{"sf1_id":593849,"sf2_id":"J1OYR2Xm","title":"Wild Rose Country - Chapter 9","author":"JonaWolf","words":5922,"posted_at":"2013-09-22T16:37:00.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Clean","Human","Post-Apocalyptic","Romance","Wolf","survival","wilderness"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/593849-wild-rose-country-chapter-9","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/J1OYR2Xm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/7c/69/7c6993f7-2de6-494d-af7f-521be4c643fa","description":"#10 of Wild Rose Country","content":"The beginning of April can be a wonderful time of year. Daytime temperatures  \nfinally crawl up to lurk around the freezing point and the short, dark days of winter  \nare fading into memory. The realization that warmer weather lies just around the  \ncorner can be likened to awakening from the hibernation incurred by a long and  \ncold winter. Spring is a happy time, a time of renewed activity and new life, a time  \nwhere green pushes back the white cover of winter to rule the land.\n\nI'd lived all of my life in a climate where cold weather and snow were a general  \nrule for at least six months out of every year. It seemed to be no different here  \nand I smiled when I realized that for the first time in three weeks, I actually felt  \nhappy. It was easy to be happy under cloudless skies and the renewed warmth  \nof the sun, especially since matters of food had been solved for the foreseeable  \nfuture. Sweat was breaking out on my brow and I had shed my jacket and tied it  \nabout my waist. Sharra had no such way to rid herself of extra insulation as I did  \nand beside me she was panting up a storm as we toiled to drag the carcass of  \nthe deer up the trail that would eventually lead us back to the cabin. Dead weight  \nis a term I've heard used before on many occasions, and I must say that it fit well  \nin this case. Even with the two of us, getting our food back to the cabin was  \nproving to be no easy task.\n\nWhen you take into account all of the weirdness that had transpired over the last  \nfew weeks, I couldn't be completely sure that it actually was the beginning of  \nApril. The weather did seem to fit though, and for some strange reason my watch  \ntold me that it was the third day of April. Why I would find myself deposited in this  \nworld at roughly the same time of year that it was when I left was one of many  \nunanswered questions. I doubted that I'd ever know why things had happened  \nthe way they did. I had plenty of time to dwell on such things back in those days,  \nbut I was finding that such questions didn't bother me as much as they did during  \nthat first difficult week.\n\nSharra was happy as well, but for different reasons than I. She had happily  \ngobbled down the liver of the deer.\n\nRaw.\n\nHow she could stomach something that my imagination told me must taste like a  \nmouthful of warm and soggy iron filings is beyond me. I may have mentioned  \nsomewhere before that I'm not exactly the squeamish type but watching  \nsomeone munch so happily on raw, blood filled liver was enough to turn even my  \nstomach. I can only imagine the look on my face when she offered a chunk of the  \nliver to me in a blood soaked hand. I've never liked liver, even when it's cooked,  \nnever mind raw, warm and still dripping. Internal organs are no delicacy to me  \nbut apparently they are to Sharra's species.\n\nThat brought another thought to mind. I still had that damned deer heart to deal  \nwith. Sharra had tucked it back into the chest cavity of the carcass to keep it  \nclean and fresh despite my objections. Apparently there are ancient and  \nimportant traditions surrounding a person's first kill, and eating of the heart is one  \nof those. Why Sharra thought that any of that should apply to me is a mystery. It's  \nhard to notice that I'm not one of her kind. I shook my head. Maybe she's insane.  \nMaybe I was the one who'd gone over the edge, I just didn't know anymore. I'd  \nheard stories about people having a few screws come loose after spending too  \nmuch time isolated in the wilderness, but those stories had dealt with humans. I  \nhad no idea how a member of Sharra's species would deal with a situation like  \nthat. I suspected that it could be something akin to the human experience but I  \ncouldn't be sure. After all, as far as I knew, most canine species were social  \ncritters. The species that Sharra resembled the most, wolves for example, lived  \nin large social groups and tended to not be all that happy when isolated from  \nsocial contact for prolonged periods of time. Two years she told me that she'd  \nbeen out here all by herself; time enough perhaps to erode her sanity. She still  \nwouldn't tell me why she was out here all by herself, but I could see that  \nsomething bothered her on an emotional level. I heard it in her cries of despair  \nwhen the nightmares wrenched her to wakefulness in the middle of the night. I  \nsaw it in the way she just sat on the porch of the cabin for hours on end, staring  \nout into the trees with vacant eyes. I heard it in her voice whenever I tried to dig  \ninto her past. I didn't like to see her suffer like that and I hoped that someday she  \nwould feel comfortable enough with me to tell me what had happened in her past  \nthat brought her so much pain.\n\nI paused for a moment before sitting down heavily on a convenient log. I could  \ntell by the rubbery feeling in my legs that tomorrow was going to be a painful  \nexperience to say the least. There was nothing like having to fight for survival to  \nget a guy back in shape. Never before did I have to work so hard just to get my  \nmeals. Sharra keeled over and sprawled on her side in the snow, tongue lolling  \nand looking for all the world like a wolf in need of a cold drink and a nap. In  \nbetween spurts of panting, she munched on a couple of handfuls of snow in an  \nattempt to cool down. I watched her out of the corner of my eyes for a moment.  \nShe was a constant source of mystery to me. There were times when I nearly  \nforgot that she wasn't human. Other times, I was forcefully reminded of the fact  \nthat she was unquestionably canine. Neither fully human nor completely canine,  \nshe was instead an intriguing blend of the two, something that should have been  \nimpossible. It came as quite a surprise to me when I suddenly realized that no  \nlonger did she instil fear in me, at least not the mind numbing, muscle paralyzing  \nsort that I experienced during my first few days here. I was still a bit wary of her  \nand her actions, but she was becoming familiar enough that even that wariness  \nwas fading into the background. I thought about that for a moment as I watched  \nthe high clouds drift slowly overhead. Sometime over the last few weeks, an  \ninvisible line had been crossed. Gone now were those early days of fear and  \nuncertainty. What had taken their place I was not quite certain of yet. Curiosity  \nperhaps, there was plenty of that, but maybe also ... Acceptance? I didn't know. It  \nwas too early to tell for sure. There was a glimmer of light at the end of the  \ntunnel, and with any luck, it wouldn't be a train. Hopefully some measure of  \nacceptance of my new life had taken root, but as for what it may grow into, I  \nhadn't a clue.\n\nIt took a surprising amount of effort to force myself back to my feet. I could hardly  \nwait to get back to the cabin and collapse into a chair. Sharra was loath to leave  \nthe welcome cool of the snow and I didn't blame her. There had to be serious  \ndisadvantages to having a thick fur coat once the weather began to warm up.  \nHaving you're body cool itself by means of its tongue couldn't be much fun either.  \nI smiled as I reached into the melting snow and formed a loose snowball. I was  \nabout to throw it at Sharra when something caught my eye up the trail, something  \nI'd never thought I'd see again. My brow furrowed and the snowball dropped from  \nmy fingers, forgotten. Something just barely visible through the tight knit  \nbranches of the trees had sparked against the flint of memory.\n\nI moved up the gentle slope towards it. There was a cliff face some distance  \naway, perhaps thirty metres, and the familiarity of what I was seeing there tickled  \nsomething deep in the back of my brain. I paused for a moment where the  \nground levelled out somewhat. The trees had thinned out a bit there and the rock  \nwall was only ten metres away. I could clearly see what had triggered my  \nmemory now. It was written as plain as day on the face of the cliff for all to see. I  \nshook my head in disbelief. After everything that had happened over the past few  \nweeks, I just couldn't believe what my eyes were revealing to me. This had to be  \na natural formation, a freak chance of erosion or something like that. The  \nalternative was frankly too disturbing for me to contemplate.\n\n\"Hey! Where are you going?\" I barely heard Sharra's questioning voice behind  \nme. I was too shocked to reply.\n\nIn a haze of disbelief, I stumbled over the jumble of lichen encrusted boulders  \nthat lay at the base of the cliff. When at last I stood before the object of my  \ndisbelief, my hand went out to the rough surface of the stone. The granite was  \ncool and solid under my fingers, threatening with unquestionable veracity that all  \nwas not as it would seem. There was the barest sound of crunching snow from  \nbehind me as Sharra moved to stand beside me.\n\n\"Is something wrong?\" Her voice was quiet, almost worried.\n\nWhen I finally did answer, my voice was distant and hollow in my ears. \"I..., I  \ndon't know.\" I turned my head to meet her eyes. She must have seen something  \nthere. Her ears went back and her eyes were wide.\n\nConsidering the events that had occurred over the past few weeks of my life, I  \nwas getting used to strange stuff happening, but what was laid out before my  \neyes in infallible stone was very nearly the strangest and most unsettling thing  \nyet.\n\nThe stone in front of me was weathered and cracked. Moss and lichen had  \ngained a foothold on the primordial rock and had crawled across the face of the  \ncliff, adding a touch of colour to bland granite. Seemingly as ancient as the  \neroded stone itself, what had grabbed my attention so completely was something  \nthat should be familiar to anyone who has travelled through the mountainous  \narea of the world. My numb fingers traced the outline of a concave depression  \nroughly four centimetres across in the limestone before me. It ran vertically up  \nthe cliff for perhaps three metres, a concave groove that looked as if it was once  \nhalf of a hole that had been bored into the cliff. There was an identical groove in  \nthe stone a metre to my right. Another one was a metre to my left, almost  \novertaken with encroaching lichen. My eyes found others as well and they were  \nspaced out in an even geometric pattern. My fingers moved slowly over the old  \nand pitted scar in the rock. These were the remnants of blasting holes, holes  \ndrilled into stone, filled with explosives and then detonated to clear the way for  \nthe construction of roads and railways. That was the only thing they could be. I  \nhad seen them many times before, albeit as fresh scars in the rock, not as  \nancient and weathered contusions that seemed almost as old as the stone itself.  \nMy hand dropped to my side. This just couldn't be. Roads meant cars. Cars  \nmeant civilization and industry, but who's? Human civilization or one forged by  \nSharra's people? One look at her, she armed with a spear, thick of fur and sharp  \nof teeth, told me that it was a remote possibility at best that her kind was  \nresponsible for what I saw written in stone before me. That left only one highly  \ndisturbing possibility ...\n\n\"You have seen these strange marks in stone before?\" Sharra asked quietly.  \nI wondered how much I should tell her. I didn't know if she would understand  \nwhat I might tell her, and I sincerely doubted that she would believe it. Perhaps it  \nwas best to keep my theories to myself for the time being.\n\n\"Yes ... I have seen these markings before, but it was a long time ago.\" More  \nthan a lifetime away if I was right ...\n\nSharra's eyes flicked back and forth between the stone and I. When I didn't  \nvolunteer any more information, she sighed and her shoulders sagged just the  \nslightest bit. \"We should go retrieve our food. We are not the only hungry  \ncreatures in these woods.\"\n\nWith that, she turned and headed back down to where we left the deer. I lingered  \nfor a moment longer in front of the unsettling evidence carved in stone before  \nme. I didn't hear the wind that whooshed through the trees or Sharra's footsteps  \nas they receded into the background. There was an amazing clarity to my  \nthoughts at that moment. Was I really standing at the edge of an ancient road  \nallowance, one that was to my eyes so old that it should be impossible? Were I to  \ndig down through the snow at my feet, through the moss and soil beneath, would  \nI find fractured chunks of asphalt or perhaps the iron rails from a long forgotten  \nrailway rusted now into ruin and out of memory? I shook my head sadly. Such  \nquestions would go unanswered for now. There was heaviness in my heart as I  \nturned away and returned to Sharra. She was waiting patiently for me by the  \ncarcass of the deer and didn't question me further about what I had seen on the  \nface of the cliff.\n\nWe once again took up our burden and resumed our slow progress back towards  \nthe cabin. Not a single word passed between us for the duration of the trip, for we  \nwere both lost deep within our thoughts. I remember having to fight the urge to  \nkeep looking over my shoulder. My thoughts were troubled as the cliff  \ndisappeared behind a wall of trees. For some reason I couldn't shake the feeling  \nthat I had just visited some long forgotten monument to past greatness.  \nSharra's thoughts were her own as we trudged through the melting snow under  \nthe warmth of an early April sun.\n\n---\n\n\"Are you going to stare at that thing all day or are you going to eat it?\"  \nI glanced up to where Sharra was standing in the doorway. \"I'm not staring at it,  \nand yes I will eat it, I just have to figure out how. I sure as hell ain't eating this  \nthing raw.\"\n\nShe snickered. \"Why not? Heart is best when raw and still warm.\"\n\n\"To you maybe,\" I looked down at the abomination that sat in the center of the  \nold frying pan on the table in front of me. I poked it with the point of my knife. It  \nskittered wetly across the corroded surface. Yuck. \"But I don't eat raw meat,  \nespecially the variety that makes up internal organs.\"\n\n\"You are not going to burn it again are you?\" Claws clicked on the wooden floor  \nas Sharra walked over to sit down across the table from me.\n\nI smiled at that remark. \"The word is 'cook' Sharra. And yes, I'm going to cook it.  \nIf I ate this thing raw it would probably make me sick.\" Just thinking of the texture  \nof raw heart sliding down my throat was enough to make an involuntary shudder  \nrun through my body.\n\nSharra shook her head in disgust and muttered under her breath. \"Humans.\"  \n\"Canines.\" I countered with a smirk. \"It's not my fault that you'll eat damn near  \nanything. Do I look like the type that would eat raw internal organs?\" I gave her a  \ntoothy grin.\n\nHer ears went back so fast that I almost heard them and she was silent for a  \nmoment. A vaguely fearful expression flickered briefly across her face. \"Not with  \nteeth like that. You would be better off eating plants.\"\n\n\"Plants? Yeah, those can be good too, but not as good as meat that's cooked  \nright.\"\n\nSharra looked at me oddly for a moment. \"You are strange, furless one.\"\n\nI leaned back and laughed. \"You're just as strange to me furball. I gotta admit, I'm  \nused to dealing with canine types, but those that walk on two legs and talk back  \nto me are a new experience.\"\n\nSharra looked at me, curiosity evident in her amber eyes. Her mouth opened and  \nclosed a couple of times, but the question went unasked. She pushed her chair  \nback and stood up. \"I am going to go and finish cutting up the deer. I could use  \nsome help in a few minutes to hang the quarters in the shed.\"\n\n\"Sure, I'll be out in a bit. I want to get this thing cooking before I do anything else.  \nYou want me to save you a chunk of this thing?\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;She perked up. \"Are you sure?\"\n\nI laughed. \"Trust me Sharra, I'm sure. There is more than enough here for me.\"  \nWithout waiting for her to reply, I took hold of my knife and attempted to saw off a  \nchunk for her. I might as well have been trying to use a plastic knife. The tough  \nmeat resisted my attempts to cut it and instead tried to escape. It squirted out  \nfrom under my fingers, caught the lip of the frying pan and shot up in the air. The  \nfrying pan hit the floor with a resounding clang and I scrambled to catch the  \nerrant organ. Only by sheer luck did I manage to intercept its flight. Only after a  \nprecarious moment of juggling it around hand to hand did I finally manage to get  \nhold on it.\n\nSharra was standing in the doorway, an expression of shocked amusement  \nwritten plainly on her features. It took her a moment to find her voice, during  \nwhich she was doing her damnedest not to break out laughing.\n\n\"Do all humans play with their food before they cook it?\"\n\nI levelled the point of my knife at her. \"Hey! None of that.\" She froze. Despite my  \nbest efforts to hold it off, I couldn't keep a smile from my face. We stared at each  \nother for a few seconds before we both simultaneously broke out laughing.\n\n\"Go on Sharra, get the hell out of here before I make any more of a fool of  \nmyself. I'll bring you out a piece once I get this thing cooking.\"\n\nHer exit was abrupt, and despite the now closed door and my woefully  \ninadequate (so Sharra tells me) human hearing, I could hear her laughing almost  \nall the way down to the old shed.\n\n\"Way to go John,\" I mutter to the empty cabin, \"Always good at making yourself  \nlook like a fool.\" I shook my head as I tried to pick up where I left off.\n\nI was chuckling as I picked the frying pan from the floor and threw the heart back  \nonto it. Only by dint of extreme effort and another attempted escape by the  \nrecalcitrant organ did I manage to saw off a piece to save for Sharra.\n\nI figured that heart wouldn't have been too bad if I'd had some onions, some salt  \nand pepper and maybe even a few mushrooms. I set the pan on the stove. No  \nsuch luck I thought as I looked at my humble surroundings. This cabin apparently  \nwasn't stocked with a supply of condiments. That was okay if you don't mind  \nbland food, but I was accustomed to a little more flavour in the stuff I ate, and  \nalso a little more variety. The meat only diet I'd been on the last few weeks was  \nstarting to play some serious hell with my digestive system and I had a ravenous  \ncraving for a salad to go with my rather unconventional dinner.\n\nThe stove wasn't very warm, not yet anyways, and I'd discovered over the last  \nfew weeks that getting the heat just right and keeping it there was a real pain. I  \ndumped the pan with its gory cargo on the top of the stove and bent down to  \nswing the door open. I added a few small pieces of wood. Too much and my  \ndinner will be nothing short of a carbon crisp. I grimaced as I straightened up.  \nThere was an amazing lack of strength in my legs now that most of the work was  \nsaid and done with. I decided that tomorrow would be a good day to stay in bed.\n\n\u0026nbsp;I staggered over to the table and sat down with a thump. I leaned back in my  \nchair and stared at the wall in the manner of those with much on their minds. The  \nheart began to sizzle in the frying pan.\n\nMy mind wandered back to the cliff. I'll be damned if those weren't scars from  \nblasting, but they looked so ancient! A frown grew on my face. More pieces of the  \npuzzle. I had no shortage of those, as more seemed to turn up everyday. The  \nsmall corner of the puzzle that I'd managed to piece together so far was painting  \na very disquieting picture. I shook off the thoughts that followed that one. Nah... It  \ncouldn't be. The laws of physics were supposed to prevent things like that from  \nhappening...\n\nMy eyes were drawn down to the bloody strip of meat sitting on a tin plate near  \nmy elbow. It looked like something I might give to the dog. In this case that was  \nfairly true, but usually the dog wouldn't be trying to convince me to have a bite of  \nit with her.\n\nWith a muffled groan I forced myself to my feet. Grabbing my dull, rusty, and  \nnearly useless knife from the table, I made my way over to the slowly cooking  \nheart. I flipped the thing over in the pan and sawed it into irregular chunks. I was  \ngoing to have to sharpen that damned knife soon, before I inadvertently sawed  \noff a finger or two. I wandered back to the table and stabbed the offending  \nimplement point first into the wood. I didn't want to do anything but sit down and  \nrest, but I did promise Sharra that I would help her hang up the rest of the deer.  \nMy dinner would be some time in cooking anyways, so now was as good of a  \ntime as any. I took Sharra's portion of the heart in my hand and wandered out of  \nthe cabin and down towards the old shed, leaving my dinner to simmer on the  \nstove. Hopefully I wouldn't end up burning down the cabin by doing so.\n\nIt was an amazingly warm day out for what time of year that I thought it was. The  \nafternoon sun beat down with a welcome warmth and the wind had stilled to  \nbarely a whisper. If this kept up, the snow wouldn't be long in melting. However, if  \nthis place had weather anything like where I used to live, we could just as easily  \nget a half metre of snow dumped on us tomorrow. I smiled thinly. Got to love  \nliving in a climate where snow was not completely out of the question even in  \nJuly.\n\nThat brought to mind another question that had been bugging me. If I really was  \nstill on planet Earth, (something I was starting to believe) where exactly was I? I'd  \nlike to think that the mountain range I saw in the distance was the Rockies. I'd  \nlike to believe that I was near one of the many spots where I used to go camping  \non the weekends. I'd have really liked to believe such things for they would have  \nbeen islands of familiarity in an ocean of uncertainty, but I knew it wasn't that  \nsimple. All mountain ranges can look remarkably alike. For all I knew I could be  \nsomewhere in the Himalayas.\n\nSharra was sitting down by the shed, her back against the wall. Her grey fur  \nmade her blend in against the aged wood remarkably well. Her eyes were closed  \nand she was apparently taking a break and enjoying the warmth of the afternoon  \nsun. Her pointed ears tracked my progress. The carcass of the deer lay in the  \nsnow nearby. She had been busy. The carcass had been neatly skinned and  \nquartered and all that remained was for the two of us to try and hang the slabs of  \nmeat in the shed, a task that I was not looking forward to. I had enough sore  \nmuscles already, thank you very much.\n\nSharra hadn't moved, but for her ears, during my approach. Was she asleep?  \nMaybe all of the work that she'd done today had made her want to take a nap. I  \ndoubted it, but still, this was an opportunity for me to have a little fun. I slowed my  \npace and tried to walk as quietly as I could. That wasn't as easy as it sounded.  \nThe wet snow squeaked under the soles of my boots despite my best attempts at  \nsilence. Suppressing a large grin I moved in a slow, wide arc that brought me up  \nbehind the shed. I moved as slowly as I could, creeping across the sunlit snow  \nand finally entering the cool shade of the tall trees at the edge of the clearing. I  \ncrept up to the open door of the shed and paused there for a moment. I gently  \nset the plate down on the snow. Carefully, soundlessly, I eased my head around  \nthe corner ...\n\nAnd saw that Sharra was gone.\n\nUh oh ...\n\nI could see her footprints leading around the other side of the shed. I didn't even  \nhave time to turn around. Something very cold and wet landed on the back of my  \nneck and slid down the back of my shirt.\n\n\"Yeeeaaagh!\" I jumped forward violently and corkscrewed around. Sharra was a  \nfew short paces behind me, laughing openly.\n\n\"Got you.\" She said, a big grin plastered on her muzzle and her tail wagging  \nfuriously.\n\n\"Do you have any idea how cold that is!?\" I exclaimed as I tried to shake the  \noffending snow out of my clothes. I jumped from foot to foot, going through  \ncontortions that threatened to crack my spine in an effort to keep the snow as far  \naway from my skin as possible. \"Aagg! Wooh! Shit, that's really cold!\" Sharra  \nstarted laughing again.\n\n\"Now we are even.\" She said with a big grin and a wag of her tail.\n\nI grinned back. \"Bad wolf. No treat for you.\" In one fluid motion, I grabbed the  \nplate from the snow and held it out of Sharra's reach.\n\n\"Hey!\"\n\n\"Doesn't that smell good?\" I waved the plate in front of her nose. Her eyes  \nnarrowed and her ears went back a bit. A part of me was sorely tempted to say:  \n\"Sit, lie down ... Stay. Good girl!\" But I didn't think that that would be such a good  \nidea. Besides, I doubted that she would understand.\n\nSharra was quiet. Her eyes flicked back and forth between the plate and me. I  \ncould see her black nose working overtime.\n\nI was starting to wonder if I should have been teasing her like that. I may have  \nhad the advantage over her when it came to size and strength, but she could run  \na whole lot faster than I could and she had a rather sharp looking set of teeth.  \nI was just about to back down when her annoyed expression turned thoughtful,  \nand a mischievous grin slowly spread across her muzzle. She took a slow step  \ntowards me, head bent down, ears up and tail straight out behind her.  \nI took a hurried step back. She took another slow and careful step in my  \ndirection.\n\nShe was ... Stalking ... Me. Boy oh boy, what had I gotten myself into? I sure  \nhoped she was just kidding around!\n\nI took another couple of quick steps backwards. Sharra froze. So did I. Just when  \nI was starting to get really worried, I noticed that the tip of her tail was wagging  \ngently from side to side. There was a playful sparkle in her eyes that told me that  \nI was in for it. I swallowed nervously. We held each other's gaze for a few short  \nseconds, me standing rigid as a statue and Sharra looking not unlike a hunting  \ndog frozen in a point. I saw her eyes flick over to the plate perched in my hand. I  \ngrinned toothily. So it was playtime was it? Aw hell, I might as well make this  \ngame a little more interesting even though I knew I'd lost the game before it had  \neven begun.\n\nI tossed the plate at Sharra and went from zero to flat out as fast as my aching  \nlegs could propel me. I knew I wasn't anywhere near fast enough to outrun  \nSharra, but perhaps if I could make it back up to the cabin ... Wait, who was I  \nkidding? I knew I wouldn't make it, but I had to try at the very least. Running full  \nthrottle through nearly a foot of melting snow was not an easy task.\n\nI hazarded a look over my shoulder. Sharra was coming up behind me fast, a  \ndetermined, but happy expression on her wolfish face and I wasn't even halfway  \nback to the cabin yet. Time for evasive manoeuvres. I cut a sharp right turn,  \nslipping and sliding in the greasy snow. With her greater speed she didn't follow  \nmy turn so easily and fell to one knee and skidded through the snow behind me.  \nIn a flash, she was back on her feet and running hard again. The short amount of  \ndistance that I had gained was eaten up in a hurry. I swerved back towards the  \ncabin again. I could hear Sharra close behind me. My legs felt like lead and my  \nheart was pounding. I didn't think I could keep running for much longer. With little  \nelse to do, I tried a desperate move, throwing myself on my side in the snow and  \ntrying to roll out of Sharra's path. Surprisingly it worked. She must not have  \nexpected me to do something like that. She overshot me, tripped, and went  \nsliding on her chin through the snow.\n\n\"Some hunter you are!\" I said, choking on laughter. \"You can't even chase down  \na tired and slow human!\" I forced my aching body to a sitting position. I could feel  \nthe wet snow seeping its way through my jeans.\n\nSharra pushed herself up from the snow and glared at me. Snow clung to her  \nface. I started laughing again. \"You were lucky.\" She said with a grin. \"If I were  \nnot so tired myself I would have caught you for sure.\" She pushed herself into a  \ncrouch. \"I still can you know.\"\n\nIn a flash she was upon me and before I realized what had happened, I found  \nmyself flat on my back, with Sharra sitting on my chest. She was panting heavily.  \n\"Got you.\" She said with a laugh. I opened my mouth to say something but I  \ncouldn't find any words. Looking up at Sharra, her furry face framed by the cobalt  \nsky, the afternoon sun throwing a soft golden light against the tall trees,  \nsomething stirred deep within me. My vision went all fuzzy and I felt like I was  \nfalling. Despite the fact that I was lying flat on my back in the snow with nothing  \nbut a sweatshirt and jeans to protect me from the cold, I found myself enveloped  \nin a comfortable warmth. All of my thoughts and troubles receded into the  \ndistance, and my mind relaxed and drifted aimlessly in a sea of warm light.  \nSlowly I became aware of another presence sharing this same ocean of  \ncontentment, a familiar presence, one that I felt I've always known ...\n\nA roaring and ringing built in my ears, and the world reappeared with a 'pop'.  \nSharra was staring down at me, confusion readily apparent on her face. We held  \neach others gaze for a moment. I opened my mouth to say something but she  \nput gentle fingers against my lips and shook her head. The look of confusion  \ndisappeared and warmth grew in her amber eyes. A gentle smile sprung to life on  \nher muzzle. I could feel her tail swishing gently against my legs. She bent down  \nand gave me a quick lick on the cheek.\n\nI was momentarily stunned. My hand went to my cheek. \"What was that for?\" I  \nasked quietly.\n\nShe smiled. \"For being a friend, and for bringing some fun back into my life.\"  \nI was about to ask her what the hell had just happened but her head snapped up  \nand she started sniffing intently. She looked back down at me after a moment  \nwith a sort of half smile on her face. \"I think your dinner is burning again.\"\n\n\"Aw crap! I forgot about that.\" I tried to get up, but Sharra didn't seem to want to  \nget off of my chest.\n\n\"You know, it would make things a lot easier if you would let me up.\"\n\n\"Do I have to? You are nice and warm.\"\n\n\"Maybe so, but the snow that's melting through my clothes isn't.\" With a brief  \nsnicker, she slid off of me and stood up to stretch.\n\n\"I do not know how you can live without fur.\" She shook her head.\n\nFor some reason I hardly had the energy to get back up on my feet. \"I don't know  \nhow you can live with that coat of fur you have. Seems to me like it needs a lot of  \nmaintenance.\" With a grunt of effort I finally managed a standing position. I was  \ngoing to sleep very well tonight.\n\n\"It is better than freezing to death.\"\n\n\"Is it? Just wait until summer and we'll see who has the advantage.\" I grinned at  \nher. The faint smell of burning meat reached my nose. \"Uh... I better go and grab  \nthat before the cabin burns down.\" I jogged back to the cabin, doing my best to  \nignore the chill from my soaked clothes and my nearly overwhelming fatigue.  \nBehind me, I completely missed the look of concerned thoughtfulness on  \nSharra's face. She took a couple of steps towards the shed, stopped and turned  \nto stare back at the cabin. Her ears were perked and her head was cocked to the  \nside. She shook her head a few times and then returned to the shed.  \nBy the time I rescued my dinner, it was a little too well done. Still edible certainly,  \nbut tough, chewy and coated with a crunchy layer of carbon on one side.  \nSurprisingly, it tasted just like any other burnt meat I've ever eaten.\n\nBurnt.\n\n\u0026nbsp;  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Wild Rose Country, Book 1 - The Lonely Wilderness","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/590791-wild-rose-country-chapter-8.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/598122-wild-rose-country-chapter-10.json"}}