A white rabit in a vest ran through the forrest in his daily routine of being late for a very important date. If he had bothered to look up, he might have noticed something horribly out of the norm for ANY creature of wonderland. It was the cheschire cat, yet not. His mischeivious grin was gone, his fur had lost it's luster and had faded to a dingy grey-brown. His teeth had yellowed, his body had thinned, you could see just about every bone in his body. Yes. All was not fine in Wonderland. And the cat's new appearance was just the beggining. All of the inhabitants of this land were feeling the change. Tweetle-Dee and his twin brother, Tweetle-Dum, had to be caged just the other day due to.... Er...... well... let's just say that the Mad Hatter is no longer among the living. The Queen of Hearts had changed too... she had turned a sickley pale color and become more unforgiving than ever.

As the cat mused upon all of these things, he heard a small voice. "Hello? Is anyone here?" He smirked and dropped out of the tree landing infront of a girl that appeared to be about fourteen. She had long hair that was loosly braided. A navy blue ribbon in her hair worked as a headband and at the same time, tied the end of her braid as it was wrapped around her head, braided into her hair, and came to an end in a perfect bow at the base of the braid. She wore a blue dress to match the ribbon, forrest green stalkings, and black shoes. As he reached her face, something about the build of it, the spark of curiosity and life in the eyes, and the young girl's smile, sparked recognition in him. Recognition of the last girl to ever wander into wonderland. Alice.

"Hello, little girl. What is your name?" he cooed as he sat on his haunches. A smile spread across the girl's face and she knelt down and started rubbing his head.

"My name is Rosemary, Mr. Cheschire cat, but you can call me Rose! I'm looking for my mother, can you help me find her?" she asked politley. The cat was taken aback. He had not expected her to know who he was, even if her mother was, as he suspected, Alice.

"Yes, I will help you find your mother. And how did you know who i am?" he inquired. Rose's grin grew as she looked at the grey sky.

"My mother, Alice, has told me stories about this place, especially you. I have to say, this isn't what i expected, but, your smile's what gave you away. Anyway. Mom was taken by what, if i remember correctly, are the card guards of the queen of hearts, last night." Rose said nonchalauntly, as if it was an everyday occurence.

"Why are you so calm?" asked the cat.

"Oh. Mom always expected her to come and get her because of a grudge, and recently, she has had the feeling that all is not well in wonderland." She replied. "I guess she was right."

"You both hit the nail on the head." the cat said with a grin as he got up and turned away to lead her to a safer place to talk. He looked back at her over his shoulder and said with a grin, "By the way, feel free to call me Chess."