Teaser Time: One will make me small, One will make me tall

It's been a while since I've poster a teaser and I have no excuse except to say that I've been writing like a hurricane and working on top of that. I walked 16km today in 40 degree heat and so far I've done about 1,200 words - give a girl a break!

Alas I do it to myself because I'm some sort of stress-writing masochist. I know, mental right? 

But my churning of words isn't just to kill myself, although staving off the nap today that my body was kind of screaming for was super painful, and even though I upped my game to finish NaNo on the 22nd instead of the 30th. Heightening the challenge in writing 50,000 words is all part of the exercise and I was sorry to say that 50,000 words in 30 days is just not difficult enough for me anymore. I read on the NaNo blog the other day that one girl wrote her 50k in 10 days one day; even I, who am tripping over myself to write like the wind, think that that is crazy. Who the heck doesn't have enough to do that they pump out 50k in 10 days? 

Although I suppose you could even argue that I'm a little jealous because my record is about 25 days. But I'll break that record this year for sure!

So without further insane ramblings of one sleep deprived, here is a fun scene I wrote just now. Don't forget that everything is unedited and raw, so constructive criticism only! 

In which Eleanor drinks a potion in order to grow smaller. 

“I suppose you could say we’ve gone down the rabbit hole.”

Eleanor’s head snapped over to see that Rory had said it with a grin and found herself grinning back.

“Yeah, I suppose we are.”

They’d finally reached the end and came to a slow halt, landing on their feet with barely a jarring drop. Eleanor wasted no time in surveying the area and wasn’t disappointed. Whilst the sophistication and polish of the hallway had melted away, where they were standing now looked much more like the entrance into somewhere magical.

“This is why I call them the Underlands,” Rory explained as they reacclimatised themselves with their new location underground. “We are in a parallel world where the rules are different and we are not entirely governed by the same forces that you are, but our world exists beneath yours. Like a forgotten city beneath the sand, or a kingdom at the bottom of the sea; our world is underneath yours. The truth underneath so many stories; the Underlands.”

With a nod, Eleanor continued to take in the dimensions and decor of the small room they’d ended up in. It was almost vaguely familiar and it was what Rory had told her earlier, about fairytales and their hidden truths that made it so.

There was no real theme to the decor, with hap-hazardly placed throw pillows across the space, an over-stuffed armchair in the corner and oriental rugs lining the floors. A glass table stood in the centre of the room with a collection of glass bottles in different shapes, sizes and colours.

Of all of these, one small, slim bottle of the duskiest pink had the words ‘Drink Me’ painted in bright, swirling letters on the side.

Eleanor zoned in on this straight away and raised an arm up to point at it, jumping up and down a little in sudden over-zealous excitement. “Oh. Oh! Potions! Magic potions!  Just like Lewis Carroll said – he really was here! We’re in the real Rabbit Hole – I can’t believe it!”

“There are a number of ways into the Underlands,” Rory said, a chuckle at her sudden over-excitement. “The Rabbit Hole is only one of them and probably the only one that is remotely like the way it was described in the literature. I hear that back in the day Lewis Carroll was probably about as excited as you are right now – except maybe a little more curious and inquisitive as well.”

But Eleanor had stopped listening and hobbled over to the glass table covered in potions.

“One will make me small, one will make me tall,” She sung, wasting no time in picking the first one up and twisting in her hands before moving on to the next.

A bit of an internal alarm went off in Rory’s head. “Eleanor – what are you doing?”

She ignored him and continued to check out the bottles in better detail.

Rory frowned and paced over to where she was standing by the table. “Eleanor, be careful with those bottles – you shouldn’t mess about with magic of any kind if you don’t know how to use it.”

But the little demon inside her made her do it and before Rory could snatch the bottle from her she’d brought the pink vial to her lips and downed the syrupy, caramel-coloured contents.

Rory stared at her in horror for a moment then swore. “What the hell did you do that for? Have you lost your mind?”

Eleanor cocked her head and raised a brow, replacing the lid back onto the top of the now-empty bottle.

“To get through that door,” she pointed at a tiny door beside the armchair, partially obscured by a small curtain. It was maybe the size of a mouse-hole.

“So you just drank a random potion you found on a table marked with ‘Drink Me’ to fit through a tiny door? Good lord you’re definitely in the right place,” he grimaced. “You’re just lucky it doesn’t appear to have been poison that you just drank.”

“I’m not even sure that it was anything – it just tasted like butterscotch.”

But as she was speaking Rory was horrified to see her start to shrink.

“It’s such a shame you know – I was sort of looking forward to it all and I was starting to really want to check this Underlands place out.”

Rory just watched her in open-mouthed distress as she continued to rattle on, unaware that she was miniaturising more and more by the second. Phineas is going to kill me.

“Eleanor – stop! Don’t you see what’s happening to you?”

She paused and looked down, mouth falling open when she realised that she was now less than half the size she was supposed to be and still shrinking!

“Holy hell, it actually worked!” She turned her hands over and over to see them change.

“Urgh, I almost liked it better when you didn’t believe me about the Underlands.” He ran a hand through his hair and counted backwards from ten. “Did it occur to you that there is another way into where we need to go? One that doesn’t involve turning yourself into a bite-sized morsel for the Cheshire cats?”

“You mean they’re –

“Stop!”

Eleanor’s voice had started to sound squeakier as she’d shrunk and it cut off now when Rory called her to a halt. He waited a beat before bending down, scooping her up and into his hands. Her tiny fists beat against his hands as he held onto her, protesting vigorously his rough handling.

“Put me down! I want to go through the door!”

“No, it’s not the way we want to – ow!” Rory dropped her in surprise as she suck her little teeth into the flesh of his hand and vaulted away, sprinting for the door.

He couldn’t understand what had made Eleanor go so crazy, but as she made it to the door he realised he had no choice but to follow in her wake.

Cursing he swiped one of the bottles from the glass table and threw back the contents, refusing to enjoy the sweetness of the butterscotch flavour that it held.

As soon as he was small enough, Rory made a beeline for the door and threw it open.

Sam xox