A Queen and Her Kings

Mysterious Dreams and the King of the Mine

Cassandra groaned and sat up on the hard ground she had been laying on as she came to, shouts and voices flooding her ears. Rubbing her head, she blinked the sleep from her eyes and took in her surroundings. Looking around, she saw a lot of wide, white torsos and the bottoms of spears. Standing up, her golden eyes widened at what she saw.

She was in a very eccentric looking courtroom, with large golden podiums holding up the judge and jury, and a matching witness stand. There was a pulpit at the foot of all three of these, and in it was what appeared to be a little girl in a blue and white dress. Cassandra then fully took notice of who was standing around her. They were all card soldiers, so focused on staying vigilant that they, ironically enough, didn't notice her. Wanting to keep it that way, Cassandra slowly and quietly crept closer to the pulpit. She knew where she was from years of watching the movie with Skip, but that didn't really help her situation all that much. She heard the arrival of the white rabbit, the reading of the little girl's 'crimes', and the calling of witnesses, and just when the sentence was about to be carried out...

"Not today, you bipolar lunatic!", the redhead yelled, jumping on top of the pulpit, which caused Alice to yelp in surprise. The Queen of Hearts looked ready to order her execution as well, but never got the chance due to being interrupted by a scream of 'Incendia!' and a wave of fire that took the form of a great medieval dragon, which let out a mighty roar. Cassandra was shocked by her spell. She had never been able to do that with a simple incendia before.

Grabbing a startled Alice by the hand, Cassandra started sprinting towards the exit. Card soldiers tried to stop her, but were soon stopped by the fire breath of the flame-dragon, who had now taken flight. Cassandra picked the blonde girl up, put her on her hip and made use of her vampire speed to get them out of there, but had to stop when the white rabbit and mad hatter saw fit to block her path.

"N-now wait just one second- !", the rabbit stuttered out, but that didn't last long, because soon the hatter had poured hot tea on his head, causing him to scream. Cassandra took the opportunity to commit more crimes.

"I'm truly sorry about this, my most wonderfully mad fellows, but this is an extraordinary opportunity that I refuse to pass up.", the hatter looked confused at the declaration, only to scream 'HEY!' when the card in his hat band was snatched, the rabbit following his example when his pocket watch was taken. Cassandra clutched her spoils tightly and ran out of the courtroom as fast as she could.

She didn't stop until she reached the place Alice left wonderland in the movie. Setting the child down gently, Cassandra smiled gently at her in an attempt to ease any fears she may have.

"You're safe now. Walk that way and you'll be home; it'll be like this was all a dream.", the golden eyed girl said, kneeling down to the girl's level and pointing in front of her. Alice looked at her in bewilderment, but nodded slowly.

"Thank you for your help.", the fair child said sincerely with a smile. Cassandra nodded and smiled back.

"It was nothing.", Cassandra answered, and before she could say another word, Alice had taken her blue bow off her head and handed it to her.

"You like taking interesting things from people, right? Like souvenirs? Well, it's not much, but you can have my bow as thanks for helping me!", the child said excitedly. Cassandra was about to protest (she wasn't so immoral as to steal from a child), but by the time she got her bearings, Alice had ran off towards the tunnel home and waved back at her savoir frantically.

"Thank you, Miss Trousers!", she yelled back in farewell, and like that she was gone. Cassandra blinked in confusion

"'Miss Trousers?'", the woman questioned, looking down at her clothes. She was wearing the same outfit she had worn throughout the day, and tilted her head before shrugging in understanding. She supposed her wearing pants would be what caught Alice's attention, given the era she was supposedly from.