A girl walked through the woods alone. She was not any girl of course. She looked rather odd now that I think about it. She had a great poufy skirt on, one with a petticoat underneath. And she had a parasol, a true lace parasol. She was also wearing gloves, made of lace too. She nearly looked a proper lady, though she was missing a hat, quite curious indeed.

But back to the story, she was walking through the woods, a great park in the middle of a vast city of concrete and other horrid materials. She was meant to meet a friend but Life obviously had a different plan for the girl. She was wandering along road, those silly people call them nature trails but you know as well as I that they're roads, where she was in quite a daze. She was not all there you see. Her mind was wandering along the beams of sunlight and suffering with the polluted waters of the streams. She raced the wind and twirled with leaves. But of course she wandered. And as she never had a very good sense of her direction or bearings, she easily got lost in the twisty, turney paths of the wood.

As her haze deepened she was hardly aware at all of where she was going. Now this probably sounds dangerous. A girl who is outfitted from another century wandering around the park in a large city in a daze is not the best of circumstances. But this one was different. There was someone watching out for her, leading her along the correct path, making sure no one was around to startle her out of her daze.

The path became twistier and turnier until the trees themselves seemed to be trying to stop her. They stuck out their gnarled limbs to keep her in their world. But the person guiding her, let's call them a guardian, the guardian was always there to break the trees' grasp on her skirts. For the guardian had a different plan for her.

The guardian had been looking for this girl for many years. Time raced by in this world and the guardian never quite got used to it. But the guardian bided his time and waiting for her to cross the path. He would know her by several features, the oraculum prescribed. Her wide skirts, her white-lace parasol, her deep purple shirt, and her hair. She was to have dark curly hair that matched her dark eyes. The guardian waited and waited, as he had missed the period in which women regularly wore such garments. Women so attired were hard to come by. Several times he was tempted to forego the colour of her hair and her eyes and her shirt just so he could finally have her. But no, his madness never was caught in the correct way for it to work out properly. Now that he had finally found her, he would never let some trees take her away!

The trees did not want her to leave. They were prejudiced against people from his world. Absolum knows why! The guardian certainly didn't. But he had to have her. He had spent too long looking for her to let her go now. So he tricked and guided, really the same thing you know, her feet down a specific path so they would reach a specific destination. See how long he has spent amongst them! Only speaking of her feet! What of the rest of her? Well those too he would reply, but it was quicker to just say her feet. It might be but it also gives the audience very odd ideas. They might believe him mad! Which of course he is.

Whatever his mental state was in he was trick-er-guiding, that's it, her down the prescribed path. And after a while, once the wind had finally outrun her and the sunshine beams were lifted away she came out of her daze. Now this was not something the guardian was expecting. He thought she would stay in the daze until at least be at Marmoreal where she would be far safer than their current position. But as Fate would have it, the girl dropped out of her haze in the middle of the forest. A most unfriendly and dangerous place that the moment. It was full of rebels. The guardian reasoned that as long as she was in her haze neither would be noticed. He had enough magyk to do that small job. He had not of yet completed his studies. Even though his studies were unfinished he decided that everything could wait while he went searching for her. His parents and the Queen were helpless to stop him. They knew he would have to go eventually.

When the girl came out of her haze she was quite surprised to find oddly shaped things, as she so eloquently put them, all around her. All of them looked dangerous and evil-tempered. Yet none of them paid her any notice at all. She found all of this rather strange as she was used to being seen by all with eyes. Before she could remark upon the oddness of the situation the guardian made obvious motions for her to keep silent and follow him. As he looked rather desperate she thought it best not to distress him further and go along with his plan.

As she followed she noticed that the wood she was in differed greatly from the one she was in before the haze. This wood was dark and full of shadows. Evil lurked in beneath the diseased trees. The creatures were misshapen and all had a sharp look of cruelty in their eye. She tried her best to ignore them as their appearances disturbed her greatly. But one thing stayed with her no matter how she tried to ignore it: their eyes with their hard looks.

When the guardian and the girl were out of the wood the guardian nearly passed out of exhaustion. Using so much of his magyk, untrained as his was, drained the energy out of him. So much so that once they were a safe distance from the woods she was practically dragging him. It would have been impolite to leave a person to lie by the side of the road when they just navigated you safely through such a place. And she was brought up to be polite. Because of the impracticality of a teenaged girl carrying a young man it was very lucky that Chess came along when he did. Not that the girl knew he was Chess at the time.

"I say my dear, what are you trying to do?" Chess asked.

"I am trying to get as far away from that forest as possible."

"A good idea indeed. That wood is full of horrid creatures. May I enquire as to your destination?"

"I've no idea!" she puffed. Carrying a young man was no easy feat. "I'm just continuing in the direction we were going in before."

"And what is your name?"

"I am..." The girl paused for a long while first. She didn't know how smart it was to tell a strange voice/person that she couldn't even see her name. (She couldn't see Chess 'cause she was weighed down by the guardian) "On second thought, I should like to see you before I tell you my name. I should like to see you and know your name first."

"And why should I do that?"

"Because you want to know my name. And I refuse to tell you until I've seen you and learnt your name."

"I am the Cheshire Cat." Chess floated down to the girl's eyeline. "How do you do?"

The girl blanched and tripped over the guardian's feet. The sight of a floating cat with a grin from ear to ear is enough to send most people straight to the psychiatrists, or psychotherapists. I can never remember which.

Chess was never one to let a lady ruin her clothes so he caught the poor girl before she hit the ground. The guardian on the other hand was not so lucky. Once the girl was righted she noticed that the cat had a peculiar look in his eyes too. Once she got over the evaporating and floaty bit she noticed that the Cat looked a rather lot like the ones she owned. Their large round eyes were exactly the same. How curious.

The girl gladly let Chess carry the guardian instead of her. It was a relief to her. The one thing that continued to bother her was the fact that she didn't know where she was, who all these creatures were, and who the guardian was, not that she called him that but you get the point. For Chess was being horribly evasive about all of it. He kept mentioning a White Queen and an Alice. But he never said any Alice, as if there was more than one of them, but always the Alice. This was quite odd as many people were named Alice. The girl even knew a few herself. They were not out of the ordinary. Normal girls in a normal world. Painfully boring and drab girls in a painfully boring and drab world.

The girl had never liked her world. It was falling apart at the seams! And if history is to be trusted it always has been. The constant ruin and pending danger from all sides was a bit much for her. I mean she could have borne it if the people in it weren't so horrible. What did they ever do to deserve getting bailed out by Luck all the time? They all proceed to forget their dependence and squander their Luck until they need to be bailed out again. If the people were bright and vibrant then she would not have a problem with it. But such boring and grey people simply could not win her sympathy. The Human Condition was truly insupportable!

Of course she realized that her opinion on humanity's worthiness was affected by the way they treated her. Some were nice in their own not very nice way, believing themselves to be her friend. Others were marginally nice, figuring it didn't hurt to smile at the mad girl in petticoats once a month. And then there were those who were outright cruel about it. They would tease her; make it so everyone was too scared to be her friend. So she would be alone. As she had no siblings she was well and truly alone. Her parents were always away and the nannies would always call her a devil-child when they thought she couldn't hear. Or changeling. That was another name they used for her. So yes, she realized that her view of them was skewed by her personal experiences with them. But if one doesn't have her instincts, feelings, and memories what does one have?

However she felt about humanity and being left alone in a strange world she did manage to notice a few things while grappling with her personal Bandersnatches. She noticed that Chess' body was not always all there. But this didn't bother her. She often felt not all there herself. But her not all being there never reflected in her body. She thought it was quite nice that it was reflected in Chess'. It made conversation so much easier.

As Chess was Underlish he was easily distracted. He very soon forgot that the girl did not know who she was in Underland. The girl made very excellent conversation. She used to spend all her time pondering questions that if ever spoken would win her a one way ticket to the mad house. But when she tentatively broached the subject with Chess he did not consider them to be out of place. Contrarywise he considered them to be brilliant observations and remarks on life in general. Very soon they were caught up in conversation and Chess all but forgotten the unconscious boy he was carrying.

Thanks to Chess's knowledge of secret paths he got them both to Marmoreal in half a day. The girl was oddly comforted by the palace. The stunning marble gave her a sense of rest that she could not recall feeling before. Which was the oddest part, the air of Underland and all the creatures in it all felt familiar to her. Arriving at the castle was rather like coming to a favoured spot after a long period of absence. Even the feeling of peace afforded by the palace felt familiar. Something was up in this place. She just knew it.

When the trio entered the gleaming palace, they were greeted with the Queen's concern for the unconscious boy. Not that the girl knew who the Queen was. All she saw was an off looking woman in a white dress with white hair and black lips and black fingernails. After she saw how the other, they all looked human but just to be safe, people present obeyed her orders to fetch supplies from inside the castle and summon people from various quarters, the girl could surmise that this was the White Queen Chess had gone on about. She certainly looked white enough for the title.

One of the names that piqued her interest was the Hatter and the Alice that were to be summoned. There was also a May Hair or something and a Mallet. But the Hatter and the Alice were the most interesting to her. For she had never found a proper hat, despite very through searches, and Chess had not been able to restrain himself when it came to the topic of the Great Champion Alice. As Chess had always referred to the Alice, the girl assumed that this was the Alice he was talking about.

When the above mentioned persons entered the throne room, the girl assumed due to the presence of a white throne on a dais, they did not disappoint. The Hatter, she assumed because of the large hat on his head, was dressed rather eccentrically. He had on a suit. It looked quite nice, a dark coloured one. He had a colourful scarf tied around his neck, lots of blotches of colour that might or might not have gotten there by accident. His hands looked whole and unblemished. They were rather pretty after a fashion, large and white. On his head there was a tall top hat with a shining pink ribbon tied around it. The hat was just in the style that the girl had always been looking for. But there was something even more interesting than the hat about the Hatter. His eyes were startling. They were green with magenta and blue on the skin around them. His hair was bright orange and seemed to cooperate as it hung smoothly from his head without frizz or rebellion. His eyes seemed to be more open than a regular person usually opened their eyes. Which was all well and fine with the girl as she was always made fun of or shied away from because she would open her eyes to an unnatural magnitude.

Alice was quite striking. Her blonde hair was cropped short. But it was riotously curly all the same. They weren't the large barrel curls one achieved with a curling iron but tight curls that were all the more authentic. She was wearing a great robe made of blue silk. It was billowy and looked rather Chinese. Underneath the robe she wore trousers. For they were not simple pants, that word would not do at all. They were legitimate trousers. Her top was a plain blue. But her clothes were not the striking part of her. The striking component was her features and how she moved. Her eyes were dark and intense, set on a perfectly proportioned face with a mouth drawn in worry. Her movements had purpose and meaning to them. They demanded authority and attention. She was obviously used to being obeyed.

These people quite ignored the girl. All their attention was focused on the unconscious guardian. They were all terrible bothered about it and would pay attention to nary a breeze until the Queen was finished in her ministrations. The change in the boy was obvious, his breathing was even and the lines of his body were less taut. The girl let out a breath she did not know she had been holding. The guardian was taken away by some chess pieces to rest in another room.

Once the boy was gone all the attention was turned to her. Everyone was either whispering about her or staring at her with curiosity or even both. Some remarked that she was too high a price to pay for the damage done to the boy, whom they called Jecab. These remarks were met with scowls from the Hatter. The Queen finally stepped in and sent away all but the Hatter, the Alice, and the girl. Once they were all gone she apologized for the scene.

"We were all just upset by Jecab's state. He is quite dear to all of us. Would you like to sit down?" the Queen offered kindly.

The girl was very glad for the seat as she had not rested since morning in her own world. The Hatter, the Alice, and the Queen all took seats round hers.

The Queen once again stepped in as the Hatter and the Alice seemed to only be capable of staring at her. "What is your name my dear?"

The girl took a deep breath before opening her mouth to respond.

But before she could get the sound out the Alice interrupted, "Filezity."