Bently McQuinn Saves Literature

White faded to black and then back to colour. Bently looked around their new location, expecting lots of different colours and things he had never seen before. But all he saw was a plain forest, with plain looking trees and normal colours.

“Meggie, are you sure you read out of the right book?” he asked, frowning as they started walking. Where were the rocking horseflies? The talking flowers?

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, checking the book inside and out. “Oh my… look at this everyone.”

Everyone stopped and crowded around to where she was pointing. Her finger was next to one of the many illustrations in the book. But instead of walking animals singing and dancing around Alice, there was a girl with short, dark hair petting dumb, domesticated animals. The other Alice, the fairy one, had taken over strongly, so strong that the book itself had been changed.

“This is not good,” Lucy whispered.

“Let’s keep going,” King suggested, and they began walking again.

“Hopefully we can find someone who can give us directions to wherever Alice is so we can defeat her,” said Bently. Normally, this would have been a stupid idea. Trying to get directions in Wonderland was like trying to lick the end of your elbow; you couldn’t do it, and you ended up looking like a fool. But considering what they saw so far, all the… the normality of Wonderland, it might not have been such a dumb idea after all.

They walked for a while and Bently got more and more uneasy with every few steps. This was wrong, so wrong. Wonderland should be the drug hallucination land, not the normal land.

Finally, they walked out into a clearing in the forest and found a long table set for a tea party. At the head of the table sat a man in a deep purple suit with a large black top hat, and in his arms he held a large, light brown rabbit.

“Good evening, you’re just in time for tea,” the man said, standing.

“Hello, who are you?” Lucy asked. She was the first to approach him, and he handed her the rabbit.

“Why, I’m the Hatter of course, and this is my hare, March,” the Hatter said, taking off his hat and bowing to her.

“You don’t much act like the Mad Hatter,” Meggie said reproachfully.

“Mad? Me? Oh no, my dear, I am perfectly sane,” said the Hatter, chuckling a slight bit.

But then, as Bently approached him, the Hatter’s eyes went a slight bit cross-eyed. His cloths started changing colours, and his chuckle turned into hysterical laughter.

“Now, you must try the saucers, they came in lovely this year from Horgbern, go on,” he muttered, and took a bite of the saucer.

“Bently, the Medallion…” Meggie said in wonder. “It’s making him mad again!”

Mouth slightly agape, Bently backed away from the Hatter, and as soon as he was a few feet away from him, the Hatter went back to prim and proper, setting the saucer back down on the table and daubing at the corners of his mouth with a handkerchief.

“It is,” Bently agreed, glowing. He pulled out the Medallion and looked at it with renewed interest. This thing was really powerful.

“Wait,” said King. “Doesn’t Alice have some sort of power?”

Bently thought for a moment. “Yeah, she does. She can see the future. But maybe not for long.” He pulled out the notebook and pen and took a seat at the tea table. He hoped it would work when he finished, and read it over several times. Those were the right words, but if he could actually change anything with them would be up to Meggie.

“Alice was frustrated. Every time she tried to see what was coming in the future, just gain the tiniest little bit of foresight, she was met with black. All she could see was black, no matter what she tried. Angry, she started tearing through all the books she could find, but in not one of them could she find answers. ‘I’ll just have to fix it when I get back and I’m done with this book,’ she thought.”

Meggie looked up at Bently when she finished. “Do you think that’ll work?”

“Well, the only way we’re going to find out is if we find Alice,” said Bently. “If it did, it’ll just make things a bit easier for us. And it might be the only way we can get anywhere close to her.” He now turned to the Hatter. “Do you know where Alice is?”

“Alice? Oh yes,” he said, accepting the March Hare back from Lucy. “She defeated the Red Queen a long time ago. We’ve all been leaving peacefully since then.”

“Yes, but where is she?”

“Why, she took over the Red Queen’s Palace!”

Bently and the others all looked at each other. “Looks like we’ve got another palace-storming to attend,” said Lucy cheerfully.

“Yeah, and hopefully, Alice won’t escape this one.”

“Do you think she’ll try and contact Meyer to get a fix for her sight, if it worked?” Meggie asked.

“Well, I don’t think she’ll leave to get it fixed, because if she does, everything will go back to the way it was and she’ll have to start all over again,” reasoned King. “From the looks of things, she’s been at this for a while. It must have taken some time to tame Wonderland.”

“Would you be able to take us to her?” Bently asked the Hatter. “We’d really like to meet her, but we’re new here, and we just don’t know where the Red Queen’s Palace is.” This smooth-talking was unnatural for him.

He could just hear Pansy giving him hell now. ‘It’s the Slytherin in you coming out,’ she would be saying.

Bently smiled slightly at the thought. ‘I hope wherever she is, her arm is better,’ he thought randomly.

“Yes, I will take you there now,” said the Hatter with another bow. Bently kept well away from the Hatter and Hare. Not that he didn’t want to get them back to being mad again, but he just thought it would be better if they waited until they were at the palace to start unleashing the madness within. He would rather not be lost in Wonderland.

They set off through the forest, walking quietly. Everything was much too pleasant, much too calm, much too normal. It was actually boring and a bit disappointing. True, Bently had wished for a little bit of a break from all the adventures, but not to this extreme. A little adventure was alright.

After a while, they came out of the forest and into a rocky sort of badland. Way in the distance was an elegant red, white and black castle. “Is that it?” asked Lucy.

“Yes, but it is further away than you think it is. Let us sleep here at the edge of the forest for the night, and then prepare to embark in the morning,” suggested the Hatter. Everyone agreed, mostly because they were very exhausted and had not slept since they had left Max and the flock.

Bently pulled out his wand, wondering if it would work. “Incendio,” he muttered, pointing it at a small shrub. It burst into flames. “Excellent,” he grinned, and started conjuring tents and a fire. Then he wrote in food for everyone, and they enjoyed a rather pleasant meal in Wonderland. The sun sank behind the castle, and the four companions put their heads together a little ways away from the Hatter and Hare.

“You know, just in case he’s on her side,” Bently explained. “We need a plan of attack. Obviously, it’ll depend on what happens when we get in the castle, but a basic plan is nice. Right Lucy?”

“Right,” she agreed. “I don't think we should split up again. Last time we did that, Bently lost a finger. So whatever happens, let’s try really hard to not get separated again.”

“Agreed,” said Meggie. “Also, I just thought about this… she’s in the Red Queen’s castle, right?”

“Right.”

“So the cards will be there too, supposedly. I don’t think she’d get rid of her own personal army, so she probably turned them.”

“Meaning we’ll have to be extra careful not to get caught by them,” finished Bently.

“Exactly.”

“Okay, so the basic plan is don’t get separated and watch out for the cards. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Good. See you all in the morning, bright and early.”