Chapter Two: Lion's Den

"Who are you?" Alice asked the figure in front of her through her curtain of hair. She couldn't see very well in the tree- in the treeshe thought, that can't be right- and so she thought maybe what she was seeing was a lion standing up like a man. But that wasn't possible.

Against her body, the bunny was starting to calm down. She stroked it in between its ears, not really sure why she wanted to keep it safe but knowing that she did. The threat of the wolf was far away, now; Alice could feel warm bark behind her and knew that if she turned around there would be no screen of bushes in sight.

"I am Daniel," the voice growled, recalling Alice to the present and her question. The man — surely a man, she thought- stood in front of her, hidden in the darkness.

"Thank you, Daniel. I don't know why, but you saved me."

"You are Daughter," he said, as if it made any sense. Alice's brows creased in confusion.

"Daughter? I'm no one's I mean, I'm Alice. Nice to meet you. Do you think maybe we could get out of here?"

"I can lead you to the entrance, but I cannot follow you out."

"Thank you, Daniel." Alice used one hand to hold the bunny and the free hand to prop herself up. As she stood, the shadow that had been Daniel stopped blocking the light behind him from her line of sight; and when the shadows fell off him, she saw what he looked like and screamed.

The bunny burrowed itself into her jacket while Alice stared ahead of her and the beast stared back. There was a certain stillness then, and Alice compared it to the quiet before a storm.

"Please," the beast said, sighing wearily. "Do not be frightened. I am this way because I was a coward and a fool; but I never have been cruel. Please; I will help you get to the entrance of my den, and you can leave."

Alice shivered. All this was so unreal that she closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she could still hear the breathing of the beast, she counted to ten again. And again. But nothing happened, until she fervently wished that he would just eat her and get it over with.

"Please." So quiet- anyone listening would have wondered who was really frightened. "Please, do not be afraid, Isabelle"

Alice opened her eyes when she heard this. "Isabelle?"

The beast sighed again, weariness resting on his shoulders, a thing too heavy to carry by himself- but too dangerous to give half the load to someone else. "Nothing," he whispered. "Please, just follow me."

"Alright." Alice doubted her own words, but she had nothing else to do but listen to the beast. "I'll follow you Daniel."

"Thank you." There was so much gratitude in his humanlike voice that Alice couldn't bear to tell him the he scared the shit out of her. So instead she followed far behind him, trying not to think too closely about what made lions walk and talk. She tried to rationalize it in her mind- she even considered him being a mascot to a baseball team- but her heart, perhaps the wisest organ in her body, knew that the being she followed was a man-lion with a gentle spirit.

The trek was long, and as Alice walked with the bunny in her arms she realized how sore her feet were. She thought about her walk through the woods, and it was with the starting clarity of a hung over drunk that she realized how long and far she had walked. It had to have taken her half a day at least to get as far into the forest as she had. There was no telling how worried her mother was, or how angry she'd be when Alice got back.

"Please hurry, Daniel. My mother will want me home."

"I'm afraid, Daughter, that your home is very far away indeed."

Alice tried to puzzle out what he had said, but before she could ask him what he meant he had stopped and turned around. Behind him, a few yards away, was the exit to the long tunnel Alice had walked through.

"Thank you," she said, walking by him with the largest berth possible. "For all you've done. The wolf would've had me- I don't know how you got me in the tree- some sort of illusion-" Alice fell short when she realized the she was babbling and the beast was saying nothing at all.

"Thank you," she finished, lamely.

"Do not thank me yet. In the long journey ahead you may wish I had left you in the jaws of the wolf."

Alice frowned at him, but she said nothing. Instead, she walked through the entrance without looking back.

Daniel stood in his den, his cage, for a long time after she was gone, until she was out of sight. Even after that, he stared at the shadows that followed her, wishing he could somehow help her. But he could not. Until the day the Queen of Hearts was overthrown, he would be stuck in his den- and a lion he would remain.