Waking to Llandra moving about, Kyle looked around the room.  Sunlight was invading through the heavy curtains and he could hear traffic from the Interstate moving fast.  The roads must be clear of snow.

"You sleep soundly, this is good for it shows a man with clear conscious."  Llandra was talking from the mirror and sink area.

"There's so many questions I have but am worried to ask and look stupid." Kyle began.  Standing and going through a stretching routine he asked, "The Oaken are the guardians out there and they aren't human, but then...what are they?"

Watching Kyle from his reflection she struggled, "I'm not privy to such information but my understanding is that they are connected to the Mother Tree and they are partially spirit.  I do know that they are remorseless in thier duty."

Seeing the tears in her eyes Kyle got up and gave her a hug from behind.  He fit right into her wings, laying his chin on top of her head.  Not sure why he did it but knowing it was the right thing to do he wrapped her up in his arms.

Tears flowed freely and Llandra pressed into his body.  They stayed this way for several minutes until Llandra spoke.

"I was not worried when the Oaken took the males that had been sent with me.  For I knew that they would be taken home.  It was when Flint fought them with his small fire magic that I saw what they are truly capable of doing."

Holding her tighter Kyle waited for her to work her way through it.  Shaking and crying now she grabbed a towel and pressed back into him.

"As it burned the Guardian grabbed hold of him and Flint continued to fight.  It took him and broke him like a bundle of twigs for a fire."

He had questions but each one he could answer if he slowed his mind and allowed for the answer to come.  It had been this way his whole life.  Kyle's teachers in school had told him that he was too old for his body.  Like a spirit that had been reborn but still had an old man's thinking.

Still mumbling and crying she continued and he listened but a part of his brain was partitioned off so that it could process and question the events that led to her finding him, or rather him finding her.

When she refused to stop calling him a wizard he was annoyed at first but then the more events unfolded he had to wonder. 

From his childhood to now he knew that he had been an odd kid.  The one not fully liked by other kids or adults he worked with.  If Wizards were a race on a separate world or place than that could mean that he was one.  Apart from humans here on earth, and somehow they could sense it.

No close friends or long lasting relationships had he had.  A fling or two but eventually the girl said he was just too distant or unsocial.  Guys would stop calling or answering his calls.  It never happened in a loud bang, always in a sad whisper.

Now here was this strange and exciting female from another place, that may be his home and he never wanted to lose her.

"Kyle, why do I feel as if your my piller of strength.  That I can trust you with everything?"  Llandra asked so quietly that he nearly missed it.

Not sure what to say but knowing something had to be said right then, "I've known you a day and I want to protect you, Llandra.  I want to be that rock and center you can rely on."

"It's forbidden for a Wizard and a Karnda to have any sort of thoughts as your professing."  Llandra pressed harder into him and her wings folded back to wrap him up.  "I need you to be who I need for my people, but I never want you to change from this."

Realizing that too much was happening and it could go far out of control, Kyle pulled away from her and forced her to face him.

"First thing first, we need to get to the cabin and figure out supplies and a way to get those, whatever they are, off your tail.  Ok?"

Resolve came back into her eyes and some hope that was not there before.  Kyle liked it on her. 

Gathering up what little they had they left the two went to the trunk leaving the hotel far behind.  At the first fast food place they picked up food and coffee.

"I have to ask one more serious question, Llandra."  Kyle said around a greasy hash brown.  "How do you know that I'm a Wizard?"

Licking some creamcheese from her hand she blushed.  It took her several minutes to answer but Kyle waited calmly.  Then she spoke in a shy whisper, "I could see your magic coming toward me, so I flew out in a rush in front of you."

Not sure why she was acting so weird he made a joke, "So you threw yourself at me?"  She glanced at him and saw his smile.  Relaxing she giggled some with him.

===

Mr. Haver had plowed the drive to the cabin.  It was a favor he had started long ago with Kyle's parents and it just stuck.  His big tractor was fitted with a good plow.  He lived next across the street and was plowing his anyway.  Least that is what he said.  Kyle was so used to it that he sent a gas card to the man every Christmas.

The only issue this brought up was if Uncle Martin was there or not.  No tracks made it hard to tell.  Driving slowly up the winding and twisting drive he kept looking for a sign of Uncle Martin.

"Why do you peer around each bend as if a child watching for his mother?  The Wizard from last evening is no longer there."  All Kyle could do was shrug his shoulders stupidly and give her a sheepish grin.  He had not thought about her being able to see.

That was when his truck smacked into a tree.  The tree in question had appeared in the middle of the drive as if it had dropped from above.  Which it had.

Hitting it at ten miles an hour the truck came to a dead stop.  Out Kyle's front windshield was either the ugliest man he had ever seen or the greatest costume ever made for the eight foot tall...thing...before them looked like a mix of man and tree.

Kyle would have laughed if it was not for the look on Llandra's face.  She looked terrified enough to run.  Two massive wooden arms took hold of the front of the small truck. 

When it began to lift Kyle knew they were in deep trouble.  As one Kyle and Llandra jumped from the truck and ran towards the back of it.

From up behind came a shorter version of the one slowly picking up the truck in front. Kyle ran to Llandra, together now they went to run.  From either side of the truck came more of the massive tree things.

"These must be the guardians?"  Kyle said looking over the four tree monsters that had them surrounded.  For some reason he felt a calm that he thought that he should not feel.

"Oaken are never sent in a quad like this, never!  We are in peril, Kyle!"  Llandra said in a panic.

Something clicked for Kyle in that moment.  Something deep within telling him that it was up to him to save Llandra.  Not even sure why he closed his eyes and tried to feel the Oaken.  To sense everything about them.  As far as Kyle understood it, the Oaken were tree golems.  Alive through magic, they were only human in shape and form.

He just knew burning them would not work fast enough to save him and Llandra fast enough.  A blast would hurt Llandra and him, so that option was out.  A flash of memory came to him of a tree that had been ripped apart as if from the inside.  When he had asked his dad about it, Kyle was told that it had frozen so fast the night before that the liquid inside of the tree had frozen so quickly that it had ripped the tree apart.

Feeling something deep inside himself, he touched the magic core gently and with some fear.  He had healed the teen at the hotel on impulse.  Now he wanted something to happen.  The Oaken in front of them was getting close enough to touch, so Kyle reached out and touched it.  A cold sensation like Kyle had never felt before came over him and he released it into the Oaken.

In an instant the golem froze in place. Still touching it Kyle forced even more magic into it.  It surprised the young man that all this felt as natural as breathing, once he started to do whatever it was that he was doing.

Kyle pulled his hand away when a loud sound of cracking wood split the forest.  Llandra and the other three Oaken turned to the Oaken that Kyle had channeled magic into.  

The Oaken Kyle had touched tried to move toward him.  A sound like half the forest was crashing to the ground filled the area.  The Oaken began to quickly twist and tear from the center of its mass.  In a final crack and pop the Oaken tore open from the inside out and fell over dead.  Kyle knew it was dead because whatever magic powered it had left it.

Now he had the attention of the other three Oaken.  They came at him with speeds that surprised him.  The two closer ones reached him before he could pull the freezing from his core.

An idea hit him.  He had it all wrong.  These Oaken had magic at their own core, powering them.  He did not need to destroy them.  All he had to do was disconnect the power from them.

When they reached him he simply thought about the magic at their center.  Breathing out calmly he envisioned the power leaving the two Oaken. 

Nothing happened at first.  Feeling a sickly tingle in his gut, Kyle switched to pulling the magic from the two golems.  They had their stick like hands around him when they slumped forward on top of him.

Deep inside Kyle could feel their combined energy merge with his own.  Somehow he just knew that he had done something, that if he continued to do, it would infect he's soul.  The last Oaken watched its brethren die for a second or two, then it took hold of Llandra.

A moment of panic hit Kyle at first but he quick;y pushed it down inside. One part of his brain realized that the magic he was discovering within himself was so a part of him that he had full control of it, yet another was screaming that magic was not real and that made all this impossible!

If it was a dream, Kyle decided that he would wake the hero.  reaching out he mentally touched the Oaken.  It had no thoughts or feelings.  All it had was its magic drive to get Llandra.  Kyle had to smile.

Thinking into the Oaken, Kyle pushed the mental image that the Oaken had done its job and could let go of the fairy girl.  That it needed to return to the Mother and go back to sleep.  Kyle did not know if that was going to work but he really had no desire to kill or rip out anymore magic.

Then the Oaken came to stop and Kyle watched as it set a surprised Llandra down.  It seemed confused for a moment then it ran off into the woods.  The two humans just looked at each other and for some reason they began to giggle.  Kyle could not later remember who had started to laugh first but it felt great after the ordeal they had just had.