A/N: Hello to all ! As anticipated on my profile, I am very proud to finally present the first chapter to my first Alice in Wonderland fanfiction! I am very excited to be starting this new story, I loved the movie and I think all of the characters are great to work with… and I am looking forward to doing so ASAP!

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Tim Burton and Disney.

Please take the time to enjoy the story, and leave a review to let me know what you think! Happy reading, and to our next update!
xxx –
Kayla

INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time… No… Many years ago… No, that won't do either… 'Twas the Age of the White Queen's reign… No, no, no!

How does one begin a story about a place where there's no such thing as time?

Well, I suppose 'time' isn't all that important, after all. Certainly not for this story.

This story, a story about how a young woman set sail for a new beginning, and ended up living an adventure beyond her wildest imagination. She was looking, you see. She was looking for answers, looking for a place in the world, and most of all looking for herself. But soon, she will discover that some questions simply do not have answers, that the only place you have in the world is where your heart lays, and - quite ironically - that sometimes, all you need to do to find yourself…. is take a good look in a mirror.

CHAPTER 1 : DREAMING WIDE AWAKE

"Port ahoy!"

The sailor's cry echoed from the crow's nest down to the deck below. The Wonder, guided by a brisk autumn breeze,sailed smoothly along the water and glided through the port's entrance. The sailors all busied themselves to dock the vessel safely, and within a few minutes they were harbored. A ladder was quickly lowered to the dock.

Slowly, a young woman descended from it, steadying herself so as not to lose her balance in the process. When she finally touched land she straightened herself up and looked around, eyes wandering across the familiar view of the English port. As usual, the place was crowded with people from all over, sailors, tourists, merchants, each one coming and going from somewhere around the world. A clashing of sounds filled the air, from the yells of sailors to the splashing of the sea against the docks to the lively chatter of the crowd to the distant cry of seagulls hovering above the docks. She smiled slightly to herself.

"It's good to be back," Alice Kingsley thought contentedly.

"Miss Kingsley?"

The young woman turned around and came face to face with the ship's Captain.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Your luggage is being taken care of, Miss. I have arranged for a chaperone to meet you here and take you to your home."

"Thank you, Captain."

He bowed his head slightly, "No trouble, Miss. I suppose I shall see you again sometime, then?"

"Possibly," she responded, "If all goes well."

"Excellent. Good day, Miss Kingsley."

"Good day to you, Captain. And thank you, for everything. Your help has been most valuable to me."

"It has been a pleasure, Miss. Goodbye," he saluted her, before turning around and heading back to the ship.

Before long, Alice found her chaperone and followed him to her carriage. He took care of her bags while she settled down inside, and soon after they were off. As they made their way out of the port and across the city Alice laid back against the comfortable seat and looked outside the window, lost in her own thoughts.

It felt good to be back, truly. Over a year and a half had passed since she had first set sail for Hong Kong, with the duty of expanding her father's business across the globe. Her mission had succeeded wonderfully. Thanks to the capable crew she had traveled with, they had done an excellent job marketing with the Chinese and now, finally, after having built an efficient and solid new business channel with the foreign country the time had come for her to return to her homeland. She had done her duty well, and business was stable enough that she could afford to go back and follow things directly from England for the time being.

The view had meanwhile changed from the city's grey setting to a landscape made of vast green meadows and large clusters of trees. Alice grinned.

She had missed it. Everything. She had missed her home, but most of all she had missed her family. Sure, her mother and sister had written numerous letters to her, and she had responded, but it was never quite like having them there with her. There had been quite a few times when she had felt rather discouraged of what she was doing, and had wished to have someone there to comfort her. She had been lucky enough to make a few good friends while she was away, but still: family was family. True, she had left also to prove herself to them, but it had never meant that she hadn't known right from the start that she would be missing them terribly – and she had.

But her family had not been the only thing Alice had missed so much during all this time.

Indeed, countless times she had woken up in the middle of the night in a distressed state, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. When this happened, she would awake with the sense of feeling lost, terribly lost and confused, as though she had forgotten something extremely important to her. It didn't take much effort for her to realize what that was.

Underland.

The name echoed inside her mind like the soft tinkling of bells. She sighed deeply. That name had held so many memories when she had left home so many months before. But time, it seemed, had decided to play tricks on her mind, because as the months had gone by all these memories that she held so dear had started to change without her wanting to. It was as if each new morning and each new sunset robbed another little piece of those memories, making it harder and harder for her to remember them correctly. And so, slowly but surely, day after day, night after night, Alice had begun to forget.

Not that she had forgotten about Underland per se of course. Why, she still dreamt of it each and every night when she fell asleep. But as it were, as the days had gone by every time she closed her eyes and let her own world take over the images she saw had started to become blurred, as though her mind couldn't quite recreate them properly.

She was thankful, however, that the one image she had been seeing in her dreams lately was clear and defined: she would always open her eyes to find herself lying under an enormous lilac tree, standing still to watch the light filtering through the thin branches and listening to the breeze whistling melodiously through the leaves. The sky above her would always be a clear azure hue, and although nothing much would happen she would always feel a sense of peace wash over her. This had always comforted her, especially in the days when she was feeling miserable or unhappy. It wasn't much of a dream, but it was her own little peaceful piece of paradise.

"But now there's…something else," she thought, frowning. Indeed, during the past few nights as they had begun to approach their destination her dream would be interrupted suddenly by another presence, one which she couldn't recognize.

The first night this had occurred, she had noticed because as she had been standing as usual under her tree gazing at a cloud drifting by she had suddenly felt a slight pressure on her shoulder, as though somebody had laid a hand on it. The contact had startled her awake, and it had taken her quite some time to calm her racing heartbeat and fall back back into a dreamless sleep.

The night after that, she was still having her usual dream until she had felt the presence manifest itself once again besides her, and had once more felt a hand rest on her shoulder. The contact had made another jolt of adrenaline rush through her veins, but this time she had managed to continue the dream a few seconds more: turning her head, she had managed to catch a glimpse of a human hand touching her shoulder before waking up.

The following night, the night before they had arrived in London, Alice had gone to sleep determined to figure out who it was that was invading her dream. Soon after she feel asleep, she opened her eyes to the familiar view of the lilac branches and blue skies and waited patiently for the contact to happen.

Sure enough, moments later she felt the presence appear besides her. Only this time, Alice didn't startle, and the dream wasn't interrupted. Instead, she relaxed, and she slowly began to take notice of other things: she realized, for instance, that she was not leaning against the tree's trunk like she had believed, but was in fact resting against somebody's chest. Curious to see how this would unfold, she had allowed the dream to carry on. Slowly, she felt the rest of the person's body form besides her. Looking up, she saw the shadow of a face set against the sun. She tried as hard as she could to see who it was, squinting her eyes against the light and trying to turn her head to get a better look, but every part of the body she could see was so blurred that she could barely make out it was a person. Sighing in frustration, she had looked back up with a start when she had heard her name echoing distantly in the wind.

"Alice…" her name had rung out again.

The figure's face had begun to lean in towards her, and Alice's eyes had widened with expectation…

And then, she had woken up.

And no matter how hard she had tried to force herself back to sleep and reconnect with that last moment, she had not been able to continue the dream.

The carriage came to a halt, pulling the young woman from her thoughts. Alice took a deep breath, briskly shooing the memories of the dream from her mind. She would think about that some more later on, she told herself. Now, she had other duties to attend to. The chaperone climbed down from his post and opened the door for her. Alice raised her gown slightly to step down on a familiar white marble path, and looking up, a very familiar site welcomed her eyes, and she smiled.

She was home.