A Tale That Could Not Be
Chapter 11: The Cheshire Cat

Selvina and Rapunzel rested on a pair of low but wide mushrooms situated beside what looked like stools with warts on their seats. Red berries in the shapes of thin straws hung on a bush nearby and after Selvina took a nibble of one and found it edible, they ate to their fill.

“This place is so strange,” Rapunzel said after taking a bite from the oddly shaped fruit. “This fruit tastes like…hah, strawberries!”

Selvina chuckled. “That’s what I thought! I knew they tasted familiar.” She eyed one of the bumpy stools and smiled. “And those must be toadstools.”

Rapunzel finished her fruit and then looked up at a nearby tree. “Selvina, do you think we’ll ever get out of this forest?”

The blonde raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Of course we will. As long as you keep climbing trees to take our bearings we’ll keep going in the right direction. Why do you ask?”

“Well, the last time I climbed one I started feeling sick…”

“You did? You think it’s from the tree?”

“Yes, because as soon as I touched the ground I was fine.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to worry and I was hoping we’d come across different kinds of trees but they all look the same…”

Selvina sighed. “Rapunzel, you should have told me something. We could have figured something else out.”

“Yeah, but what? There’s no road or path or anything and we can’t see through the trees from the ground! How do we know we won’t go in circles?”

Selvina paused a moment before answering, struggling to find a hopeful reply. “We’ll just have to try our hardest to walk in a straight line. As long as he focus on something directly in front of us we…we should be ok.”

Rapunzel frowned. “You don’t even believe what you’re saying. We’re going to get lost, aren’t we?”

“No! We won’t!” Selvina stared Rapunzel down, determined not to let her hopelessness infect her mind. Their situation was dire and rather disheartening but she remembered how she had survived a ship battle and getting burned at the stake. She had thought her life was over then but she had pulled through. Now was no different.

Rapunzel’s frown softened and changed into an expression of shock and then fear. Selvina furrowed her brow in confusion, wondering what she was doing. Rapunzel pointed at Selvina’s head, her finger trembling, and shouted, “TEETH!”

Selvina snapped her head up and saw what looked like a crescent of sharp teeth. It somewhat resembled a grin. The grin stretched wider into a smile and two green eyes like huge marbles with a black slit through their middle appeared over it. A smoky haze of blue coalesced around the eyes and grin and Selvina could do nothing but watch as it transformed into a large, striped cat. The cat, about as big as a medium-sized dog, floated in the air and looked from Selvina to Rapunzel, its grin only growing grotesquely wider.

Suddenly, the teeth parted and the cat spoke in a wispy voice sounding like the deep howl of the wind. “Visitors I see. Visitors that seem lost. Lost are you?”

Rapunzel was too frightened to speak and Selvina, recognizing the animal as no one other than the Cheshire cat, calmed and stood up to face it directly. She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes, confident yet still hoping that this world’s Cheshire cat was not dangerous. “What does it matter to you if we’re lost?”

“Well, lost girls seldom laugh and I do dearly love the sound of your laughing. We don’t get many laughs in the forest anymore. Well, no genuine laughs that aren’t full of madness. You two aren’t mad are you?”

“Mad?” Rapunzel asked, working up some courage. “What do we have to be mad about?”

The cat disappeared in a puff of smoke and suddenly reappeared over Rapunzel’s head, slowly spinning around in midair like meat on a spit. The cat’s unexpected appearance elicited a cry of surprise from the easily startled Rapunzel. “Crazy mad, little girl, not angry mad. My you have long hair, may I touch it?”

“What?”

Before she could answer his question the cat floated to the ground and began stroking Rapunzel’s long hair with its claws, as if it was brushing it. “So many tangles in here. However shall you get rid of them all? This will take days of fevered licking to untangle.”

“Licking?” Rapunzel asked as she leaned away from the cat, her eyes wide with uncertainty. “I…I don’t lick my hair.”

“Have you a brush?”

“Um…no….”

“Enough!” Selvina said, stomping her foot on the ground to get the cat’s attention. “What do you want with us? Can you help us or not?”

The Cheshire cat looked up from Rapunzel’s hair and floated toward Selvina, twisting its head around and around like a corkscrew. Selvina grimaced for a moment but recovered quickly. She needed to know if this cat was just a bother or actual help. “I need answers, cat.”

“My friends call me Chesh, but I don’t call them friends. They are too mad to know the difference. You remind me of someone, girl. Have we met?”

“No. We have not. I am Selvina and she is Rapunzel. We need to get the castle.”

“You wish to reach the castle? Perhaps you are mad. In that case there is little I can do for you. Only the mad can aid the mad.”

Selvina sighed in frustration. “Then take us to the mad ones then! We need a way out of this forest and you don’t seem to be in a helping mood.”

“You must be mad. Such a pity. Finding sane company in these woods is as impossible as making sense of madness. I was hoping you were different.”

“I am not mad, cat! I just need to get out of this forest.”

“And go to the castle?”

“Yes, go to the castle.”

“Then you are mad.”

“Gah! NO! I am not mad!”

“Why go to the castle then?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Then taking you to the mad ones is none of mine.” With that the cat faded away and did not reappear.

Selvina and Rapunzel glanced about, hoping to see him again, but he did not show himself. The latter stood up and frowned, her long hair tumbling down her shoulders and piling at her feet. “You ruined our only chance at getting out of here, Selvina!”

Selvina clenched her teeth, not about to take the blame for defending her friends from a stranger. “I didn’t ruin anything! At least I talked to the cat! You just sat there and cowered like a baby!”

“I’m not a baby!”

“Well you’re sure as hell a coward!”

“I am not!”

“You’re afraid of everything, Rapunzel!”

“I…I’m trying! It’s not easy!”

“It’s not as hard as you make it out to be! I’m not even from this world and I’m braver than you are! I don’t have magic or unicorns or disappearing cats where I come from and I’m doing just fine. Sometimes I wonder how you haven’t died already!”

Rapunzel gasped, taken aback by Selvina’s outburst. Tears pooled at the edge of her eyes and she blinked rapidly in a futile attempt to keep them at bay. “You’re being hurtful, Selvina. I didn’t deserve that. You don’t know what I’ve gone through…”

“I know your story, Rapunzel. You were locked up in a tower by some witch and then a prince climbed up your hair and rescued you.”

Rapunzel frowned. “That’s not how it was. I was in a tower but…I wasn’t rescued.”

Selvina narrowed her eyes, curious to know more, but too impatient to listen to a long story. “It doesn’t matter. We need to get the castle so pick up your stupidly long hair and follow me!”

Rapunzel sniffed back tears and bent down to gather her hair in her arms. When she had it all she looked at Selvina through moist eyes and said, “But you don’t know the way.”

“Well, since you’re too scared to climb the trees anymore I guess I’ll have to do it.”

“No, Selvina, don’t! I wasn’t lying when I said they made me feel sick.”

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” She then walked to the nearest tree, a purple-barked, many-branched one, and grabbed a low branch. With clenched teeth, trembling muscles, and a few grunts she managed to pull herself atop the lowest branch. Selvina then hugged the trunk of the tree as she stood up and reached higher.

Rapunzel walked to the base of the tree and looked up as Selvina slowly ascended the tree. “Be careful, Selvina. You don’t have a rope like I did.”

“Thank you, captain obvious!” Selvina spat back. “It would make way more sense for you to be doing this but you just want to stand around and cry so go right ahead. I won’t stop you.”

A crescent of teeth appeared so suddenly in front of Selvina that she cried out and nearly lost grip on the branch she held. Two green orbs popped into existence and within a few moments the rest of the Cheshire cat did. “Why so serious, angry one?”

Selvina slapped at the cat to move aside but her hand just passed right through him as if he was smoke. “Get out of my face! You didn’t want to help us so stop annoying me.”

“Are you always this pleasant?”

“Shut up.”

“I have a right to speak and I choose to do so.” The cat disappeared and reappeared on a higher bough, lounging on it lazily. “You should probably apologize to your friend for hurting her like that.”

“Pfft, yeah right. It’s her fault I’m climbing this tree and I wouldn’t have snapped on her if she wasn’t so afraid of everything.”

The cat laughed as its pointed ears steadily elongated, its body grew larger, and a row of spikes sprouted along its back. Downward curving horns jutted from its head as its teeth enlarged and its green eyes turned blood red. The cat was soon so large it consumed the entire top of the tree. Its claws dug into the wood and scraped into the bark, causing shavings to fall on Selvina’s head. Branches cracked under its weight and it threatened to fall on top of her. Selvina felt her hands get clammy as fear began to consume her, loosening the grip on the branches she held on to.

When the cat spoke its voice was now deep, guttural and demonic. “Fear is a powerful emotion, girl, and if I so chose to I could sink my claws into your flesh and rend your body into tiny, bite-sized ribbons.” The demon cat began to climb down, closer to Selvina, branches and boughs cracking and snapping with every movement. “There is no place for anger in this forest and I feast on those that deliver it. Your friend has a right to be afraid, as do you.”

The cat suddenly lunged at Selvina, making her scream and let go. She fell for a second before something held her back. With a glance down she noticed that the cat’s tail, now extremely long and scaly, was wrapped around her waist and supporting her in midair. She squirmed and beat on the tail with her fists but it only tightened painfully, leaving her breathless and threatening to snap a few of her ribs. The tail raised her body up to the cat’s huge and terrible face and its hot breath blew into Selvina’s. A forked tongue emerged and then ran along the many fangs of the demon cat’s wide grin as saliva dripped down their razor-sharp edges.

“Are you afraid?” the cat growled.

Selvina, with cold sweat dripping down her face, nodded rapidly. “Yes! I’m afraid!”

“Of me?”

“Yes! Of course!”

The cat’s grin disappeared and it roared so loudly the entire tree shook. Selvina shrieked in terror and she heard Rapunzel do the same from below her. “DO NOT LIE TO ME!”

“I’m not!”

“LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!”

“I AM afraid!”

“TELL ME OF WHAT!”

“Of…of you!”

The cat roared again and shoved Selvina close into its gaping mouth.

“Stop!” Selvina screamed. “Don’t!”

The cat moved Selvina away from its maw and closed its mouth, narrowing its red eyes at her. “You are afraid of something else. Admit it to me. Admit it to your friend. Admit it to yourself.”

Selvina felt the tail loosen slightly, giving her freedom to breathe easily. She steadied her racing heartbeat somewhat, glanced at the cat and then down to Rapunzel, who had begun to climb the tree to save her. It warmed her heart and yet pained it as well. Rapunzel truly hadn’t deserved any of the insults she had thrown her way. Selvina took a deep breath, eyed the demon cat, and then said, “I am afraid of being useless, of having no place here, of…of being lost forever and not being missed…”

With the span of a second, the cat shrunk into its regular size and shape and Selvina was once again standing on a thick bough with a higher branch in her hand. The cat’s green eyes blinked and it grinned widely. Its voice was once again wispy, smooth and rather comforting. “See? Was that so difficult?”

Rapunzel reached Selvina and eyed her directly. “Are…are you ok?”

Selvina took a deep breath and gazed at her friend. “Yes, I’m better. I’m sorry for getting mad at you, Rapunzel. I was wrong to do so.”

Rapunzel shrugged and blushed, as if unaccustomed to being apologized to. “I know I’m not very brave but I promise to do better…”

“No, you’re doing fine. That caterpillar made me feel insecure about myself and I took it out on you. It wasn’t the right thing to do. I just wish I knew for sure if I did matter…”

Rapunzel frowned and placed a hand on Selvina’s shoulder. “Of course you do! It’s like you said, you’re not even from this world and you’ve done more than I could ever dream of doing. I was locked up in that tower my whole life and was sheltered from the outside world. Do you know who freed me? It wasn’t some valiant prince. It was Peter Pan. He came in, attacked my mother, nearly killed her, and then kidnapped me. I worry for mother and I hope she recovers well yet in some sick and twisted way I can thank Pan for taking me away from there. I’ve seen more of the world than I ever imagined ever doing so. It’s a lot to take in and it scares me but at the same time I don’t want to go back to the tower. I’ve made good friends and I consider you one of them, Selvina. When you go back home you will be remembered and you will be missed.

“You might not belong here but that doesn’t make you useless. If it wasn’t for you I’d still be sitting down and crying where we split up from the group. I’d have been too afraid to talk to the caterpillar and probably would have been lost forever. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you.”

Selvina took it all in and managed a weak smile. “Thank you, Rapunzel… It does make me feel a little better.”

Rapunzel smiled back and then leaned over and gave her a tight hug. Selvina hugged her back, allowing a tear of joy to roll down her cheek. “You’re like a sister to me, Selvina,” Rapunzel said, still hugging. “We were both taken from a place of comfort and exposed to a brand new world. We’re in this together.”

“For better or for worse,” Selvina added as she pulled away from the hug, still smiling.

Rapunzel nodded. “Hopefully for the better, though.”

Selvina chuckled and nodded back. “I’m sure it will be.”

Meanwhile, the Cheshire cat wiped a large, round tear from his eye with a claw and tossed it aside. “I do love a heartwarming scene. It reminds me why I wander these woods all the time. I never do know what I shall find.”

Selvina turned to the cat, smiling lightly. “I suppose I should thank you for scaring me like that.”

The cat swatted a paw at her. “You needn’t to, fair-haired one. I would have helped you anyway.”

“What? You’re going to help us?”

“I will lead you to the mad ones, yes, who will then lead you to the castle, though I beg you reconsider your course.”

“No, it’s where we need to go. I’m sure of it.”

The cat sighed and shrugged. “Very well, if you insist, then I will take you to your guides. Nay, I shall!”

“Thank you,” Rapunzel said, reaching over and rubbing the cat’s head.

The cat grinned and began to purr. “Oh, I do love a good scratching.”

Selvina and Rapunzel eventually climbed down the tree, grateful that it hadn’t made them sick, and waited for the Cheshire cat to join them. He simply disappeared and reappeared before them, hovering in the air at eye-level. With a wave of his paw, gesturing the girls to follow, he swam through the air, heading deeper into the forest.

Rapunzel and Selvina exchanged a glance, smiled, and followed the floating cat, feeling both confident and unafraid of what lay ahead.

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