Part 3. The Cat

Tired of crawling, Alice tried to get up, but she hit her head on the ceiling. "That's strange; I didn't know ceilings were supposed to be that short..." Exasperated, she sat down. "Oh what am I doing? I should be home in my bed reading a book. I didn't expect to be here! But no Alice, you just had to go chase your stupid ribbon." As she started hitting herself mentally, a purple light flickered in front of her. Squinting her eyes to get a better view, the 'light' swirled around to form a cat-like creature.

"My, my, my...what have we here? A little girl who's lost her way, perhaps? Something fun to play with? Or something tasty to eat?" purred the cat. It looked at Alice with red menacing eyes, and grinned to show sharp fangs.

"You talk?" was the only reply that Alice could squeak out.

The cat gave an un-catlike snort. "Of course I do! All the creatures in Wonderland talk." It eyed Alice, "Now...how did you get here?"

"Well, somehow I got inside this forest, and I saw this man...with no eyes..." she started.

"You mean Gerlith?" interrupted the cat.

"Who?"

"Gerlith. The guard of this forest. He hasn't been in Wonderland for 465 years. I wonder how he's doing?"

"Oh. Well anyways, he scared me, and I ran further into the forest."

"Bad choice girl..." the cat said with mock sympathy.

She chose to ignore the cat's comment and continued on. "Then, I fell asleep. When I awoke, I uh...met Ace. Well, attacked him."

The cat chuckled. "A mortal attacks Ace and gets away with it? He must be losing his touch."

"After talking to him, I fell in this black hole. And now I'm here. With this," Alice held up the kitchen knife that Ace had dropped. "Why do I need this?"

"Ah. How considerate of Ace. He must also be softening for mortals. You do not understand the significance of this dagger. It could save your life and end lives of others."

"Well I didn't come here to kill or be killed!" retorted Alice.

"Too bad for you, you don't have a choice because the queen has marked you her territory. Oops. That wasn't supposed to slip." Grinned the cat.

"Huh? The queen? You mean the Queen of Hearts?"

"No! You shouldn't say her name in public," the cat suddenly dropped his voice to a whisper, "The Queen of Black Hearts is very powerful and has a hobby of...collecting heads..."

"What? But I like my head!" Alice paused for a second, "Uhm....what are you supposed to be?"

The cat twirled around and presented her a business card, "Cheshire Cat, master of illusions at your service!" and made a bow, "But you can just call me Chessy."

"...Master of illusions you say?" asked Alice and took the card. "What kind of illusions?"

"All kinds, dear. For example..." started Chessy as he twirled a finger. Suddenly, after a burst of purple fog, a twin copy of Alice appeared.

Flabbergasted, Alice could think of no reply. Then she thought to herself, 'It's just a magic trick.'

Chessy, seeming to read Alice's mind, said, "A magic trick? I'll show you magic tricks." He twirled another finger and a hole appeared underneath Alice.

"What the...?!" exclaimed Alice as she fell, this time, more slowly. "This is just like what happened in the book, except for the 'dagger.'" She muttered. "Ah well, since I'm just floating up here, I should just take a nice nap." With that said, Alice curled up into a ball and began to slumber when she actually started falling.

CRASH!!!

"Yeeow!!!" moaned a familiar voice which woke Alice

"Huh? I feel like I'm sitting on something..." murmured Alice. She looked down only to find that she landed on Ace. "Oh! I'm sooo sorry!" she taunted.

"What's with that attitude?" attacked Ace, "Can you get off of me? For a mortal, you're kind of heavy."

WHACK!!!

"Oww!" yelled Ace as he rubbed his throbbing head.

"Never ever say anything about how a girl looks like or how much they weigh!" said Alice as she got up.

"I'll keep that in mind..."