Madness and Muchness Prologue

     "Make sure the ship is tidy, I don't want the Chinese thinking poorly of our hygiene."
     Alice was having a hard time taking control of her ship.  She thought it would be easy, taking care of her father's trading corporation, but the business life was harder than she assumed it would be.  She was small in stature, and a woman after all.  The crew she carefully selected wouldn't listen to her, mostly as a matter of pride on their behalf.  But it wouldn't be that way if she was still in Underland.  Everybody would of treated her fairly and decently.  And she would have been with Tarrant, her good friend since childhood.  She often thought of him, when she wasn't adding sums and memorizing maps of far off lands.  She tried her hardest to visit him in her dreams, but her only dreams after her adventure were nightmares.  Nightmares of business failures, pirates at sea, and shipwrecks.  She truly hated the business life, she would rather be in Marmoreal Castle, relaxing  and eating tarts.  Who cares if she was being useful or not.  After all, she was the Queen's Champion.    As she walked down the starboard of the ship she saw some of her crew lounging about.  
"Would you please…"  She stopped.  Her foot had slid into a bucket, and she found herself sliding down the starboard floor of the ship.  She hit the edge of the ship with great force.  
As she tumbled down the side of the ship she thought to herself, "This fall should be nothing, after my fall down the ra…"
She thought and felt nothing after she fell into the cold, dark unforgiving water.