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Those who end up in the Otherworld are not guaranteed to go back exactly where - or when - they left. It could be hours, days, years. . . centuries. You might end up in the same dimension, but on an entirely different planet.
River Rush was coming back to her village from a hunt when she was startled out of a tree by a mnm and fell into a deep puddle, resurfacing in the middle of the Otherworld's Mirror Sea.
The wild knight never stopped trying to find a way home, despite residents telling her that she could not force it. She would return when the Otherworld felt it was right.
Five years. That was how long it took. River Rush was traveling from the Big Island to the Outer Islands when a sudden storm kicked up, a wave washing over the deck to sweep her into the sea.
From stormy to calm, River Rush was suddenly in the same pond that had sent her far from home.