Chapter 2: The Cheshire Cat
After a few nights of continual nightmares and sleeplessness, Ameko was exhausted--and she had had enough. Thankfully, she thought to herself, she wasn't the type to put up with such nonsense. Approaching the problem with a systematic line of thought, she attempted to start by solving it herself. Having failed to manage any actual magic against a potential attacker, however, she decided that help was needed. That explained why she had taken her crossbow, a little bit of food, and left the White Rook, heading in the direction of the forest.
The forest of Wonderland was its central feature, a sprawl that cut through the four major kingdoms of White, Black, Blue and Red, with smaller tendrils reaching into the four minor kingdoms of Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. The size from the outside was impressive, but the interior was even more so--and more dangerous. The forest itself was magic, after all, the wellspring of energy for all of Wonderland, and as such strange things tended to exist there. She recalled stories of the monsters that would be formed by negative energy from Neverland attempting to cross into the forest, deadly plants with a thousand tendrils and small bats which would attempt to eat your blood, heart, or soul, whichever was the easiest to reach. Then there were the things that were not aggressively dangerous, but still bothersome, like the enchanted rocks that would spell those that sat on them, the streams of water that took away every bit of metal from your body and clothing, and then there was the magic itself, erupting in occasional bursts of power, creating and destroying in turn. Streams of magic crisscrossed the entire forest, and one who knew their way around would be able to go from one end to the other in less than an hour. Those that didn't, well, they usually didn't get where they were going. Ameko had been in the forest many times around her house, usually with her father, but this time she was going to unfamiliar territory, and it made her a bit nervous.
What she was going to seek out made her nervous as well, for she was heading off to see a cat.
Cats were the main inhabitants of Wonderland, and while they were roughly the size and shape of humans, their ears and tail made their nonhuman nature apparent. And if that wasn't enough, the ways cats acted would have been enough in itself. For a human, it was hard to understand a cat's mind and motivations, but it was well-known that they liked toying with humans as much as they did with mice. Even if they didn't actively mean her any harm, she'd need to be on her toes. She could only hope that the fact this cat had helped her and her father before meant she might do it again. Because right now, I'm alone and I don't have any other allies.
Stopping to rest near a tree, Ameko wiped at her forehead, noting the humidity in the forest. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said from above her.
She jumped, stepping back from the tree and looking up, but she couldn't see anything. Frowning, she looked back at the tree she had been about to put her hand on, examining the trunk carefully. She let out a sudden curse as she recognized the moss on bark's surface: a staple in many antidotes, but when touched by the hands directly, set into effect a rather nasty curse which would have been inconvenient to deal with, to say the least. "Thank you," she called out, remembering her manners.
"You're welcome," and this time the voice was to the side, and a bit lower. "Now, perhaps you'd like to explain what you're doing in my territory?"
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm looking for someone. Excuse me, but who am I talking to?"
"Does it matter?"
"Well, I wouldn't want to be rude and be talking to your back," she pointed out.
"I wouldn't really care," the voice replied, and she could hear the shrug in the tone, "but I suppose I'll allow it. Turn around."
She turned around slowly, then looked up slightly. As she had suspected, a cat was stretched out across one of the branches of a tree behind her. His eyes were a darker blue than hers, and with a cat's slit pupils, fixed sharpy on her, and he was a lean, smoothly muscular cat, obviously one that led an active lifestyle. While his hair was black as hers, his ears and tail were pure white, unusually so. His white, fluffy tail dangled down in front of her at around eye level, swishing slowly. It was almost hypnotic, and she forced herself to look away, meeting his eyes.
He grinned slightly as she did so, as if he could tell what she was thinking. "Well, human? Why are you trespassing on my territory? Who are you, and who are you looking for?"
She met his eyes evenly. "I'm the heir to the throne of the White Kingdom. I'm looking for the Cheshire cat."
He raised his eyebrows. "You don't seem stupid enough to lie, so...What do you want with this Cheshire?"
"I need her help. Do you know her?"
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Perhaps what you're seeking isn't in the forest. Why do you want help?"
She resisted the urge to scowl at him. She wasn't in the mood to be played with, but right now she needed his help whether she liked it or not. "I believe someone is trying to kill me in my dreams."
"Oh? Why would someone do that?"
"If I'm who I say I am, I'd think you'd know the reason."
The tail went still as he looked down at her. "And if you can't find this Cheshire? What are you going to do then?"
"I don't know. I don't know that she'll even agree to help me. But I don't have any other options. Plus, I need to thank her," she added. "She helped my father and I when I was young."
He frowned down at her, but it wasn't an expression of displeasure, but more like pity. "The Cheshire you're seeking..."
"You know of her?"
"I knew of her. She's dead now. I'm sure she would appreciate your sentiment, though," he added after a moment's thought.
Her expression fell at that. "Oh...I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry?" he asked, resting his chin in his hands.
Ameko frowned at the question. "Because...you seem like you knew her. It's always difficult to lose someone."
The cat regarded her, then jumped down from his perch, circling around her, his tail brushing against and curling around her legs. He moved with an easy grace, the entire motion fluid. As he passed, she caught a faint musky smell, almost like the earth with the faintest touch of spices. He sniffed at her hair, ears moving back and forth in some display of emotion. "I think you're right. Something is trying to kill you," he said. "Well, let's go."
"Go?"
He scowled at her. "To your castle, of course. Isn't that where the problems are happening?"
"Yes... Thank you," she said after a moment. "I appreciate your help."
"I didn't say I was going to help," he told her, moving ahead of her to pick out a safe path. "I just want to see what might be happening. That and I want you out of my territory. The smell of humans takes a while to go away."
She stiffened indignantly for a moment, then forced herself to relax. To a cat's sharper sense of smell, she probably did have a scent, and he didn't say it was unpleasant. "I appreciate you doing that much."
"I didn't say I was doing that for you, either," he said with a fluid shrug of his shoulders. "I'm just curious."
Now she had to hide a smile. She had heard of the forest cats' legendary curiosity. "I hope it satisfies you."
The white-eared cat easily found a stream that set the pair out at the edge of the forest, very close to the castle. Ameko resolved to memorize it in case she needed it. The cat's ears perked up as he saw the castle, and his tail began to swish, a sure sign that he was interested in the place. "So that's the White Rook," he commented, trying to sound nonchalant. "I heard it was hiding for a long time."
"It was. I stumbled across it quite by accident," she replied with a slight smile. "Would you like to go in?"
He looked up at the walls. "It looks pretty messed up," he added.
"Some parts are. I'm working on restoring it, but it's slow going. I suppose it would help if I knew what I was doing," she sighed.
His ears perked toward her. "You're the heir to the White Kingdom and you don't know what you're doing?"
"It doesn't exactly come with an instruction manual."
He snorted in amusement as he stepped inside, looking into the grand hall and admiring the mirrors lining the upper portions of the walls. The throne, however, caught his interest right after, and he circled around it, sniffing at the wood. With a sudden crouch, he jumped up to the top of the throne, settling down on top of it and sniffing.
She couldn't help but smile. "Are you comfortable?"
"I didn't know the old Queen consorted with cats," he commented. "I don't recognize the smell, though."
"It may not smell much anymore," she replied. "I don't know what effect restoring it might have had. It was designed for a cat, then?"
He nodded, stretching his limbs and yawning before jumping down. "Okay, what else is there to see?"
She led him through some of the other rooms she had restored, commenting on her work there. It was to her amusement that he was decidedly unimpressed with the baths, although he did take a little taste of the water. The rooms she hadn't entered and restored yet also caught his interest, and he watched with unblinking eyes as they began to repair themselves. "Oh, I see," he commented after a minute of watching this.
"You see what?" she asked curiously.
"Where do you sleep?" he asked next, not answering the question.
Restraining a sigh, she led him up the stairs, and wondered if her grandmother had indeed kept a cat. Had her grandmother found them this frustrating, too?"
Once in the room, he hopped on the bed, bare feet padding on her blankets as he sniffed her covers. Finally, he flopped down on the bed, rolling over onto his back and turning his head at such an angle she thought his neck might break. "Yes," he said after a long moment, after she didn't say anything, "something's been here."
"Something?" she echoed. "So it is Neverland, then?"
"No," he said after a long moment. "It doesn't smell like Neverland."
The woman frowned. "Then who else could it be?"
"I said it didn't smell like Neverland. I didn't say they weren't involved." The cat proceeded to curl up, snuggling into the blankets and pillows. "Wake me when you're ready to sleep."
"You're going to sleep?"
"Cats need our little power naps," he told her, closing his eyes. "Besides, nothing will happen until you go to bed. Isn't that right?"
"Well, I suppose so, but...." She sighed as she realized she was probably talking to a stone wall at this point. Still, she couldn't really hold it against him. Whatever his odd methodology, he was helping her out by looking into this problem.
She looked him over as he slept, pausing to look over his form in the afternoon light of the castle's window. He really was quite cute when asleep, filling her with the urge to reach over and pet his pure white ears. She'd heard of humans that took to the forest cats, providing food and shelter when desired in exchange for occasional petting and snuggling privileges. Unfortunately, cats tended not to be as fond of humans and frequently kept their own independance, their own hours.
She wondered just who this cat was and how he knew the Cheshire that she had been speaking of. There had been some sort of signal in his tail and ears, indicating that he knew her and possibly had a close relationship with her, but what? Good friends? The possibility of lovers wasn't out of the question, but given the age difference that would have been in place, she was more inclined to think of a mother/son relationship, or maybe an aunt/nephew. And who was he? She doubted she'd get a real name out of him; cats guarded their true names with a passion to prevent others from controlling them by using their names. They didn't often identify with any sort of name, period, unless they were dealing with non-cats.
Names. Names were powerful things, when cats were involved. A person who knew the name of a cat could control them, and a cat who was freely given a name of a non-cat would be able to control them in turn. It was one of the facets of a cat's more subtle magic. Magic...Cats didn't need teaching to perform their magic, it came naturally on its own. Would she be able to control her own magic like that someday? Would it just come to her? She could only hope so, because otherwise she would be in real trouble....
Ameko wasn't aware she had dozed off until she opened her eyes again, to find the cat's face mere inches from her own, the invisible whiskers of magic they used as sensors brushing against her face. "See," he told her, "everybody likes naps."
"I must have been exhausted," she mumbled, rubbing her hands against her face. "No, I was exhausted. It's hard to sleep when you keep wanting to try and crawl out of your skin."
"I wouldn't do that," he said with a shrug, "I'm told humans need their skin."
She stood up, feeling the stiffness in her muscles from sleeping in a standing position. "I'm going to get dinner. Would you like something?"
"Depends. What is it?"
Bread, some fresh fruit and veggies, and a little salted meat."
He made a face. "How salted is the meat?"
"Tell you what, I'll take you down there and you can try it and see if it's to your taste or not," Ameko suggested, leading the way back downstairs. "You don't like bread or fruit, I take it?"
He smiled, showing his sharp teeth. "I'm a carnivore. I can sometimes tolerate planty things, but generally they don't agree with me."
"Ah," she said as a response as she entered the large kitchen, going to the corner she had occupied to store her supplies. "Sorry, I didn't know what cats usually ate. My father told me a few things about cats, but I've never actually met one before now."
He grinned at that. "Your father also tell you not to give a cat your name?"
"And that they don't give out names," she countered evenly.
Instead of being irked, the cat grinned wider. "What else did your father tell you?"
"That cats are smart, good with magic, mischevious, but not evil. That it's a bad idea to lie to a cat."
"A very bad idea," he agreed.
"And that cats can't lie," she added, glancing over to him.
"So your father, does he live here too?" he asked, sidestepping the unspoken question.
She shook her head, pulling out the salted rabbit. "He's gone away. I don't know where. It wouldn't be safe for him if Neverland knew."
"No," the cat agreed, "it probably wouldn't be." He accepted a piece of the meat, taking a nibble. He then made a face at the salt but finished it off anyway. "It's palatable, I guess."
"Help yourself," she said with a motion, reaching for the bread. "I was going to go hunting tomorrow, anyway."
"I can hunt for myself," he insisted as he took the slab of rabbit, picking it up and chewing on it directly instead of using utensils.
"I wouldn't want to be rude," she insisted. "You don't have to answer, but if you don't mind, how did you know the Cheshire?"
"It's more of a title than anything, you know," he said, hopping up on the table and stretching out with the meat between his hands. "The one you're thinking of was my mother."
"Oh? That's a bit of a coincidence. Your mother helped my father, and now here you are with me."
"Not really," he said with a shrug. "Her territory was pretty close to the White Kingdom. I took it over eventually."
"I see. Do all cats have territory?"
"Do you find this unusual?"
"Not really," she said after a moment's thought, shrugging. "Humans are territorial in their own ways, aren't they?"
"That's one way of putting it," the cat snorted.
She smiled slightly at that. "So when do you normally go to sleep?" he questioned, pulling his legs around under himself and looking at her from the top of the table. "And when does it start?"
"When I'm tired, a while after dark, though lately it's been creeping closer to twilight. I'm not really sure when it starts. One moment I'm falling asleep and the next I'm waking up out of a deep sleep." She looked at him. "Any ideas?"
"A few, but none that stand out," he said with a shrug. "Since you came to the castle?"
"Yes."
"When did you discover it? The same day you spent the night here?"
"No, I went back home and came back the next morning."
The cat frowned, rubbing at one ear. "That is enough time for word to get around, if someone was watching for it. Nothing to do but to find out. Finish your meal and go to bed."
She raised an eyebrow. "Can I have a bath, first?"
His ears flicked back as he made a face at the thought of that much water. "If you must."
The sun had set by the time dinner was finished and she had taken her required bath, the entire time being able to hear the cat pace around outside her door. Going upstairs to her room, she watched as he picked a perch on top of a dresser, then moved to the empty vanity. "What are you going to do?"
"Does it matter?"
She sighed, sitting down on the bed. "You want me to just sleep?"
He nodded. "I'll keep watch." And right before her eyes, he seemed to fade from view, his eyes the last thing to go.
"Cat?" she questioned, but there was no response. Either he'd run off, or that was one hell of a camouflage spell. Shaking her head, she lay down to rest.
Like before, she wasn't sure when she crossed the border between falling asleep and being woken by the nightmare. She was only aware when her eyes snapped open and she was panting for breath, covered in sweat. In the dim moonlight that filtered into the room, she could make out the figure of the cat standing over him. He was holding something at arms' length that thrashed about wildly with panicked squeaks. "Stop that," the cat stated, "or I'll eat you. I don't think she'd object, and I'm hungry."
The creature instantly went still, and now that it wasn't moving, she could get a better look at it. It was perhaps three feet tall, rotund and covered in dark brown fur. Its beady black eyes stared at her from around a large nose. The thing that was the most odd, however, was the bag it had apparently been carrying, now dropped on the bed. "Save me!" he pleaded with Ameko. "He'll eat me!"
"This is what was causing those dreams?" she asked dubiously, eyeing the creature. When one thought of potential assassins from Neverland, a fat tapir in merchant's clothing wasn't exactly what she had expected.
"He's a dream monger," the cat explained, giving the creature a little shake as it whimpered again. "Normally they're collecting dreams, not passing them out. Bad for their profit margin. What are you up to, you appetizer?"
The dreammonger let out a terrified squeak and went absolutely still, as if it was attempting to play dead. "You can catch him if he tries to escape, right?" Ameko asked the cat.
He gave her a look in response. "Set him down, then."
He put the dream monger on the bed very slowly, kicking the creature's bag aside and out of reach. "All right, you. Why are you trying to hurt the White Queen?"
"Beggin' your pardon, your queenliness," the creature snuffled, looking at her with pleading eyes. "Didn't mean nothin' by it, honest."
"Didn't mean anything by it?!" She glared at him. "You've driven me halfway to exhaustion and ruined my sleep. You have about ten seconds to come up with a very good reason why I shouldn't let that cat eat you right here and now."
He let out a yelp of fear, cowering in front of her. "A thousand pardons, your majesty! If I'da known you was the queen, I woulda never...."
"You mean you didn't know she was the queen?" the cat asked in disbelief. The dream monger went back to cowering, and the cat gripped him by the back of his shirt, digging his claws in. "You're not answering the question. Start speaking, or I'll start with a leg."
"No, please don't eat me!" the dream monger wailed. "I'll talk, I swears I will!"
"Who sent you, then?" the cat asked.
The dream monger wilted in his grip. "They'll kill me if I tell, they will! Please don't be making me tell, your majesty! They will kill me!"
"It was Neverland, wasn't it?" she questioned.
He let out another whimper at the name, hiding his face between his stubby paws. "You don't understand, they made me do it! They was sayin' that you'd be defiled soon anyway, so...."
"What do you mean by that?" the cat asked sharply.
The tapir only curled up in a ball. "If you're goin' ta be askin' me more, good sirs, I beg of ya ta eat me quick like. I don't want them gettin' their hands on me. You'll make it quick, right?"
Ameko and the cat looked at each other. "Let him go," she sighed. "Unless you think he's not telling the truth."
"He knows there are consequences to lying to a cat. If you know what's good for you, stay in the forest for a while," the cat told the dream monger.
The creature didn't need a second invite. Stopping only to retrieve his bag, he bolted away, fading into thin air. "Why would Neverland want to give me bad dreams?" Ameko wondered. "It seems a little...small for them."
"To wear you out, probably. The heir to the White Kingdom, even as you are, is still a difficult target. Dream mongers can slip through most any barrier, so they were trying to get at you to weaken the White Rook's barrier. What worries me is what he said," the cat added with a frown. "What do they mean by saying you'll be defiled soon?"
"I don't know, but I'd rather not find out by experience."
The cat let out a sigh through his nose. "I'm going to look into what Neverland is up to. It should be safe to sleep tonight," he told her as he moved for the window. "Get some rest."
"Cat, wait." He paused, glancing back to her. "My name...It's Ameko Satoka," she told him.
"Ameko Satoka," he repeated, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose as he tried out the name. "That has its roots in Autumn, does it not?"
"Yes. My father's line was from Autumn originally. I was named for my mother." She paused. "You don't have to give me your real name, but what should I call you?"
He considered the question, jumping onto the windowsill as he looked at her, backlit by the moonlight. "When we're alone like this...I suppose you can call me Nikado."
