A/N: Alright; so I decided to try my hand at writing a walkthrough-ish thingy of American McGee's Alice, since I love this game more than life, and the awesome Helloween4545 on YouTube posted the entire game ('cause he's made of awesome) … So yeah; here you go. The quotes are real 95 percent of the time, either from the videogame itself, or, when I go off on a tangent, from the book. Except the cat's little random riddles, but … Yeah; he shows up randomly because he's definitely my favorite character, and since in the game you can actually summon him up whenever you want, I figured why not.

This chapter is dedicated to Helloween4545 and SuperMargarita, who is my awesome beta-reader. Much love to them both.

Anyway, without further ado …

Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk …?

Lady dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play
'T is at happy Christmas-tide

We have heard the children say -
Gentle children whom we love -
Long ago, on Christmas Day,
Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,
They remember it again -
Echo still the joyful sound
"Peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Yet the hearts must childlike be
Where such heavenly guests abide;
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmas-tide!

Thus, forgetting tricks and play,
For a moment, Lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, glad New Year! (1)

-- -- -- --

Alice had once again sat down for tea with her friends; she had grown bored with the other world, and had decided to visit the Hatter and the Hare and the Dormouse – they were always an interesting group, they were. Not that she hadn't had a good Christmas; it had been a lovely day, with a lovely party. Dinah had gotten a new ribbon to tie round her neck, a precious little pink satin thing, and Alice herself had gotten many lovely toys. A lovely little deck of cards of her very own, as well as a set of jacks, new dice, a Jack-in-the-box … Alice had also gotten a new croquet set, one of her very own, to share with her family of course, because the one that they had was getting old; and, the mallets were lovely, and hand carved. For her father, her mother had taken her into town, and had helped her select a new rifle for him – he had damaged the one that he had the last time he had gone hunting – as well as a new pair of opera glasses, as he had broken the rod off of his pair as well . Her mother had bought for him a new silver pocket watch, because he had just recently sat on his own accidentally. For her mother, Alice had bought a delicate little hair pin with a lovely little crystal on the end that made her think of an icicle, and her father had gotten for her a little sewing knife so that she could more easily cut the threads when she was embroidering. (2)

Her friends at the perpetual tea party had greeted her as such, because they always were; queer as these three happened to be in Alice's mind, it was probably just as well; they were a good deal more entertaining to be around than most anything else. And, as always, the first thing that the Hatter said to her after acknowledging her presence was of course, 'Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?' Alice lightly smoothed out her skirts in the chair and thought about it – there was, at one point, she had thought she could guess this riddle. However, she had heard it so many times by now, and had tried for so long to figure out the secret to the question, that she had all but given up on it; either there was no answer, or it was much too clever for the young girl, who was a little older, though not by much, to figure out on her own.

"Now, let me see …" she said, as she always did when presented with the question, because curious Alice always had to at least try to guess the answer to the riddle – and, as the Hatter had yet to tell her the answer (and in fact told her just about every time that he hadn't any idea why a Raven was like a Writing Desk) it would go on like this for a bit, until one of the others decided to tell a story, or something else of that sort. But then, a peculiar smell came to her, unlike anything she had ever smelled in Wonderland, so that she had to give pause for a moment before asking, "now, what do you suppose that is …?" aloud to the other three sitting at the table that was set for many more than three, or even their four.

"Looks like things are not as safe as you left them Alice; a tetrahedron in geometry is just a few lines on paper, but when introduced to reality, it can be rather dangerous … If I were you, I'd set my extra hand to now, my dear … " (3) Alice looked up, and stared for just a second; how peculiar. The Cheshire Cat was sitting on the back of a chair a few places down from her, it's gray tiger fur preened and shining in the sunlight. Normally, he didn't leave that tree in the wood where he had given her directions from when she had first come to Wonderland. She turned her head to the side a little as she thought about this, but it made little to no sense to her. A moment later, the creature was gone, disappearing stripes first, grin last; and a moment after that, everything was turned upside-down; she looked out over where she thought the smell was coming from, and realized that some of the trees were glowing red and giving off black smoke. The forest was on fire.

"FIRE!" screamed the Hatter, leaping up from his seat as some of it fell from above and landed on the ground next to Alice herself. "Oh dear, oh dear – ahh!" he frantically started trying to put it out while Alice jumped back, covering her face slightly with the backs of her hands to keep from breathing in the smoke. "You must save Alice!" he called, and the March Hare also joined in, attempting to put it out; the Dormouse however, remained asleep on the table, murmuring out a 'save Alice' between his snores.

But it was no use; the fire and smoke only grew thicker, and Alice tried to get away, crouching down low because it stung her eyes, and it made it hard for her to see and breathe. And then, from the other side of the smoke, she heard a familiar voice – the White Rabbit; though, instead of consulting his pocket watch, he was calling out something to her; she struggled to hear him over the noise of the fire, and eventually Alice heard the White Rabbit cry out to her --

"Wake up, Alice! Wake up!"

-- -- -- --

Suddenly, she was thrown from Wonderland, sitting up in bed with a gasp and looking around; dark clouds of smoke filled her room, and immediately she coughed – she could hear the fire raging, could feel the heat in the house. Nervously, and quickly, she rolled out of bed, and started down the hallway, covering her mouth with one of her hands. The brunette made her way towards her parents room slowly, at the end of the hallway, tentatively calling out "Mom … … ? Dad …?" over the sharp crackling and popping as the fire continued to grow. She knew she had to get out, but she wanted to be sure that her parents were alright as well. She assumed they weren't in their room, and started for the stairs, when she heard a noise on the other side of their door,

"Mom …? Father?!" rushing to the door to their room, she was sure she heard voices on the other side of it; she could barely see now, taking the door and twisting the handle frantically. It was hot to the touch, and burned her fingers, and at first she shied away for a moment before grasping it and ignoring the pain, puling as hard as she could – but it was stuck.

"I can't breathe!" that was her father's voice, she was sure of it; that only made her redouble her efforts, but … She was just a little girl, just past ten years old, and there wasn't strength in her little arms to draw open the door. And the fire was hot and so was the handle, the smoke stung at her eyes and made it hard to see, and even harder to breathe – but still, she tried.

"Get out Alice!" her mother's voice this time, but stubbornly, the girl tried again, dropping to her knees, lungs begging her for clean air she could breathe. She could feel the sweat pouring down the back of her neck, and she could hear the flames; they were getting closer to her, and she knew it – she couldn't stay much longer, but she had to. She had to get them out; she had to save them …

"Save yourself, Alice!" Alice coughed, and again tried the door, throwing her weight back to try and drag it open; but it was no use, and she knew it. She couldn't budge the door – it was almost like it had been locked from the inside, even though it couldn't have been. Tears stung her eyes and her throat and lungs burned; it was hard to even get part of a breath, and the glow of fire illuminated everything in a dark, sinister light. She couldn't do it; she knew she couldn't do it

"Get out of the house!" finally, she gave up; she didn't have a choice; the floor was hot to her bare feet, and she clutched her white rabbit tightly against her as she ran down the stairs, her nightgown tripping her on the last few so that she stumbled. Quickly, she picked her way across the places where the fire was beginning to spread; it burned her legs, and made her cry out and cough; she knew her house well, but in this heat and smoke and darkness, she was disoriented, confused.

And suddenly, she was against the front door of the house; she threw herself at it without question, stumbling out onto the front lawn and collapsing in the snow.

The last thing she heard were anguished screams as the house was consumed by flames, and her parents went along with it.

--End Prologue--

1 – This was in the beginning of my edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass"; I assume it was written by Carroll, and it is titled "Christmas-Greetings FROM A FAIRY TO A CHILD" and was apparently written on Christmas in 1867, which was after the book was first published, yes, but, I thought it nicely set the time as Christmas for this to happen … A bit of a sadistic little thing, aren't I?

2 – if you've played the game, think about this for a minute; what is each one of the gifts she exchanged with her family? - Leave it in a review, and I'll dedicate a chapter to you! (Only available for the number of chapters I'm writing; probably 10 or so… perchance more – depends on how much I want to torture you with ridiculously long chapters; I'm trying to get one area in each chapter … With tangents. xD)

3 – Alright; the first of the Cat's riddles; I'll explain any that I make up myself, so that they make sense ;; Flammable material + oxygen + heat chain reaction called fire; and this is referred to as the Fire Tetrahedron, which is also a geometric shape. A traditional analog alarm clock has an extra hand that sets the alarm; he's insinuating that she should wake up.