Lady Of The Island

Prologue I

1998

Alice sat alone at her desk with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. The deadline was quickly approaching and she had nothing.
Britt had asked of her such a simple task, yet nothing was coming to her. The most that she had drawn was a box in the corner of the paper, not very productive.

"...Come on, Alice..." She muttered to herself, fully aware that there was nobody to hear her. "This can't be that hard. All she wants are a few character sketches...come on...

Try as she might, nothing came to her. Alice's mind was blank - which was beginning to really annoy her. How could Robert come up with set designs at the click of a wrist, but she can't do anything?

Her pondering was interrupted by a knock at the ancient studio door.
"May I come in?" A soft voice rang out. "Alice?"

Alice stood up and opened the door. Infront of her was a younger woman with long brunette hair, smiling softly in a pink dress.
"Tasha." Alice smiled for once. Tasha was a younger staff member at the Allcroft Company, but had made an impact.

"So, what's got you working overtime?" Tasha asked with a cheeky grin. "Annoyed Britt or David?"

"Quite the opposite, unfortunately...Britt wants me to create some character designs for this new movie they've got us working on...some kind of Thomas the Tank Engine film." She shrugged. "I can't get any designs down."

Tasha slowly walked over to where Alice had been working and stared at the sheet. "You know, I think I could help! Burnett has been working on this engine in his workshop, we could talk to him about bringing her to life on the big screen!" She paused. "It's not like she'll be brought to life in this universe any time soon." She added a laugh.

"You know, Tash, that might work!" Alice's grin returned. "Yeah, I'll take you up on that offer! Let me just clock out and we can be on our way!"

Neither of them had any idea of what they would be getting into...