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Madeline Hatter chewed on the end of her lime green pen, absentmindedly pulling on a strand of lavender hair until it straightened and releasing it to bounce back into its natural curly state. She was supposed to be completing her Storytelling 101 thronework, but her mind had wandered to the opposite end of the Common Common Room where her best friend was writing an essay for Kingdom Mismanagement under the tutelage of Briar Beauty.
Raven’s eyes met Maddie’s from across the room, and a small yet genuine smile lit up her face before the future queen returned to frowning at her assignment.
“Really,” Briar’s voice carried across the socializing students between herself and Maddie with authoritative ease. “You seem to have quite a good grasp on Kingdom Management from last year’s Freedom Year. You can apply the same principles here after turning them on their head.”
“But my subjects suffer if I do that,” Raven protested.
Raven Queen was the most caring person Maddie had ever met. When people brought up the fact that Raven’s mother, the Evil Queen, had poisoned the madness of Maddie’s homeland with a curse, Maddie would stare at them blankly, unsure as to how that fact was relevant. Raven never used her dark powers if she could help it, and had never once judged Maddie for not fitting like a perfect piece into the puzzle of Ever After.
Raven was the first to embrace her madness where others had merely tolerated it.
“Be that as it may,” Briar said, “you want to improve your grades. You don’t have to believe what you put on the page.”
Raven made as if to resume writing, but her grip on her pen tightened too much, and it snapped in half, splattering her and the desk she was sitting at with dark ink.
“Why don’t we take a break?” Briar suggested.
Maddie gathered her things and made for the door, intercepting Raven on her way out.
“Corvidae,” she greeted.
“Hey, Mads,” Raven said brightly despite her melancholy expression.
“Your voice speaks of joy but the twin windows of your face show sorrow concealed behind the curtains,” Maddie said.
“Can’t hide anything from you,” Raven said with a sad smile.
“You’re full of oxymorons today,” Maddie told her.
“Yeah, well…” Raven shrugged. “Some days are harder than others.”
Maddie nodded solemnly.
“I hope the texture of your day improves,” she said.
Raven’s smile looked a little happier now, with a dash of amusement sprinkled in.
“Thank you, Maddie,” she said.
“Shall we go for a stroll?” Maddie asked.
“You know what?” Raven tilted her head. “Why not?”
- - - - - - -
Raven did her best to eat the apple Maddie had plucked off one of the invisible grove’s trees with minimum mess, but it was hard to prevent juice she couldn’t see from dripping onto her collar.
Once they had an apple each, the two girls had entered the Enchanted Forest, wandering through the cool green and blue vegetation. Mysterious glints of gold caught the corner of the eye, only to vanish when focus shifted to where they had flashed. Dandyrose puffs drifted by the willow trees, slipping in and out of Faerie as they were drawn to the whispering rush of water in Ever After’s rivers.
Raven whispered at one such Will-o'-the-Wisp until it floated within her reach, delicately grasping it in her ringed fingers, the touch of iron and silver keeping it in the mundane plane. Maddie retrieved a small metal teapot with a wooden handle from her hat and Raven gently placed the glowing wisp inside.
“I’ve always wanted to know what dandyrose tea is like,” Maddie said.
Raven's thoughts immediately went to her mother and the Mirror Realm.
“I’d imagine one could visit her there while under the tea’s effects,” Maddie confirmed.
“I wouldn’t actually,” Raven said. “Also, how…”
“Did I know what you were thinking?” Maddie asked. “The Narrator, silly.”
“Right,” Raven felt bemused. “The invisible omniscient entity that likes to gossip about our lives. I try not to think about their existence too much.”
“I think they like you,” Maddie said. “They talk more when you’re around. Not that I can blame them, my BFFA is very lovable.”
Raven’s face warmed slightly as she struggled to come up with a suitably thankful and topic-changing response. She was saved from further embarrassment by the arrival of a familiar winged creature, her dark scales sleek and her spikes and horns sharp.
“Nevermore!” Raven called out in greeting.
The dragon in her small form, which was about the size of a large dog, rushed over to Raven with excited hissing only to choke on her saliva and cough a small fireball onto the hem of Raven’s black jeans. The charred denim smoked slightly, but Raven was too busy scratching Nevermore under the chin to care.
She pet the dragon and watched as Maddie knelt by the nearby stream to fill the teapot with water. The girl then placed it on a relatively flat rock, giving Nevermore a wink. Nevermore breathed fire on it, bringing it to an instant boil. With a whoop, Maddie poured the dandyrose tea into two chipped cups she produced out of godmother-knows-where, handing one to Raven.
The two girls drank in companionable silence, broken when Nevermore knocked them over in her enthusiasm and lapped up the dregs.
“Naughty dragon!” Raven admonished.
Nevermore burped, and waddled over to a bush, blinking in surprise when her tail phased through it. Her magical nature had combined with the tea, resulting in a temporary non-corporeal state.
“Uh oh,” Raven said when the dragon looked at them with mischief in her red hot eyes.
Nevermore pounced straight through a trunk at the two girls, and Maddie spared no second before swinging in retreat from tree branches like a determined monkey unbound by the rules of physics, abandoning Raven to her fate.
“Look,” Raven said, voice muffled by the dragon sitting on her head. “Maddie is getting away!”
With a huff, Nevermore tore off after the Wonderlandian.
“Good girl,” Raven smirked, chasing after in what quickly became, between the madness and magic, a ridiculous semblance of tag.
Soon the Enchanted Forest filled with the sound of laughter and triumphant dragon roars, and late afternoon slipped into early evening before Nevermore tired herself out.
- - - - - - -
Maddie hugged Raven goodbye at the entrance to the Common Common Room, leaving her friend to Briar’s mercy once more as Maddie swiftly escaped thronework by bolting lightning-like to her dorm room.
“Good day?” Darling asked her when she burst into their shared room.
“The best,” she replied.
Her friend, Maddie concluded, not for the first time, was truly Wonderlandiful.