Then he'll wait another hour and a half and throw through a stick again.

And if that fails, he'll wait another two hours and try again.

And if that fails, he'll probably go to sleep. Or at least try. Seeing as the tree is relatively… uncomfortable.

The tree sees no need to accommodate his comfort in any way.

He will eventually get to sleep. Fortunately he doesn't move about much while sleeping, so fortunately he won't knock himself out of the tree or something like that, and assuming nothing else wakes him, he'll probably decide he's had enough of trying to get any extra sleep about seven hours after that.

The gate's still not settled.

Then he will get up and see if he can stretch out in the tree, because sleeping like that was rather awkward.

And he'll spend another few hours reading and try the gate again.

The gate is settled after he has slept again and waited around some more! Hurray!

So he makes sure he's got all his things and steps through.

Fortunately it is a relatively modern bit of western civilization and he finds himself in– an alleyway! In a city. With smaller buildings than he's used to. And a less cohesive style. And it's night. And there aren't particularly many people around.

But still, he goes up to one and says something in his native language, tries to get across the point that he doesn't know how to speak the local dialect, and could they please help.

He does in fact know that his eyes are weird, yes person, but he looks distressed and he clearly doesn't speak your language, is he going to have to go convey this to another person or are you going to help him?

… You are going to suggest that he take some particular directions, okay, thank you person, he will attempt to understand what directions those are despite the fact he doesn't speak the language, yes, gestures are appreciated, and now he'll follow them and oh look he has to ask another person along the way, he has to try to work out what the weird lights are near some of the roads – oh, they must be traffic lights, weird that they're done like that – and then he finds himself near a tourist information center.

No. He doesn't think he speaks a language you know. He is in fact not sure where he is. He cannot point to where he's from on that map. He is utterly bewildered. Can he get some help? Thanks.

Five days later, he can be found back in the tree for a few hours.

Promise is there. She has some food and is munching on it.

"That world," he says, "is utterly shit at how it handles foreign people who have no idea about approximately anything."

"...uh, sorry. At least they didn't enslave you?"

"They didn't. That is in fact fortunate. Anyway – nice to see you again, sorry for my rude introduction, I hope you've been doing okay, oh and also I rescind any orders you've received that aren't from me and that you don't want."

"You can't actually do that with the wording I used, although it was well thought of and you may reissue it now."

"… Really? Huh, I thought it'd come under the best interest thing, but yeah, I do reissue it now since I apparently can. And I think it'd be in my best interests to allow you to rescind orders from me, so, I think I'm going to allow that unless you can think of a reason not to?"

"Mmm, maybe it would have worked if you thought that - but the rescindment being first means it could be cut off, and there are very occasionally situations where one wants orders on."

"So, would 'excluding any orders you've received from me or that you want, I rescind your orders' work better?"

"Yes, that goes through unproblematically as best interest."

He nods. "So – do you have a tree cutting or a safer place to stay or something?"

"Yeah. It'll be a long trip for you, though, do you have food or should I be expecting to handfeed you fairy food?"

"I've got food," he says. "And – does handfeeding actually affect whether it counts as a claim? I'm not sure you mentioned that before."

"It interrupts other potential claims. If I stole some of your mortal food then mortals involved in producing it could have a claim on me; if I eat it out of your hand then they don't, and you would if you didn't already but you do so it doesn't matter."

"Right," he says. "Uh, do you know anything about weird memory loss?"

"No? Mental sorcery is possible but requires extensive acquaintance with someone in an unordered or near-enough state."

"So. You'd have no idea why I forgot– some of our conversation from last time? Because I remember up to you telling me it'd be better to go to the mortal world, and then I was looking at my phone, you were gone, and I had a note from myself about what'd happened."

"...no, I don't know why that would happen. You did at one point ask me to turn around and cover my ears so you could do something unspecified..."

"Don't remember doing that," he says. "And I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the note. And I'm pretty sure it's not a common thing where I'm from. So." He shrugs.