“Snowed In” by Metassus

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You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.

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I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

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and today’s story is

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“Snowed In” by Metassus.

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Based in the wild west of Ireland, Metassus started writing some time back

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as part of the "Thursday Prompt" group on Fur Affinity.

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His work has appeared in the Anthrocon magazine,

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in Fang Vol. 4, and occasionally on his printer by mistake.

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He is particularly keen on word-limited micro-fiction,

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calling them "365 Word Tales".

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At some point he'll have 365 of them

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and consider his work on earth done.

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You can read his writings

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and view his photography on furaffinity.net,

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or on metassus.com.

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“Snowed In”

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by Metassus You know the feeling —

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pins and needles vibrate through your limbs to make you squirm and stomp,

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gritting your teeth, until the blood flows back, the pain fades,

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and you relax with an eager shudder.

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You know the reaction —

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you tell everyone with a wide grin:

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they laugh and you laugh,

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while you wonder if you can do whatever it was that made your flesh go like that,

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just to get that same dead feeling again for fun.

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It doesn't always go to plan.

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Cold. You're sitting in a snowdrift,

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blinded by white-on-white;

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suffocating in the cotton-puff frigidity of it all;

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your muzzle and your paws numb,

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your ears like lumps of clay stuck onto the top of your head;

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your feet have been cold for so long you wonder if they still exist or whether you just have a pair of unfeeling pegs at the ends of your legs;

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all the while the cold grows so intense that you begin to think of it as warmth ...

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and you allow it to reach into your core like your dearest friend.

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That backward stumble you just took dropped you on to bare rock covered in a light powder of snow.

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Though the hard surface broke your fall, the crack from your tail-base sounded a lot like a breaking bone.

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Your precious tail, however, is as insensitive as your poor fingers,

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greyish under their pointless covering of fur.

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Fur? What use is a fashionably short pelt in this horrid place?

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Then comes delirium.

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It enraptures you with eye-popping intensity,

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like those CinemaPanoramaScopic Three Dee High-Res Super-Duper Virtual Everything movies at the cineplex.

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You can see the gang just out of reach of your paws,

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laughing with you

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as the party grows wilder in the cabin.

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You’re the very life and soul of every party, aren't you?

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You remember the cabin?

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Wonderful place, the cabin, with its sauna and its stimulating hot-tub:

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a thrilling mix of crisp,

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ice-cold air and hot, foamy water.

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Hot bodies too, and lots of thrilling contact.

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Yep, you remember it.

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Even though your body is freezing to death in this bleak white-out, one small part of your being grows hot and proud as lewd images drift briefly through your mind

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before the pictures bleach into nothingness.

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They laughed and jeered in sport when you ran out of the sauna buck naked, didn't they?

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You were panting like a loco and steam gushed from your pelt.

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You felt you could run forever!

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So you tried, heading in through the snowy trees for mischief,

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instead of using the trail.

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Remember? Your friends — full of wine, spirits and recreational products

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'for personal use of course' —

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didn't follow your wobbly, bubbly path.

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They shouted and laughed for you to come back.

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Naturally, you being you,

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you didn't respond.

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You wouldn't have them better you.

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You dared them to follow your lead: your rawness: your devil-may-care-ness.

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You're the perfect one.

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Not perfect now, are you?

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Huddled shivering in the cold

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in just your pelt. Shivering?

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No, you seem to have stopped all that shuddering stuff.

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In fact, you're just a little drowsy.

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Do you recall if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

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Probably doesn't matter.

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They're not going to find you anyway,

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off the trail, among the pines, deep in a little ravine in the wilds.

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Your fur is pale —

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you won’t provide too much contrast for a search party.

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And you were always so proud of your coloration!

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Couldn't wait to show your shading and the impressive beauty of your short coat

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to any prospective lover or admirer.

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Never could wait to display yourself in the pool, either.

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Poser. Pride goes before a fall, you know.

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The delirium is back.

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It's toying with you,

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just like you toyed with everyone you met.

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You stare dully at your fingers.

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The skin of your pads and palms is a delicate blue.

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Blue is a pretty colour.

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Like spring flowers and clear sky.

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Your toes are blue too,

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just behind your claws.

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Your muzzle and ears are probably blue too.

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Blue. Blue is sad.

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Tears. It's the colour of pretty tears from sad spring flowers in the sky ...

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Doze. You open your eyes with a start.

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Must have just dropped off for a moment.

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Doze. It's not cold anymore. It's —

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it's nothing. It’s light and calm and

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hushed. Peaceful. Soft.

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Doze. Something red comes closer and closer.

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The brightness fades as sleep takes you away without a fight. Dreams. Strange dreams. You don't try to make sense of them because — well, you know. Dreams

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don't have to make sense.

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He's huge: towering above you.

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Gigantic. Powerful.

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At ease too. Comforting.

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Sweet. White as snow.

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When you return home to the city, you will never, ever want to see snow again, will you?

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He's white, like a solid ghost made of ice.

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A snow beast. He's lovely.

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Try to tell him he's lovely.

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Your smile is so brittle.

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Just trying it makes your face shatter into a million icy fragments that blow out into the wind

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and are lost forever to the dark black of the night.

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You cry a tiny icicle in your self

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-pity and drift, and drift.

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What will you do without a face?

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Touch. A lover's caress

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and stroke to rouse you from your rest.

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It's a beautiful thing.

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A gentle paw runs through your fur to caress your skin.

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Some lovers do it instinctively.

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Some have to be taught.

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There's no need for this roughness, though.

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He’ll damage the satin sheets.

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You try to guide him, to explain carefully that he should be more gentle and loving;

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to tone down the aggression.

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Perhaps you just think you said it,

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as you don't hear your own voice, just the thoughts within your head.

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He speaks to you gruffly

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as he pummels your body, forcing a squeak-like moan from your lips.

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You don't really know what he said, but his voice is rich

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and deep. Maybe he's into rougher sport,

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you smile, as you fade away again.

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Wind. It sounds so cruel, blowing the feathers from the bird in which you live.

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But — you live in an apartment, not inside a bird.

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Or do you? Buildings don't flap, do they?

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Perhaps the building blew away in the wind

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and the foundations are catching the wind.

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It’s frigid, but ... Is that not peculiar?

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The cold is only in front of you.

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Are you in bed with someone?

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You must be. He's snoring softly behind you, arms cradling you,

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pulling you into his chest.

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It's hard to think clearly.

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What was his name again?

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Did you meet him in the cabin, perhaps?

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Must have brought him home.

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You do that sometimes.

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Strays. He must like you.

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You can feel him down there.

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Turn around and face him

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so you can respond when he wakes ...

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turn ... around ... tired ...

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Awake. Your eyes blink twice.

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You're alert. The surroundings slowly resolve into fabric and yellowness.

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Slowly, you reach out your free paw and touch canvas.

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Canvas? Where the hell—?

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There's a big check shirt,

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all red and black boxes, pillowing your head.

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Your eyes widen. There's an arm over your belly,

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and another underneath you, cuddling you.

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It's warm, but uncomfortable,

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bending your spine in a way that makes you ache a little.

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You stir gently to move to a more comfortable position.

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You're in a tent.

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How on earth did you find your way into a tent?

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Ohhh … Whoever-he-is snores deeply, snapping your mind back to the here and now.

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You carefully lift the top of the sleeping bag to get a better look at the arm.

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It's big and powerful, covered in dense white fur.

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The claws on the end of the fingers are jet black.

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You blanch, as none of your close friends look anything like this.

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As you move a little more, you feel the blood of the morning pulsing in his loins,

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pressing into your thigh.

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He's like a furnace —

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warm and plush — putting your miserably light pelt to shame.

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Yet your pride tells you that you have the perfect pelt for the rush and tumble of the city and the sauna and the office …

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He feels you stir and yawns noisily,

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snorting and stretching his limbs.

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He rolls you carefully to your back and — you don't know why, but you do —

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you close your eyes,

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open your muzzle and feign sleep.

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His paw roams over your nakedness:

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from your ear-tips to your cheek;

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your arms and fingers;

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back to your chest and over your belly;

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between your legs, making contact with everything that is dear to you en route,

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and back almost to your tail-base,

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electing a small involuntary sigh and a half-stretch from you;

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then down each leg to the toes on your feet,

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where he checks each one thoroughly.

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Somehow you realise he's not being lewd,

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but professional.

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Cautious. Caring. Tender.

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His paw comes all the way back to your face.

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He gently rubs your cheek,

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an insistent action that would certainly wake you,

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had you not being awake all along. You flitter

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your eyes open dramatically,

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moving your arm over your forehead,

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then slowly look up to the face of your rescuer,

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and gasp. The polar bear grins,

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coal black eyes twinkling in a sea of white fur.

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"Welcome back," he rumbles.

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You smile as warmth bursts within you like a desert sun.

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You just might have fallen in love.

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This was “Snowed In”

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by Metassus, read for you by Khaki,

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your faithful fireside companion.

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Thank you for listening to The Voice of Dog