Hi! Z here, finally, the next chapter's up! YAY! Sorry its been so long, I already had the chapter done actually, its just that I'm really, really lazy.

Disclaimer: Yay! The dreaded disclaimer! Anyway, I do not own anything in this story except the plot and me (good to see I still own myself) anyway, lets get on with it, chapter 3, hope you like it!

Z

Chapter 3

Through The Looking Glass.
Z was unaccustomed to change. He hated it, though there seemed to be an awful lot of it around lately.
He had arrived from his journey through the Fiction Dimension Port in a giant pen and now, well, he didn't know where he was. His second go through a porthole wasn't so bad, he recovered quicker and the shock factor wasn't so high. Instantly his hands reached for his pistols and slowly drew them. He held them at waist height and began his descent down the long, winding staircase in front of him.
They were weird, almost crooked steps, sloping a little to the left. When he finally reached the bottom he discovered a small hole in front of him, so, figuring he had nothing to loose, he jumped into it and began to plummet into the darkness.

He didn't get far. About six metres down Z realised he was falling a little slow. Inhumanly slow, in fact. He was actually floating, as if caught in an updraft, floating down slowly. Things began to float past him, clocks, pieces of furniture, even an armchair that he sat in briefly. Things were starting to get a familiar, a little to familiar for Z's own liking. He knew this, he knew this entire sequence, it was from Alice In Wonderland! He came to a stop minutes later. He seemed to be sitting in the fireplace of a small room. There was a table in the middle and a tiny door at the far side. Its knob seemed to have a face.
Z stood, brushing some soot from his clothes; he holstered his guns and walked cautiously towards the door. "Hello!" Said the doorknob, "I'm..." "Yes, I know who you are! You are an insignificant little door!" "Well!" Said the door, quite taken aback. "There's no need to be nasty I'm just trying to be..." "Oh shut up! I know the whole thing! I can't get through you so you tell me to drink from the bottle so I do, then I go all big and I start crying, well not in this tale, Cinderella!" And, drawing his guns, Z blasted the door of its hinges and slid through the newly made hole in the wall.
Z was angry, fear and hatred rising inside him, only to clash horribly, making him nervous and twitchy. Ahead of him Z could see a small party of people dancing around a fire, a dodo leading the pack.
Z did not like this. It was all way to weird for him. So he decided he'd obliterate everything that got in his way. "Hey!" He wondered up to the dodo and smirked at his little blue waistcoat. "Don't you know dodos are extinct?" And with that he blasted the hell out of him.

He only had one option now. The forest and he knew all to well what was in the forest. Tweedly Dee and Tweedly Dum (Note to self: Check spelling. Any suggestions?)
He was all to right. They were sitting upon a log telling Alice a story. Alice? Alice? But Alice dosen't exist! Oh well, go with the flow.
Z considered blasting them in the back, then setting the forest alight, but no. He decided he'd just ignore this part. Too Late. Alice saw him. "Over here!" She cried. "Over here! You wouldn't know a way out would you?"

"No!" Z shouted back, but she was already coming over, so he ran for it.
He couldn't stand this! His brain couldn't stand this! He would have passed out had it not been for the thought of waking up with the Cheshire Cat staring at him. That was defiantly more than he could bare.
He ran. He ran far through the forest, never looking back. He didn't notice the paving stones, or the arrow in the ground, he didn't notice a solitary smile floating in the trees, he didn't even notice the entrance to the Queens maze. He just ran on and on and on.

Z skidded to a halt. A shining pane of glass was hanging in front of him. For a moment he considered blasting it, but then changed his mind and collapsed into it instead. The glass shattered with an almighty crash, sending him plummeting into darkness.

He awoke in a bed. Please no, he thought, please God no, what had he done now? He looked to his left and then to his right. The bed was a single. He breathed a sigh of relief and stood. He was fully clothed. He breathed a second sigh of relief. He looked across the room and soon discovered it was a girls room. He gasped in horror. Whose room? He wasn't waiting around to find out.
He quickly checked his guns. They were intact. Good. He left silently, easing the door shut behind him. He ran down the corridor and opened another door. It led to a library. He accessed the situation and decided to hide behind a large oak bookstand.
Z sat hunched against the shelf. He felt better, after the dream he had...Oh No! The dream! Of course, it had been no dream, he would have liked to have thought so, but the truth was obvious. He had been in Alice In Wonderland! He had been INSIDE it! Was he going crazy? No. He remembered Daz, he remembered the Fiction Dimension Port.
He had been IN the forest he had MET Alice, he had even gone THROUGH the looking glass and he remembered every bit of it like a disgusting, filthy nightmare! But he knew that he had been INSIDE it, there was no question about it, it was all too real to be a dream.
He had a sudden jolt of recognition. He was most probably still in fiction now! But where was he? Girls bedroom, corridor, library...he looked around and checked the stairs, they went down in spirals, as did the floor, a spiral library... there was no mistake about it, he was inside a book he had once read, the Abhorsen trilogy.
That meant Lirael was here! And most probably the Disreputable Dog and Mogget to! (Lirael, the main hero in the book Lirael and the Abhorsen; Disreputable Dog, her dog friend who helps her; Mogget, a little white cat, who's actually an evil creature bound by a magic collar) He had to meet them; some of his favourite fictional characters...No! He had to concentrate on the main goal, getting home. He didn't care where he went now, back to Earth or back to Blitzen City, just as long as he went back to reality. Back to reality? That sounded funny, like that film, back to the future. Z smiled and stood, he had to find a way out.

Lirael had had a rough day. The Clayr (The name of Lirael's community) had given her the job of librarian. It may sound easy, but librarian was no pushover. The library was known to be a dangerous place. Many monsters, horrors and magical items often fell through portholes and there were many mysterious locked doors in the library.
Lirael sheathed her librarian's knife and pushed open the door to her room. As soon as she entered she knew something was wrong, gut instinct. There was an in print on her bed; someone had been laying in it. Also her uniform was scrunched up in the corner, as if someone had kicked it aside.
She decided to go down to the library for a bit. Maybe that would calm her down.
She was wrong. No sooner had Lirael began to ease the door open she caught sight of someone moving around inside the library. It was a man, no, a boy or at least a boy with the look and air of a man. She estimated that he was about fifteen years old; he had dark brown hair, very dark and peculiar hazel/green coloured eyes. He wore a strange sort of waistcoat and ruffled trousers, holsters to, carrying what looked like two long, silver pistols. Not good. Lirael was armed with only a knife. She considered going back for help, but the boy had already spotted her.

"Come out with your hands up and don't try anything funny!" Melodramatic, thought Z, but it got the right response. A young girl, fourteen, maybe fifteen years of age opened the door slowly. She wore long brown hair down to her shoulders and was extremely pretty.
Z stared openly. Now, now, he told himself, don't get carried away, first rule of combat, never underestimate the enemy. He saw the knife strapped to her waist, other than that she had no weapons, no weapons that could be seen at any rate. "Lay down the knife. Slowly." Ordered Z. The girl obliged. "Now tell me, what's your name?" "Lirael." Whispered the girl. Z's heart skipped a beat. "Lirael?" It took him a minute to figure it out, but he soon came to the conclusion that this girl had no idea that in three years time she would embark on a huge adventure.
"Okay, now tell me this, how old are you and are you armed?" "I'm fifteen and no, the knife was my only weapon." "Good. Now, I need a way out of this place. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find, oh, say, a porthole to another dimension?"
"I don't think so. You could try some of the doors. They're usually locked, but rumour has it that behind some are certain magical warps." Magical warps? Just what he needed. "Okay. Take me to one of these doors."
Lirael led him down two flights of steps and stopped at a door with a sun symbol engraved upon it. "This doors locked. I've tried to get in myself." She looked him straight in the eye, Z saw she was telling the truth, that was good, the last thing he needed was an ambush. Slowly, he drew his pistols.
In less than two seconds Z had blasted the door of its hinges, before proceeding down the flight of stairs ahead. The two of them ended up in a dark, dank corridor leading to another door. Z blasted that one to, even though it was unlocked and they wondered on through another corridor.
Lirael shivered. "You cold?" Z asked, every inch the gallant gentleman. "A bit." Replied Lirael bluntly. "Here." Z handed her a small red pellet. "Swallow it, it'll make you feel better." Lirael was anxious, the pellet could be a sedative, or even poison, but you just didn't argue with a young man who happened to be tightly clutching a pair of pistols.
She took the pill and swallowed it, instantly she felt a hot flush through her body, the boy had been right, she did feel better and warmer to. "Thank you." She said and then realised that she did not know his name. "Ummm," she started. "May I, ask your name?" "Z. Just Z." Lirael opened her mouth, as if to say something, but the words never left her lips, because at that exact same moment something moved down the corridor in front of them and Z caught the stench of the acrid, metallic taste of Free Magic. YAY! Third chapter finished! I'd just like to say I STILL have to write the fourth chapter and I'm going on holiday for a week now, but it shouldn't be to long till its up. Oh, scary Free Magic! I'd just like to say that the fourth chapter will see the return of Daz, to help thicken the plot! Feeds plot some cabbage sauce, grow faster plot! Faster! Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, and you SHALL review! NOW! Anyway, R&R folks! And until next time, Seeya!
Z