A Wonder Wrought Novel: The Curiosity Tribulation - Second book

Evanesce

     It's not easy being the bad guy. . .but it's even harder working for the bad guy, especially when your partner is a good for nothing hare. 

    You might be wondering why someone such as myself works with a creature I eat for lunch, but I can barely answer that for myself. But there is one person, well woman, who can answer your question. Her name is Scarlett, but those below her, which includes anyone with a set of lungs, call her the Queen of Hearts. A name I find too sweet for a devil of  a woman, and that's coming from a beast that kills for its every waking meal.  

    Actually, that's what separates us. I, a mere predator, kill because I have no choice in the matter if I want to survive, whereas, her Majesty kills for the  "joy" in it. Personally, I can agree that there is a certain thrill unlike any other during a hunt, but I would never use my birth given claws to take an unnecessary life. 

     That single moral is what actually inspired my personal decision to leave the Queen's side after watching her wreak havoc on the souls of those poor young humans, not to mention the atrocities done to the rest of his world's population. I still remember the day when I first made my descent into this new world, all of wonderland was alive with a contagious wave of wonder...

  * * *                                                                                                                                                                                               * * *

   It was the third day of Jabbnenfres, the season in which all of wonderland is plagued with a heat that inhibits the survival of almost every living creature. My clan and I were heading to Wimbly forest, the only land safe from Jabbnenfres' extreme temperatures, when we were then called to the Queen's palace for a kingdom wide meeting. It was during this meeting that her Majesty told the creatures of Wonderland about a place, the place where the infamous Alice was from, and that we were going to venture there. Looking back, I realize we were never given a reason to our leaving but no one questioned it because as we all knew it, wonderland was dying. 

   More interesting than just saying we were venturing to a new world was getting, not to mention taking some of Wonderland with us. After the Queen's meeting we were all lead on a migration to one of our land's most foreign regions, Castelflectdentwack. 

    Castelflectdenthwack, home to Wonderland's largest superstitions, is a land overtaken by a lake that little to no creatures have ventured. . .mostly because those who did were never seen again. And it was just with a single step into this mysterious lake that yours truly, along with the rest of Wonderland, was transported to the land of Alice.

* * *                                                                                                                                                                                                 * * *

   And now, after putting my past behind me, I can cast a blind eye to the wonder that brought my people here and clearly see the true horror of Wonderland's presence in this new found land. Not to mention the evil in the heart of the woman who led us here and has brought the fate of our home to this foreign place with no way out. But, there's no point on relishing on the negatives in this newfound life, simply because I have not only my life to worry about but also the survival of my still starving clan. Just the other day another one of our elders passed, and the same will keep happening if a new source of food is not found. 

   The one catch to this world was that only he creatures Alice had met could travel here, which did not happen to include my kinds main source of food, the ever so graceful Sperongblen, the "deer" of Wonderland. And now I must suffer as I watch my own kin and offspring die out in this broken world and the Queen lavishes herself with the products of my labored dedication.

     . . . actually, no, I will not watch my kind go extinct while her Majesty struts around. It's time for me to be more than just the bad guy's minion and, ugh I hate to say it, but do what's right. And I just happen to know the right hare to help me.

* * *                                                                                                                                                                                                 * * *

   "Droge!, I bellow into the makeshift hole made I followed the hare's trail to. " You dastardly rodent, I know you're in there. Show your fluffy face or I'll rip it off myself!"

  "Now, now you big pussycat, what did I tell you about that temper, hmm?," the hare says from within his hole.

   I take my dominant paw start to dig into the ground surrounding the hole, "I'll show you what a temper  looks like you dumb hare, now come out of there so we can have a reasonable conversation," I say as I continue to try and reveal the hare's hideaway. 

   His ears begin to rise out of the small hole and I stop digging," Reasonable? Hmph, well can you tell me what's so reasonable about wreaking havoc on a friend's home?"

   "Friend?," I ask before being overtaken with a trifle of boisterous laughter, "We are many things, Droge, but friends is not one of them."

"Oh, is that so?," he says with an almost believable frown," Well since you feel that way, I don't see any reason to waste my time talking to the nauseating likes of you," Droge says as he turns to return back to his hole.

  Before he makes it back into the hole, I swipe at him and he in turn bounds over my paw into the receding forest behind us. "You damn rabbit! Don't just run away while I'm talking to you. . .especially when you know what happens when I see prey trying to evade me," I growl with  a grin spreading from ear to ear.

   From within the forest lush I hear him shout back, "Well, since you want me so bad, why don't you come and get me? I mean I've never seen anyone wear starvation so bad, like how can you still be so enormously plump while your people starve, hmm? So come on kitty, run off a few of those pounds and come get me. . .if you can," he says before trailing further into the forest. 

   Oh that damned hare! ""No one criticizes me and gets away with it," I think to myself as I launch into the forest in pursuit. I start to pick up on the hare's advancing trail as I bulldoze through the forest ahead of me, and then a sudden thought wades into my mind as my stomach begins to clench. .  .maybe I don't need Droge in the way I first imagined. And with a new plan in mind I race after my prey's scent, my mouth all but drowning the forest floor with my intense salivation.