In spite of not having a nightmare devouring snake to guard one’s sleep and all that had occurred so recently, Cormac slept well. Actually sleeping in his own bed, and not sleeping in all of his day clothes and shoes certainly helped. A dryad’s assurance that no harm would come to him within his own home also helped. That she had done so while helping him lug in many, many plants with a mischievous grin stopping only just short of a wink maybe would have affected him more were he not tired from the...everything that he had been hit with recently.

Tired enough to not set an alarm.

As he blinked the sleep out of his eyes and beheld the morning sun poking through the blinds. He held up a hand, blocking the light and finding that it did in fact cast a shadow on his pillow. Which meant that the sun was still the sun, and not some other scary thing to peek in the blinds. After crawling out of bed he rubbed a bit more sleep from his eyes as he stumbled over to the bathroom to relieve himself and shower for the day, which was another thing he had not realized he had missed so much after all this time. All this time being...a few days?

Shit.

“This is going to be a long…” Cormac frowned as he stepped out of the shower, toweling off. What exactly was this? Was it ever going to end? Did he want it to? “A long rest of my life...or short rest of my life. One of the two.”

He left his bathroom, walking over to his closet and managed to get as far as putting on his pants before he looked across his room and froze.

Right where the door to the living room should have been, was still the door to his living room.

There was also an extra identical door right next to it.

And for the life of him he couldn’t remember if it was the left door or the right door that was the original.

Cormac peeled his eyes away from this new horror and looked around the room for the big scary monster that was about to eat him right now. Finding nothing but the same old sparse room with a few posters and bits of nerd merch to adorn it, he focused back on the pair of doors.

Both off-white, brass furnishings, same white doorframe. Same in every single way.

He crept closer, keeping quiet as he stayed aware of any sounds or sights out of place. He could try to yell for Ixia, and risk the horrifying monster that was either in this room or behind the impostor door being alerted at which point it would jump out and eat him. Probably slowly, and probably while he still drew breath.

Still no sounds of evil, still no sights of evil, still no smells of evil. Just the coconut and honey shampoo scent still clinging to his damp hair. Behind one of those doors was probably his living room and Ixia, behind the other was a nightmare land filled with monsters. Who were of course going to eat him. It was possible that this was a false choice, and his door had been replaced entirely with two doors that were filled with horrible monsters that craved his flesh.

And he had left his shovel in the living room.

He picked the right hand door, hand slowly raising and resting on the handle as he realized he probably should have put on a shirt before facing the forces of evil for the day. Too late now, he thought as he twisted the handle and flung open the door.

Revealing a small clearing in a sunlit forest with a familiar naked dryad tending to the plants they had purchased yesterday in a small garden surrounding a central pool of water. Ixia looked up to Cormac with a bright smile, the sun here really bringing out the green of her skin and “hair.”

“Cormac, you’re awake!” She exclaimed with a wave.

Cormac leaned against the door frame with a heavy sigh as he put his face in his palm. “Morning.” He called back.

“Is something the matter?” She said, concern obvious in her voice as she rose to her feet after making a blueberry bush sprout from a single berry.

“No no just...just thought this was another scary place that shouldn’t be.” He said as he looked around the thick woods of this place.

“Don’t be silly, I promised that no harm would come to you. And this is part of that promise!” She extended her arms out to each side to gesture to the forest grove around her. “Your home was an enclosed location, which means it was possible to tie their lines into this place and make all of your house a location that one must be invited into!”

Cormac nodded along, mouth hanging open just a bit. “Yeah...yeah that makes sense…”

It did not make sense to Cormac, but he trusted her enough to know what she was talking about.

Ixia dashed over to the human and took him by the arm to drag him into the small grove. “I was unable to come here for a long time. When my forest was invaded, I could not risk entering and take a chance that others may follow the lines in here. But past a trusted threshold in the house of my Guardian?” She hugged his arm and he felt himself turn red. “It is good to be back...even if most of my time away was spent sleeping…”

“I was only away from home for a few days when magic things happened and there was no going back.” Cormac said, overlooking her garden surrounding the small pool as the morose thoughts helped refocus him. “So once again, as best I possibly can I get it.”

Ixia simply nodded in response as she dragged him about in a short tour. “I also see you have started to come around to acknowledging that clothes are evil?” She said as she eyed him with a raised brow.

“N-no.” Cormac avoided her eyes again and focused all of his will on keeping a clear head. “I *was* getting dressed, but then I saw a strange new door in my room and acted quickly.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Hmm, a shame.” Ixia lamented as Cormac bit his tongue almost hard enough to draw blood.

“SO this is a nice place here uh, tell me about it!” Cormac coughed as he was turning as red as his hair once more.

Ixia chuckled, far too amused with his reactions as she led on. “This is where the plants we obtained shall first grow until they are ready for their new purpose outside in your home.”

“I’m still hearing that we’ll need pots or something, don’t want to track dirt all over the carpet.” Cormac thought aloud as he briefly wondered how a cactus was doing in soil fit for vegetables before looking into the lilac eyes of the overly obvious answer, smiling back at him.

“Of course not!” She said with a good natured eye roll. “They’ll need to be able to move around!”

Cormac clicked his tongue, nodding and feigning understanding again. “That makes sense.”

Ixia saw the look of confusion on his face. “It does?”

“No.” He confessed. “I’m just as lost here as you are in the modern world. Kinda just trusting you on a lot of things.”

“You mean like I do with you?” She gave a comforting smile as she lightly elbowed him.

The human stared out ahead, once again having to concede that point with a groan. “Alright alright, fair. Now, show me the other plants that are soon going to be walking around my place?”

“Not walking, slithering.” She said as she pointed to a bed of flowers, by which point Cormac didn’t even bother to voice his thoughts of “of course they do”.

The small pool of water in the center was about hot tub sized, and by how clear it looked despite it being standing water Cormac assumed magic at play. Which should have been obvious enough from being in a spot in the forest magically attached to his apartment now, but still. A short ways away from this clearing and down a forest path was a small half cave that sheltered the small flower that was Ixia’s Forest Heart. Within a small notch in the rocks sat the crystalline heart that they had obtained as the trophy of their first victory.

As they walked and Ixia talked, right at about the time Cormac was wondering how big this possibly extra dimensional forest was, the pair were right back where they started despite having walked in a more or less straight line. The human stared at his door standing alone in the clearing, still open and showing his bedroom through it. The dryad stared at the human in turn.

“It is a lot to adapt to,” Ixia hugged his arm again. “but we’ll get through it together.”

“All of which will be attended to, after breakfast.” He held up a finger to wag off her worries. “Come on, grab some fruit here and meet me in the kitchen nook.”

The two parted with a smile as Cormac finally finished dressing, opting for a simple band shirt as he made his way to the kitchen and started pouring a bowl of cereal. He was mere moments away from pouring milk into his cereal before Ixia appeared right beside him with an arm full of fresh fruit within a basket woven from roots and a withering glare at him and his cereal. She set down the root basket, and wordlessly pulled the bowl of cereal towards herself.

“You must be fed well.” She said as she placed some fresh fruit before him, including one familiar indigo fruit. “What fresh game is there nearby?”

Cormac snickered. “Uh, rats? Pigeons?”

“I distinctly remember larger game than that in this region…” Ixia frowned, pulling out a chair for herself. “Perhaps do some hunting?”

The human just shrugged, taking a seat. “I can just buy meat, it’s just...hadn’t bought any before my vacation. Kinda saved a bit for that vacation…” His sorrow was alleviated when he bit into the indigo fruit, carefully avoiding the seeds.

Ixia ate a fistfull of oat based cereal, noting its sweet taste with a raised brow. “We shall work on that, and speaking of currency have you tracked down an obsidian knife yet?”

“I looked up a few places in town that should have something like that, I take it you should be able to spot fakes?” Cormac set the four seeds aside before eating a handful of blueberries. “We can go as soon as we’re done and you’re dressed and looking human again.”

The human still remembered getting home last night and seeing the dryad immediately throw her clothes off as soon as the door was shut. Ixia giggled seemingly on cue. “Fine, since human society and you seem so focused on such a thing.”

“Hey! *I* have no problem with it...kinda...kinda distracting. Not in a bad way, but in a way that I should be focused on fighting supernatural evil. Which creeps around every corner I guess?”

The mood quickly took a turn for the dour as both of them thought over yesterday. Ixia played with her oat cereal for a bit. “Be prepared for more of The Veiled World hiding in the human world. Where one might be so bold there would surely be others.”

“I’m bringing the shovel.” Cormac stood, walking over to the fridge and digging out some lunch meat to chow down on with a slice of cheese. “Never leaving the shovel ever again...”

“Things haven’t gone poorly yet but...it is a wise idea.” Ixia conceded as she finished her milkless cereal.

The human finished his incredibly lazy ‘sandwich’ before stretching a bit. “Your clothes are currently flung about my living room, and I can’t believe how un-exciting that sentence is with context, but get dressed and then we’ve got another long day. If we make it back alive, we’re just going to spend the night watching T.V. and relaxing. Haven’t had much of that lately on this vacation.”

“I don’t know what that is, but leisure is important for mental wellness! Will it involve more of that music you introduced me to?” Ixia’s lilac eyes were near literally glowing at the thought.

Cormac put a hand to his chin, thinking if roughly any of the music he liked was going to show up in a show. “Sadly, probably not. But this will be new things you might like!.”

“Find an obsidian knife, survive, discover new wonders.” Ixia counted on her fingers with a smile. “Should be a busy day!”