[AU] beware the jabberwock ; toothless

[Alice Liddell]

With these...rifts, as they were called, opening up, Alice supposed that dragons were hardly an impossibility in this world. Not that she was used to looking at things and deeming them impossible, quite the contrary. But, when Anya had mentioned an enormous black dragon of all things haunting the city by night and attacking at random, Alice had to admit she'd been slightly taken aback. To think of a dragon attacking a modern day city instead of a medieval village was somewhat odd. But, then again, the last dragon Alice had encountered was made of mechanical parts and shot beams of light from its eyes, so she was hardly one to judge. Besides, medieval villages were quite scare in this world, she suspected and it was likely that the dragon was simply working with whatever it could find.

However, if it were attacking people, then something quite clearly had to be done. And, since Alice both had nothing to do (honestly, once one got over the shock of being in a city such as this one, it grew rather dull) and quite a bit of experience with fighting dragons, she'd set out from hers and Anya's apartment that night in order to perhaps lure the beast out into the open. Her only regret was that the full extent of her arsenal hadn't come along with her, and thus, she was limited to the four that had been on her person when she'd arrived. At the very least, all four were quite powerful in their own right, and ought to be effective enough in defeating whatever sort of dragon was waiting for her.

The streets of New York City were very rarely empty and quiet, but Alice was quite set on sticking to the places that were. After all, the attacks were kept somewhat quiet, so she had to suspect that they'd been done somewhere as such, rather than the city's more bustling streets. And, really, that was preferable for her anyway. The less time spent around large crowds of people, the better. Perhaps she ought to have been nervous, being a slight, small girl wandering around the back alleys of New York City, but she highly doubted any of the thugs here would be able to pull anything on her.

There were advantages, after all, to being underestimated. And by this point, Alice was quite used to having them.

Despite the heavy nature of her typical footwear, Alice moved as silently as a cat, without even the rustle of her skirt to give her away. She'd long since perfected her way of moving, so that any enemies wouldn't see her coming. One learned such things quickly, traversing a landscape where nearly everything was out for their blood. She leapt with ease to the nearest fire escape, which rattled just a little as it took her weight before ascending in the same manner to the top of the building, far more quickly than any human ought to be able to. But, then again, there were all sorts of non-human things in this world. Why should Alice be so surprising?

The night was quiet enough for Alice to find it suspicious. Or, perhaps that was just her. It had been her reaction for a very long time to suspect trouble when things were silent and still, or at least, as silent and still as a bustling modern city could be. Either way, she searched the skies, looking for some dark sharp against the clouds that were just now rolling in. This beast was, after all, a dragon. It couldn't hide forever, and especially not from her.