The human and the dryad.

This chapter was supposed to be out a few hours ago, but it's still the 13th. Apologies for the delay.

As always, if anyone wants to support me or read 3/7 chapters, that's possible on my (P)(A)(T). If not, I still appreciate you reading! Thank you so much!

Oh, yes, a Terraria arc has started on (P)(A)(T), just like the cases of Village Jille and WinterHord, in case anyone is curious.

That said, good Night and happy reading!

(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori

[...]---[...]

“I’m kind of torn here.”

“Between what?” Selina asked.

“Between being offended that Dylan called me a Fae or worried that he probably smoked something really strong,” I replied.

I glanced around the table for a moment. Robyn and Gilbert looked as confused and surprised as I was by Dylan’s comment. Selina, however, didn’t.

I turned to Dylan. “How the hell did you even come to that question? — Oh… The runes on the Humvee,” I concluded. “That’s why Selina doesn’t seem surprised.”

Only she and Dylan knew enough to differentiate runes from Mystical Symbols. To Gilbert and Robyn, everything probably looked the same. Selina must have removed the paint layer covering the runes, likely noticing something underneath and recognizing them as the same "weird symbols" from Cael’s journal.

“So that’s what it’s called…” Dylan muttered before nodding. “Yes, that’s one of the reasons, among others…”

“You knew the story of the Deerclops almost as if you’d seen it before,” Selina noted. “More than even Annabel, who’s a descendant of a Fae that fought against the Deerclops.”

“Your mana is different too,” Dylan pointed out, his eyes glowing blue for a moment. “It’s almost the same, like two similar breeds of horse, but still different enough that, if someone paid attention or knew enough, they’d notice.”

“Not to mention the amount of mana. No Terrarian has that much, not even the royal mage or Aunt Helena,” Selina added, tossing her broken glasses onto the table. Dylan nodded in agreement. Gilbert and Robyn seemed like they were just trying to keep up with the conversation.

“I made these glasses. They’re not some cheap junk bought at the market for a few silver coins. The lenses wouldn’t break even if I were inside a Mana Stone mine, but they broke just by ‘looking’ at you.”

“I don’t think I have more mana than a Mana Stone mine,” I retorted. My mana had grown significantly, but not that much.

“Not in total quantity, I’d say, but in proportion…” Dylan replied. “I don’t know how you manage to keep all that mana contained like that. I only sensed it when I got close. If I didn’t know the mana was coming from you, I don’t think I could’ve stayed this calm. Or, well… not run away, to be honest…”

He hummed to himself for a moment. “Maybe this is what those stories meant when they described standing before a dragon?”

“Flattering me after calling me a Fae doesn’t erase the crime you committed,” I said, amused. Seriously, a Fae?

[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]Another target for DS’s racism?! Amazing!(Iron Man eating popcorn emoji)

I ignored Stark’s message, which came from inside a rocket, and focused on one of the voices in my head.

("What’s your problem with the Fae?") Ozma’s voice echoed in my mind.

("The ones from Terraria? Nothing, I don’t even know them. My problem is with others, from stories I’ve heard… I’ll explain later. To sum it up, imagine the most screwed-up, horrible person you know. Got it? Multiply that by ten, and you’ll have the nicest Fae that’s ever existed.")

Was I exaggerating? Maybe. Not all Fae were jerks. I knew a few exceptions from stories, but everything I’d “seen” and heard didn’t paint a pretty picture. As always, I’d judge individuals, but nothing stopped me from making jokes.

“All right… Judging by your reaction, I take it Selina and Dylan are wrong?” Robyn joined the conversation. “But they make some good points…” she pointed out.

“Some of them make sense, others are just leaps of logic,” I partly agreed before replying. “But no, I’m not a Fae… or a Terrarian.”

Their shock was mild. It seemed that, even if only Dylan and Selina had suspected I was a Fae, the other two also had their doubts. Of course, there were other races in this world. They could’ve just assumed I was one of them.

In fact, me not being Terrarian shouldn’t even be that surprising. There were at least ten sentient races on this planet and even more hybrids between them.

“A half-Terrarian, half-Beastkin? Some don’t inherit their parents’ animal traits. Or something different?” Gilbert guessed. “But based on what Oakwood boy pointed out, I don’t think that explains your mana levels.”

“Nothing short of a hero straight out of legends has the amount of mana Devas has right now. Either that or a high-danger monster,” Dylan said. “I don’t know anything alive with that much mana…”

“Alalia has more mana than I do,” I revealed. By a margin that wasn’t even measurable.

“…I considered that possibility.” The guide’s face wrinkled. “You can feel her mana, can’t you?” I nodded, already predicting where this was going. “Are you a Dryad, like her, or a half-Dryad?”

Hadn’t Alalia told him she was the last Dryad?

“Your relationship with her doesn’t seem very good,” Dylan noted. He was the only one who genuinely frowned; the others just seemed slightly uneasy. “What happened?”

“Finding out someone has been living in my house my whole life without me knowing kind of pissed me off… still does. That and other things.”

“The ‘other things’ Dylan means is the Dryad putting everyone to sleep the moment we arrived to interrogate Dylan about your whereabouts,” Selina said. She didn’t seem as irritated as Dylan, not even close, but she was still a bit bothered. “She also tried some mind-control crap.”

My muscles tensed. I instinctively drew on my title’s ‘presence’ as much as I could. I must’ve let something show on my face because Dylan quickly explained:

“It wasn’t intentional, not entirely at least. Alalia already apologized. It’s something innate to her, some kind of charm that echoes in her voice and words.” He frowned, looking far from happy to defend the Dryad. “I managed to resist, but only because she stopped when she realized what she was doing. It wasn’t pleasant.”

(“Fighting her isn’t advisable,”) Jinn remarked.

(“I don’t intend to. I wouldn’t win in a fight, but I don’t like anything involving mind control.”) Innate charm or not, I’d talk to her either way. The only difference was that now I’d be even more alert.

I looked around for a moment. There weren’t any plants in here, but I noticed a few spots that seemed to have had pots before someone—Dylan, probably—moved them.

“…I’m human,” I revealed after a few moments of silence. Before anyone could ask, I continued as I noticed the confusion on their faces: “It’s not a race that exists in this world; it’s not native here…”

Dylan was the first to process my words, his eyes widening as if they’d pop out of his skull. Selina choked on the soda she was drinking, and Robyn grunted after biting her tongue instead of the snack in her hand.

Gilbert was the least affected, but not for the right reasons.

“Huh? I didn’t know you had such a strange sense of humor.” He laughed in that characteristic way of his. The laughter slowly faded when he realized I wasn’t laughing along. “… Wait, are you serious?!”

Robyn’s right ear, the one closest to Gilbert, folded at her father’s shout, pressing against her fiery red hair.

“… How?” That was all Dylan managed to verbalize.

I moistened my lips for a moment before pulling my phone out of the VoidBag and placing it on the table. I couldn’t invite them, but I could show them the how.

“Seven months and a few days…” I said as I pulled up the video of my first stream.

“… That’s how long it’s been since I was kidnapped.”

[...]

The “big revelation” went better than expected. The shock was the least of it. To my surprise, they were genuinely upset about everything that had happened, mostly ignoring the fact that I was an alien and focusing instead on the part where I was thrown into a forest, alone, in another world.

Then came the questions. I answered as many as I could without completely fucking everything up—and by “fucking everything up,” I mean revealing that Terraria was a game for me before all this began. That would come out someday, probably, but I didn’t want it to be today.

To keep things organized and prevent the room from descending further into chaos—more than it already had—I suggested that everyone take turns asking questions. Robyn was the first, asking something I already knew she would as soon as I revealed that thousands of people were watching me.

No one seemed particularly bothered by that fact, beyond the usual. Of course, being watched by so many people would be strange for most, and the four at the table were no exception, each with their own reactions.

Dylan blushed with embarrassment, saying he wasn’t good with crowds and stammered a bit as he introduced himself. Selina, on the other hand, waved toward where I pointed out the stream camera was and blew a kiss to the (CHAT). Gilbert just thanked me for the free advertising and asked that, if anyone else came to the kingdom, they buy from him.

Robyn’s reaction was the most colorful—literally and metaphorically. She stiffened, her tail—the real one—wrapped around her waist, her ears flattened against her head, and her face cycled through several colors: from her natural brown skin tone to red, then green, and finally pale. She then whispered, “Everyone knows?...”

There was no chance that question wasn’t about her plug. For her, the fact that I knew was one thing, but over ten thousand people? I completely understood the fear and dread she must have been feeling: exposure.

No one but me understood the question, either at the table or in the (CHAT), which was now filled with question marks. I looked at her, kept my face serious, met her eyes, and shook my head.

“Why do you think I’ve never mentioned it out loud?” I didn’t joke about it. I had thought about it, sure, but dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. It wasn’t the time, and it would’ve been in poor taste. “No, no one but me knows. Don’t worry.”

Robyn’s sigh of relief came from deep within her chest, enough to make her entire body move. She let her upper body fall onto the table, her forehead hitting the wood with a thud that made the cutlery tremble.

“Thank the spirits… I think I would’ve died…” Her voice came out muffled.

“Should I ask?” Gilbert turned to me.

“I want to ask!” Selina raised her hand with a smile on her face.

I ignored the mechanic-obsessed one and focused on the old merchant. Robyn lifted her head—her forehead slightly red—and looked at me as if deciding what to do based on my next words.

(“She looks like she’s about to cry. Or try to kill you at all costs.”) Ozma remarked. (“I feel like I’m missing some context here.”)

[AdvocateOfGenderEquality]We’re all missing context here! And judging by her reaction, it must be juicy! Come on, Devas, half a gossip leaves the gossiper half-baked, spill it! ┬┴┬┴┤ ͜ʖ ͡°) ├┬┴┬┴

I ignored the message flashing on the screen, emerging from a white pair of panties, and gestured for Robyn to relax as I replied to Gilbert:

“I found out something by accident. It’s not my place to reveal it, and I won’t.” I explained briefly, without giving details. Gilbert nodded with a face that seemed to understand.

I doubted he truly understood, much less knew that his daughter wore a butt plug almost twenty-four hours a day, but that was fine.

“I’m smart enough not to ask, let alone get involved.” Dylan raised his hands as if throwing the matter far away from him. He turned to me. “You said your homeworld had no mana, right?”

“Nothing related to magic or anything supernatural.” I paused. “Well, it’s natural here, but it wasn’t there.”

“I can’t even imagine a world like that…” he murmured.

“Neither can I.” Selina threw in her two cents before seemingly realizing something. “Oh! That’s why the Humvee is so much more advanced than anything in the kingdom. Without magic, your people had to adapt and focus entirely on technology! I’m a bit jealous…”

I’ll make sure to record her reaction when I pull the Proto-A from the inventory.

“About the stream. You said you can’t invite us, why not?” Robyn seemed to recover and asked.

“There’s a prerequisite first. I need to do something that, frankly, I don’t want to do, and it’ll be a huge pain if I’m forced to.” Killing the Wall wasn’t in my plans, but if I had to do it, it wouldn’t be by using Dylan as fuel.

“Is that what you were trying to do? I mean, before you disappeared. Were you trying to invite me or invite Robyn? I saw you holding a note.” Dylan asked.

“I tried. But the stream denied it.” I confirmed. Dylan seemed pleased with my words, almost relieved.

“What is this prerequisite?” Gilbert joined the conversation. “Something you need to do for this giant theater that kidnapped you? Or does it involve something here?” He pointed at the ground.

Funny. The concept of a “stream” didn’t exist in Terraria, so I explained it as a giant theater, but at a distance. They were all struggling to grasp the concept, but once I explained it like that, they quickly understood.

“I need to do something here.” I tapped the table with my finger twice. “It’s something I don’t intend to do, as I said, but if it happens, it’ll take a while.”

“Why don’t you intend to?” Selina looked at me before glancing at the stream camera. Everyone was doing that now and then, now that they knew the camera existed.

“Too much work.” The understatement of the century. “And I don’t know the exact consequences of killing that thing…”

In the game, it triggered hardmode, but here, now that everything was real? The Wall sealed the evil biomes and countless other horrors that existed in this world. Not to mention it would probably greatly increase the mana in the environment, both in quantity and in quality and density. I had a faint suspicion it would be FATE’s equivalent of bringing back the Age of Gods to the world…

Breaking the Wall—or killing it, in this case—might very well ruin everything.

“Killing?” Robyn blinked. “Killing what?”

“A giant wall.”

[BlakeHuntressLive]Explain! Saying it’s a giant wall means nothing!(Emote of a black cat hissing)

[BlakeHuntressLive]WHY WAS MY MESSAGE SPAT OUT AS A HAIRBALL?!

The corners of my lips twitched at Blake’s messages, but I held back from laughing.

“How the hell do we kill a wall?” Selina turned to me, her gaze shifting from the camera.

“The same way we kill the moon.” I answered seriously. She didn’t seem too happy with my response. “What? It’s true.” If she didn’t believe me, her problem.

“Do you know where this wall is?” Dylan asked, then added, “Is that why you know specific things while lacking the common sense everyone else has? Does the stream give you information?”

“More or less.” I raised my arm and waved my hand from side to side. Telling them ‘your world is my favorite game, that’s why I know so much’ wouldn’t be ideal. “And I know where the Wall is, but getting there is as big a problem as killing it.”

Digging to hell in the game was tedious; here?... It’d be a nightmare…

Curious or not, Dylan didn’t ask where this location was. He seemed lost in thought, nodding to himself, falling silent, with his eyes blinking blue a few times.

“You know, Devas, my respect for you has grown even more. I didn’t think that was possible,” Gilbert drew everyone’s attention at the table. “Seven months ago, you didn’t even know what mana was. Did you have any training?”

“In martial arts, you mean? Or military?”

"Why not both?" He shrugged.

I shook my head. “No. I didn’t join mandatory military service for some... reasons. I trained in boxing as a kid—it's a type of martial art—and kept myself in shape, but nothing beyond that.” I explained briefly.

“A complete civilian...” Selina murmured, looking at me like I was some kind of anomaly. “Fuck, all right, I already knew that, but I definitely made the right choice telling those old folks to go screw themselves.”

I blinked. “Old folks?”

“Some people in Selina’s family wanted to dismantle the Humvee and study it,” Robyn explained in the Steampunker’s place. She turned to Selina. “What was it they said again?”

“That some random contractor shouldn’t monopolize such technology, that the Big Leader here wasn’t important enough for them to care about, and that he should be put in his place.” She scoffed, something between amusement, disdain, and relief. “Must be old age. They’ve gone senile.”

Maybe SteamHord was a Chinese surname, and I just didn’t know?...

The rest of the conversation followed the same vein. Dylan seemed eager to understand the stream and learn more about my situation. Selina asked questions about Earth’s technology, while Gilbert and Robyn explored broader topics, diving into nearly everything that came up in the conversation.

We spent the early morning until mid-afternoon in Dylan’s workshop, talking about nearly everything and catching up. When the sky began to take on an orange hue, I stood up from the table. I had a conversation to have with Alalia, and the others had their own things to do.

Dylan just told me to be careful and to tap the EchoMirror twice if I needed anything from him. I told him the same in return, and we said our goodbyes.

Walking through Oakwood Manor, whether alone or not, felt strange. It was like walking through Takagi Manor. I couldn’t quite put it into words, but there was something peculiar about wandering through old-fashioned mansions with such expansive interiors. Maybe I just wasn’t used to it after living in a tiny apartment for so long, even after all this time.

I felt a bit of nostalgia for that place. Small as it was, it was something I had bought on my own...

I didn’t miss much about Earth. There wasn’t much to miss. All my relatives were dead—the good and the bad ones. I’d never had a pet. What remained was my apartment, my computer, and my two friends.

But knowing those two as well as I did, they were probably fine. Worried, most likely, since I’d vanished out of nowhere. But considering one of them was the biggest otaku that planet had ever seen, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d considered the possibility I’d been isekai’d...

...Two idiots. I really hoped they were doing all right.

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts aside, and focused.

It didn’t take long to reach the room where Alalia was. The Minimap guided me easily, even without the help of one of the manor’s maids. The dryad hadn’t moved since I last checked and was still alone. Dylan’s mother was elsewhere in the manor.

I raised my hand to knock on the door...

“You can come in, Devas. The door is unlocked.” Alalia’s voice echoed, carried through the air beneath the door like a gentle breeze.

I hadn’t tried to conceal my presence, so it was obvious she could sense me. Honestly, I doubted I could hide from her even if I tried. I turned the doorknob, pushed the door open, and stepped inside, closing it behind me.

The pressure of Alalia’s mana hit me the moment I set foot in the room. It was a suffocating yet comforting mix. I could tell that her mana—like the dryad herself—meant no harm, but her presence was overwhelming, almost crushing. The best comparison I could give was: it felt like being hugged far too tightly.

Ozma and Jinn were silent. Millia was in the VoidBag, within the Slime Staff, along with Lucy. The axe didn’t like the dark but could stay in the inventory for a while, saying she’d “sleep” until I needed her. Even the (CHAT) seemed subdued, with the stream sending no messages to my vision...

I took a deep breath and looked around the room. The place was filled with plants of all kinds. Some I recognized; others, I didn’t. They occupied every corner, from the floor in pots to the ceiling with vines. The entire space felt like a small greenhouse. Even the floor was made of soil, covered by sparse grass.

There wasn’t much furniture in the room. There was a large bed with a frame of living wood and what appeared to be a mattress made of leaves and flowers. The pillows were a massive pink flower. Toward the far end of the room, near a wide open balcony, stood a table. Also made of living wood, its branches intertwined from the floor up, shaping into a circular design with two matching chairs.

“Not my style, but it seems cozy,” I commented aloud. Alalia wasn’t in sight, but the Minimap indicated she was near the window. “Not going to show yourself?”

“...I don’t want to risk affecting you,” her voice echoed from within a flower in a vase to my left. “My appearance tends to affect men more, as does my voice. I trust that you could probably resist, but I’d rather not take the chance. I don’t want you to think I’m trying to manipulate you.”

“That’s quite an arrogant thing to say. Are you claiming to be that beautiful?” I asked before taking a guess. “Or is it something beyond beauty?”

“An authority,” she admitted. “I have a few.”

“Like a god,” I stated. A few?

“Something similar. But I am not a goddess... though you already knew that.” The plants around me swayed as if the dryad herself were shaking her head.

“You seem very sure of that,” I pointed out, though I felt far too much like prey for my liking. My urge to blow everything around me to pieces was slowly rising.

“My words about you knowing I’m not a goddess?” Alalia asked. I responded with a slow nod. She continued, “When you see a duck, you never mistake it for a chicken again. Your arm... I can smell divinity on it.”

Well, shit...

The cracks in my jaw and right arm had vanished long before I returned to Terraria. The ones in my jaw disappeared first; those on my arm, in my last days in Remnant. But apparently, there was still a trace of something there. Something I hadn’t noticed but that the dryad could.

"My authority." The wind carried her voice again. "Do you want to know what it is?"

"And why would you tell me?" I asked as I walked to the table on the balcony, tracing my fingers along the wood slowly, though I didn’t sit down.

"You seem to think I’m your enemy for some reason. Or that I’ll harm you." Flowers began to bloom across the path my fingers had traced on the table. "I’m not, nor do I intend to be."

"I believe you," I agreed.

"Really?" The wind sounded pleased, yet confused.

"Really."

"Then why?" One of the flowers on the table spoke. "You say you believe me, but you seem ready to fight me to the death, if necessary."

"It's just your impression," I teased.

"Your muscles are tense, even if you try to hide it," she pointed out, then started listing things. "Your blood is pumping faster; I can hear it. Your breathing grows warmer with every passing second. It’s warm and comforting—it reminds me of the sun. Your mana bubbles beneath your skin, ready for any sign of hostility..."

... Honestly, I felt exposed. It was unnerving and a terrible feeling.

That, and the fact that everything around me was Alalia. From the ground beneath my feet to the plants on the ceiling, even the air I was breathing—it was all part of her. It was all an extension of her.

The confirmation came easily. Analyzing a single blade of grass cost very little and revealed: a blade of grass germinated by the last dryad and connected to her. I tried analyzing her as a whole, but I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly was Alalia in that room.

"Can you blame me? I feel like I’m at a disadvantage here."

"You shouldn’t. I won’t harm you."

I ignored that and asked, "If necessary, you say. Would you make it necessary?"

I looked toward where the minimap marked Alalia’s position. The point flickered rapidly, changing locations. I followed it with my eyes. It shifted again.

"Never!" she exclaimed, her voice then lowering to a whisper that echoed through the room. "Can you really sense my location, even with me hiding like this?..."

I didn’t answer. Better to let her draw her own conclusions. I was at a significant disadvantage here. I’ll take whatever I can.

"Then why the concern?" I asked. "If you won’t make it real, why worry? I’m not a wild animal. I won’t attack you unless provoked."

"But I don’t want you to feel tense in my presence!" Her voice sounded pouty, sad, and confused. "It saddens me and makes me uncomfortable."

"Not used to people reacting like this?" I guessed.

"... I don’t like the feeling. Hesitation, anguish. The unease. I don’t like any of it." She sighed, and the flowers wilted momentarily. Alalia admitted, "I’m not used to it."

"Your authority… Nothing born of this world is capable of hating you, is it?" I concluded. The reactions from everyone earlier seemed strange; they were irritated but lacked something. "Something tied to your connection with the world, I assume."

The only one seemingly unaffected was Dylan, likely because of his innate ability. He had also resisted the Deerclops’s roar—something I needed to discuss with the guy later. I was sure he was a Terrarian and born on this planet, but something about him was strange…

"... Almost correct," she answered after a few seconds of silence. "The innate, natural love for all things. Everything tends to love the world, just as the world cares equally for everything born within it. My connection to the world grants me the authority to be accepted. It’s natural to accept me, natural to try to understand me, natural to love me."

Fucking terrifying... Was that why the Shadowflame seemed neutral toward her? If not for my connection with the flame, I felt it would have been favorable.

"You know I’m not from Terraria," I pointed out. It wasn’t a secret; I could feel she knew this. "You know this because I’m not affected." I had no idea if that was the reason, but at this point, I was improvising. "What’s the real reason you don’t want to reveal yourself?"

"You admitted it... I didn’t think you would..." she murmured again before falling silent. Her presence vanished entirely, as if it had never existed. I only knew she was there because of the minimap.

I shifted my gaze, following Alalia’s movement around the room based on the marker on the minimap. She didn’t say anything, but I could feel her watching me. She circled me, moved around the table, and walked throughout the room before stopping in front of me.

It was only then that I could sense her. It was faint, like a breeze, but enough to gauge her approximate size—around five feet seven. I looked to where I imagined her eyes would be. Her concealment was incredibly effective.

"It’s natural for everything in the world to like me. It’s natural for me to be accepted." Her voice came from directly in front of me, calm and confident, though with a subtle hesitation. "It’s natural... But you are not natural. You, Devas, do not belong to this world. Foreigner..."

I hesitated for a moment. "You were certain about everyone else. I’m just a possibility."

"I don’t like possibilities. I don’t like what makes me wake up at night in a cold sweat. Certainty guarantees me a future I can prepare for... I fear the uncertain future..." The confidence in her voice faltered, becoming fragile.

"I understand your apprehension, but I don’t like it. I understand your hesitation, but I wish it didn’t exist... I understand your fear because I feel it too..." she whispered, and the wind around me swirled softly, brittle and delicate. "Hiding just felt... right, as it still maintains a certainty..."

I sighed inwardly. Why does life insist on making me seem like the monster in every situation?...

I looked at Alalia for another moment, at the empty space where I knew she stood, before turning around, walking to the table on the balcony, and sitting down. I gestured toward the chair across from me.

"I acted poorly, I won’t lie. You already said why. So... Can we start over?" I asked, raising a hand and leaving it extended over the table, palm open.

After a moment, I felt a hand take mine—slender fingers, smaller than mine, with smooth skin. Then Alalia sat down in the chair across from me. I noticed her nails were painted orange.

She had bronzed tan skin and short, vibrant green hair with orange streaks curling around her pointed ears. Her eyes were a soft violet with orange edges to the irises. Her eyebrows matched her hair, and her nose, with a delicate upward curve, rested above lips a shade darker than her skin, forming a slight radiant smile.

Her clothes were made of leaves and vines—a tied top around her chest, sizable yet appearing smaller due to the garment pressing against her body, and what seemed like tight shorts of leaves that hugged her toned thighs and waist.

The best way to describe Alalia at that moment was "a tomboy." The colors of her hair and clothing evoked summer, and her bronzed skin only emphasized that.

She was stunning—much more than I had imagined. Even though I expected something impressive, she still surprised me, both in beauty and in her appearance being different from what I knew of her in the game. I quickly composed myself and said, giving her hand a light squeeze:

"Pleasure to meet you. I’m Devas, a human from a planet called Earth, the only one in Terraria."

She responded by firmly squeezing my hand, mirroring my gesture, and introduced herself with a smile that seemed to reflect the last orange rays of the setting sun:

"Pleasure to meet you, Devas. I’m Alalia, a dryad from a planet called Terraria, the last of my kind."

So, the only two beings of two species, a human — me, the only one from my planet in this world — and a dryad, Alalia, the last living one of her kind, we began to talk.

[...]---[...]

As for the chapter, well... It’s a chapter of conversation, this should be the last one, maybe half of the next one, it’s kind of necessary, given the circumstances and everything else.

Everyone’s reaction was more contained, in parts. I’ll still try to explore this in other POVs, now that the group knows about the stream. Robyn almost had a stroke, Selina didn’t really care much, Dylan is shy, something I think was pretty obvious, and was trying to understand the stream that kidnapped his friend, and Gilbert, like it or not, is a merchant. Free advertisement, it always comes for free.

Finally, Alalia. The dryad has peculiarities, both good and bad. I’ll explore that in the future, especially her psychological side, which is important. She was in her 'summer' form, if that wasn’t obvious.

Spring is happier and more cheerful.Winter is more analytical, intelligent.Summer is more confident and enthusiastic.Fall hasn’t appeared yet, no spoilers.

Why does she have 4 versions instead of just one, like in the game? Because I thought it would make sense, given all the context and what she represents...

Well, other than that, I think that’s it. I’ll finish this note here. Good Night to everyone and happy reading!