Elinor found herself laying in a heap in the grass, a tangle of blonde hair and muddy lace skirts, an uncharacteristically warm wind ruffled her in her daze, any rational mind would have been suspicious of the lack of snow, but she was just glad to stop shaking for a while, something shuffled a distance away and, from what she could gather, below her, so she took a guess that she was up on a hill, and eventually she had to force her eyes open, and suddenly she wasn't sure where she was, because surely no place on earth looked like this, off to her right was the hill she'd guessed, an archway made of leafless trees stood at the top, clumps of weedy, dry grass creaking out streaks downhill until they met the treeline that surrounded her on three sides, she couldn't see much between the trees except, well, more trees, the view on her left side was an entirely different matter though. She gaped at the view spilling out in front of her, here at the bottom of the hill, the ground suddenly dropped away to a steep muddy drop, the kind that a delighted child would roll down, ending at the bank of a deep murky looking river, beyond that was another forest, so dense it looked like a carpet, but here and there wooden towers escaped the treetops, she looked from one to the next until she found herself peering out at a town and the most fairytale looking castle she'd ever seen, polished White stone and dark roofs soaking up the light from the pale teal sky and almost glowing. She sat gaping at the view, head reeling, the lack of snow or bitter smelling wind was enough to say she was nowhere near the school anymore, but beyond that, she had no idea where she was or how far it would be to get back, or, perhaps more importantly, how she had gotten here in the first place, she only remembered a fat rabbit and an essay she wanted to avoid "good news there I guess" she murmured.
Once she was sure she could stand, she started to wander around, approaching the archway first, the ground around it looked almost scorched, but the trees themselves, despite the lack of leaves, seemed very much alive, nothing else in the area indicated what had happened, so she moved on, walking to the edge of the trees before a roar that sounded like a rather large animal, one that she imagined to have a lot of teeth, and so she retreated back to sit by the arch. Elinor wasn't sitting for more than ten minutes before someone, muttering and cursing under his breath, marched up the hill, he wore a smart burgundy tailcoat and grey pants, his pale blonde hair falling across his round cheeks and large brown eyes and, Elinor did a double take on this one, pale white rabbits ears twitching on top of his head, stopping his hair sitting flat, she watched as he approached, something familiar twisting in her stomach, He spotted her and the intensity in his eyes made her flinch, she thought his glare might set her on fire, quickly she shook her head, looking back up at his ears "okay, so I'm dreaming, I must have hit my head, that explains it, it's a dream" she nodded to herself, pinching her arm, it didn't make anything go away, the rabbit eared man scoffed "Hit your head, I'd say definitely, you're absolutely hopeless with the warp, went and broke it," he scolded, suddenly a pair of arms appeared around his shoulders, followed by the owner, a scruffy looking red head with a scar over his left eye, his jeans and black shirt were nowhere near as impressive as the rabbit eared man, but something in his grin, perhaps the fangs, worried the girl, his silver eyes were fixed on her "true and all as that may be, Alice, this is real, it'll take more than a pinch on the arm to get you out of here" she flinched and her expression turned to stone
"I'm Not Alice" she said flatly, clenching her hands in her lap
The floating boy laughed, it wasn't cruel or condescending, it was just a laugh "You'd have to be, else the gate wouldn't have opened for you, and you wouldn't have had a chance to break it, Alice." he pointed at her and she pressed herself back against one of the arch trees.
"I'm not Alice" she repeated
"Details, sweetheart, Details," he clapped his hands together, ears laying back against his head casually " now, follow me." he turned and started walking, not waiting to see if she was joining them, the assumption irritated her almost as much as the name.
"I'm not leaving this gate....thing, and I'm not going to follow a stranger, especially not one who floats" she crossed her arms, fixing her eyes on them, they exchanged glances
"Well, I mean," the floating boy was clearly thinking about his words "I showed myself, isn't that enough to say you should trust me?" she stared at him for a moment "I...no? Why would it? How is that even- why would that make me trust you? There is no connect!" she was getting sick of this, in all honesty, she'd rather write her essay, or get yelled at for not doing it, than deal with this.
Suddenly the rabbit eared boy was in front of her again, violet eyes shining as he tugged on her arm, trying to pull her towards the treeline, and she yanked her arm free quickly, staring at him "excuse you buddy, I said I'm not going with you, you haven't even introduced yourself!" she snapped, her voice harsher than she meant, and he looked stunned and a little upset, but he nodded and dropped his hand back to his side, his ears wilting slightly "my apologies, it must have slipped my mind, my name is Theodore, the floating idiot behind me is Orin" he plastered his smile back in place and glanced back at him, before both settled their eyes on Elinor "now will you please, please follow us? It is actually rather important" he reached for her arm again, this time she didn't stop him, letting herself be led away from the arch.
They walked for almost fifteen minutes, deeper into the dense, twisted trees, and with every minute the trees seemed to be more twisted, reaching closer and closer to the little trio, finally Orin spoke "so, Alice, what suit do you belong to? What do you bring to the table?"
"Once again, Not Alice, also, what?"she blinked a few times, watching her new companions carefully, quietly frustrated that they were bringing up yet another question before answering anything.
He turned to face her, branches skimming his tangled hair "I'd imagine you're not a Spade, given what we've seen so far" he pondered "not a diamond....maybe Club?" he tapped his chin, watching her face twist further in confusion.
"Is....Is that an insult? Should I be insulted right now?" she poked him, hoping she might actually get an answer at some point.
DU LIEST GERADE
Project: Alice
Fantasy"I am not Alice" I sometimes feel the need to get the words tattooed in bold letters on my forehead, maybe that would finally get the message across, maybe then they'd stop comparing me to her, maybe then things wouldn't have become what they are. E...
