It was a nice house, no question about it. An small place, hardly palatial by any stretch of the imagination, but to be truthful, it was exactly what he wanted. Someplace small and comfortable with just enough land that when he looked out the windows, he saw trees, lawn, and the gardens he was working on instead of his neighbors. He was also hoping that it would be more conducive to writing than his old apartment, although he had to admit, part of the clashes there had been his fault. He tended to crank up his music a little loud when he was deep in thought, and small wonder, the neighbors hadn't really appreciated it.
Joseph "Muse" Hait brushed back his hair and stared out the window at the small explosion of gardening tools and pots. One of his prise acquisitions, an sizable tree he'd managed to finagle an import on was already planted, while a lot of the flower beds were still half done. It had been too big of a project for him to fiddle around with on his own, and far too big a cut of his last royalty check to leave the thing waiting to be planted. From here on out he was just going to have to keep his fingers cross that it didn't decide that it hated the soil, the air, the moisture conditions, his fertilizers, or some other combination of things that plants could be irritable about. The more spectacular the plant, the more 'Prima Donna' he tended to find them given their gumption. It was so worth it though, he considered, stepping away from the window and flipping open his laptop. His main computer wasn't going to be here until the rest of his furniture arrived, but he already had ideas he wanted to write down, which he considered a good sign. Maybe he'd even think of something to write about involving the tree. That would make an interesting story....

When he opened his eyes, he expected to be greeted by the songs of his friends, the birds. Luntian, Azul and Liit. (Green, blue and small respectively if translated). There would be sunlight streaming through the leaves and on his face, leaving a feeling of beautiful new day.

Instead, the forest dweller woke up to the smell of unfamiliar soil and flowers. This did not smell like home at all!, he thought to himself. Instantly, he sprang up from his bed and looked about. Malaya rose from his lavishly decorated beddings to leave this home. The spirit was frightful really. Taking careful little steps, he nearly fell over as he felt suddenly weak. What was happening?!

Swallowing nervously, he decided to leave the tree and take on a tangible form --- one that was perceivable by the five senses. Malaya used whatever energy he still have to accomplish the task.

Give or take half an hour, the tree's trunk began to swirl and contort as if trying to rechange it's shape. The strange event came to a close as it formed what looked like a small circle which Malaya escaped from, pushing himself out by pulling apart the tree rather violently.

Once outside, the engkanto looked about with horrified eyes. This was...not home. Where was he?

The answer to Malaya's question went unanswered by the half done flower beds and their wild mix of already sprouted seedlings and trays of seed packets, unless you counted the toppling of a shovel as though in overwhelming indifference to his puzzlement to be an answer.

Inside the house, unaware of the goings on, Muse leaned back from the computer with a bone creaking stretch, yawning hugely as he pushed the chair back onto its back legs. Music was blasting from the portable radio, but he leaned forward a moment later and switched it off. Some idiotic teen music star, he wasn't even sure who, but he was pretty sure by their obnoxious, sex crazed lyrics and whiny voice that he'd probably seen them on the news.
"...Coffee." He decided, standing up, and rubbing his eyes. "Coffee's a cool id...." He paused in his train of thought, wondering if he was right. Had he just seen some sign of motion out of the corner of his eye?
It didn't -seem- like an animal...seemed a little bold for a deer to be wandering into his yard yet anyway.
Please got let it not be that creepy kid from the con...
He reluctantly turned to look, hoping it was just a deer, or at worst, one of the neighbors from down the road.
He himself was likely visible through the large window. A moderately tall man with extremely long brown hair, wearing at present a black t-shirt with some logo mostly faded off, tucked into faded bluejeans.

Clasping his hands over his chest, the engkanto swallowed nervously as he took unsure steps around the place. The new soil hurt his bare feet and would need some getting used to. It was soft and walkable but not like home. Definitely not like home. Malaya wandered through the unfinished garden and felt a little glee rush through him. Whoever stayed in this new place liked plants. He liked that. Smiling softly, some of his fear having evaporated at the sight of flowers, Malaya crouched to reach out and fondle the petals.

The tree dweller had not changed into day clothes and was still quite scantily clad enough for bed. With what seemed like a loin cloth, decorated by real flowers and leaves, and a long transparent robe that had weaved patterns that seemed otherworldly, the young spirit -relative to his own kind that is but old enough to be any human's grandfather- found himself taken by the startings of the garden.

So much as to use his own bare hands to till through and look for weeds, pulling them out. Yes, he forgot he was no longer home and that fear he had earlier.

He leaned on the window ledge, mouth open slightly with confusion at what he was looking at, because it had to be about the strangest thing he could remember seeing in his life, and it was giving him pause as to weather or not he were awake, because short of dreaming or hallucinating, he couldn't quite figure out why there was a next to naked man wandering around in his garden....weeding.
True, it wasn't the creepy little guy from the con...but still. "...This is cracked." He shook his head, stepping back and heading toward the front door. Granted the intelligent move might have been to call the cops, but he looked pretty harmless so far, and if there was a place to hide anything dangerous in that outfit he'd be really surprised. Especially since he was kind of surprised the man was hiding -himself- in something like that.
He marched through the kitchen, dodging a few partially unpacked boxes, testament to his overall distraction, and barged out through the front door making the hinges on the screen door shriek in protest as he stepped out barefoot onto the deck, feet slapping on the weathered wood, scanning around again to see if the strange visitor was still there.

Malaya hummed a soft tune, something short of a trill but still the sort that sent shivers down a mortal's spine. He had a high pitched singing voice that matched the wind's shrillness at given times. Upon hearing the creaking of the wood and movement, he stopped. The spirit froze in midweeding, his eyes wide as saucers and like a deer in the headlights.

Frightened by the fact he had been caught, he stood up quickly, raising the hood of his robe -as if that would hide him- and skipped to the back of his tree, hiding behind it and trying his best to keep out of plain view. The tree dweller's heart was thumping hard against his cage as he waited.

The sound of singing sent an thrill up his spine, crawling up from the base of his back to nestle on tickly legs just under his hair line, making him shiver in spite of the comparatively warm weather. God what an eerie sound...
He stepped off the porch slowly, still looking around as he moved forward, heading where he'd seen the man last. "...Hello?" He called out, frowning slightly, but more out of curiosity than anything else. Please, he prayed inwardly to whoever might be listening, let this guy not be insane, or at least not armed. Maybe he should have thought more before coming out here, there were plenty of garden tools kicking around that someone dangerous would be able to use to inflict quite a lot of harm.
"...I'm not going to hurt you." He called, realizing that sounded a little like he was addressing a child. "...I'm just curious what you're doing in my garden. Ok? Nothing bad. I'm just new to the area. Just moved here."
He glanced around at the scattered and pulled up weeds, tucking his fingers into his pockets and rocking slightly on his heels, looking for some further movement from the young man. Coming around the house he'd only caught a partial glimpse of him, and was looking for further movement. "....Hey, My name's Joseph Hait, whats yours?" He called again, trying to invite conversation. Engage the stranger, make it a bit more personal.

Tentatively, he peeked from his spot, long black hair obscuring his fear struck eyes. This was the very first time since he was in the presence of a human this near! He usually looked from a far and frowned upon their money based lumbering ways but smiled when environmentalist groups came to do replanting. That meant more places to live in and possibly more people that could move in to their cozy forest.

Malaya slowly stepped out of the tree and into plain view then replied, "I live in this tree... Please don't destroy it. If you do, I'll be harmed as well."

He remembered that there have been times when he had caught sight of humans taking away trees. They were still alive and well as they were being taken away. Not slaughtered and sliced as they usually did. As well as heard stories of spirits disappearing...kidnapped so to speak.

"...I'm Malaya."

Remembering the human gesture, he offered his hand to Muse, shakily.

Joseph jumped at the unexpected movement from the far side of the tree, catching his breath with a gasp before settling down again, still a little wide eyed and rattled. Damn the kid was quiet, he hadn't expected that at all... it was almost like he'd...
Almost like he'd come right out of the tree. That was crazy...right?
He gave a slightly nervous laugh as he digested what Malaya had just said, shaking his head. "...Why the heck would I destroy...I just...." He fumbled, his cool blasted out of the water by trying to get his head around the idea that the laws of reality seemed to have just been bent out of shape. "I'm sorry, what? Did you just say you live in the tree?" He glanced back at the tree, automatically looking for some sign of a tree house or the like. "....This tree was transplanted. ...H-how could you be...living in it?"

Malaya nodded. He had a feeling this would be difficult to explain. He pursed his naturally pouty lips in a thin line. Using his outstretched hand to beckon Muse towards him, the spirit then nodded. "I'll show you something. I know it's a little hard for your kind of believe in this sort of thing as you grew up in some place far from us but we do exist..."

The tree spirit placed a hand over the tree bark and the trunk's design and shape once more contorted as it did earlier. After which a hole opened. Inside was his humble little room which was lavishly decorated in flowers and plants, green and twinkling in an otherworldly way. It was a neat little place and it's center piece was basically the four poster bed with messy satin sheets.

As he waited for the human to respond to him, he felt like crying now that his assumptions were true. Like those who disappeared ahead of him, Malaya now shared their fate and there was no telling if he could go back or what would happen now.

The idea of his comfortable calm broken rattled his wits.

Muse did in fact number among those people with a sort of foggy belief that there were indeed things in the world that weren't explainable by science. However finding one of them in his yard had never even pinged as a possibility on his mental radar. A mostly unclad young man in his yard? Very bizzare, true, but acceptable. He'd had dreams that were odder...and a few of them might have included someone nearly as easy on the eyes as Malaya....but none of them included doorways opening in trees.
His face went a few shades paler from shock, words failing him at the sight. Out of all the possible shocks, he probably would have handled the sight of Malaya with a knife better. A knife, at least, existed logically within his world view, where fantasy was what he wrote about, not what he lived.
He had approached a step, but stumbled back out of raw, instinctive surprise at everything he -thought- he knew being disrupted at the small room that opened in front of his eyes, tripping over his own feet in the process and...in a triumph of rationality versus the surreal and the impossible, executed an fine cross between an trip and a faint.
Had he been a third party observer to this particular act of gracelessness, he probably would have observed that at the very least, the only observer to this destroyer of any shred of dignity he might have, clearly couldn't exist. Being in a dead faint however, whatever deity lorded over the universes particular sense of humor was the only other observer to the occasion.

Malaya gasped out loud when the brunet fell over and lost consciousness. He dropped his knees, craddling the man, lightly patting his cheek.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to frighten you...too much."

He paused as he realized what he said and shook his head, "Please wake up! I didn't mean to!"

Biting on his lower lip, the spirit started to panic. From his recollections, his kind did not faint. Or if they did, it lasted a while and you simply had to wait for them to wake.

Same case for humans he supposed?

The engkanto noticed that the door to the man's house was open. Truth be told, he contemplated nursing him in his tree home but he felt that if he woke up to such unfamiliar territory, Joseph would have fainted all over again.

Taking initiative, he hoisted the body up and slung an arm over his shoulder, half dragging and all struggling to get him in the house. To some place where the man could lie down until he was conscious again. Malaya noted that there wasn't much injury save the possible shock, thankfully. The spirit wasn't too keen on first aid especially not on humans.
___

You did it. XD

The house, as mentioned, was an labyrinth of boxes at present, most of the rooms had at least one box sitting out, and the kitchen had more along the lines of ten, part of them unpacked and set up, like the coffee pot and canisters on the counter, and the mugs in the cupboards. In the living room which was directly off the kitchen, there was an large overstuffed sofa, though off and down the right hallway was the bedroom, giving Malaya a choice of what to do with his not exactly feather light 'neighbor'. Or unintentional kidnapper if you would.
Joseph muttered slightly as his frazzled, overtaxed sense of reality attempted to adapt to or explain the impossibility that had caused him to pass out in the first place. Something of a force reboot.

Feeling merciful despite the protests of being under such weight for longer time, Malaya decided to bring him to the bedroom and jostled his way through the boxes. The spirit's rationale was that they'd get there anyway so might as well go the extra mile. Upon reaching the room, the engkanto settled the human on the bed and covered him modestly to his chin before turning on his hell to go get a ready glass of water.

From this time on, he would wait for the mortal to awaken to somewhat apologize and help him rationalize things out. He could tell that Joseph did not take what he had been told easily. Twirling a lock of hair nervously, Malaya waited... toes curling and teeth gritting.

...What's taking him so long to wake up? I hope he's still alive!

The tree spirit stood up and pressed his ear to the chest and heard a heart beat. Still there!

Perhaps it was Malaya's head resting on his chest that made him finally open his eyes again, maybe it was simply providence, but he woke.
He was a bit rattled still, half convinced that maybe he'd just dreamed everything, only he couldn't exactly remember having had anyone over last night that he'd be waking up with them.
He blinked for a moment, absorbing the view as the memory of the tree filtered back into his consciousness, coming up with the first rational reasoning behind what he'd seen that he could think of. "...You're either damn cute for a gas leak or the cuddliest bad Chinese food dream I've ever had..."

The tree dweller blinked and then removed himself from the man's chest. What the... Growling menacingly as he could, though it wasn't very convincing because of how harmless he looked. Malaya's usually large gray eyes were thinned down to slits. He hoisted himself up the bed and eventually on the human's stomach, making sure that the one underneath him could really feel his weight ---which wasn't much.
Once comfortable, Malaya hmm'ed contentedly and then bounced a bit then cleared his throat.

Then he slowly leaned over the brunet's body, long ink black strands tickling Joseph's skin. Malaya ran his smooth palms on his face, feeling the texture of human skin.

Without warning, the engkanto pinched on the man's nose hard and said, "They said that if you think you're dreaming you should say -this is just a dream- and you'll wake up. Or you pinch yourself. If it hurts then it's real.[/i]

Joseph looked something akin to shell-shocked at the growl, gaping with surprise as the surprisingly delicate, surprisingly forward young man climbed up to sit astride him so boldly that he probably would have started blushing from shock at the rather seductive behavior...at least until his nose was abruptly grabbed in an startling pinch that shook him from haze of surprise.
"Wh...OW!" He moved to sit up from surprise, or at least to pry the gripping fingers off the bridge of his nose.
So if this wasn't a dream...then there was really an complete stranger...not only currently sitting on him...but...possibly living in his tree, as the chances of this being some kind of surreal, stress induced dream were diminishing quickly. His dreams were never this vivid. "...You aren't kidding are you??"

Malaya poised his pointing finger on the side of his forehead and closed his eyes, looking as if he was musing out loud. "Hmm..." Then turned to look at Joseph with a grin, shaking his head, "I'm afraid not, boy. I'm as real as the sun in the bright yellow sun!"

After which he looked at Joseph and then at himself. The tree spirit then jumped off the mortal instantly and cleared his throat, fixing himself and now keeping his distance. "So I'm a cute gas leak eh? Whatever the gas leak is... But that's just too long. Malaya's my name and I prefer being addressed so. No, don't also call me chick looking thing either. The more I won't come if you summon me so either."

He remembered an incident once when there had been a bunch of teenaged boy scouts out in the forest. There had been a time the children caught him walking about then called him HEY CHICK THING! Malaya hated that.

A chick was small and feathery. HE WAS NOT SMALL AND FEATHERY.
___

If he only knew what chick meant amongst humans 8D

"Boy?" He demanded, sitting up as Malaya sprung off as light as a cat. "...You've got to be at least five, maybe ten years my junior." He argued, brushing aside the blankets in flusterment and swinging his feet to the floor. God, had he really fainted? How the hell had this wisp of a kid dragged him in here without getting a hernia?
"Well you do look a bit like a girl...But seriously? You're pretty demanding for someone who's sorta...oh...trespassing?"
He didn't actually intend to call the police, but he was trying to feel a bit less disadvantaged here, and the demanding Malaya had him completely off guard. "And while we're at it Junior, how about you use my name too?"
He was pretty sure he'd mentioned his name outside, but then, the young mans behavior had shifted so much, from hiding in terror to strutting around the bedroom like a bantam rooster, that he wasn't even fully sure of -that- anymore.

---
((Joe: @_@ and for that matter, where the @*^#@# are your CLOTHES?))

The tree spirit nodded, "Well you are younger than me I take it?" Upon getting told he was otherwise, Malaya chuckled and turned to smile, white teeth flashing and all. "Younger... If you like I can always try acting younger than I really should but I've been told I was a nasty youngling. It's a good thing I finally grew up really."

Knowing that the mortal was nothing that smelled of danger like those pesky human psychics or trying hards, the engkanto felt safter about him and began to show some more personality than earlier. It had been natural of his sort to be fearful and quiet at first but knowing the coast was clear, he would then showcase what a head ache and a darling he could be at once.

"Me...A girl?" He gasped and rose his eyebrow incredulously. "Where did you---TRESSPASING?! Excuse me! I could have just LEFT you kissing the soil instead!" The forest dweller pouted, turning his gaze off Joseph and folded his arms. "I was being G-E-N-E-R-O-U-S."

At this point, Malaya was feeling slightly offended and giving the mortal a very nice view of his undecipherable pony tail, back and hindside through the robe that showed it all.

"I demand an apology!"
___

It's in the tree house. 8D

Joseph sputtered in disbelief at the theatrics from his next to naked house guest, eyes wide.
"You're unbelievable!" He burst out as he stood up, grabbing for his own robe off the bed-head. ((otherwise known to joking friends as the "Bachelors Other Closet".
"Ok Sunshine, how old ARE you exactly. Try me." He demanded. "Ok, so you got me inside without killing yourself. I'm impressed, and embarrassed as hell. I'll even concede there's a chance you could conceivably be living in a tree without killing the thing. Happy? But no way do I buy that you're older than me. Can't happen. No way. Sorry. Play time is -over-. And for the love of God who dressed you?" He demanded, attempting to put the bathrobe over Malaya's shoulder. It was also silk, a navy blue robe with the 'superman' logo on the back that an ex had gotten him for Christmas...he didn't remember how long ago now. The robe had been more impervious than their relationship, and as a definite plus, it wasn't see through.

--
Joe: *FLAIL!* X_@ NEKIDPEOPLEINVADINGMYHOUSE!

The tree spirit blinked and simply nodded, proceeding to count his fingers, "I think I'm turning fifty or something this year? I'm not sure. I haven't counted the rings on my tree yet. But...Hmmm." He stopped and mused out for real this time, "Want me to double check when I get home though?"

Malaya let out a little sound of surprise as the robe was placed on his shoulders, "Uhh...Joseph, these are my sleeping clothes. I usually sleep naked actually." Then he smiled nervously, "I...usually. I wonder why I chose to wear clothes though. Lucky you then?" He chuckled and then continued, "My normal clothes aren't usually that revealing really."

The engkanto couldn't help but let the happy sigh escape his lips when the man seemed concerned over his next to naked state. It was sweet really. "Thank you."
___

Ooh. Thar we go. Lookit relief!

"....Fifty?" He was pretty sure he could feel the beginnings of a headache forming. This kid was something else. If it was some kind of role-play, it was incredibly elaborate. At least he theoretically normally wore more clothing. Maybe this was all just one of those odd 'persona' things, like the people that insisted they were animals really. How much weirder could this possibly get anyway?
"Oh boy...yeah lucky me...You're welcome." He shook his head in numb disbelief, trying to imagine how much worse he'd have reacted if the young man had popped into his yard totally naked. "...I'm gonna make some coffee." He decided. "...You drink coffee?" He needed to let this sink in, and figure out what to do.
Bedroom in a tree? The tree had just...God.

--
Joe: X_X *debating putting something a little stronger than cream in his coffee*

Malaya turned towards the human and repeated the drink's name, "Coffee? What is...this coffee? I've never had it or heard of it...Though I know of something similar. Cacao? Or something like that... I do read human books. But it's been a while since you see."

The engkanto pulled the robe towards his body some more and sat down. This was quite a day. If the human felt like he was hallucinating and was probably going senile, what about him? Out in the middle of nowhere and with no chance of going back. They were in the same boat practically. It would do them both good to actually cooperate.

"You know...You're not the only one whose perfect little world has been shattered. What about me? I don't know how I'll ever get back to where I was..."

Malaya dropped his gaze to the floor and sighed sadly.
___

Nothing too strong though! D:

"...Not quite like coco, but I've got hot chocolate too." He offered, gesturing vaguely down the hallway.
Human books. Gotcha. "Well....lets start this way. Where exactly are you from?" He asked, stopping and leaning on the doorframe, pushing his hair back from his face and eying Malaya from under his arm.

---
Picture
dunno if it came out ok. I made it up as I went.