Their breaths frosted in the cold air of the winter morning. The surge of the river running next to them could still be heard even though it was concealed by a sheet of ice. The two of them hiked up the incline with a dark wall of evergreens to their left and the long crystalline snake that was the hidden river to their right. Just beyond the icy serpent stood more evergreens that stretched high into the air, obscuring everything that lay beyond with their dark shades of green.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Cindy asked. “We’ve been walking for ages!”
Her movement along the forest path was awkward at best. She tripped often and her partner had begun to wonder if she had ever walked for longer than five minutes in the entirety of her life. Her ridiculously pink hiking attire was all one needed to see to be sure that she had never gone on a trip like this before.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jonathan responded. “This river cuts right through the forest. As long as we stick to it we’ll reach the cabin in no time.”
Jonathan was far more accustomed to his surroundings and in the bowels of nature he felt most at home. He easily traversed the terrain and he knew the forest like the back of his hand.
“That’s what you said hours ago!” she moaned as she swiped a blonde lock of hair from her face. “My legs hurt! It’s freezing cold! Why did we even come here? Are you trying to punish me for something?”
“No, I just thought it would be good for us to get out for a little bit.” He replied with a hint of annoyance. “We’ve only been walking for thirty minutes.”
Jonathan was beginning to see what his friends meant when they said that his girlfriend could be irritating. Cindy was twenty-four years old yet she loved to act closer to five. She was needy when she wanted to be, distant when she wanted to be, but she never struck anyone that met her as independent. She was a handful at best and a nightmare the rest of the time. He began to wonder why he liked this girl in the first place but, like an adult who could not abandon a lost child, he could not shake the sense of responsibility he felt towards her.
“If you wanted to get out for a little bit then why couldn’t you do it on your own? I hate this outdoor adventure crap. You know that,” she hissed.
“Well, what’s the point of exploring this big, blue world of ours if I can’t do it with the person I like? And how can you say that you hate the outdoors when you hardly go outside?”
“I’ve watched enough of Bear Grylls’ misadventures to know that going outside is bad for my health.”
“Oh, please. It’s not that bad.”
“It is that bad!” she whined. “We’re walking along some unknown path and the next thing you know we’re hopelessly lost and forced to eat bugs and drink our own pee!” she dragged her feet and sighed exaggeratedly.
Jonathan looked at her purposely screwing up her face and feigning hysterics with false tears. He knew this routine all too well. This was what always happened when Cindy didn’t get her way. A full blown tantrum would soon follow if he could not get her to calm down.
“We’ll be at the cabin in a few minutes. Just hold out until then.”
Her act seemed to disappear with that.
“Good! I’ve got this horrible feeling that I have to check my makeup. After the whole fiasco at Daddy’s house the other night, I know I can’t count on you for that.
A wave of anger shot through Jonathan but he managed to suppress it deep within himself where he kept all his hidden resentment towards her.
“Your makeup was perfectly fine. But, because you kept touching your face, you smudged it.” He managed to say in a calm voice. Someone had to be the adult in this relationship and it most certainly wasn’t going to be her. “And it wasn’t a fiasco. He just pointed it out to you.”
Unlike Jonathan, Cindy made no attempt to hide her anger.
“It was embarrassing!” she yelled. “How could I look like that in front of daddy? We both know that that whole mess could have been avoided if you had been on the lookout like I told you to be.”
Finding that it was easier to give up, Jonathan walked in silence as Cindy continued her rambling. He clouded out all extraneous thoughts and sounds as he done so many times before and looked around to appreciate the natural environment surrounding him. Light snows had begun to fall the day before and the world around him was covered in a thin blanket of white powder, from the ground they were walking on to the very tops of the evergreens and even on the lovely log cabin that slowly appeared from the distance. A smile crept on his face and his hands clutched the straps of his backpack tightly with anticipation as he saw its familiar shape emerging from the greenery around it.
“Why are you smiling?” Cindy snapped. “Have I said something funny?”
“Nope. I was just admiring our destination.”
“Our what?” She turned her head and exhaled in relief as she saw the beautiful construct in front of her. “Finally! I’ve done enough walking to last a lifetime. Here,” she threw her pink backpack at him, “hold on to that for me.” Without another word she rushed toward the cabin leaving him to trail behind.
When he eventually caught up he found her standing in front of the large circular clearing that separated the house from the rest of the forest. He shifted both of the backpacks off of his shoulders and dropped them onto the ground before looking up at his favorite place in the whole world.
The cabin itself was rather modest but it had a welcoming air about it that Jonathan loved. It was a simply designed double story with a porch surrounding the front door and a balcony on the second floor. The roof’s dark finish was mostly hidden behind the thin layer of snow that had collected on it. While most would find their visit here pleasant Jonathan knew that Cindy was not most people. He doubted whether this was still a good idea, as he had done when they had left his apartment, the city and at the beginning of the hike.
“Well, what do you think?” he asked nervously. A part of him knew exactly what kind of answer he was going to get but he somehow managed to stay hopeful.
“It’s nice,” she replied to Jonathan’s surprise. “It looks kind of homey. As for the inside, well, I’m not expecting much.”
The wooden door creaked as they made their way inside. Cindy gasped at the interior. The cabin looked much bigger on the inside than she had expected when looking at its exterior. It was simply but stylishly furnished and all of the room’s furnishings were arranged around the big fireplace that was built into the wooden walls with a chimney of cement hidden by a layer of face brick. She made her way upstairs and jumped onto the king sized bed that stood in the bedroom.
“This place is better than I expected Jonny,” she said while burying her face into the cotton sheets. “It’s not exactly the best I’ve seen but… it’s okay.”
Jonathan knew that was the best response that he was likely to get. He set their things down in the bedroom and began to remove his layers of warm clothing. After taking off his black beanie and ruffling his smooth brown hair he looked at the large mirror in the wall and saw the tall, blue eyed, lean man he had become. He was completely different from his last visit to the cabin. At that stage his eyes were still covered by his hair which reached down to his neck. At fifteen years old, he was quite short and he still wore his spectacles. But while things had changed in the world outside, this cabin remained exactly the same. It was a constant in his life that he was always grateful for. Cindy rolled around on the bed and grabbed a pillow to hug.
“I’m glad you like it. My grandfather built it with a couple of his friends so that he could share it with his family one day. It was his dream. And when he met grandma he got his wish. They used to tell me how they made my mom right in that bed.”
“Aw, that’s so gross!” she said while jumping up from the bed.
“Don’t worry. It’s not the same bed. My parents replaced it after grandpa died. He gave the cabin to them and told them that they could share it with their family one day. And that’s exactly what they did. I remember coming out here for the summer holidays every year. It was great! The animals, the sights, the sounds and, of course, the smells! Just looking at the fireplace brings back memories of roasting marshmallows while sitting on the couch. I was thinking maybe one day I could bring my own family out here… one day.”
By now Cindy had made herself comfortable on the bed and was drifting to sleep.
“Hey, are you listening?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure. Animal sounds, marshmallow smells, bringing your family. I got it. Just let me rest for a bit. I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired before.”
“Well, I was thinking we could get a fire started, warm up some of my mom’s special homemade mystery soup and relax around the fire. It’ll be pretty warm down there…”
His suggestions fell on deaf ears. She had drifted into sleep and left him to prepare the food himself.
“Well I should have seen that one coming,” he said to himself as he made his way downstairs. He walked out of the front door and stretched his arms. Without his jacket on the cold nipped at him and sent him back into the warmth of the cabin. He grabbed the jacket from upstairs and headed back out but upon opening the door he noticed that the snow had started falling again. He looked up at the canvas of white and grey that covered the skies, lost in nostalgia, and he followed a flake falling from the heavens until it reached the white ground below.
And then he saw it. A bright red fox was sitting on its haunches in the circular clearing and staring right at him. Jonathan had never seen a fox this beautiful before. Its scarlet fur, stretching from the tip of its pitch-black nose all the way to its bushy tail, contrasted magnificently with the white powder beneath it. Its underbelly was just as white as the snowfall and its limbs were covered in a particularly dark shade of jet. Its most striking feature by far was the mysterious spheres of amber that were its steadfast eyes. It did not move them an inch away from him nor did it stop to blink.
“It is you, is it not?” a feminine voice echoed. “You have returned… after all this time.”
“Who said that?” he yelled in shock. “Cindy, was that you?” He looked around him but found no one else but the fox and himself.
“It was not the human known as Cindy.” The voice said. “It was I, the one right before you.”
He looked at that the fox who stared at him so intently. It stood up and slowly moved towards him, one paw at a time. Its tail swept lightly from side to side and its ears turned forward and sideways catching sound from various places, but its eyes did not waver at all.
“That’s impossible!” Jonathan said aloud. His heart began to race. His palms grew sweaty and he found himself frozen in place.
“You are wrong, one who is known as Jonathan Strauss. You do not remember me but I remember you. You are a human that I could never forget.”
As it approached the porch he stepped backwards and hit his back against the front door. He suddenly felt disorientated and struggled to find the door handle as his hands wandered nervously over the wood behind him.
“Wait. Stay back! Keep away from me!” he shouted.
“You have no reason to fear me Jonathan Strauss. But I have reason to fear you.” Its paws tread lightly onto the wood of the porch and Jonathan felt as if his heart was in his throat.
“What are you talking about? Who are you? What do you want from me? How are you able to speak?”
“But I am not speaking. I am simply forming a bridge of communication between our minds.”
“You mean like telepathy?” Jonathan’s legs suddenly gave way underneath him. His mind raced but his body was still. The fox walked up to him and sat in front of him. It fixed its eyes on his and he had a strange feeling that it would not try to harm him. He slowly reached out his hand and cautiously stroked the fox’s fur.
“Do you see? I am no threat to you. Will you believe me now?” The fox said as it finally closed its eyes and enjoyed the sensation of his hand its neck. He scratched underneath its chin and could visibly see the expression of pleasure on its face.
“I will,” He said with his heart still racing. “Will you answer my questions now?”
“If that is what you want. But first you must do something for us.”
“Us?” he asked with even greater confusion. “Who is †˜us’?”
“What are you doing, Ember?” called another voice. It too echoed within his mind but this one, while being feminine as well, sounded harsh in comparison to the red fox’s soothing tone. “This was not what we agreed upon. He was not supposed to find out this way!”
The red fox turned away from his pleasing touch toward the forest.
“I was only-“
“Save your explanations!” the new voice reprimanded. “Return to the den at once!”
Jonathon’s head began to swirl with the voices that bounced around in it. The feeling of dizziness made him sick.
“Very well,” the red fox replied meekly. It turned to Jonathan with sadness in its eyes and warmly licked his cheek a few times before jumping off the front porch. It turned around to look at him one last time. “If the time comes when you wish to remember me… if the time comes that you have had enough of the human known as Cindy, whom you pretend to love, come and find me.”
“What?” He didn’t know how the fox knew so much about him but he could not form the words to ask it.
“Return to the river and walk back the way you came. Turn left when you find the first tree with my mark on it. Then walk straight into the heart of the forest until I come for you,” the red fox said.
“I will not call again, Ember!” the second voice called in fury.
“Come for me, Jonathan Strauss. Come for me so that we may be together again.”
It turned and darted into the forest.
*********************************
The night was quiet and uncomfortable. Although spring was fast approaching, the seasons always seemed to linger a little bit longer in the forest. The cold had either driven away or lessened the activity of the wildlife, leaving the nighttime devoid of the usual choir of birds, insects and mammals that would usually sing their songs into the darkness. That void was, however, eagerly filled by a new inhabitant in the woods.
Cindy, having rested for a few hours before awaking to the delicious fragrance of the Strauss Family’s homemade mystery soup, was talking non-stop. She was a small, squeamish woman but for some reason she was never shy when it came to eating. As she devoured the secret ingredients of the soup, she verbally assaulted him with tales of everything and nothing. But his attention was far from the boredom of the cabin. The only words ringing through his mind were those of the scarlet vixen he had met earlier that day. He had decided to characterize her as a female because of her soft feminine voice. He thought about who she was, where she came from and whether or not she truly was a fox. He thought about whether she was just a figment of his imagination or if she was indeed real. But the thoughts that plagued him the most were those regarding her strange words.
She knew me, he thought. She said that she remembered me but…how? She said I didn’t remember her which means that I’ve met her before. It feels like it’s on the tip of my tongue but I just can’t get to it.
He decided to put aside his thoughts of the vixen and pay attention to Cindy. He felt he should at the very least listen to her attempt at conversation, however one-sided.
“You’re a little quiet tonight. What’s up?” She asked, noticing his blank expression.
“It’s nothing. I’m just feeling a little strange right now,” he answered.
“You better not be getting sick! I won’t be able to survive out here on my own.” She didn’t even need to say it. The frown on her face spoke volumes.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not sick or anything.”
“Good. This was your idea after all.”
With that he decided not to tell her about his surreal experience for fear that she might call him crazy. That combined with her obvious discomfort towards his outdoor trip idea and her hatred towards all of his friends (they all called her a †˜bitch’, mind you) may just push her towards ending their relationship. While Jonathan could no longer decide if that was a bad thing or not, he enjoyed the comfort of having someone to hold in the night and the lonely alternative scared him.
She placed her empty bowl on the small table behind her seat and stretched her body into a yawn. Jonathan caught a glimpse of her navel as her shirt rose and felt a tingle in his crotch.
“That was really good!” she said with a grin of satisfaction. “Tell your mom if that there’s one thing she knows how to do, its cook. She has to send her recipes to daddy’s chef.”
“You wouldn’t try to make it yourself?” He asked, half knowing the answer.
“Of course not. The only time I should be allowed near anyone’s pots and pans is if they want me burn their houses down.” She laughed at her own joke and then climbed the stairs to the bedroom.
Jonathan cleaned up their tableware and followed her upstairs. He found Cindy taking her shirt off and chucking it on the chair at the opposite end of the room. This girl is a little too used to having other people clean up after her, he thought. She undid her blue bra and tossed that towards the chair as well. Jonathan found himself remembering what it was he liked about her so much. She slipped off her pants and decided to leave those on the floor. He stared intently, absorbing every detail of her form. Her curly blonde hair fell just under her shoulders and her skin was tanned a lovely bronze. His eyes fell lower and lower, moving from her baby blue eyes to her inviting neck. Lower still was her big breasts which openly defied gravity. They were peaked with delicate beige areolae that were just the right size and small nipples crowned their alluring form. Jonathan subconsciously licked his lips as his gaze deviated even further south. After passing her small navel he found himself leering at her crotch which was covered by her underwear. He just managed to catch the outline of her soft labia on her black silk panties when she turned around and bent over to grab something from her bag. He struggled to control himself as her underwear slipped between her well rounded buttocks and he felt the blood rushing to his eagerly hardening shaft. As she placed her fingers into the sides of her panties to remove them she caught him leering at her with the growth of his lower region easily noticeable through his pants.
“Can I help you?” she asked with her hands on her hips.
“I could think of a couple of ways,” He replied in a playful tone.
“Oh, really?” she asked using her naughty voice that Jonathan loved. A cheeky smile flashed upon her face as she moved toward him. “Does my Jonny feel like some special attention?”
“Oh, you bet he does!” He replied while eagerly stripping down to his boxers. He left those on because he knew she liked to take them off herself.
She locked eyes with him and ran her soft hands down his chest, over his mildly toned abs and his boxers. She drew him closer, wrapping her left arm around him and rubbing his back while she deftly stroked her right palm against the bulge in his underwear.
“Like this?” she whispered. “Is this the way you want it? If that’s the case just nod †˜yes’ and I’ll make you feel something even better.” He nodded nervously. “Good boy!” she said making sure to drag out each word erotically. “If my Jonny is this straightforward when he asks me… how can I refuse him?”
It was times like this that Jonathan remembered what he saw in Cindy. Aside from her beauty she could be a very generous lover when the mood struck her and it seemed that tonight would be one of those glorious nights. He had discovered that it was best to let her go about her business uninterrupted, just the way she liked it. He grunted as she slipped her hand into his boxers. Her digits were warm against his cock and he exhaled strongly as she gripped his balls. She carefully massaged the orbs within her fingers, treating them like crown jewels he thought they were.
“How about here?” She asked “Is it any good here? Not that I really need an answer from your mouth. Your face is telling me everything I need to know!” She squeezed on them a little as she said that. Her gentle teasing made his fully erect penis twitch with anticipation. “It seems the guy at the bottom knows how to tell me what he wants without using words too. It’s so lively down here, isn’t it?”
She slipped her left hand down his back and into his boxers to firmly squeeze his behind. Then she pressed their bodies together. Her ringlets of her curly blonde locks tickled him as she rested her head against his chest, filling his nose with the sweet scent of her strawberry shampoo. She gently caressed her firm bosom against him and her own crotch was now caressing his leg.
“How’s this, Jonny? Can you feel my heart beating through my chest? It’s really racing, isn’t it?” She moved her right hand back up to his manhood and wrapped her fingers around it while she increased the squeezing on his buttocks. While he couldn’t feel her heartbeat through her well adorned chest but he could certainly feel his own rising. He panted softly as she ran her silky skin up and down the length of his cock repeatedly.
“You’re such a careless boy, you know that? You’ve left so many weak spots wide open for me.” She kissed the center of his chest repeatedly and subtly moved towards his right nipple. After delivering a few kisses to the sensitive spot she parted her lips and took the now erect nipple into her mouth where she roughly swept her tongue over it. The wet sensations against his chest made Jonathans lips curl into smile.
“Cindy…Cindy…” he moaned quietly, much to her satisfaction. She knew that he was without a doubt in the palm of her hand. The gradually increasing pace of her bodily rubbing made him look toward the ceiling and close his eyes to take in as much pleasure as possible. Her grip on his ass had become almost painfully tight, her teeth gently nibbled on his rigid nipple and her tender stroking had drastically picked up speed. His chest began to heave as he neared his sweet climax. His legs felt as though they were about to buckle underneath him and his toes clenched the fur rug below his feet.
“How’s that?” Cindy shouted. “Am I not the best lover you’ve ever had?” She laughed almost maniacally as she saw him twist his face from his impending release. She hurriedly let go of his member and stepped away from him, leaving him standing awkwardly on his own. He leaned with his back against the bedroom wall, breathing heavily and with his eyes wide in disbelief.
“What are you doing? Why’d you stop?” he asked in confusion.
Cindy smirked at his rapidly twitching penis.
“I’m done for tonight,” She said nonchalantly as she slipped off her panties and climbed into the bed to sleep naked as she always did.
“But were not finished yet!” he complained.
“You might not be finished but I certainly am. If you’re desperate for release feel free to finish yourself.”
“I… I don’t understand… I.” He fumbled for reasons for the abrupt turn of events but struggled to find answers. “What went wrong? Was I not doing what you wanted?
“No, that’s not it. The way we normally do things is good enough for me.”
“Then why?”
“Consider this your punishment.” She said with a smirk.
“What?” The words were beyond Jonathan felt like dealing with. “Punishment for what?”
“For bringing me to this godforsaken place! For making me nearly freeze to death on the way here! For giving me your mothers stupid soup! And for ignoring everything I said during dinner! That’s right, I noticed!”
Jonathan burned with anger.
“Well I’m sorry for trying to have a nice getaway with you! I didn’t know it was going to be this cold but there’s nothing I can do to change the weather! And I’m sorry I ignored you during dinner, okay. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of listening to you ramble on about how Marcy Grossman’s dad bought her a goddamn pony. So you’re rich, I get it! We all get it. But that doesn’t mean you should continuously flaunt it in other people’s faces!
Cindy pulled the covers over her head and pretended not to listen.
“And you said you loved my mom’s cooking!” he added.
“Well I do, but that stuff’s going to make me fat and ugly and you should stopped me before I ate three bowls!”
“Oh, you want to blame that on me too? Just like your stupid makeup fiasco?”
“I thought you said that that wasn’t a fiasco!” She said while bursting out from under the covers
“You turned it into one, just like your turn every minor problem into one!”
“Well, if my life is such a giant mess, maybe it’s better if I don’t have you in it!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You heard me!” She chucked a pillow at him and drew the covers over herself again. “You can sleep downstairs on the couch!
Had Jonathan been a naturally aggressive person he may have continued to argue that the bed and everything else in the house belonged to him. Instead he grabbed the pillow and his clothes and he stormed downstairs. With his erection long gone and the thought of an orgasm leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, he put on his t-shirt and shorts and threw the pillow onto the couch. He took the blanket that they had used to keep themselves warm in front of the fireplace and threw it over himself. He stared into the fading embers and closed his eyes to welcome sleep
Just great, he thought. It smells like fucking strawberries.
