Just Alice

Chapter 4

            I’ve been falling now for what seems like hours. I stopped my screaming and feeling terrified long ago. Now I’m just simply bored… Oh When, oh when will I reach the ground? Will I die of boredom first? And here I thought I was thrusting myself into the adventure of a lifetime. “Perhaps it would have been better if I had stayed put like Daniels wanted me to.” I sigh. “At least this feeling of dullness would have subsided by now.” Oh what a tedious torture… I yawn and clasp my hand over my mouth to cover it. I then stretch, feeling sleepy. I rub my eyes to keep them from closing and when I open them I’m hit with a pang of excitement.

        Finally I see colors other than blue, and to think blue was my favorite color… Today I had enough blue to last me a lifetime…perhaps, perhaps not. Hard to say really, I still like it. I just want to get out of this dull hole, portal, realm, or whatever this may be. Yet I realize as I pass through the hole, which barely opened up to fit me in, that I’m still falling and so my scream begins anew. I close my eyes and prepare myself for impact, but instead I feel myself being caught by strong arms. Someone has save me. My hero! I open my eyes to find those blue-green eyes that I loath fervently looking back at me. “My hero.” I said flatly.

          “Dear Alice! At last I have you just where I want you, in my arms.” Rab sounded too ecstatic, but his delight was my misery. I put on my big fake smile, and so the show must go on. “Why thank you for saving me! Would you please let this lady down, oh kind sir.” “I don’t believe I wish to do that.” He replied smugly. Ugh, the nerve of this guy. He sure knows how to push my buttons.

            “Now Mr. White you are a gentleman. Are you not?” His smile broadens, but he doesn’t reply. He just looks at me with that annoying grin pasted on his face. However, he does let me down gently, to my dismay. I look around and only see desert. I turn slowly to take in my surroundings, and see desert, desert, desert, and then a forest? A forest, not even ten feet from me…

          “Alice dear, don’t even think about it.” “Think about what exactly?” I played dumb which was fairly easy to do with my cute face and blonde hair. “My sweet Alice, let’s not play these games here in Wonderland. There is no pretending in Wonderland.” “Oh Mr. White whatever do you mean?” “A word of advice Alice, here in wonderland we can recognize the lie from the truth, and most here don’t take kindly being lied to. Let just say liars don’t live to tell another fib.”

             I gasp in shock. I couldn’t believe my own ears. Is this rude guy implying that I’m a liar? “I do not lie.” I declared in exasperation. “Is a pretense not a lie? Are my ears not white?” “I don’t like to pretend. I simply have something you seem to lack Mr. White, and that is manners. I’m polite even to people who obviously don’t deserve it.” I raise my chin up and look away from him, in what I hope to be a rude gesture, as I fold my arms over my chest.

         That’s when I take notice of Rab’s gang for the first time since I opened my eyes in this strange land. They’re surrounding me, and on closer inspection I see just how odd they are. What I thought were gloves are their actual hands, their body suit seems to be their skin, and it has feathers, which brings me to their hair, as those mohawks seem to be made of feathers as well. Their faces seem to be their only human attribute, however it’s all wrinkled and it looks extremely dry, oh and they have a large beak where a nose and lips should be. These men-birds truly frighten me, particularly those endlessly dark eyes.

            I hide behind Rab, not that it’ll do much as he’s their leader. “Do not worry Alice, the cookoo birds won’t harm you… unless I order them to do so that is.” Rab said in a rather friendly tone, but I can very well recognize when someone is threatening me.