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“Have you met him?” Marissa inquired.
“No. But Mother claims so long as I don’t harm his subjects, he won’t bother me.”
“What about if his subjects are trying to kill you?”
“Self-defense is allowed. Just not active hunting. Mother claims it should not be an issue in his territory. The monsters know better than to disobey their king.”
“Wild fucking shit,” Marissa muttered. “An actual god living in a town.”
“Where does your goddess reside?”
“No idea. She just talks to me at random. We’ve never met. What about you and the Earth Mother?”
“She is the ground we walk upon. She is in every living plant.”
“Have you always been her champion?” Marissa asked as she paused at a stop sign and checked the screen with all kinds of lines that she called a map.
“No. I began as a simple dryad, gentle like my sisters of the grove. We danced. We weaved crowns of flowers. We ate the nectar of fruit and lay in the soft grasses with human men for pleasure. We lived carefree and happy.”
“This doesn’t sound like a story that ends well.”
“Because it doesn’t.” Daphne’s jaw stiffened. The tragedy might have happened centuries ago, but it remained vivid in her mind. “One day, while we were harvesting some honey from a nearby hive, the trees in our grove were cut down. A senseless act since their wood wasn’t the type good for building. The humans did it to trap us so we wouldn’t have a place to hide.” Daphne paused. “They had nets woven with iron and they threw them over my sisters and took them captive.”
“And you?”
“I hadn’t returned with them. I’d stopped to play in the river. By the time I made my way to the grove, the torture had begun. I heard their screams as my sisters were violated and mutilated.”
“Why didn’t your goddess save them?”
“The Mother isn’t one to act directly, and at night, she flees for the lands where the sun shines. There was no one to hear their cries but me.”
“What did you do?”
Daphne bowed her head. “I took the axe lying by the stump of my tree, and when the men fell asleep, I began chopping.” The blood had quickly rendered her grip slick and yet she’d kept swinging, the lifeless eyes of her sisters fueling her. The moans of those who’d survived giving her strength.
“How many did you kill?”
“There were six men. I killed three before the others woke.” They’d converged on her, angry and taunting her with the things they’d do once they managed to capture her. “I expected to die. Wanted to because of my grief. Instead, I discovered what I was capable of. The vinelike extension of my arm that I used to pluck fruit gave me the reach to strangle the closest attacker. My skin turned hard as bark, my body dense as the bole of my trunk, making their blows ineffectual. My fingers rooted around the haft of the axe, making sure I didn’t lose my grip.”
“You found your inner strength,” Marissa softly commented.
“I did, and in the morning, when the dawn bathed the bloody grove, the Mother returned and wept at what they’d done. The sisters who survived were inconsolable and so Mother took them into her bosom. But to me, she said, ‘You are the bough who did not break despite the storm. You are the stave against those who did evil. And for your bravery, I name thee the Earth’s Paladin, my champion.’”
“Wow. That’s intense. Do you like being a paladin?”
“Yes. There is satisfaction to be found in meting out justice for those who cannot achieve it on their own.”
“You’re basically a CA agent,” Marissa summarized.
“You work to protect humans. My task is guarding the Earth.” But then because that sounded harsh, Daphne added, “We are both important when it comes to providing safety to all.”
“We are. We’re here.”
Marissa parked in front of the building Nelly and Clive called home. Not the house where she’d first met them. Apparently, they’d borrowed that home. This was a much larger building that had several floors and what they called apartments specifically for CA agent use. Mostly empty since the Monster King came into power. As Nelly had stated, “Not much use for a Special Monster Unit when they’ve now got a big boss who makes sure they claw and paw the line.”
Daphne remembered how to reach Nelly’s door which opened before she could knock. “You made good time,” Nelly remarked, “But we’ll still be cutting it close to moon rise.”
“Hey.” Clive lifted his head from the computer he stared at for a moment. Daphne didn’t quite understand the strange contraption. Yet. She planned to learn.
