of doors and gave Walter a wicked smile. He felt like he was squirming in his suit.
The doors were made of an ancient wood that smelled like it was covered in rotten fish, and termites had eaten out the inside and left the doors themselves hollow. An old, repulsive magic lingered on the door, one that didn’t come from Wonderland. It left a light purple glow on the brown doors, which were of great contrast to all of the black and white of the castle.
“Would you like to do the honors?” the Queen asked, stepping aside and waving her hand towards the door handle. Walter gulped.
“Ladies first,” the mouse whispered into his ear. He tried not to chuckle, but the urge was small. His fear was too strong. What would he find behind these doors?
“Oh, for goodness sake,” the Queen muttered, pushing Walter’s shoulder towards the door. “Open it.”
Walter flexed his fingers before grabbing the golden door handle and swinging the door open. He sighed when all he saw was a cobblestone hallway.
“After you, Queen Cordelia.” He held the door open and watched her enter the hallway, relieved that she seemed completely calm about it. The mouse jumped off his shoulder and started walking around on all fours, sniffing around the room for danger.
“Why keep this hallway in the back of the castle?” Walter asked, pressing his hand against the cold, stone walls. “There’s nothing inside of here.”
“That’s only what I allow you to see.” She walked further down the hallway until they got to a dead end. She pulled off her necklace, which held the key to the Castle of Hearts, and put it into a crack between the bricks. The key turned, and the wall slowly fell to the ground.
The Queen put her arm into Walter’s and dragged him along until they were in the middle of utter chaos. On both sides of him were ancient beats and powerful magicians- all behind bars. A strange horse with a tiny rhino horn whinnied and pranced around.
“It’s beautiful,” Walter said. “Why keep it locked behind bars?”
The strange horse stood on its rears and transformed into a walrus-zebra, its legs strong and its wide fangs bore. It charged towards the bars of its cage and ran back to the other side.
“That’s why,” the Queen said. “It has magic. My magic. I haven’t figured out how to take it away.”
“Hey, kid!” a voice said to Walter’s side. He looked to his right and saw a purple tabby cat giving him a cheeky grin. “Pick a card.” His tail swished and cards appeared from it. “Any card.”
“Don’t trust him,” the Queen said with a snarl. “He’s a fluke of Wonderland’s laws. A cat instead of a lion. It makes him more cunning.”
The Queen stuck her face up to the bars and scowled at the cat, startling him. He dropped all of his cards, which turned into caterpillars, and he disappeared into nothing. But his tail stayed. It waved angrily around.
Walter walked away from the cat’s prison and looked around the hallway. Hundreds of magical creatures and people lived here, explosions and powdery magic of all different colors appearing at any second. Why did The Queen keep all of them here? And why did she take him there?
“Come along,” the Queen said, ushering for Walter to walk with her. He felt the mouse jump on his shoulder as an elephants trunk reached out towards them and a strange magician cackled. They stopped at the end of the hallway, and Walter gasped.
A normal man was sitting behind bars at the very end of the hallway, his face lit up by a dim chandelier. He wore a strange top hat with a garish yellow bow, and a purple suit to match. He sat at a table so short he simply sat on the ground with it, pretending to pour tea from a set of fine china. A lizard sat on the other end of the table, slowly blinking off to sleep.
“This,” the Queen said, motioning to the man, ‘is Alastair.”
“A pleasure to meet you, sir.” Walter dipped his head to the man. The strange man gave him a wide, toothy smile and ran up to the bars, taking his hat off to bow.
“The pleasure is all mine, young man! Why, in all of Wonderland, I’ve never met a cat that could tame such a lion! What type of bait did you use?”
“Uh-”
“He’s referring to you and I, Walter. A bit eccentric, isn’t he?”
“What you call eccentric is what I call an impression!” the man said, spinning his hat around on his finger. “Before a bird can catch a worm, it first has to show off its wings.”
“Yes, indeed. Alas, would you mind standing in the corner? I have some urgent news to tell Walter in private before he joins your tea party.”
“Of course! Take all the time you need! Come along, Bill!” Alastair grabbed the lizard and held him to his chest in the corner.
“Ugh. That man gives me such a headache.” The Queen rubbed her temples before plastering on a smile.
“Why are we here?” Walter finally asked. The Queen smiled.
“I am going to need someone to replace me once I’m gone. You,” she said, putting her hand on his cheek, “are young, handsome, strong. But you are missing one thing to become a perfect ruler.”
Walter clenched his teeth. “What?”
“Ruthlessness.” The Queen stepped back. “You can’t have feelings when you rule. I learned that the hard way.” She glanced softly into the distance before refocusing. “Power is all you need. It’s all the people need. The people don’t want you to feel for them. They want you to be powerful for them.”
“So what am I supposed to do?”
The Queen pulled something out of her corset and set it in Walter’s hands. A vial of a sludgy, green liquid.
“Poison him,” the Queen whispered. “If you kill him successfully, you will become my husband. If you don’t- there will be two heads cut off.”
She walked forward, unlocking the prison with her key and locking it again once Walter and the mouse walked inside.
“Good luck, Walter.”
“Wait- Queen Cordelia!”
The Queen turned around and eyed Alastair, who had called her name.
“Yes, Alastair?”
“Promise me one thing, before my fate is met.”
“And what would that be?”
Alastair took a breath.
“Make sure the two halves of my heart get to meet again- if just once.”
The Queen raised an eyebrow and looked into the distance before speaking to the man.
“I don’t make hearts, Alas. I break them.”
Also, this shows that our main character cares about other people but perhaps his laziness prevents him from doing more than just sitting back and making conversation with an overly friendly waiter. (but interestingly the waiter is still a little unhappy with being pulled so many different directions by different people.) I love that you gave the waiter personality, too, even though he is clearly only a side character. Great job with that!
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