"Alice," called the voice; a deep, rumbling voice that sounded as if the walls have spoken.

Samara looked around to see which side of the walls spoke but found nothing of the sort. She was standing in a cavernous earthy chamber and above her was the Rabbit Hole through which she fell. She decided to ignore the voice and looked up again at her shoes. It was frustratingly slow. And then another voice spoke.

"Please don't dawdle, Alice. We're very late indeed," it spoke in an almost-whisper. Her eyes trailed it, and she saw the Red Rabbit disappear into another corner ahead of her.

Samara decided to venture on barefooted. The narrow passage before her looked like an underground mine. She had nowhere else to go after all. But just as she reached the start of the tunnel, something yellowish and jagged appeared to her right. She saw that it was a grin.

A pair of eyes followed the grin and next second, a cat was perched on the rock at the side of the tunnel entrance. Creshire Cat now sat almost as tall as her, with yellow teeth and eyes that glow in the dark. He looked bony; indeed some of his taupe grey flesh seemed to have been bitten off the bone here and there. He had tribal tattoo instead of stripes all over his body and a thin silver earring on his good ear (the other one was half torn off). Even the grin he wears now seemed malicious and sadistic. Last but not least, Samara soon found out that the deep voice was his.

"You've become quite mangy, Cat, but your grin's a comfort." It was the first thing she thought and she couldn't help herself.

"And you've picked up a bit of an attitude. Still curious and willing to learn, I hope," replied the Cat.

"Wonderland has become quite strange. How is one to find her way?" Samara surprised herself in saying this instead of asking why the Cat spoke to her as if they've met before. Granted, Wonderland has indeed change since Samara last read about it. As if complementary to the Rabbit Hole (but of course), one couldn't shake off the scary feeling of being trapped underground and its very air was dark and sinister.

"As knowing where you're going is preferable to being lost, ask. Rabbit knows a thing or two, and I myself don't need a weathervane to know where the wind blows. Let your need be your guidance, suppress your instinct to lead; pursue Rabbit." With the last word, he vanished after his lingering grin.

Samara followed through the tunnel. It was narrow and suffocating, but the torches lighting up her way were a relief to the fact that she still could not see the rabbit. After what felt like forever, she reached the end of the passage.

She has entered a village with the most unwelcoming atmosphere. There were bigger tree roots in the walls of the huge cave in which this village was set, and every building and the narrow bridges that interconnect them were evidently made of these roots. The inhabitants of this village were gnomes and Samara now saw that they were all moving about carrying huge crystal balls tied to their backs. They walked slowly and unsteadily and looked very solemn.

She peered over the edge where she stood and couldn't quite make out what she saw below; whether it was water or molten glass for it looked somewhat solid and yet it flows. Samara had to shrug off the debate because she finally caught sight of the reddish-black smudge again.

The Red Rabbit was only on the other end of the bridge where she now stood. Samara tore after it again but as soon as she reached the Rabbit, it turned around once more and disappeared into a doorway in the wall of the cave. To her displease, the doorway shrunk a considerable size as Samara approached it; now it stood a mere inch tall. She has reached a dead end.

"Ask," said Creshire Cat's voice in her head.

She went up to the nearest gnome (it looked like it has aged too much in too short a time) and was going to ask it 'Where does that door lead to?' when the gnome unexpectedly confide in her of its suffering.

"Our land is destroyed, our spirits crushed. Slavery and happiness do not dwell in the same house," said it, before turning its back to her and staggered off, still carrying the crystal ball thrice its size on its back.

Irritated with the unhelpful behaviour, Samara decided to walk away from the gnome and instead ask the next one she encounters.

Moving on, she soon arrived where the bridge she was crossing comes to abrupt end. It appeared that the few steps ahead has collapsed, leaving a huge jump between where she stood and the rest of the crossing, one that she knew she could not manage.

As though heeding to her summoning him, Creshire Cat reappeared on her right and said "When the path becomes problematical, consider a leap of faith. Ride the wind." And he vanished again.

The meaning of his words was revealed when she held out her hand. Steam was blowing up from below, strong enough to hold her in the air. Having nowhere else to go but forward, Samara leapt and rode the wind.

Indeed, she found it easy to do so since her skirt puffed up to allow her balance, but steam is really the product of boiling water; it was hot and she suffered every ounce of pain as she rode it. It was lucky enough that she didn't succumb to the pain before she arrived at the other side of the bridge.

As her wounded, steamed feet touched the cold, wooden surface of the bridge she began howling in pain and her next thought was "I should get myself shoes." To her relief, she saw the sign 'Cobbler' at the end of the crossing, even when she did not mean to mend any shoe for she had none.

The sign was hung onto a door. Samara proceeded to push it open and step inside.

The room was, of course, gnome-sized, its walls lined with shelves of worn-out shoes, random boxes and (oddly enough) porcelain dolls, a single light source hung in the middle gave off poor lighting but it generally felt more welcoming than the outside. A lone gnome that sat at its working station in a corner turned around to meet her indifferent expression. This one didn't have its crystal ball tied onto its back (it laid beside the desk) but it looked as solemn as the rest.

"You're not from here," it said.

"No," she replied. "I want to buy a pair of shoes," and her eyes fell upon one that stood on top of the shortest shelf; tall black boots that would reach up to her knees, and evidently the only pair that would fit her.

"Rabbit told us that a champion would come. Are you that champion?" it enquired.

"I dunno," she answered, and proceeded to point at the pair of boots, "are you selling these?"

The gnome didn't seem to have heard her and ploughed on "because if you are, I'd be most glad to help you with anything."

Samara took the boots off the shelf. "Alright, I am then. I will take these." It was a statement, not a request. She found toffees in her pocket and gave some of them to the gnome. It accepted them most heartily. She sat down on a chair and put on the boots; it was a perfect fit.

Now that her immediate urgency is taken care of, she moved on to her previous case: Follow the Red Rabbit. Why?

"How am I supposed to save you people again?" was all she could ask.

The gnome dragged his stool from the desk and took a seat opposite to her. She still looked indifferent, but Samara really wanted to hear the whole story.

"Some time after you left, the Red Queen and White Queen broke into a quarrel. It soon turned into a fight, and then it was war. The White Queen wished to end the war, but the Red Queen is determined to end her adversary. She's inhuman, really, since they're sisters."

"Half the country already hers, she moved on to take over the rest of the land. Under her reign, we are forced into slavery. She's building something, a weapon, we don't really know. But we have to suffer for her to achieve her goal. Only death could release us from this misery. Or her death."

Samara was again puzzled by how people seem to think that this was her second visit to Wonderland. Then she remembered the Red Rabbit. "I'm supposed to follow the Rabbit, but he's gone through a door and I need to get this small," and she indicated an inch with her thumb and forefinger.

"The Fortress of Doors holds such secrets. But it will take more than a wish to get there."

"Can you get me into the Fortress of Doors?" she requested now.

"Wouldn't dare. Since the upheaval we've all become gutless half-wits. But, make your way to the mines, the deepest pit. There's one there who is wiser and braver than any of us. He still lives free."

The gnome then stood up, walked over to its crystal ball and began rolling it across the room and out the door. He heaved it unto his back and left Samara confused with his behaviour.

She then followed suit, understanding now that her being here was to kill the powerful Red Queen. Unarmed and outnumbered, one can hardly blame her for wanting to back out and then wishing that is was just a dream, and now she does believe that she could succeed because it really was her dream, in which case she would be capable of bending it to her will.

Creshire Cat appeared beside her again. "Meta-essence is the life force in Wonderland. Those of your enemies are especially potent. Use it wisely." He indicated a ruby that was floating in front of her and disappeared.

At her touch, the ruby vanished. Samara blinked, not understanding what it was all about. But when she took her next step, she realised that all the pain in her legs was gone. Apparently the floating ruby acts as ointment to any physical pain she was in. With that, Samara was reassured.

She encountered more dejected gnomes as she made her way through the Village, and she soon wondered if there was any real danger in her quest. Just as she reached the mines however, she found out that there was.

A sentry posted at the entrance to the mines charged at her on sight. Despite that it was an Eight of Clubs card with a head and the appropriate limbs, Samara just knew that it could really hurt her. It strike at her with its spear before she could turn the other way, slashing her and inflicting pain very unlike a dream. Slightly horrified at realising that she could not wake up, Samara ran as fast as she could, hoping the sentry would rather remain to stand guard at its post. But when she began to slow down, she received another blow of the cutting spear.

She screamed, there was no denying the pain. She ran again and the sentry still chase after her, swinging the spear ruthlessly. A stitch started to form in her chest, but she felt that her life depended on her running as fast as she could for as long as she could. And then the worse came.

She ran into something hard. It was the wall of the cave. She has reached another dead end, and this time there was no wind to ride. Behind her, the Red Queen's soldier looked more threatening than ever.

She turned her back to the wall and began scanning the area for any form of escape. There was none, but to her immediate right where the Cat usually materialises out of thin air, something was doing the same.

It took her a fraction of a second to recognise it as a knife, and she began swinging her arms aimlessly as soon as she grabbed it.

The guard was stabbing her repeatedly, missing sometimes as she accidentally deflected it with her knife. She was bleeding all over, the pain was very real. Then she closed her eyes and forced herself onto the guard. With one last slash, the guard was cut across the middle into halves, blood squirting out like the jet of fountain in the back garden of her manor.

She watched it fell and turned into a ruby bigger than the last one she saw. Again, all the pain simply diffused out of her as she touched the meta-essence.

"Those of your enemies are especially potent," Creshire Cat does not lie.

She looked down at her hand in which she held the weapon. The Vorpal Blade was made of something stronger than silver. Now all memory of the fountain and the back lawn and the manor seemed a lifetime ago.

Author's Note

I'm sorry for the slow update. And apparently I changed the writing style. I think I might do so again in the next chapter, just for the fun of it. Or not. Haha.

Yes, a lot of it is American McGee's Alice. I intend to use his setting, this is an Alice in Wonderland fanfic after all, might as well put everything in it.

American McGee's Alice is where Cheshire Cat becomes Creshire Cat. But no, this fanfic isn't going to be a sort of walk-through for the game..

Thank you for reading, please leave a review^^