Underlands Madness Unlocked [ Alice x Hatter ] B1

Needle Forest

"You and bandersnatch are staying here."

My father's head whips in my direction, "I most certainly am not! My boy, you need us. You can't go the rest of the way alone."

"I won't be alone. No, not at all." I look over to Chessur and Mallymkun. They both look uncomfortable being around the squabble my father and I are having. I look back to my father and explain, "Your injured father, and bandersnatch is in incredibly pain. You can't go on any longer."

"Tarrant, you can't expect me to be okay with this? With any of us, truly." I look over at the bandersnatch and he's laying on the ground panting away. He doesn't seem to understand what's happening at all and probably won't notice when we leave them behind.

"Father, your injured. There nothing else to it. You can't go you'll..." I pause mid-sentence. It's not like we're leaving them behind for no reason. We're leaving them behind because if they go any further, I'll have to worry about them the whole way. This adventure is different. It's for someone. Someone I very much care about and want back in my arms as soon as possible. He'll just have to understand. I breath in all the muchness I can get, "Father, bandersnatch, if you go on any further you'll slow us down. This is for Alice and we already wasted half a day getting to this point. We can't waste another day."

My father is shocked, appalled with my reasonings, but it's the truth. The truest of the true. We can't go with them. He looks down at his feet, defeated. I go to touch his shoulder, but he begins to get up and walk over to the bandersnatch. Ignoring my eyes, that are seeking his, the whole way to our fluffy beast. He sits down against the bandersnatch and huffs out hot air. I reassure them both, "As soon as we get Ericiza, will be back for you. I promise."

My father still doesn't look at me. I ignore his ignoring and grab the box Mirana gave us from the bandersnatch's back. Chessur floats over to me and grabs the box from me. "You may want me to hold onto it. We may need someone with better evaporating skills to look after it."

I roll my eyes towards the familiar insult, but give him the box anyway. I go to the door of Ericiza's tower and turn the knob. It opens with a few reluctant pulls. Wooden chips crack off the doorway in the process. Before I look inside, I look one more time at my father. His head is laying on the bandersnatch, and it looks like he's sulking for a lost love. I want to say something, but decide to think it instead.

Will be back father. If only you understood, what I'm risking. If only you knew, what Alice means to me...

With that, I go over the threshold with Chessur and Mallymkun in toe. Never looking back at the pair we left behind.

I look at the ground in my grief while walking. It wasn't until Mallymkun yelled, "Hatter watch out!" That I finally looked up to see I was almost stabbed in the chest by a needle. A very large and sharp needle. Ahead of us looks like to be a needle forest. The needles I use to sew fabrics together for my hats.

"Well, this is another bump in our road, I must say," Chessur says like he's extremely annoyed. He's not annoyed at the forest though. He's annoyed that he has to wait on us to get through it.

I ignore him and squint my eyes to look for a opening we can walk through. It's then that I saw it, "Look! There's the cage!" I point out in the far distance. It's probably about 5 miles out, is a very large black cage. It's to far to see what's inside, but we all know what is. Ericiza.

I feel me'self go into thee' madness. I've been told me eyes go orange and me' face gets darker. "Let's get de' bloody man who took me Alice." Without another word, we all start walking.

Chessur is the one that found a good enough opening for us all to fit through. Mallymkun and Chessur could fit quiet fine. It was me that had to hold my hat and wiggle through to make sure I don't get pocked. Have you ever stabbed yourself with a needle? I've done it both by accident and on purpose, and neither time did it feel good.

As we're walking through the needle forest, I realize the ground is different here. It's made of... hay? I feel that sounds quiet familiar, I just can't get a...

Before I can get the rest of my thoughts to be thunked, I fall through the ground. I fall, and I fall. And I scream, and I scream. The last think I hear is Mallymkun yell, "HATTER!" Last thing I hear, before my vision goes black.