The water in the fish tank immediately started to exit out through the open door in a rush. As the water speedily surged out in a torrent it slammed into Alister, sweeping him right off his feet.

Alister screamed as the water gushing out of the tank washed him away. He was carried right over the edge of the table, and ended up riding a wave of water down until the water hit the floor below.

Luckily, the water cushioned his fall, but it was still unnerving to be carried along the floor by the water as it continued to gush out of the door he’d opened on the side of the tank.

As the water level in the tank grew lower the contents inside the tank began to get washed out as well. The five mermaids, Clover, his sword, and all of the pearls were all carried out of the fish tank by the escaping water, and forced to ride a cascade of water down to the floor where the water cushioned their landing.

The water spread out all over the floor, carrying the mermaids, Clover, and pearls with it until the water started to drain away into the cracks of the stone floor. The mermaids came to an abrupt stop when there was no longer any water beneath their bodies keeping them afloat. The mermaids started to flop about on the floor desperately acting like fish out of water, and gasping for breath.

Alister dug his nails into the stone floor when he felt his body finally coming to a stop as the water beneath him drained away. He was completely soaked and chilled to the bone.

An unconscious Clover skidded across the floor on a shallow wave of water until he came to stop when the water beneath him drained into the cracks in the floor completely.

Coughing violently, Alister weakly pushed himself up off the floor, and looked around. The blood began to drain out of his face as he took in the chaos he’d unwittingly caused. Pearls were scattered everywhere, and the mermaids were unhappily flopping about on the stone floor. He began to look around for any sign of Clover, and spotted the White King a few yards away, lying on the floor, unmoving. Alister’s gut clenched in worry. Was the White King dead? “Clover!”

Alister was about to run to Clover when the sound of someone clapping caused him to stop mid-stride and instead turn to face the direction the sound had come from. Alister blinked when abruptly Crim seemed to appear out of thin air as the Red King removed an invisibility cloak he’d been wearing.

Unbeknownst to Clover and Alister, Crim had been following them since he’d sensed their arrival in Overland in the castle courtyard. Crim had hung back and watched with interest as Alister used a harp he’d painted to put the guard that had been posted outside the treasure chamber to sleep. Then, Crim had followed them into the treasure chamber where he’d watched and waited for the right moment to reveal his presence, which was now.

“Crim!” Alister squawked in surprise. “What are you doing here? Aren’t the giants supposed to be chasing you?”

“Well, well, well, I must say I’m impressed by the tremendous mess you’ve made, Alister,” Crim drawled as he glanced around at the mermaids and pearls. “I couldn’t have done it better myself - destruction, chaos, pain, and death.” The Red King strolled over to his brother’s unconscious body and turned him over onto his back using his boot. “Hey, you alive there, Clover?” When there was no immediate response, Crim frowned. “Masochistic idiot. The only one that is allowed to kill you is I! You can’t go killing yourself off without my permission, Brother!” Crim raised his boot and brought it down hard on Clover’s chest.

Alister flinched and watched in shock as Crim continued to slam his boot down on his brother’s chest again and again. “Hey, stop that!”

That’s when Clover abruptly gasped, turned on his side, and coughed up a great deal of water. Crim looked darkly pleased.

Clover flopped back onto his back and gawked up at his brother. “Crim? You…saved me? CPR?” A playful twinkle formed in Clover’s pale green eyes.

Crim’s expression darkened. “Of course not! I would never kiss you! I used my boot. You owe me one, Clover.” The Red King’s expression turned smug.

“You’re right. I do,” Clover easily agreed with a smile. “Thank you for saving my life, Brother.”

Crim bristled with irritation. “I didn’t give you permission to die yet. That’s all.” A flopping sound had Crim’s attention turning to the mermaids. “My, my, Alister, you sacrificed the lives of those poor mermaids just so you could save Clover. Enjoy playing god, do we? Getting to decide who lives and who dies? And here I thought you were supposed to be a hero.” Crim’s lip curled back in a disdainful sneer.

“What? No, I didn’t…” That’s when Alister noticed the gills on the sides of the mermaids’ necks, and how they were opening and closing their mouths as they gasped for breath. Alister had assumed the mermaids were just unhappy to be out of water and that that’s why they’d been flopping about so much. But, if they possessed gills that meant they could only breathe under water. This meant…that his actions had killed them all.

“No,” Alister murmured to himself in denial and shook his head as he stumbled back a step. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.” The blue-haired mermaid gave Alister a beseeching look. Alister approached her and sank to his knees beside her. With tears welling up in his blue eyes, he reached out, and took her hand in his to offer her comfort. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Crim chuckled lowly in dark amusement.

“There must be something we can do to save them,” Alister speculated aloud, his voice tinged with desperation.

“There is nothing you can do,” Crim scoffed. “Peasant.”

Alister looked up at Crim and his morose expression turned hopeful. “But surely, there’s something you could do. You’re a powerful sorcerer, right?”

“Oh, yes, there is something I could do,” Crim drawled and cracked his knuckles. “I could curse them!”

Alister paled. “Curse?”

Crim waggled his fingers in the direction of the mermaids, and his fingers were enveloped in red mist. Then, Crim’s magical power shot out of his fingers, hit the mermaids’ bodies, and caused them to glow with a red light.

The mermaids started to transform, and in seconds they’d turned from mermaids into human women dressed in red, lacy, Victorian-style dresses with the pattern of black hearts on them.

The ex-mermaids gasped loudly as they finally managed to take much needed oxygen into their lungs. The five young women began to tentatively push themselves up off the floor, and stand on wobbly legs. They looked down at their new legs in astonishment.

The blue-haired ex-mermaid turned to give Crim a searching look. “You…gave us legs?”

Crim smiled evilly. “Oh, yes. Despair. Now, you’ll never be able to return to the ocean you love!”

“Thank you,” the blue-haired woman said simply, and a small, shy smile formed on her face.

“What?” Crim’s happy expression deflated at the ex-mermaid’s thanks.

“The ocean has become unsafe for our kind,” the blue-haired woman started to explain in a solemn tone. “You have saved us, oh kind and gracious King!” The woman’s eyes literally turned into two pink hearts.

Crim frowned and looked uncomfortable. “Not my intention, dearie.”

“Oh my God. Now more girls are in love with him,” Alister moaned and threw his hands up into the air in an exasperated gesture. “What is wrong with the girls in this realm?”

Clover laughed loudly in amusement. “Girls do tend to have a thing for bad boys.”

Alister pushed himself up off the floor, and straightened. He cringed at the way his wet clothes were sticking uncomfortably to his skin. That’s when Alister noticed that the cloak Crim was wearing was made out of purple and pink striped fur. It instantly reminded him of Katrina’s fur, and his gut clenched in anxiety. “Crim, what is that cloak made out of?”

Crim stiffened. “That’s none of your business.”

“It’s made from the fur of a Cheshire Cat Person,” a scratchy male voice declared. First to appear out of thin air was a pair of thin lips. Next, a male body dressed in a dark blue, Steampunk tuxedo and bowtie appeared. When the man’s face became fully visible, Alister recognized that it was Chesher. A dark blue top hat sat on his head of matching hair, and hid his cat ears from sight. “Why don’t you tell them whose fur that used to be, Crim?”

“Shut your mouth, slave!” Crim snarled viciously.

Alister was feeling nauseous. “Katrina’s?”

“No!” Crim snapped hotly.

“It belonged to his mother,” Chesher revealed.

“Adoptive mother,” Crim swiftly corrected.

“You see, he just admitted it.” A twisted yet triumphant smile spread across Chesher’s face. “He made an invisibility cloak out of the nursemaid that was like a mother to him. He’s a heartless bastard.”

Crim smiled sharply at the insult. “Yes, I am,” he readily agreed. “Now, tell me, where is Katrina? Is she alright?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything.” Chesher strolled across the floor until he bent over to pick up a pearl. “With this pearl my entry into the Wonderland Joust is assured. I will have fun unseating you, and watching you plummet to your death, Crim!”

Worry swirled in Alister’s blue eyes. “Whoa, whoa, whoa…hold on. Plummet to his death?” He turned to give Clover a searching look. “What’s he talking about?”

“The Wonderland Joust…is no ordinary joust,” Clover said grimly.

Alister groaned and scrubbed a hand down his face. “I should have known.”

Crim just tossed his head back and laughed. “Ha! I’d like to see you try, slave. I am a master jouster!”

“We shall see,” Chesher said as his body started to disappear.

Crim grew pissed. “Wait! You can’t go. Not until you tell me what has become of Katrina! I haven’t dismissed you yet! You can’t keep her from me! She’s my slave! Argh!” The Red King let out a growl of frustration when only the cat-man’s lips were visible.

“Katrina…sleeps,” Chesher said and his pale lips quirked into a cryptic smile.

“That answer is not good enough!” Crim whipped out his sword and charged towards Chesher. “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!” He swung his sword in the general direction of where he thought Chesher’s invisible neck was.

But, the rest of Chesher abruptly disappeared, and Crim’s sword passed through nothing but thin air. “Tch. Dammit…” He sheathed his sword. “Enough of this nonsense.” He stalked over and grabbed a handful of pearls before showing them to the ex-mermaids in a cocky manner. “I’m taking these with me. And you can’t stop me!”

“Please do,” the blue-haired woman said obligingly. “You have earned them as your reward for saving our lives.”

A vein at Crim’s temple throbbed in irritation. “I already told you that wasn’t my intention. And I don’t need your blessing to take them,” Crim sneered and pocketed the pearls. “Now that I have what I came for, I’ll just be going. You’re on your own, ladies!”

“Wait!” Alister called after Crim, his voice laced with desperation. “You can’t just leave us here. We need your help getting these girls to safety. You saved their lives…so they’re your responsibility now.”

Crim shot Alister a look of disbelief and barked out a laugh. “Ha! You’re asking for help from a villain? You poor, deluded soul! I pity you. No, that’s hero stuff. I’ll leave the saving of damsels in distress to you and my brother. It’s more his style anyways. Toodles!” Crim waved his hand curtly at the group before disappearing in a cloud of red smoke.

With tears glittering in their eyes, the ex-mermaids waved their handkerchiefs at the departing Crim. “Goodbye, my King!”

Alister gawked at the empty space where Crim had been standing only seconds before. “I can’t believe he just left us here to fend for ourselves.” He frowned.

“Oh, I believe it,” Clover was saying as he struggled to put on his wet clothes. “We need to get out of here before-”

“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I small the blood of an Englishman,” a giant’s deep, rumbling male voice echoed through the chamber. “Be he alive, or be he dead. I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!”

Oh shit. Alister inwardly thought.

From the door that led to the throne room two giants entered the chamber, and from a side door two more giants entered. Uh oh. The giants immediately spotted Alister, Clover, and the ex-mermaids who were standing in the center of the floor surround by pearls and broken glass.

“There they are!” One of the giants pointed at them needlessly. “The intruders! I knew I could smell them!”

Clover whipped out his sword and held it in a two-handed grip before him. Alister appreciated his display of bravery, but it was certainly a futile gesture when the giants before him were over a hundred-feet-tall. He whipped out his paintbrush and held it aloft, just the same. Maybe he could think of something useful to paint.

Clover’s attention shifted to the ex-mermaids. “Get behind us, ladies. We’ll protect you with our lives!”

“We will?” Alister asked uneasily.

The giants snickered as they approached from both sides and closed in around them until they were completely surrounded.

“Whoo-hoo!” a sharp whistle from the doorway had everyone’s attention turning in its direction. And there standing in the doorway was the largest woman Alister had ever seen.

“No way, that’s…” Alister bit down on his lower lip to stop himself from continuing his line of thought aloud. Madeline. He finished in his mind.

Madeline was currently a hundred-feet-tall. Blue war paint was slathered over her eyes like a domino mask, lending to her fierce appearance. She was wearing an animal skin dress that left very little to the imagination, and various pieces of armor: a horned helmet, vambraces and greaves. “Yoo-hoo! Hello, boys.”

The giants turned to look at Madeline, and their jaws dropped open simultaneously in a combination of shock, awe, and obvious lust. That last emotion irked Alister a lot.

“W-Who are you?” one of the giants asked awkwardly. “We’ve never seen you before.”

“Oh, uh…” Madeline stammered as she tried to come up with a good alias.

“Uh?” one giant asked stupidly. “That’s a pretty name.”

“From Uhtgard,” Madeline said casually.

“What are you doing here, Uh?” a giant asked with an air of impatience.

“I’m here to fetch my little friends.” Madeline pointed her large sword at Alister and the others.

“These your friends? But they try to steal from us.” The giant’s brow furrowed. “They thieves!”

“Oh, dear…then I guess that makes me a thief too!” Madeline twirled her sword on her right side and then on her left side, showing off her swordsmanship skills before letting out a battle cry and recklessly charging forward towards the four giants.

Madeline swung her sword at the giant closest to her, and he raised his rusty sword to block her attack. He was slow, but he managed to block. As Madeline bravely engaged in battle against the four giants, Alister had to cover his ears to block out the tremendous clanging sound that was reverberating through the air as Madeline’s sword clashed against the giants’ weapons.