~O~

Shun didn't blame Alice for not trusting him; if the roles were reversed, he was sure that he wouldn't have an ounce of trust in him either. But he did find something interesting about the fight in this girl. As long as he has been working for the Queen as her Champion, he had never encountered another human with quite as much spark as Alice.

It certainly had his interest piqued, especially when he first encountered her, she had looked so scared and weak. But that was before that internal switched flipped in her and her inner fight came out. Shun began to wonder if he needed to keep his own guard up, just in case they ended up turning on each other.

Even though he was an excellent fighter, he felt that Alice could possible give him a run for his money, if she wanted to. A sudden chill caused Shun to stir from his restless sleep and the thoughts that had occupied his mind during this time.

He opened his eyes halfway, and saw that the wind had picked up at some point and extinguished the fire. Smoke still billowed up from the burning wood, telling him that the fire hadn't been gone out long. His eyes then drifted to the other side of the piled of charred wood, and he saw Alice.

The girl had curled up in her sleep to escape the cold night air, her small frame shivering slightly. Shun stared at her for a moment more, thinking that she didn't look nearly as fierce when she was sleeping. In fact, she looked more childlike and innocent like that; not like the paranoid girl that he had come to know in the past few days.

Shun watched her curl up tighter as she tried to warm herself. He sighed, his breath coming out in a cloudy wisp, and unbuttoned the collar of his uniform and slid his arms out of the jacket. Now, thanks to the white tank he had been wearing underneath, his arms were exposed to the cold wind, and his skin prickled at the icy bite of nature.

But he didn't mind it; he was well used to the cold, thanks to many of the Queen's missions where he was in the colder climates of Wonderland. Shun then stood up and walked over to Alice. He knelt beside her and threw the white and red-accented jacket over the freezing girl.

Instantly, her shivering ceased, and she brought the jacket up higher to where it touched the base of her neck. Shun smiled for a moment, but it quickly faded away. He knew helping her like this wasn't going to ease the trust issues that had formed between them.

Not like he really cared if she trusted him or not, it would just make his time trapped in Looking Glass Lake a lot more tolerable than having her watching his every movement. Shun shook his head and returned to his spot in the grass beside the extinguished fire.

Before he laid back down, he chanced one last, quick glance over at the orange-haired girl to make sure that the jacket was truly enough to keep her warm. When he saw that it was, he laid back down and returned to his restless sleep.

~O~

Alice woke feeling rather rejuvenated; it had been a while since she had slept that well. She sat up and stretched her arms far above her head. When she did this, something fell from her shoulders and landed on her lap. Alice lowered her arms back down to her sides, and glanced down to see that the Champion's red and white uniform jacket had been placed on her sometime during the night.

She stared at it for a moment, then began to look around for him. Eventually, she found him sitting by the edge of the forest, sitting against the base of a tree. For a moment, Alice considered going over there and tossing the jacket back at him, and telling him how she didn't want his charity or sympathy.

But she quickly pushed that thought away before it became an action. He didn't have to do this, the same way she didn't have to help his wound when she first found him here. He could have just let her freeze all night long, but he didn't.

Alice decided not to let the gesture mean nothing more than a simple act of kindness, so that way she wouldn't make the mistake of trusting him. She stood up, the jacket held tightly in her hands, and made her way over to where the raven-haired boy sat.

His eyes were closed, and he looked like he was rather peaceful. When Alice stopped a few feet short of him, his eyes opened and the two, piercing amber orbs fell onto her. Perhaps Alice was growing used to their coldness, for they didn't strike as much fear into her as they used to.

Alice then remembered why she had come over here, and held out the white and red jacket to the Champion. "Thanks," she said without meeting his gaze. Why was this awkward for her? All she was doing was thanking him for this gesture.

Maybe it was awkward because of all the trouble she had given him and all the things she had said; she hadn't exactly been nice to him since they realized they were trapped here. Then again, she didn't have much of a reason to be nice to him, seeing as he was a killer.

Shun stood up and took the jacket from her. "You're welcome," he said and started to slip back into the jacket. "It looked like you needed more than I did last night." Alice continued to keep her eyes adverted from him and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would have caught my death if you hadn't done that….Again, thanks."

She was about to walk away, but stopped, keeping her back turned to him, and added, "Don't think this means I trust you yet." She thought she might have heard the Champion let out a sigh, but wasn't sure if it was the savage wind that was blowing around. He then said, "I wasn't expecting you to."

Alice then closed her eyes, allowing the wind to wrap around her and cause her to relax. She then turn around and told the Champion, "But I guess I don't have to think that every single thing you do is in the name of killing me." Shun let out a somewhat humorless chuckle and said, "Nothing I have done here has been-"

He stopped mid-sentence, and Alice noticed that his eyes were fixed on something behind her. "What?" she asked and started to turn around and see what had caught the Champion's attention so easily. Before she had the chance to see what it was, Shun had grabbed her around her waist and shouted, "Get down!"

He pulled her to the side just as purple fire rained down on where they were standing. Alice, panic-stricken, looked up and saw what had attacked them. It was a dragon-like beast, tall and extremely skinny, with a head that somewhat resembled that of a fish.

"Wh-what is t-that?" Alice asked, her body trembling from fear. Beside her, Shun stood up and drew the sword that was sheathed on his left hip. "A Jabberwocky," he said with narrowed eyes, "I thought they were all extinct." The dragon creature reared back on his hind feet and let out an ear-splitting screech. Alice covered her ears with her hands and screamed.

Shun glanced over his shoulders and shouted at her, "Go into the woods and hide!" She removed her hands from her ears, but had just barely heard all of what he said, "What about you?" she asked, forcing herself to stand on her trembling legs.

The Champion turned back to face the beast and narrowed his eyes at it. "I'll be fine. You just worry about yourself," he said sternly. Alice, surprised by how he was able to stand in front of this monster without a drop of fear in his eyes, nodded and retreated back into the woods as he had told her.

The Jabberwocky let out another screech and charged at the Champion. Alice, who may have been afraid but still wanted to see what would happen, stopped and ducked behind a tree to watch. She watched Shun lead the dragon creature away from the forest and towards the vast field that surrounded the Lake.

He then ran underneath the beast and landed a slice on its belly. The Jabberwocky cried out, but Alice figured that the cut wouldn't be enough to take down the monster. It then reared its head back and spit out its purple fire at the Champion. Shun blocked himself with the sword, which was just enough to cut the flames in half and shield himself, even though Alice could tell he had gotten a little singed in the process.

The beast screeched again and ran at the Champion. Alice, still hiding behind her tree, found herself torn between wanting to watch and wanting to run. She was mesmerized by the bravery that was being executed out there with a certain grace that she found difficult to believe could come from somebody as violent as Shun.

When the Jabberwocky lowered its head down almost at ground level to attack, she watched as the Champion just stood there. Alice was about to shout at him to run, when, at the last possible moment, the raven-haired boy rammed the blade of the sword into the dragon's eye.

The monster screamed in agony and reared its head back. Shun, who had still been holding onto the hilt of the sword, was taken up as well. Now, as the Jabberwocky flailed its head around violently, Alice watched as the Champion held on tightly to keep from being thrown to the ground.

But the beast was growing aggravated from the pest that had taken the sight from one of its eyes, and in one good toss of the head, it was able to throw Shun off. The Champion flew through the air and landed on the ground, his body bouncing several times from the impact.

Then, for good measure, the Jabberwocky used the momentum of the throw to rid its eye of the sword. The blade went flying end over end, before finally sticking in the Earth a few yards away from where Alice was hiding. The Jabberwocky, with its one good eye, began to stalk towards where the disoriented Champion laid on the ground.

Shun struggled to try and sit up, then saw the dragon creature was closing in on him. He had no way of defending himself, and he was about ready to accept that this was going to be the end of him. The Jabberwocky lowered its head down and met face-to-face with Shun, its uninjured eye glaring at the Champion.

Shun, for the first time in a long time, actually felt the paralyzing sensation of fear. He could feel his heart racing violently in his chest, and he had a feeling the beast before him could hear it and was feeding off of this fear. Inside the creature's jagged-toothed mouth, Shun could make out the purple flames starting to form in the base of the dragon's throat.

He shut his eyes tightly, bracing himself for the scorching flames to consume him, when a shout came from nearby. Shun opened his eyes just in time to see Alice run up beside the Jabberwocky and pierce the monster's throat with his sword. Blood exploded out from where she had struck a major artery, covering both Alice and Shun.

The orange-haired girl quickly pulled the sword out of the monster's throat, and the Jabberwocky reared back, screaming in pain, before finally succumbing to its wounds and falling into the ground, causing the Earth the shake slightly for the force of the fall.

Alice stood there, covering in blood and holding the sword that she had used to slay the Jabberwocky, and stared at what she had just done. She had killed this monster by herself, which surprised her. She had been so scared and nearly paralyzed by fear to even comprehend what all was happening.

Yet, she had found the strength to do this. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Shun trying to sit up. Alice dropped the bloodstained sword and ran over to him. "Are you alright?" she asked and began to look over him for serious injuries.

She helped Shun to sit up, and when she did, all he did was stare at the limp body of the Jabberwocky. "Y-you…..You killed it," he said breathlessly. Alice wasn't sure if he was out of breath from the fight, from nearly being killed, or from some unseen injury.

But she saw fear filling his eyes to brim, a site that she was sure nobody in Wonderland had ever seen before. She also noticed that his hands were trembling slightly. Then, it must have all registered to the Champion what had happened and been too much for him handle, for he suddenly passed out.

before anyone thinks i'm calling Shun a wimp or something because i made him faint at the end, which i'm not, most people who have gone through Jabberwocky attacks and nearly been killed would naturally go into shock. :p wouldnt you? lol, read and leave a review on the way out. ~Copperpelt~