Not long after, Alice was given permission, or perhaps it should be called un-permission, to go wherever she wanted, however she wanted. "You saved all of us." The Queen had said, straightening Alice's neckline. "Alice the Avenger, they call you. Whatever you desire, whatever you need, you will have it. As I've said before, Underland is in your debt." She backed out slowly. "I'll be over there." She waved her hand gracefully in a vague direction. "Go, enjoy yourself, the grounds are open, the sky is blue, and the horses are pristine. Or, if you perfer, the castle is home again to everyone." She smiled. "Welcome back. Underland is thrilled to see you again."
Now Alice stood before a door with a strange, almost familiar whirring sound coming from behind it. She pressed her ear to it, and then knocked. The sound only intensified. She knocked again.
"Come in!"
She opened the door with a "Hello?" in her mouth when she had to duck as a bolt of cloth shot out, covering her in its heavy material.
"So very, very busy." She heard through the muffle of the fabric. "I have no idea what to do with this. Simple for intricate? Colorful or dull? Black or white? What would go best with this?"
Alice recognized that voice. "Hatter?" She called.
"I suppose these petals would do nicely. But what if I used feathers? No, no, no!" Something heavy hit Alice. "Won't do, won't do. Ah! Perfect.
"Hatter." She tried again.
"Or too perfect? Oh my, what to do, what to do?"
"Hatter!"
"Oh, now I'm hearing things. Yes, bolt of cloth?"
Alice struggled underneath the never ending cloth. "I can't find my way out."
"Well, I would think so. You can't leave the Dashery, where else would you go?"
Alice answered, "No, I'm under it!" while she tried pushing the material to find the lining.
"Under it?" There was a snap of fabric and the weight was gone, leaving Alice to blink in the brightness of the room. She sat up, pushing her hair behind her ear to see the Hatter rolling the bolt of cloth up again. "I was positive I had lost my mind this time. The last time the bolts spoke to me, I had had too much tea and Thackery was nowhere to be found." He laughed his silly laugh. "But of course, bolts cannot talk. I leave that to the scissors and - Alice?" He had eventually looked up from rolling and then proceeded to drop it. "Alice?" He jumped over the lump of fabric and bent down to her eye level. "Gracious, what are you doing on the floor?"
"I was coming to see you." She answered.
It took the Hatter a moment. "Oh, wonderful! You're back!" He got right in her face and stared. "You are back, aren't you?"
She leaned back before she gave him a smile. "Of course."
"And I'm as real as you, right?"
"I do believe so."
He sighed. "Good. I had been thinking that you had only been a dream when I didn't see you for so long and then I thought about how you had called me a dream and then I wondered if I was real because I was sure you had been." He paused in thought, speach, and breath, and then grinned. "But you're back! And you haven't forgotten me!"
Alice smiled back. "No, you are quite real and so am I. And I promised I wouldn't." She noticed the mess on the table. "What on earth are you doing?" Feathers, fabrics, petals, pebbles, lace and locks and colors, colors, colors across the table and floor and even strewn across the ceiling. It was as if the Hatter's mind had exploded. "So many hats. What are they all for?"
"I had had a sudden inspiration strike." He spoke, standing. "But it appears my inspiration has befuddled itself and now refuses to cooperate." He held a hand out to help her up. "However, now that you are here, I'll wager I'll fill this palace with the most wonderful articles of clothing."
He suddenly was studying her, his eyes flicking from neither here nor there and then he reached above them and pulled down a green scarf. "Here," he said, holding it out to her with both hands. "It'll match everything about you and what you have done for us all." He wrapped it around her neck gently, then changed to tying it around her waist, then a sudden thought flashed in his mind and he took scissors to it before he could change his mind and then presented her with a new pair of gloves. "You look like Spring."
Alice took them with great appreciation. "Thank you, Hatter. They are the most wonderful of anything I own." She slipped them on, found her hands snatched and hardly felt the cold metal of the scissors as the Hatter cut the fingers off the gloves.
"There," he exclaimed, giving her her hands back.
She examined them. "They're perfect."
"The funny things about clothes," Tarrant said, "is that by themselves, they are nothing special. They can only be perfect on the perfect person."
Alice, at a loss for anything to say, said nothing. Tarrant decided to change the subject.
"Tell me, have you seen the Queen yet?"
Alice answered at once, "Yes, almost everyone but the March Hare. Nothing has changed much, has it?"
Tarrant shook his head. "Oh, no, Alice. A great deal has changed. Our White Queen is back on the throne, the people are celebrating happiness every day, and the fear we felt for years is gone. All because of you." He touched the gloves on her hands almost shyly, his large green eyes trained on her. "We owe everything to you." He murmured.
All this gratitude, it was enough to make Alice feel self conscience. "I didn't do everything by myself. I can't accept everyone's thank you's without feeling like I don't deserve it all."
"But, Alice," Tarrant said, even softer. "You do. None of us could have done it because we weren't meant to. You were meant to because you were the one who had the muchness it took to defeat the Jabberwocky."
"Muchness." Alice laughed. "So, I suppose I've gotten it back, then?"
"Oh, you had never lost it." The Hatter assured. "Only misplaced it for a moment."
