Chapter 58.1

Nick stared in surprise at the strange man now standing before them. Of all the things he’d expected might fall through an otherworldly portal, he’d never once considered the chances of meeting an actual person from another plane of existence. Stranger still, apart from his unusually polite tone and slightly exaggerated features, he seemed completely normal.Well, as normal as you could possibly be while still having the type of body most fashion models could only dream of.

Tessa turned around quickly, casting a confused look at Nick. While he questioned the logic of her turning to him, the least likely to know anything about interplanar communication, for advice, he nonetheless returned her glance with one that silently suggested she return the greeting in kind.

“Uh, I’m Tessa,” she stammered. Nick walked closer, nudged her arm, and she quickly added, “Blackwood.”

Just as confused, but hoping to keep things cordial, Nick extended a hand with a warm smile. “I’m Nicholas van Buren. You said your name was Tadhgán, yes? I hope you didn’t hurt yourself too bad there, it looked like quite a fall.”

Tadhgán’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Nick and Tessa in turn. Although he grabbed Nick’s hand and politely shook it, there was an unusual intensity in the act, almost like he was afraid of something. “I’m… doing quite well, and request no aid at this time. I hope it’s not rude of me to ask this, but where are we?”

“This is… uh…”

“This is Earth,” Tessa said quickly. “It seems like you fell through a soft spot, and you’re no longer in The Wilds.”

Another moment passed in silence as Tadhgán scanned the clearing around them. “Can I assume, then, that the two of you are not of the Fae?”

“Absolutely not!” Tessa scoffed. “We’re just humans.”

Tadhgán’s posture shifted so dramatically Nick briefly wondered if Tessa’s words held literal magic. His shoulders slouched, his eyes softened, and he sighed loudly as he released a breath he’d apparently been holding. “Oh, thank the moons. If you’ll excuse me a moment, I think I dislocated something when I landed…” As he spoke, he placed a hand against the nearby tree for support.

In addition to his changed posture, Tadhgán’s voice now carried a slight Irish cadence that hadn’t been previously detectable. “I’m sorry, you’re injured?” Nick asked. “A moment ago you said you were fine.”

“No, I said I wasn’t requesting aid. I’d be a damned fool to make blind requests from a faerie, and with how strange the two of you are dressed…” Tadhgán looked at all the snow surrounding them, even noticing his own breath as he grimaced in pain. “Can’t say I blame you, though, what with how cold it is here. Is it always like this?”

Tessa shrugged. “Well, no, we’ve got a pretty dynamic seasonal cycle, but right now it’s—”

A loud crash echoed out from deeper in the forest preserve, drawing everyone’s attention. As Nick looked, he saw Amara getting up from the ground, having just crashed into a large tree after narrowly missing one of the wolves. She shook the snow from her wings, then looked over at Tessa and shouted, “TESS!! A little help?!”

Tessa glanced back at Nick, who immediately nodded in response. “That’s more important. I’ll hold down the fort here.”

With a thankful nod, Tessa’s tattoos flared to life and she sprinted towards Amara. Their demonic friend pointed at something in the distance, presumably one of the wolves, before Tessa jumped on Amara’s back and the pair took off. As Nick was fairly sure they’d be able to handle this incursion, he turned his attention back to their strange guest.

“Sorry for all the confusion, Tadhgán. You’re actually not the only thing that fell through; a couple large wolves came with you. My friends are trying to make sure they don’t cause any trouble.”

A flash of recognition crossed Tadhgán’s face. “Ohh, that’s where they went. That explains a lot, actually. Well, okay, maybe not that much. I’m still not exactly sure what this place is. That girl, she called this place Earth? Am I on a completely different plane of existence?”

“That’s right, you are,” Nick said, trying to stay calm in the hopes of keeping their guest from freaking out. “I’m sure this is a little weird for you, but I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. In the meantime, if you’re feeling up for it, I can give you a quick rundown of what to expect here?”

Tadhgán slowly nodded as he processed Nick’s words. “Before we do anything like that, can you help me pop my shoulder back into place?” Although caught off guard by the request, Nick was happy to have something to do, and quickly agreed. “Great. Just put your hand here, and when I say so, give it a quick, hard push, yeah?”

Walking closer, Nick carefully placed a hand on Tadhgán’s right shoulder. “Have you done this before?”

“Oh, all the time. It’s no big deal, just easier with another person.”

The two men locked eyes, then Tadhgán started counting down. “Three… Two… One… Now!”

Nick pushed hard, throwing his entire body against Tadhgán’s. He shuddered as he felt the stranger’s arm slide back into place, but a grunt of relief from Tadhgán indicated everything had worked as intended.

“All good?” Nick asked.

Gently massaging his shoulder, Tadhgán nodded. “Much better! I can’t thank you enough for your assistance, Nicholas. Now, you said you could show me how to get back, is that right?” He shivered as he finished speaking, brushing some snow off his relatively thin clothing as he did.

“Well, it’s not quite that easy,” Nick said, feeling a little bit guilty about the admission.

“I leave, can’t I?” Tadhgán asked.

“We’re not preventing you from leaving, if that’s your question. Traveling between planes is pretty difficult, that’s all. We’re pretty sure we have a way to get you home, but we haven’t tested it yet. It would be best if you gave us a day or two to set everything up.”

“Just a day or two? That’s… well, it’s not great, but I can manage.” Tadhgán shivered slightly as he spoke, giving Nick an idea. While he had no idea what life was like in The Wilds, it was obvious this person was cold, and Nick was no stranger to walking around in the winter without a coat. He unzipped his jacket, slid it off, and handed it to Tadhgán with a friendly smile.

“Here, take this. You look pretty cold.”

A genuine spark of surprise flashed across Tadhgán’s face. “For me? That’s… wow, thank you, Nicholas. Will you be okay without it?”

Nick shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Something tells me I’m more used to this kind of weather than you are.” Tadhgán threw the coat over himself, sighing with relief at the extra layer. Although Nick had to explain how zippers worked, and the jacket seemed a little small for Tadhgán, it did the job.

“Well, if I’m to stick around for a while, I should get a feel for the land. Care to show me around, Nicholas?” Tadhgán asked.

“Absolutely! There’re quite a few things you’ll need to know anyways, so that’ll give me time to get you caught up.” Nick gestured back towards the main path, and the two men started walking. “To be honest, I’m not entirely where to start, as I don’t know anything about where you’re from.”

“If it makes your life any easier, I can try pointing out things that look strange to me?” Tadhgán suggested.

“That’d be fantastic, actually. Otherwise… shoot, I dunno, I’ll just do my best to give a quick rundown of what things are like here. To start with, you seem pretty familiar with faeries, but creatures like that don’t really live here. Everyone you meet, other than two or three of my friends, are human.”

“That’s certainly a relief,” Tadhgán said.

“Another important detail is that, for the most part, people don’t know about magic. Most of our society thinks stuff like faeries, demons, and witches are completely fictitious. Me and my friends know otherwise, but to try and keep people safe, we do our best to hide the existence of magic and other supernatural happenings.”

Nick and Tadhgán stepped onto the path, and as Tadhgán’s simple shoes found pavement, he paused. Looking down, he kicked away the snow covering the walkway and tilted his head in confusion. “This is a weird rock. It’s so… long? Does it do that naturally?”

“No, we do that. Humans have a way of taking rocks and…”

“We… compress them to give ourselves paths, which makes walking around easier.”

“And this just happens out in the open like this?” Tadhgán gestured to the space around them, specifically how far away the nearest trees were. “There’s hardly any tree cover! Why do magic where it’s so easy to be spotted?”

“Oh, making sidewalks isn’t magic.”

Tadhgán furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Nick. “…Alright. Strange.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Nick started. “As we walk around, I’ll make sure to specifically point out things that humans consider magic. Hopefully, between that and your own questions, we’ll find a way to make your stay here as painless as possible.”

A brief shout drew Nick’s attention to the right of the path, followed by a burst of snow. Out of the flurries, a series of pawprints appeared on their own. The tracks led away from the shout, and seconds later, Vee sprinted into view.

“Can’t you just pick it up?!” she shouted.

Chloé appeared for a fraction of a second just above the tracks. She was holding tight to the coat of one of the wolves, which itself was attempting to flee while pulling her along like a stray balloon. “I’m trying! I can’t turn off its gravity!” Chloé shouted back at Vee.

The wolf, Chloé, and Vee all disappeared into the forest preserve seconds later.

“So, uh, that’s magic,” Nick said. “Humans can’t normally turn invisible, or float in the air like that.”

“No floating, gotcha,” Tadhgán nodded. “What about flight? That other girl we saw earlier had those impressive wings.”

“That’s Amara, and she’s a demon. Humans don’t have wings, either.”

“You’re friends with a full-fledged demon? There’s certainly got a lot of magic sitting around for a place that doesn’t believe in it,” Tadhgán said with a mischievous chuckle.

Nick found himself laughing as well. “It’s a side effect of this specific place. The planar boundaries here are especially thin, which means the planes can cross over at any time. That’s how you and all those wolves fell through.”

“They can be right bastards when they’re in the mood,” Tadhgán said, still laughing. “I’d offer to help, but I’m still not feeling great from that fall. The shoulder was the worst of it, but now that I’m walking around, I think I busted up my leg too. Although, I can help track them, if you like.” Tadhgán gestured towards the forest and the path of the stray wolf.

“If you’re feeling up to it, that would be great!”

“Fantastic!” Tadhgán took charge, charting a path alongside the tracks as he started off towards the forest. “Now, what kind of threats can I expect in the woods?”

“Threats?” Nick asked. “Um, try not to fall again, I guess. You might twist an ankle or something.”

“I know how to hold my footing, Nicholas,” Tadhgán said with a sly smile. “I’m talking about other creatures. How big is the wild life? What kind of hostile plants live around here?”

“We don’t really have anything like that,” Nick admitted. “This place isn’t a true forest the way you might be used to. There’s likely to be quite a few deer roaming around, but they’re completely harmless. I don’t think we have any wolves, at least other than your friends from The Wilds, and larger predators haven’t been seen here in decades.”

Tadhgán paused, turning to face Nick. “You’re telling me this forest is completely safe? Not a single thing here wants you dead?”

“Yes?”

“Huh.” Both men stared at each other for a moment, but soon enough Tadhgán nodded and returned to his self-appointed task.