See first chapter for disclaimers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to Storyseeker for beta-reading this. As usual, if you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.

PREVIOUSLY: Grimm

This is Different

"Oookay," Xander said, slowly looking himself over as best he could without a mirror. He glanced at Faith, who seemed equally unsettled by this turn of events. "Any ideas?"

She shook her head. "Got no idea."

"So, let's just take a look around and see what we can find."

"Looking like this?"

"We don't seem to have a choice," Xander pointed out. Faith nodded reluctantly and they left the small forest clearing they had appeared in and made their way, a bit clumsily at first, down a well-worn trail. Xander pointed out the hoof prints in the dirt and the lack of wheel-marks or footprints.

"So what does that mean?" she asked, walking on his blindside as usual, and keeping an eye out for trouble.

"Not sure, yet," he admitted. The trail led out to an open field and a series of small, rolling hills. "It's a pretty place," he admitted as they came within sight of an apple orchard after cresting the third small hill. They could see what looked like a farmhouse on the far side, so they started in that direction.

"Girl might take offense," Faith offered in a teasing tone.

"Huh?" Xander glanced at her.

"Been a while since you've seen me naked," Faith pointed out.

Xander rolled his eye. "And yet, it's not doing a thing for me."

Whatever response she would have made was cut off by a loud crash and shouts of panic. They rushed forward, and soon emerged from the orchard to find the farmhouse in flames.

They didn't see any people, but there were several horses running about the place. The two hunters only paused a moment when they realized that the horses were the ones doing the shouting.

A palomino mare was running toward the farmhouse shouting something about apples, while a large red stallion was trying to organize a bucket brigade from a well near the barn.

There were people inside the farmhouse, kids judging by the voices that were shouting for help. Faith charged in, easily crashing through the door that had held against the palomino's kicks. Once inside, she realized that a heavy beam had fallen and blocked the door. Faith noticed this peripherally as she searched for the kids.

The shouts were coming from a backroom, and Faith had to knock down another door to get to them. The door created a bridge across a burning section of flooring and three fillies scrambled across it, and followed her and the palomino outside. At that point, she discovered another problem.

OOOOOOOOOO

Xander had initially gone to help with the bucket brigade. Shortly after Faith had gone into the house, however, the most bizarre creature he had ever seen appeared in a flash of light. It seemed to be composed of multiple animal parts, and it was tossing around powerful magic spells like they were party favors.

Xander tackled a purple horse…make that unicorn…out of the way of something that made the grass grow at an absurd speed and twist into odd shapes. The creature stopped and stared at him for a moment before applauding and doing a gleeful little dance in midair.

"Oh my! What fun. You look like you've marinated in chaos magic." Xander glared at the creature warily while looking for some advantage. Several cooking related comebacks popped into his head, but as they were all fairly disgusting, he decided to stay quiet. "Let's see what we can do with that."

"Uh-oh." Xander began to backpedal. "You don't want to do that. Me and magic really don't mix. Just ask the last chaos mage I ran into."

"Sounds like fun."

Xander wasn't fast enough to avoid the spell the thing threw at him. The horses around him stared in dismay and began to back away, even as his thoughts grew dim and predatory. All he knew was that the creature before him was an enemy. He opened a mouth suddenly full of sharp pointy teeth and made a sound disturbingly like laughter.

"Oh my," the creature said. "Even I wasn't expecting tha-." He was cut off as the suddenly feral demon hunter slammed into him and sank those sharp teeth into its throat.

When Faith emerged from the farmhouse, she found the weirdest looking creature she'd ever seen being torn to shreds by what she realized after a moment was her partner. The horses had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the gruesome spectacle while slowly backing away, unwilling to risk attracting the beast's attention.

"Oh help!" The voice came from behind the group of horses. "I am being torn apart by a wild animal. Oh, won't someone save me." The horses turned to find the creature floating behind them, munching on a bucket of popcorn.

His melodramatics came to an end when a kick from Faith put him on the ground. "I'd ask what idiot let the hyena out, but I think it's pretty obvious." She watched it carefully for any sign of movement, but the thing was apparently down for the count. The purple unicorn approached with a glowing talisman. The light from it enveloped the misshapen creature and it soon vanished, ending the spells it had cast.

Faith turned her attention to her partner, who was back to normal, sort of, and shaking his head and spitting repeatedly on the ground.

"Someone get me some mouthwash!" he called.