So I saw the first draft of Panpipes had over four hundred views. That really surprised me! The story began when I was in a transformation oriented Discord server and someone suggested a story about someone turning into a satyr and being lost in the forest forever. I didn't like the gloomy take. I thought it'd be more interesting if the transformed person became important to the forest and then noted that his friends and family would interpret this as a missing person. So I wrote the first draft, getting the story idea out of my head. I decided to say the creature our character became was a faun rather than a satyr as satyrs are usually more sexual than fauns. I thought of the idea of other beings in the forest that he couldn't see as a human but could as a faun, and so I decided to bring in the immortals and fairy creatures from L. Frank Baum's fairy tales, especially The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, because these are public domain now and frankly, anything I'd come up with would likely just be an expy. Ak, Ryls, Knooks and this take on Nymphs all appear in Baum's book. So basically, I set this in Baum's universe although decided to make an unidentified American national forest the setting instead of a fairy country. A friend was interested in the story for a book he is assembling, but frankly told me the first draft wasn't that good. The core idea had promise, but it needed work. I decided to trust him. After all, elements had come to mind as I wrote the first draft. So I wrote a second one that took the ideas I'd gotten out and developed on them further. There's scenes from the first draft I loved that didn't make it into the second version, but I enjoyed developing the characters further. Liana and Wintro are a bigger presence in the second version. Wintro got a big change, going from being a Ryl to a Knook. The second version is on Patreon, where you can view it (and everything else I post there) for $3 a month. I won't judge you if you don't feel like that right now or just join for the one month you paid for. As I sat on the second version, I had thoughts about expanding the story further. I thought of inserting new scenes into the second draft, but it felt wrong. So draft three has begun. I'm not sure if my friend's book is going forward, but if it happens, I'll let you know, and if not, I'll find another way to get it out. Overall, I feel like the story is a tribute to Baum, whose imagination and world building has inspired many over the years, as well as Jack Snow, who found unusual ways to pay tribute to his favorites, E.T.A. Hoffmann, whose stories often featured finding fantastic worlds closer than you might imagine, and a bit of C.S. Lewis.