Alice watched her shadow flicker over Neverland's sparkling ocean with some amusement. She closed her eyes, breathing in Neverland's salty, sun kissed air and remembered when the day she met her best friend. Upon discovering that the rabbit hole in her backyard led to a wonderful world called Wonderland, Alice visited the hole frequently. She carefully covered her tracks telling her parents, sister and nanny she was going out to 'sketch the countryside' or 'build fairy homes' it was not technically a lie, Alice did sketch...but she usually crafted her drawings in Wonderland. Anyways, Alice found her little secret entirely justified, for she knew adults grow violent when they are afraid, and they always fear what they don't understand...and Wonderland wasn't exactly easily understood.
Alice had been picking flowers when she heard a tell tale thump. Alice ran to where her rabbit hole let out to see a girl, around her age with brown wavy hair and a blue dress (the dress was rather similar to the one Alice herself dawned, however it had less white and Wendy sported a blue bow on her head, in contrast to Alice's black bow). "Are you alright?" Alice asked shyly, peering at the girl from a few feet away.
"I'm quite alright." Wendy smiled, brushing the dirt off of her. She looked around rather confusedly. "My brothers and I were geocaching, I haven't the slightest idea how I ended up here." Alice blinked, having no idea what geocaching was.
"You must have fallen through my rabbit hole...it is a portal." Alice said, gesturing to the hole by Wendy's feet. Wendy nodded.
"Ah, and a portal to where exactly?"
"Here." Wendy laughed at this response, prompting a smile and blush from Alice, as she realised her mistake.
"Okay, what is 'here' called?"
"Wonderland..it is a realm where rules don't apply, up is down, left is right, and the whole kingdom is ruled by a red queen with a particular affinity for croquet." Wendy's eyes widened with curiosity.
"Your realm sounds absolutely marvelous, show me it won't you?" She pleaded, taking Alice's hand. The two had been best of friends ever since. They bonded over their love for the color blue, tea and misadventures that sounded impossible to the average person. Wendy was always happy to fly Alice to Neverland, and Alice loved leading Wendy down the rabbit hole. Needless to say the girls were incredibly pleased to discover that they were in fact next door neighbors. Alice got along quite well with the Darling family, even babysitting Wendy's brother from time to time and Alice's parents had been incredibly pleased to meet Wendy, they had always worried that their youngest daughter was far too much of a loner. Wendy was fun, responsible and adventurous, while Alice was sweet, thoughtful and creative...together they were unstoppable. Alice chuckled to herself, remembering the time her and Wendy got into a paint fight with the queen's red paint. The look on the queen's face when she found the two girls, her throne room and royal court covered in paint was priceless to say the least.
On a recent trip to Neverland Wendy had gotten herself captured by the pirates on board the Jolly Roger. Peter was nursing a broken arm from the battle therefor it was up to her, Tink and the lost boys to come to Wendy's aid. They landed on a cloud above the Jolly Roger. "Alright guys, here's the plan. The lost boys will distract the crew while I look for Wendy. Once I have Wendy I will blow my whistle, signaling Alice to attack Hook so I can help Wendy fly to safety." Everyone nodded in agreement, and Alice watched from the cloud as they jumped down to storm the ship. Alice fiddled with the cloud, she remembered Wendy explaining how Tink used to be jealous of her, she even tried to kill her! This was hard to imagine, given how motherly Tinkerbell was to Wendy and Alice now, she wondered if this had anything to do with Tink's new boyfriend.
Hearing the whistle shriek, Alice spring into action. She pounced from the cloud landing hard on the ship's creaky wooden surface. "WHICH WAY IS WENDY?!" Alice yelled to the nearest lost boy. He pointed to a door, Alice sprung it open and jumped down the flight of stairs. She found Tinkerbell who quickly showed her to a red door rimmed in gold, it was initially locked but Tinkerbell was able to fly through the keyhole and unlock it for Alice. She darted inside, only to find her friend passed out on the carpeted floor with a bump to her head. "Get away from my friend!" Alice shouted to the tall man standing over Wendy he turned and locked his icy blue eyes in hers. Tinkerbell rushed over to Wendy 'keep him distracted' she mouthed, as Tinkerbell tried to rouse Wendy.
"Well well well...look what the catfish dragged in, Peter couldn't wait five minutes before retrieving another little wench to replace Wendy eh?" Alice crinkled her nose in frustration, despite visiting Neverland several times she had never faced off with Hook. Mostly her days consisted of playing around with the lost boys and fighting some stray member of Hook's crew.
"Wendy is not a wench, she is beautiful, strong, smart and kind! Unlike you, you're just a cod fish." Alice fumed, kicking Hook hard in the shines.
"You'll pay for that you little brat!" Hook sneered, lunging at Alice. They scuffled around for a bit, but eventually Hook overpowered Alice, throwing her dagger to the floor and pinning her against the wall.
"Tick tock captain, I strongly suggest you let me go." Alice chided, trying desperately to hide her fear.
"No need to bother with such nonsense dear, we all know the crocodile can't hear you this far..bellow." Hook raised his eyebrows menacingly, stroking her blonde hair. "You know...Peter never has brought a blonde to Neverland, but I can't say I'm opposed to this." Alice's cheeks flushed, she was not entirely sure what this man meant but it could not be good.
"You sicken me…" Hook ignored this retort, holding Alice back with one hand, while examining his Hook with the other.
"Which one of you is Peter's girlfriend anyway?" Hook asked in a bored tone. Alice nearly gagged.
"Neither of us, sixteen is too young to court anyone…" Alice had never really stopped to think about it. Perhaps if anyone were to court her, she would hope it was the Hatter. He was cute, he certainly never failed to make her laugh. Wendy had confessed to her once, during a late night sleepover that she wished to marry Peter someday, as soon as she found a way to convince him to grow up. But this of course, was none of Hook's business.
"Where I come from...sixteen year olds are practically old maids." James snorted, piercing his eyes into hers. "Perhaps you just need to be broken in…"
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Alice yelled, digging her claws into her hand, loosening his grip enough for him to roundhouse kick him into the chest. He fell back against a nightstand, but he quickly recovered and lunged at an unarmed Alice.
"What a pity, at least you'll make a very pretty corpse." Hook smiled, drawing a gun from his side and aiming it at Alice's head.
"Not today, you ugly old codfish." A voice sneered from behind, Wendy swung a lamp at Hook's head, rendering him unconscious.
"Wendy, let's get out of here…" Alice smiled softly, her friend nodded enthusiastically.
"You heard the lady Tink, up up and away!" Alice and Wendy laughed as they were covered in pixie dust. Together they flew off the pirate ship and towards their next great misadventure!