The Forest

..

Alys walked deeper into the woods and with each step clung to herself a little bit more. She looked around at all the dead trees, they were starting to really spook her.

"What have they done to my poor Dreamland?" Alys asked herself, "It used to be so bright and colorful." Just like door, she added in her head. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was meant to go through that other door, the slanted door with the swirling colors. That being pulled through this one was a huge mistake. Maybe this isn't my Dreamland after all, she thought, Maybe this is someone else's and maybe their Dreamland needs to be saved from who eve made it like this. She continued walking, toying with this new thought and trying to decide what she was supposed to do here.

She turned a corner and stumbled over something. At first she thought it was a log, but when she turned around and looked she noticed it was a girl about her age with long blond hair. She crouched down and was about to shake the girl awake, but stopped. If she awoke the girl, then that girl would see her and she wouldn't be able to hide in time. With a newly revised plan, she grabbed a stick and hid behind a dense bush. Alys poked the girl a couple times, gently at first but then harder.

"Excuse me," Alys squeaked, "Miss, excuse me. Are you okay?"

Maria blinked and looked up at the commotion, the stick having awoken her quite decently. "Oh hello!" she said with a wide smile and hopped up. Then blinked. "Why I can not imagine one should see like this! Every thing is quite blurry!" What she didn't realize was that the red contacts were what were making her sight like this. Then she grinned at the girl and giggled. "Oh yes quite alright! Might I inquire though... who are you? And who am I? Do you know?"

"I'm Alys O'Grady," she said shyly, staying in the protection of the bush, "And I don't know who you are. But if you don't, you should think of who you want to be." She stayed quiet for a little bit, before the sitting still got to her and when this happened she crawled part way out of the bush so only her face would show. She heard a howl in the distance, it sounded angry and too far away.

"Fuck!" she yelled randomly. The situation was becoming to tense for her tics to handle, new people and weird noises, add more people/creatures onto that and Alys knew that she would start getting violent.

She looked back at the girl, "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that," she knew this situation was going to get awkward soon if she had to explain. She hated other people having to be let in on her secret because that knowledge always came with sympathy.

Rosalind smiled, "That one looks just fine," she said, and she did think that this Alice was the perfect choice. She was the only one that was alone and she had so much hate and blood lust in her. Rosalind held out her hand to Glathia as she took her back downstairs and into the old breaking down stables. Inside you would've thought of seeing nearly dead horses eating the stables around them, but what was actually inside was a metal and copper chariot with a gold rose on the sides, big enough to hold two people, maybe squeeze in three, and a brilliant mare that had dark fur that was a dark reddish-brown.

Rosalind walked up to her pet and brushed her neck gently, "Glathia I would like you to meet Wild Rose, I found her in the burned the ruins of a barn not too far from here." She paused to help her friend into the chariot, when she got in she put on her face mask and gloves and took up the reins, "Are you ready to go see this lovely Alice?" This was a rhetorical question and so without and answer she snapped the reins and Wild Rose tore out of the stables at an incredible pace.

They flew down the dirt road in the forest before taking a sharp turn to head off the trail. It was much bumpier now, so they had to slow down a little and hang onto the edge, but eventually they came to a stop so that the right side of the chariot was in front of the girl. Rosalind hopped down and then helped Glathia down as well before turning to the girl.

"So Mira Nightsong isn't it?" Rosalind said, "I'd like to introduce to you to the Queen Glathia, but you may call her White Queen, and I am Rosalind Aglaia Redroze, daughter of the current Red Queen," she took the girl's hand, lowering her face mask, and kissed it gently before replacing the mask to where it was. "Welcome to Wonderland." She would've called it Underland as was politically correct, but as tradition calls for she prefers calling it Wonderland, its original title.