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The ranger behind the desk had a mop of blondish-brown hair and a somewhat tan face covered in freckles. His nametag said Derouen.

"Um," he said, smiling sheepishly at the young woman in front of him. "I'm Finn."

What was this about? Some kind of trouble? He hated to make snap judgments, but she didn't look like the camping type.

"How can I help you?"

Finn's face fell slightly as he placed her. He didn't object to the otherworld and his job mixing, but he didn't love it. He'd do what was necessary... but he didn't really want to discuss eldritch deer and severed feet in polite company - there was what looked to be a summer camp group over in the general store, and a few hikers reading the informational panels on the far wall.

"Yeah," he said. "Better late than never."

Leery of who might overhear, he leaned a little closer to the young woman and lowered his voice.

"I think," he said, "That things around here are going crazy."

Finn nodded, because, well, she had asked, and if she was in this mess then she was in this mess. It would be better - and safer - not to sugar-coat things for her. "It's accelerating," he said. "Like someone dumped gas on the campfire. But, like, don't actually do that here. It's catchy."

There was a big standee of Smokey the Bear in the corner, emblazoned with the words Only YOU can prevent forest fires. Finn tossed it a cursory glance.

"I've got evidence for that," he added. "For a year and a half, Aleksy and I were the only ones who could cross into the Otherworld. And suddenly there's like, half the town."

That was an exaggeration, but he thought his point was clear. "And there's all this crazy stuff happening. It's got to be connected. Something's coming. Something's awake."

Sunny had said as much, and he believed Sunny.

Finn frowned slightly, and then he said, "No, I think it started before. Something, and I'm not saying I know what, precipitated our meeting with Heliodora." After all, she'd had to go missing before she could be found.

He shrugged - at least she was catching on quickly. "I'd guess we are, yeah. We've got to figure out what's awake in there - and figure out how to stop it."

Her conclusion seemed sound enough to Finn. He nodded. "The Enemy," he said, remembering. "Sunny mentioned him to me once. Said that the Otherworld is his place. Sorry. That's important. I should have mentioned that sooner."

He pinched the bridge of his nose - he'd tried to put that whole disastrous conversation out of mind.

"So I guess we're playing right into its hands. Or we're not. It's hard to know who's on what side. Sunny's a friend, though."

She had to be.

Finn nodded. "Yeah," he said. "That's what Sunny says, anyway, and we've got a deal that she'll never lie to me, so I'm inclined to believe her." Didn't mean that she had to tell him the whole truth - she'd clammed up pretty damn tight after that - but it was a small comfort.

"Yeah, something like that," he answered, shrugging. He wanted to be helpful, but he increasingly felt like he didn't actually know all that much. "As for the dreams..."

How did he put this nicely?

"It means you're not normal anymore," he said, just laying it on her. "You've got magical powers already and you're only going to get more. You're a wizard, Harry."

"Visitors," Finn said, overlapping her comment about the population. Then, when she was done, he clarified. "People who can visit the Otherworld are called Visitors. Just, so you have the vocabulary. And yeah - we're the good guys!"

He was fairly confident about that one, anyway. If you were fighting a thing called The Enemy that was so dangerous it was locked in a magical cage, didn't you have to be the good guys?

He frowned. "Sorry - I don't think I caught your name?"