More than One Rabbit Hole

Chapter 1: After This I Should Think Nothing of Falling Down Stairs

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"Jaz! Be careful! You're gonna fall!" The two young girls watched as the brunette balanced precariously on the ledge of a rock overhang. Indeed, it would not be a good thing if the girl fell. The mossy rock hung over a shallow, roaring stream. And given Jasmine's tendency to fall, this was not a farfetched possibility. Well, it could also be called being "accident prone".

"Says the girl reading in a tree." Replied Jasmine curtly, but with her voice dripping with good humor.

"But unlike somebody, I have a sense of balance." Clover spread her arms out, dropping her book in her lap, to prove her point and smiled.

There was an answering laugh on the ground by the base of the tree as Gwendolyn (a.k.a Gwen) chuckled in agreement.

"And just what are you laughing at dear Gwendolyn?," Jasmine turned on her heals, wobbling slightly, and placing her hands on her hips. She gave the girl in question a face that's scolding effect was severely softened by the fact that a smile was pulling at the corners of her mouth. "Half of these messes are your fault."

"Stupid!" she yelled and stuck out her tongue. She ignored her and went on to say "And just what are you implying saying I'm c-" and as the brunette turned back around to continue...doing whatever she was doing, her worn leather boots slipped on the damp surface of the rock and she went tumbling down until she landed with a thud and a splash in the icy water below.

She just sat there in stunned silence, her eyes wide, until it hit her and in a pained way the word "Owwwwwww!" was drawn from her lips.

There was a thump as her half-half-sister Clover Hart jumped down from the tree to the grass below and suddenly two sets of eyes were peering over the ledge that Jasmine had previously been walking along.

There was another brief silence during which none of them did anything but blink and stare. Then Jasmine, still staring up at them, gave a muffled sneeze. That caused another burst of laughter to come from Gwen, returned with a glare from both the remaining girls. Although Clover looked suspiciously like she was holding back a smile.

The sets of eyes momentarily disappeared as Clover went along the back of the boulder and trotted down the path that curved around it, stepping on the stones with her bare feet until she came to the spot where the dripping girl lay, while Gwen came tumbling after her after trying to jump straight off of the rock.

A breath of laughter escaped from the still-dry sister at this as she stooped to kneel by the girl who was progressively becoming more drenched.

"I could have told you that was gonna happen." Snipped Gwen with a laugh, coming to stand by Jasmine.

"Are you okay?" Asked Clover.

"...I'm bruised...and I'm wet."

There was an instance during which the three girls simply stared at one another. Then they all erupted into laughter. Gwen and Clover starting, and Jaz following soon after, her dejected frown quickly replaced by one of grudging amusement.

"C'mon", Clover said giving her half-sister a hand up, "Let's go somewhere sunny so you can dry off."

"Mmmmm..." Clover hummed as she scanned the area, looking for somewhere sunny and above all, dry.

"Over there." The auburn-red haired girl (Gwen) pointed across the shrub covered field to where a patch of sunlight navigated its way past the thick canopy of trees. "There's a clearing I think. She can dry off there instead of going back to the house. Sense we only left a little while ago." She mumbled the last part to herself and started off in the direction of the clearing. The others followed. Leaving a set of untouched tea cups quite forgotten by the base of the tree.

'Yah. I really don't feel like going back yet', Clover thought. 'I know as soon as we do they'll start bugging us about that again.'

"Wait up dammit!" Jasmine huffed as she ran after them. She finally caught up to them (ramming into the back of Gwendolyn in the process) and came to a (as a result of said collision) abrupt halt.

The clearing was medium sized, with almost abnormally green grass, patches of tiny four petaled flowers, one birch and a lone peach tree marking the clearing with the rare abnormality of its fruit.

Clover ran over to the peach tree and wrapping an arm around its knotted trunk remarked "Why is there a peach tree here? Did someone plant it?"

Jasmine shook her head. "I don't think so. Or if someone did it was a long time ago. I doubt any of the gardeners come here anymore."

"Whatever. I'm hungry. Let's pick some of the peaches." Gwendolyn reached her hand up to a branch and finding that the fruit was just out of her reach, jumped and twisted one off by the stem. "It's good." She commented as the juice dripped down her chin.

"Maybe. But the best ones are at the top." In half a second Clover was, once again, up in a tree. Jaz, sitting on the ground a few feet away, called up to her "Get one for me too, Kay?" She went back to shuffling around in the tall grass a few feet away from the peach tree. She received an "Mmm" in reply from the girl in the tree.

Suddenly Jasmine made a surprised sound and called out to the others (now both in a tree, Gwen at a bottom branch and Clover higher above).

"What is it?"

"There's a huge hole over here!" Jaz yelled.

"Huh?" The girls called back, Gwen jumping down and coming to sit about a yard away from where Jasmine knelt. The brunette was leaning over said hole, staring into it with a puzzled expression.

"Are...rabbit holes, (?) usually black and swirly?"

"It's probably water or something. And it's dark too." Gwen commented.

"No, look," She leaned in even more on the slick grass and pointed one long musician's finger at the hole in question. Suddenly there was a screech, a yelp, and an echoing tumbling sound that sounded oddly like the rushing of wind as the girl fell head over heels into the hole she had been trying to point out to the others. In the split second when she had realized that she was going to fall, she had tried to grab on to the nearest object in her reach. Object-or in this case person. Gwen's arm was yanked by Jaz and though she wasn't exactly dragged down into the hole, the force of it caused her to lose her balance and she soon tumbled down after her.

This left a very startled and confused Clover all alone (above ground?) sitting on a tree branch that jutted out over the dark pit that her two friends had disappeared into.

"Guys?...Guys? Hello? Are you o-okay" She scuttled farther out onto the branch so that she was directly above the hole. "...Guys?..."

Then there was a third yelp as Clover slipped from her place in the tree and fell down, following the other two.

The clearing was left deserted except for a red bird that chirped obliviously in the birch tree across the field.

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A/N: Guess what people? I wrote this one at my friend's house too! But this time its 8:00 AM instead of 3! We only deluded ourselves into believing that this was going to be a one-shot for the first couple paragraphs, then we realized the...possibilities that this story possessed. And we can't just leave our dear characters stranded in wonderland without any narrator...Right?...Anyway. PLEASE review because if you don't we won't have any idea that you read it and you won't get a mention in the next chapter. Also the title of this chapter is an actual quote from Luis Carrols 'Alice in Wonderland'.Thanks for reading!