It was around half past three, just after teatime, and for Alice Darling that meant play time. She raced to the back door as fast as her legs would take her, stopping only to put on her shoes and to grab her journal. Alice is a very creative little girl. She writes down all of her thoughts and turns them into wonderful stories. With her nose is her book and her pencil in her hand, she pushed the door with her left foot and it swings open. She glides down the steps as Dialah, Alice's kitten, races outside after her, weaving between her feet. Alice is so engrossed with her journal entry, she doesn't notice that Dialah got out.
They wander through the open prairie that is Alice's backyard. Alice pulls away from her journal for a moment, just to see where she is and then hears a meow from behind her. Alice glances over her shoulders and then bends down and looks between her legs.
"Dailah! How on earth did you get out here?" Alice says exasperated. Dialah replies but sitting down on the tall grass and rolling around.
"I must get you indoors, this prairie is too dangerous for a kitten!" she says as she slips her journal and pencil into her apron pocket. Gingerly, Alice picks up the grey kitten and scratched under her chin.
"When we get back home, don't you go running after me, ok?" Alice says sweetly. She starts to walk back to her house when Dialah jumps out of Alice's arms and disappears into the tall grass.
"Dinah? Oh dear me, where have you gone?" Alice says, looking through the tall grass in the direction Dinah went. She walks forward and hears a meow.
"I found you you silly ki-" Just then Alice trips and lands face first in front of a rather large hole in the ground. Her foot is caught on a root and her arms are dangling over it. It seems to be a very large hole, because Alice cannot see the bottom of it.
"Well this isn't a good place for a hole, don't you think?" She say to herself as she looks down the hole. A couple feet below her is her kitten, sitting perfectly unharmed on a ledge.
"Oh dear me. Dinah you silly cat." Alice extends her arm, meaning to grab Dinah. The root that is supporting her weight cracks a little, but Alice ignores it.
"Just... a little... bit... more..." She says, extending her fingers as far as they will go. At this the root snaps and Alice falls head first into the hole, grabbing Dinah on her way down. She squeezes her eyes shut, holding on to the kitten in her arms as they plummet in the darkness. After a few seconds, Alice realises that they have not yet reached the bottom of this hole. Relaxing and opening one of her eyes, Alice starts noticing a faint blue light below them. The approach the light faster and faster and the moment they touch it, they stop falling and start floating. They are still going down, but slower and more gently. It looks like the night sky with blues and purples with hints of gold and silver. Alice touches the walls of the hole and it ripples as if she is touching a pond.
Her reflection ripples then clears up.
She spins in a circle, looking at all the tunnel in its entirety. It looks like a night sky with the sun just setting, and it appears as though someone knocked over their water for art class and all the colors are painting the sky.
"Well this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's actually pretty rela-" Alice and Dinah exit the blue light and are now falling faster than before. Wind is whipping at her face and she can barely open her eyes. Her dress is flying upward making a loud noise, as is her hair. She manages to open one eye and sees that she is falling... from the sky, towards a small island in the middle of a large body of water. Alice trys to scream, but her throat will not allow it. Her arms are forced open and her kitten hovers right next to her, falling just as fast. the wind howls in her ears, making it nearly impossible to hear her screams or her cats meows.
Alice is about to give up hope. They are nearing the island at an alarming rate, unable to stop. They get closer and closer until Alice can almost touch the trees. She is about to fall head first into the forest below when something grabs her ankle and her dress flys up in front of her face. She feels as though someone is holding her, not just that something random caught her foot.
"That was quite a fall." a voice says. Alice quickly grows embarrassed. She pushes her skirt between her legs and peers up. She is still hanging upside down, her hair and things falling downward. The boy holding her ankle appeared about 14. He had bright red hair and a sly grin. His green outfit looked different than Alice was accustomed to. He is standing on a branch and holding her body with ease, as if she was a feather.
"Would you kindly put me down?" Alice says.
"Not a thank you? Well that's not very nice." Said the boy. He throws her up in the air unexpectedly. She yells and then lands on the branch next to the boy with a thump.
"What on earth was that for? Why did you save me?" Alice said. She was a very curious child and with all these strange thing occuring, her mind was spinning.
"Well you would have gone WOOOooo... SPLAT, right on the ground, and that's not a very pretty sight." The boy said. He jumped up in the air and then hovered their, indian style. Little sparkles hovered under him. Alice's eyes widened and she scooted away from the boy.
"What are you doing?" She says. The boy turned upside down, his green hat falling on the branch.
"Watching you." He says.
"Upside down?"
"Well yeah." He says. Alice has just about had enough. Enough of his greenness, enough of his not being clear and enough of his peculiar accent. She is about to start climbing down the tree when she sees how high up they are. One wrong and she would be falling again.
"Is this yours?" The boy says. In his hand is her pencil and journal. She grabs it out of his hands and slides it back into her pocket.
"What's your name?" The boy asks, turning right side up.
"What's yours?" Alice asks
"I asked first."
"I asked second." Alice says crossing her arms.
"Peter Pan, you can call me Peter." the boy says as a matter of factly.
"Alice Darling, you may call me Alice. By any chance have you seen a cat anywhere?" Alice says.
"No. Have you?"
"No that's the reason I asked you."
"No I have not seen any cats."
"Well will you please lower me to the ground?" Alice says
"Why?" Peter says.
"Because I'd like to go look for my cat." She thought for a moment. "Please"
Peter picks up Alice by the waist and steps off of the branch. They hurtle to the ground and then slow when they reach the forest floor. Alice quickly pulls away from Peter and brushes her skirt. She glances around, only to find that trees are everywhere, thick and hard to see past. She circles the base of the tree and then looks back at Peter.
Alice was going to ask for help, because she had no clue as to where to start looking for her cat, but she was cut short. A long meow came from behind her and the hair stood up on her neck. It was too deep to be Dinah.
"Uh, I found a cat." Peter says. Alice is too frightened to respond. She is frozen in place, too scared to move.
"Alice, when I tell you to, go behind me. Don't make any sudden movements." Peter said, slowly floating so his feet touch the ground. He moves his hand over to his side were a knife is hanging. He took it out the waved Alice over. Alice rushed behind Peter just as a paw the size of her head came out behind a near-by tree. The paw is followed by another paw and then a head. It is a very large cat, and black as charcoal. It's eyes, a deep magenta, glared at Alice. Peter pointed his knife at the cat which made the cat hiss in protest.
"I believe that is mine." purrs the cat. Alice's eyes widen at the cat talking.
"Cat's can't talk!" whispers Alice into Peter's ear.
"They can here, be quiet!" Peter harshly whispers back. He then looks at the cat.
"You do not own her, therefore she is not yours." Peter said. A laugh comes from the cat's mouth. It quickly turns into a snarl as the cat turns to face Peter.
"You are forgetting, Pan of the Peter, that everything that walks into, or it that's case, flies here, is mine to keep." The cat says with a sickening grin. Alice came out from behind Peter and stands beside him.
"I did not fly here, I fell here," Alice says crossing her arms, "If I had the ability to fly, I'd be long gone."
"Falling is alot like flying, except is has a bit more permanent destination." The cat says, slowly creeping towards Alice. Peter steps in front of her, his knife still pointing at the cat. The cat hisses and backs up.
"Pan, you know the rules, it was made a law."
"I don't follow the law." Peter says
"Ah yes, how could I have forgotten. The runaway prince. Silly me." The cat says with a sneer spread across it's face.
"You unfair mother, the Queen of the Red, oh how you hated her. She never let you play or be free. You always had to behave and study," says the cat. It jumps up on a near by branch and rests there, it's tail swaying.
"You started to grow sick and tired of being treated this way so you ran away." Peter's knife starts to lower.
"She never let me play with my friends. She wanted me to become an adult so fast." Peter says slowly and quietly, as if in a trance.
"So you ran from home." the cat chids. Peter nods and lowers his knife even further. The cat's tail sways back and forth more quickly and its hind legs start to move up. Alice recognizes this pattern. Dinah always does this before she was about to pounce.
"Peter!" Alice shouts as she runs into him causing them both to fall over. Just as they fell, the cat pounce. The cat leaps to far and it's head bashes into a tree. It falls to the ground and it's eyes flutter shut. Peter blinks a couple of times before realizing what just happend. He looks at Alice who is laying beside him, she looks furious. She stands up abruptly and brushes the twigs and dirt from her skirt.
"What was that!" Alice says as she picks up her pencil and book. Peter floats upwards and sheaths his knife.
"Cheshire Cat. It owns these parts of the woods." Peter says.
"So everything that comes into here is his? Why did he say that?"
"He eats them." Peter says plainly.
"But..." Alice starts.
"He used to be good. But things changed when the Red Queen started to rule. Things got darker and evil. Many things left and species died out. Mermaids aren't happy and spritely anymore, they're dark and evil. Some fairies dabbled in black magic and shadow sorcery. It's dangerous, you have to fight to survive." Peter says.
"Isn't the Red Queen your Mother?" Alice says. Peter lands on the ground hard.
"Do you want to get out of here or stay here and die?" he says ignoring the last question.
"I want to find my cat, then leave." Alice says, slipping her book into her apron once more. She must reminded herself that when home, she must sew buttons onto her apron so that her things do not fall out.
"Then lets go find you cat. Your cat landed over there and I saw smoke coming from that direction. " Peter says pointing to his left.
"That either means Indians or the Mad Hatter is burning things again. Let's hope it's the Indians." Peter says as he floats upwards a bit. Alice nods.
"How do I get there with you?"
"By flying of course."
"But I can't fly Peter." Alice says, getting annoyed. Peter Goes upside down again and thinks for a moment. His entire face lights up as he reaches for a pouch at his side. He flips back around and yanks the pouch open. It is filled with gold, silver, blue and purple glitter. It sparkles in the few patches of sunlight that manage to escape past the canopy of trees. Alice leans over and smells lavender coming from the pouch.
"Pixie Dust. With this, plus happy thoughts, you can soar through the sky for hours on end." He scoops some into his hand and pours in on Alice's head. Alice squeezes her eyes shut and concentrates. Happy thoughts is what she has to think of, so happy thoughts it'll be. Memories of freshly baked cookies, stories, her Nanna knitting her scarves and hats, thoughts of spring and summer, jump rope and sweets. Before she knew it, Alice was up in the air with Peter. She opens her eyes and smiles wide.
"Here we go!" Peter says, grabbing her hand. He pulls them up, past the trees and up into the sky. The fly in the direction of the large smoke column when Alice remembers something Peter said before.
"Why would we not want the Mad Hatter?" Alice says.
"Because he is mad... looney... insane... completely bonkers!" Peter says gleefully, laughing as if he told a joke.
"Why is he mad?" Alice asks. Peter is quiet for a moment. He then turns around to face Alice and says.
"We're all mad here."
To be continued...