"Yes, but does that help for the someday you mention? ...He said he fell in his forest and has been asleep since... but I have no idea where his forest is. Or if it still stands, when I am from. I thought to ask him what became of him, when we met on the shore, but...." She shook her head. "Clearly, we ought to speak more yet, and figure out how to find each other, whenever it is we each return.... If that's even possible. What if his present is yet in my past, and his forest was destroyed, between then and my present?"

She looked back up to where those illusory unicorns were idling, and made a face, more a wince than anything. "I can't imagine he knows anything of what's become of the world in his absence... including that so many of our kin have been wiped from the face of if....

"Why does everything have to be so complicated? ...If you could help me not to forget to sort all of this out with him when we can, I would appreciate it. I'm beginning to feel that perhaps I ought to be writing all of this down...."