Sheena clicked her highbeams on as she drove her car down the road. There were no other cars on the road at this hour, as most people on the reserve were indoors. She and Jason were just leaving the reserve, having dropped Bert back off home. Though he was reluctant to leave, he eventually did, once he learned that he'd be welcomed back whenever he wished to show up.
"The way Bert was going on about everything he'd learned, I'm surprised that he agreed to leave," Jason remarked.
"Well, there was the whole bit about his wife chewing his ass out if he was home too late. He also remembered that he's human and needs sleep, just like the rest of us," Sheena replied, smirking at Jason.
"Let's not forget the ever popular reason guys stop doing what they do. We need food," Jason said, answering Sheena's look of confusion.
"That's true! My mom always told me that the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach," Sheena agreed with a chuckle.
"Never any truer words spoken! Though Bert was buzzing about how alive he felt. Kept yammering about how he'd hadn't had this much energy in years," Jason said as he stared out the window at the darkening city.
The both of them chuckled at the elderly historian's exuberance, but he could hardly be blamed for it. Because of how the government had treated his people, most of their history and the ways they had practiced were all but erased. All because of the systematic destruction of their culture and assimilation into white culture.
Jason shook his head when he thought about it, on how everything that Bert's people were, was lost to history. Or it was until both he and Sheena arrived. Now, with them there, it was possible for the histories and cultures of the tribe to be salvaged, maybe even saved. For that, Jason allowed himself a small smile as Sheena drove them back to the house.
"Hello? Earth to Jason? You there?" Sheena asked, getting his attention.
"Sorry. Was off in la la land. What's up?" he asked.
"Did you want a coffee and a donut?" she wondered as she pulled up to the drive through speaker at a Tim Hortons.
"Oh! Yes, please! I'll have a large coffee, two cream, three sugars and a Boston Cream donut!" he told her.
Sheena smirked and put in his order, while adding her own, a large peppermint tea with two sugars and no cream, and chocolate dip donut. They pulled on through, pulling up to the window where Sheena paid for the order and the server handed it to them. She pulled away, after handing Jason the food and drink, which he set up so she could get to it easily.
"Do you think that Felicitae... Amy, got the materials she needed for the spell?" Jason wondered.
"Let's hope so, or this is going to be one quick fight against that bitch!" Sheena mumbled over her tea.
Jason couldn't help but agree with his lady and he hoped that Luke, Emalia and Felicitae/Amy had found what they needed. If they had any hope of combatting the Dark Nymph, they would need all the protection they could get. He was confident that Luke would have found everything, as he was OCD like that. Give him a task or a quest, and he'd latch onto it until it was done. He hoped that was the case again, this time.
******************************
"So, that's where the Guardians came from?" Phalmina queried, still in shock over this revelation.
"Yup! I'm surprised that the princess of the Fairies didn't know about this," Felicitae/Amy replied.
"I may have been the princess, but I wasn't made aware of everything. There were some things that my mother didn't tell me about," the fairy admitted, while looking over the male Nymphs.
Phalmina and Daelina were in absolute shock upon being told that the Guardians who kept the grove safe were, in fact, male Nymphs encased in magical armor. It had been a total shock to be sure, but also, one that made sense. It wasn't too long after the war broke out, that the Nymph population dropped substantially. She had chalked it up to the Xkarites going after the Nymphs first, but that wasn't the case.
Seeing how they had vanished so quickly and the Guardians coming to their aid should have been spotted right away. Only Phalmina wasn't thinking about that. The only thing she was concerned with at the time was the survival of her race. She didn't stop to think that there might be others who were thinking about theirs as well. Both she and the others there glanced over at the men who were there with them and smirked.
Both of them were happily munching away at some food that had been brought for them. While they were in no danger of dying or withering away from lack of food or water, they were still hungry. They were just finishing another round of takeout food when Jason and Sheena walked in the door.
"Hey guys, glad to see that you're back! Did you get the..." Jason started, before his gaze turned to the pair of men that sat on the floor nearby.
"Whoa! Are those... male Nymphs?" Sheena questioned.
"Yup! They are!" Emalia stated, still in a state of disbelief herself.
"How is this possible? I thought they had all died off!" Jason stated, bringing up what he'd learned from the Sons of Caesar archives.
"This little piece of history, is something the Sons didn't know about," Felicitae/Amy responded.
She then filled the couple in on what the Guardians were and how they were constructed. Most importantly, how they needed a living being to bring them to life. Jason and Sheena were beside themselves with what they'd been told. They both concluded that there was still a lot to learn outside of the books they had taken. The couple stared at the Nymphs, noting how different each one of them looked.
"I'm guessing that these two aren't like you, are they, Felicitae?" Jason asked, taking in the appearance of the men.
"They are not forest Nymphs, that's for sure," Felicitae agreed. "I've seen their like before, but I cannot remember what they are."
"I might be able to help with that," Luke interjected.
"Remember how we found something? In one of the books?" Sheena asked.
"Exactly. I remember the book detailing four subclasses of Nymphs in existence," Luke stated.
"Four? I was only aware of three," Felicitae answered.
"Well, there are four. At least according to what I remember. We already know that you are a Meliae, an ash tree Nymph. Going by what these two look like, I'm guessing that the other one is a Meliae like you, or maybe even a Naiad. A freshwater Nymph," Luke explained to his confused friends.
"Are you like me? A Meliae?" Felicitae/Amy questioned the lighter skinned Nymph. The man shook his head and made a gesture, like he was swimming.
