Harriet woke flat on her back, illuminated by the first ray of sun to pierce through the mist. That meant it was at least an hour after sunrise, and everything hurt, including her head.
Guffin was curled up nearby, head pillowed on the strange plushie they'd been sleeping with in the hammock. A hammock that was still packed hastily into the top of a backpack the size of the goblin-beast, along with Harriet's tent. Things that had been put away when the Opry began to sing.
An Opry that was very much gone.
The pair lay alone in a clearing. It was not even the same clearing the Opry had set up camp in during the night, but some other one; with pine trees and ferns instead of oaks and holly bushes. If it weren't for the mist, Harriet would worry exactly how far they'd been transported. Peanut shells, popcorn kernels, chicken bones, and crushed paper cups still littered the ground, but not as thickly, and deep, fresh chicken tracks the size of cottages led in from the north and away to the south. Gaps in the trees to the east and west might have been a road, or just some other horrible predator's hunting path.
The second ray of sun broke through the mist, landing on Guffin, who stirred and yawned, then stretched and slowly sat up.
"Where are we?" Harriet asked thinly to the morning and her sleepy travel companion.
"Probably just over the river," Guffin yawned. "The Opry may be a were-house, but it's old. Doesn't move very fast. Might have knocked a day off our trip, though!"
"All the trees are different..." the mage pointed out.
"River will do that. Washes all the seeds around, and lets the wind cut through where the forest won't."
The goblin-beast stretched again, hard enough to crack joints, and yawned harder, before standing up and looking around a little more firmly, eyes roving around in two different directions.
"Yeah, see?" they called, pointing off towards the rising sun. "That's the third rock on the road to Slab Town. It's more grey than orange."
Harriet squinted into the light, and there was indeed Something that wasn't a tree and could have been a rock. It was either grey or orange, or maybe just no color at all.
"That means we'll get to Slab Town tonight!" Guffin proclaimed happily. "It's not much, but it's out of range of the Opry and has less bears and lions. Should make for some good sleep."
Any civilization was a good civilization in Harriet's opinion, but that was far from the least of her worries. The conversation continued as the walk began, stumbling off into the woods as the mist swirled away into nothingness.
"What about all those other people?" she asked, trying to stretch away some of the pain and stiffness. "Everyone in the Opry?"
"We must have fallen out being near the wall," Guffin shrugged. "The rest of them will be able to get out fine by daylight. It only wanders near Pumpkintown, mostly, or northwards into the Nowhere reaches. Might take a day or two for them to get home, but that's just how it does. It wants the music and laughter to live on... must be stocking up for the winter."
"No one has ever thought to hunt it down?" the mage pressed.
"Why? It doesn't bite people like bears. Just sucks the life out of them for a little bit. And it keeps the tigers down to Tiger Town instead of roving up here. Tigers hate were-houses."
"Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my," Harriet shivered with only a hint of sarcasm. "Are there going to be tigers, then?"
"Why do you think Tiger Town is called that?"
"Are there any in Slab Town?"
"There's nothing much in Slab Town. You'll see."