Project: Alice

Through the Trees,

The trees grew so dense that Elinor had to hold onto Orin, who in turn was draped over Theodore's shoulders again, so that they didn't get lost or separated "where are we going?" she asked for the fourth time

"It's just a bit further" he answered again

"Okay, that's great," she spluttered as a branch snapped against her forehead, leaves hitting her nose and eyes "but what exactly is this 'it' we have been walking towards for well over a half hour?" she insisted, stepping over a log, she was growing increasingly envious of Orin's floating over every obstacle.

Theo sighed in exasperation "we are going to my house, we're going to find out what suit you belong in, Alice, and then we're going to make some war plans, none of which I should be telling you out loud as the queen's soldiers patrol this forest and so far, they have remained unaware of my presence, is that enough information for you? Please be quiet now?" despite the sharp edge on his words, his tone was fearfully pleading and it made her hesitate and become quiet, it wasn't much further ahead that she first saw the house, so overgrown with flowering bushes and being leaned on so heavily by a tree that she wondered how it didn't collapse, but it suddenly made sense why supposedly competent soldiers hadn't noticed him yet "it looks abandoned" she blurted, completing her own thought out loud

"That's the idea, now let's go figure out your suit, and please, be actually quiet?" he led them towards the door, his keys rattling against the broken pocket watch they were chained to as he pulled them out.

"Are you boys behaving yourselves?" A girl sat under one of the dusty windows, winding one of the tresses of roses around her wrist, picking thorns off as she went "not scaring the new girl too badly?" her shocking green eyes were fixed on Elinor as she spoke, but it was Theodore who answered her

"Of course we're not scaring her! Humans are soft and stupid, but they're not cowards! Alice is proof of that!" he announced, not seeing both girls flinch as he went for his keys again "what are you doing back Imogen? I don't remember bringing you here" he frowned slightly, looking her up and down, Orin chuckled, his Elbows resting on Elinor's head.

"Oh I don't know," Imogen scoffed "maybe a giant hole opened in my bedroom floor and swallowed me whole? It's not like I wanted to come back, Fluffy" she stood, releasing the rose coil to spring back into place, she stood at least a foot taller than Elinor, her in tight ringlets bouncing around her ears as she approached, looking down at her "you don't have to follow these fools you know, you can just go home, there's a gate about an hour that way" she pointed through the way they'd come and Orin snorted, still draped over the smaller girl.

"She could, if her butt hadn't broken the gate on the way in, we're all stuck down here now" he glanced around and his tone sent a chill down Elinor's spine "all of us are."

Imogen stepped up, shoving Orin easily off of Elinor's shoulders as if he weighed nothing, though she supposed he didn't weigh much to float the way he did, she put an arm gently around Elinor and smiled quietly "don't worry too much, from one human to another, they're pretty harmless, especially while we've got this Alice charade going on, they haven't explained much to me, but if you can get your hands on the book we should be able to find out what's going on" Elinor nodded, making herself tear her eyes away from Imogen's spring green ones, Theodore was ushering them inside after all.

Elinor looked around at the house she was being led into, thick, fawn coloured carpets that seemed to swallow all noise, her feet fell with only a dull whisper, far dwarfed by the synchronised ticking of twenty, maybe thirty clocks all of varying age, some looked older than the house itself, some looked relatively modern, all of them in perfect unison but displaying different times. She shuddered as she looked around, the clocks were interspersed with photographs and sketches, Theodore and Orin mostly, with a few other people, she paused a second to look at a group picture, frowning a little before letting the floating boy guide her into an overstuffed armchair, she sunk into it and made her feel so tiny, Imogen sat across from her on an ottoman stool, crossing her arms and waiting for their explanation, Theodore seemed oblivious to the fact as he went to put the kettle on.

"do you," she cleared her throat to get the attention of the others in the room, though Theodore still seemed like he was only vaguely aware of her talking "do you actually intend to explain what's going on at some point, because I am really confused right now, I don't know what's going on or where I am, and frankly, I am not enjoying it a bit"

Imogen sighed and rested her elbows on her knees, folding herself in half in a way that Elinor couldn't imagine was comfortable, and glared at Orin "she hasn't been here before, Dipstick, you have to explain or she's going to be useless to you" she huffed and shifted her gaze to the blonde "keep that in mind girly, the only reason we're here is because they can use us, we're useful to them, nothing more" she warned, earning a sharp look as the floating boy settled himself on a plush couch and looked at her.

"So, Alice, where to start...?"

"start with the fact that, for the umpteenth freaking time, I AM NOT ALICE" she spat, biting back the urge to punch something

"that would be our starting point then, regardless what your name is, kid, you're an Alice, kind of a, let's see, I guess you'd call it a champion? or a guardian, I dunno, this isn't my area of expertise, but yeah, Alices, we bring them in from your world to protect Alfea, that's this place by the way, and then we send them home again like nothing ever happened, which might be slightly interrupted since you broke the dam gate" he sighed heavily, playing with a bit of straggly red hair "there aren't really any prerequisites for being an Alice that I can think of, takes all sorts, and it's certainly not a rare thing, we must have had at least fifty coming through by now, but there are four types of Alice, we have a kind of test thing to find out what type of Alice you are." 

"the spade-club-diamond thing you mentioned back in the forest when you were being oh-so-helpful?" she raised an eyebrow and he simply nodded, her accusatory tone breezing past him, much to her frustration "fine then, let's get that test out of the way shall we? I mean, so long as it won't kill me, I kind of had plans this week".