Finally ending our arrival in the clearing, I stood with Arze, staring at Chase and the cop with question marks woven into my eyebrows.
Arze stepped over toward me, once again ending the barrage of interrogation that I really wanted to unleash on the crowd.
“Krueger, this is Officer Williams.” Arze prompted, waving a hand in the direction of the cop, who gave me a sheepish smile that looked straight out of Chase’s usual demeanor. “He’s Chase’s father.”
Ahh, well that certainly explained exactly one question out of the many bubbling in my brain. I instinctively reached out my hand, glad that the officer had enough decorum to return the gesture. We shook hands and he gave me a nod. “Colton, please.” He had the same southern drawl that his son did.
“Dear old Dad’s a good cop, I promise.” Chase interjected, leaning an arm over his father’s shoulder. “He’s not crooked or anything like that.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, son.” Colton scoffed, shaking his head at Chase.
“Remember how I told you I’d been reaching out to Wallace Watson in D.C. the other night?”
“I do.” Unless Wallace Watson was about to pop out into the clearing, I had no idea what the hell he had to do with Chase’s police officer father being here. For that matter, I didn’t understand what Chase was even doing here.
“Well, he suggested, while he worked on trying to get something going on his end regarding the tythwig decrees, to have human protection, since Orb lives are protected underhuman law.” Arze gave a smile to Colton, who nodded back before Arze set his eyes back on me. “He’s here to make sure that the Triad doesn’t try to repeat history and…get rid of us.”
“That’s a nice way to put it.” I scoffed, crossing my arms. I really didn’t want to die today. “And Chase is here for…moral support?”
“Negative, bro.” Chase stepped forward, whipping out his cell phone from the frayed cargo shorts he was wearing and holding it out like it was a trophy rather than a means to communicate. “I’m here to livestream to my followers so we have recorded evidence, aside from Dad’s body cam.”
I looked at Arze like this was the most insane set-up of all time, because it was. He hadn’t warned me about any of this, but I guess he hadn’t had much time to tell me when I was buried in his ass. I supposed it made sense, to have a cop here. Even if I wasn’t here to help Arze plead his case, Colton would make sure that no harm would come to him by the hands of the Triad. However, Chase seemed more like a liability than an aid.
“Chase is here as a backup,” Arze nodded, reading my mind. “Colton’s body cam is good, but a police officer’s testimony won’t be nearly as powerful as having the live footage from a human citizen, and it’ll keep the Triad honest.”
For emphasis, Colton tapped his chest where I presumed this hidden body cam resided. “Already recording.”
It seemed like Arze had everything thought out and ready to go. But I wasn’t so sure. “And what if the Triad is pissed off by all these humans in attendance, myself included, and decides to kill all of us on principle?”
“They won’t.”
“Even if they did, everyone at the station knows where I am right now.” Colton said, echoing Arze’s previous confidence.
I couldn’t argue much with it now. Everything seemed poised and ready, but I was still scared shitless to meet with the Triad,but Arze really did seem to have his bases loaded and everything in it’s perfect place.
“Alright.” I finally said. “Are we ready then?”
“Almost.” Arze smiled, patting my shoulder before twisting to nod at Chase. “Go ahead, Chase.”
The grin that graced Chase’s face was wide and exuberant as he held his phone up out in front of him. He tapped a few things on his phone’s screen and then I watched in amazement as he settled into his content creator enthusiasm.
“What’s up, Chasers!” Okay, he got negative points for the name of his fans, but I was enjoying the jubilance of his greeting, shaking my head with a smile as he gave his best to his phone’s camera. “I’m coming to you live today from one of Phoebe’s finest forests because we’re here to make sure no harm comes to my boys here.” He pointed the camera toward Arze and I, before giving his dad a quick shot and returning the camera back on himself. “You guys already know my dad. But we’re here because my bros are fighting for their love! So we’re going to be their eyes in the skies while they meet with the, like, dudes in charge of Arze’s people so they can stop sneaking around like a pair of teenagers in heat! So if you see something crazy, do something crazy!”
I had to give him points for style, because it appeared that Chase was really in his element. I didn’t know how much help they would end up being with the Triad, but I had to hold out hope. I wanted to be with Arze without the fear of either of us meeting an unnatural end. If Chase and his followers helped with that, than I was all for it.
Arze stepped forward, his head tilting to indicate more into the forest as Chase positioned his phone so that he could place it in the pocket of his t-shirt and still have the camera pointing out in front of it. I chuckled to myself. Seemed like father and son were twinning.
Another five minutes in the forest and something changed. The scenery around us remained the same, a mirage of oranges and brown mixing with the prematurely shedding that some trees had done. But there was something in the air that shifted, as if the entire atmosphere was aware that something way beyond it was nearby.
Arze stopped our small group, putting out an arm in front of my chest. His eyes could have had neon warning signs embedded in them and I still wouldn’t have been properly prepared. “We’re here.”
Chapter 32
Several treesof differing variety stood before us, but the air seemed to twist to their whim as they shifted. The oak on Arze’s right morphed into a tythwig before our very eyes, a beige skinned tythwig appearing where the formed tree had been only moments ago. Dark brown hair covered his scalp, and his eyes were a mossy green. He towered over us all, seeming to be at least seven feet tall. Was it something about the Triad that made them taller than other tythwig?
The tree to my left began to shift as well, a pine tree in one second and a tall woman the next. Her brown skin had a more orange hue to it, though obviously not nearly as vibrant of an orange as Arze’s eyes or hair. Her eyes were wild and intense, like Arze’s, but hers were a lovely shade of teal. Her hair was a warm maroon color that fell in waves down her form. She was a bit taller than the first guy, nearing eight feet. I saw Chase squirm beside me, but I wasn’t sure it was because he was uncomfortable. I kept my smirk to myself at his obvious arousal.
Between us, the center tree began to transform. The branches of the maple tree shrunk at human speed, and the trunk contorted until a man who stood just at Arze’s height, much shorter than his counterparts, was before us. He alsoappeared to have no visible hair, unlike his colleagues, taut brown skin covering his bare scalp. But his red eyes were by far the most intriguing thing about him, swirling orbs of varying shades of red trapped in his irises. He appeared the oldest out of the three, though all of their ridged skin was flawless to the eye.
