“Ah! My pride and joy…quite a pity when the Hatter began his rampage. I do miss the Oysters’ laughter…”mumbled the Gnome Elder. “Now, hurry along and get my poppy blooms for me! Since Nature has ordained that certain seeds require assistance to fulfill their destiny, I think you will need this…” he barked, handing me a flask labeled, “Jumbo Grow”. “Now don’t look so surprised. Gardeners store rat poison and fertilizer in sheds. Skools have laboratories for that purpose.” “Oh, fine. I hate doing grunt work,” I complained. “It is, indeed, a small price to pay.”
Later on, I sampled the weirdness of Wonderland once again as right before me, under the effects of “Jumbo Grow”, the greenhouse poppy seed grew into a large pink…lollipop. As there wasn’t anyone to enquire about this oddity, I plucked the lollipop and ran back to the Laboratory. Unfortunately, when the threw open the door, I was greeted by a scene of destruction: apparently, two Club Guards had infiltrated the lab and, throwing about various test tubes and scientific apparatus, were in hot pursuit of the wily Elder around the room. Jumping into the fray, I clothes lined one Four Clubs with my Staff before stabbing him in the head, while Chessur scratched and sliced the other Three Clubs to pieces.
“You’re lucky I was passing by,” “What? You’re lucky I was still where you’d left me! Also, I’ve cooked up the final ingredient: Sugared spice drops. I hope you got that Poppy Seed,” he retorted, holding one hand out while setting up various fragile-looking and fortunately unbroken equipment in a complicated arrangement with the other. “This primitive condenser should help us brew the potion…doesn’t seem like I can build anything more intricate with what those despicable guards have left me with.” Tossing the mushrooms, lollipop and sugared spice drops into a cauldron at one end, he then scattered handfuls of dull-red quartz around it. Watching the mixture bubble as the quartz glowed red hot, it flowed through the condenser’s various tubes and finally collected in a small test tube. “Here’s the potion,” he said, handing me the test tube of purple liquid. “And now you can leave, unless you’d like to meet the Carpenter…?” “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”
Moments later, after ascending what seemed like an endlessly high Observatory Tower, we stepped off the lift and came to a room with…four empty walls. “Ok and this would mean…” “Well, here we are,” remarked the Gnome Elder, and as I turned back to look and emerald door had appeared out of nowhere right across the room. “That clearly wasn’t there before!” “Of course not. We weren’t really here yet,” deadpanned the Elder as he rapped the door once, twice and thrice. “Who’s there?” an authoritative voice issued from a speaker mounted upon the door. “It’s me, Mr. Architect.” “You will let me confirm that,” “Certainly, sir.” Whirring noiselessly, an eyelike device projected from the door and swept the Elder with luminous green rays. Finally, with a series of clicking and ramming of bolts, the door creaked open to reveal an immaculately-suited man wearing a crisp white lab coat, matching pants and…wielding two tiny yet dangerous-looking firearms. “I’m sorry for the paranoia, but with a tyrant having as much power as the Red Queen it isn’t exactly unfounded. Now,” he said, pointing one gun muzzle between my eyes. “Who is this?”
I gulped, audibly.
“Now, let’s not be hasty, Mr. Architect. This here is the Champion Rabbit said would return Wonderland to its former glory.” Still glaring at me suspiciously, “Mr. Architect” holstered one weapon while keeping the other perfectly trained on me. I was getting cross-eyed from staring at its business end. “But the resemblance to Her Imperial Viciousness is just too—good Heart!” “Yes. That is the point,” intoned the Elder sagely, nodding at the surprised Architect. I was going to complain about them talking about me in front of me as if I didn’t exist, but the gun was being a good distracter. At that moment, “Mr. Architect” quickly recovered from his initial shock and waved us in hastily with the weapon, glancing around the outside nervously before locking the dozen locks that kept his door secure. I stood with the Gnome Elder, looking at the sparse but, like the Skool, beautifully furnished room. Having nothing except for what seemed like a Victorian-esque table, a quaint oil reading lamp, and two large chairs on either side of it, the most striking thing in the room was an enormous cabinet made of frosted glass behind the chair facing us.
“Please sit,” “Mr. Architect” said, motioning me tone of the chairs. “And will you be staying, Elder?” “No, I must return to give encouragement to my kinsmen.” “Very well.” With that, he strode over to the remaining chair and sat down, his electric-blue eyes seeming to peer into the very depths of my soul from across the table. “I suspect the Elder must have told you who I am, but for politeness’ sake I will just introduce myself. “I am the Carpenter, or as people like to call me, Mr. Architect—you may refer to me as that. Together with Mr. Walrus we started the Oyster Skool of Wonderland—I did most of the building while he did most of the teaching. Greatest learning institute around here—of course, until the Hatter went mad.” His thick eyebrows bunched and his crow’s feet crinkled at the mere thought of that. “But this isn’t why you’re here. Long story short, The Red Queen took over not long after you left the last time and Wonderland itself descended into madness. Elder probably hopes I can teach you Imagination to counter her powers. And I am Wonderland’s best Imagination trainer after the Caterpillar, if I do say so myself.” “And can you teach me?” “I’m afraid I can just touch on the basics, with what little time we have. Constructs, or simple inanimate objects will be what you will be learning—nothing too fancy. You can, of course, attempt more complicated tasks, but it will take its toll physically and mentally…which is something not to be scoffed—but enough talk! We must begin before it’s too late.”
I wasn’t sure how long I spent in that room learning the art of “Imagination”, or as I saw it, conjuring. It was one thing to focus hard on an object, but to focus so hard, atom by atom, until it became reality was a whole different ball game. Night and day made no difference in that lamp-lit room, as I continually tried to visualize various objects: a ball, a book, jacks, my knife and so on. Though it seemed that I had plenty of precocious talent in this field, with the Carpenter praising me from time to time as I managed to think the objects to reality (which he assured me he never did except for exceptionally good students) after each exercise the brain drain I felt was scarcely describable, I felt various neurons firing in ways they never had before. “Rest well after each exercise,” the Carpenter always said, “You will need plenty of the energy.”
After what seemed like many torturous weeks, the blessed words fell from his lips: “Our lessons conclude here. You cannot delay your quest any further. Do you have any questions?” “Just the one,” I said feebly, “When I slay the Boojums, they leave behind a sparkling dust…which the Elder used to Imagine a chemical bomb out of mid-air. What is that, exactly?” “Once again, his eyes X-rayed me carefully. “Boojums and Phantasmagoria in general, are the lost, tortured souls of wrongfully dead people, their afterlife minds twisted to crazed vengeance by the tainted presence of the queen. But as they had Imagination in their past lives, they leave that part behind when they are truly slain…I guess, as a friendly teacher-student parting, I should give you something that I hope will aid you on your journey.” Opening the enormous cabinet for the first time I was here, he took out three ornately carved dice from the multitude of items and passed them to me. “Chessur will know what they are for. Now drink your potion, and leave by way of this,” he whispered, handing me a small Looking Glass. “Now go! Our future lies with you, Your Highness.”
Your…Highness?
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