Alice

Little Old Lady

The White Kingdom was surrounded by tall walls with guard posts a few meters apart. The houses and shops where all made of the same white wood with sparks of colour coming from the flower and blossom trees. “They,” Jace said as he stepped through the door after me, pointing to the wall and its towers, “were built a few years ago, just an extra precaution encase of attack. About a month before the wall had been built the red army managed to get into the kingdom and kidnap the queen.”

 “A small team was sent to retrieve her, but things like that leave a mark, some more noticeable then others.” Molly said as she locked the door behind us, her eyes briefly flicking to Lucy. “Try not to bring any of this up when you meet the queen, it may have happened years ago but the wounds are still tender. Dave can you lead the way?”

He gave a quick nod before walking through the streets of the kingdom. The people all wore white with the trims and accents on their clothes a variety of different colours, compared to these women in their long white dresses that reached to their ankles, I felt exposed in my bright blue dress that only barely covered my knees. “You guys go ahead,” Jace said, grabbing my arm. “Alice can’t go to meet the queen in these, we will meet up with you.” Before the others could argue he pulled me towards the centre of the village. “I saw you notice the people looking at you.” He obviously noticed the look I had given him as he pulled me along the street. “They are used to see us in bright colours but you; you are a novelty to them. They don’t know you and you aren’t exactly dressed modestly.”

“What’s wrong with my dress?” I frowned, “If you think I am bad then you should see the other girls from where I’m from, compared to them I am practically a saint. I am practically the most modestly dressed girl my age.”

“I fear for the girls of your world then, to dress as such is a shame, why do they see the need to do so?” he turned his head to me before turning down a side street.

“They do it because they need to get the attention of the rich men, if not in hopes to marry one then just to get some money from selling themselves. They dress like that because, where I come from they have no other choice, earthier they steal and risk getting thrown in jail or they whore themselves out, while the police turn a blind eye.”

Now it was Jace’s turn to frown, “Then I am happy that Lucy could take you away from that, nobody should have to do that just to put food on the table.” We walked a little further in silence before he stopped me in front of a small boutique. “Right, this is the only place that will stock what we are looking for, after you my lady.” I smiled at myself, the people here where so strange.

The boutique was filled with dresses of all kinds, from ones with skirts so puffy that they barely fitted on the rack to ones that looked like they would hug your hips in some kind of death grip, but one thing all these dresses had in common was that they were all made of different shades of white. “Marcy! I have a customer for you!” Jace called to someone in the store. A tiny old lady hobbled from out the back of the store. They old lady looked at me, her eyes widening at the sight of my dress. “If it is ok with you Marcy I think something from the back would suit her better.”

She turned to Jace, “Where the hell did you find this one! She is dressed like some kind of tramp!” Marcy snapped at Jace. “And why is it that whenever you or one of your little friends visit my store, you insist of clothes from the back! What is wrong with white? Much easy and cheaper to make then those dame things you want!” She grumbled as she shuffled back out of the room, “You can wait here. You come with me girl.” I had just been dragged into a world I didn’t understand with people that could talk through their minds and wanted to kill me, but this little old lady was a hell of a lot scarier then all that put together.

I turned to Jace, with a look of pure terror, “What have you gotten me into?”