House In The Woods
WARNING: This is not a nice story. There is not a happy ending.
Ava sniffled, the little black furred leopard sitting crouched against the roots of a pine tree, the occasional drop of moisture plinking down from the needles above.
She tried to examine the landscape around her, to find identifiable landmarks, but it was simply no use. The trees and ferns and bushes grew too thickly, and late morning vapor rose in thin, peaceful skeins over it all, sunlight casting pale rainbows over her head.
In any other situation Ava might have been taken in by this scene. She'd always loved being outside, and a chance to take a hike with her Cub Scout troop through the peaceful, thickly forested scenery of an actual National Park had electrified her with excitement.
She'd kitted herself out fully with all the essentials for a long journey through the woods. Too much stuff for a day hike, but her scoutmaster hadn't minded. She'd even pointed out Ava as an example of proper preparedness.
Ava had lost her pack tumbling down a hill some hours earlier, and her preparedness had gone with it. All she had left now was a tiny plastic disposable camera and a half dozen shots. She'd been so excited to get her paws on one. The freedom afforded by being able to take snapshots of whatever she pleased had been intoxicating.
She'd used up almost a quarter of the film roll before her troop even left the bus.
Wiping her eyes, determined not to cry any more, Ava looked down to where the camera still lay nestled against the front of her mud stained Scout uniform. The case was battered and as mud speckled as the rest of her, the lens blurry with dirt.
The little shot counter atop the camera seemed to taunt her. All this scenery and she hadn't the slightest desire to capture any of it.
She'd had eight shots left when she first stepped off the trail to photograph a blackbird in a tree.
Seven when the blackbird had glided down to a nearby bush and disappeared neatly inside its thorny embrace, barely a rustle or crash marking its landing.
Six when she realized that there was dead silence around her and she had lost sight of the trail entirely.
She'd stood where she was for a few moments, blinking, stricken with a sudden sort of panic that reached deep within her and squeezed her little heart.
Ava was a good Cub Scout and had been taught proper protocol not long before. What to do if you were lost in the woods. How to find your way out if you knew rescue wasn't coming.
Suddenly she couldn't seem to remember all of that, or how exactly it applied. She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she ought to stay still and relax. That surely her troop would backtrack once they noticed she was no longer with them.
But...the rest of her insisted, she couldn't be too far from the trail. She'd only taken a dozen steps or so. The thorn bush the blackbird had disappeared into was right in front of her, so surely if she backtracked a bit...
And so it had gone.
By the time lunch rolled around Ava had gotten herself quite lost.
By the time night fell and the little leopard had stumbled off of a drop and lost her pack in the darkness, she no longer recognized anything around her at all.
Now, as she sat, cold and damp and miserable, cuddled in the questionable shelter of a dew laden pine that seemed overly fond of trickling icy water down the back of her neck, Ava began to wonder if she'd be found at all.
She'd tried heading downhill once it became clear she'd lost the trail entirely. That scrap of survival knowledge stuck with her. Downhill usually led to water. Water usually led to civilization.
Ava swallowed hard. Her throat was dry with a dull, ugly sort of fear that refused to dissipate. It whispered that she'd messed up badly...and not in a way that could be fixed.
She'd shivered and giggled in delighted terror at the horror stories of the woods that her fellow Scouts had swapped on the bus ride up to the trailhead...but now...now they seemed more like ominous portents than anything else.
Ava stood, legs sore and trembly beneath her, and took a deep breath.
She'd keep on going the way she was. Until she found a stream. Or a large clearing. Someplace she could use to figure out exactly where she was.
This internal declaration made her feel a little better, but did nothing to erase the hunger that was beginning to gnaw at her gut. She'd hardly felt anything but fear the previous day, but now...now that some normality had been introduced to the situation, she was starting to feel the effects of her deprivations. Her mouth was dry, and though there was enough water around to keep her from dehydrating, food was another matter entirely.
Ava quietly mourned the loss of her edible plants booklet as she walked, capsized into the endless green sea of the forest along with the rest of her things.
Still, she supposed to herself with forced cheer, at least she'd have a story to tell once they found her.
If they found her.
Ava came to a stumbling stop. Squeezed her eyes shut as tight as they'd go.
"No." She told herself firmly. Then kept going.
The rest of the morning passed that way, with Ava following a gentle decline in the grade of the land, allowing herself to be filtered into the bottom of a little valley. The forest there, she found, was even thicker.
There was no sign of flowing water other than a single tiny pond, stagnant with algae, haunted by the croak of unseen frogs.
Ava picked her way back into the trees, through the reeds and the muck, feeling singularly dispirited. She swallowed hard and tried to take a deep breath, only to find that her body wouldn't cooperate.
Her heart was beginning to pound.
The valley she was in trailed off in both directions, to heft and right. In front of her was a gentle hill, much like the one she'd just descended from.
She felt tired and shaky and increasingly scared. Her stomach felt shriveled with hunger. For a long moment she stood still, tail wrapped tightly around one of her legs. She stared down at the ground, blinking rapidly as fresh tears filled her eyes. It hurt, and not just physically.
Ava longed to scream for help. Perhaps there were people hiking on a nearby trail that she'd missed. Perhaps there were searchers combing through the woods not too far away...
But even as her mind leapt to those possibilities she knew that they were nothing more than fantasy. She'd have to get out of this on her own. Rescuers weren't simply going to materialize from nowhere to whisk her off to safety.
Ava stayed like this for a long time, fighting down her fear, until she felt steady enough to continue on.
She looked up to the hill opposite her.
Surely she'd be able to see the lay of the land from up there. Perhaps she'd see a road or a trail...someplace where people were.
The hike up there was difficult and more than once Ava found herself worming under fallen logs, camera held protectively in one paw, uniform growing progressively more ragged and dirty the further she went.
By the time she reached what she hoped was the top the little leopard found herself sobbing for breath, a worrying sort of trembly fatigue manifesting in her limbs, making further progress seem all but impossible.
Ava traipsed on, practically falling against a tree as she came to a little overlook, shaking.
Down below her was a great expanse of forest, rippling and green and punctuated by the occasional hill and clearing.
She shut her eyes. Slumped down to a sitting position.
Tried to draw up some adult words to summarize her situation but was simply too tired.
So she really was in the middle of nowhere...
After a few minutes of self pity and growing fear, Ava got up and faced to what she could only assume was the south. More forest there, more hills and...
A metallic, decidedly unnatural flash of light speared into her eyes.
She blinked.
Stared.
Was that...?
She angled her head again. Blinked and squinted at another beam of white hot light coming from...
Ava held up her camera in shaking paws. Stared through the magnified viewfinder and spotted a tiny square of light metal, angled and very much attached to what seemed to be a little cabin.
She let the camera fall and bounce against her chest, a shocked sort of relief pouring into her like an ocean of salve, soothing the worries and terrors of the past day and a half.
She set off at a brisk pace, aiming herself directly at the cabin, energy miraculously restored. Her paws still hurt and so did her stomach, but she felt purposeful now. She wasn't in danger any longer.
As she went Ava wondered who the cabin belonged to. Had she wandered clear off of federal land and ended up on someone's private plot? Or was it a ranger's cabin?
She kinda hoped it was a ranger. A ranger would know what to do. And even if they were off someplace else and their cabin was empty, Ava was sure that there would be a radio...and certainly some food and water.
She thought she could probably figure out how to operate a radio. She'd seen some movies where characters did that...it couldn't be too different.
Thoughts like these played through her mind as she descended the hill and pushed through bushes and blockades of thorns, almost mindless to the scratches they inflicted.
And suddenly she was there, the cabin popping from the woods with all the suddenness of a 3D effect.
Ava stopped. Blinked and then sighed with relief.
The cabin was a bit bigger than she'd first assumed. The tin roof she'd spotted from the hill was no longer quite so bright, the sun was starting to sink towards the horizon and Ava felt suddenly glad she'd made it as quickly as she did. The thought of spending another night out in the woods...brrr.
In front of the cabin was a little red Jeep, parked on a patch of gravel. Ava could see a narrow gravel road leading out away, fading into the woods.
Whoever this was, and she didn't think they were a ranger, they seemed to have the world's longest driveway.
Ava looked down at herself and winced. She looked a mess, her fur matted and her uniform torn and spattered with mud. She was still vaguely recognizable as a Cub Scout, but only barely.
Brushing herself off a bit, she marched forward, gravel crunching under her paws, and stepped onto the porch, knocking briskly on the front door.
She felt sorta silly being so scared earlier. Now that she was on the brink of rescue, Ava found that she actually felt pretty decent all things considered. Sure she'd been lost in the woods for nearly two days, sure she'd gone without food for that time...but she still felt alright.
The door opened and Ava found herself looking at a brown and white furred otter, dressed in a bathrobe. His fur was spiky with moisture. She seemed to have caught him fresh out of the shower.
"Um." The otter said.
"I got lost..." Ava said with a decidedly forced smile, "um...my name is Ava."
The otter blinked. Knelt hurriedly down and glanced quickly behind her before putting a paw on her shoulder.
"Are you alright? How long were you lost for?" He asked.
Ava nodded.
"I'm kinda hungry," she said, "but...um, I got lost yesterday, we were on a trail called Hoff...Hoff...um...something like that..."
"Hoffman's?" The otter asked, brows raising in mild surprise, "that's like ten miles away. You really got turned around...uh..."
"Ava." Ava reminded him, shifting from paw to paw, wondering quietly if the otter was going to-
"Stay here for just a moment," the otter put up and finger and then vanished, rummaging for a moment before returning with a foil wrapped package that he handed over to Ava.
The little leopard took it, opening it up to find a cold leftover hamburger, somewhat clotted with grease. Any other time Ava might have been a bit leery but now she wolfed it down, the otter staring curiously at her all the while.
"Y'know," he said after a moment, "I think I heard something about a Cub Scout going missing over there. I bet they didn't even consider looking all the way over here..." The look on his face turned strangely thoughtful for a moment, then he shrugged.
Ava gulped, crumpling the foil.
Good thing she'd found the cabin then.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Peter." Said the otter. "Um...oh, right, I didn't even ask you to come in. Go on over to the bathroom, you need to get cleaned up." The otter pointed to the left as he did so, and Ava, stepping into the cabin, paws stretching gratefully over a polished wooden floor, saw a room that seemed to take up the left-paw side of the cabin.
The bathroom was quite large, a metal tub dominating the back of the room, showered dangling over top of it. There was a toilet and a sink and a mirror and a medicine cabinet. Everything seemed quite clean and normal.
Ava let herself relax fully.
She was safe. Finally.
"Could you call the police or the rangers or someone?" She asked, sticking her head out the doorway.
Peter moved into view, a satellite phone held in one paw.
"I'm on it," he said, "might take a while to establish connection so go on and get cleaned up."
Ava wanted badly to speak to her parents but supposed she could do so once she'd gotten all the grime and muck of an extended stay in the wilderness off of her.
She stripped her uniform off and laid the rags carefully over the side of the tub before stepping in and turning on the water to the shower head.
It came out ice cold and Ava jumped in place, yelping, hugging her arms tightly to herself and hunching down against the frigid spray.
"Might have used up all the hot water," Peter called from what Ava assumed was the living room, "...sorry about that."
She thought she could detect some amusement in the otter's tone.
As Ava slowly got used to the temperature and began to scrub her fur, the water below her turning a pale, murky brown, she wondered what Peter did for a living and why he was off way out here in the woods. Was he a hunter or...maybe he was a park ranger after all.
Or...her mind started to spin off in different directions, perhaps he was a retired Army man of some description. The best of the best of the best...just like in the movies.
Ava giggled to herself.
Wouldn't that be neat.
She'd have to ask.
Her thoughts faded and she focused on getting clean. It felt nice to wash up at long last...though...she'd need to ask Peter to lend her some clothes. Something told her that her Cub Scout uniform was probably unsalvageable.
...Well...if anything of his would fit her. She was small for her age and skinny, fairly tomboyish in appearance. Which was alright with Ava, most of her friends were boys anyhow. She supposed she'd look a bit like a scarecrow if Peter gave over one of his shirts.
But...that would be alright. Better than wearing her ruined uniform for another moment, or going naked.
She winced at that thought. Turned the water off and shook herself off, fur puffed up and disheveled.
Stepping out of the shower, Ava reached for the towel and finished drying herself off, still feeling sorta shivery from the cold water. But, beneath that, she felt pretty content.
She'd found safety. She'd-
A brisk knock came at the bathroom door and Ava hurriedly wrapped the towel around herself.
"Ava?" Peter asked. "You done in there? Can I open the door?"
Ava finished tucking the towel in place.
"Sure." She said and the door opened.
Peter was still in his bathrobe and he glanced over her for a split second before stepping ever so slightly forward.
"I got the rangers on the phone and they'll send somebody to come and get you first thing tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow?" Ava asked, slightly surprised.
Peter nodded evenly.
"Tomorrow," he repeated, "you see...my place is separated from the main road by four miles of pretty rough track, and it's dangerous to navigate at night. But that's okay...you can have my bed."
Ava nodded slowly, still feeling slightly disappointed.
"Could I call my parents?" She asked.
"You'll be seeing them first thing tomorrow," Peter said, the otter's voice calm and soothing, "I'd be surprised if the rangers didn't bring them along to come get you...I mean, you're from around here, right?"
Ava nodded.
"I am..." She said. "Are you sure...?"
Peter nodded.
"Don't worry," he said, taking another step closer and sitting down on the toilet-lid, bathrobe falling slightly open at the chest, a tuft of chestnut fur poking out, "they'll be super glad to see that you're alright."
That made Ava smile a little. She hardly noticed how Peter had dodged her question. Still, she was slightly offput by how the otter kept coming closer to her. Her own parents were pretty strict about privacy...
"Um, thank you Peter." She said.
"No problem," Peter said, then cocked his head slightly, "how old are you, anyway? Fourteen?"
A smile wormed its way onto Ava's face. She felt strangely flattered.
"Twelve," she corrected, "um...I'm turning twelve next month at least..."
"You look older," Peter said, "and you're certainly more mature than a lot of kids your age. You handled yourself pretty well out there, finding my cabin like that..."
Ava squirmed in place, embarrassed by the praise but also strangely enamored. It felt nice to have an adult say stuff like that about her. Especially in the wake of escaping such a scary situation.
"I should have stayed where I was...when I first got lost..." She said with a wince.
"Everyone makes mistakes," Peter said soothingly, "what matters is that you salvaged yours. Ended up on my doorstep instead of..." He shrugged. "Anyway, I'm glad you made it."
"Um...thanks." Ava said.
"And I like that you said 'thank you'," Peter continued, eyes locked on Ava now, "a lot of people wouldn't have done that."
"Do you meet lots of lost people?" Ava asked, taking a tiny step back, the backs of her thighs bumping against the rim of the tub. She wasn't quite sure why, but this conversation with Peter felt...odd.
"You're the first to show up at my house," Peter said, "but I spent some time working search and rescue over at the park. Most people don't say thank you when you rescue them."
"Oh. That's...rude."
"Yeah, no kidding," Peter said, shifting to face Ava more fully, "but it was worth it. They still got rescued. Just...they acted like they didn't owe any gratitude to the people that saved them. You do, and that's what I like about you..."
As he spoke Ava's eyes drifted down to the front of the otter's robe. It was tied just a bit more loosely than it had been when she first saw him, and his legs were held casually open. She could see all the way up to-
She tore her eyes hurriedly away. How rude of her...
Unless...
An odd thought occurred to her. What if Peter wanted her to look?
But of course that was ridiculous. Who on earth would ever try to expose themselves to a stranger? And a child to boot.
Suddenly Ava began to feel afraid.
"But words are just words, as nice as they sound," Peter continued, a smile curling its way onto his face, "you know what you could do to really say thanks?"
"I want to talk to my parents." Ava said hurriedly. "Or the rangers. Just to...let everyone know I'm okay."
"But I already called them," Peter said, "and they're very busy people. I'd know. Now, you want to-"
"Um...in that case," Ava cut him off, a chill of fear rolling through her as she watched the otter's face darken, "I'd like to go to bed then...I'm very tired."
"It's rude to interrupt people, Ava," Peter said, "now...what I was saying," casually he undid the bow holding his robe shut, letting it fall open, "how about you say thanks to me properly. I saved you, didn't I?"
Ava jolted back, nearly falling backwards into the tub, an ugly feeling of shocked surprise rolling through her.
Peter looked lean and fit, the white fur on his stomach melting into brown on his groin. His sheath looked full and heavy, his balls hanging low. The pink tip of his member poked free.
Ava couldn't look away. She'd been shown pictures of what boys looked like down there, by schoolmates, but she'd never had any interest. So what if boys sometimes looked like that, all swollen and leaky and weird. How was that any of her business?
"Peter..." She said, struggling to keep her voice even, "I don't want to. Can you please put it away?"
Peter made no move to do so. He didn't even seem to hear her.
"Take off your towel. Let me get a good look at you." His voice had a slight edge to it now, almost a growl. But not angry. This was something else, and the fact that Ava couldn't identify it scared her badly.
Peter's member was growing harder, the anticipation of the situation getting to him. Ava squirmed and gulped, paws gripping the edge of the tub, her tail wrapped around her leg once more. She stared helplessly at the otter's growing arousal. His cock was heavy and thick, tapering to a point that dripped clear pre.
"Please..." Ava whimpered.
"Take off your towel or else I'll take it off for you." Peter said, voice still even and pleasant.
Ava tried to run. Tried hard to dodge around the otter and run for the bathroom door, which was still open, but she was tired and weak from her time in the woods. Peter reached out and shoved her back with one paw.
The little leopard hit the edge of the tub, then toppled in, the back of her head striking metal.
For a moment the whole world seemed to flash white, then there were stars and whole nebulae of spots and streamers of color. Everything seemed contextless and confusing. She was lying on her back, legs in the air, an icy feeling growing across the back of her head.
Then the pain hit and her situation snapped back into place. Ava groaned, a pulse of sickening pain sending her vision spinning. She tried to reach back to touch the back of her head but her position was too awkward. Her towel was coming undone.
Peter stood over her, nude, eyes wide and head cocked. A drip of pre plinked from the tip of his erect cock.
"You really ought to listen to me next time," he muttered, "that was one hundred percent your fault."
Reaching down, he ripped Ava's towel away, flipping the little leopard forcefully onto her front. She tried to squirm further into the tub but Pet caught hold of her tail and yanked.
Ava shrieked. Her cries didn't seem to bother the otter at all. Her paws reached out to the other side of the tub, to find the edge, but it had been joined with the wall, she couldn't find any leverage. Her claws scraped on the metal, leaving bright little lines behind as she was dragged into position, bent over the metal rim of the tub, fresh agony sparkling from the base of her tail, where it felt like Peter might just yank the appendage out by the roots.
Ava whimpered and wept. Tried to kick and clench her legs together but the otter's grip was too strong. He yanked her legs apart and roughly ran one finger along her virgin slit.
Face down in the tub, moisture puddling against one cheek, Ava cried out and tried to squirm but none of it seemed to matter. She couldn't shake her attacker off, she was simply too small and weak and battered.
"Stop it, please please..." Ava whimpered.
She felt something scalding press against her tiny slit and attempted to buck her hips. Peter pressed down on her hips so hard it felt like he might break her pelvis between the tub and his paw, then he was pushing in.
For a split second it seemed like fire was being poured into her, then the real pain hit. Peter shoved in, with no regard for the little leopard's comfort or well being, pointed cock forcing her muscles to stretch and ripping her hymen.
Ava stiffened and screamed, cry seeming to echo. The pain was so far beyond anything she'd ever felt that she almost couldn't comprehend it. It tore deep into the very core of her, muscles stretched and tissue torn. She could feel warmth trickling down the insides of her thighs and as her eyes fixated on the little blotch of crimson smeared on the opposite wall of the tub, she thought she knew just what it was.
Peter grunted and hunched forward over her, one paw pressing down on the side of her head, grinding her face into the bottom of the tub, keeping her violated hindquarters up and presenting. The other kept a firm grip on her hip, muscles spasming under his grip as he continued to pound into the sobbing leopard.
How she longed to rear up and bite him. To claw at his eyes or tear his throat. But those fantasies died as soon as they were birthed. He had all the leverage. All the power. And there was no way that would change.
Above her, the otter ground his hips against her rear and suddenly his thrusts was shortening, growing erratic. His breathing hitched and Ava winced as he pushed hard against her, shoving her face even harder into the bottom of the tub.
"Oh fuck..." He grunted and Ava felt a spurt of something thick and hot erupt deep within her. It stung.
The otter sawed his cock in and out of the little leopard's stretched, violated hole, dribbles of crimson streaked seed dripping out around him. His breathing relaxed and he took his paw off from Ava's head with a contented sigh.
"Fuck..." He sighed, "been a while...usually I last longer."
Ava tried to take a deep breath but started sobbing instead. She couldn't help it. Couldn't stop herself either. Every inch of her felt torn and hurt and dirty. She couldn't even imagine trying to run or even scream at the otter. Not when he had such utter mastery over her, and such willingness to use that mastery for his own pleasure and her degradation.
"We'll try that again in a bit," Peter said, standing up, flipping Ava's legs into the tub, sending the little leopard sprawling limply to the bottom, "and don't worry, I don't mind if you feel still like being a bitch...I kinda liked it when you were squirming."
Ava shivered.
"But..." She managed. Sniffled.
Peter raised an eyebrow.
"Did you really think I actually called anyone?" He asked, contempt dripping from his words, "...anyway. We'll try this again in an hour or so. Got a lot of things I want to try..."
With that the otter turned on the water, a frigid spray raining down on the shivering leopard. Ava tried to curl away from it but was too weak, too battered to move.
She watched curls of crimson move sluggishly past her.
Shut her eyes.