Out of the Hedge, pt 3

The staff swung upwards with such force that he could barely hold on even with both hands. His adrenaline-addled brain had time to think that his arms would just be ripped out of their sockets, leaving the rest of him to be cleaved in two by the monstrous wolf. Then he finally followed the staff into the treetops where someone held Charlie around his waist and draped him unceremoniously over a sturdy branch, knocking the wind out of him.

"You OK? He seems OK," someone said in a low gravelly voice. Charlie tried to breathe and get his bearings. He wanted to make sure he knew which way was down before he moved. Propping himself up against the treetrunk, he looked around and saw three people. Deformed, strange people. One had blue skin and resembled a butterfly, down to the little antennae and wings protruding from his or her arms. Charlie couldn't tell if it was male or female. The second one was definitely female, with skin like a birch sapling and a multitude of flowers growing from her head and down her neck. The third looked like a big grey goat, the only mostly human features being his furclad torso and arms. He was handing the staff, which Charlie could now see was a highly polished baton, to the butterfly. They all seemed rather young, and they were all smiling.

"That ravager almost had you, but you're a pretty good runner," said the butterfly, and now Charlie could hear she was a she.

"Nah," the flower teased. "It did have a limp."

"I know, I wasn't going to say anything!" the butterfly said, and then the three of them burst into heartfelt laughter. And Charlie laughed too, because he was alive.

Back on solid ground, the goat handed Charlie the gun.

"You dropped this," he said and grinned, which looked odd on a goat's face. Charlie mumbled something in thanks, and then looked back and forth between the three, wondering when exactly he'd fallen through the rabbit hole. Was he going crazy? These people couldn't actually look this way, he had to be hallucinating. And that monster, had that been real? Now that it wasn't standing right in front of him, he could scarcely believe it hadn't been a dream.

"He's a newbie!" the flower suddenly said.

"Rita-" the butterfly started.

"What? It's obvious, look, he's staring at us."

"And he obviously never dealt with a ravager before," the goat chimed in. "He had a gun, should have just turned around and shot it."

"Come on, I remember you running a lot," said the butterfly.

"Just saying."

Charlie felt left out of a conversation of which he couldn't make heads nor tails, even though it somehow concerned him.

"I'm sorry, new to what?" he asked. Six eyes turned to him.

"Um," said the butterfly. "I'm not sure how to explain this..."

"I do!" the flower, Rita, exclaimed. "You just got away from the bad Fae, right? You're on your way back to the human world, right? So now you have to-"

"Wait, wait, stop. Who's Fay, and... excuse me, may I?" He held out his hand towards the goat's shoulder. The goat shrugged, and Charlie carefully stroked the fur. "Holy shit, it's real."

"Great, he's hopeless."

"He's just a newb!"

"Shut up, both of you!" The butterfly was fuming. "This is very important! We could screw him up if we don't do this right!"

The goat shrugged again, and Rita pulled a face. The butterfly turned to Charlie, and tried on a smile.

"Hi. I'm Gertrude, this is Rita and Julian. What's your name?"

"I'm Charlie." They shook hands. Her skin was very dry.

"Hi Charlie. We're just like you. We were all kidnapped and brought to some weird place, just like you, and then we managed to get out of there, some of us together, like Rita and I, and some of us on our own, like Julian here. Oh that's right, was there anyone else with you that you want to go back and help?"

Charlie must have looked puzzled, because he was.

"I mean, were you alone when you got out?" She spoke in soft sing-song tones, as if speaking to a child.

"I uh... I have no idea what you're talking about."

"It's OK if you don't want to talk about it. In fact, we don't talk much about our time in Faerie either. We just prefer to talk about other stuff."

"No, I mean, I don't know what I'm doing here, I was just suddenly here with these clothes and the gun, and I don't understand how I got here. I don't understand, I don't, it's, I don't know..." His face was hot.

"He has amnesia!"

"Rita, shut up." Gertrude looked concerned. "Well. Um, if you really don't remember..."

"Then how's he supposed to find his way?" Julian finished.