Chapter 4! Enjoy!

"Alice!" Irisa said breathlessly, skidding to a stop a few feet away from her target and turned around to jump back to Alice's side with a wide but shy smile. "I want to talk to you."

"Alright?" Alice said, standing up straighter and crossing her arms defensively over her chest. The last time she'd had a one on one conversation with Irisa, she'd been pinned to the floor. This time, she was more prepared. "What do you want to talk about?"

Irisa shrugged, clasping both hands in front of her and rocking back on her heels. "Do you mind taking a walk with me back to your room?"

"Okay." Alice replied, walking down the hallway with Irisa in step, as an awkward silence befell the two girls.

Then, as they neared her bedroom door, Irisa stepped in front of Alice and wrapped her arms around her in a long, tight embrace. Curiously, and shocked Alice stood their, arms pinned to her side by Irisa's and waited for the girl to finish and after a few minutes Irisa released her, but her hands still lingered on Alice's shoulders.

"Thank you, Alice." Irisa said warmly, looking if she'd wanted to give Alice another hug. "Thank you, so much."

Alice blinked, was she that grateful that Alice accepted her party planning idea, or was their some other thank you hiding beyond Alice's grasp. "Excuse me?"

"I know, this is a little delayed." Irisa admitted, releasing Alice's shoulders and fidgeting with her hands. "But, I really ought to thank you."

"Why?" Alice asked. "What have I-"

"What haven't you done?" Irisa asked, turning around and walking around Alice nervously as if she were prey that would attack. "You've helped me so much, and I haven't even given you a proper thank you. And I couldn't believe I'd let my actions of how we'd met stay without a proper explanation." She turned back to Alice and grasped her hands in front of hers. "You are truly the kindest and mercifulness and strongest person I've ever met." She curtsied low for Alice and bowed her head. "And I am forever in your debt."

Alice swallowed a lump that had suddenly arisen in her throat. "I-"

"No, don't say anything yet." Irisa interrupted. "I have more to say." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she were reciting a poem that she knew by heart. "You changed my whole outlook on life, Alice. You saved me, from a life of being trapped up in that room and becoming a cold, heartless being like the woman that kept me locked up, and showed me that if I trust people, then things can go the way I want them too." She opened her rainbow eyes that shone brightly with fierce determination. "I would have never found Tarrant or this place on my own, and it was all because of you, so. I guess what I'm trying to say is….well. Thank you, for everything, Alice. You're a true friend."

Alice blinked, and then blinked again, and again before a small smile broke across her face. "Thank you Irisa, but I haven't really done anything. And, think that you are one too. A true friend, I mean."

Irisa's smile grew wider and she threw her arms around Alice again, burying her face in Alice's soft blonde curls. "We're going to be the best of friends." Irisa whispered, before pulling back and squeezing her hand one lastly time. "Find me outside, alright? We have a lot to discuss about the party." She smiled again and turned, skipping down the hallway liker a school girl, and finally disappearing behind a corner, leaving Alice only the odd Irisa-y scent of Irises and cherry blossoms.

"She's an energetic one, isn't she?" A voice next to her purred, and was one of the many people Alice didn't want to see, and maybe she wouldn't, if the cat decided to be invisible.

"Go away Chess." Alice mumbled, as she walked down the rest of the hallway to her bedroom and pulled the door open and shut without a second look back at the cat.

"That's no way to treat your guest." The cat said with a grin, appearing on top of her bed, and cocking his head to the side. "Why Alice, I didn't know that white was your color. I thought it was only blue."

Alice rolled her eyes, and pulled open the door. "I'm not in the mood, Chess." She pointed to the door, sternly. "Out."

The Cheshire cat rolled his eyes and his head appeared inches away from Alice's. "Someone isn't happy, what's on your mind, love?"

"There's an annoying cat in my room that refuses to go away." She retorted, ducking under his head and walked over to her closet, pulling through random cloths and knelt down, to push through the many pairs of shoes on the floor.

It's not here. Alice thought bitterly, pushing back another rack of dresses and flinching when she saw Chessur's glowing teal eyes staring back at her.

"Hiding in the closet?" The cat smiled, and his body appeared along with his eyes, but he remained hidden in the low light of the closet except for the glow of his eyes.

"I'm looking for something, actually." Alice stood and shut the door behind her, knowing that the Cheshire cat was already out and probably watching her from another part of the room.

"And what, pray tell, are you looking for?" The cat asked, sure enough leaning on his furry elbow on the railing of the balcony. Somehow in the twelve seconds it took for him to disappear and reappear, he'd gotten the balcony door open and was now staring at Alice with a playful expression that she didn't return.

"My book." Alice replied nonchalantly, running a hand through her hair before she started searching through the drawers of a vanity she never used. Maybe one of the maids put it in here, she thought, frantically pulling them open and shutting them after barley glancing at its continents. When the cat didn't respond Alice sighed, still pulling through the vanity. "The book that I wrote everything about Underland in?"

"Oh," Chess replied, raising an eyebrow and Alice turned around to face him.

"Oh?" Alice repeated, walking over to the Cat. "What does that mean?"

Chessur smiled, and raised his tail. Alice, instantly knowing what he was about to do, raised her hand to stop him, but he was already gone. A thin veil of smoke the only thing left, proving that the disappearing cat had once been there.

"Figures," Alice said to herself, leaning along her balcony and staring out into the Underland sky, painted a bright blue color, brighter then the sky in London would ever be. "Disappearing without telling me anything, very helpful Chess."

Someone knocked at her door, hesitantly at first then a bit more persistently, and Alice sighed, loudly.

It has to be, Irisa. Alice thought, annoyingly. Probably wondering why I haven't met her outside yet. Or maybe Nicholas…

But before she could wonder what could have happen if it was Nicholas at her door, a voice cleared behind her, and Alice found herself less then five feet away, with the man with the hauntingly beautiful green eyes.

Cliff hanger! How annoyed are you? Very? I would hope so. Being annoyed makes it hard to forget things, seriously, it does. And now I'm randomly talking, I need to work on that, loll. Review! And thank you for the condolences about my cat, they're really sweet :).