A Cold, Rainy Night.

Lena shivered as she threw yet another log into the fireplace. It was no good. Even the fire was trembling from the bitter cold. As of the last week, it seemed her village had fallen out of favor with the heavens if the weather they were experiencing was anything to go by. The piercing rain hacked away at the oak-shingle roof in an unforgiving manner, and the slow but steady drip caused the poor, isolated girl to sigh yet again. She'd have to go down the mountain and into town to buy supplies to fix up her lonesome cottage. That would be quite expensive.

Standing up, she inhaled, pasted a smile upon her face, and walked out of the cold living room area. "It's fine, I have enough turnips and potatoes to last me a whole month! I don't need to buy meat, do I, Felix?" She asked the pink cockatoo who was roosting up in the hayloft. He opened one shiny black eye, stared at her brown ones for a few moments, then closed his eye and nestled into himself once more.

"What's with the attitude? I can eat a vegetarian diet too, you know." She said to him, starting to take off her apron, dress, and petticoat. "Oh, that's cold! That's really cold!" She squeaked, quickly tiptoeing to her drawers. "All my nuggets are freezing!" She exclaimed as she hastily yanked on some pants and then a long-sleeved shirt. Felix cheeped. "Cold. Really cold!" He said, but let out a pleasant chirp thereafter. "You look too warm right now. That's unfair, Felix." She said, casting him a jealous look. He made yet another contented chirping sound. "Warm." He said.

"Now you're just being vindictive," Lena said with a huff, pulling back her unruly red locks into a low bun. Just as she was about to wrap a scarf on, a deafening clap of thunder hit the air, causing both Lena and Felix to jump in shock. Felix's eyes had shot open, and in seconds, he's flown over to nest in the crook of Lena's neck.

She could practically feel his heart pounding. "D-Don't worry. Our forest is in the highlands. It may be a bit loud, but at least we won't get flooded, right?" Lena said and used some of her scarf to wrap around Felix's body too. He cocked his head and let out a small squawk. Lena smiled and reached up to pet him. "Such a coward." She said to him, reaching up to grab his beak and give it a little shake. "I think I'll brew some tea. You can have some with me, then we'll go to sleep next to the fire." Lena said, decidedly putting on another layer of socks before going into her small kitchen.

She hummed a tune her mother had started to sing to her when she was five. It was back when everything in life seemed so simple. For Lena, all she had to do was eat her vegetables, watch her father tend to the farm, detangle her hair and finish the homework the town's teacher had allocated. Then at the end of the day, their three-member family would curl up together in the hayloft and sleep soundly. Life was good.

But that was nearly two decades ago, and it wasn't very long after that that things took a turn for the worse. That was the last year her parents walked on the same plane as her.

Lost in thought, she barely registered the hot water bubbling over in the teapot till Felix pulled at her hair."Wake up, Emmeline. Wake up." He said, repetitively. "Ow!" She exclaimed, but upon realizing what was happening, she gasped and removed the teapot from above the fire and set it on the stone. "Thanks Fe-"

Suddenly, there was the sound of a loud thump against the front door. Immediately, Lena jumped up on high alert.

"What was that?" She asked with wide eyes, grabbing the fireplace poker. There was the sound of heavy panting, and then...

"I-Is... Is that blood?" She whispered, covering her mouth. Sure enough, mixed with the rainwater, diluted blood was seeping beneath the door.

Whoever was there climbed the front porch to get there and was probably laying right in front of the door. The panting sounded laboured, but it was certainly not the sound of a human.

"Could it be a bear?" Lena asked Felix, who turned his head so that one eye was looking at the red puddle coming in. Suddenly, there was a low, whistling whine. "That's... That's a dog!" Lena said, quickly running to the door. Pressing her ear to the door, she listened for a few more moments.

"Felix, it's definitely an injured dog. We have to help."

Felix chirped and Lena swallowed. "Hopefully it's not feral." She said, quickly swinging the door open. Sure enough, there in front of the door was a massive white dog. Lena gasped. "Oh, you poor thing!" She said, getting onto her knees. There was a large silver sword plunged into the creature's gut. She leaned over it and petted the front of its head. It was definitely still breathing, but its eyes were firmly shut as it pushed air from its nose.

Lena bit her lip. She needed to get it inside, but she wasn't sure if it were possible with its size and with the blade penetrating its body like that. It let out another whine. "Don't worry. You'll be fine." Lena said, stepping over him so that she could get a better look at the wound. Thankfully, the porch of her little cottage was sheltered, and the biting rain didn't hit her. Felix let out a sound of disapproval when Lena tried to move the creature's great paw aside to see the wound. Clearly, he wasn't the only one displeased, because the giant white husky's golden eyes shot open and its head jerked forward to snap at Lena's arm.

"Ah!" She yelped as she felt its teeth pierce her skin. The creature looked at her with aggravation, pain, and confusion. Blinking a few times, Lena looked at her arm. It hadn't bitten her hard enough to snap her bone, and it was just deep enough to break through the upper layers of her skin. It hurt less than she thought it would. Felix squawked loudly and flew towards the dog's face, starting to scratch it in desperation, trying to get it to relinquish its grip on Lena's arm.

" No! Felix! It's okay! It's fine..." She said, quickly grabbing Felix and holding the frantic bird to her chest. It seemed the dog wasn't trying to hurt her. It was trying to discourage her from harming it. "Listen...I'm not going to hurt you. You're injured and I want to help you."

Felix let out another screech. "That's not nice. No biting! That's not nice! No biting!" He repeated the phrase that Lena used to say to him when he'd first started to live with her over a decade ago.

The dog's golden eyes flicked to the bird and then back to Lena, untrusting. "I won't do anything bad-"

Felix let out another shriek as if to scold her for trying to reason with a dog. However, the dog opened its mouth and lay its head back down on the ground. It was still looking at her from the corner of its eye through its labored breaths. Lena exhaled. She'd taken care of many mountain animals in the past. This dog, no matter its size, was no different.

"Let's get you inside." She said, running her hand over the dog's face. "You'll be alright." She stood up and rolled up her sleeves so that she could move them.

After watching her for a few more moments, the dog closed its eyes and let her do what she needed to do.