I postponed addressing the elephant in the room until I had brushed my teeth, changed into my t-shirt and sweats, and was as ready as I'd ever be to sleep inside a giant fey tree.

Isen stood in the room with me, but didn't make any move towards the bed in the room. Singular. The elephant in the room.

I cleared my throat. Isen glanced at me.

"So, I'm going to sleep here. You're going to sleep here...?"

Isen didn't seem to understand the question. He only stared at me blankly, waiting for more information.

"I can't help but notice there's only one bed in here," I elaborated, cringing at how incredibly awkward that sounded.

Isen still didn't seem to understand my question.

I'd cringe out of my skin if I had to elaborate any further, or if Isen stared at me quizzically any longer. Naturally, I chickened out and postponed things even longer. "Okay. I'd like to take a shower before bed. Do you have a shower?"

"A bath," Isen replied a nod. "Follow me."

He promptly turned around and marched into the hallway. I had to be quick to follow and not lose sight of him inside the winding, dimly lit hallways. It surprised me that a giant treehouse even had a bathroom. Then again, it also had bedrooms, so why not?

Isen brought me to a wall of vines, which moved aside as he stroked them, revealing a room with a wooden bath in it. Not a regular bath, of course. It was more like a curve in the thick branches that made up the floor with running, steaming water pooling it. There was even something that resembled soap sitting on a table made of leaves beside the 'bath.'

"Thanks," I told Isen, expecting him to leave. He didn't. He just stood there.

I cleared my throat. "Are you going to give me some privacy?"

Isen raised a brow, but then turned around so his back was facing me. The vine wall had closed again, and Isen made no move to actually leave the room.

For a moment, I didn't know what to say. 

"You're just staying here... then?" I asked eventually. 

"I can't leave the room. I can't be far in case your nightmares strike," Isen replied curtly.

I sighed. "Right."

Isen didn't want to be here either, did he? The fey mn didn't seem like he was a pervert who stayed in the room because he wanted to 'watch.' It was more that making people uncomfortable came naturally to him.

With a sigh, I started undressing. It was a little weird, but Isen kept his back turned to me. And taking my clothes off with someone in the room was hardly the weirdest thing I'd done today.

"So, you're planning on always being in the same room as me then?" I couldn't help but ask anyway.

"Yes," Isen said. "As much as possible. I am required to."

"Right." I lowered myself into the water, which was pleasantly warm, as I'd already expected from the steam. "This is not how I usually spend the evening with a guy," I muttered mostly to myself, but Isen heard.

"How do humans usually spend it?" he asked.

A very curious and innocent question that I didn't expect and caught me off-guard and made my cheeks heat up. Shit. That was the remark he chose to ask about. 

"Never mind that," I quickly said, splashing my arms in the water just to buy myself some time to change the topic. "Does, uh, you protecting me mean you think I'm the saviour?" I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. 

"You are our only shot at being the saviour," Isen corrected me. "Only one of your kind exists at any given time."

I was stunned into silence for a moment. "Only one at a time?" I repeated. "You mean... someone who can reach Dillon?"

"Correct," Isen said. "You're it. Regardless of whether or not I believe you will free Dillon."

'Great. Thanks for the vote of confidence, man.' I bit my tongue, not saying out loud what I thought. It seemed I depended on Isen to stay safe from the nightmares. And now that I knew I was the only one alive with this 'gift', allegedly, the very unpleasant thought of the fey trying to get rid of me because they wanted a new attempt at finding their saviour was in the back of my mind.

"If you're supposed to stay around to stop my nightmares, do you sleep?" I asked.

"Yes," Isen replied.

"And... it really needs to be in the same room to protect me?"

"Yes," Isen said again. "If you wish for the protection to work."

"Right." I sighed, sinking deeper into the warm water as I remembered the cold storms Isen conjured. "I will not be freezing the entire night, will I?"

"No."

Isen was back to giving one-word answers. I took that as meaning he was getting annoyed by all my questions and I shut up. It was good enough for now that I wouldn't spend the night freezing in either a snowstorm Isen created or lost in a cursed world, I supposed. For tonight, at least, I'd play along.

I washed my hair with the soap that smelled like pine trees, and after I got out of the bath, Isen guided me back to the bedroom. I couldn't seem to remember the layout of the winding tree myself, but at least I could remember the way out was always down the stairs.

It looked like I would sink right through the leaf bed the moment I sat down. However, when I carefully lowered myself on its surface, it was surprisingly firm and comfortable.

Isen sat down beside me and I immediately realised an advantage of leaf-mattresses; the bed didn't move. We could toss and turn at our heart's content without bothering anyone. Hey, I had to look for upsides here.

"Are you ready?" Isen asked.

I turned to him. I didn't exactly relish the thought of having to step into an ice storm just to avoid getting swallowed by a nightmare landscape. "I guess," I said.

Isen nodded. Like before, the landscape around me changed to the middle of winter in a flash. We were standing in a familiar snowstorm. There was one thing different this time: I didn't feel any cold.

Snow pelted my face and wind blew through my hair, but I felt warm like I was standing in a cosy living room. Isen shielded me somehow. He was standing beside me, but his presence extended beyond that. He stopped the storm's impact.

"Are we asleep now?" I asked, looking around at the open icy landscape. "In our, uh, world, I mean."

"Not yet," Isen replied as he lowered himself down into a sitting position. "But you can safely close your eyes here and sleep."

I glanced at the snow below me. It didn't look inviting to lie down. Then again, it strangely didn't feel cold either, so maybe it was fine in this 'dream' world?

"And you'll just be here the full eight hours, watching me sleep," I muttered. 

Isen shook his head. "You don't dream the entire night. Between five and forty-five minutes. After that, you can't accidentally travel, we can go back, and I can sleep."

"I see."

Since I was supposed to fall asleep, I got on my back and stared up at the snow falling from the sky. I was bored within a few moments of cloud-watching, but still wide awake. It wasn't exactly usual for me to sleep on a different plane of existence, let alone with weird snow that didn't feel cold and a winter fey standing watch.

Falling asleep would've been much easier if Isen had sat down with his back facing me. It wasn't like he was staring at me, but I was very aware of his presence.

There was no way I was going to fall asleep here. I looked at Isen, hesitating for a moment before speaking up. Maybe he didn't like my question, but I was curious about many things. Different supernaturals existing. Different world existing and being whisked away to them was all surreal... and extremely dangerous, if how Dillon ended up was any indication. 

 "I was wondering... what was Dillon like?" I asked. "And your old world, before it became cursed lands?"

Isen didn't seem surprised at my sudden questions. He didn't even move, aside from his mouth to reply to my questions. "Dillon is a spring fey," he said, which was not much of an explanation of what he was like. "The old world looked a lot like our part of Pinewood but larger."

"You shared it with others, you said?" I pressed, trying to get more information. "Other supernaturals."

"Yes," Isen replied. "Your acquaintances, Boris and Aquila, are werewolves."

"Boris too..." I muttered. "I could've known."

"And the man living with Boris is a vampire."

I spread my eyes wide and sat up. "A vampire as in a person who drinks blood?"

"Yes."

I pressed a hand to my forehead. "Great. Another fear unlocked."

"Good, because one of them might try to take you."

"What?"

"They like to drink from attractive people," Isen explained. "Or turn them."

I opened and closed my mouth. My cheeks heated up as Isen's words sank in. "Did you just call me attractive?" 

Isen blinked like he didn't understand why I was asking. "You have a symmetrical face, and your body has good proportions."

It was a compliment in theory, but it didn't really feel like one. Isen didn't smile or show any emotion as he spoke. He just made an observation like a scientist in a lab might. To be fair, I had people telling me I was handsome all my life so I could believe that he meant it.

I chuckled awkwardly and looked away. "Thanks, I guess."

"For what?"

I darted a glance at Isen, who stared blankly at me. "I—never mind."

Why did I get the feeling Isen was toying with me and making me uncomfortable on purpose? If he was anything like his spring lord boss, he was.

I turned my attention back to the snowflakes falling from the sky and the howling wind, with us as the quiet epicentre of the storm. "So, this is where we'll be every night now."

"Until you are ready to reach into the cursed land or can control your dreams."

"Sure." 

But how would I ever learn? There weren't exactly training wheels I could use going into a cursed landscape to try first. I couldn't see it happening, but I didn't feel the need to start up a discussion about it again.

I figured I'd be awake all night and I'd keep Isen up with me. But eventually my eyes grew heavy as the adrenaline wore off. Wrapped up in a blizzard on a strange world, and with Isen sitting beside me motionlessly, I finally fell asleep.