Guardian of Winter Roads

Welcome our lovely readers and Happy Holidays!

Speaking of the holidays, we have a story taking place during Yuletide. Our deer Arianna is excited to spend the holidays with her husband, cozy in front of their fireplace while a winter storm rages outside. A turn of events finds her down a path to a future she never in her wildest imagination ever expected where she meets a handsome elk. Life can be as unpredictable as the winter mountain weather and our deer will learn this the hard way.

Wait a second! Our? We? That's right, this story is a collaboration between G.C.Stargazer and Zenphoenix81! This is our gift to our readers for the holiday season, so please enjoy and well wishes!

Guardian of Winter Roads

It was getting late in the afternoon as Arianna hurried home. The doe barely managed to get on the highway before the first snowflakes started to fall, signaling the beginning of a blizzard set to blanket the area. The worry she experienced on the flight in about whether she would make it back in time to spend the holiday with her husband dissipated as the familiar route home stretched in front of her.

Soon, her exit came and she turned off, taking a two-lane, narrow road that wound its way through a mountain pass to the town she called home. Already, snow began blanketing the area, giving a romantic scene for the Winter holiday.

She hoped she would be able to spend the holiday at home with her husband, the two cozy inside, watching the storm outside, exchanging gifts, and making love in front of the fireplace. It was also her hope that he believed the ruse that she would not be able to make it home in time, amplifying the surprise her arrival would bring. So far, the chips were falling into place perfectly.

"Shit, I just need to make it home, give me ten more minutes," the doe pleaded with the elements, as she gripped the steering wheel. The sun had already set, making the drive perilous as the wind blew stronger, causing almost whiteout conditions. As if somebody was listening, the winds subsided, the snow drifting down softly as her view ahead cleared.

Arianna sighed as she turned down a side street, relieved to almost be home. More than anything, thanks to the adrenaline of the hectic drive, she decided to pounce her husband right at the door, and take him in the hallway, right then and there. She might not even close the door, giving her neighbors a show if they could see it through the snow. Giggling at the thought, she pulled into the driveway, right behind his car.

Bracing herself for the biting cold, she shut her car off and quickly opened the door. The frigid wind whipped her face as the thin fur tried its best to keep the cold at bay.

"Cold, cold, cold, cold!" was all she could say as she quickly grabbed the bags from the back seat. Hastily trotting to the front door, she unlocked it and rushed inside.

Shaking the powder off her brown hair, she was getting ready to call out her husband's name when she heard a noise, a voice that was very out of place. Her ear perked up, trying to focus on the source of the sound. Without taking her boots off, Arianna entered the living room. The TV was on and a movie was going on with a particularly saucy scene playing.

"That perv," she chuckled to herself, knowing her husband was no doubt in the mood now.

Arianna shut off the TV, but something else gave her pause. Looking over at the wall, she noticed a pair of boots that belonged to neither her husband nor herself. Walking over to investigate, she heard the sounds of a young female in the throes of passion coming from their bedroom. The pounding of the headboard against the wall indicated it was no movie.

"No... no... this can't be real..." she whispered to herself as the unthinkable became more and more apparent, her eyes growing wider.

Her legs were weak and tears began to trickle from the corners of her eyes as she slowly approached the door to the bedroom that was supposed to be her domain. Afraid to confront the obvious, she hesitated to open, instead listening through the door. The grunts and dirty talk were clearly her husband's, but it was unlike anything he had said to her. It was as if two strangers broke in and used their bedroom for their dalliance.

Taking a deep breath, the doe opened the door with a shaky hand-paw to see a scene she neither wanted nor was even prepared for. Her husband's bare back was to the door, but the table lamp spread shadows from his antlers against the wall.

A young cat she recognized as the nineteen-year-old cashier from the local convenience store was bent forward as he pushed his full weight into her with each thrust. Arianna noticed she had eyes for the buck, but thought nothing of it, thinking it was endearing that her husband could still be a heartthrob. It wasn't as if she didn't notice the eyes coming his way. However, the security she had that he would never act upon these impulses melted away as she watched this stranger in his fur now in bed with another.

"M, M, Mitch?" she weakly called out, her voice piercing the trance and the pair scrambled on the bed to cover up, in a panic at having been caught, not having heard the doe arrive thanks to their heated lovemaking.

"A-Ari! Baby, uh... I can explain!" The buck quickly stammered out, the cat awkwardly shifting to just hide her body with their bed sheet.

Tears were plainly rolling down her brown fur, dripping off her cheeks to the floor, her vision was clouded and her heart was pounding in her ears. She wanted to be furious, she wanted to scream, but all she felt was a deep betrayal. The infallible buck, the male she'd put above all else, and this was how he repaid things, on the eve of the yule holiday to boot.

She couldn't muster words, her vision blurred more as she jerked her gaze from the scene and started storming away without a word to say to him. Her husband quickly pulled his pants on and chased after her, but by the time he got to the front she was already back in the car, the torrent of snow swirling and slamming into his bare chest.

"Ari, wait!" He screamed out to her as the car tires spun in the snow, the doe simply leaving the whole thing behind and starting to drive through the storm once more.

Arianna felt numb as she just drove for a few minutes, as if on autopilot, just seeing that scene playing fresh in her mind again and again. She thought of their wedding, their vows, the talk of rearing fawns together. All of it cast away for some flight of fancy with that teenager from the store.

She had stormed out and left her purse at the door along with her cell phone, so even if her husband had tried to call her it wouldn't matter, she'd just had the keys to the car in her coat pocket.

"Mitchell, how could you?! You bastard!" She finally screamed out to the nearly whited-out view of the window, only able to see a few feet past her headlights, the anger finally catching up to her before giving another sob.

There was no destination to be had, what was she even doing? Would she just drive around for a few hours and go back? She was already on the road back to the other side of the mountain where the airport was. It had been nearly half an hour now of driving and she already knew it was probably impassable at this point.

Should she just turn around and go home? Was it even home now? How could he possibly explain? The thoughts whirled in her brain as the storm rolled outside. She was just starting to come around to what she was doing, climbing up the roads of a mountain in a blizzard with the sun already set.

"Holy gods!" She yelled out as the headlights from another car were just atop her coming downhill, clearly having lost their own traction in the ice on the road. The doe jerked the wheel to avoid the collision but the other car just nicked the edge of her back bumper. The snow chains on the tires didn't stand a chance once the wheels locked and the whole car just drifted right off the side of the mountain pass. The barricade offered little resistance as the sedan tore through it and plummeted down the side.

Arrianna screamed and clenched her muzzle teeth together, having just let go of the wheel and shielded her head as the world spun from the car bouncing and tumbling down the mountainside. A small miracle she'd at least put the seatbelt on despite her anguish, then again it didn't hurt the car wouldn't shut up until she put it on.

Eventually, the tumbling subsided and a few heartbeats later her vision did as well. She groaned as she blinked her eyes open, the cabin of the vehicle filled with several pinging alarms that vehicles might give off for things like tire pressure, and who knows what else.

For better or worse the belt had done its job and kept her alive it seemed, she didn't feel anything was broken but she sure felt banged up. The doe fumbled with the keys in the ignition around the airbag, knowing to cut the engine off if it was even still running just to keep a fire from starting.

Pulling her keys out she gave a resigned sigh, rubbing her head, awkwardly and tilted to the side in her seat, the car obviously not level. The snow was everywhere and she couldn't even see much out the windows, but she knew there was a rock wall on her own side of the car though.

She didn't get too much time to mull over things before a scent of burning wires and oil started to reach her nose. Blinking a few times she hissed out as she realized there were small flames lapping at the front of the car.

"Gods! You can't be serious! What did I do to deserve this?!" She gasped out as she hastily pulled her seatbelt free and opened her drivers side door, the metal groaning and only giving a few inches before pushing right up against the wall of rocks. Clenching her teeth she looked to the other door which just had white showing through the window, not even able to know what was on the other side.

The flames erupted in a loud pop of who knows what going up in the engine block, now feeling the heat from them and the cabin starting to fill up with choking fumes of smoke.

"Fuck sake!" Arianna shouted out as she scrambled over to the other side of the car, actually slumping up against the door from the tilt of the vehicle, fumbling to get the door handle open. Unlike the driver's side, the door swung open rather easily, which the doe wasn't expecting as she fell right out of the burning car.

Apparently, she wasn't quite at the bottom of the mountainside as she found her world spinning again as she tumbled through the snow, coming to rest muzzle down in the grass. Groaning once more she picked herself up, feeling battered but nothing felt broken as she slowly found her shaking legs.

She looked back and up at where she assumed she'd come down from, then gave a startled yelp as a loud boom signaled the end of her car, a massive fireball erupting from it before subsiding to just a nice roaring inferno of flames along the frame.

"Well... that certainly took my mind off that cheating asshole for a few minutes..." She sighed out to nobody in particular, flames the only thing illuminating her surroundings.

She stood there for a few minutes, mulling over her situation. Would anyone see the fire from down here? She didn't have a phone or anything to light her way. Would the other driver even say anything if they didn't end up crashing further down and having to wait for rescue for a few hours? If they saw her car go over the edge, most likely not.

Arianna cursed herself at that, she was so stupid for storming off in a blizzard, but what else was she supposed to do? Let him talk things out? What could he have said? He just slipped and landed in bed with her? She screamed out as she pulled her wedding band off and threw it into the snowy woods, "Fuck you, Mitchell!"

Fueled by her renewed rage, she clenched her teeth and surmised her bearings. She knew the mountain base would circle around to the city eventually, so as long as she traveled along the edge, she'd be going in the best direction. As she began trudging through the snow, the acrid smell of the burning wreckage stung her nose as if a symbol of her burned-down marriage.

Rage can only take you so far and the concept of traveling around the mountain is good enough if the sun were up and it wasn't dumping snow. Soon she found she was essentially walking in pitch darkness, even her eyes which normally could make out things decently enough at night were failing to afford much more than a few feet of vision.

"Ha... why not? He probably went back to finish what he started with her after I stormed off..." She huffed out in the bitter cold, having long since lost the view of the mountain's wall, not even sure how to find it again. Each fumbling step just seemed to lead to more trees but no rock wall or incline.

After over an hour the numbness was starting to get through to her fur and clothes, her jeans wet from the snow and the coat having never been intended for this kind of use. Walking in snow is very laborious to boot, and she was beginning to feel exhaustion set in.

The doe found a small gathering of trees that at least somewhat kept the snow off her head as she sat down to take a rest, feeling completely drained from the trek. She thought about the ring she cast off and sighed as she leaned against the tree.

"Why?... I was faithful, body and soul. He was all I thought of, my heart and my mind never wavered from my duty as his wife..." She hissed out bitterly, tears clouding her vision again before she simply shouted out as loudly as she could muster, "Tell me! If there are gods among me, fucking tell me! Why am I being..." She spat out a sob and shook her head.

"Whatever... I'll just rest a little, if I don't wake up, at least I won't have my ring on, he can give it to his little cat girlfriend..." Arianna sobbed the words to herself as she closed her eyes, shivering as she let what she assumed was the sleep of death take her.

--♥--

The sound of a crackling fire was the first thing Arianna was aware of as she came to. Her exhaustion-addled mind slowly began to clear as the scent of food reached her nose.

With a weak groan, she cracked one eye, seeing a small fire before her that looked like it had a spit over it, various vegetables being roasted. The scent of them made her stomach growl because naturally, she would have burned through all her calories from earlier.

"You awaken at last, do you?" A deep calm voice filled her ears, making them perk as she widened her eyes and started to raise from where she was laying, wincing as her body reminded her of the aches from before.

"Easy now, your body is still weak..." The gentle voice called out again as she slowly finished sitting up. Sighing out as she blinked a few times, her vision cleared as she saw the figure sitting across the fire from her on a large stump.

He easily had another head on her husband given his stature, which meant he probably had close to two on her. At first, she thought him another deer, given the antlers, but then it dawned on her they were much more robust, clearly those of an elk.

The stranger had a soft white coat that seemed to sport spots of tan and even bluish-white areas along his throat. The large antlers were covered in velvet still, not having been scraped off as most males did for the aesthetic that it gave. Despite the weather outside, he appeared to be dressed very casually, in jeans and a t-shirt that strained against the well-defined arm muscles and broad chest of the elk.

She took a few more moments to assess him, biting her lower lip at the view. He was gorgeous with lovely platinum hair that was longer than her own, but his face had a faint roundness to it, gentle looking in nature as opposed to the strong tone of his body.

The butterflies in her stomach seemed to scatter as it groaned once more, the elk offering her a show of bright teeth before he pulled a skewer from the spit that had been resting in an area not quite atop the fire.

"This one should be warm but not too hot to eat. Still, mind yourself." He leaned forward, presenting the small shaft that was lined with various winter vegetables, all of them roasted, the scent smelling absolutely divine given how famished she was.

Arianna had many questions for this stranger, but right now the simple desire to eat something won out as she nodded and began to happily work on the vegetables. The elk smiled as he watched her eat, a deep hum filling his voice as he reposition the current skewer on the spit, relaxing and seeming perfectly content to just watch the small doe ravenously eat.

At first, she was eager to get the food in her, but soon enough she was happy to just enjoy the flavor. She could taste they were only seasoned with salt, but when one gets lost in the snow for a few hours and nearly dies of hypothermia, it makes food taste all the better when it comes to them.

Once she finished he had already set aside a second to cool in anticipation. "Another?" He offered the skewer to her.

"Yes, please... and thank you." She took the food and offered a shy smile at the lovely elk that had apparently happened upon her to rescue her.

"Of course, I was happy to do it. It has been some time since I've had a visitor. I was surprised when you called out so earnestly, but when I arrived, you were already at death's door in slumber, so I brought you back to the fireside as quickly as I could."

"Called out? You heard me shouting?" She frowned at that, but couldn't resist getting started on the next skewer she had in her paws.

"Hearing is a subjective term..." He showed her an amused grin as he leaned back slightly to relax. She glanced around seeing she seemed to be in some sort of cave. Looking out to the mouth of the entrance, she could see nothing but white and angry snow all around, but it did not come into the opening, as if some sort of barrier or sheet of glass prevented it.

Despite the prior events of the evening, the current situation made for a cozy environment. As she ate and surveyed her surroundings, she began to wonder about the stranger that rescued her. He was certainly a very good example of a cervine male, but there seemed to be more to him.

"Subjective? I mean hearing is hearing unless you have some kind of sixth sense," she said in between bites of food.

"Well, you could say that, but I would find it hard to describe," the elk said as he stoked the fire.

Looking over the elk, she could feel something stirring inside. "I know something else I'd like to see hard..." she whispered to herself, then gasped as she realized she had said what she thinking out loud. She was never one for such crude language so it shocked her it even came forth.

The elk chuckled in response to her mutterings. "It's ok. I can have that effect, sometimes."

Clearing her throat, Arianna decided to change topics, "I really have to thank you for the food... uh... what was your name?" she asked.

"You can call me Eryi, what is your name?" he asked, in turn.

Swallowing the last piece of food on the skewer, she answered, "Arianna."

"Well, it is certainly nice to meet you Arianna," the elk spoke warmly as he stood up to stretch. His muscles were on full display through the material of his shirt, making Arianna take notice.

"Uh, yeah, nice to meet you too!" she responded, in awe of his impressive physique.

Shaking her head to bring her back to reality, she tried to regain her composure as she looked around the cave, seeing no signs of any winter-weather gear. "So, why are you dressed in a t-shirt? It's absolutely freezing out and you look like you're out for a summer stroll. What's going on?" she asked.