Being in England is kind of weird. But good weird. Mira's never actually been out of the country before, but when Dad had an alumnus thing at Oxford he offered to bring her with him, and she said yes.
It's both more and less different from the States than she was imagining.
For instance, in the States, Mira has probably never seen a rabbit wearing an apron and bonnet. And yet, there it is, bouncing through the streets of Oxford carrying a little basket.
It takes a large antique pocket-watch out of its apron pocket, checks the time, and jumps about a foot in the air.
"Oh no! I'm going to be late!" it cries in a tiny, high-pitched voice.
--Yep that's weird.
She has a moment of--divisiveness--in reaction, but they both agree that following it is the right option.
No-one else seems to have noticed anything unusual.
The rabbit hops away down a narrow, winding side-street. It seems to be unaware of Mira.
As it bounds along - at quite a speed - it mutters to itself, "I'm late, I'm late I'm late I'm late..." and occasionally tugs at one ear with its free paw.
These streets are narrow and twisty, and it's not easy to keep up, but Mira can stay a few seconds behind the rabbit if she tries.
That is, until it turns an unexpected corner and disappears into an alleyway.
She's just in time to see it jump down a manhole-sized opening in the ground at the end of the alley.
It was in such a hurry that its bonnet flew off, and is now lying crumpled in the mud near the hole.
There is no-one else in sight.
This is probably not the wisest thing ever.
She does it anyway, grabbing the bonnet and jumping down the hole.
She falls.
Very quickly, however, the fall turns into a slide, the hole becomes a spiralling slope beneath her. She can see the rabbit, further down the same tunnel.
Every so often, there are things attached to the walls of the tunnel. There's a painting - oops, it's gone, here's a bookshelf -
After less than a minute of this, the tunnel opens up, without any warning whatsoever, and dumps her out to start falling again down a much wider passage. This one still has random objects stuck to the walls, like that chair sticking out sideways, and those stuffed toys arranged in various gravity-defying poses.
The rabbit pulls out a parasol from...somewhere...and opens it, floating down rather more sedately.
"Eeep!" is the response.
The rabbit, now drifting level with Mira's feet, twists around to look at her.
"H-how did you get down here?" She sounds alarmed.
"Oh no."
The little rabbit tugs on her ear again with the paw not holding her parasol; the basket is looped around her elbow.
"Oh dear oh dear oh dear - "
"Oh! Thank you!" she squeaks, now level with Mira's waist and able to see the bonnet in her hand.
"I didn't even notice I'd dropped it, where - "
"Oh, well, thank you!"
The rabbit blinks up at her.
"Um, I forgot to introduce myself - I'm the White Rabbit, messenger to the Queen," she says, bobbing a curtsey, which looks rather peculiar in mid-air.
Slooow blink.
"Huh, I guess you wouldn't have heard of - " she realises, before drawing herself up officiously into a formal posture, and adopting a much more confident tone than she has been speaking in.
"Her Gracious Majesty, Queen Marcella the First, sovereign by right over all Wonderland," she pronounces grandly, and looks at Mira for a response.
She points downwards, into the darkness below them.
"That's where we're headed right now - where I come from. You jumped down the hole and you didn't even know where it led?"
She sounds equal parts impressed and scandalised.
"Huh. Most people don't notice me at all."
They are still drifting gently downwards through the strange tunnel. This section seems to be a cylindrical library, the walls entirely lined with books.
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