Isaiah "Grey" Gris
"The cards are stacked against me are they?" thought Grey to himself as he watched Absolem settle down.
He was pretty sure that there was a card called Strength in his deck but then again, he had know way of knowing how that would manifest itself or if he'd even be able to do the same thing as with the staff.
"Goodnight Absolem," he whispered, wathcing the man fall asleep.
It was odd, Absolem's face seemed so much softer when he was asleep, it was almost like he wore a mask when he was awake but didn't have to hide his true self from his dreams.
"How very enigmatic of you," thought Grey, "I guess you're a puzzle that doesn't want to be solved."
Patiently he listened to the soud of everyone around him breathing, lost in the worlds inside their dreams. He knew he should sleep too but he had an uneasy feeling, the same one he'd felt before the Jabberwocky had attacked earlier. Quietly he began to hum to himself, shuffling his tarot cards, he had almost completed shuffling when two cards fell out. He fell silent as he looked on them, their meanings slowly coming back to him. The first one was the Devil, it seemed to fit in with his feeling of unease because he remembered it as a sign of violence and ruin among other things, of course that was probably because he would soon be fighting for his life against Rhia and others like her. The second card he found a little more confusing though. It was the Lovers, gazing upon the picture its mean rose to the front of his thoughts, the Lovers could symbolize a close partner but also betrayal. Looking over at Aboslem's sleeping form with sad eyes and then back to the card he hastilly put it away. Absolem would never betray him, the card had been pure coincidence and he'd let it feed his paranoia, that was all. With a final glance at the deck of cards he curled up around his cushion again before shuffling closer to Absolem where he fell asleep.
Sinistra/Tweedle Dee
Sinistra glanced appologetically at Moonlight before leading her after the Duchess. Introductions and explainations could wait until later but right now they had to move. As it was they were probably going to have to fight to get away.
"Looks like we might have a fight on our hands," he said to Moonlight, "Just remember to keep a strong will about you, stay back from the combat if you can and if you see an opportunity to run, take it."
Running to catch up to the Duchess he drew up beside the silver haired girl next to her.
"Not exactly the best time to make your aquaintence but we might not have another chance," he said, tipping his hat to her, "I'm Sinistra and he's Destra."
With a quick look behind him he saw a swarm of infected animals in the distance giving chase, they were going to catch up soon and then they would be in real trouble.
Destra/Tweedle Dum
"Contrarywise I'm Destra and he's Sinistra," he said, coming up on the girl's other side, "And this is Moonlight, who might you be."
Sinistra had hold of Moonlight's hand and the silver haired girl was being pulled along by the Duchess so he grabbed the hand of the Duchess's son, giving him a quick smile.
"I hate to rain on the parade but we're going to have some unwanted company very soon," said Destra, looking at the Duchess.
The woman who was usually so loud and dramatic was being oddly silent, she seemed broken.
"Sophie, we need to do something," he said squeezing her free hand.
But there was no response, the only thing that she seemed to have on her mind was moving forward. Glancing back at the advancing army and then at his brother he nodded grimly. They would have to face their greatest fear to buy them all some more time to get away.
"Moonlight, we need you to stay with the Duchess ok?" he said quickly, "Sinistra and I are going to stay behind for a moment and then we'll come after you."
With that he stopped running and turned hand in hand with Sinistra to face their distant followers. In synchronity they closed their eyes took a deep breath and raised their hands, focusing. Seconds later, glowing birds began to pour from their hands, all kinds of birds, sparrows, eagles, owls, crows took wing into the air, some were blue and some were red and very soon there was a huge cloud of them flying towards the diseased army. The birds were all made from some kind of energy, had his sister been there then Destra knew she would have been able to tell him what type but in any case they made a beautiful sight, except to the twins.
"L-L-Let's..." began Destra, his face pale, but he didn't need to finish.
Silently they turned and began to run as fast as they could after the Duchess. With luck the birds would take out most of the smaller infected beings but no matter what, they were bound to buy the escapees some time.
Duchess Sophie
The Duchess looked at Belca, stunned, was the girl actually trying to comfort her? Destra's words had been lost on her but somehow Belca had managed to snap her out of the numb daze she'd been stuck in. She mannaged to smile weakly at her before returning her attention to the matter at hand. It appeared that Sinistra and Destra had decided to try buy them some more time and had left her with their contractor, the girl seemed to be very nervous but who was better to look after a lost child than herself, the Duchess Sophie Vespre?
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she said brightly, "But I think I'll save greeting you properly untill we're all together somewhere safer. YOur young friends will be back shortly."
Leaping over a fallen log she ran into a clearing of trees where she stopped dead in her tracks, the skirts of her dress swirling about her.
"All of you stop," said the Duchess urgently.
She was sure she'd heard something in the distance. Something big and growling. Something she couldn't outrun. It would be here soon and the only option would be to fight.
"I hope you know how to use that rapier," she said to the Twins contractor, preparing to take on the new threat, "I fear that you're going to need it."
She hoped that the twins would catch up before the thing arrived, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to fight whatever it was while protecting Belca, her son and the new girl. A desperate plan was begining to form in her mind, if she could just get rid of this thing then she could take the others to Absolem's mushroom patch, then they might be able to form some kind of resistance against the plague.
Cook
He raced towards the bears, he knew he stood no chance against them in close combat, he'd seen what they'd done to the pigs and momeraths. But he had a secret, one of the best kept secrets in all of wonderland which was surprising because it was the only word he'd ever been able to say for as long as he could remember.
He could control pepper.
While this didn't seem like much at first it was not an ability to be underestimated. The Duchess had been the only one who knew about his ability and had realised its potential.
As the bears drew near he danced out of the way of its swiping paw. He wasn't powerful enough to take out all the infected beings around him but maybe, with luck he'd be able to take out most, if not all of the bears. That would at least make things easier for the Duchess later on.
Soon he was surround by the gruesome beasts, this was it, no way out now.
"Pepper!" he bellowed, stomping his foot and raising his hands.
As his foot reached the ground a shockwave of dust rippled out, hovering in the air as a black cloud. It was everywhere, the build up of countless years of peppery meals. The cloud began to spin around like a tornado, quickly reaching a speed where it was like a sandstorm, the cracked pepper coarse enough to tear though flesh. In the center of the storm stood the cook, his eyes streaming, there was no air inside the storm of pepper, it was like a vacuum, very soon he would suffocate and the pepper storm would subside revealing the aftermath. Whether or not he had destroyed the bears not longer mattered, he had given everything he could. As his world began to fade he tried to speak one last time.
"Sophie," he whispered, tear rolling down his cheeks, surprised that he'd finally been able to say anything but pepper.
The pepercloud cleared minutes later to reveal the lifeless body of the cook and anything that had died with him. There was a smile upon his lips as if he had died for something he loved or perhaps he was glad he hadn't fallen at the hands of the mutilated army. Nobody would ever know for sure.