Sitting in traffic was usually something that could only ever be made tolerable through considerable effort. Today, Cormac had achieved the impossible. He had found a way to make sitting in traffic a joyous experience. Sadly, this was a method unlikely to get him any book deals or time on the talk show circuit as it involved having a naked plant woman sitting in the passenger seat looking all around in wide eyed amazement while asking a long stream of questions.

“And how many people live here?” Ixia asked, staring at several lanes of traffic in pure awe.

Cormac thought for a moment and finally answered “I think about two million?”

Ixia stared at Cormac, mouth hanging open for a moment while she squinted her eyes shortly before they went wide as she understood he was serious. “Incredible…is that a large settlement these days?”

“No.” Cormac chuckled to himself before realizing she of course had no way of knowing. “No uh...no they get bigger. One state over and there’s a huge one...state, right. Okay, a way too long drive in the other direction than the way we came and there’s a much larger city with even worse traffic!”

Ixia nodded along, paying close attention. “And this…’traffic’ is the source of the ‘smog’ you were talking about?”

“Yeah…” Cormac bit his lip, suddenly too conscious of his truck that could really stand to get better gas mileage. “How are you holding up by the way?”

The dryad frowned, laying back in her seat. “I shall manage physically.”

“And mentally?” Cormac asked, not too convinced.

“Not well...I first tasted the air was different when I awoke. As we got closer to the city it was worse. I was hoping your ‘truck’ was an unfortunate anomaly.”

Cormac physically and mentally cringed, and was glad that he was at a stop right now in gridlock. “Okay, well...an electric vehicle is...out of my price range right now. But I can pick up an air purifier so at least when we’re at my place it isn’t so bad?”

“I would appreciate it, but if there is a better vehicle out there you should acquire it as soon as you can.” She said with a smile as though it was nothing.

The human scoffed, shaking his head. “So what I mean is that I lack the ability to do so as the work I do is very unvaluable, so I am not paid enough money...which is a measure of value, kinda, to acquire one of those fancy vehicles that doesn’t pollute. Oh good we’re moving again.”

Ixia frowned, staring out the window at every car full of humans she could see as Cormac started turning off this confusing place he called ‘The Fifteen’. “I am sorry, it sounds like you are undervalued.”

“Oh you have no idea- well…if I’m being honest it’s probably about riii-” He got halfway through that self-deprecating thought when she gave him a look halfway between sadness and a very firm disagreement. lilac eyes that large giving him that look were probably an illegal form of psychological warfare. “-iiiight-eously...righteously outrageous. Because I am definitely worth more. Ow!”

The dryad poked him in the rib while raising an eyebrow before cracking a smile. “We shall work on that.”

Finding it hard to stay too mad, Cormac just grumbled to himself further as he drove them home. Home being the cheapest apartment Cormac was able to find that still qualified as living in a relatively safe neighborhood. Relatively safe being a keypad locked gate that was really more of a polite suggestion that criminals inquire elsewhere. The cookie cutter apartments in the same tans, beige, and brown that most everything else was around here at least deterred any notions that anyone living within them had money.

Thankfully, Cormac only lived on the second floor which made carrying luggage, highly important flowers, and crystalline hearts serving as a blood pact up the stairs a considerably easier affair. Especially while Cormac fumbled for his keys while looking over his shoulders as though someone would see the invisible dryad waiting patiently with heart and...other heart in hand.

Opening the door revealed an apartment charitably described as sparse, and honestly described as depressing. A cheap couch sitting in front of a coffee table baring a laptop and an even cheaper TV dominated the small living room as Cormac welcomed Ixia in.

“So...this is my home. It’s not much, but it legally counts.” He said with a forced laugh. “After all, home is where the hearts is!”

Cormac pointed to the hearts in Ixia’s hand as she smiled and looked around the room, unaware of his painful attempts at humor.

“Get it cause...because you’ve got two hear- Well let me give you a short tour!” Cormac smiled through the pain as he shut the door and set his luggage down. He made a sweeping gesture with his arm toward the main room before showing Ixia around the small one bedroom apartment in what was likely the only time in human history that someone had been impressed by such a thing. The dryad had set her Forest Heart and the Crystalline Heart down on the coffee table in the living room after the short tour as she noted a small aloe vera sitting in the window.

“Oh you found Jim!” Cormac called out from the kitchen nook as he retrieved some water and more granola for Ixia.

The dryad looked back at him, smirking slightly. “Jim?”

Cormac pursed his lips and winced as he set out the snacks and refreshments on the coffee table. “Well...I gotta have a name if I’m going to be talking to him. Don’t really have anyone else to talk to, I mostly just keep to myself though so it works out.”

When he said it out loud like that, it sounded pathetic. It was, but so long as he convinced himself it was voluntary it didn’t count. Ixia ran her fingertips over the leaves of the small plant, staring intently at it as her eyes glowed lilac. A small stalk with buds emerged from the plant shortly before flowering in the little bit of sun shining on it. Ixia smiled and joined Cormac on the small couch.

“So what is the plan?” She said as she took the glass of water set out for her, carefully inspecting its design.

Cormac frowned. “Well, about that.” He cleared his throat and sat forward. “So even with clothes and some other amenities to make your stay here easier, I think we need a better plan than ‘get obsidian knife, hop back in.’ Because best case scenario? I find one tomorrow. Worst case? I order one and it gets here in like a week or two. But then what? I’m still just a guy! The truck thing? That was twice that it worked, and we were lucky I got to use it then. Deep in the forest? I’m just a man with a shovel, and also a knife. Really more of a liability still! ”

The dryad smiled and leaned back into the, what was to her, incredibly soft couch. “I can of course teach you what I know. I would want you well prepared.”

“And you would be ready for it yourself?” Cormac didn’t mean to be so direct, and immediately felt bad as he noticed Ixia’s smile falter. 

“I have no choice, it is my duty as a dryad.” She wasn’t meeting his eyes.

Cormac shook his head. “No, you do have a choice. If I’m going to be training, there’s got to be more that you could do to prepare yourself? Maybe even...I don’t know, gain some allies? Because that big scary dog was a challenge enough for the two of us, and we’re going up against how many scary things?”

Ixia stared out the window, taking a while to answer. “Many...and I do not know about allies. As far as humans go, I shall only trust you with the knowledge of this world. And others of The Veiled World? I wouldn’t know where to look, and so long as we would spend time looking my forest would be without me-”

Cormac rested a hand on hers, squeezing lightly. “Your forest waited while you slept for this long. I think it can wait a bit longer while we plan this out better and don’t go getting ourselves killed. Until the other day I never knew about any of this, and you have a lot of catching up to do on how the world is. Maybe we find something to make this easier?”

She squeezed his hand in return, still looking away as she leaned against Cormac to make his face turn the same color as his hair. “There you go living up to your title and guarding me from myself. I didn’t mean to let my guilt get the better of me…”

“Well that’s how guilt works, it’s one of those emotions that get in the way of thinking.” Cormac said while his brain threatened to shut down from the beautiful nude woman leaning against him. 

The dryad finally looked back over to him, bearing a single tear and a small smile. “Thank you, Cormac.”

“Gotta earn my keep!” He leaned forward, both as he remembered something and needed space to breathe. “You know if we’re about to go on a supply run, we’re going to need to have you visible so I can stop looking like someone with schizophrenia. Which means clothes.”

Ixia sighed, no longer able to avoid this. “If it aids in our mission, so be it.”

“Now, absolutely no clothes I own are going to fit you so we’ll need to go buy you some.” Cormac said, eye already twitching at what this supply run was going to do to his wallet.

The dryad thought for a moment, looking at the overly lean Guardian who seemed to be mostly lines as opposed to her healthy self of mostly curves. “I believe you are right, there’s no way I would be able to get into your pants.”

Cormac considered biting his tongue off but opted for immediately standing and grabbing his keys off the coffee table. “Y-yeah we should do something about that. Buying clothes I mean. Let’s go do that now.”

He offered a hand out to Ixia, who gave him a confused look at first but quickly accepted as he pulled her to her feet. “We shall need to bolster our defenses later, but I don’t believe we have been followed. Is this place safe from intruders?”

Cormac used his other hand to make a wavering motion as he grimaced. “Mostly, but if anyone gets in there’s just not much to steal. And I promise they’re not going to take a flower.”

“Good, but we will still need more plants here. Fungi if possible. Plenty of soil. If this is to be our safe haven from which we plan and prepare, there is much to be done.” She counted off on her fingers as she looked around the small dwelling.

Cormac groaned in economic agony as he walked back to the door after an all too short return home. “Will seeds do? I’m not made of money and a full grown plant costs a lot more.”

“Seeds would work wonderfully! Lead the way and we shall have a proper hallowed ground in no time!” Ixia cheered, unaware of Cormac’s lament at how expensive anything hallowed sounded.

Clothes shopping for a functionally invisible woman proved to be exactly as much of a challenge as one would imagine, and involved much swallowing of pride and hang ups as Cormac had to venture into the women’s section of a department store ‘alone’ to shop for clothes. Every so often, while holding up some clothes to an unseen Ixia and eyeballing whether or not it would fit her, he would announce to any passersby that he was doing some gift shopping, and no he didn’t know her sizes. After a good amount of guesswork, the pair settled on some starting clothes for Ixia that would at least likely fit until she could do this again while visible and capable of actually trying things on.

The pair returned to Cormac’s truck, and he found a dark enough corner of a parking garage where they were unlikely to attract any attention as Ixia figured out the exact mechanics of clothes for the first time.

“Clothes are terrible.” Ixia complained as she adjusted her blouse for the dozenth time while fidgeting in her seat. “And you are certain I must wear these ‘flip-flops’? Not being in contact with the ground is...unsettling.”

Cormac gave a sympathetic nod. “No shirt no shoes no service is pretty strictly enforced. The no shoes is fine outside, the no shirt...is not. Now, have you thought of a human appearance yet?”

Ixia nodded, closing her eyes and focusing for a moment. Her skin lost its green notes leaving only an even dark brown. Vibrant green hair retained its color but changed texture from something slightly outside of anything human, bordering on leaves, to looking quite thoroughly human. Her lips remained a dark green, and as she opened her eyes they too were the same lilac he had gotten used to.

“Not changing eyes? Or lips?” Cormac questioned, glancing over his shoulder for the 12th time in just as many minutes as he confirmed that they were still alone in this corner of the parking garage.

“As we were walking into that place of clothes, I saw a woman with blue lips. And have you seen your own eyes?” She asked with a teasing smile.

Cormac raised a finger, wanting to protest and getting so far as taking a breath before pursing his lips and shrugging. “Okay, fair. But when we go find you some more clothes we’re going to have to go to one of the edgy stores in the mall.”

“Is that a bad thing?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“I won’t be complaining.” He chuckled, opening the door and climbing out. “Now let’s see how we did.”Ixia followed, visibly uncomfortable as she got used to flip-flops and moving in clothes. She stopped at the tailgate of the truck. “Well, how do I look as a human?”

The dark green top and black pants looked a size or so too big, but considering they had just eyeballed their way through the whole affair the results were sufficient. Cormac put a hand to his chin as he made a show of looking her over before giving a thumbs up. “Really went all in on the green, but you make it work!”

“Well, I am primarily green so I should hope so.” She stuck her tongue out at him, still a bright green. 

Cormac’s eyes went wide as he instinctively whipped his head around looking to make sure no one had seen. “You forgot your tongue. And yes sadly that too is not up for debate, everyone’s insides are the same color. No way of altering that yet that doesn’t involve death.”

“Oh, my mistake!” A moment of focus later and her illusion was altered to include the inside of her mouth. “I’m not sure how well the glamour will work on my blood.”

“We’ll try to not put that to the test if we can help it. Now, did you really want to dive back into shopping for clothes or are you ready to go get you some plants and all the required materials to go with them?” He said motioning back to the truck.

Ixia stopped fidgeting and adjusting her clothes immediately as she lit up, luckily not literally as Cormac still suspected was possible. “Let us hurry! The sooner we do so, the sooner we may be properly prepared to face our foes and hallow your house against intruders!”

“So...by that do you mean a home security system but made of plants and such?” Cormac asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what that means, but it would make your house a temporary place of power that no intruders could enter.” She said, thinking to herself all that would be needed for such a ritual.

Cormac raised an eyebrow as he got back into his truck. “All at once that sounds...slightly scary but also cool? Which is a combination that’s getting very common in my life.”

“And do you begrudge that?” Ixia asked as she too returned to the cabin of the truck.

“Well the increased danger of my life is not ideal, but everything else?” He gave a broad smile as he turned the ignition over. “Way better than my old boring life.”