"You met a dryad huh?"
"Yeah, his name was... Illah or something."
"Consider yourself lucky. Dryads aren't social people."
"I would consider myself lucky if I knew what was going on."
Zella seemed to consider that.
"So, do you know what Gretel wants with you?"
Zac laughed.
"I see, you'll tell me what I want to know, if I tell you want you want to know. Ok, you're on. Gretel wanted... ahh... she wanted to have my baby."
Zella turned her head to stare at him. Of course, this caused her to look away from the road.
"Zella look out!" Zac yelped, pointing.
She looked back to the road and swerved just in time.
"Your baby?" she repeated.
"Yeah, she was on about something about me being a powerful mutant and that my child could be really powerful too with the right woman."
Zella gave an audible sneer.
"Let me guess, her?"
"Of course." Zac replied, when Zella didn't answer, he continued: "I said no, of course, but she kept on about it. Ripples was stuck in there with me too, and he told me that there was this crack that got patched up. Well, I used my Restoration on it and turned into water and got out that way. Then me and Ripples when to Ripples home, met up with Illah and Twinkles and heap and heaps of insect people. I left soon after and a little while later Frog-face and you turned up."
Zella was silent, thinking it over. Zac watched her for a moment.
"Well?" he demanded.
"Well what?"
"Hey I did my part, now I think it's time for you to explain things to me."
Because Zella had spoken with Trinity, Oscar and Rocky before meeting Zac, she was well aware of what they knew and had figured out about their powers. That they were all anomalies but, unlike Zac and his family and friends, who had been triggered, there were many who's gene had been mutated.
"You noticed before that I am a shape shifter." She said. "There aren't many of us around. Unlike your brother though, I'm limited in what I can shape shift into. I can only do things that have my same mass. There are, of course, ways to get around that, loopholes as you were, but essentially I have to be the same mass."
"Wow." Zac murmured. "This is amazing. So, how'd you know I was kidnapped?"
Zella was silent.
"Let's just say, my line of work allowed me to find out sooner than I might have otherwise."
"Oh? What line of work is that?"
"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that."
And for a long time nothing was said except for Ripples endless complaints about his foot... or lack thereof. Zac finally leaned over and turned on the radio.
"Hey." Zella objected as the two insect people cheered.
"Look, the silence is killing me. I'm getting sick of hearing Ripples complain -"
"You'd 'plain too if some borribibble person rippeded off your foot!" Ripples declared. "My foot! My foot!"
"- If you're not gonna talk to me, I'm gonna listen to the radio." Zac went on as if Ripples hadn't said anything.
As if to prove his point, Zella said nothing in reply. Zac, Ripples and Twinkles started singing along with the radio.