The Gate - A New Green Man Appears

Far up in the tree Hahn gasped, she recognized a warrior bunny in the train, she was severely beaten and could barely walk but she held her head up with pride. Those boobs, that fluffy tail, that tiny waist flaring out to that big round ass... there's no disguising the genetic gifts their mother gave them, this warrior bunny was her little sister "Cookie," her full name is Leah Cooka Rohcha. Cookie was three "litters" younger than Hahn and she idolizes her big sister. Hahn practically raised Cookie, and she's not going to let Cookie go without a fight.

A smug, leering red sashed sergeant stepped up to the little elf boy that was slowing them down and raised a cudgel high, he was going to put this runt out of his misery then chop off his arms and leave his body for the crows. Lelu squealed in abject horror, but Hanh had already climbed down past Lelu. Let the elf scream Hahn said to herself, there's going to be more screaming to come. As the leering soldier paused before bringing down the cudgel to split the little elf's skull wide open, a loud CRACK was heard in the branches below Hahn and Lelu. The sergeant's left eye disappeared, and a fountain of blood roared from a hole that appeared in the back of his helmet. The sergeant died with a very confused look on his face.

One by one the soldiers fell dead as a loud CRACK was heard to herald each death. The slaves looked on in astonishment as one by one their tormentors sagged to the ground, their deaths were announced by a spray of blood and body parts followed by a loud BANG just a second after they began to fall. Some of the soldiers tried to attack the source of death, but they died running, others tried to hide, but they died crawling. Soon they were all dead and without a drover the wagon slowed to a stop. With a cry Lelu flew down the branches to find Stefan putting his rifle back into the soft case he carried, he was shaking in anger and horror at what he had done. He kept muttering, "He shouldn't have touched the children, he should not have touched the children..."

"Damn it Lelu! Hurry, before the column notices and comes back!" shrieked Hahn. But Lelu didn't hear her, she was holding her hero, a trembling, weeping, nauseous human who had just saved over seventy lives.

"It's ok," she said over and over to the shattered man, kissing his face, kissing his tears away, but he clearly didn't understand what she was saying. He wanted to say something to Lelu as she gently kissed away his revulsion and horror. He wanted to tell her how he broke his vow to stop fighting and live in peace even if she didn't understand a word he would say. As he lifted his eyes to face her their lips met completely unintentionally. The moment their lips met there was a brilliant flash of light seen only in their hearts and psychic clap of silent thunder that was felt by Lelu, Hahn, and Stefan, and every one of the prisoners 150 meters away.

"You've done it now, elf," gasped Hahn as Lelu and Stefan stared into each other's eyes in shock. Suddenly Lelu and Stefan were one, now they could understand each other without speaking. In an instant they knew that the long, lonely nights were over, that aching hunger for a companion was filled, the future that they dreaded and sought to avoid was now a bright shining path to be enjoyed with a soul mate. What the hell happened?

Lelu knew what happened, and she didn't believe it happened to her.

After several long moments spent studying Stefan's eyes, Lelu softly said aloud, "What shall I do?" Even when asking Hahn for directions, her eyes never left Stefan's.

"Send a report, make sure Itami gets it," said Hahn and she dashed off toward a reunion with Cookie.

~~*~~

It took the message over twenty minutes to get to First Lieutenant Yoji Itami of the Japanese Self Defense Force. The last relay in the transfer was his friend and team member Tuka Luna Marceau. Messages between elves are not spoken words, they're blocks of feelings and memories and must be translated into words by the receiving elf. If the origin of the message is data, then the message is a memory of someone telling the first elf in the chain that data. This message passed from elf to elf leaving smiles and tears of joy in its wake. When it finally reached High Elf Tuka Luna Marceau, she was testing a new compound bow that was a gift from Lt. Colonel Kengun, commander of the 4th Combat Unit of the JSDF Special Task Force.

She drew back the bow and was about to release when the message came in. Her face became a mask of joy, then one of surprise as she unpacked the message in her head. "Dad!" she called as she loosed the arrow into a target seventy-five meters away with unerring accuracy. She turned and ran to First Lieutenant Yoji Itami, whom she called "Dad." She found him as she usually finds him, reclining in a hammock that was strung between their Humvee and an armored car. As usual he was reading a volume of doujinshi (self-drawn, self-published comic book). "Itami-san! A message from the Ukaru Valley!" she gasped breathlessly as she bowed politely.

Yoji was shocked, only his Japanese subordinates in the JSDF bowed to him, not any of the locals on his team, and especially not his self-proclaimed "daughter" the high elf Tuka. And Itami-san? She's never used a Japanese honorific in the two years she's known her. This must be important. "What's the matter Tuka?"

"Yoji, it's... it's..." She was hyperventilating and she looked like she was ready to burst with excitement.

"Deep cleansing breaths, ok? Deep breath in, hold it! Now let it out slowly... one more time... ok, try again, what is it?"

"It's Lelu Nikto De Sebat, she's an observer with warrior bunny Hahn Tahn Amaya. Lelu is a high elf from a village remotely related to mine. They were monitoring Prince Zorzal's retreat after losing to Princess Co Lada in the battle at Nangda."

"Very nice Tuka are we getting to the point sometime before dinner or is that it?" he said as he turned a page in his comic volume.

Tuka looks like an excitable teen girl, she's tall and slim with a budding figure, long blond hair and a very cute face. One would never guess that she's 167 years old. Now half of the Recon force had formed up to hear Tuka's message including Yao Ha Ducy, a dark elf. Tuka continued, "a temporary gate opened up near their observation point and a Green Man stepped out... well, almost green, his clothing looks like leaves and twigs, and he doesn't look Japanese."

"That's interesting," yawned Yoji as he finally closed his book. The people of this world call the members of the Japanese Self Defense Force the Green Men because of the green uniforms that the SDF wears. A new earthling has appeared. Japan isn't going to like to hear this, they have control over The Gate and who enters it because it opens up in downtown Tokyo near the imperial palace, this alternate gate may threaten Japan's monopoly. "What else?"

"He joined up with Lelu and Hahn, but he doesn't speak Japanese or the local languages, but he knows a few words of Japanese, he speaks something else ..." Tuka's eyes rolled up as she reviewed the message. "He hid with them as the column passed and... and... as the slaves taken by Prince Zorzal passed by... he..." her eyes widened as she replayed Lelu's memory of the event, "He killed eleven guards... he's got a gun... he killed them with one shot each. He freed seventy-three slaves; they're now heading to Nangda with the freed slaves."

"Oh, hell yeah!" cried Itami as he jumped up from the hammock. The SDF soldiers joined in on the cheer, every dead slaver is a victory in the eyes of the Japanese forces. Now Rory Mercury, the demigoddess, messenger of the gods, and apostle of Emroy, the god of darkness, war, violence and death joined the group. As usual Rory was wearing her apostolic robes, which is a Gothic Lolita look, a short black dress with red frills, black sheer stockings held by garters, and red high heeled boots. Her thirteen-year-old "loli" appearance hides the fact that she is 963 years old. The expression of wicked glee on her face means that she knows something interesting is about to happen.

"Ok, that is great news!" said Rory as she licked her lips. But she already knew it happened because she personally escorted the rotted souls of the slavers to hell.

Did the message contain any clue as to where he's from?" asked Itami.

Tuka reviewed the message again and shook her head side to side. "There's a part where he saw a dragon and he said... "Holy fucking shit" do you know what that means?"

"Uh huh," grinned Itami as he nodded affirmatively, that's soldier talk. After desert training for a year in South Texas he knows exactly what kind of soldiers talk like that, "as my friends in the US say, that's as American as apple pie. All right! Get a message to them, tell them to head to Nangda and wait there for a ride to Sadera. They're going to meet with Ambassador Sugawara, he speaks fluent American. All right folks, let's start packing up, we have a new Green Man to..."

"Wait!" cried Tuka. "That's not the important part!"

"Well then, get to it," urged Itami. "What is it?" It is going to be incredible thought Itami, Tuka knows how he feels about Prince Zorzal and his habit of taking slaves. Any freed slave is a huge victory to the lieutenant and a punch to Zorzal's gut. So, if they haven't reached the important part, it must be wild.

"This new Green Man, Stefan, he bonded with the elf Lelu Nikto De Sebat."

The dark elf Yao Ha gasped in astonishment, but from the Japanese men and women there was nothing but silence. "So?" Itami asked finally. Then seeing the look of disappointment on Tuka's face he shrugged and said, "I don't get it."

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Lelu sat on the back of the wagon and Stefan walked right behind her, and he held her hand as gently as if it were a newly hatched bird. It was like they were made to hold each other's hands, he's right-handed and is happy to use his left hand to do nothing but hold Lelu's right hand. Lelu is left hand dominant to such a point that her right hand is nearly useless. They would be happy to make the trip to Nangda doing nothing but holding hands and having their silent conversations but that was not to be.

The column of freed slaves was a cheerful mob and they clustered around the elf and the Green Man. Stefan was holding Lelu's elven sword in his right hand and was inspecting it closely as Lelu held his rifle in her left, she found it interesting. Everything about it was complex and well-made and she wanted to learn how to use it. Warrior Bunny Hahn Tahn Amaya walked at the rear of the column with her sister Leah Cooka Rohacha, they were keeping an eye out for any sign of pursuit, but they found themselves surrounded by a half dozen adolescent warrior bunnies who orbited around them and peppered Hahn with questions about her life as a freedom fighter and of course what was Itami like?

Itami was the one Green Man that most citizens of the empire knew about, and they wanted to know more and more about him. He even punched Prince Zorzal in the face! Yes, they knew it was Stefan that freed them, but in their minds, they were sure that Stefan was following Itami's orders.

Hahn smiled and answered their excited questions, but she kept her eyes on Lelu and Stefan. Ever since that kiss, ever since that sudden flash that she saw behind her eyes and felt through her entire body, they've always been touching, it was as if the thought that they could actually not touch each other was inconceivable.

For his part, the one thing Stefan was afraid of right now was waking up. The chance that this was all a dream or a nightmare or possibly even an acid trip was terrifying. He's never felt such belonging, such joy, and the thought of that being taken away terrified him. At the same time, he was being reassured that this is real, and he knew those reassurances were from Lelu. Slowly the feelings and emotions that crossed between them were becoming words as they learned each other's languages, and the better they communicated, the closer they became.

He once got lost in downtown Seoul Korea and he was completely cut off, he did not understand the language or the alphabet. In Germany and Spain, he could read a word and puzzle out the meaning but not in Seoul, he couldn't decipher the Korean alphabet. The same thing was happening here, their alphabet looked like someone was writing in cursive with a pen that was low on ink and skipping important parts of the letters, their language sounds more like a song than a spoken word. He's completely alone, unable to communicate. But when he holds Lelu's hand he feels her joy, and it becomes his joy. And her smell! He lives for the smell of this woman, and he knows that she leans over and sniffs him with pleasure too. When they're touching, he knows that she understands how he feels, and he knows how she feels. She'll say something to him now and he won't understand a single word she says, but he knows what she means, and she's experiencing the same thing when he speaks, and it's all because of that one little kiss.

With a poof a cloud of black smoke appeared next to them and a tiny young girl with long black hair in ringlets wearing a black dress with red frilly edges stepped out of the cloud, she carries a gigantic halberd, a battle axe that is almost twice her size, and the smile on her face showed a spirit of evil mischief. "Where is our happy couple?" she asked the crowd as she stared directly at Stefan and Lelu.

"Mistress Rory," gasped Hahn as she stepped up to Rory and pointed out the two lovers. "Mistress Rory, I... I..." she was at a loss for words, she wanted to protect Stefan and Lelu, but this was Rory Mercury!

"Hahn!" cried Rory Mercury as she placed her tiny hand on the bowed head of the Warrior Bunny. "You are one of my favorites, you've sent me some of the finest souls!" she licked her lips in anticipation of more souls to come. Part of Rory's jobs is to escort souls to the underworld, a job that is a powerful aphrodisiac to her. "But you Stefan Hanover, you sent me slave traders to cast into hell!" She suggestively swung her hips and clutched her groin, "I looooove sending slave traders to hell."

Stefan looked down at the hyperexcitable oversexualized 963-year-old tyke and said, "You speak English?"

"Of course not!" said Rory as if the question was a dire insult. "I speak whatever language I want to speak, but I speak to the heart, which knows all languages. I came to see the bonded couple; it's been a long time since this last happened."

"Two hundred and twenty-seven years," said Lelu.

Stefan looked at her enraptured face. He didn't understand a single word she said, but he understood exactly what she meant, down to the fact that the last time this happened was to her parents, and she was the progeny of that union, she and her sister. Stefan suddenly discovered that he was holding hands with the hottest two hundred twenty-six-year-old woman on earth.

Suddenly a shriek arose from behind them, a dozen soldiers wearing the red sashes of Prince Zorzal's rebel faction had leapt out of the underbrush and attacked, more remained in the bushes. Two were holding Hahn and wrestling her to the ground, the rest had grabbed a freed slave each and were holding knives to their throats. "We don't want to hurt anyone," snarled one of the rebels. "There's a trunk on that wagon that we want, give us that and we go away."

Lelu knew what trunk they wanted, it was filled to the lid with gold coin, it was the payroll for the army along with booty looted from these people. There's no way it can be carried by any twelve people, it's far too heavy. She doesn't have her sword; Stefan is carrying it while she was inspecting his rifle. She doesn't know how to operate the rifle and he doesn't know how to use a sword, what is she going to do? What would Itami do?

"This is going to be good," purred Rory, in a voice far too sexy for Lelu's liking.

Just then Stefan dropped her hand, for the first time in hours they weren't touching. He held the sword out in front of him with two fingers of his left hand; it dangled point down as he slowly walked toward the rebel captain. The freed captives screamed and scattered around Stefan, but he kept his eyes focused on the new threat. While he showed the slaver his fingertip grip on Lelu's sword, he held his right hand out, palm forward as if showing that he wasn't holding anything. Step by step he advanced toward the captain and as he did, he curled three fingers in his right hand until his right-hand index finger was pointing up and his thumb pointing to the side, then he slowly lowered his hand until he was aiming a "finger gun" at a specific soldier. Lelu didn't know what a finger gun was, but Stefan knew, which meant that now Lelu knew.

Now everything slowed down even more for Stefan and Lelu, everyone and everything around them was moving slower and slower. Both Stefan and Lelu felt like they were in a rushing river trying to wade upstream against the current and the struggle got harder as the people around them got slower. When Stefan "shot" a bandit with his finger gun Lelu instinctively brought his rifle up to her shoulder. She didn't know how to do that, but Stefan did, and Lelu followed his instinctual behavior. Sending thousands of rounds "down range" meant that Stefan and the gun were one, and Lelu became one with the gun also. As she did, she rotated the bolt lever, pulled it back, then pushed it forward slamming a .243 round into the breech. Now the gun came up and she braced the buttstock to her shoulder, she thumbed off the safety and lined up the sights on the bandit Stefan targeted and gently squeezed the trigger. It was difficult for her because she's severely left-handed and right eye dominant. She brought the gun up to her right shoulder, laid the fore stock against her right forearm rather than grip it with her right hand, then pulled the trigger with her left hand. The gun flew up off of her arm from the recoil that hit her like a slow bulldozer, but she was able to grab the gun with her left hand before it flipped over and sailed over her shoulder.

For his part, as soon as Lelu moved, Stefan quickly snapped the sword he was holding up to level and with a little energy saving flick of his shoulder he drove the point of his sword into the neck of the rebel captain severing the carotid artery. As the captain started to sag to the ground, Stefan stepped forward and grabbed the stricken bandit's sword then turned back to Lelu to see how she was fairing.

Then suddenly the two popped out of time itself. They were no longer fighting against the stream of time, they were free of its bonds, but both were exhausted from the fight. They both could see in their mind that time was a string of tiny pearls, and their NOW pearl was a brightly shining gold pearl waiting to be plucked. Around them the world was silent and completely motionless. For a moment Stefan pondered an insect that was paused in mid-flight, the wings frozen motionless.

Together in a silent land populated with statues, Stefan and Lelu moved freely. It wasn't a fight; it was a slaughter. He wanted to help her down off the wagon and return her sword, but she shook her head, it was difficult for her, but she had his knowledge, she wanted to put it toward his gun. He nodded and they went to work. They quickly and efficiently killed the bandits that threatened them, Stefan slashing and cutting with the skill of a swordsman with nearly one hundred years of experience, and Lelu picked off the distant targets with an accuracy of someone who has sent a thousand rounds down the barrel of this gun and was intimately familiar with it but being left-handed she was having difficulty operating the bolt. Being as severely right eye dominant and severely left-handed as she is, the entire operation was painful to watch; but she did it, they had all the time in the worlds to get it right.