In the Rough, chapter 16/40
Title: In the Rough (16/40)
Author: alittleoddish
Rating: Teen
Characters: Alice/Hatter, Jack/Duchess, Charlie
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Syfy's Alice.
Summary: "But this is starting to sound like a quest! Quests are such a pain, Alice, they really are. All horseback and food rations and traveling in groups and no truly hot tea, with significantly less sex against trees.”
Author's Notes: I'm back! And not only am I rested, but I think my next few chapters are some of the best I've ever written, AND I think I'll be posting mostly two chapters per week from now on. ^_^ That's the goal, anyway... I want to have this finished by the end of the summer so I can start working on other projects. XD
Thanks so much for all of you who have given me such lovely feedback! ^_^ Again, thanks so much to my GORGEOUS betas, zombres and randombattlecry! They are simply fantastic, they always keep me on my toes to provide the highest quality of writing I can. Also, thanks to my amazing Official Fandom Soundboard abscondinabox, with whom I have spent many-a-Skype session discussing the ins and outs of characters and plot, and without whom this story would undoubtedly be a disaster.
Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five,
Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten,
Chapter Eleven, Chapter Twelve, Chapter Thirteen, Chapter Fourteen, Chapter Fifteen
***
They rode until the jeering, screeching sounds were far behind them, and then they rode still further. The sound of horse hooves furiously pounding the forest floor thundered in Alice’s ears and shook her whole body, a steady rhythm that didn’t do much to hide the obvious panic held by everyone in their party.
“Charlie!” she yelled ahead. “Charlie, we have to stop! We’ll just get even more lost the farther we ride!”
“She’s right, Charlie!” Hatter yelled in agreement. Charlie made no outward indication he had heard them, but reigned in Guinevere at the next clearing they came across.
“Well that was successful!” Alice dismounted her horse with a scowl, trying to ignore the way her hands were still shaking. “I can’t believe how quickly they just… turned on us!”
“I did warn you,” Hatter said, patting Bill on his trembling flank and leading him over to the stream for a drink. “Flowers are dangerous, they’ll turn on you in a second.”
“No,” Charlie said. He was insistent, his expression grave but stubborn. “The Flowers are fickle, I admit, but their behavior just now…” He shuddered, his armor clanking. “I’ve never witnessed such behavior. Whatever that stone is, it’s certainly got them spooked.”
Alice sighed and reached up to rub small circles at her temples, a vain attempt to fight off the headache she felt coming. “Well, do we have any other options, Charlie? What can we do?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. Gaze fixed on the middle distance in abstraction, he spoke hesitantly. “I- I was certain that the Flowers would be able to help us-“
“They can,” a small, unfamiliar voice said. “They just don’t want to.”
The three companions froze. Alice’s eyes found Hatter’s, who shook his head. Charlie followed suit.
Trying to move as little as possible, Alice scanned the clearing with wide, sharp eyes, but there was nothing there that shouldn’t have been. Just trees, grass, and flowers-
“I’m down here!”
Flowers.
Three heads swiveled madly, turning in unison toward a single orange daisy that had been previously unnoticed. “What did you say?” Hatter demanded.
“I said that the Flowers could have helped you.”
The three of them looked at each other uncertainly before approaching the lone Flower. “Explain, please,” Charlie insisted, bending over to speak to the Flower directly. It was very small, its fully outstretched petals perhaps only the size of Alice’s palm.
“They’re hiding it.” Its voice was vacant and dreamlike, as though it were talking to itself. Alice thought it was a good match with the blank, rather stupid expression on its tiny face. “The path to the stone, it goes directly through their garden. You need to wait until tonight, when they’re all asleep. If you don’t make any noise and you don’t touch them, you can make it through to the other side.” The daisy yawned widely. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m completely bushed…” The orange petals started to curl inward.
“Why are you telling us this?” Hatter asked quickly, with a note of suspicion.
“There’s something on the other side, I can feel it. The big Flowers want to keep it, but I just want it out of the Wood. The quickest way is through the garden.” The daisy yawned again, and the last petal curled into place, forming a completely closed ball that offered no opportunity for argument.
Alice and Hatter looked at each other warily. Alice stood up with an exasperated sigh and turned back toward the clearing. “Well, I’ll take first watch. I’ll wake you both up when it’s nightfall.”
“Wait a minute, Alice,” Hatter said, following her with a frown. “Something about this just doesn’t tick right. Why would that Flower sell out its mates? Not even just regular mates, its superiors--those big guys could eat him alive, so why is it so willing to give us their secrets?”
“It just said,” Alice defended. “It wants the Stone gone just as much as we do. Now that path through the Garden looked pretty wide, so it’ll be no problem as long as we’re quiet.” This last bit was said with a pointed glare to both men, who glanced at each other worriedly. “Now get some rest while you can,” Alice said. “I’ll wake you two up in an hour or so.”
She turned away, trying to shake off the feeling of unease. The phrase never poke a sleeping dragon flitted through her mind… She pressed her lips together and picked out the smoothest-looking tree to lean against, settling in for her watch and noticing Hatter doing the same across the fire. He kept his hat clutched in his hand as he closed his eyes.
It was going to be a long night.
***
Three little bundles illuminated by a dying fire; two of them sprawled across the rough ground, one of them leaning against a tree and nodding softly, lulled by the comforting warmth of the night.
So vulnerable.
But, Lory reminded himself with the smallest tinge of regret, that wasn’t his style.
He flipped upside-down on the branch he was seated upon, the bark not even scratching under his knees as he held himself aloft. He stretched out a single finger to brush the tightly closed orange bud. He could feel the little Flower’s panic itch the back of his mind as he forced it asleep.
Lory clucked his teeth sadly. He preferred to keep his subjects alive, he really did. But if he let this one wake up it would just wail and panic about intruders and betraying its superiors, and who knew what else. He really couldn’t risk it.
Lory curled the outstretched finger into his tense fist. The curled orange bud wilted ever-so-slightly and the panic itching at the back of Lory’s mind went suddenly quiet.
And before the bud had even bent low enough to brush the ground, he was gone.
***
Alice jolted herself awake, blinking blurry eyes at the fire. Somehow it had grown dark without her realizing it. Through the gaps in the treetops she could only just see the purple remnants of sunset. She rolled her eyes and rubbed at her face - she really was horrible at keeping watch.
“Rise and shine,” she said, nudging the boys with her feet. She ignored their groans of protest, saddling Bill with her bag. As she tightened the straps, she looked across Bill’s back to see the Flower bent over, closed bud nearly touching the ground. I suppose there’s no need to wake it up… she shrugged the thought away. Impatient, she turned around to give her two companions another dirty look.
“Don’t be in such a rush,” Hatter complained. “We’re walking to our deaths, here.”
She raised one dark eyebrow at him. “So melodramatic?”
“It’s a special occasion.”
Charlie frowned a bit in thought. “Really? It seems as though we do this sort of thing rather often.”
Alice snickered behind her hand and Hatter rolled his eyes. “I stand corrected. Let’s just get this over with, then.”
Once they were saddled and seated, Alice leaned forward to rest her chin against Hatter’s shoulder. “One of these days,” she said mischievously, “you’re going to tell me why these Flowers bother you so much. Did one of them bite you as a child?”
“Hey, I just…” He scowled. “They’re just dangerous, okay!?”
Alice nodded sympathetically and patted his shoulder. “It’s okay baby, I’ll protect you.” He twisted in his seat to give her a withering look and she laughed.
Charlie looked back at them and sighed. “Be quiet, you two!” he whispered urgently. “We’re almost there.” Faces quickly schooled into identical expressions of innocence, they dutifully rode the rest of the trip in silence.
This time, they were in darkness so thick that Alice could barely see Charlie’s armor glinting in front of them. The trunks around them were so densely packed that they almost completely obscured the sliver of moon occasionally peeking through, and for the first time Alice noticed that the animals in the trees were completely, utterly silent. Just as she realized this, a slight breeze rustled the hair at the nape of her neck. She shuddered, resisting the urge to rub away the goosepimples that had risen on the back of her neck.
The darkness only deepened as they rode further into the forest. Eventually she could only gauge Charlie’s distance by the subtle clop-clopping of Guinevere’s hooves on the ground, amplified by the silence and Alice’s straining ears. Maybe, she thought later, that was why she didn’t even see the Flower Garden until they were practically close enough to reach out and touch them. She bit back a gasp of surprise when she saw the first pale green stalk only a stone’s throw to her left, her hackles rising and her battle instincts suddenly buzzing. Now that she was alert to it, she could see the pale outlines of stalks everywhere, surrounding them like a smooth, silent forest. The colored buds at the top were tightly closed in sleep, the leaves swaying slightly in the cool breeze.
The path was much wider now that the Flowers weren’t stretching across it constantly to talk, but it was still probably only about five feet across. All it would take was one of their horses stumbling just a few steps in the wrong direction, or someone sneezing, or a twig breaking, or…. Alice just tried to take a deep breath as silently as possible. The only way to get through this, she commanded herself, was to keep calm. Nothing was going to happen if they kept calm.
***
Lory watched their slow progress through the trees, his bird-like eyesight grabbing onto the slivers of moonlight and highlighting them with perfect clarity. He was grudgingly impressed with the old man’s skilled navigation through the forest - not many would have been able to keep such a true course in this kind of darkness.
It was too bad someone like that had to get mixed up in this. Really, it was. If Lory were sentimental, he would have even sighed.
Once they passed the entrance into the garden, Lory jumped a bit closer so his control wouldn’t get muddled over distance. His plan was simple and efficient, but Lory didn’t want to take any chances. He watched as his target plodded along, closer and closer to a drooping bluebell. He reached out his mind toward the sleeping Flower, keeping its struggles dormant once it realized briefly what he was doing, and waited. He waited until the hat bounced just so, until it reached right…
Lory narrowed his pupil-less eyes and pushed.
***
Alice was too busy counting her breaths to realize the subtle movement of the stalks around her, chalking it up to the slight breeze that had picked up since their arrival. She also ignored the fighting instincts that itched in her shoulders, all the way down to her fingertips.
When she looked up just in time to see a large bluebell droop down just six inches too low, she was so busy keeping herself frozen that she didn’t even have time to cry out in warning before it brushed, ever so slightly, against the brim of Hatter’s hat.
In less time than it took to blink in surprise, there was a cut-off yell from Hatter, a huge sucking sound, and his head was completely engulfed in the bluebell’s mouth.
Hatter’s arms flailed in surprise, incidentally saving Alice-who had been gripping him so closely- by knocking her off the horse. She tumbled off the saddle to land in a heap on the ground. Bill whinnied in fear, rearing onto his hind legs, eyes rolling in panic.
She got to her feet immediately, trying to dodge the flailing hooves and breathing heavily. “Hatter!” she yelled. She could hear his muffled screams from inside the Flower’s mouth, his hands beating everywhere he could reach with no result. Her blood felt hot in her veins, she was so scared - and, she suddenly realized, so angry.
Without stopping to think, because there was no time for thinking right now, she sprinted ahead to where Charlie was only just turning around with Guinevere and yanked his sword from his scabbard. The metal felt cold and heavy in her hands, the sword feeling somewhat inelegant compared to the smooth grace of hand-to-hand combat, but Alice was too far beyond to care. Tightening her two-handed grip on the hilt, she ran toward the bluebell with a horrible yell and sliced off its head.
***
Next Chapter
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Author: alittleoddish
Rating: Teen
Characters: Alice/Hatter, Jack/Duchess, Charlie
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Syfy's Alice.
Summary: "But this is starting to sound like a quest! Quests are such a pain, Alice, they really are. All horseback and food rations and traveling in groups and no truly hot tea, with significantly less sex against trees.”
Author's Notes: I'm back! And not only am I rested, but I think my next few chapters are some of the best I've ever written, AND I think I'll be posting mostly two chapters per week from now on. ^_^ That's the goal, anyway... I want to have this finished by the end of the summer so I can start working on other projects. XD
Thanks so much for all of you who have given me such lovely feedback! ^_^ Again, thanks so much to my GORGEOUS betas, zombres and randombattlecry! They are simply fantastic, they always keep me on my toes to provide the highest quality of writing I can. Also, thanks to my amazing Official Fandom Soundboard abscondinabox, with whom I have spent many-a-Skype session discussing the ins and outs of characters and plot, and without whom this story would undoubtedly be a disaster.
Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five,
Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten,
Chapter Eleven, Chapter Twelve, Chapter Thirteen, Chapter Fourteen, Chapter Fifteen
***
They rode until the jeering, screeching sounds were far behind them, and then they rode still further. The sound of horse hooves furiously pounding the forest floor thundered in Alice’s ears and shook her whole body, a steady rhythm that didn’t do much to hide the obvious panic held by everyone in their party.
“Charlie!” she yelled ahead. “Charlie, we have to stop! We’ll just get even more lost the farther we ride!”
“She’s right, Charlie!” Hatter yelled in agreement. Charlie made no outward indication he had heard them, but reigned in Guinevere at the next clearing they came across.
“Well that was successful!” Alice dismounted her horse with a scowl, trying to ignore the way her hands were still shaking. “I can’t believe how quickly they just… turned on us!”
“I did warn you,” Hatter said, patting Bill on his trembling flank and leading him over to the stream for a drink. “Flowers are dangerous, they’ll turn on you in a second.”
“No,” Charlie said. He was insistent, his expression grave but stubborn. “The Flowers are fickle, I admit, but their behavior just now…” He shuddered, his armor clanking. “I’ve never witnessed such behavior. Whatever that stone is, it’s certainly got them spooked.”
Alice sighed and reached up to rub small circles at her temples, a vain attempt to fight off the headache she felt coming. “Well, do we have any other options, Charlie? What can we do?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. Gaze fixed on the middle distance in abstraction, he spoke hesitantly. “I- I was certain that the Flowers would be able to help us-“
“They can,” a small, unfamiliar voice said. “They just don’t want to.”
The three companions froze. Alice’s eyes found Hatter’s, who shook his head. Charlie followed suit.
Trying to move as little as possible, Alice scanned the clearing with wide, sharp eyes, but there was nothing there that shouldn’t have been. Just trees, grass, and flowers-
“I’m down here!”
Flowers.
Three heads swiveled madly, turning in unison toward a single orange daisy that had been previously unnoticed. “What did you say?” Hatter demanded.
“I said that the Flowers could have helped you.”
The three of them looked at each other uncertainly before approaching the lone Flower. “Explain, please,” Charlie insisted, bending over to speak to the Flower directly. It was very small, its fully outstretched petals perhaps only the size of Alice’s palm.
“They’re hiding it.” Its voice was vacant and dreamlike, as though it were talking to itself. Alice thought it was a good match with the blank, rather stupid expression on its tiny face. “The path to the stone, it goes directly through their garden. You need to wait until tonight, when they’re all asleep. If you don’t make any noise and you don’t touch them, you can make it through to the other side.” The daisy yawned widely. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m completely bushed…” The orange petals started to curl inward.
“Why are you telling us this?” Hatter asked quickly, with a note of suspicion.
“There’s something on the other side, I can feel it. The big Flowers want to keep it, but I just want it out of the Wood. The quickest way is through the garden.” The daisy yawned again, and the last petal curled into place, forming a completely closed ball that offered no opportunity for argument.
Alice and Hatter looked at each other warily. Alice stood up with an exasperated sigh and turned back toward the clearing. “Well, I’ll take first watch. I’ll wake you both up when it’s nightfall.”
“Wait a minute, Alice,” Hatter said, following her with a frown. “Something about this just doesn’t tick right. Why would that Flower sell out its mates? Not even just regular mates, its superiors--those big guys could eat him alive, so why is it so willing to give us their secrets?”
“It just said,” Alice defended. “It wants the Stone gone just as much as we do. Now that path through the Garden looked pretty wide, so it’ll be no problem as long as we’re quiet.” This last bit was said with a pointed glare to both men, who glanced at each other worriedly. “Now get some rest while you can,” Alice said. “I’ll wake you two up in an hour or so.”
She turned away, trying to shake off the feeling of unease. The phrase never poke a sleeping dragon flitted through her mind… She pressed her lips together and picked out the smoothest-looking tree to lean against, settling in for her watch and noticing Hatter doing the same across the fire. He kept his hat clutched in his hand as he closed his eyes.
It was going to be a long night.
***
Three little bundles illuminated by a dying fire; two of them sprawled across the rough ground, one of them leaning against a tree and nodding softly, lulled by the comforting warmth of the night.
So vulnerable.
But, Lory reminded himself with the smallest tinge of regret, that wasn’t his style.
He flipped upside-down on the branch he was seated upon, the bark not even scratching under his knees as he held himself aloft. He stretched out a single finger to brush the tightly closed orange bud. He could feel the little Flower’s panic itch the back of his mind as he forced it asleep.
Lory clucked his teeth sadly. He preferred to keep his subjects alive, he really did. But if he let this one wake up it would just wail and panic about intruders and betraying its superiors, and who knew what else. He really couldn’t risk it.
Lory curled the outstretched finger into his tense fist. The curled orange bud wilted ever-so-slightly and the panic itching at the back of Lory’s mind went suddenly quiet.
And before the bud had even bent low enough to brush the ground, he was gone.
***
Alice jolted herself awake, blinking blurry eyes at the fire. Somehow it had grown dark without her realizing it. Through the gaps in the treetops she could only just see the purple remnants of sunset. She rolled her eyes and rubbed at her face - she really was horrible at keeping watch.
“Rise and shine,” she said, nudging the boys with her feet. She ignored their groans of protest, saddling Bill with her bag. As she tightened the straps, she looked across Bill’s back to see the Flower bent over, closed bud nearly touching the ground. I suppose there’s no need to wake it up… she shrugged the thought away. Impatient, she turned around to give her two companions another dirty look.
“Don’t be in such a rush,” Hatter complained. “We’re walking to our deaths, here.”
She raised one dark eyebrow at him. “So melodramatic?”
“It’s a special occasion.”
Charlie frowned a bit in thought. “Really? It seems as though we do this sort of thing rather often.”
Alice snickered behind her hand and Hatter rolled his eyes. “I stand corrected. Let’s just get this over with, then.”
Once they were saddled and seated, Alice leaned forward to rest her chin against Hatter’s shoulder. “One of these days,” she said mischievously, “you’re going to tell me why these Flowers bother you so much. Did one of them bite you as a child?”
“Hey, I just…” He scowled. “They’re just dangerous, okay!?”
Alice nodded sympathetically and patted his shoulder. “It’s okay baby, I’ll protect you.” He twisted in his seat to give her a withering look and she laughed.
Charlie looked back at them and sighed. “Be quiet, you two!” he whispered urgently. “We’re almost there.” Faces quickly schooled into identical expressions of innocence, they dutifully rode the rest of the trip in silence.
This time, they were in darkness so thick that Alice could barely see Charlie’s armor glinting in front of them. The trunks around them were so densely packed that they almost completely obscured the sliver of moon occasionally peeking through, and for the first time Alice noticed that the animals in the trees were completely, utterly silent. Just as she realized this, a slight breeze rustled the hair at the nape of her neck. She shuddered, resisting the urge to rub away the goosepimples that had risen on the back of her neck.
The darkness only deepened as they rode further into the forest. Eventually she could only gauge Charlie’s distance by the subtle clop-clopping of Guinevere’s hooves on the ground, amplified by the silence and Alice’s straining ears. Maybe, she thought later, that was why she didn’t even see the Flower Garden until they were practically close enough to reach out and touch them. She bit back a gasp of surprise when she saw the first pale green stalk only a stone’s throw to her left, her hackles rising and her battle instincts suddenly buzzing. Now that she was alert to it, she could see the pale outlines of stalks everywhere, surrounding them like a smooth, silent forest. The colored buds at the top were tightly closed in sleep, the leaves swaying slightly in the cool breeze.
The path was much wider now that the Flowers weren’t stretching across it constantly to talk, but it was still probably only about five feet across. All it would take was one of their horses stumbling just a few steps in the wrong direction, or someone sneezing, or a twig breaking, or…. Alice just tried to take a deep breath as silently as possible. The only way to get through this, she commanded herself, was to keep calm. Nothing was going to happen if they kept calm.
***
Lory watched their slow progress through the trees, his bird-like eyesight grabbing onto the slivers of moonlight and highlighting them with perfect clarity. He was grudgingly impressed with the old man’s skilled navigation through the forest - not many would have been able to keep such a true course in this kind of darkness.
It was too bad someone like that had to get mixed up in this. Really, it was. If Lory were sentimental, he would have even sighed.
Once they passed the entrance into the garden, Lory jumped a bit closer so his control wouldn’t get muddled over distance. His plan was simple and efficient, but Lory didn’t want to take any chances. He watched as his target plodded along, closer and closer to a drooping bluebell. He reached out his mind toward the sleeping Flower, keeping its struggles dormant once it realized briefly what he was doing, and waited. He waited until the hat bounced just so, until it reached right…
Lory narrowed his pupil-less eyes and pushed.
***
Alice was too busy counting her breaths to realize the subtle movement of the stalks around her, chalking it up to the slight breeze that had picked up since their arrival. She also ignored the fighting instincts that itched in her shoulders, all the way down to her fingertips.
When she looked up just in time to see a large bluebell droop down just six inches too low, she was so busy keeping herself frozen that she didn’t even have time to cry out in warning before it brushed, ever so slightly, against the brim of Hatter’s hat.
In less time than it took to blink in surprise, there was a cut-off yell from Hatter, a huge sucking sound, and his head was completely engulfed in the bluebell’s mouth.
Hatter’s arms flailed in surprise, incidentally saving Alice-who had been gripping him so closely- by knocking her off the horse. She tumbled off the saddle to land in a heap on the ground. Bill whinnied in fear, rearing onto his hind legs, eyes rolling in panic.
She got to her feet immediately, trying to dodge the flailing hooves and breathing heavily. “Hatter!” she yelled. She could hear his muffled screams from inside the Flower’s mouth, his hands beating everywhere he could reach with no result. Her blood felt hot in her veins, she was so scared - and, she suddenly realized, so angry.
Without stopping to think, because there was no time for thinking right now, she sprinted ahead to where Charlie was only just turning around with Guinevere and yanked his sword from his scabbard. The metal felt cold and heavy in her hands, the sword feeling somewhat inelegant compared to the smooth grace of hand-to-hand combat, but Alice was too far beyond to care. Tightening her two-handed grip on the hilt, she ran toward the bluebell with a horrible yell and sliced off its head.
***
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