Twisted Wonderland: Keepers Of The Underworld; Seekers Of The Spark

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Arrival

"Oh, dear."

Pulling back from the eyepiece of the Dream Dirigible's mechanical telescope, Blarion Mercurial, better known as the Dreamfinder, pushed the pair of tiny reading glasses up onto his forehead, worriedly stroking his beard.

"Well, that certainly doesn't look good..."

The sound of the pneumatic door whooshing open interrupted his train of thought, and he turned just in time for his apprentice to wander in.

Kathleen Lancaster, or Katie, was a girl of about sixteen, who bore a remarkable resemblance to his great-many-times-removed niece, Capricious Harmony.
Her choppy red-blonde hair was even wilder than normal, free from its scrunchie and colorful barrettes, and her green-gold hazel eyes were bleary and mildly unfocused. She was about 5'4, with a slim chest, wide hips and a frame built for running, jumping, climbing, and, judging by her slender but well-muscled arms and scraped knuckles, fighting.

"What--" she began, then yawned, rubbing her freckle-spattered face.
"What's up, Hakase? You don't look happy... Weren't you really looking forward to showing me around this dope magic school campus?"

"Ah-- Katie," Dreamfinder replied, moving across the small bridge room.
"I was, but-- well-- I'm sorry, I thought you were taking a nap...?"

The girl shrugged, crossing her arms behind her head and stepping forward as the door whooshed back into place.

"Yeah, I was," she replied. "But I woke up. We hadn't been moving for a while, and it's already dark, so I just kinda felt like I'd been asleep long enough, y'know? Oh-- Figgy's still conked out, though; I didn't really wanna wake him up too."

Wandering across the room, she glanced over at the telescope, then back at him.

"Anyway-- whatcha looking at, Prof?"

Dreamfinder shook his head, brows knitting as he followed her.

"I'm afraid you may have taken that nap for nothing, Katie. I was planning on introducing you to the Headmaster tonight and waiting until the morning for the actual tour, but... Well..."

Sighing, he took the glasses off the end of his nose, folding them and tucking them into the breast pocket of his waistcoat.
"I think you'd better take a look for yourself."

Glancing at him suspiciously, she shrugged, pulling the eyepiece over to her and looking through it.

"Oh, wow..."

Whistling, she shook her head, turning the viewfinder this way and that as she scanned the campus below.

"Dang, what happened here? It doesn't look like this normally, does it?"

"I should certainly hope not," he replied, arms crossed over his chest.
"Of course, the last time I was here was about... Oh, was it ten years ago? So of course I was expecting some changes, but..."

"But more like some new buildings or something, not so much of a... Bombed-out war zone?" She asked, pulling back and looking over her shoulder at him. "Yeah, that makes sense..."

She squinted back through the eyepiece.
"Dude, there's all these windows shattered... Yo, what happened to-- is that a greenhouse?! Did a meteor fall through the roof or something? And-- WHOA! There's a whole wall missing on that building over there! And-- I think that field was on fire! It's still smoking!"

As she kept exclaiming, Dreamfinder walked over to the instrument panel at the front of the bridge. He flicked a few switches and buttons, then finally pull a small joystick.
The sound of the Dirigible's engines shifted, growing quieter and smoother, and the cabin shook once, giving a loud, metallic chunk sound.