DAZED AND STUNNED, Alice stumbled to her feet, her body wobbling with every movement as if gravity was making a mockery out of her. She moved like a newborn fawn taking its first steps, teetering left and right. She was still suffering from vertigo, from the shock of waking up someplace other than where she had remembered falling asleep. Furthermore, her house wasn't even in view. What stretched out for miles was nothing but forests and fields. There were no houses of any sort for as far as Alice could see.
"Where?" She mumbled under her breath, reaching up to rub at her eyes. "Where am I?" The question was posed to herself, met with silence for an answer.
In a distance, birds chirped, their wings enabling them to soar high in the clouds to see what was beyond the horizon. However, for Alice who was rooted to the ground beneath the skies, she had to resort to the only thing she knows— walk.
With slow and unsure steps, she continued her way through the fields, straining her ears in an attempt to pick up any sound that might resemble man-made noises. She had ventured into the forests, shoving plants and bugs out of her face along the way while treading on mud that squished disgustingly under her bare feet.
It didn't take long before she heard the sound of metal scraping on metal, a clear definite sign that there were other people around somewhere in the forest.
Ignoring the ache that was starting to crawl up her legs, she broke into a frantic run, her head darting about left and right in an attempt to locate the sound. The clash was getting louder, followed by occasional grunts and yells. She had just pushed a branch out of the way when a short gleaming knife pierced the ground just an inch away from her foot.
Jumping back in surprise, Alice barely even suppressed a yelp. She slapped her palms to her lips, keeping the scream contained. Thankfully, due to her quick reaction, the people that had flung the knife her way hadn't noticed her presence. It was a simple misdirection.
Alice could hear labored breaths from where she hid behind the shrubbery. From where the knife came from, there were four distinct voices. Two of those voices were deep baritones, one a nasally tenor, while the last sounded much more youthful in comparison.
Peeking out from the leaves and twigs, she caught sight of three grown men that had a youth surrounded. All three were much taller than the teenager that they had cornered, bulking with muscles, scars running across their skin like accessories on a rich woman. The young teenager, on the other hand, was scrawnier and thinner, his height just a little taller than what Alice herself stood at. He seemed about her age, maybe a year or two younger. What stood out the most was his bright violet hair, colored down to the roots. Though he wore expensive-looking outfits that seemed out of time, the fabrics were torn and tattered, smeared with dirt and tinged with blood.
In fact, all of their clothing seemed out of time. The three men were dressed in off-white cotton long-sleeved shirts that were paired with a leather belt and vest, accompanied by dark trousers tucked into black boots that were tightly laced. Knives and daggers were hung from their belts, some sheathed while others had their blades exposed. If anything, they looked like characters that had jumped out from a medieval story.
"Did you really think you could fight us?" One of the men laughed, cracking his knuckles as he spoke.
His comrades laughed and one of them reached out and grabbed at the boy's collar roughly, pulling him over even as he struggled and squirmed.
"Let me go!" He yelled, practically growling. "If my father hears about this—"
"Oh, he will. When we demand a huge ransom from him, that is," the third man chuckled. His cruel words caused a cold shiver to run down Alice's spine.
"You'll never get the chance!" The boy spat in the man's face, throwing his fists wildly about. "My knights will come looking for me any second now and when they do, you're finished!"
"Sure, kid," the third man said patronizingly with a laugh. "That's what they all claim."
Unable to watch the blatant kidnapping any further, Alice crawled through the dirt in search of stones and rocks. Clutching the reserve she had picked in her hands, she aimed and flung the rocks at the men who had their backs turned to her. Each rock hit them squarely on their heads, the third one hitting the man at the back of his neck which caused him to drop to the ground immediately, unconscious.
Due to that, the young boy was set free and he ran immediately towards Alice, picking up the knife that was planted firmly in the soil before raising it to his chest level in a defensive position. When given a weapon, Alice was almost mistaken into thinking the boy could actually put up a fight.
He hadn't seemed to notice her, or any of the men for that matter. The boy now stood directly in front of the bush that Alice was hiding behind, blocking her from their view.
"Who threw that?!" The first man roared, spinning around with a hand clutched at the back of his head where he was injured. He hadn't even spared his fainted comrade a single glance, simply whipping around like a crazed dog that had caught a whiff of freshly roasted meat.
"You slimy rat!" The second man cursed, pulling out the dagger at his side. It scraped against the sheathe, causing the sound of scraping metal to echo. "I'm turning you into minced meat! Screw the ransom!"
Grabbing a few more rocks on the way, Alice crouched as low as she could as she scrambled away from the young boy and towards a new hidden angle. She pulled her arm back before throwing again with all her might, the rock knocking into the second man's hand. He dropped the dagger with a yelp, clutching his injured hand grievously.
"There's another one of them here!" He thought out loud, warning his buddy. "Bastards, they're working together!"
The young boy was still shivering, beads of perspiration sliding down the smooth curves of his face. His grip on the small knife was so tight that it trembled, shaking wildly as he, too, looked around in search of his mysterious helper.
When his eyes landed on Alice's curled up figure in the forest floor behind some bushes, they widened. However, his gaze had lingered on her for far too long and it caught the attention of the two standing men. They followed the direction of his stare, effectively finding Alice's hiding spot in seconds.
"Caught the pretty bird." The second man sneered, wringing out the pain in his hands with a few quick shakes before bending down for his dagger which had fallen to the ground. He advanced towards Alice, the blade of the dagger shining as it reflected the sunlight that snuck in through the cracks of the canopy. "You'll pay for that."
Her actions exposed, Alice had nowhere to run. She hurriedly tried to stand up, only to fall back down to her feet once more due to her quivering knees. Her skin scraped hard against the forest floor, her sleeping shorts not doing much to protect her dainty legs. The man was only a few short steps away from her now, the glint of the knife brighter than ever before. Alice thought she saw her entire life flash before her eyes before a single thought ran through her mind.
'No. Not this way. I'm not dying like this.'
Grabbing a handful of the soil beneath her, she flung it out at the man's face when he got close enough. The dirt sprayed into his eyes, sending him into another miserable scream as he dropped the knife in shock. The blade was plunged into the dirt mere inches away from Alice's feet but there was no time to hesitate. Before the other man could run over, she scrambled to her feet, running straight ahead through the trees without a care for the world.
The greenery flew by her, twigs crunching beneath her weight. Although the soles of her feet burned and ached with scratches and bruises, she couldn't stop to care. In her head, there was only one word: survive.
Once she was far enough, Alice dared to look back. That quick short glance was all it took for her to lose sight of what was in front of her. She bumped against a tall figure, the impact sending her back down onto the ground and off her feet like a rag doll that was thrown about.
When she looked up, she was met with a pair of startling heterochromatic eyes, one jade green and the other sky blue, glaring back down at her. Those beautiful irises were accompanied by the gleaming silver of a rapier tip pointed right at her throat.