Stepping through the Hedgerow

Instantly her mind filled with visions of death and blood. Of killing and evil. She felt the heat and the blast. She saw the blood and the parts of the people around him splattering her with its gore. She felt his wish to die with his team. She felt his hurt, anger, loathing, and pain.

After reliving his injury three times, she pushed harder against the block. She felt it waiver for a second and something clicked deep down inside her. "No...! It can't be. I've looked for so long I couldn't just stumble over him like this." She jerked up straight as the rest of Michael's life flashed in front of her eyes. Then the door slammed closed. She tried to push again, but was blocked.

"The magic is forbidden to you until this is over." Her mother's voice screamed into her head. "It is just-payment for showing your father what he should not have seen." Her mother scolded.

"Good luck Mother. I think you're going to need it. I've seen enough... for now. Tell Father I love him when you have regained your temper." She threw her answer back into her mother's thoughts and laughed at the slamming of the door in her mind.

She smiled again as the storm of her parent's argument raged around her. She knew she would have to find Michael shelter before her mother's temper got the best of him. She touched her necklace and sang. She lifted Michael up and followed his memory back to the warm cabin, deep in the woods.

The lights stayed on just long enough to get Michael to bed before a loud crash and total darkness. Estelle rubbed the necklace and a bright spark danced in her palm. Softly blowing the spark, instantly all the lamps and candles were lit, giving the cabin a soft glow. She looked down and touched his face and whispered. "Heal...," and walked out. Her stomach grumbled and she started poking around the rambling cabin, to find something she could eat.

***

Michael didn't want to wake up. He'd rather focus on the beautiful woman of his dreams. It didn't matter to him that she had white hair, or was reed thin. She didn't need huge breasts and a bubble butt to prove she was a woman. Her eyes captivated him. They were almond shaped and deep blue. They were almost lavender, ageless and deep. The sound of her voice was like the best music he had ever heard, not that he could understand the words.

He knew he had to be in heaven. His life was over and she was his angel. But then why would he have to relieve himself? It was the nagging sensation of his full bladder that made him realize it was only a dream.

Sighing as he got up, he hoped that maybe today he would be strong enough to do what needed to be done. He walked nude to the bathroom and started emptying his bladder. He was mid-stream when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and there she stood. "What the hell..?" He gasped and tried to turn off the flow, as he blushed.

"Good you awake. Come eat when done." She turned and walked away, but not before Michael saw the small smile.

"God damn son of a bitch...." He muttered as he shook the urine off his hand. "Just what the fuck is going on here?" He asked as he mopped up his mess. "Jesus fucking Christ on a crutch." He continued to swear as he looked out the door, before bolting to his room, looking for something to cover himself with.

He was still blushing when he followed his nose to the food on the table. "What the fuck is this?" He asked without looking at the woman in his cabin.

"Food... you eat, you need strength to heal." She said and looked at him. "Why you curse so much?" She asked tilting her head sidewise.

He could have sworn her ears had a slight point to them, but turned away so he wouldn't be caught staring at her.

"Did my mother send you to watch over me like some fucking child?" He growled.

"Why, are you acting like a child?" She looked at him, wanting to reach out and take the pain away. "You talk like a child, who just learn curse words." She smiled. "No, I not meet your mother." She flinched at the thunder that had been booming off and on the last few days as her parents argued.

"It's just more thunder. It can't hurt you." Michael said and sighed. He looked out the window and knew he couldn't make it to the cliff today. "Fuck it all anyway." He breathed.

"I know, parents need to argue. It will clear the air after." She tossed her long white hair behind her and looked into Michael's eyes. "Cliff is nice place, but you no go until you have healed." She told him with steel in her voice.

"What the fuck do you care?" He flinched when he realized she knew what he planned. "Why can't you leave me alone? Why won't you just let me die?" He screamed at her, hoping to scare her away.

"Because, it is not your time. I will not let you yet. You must heal, then you can see cliff." She rubbed a flat stone that hung around her neck and told him. "Time to sleep again. Sleep and Heal."

He didn't know why, but he got up and headed back to his bed. He got in and he felt her pull the covers over him. "I want to die." He told her honestly. "I don't deserve to live. I deserve to die. Life hurts too much!"

"I know." She said and he slept.

And so it went. Estelle would wake Michael up every couple of days to give him food and then put him back asleep. After the fourth day of listening to her parent's fight, she told them to take it somewhere else. She needed all her strength to heal Michael. She was surprised when they listened to her and the storm moved off. She felt sorry for where ever they decided to vent their anger, but she had other things to attend to.

Then next time Michael woke up, he wasn't surprised she was still there, but stopped cold when he realized she was nude. Her skin was flawless and her hair flowed down her long neck, over her shoulder and swelled to her perfectly pert breasts. His eyes took in her beauty as they absorbed the soft contours of her hips as they flowed down to her sculpted legs.

"Now, we are as you say, even. We have both seen the other natural so you can quit getting red over me seeing you passing your water." She said and slipped into her form fitting fern green garment.

"I don't even know your name...?" Michael said still stuck in place by the sight of such perfection.

"Estelle. Come eat Michael, you need your strength. It has been three days this time."

"How long have I be sleeping like this? Every time seems to blur in to the next." He asked sitting down at the table.

"One moon, twenty seven days."

"Fuck me...!" He swore.

"No, never...! We have talked about all the swearing. That is ugly word."

"Sorry... I'm not used too." He tried to apologize, then stopped. "Hey, wait a minute, this is my house."

"Yes, and I am your guest. Do you always curse your guests?" Estelle looked at him and into him, making Michael think she knew everything about him.

"I never swore until I joined the...." He cringed at the flood of memories.

"Yes, but you're no longer a warrior. You are free of that, if you want to be." She interrupted his thoughts.

"I'll never be free from what I've done." He said, convinced of his guilt.

"Flagsgraph... what have you done so bad?" She bit out at him.

"If I didn't know any better, you just swore." He smiled at the look on her face.

"Yes, but it is better than your 'Fuck'... word." She squinted at him and his head filled with perverse visions of the most unnatural sex scenes he could imagine.

Just as soon as they started, they stopped. "So tell me, what have you done so bad?" She sat back and crossed her thin arms.

"You have no idea what I've done. I've killed, I've bathed in the blood of my victims, I've, and I've... lived when I should have died...!" He pushed away the half empty bowl in front of him.

"You also gave the young and weak water when you could." She reminded him.

"How do you know that?" He spun on her in anger.

"You talk a lot in your sleep." She deflected his anger. "You are a good man, if you want to believe it or not. If you were not, then you would not seek death like you do. You were a warrior. It was your duty to fight. But it was your gift to give the slow and the weak water over the strong and the fast."

"Who are you?" He asked stunned.

"I am Estelle." She held up her hand to stop him. "You are Michael. That is all we need to know for now."

"Where do you come from Estelle?" He asked in awe of the woman sitting across from him.

"From the other side of the hedgerow. One more good sleep, then I will take you to the cliff." She said as she rubbed the flat multi-colored stone that hung around her neck and between her breasts.

This time as he slept, he had vivid dreams. In one, he was standing over the edge of the cliff and looking down. He didn't know why he wasn't falling when he heard Estelle's voice.

"That tree would have slowed your fall. The branches would have broken your back. You would have laid there for days praying to die, only to be found and taken to a healer. You would have lived for years in a cage, in constant pain. It is not your time to die. No matter what you do to your body, you will live until it is your time. I'm sorry about your friends, but it was their time. Only the Goddess and her Mate know the time. Sleep now and heal."

The rest of the night, he was being teased about having so many kids in his dreams. "Don't you know how to fix that...? Is that all you two can do...? You're not going to repopulate the forest all by yourself.... Naww he's just bragging. Look at his face. He's proud she's pregnant again. It keeps her docile. Just wait...." The voices teased him.

In front of him was a sea of faces calling. "Father.... Father, we want to be born now. Please talk to Mother. She has to be Queen soon.... Please Father we want to be born." Michael jerked up in a cold sweat.

He felt the sun on his face from the open window, but didn't know what time it was. When he looked at the clock, all it did was blink zeros at him. He reached up and rubbed his face, feeling the beard he never knew he could grow. He stood up on weak legs and stumbled to the window. He was going to shut it, but then he saw her.

She was dancing in the sun. Her hair flying, with her dress whirling around her legs and hips. He smiled as a wave of joy hit him in the chest. He couldn't stop watching her even when he realized she knew he was there. She did a spinning jump as their eyes met. He thought she would fall, but she landed with a simple grace and nodded in his direction.

"Gailen grah; Est noma si talkin." She said as she skipped over the low bench. "Good Morning Michael, the sun welcomes you and the Goddess awaits us to meet the day." She smiled at him as she walked to the front door.

He went down the five steps to the main floor and met her in the open great room. "You're not one of them Wicca Whacko's are you?" He asked irritated for some strange reason.

"How can you be a wise whacko? From what I've learned, isn't a whacko someone who is crazy?" She asked with mirth in her eyes.

"I was just wondering, with all the goddess crap you've been spewing." He said, not knowing what to feel.

"Ah, I see... they worship the Goddess Earth. Some call her Lilith, others Pandora, even others have other names for her. Gaia is one, but no; I don't worship her. I worship the true Goddess. I worship the Universe. She who gave life to all." She smiled again. "But, it is too early to talk about beliefs yet."

"According to what my mother believes, it was God... a male deity that brought forth life." Michael didn't know why he said that.

Estelle just laughed. "Oh, he was there to be sure. He had to be. Just like it takes a male to impregnate any female. But what man has the strength to give birth? It is the Woman who conceives. It is the male who gives it spark. It's the law of nature. Even your God, and my Goddess have to obey the law."

"You know there are places where they would stone you for saying that. I've been there."

"Yes, I know. It is sad really. But, we have other concerns. We need to go to the market and get food. You have no garden and the larder is getting bare."

"The what...?" Michael asked.

"We have no more food. We need to go to the market and get food, or you'll have to hunt and scavenge for yourself and you are not yet strong enough for that." She said, as she slipped into fawn colored hose under her green top.

"Oh, I never... I didn't think." Michael was dry mouthed while watching her.

"Yes, I know, but you are getting better now. Some of your wounds will never fully heal, but you are doing much better." She looked at him as he stood there. "Are you going to put clothes on? From what I remember, you have to be fully clothed to go to market." She laughed at him as he looked down and realized he again was standing there naked.

"Damn it. Why didn't you say something?" He blushed and tried to cover his groin.

"Because you were too busy looking at me. Let's go, I'm hungry. Can I drive? I've never driven before. It looks like fun." She winked at him as he headed back to his room. She laughed at his grumbling, as he tossed things in the room, looking for clean clothes.

She waited for him by his truck until he came out in some jeans, a t-shirt and a flannel shirt over it. He was still tucking in the flannel shirt as he walked out. He didn't know why, but he opened the passenger door and let Estelle in.

"What, I can't drive?" She asked as he closed the door.

After climbing behind the wheel, he answered. "What makes you think you could drive if you've never done it before? Where do you come from, where you haven't driven before?"

"It doesn't look that hard. You put the metal thing in the hole and make it go. You turn the wheel when you want to turn. I've seen it done many times. I've just never tried it."

"When did you learn to speak my language so well? The first time you spoke to me I could hardly understand what you were saying." Michael asked just figuring out she had used contractions in her last sentence.

"It's not that hard. A bit confusing at first. You use so many words to mean different things but sound the same. I have been with you for over a full cycle of the moon. A month I think you call it. I had to learn your words and what they meant if I was to be able to help you?" She smiled at him and made him forget what he was going to say.

Michael shook his head to clear it and started the truck. He bit his lip as he carefully drove down the winding dirt road to the highway into town. He wanted to look at Estelle, but knew better. He had to concentrate on the road. It was only the second time he had been on it. When he turned onto the highway, Estelle opened the window and stuck her head out of it.

"Are you okay? Do I need to stop?" he asked not knowing if she was going to hurl on his truck.

She looked at him, her eyes bright. "It almost feels like I'm flying." He wanted to reach over and touch the soft point of her ear as her hair flew behind her.

By the time they had reached the grocery store, Michael had almost forgotten his disfigurement. Estelle had him smiling like he had done before he was marred for life. He was brought up short by the look on a woman's face when he parked. She pulled her small child behind her and quick stepped him to her car.

Michael pulled up his collar and followed behind Estelle refusing to look at his image in the clean glass. Estelle sighed as she felt his pain. She knew he needed this more than the food they were going to purchase.

Michael knew that every male in the store stopped and looked at Estelle. He started walking slower, so she wouldn't have to be embarrassed by him being near her. He would groan as every time he tried, she would just call him up to explain something she was trying to read on the food packages.

He felt the eyes of the two pretty boys. He knew they had to be in the local college. They had that vibe about them. Estelle acted like she was oblivious to their open stars. He knew the stare and the dare as one pushed the other. He knew they would come over and try and talk to Estelle. He knew it and could do nothing about it.

"Michael, don't they have any goat or lamb here. I refuse to eat pig and cow is only passable. Now, Beaver is flavorful."

"I'd like to eat her beaver." One pretty boy said to the other just loud enough to be heard.

"You wish. I'll be in the way." His friend said rudely. "Watch this...." He smiled. "Hey sexy, where have you been all my life?" He walked up all grins.

"In the Forest." She ignored the picture in the immature boy's mind. "Oh, they do have lamb." She said and moved away.

"Crash and burn dude. Now watch the master at work." He smiled and approached. Michael wondered how Estelle would respond. "Hi, I'm sorry about my friend. He doesn't know how to act around a real woman. Me on the other hand, I'd just like to know your name and we can take it from there." He reached out to touch her.

"How do you know if I'm a real woman? Are there unreal women?" Estelle asked looking at the other boy.

"Because I'm a real man and I know my opposite when I see her. I'm Tony by the way Tony Aiello." He said it in a way that he expected her to know who he was.

"How interesting." She tried to ignore him also. "Michael, what is this?" She held up a bag of tripe and asked.

Taking a deep breath he stepped up. "Cow intestine, they call it tripe. I've never had it."

"Yuck... I don't blame you." She dropped the package and wiped her hands down her legs in a quick gesture of revulsion.

"Hey Grizzly Adams, why don't you step off? I'm talking to the lady." The guy who called himself Tony said stepping between Estelle and Michael.

"Dude, why don't you just leave her alone? If you can't tell, she isn't interested." Michael said in a flat voice, hoping he would catch a clue.

"I said step off Scarface. She might want to look at something better that your ugly mug." He spit out as his friend snickered.

"I think Michael is right. It was nice meeting you, but we have things to do." Estelle tried to move past the rude boy.

"Not so fast...! I want to at least to know the name of the woman I'm going to marry. Why don't you kick that loser to the curb, and we could make a great couple." He grabbed her arm.

Before she could bring her power to bear, Michael stepped up and grabbed the guy's hand. A second later there was a sickening crunch as the wrist was forced beyond its limit and the bones broke. As the guy gasped, Michael struck him in the throat to quiet any screams. He brought his hand back to finish him off, when Estelle's voice cut through the red haze in his mind.

"Michael...! Don't kill him. He hasn't harmed me. Stop it!" She softly touched his arm and he dropped it.

"Dude... I'm calling the cops. You don't know who you're fucking with? His dad's like the Sherriff here." Tony's friend said looking at Tony, but stopped when he saw the cold look in Michael's eyes.

"You will do nothing." Estelle told the boy. "You and you friend have brought this on yourselves. Didn't you mother ever teach you to never interfere with another man's woman?"

"What's going on here?" A tall man asked as he came rushing forward. He stopped instantly when Michael turned. He knew the look. He once had the same look after he came back from his war. "It's okay solider, I just need to know what happened." He held his hands out wide.

"These boys were bothering me and would not leave. It would have come to nothing, but that one," she pointed at the one writhing on the ground, "grabbed me."

"That's Sherriff Aiello's son. He didn't do nothing."

"He didn't do anything. And yes he did. If she said he grabbed her, then it would be the same as someone grabbing my wife. I would've done the same thing. Pick up your friend and follow me." The manager told the other boy.