Chapter Two

"Repeat that…but slower." A furious voice said.

"Alice-is-leaving-Wonderland-with-that-cat." Came the response; a lazy, lethargic response.

"Outrageous!" the voice shrieked with anger and if you looked long enough you'd see who the voice belonged to.

A malevolent being. A human figure with an evil twist. Sleek black hair fell to the ground, the ends of it singed and somewhat on fire. Blood red roses were entwined into her hair, strands wrapping around the thorns. The creature was tall, at least six feet in height, and thin. Abnormally long fingers and bony hands were curled into fists. This here was the new Queen.

Yellow eyes glowed in the darkness and narrowed on the smaller creature that sat in front of her. This little thing was no smaller then a rabbit, in fact, it was a rabbit. In his hand, excuse me, paw, he held a hefty pocket watch. A chain was hooked on to the top and the end fell into his pocket. Glasses rested on the tip of his nose that twitched uncontrollably.

Ah yes, does this character ring a bell? The White Rabbit of course, but he isn't the same. Not at all. Let me continue.

The worst part about the rabbit was that he wasn't white, no; his fur was covered in something like ashes or soot. He was black as night. He was scrawny and malicious looking. His eyes were a shining red and they bore holes (metaphorically speaking, if you were getting the wrong impression) into people. The White Rabbit scared almost all half to dead once, and a few twice, which never turned out good.

His ears were snagged and hideous, his fur tousled. The White Rabbit was the Queen's assistant and messenger. He cared about nothing, just doing what he was told. Apathetic was a good word for him, a very good word indeed.

"Your hair is burning again, your highness." The White Rabbit droned, looking at the bottom of the Queen's hair. Sure enough, the tips of them were blazing wildly.

"Gah!" the Queen scowled.

"Breathe…deeply…" the Rabbit said, seeming a bit uninterested.

"Breathe in…" she repeated, closing her eyes and taking a deep inhale of the dusty forest air, "…out…" she blew out and glanced at her hair. Took off about an inch, but it was no longer blazing.

"So…we were saying…oh yes…" Slow words, bored to tears and wanting to leave more then ever, "Alice." He seemed almost pleased at the Queen's reaction.

"Alice," she said the name as if it were poison on her tongue, a sickening word that only the outcasts said, "Find her and do whatever you must to keep her from leaving."

The White Rabbit rolled his eyes and nodded, "Check. Find Alice. Keep from her from leaving," he paused and furrowed his eyebrows…if he had any, "What if she"

"No what-iffing!" she shouted, "Go!"

The Rabbit sighed and trudged away, pulling out the giant pocket watch and looking at it,

"Oh dear…I'm late… very…very late…" he said droopily.

"Okay, I've got one: How old are you?"

"Older then you are."

"Oh come on."

"Listen, I agreed to take you out of the forest, not provide company."

"Fine."

Alice and the Cheshire cat continued on the path, even though there was an animal in front of them dusting it away. In fact, it looked somewhat like a dog. No, a wolf with a few twists. It's ears were at least twice as big as normal and it's snout a lot longer. It had a tail, but it was more of a broom. As he walked, he erased the path. Sweeper was what they called him most of the time.

"So sorry, so sorry," Sweeper sobbed as they passed him, "I can't lift my darn tail and it keeps sweeping everything away. I'm so sorry." He trudged along with his gaze downcast and sighed dramatically.

"Don't worry about it," the Cheshire cat said, walking past Sweeper and straight into the densest part of the forest. There was scarcely any space between the trees. The cat had no problem getting through them, but Alice did.

"Look cat, I'm having a few problems getting through all of this."

"Don't you have that little piece of bread that makes you smaller?" the cat snapped at her, annoyed at her complaints.

"Yes, I do!" Alice pulled out the bread and ate it quickly, surprised at how good it tasted. After not having food for such a long time, she'd forgotten about hunger.

"Wait! Don't eat it yet…!" the cat tried, but Alice had already shrunk to his size (well, actually smaller then him), "Never mind."

"Why not?"

"Well, how long does it last and how to get bigger again?"

"Until I eat the other piece of bread." Alice said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, right," the Cheshire went back to leading the way as the girl looked around the forest with a different perspective.

Everything was incredibly giant. The trees were huge and their roots were like bridges. It was like a whole extraordinary world. She wasn't even that small, but the trees were big even before she was shrunk.

"Stop gaping…" the cat whispered back, "The trees here don't like that."

"What do you mean?" Alice stared at one giant tree in wonder then gasped as it started to pull its roots up.

"That's what I mean!" the bit the sleeve of Alice's dress and urged her to come, "Hurry up!" he bounded through the tight space as the tree grumbled and roared with fury.

"What's happening!" she said, frantically trying to run. Apparently, she wasn't running fast enough. A sharp pain rushed through her shoulder and she could feel thorns dig deep into her skin. She shrieked loudly and fell behind. The cat turned around abruptly and glared at the tree who was picking Alice up like a small bug.

"What are you doing in this part of the forest, little girl?" the tree said, his voice low, angered and all together provoked.

"N-nothing!" Alice said, trying to ignore pain that seared through her entire body. She looked downwards; realizing how far she was from the ground she pleaded with the tree, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm, honest!"

"She's with me." The Cheshire cat hissed at the tree and narrowed his eyes, a few hairs prickling at his neck like a dog.

"Oh?" the tree taunted the cat by letting Alice close to the ground then pulling her up as soon as her feet touched the ground. This sent a piercing pain through her shoulder and around her collarbone.

The tree was quite threatening, a strange sight. Looked like a human with bark and roots basically.

"Yes, she is." He said, letting his claws dig into the dirt.

"Please, I didn't do anything…" Alice cringed as he dropped her face first into the ground.

"Fine, but go away." The tree growled; digging its roots back into the earth and closing it's brown eyes.

"Are you alright Alice…?" the voice was faint and very distant. It sounded like she was underwater…and drowning.

"No." said another voice. It took her a while to realize it was hers. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times.

"That's a good sign." It was the Cheshire cat's voice and she was just making out his shape.

"I'm glad." Alice said sarcastically.

"Hurt and already being sarcastic? I don't know what I'm going to do with you, kid," the cat smirked then smiled.

Alice laughed somewhat. It hurt. No, not her laugh, but something about laughing made something hurt. Ah, her shoulder was the answer. A deep cut started at the top of her shoulder and led past her collarbone. Blood wasn't gushing, but it was obvious that it had been for the past couple of hours.

"What happened?" she groaned, closing her eyes again.

"You passed out a few minutes after the tree chucked you to the floor." The cat said casually and lied down, "You're still small, luckily the wound didn't somehow ruin that. You're alive and you're talking. These are all good signs."

"Did you carry me?" she asked, trying to remember everything. The words tree, thorns, perfume, and flowers passed through her head.

"Yeah, but those stupid flowers gave me a difficult time when you were still awake. They kept wanting to take you and try their perfume on you. You plucked the petal off of one and he shrieked, shriveled up and died." The cat grinned happily, "Good job."

"Oh joy."

"Well, the good thing is we found a nice spot to stay for a few days and that I found a little something that may help that battle wound of yours."

Alice didn't say anything so the cat went on.

"I put some on while you were sleeping, so it should feel better soon. At least that tree didn't damage something that would have affected your walking."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he paused, "And I mean it."