Alys In Wonderland

Chapter Three

The Prince and the Reject

Prince Zoku's eye twitched and his fist clenched the rail of his ship.

Beside him, Iroh was chuckling softly. "I'm starting to wonder if something's wrong with you, nephew." He sipped from a cup of Ginseng tea. "The Fates are most certainly against you."

Zuko's eye twitched again, and he tried to control his anger. Maybe he could get a life sized doll of the Avatar and burn it to a crisp. That would make him feel better.

A young Firebender soldier appeared in the doorway, and saluted. " The Avatar has been spotted, sir, resting in a nearby village on the shore."

Zuko nodded. Iroh left to give orders to the crew to change their course to the village. Zuko dismissed the soldier, and left to his room to practice his Firebending.

That night, the ship rested lightly against the sandy beach. Firebenders, catlike and unnoticed in the night, moved into the forest, followed by two slowly walking figures, arguing amongst themselves.

"Zuko, you cannot expect that the Avatar has waited all day for us, can you? Why don't we just drink some tea and relax?"

Prince Zuko growled and hurried his pace, ignoring his Uncle's ever-constant request to drink tea. Damn tea. Damn all the tea that ever was! Images flitted in his mind of Uncle's tea cache burning in a fiery cave of hell. He smirked. That would be almost as good as finally catching the Avatar and earning his father's respect.

Light shone ahead of him, almost completely obscured by the thick forestry. Curious, he broke away from the group and stepped through the trees to follow it.

Catlike, he made his way to the edge of a clearing and stopped. A young child, their back turned away from him, was turned towards the campfire that had brought him here. They wore a jacket and hood, obscuring their head, but he could just barely see small hands rummaging through a large bag filled with books and a small assortment of items he couldn't make out.

A smile came to his lips. The child must have been from the village, and would therefore know where the Avatar was. If this child—which could be frightened easily, as all children could—could lead him to the Avatar, without alerting anyone who could make his mission fail, then he might finally capture the Avatar once and for all.

Slowly and quietly he stepped into the clearing, and brought himself behind the child, and attacked.

Alys was looking for her glasses—which had been lost in the jungle that was her school bag—when she felt strong hands wrap around her waist and pull her upwards by her hair. She tried to scream, but her throat was raw and swollen from her crying when she had first arrived, alone and frightened, in this forest.

The hands that held her captive spun her around and held her even tighter. She struggled, but they would not relent, and finally she slumped into the hostile arms, too tired to care what fate had to hand out to her. With her luck, it would be bad, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Prince Zuko smirked and leaned down, though the child hid their face from him. Fine, let him play his little games. I've work to do. He positioned his mouth next to their ear, and whispered in the most threatening voice he could muster, "Tell me where the Avatar is, now, or you'll die on the spot." He felt the child trembling, and his smile widened. So far so good.

A trembling, weak voice answered. "I don't know what your talking about."

He growled and tightened his grip, but a twig snapping brought his, and his captive's, attention to behind him.

At the edge of the clearing, where he had entered, stood his uncle, grinning, with a cup of—tea? Did that man honestly bring tea with him on raids?—in his hands.

"Having fun?" Iroh asked, his voice ringing out in the silence of the forest.

Zuko frowned, wondering what was so funny, and followed his uncle's gaze toward his captive.

He dropped her like a hot iron.

The 'child' he had captured was in fact a young woman, most likely a year or two younger than him, and very attractive, he noticed. Long, silky black hair veiled her face, obscuring a pair of wide, frightened violet eyes that stole his breath.

Thinking she had been a mere child—she did look rather small—he had held her up by her waist and hair, which had been fine before, but now, under the circumstances looked slightly…wrong. They were too close. She was breathing heavily. His hand was in her hair. Etcetera, etcetera.

Iroh chuckled and watched the girl crawl away from him, muttering to herself, and cross the fire to her bag. She grabbed it, held on to it tight, and began to mutter more intensely to herself and stare into the fire, unseeing.

Alys closed her eyes and chanted to herself, "I'm home, I'm home, I'm home…". She squeezed her eyes tighter and tried to imagine her home, her neighborhood street, the sidewalk, the cars going by, the—

A car honked.

Her eyes flew open. She was home, sitting on the sidewalk with her bag in her arms. To her right, there was the street, and the streetlights buzzing awkwardly, but welcoming her. She grinned, and turned her gaze to the car that had honked, and was still honking and speeding down the street in what looked like a case of road rage.

She blinked. Someone was standing in the middle of the street.

She cursed, and searched through her bag to find her glasses. Finally she found them wedged under her Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Antrax book, and fitted them on her face.

She blinked.

She blinked again, and rubbed her temples.

Oh, hell.

Standing in the middle of the street, pale faced and in shock, was someone she recognized all to well. She should know. Her computer had his face for a background, with the words, "HOT!" in fire emblazoned letters.

Prince Zuko, of Avatar.

Crap.