"Yeah," he says. "Um, anyway, that's – yeah, that's probably for the best. Do you have any idea when you might be back, then, because it's probably best if we arrange a time in advance."

"I could make it a week? But going to my tree is not risk-free, so I might be held up, possibly indefinitely."

"… Week meaning ten days which are hopefully approximately the same length between here and my world? I could return every couple of mortal-world days after that or something, though."

"...seven, but I can also do ten, and using local daycycle length, I don't know how long yours are or have any very precise timekeeping besides my sleep cycle."

"Do you know if the local days are the same length as mortal world days, or should I– I don't know, leave a note after seven or ten of them?"

"Yeah, they match regular-mortal-world days. A note's fine."

"Okay," he says. "Then I guess– um, if you can aim for somewhere that's got higher levels of technology, that'd be good, but otherwise I think this is probably about it?"

"The only location I know is the one I was trying to get the other mortal to a long time ago."

"Okay," he says. "I guess that has to do, in that case – uh, thanks. For not leaving me trapped with him, or turning around and enslaving me, or… you know. Whatever."

"You're welcome. I'll make the gate just along that branch. You can throw things at it to see if it's settled." She outlines a box with fairylights. "- and there. It may take up to a week."

He nods. "Okay." And then he shrugs. "Bye."

"Bye."

And she takes off.

So he sits there, in the tree, trying not to make much noise in case anyone comes along, and he throws a small twig in the direction of the gate a few minutes later.

He's not sure how often he's supposed to check it.

The twig does not vanish into another universe.

So he gets out his phone, because fortunately he had it on him and it's not particularly low on battery and actually his phone battery life lasts quite a while, and he writes himself a note.

He has approximately zero idea what's going on, and he has the desire to go do something, but there is nothing to do except possibly get himself enslaved or killed, so he is apparently just going to have to explain what happened to him to himself.

And then a few minutes after that, he frowns.

And a few seconds after that, he startles a bit and looks really rather confused about his current position, more specifically the fact that his hand is not in fact against his face, he is not currently talking to Promise, and he seems to have his phone out.

It looks like he has a note. To himself. Wonderful, it would appear he's getting some sort of weird memory loss.

So he looks at the note, reads it, and gets progressively more and more confused, and then he looks around to see if Promise is in evidence, and he decides to throw a twig in the direction indicated, which he has apparently already done but does not remember.

The twig again does not disappear into another universe.

He decides not to retrieve the twigs, in case the portal settles while his hand is through it and that has disastrous results, but fortunately he has more potential twigs around him to throw.

… Also fortunately, he has some books on his phone, so he decides to read them.

In about half an hour, he throws another twig.

No luck!

… In another half hour?

Nope.

Well, he eats some of the chips he has in his bag, because he's getting a little peckish, and then he continues to read.

Fortunately it's a good book. Unfortunately, he's a little on edge because he's in Fairyland.

Does it work after another hour?

No.

… After another forty-five minutes, he decides he needs the toilet. Fortunately it's not– a hugely embarrassing process, due to the lack of people around, so he can just climb down from the tree and get it over and done with and then climb back up?

The tree has no comment.