Will watched Alice hack away at the stubborn, hardy, man-sized ferns. Ah, Wonderland. But he was more concerned with the young woman blazing a trail through them. Fierce and fiery, it was no wonder that glimpses of her had leaked into the dreams of a writer.
"You know there's a book about you," Will said conversationally.
Alice stopped and turned around. Her face was flushed and she had bits of hacked fern all over. She seemed to hesitate, and then lowered her sword. "Really?" she asked.
Break time.
"Yep," Will said, rocking forward on his toes. "It's about your first visit here. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," he said, savoring the words. Brilliant title.
She raised an eyebrow. "Did you have anything to do with it?"
"What? No!" Will paused. "That sounded really defensive. But honestly, I had nothing to do with it. Some other guy wrote it, a long time ago."
"How did you find out about it?"
"It's a classic, and the title really caught my eye in a bookstore once." Will shook his head. "He didn't get me right at all."
Alice shifted positions. "And me?"
Will thought about it. A young girl, bouncing through a world with rules she had no concept of, turning it upside down… "More or less." He remembered Book-Alice's recurring tears and corrected, "Mostly less."
Alice shrugged, and turned back to the ferns. "Well, at least the title's accurate. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," she repeated. "I like that." And she raised her sword and resumed hacking.
Will smiled. It was accurate. If only Lewis Carroll had known how much…if he could only have seen all the battles, the triumphs, the failures, the dangers, the characters, the journeys—the adventures—that Alice had truly experienced…now that would have made a fantastic book. Not that he minded the whimsical nonsense of the book, but it rather missed Alice's true nature.
Will started to wonder if anyone else would write a book about her. Or maybe make a movie. It would make a great movie. Or…no, too long for one movie.
He grinned.
"Maybe someone'll make a TV series out of this."