Here’s the next installment of Down the Rabbithole: Alice in Shifterland. It’s a more plot-driven chapter, but I promise to add some erotic fun to Chapter Thirteen. As always, my writing is for adults only. If you’re not at least eighteen years old, please navigate away from this page.
Chapter Twelve
“The last unicorn…or at least the only one. It remains to be seen if there will be more to follow.”
“Huh?” Alice looked at him without having to turn her head.
“Shifters have low birthrates. Often, like my aunt, the Duchess, and her piggy husband, the heart wants something different from what would allow the body to reproduce.”
“I gather the Duchess is an equine too?”
Wit snickered. “A pony.”
Alice laughed but it sounded like a nicker. “Figures.”
“But the royals of the White Kingdom and the royals of the Kingdom of Hearts have reproduced in the past. We’re compatible. Now if we ever have a child, it might be a horse shifter or it could be a unicorn.”
Alice’s stomach roiled, and in her current form, she couldn’t even place a palm over her belly to settle it. Fear prickled at her senses. She’d not believed all the hype of her being a princess lost to Shifterland years ago, but now she couldn’t deny the truth. Glancing at Hat’s expectant face, she snorted. “Who says I’d have a baby with you?”
He laughed. “It’s sort of cute how you pretend you’re not just as into me as I am into you.”
“Hmph!” Alice turned away, smacking him with her bushy white tail. She wasn’t certain how her body was supposed to feel, but she imagined her heart shouldn’t be racing as fast as it was. “How do I switch back?”
“Just concentrate on returning to your old self again.”
She frowned. “Will it hurt like hell again?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. The first shift is usually mildly uncomfortable, but most shifters have the ceremony to release their other nature when they’re three. The body is more elastic then. I guess being a late bloomer sucks.”
“Well, fuck it! Here goes.” Alice closed her eyes, focusing on her what her body normally looked like. The crackling and clicking started almost immediately and it was uncomfortable as hell but there was no stomach-turning nausea this time and her head didn’t feel like it would split open and spill out her brains. Her skin tingled and her nose itched but soon enough she was a buck naked, buxom, blond woman once again.
Alice rubbed and scratched her nose. “This is annoying.”
Hat nodded. “On the bright side, those three cane marks I noticed across your ass when I was fucking you are gone…Well, not so much for me…I rather liked your stripes.”
Alice reached over and punched him in the arm as hard as she could. “Asshole.”
“Ouch! Why did you do that?”
“For not warning me what that stone would do to me. You could have asked me if I wanted to shift!”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk…time to wise up, Princess. You can no longer deny who and what you are. You’re people need you. This isn’t the end of your story…no, it’s just beginning.”
A fear she’d never experienced filled Alice’s gut, expanded outward and sunk in down to her bones. She didn’t ask for any of this. A unicorn? Seriously? As if her life hadn’t been lonely enough and now she was the last of her kind.
As reality slapped her in the face, her anxiety gave way to anger. “You and your stalker-ass rabbit have ruined my whole life!”
“Ruined? You’ve got to be kidding me! You were living in a filthy cesspool, fading, practically half dead when we rescued you. You should be thanking me.”
“Oh really? While I’m at it, should I thank you for drugging me with your rapey cupcakes too?” Before she could stop herself, Alice’s palm made contact with Hat’s cheek, leaving a red mark.
He held the side of his face, rubbing it. “Rapey? That’s not even a word, and no one forced you to eat my cupcakes.” He crossed his arms and turned his back to her. “Nor did anyone tell you to scarf down a whole one.”
Alice’s nostrils flared. “Fuck you! No one warned me not to eat a whole one either. Screw you! I’m leaving.”
He swung back around. “You can’t leave. We have work to do!” He sidestepped to block her way.
“I know. I know. I have to reclaim my kingdom. Whatever that means!” Alice threw her arms up in the air.
“It means you and I and Wit must make a journey through the Red Kingdom, allying with anyone brave enough to help us, make a perilous journey through the looking glass and into the White Kingdom where you must face and destroy the Jaberwock.”
“Jaberwocky whodiwhaty?” Alice looked at Hat as if he were nuts.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!” Hat spoke as if he were reciting a well-known poem.
“That does not sound good.” Alice frowned, shaking her head.
“Oh, it’s not! And that’s not the half of it. Ready to go kill it, Alice?”
“Hell no!” She shook her head adamantly. “Fuck that! I’m not going anywhere with you or your stalker friend!” Alice turned on her heal and took off running. The sound of Hat laughing at her as he gave chase filled the air above her head, making her blood boil. She kept running, determined to give him the slip though she wasn’t sure where she’d go.
He body seemed to be burning, her nose itched and her skin tingled, but she kept running, and before she knew it, she was galloping on all fours. She trampled the grass beneath her with heavy hooves, the wind whipping through her mane. Alice kept running, turning her head to get a good look at Hat’s face as she left him in the dust.
Unfortunately, his expression wasn’t as priceless as she’d expected. She’d expected him to be angry or even sad, but he looked worried, scared to death actually. Good! He made her run around like a chicken with no head, all the while suffering from the effects of his deceptively delicious baked goods when he could have gotten the antidote to her much sooner. He’d been manipulating her since she arrived, and she’d be damned if she’d feel guilty about being pissed at him for it.
She looked straight ahead and kept running, galloping at full throttle until her legs grew tired. Opening her mouth, she sucked in air as she slowed to a trot.
After walking for a short while, Alice saw a small group of shifters, two mice and a gopher. They gave her the strangest looks, their eyes wide with wonder. As she continued to stretch her new legs, it struck her that she had no idea where she was going or where she should go. Oh, the caterpillar! He’ll be able to give me some advice if I can just remember where I found him.
Alice turned in a circle, surveying her surroundings. She spied a forest with familiar looking terrain and booked in the direction of the tree line. He shouldn’t be too far. She trotted along and getting her second wind, she started to gallop. She ran until she came to a brook. The water looked cool and refreshing, but she was scared to drink. Everything here should come with instruction signs and warning labels!
She was still getting used to having eyes on each side of her head but when she noticed movement on her right, she jumped. “Who are you?” she asked a wily-looking fox who had slunk up next to her. He sat up on his hind legs, sniffing at her without reply. “Don’t be rude! I asked who you are.”
She shifted into a ginger-haired, naked maid, barely out of her teens. A mischievous smile curved the edges of her mouth and she laughed. “I’m Cora. Are you lost?”
Alice didn’t quite trust Cora but she nodded and spoke plainly. “Yes, I think I am. I was looking for a wise caterpillar to get some advice on how to return home, but I’m completely turned around.”
“Poor thing, I’m afraid I don’t know where the caterpillar is, but I have a friend who would. He’s very smart. He knows just about everything.”
Alice scrunched up her nose. “Please don’t tell me your friend’s name is Hat.”
She giggled running her hand through her short, red hair. “You mean the Prince?”
Alice scrunched up her nose and rolled her eyes. “Yes.”
The young woman’s tangle of curls shook as she wagged her head. “Of course not! He talks way too much for someone who knows so little.” Her onyx eyes shimmered as she delivered the insult.
For some reason, hearing someone else disparage her prince bothered her, but on the other hand, this girl was probably the one person she could count on not to run back to the castle and report her whereabouts to the Royals. “Okay then, led the way.”
“Sure thing!” The girl smiled brightly as she leaped up two feet off the ground, shifting back into a fox in midair.
The fox started off going east, running at full tilt. With her long, muscular, equine legs, Alice had no trouble keeping pace. They traveled for some time, and eventually, a cordillera came into view. Alice stopped short. She wasn’t in the mood for mountain climbing especially not in a body she was still getting used to using. “Where exactly are we going?”
The fox stopped, turning and walking back to where Alice was stalling. “It’s not much further. There’s a mountain pass just up here. My family will be waiting for me just a little way down.”
Alice couldn’t explain why, but a small voice inside of her was certain following this girl was a terrible idea. She wasn’t sure what her normal body temperature was supposed to be in her shifted form, but she was scorching, and that damn horn on the top of her head was vibrating similar to a cat’s purr, an odd but not unpleasant sensation.
“This way!” The fox called to her.
With her stomach turning, Alice stepped forward, making her way toward the smaller animal. She’d followed a rabbit into another dimension. Could a fox be that much worse?
