Alice - Test of Time
It was hot among the old ruins. There was no shade anywhere, with midday sun directly above in the sea-blue Aegean sky, and no cooling wind among the crumbling rock and dry, sun-browned hills.
Alice Quarrie took a sip of lukewarm soda from a half-empty bottle, and wished again that she'd ignored Jessica and gone straight to the beach. The otter girl was standing at the top of yet another staircase, waiting for the white-furred rabbit to catch up with her and the rest of the tour group.
Alice sighed and climbed the stairs, the bottle in her hand; unlike Jessica, with her baggy cargo shorts, backpack and sensible shoes, the rabbit girl was wearing a remarkably skimpy bikini and sandals, with a nearly transparent wrap skirt around her waist. "Here, take this," Alice said, thrusting the bottle to her friend. "I'm sick and tired of having to carry it around."
Thankfully, Jessica did not remind the rabbit that she'd told her to dress differently; Alice had spent enough time cursing herself already. Together, they walked up the dusty gravel path, passing between time-worn stone pillars, and emerged into what had, a good three and half millennia ago, been a palace courtyard.
The rest of the tourists were already there, gathered in a semicircle around the guide who was explaining about the layout of the ancient Minoan citadel they were exploring. Jessica, always keen to learn something new, joined the group, while Alice hung back, sitting down on one of the large stone blocks of the fallen courtyard wall.
She had started on their European tour eagerly; Jessica was a good friend, and the chance to see the world on her father's money was not something to turn down. After two weeks, however, Alice had had her fill of history, and was looking towards spending the last few days of their trip on the beach, showing off her fine figure and eyeing handsome guys.
The rabbit girl studied the flock of tourists, still gathered around the guide, with a critical eye. Dismissing the children and everyone over thirty, Alice felt a certain satisfaction in seeing that she was undoubtedly the best-looking girl around, with her long, nicely toned legs, smoothly curving hips and ass, and her large but well-proportioned breasts.
Sadly, there were no particularly good-looking guys in the group, Alice thought. Perhaps it was for the best, though; in the past, despite her best intentions and efforts, the rabbit girl had had difficulties in keeping her chastity pledge, and she had renewed it just before leaving for Europe. She pulled the small medallion, with its embossed carrot, from her cleavage and idly played with it, casting bright spots across the rock walls.
"That is an interesting piece of jewelry. What does it mean?"
The deep, soft male voice, coming right next to her, made Alice jump, the medallion slipping from her fingers and falling back onto her breasts. It was rare for someone to be able to surprise Alice, with her long rabbit ears and keen hearing. She forgot her surprise almost instantly as she turned to look at the young, black bull standing close to her, a look of interest on his face.
"Uh... err..." Alice stammered, her eyes wide behind her sunglasses as she stared at him. The bull was a handsome one, with muscular limbs and broad shoulders that his khaki shorts and shirt did nothing to conceal; he was strong but not bulky, and very, very masculine. She could feel her cheeks suddenly burning with heat that wasn't due the sun.
"May I look?" the bull asked. Without awaiting a reply, he picked the medallion up, his black fingers brushing lightly against the white fur of Alice's breasts and sending a shiver of excitement through the bunny. She could feel her nipples stiffen, and knew they'd be showing through the pink fabric of her bikini top.
"It's, ah, um, a good luck charm, you know," Alice said, unable to take her eyes off the bull as he leaned closer, studying the medallion. She certainly wasn't going to tell him it signified a chastity pledge! "Ah... I'm Alice; what about you?"
The bull smiled as he straightened again. "Pleased to meet you, Alice. Call me Asterion; I'm from around here. Am I right if I assume you're not interested in this tour?" he asked, tilting his horned head back towards where the guide was still droning about the Minoan stonework.
"Yeah, you are," Alice said, answering his smile and patting the stone next to her, inviting the bull to sit down. "It's been awfully dull so far." With a name like Asterion, of course he had to be Greek, she thought, trying to remember where else she'd heard that name.
Instead of sitting down, Asterion offered his hand to Alice. "If you wish, I can make that up to you," he said, looking intently at the rabbit. "I know this place intimately; I can show you places no ordinary tourist would see, and tell things about them that no ordinary guide would know. Will you come with me?"
Alice hesitated, torn between caution, her curiosity, and the effect Asterion was having on her. An ordinary man she could have fought off or easily outran, if things turned ugly, but the bull looked too athletic for that, especially if he knew the place as well as he implied. "I don't know..." she said. "My friend might get worried."
"Then we'll make it quick," Asterion said. "They'll be here for quite a while, and I know of an interesting spot only a little way off. It's in the shade, even."
The promise of a shade was what tipped Alice's decision; the sun was making her dizzy. "Okay. But only a quick tour," she said, getting up and taking the bull's hand. Nobody looked after them as he led the rabbit girl away.
Asterion proved to be a good guide. As he led Alice through the ruins, he spoke of the ancient Minoans and of the citadel that once stood here, guarding the coast from the Mycenaean invaders; in just ten minutes, he'd given her a better idea of the place's history than the guide and Jessica had managed together in two hours.
Finally, they emerged onto another courtyard, this one much smaller than the one they'd started from, and half dug into the hillside. A wide, low doorway with black-and-yellow hazard tape across it gaped in the old stone wall, leading into the hill. "Come this way. I'm sure you will find this interesting," Asterion said, dexterously stepping over the tape.
Asterion took the bunny girl again by the hand and led her down a few steps and into an open space. Once Alice's eyes adapted, she saw a crudely vaulted square room, with a dark well gaping in the middle of the floor. "This was once a sacred place," Asterion said, gesturing at the walls, where faint remains of old paintings could be seen. "Here, young people came willingly to be tested... and less willingly, to be sacrificed."
"Well, I came willingly," Alice joked. "What kind of a test do you have in mind for me?" she asked, moving closer and wrapping her arms around his body, rubbing her breasts against his chest and her belly against his crotch; she could feel a hard bulge growing inside his pants. At the moment, her pledge was about the farthest thing from her mind!
Instead of a lustful grin she'd expected, Asterion's expression was almost solemn as he spoke. "A test of courage, and of heart, and most of all, of flesh." As the rabbit girl stared at him, the bull broke free from her embrace and seized her instead, lifting her off the ground.
"Hey! What're you doing? Let me go!" Alice yelled, struggling against Asterion. She flailed about, kicking him hard in the shins as the bull carried her over to the pit. "Stop! Put me down! You can't do this to meeeee!" Her shouts turned into a scream as the bull suddenly let go, dropping Alice into the darkness.
The fall was only about twelve feet, and thanks to her cheerleader training, Alice landed well, rolling as she hit the ground. "Owww! You're crazy! Why the fuck did you drop me here!?!" she yelled up at Asterion, who was visible only as a dark shape against the round opening above.
"Trust yourself and your luck, Alice," the bull said. "This will help you." There was a click of a cigarette lighter, and orange light suddenly flickered across his face. He held a burning torch above the well, looking down at the rabbit. "The only way out is all the way in," Asterion said, and dropped the torch.
Alice rolled out of the way; when she looked up again, Asterion was gone. "Fucker!" she yelled. The torch started to sputter, and the bunny girl snatched it quickly up, not wanting to be left into the dark without light. "When I get out of here, I'm going to sue your sorry ass to Hell," she muttered, holding the torch up and looking around.
The room Alice found herself in was small and round, with a single doorway leading into a dark corridor. She quickly found out that the stone walls were too smooth to climb, and too widely-spaced to brace herself against. And after a few tries, Alice had to accept that the hole in the roof was simply too high up; with a good, running start, she might have reached its edge, but even that was iffy.
Biting back a curse, the bunny wiped the tears of anger and frustration from her eyes, and turned to look at the corridor. "The only way out is all the way in," she repeated. For some reason, she didn't doubt Asterion's words; there was another way out of here. Squaring her shoulders, she set out to find it.
It didn't take Alice long to realize she was in a maze. She quickly gave up trying to memorize the path she was taking, using her torch to make sooty marks on the walls and the roof. Unfortunately, there were lots of similar marks all around the place, and she wasn't feeling confident about being able to recognize her own signs from the others.
Still, there were signs that she wasn't just going around in circles. There were drafts that made her torch flicker, and cracks in the walls or the roof from which dirt had trickled into the tunnels, forcing her to clamber over the mounds. Then Alice found the first paintings.
Unlike the ones in the room above, these were still clear and vivid, all done in the same strangely realistic style. Figuring that they had to be important, Alice started following the paintings. She passed scenes both from Minoan life and from the Greek myth, but as she went on, the latter became to dominate the former.
There was a regal-looking eagle that had to be Zeus; here, the wise owl-face of Athena. Soon, the mythic images ended, and Alice almost thought she'd made a wrong turn at some point. Just before she was going to turn back, they resumed, but now they were depicting sex scenes, painted in loving, pornographic detail!
The bunny girl stared wide-eyed at the pictures of satyrs and nymphs, tritons and mermaids, gods and goddesses going at it in every possible way. Zeus appeared again and again, here having his majestic dick sucked by a busty peahen that had to be Hera, there taking a young swan girl from behind. One particularly raunchy series featured a huge lioness getting fucked or fucking all sorts of perversely imagined monsters, and Alice actually stopped a few times to stare, rubbing her mound through the thin, damp fabric of her bikini bottom; her arousal, momentarily subdued after having been dropped into the labyrinth, was back in full force.
Thinking about the pictures she'd seen, Alice turned the corner and found herself in a large room, with a couple of other doors along its curving wall; there were several large clay jugs along the walls, and a big stone throne, its back towards Alice, in the middle of the room, but her attention was instantly drawn to the bones laid out on the stone benches along the walls.
The bunny girl tiptoed into the room, drawn to the bones by horrible curiosity. They were all quite old and dry; judging by the muzzles, beaks and horns on the different skulls, they'd come from all sorts of people. Only a few skeletons were complete, and many of the bones were broken.
Alice decided that she'd seen enough of this room, and started backing away, when she heard the dry sound of stone against stone from behind her. She quickly spun around, her fluttering torch sending shadows racing across the walls. Had the throne moved? And which door had she entered through, again?
As she stood there, her fur bristling and her ears straining, the Minotaur stepped into view. He was the largest bull the rabbit girl had ever seen, towering over seven feet in height, his large, curving horns almost scraping the roof as he approached the stunned bunny. He had to weigh something close to four hundred pounds, and none of that was fat; heavy muscles corded and bunched beneath his black hide as he moved. Alice noticed all this, but what really caught her attention was the enormous penis hanging between his legs, swaying with the Minotaur's every step.
While she gawked, the Minotaur approached Alice, until he stood only a couple of feet away from her, his stale, musky smell filling her nose. Only when he spoke in a hoarse, rumbling voice, was the spell broken: Alice promptly screamed and waved the torch before Minotaur's face.
That was a mistake. The huge bull merely jerked his head back, avoiding the rabbit girl's frantic swings, and grabbed her arm with his big hand. Alice screamed again and let go of the torch, aiming a quick kick at his groin. Again she missed her mark, her lashing foot only hitting his thigh - it felt like she had kicked a tree trunk - but at least the Minotaur let go of her arm.
Alice bolted away, easily dodging around the enormous bull, and rushed through the nearest doorway, forgetting her torch in her panic. She ran blindly down the dark corridor, bouncing off the walls and stumbling on unseen things until she managed to regain the control of her feet. As she leaned, panting, against the wall, Alice thought of the twisting, unlit corridors around her, and despaired. She'd get lost and die, going crazy in the darkness, never seeing the light of the day again...
"Get a grip, girl," Alice muttered and started fumbling her way back. She knew she had no choice but to try and find her way back to the Minotaur's chamber, and somehow find herself a light source. After what felt like an eternity of stubbed toes and bumps in the walls, Alice saw a faint glow appear on the tunnel walls ahead. Preparing to bolt again, the rabbit girl saw the Minotaur appear from around the corner, carrying a clay lamp in one hand.
To her surprise and relief, the monstrous bull did not approach her, instead calling out to her; it sounded a bit like Greek, but Alice, who had never been good at languages, couldn't be sure. Seeing that she did not understand him, the Minotaur turned and gestured at her, beckoning her to follow.
Not wanting to be left in the dark again, Alice obeyed, keeping a nervous distance between herself and the bull. He led her surely and swiftly back into the great chamber and sat onto the stone throne, placing the lamp on top of the broad backrest.
Beyond his huge size, there wasn't actually anything particularly monstrous about the Minotaur, Alice realized as they studied each other, their eyes now at the same level. Well, almost nothing, the bunny girl thought, as her gaze flicked down to between his legs.
Alice was something of a size queen, and the sight of the Minotaur's long, thick shaft with smoothly bulging head was making her knees wobbly and her pussy moisten; she could feel her cheeks burn with arousal as she wondered about how it would feel inside her, stretching her cunny...
Her attention was having an effect on the Minotaur, as well; he was breathing louder, and that massive cock was stirring against his thigh. The bull spoke again, a hesitant note in his rumbling voice, and gestured at his cock. Alice couldn't understand his words, but had no trouble understanding the meaning behind them.
"Oh man, you're huge," Alice muttered as she kneeled between the Minotaur's spread legs. His cock was hot and heavy in her hands, and hardening quickly as she run her fingers down its length, from the deep purple crown to the thick fur at the base and down to his ballsack.
She gave his cockhead a couple of quick licks, making the Minotaur snort and grasp the stone armrests, while she fumbled with his scrotum with her hands. He tasted sour and salty, but clean, and Alice wondered what his cum would be like.
The Minotaur's cock was now fully hard. It was more than a foot and half in length, and thick enough that Alice needed both hands to grasp around the veined shaft. She felt her pussy twitch with arousal as she lapped at his cockhead; he was magnificent! Unfortunately, he was also too big. Alice thought she could take him, but she wouldn't enjoy it; her rabbit body was simply not built to be fucked by such a cock.
When she let go of his shaft, the Minotaur grunted and sat up straighter, seizing Alice's shoulder. "Hey, take it easy!" she said and slipped her bikini top off, revealing her white-furred breasts in their entirety. Alice's pink nipples were standing up hard, displaying the arousal she was feeling.
"I bet you're going to like this," the bunny girl continued as she lifted her breasts with her hands and squeezed them together around his shaft. The Minotaur's eyes widened and he let go of Alice with a pleased moan, allowing her to work freely on his cock.
Tit fucks were not Alice's favorite work-around for straight, pussy-banging sex, but she knew she was good at them. Starting slow, she rubbed her breasts along the massive bull-dick, letting the saliva and musky precome dribble down the black shaft from the tip she was tonguing. As her cleavage became better lubricated, the bunny girl picked up the pace, pausing only to fondle the Minotaur's tightening scrotum.
He was shifting his hips now, grunting and snorting as Alice rolled his balls in her hand. For the first time since she'd left the hotel in the morning, Alice felt fully in control, and loved it. When the Minotaur, gasping out in ancient Greek, reached out and grabbed Alice's head, she latched her lips onto the tip of his cock and, slipped the tip of her tongue into his cum-slit and twirled it around.
The effect was instantaneous. Bellowing hoarsely, the Minotaur threw his horned head back and thrust his hips up and ahead, the first spurt of his orgasm filling Alice's mouth with hot, thick bull spunk and forcing her to swallow hastily. The next blasts splattered all over Alice's face and into her hair, gluing her right eye shut. The bunny girl felt his cock shudder and throb between her breasts as the Minotaur poured more and more cum onto and into her; his balls seemed bottomless.
When the Minotaur finally slumped back, letting go of Alice, she was a total mess. She had cum all over her face, plastering shut her eyes and flowing down her nose, with thick, ropy strands clinging to her ears and hair; it fell in warm gobs down onto her breasts and shoulders, and trickled down her belly, matting her fur. She could feel the hot cum oozing down her cheeks, pooling between her breasts, her ears heavy with the weight of it. It was like ten guys had come onto her at once!
"God, what a load!" Alice sputtered, sending flecks of semen spattering from her nose and lips as she tried to wipe her eyes clear, but only smeared the jizz around. "You haven't had any for a while, have you?" She fumbled around for something to clean up with, but found nothing; with a groan, she opened her skirt and used it as a makeshift towel.
By the time Alice could see clearly again, the Minotaur's large, shaggy head was starting to nod. Not bothering to clean up his cum-slick cock, the huge bull yawned prodigiously and leaned back, his eyes closed and a contented smile on his face. In just a few moments, he started to snore quietly.
Alice blinked, unable to believe her senses. "Jeez! What's wrong with you men?" she muttered, tossing her now cum-soiled skirt aside and getting up. Luckily, her bikini top had been spared the flood of Minotaur spunk, and she put it back on; even the small amount of support it provided was better than nothing.
Looking around in the dim lamplight, trying to take her attention away from the insistent heat in her wet cunny, Alice noticed something painted onto one of the walls, and felt her heart jump. It was a strange, labyrinthine pattern of spiraling lines that had to be a map of the maze!
Taking the lamp from the top of the chair, she hurried over to the map. "I'm here," the bunny girl muttered, touching a black symbol resembling a bull's head in the middle of the maze, and running her finger along the lines towards the edge. "And here's the exit!"
Seizing her chance of getting out of the labyrinth, Alice started rummaging around the room, looking for something to draw a copy of the map on. Every now and then, she glanced fearfully back at the Minotaur, but he was soundly asleep, tired after his massive climax.
Deciding on a tarnished bronze tray, Alice quickly sketched the way out onto its backside with some coals and headed towards the right door. As she passed the throne, she felt momentarily bad for the Minotaur, sneaking away without him noticing. Pushing the feeling aside, she hurried on.
With the map and the lamp, Alice was making quick progress, paying no heed to the paintings on the walls. In her hurry to get out, she did not notice the light coming from ahead, and thus was taken completely by surprise when she literally ran into someone as she turned the corner.
Bouncing off a solid body, she managed not to fall onto her butt, and kept her grip on the clay lamp, but the tray she'd drawn her map on fell to the stone floor with a loud clatter. As she tried to regain her balance, a strong hand grabbed her arm and jerked her roughly upright, face to face with a stranger.
He was a young ram, with proudly curling horns and a lean but strong figure, carrying a torch in his free hand; a short leather skirt covered his crotch, and a short sword in a leather scabbard hung from his hip. A ball of thin, yellow-colored yarn lay on the floor between his bare feet, with a single thread running along the corridor and into the darkness beyond.
"Whoah!" Alice said, realizing who the ram had to be. "You're Theseus!" At the sound of the name, the ram's eyes narrowed, and he said something in the same language the Minotaur had spoken; his voice was high, almost boyish, but strong, and full of suspicion.
"Yeah, yeah, you can't speak English either," Alice said, feeling relieved that she'd met the young hero. "Now can you let go of me, okay?" she said, trying to yank her arm out of his grip. The ram frowned but let go, sticking his torch into a crack in the wall and gesturing at the rabbit to pick up the tray and show it to him.
Hesitantly, Alice did so; she did not like the way he looked at her mostly-naked body. As soon as Theseus saw the map, his eyes widened, and he snatched it from Alice's hands, studying it eagerly. Again, he spoke in ancient Greek, but this time his voice was triumphant, even gloating as he looked up from the lines and at Alice.
"Listen, you can keep that," the rabbit said, backing a step. "I'll just follow your thread out, okay?"
Theseus ignored her words, sniffing the air loudly. A nasty, arrogant leer appeared across his face and he took a step closer to the rabbit. He was smelling the Minotaur's cum on her, Alice realized; her own nose had gotten used to the musky scent, but to Theseus, she had to smell like a whorehouse. A long bulge in his skirt told her what the ram thought of the situation!
As the ram lunged at her, Alice dodged to the side and turned to run; unfortunately, she stepped upon the bronze tray Theseus had dropped, and tripped, the lamp slipping from her fingers but miraculously not breaking apart.
Before she could get up again, the ram was on top of her, laughing and groping at Alice's breasts, still sensitive from the friction of the tit-fuck. She could feel his erection pressing against her cottony tail, and shivered; here, at last, was a cock she could take! A small moan escaped her lips; Theseus noticed it and grinned.
He wasted no time with foreplay, pulling his skirt aside and yanking Alice's bikini bottom roughly down. Alice felt his cockhead brush the pucker of her tailhole, then move lower, rubbing against the swollen lips of her pussy. With a loud grunt, Theseus thrust into her, shoving several inches of hot ram cock into Alice's needy hole.
Compared to the Minotaur, Theseus was tiny, but his dick was still good eight inches long, bulging thick in the middle. Alice thanked her lucky stars that she was as wet as she was, as the ram hilted himself in her cunny, his tip brushing against her cervix. "Ah-uhh! Fuck me! I-I'll re-pledge later!"
The ram fucked Alice roughly and with no finesse, merely pounding her pussy with his meat as fast and hard as he could. Still, it was enough for the bunny girl, who panted and moaned beneath the bucking ram. Her orgasm came quickly, making Alice groan and toss her head; Theseus kept hammering her quivering cunt with his cock, triggering another spasm of pleasure. Before she could climax a third time, however, the ram slammed his cock home and came.
Theseus gave her a few more thrusts with his softening dick, churning his semen in her, until he pulled out and wiped himself unceremoniously on Alice's tail. He ignored the disgusted look the rabbit girl shot at him from the floor, and started to open the knot at the back of her bikini.
Before Alice had quite realized what Theseus was doing, he had pulled her up and tied a makeshift leash, made from her bikini top, around her neck. Giving the torch and the ball of thread to Alice, he slapped the bunny girl on the butt, making her yelp. With the map in one hand and the leash in the other, he started driving Alice on back into the labyrinth.
This time, Alice paid attention to the paintings she and Theseus passed. Instead of the scenes of sex she'd seen when alone, she now saw ones of war and violence: ships clashing on wine-dark waves, armies facing each other on bloodied fields, and cities burning. She remembered what Asterion had told of the history of Crete, how the Mycenaean barbarians had destroyed the Minoan civilization, and realized that Theseus was one of these barbarians; pirates, pillagers and invaders.
As they approached the Minotaur's room, Theseus drew his sword. It was leaf-shaped, with a ruddy bronze blade, and looked sharp and deadly; it was made for the express purpose of killing. The mere sight of it made Alice's fur stand up along her back. The ram noticed her expression, and gestured to her to remain silent, raising the sword to her throat. Swallowing hard, Alice nodded and continued.
The room was exactly as she'd left it; the Minotaur was still asleep in his chair, snoring softly. Theseus sniffed the air again, and smirked at Alice, who glared back. Not letting go of her leash, he approached the sleeping bull warily, obviously expecting some ruse. When he realized that the Minotaur was truly asleep, a grin appeared on his face, and he stepped quickly closer, raising his sword for the killing stab.
It was that horrible, gloating grin which pushed Alice over the brink. "Wake up! This creep's gonna kill you!!" she yelled, throwing herself at the ram's back. He swore and tossed her aside, but it had been enough. The Minotaur's eyes snapped open, and he swung his head, catching Theseus' bronze sword with his horn. Instead of sinking into the bull's neck, the deadly blade merely grazed his shoulder.
With a bellow that shook the room, the Minotaur surged up, throwing Theseus back like a rag doll. The ram hit the wall with a loud thud and bounced, falling to his knees, never letting go of his sword. Shaking his head and braying in anger, he lunged back at the Minotaur, who met him, swinging a large club that had been leaning to the back of the chair.
Alice saw her chance and ran; whoever won the fight, Theseus or the Minotaur, wouldn't be pleased with her. As she groped blindly through the darkness, anxiously following the thread with her hand, the sounds of the fight seemed to follow her, echoing through the corridor all around her.
Just then, she saw a faint, flickering light ahead. It was her lamp, lying on its side and about to go out. Alice snatched the clay lamp and held it up; it flickered a few more times, making her heart pound, until it started to burn steadily again. Mouthing a silent prayer of thanks, the bunny girl hurried ahead.
As the last echoes of the battle faded and she stopped to catch her breath, Alice heard a new sound coming from ahead. She perked her large ears up and listened. It was a low, indistinct roar or murmur, reminding her of traffic. Could it be a way out into her own time that Theseus had passed? With her hopes raised, she started to run.
Turning around the corner, Alice saw the chasm in the floor too late to go around it, like Theseus had done, her feet sliding on the wet floor. She had barely time to notice the painting of osprey-faced Poseidon with his trident before she fell screaming into the darkness.
Again, the fall was shorter than she'd expected; by sheer luck, Alice landed relatively gracefully in cold, swiftly flowing water. Her lamp went out immediately, as she was swept away, towards a roaring sound. Trying to keep her face above the water, Alice had no time to react to the fact that she could actually see the edge of the waterfall ahead; she merely screamed again.
Sputtering and gasping, she surfaced in a deep, cold pool. She was in some kind of a limestone cavern, Alice realized; she hadn't known those existed on Crete. Turning around, she saw the source of the light, a narrow gap in the wall where it joined the roof.
Getting to the gap was easy; limestone terraces in the wall formed a natural staircase for her. Anxious to get back into the open air, Alice squeezed through the gap and emerged into the sun. She'd lost her sunglasses early on, and for a moment, the rabbit girl just blinked, shading her eyes with her hand and trying to see something.
She was standing on a sun-baked hillside, overlooking a sprawling ruin. Alice thought it looked kind of like the palace where her adventure had started, but she couldn't be sure; she had no idea how far she might have wandered in the labyrinth. As she walked down the hillside, an even more disturbing thought came to the rabbit's head: what if she had taken a wrong turn, and had come out in a different time? The sky above was blue and empty, with no planes or contrails to calm her down.
Just as Alice had become convinced that she was still lost in the past or wherever the labyrinth was, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. "Alice! Where on Earth have you been? I've been looking for your ditzy ass everywhere!" Turning around, she saw Jessica running towards her.
"Listen, we're almost half an hour late already, and the bus won't wait much longer," the otter started, then stopped and stared at Alice, who only now remembered she was topless, with her fur still damp from her swim. "What the hell happened to your clothes? You can't come to the bus like that!"
"Uh, it's a long story," the rabbit said, covering herself up with her hands the best she could. "You wouldn't believe it anyway, 'cause I'm not sure if I believe it myself!"
Jessica looked at her oddly, deciding it was probably better to not ask; she'd heard some of Alice's hare-brained explanations before! "Here, put this on," she said, pulling a rolled-up T-shirt from her backpack. "I bought it for Daddy at the souvenir booth; I hope it fits."
"I had an a-MAZE-ing time on Crete", Alice read aloud and started to laugh. "And all I got was this T-shirt!" Noticing Jessica's exasperated look, she pulled the shirt quickly on. "Sorry, sorry!" Unable to stop giggling, she followed the otter back to the parking lot and away from the lure of the past.