FIREFALL, OR IN EXO WONDERLAND ▷ COMPLETE

The Catastrophic Catatonia

CHAPTER 29: THE CATASTROPHIC CATATONIA

"'Twas brillig and the slithy toves,

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe..."

The succession of strange words stopped without having the honour to finish when Maeva closed her thick Looking-glass book and spoke to her son, her speech changing from Carrolian Portmanteau to Wonderlandic, "You find that strange? Nei, Kristoff. Something else is stranger than toves and borogoves."

"Hvað? Ooh, Mamma! Will it be another story?" asked the little fair-haired Kristoff.

Maeva nodded with an approving smile.

"Takk, Mamma!" Kristoff leapt and whirled around in excitement. In comparison with the future Kris, that was considered as a strange sight, but Kristoff was just a young boy.

Maeva beckoned him to join her. Her soft Scandinavian features conveyed a warm feeling towards her only son. "Já, já... You know, your grandmother Heidrun had found love in someone she'd last expected." she worked out an introduction. "It's something you won't expect in Wonderland either!"

Kristoff climbed up the bed and crept closer to his mother's side. "So tell me, Mamma, what happened?"

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" Maeva's long dark blonde hair embraced her fluffy white pillow as she threw herself to her bed and recited their favourite poem, Jabberwocky, though in heavily-accented English.

"Mamma! You had read that poem so many times to me! Now I want to hear a different story!" Kristoff pouted cutely. Seeing him in that way made her pinch his cheeks.

"Dear, your grandmother was a filial peasant-wench with a lot of jobs to do every day. One day, she met a tall, handsome man. He looked just like you." Maeva began her story. "He was very sick, yet he was very grumpy. All he did was huffing and puffing in rage! She hated him very much. However, your grandmother was a patient girl, and still she took care of him."

"Why did Amma take care of him?"

"She knew that beneath all that rage, he was a benign man. All she needed was some patience. Little by little, her love was returned. At the end she realised that he was the dreaded Jabberwock... but for all their love, they cared not."

"So?" Kristoff stared at his mother and her glowing golden eyes.

"They married!" after concluding her story, Maeva tickled her son until he was nearly breathless. Cheerful laughter filled the rickety bedroom, making itself heard amidst the variety of sounds from the sea.

When Kristoff finally got a hold of himself, he breathed deeply and asked, "Is that all?"

Maeva shook her head. "Remember this—good things happen to people with patience." She pressed her lips to his forehead and tucked him into his blanket. "One more thing: don't judge someone too soon. Be wise first, and then judge."

Kristoff yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Mamma, I'm sleepy... just sing me a lullaby." he said, his eyelids half-closed.

"Alright, sweetheart." Maeva opened the Looking-glass book again and sang 'A-sitting On a Gate', its tune invented by a Knight from Looking-glass—performed in her own melodic voice:

"...And muttered mumblingly and low,

as if his mouth were full of dough,

Who snorted like a buffalo—