She licked her finger off. “This is amazing. What do you call it?”

  “The tents of the bag are called trail mix. A mix that provides good nutrition on a hike on a trail, basically.”

  “No, I meauff that looks like poop but tastes better even than heckleberries or lembas bread.”

  “We call it chocote. I have a friend that says that trail mix is a bination of chocote and disappoi, because the chocote is so much the best part.”

  She popped another pie her mouth. “Do you always have to sort through the disappoio get to the chocote?”

  “Not always,” I said. “Could we talk about me getting loose, since you’ve got my chocote?”

  “Shush,” she said, a pig through the trail mix and popping the chocote chips in her mouth. “This is amazing. Better than sex.”

  “I think it depends on your partner. But yes, it’s very good.” Watg the almost naked dryad in the middle of sensuous enjoyment rodug more of a rea than being groped.

  She didn’t say another word until she’d left only nuts irail mix.

  “Do you want more?” I asked.

  “You have more?”

  “Not on me. But I know where to get some. If you set me free, I’ll e back with more chocote.”

  “As much as this?”

  I could bring much more, if I wao. But if she was going to let me go for that, I wasn’t going tain against myself. “Yes, I think I get that much,” I said. “It will e, but obviously, my freedom is worth it.”

  She looked at me, thinking about it.

  “Or you try keeping me restrained forever, stantly watg unless I escape, and never having any more chocote again as long as you live.”

  She frowned. “There is another alternative, you know.”

  “You could kill me. Also resulting in no more chocote.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “But I think you’re a better person, er, dryad, than that.”

  She looked offended. “Dryads are people.”

  “Definitely,” I agreed.

  She gave me a fierce look. “If you try to harm me, I’ll just you up again. And this time I’ll use vines with thorns. Swear you’ll e back, with chocote and without doing me harm?”

  “I swear I’ll e back with chocote and won’t touch you without your permission.”

  “What about with my permission?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  “That we talk about,” I said, amazed at her ability to turn on a dime.

  She walked forward. “Well, you seem harmless enough.” She pushed her chest up against me, and slid her hand along my side, down to my hip. “I didn’t swear an oath not to touch you.”

  “No, you didn’t,” I agreed.

  She tugged at my shorts, and when they didn’t yield, she k on the ground and worked the button loose. “How do these e off, anyway?”

  “Um, Xy, what are you doing?” My cock was reag, in spite of my situation. I really o foaking sure she let me go. My cock was definitely hard now, and straining against the shorts. In fact, it eeking out the top.

  “Sealing the deal, of course.” She rubbed the sensitive gns, making me shudder. “You must be enormous.”

  “My clothes are desigo be difficult for a me to get off,” I told her.

  “Oh, fine. You did swear, after all. I just thought I’d take advantage while you were still all tied up, and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have minded.” She waved her hands, and the vines peeled off me, o a time. It took a whole minute before they were all off.

  “Those kinds of games require a lot of trust,” I said. I adjusted the shorts, tugging them up so that they covered me.

  “Why wouldn’t you trust me?” she asked, looking up at me with an injured expression.

  “Because you grabbed me and tied me up before you even talked to me?”

  “Because you destroyed a ton of pnts before you even talked to me! Besides, you also made a huge amount of noise doing it. It frightehe squirrels.”

  As beautiful as she was, I was not going to accept an angry blow job. I’d be worried about teeth the whole time. “I sider our deal to be sealed. Although, if you wanted a kiss?”

  “Kiss? But that’s so intimate.”

  And trying to take my pants off wasn’t? “As you wish. We don’t have to, but you know, it might help me have something to look forward to when I return.”

  She tilted her head. “That was why I was going to suck your cod leave yht on the edge asm. But we do the other.”

  She ed her arms around me and tilted her face up. I kissed her, intending to keep it gentle, but she slipped her too my mouth so I did the same. I was aware of her soft breasts squishing against mi took us several minutes before we stopped for air.

  Now! Life Drain!

  “See what my tongue do?” she said.

  I grinned, ign Enash. “Better than chocote.”

  “Liar!” she said, stepping back. “All men are liars.” She frowned, and then added. “But at least you told a sweet lie. Hurry back.”

  “It might not be until tomorrow. I don’t know how long it will take me.” I’d spotted a venieore just two blocks away from my new pce, but I didn’t want to make it seem too easy to get.

  “Whenever you e, just, um, make one of those loud noises. But without hurting the forest! The squirrels will hear, and they’ll get me, because that awful noise frightens them.”

  I nodded, assuming she meant the sounds of the saw or the lirimmer. I kissed her lightly again. “I’ll see you soon, Xy.”

  “You better, Abe-abby.”

  “Just Abby.”

  “Oh. Abby is short for Abel, then? Abby is a much better name.” She looked me up and down. “All those curves, and such a big cock. If only that chocote wasn’t so good, I’d never let you go.” She frowned. “Except that I’m a better dryad than that.”

  She watched me as I picked up the weed whacker and walked away. I gnced over my shoulder and saw that she was followi a distance. I couldn’t stop her from seeing me go into the crypt, which meant at least one person knew where I lived. But after I pushed my way through the doors, I bolted them, and took a deep breath.

  God, she was sexy. And dangerous.

  That only made her sexier.

  By the time I ged my clothes, climbed the dder, and pulled myself up the rope into my basement, the sun had started to set, and I’d made hardly any progress on the house. The project I’d been so excited about a few days ago was on the back burner, and I didn’t love that.

  But I couldn’t get the world I’d discovered out of my mind, and especially, I couldn’t get Xy out of my mind. Had I really said no to a blowjob from her? But restrained by her vines, it would have nded differently, somehow. If she’d offered again after I’d freed her, I would have taken her up on it. I’d just met her, but I’d had one-night stands before. Most of my retionships weren’t full-on, but that didn’t mean I inteo be celibate. And I wao take my new body for a spin.

  But on my terms.

  I peeled off some more aper, hung some curtains, and phe bottom of the door that needed fixing.

  After dark I went out and bought a few different kinds of chocote bars, and dropped by the hardware store to get some sts to make a rope dder out of. Then I took the vacuum er into the mausoleum to get the dust on the floor. That was totally not because I wao spend a few more minutes as Abby, and maybe touch myself some.

  ing house. Women’s work. You should get a sve to do that.

  Yeah, right. My private moment wouldn’t be so private. I supposed I’d get used to that, at some point.

  I went back up and assembled the bed. At least I’d get a better night’s sleep than on the air mattress.

  But I didn’t. I y wide awake, thinking of what I’d found outside. Of Xy. Of her going down on me. Of her hands on my breasts, and mine on hers. I jerked off, wanting to take advantage of the post asmic haze to fall asleep, but that didn’t help, either.

  Finally, I gave up. Knowing I was going tret it in the m, I went bato the basement and through the puzzle. I wore just a loose sweatshirt that I ofte in, and underwear, and put on Abby’s shorts and shoes when I got to the tomb. Of course, I’d alsht chocote.

  I gnced around. The pce had nice, solid walls, even if the engravings were a bit strange, showing various battles involving undead armies and an imperious skeletal figure who resumably Enash. Cover those up with a little wood paneling, and the pce might look almost homey, although windows would help a lot. Without windows, though, the pce was a fortress with only one way in, and maybe that was best given that it guarded the gate to Earth.

  I opehe doors and walked outside. Everything retty much as I left it, except that it was night in Xy’s world just as it was oh. Fortunately, I had a fshlight. I revved the lirimmer and sat down on what I took to be the ruins of the guard tower to wait for Xy to appear.

  I was almost ready to give up, figuring she was sleeping, wherees rustled. Presumably that meant she roag, although I didn’t remember any noise warning me before she started ing me up, st time.

  But instead, the brambles parted, making a path where there hadn’t been before. Fireflies lit the path, making my fshlight unnecessary to see which way to go. I breathed in the fresh evening air of the forest, including some sweet-smelling flowers. The invitation was obvious, but it made me uneasy. Xy wanted me further away from home, perhaps in a pce she had more power. I thought about the danger, but I still had several cards up my sleeve. As far as I could tell, I could cast Dimension Step repeatedly if I o, and she didn’t know about it because I hadn’t used it to escape. It only caused me a headache when I tried to use it to go up into my basement.

  I couldn’t turn down adventure. I set out along the path that opened up for me, past brush and trees. Despite the fireflies, I used my fshlight, because I didn’t want to trip on anything, and because I wao see the strange new world as I went deeper into it than I had before. I saw several trees that looked like they were some kind of fern. I spotted another one of the green squirrels, and this oopped to stare at me food sed before running away.

  After a quarter of a mile or so, the path widened into a clearing. There, on a bed of leaves, y Xy. Around her various flowers bloomed in an almost perfect circle. A garnd of flowers in her dark green hair, and three green leaves, one for each breast and the other at the jun of her legs, were all she wore. She ropped up on one elbow, watg me.

  “Hi there,” she said.

  “Well, hi yourself.”

  “I didn’t expect you to e at night. When someone endowed like you reaches out for a woman at night, she’s allowed to have some expectations. Especially if she has told her she finds her attractive. It is she, isn’t it?”

  I hadn’t given it much thought. I suppose — well, there was only one part of Abby that was male. Two, ting her brain.

  I went with it. “Sure. She. Of course I find you attractive. Who wouldn’t?” Xy had the body of a swimsuit model, except for being green with green hair. And those just made her look exotic.

  “I did some thinking.”

  “And?”

  “I thought I couldn’t believe that I let you get away from me.”