CHAPTER WARNING:
This chapter does infer to the use of date rape drugs but I swear nothing comes of it except the victim fall unconscious and-spoilers-the person responsible for using the drugs gets exactly what he deserves.
I just wanted to warn you now and if you want to completely skip this chapter by my guest if things like this are triggers for you.
The first thing Alice did when she opened her eyes was lift her wrist checking to be sure the multicolored bracelet was still tightly wound around her wrist. The second was to check that the second vile she'd brought with her was still in tacked from the hard landing she'd made against the forest floor. Mercifully it was.
"Right. Now for the easy part." she laughed pushing herself to her feet brushing the bits of earth and twigs from her pants. If this Robin was anything like her own, then she shouldn't be too hard to find in her natural world. "Unless I could get a little help. Speed things along a little." Alice mused her eyes still closed as she listened to the world around her.
It didn't take long until the band on her wrist to pulse in a familiar warmth like fingers wrapped around her wrist pulling her forward, but it soon turned cold when she set off in a possible direction. "Okay then." Alice mused biting back a hiss from the sting of the chill now racing up her arm as she turned setting off again only for the cold to grow making her veer off in another direction with the same result. It was only until she'd done a complete circle that the ice reseated from around her wrist and the warmth returned. "You just have to be difficult don't you." Alice huffed shaking out the cold from her fingertips as she started walking again taking care to look out for any possible trip lines as she headed deeper into the trees.
She reached the edge of a village just as the sun cleared the trees she almost chuckled at the covenant line of drying clothes that seemed at first glance to be exactly her size and even after several minutes of hunting around for a good hiding spot once she'd changed finding a leather satchel, so she wouldn't have to leave the clothes she'd landed in behind. "Thanks, Henry." Alice whispered stashing her clothes inside it and pulling the strap over her head then pulling up the hood on the cloak clasped across her shoulders as she set off again letting the warmth around her wrist guide her.
Alice needed a plain. She knew just asking where this Robin was was out of the question but since landing in this realm all the groundwork she and her Robin had put into place in their talks about what they should do went out the window.
The creek of a sign over her head made her stop and look up. "Okay, maybe not as hopeless as I thought." Alice admitted pausing a little longer to admire the peeling paint of the tavern's sign before heading inside. As excepted people looked over at her entrance but after a quick once over when the lost interest in her none of them were who she was hunting for but maybe she'd get lucky if she waited.
"What's a pretty woman like yourself doing in a place like this all by your lonesome?" a gruff voice asked setting a mug of clear liquid in front of her. "It just water until you order something stronger." He tells her at Alice's uneasy glance from the drink to him and back again. She still is unconvinced crossing her arms as she leans back in her chair. "I'm waiting for someone." She tells him it not really a lie "and you picked here to wait for them?" the man questioned with a stiff laugh and a shake of his head. "Not many people have your guts since the attack." He sighed but before she could ask for any more information he'd already moved off back to the bar.
After a good hour of waiting slowly nursing the third mug of what was in fact water as she watched people come and go without any hint of the one, she wanted Alice was starting to lose hope. With a defeated groan she pushed her hood back letting it fall across her shoulders as she got up starching her arms over her head. With only a glance up from cleaning a few glasses the bartender pointed her to the back when she approached the bar. "Thanks." She whispered heading off to the back room with one last look at the few customers. When she returned a few minutes later it was to a rather unwelcome sight in the seat opposite the one she had been using for the last hour.
He looked exactly the same as he had the time he'd ordered his men to lock both her and her Robin up in the tavern's cell for being 'Troll Lovers'
"Have a drink with me." He said by way of a greeting as Alice approached the table again. Henry better have a good reason for bringing this man in or she was going to punch him when she got back home. "Now I know everyone in this town. But you. You I don't know." He said conversationally when she does as he wants and sits down. She could tell he was lying but couldn't put her finger on why while he signals for the bartender to bring them over another round of drinks.
"Tilly. Tilly West." Alice introduces holding out her hand across the table her smile real enough to get him to take it. "I'm just waiting for a friend then I'll be out of your hair." She explains just as she had to the bartender. "So, who is this friend your waiting so patiently for?" her companion probes leaning across the table toward her when Alice's eyes flicker to the door over his shoulder when it opens again. "My betrothed as a matter of fact." She says trying to be polite when all she really wants if to reach over and punch the man right in his face for reasons he didn't know about as her eyes meet his.
"Well, I hope he shows soon." He says getting to his feet the second Alice finished off the last of the liquid in her mug and after some more rounds of polite conversation mostly on his part while Alice continued her people watching. Gah now she knows why her Papa stopped drinking. Apart from the strange flowery taste hard liquor was disgusting but she forces it down under her companion's watchful eyes. "You and me both." She agrees thinking of giving Robin another five minutes of waiting before moving on and letting the hot and cold campus on her wrist guide her again.
Alice walks out of the bar ten minutes later with a scowl and directions to the nearest inn seeing as she wasn't going to chance walking around in the dark no matter how much she trusted her guide.
She'd just made a street over from the tavern when it hit her making her stagger a bit on her feet. How could a hardened street-smart woman like her not known until it was too late what had happened to her? Alice curses again struggling against the effects of the drug and vowing vengeance on the author for allowing this in his work when the warmth around her wrist rose just enough to ground her, so she could trip her way into the alcove of a shop front to get her bearings, but Alice had bigger problems at the moment than figuring out what that meant.
"I was about to give up on you." The man from the tavern laughed melting out of the shadows across the strip of road separating them. Alice cursed when her legs chose that moment to give out on her, but she'd had enough time to drop into a chair when her would be attacker dropped to his knees with a surprised grunt then dropped onto his face in the muddy road with three arrows sticking out of his back.
Alice blinks hard against the drugs still in her system but only coming up with a person-sized black blob in front of her eyes as her rescuer retrieved the arrows from her victim before turning to deal with her. The last thing Alice hears besides a greeting of "Let's get you off the streets in this condition" is a disbelieving gasp as the band around her wrist continues pulsing with a wildfire of power as those strong arms Alice loves slid under her legs pulling her up against her savior's chest before Alice loses her fight against the darkness of unconsciousness.