The Old Ways Of Wonderland

Chapter One

“Oh dear, Oh dear, I’m late again!” panted Bibwit Harte, tutor to the royalty of Wonderland. It had not been the first time he had been later in the past three lunar cycles but he was late on a day he could not afford to be. The queen’s birthday. He ran through the corridors of the newly rebuilt Heart Palace and eventually reached the doors of the royal bedroom. He opened it and ran inside almost knocking over a few of the ornate statues scattered around.

The first thing he noticed was that she was not in her bed so he assumed she must be in the bathroom or on the balcony. Knocking on the door and hearing no answer he turned to face the doors that led to the balcony and breathed a sigh of relief to see her looking out over the queendom with a relaxed look on her face. She smiled when she saw Bibwit in her imaginations eye struggling to reach the door. She turned and walked towards him; he stopped and whilst panting, bowed before his monarch.

“There’s no need to be quite so strenuous Bibwit” she said with a distinct sense of humour in her voice. “Well I did not want to late on this day Queen Alyss” he wheezed. “Call me Alyss, even a queen is allowed to be called by her first name on her birthday” She said still with the humour present in her voice. “Very well Alyss, shall I alert Molly and Dodge you are awake?” Bibwit spoke with his voice finally no longer impaired by temporary asthma.

“Yes please do” Alyss politely asked her loyal teacher. He bowed and left the room. Alyss smiled and continued to look out to the queendom. She looked at everything that was being rebuilt after her aunt’s brutal rule. She knew she was still out there somewhere and she hoped the Heart Crystal would send her somewhere that she would be no harm. Although she had to wonder what influence her jumping into the Heart Crystal even if she managed to defeat her when she reappeared.

She almost wanted her to appear so that it would be over, little did she know it would be sooner than she could ever imagine.

Meanwhile, in a desolate empty barren space known as the Netherplane, a woman with dark purple robes was walking across the landscape trying to find shade. She had always tried to avoid coming here but it was impossible it seemed to stop people believing in the Old Ways. Even her own figuratively speaking flesh and blood had forsaken her causing her to come to the world of the Netherplane where everything that ceases to exist appears.

“If I ever find a way out of here” the woman rasped, “I will kill that bastard with my bare hands. How could he forsake me, Mab, queen of the Old Ways, his own mother” Sometimes she felt it was only her desire for revenge that kept her moving on through the endless void. It had felt that years had passes and she was right, she had been wandering for over five hundred years, ever wandering.

Just when she had fallen down for the third time in that last hour. She looked up to see a most peculiar thing. There seemed to be a mass of energy shimmering a few hundred feet in front of her. She stumbled forward until she could see that it was a huge shimmering portal of shining red energy. She stared in fascination and after a few seconds suddenly it began to shimmer more frequently. She could see two shadows coming closer from the centre of the portal till they were at the edge of the portal ready to break through.

Suddenly the portal shimmered and through the portal the two shadows fell. Now they had fallen through the portal, they had become fully corporeal creatures. When they landed on the floor, they were instantly knocked out by the impact. Mab stared in wonder as the portal shimmered one last time and it faded out existence and when it had completely faded, there was a loud popping noise that Mab fall backwards in shock. Her attention then turned to the two objects that had landed on the dusty floor.

One was a woman not much older in physical appearance than herself; she had red hair that flowed down to her waist and a face that looked as vindictive as hers. The other was a humanoid no doubt about it, he had incredible muscular build, brown fur all over his body, hands that more resembled claws and the head of a malicious looking cat. Around his neck was a necklace of either teeth or claws threaded on a golden chain.

Mab stared at the woman and the humanoid and smiled a smile wider than one she had felt for many years. “Now, this could be interesting” she rasped.