Once Upon a Time, Before the Beginning and After the End, There Was a Lovely and Kind Queen Loved by All Four Suits of Subjects.
Petals of pastel pink and ocean green fell up and landed on the shoulder of Queen Corcardia Paigniócharto of Wonderland’s Heart Cards Kingdom.
The deliciously sweet scent of the Nonsense Blossom wafted throughout the Heart Castle, making all sigh with delight.
It was times like this that Cor enjoyed bottling up to save for later—she especially enjoyed giving them out as gifts or dreaming of them.
“Ah. There we go, all done!” The bottling done, Cor stood up and brushed down her gown of rose petals. The petals had been especially kind in offering to alternate between red, pink, and turquoise.
The rose petals laughed in delight at her cool touch.
“Oh, how I wish these peaceful times could last forever.” She set down the bottle and went to stand on the balcony.
She was around 5,869 nights old, and most likely the same number of days, as you cannot have a night without a day.
I wish Xander would hurry up and come home already. These gowns are stifling, and while the court cards and citizens are kind, I feel stuck. I do my best to please them, but there is so much pressure. Why did I have to become queen at such a young age? Why not wait until I am mature? Seven or even 27 would have been a much more reasonable age!
Xander, her childhood friend who was the only one who could truly help her feel like herself (and vice versa), was on a diplomatic mission to the kingdom of Diamonds.
There, they negotiated the amount of diamonds Heart could get in exchange for giving away, well, hearts.
Hearts for love and passion, diamonds for beauty, clubs for strength, and spades for wisdom.
The four kingdoms revolved around the Tulgey Woods, which were free to grow wherever they liked. Wherever the Woods went, the kingdoms followed.
Another petal fell, and Cor caught it between her fingers.
“COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!” Her younger brother, the prince, Thatchery, came bounding down the roomways.
Cor didn’t like halls. There was too much empty space, so she had all the halls removed until there were only rooms left.
Cor caught him and spun him around in her arms. “What is it, Thatch?”
“The Dodo’s sad again because the White Rabbit is sad because the caterpillar cannot fly and something about Time, and so the White Rabbit’s very late for a very important date, and she’s not a rainbow yet! And the Dodo’s sad!”
Cor nodded thoughtfully. How delightfully nonsensical. What a predicament, and I have no idea whatsoever of what to do.
“Well, what do you suggest we do?”
The young prince frowned very hard in concentration, so much that steam started pouring out of his ears, and he started whistling.
“Is the tea ready?” someone down the roomway inquired.
“I’m always happy when it’s my birthday,” Thatch suggested, but then his face fell. “But it’s not any of their birthdays.”
“So we shall throw them a not-birthday party!” Cor declared.
Thatch tilted his head, curfuzzled.
“What if you call it an Unbirthday party?” a voice from the doorway suggested.
Cor turned, and her breath caught in her throat, which was rather rude to the air that was supposed to be exhaled.
“Xander!” she cried in surlight, running to hug him. The rose petals shifted into pants so that she would walk without tripping.
He hugged her back, laughing.
“‘This display of emotion is highly inappropriate for a member of the royal family, and much more so of the Queen,’” he quoted, in the mocking tone of the Diamond King and Queen. “‘There are rules.’”
“Rules are for fools in schools and those trying to capture ghouls with jewels,” Cor replied automatically. It was a rhyme they had come up with whenever someone had caught them breaking Cor’s mother’s rules.
Queen Valentina, the Lost Queen of Hearts, had ruled like a tyrant, making up all kinds of sensible rules that had immediately been abolished after she left for New Land.
“If you didn’t want us breaking the rules, then you shouldn’t have come up with them,” Cor had once said, feeling quite profound. After all, how could you break something that wasn’t there? If you make something, you can almost be guaranteed it will be broken at some point. Why didn’t someone just put superglue on the rules, or some tape at the very least?
“I thought you weren’t coming back until Time woke up from his nap?”
“Didn’t you hear? Time had an emergency and had to work double time before leaving. They should be back in a long while from soon. Poor Mad Hatter and White Rabbit. They’re going to be very, very, late for a very, very long time for a very, very important date.”
They were both silent for a heartbeat, in which Prince Thatch stole some tarts from Cor’s bedside table and took his leave.
“Anyway, how have you been?”
Cor sighed. “Let’s go out to the garden.”