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presented itself. When it did, she marched in her magic goody two-shoes up to the Garden of Live Flowers.
    It was a flower-bed of talking flowers who seemed to think that Alice herself was a flower. Alice had never corrected them of the notion, because she quite enjoyed the feeling of fitting in.
    She always had to talk first. “Wake up, flowers!”
    The Tiger-lily said, “Greetings flower Alice.”
    Alice enjoyed their company, but only in small doses, since they had certain notions that would grate on her nerves. For one thing, they thought she wasn’t colorful enough, because she always wore a black dress (which they considered her petals). She cut right to the chase. “I’ve heard tell that there was once a black rose who inhabited your garden. Can you tell me any more about her?”
    The Tiger-lily gasped. “The Black Rose?!”
    And here all the other flowers gasped (though they did not breath like people did) then they grew silent, which was puzzling, because they’d always been a bunch of chatterboxes.
    “That’s right,” Alice said. “What’s wrong?”
    “Where did you hear of the Black Rose?!” the Tiger-lily demanded.
    “I’ve been asking around. There was a butterfly who was said to feast upon its nectar in order to turn black…”
    “Yes, there was a rose who let blackness overtake her, and she was banished from the garden.”
    Alice felt sorrow rise up within her. She thought that a black rose might actually be quite pretty. Perhaps the Black Rose was simply a misunderstood outcast much like Alice herself. Maybe the Black Rose could use a friend to help her. “Where was she banished to?”
    “Well, before we speak any further, you shall remove those wretched shoes. We despise them.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “The shoes…”
    Alice tended to be most agreeable, so she removed her shoes. “Now please tell me more.”
    “Figure it out yourself.”
    Alice completely lost her temper. With an outraged shriek, she reached out and grasped the Tiger-lily’s stem. “Tell me, or I shall begin plucking your petals!”
    The other flowers gasped. One yelled, “Let her go!” The Tiger-lily said, “You wouldn’t dare.” But Alice could feel that the flower was trembling ever-so-slightly, as much as a plant could reasonably be expected to, at least.
    Alice reached out and pulled a petal off. “He loves me…”
    The Tiger-lily shrieked in pain.
    Alice dropped the petal then reached out, touched another one. “He loves me not…”
    “Stop! I’ll tell you! For the love of god, stop!”
    And that was how Alice learned where the Black Rose had been relocated to by a mysterious cloaked flower tender they had summoned. Alice felt bad about being so cruel to get her way. She was usually such a good girl, but sometimes she just snapped, and they had made her take off her goody two-shoes, after all. Awkwardly, she left the garden, not wanting to make a bad situation worse. She’d have to make it up to the flowers somehow later.
    They’d told her there was a stone archway set in the side of a hill a short distance away. Soon she saw it, tucked away discreetly in the middle of a forest. They said to look for a button on the archway to press to open the door.
    She looked upon the edges of the gray-stoned archway. It was lined with carved runes that she couldn’t read. Then she saw the button, but it seemed to be at the height of an adult. She was just a little girl, and she almost couldn’t reach it. She had to stand on her tippy-toes and stretch. “Errrgh.” Then she struggled to press the button in hard enough, but, then “Ahah!” she exclaimed as she pressed it in.
    A blade of metal suddenly slid out above Alice. She could see that it was at just the right height to have decapitated any adult who pressed the button. She had been spared death on account of being short. She wondered if maybe she should turn back.
    After a few seconds, the blade retracted, then the door slid upward.
    She peered