After approximately ten seconds of fiddling with the garage door to no avail, the silver skinned man built like a circus strongman looked over his shoulders with a grimace before lifting it up to tune of a loud steel groan that somehow seemed louder than all that had just transpired as it was not fighting for auditory prominence over other chaos.
Everyone else winced at the noise, shooting looks around the neighborhood in caution. Even Ixia paused from de-growing the grass and trees to make sure that this wasn’t the sound straw that broke the sound camel’s back and drew attention. A dog barking somewhere in the distance added an even greater sense of urgency as the tattooed twins directed Cormac into backing his truck into the thankfully mostly empty garage with waves of their hands.
One of them held up her hands as he hit the brakes after a stray Gloomfang arm flopped over the side of the truck bed right before he backed in further. With a grunt the twin shoved the arm back into place before they both directed Cormac to continue to ease the truck in before he hopped out with shovel in hand to let the silver skinned man pull the garage door down once more.
After a bit of searching, Ed the archer was able to find his bow with the help of the fire handed woman as she hoisted it above her head in triumph. They both avoided Ixia’s gaze as everyone rushed to the front door after a final sweep to make sure that nothing was out of place in the neighborhood while Ed’s police scanner crackled to life to announce that they didn’t have much time.
With a final scan outside, Cormac closed the door behind him to be greeted with everyone standing around in the painfully normal seeming if not undecorated entryway while saying nothing and trading varying looks between one another. He set down a bloody duffel bag with a wet squish that echoed through the house with painful silence returning soon after.
Only the light of the silver skinned man’s bright flashlight illuminated the space as all had so far failed to locate any working light switch. Ed’s police scanner fizzing to life in a futile attempt at reception broke the silence before he switched it off. “If it’s not getting reception here, then we’ve likely crossed a threshold.”
Just as quickly as the silence had ended, it returned as no one wanted to say anything when glaring at each other was an option.
“Okay.” Cormac took the initiative as he loosened his grip on his shovel. “Let’s start with the question on everyone’s mind: who called me a Leprechaun?”
Ixia nodded along before frowning and looking at her Guardian with a raised eyebrow.
“I got called that all the time growing up…” The ginger looked off while gripping his shovel tighter. “It’s a sore spot as well as being contextually a slur.”
“I understand that and while I agree it was extremely rude I-”
“I did!” The fire handed woman proclaimed while staring at the floor to Cormac’s shock and horror.
He lowered his shovel and shook his head as he twisted his face in disgust. “And from a fellow redhead…”
The woman of fire kept her eyes down as all others looked on with no idea what to say before she finally responded. “Apologies, but given the circumstances and appearances you can understand-”
Ed elbowed her hard in the ribs as she grunted.
“-how very sorry I am!”
Cormac narrowed his eyes before glancing over to Ixia who offered a sympathetic smile to cause him to groan and exhale. “Fine. Tentatively forgiven. Question number two on everyone’s mind. Who the actual fuck are you? Yes I realize this question goes both ways.”
“WE WERE ABOUT TO ASK YOU THE SAME THI-” The woman of fire caught herself mid rant with raised fist as she realized her error and she coughed to cover her mouth before slinking off to lean against a wall, possibly to die.
The silver skinned man rubbed at his metallic temple as his eyelids weighed heavy. “What Itra very clearly meant to say is that while we are just as confused as you are. We are a group devoted to dealing with hostile Veiled beings and humans alike that would seek to upset that tenuous balance.”
“We call ourselves, ‘The Diamond Do-”
“We absolutely do not call ourselves that.” The silver man didn’t break eye contact with Cormac as he very firmly shut down the twins’ interruption.
“You mean like the album?” Cormac was unable to help himself, and a second later Ixia’s lilac eyes lit up as she bounced in place.
“I remember that one!” The dryad continued on as the silver skinned man held his face in his hands. “Wasn’t it the one that goes-”
Ed cleared his throat despite the glaring objections of Guardian and Dryad having their moment interrupted. Cormac gripped and subsequently relaxed his grip on his shovel before he motioned for the silver skinned man to continue before reaching down to take Ixia’s hand.
“As I was saying, despite our inability to all agree on a name-” The silver skinned man shot a quick glance to the twins who both crossed their arms in response. “-our goal remains the same. My name is Gene, and we are all very sorry for the misunderstanding.”
He expectantly looked to Ed who rolled his eyes with a step forward and wave. “Sure, yeah. I’m Ed. My friends call me Ed, but you can call me Ed.”
“Abha.”
“Akna.”
The twins spoke one after another, each followed by the tiniest bow.
“Call me Itra!” The woman of fire hollered from her exile along the far wall of this entry hall. “And I would like to take this time to reiterate that I am sorry and also not racist! Or was it ethnicist? What kind of human are you again?”
As her team buried their faces in their hands or rubbed at their temples while grimacing, Cormac ignored it entirely.
“Uh, right. The name’s Cormac.”
“You may call me Ixia of The Ancient’s Grove, and it would seem we had a common enemy.” The dryad said with a polite smile to cool tensions while gesturing to the still oozing duffel bag that Cormac grimaced at.
The five now named strangers gave similar looks to the bag and subsequent questioning looks to a still smiling Ixia. They looked to each other, exchanging silent looks and wordlessly debating before Ed rolled his eyes and blurted out his question.
“Why are you hanging onto the head?”
“Well we just moved in together and wanted to do some redecorating but wouldn’t you know it the mantle was missing something to really tie the room together.” Cormac gave a wan smile as he gestured at the bag full of Gloomfang head, still oozing before he took Ixia’s hand in his own. “And of course Ixia has the best eye for this kind of thing. And the rest, as they say, is a historically unfortunate first meeting.”
Abha failed to suppress a snicker before her team took precious time away from glaring at Cormac to glare at her until she caught herself and forced a glare at the redhead.
Ixia was perplexed at her Guardian’s plan, if any, but that glint in his eye told her he was in fact planning something.
Something she could help with.
“Also, it was a vile monster that fed on the suffering of intelligent beings.” The dryad announced with a confident smile and squeeze of her human’s hand. “The resting room already had a hound’s heart, and a head on the hearth would really tie the dwelling together.”
Gene sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with a metallic creaking noise. “I understand that the nature of our work invites a great deal of secrecy, but we do not mean to be your enemies.”
The silver skinned man sighed and rolled his eyes.
“I said, we don’t mean to be your enemies.”
The rest of the five strangers mumbled their agreement without actually making eye contact and making non-committal twiddlings of fingers and kicking at the bits of debris on the floor that crunched and shattered underfoot.
Out of a moment of painful silence, all present looked at the floor to see tiny black shards where Itra was leaning against the wall. The woman of fire carefully backed away as she made sure not to step on any more of the substance.
This entry hallway had been so empty and devoid of any furnishings to make it look like anyone dwelled here that the first indication of anything out of place held everyone’s rapt attention while Itra kneeled down to eye the small bits of debris.
“It’s obsidian.” She announced as Cormac’s blood ran cold and Ixia’s head leaves almost wilted as they looked to each other and nodded their confirmation that they were having the same thoughts right now.
It shouldn’t have been of any interest under normal circumstances, but a stark empty house formerly owned by a horrifying monster with tensions still high between all present parties made it far more interesting.
The tiny glinting trail of the shards leading further into the house caught the light of Gene’s flashlight before he aimed it directly at the trail.
“It would be wise to investigate.”
“The house wouldn’t be secured until then.”
The twins spoke in turn as Cormac heard a sound outside. He nodded to Ixia and the other’s before letting go of the dryad’s hand to put an eye to the fisheye lens peeking out to find a police squad car parked at a neighboring house and the neighbor in question talking to the officer in their pajamas.
“Cops are here.” The redhead announced in a lowered tone, eye still pressed to the door. “Well, just the one for now. No one’s out there screaming and running around in circles so whatever you did to the neighbors seemed to work. For now.”
“Sleep enchantment.” Ed said while walking over to the obsidian and jutting a thumb over his shoulder while eyeing the trail. “Thank the twins for that.”
Said twins gave another bow and a smile at that. Itra conjured a small flame into her hand to provide some additional light. “How did you two plan to make it out of here clean anyway?”
“The dryad’s naked.” Ed said as he pulled out a small flashlight of his own and took careful steps further into the house to follow the trail of shards. “I don’t think they do ‘clean’.”
Without taking his eye from the fisheye lens, Cormac muttered under his breath “Neither does yo mamma.”
“You say something?” Ed asked with a brow raising to his shortly cropped dark hair as he looked back.
“He said that the natural form is beautiful and nothing to be ashamed over,” Ixia said with the brightest of smiles. “and while I understand the desires of others to be clothed I have my preferences.”
Gene groaned and rubbed at his temple with a metallic grinding noise. “Yes, that too is what I heard. Which I accept as we would all benefit from working together.”
“But what she said was way longer than what he said?” Itra asked as the small flame in her hand lit up her confused face. The twins and Gene glaring daggers at her had her flame dim and her face flush. “I mean yeah, friendship.”
“Yeah, sure. Best friends.” Though Ed was facing away and down the hall, his eyeroll was audible. “If the Gloomfang really was as established as that shopkeeper said then she probably had some victims here.”
Cormac almost hurt himself with how fast he unglued himself from the fish eye lens to wheel around to scream with his eyes at Ixia. The Dryad’s tiny little smile covered up clenched jaw and screaming eyes of her own as both of them wished they were capable of telepathy.
Not that it would be particularly useful until about thirty seconds later when the telepathic screaming stopped and they both calmed down enough to wonder just what was going on here and what they were going to do next.
But they didn’t have telepathy.
Instead a few seconds of silent panic and a curt micro-nod from Cormac as he picked up the duffel bag full of severed monster head and took the lead after the party of five would have to suffice as his indication that he was desperately thinking up a plan while the knuckles of his right hand turned ghost white from gripping his shovel. Ixia followed, feeling more and more disconnected from nature as she left that door behind and avoided the tiny shards of obsidian that led deeper into the house.
What they both knew, and communicated to each other well enough in those silent moments, was that this encounter and night were both far from over.
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