SHORT STORY – ALICE’S SPLASHY ADVENTURE
CONTEXT: This story takes place in the Azurite Sea set. Set on the high seas, at the center of this great ocean characters find a winding, watery maze that leads to the primary location featured in the following set. Nautical themes abound in this particular adventure and it was great fun to put Alice in this peculiar situation.
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“My teapot! My teapot!” shouted the Mad Hatter glimmer from the shores of the Azurite Sea. The Alice glimmer looked in the direction he pointed until she spotted the blue and white teapot bobbing on the distant waves.
“Now, how do you suppose it got out there?” she asked.
“Must have heard me say, ‘Clean cup, move down,’ and just kept moving down until it splashed into the sea thinking it was tea! Silly teapots never act the way you expect. They can spout off at any moment, you know. Steaming-hot attitudes, too. No matter—I have the perfect way for you to sail out and retrieve it.”
“Me?!” said Alice.
The Mad Hatter bristled and put his hand to his chest. “I certainly shouldn’t have to go out there on my unbirthday! And besides, you have read so many nonsensical . . . nautsensical . . . I mean nautical books! You are a much savvier sailor than I.”
“What do you have in mind?” Alice asked, even though she knew the Mad Hatter’s way would be senseless compared to a boat made of wood and sails.
“Not in mind . . . on my mind!” The Mad Hatter lifted his moss-green hat to reveal an upturned bottle with delicate rope latticework around it and a tiny teacup for a crow’s nest atop the little mast. “This is the way to sail! Made it myself. Do you like it?” He lifted the tiny “ship” off his bald head and giggled.
“How am I to ever fit in that?” asked Alice.
But the Mad Hatter had something else up his sleeve. After a few wriggles of his arm, a tiny cake tumbled from his jacket cuff. “Don’t worry, my dear. This will shrink you down to size,” he said as he handed it to her. “Now, of course you’ll need provisions.” He pulled supplies out of his pockets: a tablespoon of butter, two spoons (for rowing if need be), and a smidgen of jam. He laid all this in the bottom of the bottle.
With a bite of the cake, Alice shrank down, down, down. The Mad Hatter helped her into the boat and dropped the craft into an outgoing wave. “Goodbye!” he called. “And don’t talk to any walruses you don’t know.”
The waves were small at first, and Alice enjoyed the gentle swaying up and down. It reminded her of when she wafted down the rabbit hole. However, the farther her little boat drifted away from shore, the more raucous the sea became. Despite being thrown off her feet a time or two, Alice kept a constant weather eye out for her goal.
That is until the teapot was tossed up and over a very large wave. As she felt her little boat riding up the same swell, she thought only of spotting the teapot again on the other side.
Except she didn’t. “Oh dear,” Alice said as she climbed up the ship’s mast to scan the roiling sea. “Where can it have gone?”
Alice searched desperately, but wave after wave, she couldn’t spot the object of her journey. Alice sunk into the hull of the ship. She felt tears welling up in her eyes. At least tears couldn’t cause any damage at this small size! “Lost again,” she said. “Maybe I’m just not meant to be a sail—”
Something afar off caught her attention: enormous walls that looked like they were somehow flowing. As Alice’s bottle was carried nearer, she saw they were colossal barriers made entirely out of water.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice as she glided between two towering walls of seawater. Soon the path turned, and she found herself facing diverging paths. One seaway went to the left, another to the right.
As the waves moved her down the left corridor, she witnessed the endless cascade that rippled along these watery walls. The current pulled her along and she examined the endless cascade of water that rippled within each wall.
After a series of these diverting turns and junctions, Alice gasped, realizing what this twisting enigma was after all. A smile as big as the Cheshire Cat’s bloomed on her face. “Why, it’s a maze!” She’d navigated a maze where the cards were against her once before. She knew she could find her way through this one.
A glint a short distance ahead caught her attention. It could have been mistaken for light reflecting off the water's surface, but with its ceramic sheen . . .
“There you are!” Alice shouted. After retrieving one of the spoons, she rowed along the seaway until she was alongside (starboard side) Mad Hatter’s errant teapot. It clinked against her craft as she tied a tow line to the teapot's handle.
Alice was ready to head back the way she’d come, but something stopped her—maybe it was intuition or perhaps her curiosity. Looking once more at the flowing walls around her, she pondered what secrets this liquified labyrinth held.
“I wonder,” she said, and she began rowing toward the maze’s mysterious center.
SET SYNOPSES
Ursula’s Return
Times are perilous. A raging storm builds in the distance. Glimmers are missing. And Bruno Madrigal’s visions predict a terrifying future.
While the Illumineers traveled about the Inklands, Ursula—the one who escaped from the locked lorebook and caused the flood— worked silently in the shadows. Jumping right back into her plan to take over the realm of Lorcana, the sea witch begins enacting a sinister plot. With a cauldron’s-worth of trickery, and Flotsam and Jetsam acting as her right-tentacle eels, she now possesses King Triton’s trident and the Hexwell Crown. After entangling Anna, Triton’s Daughters, Mad Hatter, and more, she even controls an army of glimmers whom she can force to do her bidding.
It will require the most of one’s inkcasting skills and ingenuity to stop the sea witch’s coup before it’s too late. Do you and the other Illumineers have what it takes to assemble a team and save Lorcana?
SHIMMERING SKIES
The realm is saved! The sea witch is defeated! To mark their victory over Ursula, the Illumineers and their glimmers hold a grand celebration at the Great Illuminary.
Dotting the celebration grounds are plenty of festival tents, decorations, and games to delight the partiers. A round of tug-of-war ensues between some big and some very small glimmers. And Donald Duck will even try his feathers at balloon darts to win a prize for his precious Daisy Duck. The crowd dances around a large stage and sings along with musical performances. Then, because of a slight mishap (by a certain goof), a food fight erupts among some of the attendees. And weaving around it all is a high-speed kart race with some very sweet racers. It’s a colorful, spirited celebration with fun for everyone.
But this night to remember unveils a new mystery as pieces of the Great Illuminary fall off, nearly hitting those celebrating below. Amid the chaos, Merlin sees a vision of mysterious devices. A search commences throughout the Great Illuminary, revealing undiscovered secret rooms.
Having retrieved the items which Merlin foresaw in his vision, the celebration picks up again as the night sky ignites with magical inkbursts.
It’s time to weigh anchor, unfurl the sails, and prepare for exciting adventure. Illumineers and glimmers like Jim Hawkins, Tigger, Gadget Hackwrench, and more look toward the expansive Azurite Sea. They feel their answer to saving the Illuminary lies somewhere beyond the map.
As with any expedition into the uncharted, there is bound to be danger. Waves and whirlpools are the least of the Illumineers’ worries as they soon encounter pirates of all sorts. After these scoundrels literally rock the boat, Baymax, Hiro, and the rest of the Big Hero 6 team fly, skate, and spring into battle in the hopes they can stem the tide. The Rescue Rangers team jumps in too, knowing these sea battles can mean sink or swim.
But this is just a shot across the bow compared to the approaching obstacle: a gargantuan wall of water towering into the sky. The crews sail forth feeling they are close to answers, but a twisting maze makes their current path even more treacherous than they anticipated. With bravery--and plenty of swords and swashbuckling for good measure--they navigate forward. And then they see something in the distance. Could it be…land ho?
Regardless of where the winds blow them, the adventure and new crew members make this a journey any Captain would record in their logbook.