Alice held up a gloved hand to her mouth and swallowed some bile. Gross. She never understood why people enjoyed carriage rides. She'd personally prefer running or horseback any day, but alas Rumplestiltskin had insisted Alice's transportation was presentable, even if her clothes were nothing extraordinary, at her insistence. Alice may be meeting a prince, but she would meet him as herself and not as some frilly pretender. She hated masks and false personas. Unfortunately, she'd come to learn that that's what most royalty and high society people were.
Alice sighed heavily and stared out the window. The only thing which made the idea of the encounter better was that it was currently raining. Alice loved the rain. Perhaps it was part of her upside down mind, to love something so many people hated, but it didn't stop the absolute calm she felt in a thunderstorm. Chaos and beauty dancing together in the raindrops and electricity that came from the sky.
One such surge of electricity bolted from the sky at the same moment as Alice's thoughts and struck a tree up ahead, the resounding boom of thunder a match for what damage it caused. Alice saw the tree split through the middle and thought almost nothing of it until one half fell on top of the carriage, toppling it and trapping Alice inside. Alice was thrown against the wall and began panicking when she found one door against the ground and the other barricaded by the tree. She'd always had problems with small spaces after growing up in a tower and Alice had developed a very real issue in the name of claustrophobia.
She tried to stay calm, trying to focus on the sound of the rain, as she banged on the walls of the carriage and shouted for help. She knew in her mind that no one was around as she was in a forest and had insisted on traveling alone, but she refused to give into the growing fear in her heart that she would be trapped in the carriage forever.
After a few long hours of banging and shouting, Alice finally curled up in a corner and held herself while the rain died down to little more than a drizzle. She never thought this was how she would go. She'd always wanted to go down fighting an army or some terrible beast. She wanted to go down while fighting for someone she loved. Not like this. Not in a carriage accident.
Alice was in the middle of considering the merits of eating one's fingers when she finally heard someone outside. "Hello? Is anyone in there?"
Alice immediately perked up and shouted, "Yes! Someone is very much in here and would love to get out!" She could hear scuffling and grunting outside.
"Hang on a moment. It's going to take me a few minutes to get this tree off of here." Alice sat back and thought for a moment.
"Do you happen to have a saw on you? Or an axe?"
"I was out here for firewood so I have an axe. Why?"
"My sanity is questionable, but wouldn't it be easier to chop through one of the exposed sides of the carriage than it would be to move a large tree?" Her rescuer paused.
"That... that actually makes a lot more sense and saves a lot of time. Could you bang on the side you're on so I don't accidentally chop you?" Alice did as the stranger asked and soon she could see bits of greenery through the opposite side of the carriage.
When the hole was large enough she called out for her rescuer to stop and climbed through. As she patted herself off she said, "Well that's an experience I don't want to live through again. I absolutely hate small spaces. How can I-" Alice stopped in surprise when she looked at the person who had saved her and laughed. "Robin!"
The familiar archer broke into a grin and Alice pounced on the girl, giving her a massive hug. It had been too many months since their Wonderland Witch Trip and Alice was overjoyed to see her again. After a minute or so Alice let go and took a step back to examine the archer, while Robin did the same to her.
"We really have to stop meeting this way, Alice. I'm not sure I can handle anymore 'mortal danger' encounters." The two girls laughed.
"I have to agree with you there. How have you been?" Robin shifted slightly and her smile died down.
"Things have been... fine. I've been... fine. What about you? You seem like you were going somewhere important." Alice scanned Robin's face, even leaning a bit too far into the other girl's personal space.
"Meeting a prince is hardly that important," she said offhandedly. "Tell me what's wrong." Robin's eyes widened.
"A prince? Why?" Alice leaned back and started pacing around the archer in a circle.
"Making a few arrangements for my boss. You're avoiding the real problem." She stopped in front of Robin again. "Tell me what's wrong or I'll stuff you in a carriage for a few hours and see how you like it." Robin chuckled for a moment and Alice suddenly noticed the slight pinpricks of tears in the corners of her eyes. Alice immediately placed her hands gently on either side of Robin's face. "What? What happened?" Robin chuckled again.
"It's actually kind of stupid."
"I don't care. It's making you cry. Tell me."
"I just... I missed you." Alice laughed good-naturedly and hugged Robin again. "I really shouldn't be this affected when you think about it. I mean, we barely know each other." Alice took a step back.
"I have half a mind to change that. The other half says we should find a place to stay for the night." Robin smiled at Alice with a strange look in her eye. It confused Alice because the look only appeared when she said something that betrayed her lack of sanity. It wasn't harsh or criticizing like the looks she was used to, but something new and soft and... loving she supposed. Alice shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts. It was ridiculous.
"Come on, Chopper. We can't stay staring at each other for the rest of the afternoon." Alice began walking and Robin quickly kept up.
"Chopper?" she questioned as they walked down the road.
"Yes. You chopped me out of the carriage." Robin snorted.
"Yeah, that's not going to stick." Alice lightly nudged Robin's shoulder with her own.
"We'll just see about that, Chopper." Robin nudged her back and the two continued to laugh and mess around as they made their way down the road.
