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The Preserve, Thursday after classes

Alice had suggested an adventure. Leto was curious to see what this would involve, and spending a day out of doors with Alice could never be a bad thing. As the two of them headed into the woods, he shot her a grin and reached for her hand.

[for

notyourpawn , of course, but it's a big preserve.]

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Alice twined her fingers through his, offering him a bright smile.

"Now," she said, "I believe the first step in adventuring requires us to get hopelessly lost. Shall we?"

If you knew where you were, and could return home at any moment, it wasn't a proper adventure.

"I will follow where you lead," he replied with a laugh. "So, how will we get lost?"

"First, we walk," she announced, quite solemnly, as though this were a sacred ritual. For Alice, it possibly was. "For a minute or two, so we can't see the school through the trees any longer. It's far easier to get lost when one can't cheat."

"Would you cheat if you could?" Leto asked as they walked further into the woods.

"It's hard to say," Alice said. "One likes to think one wouldn't, but there's no way to determine if one might be subtly influencing one's decisions. 'Turn left, but not too far to the left, or I shan't be able to see to safety.' Easier to remove temptation entirely."

"But without getting lost there is no true adventure, and that is a temptation too," he replied. "When did you last do this?"

"I don't properly remember," Alice said, frowning a little at that. "I mean to go adventuring, and sometimes get lost on another adventure entirely before I ever make it to the woods. I suppose those count as adventures, as well, since if you've a plan you're quite possibly doing it wrong."

"Is seems like a fine balance between having a plan and losing it. Or possibly between finding a path and leaving it behind," he said.

Alice nodded. "And once you plan not to follow a plan, then you've entered a strange paradoxical sort of loop. It's one of those, if it's true, then it's false, and vice versa scenarios."

She glanced around. "I can't see anything but woods. You?"

"So a certain kind of paradox is the source of the kind of adventure we are looking for." He looked around too. "No, I can't. Unless you count the trees." He smirked, nudging her arm.

"Paradox can show us a great many things," Alice laughed. "Including how to stop thinking the world is black-or-white, yes-or-no, true-or-false. It isn't."

She squeezed his hand again before letting go. "Now. Close your eyes, and spin around several times until you are dizzy. We must be sure that we won't know what direction we've come from."

He did as she had suggested. For him, it might have been possible to keep a sense of direction despite this, but he chose not to. He couldn't help thinking that Alice's adventuring was similar to the religious visionary's quest for wisdom.

Perhaps religious visionaries liked to go adventuring? It did wonders for one's ability to clear the head.

For Alice, she spun until she nearly fell over, then took a few steps in this direction and then that one before opening her eyes again.

"Right," she said. "Now, getting lost should be a snap, unless we're unlucky enough to find our way out of the woods by accident."

"So we have to rely on luck?" Leto asked, reaching out his arms to support her a little. Not because it was strictly necessary, but he had a feeling she wouldn't object.

"Luck is a healthy part of any adventure," Alice said easily, leaning up to steal a kiss. "Luck, chaos, a bit of the random. Perhaps today we'll discover rogue elephants nesting in the treetops, though they would have to be very tiny rogue elephants."

Alice went adventuring with her right brain more than her left.

And that didn't surprise Leto at all. He kissed her back, then said: "And what if we find nothing at all?"

He wouldn't find this a problem, but he also suspected that by the same kind of logic, nothing could be turned into something, or possibly anything.

[night!]

"Then it's possible we aren't looking in the right places," Alice smiled. "Or not appreciating the Something that's right under our noses. If there are no adventures to be had in the woods, that's a definite change, and we must investigate further."

(Night!)

"So clearly we can't fail unless it's by our own choice." He pointed in a random direction. "This way?"

Alice laughed. "See? You're a natural," she said, taking his hand again and heading in that direction. "So we're on the lookout for rogue elephants, in the trees, but we mustn't forget the ground. Step lightly, lest the sleeping mushrooms tug at your shoes."

"They tug shoes in their sleep?" Leto asked with a laugh, following Alice. He didn't actually see that many mushrooms and none of those present seemed to be of the tugging kind.

"Only some of them," Alice said. "One can never tell which just by looking. It's best to treat all of them as though they might. Far safer that way."

"And this has actually happened to you?" Leto asked.

"Not personally," she said, "but one should never trust mushrooms. They can change your size, you know, depending on what side you bite. Far more convenient than remembering if you want Eat Me or Drink Me."

"Eat me or drink me?" Leto had to ask as they continued deeper into the preserve.

"The bottle on the table said 'Drink Me,' and so I did," Alice explained. "It tasted peculiar, but not bad, exactly. And it shrunk me down to just the size I'd been hoping to be, that I might slip through that charming little door off to the side that wasn't Alice-shaped when Alice is her typical Alice-size. But to my dismay, it was locked, and the key was back on the table with the bottle. Then I found a small cake marked 'Eat Me,' which reversed the process and then some. As I said, much easier keeping a mushroom handy than being far too large or far too small, in turn."

It seemed to Leto that not only were they exploring the preserve, but also the rather mysterious world of Alice. "It never frightened you?" he asked, then gripped a tree branch, heaving himself up onto it.

Alice laughed, stepping back with her arms folded to watch him climb onto the branch. Was he seeking a better view, or simply exercising his arms? Perhaps there was treasure to be found, in the tree trunk.

"I don't believe I had the good sense to be frightened," she said. "I wanted through that door, you see, and all the rest was incidental. I got terribly frustrated, with the way everyone in that world behaved. I felt quite sorry for myself at one point and had a good, long cry, insisting quite dramatically that I should never see my loved ones ever again ... but I don't believe that I really thought that I wouldn't. It just seemed the thing to do, to ensure a proper tone to the whole affair."

He wasn't exactly looking for treasure, but standing on the branch did give better overview. Leto, however, was looking at Alice and smiling. He held out a hand for her.

"So, brave even when so young."

"Foolhardy," she insisted, shaking her head. "I was placed on trial, later, and instead of defending myself, spent the entirety of my time on the witness stand berating the process, insulting the Queen, and rolling my eyes a great deal. Being seven years old meant that I knew everything, naturally."

She took his hand with both of hers, getting one foot on the side of the tree trunk to help brace her as she pulled upward.

He pulled Alice up on the branch. "I didn't know everything when I was seven, but a great deal more than other children."

"I knew less," she said, steadying herself carefully before continuing, "but I had a more active imagination, and I was far too impudent for a proper young lady. Both are helpful for adventuring."

Leto was about to reply to that when something moved on a branch above their head. He looked up and saw an odd, blue, winged creature staring down at them with small black eyes.

"What is that?"

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The Preserve, Thursday after classes

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