Chapter 2
Garrett woke up with a sense of panic. Not knowing where he was or how he got there, he shoved the foliage off of him, and jumped up, breathing vigorously. He stopped to process what he remembered of the following night.
"Apparently," Garrett spoke aloud. "I'm in a strange place after jumping through some kind of portal. Which either transported me to another time, place, universe, world, or a wacky combination of all..."
After re-wrapping his ankle, Garrett set out to find out where he was. He would make notes with his land marks he made the previous night; a broken branch here, a certain kind of bush there, just in case he had to make his way back before nightfall. Thankfully, he never had to do such a thing, for as he passed a bend in a trail he had discovered earlier he came face to face with what looked like a zebra wearing some form of cloak.
"Whoa!" Garrett exclaimed.
The zebra, slightly startled, got into what looked like a charging stance.
"steady now," Garrett said. "I've seen enough animal planet to know where this is going."
The zebra stood up in what Garrett could have sworn was a surprised expression, which he scoffed off without a further doubt because he knew, although animals did have emotions, they could not be fully expressed in their faces.
"Strange," spoke the zebra. "You look so strange with your many appendage, yet you can speak our native language."
Garrett was completely awestruck at this sign of intelligence from a mere zebra.
"You can speak?" Garrett said, "but h-how can you speak? you're only a zebra! you are only a zebra, corr-" Garrett cut himself off. He remembered about his deduction earlier that he could be in an alternate universe, and, realizing talking animals was a lot safer that back in the Jurassic period, composed himself and tried to act civil.
"Excuse me." Garrett said as he picked his bag up off of the ground where he had dropped it in his shocked demeanor. "That may have been a bit of an..explosive reaction. Let me restart things. My name is Garrett Hafner, and you are?" He said as he held his hand out in the human sign of greeting known as a handshake, hoping she would know what to do with it.
"Well," said the zebra as she eyed his hand suspiciously. "While you do look rather strangely, you seem to have the intelligence of a pony. Why don't you visit with me at my humble abode." She said, with a slightly inquisitive look. "You can relax from your heavy load. And it looks like in food you rather lack, so you can indulge yourself in a slight snack." she had said as his stomach had let out the loudest rumble Garrett have ever heard it release. "Oh, and by the way, as to the question of my name, it is Zecora."
"Well, although I am a bit shocked by this turn of events; the likes of which I will surely explain later," Garrett replied. "I accept your offer, Zecora."
"Follow me, if you please." Zecora said, as she turned around and walked in the direction she had come from.
They both spent the rest of the ten minute walk in silence, each glancing at the other in their own suspicion. When they finally reached her "house" as she called it-although he would rather refer to it as a hut-he went inside to find nothing except for a cauldron in the center of the room, many jars containing ingredients he had never seen on the walls, a couple floor mats, and a coat rack. Zecora removed her cloak she had been wearing and placed it on the rack, then went to the arrangement of jars and started grabbing a number off the shelf.
"take a seat, while I prepare us something to eat," Zecora said.
"Okay," replied Garrett. "Thank you." Garrett then took off his bag, set it at his side, and sat down on one of the floor mats. Zecora came and placed what looked like a normal salad in front of him. Forgetting his manners, or even his safety precautions, he devoured the food as if it was his first meal in a lifetime. And to him it may as well been, the night he had traveled through the portal he had just finished a twelve hour emergency shift at the hospital after a pileup on I-74.
"Sorry for my manners, or lack thereof." Garrett said to Zecora as he finished his plate. "I haven't eaten anything in the past twenty-four hours."
Zecora just nodded, took his plate, and cleaned up.
"So," Garrett said, not without a slight sense of awkwardness in his voice."I'm pretty sure we both have many questions for each other."
And, with the silence broken, they both took turns asking questions. Of course one of the main ones asked by both were "what exactly are you?" After talking long into the night Zecora sat up, stretched, and walked over to her mat.
"You can stay here for the night," Zecora said. "Then tomorrow we will both go see Twilight."
Not knowing exactly how late it was, and taking in how exhausted he was again, he gave up the idea of asking who Twilight was, nodded his head, and laid in the most comfortable position he could muster. And for the second time, in this strange land that he had just found out was called Equestria, Garrett closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
------Author's Notes------
Took me all day to write this one, I had a bit of writers block trying to find what stuff rhymes with for Zecora, while also trying not to overdo it. I think it turned out pretty well. And for those who think "This guy is talking to zebras in such a calm manner." I am attempting to create a non-brony version of me go into this story, and my amount of reason abounds in certain areas. So I can say, if i was in his position, I most likely may have acted a bit differently but would've got to the reasoning that I got to in the story soon enough. Hope you like this chapter, the longer this story gets though, the harder it will be to write chapters. I am hoping to get to at least 10 chapters with this piece, but if it comes to about 8-9 I will be happy with that, for this is still my first fanfic.