Gaia held out her hand and Giselle took it and stood up. The view of the incredible winter scene wavered a bit and suddenly they were in a beautiful meadow not far from the edge of a small town.

Giselle gasped slightly, not just at the shifting scene, but the feel of late spring instead of winter. Knowing Gaia for only a short time and the amount of information that she absorbed still didn’t prepare her for such things.

Gaia smiled. “It’s OK, Giselle, just look within yourself and you will understand more and more. We have a small task here. Something I need your help with.”

Giselle’s eyes opened wide, “My help?”

“Yes, love, being raised as a human for most of your life, you relate better than I to people. There is someone here, someone who will be very important in the future, who needs some guidance.”

Giselle looked around and felt the sun on her face. She didn’t know how they got here, but accepting they did was the easy part. Being part of this different world, one inhabited by a real Mother Nature and Muses wasn’t a simple one to get used to.

“A Muse?”

“No, someone who will operate in the real world. She recently had a tragedy and she needs to get past it. She’s having trouble with that. Her name is Martha.”

“You can’t just fix things?”

“I wish, but what power I have is limited, sometimes frustratingly so. All you and I can do is guide and maybe persuade. But people have to have the ability to make their own decisions. Come on, we need to see someone who can help us help Martha.”

. . .

Right after school, she did what she usually did, or at least for the past several months. She grabbed her small backpack, some water, something to munch on, and headed out before her mother could drag her into another ‘conversation’. It wasn’t she had anything against her mom, but ever since ‘it’ happened, all she seemed to want to do was talk about it and that was driving Martha crazy. Her dad had his work, Martha had her senior year, but her mom didn’t seem to have any other way of coping. So Martha started heading out right after school. It seemed she almost gave up trying to corner Martha, but if they got face-to-face, her mom would start in and even how awful it made her feel, Martha couldn’t just walk away once she started.

Martha headed down the street and passed Gina’s house. She almost stopped in, but it wasn’t a good idea, Gina would want to talk about ‘it’ too. As her best friend, she wasn’t as — intrusive — as her mom, and Martha knew she was trying to help, but what she felt she needed more than anything was space, and the hills past the old mill house was the best place for her right now.

She turned the corner past the mill and simply looked out east for a moment. The contrast between the decrepit old mill and the stunning beauty of the rolling hills always took her breath away. The low hills backed up to a copse of trees along a small stream.

Further back was a large wooded area that rarely had anyone in it. On the other side of town was another wooded area, but it had lots of trails that people liked to hike and bike on. That set of woods bordered some steeper hills that mountain bikers really loved. In a way, she loved the other side of town as well, but mainly because it offered her some privacy here since people hardly ever came on this side of the valley. If anyone was there, it was always locals instead of visitors.

She stepped off again and followed a small depression that led her to the stream. She hugged it and went between walking and hopping on the occasional stone as she made her way quickly upstream. She did her best to keep her sneakers dry until her return trip. Getting them wet this early might mean blisters later. She had that experience a couple of times already and it really left her wide open for her mom’s ‘conversations’. On the way back, soaking her feet in the cold water was a perfect way to relax after a strenuous hike.

As she entered the copse, she paused again and looked up. There was a large nest she hoped one day to catch sight of the owner. She had taken a few pictures of it from the ground and her science teacher told her it was for a nesting pair of eagles who had been spotted in the area. He said the best time to see them would be early in the day or nearing dusk, but as hard as she tried, she hadn’t caught a glimpse yet.

She continued upstream, a little more rapidly. The stream widened a little and curved off to the right as she slipped between two trees and started uphill left to the woods. The climb was fairly steep and she felt the sweat start to form on her back and chest. While she often envied some of the girls who had — blossomed early — it was times when she was working up a good sweat she was glad to be slimmer. She laughed a little to herself picturing Rubenesque Gina sweating on a hike like this. Gina was one who blossomed early and had a perfectly proportioned body for her chest. Martha always envied her curves, but a hike like this might kill her best friend.

“Okay, enough wool-gathering,” she thought. She knew Gina would hate it and would much rather be floating in her pool than hiking. The hike took a sharp incline as she got to the edge of the woods and picked her way carefully. The outer edge of this forest was heavily covered in brush.

She worked her way deeper as she climbed higher. Once through the outer section, the trees actually kept much of the ground clear and she could walk easily in most places. The sunlight filtered through the trees creating an incredible tapestry of colors and shades that it immediately relaxed Martha. This was her place and hers alone.

She took a sip of water and went further into the woods. She could hear birds and the rustling of small animals. She knew these woods were well inhabited, mainly because so few people came here. She’d spied deer, rabbits, shrews, and skunks often. She thought she saw a wolf or coyote once, but it could have just been a dog. She hadn’t gotten a good enough look.

By the time she realized it was there, it was gone. She hadn’t even gotten a chance to get her phone out. She went toward her resting place, a small boulder that a rivulet of the stream ran next to. Once before she traced the small stream to its source and it simply seeped out of the ground a few hundred yards from her boulder. She climbed to her favorite spot, laid out a small ground cover and sat, leaning against another boulder making her a very comfortable chaise.

. . .

Gaia and Giselle stopped on the sidewalk in front of a lovely small house.

“Who lives here?” Giselle asked, still unsure of her role.

“A young lady named Laura. She was a very close friend with Martha’s little sister, so close, in fact, she has a possession of Matilda’s.”

. . .

The sun-dappled Martha’s bare legs with spots of light and shadow, the wind kept the leaves moving. There was a small opening that angled the sun on this spot for a while. She loved that discovery. She could simply sit there and think for a few hours before the setting sun told her it was time to go home. By the time she got home, Dad was usually there, so Mom wouldn’t try and ‘talk’.

She laid her head back and closed her eyes. The noise of the forest, the warmth of the sun, and peacefulness of this spot did more for her than any talk could possibly do. All the tension she felt all day slowly bled from her body. The looks at school, while they were getting less and less, were still aggravating. Her guidance counselor kept trying to set her up an appointment, which was even more annoying. A few of her teachers were still solicitous but were getting used to her pretty much ignoring it. None of them realized how she felt or why she felt the way she did.

Here she could put it all aside. As she relaxed her chaotic thoughts settled and brought her some semblance of peace. She didn’t quite doze, but close to it. The sun felt warmer and she felt her body react as it often did. She felt herself slowly getting excited. She had no idea why this place had such an effect on her, but ever since it happened, it was the only place she felt at ease.

When she first started coming here, she tried to resist. It almost felt wrong to have such feelings so soon after what happened. But she found she couldn’t resist, it was like Mother Nature herself knew she needed the release. The first time she felt so embarrassed she actually stayed away for three straight days. But after three straight conversations with her Mom drove her back to slip out, it was the draw of this place that brought her back time and time again.

Without realizing it, she touched her breasts, cupping them, squeezing them as she felt her nipples stiffen through her thin tee-shirt. She only wore a bra when absolutely necessary and Gina often teased her about it. Gina wore a bra in her sleep, even if she claimed to wear little else. Martha felt a small surge run through her body. The sun was at just the right angle, shining through the leaves and branches so brightly, she could barely see, but that didn’t matter for this was her place and here she could simply be Martha. Not Martha the dutiful daughter who listened to her parents trying to cope. Not Martha the neglectful sister who never took the time to know her sister until it was too late.

Martha opened the button on her shorts and slipped one hand in as the other stayed on her breast. As her climax rose, the cares of the rest of the world faded for a time. A pane of glass shielded her from her sadness and regret. She knew it wasn’t going to last, but the peace it brought matched the peace of her place and it was worth it, even for so brief a time.

Her fingers cupped herself, she felt the dampness from the sweat. Splitting her fingers around her clit and rubbed on each side brought a different wetness, something slicker than sweat. Flattening her hand, she rubbed across her clit and labia as her eyes closed and her back arched slightly. Back and forth and then in a tight circular motion, she felt her body respond quickly. The surge came quicker than usual, it was like her body was waiting for her to just begin.

She inhaled sharply as her fingers rubbed over her clitoris. She slowed, trying to extend her release, but her body would not have anything to do with it. She felt it coming quickly and just as she arched her back, it struck without mercy.

Her cry echoed across the woods and, if she had been aware, she would have seen several birds startled into flight because of it. She fell back against her rock throne panting as if she had run several miles. Her eyes opened slowly as she took her hand from her shorts and wiped it across her ground cover.

“It’s only a temporary reprieve, is it not?”

The voice started her, she twisted sharply and almost fell. She saw a tall, redhead standing at the edge of the small clearing. “Who...,” her voice failed her.

“My name’s Giselle and I am very pleased to meet you, Martha.”

“How do you know my name? How did you know where to find me?”

The lady smiled a gentle smile at Martha. She paused as if not sure exactly how to answer. “Martha, everyone in town knows who you are and what you have been through. They also know that you head into these woods every chance you get.”

“Okay, so why are you here?”

“I have something for you, something that might help.”

“Help, how can anything help? My sister is gone!” Martha’s voice rose. “She died in a stupid accident!”

“I know, it was an accident. Neither she on her bike nor the car’s driver realized the other was there. It was stupid, but even stupid accidents happen.”

“So like everyone else, you are going to try and tell me why it happened?”

“No, I’m not going to try platitudes. They never worked for me.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Martha’s tears started running down her face.

Giselle took a step forward and then realized it was too soon. Martha didn’t want comforting, at least not yet. “No, but I would like to help!”

“You can’t.” Martha looked up at the sky through the trees. For a moment she wondered if this spot had betrayed her.

“You feel guilty!”

Giselle said the words that Martha had been hearing in her own head for months.

She threw herself down, trying to escape those words.

“No, you aren’t guilty about the accident, I know that. You feel guilty about your sister.”

“How do you know?”

“That’s not important, what is important is you. You feel guilty because you weren’t as close to your sister as you now feel you should be. You feel guilty because you didn’t really know her and now you never will. You feel guilty for missing her in ways you never felt before she died.”

Martha was speechless. No one had ever laid it out so simply, baring her soul in ways her own thoughts never pieced it all together so succinctly. She put her head down and sobbed. “Who else knows,” she said with halting words.

That wasn’t the response Giselle was expecting, but it did make sense. Martha had been holding so much in for so long, one of her fears would be who else might suspect how she felt. That’s one reason why anyone talking to her would make her feel even worse.

“I can’t help with everything, but I can help you in one area. How would you like to get to know your sister better?”

Martha looked very confused as Giselle reached into her own small backpack and took out a book. “Your sister Matilda, who preferred to be called Maddie, kept a diary.”

“No, she didn’t, well not since she was little. She used to have this book she called a journal and would freak out if anyone touched it.”

“Not completely true. She started again a while ago only she was worried about someone reading it, so she kept it at a friend’s house.”

“You?”

“No, not me. I talked to her friend and convinced her that you would benefit the most from it. In some ways, her friend was glad to give it to you because she was very tempted to read it and see what it said about her, but she never did.”

“Who was it?” Martha asked.

“You’ll know that if you read the diary. She and Maddie were very close.”

“Closer than me?”

“In some ways, but not all. According to her friend, Maddie talked about her big sister a lot and always called you Marty.”

“I never liked that nickname!”

“That is not true! You used it all the time until your sister’s accident. You stopped answering to it because it reminded you of her.”

“Who are you?”

“I told you, I’m Giselle,” she said as she handed the leather-covered book up to Martha. Then as quietly as she came into the clearing, she stepped away and turned to go.

“Wait? Why?”

Giselle smiled back over her shoulder, “Because you needed it.” She left Martha sitting on her rock staring at the diary.

. . .

A little deeper in the woods, Giselle walked up to Gaia. “It’s done!”

“Not yet, she still needs to decide to read it or not. That belongs to her, all we did was give her the opportunity.”

Gaia continued as she looked around, “As much as I love winter, I also love this time of year. The warn sun and look at all this growth. It amazes me.”

The two of them looked around and took in what made this place so special to Martha. The woods were packed with life, the grassy meadow moving gently in the breeze, the sun slowly setting toward the top of hills to the west. Giselle inhaled the scents deeply and relaxed.

“It amazes you? Mother Nature herself?”

Laughing quietly, “Yes, even me. I will admit to not liking margarine no matter how that awful commercial portrayed me. That was a surprise too.”

Giselle laughed at the thought, ‘You can’t fool Mother Nature!’ Then she thought of Martha.

“You can only do so much, Giselle. She has to take steps for herself.

. . .

Martha sat there for a long while staring at the book. She was torn between reading it and violating her sister’s privacy or not reading it and respecting that privacy. She didn’t know what to do, but the sun was setting and a cool shadow crossed her rock, telling herself it was time to go. She tucked Maddie’s diary in her pack and started home carefully as the sun went down.

Stepping out of the woods she stopped to appreciate the view in the twilight. Her grass-covered field was bathed in shadows and looked both more beautiful and mysterious at the same time. She made her way, not toward home, but to the center of the meadow and glanced back east as she looked, she caught sight of a pair of eagles settling over the small group of trees and she smiled. The moon was just starting to come up and it bathed her woods in a silvery light. She took the long way home.

. . .

“Will it help her?” Giselle finally blurted out the question that had been driving her crazy.

“It already has, whether she reads it or not,” Gaia answered, sounding like she knew more than she was willing to share. “No, I don’t know for sure, so quit looking at me like that. The only thing I do know is tonight her Dad is going to accidentally call her Marty and it won’t make her feel the same way it would have this morning."