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Part 1: Stranded

Yahto Ashwin could feel his heart pounding in his chest as his paws squeaked on the steering wheel as he loosen the death grip on it. Slowly the malamute-wolf mix let go of the steering wheel completely so he could rub some feeling back into his face. It wasn't hard for him to envision that at the moment, all of his skin was now void of any color just like his face if his body wasn't already covered in a mostly blueish-grey and white fur.

A flicker of light drew his attention to a small pendant that was swinging under the rear view mirror. He reached up and gently grasped the object to stop it's still violent swinging from his rear view mirror . "Thanks buddy." He said to it before letting it go to dangle again. If it wasn't for that crystal angel pendant, he would have gone and wrapped his small Trax around a tree.

Well... Calling it a crystal angel was a bit of a stretch, it was a simple pendant made up of a couple of small, cheap plastic beads in the shape of an angel that was barely bigger than his thumb nail. He had bought it some time ago when he was at a craft store with his mother. Since then it has been hanging on his rear view mirror and now he has come to think of it as his co-pilot and guardian angel.

Taking a long, deep, slow breath, Yahto re-focused himself to calm down. Pulling the shifter into drive, then down further into first gear; he gave the accelerator a few tentative pushes before giving the vehicle some power. The vehicle moved forward a little before the tires broke traction and gave off the signature squeal, he attempted to rock the vehicle out of its predicament by going between Drive and Reverse. After trying for several seconds had yielded the same results, he was effectively stuck in a snowbank. Giving off a curse, he slammed the shifter into park and sighed as he slumped in the driver's seat.

"Well buddy..." Yahto spoke again as he grasped the pendent to stop it from swinging. "Looks like we're stuck here. Damn it... I knew I should have listened to my gut." He sighed as he watched the large snowflakes fall from the sky coating the windshield. Between the darkness of the night and the thick snow fall, visibility was maybe 100 some feet. If that.

The wolf-mix's thoughts drifted to earlier that day and the events that had led him up to his current dilemma. It had started out simple enough, the company where he worked threw a Christmas party for their employees before they closed the plant down for the holidays. There were a lot of construction projects being planned at his factory and there were going to be several contractors coming in and out of the plant to do the work, which had given the regular employees a good two weeks of vacation time.

During the party, a coworker had approached him and invited him to "hang with the guys" with an after party gathering. It was rare for the wolf to get invited by his coworkers and he didn't have any plans after the party anyway...

So, why not?

What his "buddy" neglected to tell him was that he was going to be their taxi and designated driver that night so the coworker and his friends that he didn't know could get stone drunk. Add to the fact that they wanted to go to a new place that was in a city that was over an hour north of where they lived, and that is after he had gone out of his way to pick them up. At least he had the foresight to give the 3 a sob story about the gas he was going to use and exaggerating how bad his fuel economy was during the winter months so before they had headed north, they each gave him 50 dollars. He had mentally chuckled to himself at the time as to where he'll be getting gas, he'll be pocketing over a hundred of it.

Needless to say, after about two hours, the three coworkers were well on their way to being drunk while he was pushed off into a corner of the bar where he was nursing a soda pop. With nothing to do he just sat and watched one of the many TVs that were set up around the establishment. At the time, he thought that he was lucky that he caught the weather when he did. The anchor woman was reporting on a nasty storm that was on its way from out west. According to what was being said; the forecasted precipitation was going to be measured in feet, not inches and lasting for the next several days.

Yahto had eventually found the three wayward coworkers he had driven there and tried to inform them that he was leaving because of the coming storm. They had initially dismissed him and went back to what they were doing until he told them that he was leaving, with or without them. They just scoffed and told him to "Get his sorry tail out of there."

He did.

That was over an hour ago.

With knowledge of the approaching storm, Yahto had decided to take the most direct course home through the country instead of taking the longer way of main roads that headed due south then homeward. On a warm day, it was a pleasant forty-five minute drive through the county and back roads that took you past the variety of farmlands and wooded hills.

On a good... Warm... Clear day...

The blizzard had hit within fifteen minutes of leaving his so called "friends" and while he had been taking it slow, he had somehow managed to lose his way due to the whiteout conditions. He at least had a rough idea where he was, but in all sense of the word he was simply lost in the blizzard.

He pulled his phone out of his pants pocket to call for help only to find that the icon for no signal was on. "Well, so much for calling for help." He sighed to the angel pendant. "I don't know what we're going to do."

His gaze turned to look out the driver's side window and watched the large flakes come down hard and fast. The Chevy Trax did at least had over 3 quarters of a tank of gas left in the tank and the heater could easily sweat him out. The problem though was while the accumulation snow was growing, the exhaust pipe would eventually get covered by the snow at some point and fill the vehicle with carbon monoxide. He maybe had a 'guest-imate' of two to six hours before the fumes suffocated him if he stayed?

No, he couldn't think like that...

A flicker of light drew his attention back to the crystal angel. "What's up buddy?"

He felt a gust of wind rock the small SUV, causing the pendant to swing lightly and rotate a bit, almost like it was saying 'Over here, look!' Looking past the angel, he noticed something in the woods. A faint, multicolor twinkle that was barely cutting through the haze of the blizzard. Despite how little it showed through the blinding storm, it still felt... somehow inviting.

"Think I should check out that light?" The wolf-mix asked, looking at the pendant. It was slightly swinging with a slight turn to it now, almost like it was trying to push him.

'Go.'

Yahto turned the key off and made sure nothing was left on to drain the battery before pushing the door open. The cold air rushed past him as he got out, sending shivers through him despite his thick fur and winter clothes. It helped that his mixed heritage gave him more fur as the winter started to set in, but all that fur could only do so much against that wind chill. His foot was swallowed up to his heels by the snow as he got out. 'Already close to six inches' he thought as he came around the vehicle.

On his way to the light, he nearly fell on his face when he found the edge of the road that dropped into a ditch the hard way, quickly sinking down to his knees as he barely kept from falling forward into the snow on the ground. Regaining his balance, he trudged through the deeper snow and found the other side where the ground rose back up from the ditch he had found and entered the treeline of the woods. He kept his muzzle pointed towards the light as he went through the trees, slowly traversing through the thick snowfall on the ground. It took some doing, but he made his way towards the light. While he knew that he wasn't exposed for long to the storm, it still felt like he was battered by the unforgiving winds for more than an hour before he had reached his destination.

He found himself looking into a side window lit up by a small decorated Christmas tree that stood inside of a cabin. Even from outside, the twinkling lights cast a warm, friendly glow wherever it touched. Though he tried to peer inside, all he could really see was the glare from the glass and shadows that were cast by the Christmas lights. He couldn't help to be mesmerised by the tree with the string lights and simple ornaments that reflected the colors, twinkling in a way that was almost hypnotic to look at. At least until a gust of cold wind reminded him of where he was. Shaking off the stupor, he followed the outside wall around to the front and up the steps of a small deck to the door. Taking a deep breath, he rapped at the door with his knuckles

"Hello!" He shouted, trying to draw the attention of the occupant, if any. Yahto hoped that they weren't in bed sleeping and would get really upset with him for disturbing their slumber. "Anyone there?" He hammered harder with his fist as he called out. "Hey! I need help. My truck is stuck and I need shelter till I can get it out."

The howl of the wind was the only thing that responded to his attempts, making him cursed as he punched the door in a furry. "Damn it all to hell." He spat as he pounded the wooden door a final time. He was turning to leave when the door creak open reached his ears, making him jump slightly before returning so he could push the door open wider. Sticking his head in, he called out into the building. "Hello?..."

Looking around the cabin's interior showed that there were no signs of a resident, or anything else that could have opened the door for him. "Hello?" He called out again as he stepped inside, shutting the door to the cold. "I hope you don't mind that I came in." He called out to the darkness of the interior.

Yahto went to take a step further in but quickly thought better of it with his snow covered boots and clothes. He shed his winter boots, jacket and brushed as much snow as he could before he continued into the cabin to look around.

Inside was a small but comfortable space, like a 3-4 room apartment with a simple layout, a large open area where the kitchen/dining room was on one side while the living room area was on the other side with only furniture arrangements distinguishing between the two rooms. The living room area was furnished with some couches, chairs and small coffee and end tables around the living area with hardwood floors. It felt like it was done up to be a home away from home. The only thing that was on were a few digital clocks in the kitchen and the lights on what looked to be a three to four foot tall Christmas tree that was set up on a coffee table in the middle of the living room so it could be viewed from one of two windows outside. Aside from a few other decorations tastefully done around the place, the cabin looked to be devoid of life inside.

Just slightly off center of the back living room wall stood a small but decent size heating stove of sorts that he could see that had a few small flames going through a glass panel in front, warming the interior of the cabin. On either side of the fireplace stood two doors, one was wide open and the other was only slightly ajar. He had a suspicion on what the two rooms were and when he walked over to peered in the one door he confirmed that it was the cabin's bathroom. Larger than he had expected too, with both a good size shower stall that might squeeze three to four large people in and something that looked like a Jacuzzi tub that could fit as many people in too.

'Wow' he thought as his brow raised in amazement as he looked the bathroom over. 'Someone has a really nice set up.'

He went to the other door and knocked as he gave it a light push. "Hello... I don't mean to be intruding..." He could make out shapes in the darkness, but none were humanoid. He found a switch and flicked the light on. He found a queen size bed that was still made up in red and green festive sheets and the usual assortment of bedroom furniture that you would expect. A dresser, a night stand that sat in front of a window with the curtains drawn closed and a smaller door that he suspected was a closet.

"Joy..." He said out loud. "All alone in a strange cabin in the middle of the woods." He sighed and after a second, laughed. "What kind of cliché parody is going to happen? Something out of a horror movie perhaps?"

Taking a closer look at the interior of the cabin, the wolf mix took a closer look at the other furnishings of the room. There was another reclining chair on the opposite side of the room where the division of the living and dining area would be with a matching couch set up along the wall that seperated the the bedroom. The coffee table with the tree was placed in front of the couch so that all three seating locations were surrounding it. There was also a matching end stand with a lamp in the corner of the room where you could reach it from the couch or the chair that he was planning on sleeping in. On either side of the front door had picture windows where you could look out from most of the seating locations in the cabin, but tonight it only let him see out into the deep darkness of the night.

Going to the pellet stove in the center of the cabin he knelt down and started to casually familiarize himself with the unit finding it to be a simple pellet stove. It was currently set at its lowest setting with over half of the pellets gone in the holding bin. A quick glance and he found an open bag of the pellets within reach. He shuffled the bag closer and scooped out 3 soup cans worth of pellets to bring the stove's holding bin closer to full. He also changed the setting of the stove so it was set to a slightly warmer setting for the night. The flickering flame in the stove grew brighter and he could already feel the increased heat being given off from the stove. A fan kicked on to spread the warm air around the room and he felt the air blow on his fur. He let out a content sigh feeling the added warmth before getting up and finishing surveying his surroundings.

There were a few shelving along the walls with some holiday knick-knacks adorning them and a bookshelf in the corner with a small collection of books. One of the shelves contained a little portable radio along with a regular stereo system which he flipped on first.

"...the weather. Tonight temperatures dropping into the mid-twenties with heavy snowfall in the higher elevations, ranging from 10 to 18 inches with high winds that will be causing white out conditions. Tomorrow, temperatures will be continuing to drop from the mid-twenties to the teens with snowfall predicted at another 12 to 20 inches and increasing as the day progresses. Sunday, temperatures are going to continue down into the single digits as the storm continues to roll in on us, dropping steadily as the week progresses.

"There is a travel band starting tomorrow at 11 am. All residents are advised to remain at home and there is to be no unnecessary travel in the for the entire tri county area..."

The wolf shook his head and sighed as the reporter continued to issue the warning, saying that everyone should head out early and grab supplies to last them the holiday week as the storm is predicted to last past Christmas day. By the sounds of it, not only will it be a white christmas, but everyone in the area will get buried under several feet of snow.

Yahto yawned before looking at his watch which showed that it was now well after 11 o'clock. Walking over to what looked like a linen closet, he reached in to pull out a blanket after glancing around and came back out into the living area. He unfolded the blanket and draped it over a chair that was against the outside wall close to the window that he had seen the sparkling tree that had guided him to the cabin. He sat down with a sign and pulled the blanket over himself as the station finally started to play music again. At least it was a good station that he recognized, a local station that plays a mix of 60's, 70's and 80's music with an occasional 'current' song. Right now, it was playing an instrumental version of Silent Night.

Yahto let out yawn as he settled in to rest. He was hoping that if the owner came back and found him, he hoped that he would be able to explain his predicament and maybe offer them some money to let him stay till the weather blew over. He drifted off eventually, wondering if the cabin's owner will come and rescue him or if he'll be stuck out here for the rest of the winter...

* * *

The wolf-mix awoke to the glare of the sun in his eyes. Yahto wasn't much of an early riser, but after going to sleep in the chair he still felt rested and ready for the day. He made a circuit around the cabin checking to see if anyone had entered while he was sleeping. Everything was the same as when he fell asleep which was kind of disappointing. He decided to explore to find out what he may have to survive with after freshening up. Thankfully, the place had good running water and what seemed to be a decent hot water tank. So if needed, he could take a shower later among other things.

His first stop after using the bathroom was the pellet stove. Using the last of the pellets that was in the bag to fill the almost empty stove feeder, he put finding more pellets as a priority on his mental list he was forming. Next he went to the kitchen to look around to find an assortment of dishes, utensils, cleaning supplies, and a somewhat decent supply of canned goods in the cupboards, along with some box dinners and baking supplies. He could survive the week easily on the soups, pasta, fruit and vegetables he found. Longer if he rations them. Checking the fridge, he found some bottle water, a few cans of soda and beer.

"Well," He thought to himself. "The beer is safe from me." Having never acquired the taste for the bitter liquid.

Basically, surviving wasn't going to be much of an issue, despite the lack of pellets for the stove, but keeping preoccupied and his mind off of things is what's going to be a drag.

Figuring the inside was pretty much looked over, he put his winter boots and coat on, preparing himself against the cold as he opened the door. The wind blew in with a vengeance as the cabin was exposed to the outside, sending a shiver through his body at the sudden drop of temperature as he pushed his way into the snow. The flakes were still coming down hard, the fine sleet replacing the large fluffy flakes of last night. The forest itself was now wrapped in a ghostly eerie grey fog instead of the menacing black void of the night.

Trudging through the snow was going to prove fun, it was already up past his ankles and part way up his legs. If he was human, it would be up close to his waist. A quick survey from the porch already yielded results as he spotted two more structures near the cabin. A tin shed and what could be a small barn or garage. He trudged through the snow to the smaller shed and tried to force it open with the snow blocking the door. A small smile came across his face after he was finally able to force the shed's doors open, the tools inside were on open display for anyone to see. He grabbed the heavy duty snow shovel by the door and took it with him as he closed the tool shed back up.

The barn was a little easier to get into thanks to the shovel, and he was almost dumbfounded by what he found in there. Almost immediately he spotted a generator connected to a 100 gallon tank, a clear plastic 50 gallon tank with what looks like water in it, a large deep freezer humming in the corner, an old beat up washer and dryer tucked away in another corner, at least 4 full cases of water along with other drinkable liquids, and a pallet of bagged pellets for the stove in the cabin.

"Ok... first thing first." He said as he hefted a bag of pellets on his shoulders and traced his steps to back the cabin. He placed it just inside the door and got to work on clearing the front of the cabin. He slowly revealed the wooden floor of the porch that was hidden under all the drifted snow. He was amazed that he didn't trip as the cabin and it's connecting covered patio was raised a foot off the ground. When the patio was cleared of snow, he shoveled his way back to the large storage building.

Whomever built the place, put a lot of thought into it. He found that the main electric wire was run to the out building with the generator connected to the main box too so that if power went out, the generator could be turned on and everything could continue on as normal. Like with the pellet stove, he familiarized himself with the generator by turning it on and back off again, and a quick look inside the generator's connecting metal tank revealed that it was full of what smelled like diesel.

A closer inspection of the building's contents revealed a gas grill, and he even found a trapdoor that revealed the water pump. The large walk in freezer had a bunch of frozen foods. Meats wrapped individually to be cooked or grilled, some frozen pizzas, and other little goodies that he'll probably ignore for the most part. There was a small attic above, but it looked like it was mostly different paraphernalia like other holiday decorations and targets, so he didn't bother checking it.

During his exploration, he had come across a long length of rope and an idea quickly formed in his mind. Taking it outside, he found a flag pole holder that was mounted within easy reach. He (hopefully) tied it off and walked back to the cabin lazily stretching it out. He tied it to the closest porch post and snugged the rope into a handrail guide back to the buildings. The two sheds might have been like some 75 feet away or so, but if the storm hits like they're predicting and the possibility of having to get to the barn in the blinding snow, then he'd rather have something to go on to find his way.

Still feeling a little energetic, he grabbed the shovel and trekked his way through the snow to where he thought his buried SUV was. Upon arriving and a quick survey in the slightly better lighting he could just make out a small turn off or service road just ahead of where the vehicle was parked. He smiled to himself, a decent place to park in case he does manage to get unstuck. As it was, he still wasn't sure of his exact location and the roads were in no condition to be traveled on. He primed himself and got to work unburning his car.

Two hours later.

He was lucky. With a lot of digging and perseverance, Yahto had managed to get the small SUV out of the snowbank and moving. It didn't help though that he was plowing snow with his bumper as he pulled up to the spot that he had cleared after getting his vehicle out of the snow. He sighed after he parked it facing out towards the road.

"Well buddy we did it." He gave his pendant a lite tap to get it swinging "Thanks for watching things here." Yahto let out a long breath as he leaned back into the seat. The SUV creaked as the strong winds started to hit the vehicle, blowing the flakes that were starting to increase in size again. "I think I better get back before it gets too late. You're in charge again while I'm gone." He laughed as he got out.

The Wolf-mix pulled the shovel out of the snow pile he had created and started to walk back to the cabin. He parked the vehicle a little farther and more out of sight of the cabin, but at least now it was safe from any possible snow plows that came through when he was away. He looked back at his handy work where he was stuck, the area was already half filled with drifting and fresh falling snow. He shook his head as he continued to the cabin. When he came back, he had to clear the porch off again from the new coating of snow. He groaned to himself as he once again cleared the porch off before he went in.

Once inside, he pulled his boots and coat off. Just caring enough to keep from tracking the frozen white stuff in too far from the door and didn't notice the extra pair of boots on the floor or the other winter coat hanging by the door. He walked half in a daze, everything he did during the day had hit him as he walked back to the cabin. He didn't realize it, but it was after 2 in the afternoon and all that snow was heavy. While he did take a small break, it was still tiring and his exposed fur and hair was soaked with sweat from hours of work that he did. He could even feel the wetness creeping against his skin from the snow that had managed to congregate in his fur. A warm shower was sounding really nice right now.

He stopped long enough to fill the half full pellet stove and discovered that the stove somehow got set to its highest setting. Confused, he turned the dial back to where he had it before. 'Huh... must have knocked it up a setting when I filled it this morning.' He thought to himself as he pulled his shirt off while he walked into the bathroom.

His tired mind barely registered the new scent his nose was picking up as he entered the spacious bathroom, a kind of rose scent that was mixed with some citrus aroma and something else that was very faint but for the life of him he couldn't place. He undid his wet jeans and let them fall off his legs, his boxers joined them in a pile in the corner with some other clothes.

However none of these warnings that he wasn't alone registered to the malamute-wolf when he shed all of his cloths.

He stepped in the shower stall and turned the water on when he closed the door, letting the water run over his body a good while before he got the bar of soap and started on lathering his fur up. He took his good old time as he cleaned his fur. It was going to be fun trying to brush his fur out without one of his brushes, but at the moment all he really cared about was the warm water flowing over his aching body.

His stomach gave a rumble as he shut the water off considering his options as he remembered some of the stuff he had come across earlier. "Hmm... Beef stew sounds like it should be good." He said out loud to himself as he opened the door and grabbed the nearby towel and started to dry off as he stepped out.

"Uhm..." He froze when he heard the distinctly feminine voice. "Hi?..." Water splashing drew his attention to the bathtub where he seen a rose colored canine mostly submerged in the water. It was hard for him to tell her breed, dark red hair, rose color fur with a shade of pink that covered her chest and down past her belly. Two large heart shaped ears topped her head and a long fluffy tail was curled up around her obstructing his view of any of her bits along with her legs and arms. She stared back at him with crystal blue puppy dog eyes. If she was human, she'd probably be as red as her fur being caught in her situation.

Yahto knew that if it wasn't for his thick wet fur, he'd be redder than red...