Mad_Hatter_Madigan
03-31-2008, 02:19 PM
This is meant to be a short prequel to The Looking Glass Wars which depicts Redd's fall to ruin and loss of the crown to the hands of her sister. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it does justice to the book (because it was great). PS, I will post this in "chapters" because I know I won't finish it all in one sitting. Enjoy!
~Prologue~
Redd stood atop the tallest spire in lonely Mount Isolation. The wind whipped her hair away from her face and made her deep purple robe slap and buck around her feet. Her once beautiful features were now marred with scrapes and bruises from the battle not long ago. One thin bandage ran from the lobe of her pale ear to her pointed chin, a souvenir her sister had left her during the skirmish. A particularly fierce gust of wind blew sand up into her face and she laboriously raised a shackled arm to guard her face. Her eyes narrowed to slits as her imagination raced across the Chessboard Desert and peered into Heart Castle, just in time to see the idiot Bimbo Harte lower the jeweled crown onto her sister’s undeserving head.
It simply wasn’t fair. Her anger, which had subsided momentarily, returned with a vengeance. Thin tendrils of smoke streamed from beneath her feet and the stone she was standing on began to melt. Her sister had always been her parent’s favorite, but Redd didn’t require their fondling attention. Deprived of the mollycoddling that her sister had received, Redd grew to be a strong, independent woman with ideals and values all her own. Only, when little goody two shoes Genevieve had found out about her less-than-legal activities, she couldn’t wait to run off to her parents and tell them, causing them to grow wary of their oldest daughter, until they gave the throne to Genevieve.
“Your sister is just much more suited to rule, Redd. You must understand these things, sometimes a Queen must do what is best for the country, rather than herself.” Those were the words that her mother had used to placate her. However, Redd would have none of that, she simply stalked up her bedroom and began to refine her prowess in Black Imagination, something that she had been dabbling in for quite some time at that point.
But now, three weeks after the tremendous battle that shattered the once-peaceful country, she was stuck in the middle of nowhere, getting harassed by the wind and sand. Thunderheads were gathering on the horizon and they growled and flickered with anticipation for the coming storm. Just as the first few drops of warm rain began to fall, Redd turned her face skyward and let the droplets kiss her cheeks. Growing weary of being wet and feeling her robe begin to get bogged down with water, she flicked just one finger at the sky, and all the clouds raced away over the horizon, as if they feared whatever Redd might do to them.
If only my sister would have the same sense. She thought as she focused her imaginative will on the chains that bound her. They fell as dust onto the floor and blew away in the wind. The blood red sun began to sink down below the Caterpillar Mountains, and, as she turned to go inside, Redd caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror set against the stone of the wall. For just a second, she thought she saw her sister’s face reflected in it, rather than her own. But it had just been a trick of the light and when she looked again all she saw were the remnants of the battle, ever to serve as reminders of the betrayal she had been dealt. She smashed the mirror and, after walking inside the doors to the fortress set atop the mountain, she turned her imagination on Genevieve again.
There she sat, sipping Wondermelon Wine and nibbling daintily at a Tarty Tart next to her new husband Nolan. Let her eat and drink while she can because, when I’m done with her, she’ll the one trapped here instead of me. And I won’t bind her with chains, something more... royal to deal with her... She imagined a strange contraption with jagged edges and flickering lights. It began to fade into existence, but Redd stopped herself. She wanted more time to think of how best to detain her dearly beloved Genevieve. Redd stalked through the dusty halls of Mount Isolation, looking for something, anything she could weaken her sister’s forces with. When she turned into an abandoned antechamber, an astonishing sight met her eyes. There, sitting right in the middle of the room, was a stack of old Card Soldiers. She reached out with shaking fingers and brushed the burnished metal armor. Immediately, the Card, a Four, dealt itself out and unfolded with the shing! of a sword being drawn.
She backed up in fear until the Soldier turned to face her. Upon seeing who she was, the Card Soldier straightened up and saluted. The rest of the deck followed suit and soon a regimen of fifty-two Soldiers stood at the ready. Redd looked at them, and smiled for the first time in quite a while, it did nothing to ease the look of savage determination on her face, if anything, it made it look even more savage and more determined than before. The Card Soldiers began to shuffle their feet nervously at the sight of her manacing figure. Redd imagined a gnarled black scepter into her hand and stabbed the nearest Card in the neck. It immediately crumpled and folded back upon itself. It's compatriots looked at it in thinly concealed dismay and shot each other worried glances. Surely this was not Redd Heart, the heiress to the throne of Wonderland? She began to laugh, and she laughed for so long that the breath finally caught in her throat and she started coughing. But the jubilant and vengeful glint still stuck in her eye. Her stomach grumbled, and, as quick as thought, a platter of sweet Sing-Berries and Wondercrumpets was clutched in her hands. She gleefully stabbed the Sing-Berries with a fork, hearing each of them scream in pain, and then popped them into her mouth, savoring the saccharine juices. She smiled again, much to the fear of the Card Soldiers, revenge was going to be sweet.
~Prologue~
Redd stood atop the tallest spire in lonely Mount Isolation. The wind whipped her hair away from her face and made her deep purple robe slap and buck around her feet. Her once beautiful features were now marred with scrapes and bruises from the battle not long ago. One thin bandage ran from the lobe of her pale ear to her pointed chin, a souvenir her sister had left her during the skirmish. A particularly fierce gust of wind blew sand up into her face and she laboriously raised a shackled arm to guard her face. Her eyes narrowed to slits as her imagination raced across the Chessboard Desert and peered into Heart Castle, just in time to see the idiot Bimbo Harte lower the jeweled crown onto her sister’s undeserving head.
It simply wasn’t fair. Her anger, which had subsided momentarily, returned with a vengeance. Thin tendrils of smoke streamed from beneath her feet and the stone she was standing on began to melt. Her sister had always been her parent’s favorite, but Redd didn’t require their fondling attention. Deprived of the mollycoddling that her sister had received, Redd grew to be a strong, independent woman with ideals and values all her own. Only, when little goody two shoes Genevieve had found out about her less-than-legal activities, she couldn’t wait to run off to her parents and tell them, causing them to grow wary of their oldest daughter, until they gave the throne to Genevieve.
“Your sister is just much more suited to rule, Redd. You must understand these things, sometimes a Queen must do what is best for the country, rather than herself.” Those were the words that her mother had used to placate her. However, Redd would have none of that, she simply stalked up her bedroom and began to refine her prowess in Black Imagination, something that she had been dabbling in for quite some time at that point.
But now, three weeks after the tremendous battle that shattered the once-peaceful country, she was stuck in the middle of nowhere, getting harassed by the wind and sand. Thunderheads were gathering on the horizon and they growled and flickered with anticipation for the coming storm. Just as the first few drops of warm rain began to fall, Redd turned her face skyward and let the droplets kiss her cheeks. Growing weary of being wet and feeling her robe begin to get bogged down with water, she flicked just one finger at the sky, and all the clouds raced away over the horizon, as if they feared whatever Redd might do to them.
If only my sister would have the same sense. She thought as she focused her imaginative will on the chains that bound her. They fell as dust onto the floor and blew away in the wind. The blood red sun began to sink down below the Caterpillar Mountains, and, as she turned to go inside, Redd caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror set against the stone of the wall. For just a second, she thought she saw her sister’s face reflected in it, rather than her own. But it had just been a trick of the light and when she looked again all she saw were the remnants of the battle, ever to serve as reminders of the betrayal she had been dealt. She smashed the mirror and, after walking inside the doors to the fortress set atop the mountain, she turned her imagination on Genevieve again.
There she sat, sipping Wondermelon Wine and nibbling daintily at a Tarty Tart next to her new husband Nolan. Let her eat and drink while she can because, when I’m done with her, she’ll the one trapped here instead of me. And I won’t bind her with chains, something more... royal to deal with her... She imagined a strange contraption with jagged edges and flickering lights. It began to fade into existence, but Redd stopped herself. She wanted more time to think of how best to detain her dearly beloved Genevieve. Redd stalked through the dusty halls of Mount Isolation, looking for something, anything she could weaken her sister’s forces with. When she turned into an abandoned antechamber, an astonishing sight met her eyes. There, sitting right in the middle of the room, was a stack of old Card Soldiers. She reached out with shaking fingers and brushed the burnished metal armor. Immediately, the Card, a Four, dealt itself out and unfolded with the shing! of a sword being drawn.
She backed up in fear until the Soldier turned to face her. Upon seeing who she was, the Card Soldier straightened up and saluted. The rest of the deck followed suit and soon a regimen of fifty-two Soldiers stood at the ready. Redd looked at them, and smiled for the first time in quite a while, it did nothing to ease the look of savage determination on her face, if anything, it made it look even more savage and more determined than before. The Card Soldiers began to shuffle their feet nervously at the sight of her manacing figure. Redd imagined a gnarled black scepter into her hand and stabbed the nearest Card in the neck. It immediately crumpled and folded back upon itself. It's compatriots looked at it in thinly concealed dismay and shot each other worried glances. Surely this was not Redd Heart, the heiress to the throne of Wonderland? She began to laugh, and she laughed for so long that the breath finally caught in her throat and she started coughing. But the jubilant and vengeful glint still stuck in her eye. Her stomach grumbled, and, as quick as thought, a platter of sweet Sing-Berries and Wondercrumpets was clutched in her hands. She gleefully stabbed the Sing-Berries with a fork, hearing each of them scream in pain, and then popped them into her mouth, savoring the saccharine juices. She smiled again, much to the fear of the Card Soldiers, revenge was going to be sweet.