Not wanting to deal with Martin or explaining Llandra to the man, Kyle  headed back into town.

The storm had let up but not before it dumped a foot of snow down and the two were treated to a rare show of snow lightning over head.

He had seen it once before and heard of it so it was not such a shock to him.
Llandra nearly jumped from the truck but Kyle had wisely made her buckle up before this. No need to have a fairy princess go through the glass. 

She had called her people the Oak People's. When he asked she explained that their Mother Tree was an oak and that he was silly for not knowing this.

"You're  silly for thinking I'm a Wizard." Kyle huffed out.

"If your not a Wizard, then I'm the silly one!" Llandra said laughingly. "Just because a bird won't fly doesn't make it any less of a bird."

"Now your a fortune cookie?" 

"What's a fortuitous cookie?" Llandra asked seriously. Then said, "This lands Wizards sure are odd."

"If I was a Wizard, wouldn't I know about fairies?" Kyle said smiling.

"Answer me this, Wizard Kyle. If your truly unaware of magic then why didn't you completely reject me?" Llandra had a smile but was deadly serious. "If I saw something I've never seen before and did not believe in I would faint.  Like that lighting in a snow storm."

She had a point and there was no argument. Maybe it was his mom and dad talking about magic in the world that made him expect something to happen in his life at some point.  He had early memories of deep conversations about how there was things in life that most would not believe in.

The two began to talk, laugh, and share stories of their life and childhoods.  Her stories were long and full.  Like a person who had lived a very long life.

Laughing and relaxing some with her, Kyle gathered enough nerve to ask her age. The answer he got did not help his uneasiness at the whole silly mess.

"I was given my womanhood by the elders just eight years ago." Llandra said with pride. "By Wizard time standards I have lived ninety-five rotations of the planet around Sol."

"Wait.....huh?" Was all Kyle could get out.

"To our People there are four stages of life. First your a child and must answer to all. Then you become a women, or man, and you answer to the elders. After that you become Aged. The Aged are our teachers and experienced ones. If one lives long enough you become an Elder."

Made some sense to Kyle but his brain was stuck on her being ninety-five. "How long do Wizards live in your land?"

She thought and when she did she chewed her lower lip. He watched like he watched when she was drying her hair.

"The storm is letting up so you had better watch where your going, Wizard Kyle." She said in a soft voice. Then clearing her throat she added, "Master Findalist was believed to have reached the aged, so by your counts that's three hundred and fifty at the least."

Then she smiled that straightforward smile she had that said aren't I smart and not spouting nonsense that was impossible. Which made him believe her all the more.

"Ok, I'm twenty-two of my world's years. A year is a trip around the sun here." Kyle added.

She laughed hard and long at that. The kind of laugh one does after being in a dark place for so long you have nearly forgotten how to laugh, but then you hear the silliest thing that you have ever heard kind of laugh.

"I like you, Wizard Kyle!" Llandra said after catching her breath. "Twenty-two is a child's age, only allowed to go to school with minders in tow! Too funny, I needed that."

"Ya see, Llandra, thing is, I'm telling the truth. In this land my age is an adult. I can marry and move about freely." Kyle said smiling not able to help himself. Her laugh was infectious. If he had to admit to himself, he was very attracted to this odd girl from God only knew where.

Wiping tears from her eyes with the fast food napkin he had handed her, Llandra was still giggling but was double taking looks at him to see if he was still teasing her.

Able to breath she asked, "How long do your elders live, if your supposedly twenty-two."

"The oldest person I've ever met was ninety-one and she was so senile that she had to be watched constantly or she would walk away."

"What is this senile?"

"A disease of the brain that can make the older ones forget who and where they are." Kyle said soberly. The women in question had been a friend's great grandma and because of her Kyle had to go there all the time. It was OK because his Uncle was being a pain at that time so Kyle liked a reason to get out.

"We have no such disease. Our elders grow wiser and spread their knowledge to all." Llandra added, still holding in a giggle or two.

To Kyle it only added to his beliefs that she was the equivalent of a older teen or young adult, no matter how many turns around Sol she had seen. Only the young at heart could find humour in old people.

Trying to not ruin the mood he said lightly, "Well we do and it's a horrible thing I will tell ya. Either way, your age is incredible to me. If it's true, Llandra, that would make you older than most people alive right now."

She just stared at him and continued to dry what she could in the small space. Her wings dried themselves but it was her dress that had been soaked in the heavy-wet snow.

"So you came seeking somebody to help your people and along the way lost three members of your group. Maybe you weren't prepared for such a mission?" Kyle asked in neutral tone. He had ment for it to be a jest and rebuke.

She was not used to being talked to so bluntly and for some reason this young Wizard was making her flustered and no male had ever done that to her before.

"One does not fully prepare for your own guardians to come after you and try to return or kill you!" Llandra blurted out suddenly angry. She felt sorry but at the same time she felt that he was being cruel. "Watching two of my party be taken by force and a third be torn apart because his fighting was too great for them to take are memories that will haunt my dreams. So, was I properly prepared, no! We are desperate, Wizard Kyle."

Feeling stupid he said nothing. Her nearly royal tone mixed with the young girls pouting was seriously messing with his brain and tongue.

The two stayed silent until reaching the Interstate. The snow had let up mostly so traffic had resumed it's normal beat, even at such an late hour. Cars and trucks flew along I75 and the road they drove ran next to it until the on ramp a mile or two up the road.

It was the only place locally that had motels open. Kyle's plan was to get a room for the night and wait out Martin. By noon the next day Martin would have to get back to the real world and Kyle would have free reign over the cabin for a day or two.

"They go so fast!" Llandra said in wonder. "So many and so in a hurry. Why Kyle?"

Slowing to turn onto the main road he had first missed that she had not called him by any honorific but simply by his name. Tongue suddenly glued to the roof of his mouth he took his tea bottle and took a large swig.

Mistaking his silence for thinking her ignorant, and still feeling flustered and nervous around him so crossed her arms and looked straight ahead.

Catching the mild tantrum out of the corner of his eye he pulled the truck over in a gas station and looked right at her.

"I'm not good with females of this world, let alone from another. I do know that look." Kyle pointed at her arms and face while she tried hard to ignore him. "This is the stance of a women that feels that she had been made fun of or belittled. While the guy she is mad at has zero idea just what it was that he had done. When all the while it was her female brain that misinterpreted the event in question."

Breathing in and then out she turned to him, "I'm not ignorant or a fool. Your a Wizard in a strange land and I'm lost here. I do not wish to fight or take offense. So I will say that I'm sorry if you will only acknowledge that you are a Wizard and not from here at all."

While they had been driving Kyle had tried from time to time dismiss her belief that he was a wizard. This was the same talk where he had begun believing that she was from somewhere else. The wings and long pointed ears helped that out alot. So now she was corning him into admitting that she might be right. Very much a female, either winged or not.

"You have a block on you!" Llandra said loudly while he was thinking. "I can unblock you. If you'll let me." She added demurely, suddenly feeling out of sorts once more. She could not sort all the feeling she was feeling and it was making her act and talk silly.

Unaware of her inner struggle and wanting to lighten the mood he took her hand and said, "Unblock me then. Show me what you see in me. I believe you, Llandra and I want to help but I haven't the first clue how. So help me, help you."

It was supposed to sound cute and a bit sexy, and he regretted every word, feeling a fool.

Nodding, she closed her eyes and her glow came back. Looking around he remembered that they were at a mildly busy freeway off ramp. All at once he felt her hand on her chest and at the same time it felt like his body had been dipped in menthol and then thrown into an ice bath.

Findalist  (fin-dale-ist)  was said to be so old that he had seen the
Mother Trees when they were still only a half league high.

A Mother Tree is the magically enhanced home for the People (or fairy).
A league or more (about three miles plus) high a Mother Tree has natural nooks and caves for life to live comfortably.  Water runs down from the top and places have even been set up for farming. Oddly, the leaves or fairly normal in size but there are millions of them.