Zac and Ripples had been walking for some hours now. Zac had plonked on the ground when Ripples cried this and to his utter surprise out of more directions than he could count came more insect people than he could count.
Later on Zac wondered why he had been so surprised, considering he'd just made friends with a guy who was part dragonfly and been abducted by a woman part frog.
"Rippy!" a feminine voice called happily.
"Twinky!"
And from the crowd Zac saw a rather attractive girl, half butterfly, fly over to Ripples and give him a big kiss.
"Aww." Zac couldn't help but tease.
"This is my friend Zacky Hanson!" Ripples said, remembering his friend. "Frog-features kidnappedified him but she underestimated the powerfulness of the Zacky and we escaped!"
"Frog-features?" Twinkles repeated. "You 'scaped from Frog-head? Oh you must be very, very powerful!"
"Well, I try." Zac answered, not knowing what else to say. "Look, I need to get home."
"Are you going to Albertane?" asked another insect person, this one looking a lot like a beetle.
"Don't be silly. Zacky don't live in Albertane!" another scoffed. "He lives in Milwaukee."
Zac was feeling a little dismayed that all the insect people had the mentality of Ripples. Wasn't there one remotely normal person here?
"I live in Tulsa." He corrected them.
"Where's Tulsa?" someone else asked.
And all of a sudden they all started talking at once, Zac unable to make a single word out.
"Silence!" a voice called suddenly.
The insect people were quiet instantly. Zac looked around to see who spoke.
"Tulsa is about two days from here Zac." Came the voice.
"Who -"
"The tree Zac. I'm the tree."
Zac whirled around, and sure enough, he could see a face, if somewhat distorted, on the trunk of the nearest tree.
"Your - you - uhh -"
"Well, if you can have people who have insect powers, become part insect and are mistaken for fairies and such, why can't you have someone with a plant power, who becomes part plant and is thereafter called a dryad?"
Zac stared for a moment.
"I, uhh, well, yeah, why not? I just... ok, this is a shock."
The tree seemed to smile wryly.
"There's a town about an hour away in..." the tree, who was obviously male, paused, "that direction."
Zac saw where he pointed his branch.
"Uhh, well, thank you, umm..."
"Illah." He replied. "And thank you for providing me with some entertainment, however brief it lasted."
Zac watched as the, well, the dryad closed his... eyes, and the branch dropped back into place.
"Ooh, you lucky Zacky." Twinkles said. "Illah doesn't talk much."
Zac had a hunch this was due to the company he seemed to keep a lot.
"Illy very, very smart." Someone informed him.
"Well, I uhh, guess I should go." Zac said, getting up.
"Me come with you!" Ripples insisted.
"Me too!" Twinkles added. "Me no let you leave me again Rippy!"
"Ok." Ripples replied happily.
Zac hoped he wouldn't go insane on the way back with two insect people. It was bad enough with only one!