"Doctor, where are we? Why the hell are we in a forest?"
"Well, I thought it might be a nice change."
"Really? We were supposed to be going to the 15th broken moon of the Medusa Cascade, which was your idea in the first place..., Hold on. The TARDIS just landed itself, didn't it."
"Yup."
"Why?"
"Well…"The Doctor ruffled the back of his hair and tried to avoid his companion's gaze.
"Wow, it's not very often that you're speechless, Spaceman. Let's see what's out there!" Donna brushed against his arm, and swung open the doors. The Doctor followed her out, grabbing his long brown trench coat as he passed the console.
The forest was very much like a normal forest, with emerald green trees that rustled in the slight breeze, and large birds that swooped overhead. Orange light from the nearest star streamed through the leaves, casting a warm glow over all of the brush. Tiny blue forget-me-nots grew in massive bundles along a thin dirt path lined with stones. Enormous red and white mushrooms sprung up as large yellow butterflies touched the ground. The TARDIS was landed in a thick bed of clover that got squashed under The Doctor's converse.
"Hey, I wonder if we could find a four leaf clover in all of this." The Doctor wondered aloud.
"Probably not with my luck...But a space four leaf clover would be..." Donna was cut off by the sound of a child screaming, and the rumbling of massive footsteps. The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver as a massive hairy beast exploded out of the tree line. In front of it was a very small girl, running as fast as her legs could take her. Her hair and dress flew behind her like the tail of a comet. She turned into the clover covered clearing where the pair was standing. The Doctor swooped up the girl, and rushed her and Donna into the TARDIS. The beast roared and gnashed its massive sharp teeth as it pawed at the blue wooden box.
"Are you alright?"
"Who are you?" The girl asked in a very posh accent.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is Donna Noble. Pleased to meet you uh..."
"Alice. Yes, well, thanks for saving me."
"If you don't mind me asking, what was that thing and why was it chasing you?"
"That was a bandersnatch..." Alice uncomfortably wrung her hands.
"...and one of my friends stole this." Alice pulled an object folded in a handkerchief out of her pinafore and slowly unwrapped it. It was a big red eye, about the size of a baseball. It was slightly moist, and Donna swore the eye could still be watching them.
They were interrupted by the pounding on the walls and the scraping noise coming from outside.
"Maybe it would be wise to return that…"
"Yes, I suppose so. I have to wonder why Mallymkun stole such a peculiar object." Alice carefully cracked open the TARDIS door. She could hear the bandersnatch panting and slobbering all over the crushed clovers. She rolled the eye outside, and waited silently. The bandersnatch sniffed the eye, than grunted and scooped it up in his paws. It left with a defeated look and a soft grunt, and then disappeared into the emerald woods.
"I suppose I should leave now, I think I've caused enough trouble as it is. I have places to be, but I'm not sure where those places are at this moment." Alice pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to The Doctor. It was a map of the forest, with sections spiraling off into other parts of the planet. The sections were color coded, save for a section in the top left where there was nothing written. There was a hole in the paper there, with curled burn marks around the edges.
"What used to be there?" Donna took the paper in her hands and smoothed it over with her fingers.
"Oh, I'm not sure. There isn't a single map that shows what is outside the Red Queen's territory. I was told that there is nothing out there, but I don't believe that for a second. I'm not from around here."
"Oh really? Where are you from?"
"England. I fell down a hole and somehow I ended up here." The Doctor looked at Alice's clothes, which were obviously not from the 21st century. How could someone from the past end up in the future on a different planet? She obviously didn't have a TARDIS or Vortex Manipulator, so it was not of her own accord. He couldn't tell her she was in space in a totally different time; it might just scare her…
"I'm trying to go home. It's far away from here. I'm just going to go..." Alice walked out of the TARDIS and started towards the path. When she passed the fork in the road, the wooden direction signs started spinning. When they stopped they revealed a different message.
DO NOT PASS