KrissyKat91: I don't own Alice in Wonderland (although I certainly wouldn't mind owning Chessur). And I wish I could make these chapters longer, but I don't know how without adding unnecessary rambling.

Ch. 1: The Dream

Alice groaned softly as she stumbled into her bedroom, dragging her luggage along behind her. She loved her mother dearly, but the elder Kingsleigh woman simply did not know when to stop talking! If she had to hear one more lecture about propriety and acting the part of high class lady, Alice was fairly certain she would scream.

Yawning, Alice dropped her bags, kicked off her shoes, and flopped face first, still fully dressed, onto her bed, asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

~/Dream Sequence/~

Alice opened her eyes in a strange, dark red void, finding herself seemingly standing on nothing, blue-lilac smoke curling around her feet. Blinking confusedly, she looked around, wondering where she was and how she had gotten there.

"Child."

The deep voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Alice spun around, trying to locate the owner of the voice. There was no one there.

"Child."

"Hello?" she called. "Who's there?"

"Child, Underland needs you. Trust only the Cat, he will assist you. Trust no one else, for they would betray you, though through no fault of their own. Find the Gryphon. He will help you."

"Absolem? Is that you?"

"Wake up, child. Hurry!"

"Wait! Who are you? Why would the others betray me?"

"Wake up, Alice! WAKE UP!"

~/End Dream Sequence/~

"Alice, wake up!"

"Who—what—huh?"

Helen Kingsleigh was leaning over her bed, looking concerned. "You were talking in your sleep, something about someone betraying you. Was it the dream again?"

"The dream?" Alice asked, then remembered. "Oh! Oh, no, I actually haven't had that dream since I set sail for China. This was—I don't remember."

Helen blinked bemusedly. "Very well. If you're sure. Dinner is in half an hour. I've invited Lord Ascot and his family, so please dress appropriately." She cast a pointed look at her daughter's badly wrinkled travel clothes, then exited the room.

Alice grimaced at the idea of having to deal with Hamish Ascot again, then turned her attention to her dream. She had long since learned not to ignore anything to do with Underland (which made her wince at the memory of dismissing the image of Chessur she saw on the ship), but she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do about it.

It would take far too long to get to the rabbit hole behind Lady Ascot's maze garden on horseback, never mind on foot, and she ran the risk running into the Ascots either way. She didn't know how else to—

Alice's thoughts screeched to a halt. She did know another way into Underland. How could she have forgotten?

Eyes narrowing, she slowly turned to stare at the looking glass in the corner of her room. It had been years, but it should still work. And it would allow her to bypass that bothersome Hall of Doors as well.

Walking over to the looking glass, Alice pulled the sheet off and gave it an experimental poke.

The reflective surface rippled.

Nodding once to herself, Alice turned back to her luggage. If she was going back to Underland, she was not going unprepared. Not this time.