guardian angel? check. crazy insane, highly unstable guardian angel? double-check. but aside from knowing he was built like a brick outhouse i didn't know a thing about who he really was or who he was working for. i had a feeling it all boiled down to stupid foreseeance 4311, though. i checked elyssa's pulse. it beat strongly, but she wasn't stirring. i locked her arm over my neck and shoulder and struggled to my feet. carrying the dead weight of a human was tough without supernatural strength, and elyssa had a robust figure packed with dense muscle.

"i help," said a female voice behind me.

i yelped and almost dropped elyssa, staggering backwards and into the wall in an attempt to keep my balance.

the pretty young girl from the forest stood there, except this time she wasn't as naked. a simple green dress covered her tender bits down to about mid-thigh. from there down, her feet and legs remained bare and white dust covered her toes.

"who are you?" i asked for probably the thousandth time that day.

she smiled, displaying pearly white teeth and walked to me, her hands touching my face and looking into my eyes like i was a wondrous thing to behold. "i help." her voice was sweet and, if i had to use a ten-dollar word to describe it, mellifluous. for some reason, i trusted her without question. in my gut i knew she wasn't going to whip out a knife and disembowel me.

"thanks."

the girl positioned herself on elyssa's other side. where elyssa was tall, fair-skinned, and muscular, this girl was short, petite, and olive-toned. but she had no problems holding up my girlfriend. if anything, she had an easier time of it than i did even if elyssa's feet were dragging.

i turned to head back to the street but the girl shook her head and pointed toward the sharp turn in the alley ahead. right at the door the gray men had emerged from.

"you want to go to the park?"

she nodded.

so we headed on, though my stomach knotted and twisted at the thought of another group of golem dudes attacking us. as we passed the last of the gray men's bodies, i noticed it was dissolving into a puddle of gray sludge, leaving behind nothing but the suit. from the little contact i'd had with the things, the flesh had felt real, though it was hard to remember now in the fading heat of battle. the one whose head i'd ripped off had felt flesh-like, but the way the head had popped off like a doll made me shudder in revulsion. vamplings. hellhounds. golems. seemed there was no end to the kinds of monsters out to kill or capture me.

"where do you come from?" i asked the girl.

she smiled shyly but said nothing.

"lovely," i muttered. "well, at least you're nicer than mystery man."

she beamed at me.

after a couple more turns we reached a large marble-paved roundabout bordered by five-story buildings, curved and molded in designs that didn't seem physically possible. these buildings looked modern-no, futuristic-and were spotless. one building was stark white with stainless balconies and appeared to be made from shiny glowing plastic. another was a checkered black reminding me of carbon fiber. i felt my pie hole hanging open as the woman and i carried elyssa through a sprawling park, green and lush, in the middle of the roundabout.

hardwood trees similar to maples towered above the glade while well-manicured hedges bloomed with flowers of more colors than the paint section of a hardware store. we moved elyssa to a bench made of the checkered black material and set her down. i remained standing and gaped at the amazing scenery. the buildings looked like apartments, each one of unearthly design, as if a series of architects had tried to outdo the last one. ordinary items like bicycles and flower pots on the balconies added a surreal touch. designs like this were the last thing i expected after touring the old-world areas.

on the opposite side of the park, i saw a blue sign proclaiming magicsoft affixed to a building made from what appeared to be liquid glass. people walked up shimmering stairs and beneath an arching entrance. just across from it was a stark white sign with an orange on it, identical to the ones i'd seen on meghan and smith's tablet computers. i sighed in relief, happy to finally be in the right area.

"you like?" the girl asked, startling me from my reverie.

i nodded. "very much."

she smiled-it seemed like the thing she did most. and she did it very well.

i looked at her dark olive skin, the slight slant to her eyes and wondered where she was from. maybe she didn't speak much english. at least one thing was sure. "you're not a woodlander are you?"

her large eyes blinked and she tilted her head slightly to the side.

"you know, like a wood nymph."

she shook her head. "no."

her accent wasn't what i would consider asian, but she definitely had some kind of a weird lilt to her speech.

elyssa groaned. the girl looked at her. her smile faltered and flattened. she looked at me and the smile returned, lighting her features with happiness. a sweet sigh escaped her lips. "i go." she pecked a kiss on my nose and giggled, covering her mouth with a hand like a shy teenybopper on the first date. with that, she bolted away in a flash, vanishing into the same alley mouth we'd just come from. i gaped for a moment until elyssa groaned again.

i pressed my hands to her cheeks, her forehead. "sweetie? can you hear me? are you okay?"

one eyelid fluttered open followed by the next. "huh? what?" she bolted upright, hands going for the knives that were no longer in their sheaths. i'd left them embedded in the backs of a couple of golems.

"it's okay. you're safe."

elyssa rose from the bench, staggered and pressed a hand to her head with a wince. "what did they hit me with?"

"no idea." i told her about the fight and the guardian angel mystery man.

"did he have any tattoos or scars? rings? other jewelry or markings?"

"no, not that i could see. but his voice sounded weird. like it was deeper than a normal voice."

"disguised?"

i shrugged. "it didn't sound normal. kind of reminded me of this toy android mask i used to have that made my voice sound like a nuclear space robot."

"uh, okay." the corner of her lip lifted in a half grin.

"he was ripped. huge arms and shoulders, a little taller than me-well, half a head or so-and he knew how to handle a sword. those golems were inhumanly fast but they couldn't touch him."

she frowned, furrowed her brow. "there are a lot of blade masters in the overworld, so that doesn't narrow it down much."

"what's the deal with swords anyway? what's to stop someone from whipping out an automatic rifle and blowing away a guy with a blade?"

she flicked a hand in disgust. "guns are considered cowardly weapons."

"so? i'll bet there are plenty of bad dudes who don't give a crap about honor when it comes to fighting."

"there are also plenty of sorcerers who don't need guns," she said, rubbing her eyes and blinking them. "i've fought them as well and i'll tell you something: i'd rather face someone with a gun."

"i'd rather go without all the bloodshed. i'm a peacenik."

she laughed. "this coming from the guy who plays kings and castles."

"yeah, but that's make-believe murder and mayhem."

elyssa glanced at the magicsoft sign and motioned toward it with her head. "want to continue this little quest or go home?"

i was scared, no doubt about it. the golems had shattered any pretense of a pleasant outing, but what had i expected? i was trying to meet with the guy hired to kill my father. he might very well kill me himself.

"let's do this."

she nodded and we walked across the park and sat on the bench facing the magicsoft sign. a line of people wearing everything from jeans to suits and ties, to long flowing sorcerer robes stretched around the front of the store and vanished around the corner. the inside of the store, clearly visible through the odd liquid glass material making up the walls of the building, was packed. several very tired-looking sorcerers stood behind a shiny metallic counter, talking to people and taking money. a poster on one of the windows showed a smiling man in fancy black robes holding a laptop computer in one hand. he wore thick rimmed square glasses reminding me of smith a little bit, though this guy looked older.

across the road was a very similar scene aside from the orange on the sign and the glowing white material of the building. the line of people waiting there looked very much like the one at magicsoft. every so often one of the people in the orange line shouted an insult at someone in the magicsoft line. some of the banter was playful; some of it was downright mean.

orange's posters featured a thin balding man with a goatee holding various devices. a tagline on the poster read: now you can compare apples to oranges!

"what the freak is going on there?"

elyssa raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "must be some new release i guess. orange and magicsoft are super-competitive and their tablets and smartphones are pretty popular."

"good lord. i guess there's an overworld equivalent for everything."

she took my hand and squeezed it. "i know it must all seem crazy to you. i grew up in this world so it's not such a big deal to me. i've been here tons of times, some for shopping and having a fun day out with my mom." her eyes grew distant and welled with emotion. "but i guess that's done now." she pressed a hand over her eyes and took a deep breath.

i hugged her. "it'll be okay, babe. we'll work this out somehow."

she nodded and kissed me on the cheek but i noticed her eyes were already dry and she'd forced her face back to neutrality. "yeah. maybe pigs will fly, too."

i chuckled. "hey, i'll bet shelton could make it happen."

a smile broke through her steadfast facade. "i'd like to see that."

i opened the cardboard box and sniffed the angel biscuit again before pinching off a piece and nibbling it. it tasted like roasted almonds. "hey, this thing isn't half bad."