<div style="text-align: center"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'"><span style="font-size: 22px"><span style="color: Teal">After the fall</span></span></span>​</div><br/><br/><br/><br/>When Alice finally opened her eyes, she could at first not see where she was. The hellish ride through the portal was the last thing she could remember, with which the smell and feel of the slippery eels of goo that had slithered over her form were imprinted on her mind. Yet as she lay there, on a simple bed made with strange hides she had never seen before, she felt clean and cleansed from all those foul things that engulfed her within the portal of the Chesire cat. The trip had felt unreal, more unreal then any flower she had ever sniffed, as it was accompanied by her worst fears and nightmares with a fall that had never seemed to end.<br/><br/>But here she was, her bones aching and her skin chilled to the bone. There was something strange about the place though, and when her eyes had finally adjusted to her dark, damp surroundings, she gasped of the sudden beauty she could see. The rest of the group was still lying around her, fast asleep in their slumber that the slithering mirror had caused during their travelling. She could see them now, underneath the glittering light of lapping water that licked the glass ceiling of the strange dome they were kept in.  All of them in their own beds, seemingly made to accommodate their different sizes. Every bed was placed in a circle around a huge perfectly round pool in the middle of the room, which Alice suspected was the doorway to the outside.<br/><br/>But it was not the sight of her newfound friends that had taken her breath away. It was the beauty of what lay beyond the thick crystal dome panes that separated them from a great ocean weighing down on them. Her curious purple eyes followed a school of colourful fish that seemed very interested in the strange waves of her rainbow hair that surrounded her shoulders. She could see the light of millions of fluorescent moss rebounding on the beautiful scales of the fish that wandered by. Beyond those fish however, was something the curious little demon-spawn had never encountered in her life before.<a class="externalLink" href="http://firedudewraith.deviantart.com/art/The-Forgotten-Atlantis-37458694" target="_blank">Buildings, build with the most beautiful stones</a>, hidden away in the depths of what she now knew to be the great ocean. Carved out from the mountains of the deep, or build with the crystals and gems that could not be found on the surface of the world. Plants and coral adorned the place like flowers in a field would colour the earth.<br/><br/>The golden-skinned girl laid her hands upon the glass and pressed her face against the crystal walls in an attempt to see more of this<a class="externalLink" href="http://p1.pichost.me/i/13/1365085.jpg" target="_blank">wonderful world</a>she had fallen in. It was then that she noticed some of the fish weren't completely fish-like. Mermaids in every colour imaginable were swimming around in the far depths around their houses and inside of their hollowed out buildings. A small child had begun to notice the rainbow-haired girl and swam up to her, smiling and making somersaults in the water which made Alice laugh. Her voice reverberated through the dome her companions were being held in, and she wouldn't be surprised to see them waking up soon. She could not wait to show them all this beauty, and danced around in the dome with the child that followed her merrily from the outside.<br/><br/>They were brought somewhere by the cat, somewhere amazing. And she loved it!<i>She was finally safe...</i><br/><br/>As Alice laughed and danced around the room, a sudden laughter mingled in within her own. Startled by the sound of an unknown voice she had never heard before, the young woman turned round to see the most<a class="externalLink" href="http://www.petshopboxstudio.com/blog-upload/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mermaid-by-ConceptArtOrg.jpg" target="_blank"> beautiful creature</a>she had ever laid eyes upon smiling back at her.<br/><br/>''Are you having fun, little one?''<br/><br/>Alice was lost for words, her eyes gazing upon the small white-skinned frame of the woman that sunk back into the pool of water. Her tail lapped lazily up and down, with iridescent blue scales that would surely have blinded anyone when sunlight would have shone upon it. Her hair lay to rest, dripping wet upon her shoulders. It was as white as snow with a patch of dark red that streaked only in the middle. The creature laughed again, with a voice that soothed Alice and calmed her nerves as she sought for words to answer it.<br/><br/><b>''It..It's so beautiful here, miss''</b><br/><br/>''Why thank you, I'm glad you like it. Chesire had been hoping you would.''<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>