Chapter One

The spell!

She was a feather, floating softly, drifting down, down, down in lazy, random spirals. Even her occasional cartwheels seemed stately and performed with grace. How strange! She didn't feel dizzy at all. Her stomach didn't seem to know she was free falling.

She fell. She was in a tunnel and she was falling.

This had to be the spell. Willow! What were you doing messing around with magic like that?

Ping A tiny bell tone rippled across her mind and she looped the loop, full circle. Was the magic still working? Had ...

The thought seemed to elude her and she tried to remember what it was. Who was messing with magic? Willow? Wasn't that a tree?

Somehow she felt lighter but fell more slowly.

She supposed it was time to pay attention to her surroundings and she looked about. She was in a tunnel and shelves lined the walls and the walls were lined with clocks. Hundreds and thousands of clocks. Big clocks and little clocks. Grandfather clocks and Mickey Mouse clocks. Clocks with second hands and no hands and hands shaped like hands. Some hands pointed to the hour and some vibrated with alarm. Some hands ... some just waved at her. Some pointed to noon and some to midnight. Tara wasn't sure how she knew the difference but she did.

She giggled.

Hours were passing by! Or was she passing by for hours? She had been floating so long it seemed her natural state. She wondered if perhaps she had stopped falling and it was the tunnel that moved. This had to be magic.

The clocks disappeared and the shelves now held laboratory equipment. Test tubes and beakers and piping and boxes with switches and lights. Perhaps instead of magic she had been in lab class and a science experiment had gone wrong. Science in Sunnydale could take strange turns.

Tara heard a ping. Sunnydale? Lab class? That was silly. Her father would never let her take science. He'd never let her leave home. Too dangerous for a demon girl.

Somehow she felt lighter but fell more slowly.

She thought perhaps she had slept. This trip was taking so long and it was so boring. She was sure she had slept and dreamt a little song. Ping, ping, ping. The tune played in her head even now. She felt so light. As soon as she landed she was going to get herself a heavy meal. A shadow slid over her and she looked up ... down? ... and saw that someone else was floating. Half a yard and a universe away she thought. She should have noticed before. Spike? Was that Spike?

A ping echoed in her head and she thought perhaps she was getting closer to the sound of the music. She looped and her pinafore flew over her head and she was embarrassed. She hoped the boy couldn't see her panties.

Pinafore?

PING

She woke and didn't have the slightest idea where she was.

A moment passed and she realized she didn't have the slightest idea who she was.

She was lying in a field of dying flowers; all choked by weeds. She heard the flowers gasping and sat up in alarm. Grasping the weeds that were closest she tried to loosen their stranglehold but they wrapped around her hands and pulled back. She struggled, frightened by their strength. What if they pulled her right into the ground? She managed to untangle herself but hadn't uprooted a single weed. There was nothing she could do. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Poor flowers!

"Are you all right, Luv?"

She rolled around and onto her knees. The most beautiful boy she had ever seen sat a few feet away. At least, she thought he must be the most beautiful boy, she couldn't remember ever seeing another. She was sure that most boys were loud and uncouth and ugly, though. Not like this one. His eyes were the same color as the sky and the golden curls around his head were brighter than the blossoms in the field. Especially since those were dying. He tilted his head as she stared at him and he smiled. Her stomach lurched and she felt a blush spreading onto her face and over her ears. She was certain she looked like a tomato.

The boy looked to be about the same age as she was. She thought her age was about the same as his. Oh, this was too terrible. She couldn't remember anything. She stood up and brushed at the mud on her skirts, letting her hair fall into her face. She peered at him through the tangled strands and was struck by a horrible notion. What if he was her brother? She hoped he wasn't. He was prettier than she was. She knew he was and no girl should have a brother that was prettier than herself.

He jumped to his feet and the sun sparkled on his hair, turned it into a crown. Her breath caught as he walked toward her. Perhaps he was a prince. That might explain why he was more beautiful than other boys. His clothes were certainly fashionable. Tight fitting knee breeches, and waistcoat of blue. A sailor suit. Tara remembered that such outfits were called sailor suits. She was sure she had seen pictures of young princes dressed just like that. If he wasn't a prince he was at least high born or well bred.

"Bugger all. You got any idea where we are?"

The strangest thought went through her head. He isn't supposed to swear. Guess the spell didn't change everything.

He reached his hand toward her and gently pushed a lock of her hair to the side. He looked into her eyes, stared intently, and they were so blue she lost the strange thought and all thought and forgot to breathe. She dipped her head further, frantic, slid her eyes away to stare at the horizon.

"Luv. You with me here?" He was speaking very gently now like he was afraid she would bolt and she thought he might be right. "What's your name?"

She didn't know what to say so she said the first thing that came to mind. "T-T-Tara." She froze.

Yes, that felt right. Her name was Tara. Emboldened, she lifted her eyes to his but they skittered back to the horizon when he smiled at her. She made the effort to speak but her tongue seemed to lose all flexibility and she could only stutter. "Wha-wha-wha..." She was certain she sounded like a steam engine.

"Slow down, pet. We've got nowhere to go, seein' as how we don't know where we are. Take your time and say your piece when you're ready. In fact, let's just have a sit down and think for a bit." His voice made her think of a crystal bell.

Tara didn't sit. Rather her legs melted as the boy grasped her elbow with one hand and slid his other arm around her waist and guided her until she sat safely on the ground. She felt like an invalid. She felt so stupid. He must be wishing he was lost with anybody but her. She pulled up her knees to her head, wrapped her arms around them and hid her face. Tears bubbled into her eyes. The boy patted her back and when he spoke she marveled at the gentleness in his voice. Gentle wasn't something she associated with male voices.

"S'all right, Luv. Really it is. Anybody'd be upset. Don't know where we are but it isn't Kansas. That much I know. Sure your name isn't Dorothy?"

She peeked at him from the safety of her little knee tower and was amazed to see him smiling. He really wasn't upset! She knew that someone ... some others always got upset when she stuttered or became shy. He looked away as though he could sense that his gaze made her nervous. Tara thought that was wonderful. Her tears dried and after a little while she looked up. She chewed her lips and concentrated very hard. "Wh-what's your name?"

His smile was very bright. She could see one eyetooth was bit crooked, a little longer than the others and thought it made him even more beautiful.

"Good question. Wish I could answer."

"You don't even know your name?" Tara started to duck her head again but stopped herself. "What feels right? I didn't remember my name. I felt it."

"Yeah? Let me try." He crossed his eyes at her and she giggled. "Guess I don't feel very well 'cause I'm not getting any names. There a trick to it?"

Tara could only shake her head. She couldn't explain. She had just done it.

"Maybe if you sound off a few names. Maybe I'll get a tickle."

She could do this. "Andrew."

The boy shook his head.

"Alvin?"

He shook his head.

"Alex?" She stopped when his expression changed. He seemed to consider then shook his head. "Nope. Seems familiar but it isn't right. Maybe a brother or something."

Tara frowned. She didn't want to think about brothers. She continued naming names. "James ... Riley ... Sam." She listed all the boy's names she could think of, one by one.

"... William."

They looked at each other. Tara touched his hand and wondered at her own daring. "I think that's the one. William feels right. To me, anyway."

"Me, too. Feels right to me." He studied her for a moment. "Except it doesn't. Can't say why. I think it's my name but nobody calls me that. Make sense?"

"Maybe you have a nickname." Tara offered the explanation and waited for his scorn.

"Bloody brilliant! You're a right genius, Luv. Spike! See, I just needed a shove in the right direction. I'm Spike."

Tara thought she liked the sound of William better, until she saw the look of admiration Spike was giving her. Her heart swelled and a smile burst onto her face. Spike was absolutely the most wonderful name in all the world because it belonged to the most wonderful boy in all the world. She was smiling at him and he was smiling at her and suddenly he wasn't.

Spike's eyes widened until Tara could see the whites all around them and he stared behind her, mesmerized. She could hear a strange whiffling sound and the sound of something whipping through the weeds and strangled flowers. She didn't want to look but a compulsion took hold of her and she turned.

Words popped into her mind like the first kernels of popcorn bursting open in a pan. Predator. Dinosaur. Raptor. She immediately knew they were the wrong words.

The two powerful legs and three-toed feet seemed to fit, as did the long, bobbing tail, but the neck... it coiled around itself like a snake, slithering back and forth. The blunt teeth were huge slabs, protruding from tentacled jaws that snapped and bit. Long, sinewy arms ended in feathery-tipped fingers that clawed and snatched at the air.

No dinosaur ever wore a waistcoat, though, and Tara was sure that no raptor ever had wings. Another word popped.

"Jabberwock."