Cora
A Wonderland Tale
By: Matthew A. Mould
This story started out as an entry into a contest I was doomed not to win (as the window for entry had passed mere minutes before finalizing my draft for submission.) It was a very vague topic, something to the extent of 'You find a weird door while all alone, what happened next?" Immediately, the scene described in the first few paragraphs flooded my mind and I felt compelled to write it knowing I very well might not finish it in time. And while I did indeed miss the boat, so to speak, I fell in love with the setting I'd watched unfold in the words before me.
So I kept it, tweaked it (very subtly, what you read in the prologue is nearly word for word with what I had planned to submit; the only differences are now I have had a bit more time to focus on grammar and I the word limit to constrain my descriptions of Cora's journey has been lifted.)
It sat on the back-burner for a few months as I tried to focus on another project I had been working on, but my thoughts kept turning back to Cora so I decided to bench that project and bring this one out, shake off the dust, and start developing the remaining story (which will hopefully be vast and beautiful.)
I did not know what the story itself was going to be about until Cora stumbled upon the door mentioned above (don't want to spoil anything if you haven't started reading, so I'll just leave this at that,) and then for whatever reason I knew it was time to start working on a grand project I've been tinkering with since I discovered that the Alice stories by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (writing under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll) were within the public domain. This simply means that their characters (and even the original stories themselves) can be used in any way without paying some hotshot author or movie studio.
While the original stories were wonderfully written and a great time to read, I've always felt that they opened up this massive world of possibilities which has seldom been touched, let alone tapped, by the creative minds of this story's future. Yes, Disney has released a rendition of their own with another around the bend, there was a game or two released touching on the darker side of Wonderland, and even the Sci-Fi Channel (Sy-Fy now? something like that,) brought out a future look, but so much more still yearns to be written.
My story touches none of the paths mentioned above and is in fact a completely different universe, if you will. You'll run into many of the original characters; nearly all older, darker, and moodier now than before,) and many more you've never heard of. You'll see parts of Wonderland never before seen or spoken of by those who live above and hopefully come to adore Cora almost as much as I have.
So give it a read and let me know your thoughts.
Please note that while Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass are in the public domain, my story here is not. If you would like to write about it, quote it, share it, please do so appropriately. If you want a friend to read the story, send them the link to it, don't just copy it and paste it in an email. I have no hope of ever seeing profit from this story, but do not want to see it elsewhere under a false claim of ownership. Many have read what I've done with this story and it has been in writing and in my mind for quite some time now and I am just now seeing to it to get it finished.
A Walk in the Woods
While she knew not precisely where it was that she was, Cora knew that she had been there before. The tree up ahead towered, seeming larger than she'd imagined giants could grow (if indeed giants grew.) It had been summer each time she had seen it before as wandering so far from home in temperatures so cold brought more discomfort than it seemed worth. In fact she was quite certain this was the longest she had ever remained out in weather so numbing.
The orphanage in which she lived for all of the life that she could remember living had not felt so much like a home as of late, hence her frigidly lengthy journey. It wouldn't have been so bad had she brought a jacket or proper boots, but when pushed so far as she had been that morning the rational thoughts were usually the last ones on her mind. Her only hope of making it back before the frost bit her toes would be to hear the chime of the dinner bell were she still within its calling.
The tree seemed different baron of its foliage. She thought it almost grotesque yet somehow so beautiful; as though she could see its very soul. It was marred by many scars; carved initials, wind-whipped by rocks and sticks, claws sharpened upon its woody flesh, and so on. She felt a kindred spirit between it and herself as she ran a finger down the scarring scrape upon her cheek. Pa's latest mark, but who listened to foster children about their mistreatment and upbringing in those days? She kissed the dab of blood balancing precariously on her finger tip then ran it along one of the tree's own wounds.
"How have I never noticed you before?" The girl whispered through chapped lips into the whistling wind, half expecting a response from the peculiar markings to which she was speaking.
Unseen upon any previous rendezvous lay a strange outline. Were it possible, she thought, it might even be a door. A glance cut quickly over her shoulder confirmed she remained alone and that none had sought, at least successfully, for the teenager's return. Sometimes knowing you're alone is all you need to try something silly, so she reached where she imagined the handle to such a door should rest and to the chagrin of all logic, and with a short twist of her frail and freezing wrist, the door that shouldn't be swung wide into the baron recesses of the tree.
The light was blinding and the rush, while the most terrifying sensation she could recall, was exhilarating though she could not quite fathom what had just happened. Her balance had left her as the door had moved against any thought it likely should. She fell and continued to do so for some time before even realizing.
Yet she was calm.
"But why?" She asked herself since no one else was around.
As she pondered her question, the last few roots of the tree poking through the walls of the massive hole left her line of sight just shortly after her eyes acclimated to the ambiance of whatever shone below.
"I'm sure to die when I discover the bottom of this unbelievable hole."
"No, you'll slow down soon, I'm sure of it," A small voice responded, "Everybody does."
Only slightly startled, she used her hand against the wall of dirt to readjust her angle as she fell in hopes to spy who or what had just spoken to her. She had assumed herself alone in her tumbling.
"Hello," A small mouse waved with one hand before moving a smaller chunk of cheese back between his whiskers with the other.
"Hello..." She muttered back in disbelief, "But... how in the world can you speak?"
"Oh deary, we can all speak just fine. You all just can't seem to hear very well up there," He informed her casually pointing up the hole as they both fell.
"Up there. Down here. What exactly is this place and where exactly..."
But before she could finish the question, the rodent had grabbed tight to a jagged protruding rock and swung himself into a small cave. In nearly the same instance she realized that the light below seemed dimmer now and that in fact she was falling slower than she had been before. So much slower, as it would be, that she barely felt the floor hit her feet.
Or, well rather the ceiling. Then she fell again, though for only a short distance, and this time onto a small sofa of sorts that sat conveniently on the floor she thought would have been the ceiling. The room spun for a moment as she stammered off the little couch to assess her surroundings. In just that time her entryway had collapsed and sealed in upon itself.
The room was round...ish and the walls of marble with a packed dirt floor upon which a ragged little rug rested peacefully. At the center of the ceiling spanned a small round sunroof through which a noonday sun was somehow shining warmly.
"I've lost my bloody mind," Cora told herself as she stumbled towards the nearest door large enough to fit her through it (there were many others of varying sizes for other visitors of just such sizes, but this one seemed to suit her best.)
Quickly, hoping sanity lay beyond, she opened it and stepped through the aperture. Startled, the woman within rose to her feet.
Looking as confused as Cora felt at first, a warm smile slowly traversed her lips. Her baby blue dress waived slightly in a breeze from the adjacent window as the woman gently curtsied and addressed her intruder.
"Hello my dear," She spoke as her smile quivered slightly and her eyes seemed to swell with water.
"Who are you?" The little one inquired feeling almost as if she somehow remembered this strange woman's face.
Her smile widened, somehow comforting Cora.
"My name is Alice," She replied, "I believe I'm your mother, dear."
A chubby gray feline with the oddest brightly purple stripes and nearly glowing green eyes slithered between the woman's feet to rub a calf as he purred for attention.
Cora could have sworn the cat wore a grin.
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