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Part Two

The Woodcutter

Osric just wanted a nice day at the beach with friends. He didn't know there was something terrible in the Velnias Woods and yet as he awoke he felt an overwhelming guilt about just that. It wasn't his fault, per say, but he felt the blame fell to him for suggesting they go to the beach to begin with.

He awoke with a plonk. The plonk didn't come from the mouse but rather it was the sound of a log being thrown into a fireplace. Plonk! It came again and beckoned he open his eyes at last. He looked about to see he was in a small wood cabin.

The cabin was only a single room with wooden floors, walls and ceiling. There was a stone fireplace across the room, a door to his right, a shower to his left, and next to the fireplace there was a wood pile kept in a metal guard. There was a table with two chairs near the shower and the wall by the door had two windows with the drapes drawn. There was a bookshelf opposite the woodpile that was filled with books of every color. The woodpile seemed half drawn from.

The mouse moved to sit up and realized he was on a rather large bed that was rather comfortable. He was under a sheet and found that his shirt was gone. There was a bandage on his shoulder and another wrapped around the foot that he stepped into the glass with. He noticed that his other shoe and sock were now missing as well.

Plonk! Fwoosh! The fire built up and that was when he noticed the person who was throwing the logs into the fire. It was a massive and extremely muscular lion, the likes of which the mouse had never seen before. The mouse himself was only just over four and a half feet tall but the lion, as he stood erect to stretch, seemed to stand a good three feet taller than the mouse would, were he standing.

His eyes adjusted to the light and then he saw there were a few lanterns that hung from the ceiling, in addition to the light by the fire. The mouse sat speechless as the lion turned. His dark red fur was a bit shaggy and ungroomed, as was the black mane that framed his head and face. He noticed the lion was shirtless and the only clothing he wore was a pair of black trousers that were torn and ragged half way up the calves of his very powerful legs.

The mouse reeled back as the lion's golden eyes almost glowed in the dim light when they lay upon Osric sitting up in bed. The mouse scooched back to the wall when the lion ran over at a hurried pace and knelt at the side of the bed with tears streaming down his face. The mouse held out a hand in reflex as though it would keep the gargantuan lion from coming closer.

The lion spoke with a suprisingly affeminate voice as he reached out and grabbed the mouse's hand and held it in both of his very gently, "Oh thank goodness you're alive. Oh... I'm so happy. My goodness I thought you were a goner. You were asleep so long and I didn't know if you were ever going to wake up. They say that it's bad if you get knocked out like that. I'm so glad you're okay."

The lion started kissing his hand and then pressed his forehead to it as he held it in his massive hands. Osric was a bit flabberghasted as he was caught off guard several times over. He stumbled over his words and struggled to speak, "I... there was an accident. A car accident. Something out there attacked us. I don't think my friends are okay. I heard horrible sounds."

The lion looked to him with big sad eyes, "My friends are gone too. The creature that was chasing you got them. We're safe in the cabin though. I don't know why or how but we are. I've been here a long time and I've been... so alone..."

Osric was caught off guard as the lion suddenly hugged his small mousey head to the massive bulging muscles of the soft-furred chest. He didn't know what to do in that moment and began to cry himself awash with emotion. The greif over his friends and the relief that he was alive and in the strong arms of a big, strong, and yet very gentle lion. The large cat purred as he held the mouse and Osric began to feel quite a bit better as he became lost in the rumbling of the chest.

He didn't know how long they were embraced in mutual tears but in time they parted and dried their eyes. The lion sat on the bed next to the mouse, hunched over so as to not be intimidating. He smiled warmly as he spoke, "M... my name is... Gavril. What's your name?"

"Osric," said the mouse, "It's a pleasure to meet you Gavril. I'm just sorry it's not under happier circumstances."

"That makes two of us," said Gavril, "I'm also sorry about rushing up but I haven't seen or talked to anyone in... I don't know how long..."

"You don't know how long you've been here?" asked the mouse.

Gavril shook his head and then looked down to his feet, feeling ashamed, "The forest is dark and impossible to tell whether it's day or night out there. I sleep, eat, cut wood, shower, eat and repeat. But there are no clocks or any way to tell how long. What... what month is it now?"

"The month? It is mid July." said Osric.

"July..." Gavril nodded and kept looking to his feet as he tapped them on the floorboards. He looked to the mouse and asked, "July of what year?"

"It's 1937 last I checked," Osric managed to chuckle a bit.

The lion's eyes went wide before he rested his elbows on his knees and threw his hands up over his face, "1937... Oh my goodness. 1937... please tell me you're joking right now. It can't be 1937."

"It is I'm afraid."

The lion sighed and fell back on the bed. His mouth was open as he just breathed and thought for a bit. His mind was racing as he spoke softly, "I've been trapped in these woods for two years. I've been all on my own out here for two years."

The mouse laid back close to him but in scooching around he was given a swift reminder that both his shoulder and his foot had been hurt in the accident. He laid his body close to the warmth of the lion's torso as he said, "Hey now. You might not know this but we're not that far into the forest. Only a few miles deep. I'm sure if we worked together we could get out. We know the way back to the road and then we just have to follow that road back out again. Simple as that."

Gavril sighed, "You'd think so, right?"

"I would," said the mouse.

The lion then reached down and pulled the mouse up so that the smaller fur was laying atop his massive torso. He hugged the mouse warmly and said, "You would be wrong. This isn't a normal cabin. We're stuck in these woods because once that door closes... the cabin moves around. It's how it keeps us safe from the creature. It's impossible to say where in the forest we would be when the door is open again."

The mouse thought a bit as he relaxed in the hug of the massive lion but the more he thought the more things didn't make sense, "Gavril?"

"Yes, Osric?"

"If you've been out here for two years all alone with no other contact from outside," Osric began, "How did you get the bandages? Where do you get food?"

The lion sat a moment and then scooped the mouse into his arms before setting him down on a chair by the table. He then sat at the chair across from the mouse and said, "The cabin provides. It is magic and so long as a fire burns in that hearth it provides for it's guests."

The lion then tapped on the table twice and suddenly a lit candle along with two cups of water, two plates of cooked steak, a loaf of bread, and a pitcher of water appeared. Gavril waved his arms over the bounty before them as forks and knives appeared, "Tada."

"Is... is this all real?" asked Osric as he picked up the fork and poked at the steak on his plate. He noticed it was significantly smaller than the lion's share.

"I can assure you that yes. Yes it is. When I brought you back here all injured and hurt... the cabin provided tweezers, tongs, extra lanterns, stitching supplies and bandages to fix you up," said Gavril as he took the knife and fork in hand then began to cut his steak into small pieces very gentlemanly.

The mouse watched as Gavril ate the meat slowly and looked to his glass of water. He took a sip and found the cool refreshment a bit of relief after everything. Osric was just starting to come to grips with the whole of his situation and that the cabin was as the lion said... magical.

The mouse finished off his water then noticed that the glass refilled itself with more refreshment from thin air. He looked to the lion, "I noticed there isn't any toilet in the cabin. Where do you go to use the restroom."

Gavril chuckled a bit, "Well, I mean, we're in the woods, Osric."

Osric looked on as though the lion should have finished his sentence.

Gavril finished another piece of meat and then continued, "I go out into the woods to do all that business. Or actually I suppose we would go out into the woods to do our business. It's weird to say the word we again or to think about myself and another after having resigned to simply die alone."

Gavril dropped his knife and fork and started to blubber over his steak. Osric reached out and grabbed the lion's hand, "What's the matter?"

"I'm just so glad you're here. You don't know how lonely it's been," the lion the used the tuft of black fur on the end of this tail to dry his eyes like a tissue, "I'm sorry I haven't even had anyone to talk to and I've read all the books in here like a dozen times each. It's just so nice to have you here."

"Or to have anyone here I imagine," Osric smiled.

Gavril shrugged, "I guess... I mean it makes it better cause you're cute too... Oh... I just said that out loud. Again I haven't been around people for a while. I'm sorry if I act a little strange..."

The lion pulled away and started to cry in embarrassment but all Osric could think about was that the massive, devilishly handsome man before the mouse called him cute. He stood with some discomfort and waddled over to the lion's side of the table then hugged the massive man's head to his bare chest. The mouse lay his head atop the lion's and the lion hugged to him. They stayed like that for some time, just breathing in the comfort of the other.

The lion nuzzled his face into the mouse's belly and spoke with his voice muffled a bit, "Your fur is really soft. I bet you get that a lot."

"Not a lot of people tend to rub my bare fur as it were," Osric smiled as the lion looked up at him.The lion noticed the fire in the fireplace was getting a little low. He gently pushed off the mouse and said, "We should finish our meal. Every time the house makes something for me... er us... it depletes the Golgot wood faster. Gotta feed the fire one last time and then we should be good for the night."

"Golgot wood?" asked Osric. He watched the massive lion's statuesque back as he walked over to the wood pile and tossed a few more logs on.

Gavril nodded, "Wood from the Golgot tree is the kind the house needs to keep using magic. It can use other kinds but this stuff works the best."

"If the house is magic, then can't we talk to it? If it makes things we need it has to be smart, right?"

Gavril returned to the table and sat across from the mouse, "Well, you would think so but I've been talking to the house for a while and it never really seemed to change anything or respond. I think it just reacts to stimulus. Don't know that it really has a mind or anything."

The two took their meal together and had a bit of a chit chat about the world outside the cabin and the things that had happened outside the woods altogether in the last two years. In time they were able to forget about the troubles and just enjoy each other's company. They talked for hours and never seemed to tire of each other. They told jokes and had each other laughing but after while they saw that they had talked till the fire was burnt down nearly to embers.

"Huh," said Gavril. He went to the fire and prodded it with a poker then started to place more logs in it before standing back to ensure that it caught once again.

"What's the matter?" asked Osric.

"Well I thought I just put wood in the hearth but we talked till it almost burned all the way down."

"Is that a long time?"

"With the hearth filled I could sleep through the night, have breakfast, go out, cut wood, come back and fully load the woodpile before needing to add more wood. Just means we must have talked for quite a while," the lion smiled.

"Well time flies with good company," the mouse smiled back.

"It does," said the lion as he refilled the fireplace and made sure that it was plenty full, "I don't know about you but this lion is tired though. May I escort you to the bed my good sir?"

Gavril bowed like a proper gentleman and offered a hand to the small mouse. The mouse took that hand and rose to his feet, "A thank you my good man. Twould be my pleasure to be escorted."

They then sauntered over to the bed hand in hand but ended up laughing by the time they reached it. The lion couldn't help himself and scooped the mouse up for a great big hug as he climbed into bed. He lay side by side with the mouse and pulled the covers up over the both of them. The mouse used the lion's massive arm as a pillow as they gazed into each others eyes.

Osric reached a hand up to gently caress the massive chest that faced him, really running his hand through the lion's fur, "Of all the people that I could have been stuck in these woods with, I'm glad it was you, Gavril."

Gavril's eyes beamed as he stared into the mouse's deeply, "I'm sorry but I can't resist any longer."

"Resist what?" asked Osric.

His question was answered soon enough as the lion leaned in and kissed him passionately upon the lips. Osric was caught of guard but then reciprocated and kissed back just as passionate.

The kiss broke and both of them were breathing heavily afterwards. Gavril smiled afterwards and said, "I am glad it was you too my cute little mouse."

The pair of them held each other through the night and despite their dreary circumstances, they would later recall it was one of the best night's sleep that either of them had ever had til that point in their lives.