redo-Wonderland part 1 chap1

Falling

“Alice! Alice! Where are you! ALICE!!!!
Alice stayed silent and tried not to move or slip on the slippery mud where she half knelt-half hung on branches of a rose bush. Though it was rather difficult her flat black Mary Jane’s did not provide much grip on the slippery sludge and there was nothing for her to hold onto for support besides the prickly branches that shredded her hands like paper. She was almost slipped when one of her sister’s minions, Claudius came just a few feet from where she was hiding. Biting back a whimper as she grabbed a spiked branch, Alice once again pulled herself up. Once steady she looked back from behind the leaves to see Claudius conversing with Charlotte. Alice would rather have died then have been discovered by that blood sucking leech. If Claudius had been her sister Alice was pretty sure she would have become his personal slave or worse.
She had chosen well for her hiding place. The bush was actually two bunched together their trunks a few feet apart. There was a parting in between them at the bottom creating a hole of sorts in the thick leaves and branches. The inside of the bushes was a sort of cave with a spiky roof and walls. It would most likely This bush was one of her favorite hiding places when she wanted to be alone or in this case an escape from a boring lecture from her sister-tutor.
It wasn’t like Alice enjoyed disobeying her sister it was just that Charlotte could just get so bossy at times.
“Alice, stop fidgeting. And read your book.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that this book doesn’t make any sense to me?”
“Why? What is wrong with it?”
“Well there really isn’t anything wrong with it. It just doesn’t have any pictures in it.”
She then just brushed off Alice and said that she was a child and would soon understand that there was a great deal of books in the world without pictures.
And it had been that way ever since their parents had given Charlotte full control of the household while they were away to India a year ago. Alice did have to admit that Charlotte had always seemed to think that things always had to go her way but now it was worse. Now she was critiquing Alice on what she ate, what she said, what she did, even what she wore. Before Alice used to be able to walk comfortably in light dresses that were cut short and easy to move around in. But now she has to wear big frilly dresses with heavy petty coats that made her trip and stumble whenever she took so much as a step.
Today Alice had had enough and had changed early in the morning and slipped outside before her sister realized her escape. On her way she had snuck into the kitchen to steal a few rolls and cheese that she stuffed in her apron pocket. She had just reached the rose garden when she had heard the angry frantic calls of her sister.
Alice was beginning to get very tired of being crutched in the wet mud and was considering getting out and risking her sister’s fury when she heard a peculiar noise. Not peculiar in the sense to be alarmed but a sound that sparked Alice’s curiosity. It had come from the bushes behind her.

Gingerly avoiding the needle point thorns, Alice pushed the branches aside. Her mouth fell open as her eyes met a most peculiar sight; a rabbit standing not four feet away from her astonished face. He wore a bright red and black checkered waist, a pair of form fitting blue and black striped pants, a yellow collared shirt and a baby blue tie. His fur was short and a perfect shade of snow white from his paws to the tip of his long ears.

H e almost looked like a statue until he blinked his bright pink eyes and took out suddenly as if by magic an over sized gold pocket watch. As he flipped its lid open he wrinkled his little bewhiskered nose. Suddenly he cursed and dashed out of the bushes.

“Oh, Mr. RABBIT! PLEASE, WAIT!” Alice scrambled up and began to follow after him.
The maze was an elaborate construction of tall eight foot tall hedges that took up much of the Hamilton Estate that was a vast couple thousand acres. The only things that rivaled its size were that of the large lake that expanded on the right side of the manor and the rose garden which extended around the left and front side of the manor and all the way to where the main road to Manchester. When Alice was younger she used to believe that the ones who tended to the maze’s perfect structure were little green fairies that had little claws that were used as gardening clippers. It wasn’t till Alice was seven when she discovered a gardener cutting one of the outside hedges with a rather large pair of scissor looking clippers. Ever since then Alice has been noticing all of the gardeners coming every two days to cut the littlest green leaf. And of course Charlotte didn’t make any compromises as far as imperfections went. She personally took a walk every day to make sure not the smallest piece of greenery went astray. Alice also memorized this labyrinth from her early days of adventuring. Well sort of.
At the moment, Alice, in her excitement in catching the rabbit, let all of her previous experiences escape her and kept running into dead ends. When she finally came to the center she stopped and took in a few deep breaths that had escaped her through her trek. When she looked up she saw the white rabbit circling the big oak that stood squarely in the middle of the clearing. He seemed to be searching for something because he kept jumping up and down the tree’s trunk while knocking on its bark. He did this several times as Alice looked on until he finally kicked the tree and started cursing as he jumped on his uninjured leg.
Alice let out a little giggle but then realized that it was neither right nor very nice too laugh at someone when they were injured and it seemed a little impolite to just stand there without announcing herself.
“Are you alright Mr. Rabbit?” One of his long white ears twitched in her direction, he stopped hopping and stood strait. He turned to face in her direction his small gray eyes searching for his watcher. She stepped forward so he could see her from behind the hedge she was hiding. She stepped forward cautiously as to not scare him. She vaguely remembered her sister telling her that animals were often scared of humans. But she didn’t know why she was taking all the precautions now when she had already been shouting after him almost the entire time. And besides he seemed rather humane in the way he presented himself.
When he didn’t say anything or runway, she continued to move forward. All the while the gray eyes behind the gold speckles stared at her.
“Are you looking for something? Or did you lose your way?”
Again he didn’t answer.
“If you’d like I perhaps I could help-”
“That is quite enough. I think you better run along now little girl.”
“Oh! You can talk?!” It was as if Alice was stating a fact and not a question. And the thought didn’t really cross her mind that rabbits were generally not supposed to have the freedom to do so and she should be surprised by this. But she wasn’t. It seemed natural for her.
“Yes! Yes! And now that we have gotten that straightened out why don’t you run along and do what young girls do in your world.” He turned away from her and began to inspect the tree again. But Alice wasn’t about to be brushed aside so easily.