Alice Liddell was thoroughly exhausted. Her brain hurt after six whole hours of history teachings from her elder sister, Lorina. It was one of the few times the eight-year-old child had challenged herself to pay attention the entire time. She wasn't even rewarded with a simpler lesson or a book that actually had pictures and dialogue!
Lorina merely commented, "Perhaps you could continue 'challenging' yourself in the future. Not all girls receive such extensive education, you know. Be grateful, little sister…" The rest was just blah blah blah. Then her elder left with promises to retrieve tea and maybe a deck of card or a chessboard. Good riddance.
A mischievous smirk crossed the young girl's pouting lips as she laid herself out in the field of wild flowers. It didn't matter, though. Alice would soon be stolen away into Wonderland. Oh, Wonderland…
Wonderland was a fantastic dream that recurred after every lesson since her seven-and-a-half un-birthday. In fact, its faithful repeating and its locals' insistence almost led her to believe her dream was really reality. Still, Alice was not yet convinced. But whether it was real or not didn't matter. Wonderland was wonderful.
And Lorina doesn't get to go to Wonderland, Alice thought, childishly smug. Her eyelids began to droop and her breath deepened as sleep crept up on her. Sometimes she succumbed to unconsciousness before the White Rabbit appeared.
It was immensely amusing to have him shake her awake, all the while whining, "Come on. It's time to chase me down the Hole. The Queen has been even grumpier than usual while lacking your presence! She's beheaded more card soldiers than you can count."
There was rustling in the trees and bushes only a few meters away from where Alice was half buried in flowers. The little girl caught a glance of glowing red, which she presumed to be the White Rabbit's eyes, before screwing her eyes shut and trying her best to suppress a giggle. She aimed to coax that response from her furry friend again by faking sleep.
The Rabbit seemed to be calling her bluff, approaching in complete silence excluding the soft sound of flower stems breaking underfoot. A shadow fell over her, cooling her sun-warmed skin.
It momentarily reminded Alice of Lorina's constant complaints of her younger sibling refusing to carry around a parasol in order to remain suitably pale. The thought distracted her from the fact that the White Rabbit wasn't large enough to loom over her in such a way.
It took a pair of bony hands gripping her waist to snap poor Alice back to reality. Those most certainly weren't the paws of her best friend! Her eyes opened up wide as saucers in shock. The newly introduced sunlight blinded poor Alice, though. Before she could even realize what was going on, her captor had lifted the child over his or her shoulder where she fell into a… Basket? Cage?
"ALICE!" An extremely alarmed, almost shrill voice called out to the girl currently in the process of being kidnapped. Not her sister… It was the White Rabbit's voice! One of Alice's fists rubbed at her eye in disbelief while the other clamped down on one metal bar. The White Rabbit was chasing after her!
His bushy grey brows were bunched together and tears were streaming out of his red eyes. His normally neat and orderly clothes were wrinkled and torn from branches and thorns.
The beloved pocket watch he was always careful to keep safely tucked away close to his breast was flapping in the wind and banging into tress. Using all the ability and acrobatics he ever gained, he tore after her.
The sight of her frantic and frightened friend made Alice equally frantic and frightened. She attempted to climb out but strong winds kept her pressed into the basket and stray branches unsympathetically flicked over her delicate skin. She reached her arms out of the holes with hands outstretched. "Rabbit! Don't leave me!" She cried out, desperately trying to grab onto him.
In a few more great leaps and dashes, the Rabbit's paws were clutched firmly in the panicked child's hands. He murmured comforting things and promises of escape as he tried getting his back legs in the holes to get a better latch on her prison.
However, the "peace" didn't last very long. The kidnapped spun around with the grace of a broken ballerina and swiftly swiped the White Rabbit off using a long, thin-… pipe… -attached to his or her arm.
As Alice watched her childhood pal hit a tree with tremendous force and slid to the ground, she let out a short shriek. She felt the urge to cry out and scream some more in hopes of attracting more attention, but her throat was already hoarse and the air almost completely zapped from her lungs. Still, tears continued to trickle down her cheeks long after she fell silent.
For a few more minutes, the traumatized young thing remained half-sitting up in the metal cage with the wind mussing her twig-filled hair. She stared at the place her best friend laid until he was no longer in sight. Then she slowly, shakily lowered herself down even further.
What's going to happen to me? Little Alice pondered, her body quaking ever so slightly in fear. She curled her legs up against her torso and tucked her knees under her trembling chin in an effort to make herself more comfortable in her holding place. Within seconds, she had passed out.