Only the Heart of A Queen (discontinued )

Chapter 10

It was beautiful. The sky was a very light shade of blue; the clouds looked as if they were cotton candy, they were light, pink and fluffy. In the distance, there was the White Kingdom, and on the opposite side, the Red Kingdom. Before them were checkered stairs.
There was something odd though. Everything was much bigger than them.
As if she was heard, the sharp pain in her stomach returned and the four slowly began to grow. "Hurry now, we mustn't tarry longer. The Lady first." Hatta looked at Cathrine.
She gulped and walked cautiously past the door; Hatta, Jest, and Raven behind her.
She looked down to see she was wearing a puffy and sparkly white dress that only reached a little lower than her knees; she also wore white flats, at least they were more comfortable to walk in. Hatta was wearing a black waistcoat with a white button up shirt, and white dress pants, his hat was—yes, white— with a purple ribbon wrapped around it. Jest used to be wearing all black, but now he wore an all white suit;  his Joker Hat was white as well, and what used to be a black kohl Heart, was now shimmering gold. Cathrine thought it really complemented his piercing lemon eyes. Raven still exactly the same, only his feathers looked lighter.

Cath was about to step forward, when another thought entered her mind. Did her parents know she was alive? Jest was walking past her when she stopped him by placing a hand on his chest. "Do my parents know that I'm alive? Do they even know I died?" Jest's lips thinned and opened his mouth, Hesitated, But he continued.
"Well, I went to your parents house, and I left a note telling them you...died. I told the King too, but it seems it won't matter now—" Cathrine interrupted, "So they know I died, but they don't know I'm alive?" Jest nodded.

Cathrine then realized, "Who will be ruler of Hearts, now that the king was gone?" Jest's eyes widened a little. "I- I don't know... don't they appoint someone closest to the King until they find someone... worthy or something?"
Hatta intercepted in between them. "Sorry to bother, but we must get going." Jest and Cath only nodded and walked down the stairs. Once then reached the bottom, Cathrine saw that there were two paths that both lead through the forest; one path as white as snow, the other blood red.

"So how are we going to do this? Do we just walk up to the Red Queen and take her heart?" Cath said, Hatta shook his head. "No, dear. We do what we were going to do in the first place," he took a deep breath in, "We will take you to the White Kingdom's border, make you Queen, you will lead us to victory, end the war, take the heart of the Red Queen," Hatta paused and took a deep breath in again, "go back to Hearts, give the Heart to the sisters, then, it's your decisions to either stay in Hearts, or stay in Chess."
Cathrine leaned on her hip and crossed her arms. "Wow, that was well thought out." Hatta tipped his hat and gestures at Cathrine. "After you, your Majesty." Hatta said curtly.
"Why, how nice of you, Hatta." She scoffed, then plastered a fake smile as she curtsied sarcastically.
She walked past him, shoving his shoulder with hers. Hatta stuck his tongue out at her, when Jest flicked him. " ok, why are you always flicking me?"
Hatta rubbed his arm. Jest ignored the question.
"Why are you so mean to Cathrine?"
Hatta looked at Jest, and then looked at Cath who kept walking. "I don't trust her, Jest," he lowered his voice and stood closer to Jest. "Remember, she is a Rose.." Hatta winked at him and began to walk towards Cathrine. Jest rolled his eyes and ran to Cathrine, linking his arm with hers.  They walked through the forest on the white path that lead to the White Kingdom.

"I think you look quite fitting in that dress, my lady."  Jest grinned, making his perfect dimples show. She felt a blush blossom on her cheeks. "Why thank you, Sir Joker. Or perhaps, I should say Sir Rook. I also think you look rather fetching in white." They both laughed, and when it was silent, they both heard an imposible to ignore choking sound from Hatta. Jest and Cath didn't even look back.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

They walked out of the forest, they were almost at the border of the White Kingdom. They walked for a while longer until the reached a bridge that bent over a small river. There they saw Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie sitting on the ledge of the bridge. "Well, hello there." Tillie whispered to them. Hatta sighed, "Hello Tillie, Elsie, Lacie. What are you doing here?"

"Can we not visit you?" Elsie said.
"Are you here to see if we made it this far?" Cathrine muttered. "Actually, Yes. We thought you would encountered something in the forest." Lacie spoke.

The Hatta, Cath, and Jest all looked at each other in confusion. "We didn't encounter anything. It was actually a peaceful walk." Jest remarked.
Tillie then slapped Elsie on her pale and bony arm.
"I thought I told you to send more Mutts, you moron. You had one Job."
Cathrine mouth dropped. "Wait— you put the Mutts in the Maze?"
"Of course we did." Elsie stated.
"Y-you NEARLY GOT US KILLED!" Cathrine hissed. She felt Jest's hand placed on her shoulder, but she shoved it off.
"We're sorry, Cathrine. We are just doing our Job. No hard feelings." Tillie Said.
"NO HARD FEELINGS? OH YOU'LL FEEL A HARD FEELING ALRIGHT—" Cathrine nearly jumped on them, when Jest wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back. Lacie and Tillie didn't even flinch, but Elsie squirmed and floated behind Lacie. "Ugh, Elsie you dunce, get up." Lacie snapped.
She struggled to get out of his tight grip, so she gave up, putting all her weight on him. "Aw. I would have liked to see that.." Hatta pouted. Jest grunted and put Cathrine up on her feet. He adjusted her hair and kissed her cheek. It made her heart flutter and she suddenly felt much better.
She still wanted to kill them though.
"Anyway, we wish you the best of luck. Murder, Martyr, Monarch, Mad."
"Wait your so-called "prophecy" didn't even come true—"
They were gone.

They continued to walk until Hatta suddenly stopped them. He cleared his throat. "Jest, Raven...Cathrine," Hatta spat her name as if it tasted bitter. We have reached, the border."