The wolf is really feeling at home; well, technically it is his home; and was not at all bothered by my presence, fallen asleep as he lay with his belly up and his legs about, the tip of the tongue appearing slightly at the end of his snout, in a very revealing position that I did not mind seeing in dogs, but for some reason makes me feel uncomfortable looking at him.

Maybe because he has a humanoid body… and that he is totally naked and posing without a care? Because, you know, there is a limit to how much the fur could hide, and that suppresses that limit by far…

Could he be a little less shameless?

The only answer I got from him was a soft snore as he still is in lalaland, munching from time to time while asleep.

Well… suit yourself, I got a hot bath waiting for me.

When I was looking at the water pond I found a suitable area that I could use to make a hot bath with a trick that I learned from my surviving book, as the water pond does not have a straight edge. Between the many curves and crevices, I found what looked like an outwards circular small pond that I could easily barrack the income of new water and warm up the amount stuck in that area.

The only problem is… How to get that water warm without having to make one hundred bucked visits to the fireplace.

That is… using rocks.

A method used to warm and boil water when you do not have a pot or something that does not catch on fire over the fireplace, like a coconut or a bamboo tree that you can make a cup of sorts out of; and I could use that to warm my bath!

Is rather simple, I just needed to put some rocks in the fire, and wait for them to get really hot and put them inside the water, making it boil and warm up!

Not hot boiling for me though, I would look like an albino shrimp and that would not be cool.

So that’s what I do; first I find some rocks, which in a cave was the easiest part to do, then some kitchen tweezers from that pile of junk so I could take the stones off the fire, then I use one of the buckets filled with boiled water to clean them up and put them in the fire in a way I could still see then and take them off.

When it was done I put one by one inside the emptied bucket and, having closed the part where new cold water entered, I poured the stones in the small pound-bath only for the water to start boiling nicely.

I went back to take my clothes and stuff to clean up before entering, only to see some movement in the corner of my eye and quickly look behind me.

And there was… nothing, nothing out of the ordinary that is, well, if that excludes a werewolf ; though I think I saw the wolf eyelids twich…

Meh, probably only his body moving in his sleep to change position and lay flat on his stomach.

It must feel very uncomfortable, laying down on the cold floor like that… not that I cared. Beasts enjoying staying like that… right?

I carry my things over, now giddy with the perspective of a real bath for once; how long has it been? Even more in this cold…

I could not wait!

I should give Kira a bath too… but later, after her wound heals up nicely. I should check the state of the wound too… Ugh, not looking forward to that.

For now…

Bath!

I look back once more, seeing Kira deeply asleep and the wolf all stretched out with the snout on top of a stone, turned to my side with his eyes closed.

Green light for me!

And yet, once I start to take my clothes off my eyes focus on my wrists, memories flashing through my mind before I could stop them, making me clench my teeth and harden my grip over my hand.

I could still feel his strong bruising grip over my wrists, his hot breath against my neck, his sickening touch over my skin and-

I close my eyes, containing a shudder from trembling my whole body as I take a deep breath, then another, until I could empty my mind of those thoughts.

Bath… I need a bath, then everything will be ok… yes… that’s it.

I start getting my clothes off, first with my shoes; I had brought some furs around my makeshift Jacuzzi so I could walk around a little more freely; and only after I got the fur out and was butt naked I took my gloves off as well, brushing my arms to get some warmth as I kneel down and start cleaning quickly, firstly with a wet tower before going in.

As I was kneeling, not wanting to sit on the fur, I feel a crawling sensation behind my back, like I was being watched, once more making my eyes dash behind me, a frown in place, but nothing had changed from the last time I looked.

Suspicious… Maybe there is a hole somewhere that is letting the cold wind in? Beyond the entrance, that is. Or I’m paranoid, which would not be strange after what happened to us…

Well, after the war and the apocalypse, paranoid was the less of my preoccupations…

With better things to do than being fearful I turn around once more and without further ado I enter the water, avoiding the places I threw the rocks in just in case they were still too hot, and let the warm water engulf me and relax my body like nothing else could.

A satisfied sigh escapes my lips and I simply close my eyes for a second, enjoying the comfortable clean warm water all around my body.

It was cozy…

Now the only thing missing was some wine and classical music playing on the background.

What can I say? I’m a gentleman. Pity that white mustaches look weird, well, at least on me, too much of a babyface they say, and I could not growl a decent beard for the life of me.

Sigh…

I start playing with the water with my hand, my eyes drowsily following the little waves it created, feeling a luxury sentiment in the state of the world; peace, safe at last.

I hardly realize that I’m drifting off to sleep, all the tiredness and stress from the past hours weighing me down as the calmness of the bath brought my attention to how stiff my shoulders were, or how my toes keep closing rigidly.

As the warm water works its miracle over my body my mind takes longer to relax, my eyes closing as if the gears on my brain were not so smoothly stopping one by one, and like a generator being turned off I simply blackout at once into a deep sleep, dreamless for the most part until the end, where I see myself out there, in the snow, the landscape covered in blinding white as snowflakes fell from the sky in a lazy manner.

I notice quickly that I was dreaming for I was barefoot on the snow, the coldness enveloping my toes, but without the disgust that always seemed to block my mind, like a germ blanket that involved all and made it impossible for me to reach the real thing behind it.

But not here, in the land of dreams, nothing could reach me here beyond my own thoughts.

That thought brings a soft smile on my face as I dig my toes deeper into the snow, the burning cold sensation being something new to me as I always had layer upon layer of clothing between me and the world.

I enjoy the dream to the fullest, even if my mind wasn’t aware enough to realize that as I go crunch crunching my way over the snow until I’m close to the trees, my fingers tracing the wrinkled wood without hesitation, drawing the lines as if trying to engrave the texture in my mind.

It was an odd sensation, knowing that something was off and wrong and yet this seemed right and correct, as if meant to be.

It was a dream, after all, and dreams are not bound to sense.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and feeling refresh, somehow in tune with my surroundings for the first time in my life, but as soon as I thought that that was a totally new sensation for me, to belong, to fit in, I feel that the snow underneath my feet start to burn deeply into my skin, until I look down to see that my legs had frozen, being embraced by ice.

“W-what?” My voice is hoarse and low, and when I put my hand over my neck I can feel my fingers trembling as a numbness spreads through my limbs, my teeth chattering as a crunching sound resonates from beneath me, making me look down, and where there had been snow now was covered in icy, a crystal glass blue that did not seemed reliable as it cracked under me, but in a spite of fate was extremely resilient around my legs, locking me in place while bended beneath my weight.

I barely had time to register; the knowledge that this was a dream escaping my foggy mind; as I feel down into the ice, the cold freezing water enveloping my body and engulfing my scream before it could even reach my throat as it filled in with this deadly embrace, until I realized that this was too real to be a dream.

Until I realize that I was drowning.

****

Author note:

Sorry for the lack of updates last week, I was sick the entire week and only manage to write one chapter for the Hell hound one.

Hope you guys are enjoying so far though!

See ya next Friday~~