Progenies Chapter IV
Title: Progenies of the Jabberwock (4/?)
Fandom: Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "Do you not know what happens to those who drink the blood of the Jabberwock?"
Note 1: In which liberties are taken with the Sleepy Hollow dead tree near the entrance to Underland.
Note 2: Rushed job is rushed near the middle, 'cause I wanted this done before Halloween.
Note 3: Also, have some concept art! http://ra-hime.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2xi8wa
IV: A Tale of Sixteen Sacrifices
"I forgot my name and all my memories
My land and my valleys, the beauty of a smile,
It seems that my life has passed like a dream
And now all fled, leaving only the lie."
-Rencontre Avec La Dame, by Artesia (translated from French)
Once Alice had calmed down and learned of what transpired moments before, Mirana removed the shackle from her neck. The blonde remained seated on the floor, staring at her feet and the tears in her dress. Mirana couldn't tell if she was in thought or shock.
"Would you like me to escort you to your room?" she asked.
Alice slowly shook her head.
"There's nothing to worry about. Stayne is held in the dungeon and only I have access."
Alice mumbled, "It's not that. I'm afraid to go out looking like… this." She made a vague gesture in her general direction. "I know you said the Jabberwocks mentioned a cure, but what if everyone thinks I'm turning into a monster?"
"They won't think that," Mirana replied softly, but even she wasn't so sure.
"Tarrant's whole clan was destroyed by the Jabberwock. What if he's afraid of me now?"
"No one could be afraid of a face like that."
Mirana's well-meaning attempt to comfort her Champion seemingly had no effect. Alice just hung her head, a cascade of blonde curls hiding her face.
"Please… may I just rest here for the night, where it's quiet?"
The Queen's dark eyes regarded Alice sadly. She couldn't blame the girl for her uncertainty and fear, but she didn't like how distant Alice was being. Mirana opened the door and paused. She peered over her shoulder.
"Alice? I don't know what's going to happen but I will tell you this: No matter what happens to you, you are always my Champion."
Alice's wings draped over her shoulders, trying to bring herself to sleep. Though Mirana couldn't see it, there was a faint smile on her lips.
"It is said that such practices can bring back the souls of the dead, but to do so is strictly forbidden."
"Because once a soul is lost, it cannot be reclaimed…"
"Is that not the law of mortals?"
"But it is possible with this ritual… I can bring her back to me…"
"Majesty, the price you pay for her soul's return may be heavy indeed…"
"It doesn't matter."
"Very well…"
Alice was jerked awake from what felt like a long dream (or a memory) when a strong smell wafted into the chamber, throwing her into a coughing fit. The morning sun shining through an open window very nearly blinded her.
"Who are you?" asked a familiar voice.
Once Alice's eyes adjusted to the light and any purple spots vanished from her sight, she was greeted by none other than Absolem, resting on the open windowsill and contentedly smoking.
"Alice," she replied, waving her claws around to keep the smoke out of her face.
"I heard you returned," the blue butterfly observed. "Though it appears you've undergone a frightening change lately."
Alice's heart sank. "People outside Marmoreal know about this already?"
"Word travels fast, whether by chatty flowers or the gossips behind the castle walls. I came right from I came right from Snud the instant I caught word of the incident."
"Ah, so that's where you've been hanging your hookah these days," Alice remarked dryly.
"And it appears you've grown a bit of an attitude," Absolem retorted, blowing a series of smoke rings. "Now. What do you plan to do?"
"Well…" Alice recalled what Mirana told her last night. "Something, obviously. Mirana mentioned going to the Jabberwock's roost in the Tulgey Wood. If there are answers, I might find them there."
"Are you certain? Do you trust the words of the creature that once tried to kill you?"
"What other choice is there? I certainly don't intend to turn into a monster." Alice rose to her feet and nearly tripped over her tail.
"Will you be going alone then?" Absolem asked before inhaling from his hookah.
Alice's hand froze when she reached out for the doorknob. "I..."
"There are those who still care for you despite what you think, stupid girl."
"I'm not stupid! I just..." Alice sighed. "I feel as though... this is something I have to do myself."
"Her Majesty won't be pleased," Absolem warned.
Opening the chamber door, the blonde allowed herself a smile. "I'm sure I can handle it."
Mirana made her way down to the dungeon, guarded by two Knights. At her command, they unlocked the door and held it open for her.
"Should one of us accompany you?" asked one Knight.
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary."
"As you wish, Majesty..."
Mirana shut the door behind her and set her gaze, hard and cold, on the Knave chained to the wall. He looked up at her, his good eye dull and lifeless under a mane of scraggly black hair. His eyepatch was missing, showing the horribly scarred spot where an eye used to be. With each breath he took, a sickening wheezing sound issued from his mouth.
The White Queen's expression turned to a glare.
"You will tell me everything you know."
The Knave sneered.
Alice found herself standing before the stairway leading to the Hall of Doors, and felt a wave of nostalgia overcome her. Beyond that door was where she began her very first adventures in the fantastical Wonderland of her younger days fifteen years ago. Her thoughts drifted back to the world of her birth above ground, to her mother Helen and sister Margaret, to Lord Ascot, to living out her father's dream of expanding trade routes and going farther still. But she was not homesick; far from it, really. Alice found that Underland, this realm of the surreal, was more of a home to her than England ever was. She was welcome, accepted, wanted here.
But what about now?
Her gaze drew to the dead, twisted tree beside the stairway. She stepped towards it as if by instinct, like something in the back of her mind was telling her to do so. The tree was massive up close, maybe twenty feet tall, and at its trunk were what appeared to be dozens of sutures, but taking a good look showed they were more like lower branches taking root in the earth.
Without warning the suture-branches creaked and groaned loudly, rising from the ground and curling towards the main trunk in a dozen spirals, revealing a large opening in the trunk leading into the earth. Though Alice was gripped with apprehension, there was that sense of familiarity again. She knew for a fact that she'd never known of this passageway before, but it felt as if she'd been using it for centuries.
It's not my memories, Alice thought firmly as she entered the tunnel. They're the memories of the Jabberwock.
But am I not a Jabberwock now?
The first thing Alice noticed about the tunnel was the scent; though it was a long time since the Frabjous Day, she still recognized that smell. The Jabberwock's scent. It wasn't frumious like the Bandersnatch, but a distinctly smoky aroma, almost like burning incense over a bonfire. The smell was overpoweringly strong in close quarters to the Jabberwock, but here it was very faint and almost pleasant.
With each step into the dark tunnel, Alice found it relatively easy to see (and if she'd brought a looking-glass with her she would see a red glow in her pupils). The smell of salt water and the roar of ocean waves reached her senses. It wasn't long before she reached a great, wide underground cave with three other tunnels leading south, east, and west. Light poured in from an opening that beheld the northern sea, and at the corner of the cave's mouth there was a pile of gigantic bones vaguely draconic in shape. Skulls were littered around the sea-licked mouth.
A Jabberwock graveyard? Alice figured. Or maybe a subterranean roost of sorts?
Slowly Alice stepped toward the nearest Jabberwock skull. She reached out to touch it and almost drew her hand back in shock when suddenly it sprang to life; muscle and skin and scales formed from where her fingertips were, and encompassed the skull until it resembled the terrible beast it was in life. A red eye popped into its socket with a rather sickening pop! and stared at her.
Alice's jaw nearly hit the ground.
The Jabberwock head opened its mouth to speak, but no sound came out. In annoyance, it stuck its tongue out at Alice, or at least what was left of it. Alice winced, remembering when she sliced the Jabberwock's tongue off. Spotting another skull lying nearby, she darted over to it (while the tongueless head decayed back into a skull) and rested her hand on it. The skull instantly came to life at her touch and gave her a dry look.
"It's rather difficult for one to speak when one's tongue is cut off," it growled in a myriad of voices.
"Er, sorry?" Alice sputtered.
"It cannot be helped," the head sighed. Its eyes scanned the cavern almost nostalgically. "There really is no place like home, is there."
Alice suddenly felt tired, a feeling of heaviness bearing down on her heart. She thought, Sadness…? Were those my feelings just now? No, she realized. They were of the Jabberwock. Now that she was becoming one, Alice could feel the Jabberwocks' emotions herself; all their sadness, all their anger.
"How many are you?" Alice asked once she found her voice. "How many Champions before me have inherited the bloodcurse?"
"…Fifteen," was the answer. "You're the sixteenth sacrifice, little one."
"…So what happens now? Mirana said that you'd reveal everything in the Tulgey Wood, and so here I am. How can I break the curse?"
"To cure a disease, strike at the source. Long ago we were human once, and near the end of our lives. The one we trusted most used an ancient heathen ritual to save us, but it came with a price; to be immortal, so long as the one who placed the curse on us is alive. That was… the current sovereign of all Underland is Mirana of Marmoreal, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then it has been… ten thousand years."
Alice gave the head an incredulous look. "Ten thousand- but that's impossible! Anyone from my world would be lucky just to be over fifty or sixty!"
"Time and age work differently here. The days pass quickly, but the inhabitants only remain young so long as they feel young."
Again Alice felt that heaviness upon her. It was getting slightly hard to breathe in this cave.
"But ten thousand years is too long for one to live, even for an Underlandian," the Jabberwock head sighed. "Living underground for so long, feared and unwanted, there are so many things we've forgotten. The scent of dinner in brillig, the beauty of a smile, the feel of grass in the spring, the warmth of a lover's touch… we've even forgotten our own names…"
Ten thousand years… Alice never thought she'd see the day when she'd pity a monster like the Jabberwock, but the emptiness and melancholy in its voices shook her to the core. She would have thought immortality sounded wonderful, but if it meant watching all the people you loved grow old and die while you remained forever young, one day reaching the point where you'd forget everything you once were…? The thought very nearly brought her to tears.
It wasn't until Champion and beast looked each other in the eye when Alice realized just how exhausted the Jabberwock's life force had become.
"So many sacrifices," she whispered.
"It's so tiring. We cannot go on like this until we've become lifeless husks. The curse must be broken…"
"How can it be broken? Do you at least remember who did this to you?"
The head stared at Alice with an unreadable expression. “Your little Queen did,” it said, “Or her ancestor, rather. Do you know this name: Morda, the Queen of Hearts?”
Fandom: Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "Do you not know what happens to those who drink the blood of the Jabberwock?"
Note 1: In which liberties are taken with the Sleepy Hollow dead tree near the entrance to Underland.
Note 2: Rushed job is rushed near the middle, 'cause I wanted this done before Halloween.
Note 3: Also, have some concept art! http://ra-hime.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2xi8wa
IV: A Tale of Sixteen Sacrifices
"I forgot my name and all my memories
My land and my valleys, the beauty of a smile,
It seems that my life has passed like a dream
And now all fled, leaving only the lie."
-Rencontre Avec La Dame, by Artesia (translated from French)
Once Alice had calmed down and learned of what transpired moments before, Mirana removed the shackle from her neck. The blonde remained seated on the floor, staring at her feet and the tears in her dress. Mirana couldn't tell if she was in thought or shock.
"Would you like me to escort you to your room?" she asked.
Alice slowly shook her head.
"There's nothing to worry about. Stayne is held in the dungeon and only I have access."
Alice mumbled, "It's not that. I'm afraid to go out looking like… this." She made a vague gesture in her general direction. "I know you said the Jabberwocks mentioned a cure, but what if everyone thinks I'm turning into a monster?"
"They won't think that," Mirana replied softly, but even she wasn't so sure.
"Tarrant's whole clan was destroyed by the Jabberwock. What if he's afraid of me now?"
"No one could be afraid of a face like that."
Mirana's well-meaning attempt to comfort her Champion seemingly had no effect. Alice just hung her head, a cascade of blonde curls hiding her face.
"Please… may I just rest here for the night, where it's quiet?"
The Queen's dark eyes regarded Alice sadly. She couldn't blame the girl for her uncertainty and fear, but she didn't like how distant Alice was being. Mirana opened the door and paused. She peered over her shoulder.
"Alice? I don't know what's going to happen but I will tell you this: No matter what happens to you, you are always my Champion."
Alice's wings draped over her shoulders, trying to bring herself to sleep. Though Mirana couldn't see it, there was a faint smile on her lips.
"It is said that such practices can bring back the souls of the dead, but to do so is strictly forbidden."
"Because once a soul is lost, it cannot be reclaimed…"
"Is that not the law of mortals?"
"But it is possible with this ritual… I can bring her back to me…"
"Majesty, the price you pay for her soul's return may be heavy indeed…"
"It doesn't matter."
"Very well…"
Alice was jerked awake from what felt like a long dream (or a memory) when a strong smell wafted into the chamber, throwing her into a coughing fit. The morning sun shining through an open window very nearly blinded her.
"Who are you?" asked a familiar voice.
Once Alice's eyes adjusted to the light and any purple spots vanished from her sight, she was greeted by none other than Absolem, resting on the open windowsill and contentedly smoking.
"Alice," she replied, waving her claws around to keep the smoke out of her face.
"I heard you returned," the blue butterfly observed. "Though it appears you've undergone a frightening change lately."
Alice's heart sank. "People outside Marmoreal know about this already?"
"Word travels fast, whether by chatty flowers or the gossips behind the castle walls. I came right from I came right from Snud the instant I caught word of the incident."
"Ah, so that's where you've been hanging your hookah these days," Alice remarked dryly.
"And it appears you've grown a bit of an attitude," Absolem retorted, blowing a series of smoke rings. "Now. What do you plan to do?"
"Well…" Alice recalled what Mirana told her last night. "Something, obviously. Mirana mentioned going to the Jabberwock's roost in the Tulgey Wood. If there are answers, I might find them there."
"Are you certain? Do you trust the words of the creature that once tried to kill you?"
"What other choice is there? I certainly don't intend to turn into a monster." Alice rose to her feet and nearly tripped over her tail.
"Will you be going alone then?" Absolem asked before inhaling from his hookah.
Alice's hand froze when she reached out for the doorknob. "I..."
"There are those who still care for you despite what you think, stupid girl."
"I'm not stupid! I just..." Alice sighed. "I feel as though... this is something I have to do myself."
"Her Majesty won't be pleased," Absolem warned.
Opening the chamber door, the blonde allowed herself a smile. "I'm sure I can handle it."
Mirana made her way down to the dungeon, guarded by two Knights. At her command, they unlocked the door and held it open for her.
"Should one of us accompany you?" asked one Knight.
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary."
"As you wish, Majesty..."
Mirana shut the door behind her and set her gaze, hard and cold, on the Knave chained to the wall. He looked up at her, his good eye dull and lifeless under a mane of scraggly black hair. His eyepatch was missing, showing the horribly scarred spot where an eye used to be. With each breath he took, a sickening wheezing sound issued from his mouth.
The White Queen's expression turned to a glare.
"You will tell me everything you know."
The Knave sneered.
Alice found herself standing before the stairway leading to the Hall of Doors, and felt a wave of nostalgia overcome her. Beyond that door was where she began her very first adventures in the fantastical Wonderland of her younger days fifteen years ago. Her thoughts drifted back to the world of her birth above ground, to her mother Helen and sister Margaret, to Lord Ascot, to living out her father's dream of expanding trade routes and going farther still. But she was not homesick; far from it, really. Alice found that Underland, this realm of the surreal, was more of a home to her than England ever was. She was welcome, accepted, wanted here.
But what about now?
Her gaze drew to the dead, twisted tree beside the stairway. She stepped towards it as if by instinct, like something in the back of her mind was telling her to do so. The tree was massive up close, maybe twenty feet tall, and at its trunk were what appeared to be dozens of sutures, but taking a good look showed they were more like lower branches taking root in the earth.
Without warning the suture-branches creaked and groaned loudly, rising from the ground and curling towards the main trunk in a dozen spirals, revealing a large opening in the trunk leading into the earth. Though Alice was gripped with apprehension, there was that sense of familiarity again. She knew for a fact that she'd never known of this passageway before, but it felt as if she'd been using it for centuries.
It's not my memories, Alice thought firmly as she entered the tunnel. They're the memories of the Jabberwock.
But am I not a Jabberwock now?
The first thing Alice noticed about the tunnel was the scent; though it was a long time since the Frabjous Day, she still recognized that smell. The Jabberwock's scent. It wasn't frumious like the Bandersnatch, but a distinctly smoky aroma, almost like burning incense over a bonfire. The smell was overpoweringly strong in close quarters to the Jabberwock, but here it was very faint and almost pleasant.
With each step into the dark tunnel, Alice found it relatively easy to see (and if she'd brought a looking-glass with her she would see a red glow in her pupils). The smell of salt water and the roar of ocean waves reached her senses. It wasn't long before she reached a great, wide underground cave with three other tunnels leading south, east, and west. Light poured in from an opening that beheld the northern sea, and at the corner of the cave's mouth there was a pile of gigantic bones vaguely draconic in shape. Skulls were littered around the sea-licked mouth.
A Jabberwock graveyard? Alice figured. Or maybe a subterranean roost of sorts?
Slowly Alice stepped toward the nearest Jabberwock skull. She reached out to touch it and almost drew her hand back in shock when suddenly it sprang to life; muscle and skin and scales formed from where her fingertips were, and encompassed the skull until it resembled the terrible beast it was in life. A red eye popped into its socket with a rather sickening pop! and stared at her.
Alice's jaw nearly hit the ground.
The Jabberwock head opened its mouth to speak, but no sound came out. In annoyance, it stuck its tongue out at Alice, or at least what was left of it. Alice winced, remembering when she sliced the Jabberwock's tongue off. Spotting another skull lying nearby, she darted over to it (while the tongueless head decayed back into a skull) and rested her hand on it. The skull instantly came to life at her touch and gave her a dry look.
"It's rather difficult for one to speak when one's tongue is cut off," it growled in a myriad of voices.
"Er, sorry?" Alice sputtered.
"It cannot be helped," the head sighed. Its eyes scanned the cavern almost nostalgically. "There really is no place like home, is there."
Alice suddenly felt tired, a feeling of heaviness bearing down on her heart. She thought, Sadness…? Were those my feelings just now? No, she realized. They were of the Jabberwock. Now that she was becoming one, Alice could feel the Jabberwocks' emotions herself; all their sadness, all their anger.
"How many are you?" Alice asked once she found her voice. "How many Champions before me have inherited the bloodcurse?"
"…Fifteen," was the answer. "You're the sixteenth sacrifice, little one."
"…So what happens now? Mirana said that you'd reveal everything in the Tulgey Wood, and so here I am. How can I break the curse?"
"To cure a disease, strike at the source. Long ago we were human once, and near the end of our lives. The one we trusted most used an ancient heathen ritual to save us, but it came with a price; to be immortal, so long as the one who placed the curse on us is alive. That was… the current sovereign of all Underland is Mirana of Marmoreal, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then it has been… ten thousand years."
Alice gave the head an incredulous look. "Ten thousand- but that's impossible! Anyone from my world would be lucky just to be over fifty or sixty!"
"Time and age work differently here. The days pass quickly, but the inhabitants only remain young so long as they feel young."
Again Alice felt that heaviness upon her. It was getting slightly hard to breathe in this cave.
"But ten thousand years is too long for one to live, even for an Underlandian," the Jabberwock head sighed. "Living underground for so long, feared and unwanted, there are so many things we've forgotten. The scent of dinner in brillig, the beauty of a smile, the feel of grass in the spring, the warmth of a lover's touch… we've even forgotten our own names…"
Ten thousand years… Alice never thought she'd see the day when she'd pity a monster like the Jabberwock, but the emptiness and melancholy in its voices shook her to the core. She would have thought immortality sounded wonderful, but if it meant watching all the people you loved grow old and die while you remained forever young, one day reaching the point where you'd forget everything you once were…? The thought very nearly brought her to tears.
It wasn't until Champion and beast looked each other in the eye when Alice realized just how exhausted the Jabberwock's life force had become.
"So many sacrifices," she whispered.
"It's so tiring. We cannot go on like this until we've become lifeless husks. The curse must be broken…"
"How can it be broken? Do you at least remember who did this to you?"
The head stared at Alice with an unreadable expression. “Your little Queen did,” it said, “Or her ancestor, rather. Do you know this name: Morda, the Queen of Hearts?”