Title: Shadows before the Sun
Fandom: Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, general book series
Author: karrenia
Rating: General Audiences
Words:392
Character: the Cheshire Cat
Summary: A look at the Cheshire Cat, his thoughts and ability to disappear the nature of shadows.
Prompt: #34 darkness, Table 1
Disclaimer: The Alice in Wonderland books are the original creation of Lewis Carroll and as such do not belong to me. I claim only the words of the fic.
"Shadows before the Sun" by karrenia
He can slip in and out of the cracks between the floorboards or is almost but not quite like slipping in between the here and now.
There’s a duality present that he enjoys and more than likely will never tire of any time soon. When he does vanish, quite literally into thin air it is never all of one piece or all of a sudden unless he chooses to do so. The question that he must ask himself: If there can be a cat without a grin, or a grin without a cat?
He arced his body length-wise in a tightly strung bow shape and his tails fluffs out behind him, the red and pink stripes highlighted by the noon sun and causes his shadow to stretch out behind him.
He smiled a toothy grin that shows off what the Cheshire Cat has long considered one of his best assets and considered the nature of shadows and how they change varying on the time of day, the position of the sun and where one is at the time.
The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette. The sun causes many objects to have shadows and at certain times of the day, when the sun is at certain heights, the lengths of shadows change.
At the moment he is a visible as he ever is likely to become, but should he choose to do so, he can fade away gradually, a fore leg here, a hind leg there, and more often than not, the last thing to go become he vanishes altogether, is the grin. No other creature in the world underground can do so. Although, until now, he has never really thought about where if anywhere that he goes when he does vanish. It has never been a concern, and it is not one now; it’s just mere curiosity that brought it up at all.
As a cat he is well aware of the old saying about what curiosity has done to felines in the past, but much like many an old saying there is a kernel of truth to it.
He dug his claws into the bark of the old oak tree where he has been crouched, musing, thinking and wondering about things; and then straightens himself out and lies down in a more comfortable position on the branch.