Driving from place to place in the name of magical goings on and a grand quest to reclaim a sacred forest from the clutches of the wicked was becoming a natural state of things for Cormac and Ixia. And neither seemed to mind it, seamlessly transitioning from idle chatter about the world that the Dryad had awoken to and then to a comfortable silence punctuated by the occasional flirty look or warm smile.

The pair were on their way to the purported location of the Gloomfang in question, after having made yet another stop at a hardware store for supplies that put them at that early dusk that came from mountains making for an over zealous horizon.

“And we’re positive that we can’t do this during the day?” Cormac asked, eyeing the spot where the sun had just vanished behind the mountain.

Ixia stared out the window of the truck at that same spot. “If this Gloomfang has become a problem, then they’re competent enough to never leave themselves vulnerable during the day.”

“I still say this sounds like a vampire.” The Guardian noted as he pulled up to the stoplight. “The whole sunlight weakness and fang being right there in the name just scream vampire.”

The Dryad chuckled. “Don’t be silly! Vampires aren’t real!”

Cormac shot her a glare and firmly cleared his throat while keeping an eye on the stoplight out of the corner of his eye.

Ixia hung her head low and sighed before reciting the line she had already had to state a few too many times now. “Sorry…while ‘vampires’ are not real your caution and curiosity is warranted…”

“That’s all that I ask.” Cormac said as the light finally turned green and they accelerated onward. “It’s only fair with all the things I have to tell you aren’t a thing that’s known anymore.”

The Dryad propped her head up on her palm as she stared out the window once more, staring out at an endless maze of buildings with only the occasional decorative plant to break up the concrete complex. “Mmm…”

Cormac winced, realizing his error in an instant as he reached out a hand to rest on Ixia’s at her side. Despite the illusion she wore now of a perfectly normal human woman with bold choices in hair dye, actually feeling her skin gave away her non-human nature. As he ran a finger over the back of her hand, Cormac certainly didn’t mind while mulling over his next words carefully.

“You don’t talk about the world you knew that much. Hardly at all.” The Guardian noted, stealing tiny glances at the morose looking Dryad while navigating to a potentially lethal venture. “If you’d prefer, I can just not bring that up again and I’ll mark it as one of those things to not ask about. But legally speaking, I have to ask about it at least once since we’re dating now.”

That got a highly involuntary chuckle out of Ixia as she squeezed at his hand. “Thank you.”

The human was going to be content to leave off on that note, not touching the subject further. And for what must have been a minute or so that was to be his fate, as Ixia continued staring out the window at passing cars and focusing on a large cactus that had found itself the centerpiece of a roundabout. Cormac heard one more sigh and decided to pull into the first parking lot he found, shutting off the engine without another word and sitting in silence with Ixia.

“Of course I miss the world I once knew…” The Dryad started, finally looking over to Cormac as her lilac eyes started to dampen. “It is a place that I will never return to, and yet I still find pieces of it. Sometimes those pieces are just as they would have been then, and other times...they’re different. They’re different and in my mind there was no time between what they were and what they are now. And because it was so recent, sometimes I forget that what I knew might not be true anymore. It all just gets mixed up-”

Cormac leaned over from his seat to pull Ixia into the best hug that he could muster in a truck. It took Ixia a moment to return it after blinking away more than a few tears, but once the embrace had fully registered she returned the gesture to her Guardian in kind. He reassured her as he held her “I can’t claim to get what you’re going through. I don’t think anyone can. But take it at your own pace, and I’ll match it. I can adapt quickly. I trust you.”

Ixia tightened her arms around him, smiling through a few stray tears. “You told me that all of the knowledge of the world I once knew was ‘a lot to handle’ and ‘please don’t be mad when I ask for some clarification’. Is that not still true?”

“That was before I realized how sore of a spot this was...should have realized that sooner but, I told you I can adapt. We’ll take things as they come, whether that’s mysterious obsidian stealing entities or nightmare monsters...the ones that cause nightmares. Not the snake. He was cool.” Cormac pulled back from the embrace but kept his arms around her as he stared into her eyes. “What I’m saying is, I’ll be fine! You properly warned me about what dangers to expect this time and that’s enough for me!”

The Dryad’s green brows were pressing together as she frowned at the man, despite his bright yet obviously pained smile. “You’re the one who not several minutes ago was asking for more clarification and understanding.”

“A bit of surprise when dealing with things that I until recently thought were fiction is something I can deal with. I promise!” He wasn’t lying, even if his smile showed a bit of pain. The pain was mostly from trying not to think about just what he had gotten into and failing as he was caught between the excitement of a layer of reality previously unknown and periodic struggles of life and death against the forces of evil. Which was honestly still pretty exciting for someone who had been so eager for some excitement in his life that he was willing to accept potentially lethal doses of it.

Ixia’s frown wavered into something of a pout. Her Guardian was putting himself at great risk for her, and yet...there was still so much to process. So much that if she stopped to think about it she may realize it was very likely gone, or gone as she once knew it only to be replaced by something new bearing it’s appearance and yet still strange. And it was all wrong, at the worst times. And Cormac was all things right, at all of the best times or worst times. He was still new to her and yet he already felt so familiar to keep her firmly rooted.

She leaned forward to give him a light peck on the forehead, leaving his green eyes the only part of him not currently red. “Thank you, Cormac. I just need...time. But I swear to you I will not take your status as Guardian for granted.”

A few seconds later, Cormac’s brain restarted as he no longer had to force that smile. “Ready to go hunt a vile monster?”

“Just be careful, you can’t be my guardian if you die. Same for ‘dating’.” She said with a small smile. “I want to be very clear that that has never and likely never will be a thing.”

Cormac chuckled, smiling back before his grin turned to a questioning look as he stared off into space. “Now when you say ‘likely’...”

“Many things are possible, but I would prefer to not find out if that is possible.” Ixia said, laughing off his concern to lighten the mood.

The Guardian quietly agreed that that was a perfectly acceptable answer and that he too was in no rush at all to find out if that was, in fact, a thing. Though he reluctantly released her from the embrace, she did seem more relieved now.

So relieved that she was now shucking off her clothes after turning back to her full Dryad appearance.

The confusion of the moment was fighting off other feelings, and Cormac’s face reflected such feelings of having missed something critical.

“Uhhh…?”

Ixia raised a brow between peeling her blouse off and ruffling her leaf “hair” to get them just right once again. She looked over her shoulder into the empty parking lot, finding only a single stray shopping cart and a number of small stores that had already closed down. “I thought this would be as good a time as any to change before we meet our foe?”

“Oh.” Cormac looked off and put his hands back on the steering wheel to make a failed attempt to hide all the blood rushing to his face. “Yeah that makes a lot more sense.”

The Dryad was unable to hold back a laugh as she rested her hand on the human’s knee. “Vanquishing of monsters first, fun later.”

“No no that’s fine. Obviously.” The Guardian started up the truck again, the groan of the engine that was really straining against the love a retail paycheck couldn’t provide. Which was a perfect cover to let the man mumble out “Call it motivation…”

“Did you say something?”

“You have lovely eyes.”

“Oh! Why thank you!” Ixia smiled, squeezing his knee. “And motivation for both of us!”

The human’s wince was an incredibly confused one between not being so sly and Ixia not minding. He tapped at the ignition as he looked to the Dryad. “You remember how to start this up?”

“Twist the key just long enough, not too long. Make sure I’m stepping on the correct pedal.” Ixia recited from memory. “Then change gear to that one symbol and run down the horrible monster.”

“The one that will be trying to eat me.”

“No no, remember this one is the one that would-”

“Capture me and inject me with a venom that would keep me alive but in a state of complete waking agony from which death would be a welcomed release I would never be afforded.” Cormac’s knuckles were blindingly white on the steering wheel as he took that turn a bit too hard. “Silly me.”

Ixia hefted the duffel bag up from the floor onto the seat with a grunt. “And you are certain this...contraption will work?”

“I paid enough for it.” The human lamented as he felt the dread of looking at his credit card statement loom heavier than any fight with monsters could. “It will work. Just remember to shield your eyes as you switch it on….but not if you are also hitting the gas. Use your best judgment on timing that right.”

Ixia’s face grew long, the greens of her flesh still vibrant under the street lamps that had just kicked on. “You’re certain of this plan?”

“Of the two of us, you are the more eye catching and obviously magical as well as obviously lethal.” The GPS of Cormac’s phone shouted out a final order to make a final left. “Which means I get to play bait. Again. Now, stop worrying so much. I’ve had this plan for several hours now and I haven’t been able to think of anything better no matter how much I really, really wish I could.”

The Dryad placed a hand on her Guardian’s back, massaging slightly as she offered a warm smile. “I believe in you.”

Cormac was this close to making the what felt like an obvious retort of ‘that’s probably a mistake’. But he let that one slide, this time. As it was much too obvious, so she probably understood. So nothing needed to be said. Only returning a smile that was offered in sympathy of her poor choice of Guardian instead of actual appreciation for someone he cared about believing in him. Nothing needed to be said.

Nothing except “Well...we’re here.” and a long, overly focused stare out the window with Ixia following his gaze down the street to the two story house that looked perfectly and completely normal in every single way except for a lack of any lights on. Even the seemingly automatic lights that every other house building on the street had lighting up their numbered displays looked to be turned off.

But it was, in all other appearances, completely normal. There were no optical impossibilities, at least that were visible as oxymoronic as that sounded. And yet Ixia felt a slight shiver overtake her as they slowly approached and Cormac shut off the engine after finding a stretch of street to park along a safe distance away.

“Every other home here has a garden.” The Dryad pointed to the yards still visibly green under the lights from nearby houses. Some even had a collection of rocks and native plants as opposed to a grass lawn. “That one has nothing, and I sense that even if one were to try they would have a hard time growing anything there.”

Cormac lolled his head back against the seat, groaning as he did. “Does that mean that part of the plan is out?”

“No...not completely.” She said while narrowing her eyes at the ground covered only in rocks. She eased the truck door open and set a bare foot down on the ground to get a feel for things as she closed her eyes and focused. “It’s not the whole property. The borders between his and his neighbor aren’t so clear underground. I can feel roots and bugs under the surface that all prefer to turn back a little ways in. I believe I could still perform part of the plan, just not all of it.”

Cormac rocked back and forth in his seat, psyching himself up before leaning his head against the center of the steering wheel, tapping at his hidden weapon in his pocket as yet another encounter went by where he wouldn’t be able to use his shovel. “Alright, let’s do this.”

The redhead tied his mane back in a ponytail, grabbed the now lukewarm box of questionable gas station pizza, and climbed out of the truck before easing the door shut with care. He heaved a final deep exhale as he looked across the hood of the truck to Ixia who nodded back at him before he advanced towards the unlit house on barren ground while the dryad played lookout.

Cormac stepped up to the door, swallowing hard as he rang the doorbell and announced himself. “Yeah I got your FoodSprint order here, dude.”