Author's Note: This story is a soft crossover with Alice in Wonderland. I've never written a crossover fic. I adore Alice in Wonderland. Besides the book of course, the Disney incarnations, animated and live action, are my favorites. I call it a soft crossover because the Alice aspects are going to very AU, only extremely loosely based on the original material. This is why I didn't bother listing it as a true crossover. This will also be my first transported to an alternate universe fic as well. So this is ALL new territory for me. Please enjoy!

Alice aimlessly strolled through the field of tall grass. Here and there, white daisies with yellow centers poked their heads above the blanket of green. Looking up at the indigo blue sky, she shielded her eyes from the blinding white sun.

"Alice! Alice!" her angry older sister shouted. "You better come back and finish your chores! I'm gonna tell, Mama! You'll be in big trouble, fart face!"

Fart face? That wasn't very mature for a nineteen year old.

Alice dropped down to her knees to hide, disappearing in the meadow of emerald swaying in the warm summer breeze. She wasn't quite acting her age either. The verdant scent of the crushed stalks surrounded her as she settled down onto her belly. She plucked a nearby daisy, picking off the thin white petals one at a time.

Something rustled the grass close to her, making her freeze in fear. Surely her sister had not found her so quickly. She held her breath as the swishing sound grew louder, coming closer. When the fear of being caught threatened to overtake her, she covered her mouth with both hands to keep from screaming.

The grass to her left shifted then parted. Alice yelped in surprise when a white rabbit hopped into view mere inches from her face. She lay her face flat on the cool ground inhaling the aroma of the fresh dirt she disturbed. Relief flooded her system making her feel temporarily weak.

Raising her head, she stared at the rabbit still sitting in front of her. He stared back at her with his big red eyes, his little pink nose twitching. She smiled.

"How cute," she sighed.

Annoyed with the adorable fluffy bunny that scared the hell out of her, she reached out to grab him. Her hand clutched empty air where his long ears had been seconds before. Naturally, he bolted, hopping away through the long grass.

"You're not going to get away that easily, fuzzy butt," she muttered, crawling on her hands and knees along the path he was cutting through the grass.

The jeans she wore offered little comfort against the sharp rocks that poked at her knees and shins. Dirt and grass stains coated her palms. Suddenly the path closed, the grass snapping back and hitting her in the face.

Alice sat up, leaning back on the heels of her boots to look around for signs of the white rabbit. Catching sight of a fluffy white tail, she jumped to her feet and surged forward.

"Damn rabbit," she muttered. "You're probably the one who's been nibbling the vegetables in Mama's garden."

Follow the bouncing bunny butt. She kept her eyes on the flashes of white fur through the green grass. They were nearing the edge of the meadow where the rugged road to the house cut through. She had to catch him on that road before he bounded into the next field.

Alice took a desperate leap to get out of the grass and land on the dirt and gravel lane. She planned to catch the fuzzy offender as he jumped clear of the grass. Bending her knees, squatting like a catcher behind home plate, she waited for him to literally hop into her arms.

"Well, what the hell..."

When he never came out, she ventured back into the field. Stepping into the grass, the ground gave way under her feet, and she began falling. She had stepped into a hole. A really BIG hole. Falling, falling down further and further until Alice became convinced she would fall to the center of the earth.

There was no light, no sound. Only wind and space and the awful sensation of falling that would not stop. Her stomach turned somersaults inside her body which remained upright. Thank goodness. She certainly didn't want to land on her head.

Smell was the first sensory perception Alice became aware of. Dirt, dampness, the smell of mildew in a dark enclosed space. She assumed it was dark because she still couldn't see a damn thing.

A tiny pinpoint of orange light was as welcome as the sun when she saw it under her brown knee high leather boots smudged with mud and blades of grass. The cold air was getting warmer, pushing past her faster and faster. Was she falling faster?

The point of light grew, widening and changing to a yellow color. Brown, possibly a dirt floor, stretched out beneath her. She was about to hit bottom. Oh, shit.

Alice closed her eyes, relaxing her body as much as possible to absorb the impact. If she stiffened up, she might break something. Then she felt the dirt walls of the hole open up before they vanished entirely, and she was free falling through thin air. God, this was going to hurt like hell.

"Hey!" she heard a voice yell.

Then she made impact flat on her back. Her head contacted something solid, round, and hard, possibly a large rock. The sound of her head hitting the mystery object was like the cracking sound of two marbles crashing together. A flash of pain raced through her brain like a lightning bolt. She tried to lift her head but dizziness permitted her to only roll it away from whatever she struck.

Other than bumping her head on something, the sudden stop at the end of her fall wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Actually it was quite soft. Reaching under her, she felt something firm but slightly squishy. She poked it, and a warm puff of air along with an agonized groan tickled her ear.

"OH MY GOD!" she screamed, scrambling to her feet.

Alice stared at the young man lying on the ground. He was wearing black pants, brown boots, and a brown jacket. He dressed almost like any other farm boy in her hick country town, but he was definitely not from there. She had a bad feeling they were no where near her home anymore.

"Oh, my god, I hope I didn't kill him," she breathed, terrified that she had just become a murderer.

Tentatively stepping closer, she leaned over him. His messy white hair was made even more messy by the bits of dirt and pieces of grass sticking to his locks. Grass? But there was no grass down here.

She cautiously poked his side with the toe of her boot. He groaned again which caused her to jump in surprise.

"Hey...h-hey, kid, are you dead?" she asked, dropping to her knees beside him.

"Ooooh," he moaned. "What happened?"

"Uhm, I'm not sure. I found you like this," she lied, not wanting to admit she had been the one who flattened him. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay," he mumbled, his eyes shifting under his closed eyelids. "Oh, my goddess, it hurts. I feel like I was crushed by a Minotaur."

"Hey!" she cried out in offense. Then it struck her what he said. "Crushed by a what?"

"Minotaur," he repeated, his eyes popping open.

"Minotaur," she whispered in disbelief. Those only existed in Greek myths...right? "Minotaur, Minotaur...like, like, uhm, like a half bull, half man kinda thing?"

"Yeah, something like that," the boy replied, staring at her.

Alice looked around the cave, or what appeared to be a cave, with a dirt floor and rock walls. Stalactites jutted from the ceiling above them, some streaked with a glowing green or blue substance that dripped into pools on the floor ringed by round growths of stalagmites that resembled crowns.

She could hear breathing, heavy breathing. Then she realized it was her panting open mouthed for air. Her chest rose up and down quickly in her quest for air, for clarity, for understanding as to what in the hell happened and where the hell she landed.

"Miss...Miss...what's your name?" he inquired politely in a soft voice.

"Alice," she responded numbly, her head whipping around in search of a way out.

Gazing straight above her, she found the hole she had fallen through in the ceiling amid the outcroppings of rocky formations. There was absolutely no way to get up there to it. In the walls, several holes opened to paths that led only God knew where. The dark passages could lead to a Minotaur or a dragon or some other lethal fantasy creature who should only be alive in fairy tales.

"I'm Bell Cranel. Are you okay, Alice?" he asked her.

Alice's eyes met his. Red. The boy had red eyes. Like the fucking rabbit.

"No," she answered, her voice rising well above it's normal range. "Are you the - "

He couldn't be the white rabbit. A static whine filled her ears like that of big machinery. A darker blackness than that during her fall encroached upon her vision, and she fainted.

~\..'../~

"Welcome home, Bell!" Hestia exclaimed excitedly when she heard him enter their room in the deserted church they called home.

She was placing their dinner on plates. The food cart owner had allowed her to bring the leftovers home. They were having a feast tonight including dessert. It had been a good day.

Hestia pivoted on her foot to greet him. The smile fell from her face. It was no longer a good day. He was carrying something over his shoulder, possibly a sack. An ugly sack too. It was brown and blue and the most hideous pattern of black and white boxes.

"Bell," she hesitated, watching as he carefully laid the, whatever it was on was, on his couch. "What is that?"

"It's a girl," he said.

Hestia stomped over to get a closer look. Long, straight pale blond hair covered the girl's face. The awful black and white thing was her shirt which tied at the waist of the blue pants.

Bell knelt down beside the couch to remove her boots, and carefully set them on the floor.

"Bell Cranel, you need to stop bringing stray girls home," she admonished him, her hands on her hips.

"What's going on?" Lili asked, skipping into the room.

"And that's why!" Hestia exclaimed irritably. "You bring them home, and they never leave. What are you doing here, homewrecker?"

Lili ignored her, scuttling over to couch to sate her curiosity.

"Who's this, Bell?" she inquired, examining the girl a little closer up.

"Her name is Alice. I think she's hurt. That's why I brought her home," he explained, turning to the angry, jealous goddess fuming behind him. "Please, Hestia, we need to help her."

"Hmph," the irate brunette sniffed, sticking her nose in the air.

"Please, Hestia," he begged, literally on his hands and knees.

"Wow, you really have a thing for blondes, don'tcha Bell?" Lili commented, pushing the lengthy, straw colored locks away from the stranger's face. "Oh, she's pretty, Bell. What color are her eyes?"

"Blue...like the sky," he added, blushing a little.

"BELL!" Hestia yelled, smacking him across the back of his head.

"Ow!" he cried out. "Goddess, what did I do?"

"That was awfully descriptive. You shouldn't have noticed her eyes...or her anything," the green with envy goddess pouted, stomping her foot.

"Please, Hestia," he implored her, groveling some more. "She needs our help."

"Yeah. This bump on her head is pretty bad," Lili interjected.

"Oh, all right!" she grudgingly agreed. "But once she's better, she's gone!"

~\..'../~

Alice awoke with a start. She opened her eyes but couldn't see. Before full on panic could set in from her thinking she was blind, a ray of silver light coming in through a window caught her attention. She expelled a sigh of relief to discover she still had the gift of sight.

Lying still, she listened to her surroundings. Crickets sang their night songs outside the window. Sitting up, she looked at the window. Beautifully colored stained glass depicting a flower garden. The moonlight shone through a broken pane at the bottom painting a white circle on the gray stone of the floor.

Soft, rhythmic breathing came from behind her. Turning her upper body, she saw a bed with the form of a sleeping individual under the sheet. She could not tell if the body belonged to a man or a woman or some kind of beast; nor did she really care either. All she wanted to do was leave.

Alice lowered her feet to the floor as she sat straight up. After spotting her boots on the floor near her feet, she grabbed them to tiptoe toward the door. The pounding headache made her want to lie back down, but she needed to go.

"Where are you going?"

The voice was barely above a whisper but did not sound menacing.

"You should lie back down," he said. "You bumped your head."

She recognized the voice from earlier; the boy in the cave. The white rabbit! FUCK! She must have hit her head harder than she thought. The pulsating in her temples grew worse.

"What happened?" she asked, standing still. In the muted light, she could see the outline of the boy talking to her, but she could not see his face.

"I think you fell from the ceiling. And landed on me," he replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized, glad he couldn't see her blushing. "Where am I?"

"You're in a city called Orario," he answered plainly.

Never heard of it, she thought. Where the hell am I?!

"Where was I to begin with?"

Alice swayed uncertainly. Her head, or the room, she wasn't sure which, started spinning.

"Be careful!" the boy gasped, rushing to her.

Alice grunted when two thin but strong arms enclosed her waist, pulling her body against his before her knees weakened. He was warm. She felt safe in his strong arms. Her arms clung limply to his neck as he dragged her to the couch to sit her down.

"Here," he said, bringing a cup of water to her lips.

She placed her hands over his that gripped the cup while he tipped it up to her mouth. Gulping heartily, she gratefully emptied the cup. She had never tasted water so clean and fresh, not even from the well on their farm.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Since they were closer to the window, Alice could see his face. Baby faced and almost pretty, she could tell he was younger than her. She would guess him to be around fifteen, making the age difference about two years.

She reached out to touch his hair. It was as soft as it looked, fluffy like the cotton they grew in their fields every other summer. The tips were still damp from his shower.

Alice chewed her lower lip nervously as her eyes roamed over his face then met his. The irises were red like rubies. They sparkled like jewels in the moonlight.

"What was your name?" she inquired, unable to recall what he had told her.

"Bell. Bell Cranel."

"That's cute. It rhymes. You're cute too."

His fair cheeks reddened which she could see despite the lack of bright light.

"Bell, I don't know if you're going to believe what I'm about to say. I don't know if I'm going to believe what I'm about to say," she sighed. "I'm not from this place."

"I kind of assumed that. Just tell me where you live and - "

"I don't think you're understanding what I mean," she interrupted him. "I don't just mean this city, I mean this world. This universe. Wherever or whenever this place is." For all she knew she could have time traveled or something as well. "I don't belong here, and I don't know how to get home."

"I still don't understand," he admitted. "But I'll do everything I can to get you home."

Alice had no choice but to continue to follow the white rabbit. Welcome to Wonderland.