(Enchanted Forest / Wonderland Summary)
This is a tale of two friends who shared their love of adventure and ties to a place called Wonderland.
The Queen of Wonderland gave birth to a Princess named Alice, future heir to the throne. However, the land was not at peace. The Jabberwock wreaked havoc throughout the land, threatening the Royal Family themselves. The dragon was set to go after the baby Princess and in order to save her, the King and Queen made a difficult choice to send her to the Enchanted Forest by a magical looking glass. The baby made it safe through the looking glass. However it was much too late for her parents who were attacked before they would escape. The baby was found and raised by twin elderly sisters (Clotilde & Wilhelmina) and named her Mirana. She began calling them her Aunts, Tweedles.
Though it was a mystery where the baby came from, it was more of a mystery when she began to develop some extraordinary gifts. Magic of healing and growing plants instantly. Little Mirana had eventually developed these gifts and found her talent of potions.
Mirana had dreamed of a life outside of the Enchanted Forest. A place that was made of nonsense and where her potions would make a person shrink and grow mushrooms that made one taller. It was a land full of wonder. Was it just a dream or a real place? Her stories and wild imagination deemed her quite a mad child in her village, concerning her adopted family and others. However, she did not mind as the few friends she did have loved playing games with her and having tea parties.
She made one friend in particular, a young “Hatter” named Jefferson, who came from a family of tailors and hat makers. Surprisingly, also seemed to be of considerable wealth. The two have shared their own tales of their dreams and often ran off to reenact such dreams such as having “mad” tea parties, speaking to various woodland creatures as if they could talk back, and many other adventures one would consider nonsense.
However, little did she know that those playtimes would result in the child’s own reality. One day little Mirana was out gathering herbs for her potions until a frantic white rabbit claims he knew her, telling her that her name is really Alice, and urged her to follow him as they are “late for an important date”. As curiosity got the best of her, she agreed to follow him to a rabbit hole, falling into the world of Wonderland. However, curious indeed, Mirana’s chestnut brown hair transformed into a platinum blonde hue the moment she stepped foot into the realm. She felt her gifts growing stronger by the minute, able to heal dead plants instantly. She ventured off into adventures, exploring the realm and meeting many friends along the way, friends that were just as bonkers as she was, and despite her correction, they insisted her name was Alice.
Unfortunately, the ruler of Wonderland, the Queen, got word of a mysterious girl in her Kingdom and sent her guards to capture her. Luckily, she was able to escape through an enchanted looking glass, that same looking glass that saved her when she was a baby.
When she had returned to the Enchanted Forest, Mirana could not wait to tell her Hatter friend that such a place was real. That was when Jefferson had informed her that he, too, knew of Wonderland. It turned out, he was a descendant of the last “Royal Hatter”, his great, great-grandfather. His father and grandfather somehow ended up living in the Enchanted Forest as “traders” as his father would say. Though, unknown how they were able to live comfortably with a humble trade of tailors, seamstresses, and hatmakers, Jefferson knew better than to ask.
That was until Jefferson’s father, handed down a magical family heirloom, the Enchanted Hat. The tale of his great, great-grandfather and his past as the former Royal Hatter of Wonderland was given to the young man at last. He learned that the Hat was presented as a reward to him after saving the Queen of Diamond’s life and was enchanted with looking glass magic for him to be able to transport himself to other magical realms and carry on quests for the Wonderland’s Diamond Kingdom.
However, it was not long before the Honored Royal Hatter began to misuse it, pilfering many valuable items from such magical realms for his own benefit. When word was spread of his thievery, the Queen stripped his title and banished him from Wonderland and forbade his return. He was able to keep the Hat and continue to live outside of Wonderland, turning to a life using the hat to steal riches from other realms. When he started his own family in the Enchanted Forest, living quite comfortably, he passed down his skills along with the Hat to future generations of Hatters. The Hat became more than a mere family heirloom, but the source of their livelihood.
The thought of being a family of successful hat makers and tailors was all Jefferson knew. It was not long before he began to learn the actual family skill that bought them their comfortable lifestyle. On his first trip using the Hat, his father took him to Camelot, teaching him the rules of the Hat. Only the Hatter bloodline can get it to work unless it’s been taken from him and using blood magic so he urged Jefferson to keep the Hat safe. Jefferson’s father gave him one last test and let him travel through the Hat on his own. After successfully traveling back to Camelot, he went back home and found out his parents had both disappeared.
Taking pity on the boy, Mirana’s aunts had welcomed Jefferson to live with them. At first, he refused to get into his family’s habits and utilized the Hat to take Mirana on actual adventures, assisting her in finding rare herbs for her potions when he transported themselves into different realms. However, temptation was also a Hatter trait as he began taking a few souvenirs from one realm to another, it became an addiction.
As the two entered their teenage years, Mirana began to worry that her friend may get himself into trouble with such habits. She hoped to go on another adventure with him and decided to finally take him to Wonderland. He agreed to take her and was surprised to see her hair become a light blonde, as she resembled an angel in that land. However, he did not appreciate everyone calling her Alice, how mad everyone got over her. Mirana reassured him that would be her name when she was in Wonderland and urged him to play around.
The White Rabbit invited them over for tea with the Dormouse as the Cheshire Cat crashed it. With Jefferson there, the young hatter turned it into a Mad Tea Party, starting a food fight and singing an “Unbirthday” song since everything seemed to be topsy-turvy in Wonderland. The White Rabbit let it slip that Mirana was destined to be their Princess Alice and what has happened to her real parents, the King and Queen. It was her destiny to slay the Jabberwocky and it could only be killed by the Vorpal Sword, only the true heir to the throne can wield it. It was locked up in the Queen’s palace and with Jefferson’s help, he was able to sneak into the palace and steal it for Mirana. With Mirana in possession of the blade, the Jabberwocky woke up and began terrorizing the land until she eventually slayed it, saving the realm but destroying the Vorpal Sword in the process.
Despite the people of Wonderland wishing Alice to be their Princess, Jefferson did not like the idea of her staying in Wonderland. He insisted she belonged in the Enchanted Forest with him. Her Wonderland friends tried to convince her to stay but with her growing feelings for her dear hatter, she refused the crown and agreed to go back to the Enchanted Forest with him.
However, Mirana began to sense a change in her friend as their adventures and their various quests turned to opportunities for his own wants. He assured her that it was all in good fun. However it was not long before he began stealing much more valuable items; items that could get them killed. She warned him that his new habit would put them both at risk and vowed she would never travel through the Hat with him again after such dangerous encounters.
The once close friends began to drift apart as Mirana continued to put more focus on helping the people who began to flock to her magical remedies and Jefferson began to work for some wealthy and powerful employers such as the Dark One himself and partake in a scheme that would eventually lead to Queen Regina turning into the Evil Queen.
The once close friends began to drift apart as Mirana continued to put more focus on helping the people who began to flock to her magical remedies and Jefferson began to work for some wealthy and powerful employers such as the Dark One himself and partake in a scheme that would eventually lead to Queen Regina turning into the Evil Queen.
Numerous times, Mirana had caught him stealing her potions and her own magical items to trade for riches as he thought he was doing it for her benefit. He often tried to convince her his quests were not at all dangerous and worth the adventures by presenting her with beautiful gifts fit for a Queen. However, Mirana refused such gifts as she assured him that his gifts he handmade for her such as hats, dresses and other beautiful items meant more to her than any riches he pilfered. It was not enough for the young portal jumper. He wanted to give her a lavish life when she earned very little for the potions she had slaved over and the people she helped.
Mirana saw the White Rabbit again and hoped for another adventure with Jefferson without the opportunity to steal. Perhaps if they enjoyed yet another one together, it would convince him that there was more to life than riches. When he refused, Mirana was convinced his wealth meant more to him than their friendship and bade him farewell before traveling back to Wonderland.
Once she arrived, her hair turned lighter once again, however this time it turned completely silvery white. She had discovered that her white hair indicated her powerful gifts of healing and magic. Only in Wonderland her true form would emerge.
Powerless without her Jabberwocky, the Queen of Spades has grown ill and eventually died, leaving her son, the Prince, to rule. However, he was useless as the land perished, crops died and wells dried throughout the realm with the death of his mother.
The prophecy declared he must marry Mirana, who really was Princess Alice, the true ruler, for the land to prosper once again. For duty to her birthright, she agreed to marry him and thus became rulers of Wonderland as the White King and Queen and the Kingdom has once again prospered with Mirana’s healing gifts.
After regretting letting Mirana go, Jefferson had decided to jump into his hat again and made his way to Wonderland to finally tell her how much her friendship (and perhaps more) really meant to him. However, upon his arrival, he had discovered his beloved Mirana had married the Prince and thus, became the White Queen. Much too late to get her to come back home with him, the heartbroken Hatter carried on back to his thieving ways. Jefferson found his way to Camelot and met a fellow thief named Priscilla. The two joined a partnership in thievery and eventually got married and had a child together, naming her Grace.
However, Mirana’s new life in Wonderland was hardly a happily ever after. With the land prospering, the King was lazy, taking the credit for the Queen’s good works. She realizes that he never loved her, and only married her to use her by falsifying the prophecy. His indifference toward her was apparent as often had mistresses in his chambers at night. At first, Mirana did not mind as she was much too busy helping the people. However, deep inside she longed for someone to love her. When she realized she would never receive such love from the King, she was fed up with being taken advantage of. One night, in a fit of jealous rage for the first time, she used dark magic to grow white rose bushes that sprouted branches of thorns that attacked the White King and one of his mistresses, painting the white roses red with their blood.
Once she had seen the destruction, she regretted it at once and healed them immediately. Feeling such horrible guilt, she fled from the palace on her White Horse, who was also her White Knight, Aster. In fear of the dark magic she was capable of, she vowed to never harm a living creature again. She had seen what people with powerful magic did in the Enchanted Forest and refused to end up like them.
Mirana was no longer happy as Queen. Grateful her work in Wonderland was done, she was inclined to leave to start over. And with Aster’s encouragement, decided to go back to her old, humble life to find Jefferson and profess her love for him at last. Through the looking glass once again, she traveled back to her true home, the Enchanted Forest.
The first thing Mirana had to do was find Jefferson. When she did, she discovered he had married and had a child, Grace. Though Mirana was overjoyed with happiness that her dearest friend had found the love of his life and with a beautiful daughter, deep down, she could not contain her jealousy.
To avoid feeling her heart breaking and wishing to be there for them, she embraced her last bit of Dark Magic within as she ripped her own heart out, promising herself as long as she didn’t have her heart, she would avoid falling in love with Jefferson. She kept it safe in an enchanted rock and with her magic, was able to bury it deep within the earth in her gardens where she had tea parties with Jefferson when they were children.
Jefferson and Priscilla welcomed Mirana into their family as Grace’s godmother. The Hatter knew it was time to retire the hat and to Mirana’s wishes at last, quit their life of thievery once and for all.
Jefferson had tried to venture back into his original trade as a hat maker and a tailor, however, he had made quite a few enemies along the way that he struggled to find anyone who wanted any business with him. Mirana offered to help the family as much as she could, selling her potions and growing food for them but Jefferson insisted he was capable of providing for his family.
When Mirana had gone off on one of her long journeys to find magical herbs, Jefferson was struggling to care for his wife and daughter. He sought his former employer, William, for a job that had sent him to make one more trip through the Hat back to Wonderland to steal the Clock of Evermore. William promised he would present him with a large award and ensured his family was to be well taken care of. He knew Mirana would not approve but in order to be able to feed his family, he took the job. He remembered Mirana’s various Wonderland tales and her warning about the March Hare, the owner of the Clock, who was a dangerous trickster. He was one who was never to be trifled with or pay a grave consequence.
However, Jefferson was desperate. It was a risk he was willing to take in order to care for his struggling family. Upon being caught trying to steal the Clock of Evermore, the March Hare brought on his punishment by cursing him to a never ending tea party, where it was always going to be a minute before tea time.
The White Rabbit, a good friend of the former White Queen, got word about her friend’s predicament and traveled to the Enchanted Forest hoping to inform her. However, instead, he found the Hatter’s wife and warned her of Jefferson’s fate. After leaving the two-year-old Grace in the care of their neighbors, Priscilla followed the White Rabbit back to rescue her husband.
However, before they could escape, one of the Hare’s guards shot an arrow at them, striking Priscilla. As she lay in his arms dying, she urged Jefferson to save himself to raise their daughter with Mirana. After she had perished, Jefferson had little time to grieve as the guards had found him. He took his Hat and traveled back to the Enchanted Forest. He informed Mirana what had happened to Priscilla and as the two friends grieved for months, they kept her dying wish of raising Grace together. When Jefferson lost his mansion, he and Grace moved in with Mirana at her cottage and was able to fix it up.
Over the years, they were very much a family themselves. However, working hard to provide for Grace, Jefferson and Mirana both held back their growing feelings for each other. However, it was much easier for Mirana to ignore such feelings as she did not have her heart. Jefferson blamed himself for his wife’s death and refused to believe Mirana would love him after the warnings he constantly ignored.
However, that was far from the truth. Mirana understood his desperation and blamed herself as well. Had she been with the family before such a tragedy, she would have convinced Jefferson not to take the job. They did love each other, but friendship was all the both of them could handle for the time being to avoid things getting complicated while they should focus on giving Grace the wonderful childhood she deserved.
Mirana did raise Grace as if she were her own. However, she refused to be called Mama and had to remind Grace she was there to be her godmother and could never replace Priscilla. While Jefferson became a mushroom seller and was away for most of the day, Grace would help Mirana gather herbs for her potions, playing games, baking, and having tea parties together. Mirana told tales of her and her father’s adventures as children and her mother’s happy moments with them so she would always remember her.
Mirana became a renowned plant witch and healer where people from different lands sought for her potions. Though she would rarely go on quests, there were times when her gifts were needed to accompany those who were able to pay. She could not stand being away from Grace and Jefferson but it was necessary in order to help support themselves. Thankfully, such quests were not as dangerous but they often required her to be away days to weeks at a time.
One day when Jefferson was playing hide and seek in the woods with Grace, they found Queen Regina's carriage outside their house. After their last encounter many years ago, such a visit was unexpected. It had been so long ago, Jefferson had yet to speak of such a past with Grace. He urged her to wait outside before having a chat with the Queen who asked for his help to use the Hat once again to retrieve an object from another land in exchange for riches to rid their life of poverty. Jefferson stood by his vow to never use the Hat again after it had cost his wife’s life and refused her offer. However, when he took Grace on a day at the market, she fell in love with a rabbit doll but could not afford it. He tried bargaining with the vendor who was Regina disguised as an old woman and turned him away.
Grace was not upset and never expected to get everything she wanted but Jefferson was devastated he could not give his daughter and best friend a happy life. Though Jefferson made toys out of scraps around the house for Grace and she had always appreciated them, guilt lingered within Jefferson for refusing the job. After all, it did not sound as dangerous and could use what the Queen had to offer to give Grace a better childhood and Mirana didn’t have to leave them on her quests. He decided to take the job and sent his daughter off to the neighbors, promising her he would be back home for tea.
He took the Hat to the Queen’s palace and jumped into the hat with her, traveling to Wonderland, the last place he wanted to go but out of obligation, he had a duty to fulfill. The Hat had a vital rule. If a certain amount of people enter a realm, then only the same amount of people can exit out. In Wonderland, Regina retrieved a box from the Queen of Hearts and it turned out her father was trapped in it. Upon feeding him a mushroom, he grew to his normal size and Regina intended to return home with him. To Jefferson’s horror, he was trapped in Wonderland and captured by the Queen of Hearts, who beheaded him, yet he remained alive. After revealing he got to Wonderland by an enchanted hat, the Queen of Hearts ordered him to make another one. He was then locked up in a large room making hat after hat but failing at recreating the enchanted one, going mad in the process.
Back in the Enchanted Forest, Mirana returned from her quest to find that Jefferson had taken the Hat and left Grace to work for the Queen. A concerned Mirana made her way to the Queen’s palace to ask her what had happened to the Hatter. Regina, amused at yet another poor woman who seemed to have captured his heart, decided to break hers by informing her that he left her and his daughter for his old life and that he could never love anyone like he loved his wife. She was aware of Mirana’s refusal to use her magic for wealth and power, that her little potions were no match for others with magic.
Mirana refused to believe the Queen as she and Grace remained optimistic that he would eventually return. He should have learned his lesson that no riches was worth risking his life and being away from them.
Weeks and weeks passed by and there was no word where Jefferson could have been. Mirana had taken over selling mushrooms with Grace. However, it wasn’t enough. She needed to find more people to come to her for magical remedies. She found less and less people coming to her for her magic and potions as she had discovered someone else has been providing them.
Mirana was nearly destitute as she struggled to care for Grace. Every day she grew exhausted and slowly began to lose hope in Jefferson’s return. She refused to accept that he had abandoned them, but it felt much more likely to her that fell back into his old temptations and went back to portal jumping.
Falling into a depression, Mirana no longer had the inclination to do magic or work on her potions again. She took up work as a tavern maid and at the inn to be able to provide for Grace. The neighbors became Grace’s new family as Mirana found herself having to spend more time away from her because of the long hours she had to work.
In Wonderland, the White Rabbit was sent to bring Jefferson back to the Enchanted Forest. On his way to see his daughter and friend again, he was captured by the Queen’s guards and thrown into a prison at the highest tower of her palace.
Then the Dark Curse was cast.