When Lory woke up, her clothes and hair were completely dry. Slowly she sat up, the grown spinning with the slightest movement for a short while. When everything came into focus, none of it made sense. Of course, she understood she was in a small clearing in a forest. The towering trees blocked out all the light, choking it out with dark shadows, but it the clearing; everything was bathed in a golden light. Yet all the flowers seem to hate the light, she thought, as in the shadows, tiny delicate, daisy-sized plants grew, seeming reluctant to enter the clearing, every one of them, seemingly a different colour.
Hesitantly, she stood up. Again, the earth swayed, but didn't spin as fast as before. Cautiously, she turned around. That's when she saw him. A tall Korean boy with rabbit white choppy but floppy hair, in a matching long sleeved tee-shirt and grey trousers. A blue waistcoat contrasted with rabbit red-pink eyes. His hand whipped into his trouser pocket and pulled out a chunky silver flip phone. He glanced at the screen, signed then slipped it back into his pocket with surprising speed, shaking his head. "Well, I guess if I just dump the girl, but, oh! That would be impolite. But I shall be late. Eurgh!" Still shaking his head, he looked up at Lory and froze. "Ah, you're awake. Well, at least you're not dead. That would have been bad. I would have checked but if you were dead it would have been icky." Then his face lit up with a genuine smile. "Well, if we make a move, I can take you to Dodo, and still won't be late. Come on!" Like a small child, he grabbed her hand, and, gently, dragged Lory into the deep, dark, woods (forest, the normal part of her brain said).
Together they weaved their way through the forest, leaping over roots and fallen trees and ducking under their branches. Lory was soon panting from all that running and whilst resting for a second, she realised that what she originally took to be flowers were actually mushrooms. She went to ask bunny boy about it her brain realised something. "Um… Sorry, but I don't know your name."
"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot. I'm Whilliam. It's like William but with ah and makes you sound like you have a bit of a cold. My parents were total traditionalists. I'm totally for Earth names. And of course, you're Alice," Whilliam called back casually.
"Um… no, I'm Lorina, but you can call me Lory. I have a cousin called Alice if it helps. Not sure how it would, but you never know." She offered feebly. Whilliams downcast face was heart-breaking. It was as if she'd-just-told-a-five-year-old-santa-wasn't-real-and-he-only-gets-presents-at-christmas-because-he's-spoilt.
"Well, not that I'm not happy to meet you Ina," ("It's Lory!") "but you see, we were really hoping the next Upper would be an Alice. Just being curious, what's your surname? It may be vital."
"Hargreaves. I'm Lorina Hargeaves." Lory panted. This made Whilliam drop Lory's hand and he spun around.
"Well that's perfect!" Whilliam's skin was suddenly flushed a violent red, and his red-pink eyes no longer seemed calming. "I'm going to be late and it's all because of Hat's coming back and he was talking all about knowing where the next Alice's going to be and what she looks like. Your eyes are grey not gold! If only I had checked your god-damn eyes! But you were in the rain for so long, you had to be Alice. Now the Queen's going to chop off my head and you're not even ALICE!" After that outburst, Whilliam stood panting for a few moments. He stood there, eyes still crazy with frustration and anger, and, almost comically, he calmed slowly down, skin fading from red to its original hue. He then stood tall, regaining his composed but childlike composure in a in a matter of seconds.
"Of course, none of this is your fault. I am so dreadfully sorry Ina," ("LORINA!") "but I'm afraid this is where I must leave you. If you just keep heading in that direction," he said, pointing west of their current location, " then you should eventually come across my friend Dodo. She lives by the beach and should help you. Now if you don't mind," Whilliam made a small bow to Lorina, "I really must be going, or I'll be incredibly late." Just like that, he bounded on deeper into the forest.
Lorina stood a moment in the dark debating whether to it'd be a good idea to ignore the rabbit's advice (for he only said if, not you should, so it wasn't really an order of any sorts Lory thought to herself) and follow Whilliam, but declined the idea. "After all," Lorina told herself, "all that talk of heads being chopped off doesn't make it sound too tourist friendly. And only for being late. Plus, I thought dodo's were extinct. It might be awesome." She nodded to herself and headed west.
Time past, then time pasted again, then again, then on the fourth time time passed, Lory admitted she was either following wrong directions, a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long way from the beach, or lost. It was then she remembered hearing once that no one can walk in a completely straight line and proceeded to tell her brain off for not remembering it before she tried to walk in a straight line. So, after wondering what to do, she closed her eyes, spun around and when she stopped she pointed forward and proceeded to follow her finger.
Lorina seemed to walk for hours, yet nothing seemed to change in to forest and the edge seemed nowhere near. In a bout of frustration, Lory slumped herself down on a particularly large root, mushing the tender mushrooms beneath her trainers. A groan escaped her lips and her head plopped itself into her hands, her fingers running through her hair. Deep in the forest, a fearsome creature heard that groan.
Lorina missed the first few tremendous stomps. Only when she heard the sound of the creature made was she alerted to its approach. It was mostly a bleat, a bit like a murmur, but more of a warble, but to Lorina, it sounded most like a gurgle and a muffled wail. She stood up to get a closer look, to investigate, only to be thrown back to the ground by it's tremendous footfall caused the ground, the trees, everything to shake, like a miniature earthquake. As a result, she lay there, on her back in a pool of mushroom mush and juice. It was when she was pushing herself back up did she see it. It's head on its long snake-like neck was stretched to its limits, aimed at Lorina. It felt like if it was to try harder, its head would pop of its neck. The creature's monstrous jaws were open and its eyes of flame bore into her.
She scrambled desperately to her feat, and not daring to look back, she ran. The jabberwocky, with eyes of flame, raced through her mind. "Now's not really the time for poetry," she scalded herself. Adeline raced through her like never before, kick starting her tired limbs.
The trees that had been no problem for her a mere minute ago now tore at her clothing, whipped her face, clawed her hair and stung her eyes. Roots reached up desperately to uproot her feat, to trip her and deliver her to the jabberwocky. Only when a sudden gush of thick, smelling, purple liquid hit her like a waterfall did she dare to halt. She was lucky at that, for the manxome head landed at her feet and rolled on, its eyes now coal black and smoking.
Looking up behind her, a tiny, practically microscopically so, thin wire was strung at the perfect height to bisect a jabberwock neck.
Whilst Lorina wiped the purple blood from her eyes, a short albino skinned woman stepped out from behind a tree. "Did you like my wire then?" she crowed. Her hair was raven black and feathered, her eyes hauntingly black and empty like a birds. On her right cheek a black feather was permanently inked. Her clothes also were black and flowing.
"Yes thanks." Ina smiled, her now purple and sticky. She turned her attention to wringing the blood out of it.
"Yes, well, I couldn't have the jabberwock kill you. Not yet. I hope it'll be my job, but until then, I'll just have to get the Queen her eyes. Terribly sorry about this Ina. If you were Alice, it'd be much simpler."
Lory raised her head in time to look through her hair to see the woman burst into a dozen ravens. Fear paralysed her muscles, shock opened her eyes and terror gagged her throat. Taken by surprise, all she could do was watch as the ravens flew at her, claws outstretched for her eyes.
Ina's screams echoed throughout the Tugley woods.