This Is Less Of A Shock Than It Could Be, Really

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Daphne is not in the relatively safe areas of her hometown or college campus, so it isn't really all that surprising when she suddenly is in a random forest instead of walking back to her car.
It's a little surprising; normally she is permitted to enter random forests of her own will. But not that much.
She starts walking, looking for whatever inane plot she will be required to participate in/thwart this time.
Eventually she sees a cottage. She makes for that--random houses in the woods are prime weird shit locales.
She knocks on the door. "Excuse me! I don't know what's going on here but I'd rather get it over with sooner rather than later so I can go home!"

Comments

[imeanforever]

"Thank you," says Promise, suddenly relaxing all over. "I'm going to pack a few things, burn this place to the ground, find someplace relatively sheltered to make you a gate, and fly away. Just a minute." She ducks into a side room of the house and comes out soon after with a bag.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Do I even want to know what he had ordered you to do?"

[imeanforever]

"He wasn't as bad as my last master. I had leftover orders when Yellow bought me or I would have been long gone." Promise leads Little Bird out of the house. She looks over her shoulder and the entire structure turns into smoldering slag, collapsing on itself slowly.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...That sounds like there's someone else who could use thwarting. Nice arson, by the way."

[imeanforever]

"Do not try to find my old master. I can get you a gate home. You'll be safe back in the mortal world."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I mean, yes, sure, I'm not going to go charging off half-cocked, but I've dealt with things that smart people don't tangle with before. Not voluntarily, usually, but I did and came out of it alright. If there's someone consistently doing bad things to people I'm not going to give up without knowing anything about the situation."

[imeanforever]

"He collects sorcerers. Most of them are psychologically loyal, his orders are airtight, and you are mortal. Follow me."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Oh, magic users. Yup, not dealing with that by myself if I have a choice. Sure." She follows.

[imeanforever]

Promise flies - "Run, at least as long as you can, Yellow may head back to his house at any moment and we want a wide search radius, he flies faster than I do and definitely faster than you run."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Daphne runs. She's a little faster than the average mortal on account of having so much practice dodging serial killers, not that Promise knows how fast mortals tend to be.

[imeanforever]

Promise in flight is still faster, but she holds it down to Daphne's speed.

When Daphne needs to slow down, they slow down, and Promise finds a large shrub. "Can you hide in there? For a few days, if necessary - I can leave you safe water, I can feed you a little of what I have before I go, that's safe since I'm already your vassal."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

She grimaces. "It wouldn't be my favorite thing, but I can survive for a few days as long as I have water. Some food would be good too but I think I could go as long as a week without food if I had to and not die. Maybe more than that? But--yeah, not fun, I've had worse, I'll survive."

[imeanforever]

"It shouldn't be a week. I'm going to make you a gate, it may settle right away in which case the question is moot. Can you describe a good place to put you? In geographical terms."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...If it's going to be days my car will have been towed anyway and I should be back on campus soon..." She describes the geography of the Borgia University campus area.

[imeanforever]

"Okay. Here's hoping." Promise makes subtle marks in the ground. "I'll make it between here and here. It'll only work going this direction." And then: "There -" She throws a rock. It disappears midair. "Go on through, it settled."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Thank you. I hope you don't get captured by any more terrible people." And she steps through.
...Of course, she picked the location based on believing that she was going to be a few days before she got there, which means that she now has to find a way to get her car back to campus from New Jersey. Oh well, better than lying in a shrub for days.

[imeanforever]

Promise, meanwhile, closes the gate and flies away.






Three weeks later, she zips back to it, opens it, and slips through, panting.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

A random student is there when she does! He is mildly alarmed.
"Uh, Miss? Are you alright?"

[imeanforever]

Promise scrunches her eyes shut. "I need to find Little Bird. Do you know her? Please just answer yes or no."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Uh, not personally, but I know of her and I can get you to her."

[imeanforever]

"That was not a yes or n- Just don't tell me anyone's real name. Please take me to Little Bird."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I'm sorry, but it wasn't exactly a question I could answer yes or no to. Do you need help standing?"

[imeanforever]

"No."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Okay."
He leads her inside a violet building and up to the second floor. He knocks on the door. "Little Bird? There's some sort of leaf girl who wants to see you."
After a moment the door opens. "Promise? What happened?"

[imeanforever]

"Some of Thorn's vassals found me. I couldn't outfly them for long, but if I can hide here for a few weeks - even a few days - they didn't see me come through here, shouldn't be able to find the gate, if they do they won't be able to use sorcery so as long as I can stay far enough away and nobody tells them their names - if I can just stay long enough that they lose track of me I can start over somewhere farther away."