The side mirror was, in fact, shattered beyond any possible use as Cormac soon discovered upon picking it up from its resting place on the road. He had no idea how soon if ever this little “incident” might come back to him, but he figured that not leaving a piece of your truck at the site of a large crater where a tree had burst forth from was a proactive decision. Looking around, he double checked to ensure that there was nothing else he was leaving behind.

Ixia waited patiently for him, holding the clump of dirt that housed her forest heart in the shape of a flower. Cormac glanced down to the ruined mirror, now relieved of all glass, and held it out to her.

“Here, think you could use this until we can get a better container for that?” He asked.

The dryad took it, frowning slightly as she fit the clump of dirt into the makeshift container. Her frown retreated into a small smile as she spoke. “This will do, thank you.”

“At least it’s doing some good now. Hmmm.” Cormac frowned at the crater in the road now missing a tree, and one smaller eruption from the roots. “Is there anything we can do about that? Someone’s going to get hurt if they hit that hole going down this road.”

Ixia placed a hand to her chin, thinking for a moment before reaching her hand out to cause a mass of roots to burst forth from the dirt of the crater and knit themselves into a large mass that filled the hole in the road.

“Will that do?” She asked.

Cormac walked over, extending a leg and testing the root mass with his hiking boot. After finding it to be initially solid, he walked onto the mass and hazarded a jump on top of it to find it had no noticeable give from the tightly knit roots. “This will do.” He echoed her earlier assessment, giving her an affirmative nod.

They walked to his truck, and were off after having spent too much time at the scene of a supernatural incident. The nature of which Cormac was still coming to grips with after having all of his preconceived notions of the world completely shattered. He mulled it over in his head for a time, the silence aside from the engine and rushing wind urging him on.

“So…” He decided to try for some answers. “Magic…..that’s real?”

Ixia stirred from staring out the window at the passing forest, looking at Cormac with a raised brow. “Yes? Was that really in question?”

“It wasn’t, until I met you. Which is to say it was absolutely not real until that point. Still coming to terms with all that, if I’m honest.” He sighed, trying to focus on driving and avoiding other possible supernatural monsters lurking out there.

Ixia chuckled, putting a hand to cover her mouth as she laughed harder, then suddenly stopping with wide eyed horrific realization. “Oh you’re serious.”

Cormac shot her a pained frown before looking back to the road.

“Oh. Well yes it is real.” Ixia said, looking thoroughly mortified as she avoided eye contact. “Apologies, it seems I have been out for quite some time.”

“And humans back then had magic?” He asked.

“Well...no, but they knew of it. Some did at least. I suppose I thought you would all have figured it out by now...apologies Guardi- Cormac.” She corrected herself, still lost in thought.

The search for answers was so far a mixed bag, and was leading to more questions. Cormac was still undeterred. “And when was that exactly?”

Ixia opened her mouth to answer before a look of crushing realization hit her. She frowned and stared down at the flower. “Too long, I fear. Much too long letting The Old Kin have free reign. Much too long asleep, and when I awoke I could feel my domain had shrank and-”

Cormac reached a hand over to pat her on the shoulder. “Bad question, sorry. How about some easier ones?”

“Liiiike-” He removed his hand from her shoulder, turning on the radio. “What kind of music you like!”

Fuzz and static emerged from the speakers as a harsh reminder that Cormac was still up a mountain.

“That is a truly strange sounding waterfall.” Ixia said, looking up from her melancholy to the source of the sound.

Cormac clicked the radio off. “Gonna come back to that question later. Different question, how about-”

“Why did you pick bristlecone pine?” Ixia asked.

He wasn’t entirely sure of it himself, as he thought for a moment before giving his answer. “It’s a nice tree, also big. It seemed like a good choice to use as something to have a big scary monster run headfirst into at top speeds.”

The dryad smiled, happy with the answer. “It’s a good tree, are you something of an expert?”

Cormac scoffed before chuckling. “No, I just like going on hikes to clear my head whenever I can. Sorry to disappoint.”

“There will be plenty of time to learn as a guardian.” She encouraged him.

There was that word again. “I realize I’m probably well past the point of no return on this but, what exactly did I get myself into with the whole guardian thing?” He asked.

“It means you are trusted with aiding me in protecting the forest against its most harrowing foes.” She said. “I assure you, it is a high honor.”

Cormac gripped the wheel harder, forcing himself to relax after a moment and biting his lip before finally responding. “I am sorry to disappoint yet again but, I think you’ll find you could have done a lot better. I’ve got zero relevant skills here.”

Ixia gave a light laugh. “You took time and effort to rescue a single flower. And despite the initial confusion and uncertainty, you haven’t run screaming in terror. Even when faced with a beast that would devour your soul.”

“It would what now?” Cormac swerved slightly on the road, struggling to keep his focus.

“You even offered your own blood to form a pact with me.” She continued, realizing with slight concern that humans of the day were particularly uneducated on mystical matters. “That was all within the first hour after meeting. I owe you not only for my own life, but all the forest. But perhaps I should ask you why you have shown such little hesitance?”

Cormac looked over to the naked tree woman sitting in his truck, holding a magic flower in her hands. Carefully secured in the back seat and visible in the rearview mirror was a crystalline heart of a magical beast now bound by a blood pact between them.

“I work retail. That means my life is boring and going nowhere and every day I feel like more of a failure than the last. Then you show up with the fun kind of interesting, not the miserable kind. There’s enough of the miserable kind of interesting to go around.” He answered, gaining a small smile.

Ixia bore a slight grimace, concern growing. “I am now worried about you...and the world I have awoken to. But this bond goes both ways, I will aid you as best I can.”

Cormac wasn’t about to argue about this right now, and doubted he truly could with magic being a thing. There were other things to focus on for now, like making it to the lodge and retrieving the rest of his things he had taken on this short vacation that had taken a hard turn into the strange and life changing. A passing car reminded him of a talk he had been meaning to have.

“No other humans can see you, right? How about hearing you or any other method of sensing you?” He asked.

“Unless I bump into them, they won’t suspect a thing.” Ixia confirmed.

Cormac raised a brow. “Well about that. If others are around I won’t be able to talk to you unless I want to look like a crazy person...which as we have established, I am but no one else has to know. So unless you can disguise yourself as a human somehow, our conversations are going to be one way until we aren’t being watched.”

“Hmm.” The dryad put a hand to her chin. “I could look like a human, but you keep bringing up clothes. I can’t make those just appear. Are they really that important?”

“Very. Required by most of society unless you happen to be in private.” He caught a perplexed look imploring him for clarification. “You know. Like your own house. Or someone else’s house if they are okay with that...assume they are not, just to be safe. Oh, and within a lodge or hotel. Just the room you’re paying for though, not the other parts. Um, you know just ask me if you’re not clear on it.”

Ixia looked even more lost after Cormac’s miserably failed attempt at clarification, but politely nodded along anyway.

Sudden realization hit Cormad in the meantime. “Actually...don’t worry about it yet. It would be a bad idea if I went out onto the trails alone and returned with a woman, so much worse if that woman happened to be naked.”

The dryad feigned a look of knowing and kept nodding.

Cormac made it almost half a minute before he decided to keep digging deeper. “See, I don’t have an issue with it. I think you look great, not that I’m staring or anything. It’s just that other people wouldn’t find it…” He waved one hand about, searching for the word before tapping it back on the steering wheel. “Socially acceptable! Because humans are weird, and we have weird customs and they can vary quite a bit!....The nudity being not socially acceptable, you yourself are not unacceptable- wow I’m really not helping my case on not being a crazy person-”

“I appreciate your efforts to make clear what is obviously a complex issue that is difficult to explain to outsiders but makes perfect sense to those used to it.” She interrupted in the most polite manner possible, giving a smile for reassurance. “I have extensive experience with fairies and other such whimsical beings, this isn’t so bad in comparison.”

“Oh. Well that is a very succinct way of putting i- wait fairies are a thing too?!”

One series of revelations later and Cormac was pulling up to the lodge. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he wasn’t as much one for roughing it out in the woods, and quite enjoyed a small cozy cabin with a wonderful view and a warm drink on those cool mountain nights. The lodge fit those needs quite well, being a small management building attached to the parking lot and a row of cabins all with an exterior meant to suggest they were made of logs. The interior was that of a simple, humble, small hotel room. Just enough to be a fine place to sleep, but no one was coming here to spend much time in their rooms.

Ixia was wide eyed as she was ushered into the room, Cormac noticing while he started packing up what little he had in the room into his single suitcase. “The truck was fine but this is what gets you?”

“The truck was a strange device, something I was completely unused to. That’s simple. Something I am used to not really being what it appears to be and instead being something unusual?” She flicked the lightswitch she had seen Cormac touch to cause light, flicking it back and forth and noting its effects. “Strange indeed.”

Cormac shrugged while ignoring the flickering lights before zipping up his suitcase and making a final sweep of the room, talking as he went. “Sometimes we like the appearance of something but we also want the function of something else. You’re not mad about the logs though?”

She abandoned the lightswitch to make her way around the room, curiously inspecting random odds and ends. “A world in harmony makes use of all things available to thrive, so long as it is not outright destructive I see no issue.”

“I am saving that one for later when I have put some distance between us and this mountain.” Cormac shook his head, already dreading that revelation. A part of him felt like he should just flop down on the bed for a time and rest while he could, it seemed to be a natural consequence of today’s events. The adrenaline had to be keeping him going still as he wasn’t exhausted in the least.

Though he did take a moment to try washing the indigo stain of the fruit from his hands, to limited success. “That fruit you gave me stains like nothing else. Delicious though!” He called out from the bathroom.

“We will go and retrieve more once you are done ‘checking out’ as you said, we should stick together so long as the threat level is high.” Ixia said, standing before the sliding door onto a small patio with a nice view to enjoy the sights.

Cormac took his place next to her, looking on with a measure of lament at the sudden turn this relaxing vacation had taken on the very first day. “I appreciate it, one thing to look forward to at least.”

They made their way to the main office, finding the elderly attendant reading from a book behind thick glasses and wearing plaid and blue denim in equal amounts to the point of parody. He looked up from his book as Cormac entered, not noticing him holding the door open just a moment too long for an unseen guest.

“I’ll be checking out early, something came up. The one call that manages to get through out here and it’s an emergency!” Cormac said with a shrug and a forced laugh.

The old man didn’t react aside from setting down his book. “All fees are non-refundable.” He said without a hint of caring.

Cormac’s forced smile immediately fell into a frown and a scowl. “But I won’t be using it. I won’t be there which means you can check it out to someone else.”

“And we are unlikely to fill the room on such short notice. It was all there in the agreements, sir.” He said with complete disinterest, stealing glances back down at his book as he pushed his glasses up.

“But-” Cormac’s protests were sidelined as Ixia made her way around the counter and started looking around for something. She ran her hand along the wooden desk the old man sat at, nodding to herself with some determination and silently tapping at the right two legs. Cormac bit his tongue, the scowling man expecting him to continue that protest. “Listen, I just checked in this morning. Day one of a week long stay. I can’t get back some small percent?”

“It was all there in the agreements and paperwork sir, which I can show to you if-” As he placed a hand on the desk to stand from his chair the two right legs collapsed to take the desk and all that was on it with it. The computer and other electronics sliding off and hitting the floor with a loud thunk. The old man stumbled back, bewildered and staring with mouth agape.

“Know what? I’m a busy man, you’re also a busy man now. I’ll leave you to your business.” Cormac said, not waiting for questions to be asked as he made his way to the door and held it open for a giggling Ixia as he took the chance to look back to the old man. “Also I’m leaving you a one star review.”

Cormac gave a nervous laugh as soon as they were well out of earshot. “I think technically that counted as mean.”

“And I believe that counted as theft, technically.” She shot back with a smirk, walking with Cormac to the truck. “Also, he was using that wood for nefarious deeds. There were many reasons to do what I did.”

They decided to find another location to pull off to retrieve the fruit, not wanting to give the old man any time to get any wild ideas in his head. A short drive later and they had picked a good place at the side of the road, Ixia’s flower carefully tucked away in the backseat alongside the crystal heart. The dryad assuring Cormac that they would be safe here as all potential eyes would be on them instead. Taking his backpack just in case, the pair ambled about Ixia cast a discerning eye to the trees in search of just the right one.

Finding a tree to her liking with a knothole, she started retrieving the strange fruit and placing it in a canvas bag that Cormac had given to her. The dryad was the first to freeze in place after filling the bag, Cormac followed immediately afterwards as they spied something glowing and moving off in the distance under the shadows of the trees. It was nothing of the world that Cormac had formerly known.

“Back to your truck, quietly.” Ixia said, still trying to make out what exactly the creature was.

The pair carefully crept along, staying just ahead of the entity’s flitting about that could be mistaken for following them if its flight was not so random. They climbed into the truck, Cormac wincing as the doors closing even with as much delicacy as possible felt like the loudest thing in all the forest. The engine roaring to life quickly subsumed that distinction.

“Is that something else that’s after you?” Cormac asked.

Ixia leaned forward in her seat “The Ash Hound would be the most persistent but it's certainly possible that there could be others. Ready yourself, though you lack an obsidian blade what other weapons do you possess?”

“I have a folding shovel.” He answered completely deadpan.

Ixia nodded. “And what can you do with it?”

“I can dig.” Cormac kept his eyes on the gossamer entity out there flitting about between the trees. “In a pinch, I can hit things with it. But if it comes down to me hitting things with a shovel I should really just focus on digging myself a grave."

The dryad looked from the glowing thing to Cormac and back to the glow. “You are unskilled in combat?”

“This is the part where you realize you made a huge mistake in choosing me.” Cormac grumbled aloud, moving a hand down to the gear shift in case he needed to reverse in a hurry.

Ixia put her hand on his. “No regrets yet. Now, carefully approach it and be ready to make this device go as fast as it can.”

The engine hummed as Cormac carefully approached where the creature had darted across the road up ahead of them, foot ready to slam to the floor the moment this stopped being a good idea. Closer inspection revealed the thing to be something of a cross between a bird and a luminescent jellyfish glowing in soft oranges and blues. No larger than a raven, though it flapped between branches it did not move like it was flying through the air. Nor even like it was underwater, closer to some odd combination of the two as billowing ephemeral wings that seemed ill equipped for flight carried it through the air. There at its wingtips and tail the creature’s body seemed to phase out of reality itself as it perched, only coming into existence as it moved. Though largely avian its head ended not in a beak but something of a long curling proboscis like that of a butterfly. Every so often as it stopped flitting about it would extend the proboscis to feed at something. The tip of it faded from reality and back in as it curled up. It came to rest on a tree branch there at the side of the road. Three eyes like glowing topazes looked directly at the pair in the truck as Cormac got ready to make a getaway.

“Friend or foe?” He asked, noting Ixia’s hand tightening over his. “Ixia?”

Looking over to her revealed a few luminescent tears running down her face as all the regret in the world shone through her lilac colored eyes.

“Neither. But let us be gone.” She said in a surprisingly calm tone that hid the hurt quite well.

Cormac said nothing and accelerated away from the unknown entity. He waited several minutes for an explanation that never came, leading him to mount an expedition for one. “May I know what that was?”

Ixia had not taken her hand off of his, and her grip only tightened. “A confirmation and reminder of my failures...an old beast, think of it as a vulture. Not a scavenger for flesh that has turned to rot, but for magical entities that have gone the way of all the earth. I had hoped that my fears were misplaced when I saw no others, I can only hope that most simply fled...I don’t know why exactly you think so low of yourself, but I won’t dare judge when I know of my own failures.”

Cormac wasn’t entirely sure what to say to someone who had woken from a sleep of unknown length to find that things had gotten quite bad in their absence. He settled for “I’m sorry. I know you did the best you could, but that just doesn’t feel like it means anything when the bad things still happened. I really, really can’t say I know what you’re going through but...well I can claim to know that feeling that for all the effort you put in that this is all you have to show for it.”

“The forest shall regrow, that is what I remind myself. Even death gives rise to new life. Let’s not give up yet, alright?” The dryad said with a weak smile.

The human gave a heavy sigh. “Well, hard to argue with that when you’ve been through far worse.”

“It’s not a competition.” She insisted, wiping away tears.

Cormac begrudgingly agreed in between muttering under his breath.