FSE

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"Alright, listen up, girls! You've all received a section of the trail that you own. That means no trash left behind, all plants pulled from the path, all bushes trimmed to two feet back. We're parking at section 2. The bathrooms are at section 4. Take all of your stuff with you; lunch and supplies. You have until 6, then your ass better be back at this bus. I will then do a walk. If your section has ANY flaws whatsoever, I will not approve your time. If you're not at the bus on time, I will not approve your time. You talk back to me, I will not approve your time. You got it?"

Everyone else seemed to be experienced with this and droned out in a choir "Yes, Ranger Laven". The snow leopard, apparently Ranger Laven, stared at me.

"What, are you to good for this?" He growled as he marched right at me. My ears and whiskers drooped as I shook my head nearly-violently. "Did you not understand me then? Do you think it's a nice day for a walk in the woods, huh? Not going to do your share? Answer me, boy!"

I had to fight the urge to run, but my heart pounded and my vision focused solely on him. I could hear words tumbling out of my mouth like a drunken fool bouncing off of light posts on his way home.

"You just won the prestigious honor of being on MY team, dog, congratulations! We're section 9, allll the way up to the top. What do you think about that?!" His crystal blue eyes bore into me and I physically felt myself leaning further and further away.

"Alright, you lazy lot, get to work! SIX! You have til SIX, don't mess up!" He shouted out and the entire crowd dissipated in a flash. "YOU! You... you better have a good story, bitch, or I'm going to make you hate your life this entire day. Grab your bag and tools. We have an hour hike ahead of us," His low growly voice felt like a knife at my throat, carrying an edge that made me tense to a new degree. I did as I was told in a near-panic, grabbing the 15 pound bag I just bought at REI along with the volunteer group's yard shears, small saw and trowel. "Let's GO, dog!"

The start of the hike was beautiful. As we ascended (and passed the half of the group that had sections 5-8) I looked out over the trees and saw that spring was in full swing. A lush light green now decorated a sea of brown. I noticed some peaks still held snow, surprisingly.

"Huh. You're keeping a good pace. I'm pleased," he glanced back at me, looking at me from nose to toes. "I had expected you to be the first to fail."

His tone wasn't derogatory, just casual and factual. I waited a moment, but he didn't continue. "Uh... why?"

"Your weekend warrior bag? Your tiny little frame? The fact your paws look like they've not seen a day of actual work in their life? You pick it, bitch."

"Uh, my name is..."

"Bitch. Get used to it. When you're with me on this trail, you have a new name. Get over it. Now what did you do to get stuck out here taking abuse from a cat?" Again, he said it all as if it was just simple facts.

My brow furrowed as I thought about telling this guy off, but screw it, one has to pick their battles. I only needed to endure a week of this. "Do you want the short story or the long story?"

The cat looked over the ridge at the sun and watched it for a moment. It was impressive, watching him continue this rather hard hike, up a steep hill, and move with pure grace even when he wasn't watching where he was going. "You have 11 hours. You tell me."

"Heh," I groaned inwardly at the thought of just how long this day was going to be. "The long version then. OK, so I was out with my friends Mark, Jason and Linda. It was a small celebration of Mark finally getting this position at his company he had..."

"No, nevermind. Short version, I don't think I can take the long."

I blinked. Again, somehow it wasn't completely offensive, but it certainly was clear he didn't like me and would make me suffer for it.

"OK, fine. Shit."

Laven stopped so abruptly that I bounced off of him and stumbled a bit before regaining my balance. His body didn't even move. "You swear again and *I* swear I will give you a spanking you won't forget."

I just blinked at him as he towered over me. After a moment, he held out a paw to help me up. I glanced at it, now very confused. A *spanking*? Who the hell threatens that? Or was that a euphamism? Or did he actually mean it and think he'd get away with... About then he just grabbed my paw and hefted me up as if he were lifting a pillow. "Get on with your story."

I spent the next minute as I had almost the entire time we've had any exchange thus far; staring at his back wondering what the hell was wrong with this guy?! "Uh, ok, short version. I went out with my friends, one guy had too much to drink and started a fight. I tried to stop it and wound up taking a blow to my shoulder that sent me over a table. The cops had arrived and didn't care who did what. Every single creature involved was brought to the prison overnight while they took statements and... whatever else they did. In the morning, we were already in front of the judge who sentenced us to a week of community service. That's it."

"Jail."

"What?" I didn't get it.

"You went to a jail. A prison is.... nevermind. So you're saying you truly didn't do anything wrong? You never threw a single punch?" He stared back at me again.

I let out a bark of laughter. "Do I look like I'd throw a punch? I've never hit anyone in my LIFE!"

"Huh," he shrugged and looked back forward. We finally reached a marker on the side of the road with '8 | 9' on it and he set his pack down against it. "That's good to know. And you're apparently rather fit, keeping up with me the whole way." He sat down and pulled out various tools and a canteen from his pack.

"Oh sh... crap. I forgot water," I said as my entire form slumped. JUST as this guy finally seemed to hate me less, I had forgotten the #1 item on the 'To pack' list that was even highlighted in yellow.

His reaction set me on edge. He slowly grinned, not saying a word.

I thought about going back to the bus, but they only had the giant cooler and glasses. I looked up at the sky, the sun now quite a bit high from the horizon and the temperature starting to rise.

"Well, today is almost your lucky day. I pack enough for two because I get plenty of weekend warriors like you..." His grin grew toothy. I gulped and waited but he said nothing more nor moved.

"Ummm, th-thank you?" I whined.

"Oh, you will. But you let me know when you want some, because you're going to beg like a very good puppy. Won't you?" Did he always have that many teeth?!

I swallowed hard, once again thinking about going back to the bus. My heart was starting to pound and I felt a little dizzy as I glanced back downhill. Why did I feel so weird about him saying that? I swallowed hard again. I whimpered and turned back around only to be startled by finding him inches away from me.

"Well? Let's hear it, puppy..."

My ears folded against my head and I cowered away from his oppressive form. "P-please?"

He laughed loudly and ever so slowly reached out with a paw, claws thankfully not exposed. He set it on my shoulder. "You can certainly do better than that... Like a nice, feral puppy. I want you to really beg..."

I swallowed so hard this time that it sounded like it echoed off the embankment next to us. I started to fear the entire scenario. We were likely a full mile away from the next group. He could do anything to me and no one would know. I slowly pushed the pack off and set it down as I knelt down and drew my hands up to my chest. I tried to make a whimpering noise but it came out strangled and stuttered as I began to tremble.

He purred openly, his hand moving to my head and patting it very lightly. "Good girl. Was that so hard?"

Thoughts of him killing me or raping me flashed through my mind. I slowly shook my head. Please just let me get out of here...

He kept petting for a few solid, torturous minutes. Every now and then, a loud swallow escaped me, otherwise it was dead silence. "OK, puppy, you can have some water."

He left me alone and returned to his pack. He produced a bottle and held it out to me. "Do you want to stay down there begging all day? I won't argue... No, wait, we need to get this section done. Let's get it going."

Again, his tone was entirely factual and casual, as if this whole entire last exchange wasn't something bizarre and entirely inappropriate! What. The. Fuck?! I stood up, now trembling, carefully taking the water from him. I wasn't thirsty yet but knew to drink before you hit that point, so drained about half of the bottle while keeping my eye on him. He just went about unpacking his bag, back turned to me.

I looked back downhill. He obviously knew I was a runner by this point. Could I outrun HIM though? A snow leopard. Could I outrun a SNOW LEOPARD? No. I swallowed hard again.

"Come on, let's get going. We'll work our way uphill until noon, then come back, get our stuff, and re-stage at the midway point. We'll take a lunch, then work our way up the second half. Sound good?" He smiled at me as if we were the best of friends making casual plans for the afternoon. It was very disarming and nearly impossible to believe this was the same creature acting like a drill sargeant just moments earlier.

And that's how the day actually played out. The entire rest of the day was spent mostly in silence. I had to ask for another bottle of water, fearing he'd pull something weird, but he just handed it to me and let me go. I told him I needed to run off and use the bathrooms, but he logically explained it would take a full hour to get back down there and up here and he brought toilet paper just in case. It was weird, but he actually was friendly and helpful the entire rest of the time.

It was about 3 when we were done with our section. "OK, we're done here, let's grab our stuff and help out the rest of the troubled souls." He shouldered his pack and picked up my tools, carrying them for me.

We made it to the next team, finding them actively working towards hitting the goal. There were three of them, ranging in age from what appeared to be 18 to 50. I had rode in on the bus with them but at that point I mainly just planned to stick by myself. These guys also seemed to know one another.

"Well, looks like the Dream Team is going to get another pass today, huh?! You ladies do really nice work, doncha?!" His loud growly voice shouted at them. They immediately stopped their work and stood up. One, an older cheetah, looked up the trail to where we came from. A look of confusion on his face.

"How did ... yeah, we're making good time here. I expect we'll be done about 45 minutes early. Maybe an hour."

"Good, you keep that up and I might even give you a section closer to the bus next time. Keep it up!" Without offering any more explanation or conversation, Laven continued on down the path. I thought about introducing myself, but the three were immediately back to work, looking even more focused now.

The teams in section 6 and 7 were in similar situations. Again, one member spoke for the rest of them and they reported they were on-time or even ahead of schedule. Laven offered the usual verbal abuse mixed with praise before continuing on.

When we were out of earshot, Laven slowed down and told me to come closer. "This next group has a guy that's really out of shape. I keep pushing him, and I think he's doing his best, but he's been at this for a month and only received a total of 17 days of credit. He's really improving at least. Do you mind helping out? I want to make sure we've done the top of this pass or else it's not likely to get done this season."

My mind flashed back to him making me begging like a feral and telling him to piss off. But I had 4 more days of this and he could stick me with some crappy work. And he actually seemed to be interested in the well-being of whatever guy this was. "Uh, yeah, sure?"

He turned and gave me a warm, beaming smile. "Great, thanks." My tail wagged before I could control it. His smile grew a little more before he picked the pace back up.

We reached the next team, a group of 4; 2 coyotes, a badger and another cheetah. Again, a mix in age. I could tell which one was like the one who was out of shape rather quickly. The coyote was in his early 20s, not really all that heavy but certainly not slender. He was breathing hard and sweat soaked his jeans, his shirt tossed off long ago it seemed. He looked to be on the edge of throwing up as he clung to a branch he was sawing slowly.

"Welllll, my favorite! Aaaaaxle, hope you're enjoying our facilities. Did you want to take a nice break? Maybe I can go get you a margarita?" The coyote sawed a bit harder. "Alright, nancies, what's the story?"

The badger had already stopped what he was doing and half-jogged up the trail to offer the report. "We're ... a bit behind. I think we can still do it, however. We hit a snag in..."

"WHY am I not surprised!? I don't need to hear the rest. Hey, B... er..." He was looking at me, eyes suddenly going a bit wide as his speech stuttered. "Uhhh, dog, you... get to help these boys out. Lucky you! You help this happen by 5:30 and I'll give you a pass for TWO days."

That sure wasn't what I was expecting. "Uh, sure?"

"Good! Now we're all best friends. Get to it! Dog, grab my stuff, we're going back to the top of this section and working our way down. Brew Crew, you better pick up your pace!" He shouted at them with a ferocity that instilled fear even in me. My body moved, picking up his pack, before I even consciously knew what I was doing.

He put his large paw on my back and pressed me lightly forward, up the hill. He again waited until we were out of earshot before speaking. "It seems like I should go ahead and get your name, after all, before I run into a spot like that again."

He grabbed his own pack from me, massively reducing the load. I let out a relieved sigh. Part of me thought he was going back to being an asshole and actually planned on making me carry what felt like my body

weight up the mountain. "It's Alan."

"Good to meet you then, Alan. I'm Rick." He held out his paw. I took it rather tentatively. "Heh, yup, I was right. Princess paws. Maybe by the end of your stay with us they'll actually have a bit of evidence that you did some work!"

The way he said it was actually pretty funny and I laughed. I was finally starting to forget about how awkward the entire morning had been.

Team 8 came along before too long. Rick sent them down to join team 1, apparently the next group that had the worst members. Both teams 6 and 7 weren't far behind them. He instructed them to check up on all of the other teams and help out whatever one was the most behind.

"We're not leaving until this entire trail is done, regardless," He confided to me in a quiet whisper, grinning. I inwardly groaned worrying we'd be here all night.

Fortunately, we finished up section 5 just before 5:30 and were able to trek all the way back to the bus without seeing any obvious missed parts of the trail. There were a swarm of us again, milling about the area. The driver sat in his seat reading a book.

"Welllll... look at this, not even 6 and all the captains are present. Anyone got any problems?" He scanned the group. They fell silent and stared back at him quietly. "No? Good! We're doing the West face tomorrow. I'll see you butter tarts first thing in the morn." With that, he wandered out of the empty parking lot and down a trail I hadn't noticed before. I suddenly realized I never asked anything about him and felt a bit bad. I shrugged and boarded the bus.

When we returned to base camp, I grabbed my dinner and took it back to the group cabin. Thankfully I also had enough sense to bring an actual book, knowing there'd be no signal. The rest of the 'volunteers' stayed out rather late, which afforded me an actually relatively pleasant evening. I had the shower to myself, the entire cabin was quiet and the sounds of nature lulled me to sleep. All in all, a pretty good day.