“You are the strangest individuals I have ever come across,” the dire says. “Females are not scary.”
“Call me a female again, jackass, and you will see why they are all scared,” I snarl.
His brow furrows and he tilts his head to the side in confusion. “You are clearly female, so why are you angry?”
“Have you addressed any of the guys asthe male? No. You talk to them without singling out their gender, but the girls you use the term female to degrade me and show me that I’m beneath you because I was born a girl.”
“Every male in this realm that we have come across has done the same. People don’t talk down to us like this in our realm because it’s okay for women to be badass.” Raven crosses her arms.
“Why are we even working so hard to save all the realms?” I sigh. “If the rest are like this one, maybe we should just let them burn.”
“You’re the prophesied one?” He straightens his shoulders and his eyes widen. “You really are from a different realm.”
“Yes. We just want to get back so we can kick some ass and save the realms, again.”
He waves a hand and the shifters around us stiffen before slinking back into the forest. “My apologies. It has been tense in our territory recently since the events of the prophecy have started happening.”
“So, you’re going to let us go to the portal?” I ask.
“We will escort you to the portal, yes,” he says. “I am truly sorry for offending you.”
“It’s fine but do better. Stop treating women like they’re beneath you,” I say.
“It’s not like that here, honestly. Females are precious to us, especially to us because there are so few born female dires.”
I nod because that makes sense. If there are few women, then they would face extinction without them. Not allowing them to put themselves in danger by becoming a badass would make perfect sense. I still don’t like it but I understand it.
“Fine. I get what you’re saying. Lead the way.” I wave a hand for him to show us the way.
We follow at a brisk pace through the forest. Raven chuckles under her breath as nothing jumps out at her.
“You’re waiting for the dryads to attack you here, aren’t you?” I ask her.
“What’s a dryad?” the dire asks.
“Tree spirits that love to hate Raven.” I giggle. “They smack her with branches every time.”
“The nexus sounds like a strange place.”
“For us it is, but normal humans don’t see the same things we do. That’s how we keep ourselves safe from them.”
“Safe from humans? They’re the powerless beings who have been showing up here randomly? Why would you need to be safe from them?” The dire frowns.
“They outnumber us about a hundred to one and they have technology. They fear and want to experiment on those they don’t understand. It’s safer that they don’t know we exist.” I shrug.
“I don’t think you will be hidden for much longer.” He shakes his head.
“Fucking Hades, I didn’t even think of that. How are we going to keep the humans from talking about what’s happened to them?” I ask. “There will be a witch hunt for supernaturals.”
“You don’t think they’ll claim they were abducted by aliens?” Raven asks.
“With the way the portal just kind of was there? That doesn’t give me alien abduction vibes at all.” Jayden shakes his head.
“We don’t need to worry about this now,” Greyson says. “We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Greyson is right,” Jayden says. “One step at a time.”
“Hermes might have some magic up his sleeve that could help once he’s back to normal,” Raven says.
