FSE

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To Tie For

Chapter One

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

Commission for November

27thOctober, 2021

All Rights Reserved.

Ember slipped the cap off her head, then ruffled a paw over her aching ears. Whoever designed these baseball caps had _no_idea what they were doing! Ear holes were always too small and it felt like her ears would just fall straight off! With a sub-vocalised growl, Ember padded across the wooden floor of the ranger station and headed for the kitchenette.

"What's got your tail in a twist?" Came the quiet voice of the Jasmine, the only other anthro in the whole ranger staff.

"Urgh," Ember sighed, as she shut the refrigerator door and set the milk on the counter. "Whoever made those trail cams, I swear..."

Her cloven hooves clicking, the Elk Doe walked over and shook her head, then smiled at Ember.

"Sit down, I'll make your coffee."

Ember slumped into a chair and buried her muzzle in her paws.

"Twenty cameras are on the fritz. How can I do my thesis study for my doctorate, if I can't observe the Pack? I want to study them and their behaviour and..."

Pouring the hot water into the mug, the Elk nodded. "Better you than me! I still have irrational fears about you..."

Ember took the offered cup, her grey paws enfolding the slender ones of the Elk, then she smiled lopsidedly.

"I couldn't eat a _whole_Elk doe..."

Jasmine stared, before she flattened her ears and blushed, her tail flagging from side to side.

"I'm quite...flattered - " Jasmine squirmed. "You know the rules on colleagues fraternising..."

Giving the Elk a grin, Ember chuckled and patted her lightly on the forearms. "A wolfess can dream, can't she?"

Jasmine giggled in that adorable way she had, before he coughed delicately, covering her muzzle with a paw and walked back to her desk.

"I'm gonna take the next defective trail cam, drive to where they're made and..."

Putting her stress and anger aside, Ember held the mug between her paws and sipped the coffee.

"Mmm, just perfect..."

Shaken out of her reverie, Ember sighed and flattened her ears as she heard the alarms going off - again.

"Really?"

They were silenced and Jasmine poked her dark furred head in the door.

"Want me to go take care of it? Expecting a pretty decent snow flurry to come through tonight or tomorrow, its only fall! Like..."

Taking a deep drink of her hot coffee, Ember rolled her eyes and shook her head. Standing up, she walked over and tipped the remainder of the coffee down the sink.

"No, I'll do it, I'll switch over from the solar charging to the batteries. You just look after the station. I'm sure our visitors prefer seeing your pretty face, rather than mine!"

Jasmine blushed again and giggled. "There's nothing wrong with yours! So you're a wolf, and I'm a deer - human's really don't distinguish between our kinds! I've seen your reviews they leave in the guest-book, they adore you!"

Walking back to the front door, Ember paused then fetched her white and blue striped scarf and heavy coat. Winding it around her neck, she flicked the tasselled ends of the scarf over her shoulder.

"Better to be safe than sorry! I won't be back for a few hours, but I got my radio..."

Jasmine nodded. "I'm sure I'll survive, not many visitors in the park today, so its pretty quiet!"

"No doubt..."

Ember quietly shut the door behind her and headed around the back to the shed. Here, she grabbed a large backpack and began slipping battery packs into it.

"Oof, heavy..." Ember grunted, as she picked up the pack from the desk it sat on.

Carefully, she made her way to the cruiser assigned to her then dropped the rear tailgate and pushed the pack inside, shutting it again. Watching some holiday makers heading for the park exit, she gave them a friendly wave and they waved back.

"Never hurts to be courteous, now...these trail cams aren't going to fix themselves..."

*

Ember's mind wandered, lost in the pleasure of being out doors and surrounded by the beauty of nature. Fresh air filled her lungs and the scenery was truly breathtaking. Years of being outdoors had hardened her paw pads and she was almost oblivious to rocks, sticks and leaves her foot paws padded over.

Reluctantly, Ember made her way back towards the cruiser. As she followed a faint game trail, her nostrils assimilated and caught many scents. Deer, mostly. They were quite prolific in the park, but Ember knew the Wolves were doing nature's work and trying to establish a equilibrium between themselves and the deer population.

Mentally, she checked off the trail cam's she'd done, then consulted against the note in her mind the ones still left. Suddenly, she froze like a deer in headlights on a highway. One ear twitched slightly and a slow smile spread across her furred lips.

In the distance, she heard a wolf howl, then another, and more, a multitude of them! As they raised their voices in song. Deep inside of her mind, it was...

Primal...

Primitive...

Instinctive...

It called to her, touched her heart and mind. Ember caught herself, as she raised her muzzle skywards, about to add her own voice to the song they sang.

Ember blinked, the moment shattering as she shut her jaws with a snap. She wasn't a part of their pack... If anything, she'd be an outsider, unwelcome and a possible threat. Even though she was distantly related to them - her mind wondered even _if_she would be intelligible to them?

With a huff, Ember's ears went flat and she sighed, before rolling her aching shoulders and flexing her arms. Quietly, she snapped the cover on the trail cam closed. Waving her hand in front of the camera, she caught the millisecond click of the lens.

"Yep, that's working..."

*

Ember snapped the last one closed, waved her paw in front of it and triple checked it. With a squeal, Ember snatched the radio from her belt as it crackled with static then Jasmine's voice come from it.

"Ember? You okay? Just checked the radar, storms moving in sooner than they predicted. Just checking you're okay!"

Raising her head to the sky, Ember saw the heavy, pregnant storm clouds moving in. Doing a quick mental calculation, she knew the should have to head back soon. Some of the trails she drove up and down weren't exactly bad weather trails...

"I'll be heading back to the station in about ten minutes." Ember replied. "I just put the last of the batteries in, eta? About twenty."

"Righto, I'll get the cocoa on!"

With a chuckle, Ember felt her dewlaps curl in a smile. Jasmine was such a sweetheart and so considerate.

"Thank you, out."

Clipping the radio back to her belt, she paused, then sat for a moment on a fallen log. Taking a breath of the clear, cooling air, she felt a ripple run through her. Her brush of a tail swept back and forth all of its own accord.

"We've had this discussion tail..." Ember groaned. "Look at me, talking to my tail like its..."

Her ears pricked forwards as she heard a sound. Like her ancestors, Ember's hearing was acute and very sensitive. Her ear flicked forwards and back as she tried to focus in on it.

A rustle of a branch, then the... Ember squealed as a Whitetail doe burst from cover and fled, its eyes wide and muzzle open. It skidded and tumbled, then leapt back to its hooves and vanished as suddenly as it'd appeared.

"What the..." Ember blinked.

In that heartbeat of time, something primitive surfaced in her mind. Ember could smell the fear! Hear that doe's thudding heartbeat! See the white creamy sweat on her flanks...

"Urgh! I'm better than this!" Ember moaned, as she wiped her paws over her muzzle and flicked away the saliva that drooled from her lips. "I'm not some feral wolf!"

As she started to stand up, the hackles on the back of her neck rose and her skin prickled as she suddenly found herself less than a half-dozen paces from four wolves. They froze and stared at her, their bright golden eyes glimmering. Ember instantly dropped her own, peeking at them from behind her eyelids.

A hunting pack, but where there are these ones...

Ember didn't know how she knew, but she sensed herself being surrounded by the pack. Standing as still as she could, she didn't know whether to yell and wave her arms, or stay as she was.

They stared at her, heads lowered and glowering through their own eyelashes at the strange creature who stood before them. For nearly ten minutes, the standoff held, before without a single sound, the wolf pack backed away and turned. In ones and twos, they melted back into the forest like wraiths, just as quiet too.

Only after they'd gone, did Ember moan and look down. Her ears flattened in guilt and shame. Ember hadn't even realised it, but she had faced down the pack - and had accidentally wet herself. It'd run down her furred legs and out the bottom of her slacks to soak into the ground.

"Oh..." Ember whined like a pup, her ears flattening. "How will I explain this back at the station.."

Peeling her wet slacks off, Ember shuddered and now, dressed only in her panties, she walked back to the cruiser and sat on the tailgate. Quickly, the chilly air and metal combined to soak through her fur and turn her rump cold.

"Brrr..." Ember groused, as she folded over her slacks and set them in the back of the cruiser. "Let's see... If I go back about five miles, turn left, there's a little stream... I could rinse them out there, say I slipped and fell..."

That might work on the human rangers, but Jasmine's sense of smell is far superior to theirs. She will know. Her mind whispered to her.

"Nothing else for it..." Ember grumbled, as she slipped off the tailgate then turned about, her paws underneath it as she pushed it up and forwards, shutting it with a loud thump.

Feeling the freshening breeze begin to blow, Ember shivered. Something in her senses warned her to hurry. It was almost as if the primitive wolf mind within her sensed the approaching snow storm. Quickly, Ember opened the drivers side door and climbed into the cruiser. Turning the key, she started it up and began driving back towards the station.

Fate it seemed, had other plans...

*

From seemingly nowhere, rain turned to sleet, then snow - fat and heavy, fell with wet plops on the windscreen. Wind began to churn and rustle the leaves. Ember turned on the wipers, swishing away the snow as she peered out the windscreen.

One moment it was a lovely fall afternoon, moments later the sky was the colour of lead. Clouds tumbled and rolled over each other. Quickly, it turned from sunlight, to twilight, to dark enough Ember had to turn the cruisers lights on.

"Ember, you copy?" Came Jasmine's worried voice from the speaker mounted on the dash.

"Here! Kind of - busy!" Ember growled into the mic, as she growled and slowed to a crawl. "I think the Meteorology guys were wrong - again! Where'd this sudden storm come from?"

"Radar shows wall to wall storm cell sweeping down from the..."

Abruptly, the radio burst into static, then silence.

"Jasmine? JASMINE!" Ember screamed into the mike.

Only static came back.

Ember stopped the cruiser, then forcing the door open, she was buffeted by the winds and icy snow that slashed at her. Wishing she'd brought warm pants, Ember felt the cold climb up her furred legs like a pair of rabid ferrets.

Holding a forearm up against the snow and wind, she trudged a few paces away then turned about. Her tail tucked between her legs as she looked at the roof of the cruiser - the aerial was just gone. About two inches of it poked up from the roof, the rest had been snapped off.

Quickly, before she got any colder, Ember rushed back to the cruiser and climbed inside, the door slamming hard enough to make her ears ring.

"Great, just wonderful!" Ember sighed.

Her ears flattened in irritation as she took stock of the equipment in the cruiser.

Three quarters of a tank of fuel. At least that was something. No wet weather gear, some emergency flares and a torch... Clambering over the small hump at the front seats, she moved into the back. Awkwardly, she pulled up the floor mat and the thin plywood underneath it. Spare tire, jack, lever for jack...

With a loud sigh, Ember dropped the mat and sat on her wet rump.

"I guess I can try to make it back, its not a blizzard - but I'll have to be careful and...

Ember yelped as a massive tree crashed down in front of her cruiser.

"Oh come on!" Ember moaned. "Really?"

Pulling her tail around beside her, Ember brought her knees up to her chest, then wrapped her tail around her shins. Turning the heater up in the cruiser, she shut off the lights and wipers, then rested her chin on her knees and stared out at the snow that began to gather on the windscreen...

TO BE CONTINUED