When I wake up, the sun is already out for a while now and the cabin is a nice, balmy temperature. I remember yesterday’s kiss that escalated to petting but I still feel the pang after the interruption.

My brain is battling with itself on whether laziness or grime will win out my next action but my feminine sensibilities win out saying I desperately need a shower. Groaning as I propel myself up ward into a sitting position, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and planting my good foot on the floor. Gingerly, I slowly apply pressure to the bad foot, paying attention to any pangs or sharp shooting pain before I commit to using my full body weight. Now, for the moment of truth, I push myself off the bed slowly, still stabilizing on my good foot before evening out the pressure and distributing it to both legs.

No pain. Well, not no pain but nothing that would have me sprawling on the floor as soon as I make a step. I cautiously make my way to the bathroom, pass the dining room and grabbing a hold of anything that I can use to hold my weight in case I fall. I close the door to the modest bathroom, relived that I made it and thankful that, unlike most bathrooms, the floor is not lined with slick tile but old repurposed wood. There, in the center, is a basin tub, large enough to fit three people comfortable and more extravagant and modern than anything else in this cabin. I feel excited just from the prospect of having a warm bath instead of a trickle of a shower. I can’t remember the last time I had the luxury of having a bath but it must have been a while since I can’t recall it right away.

I carefully walk over to the faucet and turned on the hot water to fill the basin as I undressed. As I took off my clothes, I look out the window and out at the wood that I found myself in just two days ago. I feel like whatever is chasing me is still out there and I don’t know how long I can take refuge here before it finds me. The tub is about 1/3 of the way filled by the time I finished undressing and the hot water stung my healing scrapes and cuts, but I relish feeling. Sinking lower, so that my stiff muscles can also loosen under the relaxing heat, I hiss when I place my bad ankle under the pressure of the spigot. I can feel my body unwind from all the tension and anxiety from being attacked and let go of all the pent up energy I have stored in me. The swelling at my ankle has gone down but it still twinges as I test out its flexibility, range of motion and lightly exercise it against the tub wall for a bit of added resistance.

Dorsal flex. Plantar flex. Dorsal Flex. Plantar Flex.

Looking out the window, I find myself thinking about that day in the woods being chased and how lucky I was to get to the cabin before the wolves did. How did I get there and why was I there? I keep on thinking about the yesterday’s events and feel my body warming at the thought of his heated looks and electrifying kisses.

I groan in want and for being interrupted but when I look at my ankle, I notice the nozzle to the shower head by the faucet. Biting my lip and looking around surreptitiously, knowing there is absolutely no one around for miles and even my host would not be so brazen as to come in while I’m bathing, I think about needing something to compensate for yesterday’s interruption. I look around one last time before pulling the extendible shower head towards me and switching the faucet to shower mode and adjusting the stray pressure and concentration and close my eyes in anticipation.

When I open my eyes, I realize how tired I am and my body getting heavy from the aftermath. I decide it wouldn’t be too bad to close my eyes once again and enjoy a light nap in the comfort of the warm bath, sheltered and safe.

Just a brief nap won’t hurt.

I wake up to a lukewarm bath and feel a bit cold. Groggily, I sit up and reach for the spigot to turn on the hot water tap when something catches my eye through the window. There, in the thicket of trees, is a pair of golden eyes peering through the darkness and pierces into me. I am transfixed at the receiving end of that haunting glare and don’t move a muscle as though my life depends on it. I suddenly have an irrational fear for my safety despite being in the protection of a house and knowing that there is a pane of glass separating me from whatever is out there. I realize that I can’t move a muscle in my body, pain from holding my arm in one position starts to set in and the mounting fear becomes more tangible as those glowing eyes come closer as it slowly stalks out of the forest.

My breath quickens and my heart pounds against my chest as the beast that immerges from the dark forest is the largest black wolf I’ve ever laid eyes on. Maybe my depth perception is off from waking up suddenly or being within the house, but it looks almost like the size of a horse! Its ebony pelt enables it to perfectly blend into the dark surroundings of the forest; to stealthily capture whatever pray it deigns to set its eyes on. Hypnotized, I watch as the large lupine specimen is practically staring me down as though I am now that prey and it will jump into the bathroom to drag me off kicking and screaming.

Then something unusual happens. As though something spooks it, something that big and massive, is startled by something beyond my view through the window, enough to the point that it jumps hastily and skitters off like a scared rabbit. I breathe a sigh of relief as I drop my arm, still poised to turn the hot water on, now weighing a ton, slashes into the tub, burning as blood is properly circulating into it once again. I don’t know what happed back there but that moment, staring down the monstrous canine was as scary if not scarier than being chased by its pack!

Not one to wait for it to come back, I get up and limp over to grab a folded towel stacked on a rack on the wall and quickly dry myself despite my body still waking up from sleep and my mainly flight response to the fight or flight situation with that wolf. I also saw a clean set of clothes on the rack beneath the towels and grabbed them before exiting the bathroom, seeing as I have no other clothes at my disposal.

“I should probably wash my clothes and the ones I borrowed later today.” I think to myself as I pull the plain cotton shirt overhead and pull up a thicker cotton draw string pants to my waist. I tie off the pants so that it’s not falling down and reach to fold the cuffs of the pants until they are at ankle level. I’m practically swimming in the long-sleeved cotton that fits me more like an oversized night shirt that falls mid-thigh. Rolling up the sleeves to be ¾ length on my arms and tying a knot on one side, at least the I don’t look like someone hit me and not my clothes with a shrink ray.

Now that I’ve been up and walking a bit, circulation now flowing regularly, I can somewhat walk on my injured foot without too much hassle. I just need to remember not to move it a certain way or add to much pressure to it lest I want to be back at square one again. Then again, square one wasn’t so bad when you had someone to take care of your needs. I smile as I recall the last two days and how good I felt despite my misfortune. I shake my head getting caught up in those moments once again and know I need to get up and moving.

“I think I’m going stir-crazy here just staying in one place for the past two days. I don’t know what’s come over me, but I need to do something.” I say to myself as I zero in on my clothes that I’ve been using and look around for others that may be lying around and may need a wash. “I may have a bum foot but I can still hop around and use my hands to keep myself occupied.”

Satisfied that I have all the clothes that may need to be cleaned, I gingerly walk around his kitchen looking for soap or something that I can use for detergent, making sure not to disturb more things than I need to. “Ah-ha!” I exclaim as I see a bar of soap, shove all the clothes in a bag lying about and make my way to the door. When I open the creaky wooden door, I bright sun assaults my photosensitive eyes and take me a moment to adjust to the lighting. It is a beautiful day today, blue with hardly a cloud in the sky, the temperature is comfortably warm with a cool gentle breeze carrying a very earthy sent upon it. I take a nice big breath in to fill my lungs of the fresh air and enjoy the warmth the sun is offering my skin. When I finally exhale and look around me, I realize that I don’t see or hear anything and it unnerves me after my encounter in the bathroom.

Remembering that he should be out here doing whatever it is he does in the day and not hearing him makes me a bit worried especially if a wolf that big can hide in the forest so easily. It also makes me uneasy when something as big and scary as that wolf finds something out there that is potentially bigger and scarier.

I see his ax stuck in a stump towards the boarders of the woods in front of the house. I hesitantly walk up to it, looking beyond the ax and seeing if there is anything from the dense wood line that can potentially come at me. When I finally reach it and pull it from the stump, I feel a bit safer having something potentially lethal in my hands. The bag of clothes hanging at my shoulder is a bit awkward at my side but with both hands secure on the handle of the ax, I walk confidently away from the cabin in search of my host. I can only hope nothing has happened to him.

There is a very thin trail worn away from minor use, covered in dead mulch leading away from the cabin and along the tree line. A few meters away from the cabin, that same trail gives way to gravel and the sound of water trickling not too far away. When I happen upon the stream, I follow it up until it widens and leads me to the base of a watering hole, enclosed by high jagged rocks and a waterfall a few stories high feeding into it. I stand there almost forgetting my whole purpose for straying so far while injured, but am in awe of its natural beauty.

Gingerly, I walk to the edge and dip my toe into the cool water and gaze down from the rocky boarder into the clear water before me. I look around the waterfall and notice there is a few caves around or behind it, my eyes following the caves and what seems to be a natural trail or pathway leading to it. My gut tells me that that would be a place that I really don’t want to pay a visit to because I can suspect that the huge wolf thing probably visits that spot often.

“Careful with that.”

“AHH!” I scream and raise the ax startled at the sudden comment.

“Whoa!” hands up as he backs away from my frantic actions.

“AHH!” I scream again from my host’s sudden startled shout and back away from the jolt, swinging the ax in an upward arc.

“Whoa, calm down” he says in a gentler tone, holding his hand out and inching it towards the ax as I look at him in shock, trying to calm down knowing that I’m safe. Taking his cue, I start to lower my ax but remembered why I had it in the first place.

“I could have hurt you!” I yell at him suddenly, my fright quickly giving into anger.

“I’m glad you didn’t.” He nonchalantly shrugged off my threat now holding my ax as though it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.

“It’s not funny!” I reproached his cavalier attitude while he just chuckled at my expense.

“On the contrary, I find it quite funny. I heard you coming a mile away, and though I saw you with my ax in your hand, I had a feeling you would react the way you did just now.”

“Jerk!” I sulk and punched him good on his upper arm, shocked ‘ow’ from the force of my punch. “I was worried about you.” He slowly smiled and unconsciously rubs at the spot that I hit him.

“Well, now I am worried because your foot may be injured but your arms sure don’t have that problem.”

“I’m serious! I saw a huge wolf in the forest when I was taking a bath and thought that it was going to attack me through the bathroom window.”

His playful attitude quickly dissolved when I mentioned what I saw and he instantly tensed at mention of a possible attack.

“Are you hurt?” He was terse with his question, his body seeming to coil and waiting to spring into action at a words notice. “Did anything–”

“No, nothing like that.” I interrupt him before he tenses up some more. “Just worried.” I meekly look down at the ground, not wanting to look him in the eye. “Mainly for you. When that huge wolf came out of the forest, I thought for sure that it was going to come after me until something spooked it off. I started to worry that something that could possibly scare off a monstrous beast like that had to be equally if not more terrifying to encounter. It was then that I remembered that you work outside in the woods most of the days and I was scared that either one of those creatures could have gone after you.”

I felt a warm hand at my chin, moving it from its downcast position to look up into his eyes.

“Hey. Thank you for looking out for me.” He gives me a genuine smile that is contagious and I feel the tug of my own lips reflecting one back at him. I promise you, nothing will come to hurt you and I can take care of myself here. I’ve been living in these woods for a long time, so I know what’s out there.” An amused smirk graces his lips before he says, “Plus, I now have you to protect me so, I have nothing to worry about.”

I glare at him before I give him a good shove, which I knew would make him lose his balance and fall into the cool waters I was just admiring a few moments ago with a resounding splash!

“Ha! That’s what you get for putting all your trust in–Wah!” I scream suddenly as I run away after I notice he gets up and starts to chase me. I don’t get far before he scoops me up in his arms and clomps back into the waters he fell into, with me held tightly against him. I sputter and yelp at the shock of the cold water surrounding me and when I surface, I glare at the source of laughter, now booming and echoing off of the rocks around us.

I wade over to him, grateful that the water offsets the weight on my ankle and watch as his mirth morphs into shock as I splash him as a distraction and propel myself off my good foot to lunge at him. While underwater, I wrap my arms around his body tightly, holding his arms at his sides and when we surface, I grin at him knowing that he can’t do anything back. He struggles for good measure but my hands are clasping tightly around his body and I grin at him smugly. Finally conceding to defeat, he stops moving against me and sags in my arms before contritely admitting, “you win.”

My smile brightens at the concession and I loosen my hold on him so that I am not merely draping my arms around his neck. When I look up at him, he is staring intently at me, I lean in to close the distance between us and enjoy the feel of his lips against mine.