The Clearing
#5 of Highschool Sucked
Part 5: The Clearing
I jerk awake as Robbie starts tossing and turning in his sleep; peering over to the green digits on my clock I see that it is a little past five in the morning. I slide a little further away from him and take a deep breath. After a few moments of silence, I look over as his upper body bolts upright and he starts screaming. Immediately sitting up and returning to his side, I wrap my arms around him and hold him close to me, stroking his headfur as I try to comfort him.
"Shh shh shh. Don't worry, I'm here." I whisper into his ear as I gently stroke his headfur, his screams slowly diminishing and turning to sobs. He turns and now facing me, he wraps his arms around me and begins crying on my shoulder.
Although I can't see in the dark, I can feel his rattled breaths and hear him as in-between sobs he manages to say "Don't leave me Shawn... I need you so much." I push him back onto the bed so he is now laying his back and wrap a large arm around his small form.
Turning onto his side and now facing me wraps his arms around me and pulls himself closer, as if afraid if he let go he would lose me forever.
His body now flush against mine, his head backs away from mine and he stops making all noise and he inhales. The moon offers just enough light so that I am able to make out some features on his head, I can see that his eyes are closed and the white patches of fur around his muzzle and creeping down his neck towards his chest reflect the mysterious blue glow. As he exhales, he lets out a sigh and I can see a small grin creep onto his muzzle. Opening his eyes, he stares straight into my eyes as he whispers "You smell nice."
Chuckling, I wrap my arm around his shoulder and pull him closer. Putting my chin on the top of his head I ask "Are you alright?" I can feel him nodding from underneath my chin. "Do you think you can get back to sleep?"
This time, I feel him shrug a little bit and he let out a low moan. I answer "Well, I'll be awake if you are..."
A few moments later, I can feel his shoulders steadily rise and fall; it is then that I know he is asleep and soon I follow him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Slowly opening my eyes sometime later, I see that Robbie is watching me intently with his amber eyes. Seeing my eyes finally open, he smiles and says "Morning. Did you sleep well?"
I pull him closer to me, the sun that is coming in through the window warming our fur "Probably better than you did."
He turns his head down as he says "I'm sorry for waking you this morning."
Putting my paw underneath his chin, I lift his head back up and look deeply into his eyes "You needed me, and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to be there of you." I can see the tears beginning to well up in his eyes as he thrusts his head into my chests and begins crying.
A moment later, he lifts his head from my chest and says "You're so good to me. I'm so sorry that I've put you through this."
Keeping his head up, I give him a peck on the muzzle and say "There is no way either one of us is strong enough to go through this alone. We need to do this together; we're mates, we are supposed to help each other."
He puts his head on my shoulder and breathes deeply; exhaling, he says "I'm so lucky to have someone like you with me. No matter what, I'm always happier when I'm with you."
Smiling, I contort my body so his muzzle is directly in front of mine and press my maw against his, our tongues dancing around the others. His paw begins rubbing up and down my stomach.
Suddenly, my stomach lets out a loud, long rumble. My eyes shoot open and I see his ears perk up. Pulling his muzzle back from mine, he begins to laugh. Still stroking my stomach and beginning to scratch at the skin underneath, he says "I felt a little rumble in the jungle. Did you eat anything yesterday?"
Laughing because I have never heard anything as ridiculous as that, I shake my head from side to side and say "Only in the morning, I was with you the rest of the day. Did you want to get something to eat?"
Smiling, he breaks loose from me and hops out of the bed; landing on the floor he says: "Thought you'd never ask." Padding over to his duffle bag he digs out a clean shirt and changes into it, leaving on the pair of khakis he was wearing yesterday.
Climbing out of my bed, I walk over to my dresser and put on a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt and make my way towards the doorway where he was waiting for me to finish changing, impatiently tapping his footpaw on the ground.
Making our way into the kitchen, I ask what he wanted to eat. "Don't know, something that doesn't take forever to make..." he paused, snickering to himself, he finished "and something you won't burn."
Pushing him a little bit, I say "If I remember correctly, you were the one that was distracting me. But if that is the case, cereal it is." Walking over to the cupboard I pull out a box of Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Puffs and get two bowls and spoons from the cabinets. Placing my load on the table, Robbie grabs the box of Frosted Flakes and begins pouring some into his bowl.
Getting out the milk from the fridge, I finally make it to my seat and sit across from him. Opening the box of Cocoa Puffs, I pour some into my bowl and pour some milk over it. Bringing the first spoonful of cereal to my maw, I look over at Robbie who has already eaten half of his first bowl. Smiling, I say to him "Slow down. It's not going anywhere."
Looking up at me, he smiles and defiantly crams another two spoonfuls of cereal into his maw.
After a few silent moments of watching him turn the box of Frosted Flakes over and over in his paw, he looks at me again and pointing his spoon at me, says "You know..." he swallows his mouthful of food... "Tony the Tiger has nothing on you."
Chuckling, I get up from the table with my empty bowl and put it in the sink. "And why is that?"
Doing the same, he stands beside me at the sink and wraps his arms around my waist saying "Well, he looks like he would be an arrogant ass. You, on the other hand, are the nicest and sweetest person I've ever met."
"Well, you of all people should know that I can be an ass sometimes." Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I rest my chin on the top of his head and let out a long sigh saying "Well, I have all this pent up energy, you feel like going for a walk?"
I lift my head off his as he looks up and starts nodding emphatically. Pausing for a moment, he looks at me curiously and asks: "Where are we going to go?"
Letting go of him, I start walking towards my shoes by the front door motioning for him to follow. Turning to look at him, I say "That's the great part about living back in the woods, there's a lot of places to go. But there is one place in particular that I want to show you."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
'Now where is that ridge?' I thought to myself as I am standing on top of a tree covered hill, looking out over the woods before me. Robbie, who was standing at my shoulder, leaned over and asked "You do know where we are... don't you?"
Giving him a light nudge with my shoulder, I looked over at him and grinned, taking off running down the hill. Dodging trees left and right, I could hear Robbie behind me, trying to keep up. Every couple of minutes, I would give him the faintest sight of me as I led him deeper into the woods, deeper into territory unknown to him. I never slowed down until I finally reached where I was taking him.
Breaking out into the sunny clearing, I paused a moment and bolted off to the left so I could backtrack and sneak around Robbie. Staking out a good hiding place, I sat and waited.
A moment later, Robbie came out into the open and stopped dead in his tracks, completely taking by his surroundings. He stood there, looking around him seeing that the entire clearing is almost completely encircled by a stream and tall tree-covered hills. The sun breaking through the tree canopy above, casting its warmth on him was making the small patch of visible white fur shine.
Admiring him for a moment, I came from behind my bush and silently crept up behind him until I was only a few feet away from him. Coming up behind him and putting both paws on his shoulders, I said "Isn't this place great?"
Deeply breathing in the fresh air, he sighed and said "It's so beautiful here. How did you find this place?"
I took his paw in mine and led him over to a small patch of shade under a lone tree in the middle of the clearing and sat down, propping myself up on an arm. He sat next to me and laid his head on my shoulder and put his paw on my thigh.
I smiled and said "I found this years ago when I was a cub. My brother, our neighbor and I used to walk around these woods all the time when we were young and one day we found this place. We promised each other that we wouldn't tell anybody about here. It was our little secret..." I paused, reliving the now painful memory "A couple years ago, our friend moved away." Choking back tears, I said "Our visits became fewer and fewer until, eventually we stopped coming all together."
Inhaling deeply, I took in the faint scent of flowers early in bloom and with a renewed sense of strength, said "A few months ago, I was walking around the woods and came across our clearing again. I soon discovered that it was the perfect place to come and unwind; just be alone with you thoughts. Every couple days, I would come to this spot and just... think."
Robbie looked up at me his amber eyes, staring intently into mine. He gave me a peck on the maw and returned his head to my shoulder, letting out a long sigh.
We spent the next few moments in silence, looking around the clearing. Feeling that my arm was about to go to sleep, I shifted my weight off it and lay on my back, Robbie lying down beside me. He turned his entire body until he could comfortably place the back of his head on my stomach, I could see his head slowly rising up and falling down as I breathed. Putting a paw on his head and gently stroking his headfur, I put my other behind my head as I lay my head back, staring at the tree canopy above us.
There were long moments of silence between us as we stayed completely motionless staring into the trees above. The only noise that I could hear was my and Robbie's breathing and the occasional rustle of leaves made by the wind. Everything about the moment was absolutely perfect; there was no need for words between the two of us.
A few moments passed, and then I could feel the tension leaving him as Robbie's body as it went lax and he let out a long, contended sigh.
He turned onto his stomach and I lifted my paw off his head. Lifting my head up, now looking him straight in his amber eyes he smiled. "Shawn?"
"Hmm?"
He slowly pulled himself up my body, his muzzle inches away from mine. He slowly whispered "This is just what I needed. Thank you so much." He pressed his lips against mine as we shared a passionate kiss.
Our lips were locked together for what seemed like an eternity, but all too soon he parted from the kiss pulling his head back and smiling, he lay his chin down onto my chest. He put one of his paws next to his head on my chest and the other one was gently stroking my side.
Putting both paws behind my head, I lay back down and went back to staring at the tree canopy, the light seemed to have grown more intense and the leaves brighter, more vibrant.
Slowly, the paw stroking my side slowed down until it stopped completely, and I could feel Robbie's body very slowly rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Bringing my head up, I looked at Robbie's face. His eyes were closed and he was smiling widely. Leaving him in his peaceful slumber I returned my head back to the ground and closed mine, taking in a long, drawn out breath.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
During the time that I was asleep, I didn't dream. I knew there was nothing better then where I was now... in my clearing, with my fox. Everything was just perfect.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I woke up to the setting sun peeking in through the spaces between the leaves. Looking down at the fox on my chest, I saw he was still asleep so I very gently nudged his body. His eyes peeked opened and he smiled asking "What's wrong honey?"
Rubbing his back, I said "The sun is beginning to set; we should head back to the house."
Slowly nodding, he stood up and stretched. Yawning, I did the same and wrapped an arm around his waist, drawing him into another passionate kiss.
We started walking towards the edge of the clearing, looking back I thought to myself: 'If I ever come back, this place will never be the same without him.' Shaking these thoughts from my head, I looked back at my fox and kissed him on the top of the head.
I just thought I would try to tell you all about my favorite place to be, although I feel that no words could describe its beauty in real life. The only thing I left off about it is a small series of cataracts that is part of a stream that encircles it.
much love