A/N: OK, so this is the edited version of a story I had written a while ago. Tell me if you like the changes, or if you have any other comments or questions. I will answer in the next chapter. Bye!
The fields outside our manor were overgrown with the tall spring grass that marked the end of winter. The early March breeze carried the aroma of wildflowers and the blossoming orange trees from Mother's orchard. I realized that soon, I'd be able to help her pick fresh lilies to decorate our greenroom, and watch hummingbirds drink sugar-water from our feeders. Really, spring was just so good at bringing out the best in everything. Not even the oncoming lesson with Madge could dampen my mood. I hopped and skipped with joy. A lesson outside, with wind in my hair and spring grass underfoot, could the day not get better?
No sooner had I the thought formed in my head that Madge's firm hand rested on my shoulder, forcing me to slow my pace to one that better matched my older sister's. "Now, don't go wandering off, Alice," she said sternly. "That was the agreement, correct? I give you your lesson outside and you behave, hmm?"
I gave an exasperated sigh, but settled back down. I had only to wait for our chapter to be over, and then I could roam the hillside until teatime. Rebelliously, I spread my arms out wide, allowing the brisk wind to fly through my fingers.
"What do you think you're doing?" Madge sighed.
I snorted. "I'm a bird, Madge." I spoke as if it was an obvious thing. "When the wind gets strong enough, I'll fly."
That managed to get a smile out of her. "Well, until then, let's begin our lesson."
Soon enough, we found the thick maple tree at the highest point of the hill. I was allowed to skip until we reached the large truck, at which point I slid down the rough bark and settled my bum on the soft grass. Madge knelt before me, still a full head and shoulders taller than myself. "Now, where were we?" she muttered, flipping the pages in our book until she reached the correct paragraph. She cleared her throat and began. "The wandering savage grows no cultivated vegetable, fells no forest, and extirpates no useful plant, no noxious weed. If his skill in the chase enables him to entrap numbers of animals on which he feeds, he compensates this loss by destroying also the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the otter, the seal…"
"Not the cute little seal!" I exclaimed. I had seen illustrations of such animals in Father's academic notebooks, with their pudgy faces, flubbery bodies, and big, cow eyes. They were like fat, aquatic babies, and had nestled themselves in a warm corner of my heart.
Madge rolled her eyes. "Really, Alice, I wish you'd actually focus on the lesson. This is valuable knowledge. You should feel lucky that Father allows us women to gain such an education.
Why? It's boring, I thought silently, but I nodded at Madge to continue her reading. Again, she cleared her throat and said, "…and the eagle, thus indirectly protecting the feebler quadrupeds and fish and fowls, which would otherwise become the booty of beasts and birds of prey."
Finally, I could take it no longer. "Why must we read such dull scripts?" I whined. "Can we not hear of more exciting stories? An adventure or mystery, set in a mystical land far, far away?"
"What a mind you have, Alice!" Madge threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "What would you have me read to you, to develop your knowledge?" she asked.
I needed only a moment to think. "That new Verne novel, about the centre of Earth!" I exclaimed almost instantly. Our father had just recently acquired the translated story, and it was sitting, unread, on one of the tall bookcases in our family's library.
But Madge only waved her hand dismissively. "Pure fiction," she scoffed. "Idiot child! I cannot hope to teach you while your mind is on such nonsensical topics." She looked at me in a mixture of sadness and disappointment. "When will you learn that the world is not made up of these childish wonders?"
"I can dream, Madge!" I said, wounded. "I can create my own adventures without your stupid books!"
Madge shut her eyes tight and scrunched up her face the way she did whenever annoyed. "It's all made up, Alice!" she cried. "I try to help you, to turn you into the young woman you will be someday, but you are making it the most difficult task."
"I don't care! I don't need any of this!" I screamed. I stood up and began to march down the hill, away from my sibling.
"Where do you think you're going?" Madge yelled after me.
"To my own wonderland," I snapped behind my back. "To where George MacDonald and Jules Verne and all the other people with imagination reside!"
"Alice, wait!" I heard Madge say, but I was already running. I rushed past the meadow and leapt into the forest behind the Manor, never once pausing to admire the scenery. Finally, I collapsed onto the ground, tears running down my cheeks. She had spoiled it. I was determined to enjoy my day of spring outside, but my stupid sister had spoiled it, like she always did.
And now I was lost. It was true. I had no memory of where I had come from and where to go. Father forbade us from entering the woods by ourselves, but I had been blinded in my rage. I looked up hopelessly. Sunlight was streaming through the trees' leaves, hitting the earthen floor in small, golden speckles. Beetles and ants scuttled along the ground, sometimes finding cover in patches of grass and fallen branches and short, thorny shrubs.
It was beautiful, yet nothing could lessen my sadness. I hiccupped and wetness coated my face. I dissolved into another fit of sobs. Why was everything so unfair? Even if my family found me out here, I'd just go back to Madge and her stupid books. I'd be ridiculed for running off, and I would never again get the chance to roam the hills.
Well, sod them all. I hated them. I wanted to go to my special place I had been talking about, the place with fairy tales and hidden tunnels with treasures and wonders yet to be found. But how? Madge was right; I knew this in my miserable heart. Such a place never existed. I hugged my knees to my chest and wept pitifully. And now I'd be late for tea!
"I'm late!" a shrill voice squealed, making me jump.
I whirled my head around, scanning the forest for whoever could've spoken. "Hello?" I said uncertainly.
A white rabbit, with pink eyes stumbled out of a brush. I gasped at his garb. A frilly, white shirt was thrown over his plump torso, with a silken blue waistcoat buttoned down over top. He held a thick, golden pocket watch in his fluffy paw, and was staring at it anxiously through round spectacles. "Oh dear, oh dear, I am most terribly late," he muttered nervously. As he spoke, his wide feet beat upon the ground with agitation, and his nose twitched rapidly.
I hid my shock with an inquiry. "Um… late for what, sir?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly.
The rabbit ignored me completely, and instead dashed into the bushes on the other side of the wood, all the while repeating his jittery words, "She'll be so dreadfully cross with me, oh, I am late."
"Wait!" I jumped to my feet, my tears and troubles forgotten. I lifted my skirts and stumbled over lumps of dirt and rock, trying to follow the clothed rodent. "Wait, Rabbit Sir, please!"
My heart beat desperately beneath my ribs. If I allowed this strange rabbit to escape me, then I would be all alone once more. I did not know who, or what he was, but the rabbit was the only thing that could lead me anywhere in this blasted wood.
Sharp twigs and thorny branches snagged at the hem of my blue frock, and moist earth coated the glossy black of my dress shoes, yet still I ran. I followed the frantic mutterings of the rodent somewhere ahead of me. It grew increasingly difficult, however. This rabbit was especially rushed, and he sped ahead of me and out of earshot within minutes. Tears were still streaming down my face, yet now it was out of fear of losing my only hope out of the forest. Finally, I stopped to catch my breath, and I knew that the rabbit was truly gone from me.
My stockings were ripped terribly and the skin beneath was scratched. I puffed out my cheeks, trying to keep my tears at bay, when I heard the faintest of voices to my right – "I'm late, I'm late to a very important date!" I spun around, gasping, my breath ragged. "Mister Rabbit?" I whimpered. I took a cautious step forward and another after that.
Then I heard it again, that distressed, high-pitched voice talking without once pausing for breath, "No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"
That encouraged me to take another step forward, faster this time. "Wait, Rabbit Sir!" I yelled. I took another speedy step forward, but fell through empty space and tumbled down a large, dark hole.
"NO!" I screamed. My hand shot forward and clung to a slippery, muddy wall before the soil fell away, and once again I was falling. "Madge! Mister Rabbit, please!" Darkness clouded around me, and everywhere was the stench of dirt and mould. I fell and fell through endless space, wind whooshing up and whipping my hair across my face with enough force to surely leave red streaks running along my cheeks. I scraped my hands along the moist, earthen walls, trying desperately to slow my descent, but every time the mud slicked my grip and made my fingers slip away.
The air pushed and shoved me against the dirt walls, battering me with bruises and causing the rich, dark mud to fall into my gaping mouth. Tiny creatures and bugs squirmed between my teeth, wriggling along my tongue and falling down my throat. The slime and movement made me cough and sputter, and I heaved sick into the air as I fell, only for it to splatter across my pinafore and drip down into the dark hole.
Terror gripped my heart like a vise, and I struggled to breath the thick and dirty air, but the space around me seemed to beat my breath out of me until I was purple in the face and my lungs burned and scratched the inside of my chest.
I felt as if I were falling through forever. Maybe I'd land in a mysterious, lost world like in Jules Verne's novel, or be consumed by a fiery death of magma and heat like in Madge's science books. Whatever awaited me at the bottom of this nightmarish tunnel seemed a lifetime away. I plunged further and further into the depths of darkness for what seemed like years, but the fear never lessened. With every second that ticked by, I felt as if I were falling faster and faster until time no longer existed.
The further down I got, the more the temperature dropped, until the air caused my tears to freeze on my cheeks, and my screams billowed in icy clouds behind me. My skin turned to gooseflesh, and the clumps of dirt caked to my dress hardened into freezing earthen rocks.
But just as the darkness stole the last bit of light from my soul, just as the terror choked the last bit of hope from my heart, and just as the coldness froze the last bit of breath from my throat, I saw a faint blue light ahead of me. I squinted, wondering if my sight was failing me at last, if perhaps Death was coming to claim me, but the light became deceptively bright as I neared it. It grew to a burning blue glow, and it widened the further down I fell. It grew and grew, and soon, it enveloped me.
As the glow disappeared, I could see land beneath me. Trees of another wood, at the bottom of this enormous hole. Hope blossomed inside my chest, and I reached out a hand, aching to touch the ground whooshing up to meet me –
– only for my fingers to be crushed back into a fist as the first of the sharp pine needles crashed into my outstretched arm, followed by my shoulder, my torso, and the rest of my body. I tumbled to the ground, breaking whatever branches blocked my path.
My arm was the first thing to hit the floor, and I slammed on top of it with crippling force. I felt my arm jerk upward, and with a sickening CRACK, the bone bent and snapped.
It was a good few second before jagged shards of agony laced up my arm, all the way passed my shoulder and piercing through my ribs. Intense and penetrating pain twisted through the nerves of my right arm, causing my vision to distort and shatter like broken glass. Torment swelled and clumped up in my throat, choking me until my breath was nothing but weak air being forced between my teeth. Through my broken eyesight, I could see cracked bone piercing through the ragged, blood-soaked skin of my upper arm, just above my elbow.
I had not the energy to even release wet sobs before darkness clouded behind my eyes, pushing me into unconsciousness.
I awoke to the feral sounds of the wood. Night had fallen, and only the faint silvery glow of the moon allowed any sight. I tried to sit up before I remembered my crippled arm. It had gone numb, thank the heavens, but every movement caused the muscles to throb and my bones to shake within my flesh. With a grunt of discomfort, I pushed myself up with my left arm until I was able to look around.
I was in another forest, but a different one. While maples and oaks had branched up from the ground in the wood behind the Manor, these trees were bare and pale as bone. Their long, rough branches were twisted and bent towards the sky, like they were trying to reach the moon.
I had landed in a very small clearing. Some of the branches I had broken were strewn across the forest floor. I looked down and my hands, but I could only glance at the right one before looking away, sick. I had never been able to hold my stomach at the sight of blood.
My left hand was slick with mud, as was my dress and once-white pinafore. I saw that I had lost one of my shoes in the crash, but that was the least of my worries. It was cool out, but not as frigid as the air in the hole.
I struggled to my feet, my arm hanging limply at my side. I could feel wet soil in between the toes of the foot that was missing a shoe. Despite my broken arm, and the fact that I was alone in an unknown forest, I felt strangely peaceful. I closed my eyes and allowed myself a brief respite.
Until I heard growling from behind me. I held my breath, my eyes growing wide as the party dishes in Mum's cupboard. Slowly, I turned around, and a creature unlike any I had seen before came into view.
It had the semblance of a large cat, but with broad, stooped shoulders that gave it a lumbering appearance, and it was roughly the size of a bull. Its fur was shaggy and white with dark, purple-black spots. Jagged, blood-stained teeth poked out of a wide mouth with grey lips that were pulled back in a snarl. Slobber dripped from its darkly-colored tongue as it took a menacing step forward with one massive paw. I gasped.
The small noise seemed to set the creature off, and it began towards me in a charge. With a shriek, I managed to retreat a few steps before tripping and stumbling onto my bum. I managed to struggle to my feet once more, but by then it was too late. As the creature came upon me, it reared up on its hind legs and released a rumbling, savage roar.
Just then, I heard the sound of a gunshot. The creature was cut off mid-roar. It grunted, its eyes rolled back into its skull, and it fell onto its side, shaking the earth as it hit the ground.
Behind it stood a boy of 15. His skin looked ghostly pale in the moonlight, and his wild, spiky hair was black as onyx. He wore round spectacles like the rabbit, but behind them I could see mismatched eyes – one green as moss with brass and golden flecks, and the other a dark and endless brown.
A dark, velvet overcoat hid most of his clothing, but I could see a long, speckled bowtie around his neck. Atop his head sat a lavish top hat, decorated with laces and silks of every variety. He held a smoking pistol in one hand and a sharp, curved cutlass in the other. Very slowly, he lowered the weapons. He cocked his head to one side and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What are you doing here?" he said. His voice was a strange mix of quirky and mature, curious but guarded.
I tried to say something, but my jaw trembled and my knees felt weak. Finally, my legs gave way and I crumpled to the ground.
The boy was behind me in no time, his arms supporting me, stopping my descent. "Shh, shh," he said, his voice now soothing. Elegant pianist fingers caressed my cheek comfortingly, and his colorful gaze penetrated me. "You're safe now," he murmured.
I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, trying to get a sound out. I managed the words, "My name is Alice."
The corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. "Hatter," he replied.
Then I slipped into darkness.
My eyes snapped open and I gasped. The noise of the night's forest surrounded me, and I once again felt fear in my heart. My broken arm was pinned beneath me. It had gone numb, thank the heavens, but it still groaned with discomfort with every movement. I gingerly climbed to my knees, cradling the arm with my left hand. I looked around. I was in a coniferous forest, like the ones in Madge's books. The moon was out, lighting my small clearing in dull silver. The air was cool, and somewhat refreshing. This odd place was surprisingly peaceful, and I smiled in spite of myself. I closed my eyes and drank in the sound and smells of the wood.
A low and menacing growl interrupted my peace. I turned and my breath caught in my throat.
Before me, a catlike beast was crouched. Snowy white fur with purple-black spots covered its entire body, save for grey, slobbering lips. Its head was stretched before its wide shoulders, its pale and intelligent eyes staring at me hungrily.
"Help," I choked out in a barely audible voice, but my efforts were futile. Even if I had spoken loud enough to be heard, the forest was empty of any other human. I was utterly alone.
Unfortunately, my pitiful plea seemed to trigger something in the animal. With another growl, it started my way, placing one enormous paw in front of the other with increasing speed. I staggered to my feet. The thought of running crossed my mind, but it was obvious that this creature would overcome me within seconds.
As it neared, I gathered the strength in my legs and leapt to the side. The animal charged passed me, barely stopping in time to avoid crashing into the tree behind me. It turned its head and gave another rumbling growl.
My momentum had carried me a few meters to the left. I staggered but quickly regained my footing. My heart beat furiously in my chest, and I felt my strength failing me. Still, I whipped my head around, searching for anything I could use against the vicious creature, but I had little time before it charged at me once more. This time, I did not react quickly enough. It knocked me off my feet, its great body pinning me to the forest's floor. "No!" I hissed through gritted teeth. Drool spilt from the creature's lips and dribbled down onto my cheek when it looked down savagely at what it must have thought was its next meal.
But my mind was set. I would not die in this unknown wood at the hands of an overgrown cat. I slapped my left hand against the earth until I found a fallen branch. Not wasting a second, I brought the stick forth and bashed it against the creature's noggin with all the force I could muster.
I knew it did not hurt the beast in the slightest, but it blinked in surprise and stepped backwards a few paces. In its bewildered state, I took the branch in a firmer grip and plunged the sharp side up into the creature's fleshy throat.
Its jaw gaped open before it fell to the ground, dead. I felt a brief feeling of triumph before a sudden nauseating sensation overcame me. I doubled over, my left had supporting my upper body from falling while I pressed my right arm protectively against my stomach.
Darkness clouded my vision, but I managed to crawl my way to the dead creature's body before completely collapsing. Its fur was still warm, its stomach soft with fat. I buried myself in the creature's corpse, hoping to shelter myself from the harsh world around me. My mind was going in circles, and I felt panic roiling in my stomach.
Where was I? Where could I find help? What was this beast that I had just killed? These questions swam through my mind before I gratefully fell into unconsciousness.