III. Rabbit Hole

1:23.

Ryli continued watching the digital clock on her bed side table; she always enjoyed viewing the magical moment the numbers all lined up. Across the room she could hear faint music coming from Shadoe's ear buds. The other girl had fallen asleep listening to her iPod, nothing out of the ordinary. Ryli sighed as she reached for her own iPod, and after selecting a soft play list she was finally able to drift off to sleep.

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Shadoe woke in a haze, her half-awake mind moving slowly, scattered. She could remember... She had been listening to her iPod. But she could no longer hear it. "The ear things must have fallen out..." she thought.

She tried moving her arm so she could find the headphones, but she couldn't move. She tried moving her legs; they wouldn't move either. Her blankets felt tight. Really tight. Like she had been wrapped in a giant burrito. Like that giant burrito was being held tight and carried away at a high speed.

Fully awake now, Shadoe could hear the wind howling loudly as it rushed by. They were moving fast- much faster then any human could run.

Ryli squirmed and wiggled but could not get free of her own blankets.

"RYLI!" Shadoe tried to yell over the roaring of the wind.

"Shadoe?!" Ryli's reply was almost lost to the air that flew past them.

"What's going on!? Who are you?!" Shadoe squirmed some more, fighting against the grip of the captor that held so tightly to the blanket-burrito.

"Ah, they're awake now," said a voice that easily overcame the wind with its deep, strong tone.

"Hold on, we're almost there," said a similar, but somehow different voice.

After what must have only been a few seconds, they stopped and were gently placed on the ground. The sound of earth being rappidly tossed about and scratched at filled the night.

Shadoe couldn't see what was happening, but fell to screaming insults, currently unable to move anything but her mouth. "You dirt faces! I hope you get hit with a semi-truck! Let us go or I'll hunt down and eat. Your. First. Born. CHILD!!!" She spoke the last few words with threatening, solid singularity.

A slight scoff of a chuckle. "Well, that's no way to speak to a king."

"King? King of what?! King of the dirt-faced, truck-squished, and first-born-childless?!' yelled Ryli

"Nice." Shadoe appreciated the play off of her own insults. Ryli echoed a "thank you."

The two then heard what sounded like a low growl. "Oh, hush." said one to the other, as the digging finally stopped. The girls were both picked up once again; the blankets had loosened a little bit. As they were tossed into what resembled a giant rabbit hole, Shadoe managed to poke her head out to just catch sight of the two figures, the kidnappers, jumping in the hole after them.

There was the sensation of falling as everything went black...