Stepping Through the Hedgerow

Author's notes

Here is the next trip into my fertile imagination. Understand that this isn't a quicky sex story, but another one of my love stories. Please remember that this work of adult fiction is copywrited and all disclaimers apply. I need to thank Mercurylove for editorial services. Please feel free to comment and vote.

Enjoy:

"But Father, I don't want to marry him!" She pleaded for her life. She had only one shot at any type of freedom and she knew it. "He's so old and stodgy. All he cares about is our land and how many of his dogs he can have doing his bidding. If I get married, I want my husband to love me, not some flea bitten cur." She pouted prettily.

"Stop it! You are quickly coming up to your mating time. He is the only eligible male in the tribe. We have to increase our lands. The hedge is shrinking. The humans keep encroaching into our territory with their wanton destruction. We have to do something." The tall grey haired male said with authority.

"But Daddy, He's so old. He looks like a shriveled up prune. I know I'm only two hundred, but still. Can he even give me children? If there are no more children, then we won't need the land anymore. That's what happened to so much of the old forests. The caretaker's forgot to have children and let the humans walk in."

"Enough...! I was there, I know what happened!" He shouted at his only child.

"I won't do it! I won't marry some shriveled up old gnome. I rather marry a... a, human." She tossed her long stark white hair behind her and turned away from her sire, knowing he wouldn't strike from behind.

"You've been listening to your mother again." He sighed sadly. "That was long ago. I've accepted my fate." He put his hands on his daughter's shoulders.

"But Daddy, you were born human. If only I could find someone like you...? Can't a girl dream?" She turned to her father and pleaded. "It wouldn't take that long... There are so many humans now. I should be able to find a good one in a decade or maybe two. I'd be back before the new millennium. I might even find one with land next to the hedgerow."

***

"He's waking up." A disembodied voice said somewhere above him. Him... who was him? He struggled to remember even the simplest of things. Like his name, where he was, and why he hurt so badly.

"It's okay Mike, I'm here." A soft woman's voice said.

"Mike, is that my name? Why does that voce sound so familiar? Am I Mike? Who the fuck is Mike?" He chanted to himself as the clawed his way out of the dark tunnel.

"When can I take him home?" The voice said. He could hear the fear in the voice.

"We don't know. This is the first time he's responded positively to outside stimuli. His injuries are healing, but there are still too many unknowns. He's lucky that his groin was protected, even with the burns on his arms and legs. At least he'll be able to walk again if the head injuries ever heal... and with all the burns and shrapnel damage, we just don't know." A whiney male voice said.

His head pounded with the vibrations coming through his ears. He wanted to scream at them to 'shut the fuck up' but didn't want to move his jaw to do it. He hurt and was sore from head to toe. He winced when a bright light flashed in his right eye. Memories stabbed at his brain.

***

"Echo Charlie Five Niner... we've cleared the barrier." He listened to his radio man as they left the relative safety of Firebase Searchlight. He could feel the vehicle move under him as he stood at the big fifty cal gun at the top. At least he could get some kind of breeze, even if it was a hot one.

"Rodger that. Head north twenty clicks and meet up with Foxtrot Alpha Seven, Seven; for further."

"Copy that. See you in hell. Out...!"

"Already there Five Niner, and out."

Just another lousy fucking patrol in the godforsaken desert. He again wondered why he joined up, but he did, and now it was game time. He knew the locals didn't like the foreigners on their land and wanted them out. Didn't they know he didn't want to be there either? If he had his choice, he rather be stationed in Alaska, Alabama, or the fucking South Pole; than there.

He kept his eyes moving, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He knew he might have just a second to see it before all hell broke loose. He had five extra bottles of water to toss to the kids that always followed them out of the small village that stood between them and the open road. He knew some of the guys who teased the kids with water, but he just thought that was mean.

He would smile as he tossed the bottle to the smallest or slowest of the kids, so they could get their share. "You're a sap, you know that." Blake said into the head set.

"Yeah well were here trying to make friends and peace so we can get the fuck out and back to the real world." He answered back smiling.

"Shit, these fucking rag-heads would blow you away if you let them. I say kill them all and let god sort them out." Hernandez said into his radio.

"Oh, like you've got room to talk, you fucking Mexican bean dip. I bet you're momma's back was wetter than whore in a rain storm...." Blake teased back.

"Shut the fuck up about my momma...!" Hernandez said and clenched his fist.

"At-ease that bullshit...! Keep your mouths shut and eyes open." The team leader yelled, stopping the bickering.

"Bogie at nine o'clock." He spun his big gun and then felt the whoosh of hot air.

***

"Why is he twitching like that? Make him stop, its gross. Is he going to be ugly now? How can I take pictures with an ugly man?" A high pitched voice screeched.

"Shut up Susan, quit being so shallow for once in your life. We're lucky he's still alive."

'Susan... who the fuck is Susan?' He asked himself. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. She sounded like a real bitch.

"I was engaged to the most handsome man in the tri-state area. We were Prom King and Queen, for god's sake. Now look at him. How do you expect me to look at that every day? Look at his face, he's so ugly!" He flinched when he heard the loud slap. He remembered flinching.

"Susan, leave now! I don't know what my son ever saw in you. You're ten times as ugly as my son will ever be from his injuries. The only difference is that his is on the outside, while yours is on the inside. Tell Kelly to give you a ride home, because I'm not taking you!"

"Ladies, quiet down! He's awake, even if he can't show it. If you are going to cause a scene, you need to leave." A brisk no-nonsense voice said. "He's my patient and he needs his rest if he ever wants to leave this hospital." He heard the sounds as someone shoved the arguing women out of the room and the soft click of his door closing.

"It's okay solider boy. They're gone for now, you just get some sleep and let yourself heal. I'll keep those two alley-cats in check. I've got you. You just go back to sleep. Momma Salinger's got's your back." The voice took a soothing tone and he felt the warm fluid go up his arm and the darkness over take him again.

***

"It is time for you to come home Estelle." Her father told her as he looked at the mess of the place he had once called home.

"But Daddy... I haven't found him yet. I know he's out here. I can feel him. I have felt him for years. He's out here somewhere."

"We've given you twenty five years. It is time for you to come home and face your destiny." Her father said as kindly as he could.

"I have one more year. Please daddy, if I can't find him in one more year, I'll marry the gnome, if I have too. But please daddy, it's only one more year!" She begged.

Sighing, he lifted up and smelled the air. "He is not here. You are looking in the wrong place. Come home and ask your mother. If she says yes, then I will give you one more year without interference." He reached down and stroked the young face that reminded him of his beloved wife's and sighed. He held her hand and pulled her through the hedge.

They walked through the dark woods until her father stopped. "She is in there. I cannot go any farther." He said sadly.

"Why not...?" She hated the sadness in her father's eyes.

"She won't let me. She has her reasons, so don't even ask." He warned her with steel in his voice.

"You two are being stupid. You love each other, but refuse to live together. I could have had brothers and sisters by now, but no... you two have to be stubborn about it." She spun and marched into her mother's clearing.

"Show respect daughter! I could bind you here for eternity if I so choose." Her mother's voice came to her mind as soon as she entered the small clearing.

"No mother, you can't. You might think you can, but as I learned when I was a child, I am stronger with the magic that you are. Queen or not, I am stronger. You might gain your strength back if you went home to father!"

"Not this again. I made a mistake and I am paying for it. The forest is paying for it."

"Feldergast...!" She spat angrily.

"Watch your mouth child; I am still your mother." She warned sternly.

"So mother, you are saying I am a mistake? I thought you taught me that there are no mistakes where life is concerned. If it brings life it can't be a mistake. Father misses you. He loves you and you are denying him your love out of penance? In the words of the humans, get real mom!" She stalked around the clearing looking for where her mother was hiding.

"You are too young to understand." Her mother sighed.

"Then I'm too young to marry the gnome! Make up your mind mother. I'm either too young, or for once in your life explain it to me! In less than a hundred years I will be Queen and you can finally rest. It might be a good thing to have my father at your side. You made such great magic when you were together."

"And we almost broke the world doing it. It was too strong, I couldn't control it. My love was too deep. I could have lost everything." She flashed before her daughter, a taller, sharper version of the two.

"Feldergast...! And you know it Mother." She raised her hand. "You have hurt my father for too long. The forest suffers from your neglect. So what if he was human... he isn't now. He is still strong enough to handle you I bet." She challenged her mother. "Climb down from your trees and look at the world around you. Look at what your love made. I am the strongest since the flood. And you want me to marry the gnome?" She asked sarcastically.

"I don't want to lose you. I don't want you to have to make the choices I did. I'm trying to protect you! Can't you see that?" She told her daughter, unable to hold her gaze.

"Oh great Goddess, you're afraid. You are acting like the Goddess herself when she cracked the world when she and God turned their faces away from their misbehaving children. No wonder the humans can't get it right. It always takes two to create. No wonder the world is shrinking, both ours and theirs. If the parents are not..." She looked up at her mother and saw the fear.

"How can you know these things?"

"I'm young Mother, not stupid. I've spent over twenty years with the humans. They worship the Father in one of his many guises. We worship the Mother; and neither of us can see the other's point of view. They spend most their time in wars about who is right, when they are all wrong. What would God and the Goddess do if they knew? I wonder...?" She stopped pacing for a moment in thought. "What would have happened if they didn't leave and issue their prophecies? There is so much greatness out there and in here. We could be so good, if we came together. Get rid of the greed and pain. Let the forest grow and cleanse the air."

"I once had such dreams," Her mother said, touching her daughter's face, "when your Father fell through the hedgerow. He was wounded and in such pain. He said he was fighting in a war that he should never have been in. He cried like a babe, begging me to let him die. I knew as soon as I touched him, he would rule my destiny. I loved him too much and when we mated, it almost cracked the world again."

"No Mother, it didn't. It started healing a breach. I've found it. Yes, the world shook, but it wasn't cracking. It had to happen. There is a river that flows now that was hidden. This grove you live in is Father's, yet he is forbidden by his love for you to enter. Turn and look at father's home. It lies in ruin, just as your love for each other. Look at the place where I was conceived. You can hardly see it anymore."

"And I would spare you this pain." She tried to reason with her daughter.

"To have a mate love me as much as Father loves you, I would gladly endure whatever pain that has to come. Look in his eyes just once in the next year and you will see it too. He's waited so long. As you once told me; love can never be wrong. I love you mother, but I must do this. I promised Father I would be back before the Millennium. Until then, I will be on the other side of the hedge."

"So be it! Know that I cannot protect you anymore." Her mother turned and faded into the woods.

"Yes, but you will try; and we both know it. I love you mother. I will see you in a year." She sighed and walked out of the glen. She was met by her father just where they had parted.

"How is she?" He asked with his heart in his eyes.

"If you would drop that stubborn pride and go home, you would know." She hugged her father. "She is tired and worried. She needs you more that she will ever tell. You need her. One of you has to be strong enough to break this cycle or it will all come to ruin." She warned her father.

"How is the house? Is she taking care of it?" He asked trying to change the subject.

"Like your marriage, the foundation is still there, but the house is in ruins." She smiled knowingly.

"WHAT...! I gave her the house to stay in to get over her grief. Where does she live if not in my house?" He yelled in shock.

"In the trees of course. She is the Queen of the Forest. Where did you expect?" She knew she was pushing, but something had to be done.

"My Grandfather laid the footings of that house by hand. Each stone picked and stacked with the greatest of care. How could she let it fall into ruin?" He demanded of his daughter.

"How am I to know? You two haven't talked to each other in over a century. Why don't you go do something about it? It is your home too." She smiled sweetly, pushing just as much as she dared.

"You..." he took a deep breath. "You are going to be a Queen to be reckoned with. Is my home really in ruin?" He asked knowing her game and refusing to play.

"As close to it as I ever want to see again. Father, it is time to stop punishing yourself for something that isn't your fault. I hate to say it, but you both are wrong. It is time to fix it before it can't be fixed. The foundation is strong, but.... Well you're the builder. After so long, even that will be beyond repair. You both love each other. Now rebuild a house to be proud of. Somewhere to stay out of my way, when I become Queen." She smiled at her sire.

"I'll walk with you to the border." He said and folded his hands behind him. They walked in silence as he pondered what his daughter had said.

Neither one cared as the moon shone down on them as they walked in peace. Estelle knew her father would need to think things over. He thought everything over. She just wished he would turn off his brain and listen to his heart, for just once. She knew she could use the magic on him, but she also knew this was something they had to work out themselves.

When they reached the border, her father shocked her. "Show me my home." He said and stood there like a statue.

"Are you sure? You could look yourself. You do have the power even if you don't use it that often." She looked at her father.

"I would only see what I wanted to see. Let me see it from your eyes." He sighed and knew Estelle would see it much clearer than he ever could.

"As you wish Father." She reached up and cupped her father's face in her hands. She sang the words and opened her mind to her parent. She held him fast until she had shown him everything she wanted him to see and then leaned in and kissed him tenderly.

***

Michael was walking the old deer path on his grandfather's land. He wished he could remember ever liking doing this when he was a kid, but those memories were locked away from him. They said he might never remember. He was surprised he even remembered the old place after they let him out of the rehab center.

It didn't take him long to hate the attention he got for being a wounded veteran. He didn't want to remember what he did over there. He didn't want to be treated like some type of hero. It made him feel like a murderer. Why would anyone take someone else's life? Why did he allow himself to pull the trigger? Could he ever wash the blood off his hands?

He sighed, knowing this was the day he was supposed to get married to that knock-out blonde. Well she looked like a dream, but acted like a nightmare. But still, it made him sad that he wasn't going to get married. He knew no one would want him now. All he had to do was look in the mirror and see the horror of what he had become. No wonder she ran off with that other guy. He really couldn't blame her.

The next thing he had to do, was get rid of his mother. He was tired of her hovering over him like he was a child in diapers. He would never be able to do what he knew had to be done with her around. He knew it was time for him to join his buddies. He knew it had to be a mistake that he survived and they all died. He knew he was supposed to die with them. Now he could rectify that situation.

He took a deep breath of the moist air and walked with purpose for the first time in over a year. At least he wouldn't be hot when he joined his teammates. That was one of the few things he remembered, the heat. The dry unrelenting heat. In less than an hour, he knew he would feel nothing again. Honestly, he welcomed it. It was long overdue.

He ignored the brewing storm. He was focused on getting to the ledge of the tall cliff. So what if he was killed by lightning? It wasn't like he was going to live to see another day anyway. It might do him a favor and kill him first.

After a loud crash of thunder, Michael trembled under a tree, fighting the nightmare that had become his life. He was trying to tell himself. "Quit being such a pussy and do this. It's just fucking noise." But he couldn't get his feet to move.

Then he thought he was dreaming. He wiped his eyes to clear them. He saw a tall thin woman walk through the brambles next to the path. He could've sworn she said something and there was another crash of thunder. Then she smiled.

She took two steps onto the path and gasped. She saw Michael, and he was struck by her penetrating blue eyes. He shook harder as she walked up to him. He couldn't understand anything she said. He just wanted to run and get this over with. He had never felt like such a chicken-shit coward, in his life. At least he didn't think he did.

He finally found the guts to run, when her slim long fingered hand touched the scar on his face. In his mind he heard "Sleep...!" and darkness overcame him.

Estelle grunted under the weight of the young man as he collapsed. She couldn't understand why someone so young craved death like he did. She walked through the Hedgerow, in a good mood. Her father was finally going to take measures into his own hands. She hadn't taken a couple of steps, when she felt the death pouring out of the man.

He was a good looking man, for being a human. Oh sure, he had scars, but he was tall and fit with great muscle tone. He moved with grace and purpose. Unfortunately his purpose was seeking his own death. She knew he couldn't understand her. Most humans couldn't. Estelle looked down and did something she had never done before. She reached into his mind to find the reason for his death wish.