Hello and Goodbye

Sound blinked, slowly opening her eyes and allowing herself a moment for her vision to adjust to the bright light shining down on her. She had a bad feeling, like something had gone wrong. Wasn't she supposed to be on vacation with her friends at the beach? Why were there giant trees? And why didn't she recognize any of them?

Rolling so that her bulky equine lower half was sitting up, she examined her surroundings. This was definitely not the beach. All around her was thick foliage and massive trees with trunks bigger than her body.  She felt the leftover tingle of magic, which confirmed that she had definitely been teleported. The question is, where? 

After a minute of pondering and trying to gather her wits, she rose from the ground and started off in the direction where the trees seemed the thinnest. Getting out of the forest seemed like the best course of action for her. As her hooves plodded through the forest soil, she observed the various birds and insects that passed by her. She did not recognize any of them. Wherever she had landed, it was far from home. 

All of a sudden, she caught a glimpse of bright orange and violet darting between the trees to her left, although there was no sound accompanying it. She turned to walk towards the tree she had seen it go behind, but found nothing there. Doubting her own sanity, she shook her head and turned around, only to find a curious looking humanoid standing a few meters away from her, spear in hand. 

Startled, she reared up onto her hind legs and tried to kick the strange man with her front legs. He easily dodged to one side and grabbed a hold of her hair to swing himself onto her back. Before she knew what was happening, he had the shaft of his spear pressed up against her throat.

"What do you want with this forest? Who sent you? Are you some kind of new lab experiment meant to hunt us?" He asked, with a harsh tone in his voice.  Raising her hands, she replied, "I don't know how I got here. I think a teleportation spell went wrong and I ended up on the other side of the world. I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just want to go home." 

There was a long pause as she held her breath, afraid to turn and look at the man on her back. She did, however, glance down at his legs, only to find hooved feet greeting her. Her eyes widened as she realized they were goat hooves instead of the horse and deer hooves she was used to back home. "Who are you?" She demanded. "We don't have your kind back on my continent." 

The man finally laughed and removed the spear from her neck, and slid off of her back. "We are not of the same world at all. If there were magnificent beasts such as you living in my world, I would have known about it. Luckily for you, I believe your fighting skills are too terrible to be an assassin, and so I shall help you find your way home." 

She flicked her tail in annoyance at the 'beast' comment, but she could not help but be relieved that he knew of a way to get her home. She turned to face him, and only then did she realize that he did not have the animalistic ears she expected of someone with hooves,  but instead had human-like ears, only longer and ending with a point. 

She must have been staring, because he finally snapped her out of her thoughts with a smirk. "Do you want to touch them?" He asked, stroking his ear with a grin on his face. She immediately blushed and shook her head quickly. "No thank you. I was only marveling at how weird you are." She turned and faced away from him, swinging her tail in annoyance that he had embarrassed her. 

He walked to her side and leaned against her front leg, putting an arm over her back. "I meant no offense. If you'd like, I can help you get home now. It might be faster if I lead you there atop your back. After all, four legs are faster than two." She reluctantly nodded her head. She didn't trust herself to say anything, otherwise she may accidentally tell this stranger that no one had ever ridden atop her back before. She would never tell a soul that a stranger from another realm was her first. 

After he mounted her back, he pointed in the direction  opposite of where she had initially thought to travel. "That way, if you will. I'll tap your shoulder if we need to change directions." She nodded again and started with a slow trot, then sped up to a gallop, flying through the forest at a speed the faun had never known before. 

Finally, they approached an old, beat down house and Sound slowed to a stop near the door. "My friend here is a professional in the magic arts and will certainly be willing to create you a gateway back to your realm." He smiled at her. "It was a pleasure to meet you. My name is Ilios. Should you ever find yourself whisked away to my realm again, do make sure to say hello." And with that, he slipped inside to inform his friend of the situation. When the magic user walked out, Ilios did not walk out with him. It was time to say goodbye to Ihrutia.