She leaves the teacup she'd been washing in the sink, running over to the window and flinging it open. She peers down, seeing the leopard supported by absolutely nothing, and peers at the man, seeing his pointed ears and vividly green clothes and wild hair.

She grins, wiggling her shoulders back and forth a bit. "Come away to where?"

"Why, to Fairyland!" he says, "Or at least the Great Sea bordering it, for a harsh wind like me can't go all the way there."

She claps her hands together, notes the way her body feels real, so this probably isn't a dream, bounces up onto her toes, and says, "Fairyland! How do we get there?" She knows a lot about fairylands, or at least the stories people tell. She knows adults, and most kids her age, certainly no longer believe in any of that, but she's a bright girl and knows what people believe and don't believe isn't much connected to what is or isn't.

"Well, you'd ride with me on the Leopard of Little Breezes, all the way to the Perverse and Perilous Sea, where I'd leave you at the immigration office."

"Do I have to take a citizenship test?"

"I should certainly hope not!"

"Do I need papers?"

"Not unless you want to take notes."

"I don't think I will."

"Then it sounds like we're good to go."

She makes an excited noise and climbs up onto the windowsill.

He grins, helping her onto his Leopard, steadying her.

One of her shoes gets caught weirdly, sliding off and clattering back into the kitchen - she never laces them right, and she can't find that she cares at all about climbing up onto a flying Leopard with one shoe missing.

She laughs, wrapping her arms around the Leopard when she threatens to slip - "Sorry!" she says, and sits back up.

The Leopard rumbles a bit, in a friendly manner. "It's quite alright!" says the Green Wind. And, to his faithful companion, "Off to Fairyland, then!"

And the Leopard tenses her muscles before taking a great big leap into the air, running through the wind as they spiral up toward the clouds. West, then, after, the world rushing past beneath them.

She holds on tight, laughing with joy, eyes darting over every feature she can recognize - so small from up here! So strange, flitting over all those familiar houses like a bird.

A very, very fast bird. She loses track of anywhere she's ever been soon enough, laughing louder as strange fields and towns pass under her feet.

An island emerges from the mist - from the clouds, even, wrapped in ice and flowing water, supported by absolutely nothing but dreams.

The Leopard steers them toward that island. It's hard to see very far, but there's an elegant building in white-blue stone in front of them, two distant pillars like a gate behind it.

Wow!!!

The Leopard comes to a gentle stop on the building's front steps, and the Green Wind hops off with a whirl.

She slides off with a bit less of a flourish but just as much bounce, flapping her arms and rocking up onto her toes and craning her head to look all around.

The immigration office is rather crowded - probably in part because there only seems to be one processing station open. Folks of all sorts - all strange sorts - stand in a shuffling line, some craning their eyes to look ahead, some reading, many chattering. The Green Wind leads the girl to the back of the line.

Waiting in line's never fun, but there's so much interesting to see here, and when she starts bouncing and rocking back and forth and flapping her arms and humming no one seems to mind at all - some certainly notice, but she gets the fond looks of someone seeing a young child do something precocious, or else the brief glances of someone who'd really rather not breathe the same air as any child.

She spends a little bit - a few shuffles forward - amusing herself by seeing how much bouncing she can get away with (as much as she's interested in doing) before turning to the person now behind her.

"Good day!" he says, jovially, when he noticed her looking. He looks human, just a bit squat and pudgy, though his eyes are weird and large and his irises shine strangely, and his smile's very broad.

"Good day," she says back. "Where are you from?"

"Why, Fairyland, of course! I'm returning after a visit away."