Otherworld

2 - Hobgoblin

The fall was exhilarating, Violet just let herself go limp and enjoy the feeling.

    She kept thinking that maybe fall wasn't the right word, at least not all the time. Sometimes, it felt like rising or going to the side but the portal was still going straight down as far as she could tell.

    When she finally started seeing grass she almost didn't register it. She had just enough time to get ready for impact before landing gracefully on her hooves, her new tail balancing her very well. Without it she'd have stumbled and fallen like Iggy and Mo.

    Speaking of them, they've changed too. Ignatius looks mostly the same but with a set of crimson horns that curl into that like a ram. Then Morgan changed in more than one area. Her perfectly smooth skin is now slick and sticky like fish scales just out of water, her hands are webbed and fingers elongated like a frog, her hair is twitching and jerking like each individual dreadlock is a whisker. Well, if she's a fish they'd be barbles like on a catfish.

    After taking in what the portal did to her classmates, V looks around at the beautiful world of colour they've been dropped into. The trees are thick and lush, and the flowers are of every colour. It's beautiful.

    Violet then notices Pistachio jump out of a bush with a mouse. Stash takes it immediately to Iggy and places it on his face. Ignatius bolts immediately up, giving Violet the impression that this isn't the first time Pistachio has done that. V chuckles at the thought.

    “PISTACHIO! WE TALKED ABOUT THIS!” Iggy screeches.

    Said screech then awakes Morgan, who squints annoyed at being awoken.

    “Shut up Bailey, Todd. It's not time to get up yet.” Mo murmurs sleepily. V eyes her, she doesn't talk about her little bros much, all Violet knows is that when Mo's dad died her mom went to a dark place and now Mo takes care of her brothers.

    Her eyes then widen, “Where am I?”

    “Well,” V smiles, “if my suspicions are correct we're in Faerie.”

    Iggy looks confused, “Fairy? Like tinkerbell?”

    “Yes and no,” V is amused, “Judging by Tink and her friend's wings, they're Pixies, not Fairies, and they're HIGHLY disneyed, like Pocahontas and the Little Mermaid. Most fae are tricksters, especially pixies.”

    Ignatius and Morgan exchanged a concerned look.

    “How are we going to get back?” Mo inquired worriedly.

    “You just go through the por…” Violet turns to where she last saw the portal, it had disappeared, “... nevermind… we'll find a way.”

    Violet chuckles nervously and notices a stream to the far side of the clearing. Iggy and Mo look very worried, especially Morgan.

    “We follow running water to some sort of civilization.” V points to the stream, “... Wait, why am I leading?”  

    Morgan responds with a shrug. “You're the one who knows where we are.”

    It didn't take long to find the little streamside town, but if they weren't looking they would have never seen it.

    To any passing onlooker the town would have looked just like a patch of trees, in fact the buildings aren't buildings but carved trees.

    The only real way that the three even noticed the place were the small people roaming the 'streets’. Their sizes ranged from ankle to chest height on V. She recognizes a few species, brownies mostly, and a couple hobgoblins and a few leprechauns and pixies.

    “Funny, weren't we just talking about pixies.” V asks herself quietly.

    “What'd you say?” Iggy inquires.

    Violet shakes her head and dismisses him with a swiping hand gesture, “Just talking to myself.”

    Just then a door to one of the bigger trees swings open and a hobgoblin steps out sniffing the air. His hair is almost white, he must be quite aged.

    The little hairy man follows his unusually large nose and eyebrows until he's sniffing at the three.

    “Y'all'rn't from 'ere are ya?”