Alice paused. Her eyes didn't want to open. She tried, but the lids seemed to be afraid to separate, as if they were stronger together and didn't want to give up the brief contact they had.

"Come on," she whispered to herself. "Nothing to be afraid of. All is well."

"Certainly, all is well. Not necessarily for you, Alice, but most definitely, somewhere, all is well."

Alice snapped her eyes open, hoping she'd catch sight of the owner of the voice. There could have been a glimmer of movement just in front of her but it was gone in the fraction of a second it took for her eyes to refocus. She looked around her, frowning.

She was no longer in the cavern. She was sure she was definitely no longer in the asylum. And Kansas would be a fair distance too, she imagined, so she couldn't find some red shoes to click together. Had she journeyed to the centre of the Earth and Jules Verne was going to jump out shouting 'Gotcha!' while she battled dinosaurs and Neanderthals?

"Where am I?" she asked the voice. It didn't answer and she could feel its absence, as if the air were slightly emptier.

Alice was on a path. It was uneven with broken pieces of red brick embedded in the bare earth. At times, she could see it being wide enough for her to have both arms stretched out either side. At others, she thought she would have to turn sideways to stay avoid falling off. To each side of the path were thick trunked trees, crammed so closely together they could have been at a concert waiting for the main act to come on. They followed the path of the path, moving in and out along its length, creating a wall of gnarled wood bearing down on her and making her feel tiny in comparison. Looking up, she could see where branches had been broken away by something huge passing by, though how that behemoth might be able to pass the narrower sections she couldn't think.

Alice was finding it increasingly difficult to think. She had been carried away from her snug, safe mental hospital and was dumped in a strange place with no idea of where she might be.

"Where are you?" she shouted. Her words were soaked up by the trees as if grabbed by the absent branches and whisked away before they could properly be heard.

"Fine," she said. "It's just me."

The prospect frightened her. There had never been a time when she had been completely on her own. In her room at night, whether at home or in the hospital, there was always the sense of other people in other rooms. Parents or patients, doctors or other daughters. Her sister, either real or reflected. Always someone somewhere, their presence felt if they weren't physically in the room with her.

Now, there was no-one. A path leading before and behind her. A blockade of trees. A voice which couldn't have been there and now certainly wasn't. She felt like simply slumping down on the ground and staying there until someone came along. Not in a petulant, spoilt child who wasn't getting the flavour of ice cream they wanted way. She was being realistic. Whichever way she walked along the path, she might find herself in danger or home or, even, the path might not end as the fall seemed it wouldn't. A path was usually there because people frequented the route so, if she waited long enough, somebody would come. She hoped.

But Alice had never been the sort of girl to be able to sit still for long periods. Waiting was a waste of time. You could easily be doing something else while you waited. Time ran away of its own accord without you letting go of the reins and opening the garden gate. As such, she resisted her urge to sit and decided to move. What would happen would, obviously, happen whether she helped or hindered it. She closed her eyes and turned around three times. Giving herself a moment for her dizziness to abate, she reopened her eyes and started to walk.

The pathway required a certain level of concentration to traverse. The blocks sticking out at random intervals meant footfalls had to be chosen rather than automatically taken. She was almost dancing her way along its length and began to hum to herself in rhythm to her steps. Her mood lightened and, as her hums turned to song, the day started to brighten. Alice didn't notice at first, but as she progressed, the day seemed to feel fuller in response to her singing. Eventually, the fact seeped past her focus and she stopped her waltz with the rubble strewn route.

Being a patient in an asylum meant there were some every day items you were not allowed to own. A belt. Shoe laces. A watch. The latter wasn't to make you forget just how long the days could be when the world and you were against yourself. It was because, just like a belt or watch, the strap could be a weapon or a fashion accessory. Neither were welcome in a place where no one person could be able to feel better than any other. All were designed to be equal and, though some may have delusions of being more equal than others, it created a fairly happy harmony.

With no way to tell the time, Alice had long since given up on trying. A day, depending on the events filling it, could pass by in a blur or it could feel as if the day forgot to go to sleep and pass the baton of watching over the world to the night. Still, most of the time, you'd have an idea of what the time should be -roughly at least. When she was pulled into the mirror, she thought it was afternoon. A fall for an unknown length of time and the journey through the cavern, bringing her to here, plus her walk up to this point, would make it early evening.

So how could it be getting lighter? Why did it feel more like noon than coming up to bedtime? A spinning blue police box came to mind and she wondered if the mirror had somehow thrown her not just across space but also time. If Dr. Edwards couldn't help her, she was no other doctor could step in. Maybe she had actually fallen through the world and this was the opposite hemisphere. If she could find a basin, she could test if water went down the plughole the opposite way!

Oh well.

She set off again, the song and dance merging quickly with her strides. The sun continued to climb above the trees and even the stones seemed to be in a good mood as they stood out boldly from the ground, showing off their red colouring starkly in the increasing glow of the day.

Alice came to a narrow stretch of the path. The trees closed in tightly and she had to turn and squeeze in sideways. The bark rubbed roughly against her body as she tried to force herself through the narrow space. She jolted to a stop as part of her clothing caught on the raised nub of a knot. Pulling gently so as not to tear the cloth, she tried to escape. Without being able to turn her head to look due to the claustrophobic confines, she struggled to free the material.

Suddenly, any thoughts of moving vanished. She felt before she heard the rumbling, as if thunder had found a way into the ground through a fissure and was spreading its growling fingers, ready to clamp them into a fist and crush anyone who might be caught unawares. Then the sound grew. A repeated thud echoed through her limbs making her extremities tingle, the skin afraid of an oncoming threat Alice, herself, couldn't discern. Footsteps! But footsteps of something massive. Something with feet large enough to shake the ground and anything in contact with it.

Closer they came. Louder and with more force as they approached. She could hear branches breaking and falling. She could feel the blasts of air as it was forced from beneath each huge, descending foot. Still, she could see nothing, the embrace of the forest preventing her from doing anything but look straight ahead.

Another sound strove to be heard in the midst of the slamming and crunching. Alice couldn't place it at first then, as she felt movement in the trees pressed against her, she realised what it was. The creak of thick, solid wood.

Ahead of her, she could see the trees begin to sway. There was no breeze to blow them about, yet they were moving. The length of the trunks, apart from the bases with their roots plunged into the ground ready to shake hands with the subterranean thunder, tilted. It looked as if a row of impossibly tall dominoes had been knocked over, sending them falling. But they were not falling. They were leaning.

She tried to see what might be pushing them to the side but there was nothing. She realised, shocked, they were doing it themselves.

Somehow, the trees were moving over of their own accord.

The light dimmed abruptly as a massive creature passed from one side of the path to the other, straight through the newly created thoroughfare. Though it lumbered, it still walked just too fast for Alice to take in any real details. She noticed long, straggly hair, light coloured but speckled with flashed of colour. Purple, perhaps? The legs were longer than she was tall and twice as thick. By the time she looked up to see the rest of the beast, it was gone and the tree line has swung back upwards to reform its seemingly impenetrable barrier. The movement of the trees returning to their natural position caused a ripple through their neighbours. It was enough for Alice to push herself through and her clothes to be freed.

She ran to the area where the creature had disappeared. There seemed to be no break in the wall of wood. If she tried to squeeze through, the trunks would be a maze in which she would eventually be trapped and lost. She pushed against the closest trunk, futilely trying to move it. Again she tried and again her attempt was wasted.

"Come on!" she shouted at the trees. "Let me through!"

She was ignored, barely seeming to even be noticed by the forest.

"Open up!"

"You have to say please," said a voice. The voice.

She turned, quickly, but knew there'd be no-one there. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. Why not?

"Please?"

With the groan of hundreds of years of growing, the tress began to move, sliding over to create a passage between them.

"Thank you," Alice said as she stepped over the threshold.