Tarrant and I stand before the white queen with the rest of her subjects. Where did these people come from, because I did not see any of them the whole time I was in the castle? Standing next to Tarrant and myself are: Tweedledum along with Tweedledee, Mallymkun, Nivens McTwisp, the March Hare, the Bandersnatch, Cheshire, but I don't see Absolem anywhere. Alice is standing next to Mirana, while she is sitting on her white horse. I smile at the two, and Alice smiles back, while the white queen starts to address her subjects. My Mad Hatter snakes his hand around my waist and pulls me closer to him, which makes my smile widen even more. A feel holes being burned into the side of my head, and I glance to my side seeing Mallymkun glaring at me. Oh! Now, I get why the dormouse doesn't like me. She has a crush on the Hatter, but instead of feeling happy or anything like that, I feel bad for her, because I can tell that the Hatter only thinks of her as a friend. Giving her a sad smile, I turn back to the queen as I realize that she is asking for a champion to slay the Jabberwocky. Tarrant looks at me, and I know he wants to help the queen. So, with a heavy heart, I give him a slight nod and he stands forward saying he will be her champion. Next thing I know, the twins, the dormouse, and Cheshire also say that they can be her champion.
"Nivens," the queen says cheerfully, and the white rabbit goes up in front of everyone. Unrolling the calendar scroll, which Alice and I saw when we first arrived, the end of the calendar scroll ends right at our feet. Surprisingly, the last tidbit that the calendar shows everyone is Frabjous Day, which is the day that Alice is supposedly slaying the Jabberwocky. Everyone looks at the scroll to see if it has changed, but it still shows Alice slaying the Jabberwocky and no one else. Feeling sad for my sister, but happy that Tarrant isn't going to slay the monster, I look over at her with my sad gold eyes.
"Alice, I am so sorry, but you are the one that has to slay the monster," I say sorrowfully to her, and I see fear flicker through her facial features. She starts to back up and looks at all of us like we are crazy. Carefully so I don't scare her more, I walk towards her with my arms out and away from my body. She continues to back up from us all, and I decide to comfort her in a way. Saying in a sweet tone, "It will be all right, sister, you will have all of us by your side. I will be beside you during this entire battle, but you must kill it yourself."
She turns around and runs away, while I feel both sad and hurt that I couldn't help her calm down. Looking to my left, I notice that the queen herself also looks quite sad that Alice ran away. A pair of arms wrap around my waist, and he leans close to my ear. Whispering soothing words, the Hatter presses my body closer to him in a comforting way. Relaxing immediately, I lean my head back against his shoulder, and I continue to stare in the direction that my sister ran in. The happy demeanor that everyone had before is now completely gone and is replace with fear. While the queen tries to soothe her people, I walk out of his grasp and walk away from everyone.
Sitting on my bed in the guestroom, I put my head in my hands and think about that look that my sister had before she ran away. She looked so scared, and I couldn't make her feel calm or at least reassured. What kind of sister am I if I can't even help my baby sister? Ever since I met the Hatter, I have stopped worrying about my sister and that makes me feel bad. Even though I feel guilty that I didn't worry about my sister as much as I should have, I would not change anything that I did, because I fell in love with the Hatter. Oh, this use to be easier before we fell down the rabbit hole.
A soft knock at the guest room door is in the background of all my thoughts, but I don't really acknowledge the knock. I continue to spiral down into my depressing and crazy thoughts, but they always revolve around the Hatter, Alice, and Underland. I pull my feet up onto the bed, and I start to rock back 'n forth violently. Why didn't I remember my sister, while I was at the red queen's castle? When did I stop being the good older sister, and not worry about her? Why couldn't I help her with this Jabberwocky situation?
"AnaBeth," someone grabs my shoulders, but I don't care. The person says my name more urgently, but I continue to rock back 'n forth. Finally, the person removes their hands, and I think they left, but I am wrong. Whoever is with me, gently but firmly grabs my hands and take them away from my face. I close my eyes and those three questions keep replaying in my head. A pair of lips crash against mine, and all the voices that tell me that I am horrible are gone. The three questions disappear from my mind, and I feel at peace with myself. The person pulls away from me, and still holds my hands.
"Are you all right, AnaBeth?" Tarrant whispers, which makes me open my eyes slowly, while I still savor the feeling of his lips on mine. I nod my head yes, and just stare at him with adoring eyes. This is another reason that I love Tarrant, because he can make my craziness disappear and makes me feel whole. Smiling at him, I lean forward and kiss him slowly, but sweetly. After a minute of just kissing, I pull away from the kiss so I can catch my breath. If my heart beats any faster, I think that my heart might stop altogether. Looking at the Hatter still, he has his adorable childlike smile that melts my heart again.
"Do you know, Tarrant, that you are my savior from everything?" I whisper to him with passion in my voice. He looks at me with love in his eyes that makes me want to melt into a puddle at my feet. Gently taking my hands, he kisses the top of them, while he keeps eye contact with me. A blush creeps onto my face, but I keep myself from looking away from him.
"You, my crazy angel, keep me sane or as sane as I can be," he replies, and I blush even deeper than before. His loving demeanor turns a little sad, and he sits down next to me. Giving him a questioning look, he sighs and looks down at our intertwine hands, "Even though I am not the champion, I will still be at the battle today."
"If you are fighting then I'll go too," I firmly say to him, but before he can disagree with me, I hold up one of my hands, "I am doing this for both you and my sister. I told her I would by her side during this battle, so I have to go."
"All right, my crazy angel, but promise me you will not get yourself hurt," he looks at me pleadingly. Saying of course, I kiss him again, and stay in his arms. Remembering my sister, I move my head up to see him, but I continue to lay my head on his shoulder.
"Have you seen Alice, Tarrant?" I ask him, and he looks down at me. Nodding his head, he looks out towards the window as he replies to my question.
"As I was walking over here, I saw her out in the maze-garden. She seems to be talking to Absolem," I nod my head, and I look out towards the window also. After an hour, my Hatter slowly starts to move around, and I move off him.
"We have to go, my crazy angel," he looks at me, and I nod my head. A question pops into my head that makes me wonder if I should go to battle. How am I going to fight if I don't know how to use a weapon?
"Um, Tarrant?" he looks at me expectantly, and I sigh, "I don't know how to use a weapon, let alone fight."
"You can stay next to the queen during the fight. The queen isn't going to fight either," he reassures me, and I smile kindly at him. He takes my hand and we walk toward the entrance of the castle, but he stops before we leave. The Hatter tells me to wait here, and he leaves through a door. A couple of minutes later, he comes back wielding a sword that stops right at his waist.
"Wait, you know how to wield a sword?!" I say surprisingly, and he laughs, while he shakes his hand at my question. Switching the sword onto his right hand, he grabs my right hand with his left. He looks at me with a look that says "of course I do" and we walk outside.
Waiting for the rest of the soldiers to assemble, we stand in front with the white queen. She looks majestic on her white horse, while we just stare out towards the direction that the battle field will be at. I can hear everyone getting ready behind us, but I don't turn around. There is only one sound that I will turn around for, and that is the sound of my sister coming, but so far that isn't happening. From my peripheral vision, I can see Mirana looking back to see if my sister is coming yet. I know that we are supposed to be leaving in a few minutes, so I can feel the nerves rolling off the queen. Turning to my head to the right, I see that Tarrant is turning crazy, because his face is serious and crazy. Giving his hand a gentle squeeze, I turn back to the road ahead.
Suddenly, a roar brings me back to my senses, and a huge smile spreads across my face. My sister is coming, and she is riding on the back of the Bandersnatch. Quickly turning around, I realize that Alice is wearing the full armor suit that I saw when we first arrived at Marmoreal. In her right hand is the Vorpal Sword, and she looks ready to fight anything. The nerves that the queen was giving off earlier is replaced with happiness. Tarrant and I move to the left, so Alice can be in-between Hatter and Mirana.
When she reaches the front, I give her a happy smile, and we start marching off towards the battlefield. Oh! I hope that by the end of this battle, the Hatter, Alice, and the white queen are all right. I don't know what I will do if Tarrant gets hurt or worse...dead. Don't get me wrong, I will be upset if Alice or even the white queen gets hurt or killed, but the Mad Hatter is different than the rest of them. If he dies or gets hurt, I will have no reason to live, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that. I don't believe that I can ever love someone like I love Tarrant. My short romance with Lowell wasn't even like this, because compared with this love, that love with Lowell is just a crush. Please, let everything be all right and not turn out horrible.