Zelena knew it wouldn't take much to convince Alice to go outside with her. She'd do whatever she was told to do. Zelena wished she could get her to just do any small thing on her own. Aside from cleaning she wouldn't. But so far, none of her attempts had worked. In fact, they'd backfired and caused more harm than help. She'd finally found a small sliver of what Alice thought about. She was hoping she could use it to encourage her to do anything besides hide and clean. She knew she hadn't had much, or really any, acsess to the world around her tower. And it sounded as if she didn't have any knowledge of it either. So if she could just get her to go outside she'd be able to expereince some of the world around her.

"Let's go outside," Zelena offered. Alice blinked. Outside? She'd done that once and that was just to come here. She'd always wanted to go outside but the barrier had always stopped her. Not that it needed to be there, mother could have simply told her no and she wouldn't have strayed too far away. Up until she met Robin, that is. And she'd never actually had permission to do it. Was Zelena allowing her to? Why? Alice was confused about almost everything here. And the longer she stayed the less things made sense. Back in the tower, she knew what mother expected of her-most of the time-but here she couldn't figure it out. Back in the tower she knew what the consequences for breaking a rule might be and here she had no idea. Alice stood up and followed Zelena and Robin outside.

She stared at the world around her. She hadn't had a chance to take it in the last time as she'd been so distracted by how many rules she was breaking and how angry mother would be if she knew. This time she could take it in. She didn't know what most of it was called but she liked it so far. There was something yellow that seemed to float like a dish in water on top of something blue and the yellow thing seemed almost hot but not quite. The ground had a path made of the same things her tower was but instead of grey they were brown. There were white things that looked like bunches of little circles connected togehter against the blue. And the green, no it was grass she knew that one now, had lots of colors poking out of it. Alice stared at it, darting her eyes around both in awe and fear.

"You can go look at it," Zelena encouraged. She wished she'd do it on her own. Alice nodded and went and sat down on the grass. She touched one of the colroful things poking out of the grass. She liked the way it looked. And the grass was really soft.

Alice wanted to know what the colorful things were. She liked how they looked. And they felt so different from anything else she'd ever touched. And they seemed to have a smell. But would Zelena mind if she asked? She glanced over at her. She wasn't even really watching. And she was outside so maybe the rules were a little different?

Robin came and sat beside her.

Was it okay to ask the question she had? Robin answered the unspoken question before Alice could decide against asking it.

"It's called a flower, they come in lots of colors, and they just kinda grow in all kinds of places. What else do you want to know?"

Alice wanted to know more about what she could suddenly see and feel and hear more clearly than she had in her entire life. She was outside now and the only rule mother had about the outside was to not go there so did it really matter if she broke another rule? Was it okay if she just asked a question she had? She made her choice. She was already outside, what was one more wrong? In the end her curiosity won out over her fear.

Alice glanced around and pointed at the yellow thing that seemed to be spreading heat over her entire body. She wanted to know about the world. Her excited curiosity combined with the new scenery caused Alice to briefly forget her fears. And it helped that Alice's back was turned to Zelena so she didn't feel like she was speaking to her .

"What is it?" Alice knew how to speak she just tended to try not to. But everything about the situation was different and Zelena wasn't really watching so she decided to take the smallest of risk.

Robin held in a gasp. That was the first time she'd heard Alice speak an entire sentence. She usually only got one or two words out and they were always rushed together. This one wasn't three whole words and they weren't blurred sentence was spoken in Alice's usual hoarse whisper but it was still spoken. This had to be handled extremly carefully. "The sun."

Alice wasn't used to her questions being answered. This was a first. She pointed to the tall brown things with green on top. "What is it?" and Robin happily answered this question to.

"It's a tree." And the more questions Robin answers the more excited Alice got. She stayed seated on the grass but soon learned what the words for everything in her field of vision. The blue thing was the sky. The yellow thing was the sun. The green stuff was grass. The ground had dirt on it. The white things were clouds. The colorful things poking out of the grass were flowers. The colorful things that moved were bugs. Alice only actually spoke her question out loud two or three times but it was still a step above her complete silence or one worded answers.

Robin encouraged Alice more every time she asked the question both by answering it and telling her it was good she was talking. They sat on the grass while Robin talked and Alice darted her eyes around enjoying her first real experience being outside. A small brown thing approached them.

"What is that?" Alice asked pointing to a small brown thing that had come close to them. It looked like it was soft like one of her blankets.

"It's a squirell," Robin told her. She was going to tell her she shouldn't touch it but Alice's hand was already outstretched before she could. Alice touched the squirell, she was gentle. And much to Robin's shock the squirell simply climbed into Alice's lap. It wasn't going to run?

Alice gave the small creature gentle pets and whispered to it. "Hi." Robin had only heard her greet anyone a handful of times and it took her over a month of knowing her before she would.

Robin got up and walked away. She could barely hear her but she could tell Alice was talking to the squirell.

"We're keeping the squirell," Robin told Zelena.

"Robin, we can't just keep a wild animal."

Robin nodded. "No but we can encourage him to keepp visiting by setting up feeders," Zelena shook her head in amusment. That they could do.

" ."

The squirell chattered but Alice couldn't understand him. She wondered if he could understand her. She hadn't spoken this much since she was a young child. Something about the squirell was comforting. She hoped she'd get to visit him again. "Idon'tknowwattheywantmetodo."

Her words blurred together, she was still afraid to speak long sentences without trying to jump to the end by forgetting to add some space between her words. "thankyou." She thanked the squirell for listening. She'd never felt like anyone listened as much as he was. Not that she'd given anyone else a chance to. The squirell chattered again and the scampered away.

Robin sat down next to her. "See you made a friend there." Alice nodded, even though she didn't fully understand Robin's words. What was a friend? Were she and Robin friend's? She held in a sigh. She hoped she'd see the squirell again.

Zelena offered the idea that they go inside to eat and Alice did as she was told. She liked going outside but she wouldn't ask for it. Unless that was okay? Zelena had to have heard her speaking to the squierell and she hadn't gotten in trouble for it. She thought about it. She'd try it some time. But not right now. She was tired now.

They finished the rest of their day and Alice curled up in her room, thinking about the events of the day and wondering how angry Zelena would be if she just asked to do something she wanted to do.