A Tale That Could Not Be

“NO!” cried out a little voice that caused Selvina to stop moving her hand. “No! No! No! No! No!”

Selvina looked up to see a white rabbit in a blue waistcoat hopping frantically in her direction, urging her to close the pouch. She pulled on the drawstring, more of out of caution than obedience, and the bright light vanished, the maze dim once again. The white rabbit, upon reaching her, placed its white forepaws, which were more like hands, on top of Selvina’s and looked her in the eyes with its large round ones.

Breathing rapidly, the rabbit said in a soft and hurried voice, “Don’teverdothat! Nevernevernevernever!” After catching its breath its voice slowed slightly. “The fairy dust is precious and more dangerous than you could ever know! Never open that pouch! You must never open it!”

Selvina frowned and pulled her hands and the pouch away from the white rabbit. “Queen Titania gave this to me to help me. It’s not dangerous.”

“Oh, but it is! It is! It is! It is!”

“Who are you anyway? Why do you care what I do with the fairy dust?”

“Tinkerbelle sent me.”

Tinkerbelle? Selvina’s frown disappeared and she eyed the rabbit in a new light. Was it true, then? Had Tinkerbelle truly gone to get help? Were the fairies not tricking her? “Where is she?”

“She is not here. No. No. No. She is gone to the surface world. She met me on the way and told me to come find you.”

“The surface world?”

“Yes! I asked her why she would do something so foolish but she didn’t answer me. She told me that finding you was more important and that if I didn’t hurry that I would be late. I dreadfully hate being late and had I tarried longer I indeed would have been! Promise me that you will never open that pouch!”

Selvina took a deep breath, deeply comforted by the rabbit’s words, and nodded. “I promise that this pouch will always stay closed.”

The rabbit wiped its brow with one hand and sighed in relief. “Phew! That is good to hear. Now, Tinkerbelle told me that you wanted to see the queen?”

“Yes, can you help me get to her?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, I can! I am the queen’s trumpeter, you know! I know the way through this maze and will get you through posthaste!”

“Thank you,” Selvina said, slipping the closed pouch back in its hiding spot. She stood up, feeling the warmth of courage and hope chase away the coldness of fear and doubt away. The white rabbit tugged on her dress and begged her to move faster thus she set off a gentle jog. The rabbit hopped ahead, leading her down one path and another. It seemed to know exactly where it was going and Selvina struggled to keep up with it.

“Can you slow down?” she asked as she felt sweat begin to bead all over her body. Breathing was becoming more difficult and once again Selvina regretted not taking gym class more seriously. The rabbit slowed to a stop and waited for her to catch up, one of its large feet patting the ground impatiently. It produced a pocket watch from its coat and looked down at it.

“You’re going to be late!” it cautioned, pointing at its watch.

Selvina stopped to catch her breath, leaning her hands on her knees and inhaling deeply. She tossed some hair out of her eyes and raised an eyebrow at the little rabbit. “Late for what?”

“Tea time!”

Selvina gave the rabbit a frightening glare and its long ears flattened against its back as it stared at her with wide eyes, its body trembling. In a voice dripping with venom, Selvina hissed, “Don’t talk to me about tea time!”

“You have met the Hatter and the Hare, I see,” the rabbit mumbled quietly, fiddling with its watch nervously. “Very well, we can miss tea time I suppose…”

Selvina crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the rabbit, her brows furrowed. “You aren’t with them, are you?”

“With who?”

“The Hatter and the Hare.”

“Me? Ohohohohohahahaha! No, not me! I may meet them for tea now and then but I am not with them. I hardly know what you mean by that anyway. What do you mean, with them?”

“Are you mad like they are? You are indeed leading me out of this maze, aren’t you?”

“Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes I am! I am not half as mad as the Hatter and hardly a quarter as mad as the Hare.”

“Good. What is your name by the way?”

“Me? Oh, deary me, no one has ever asked me that before. I am always referred to as White Rabbit. I can scarcely recall my real name…”

“Bugs?”

“What of bugs?”

“Is that your name?”

“By the goodness of tea, what a dreadfully awful name that is! No, my name is not Bugs!”

“Roger? Buster? Thumper? Peter? Br’er? Basil? Max?”

“No. No. No. No. No. No. No. None of those are my name!”

“Or maybe you’re a girl rabbit! What about Lola? Ruby? Angel? Maybe it’s—”

“No, no, no, no!!! I am most definitely not a girl! What does it matter what my name is?!”

“I just want to know what to call you…”

“White Rabbit will do for now.”

Selvina sighed. “Fine. Well, White Rabbit, I’m Selvina, and we can start walking again. I repeat, we can start walking!”

“Yes, yes, very well, Selvina. Walk we shall.”

The rabbit set off a steady pace that was easy to follow and Selvina kept up with him, walking at his side. She looked down at the little rabbit and barely suppressed a giggle. She could tell how much he wanted to bolt off at breakneck speed but found it humbling that he slowed down so she could walk beside him.

“Thank you, White Rabbit,” she said warmly and sincerely.

The rabbit looked up at her, its brows furrowed curiously, and asked, “You already thanked me for leading you through this maze, even though we are still in it. Why thank me again?”

Selvina shrugged. “It’s nice to have friends in strange places.”

“Friends?”

“That’s what we are, aren’t we?”

“I don’t mean to be rude, dear girl, but I don’t know you. You could be a terrible villain for all I know and I most certainly am not a friend of villains!”

“Tinkerbelle asked you to help me. Do you think she’d do that if I was a villain?”

“She most definitely didn’t ask me! She ordered me, that little ruffian, and disturbed me as I was having an excellent talk with a most inquisitive tulip.” The rabbit then looked up at Selvina and shrugged its small shoulders. “But you do not seem like a villain to me.”

“Well, I’m sorry she did that to you but I’m glad you came anyway.”

“Thank you, Selvina. It is good to have someone who appreciates me for once.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well…it is of no matter…”

“You can tell me.”

“It is dangerous to speak of it…”

“No one is here but us. Just tell me, please.”

“Oh dear…. If you insist….” The rabbit inhaled deeply, glanced about warily, and then frowned and said angrily, “Six years, Selvina! Six years I have been the queen’s herald and trumpeter and I have never received a single thank you from that woman. Once she tossed me a half-eaten carrot, which I did not eat by the way, but that was it.”

“Why do you work for her then?”

“She is the queen. If I do not work for her I lose my head.”

“That doesn’t sound like you have much of a choice. Why don’t you just run off in the woods and hide from her? She can’t find you in there, can she?”

“Oh but she can! She can! She can! She can! She can and she does! She sends her soldiers and bandersnatches into the woods and they seek out more servants when she runs low on them. She is always cutting off their heads so most do not live too long. No one wants to serve her, you see, but we do so anyways, just so we can live, at least for a little while. The only reason I am still alive is because I do not give her a reason to behead me. I am always on time. Always!”

“How many chances do you get before she beheads you?”

“None!”

Selvina frowned. “That’s not very fair at all! Everyone makes mistakes. She has to know that.”

“She doesn’t. She says that if we truly wanted to serve her that we would and we’d never make a mistake. She sees mistakes as us rebelling against her and she will never have another rebellion.”

“That’s just stupid. Wait, another rebellion? There was one before?”

“Yes, a most violent one that nearly succeeded in overthrowing her. I…I was there when it happened five years ago. A girl named Alice—she was about your age—came into this world and directly opposed the queen and she did not like that. No. No. No. She wanted her imprisoned but the girl had managed to persuade the white queen into helping her overthrow her, the red queen, and a war broke out. The white queen’s men fought the red queen’s and, though they battled bravely, they failed. The red queen then conquered the white queen’s kingdom, had her beheaded, and continued to spread her influence deeper and deeper into Wonderland. She now controls most of it and her power seems absolute. I do hope you are not here to challenge her, are you?”

Selvina paused before answering. She was here to rescue her friends and that meant that she might indeed have to challenge the queen. She looked down at White Rabbit and shook her head. “I just want to talk to her about something…”

“That is good. Very good. Very good, indeed. I worry for you, Selvina.”

“Why?”

“Your hair is the same colour as the one who challenged her. She has banned blonde hair from Wonderland and offers rewards for those who bring her blondes from the surface world. She sees it as them spreading her influence outside of Wonderland and in her mind it makes her feel as if she is the queen of both worlds. She desires ultimate power, you see.”

“Do you think I should do something to my hair?”

“Perhaps that would be a good idea.”

“What can I do?”

White Rabbit stopped walking and thought for a moment, his foot tapping the ground rapidly. A few seconds later his ears perked up and he exclaimed that he had an idea. He then hurried away, telling Selvina to wait, and she did so. A few minutes later the rabbit returned with dozens of red roses in his hands.

“Squeeze the red out of these roses and cover your head! She will appreciate your red hair and might like you a little more.”

“Wait, you want me to squeeze the red out of these roses?”

“Yes! Take your hands, squeeze the petals hard, and they will drip red.”

Selvina raised an eyebrow, gazing at the rabbit as if it had two heads.

The rabbit sighed in frustration. “Last year, a group of gardeners planted white roses instead of red ones and the queen found out and had them painted red, before beheading them of course. The paint failed to dry, though, because there was too much ain and not enough pt in it. Ain rhymes too much with rain and that made the paint forever wet. So now if you squeeze the flowers they drip red!”

This is Wonderland, Selvina, she reminded herself as she utterly failed to comprehend how paint couldn’t dry because is slightly rhymed with rain. Like the Cheshire cat said, everyone’s a little mad here. It made absolutely no sense to her but she did as instructed and raised one of the roses over her head before squeezing it tightly. To her surprise, she felt something wet drip on her head and flow down her hair. She grabbed a strand of wet hair and brought it before her, where she could indeed see it turning from blonde to red. It was actually working! She wasted no time squeezing the red out of the other roses and before long every strand of her hair was now a deep crimson.

“You look marvelous!” the rabbit said, clapping happily. “Red suits you well! It does! It does! It does!”

Selvina thought of Red Riding Hood and wondered what she would say to her matching hair colour. Would she be jealous? Probably not, Selvina thought. Red didn’t really care for such things. Her thoughts veered to Jack and she speculated on who he would say wore the red hair better. In the end, it didn’t matter as she had more important things to worry about, such as rescuing Goldilocks and Wendy.

“Will the red drip all over me?” she asked the rabbit as they started moving again.

“No. It won’t drip. It will not. The paint sticks well but can be squeezed out. As long as no one squeezes your hair you will remain a redhead.”

“So if I want to be a blonde again I just squeeze it out?”

“Yes, precisely! But please do that after you’re far away from the queen.”

“Of course, White Rabbit.”

They continued to journey through the maze at a steady pace and Selvina noticed that the rabbit no longer desired to hurry off as he had once did. She took it as him enjoying her company and wanting to remain beside her. It warmed her heart in knowing that she had made herself another friend in this weird world. He may be a talking rabbit in a blue waistcoat but he was good company and she almost completely forgot that she carried powerful fairy dust tucked in her chest. Perhaps she might not ever have to use it which, according to the rabbit, would be best for everyone.

The sky above was overcast and impossible to tell what time of day it was but to Selvina it felt as if it was later in the day. The maze didn’t appear to be this massive from when she had viewed it in the field but she again reminded herself of where she was. In Wonderland, nothing was as it seemed.

Just when Selvina was about to ask the rabbit if he had gotten lost they turned a corner and stared down a straight path toward huge castle gates. They had finally reached the end. Guards stood before the gates and others patrolled the curtain wall’s battlements. Behind them the red castle rose up in all its splendour, terrifying and beautiful all the same.

“We have arrived, Selvina, yes we have,” said the rabbit.

“Yes, indeed we have,” Selvina breathed, her eyes wide and her body momentarily frozen on the spot. Beyond those gates was the red queen, the very one that loved to remove heads from bodies. There was a good chance Peter Pan was there as well, with Goldilocks and Wendy as well. Selvina worried for Goldilocks due to her hair colour and feared what the queen would do to her. Since Wendy was a brunette her hair wouldn’t offend the queen but she would most likely be sent into service as a servant, where a single mistake could end her life. Wherever Rapunzel was, Selvina hoped she was safe. At least she would be spared the horrors that lay ahead.

The two strode toward the gate, the rabbit unafraid and calm while the girl struggled to hide her rising doubt and worry. The guards glanced at the white rabbit briefly before tapping the gates with their spears. The huge gates then slowly opened outward, their hinges creaking loudly. The rabbit politely thanked the guards and then hopped through the gates. Selvina mumbled a pitiful thanks to the guards, who made no sign that they even acknowledged her existence, and hurried after the rabbit. As soon as she was through the gates they slammed shut with surprising speed and a deafening bang of finality.

Before her was a meandering path that led across the huge courtyard to the castle itself, flanked by trees cut into the shapes of various animals. Heart-shaped rose bushes lined the road on both sides and despite the queen’s fascination with hearts, Selvina had to admit that the landscaping and trimming work was expertly done. Mad as she probably was, the queen had an eye for beauty. Selvina memorized the fact in case it might serve her at one point.

The white rabbit led Selvina down the road of gravel as she glanced about the courtyard. She saw more heart-shaped bushes, a few benches with heart-shaped backs, and a pond which was, of course, heart-shaped. She was about halfway to the castle when the rabbit stopped and pointed ahead.

“A rider approaches,” he said. “Let me do the talking.”

Selvina nodded, more than happy to let him.

The rider was astride a black horse and wore the same armour as the guards save for the helm, which had two long, red feathers protruding out of its sides. The rider flipped up the visor to reveal the scarred face of a man in his thirties with piercing grey eyes and a hard gaze. He glanced at the white rabbit for a moment and then narrowed his eyes at Selvina.

“I am the Queen’s Knave,” he said in a deep baritone voice. “I know White Rabbit but I do not know you, girl. Who are you?”

Selvina felt the man’s gaze rooting her to the ground, as if under a spell. Her lips quivering, she muttered, “I…I am Selvina.”

“Selvina? What a strange name. What do you want with the greatest of queens?”

“I…I wish…”

“She wishes to speak to her, yes she does,” finished the white rabbit.

“Silence!” the knave spat, giving the rabbit such a glare that he flattened his ears and covered his head with his hands. His icy eyes back on Selvina, he gave her a curt nod, urging her to keep speaking.

“White Rabbit is right,” Selvina said, working up as much courage as she could muster to keep her voice from trembling. “I only wish to speak to her.”

“About what?”

“I believe she knows the location of some of my friends.”

“Your friends are of no concern to the queen. Turn around and leave. Find your friends yourself, Selvina. The queen will wish no time wasted with you.”

“I wish to serve her!”

“What?”

“I want to know where my friends are as I have not seen them in many days but if the queen wishes, I will serve her faithfully if that will grant me a small audience with her. I only want to ask her if she has seen them and that is all.”

“What makes you think she has seen your friends? No one comes through those gates without my knowledge.”

“I…I don’t know where else to go. I’ve searched everywhere, sir. Please, I only want to ask. Is the queen not as powerful as I heard she was?”

“She is all-powerful, girl.” The knave then glanced aside and appeared to be thinking deeply. He glanced at Selvina and then the white rabbit and back to Selvina. “If the queen knows nothing of your friends, will you continue to serve her?”

“I will.” A little lie here and there never hurt.

“Until she has no more need of you?”

“Yes.”

“The queen is indeed in dire need of more servants. A willing one is a rare occurrence and thus I believe it should not be ignored. Very well, you can continue on your way to the castle. White Rabbit, ensure that she is delivered to the queen safely.”

The white rabbit nodded rapidly. “Yes, yes, yes, yes I will! Safe is where she will be! I assure you, oh honourable knave.”

The knave then flipped his visor down, turned his horse around, and galloped away, the sound of hooves pounding over packed gravel echoing throughout the expansive courtyard. Selvina looked down at the rabbit and he looked up at her. They simultaneously breathed a deep sigh of relief and took a few moments to recover from the ordeal.

“The knave was never particularly intelligent,” the rabbit said with a light chuckle. “You are a horrible liar, Selvina, yes you are, but it has saved you this time, yes it has. Do not think your weak lies will fool the queen, however. She will see through them. She will. She will.”

“Well, I don’t ever plan on serving her, Rabbit. If I can get to the castle and not have to speak a single word to her I will be perfectly fine with that. I just want to get my friends back and leave here.”

“If your friends are here then you will need to speak to the queen. There is no other way to get to them.”

Selvina sighed. “I was worried about that…”

“How do you plan to leave with them?”

I have no idea. “I’m working on it…”

White Rabbit shook his head fervently. “No. No. No. No. No. This will not do. This will not do at all. You are going to lose your head, Selvina! You will! You will! You will! No one crosses the queen. No one!”

“I came here to get my friends and I plan on doing that. I will do whatever I can to make sure I leave here with them.”

The white rabbit groaned sadly and shook his head, his ears drooping low. “It was a mistake.”

“What was a mistake?”

“Making you a friend!”

Selvina frowned, feeling insulted, and placed her hands on her hips. “What? Why?”

“Because now are you going to die and I am going to lose a friend…”

Selvina’s expression immediately softened and a stinging pain struck her heart. She sat on her knees and placed a hand on the rabbit’s small shoulder, offering him the best smile she could manage. “I won’t die, Rabbit. You aren’t going to lose a friend.”

“You are mad to say such things. No one ever crosses the queen!”

Selvina gave the rabbit a wink. “Sometimes a little madness can take you a long way.”