The inevitable morning surprise finally arrived. The hide door to the shelter was stuck by the arrival of a fresh, fluffy 6 inches of snow. I was more than ever thankful for that moment on the mountain pass when I accepted fully that my life encompassed a world without the comforts and options of civilization. The time preparing for the elements of winter was long and hard, it led to not only being prepared for the harshness of winter, but a different life structure evolved that was already comfortable in its routine. Routine didn’t mean that it was a mundane repeating of life day after day. Routine for us meant that there were particular essential activities that were critical to sustain our life and those things happened now as a matter of course. Those things included having fresh water available in camp, an overabundance of dry kindling and wood, and food in the form of nuts and roots for me and a variety of meats for both Bo and me.

Every day these were checked and replenished. The replenishing was the non-mundane efforts. Fresh water sometimes meant breaking through the ice or trekking to a source of running water. In the coldest of weather, even the ‘running’ water locations might be frozen over and the trekking to another source was required, but critical. When dry wood wasn’t immediately available, it required a discipline of drying the available wood by a deliberate effort of stacking wood around a fire, turning it and checking it, then stacking it dried and beginning again with other wetter wood. Food searches were for multiple applications. Food, obviously, but also for what the animal might provide and that sometimes dictated the animal I might focus on.

Lately, I had been in search of rabbit. I had enough meat and rabbit didn’t provide a lot of that. What the rabbit did provide, though, was a soft fur and it had occurred to me that rabbit fur wrapped around my feet might provide a good insulation inside the soldiers’ boots that were otherwise too large for me. They are elusive and even Bo had a difficult time tracking them until they suddenly bolt away from under a bush. I had several snares setup but I wasn’t claiming much skill in my snare and trap abilities, it seemed more an accident that I ever got an animal that way.

The fresh snow, however, might make the effort just a little easier today and that was the intention of our wandering through the fresh snow. I found myself sometimes almost admonishing myself for having fun in our current situation, but life had to have light moments with the serious. That was partially behind the routines established for our life, the awareness of the necessities of life, to allow for the light-hearted moments as they came. And they came frequently as soon as I let up on myself and enjoyed life as it was given to me. Today, I laughed out loud at the antics of Bo in the new snow. It was like being with your dog in the backyard after a new snow as he pressed his snout into the snow and coming out with snow piled on top; he would run off the trail only to nearly disappear in an unexpectedly deep section that had drifted over a depression; and, chasing a scent into the brush only to have a snow covered bough release a pile of snow on top of him. The new world covered in snow seemed to be a playground for his frolic and it seemed to be what we both needed to warm our very souls about our world.

Bo wandered off as I picked up a fresh set of tracks. I had an arrow notched on the string of the bow in readiness and crept step by step toward the brush the tracks disappeared into. I had already gotten one rabbit and felt that a second would be what I needed to experiment with the insulation for the boots and perhaps enough for muffs for my ears. I was being more careful this time. I had lost an arrow on the first rabbit when I shot wildly rather than controlled in the excitement of the rabbit bolting out across my path. It was only the second arrow that I failed to retrieve. Maybe, after the melt, I might stumble upon it.

As I crept up to the brush, the arrow was pulled halfway back in anticipation, but I was distracted by an insistent bark from Bo to my right. I glanced that way only to hear a desperate rush through the brush in front of me. By the time my eyes shifted back, all I could distinguish was a blur of soft grey against the white snow disappearing once again in the next mass of brush. I was ready to rush forward and chance losing another arrow when Bo’s insistent bark repeated. I presumed that he had picked up the scent of something more interesting than a rabbit and with frustration I lowered the bow and relaxed the string, muttering to myself with a tolerant smile, “I was quite clear to him what we were after today!” I obviously didn’t expect Bo to be able to follow verbal instruction, it was one of the things that made life with a dog/wolf in the wild so interesting. He was as independent as I felt I was. We generally were headed in the same direction, but not always. A bigger smile crossed my face as I turned and headed in the direction of his bark.

I got within 10 feet of where I thought he was, but I still couldn’t see him. There was heavy, tall brush in front of a vertical, shear rock face with a large, jagged fissure in it. I called to him and received a responding bark in return, but I still couldn’t detect his exact location. I moved to the face of the rock face and found a 3-foot wide space between the brush and the rock wall, like it had been used by something repeatedly over a long time. But, still no Bo. The only tracks in the snow appeared to be those of Bo so I followed the rock face until I came to the fissure. What I thought was a simple fissure of a foot or so depth was much different.

The fissure was in fact a gap that started about a foot wide at the ground and increased to about 3 feet wide as it went up. Up was about 25 feet. The remarkable thing about it, though, was that just 2 feet inside was an opening the became about 15 feet at the widest, 20 feet long, and open to the sky. There stood Bo looking at me. At the same time that I found Bo by stepping in front of the gap, two additional things of interest hit me simultaneously: the air coming out and across my face was warm; and, there was no snow on the ground inside. The chamber was open to the sky so it had to have received the same snowfall that the surrounding area had, but here there was no snow. The warm air, wherever the warm air was coming from must have caused the snow to melt either before it hit the ground or soon afterward.

I stepped onto a rock jut on the right side of the gap and hopped into the chamber. I put one hand down on the ground as the other went to Bo’s neck for a pet and hug. “What do you suppose this means, boy?” As if he knew or could answer. If I kept this up, I would sooner or later be imagining his responses back to me. And, maybe he was able to read my mind when I couldn’t read his because he pulled away and led me around a jutting portion of the chamber side wall and stood waiting for me. A cave. A massive cave and the source of the warm air. I stepped into the mouth of the cave and felt the warm air flowing around me. It wasn’t hot, but nicely warm. The mouth of the cave was about 7 or 8 feet wide with the cave widening out another 5 feet. The ceiling was about 15 feet and the floor sloped up a couple feet before flattening out. I couldn’t see the back of the cave as I sensed a slight bend in the wall. I needed a headlamp to investigate more. I hadn’t thought to bring one of the headlamps, since we were only going to be gone a few hours. I would find that the length of the upper, flat section was about 30 feet with it bending to the left. I put my hand on one of the walls and found it warm, the floor, too. The warm air seemed to be a radiant heat from all around, not from a single source like the back of the cave.

I found myself walking in a tight circle as my mind raced through options and consideration. We could live here. Or could we? Wouldn’t something else already be living in a place like this? A bear, maybe. But would a bear pick a spot with such a limited access? It probably isn’t even wide enough for a mature bear. Wolves? Possible. Bo just jumped it and the ground opening was probably wide enough for the very young to pass through. But there was no evidence of it. I saw no immediate evidence of carcass remains. As I turned to quickly return to camp for a headlamp, I saw what my brain didn’t believe.

To the left of the cave mouth, set back in an indentation in the wall was a basket. A woven basket. I picked it up and examined it in the light and saw it was made of woven strips of tree trunk. Then, outside in the opening I saw a built up fire pit next to the gap. I had jumped inside with my attention on the open space and no snow. This was a fire pit large enough for much more than a warming or protection fire. This was a major cooking fire with built in rock shelves and small chambers that I could only imagine might have been useful as some kind of oven.

I literally ran for the camp with Bo following close behind until he was sure where I was headed and then he led the way. Back in the shelter, I dug through stuff I hadn’t used in a long time before finding one of the headlamps, then verifying that it still worked. I was heading for the door when I stopped dead in my tracks. Am I really coming back here to sleep in the cold shelter? I grabbed some food into the backpack, piled wood into a sack I made from a hide and returned to the cave. If this panned out, it could be life changing. If only I had known how often I might be thinking that in the time to come.

The cave actually was a game changer. Exactly how, I wasn’t quite sure. That would still take some time and investigation, but some questions were being answered. The woven basket I found was a quick indication that human life had been here. Here, as in this exact location. Not only is there human life, but human life had been right here in this very valley. With the headlamp as a guide, I was able to investigate further into the cave. The flat area slightly raised above the entrance was apparently a living area for a number of people. Leaning against the walls in various locations were spears of several designs indicating multiple crafters. Also scattered around were other tools fashioned by hand. I found several axes, shovels, and mallets. There were more woven baskets, woven matts, and hides. The spears, axes and mallets were constructed with stone ends. The shovels were carved from a larger piece of wood. The tools were primitive compared to what I was used to, but these people had tools for hunting and chopping. Stacked on an upper rock shelf were arrows and a partially completed bow, the sinew string waiting to be attached. Nothing with metal, however. Whoever these people were, their life did not include the discovery and development of metal working.

What did this mean? There are people but nothing close to how we had developed. If the geology of the valley, the shape of the mountains and river, indicated that this land was not back in time; if the absence of structures indicated this was not forward in time; but, the sun, moon, stars, and other indications of geology, life, and fauna indicated a world the same as Earth, was this truly and really an alternate evolution of what Earth was or is or …? An alternate reality of the same world whose evolution and sequences of environment and geologic formations were minutely different over series of events that led to this similar but different world. Is my mind going crazy? Am I losing control over my reasoning in the lack of human contact? I don’t think so. I have not felt deprived or abandoned or hopelessly alone or hopelessly depressed. My subconscious mind has been working on these anomalies and inconsistencies as my conscious mind and body has focused on living and thriving.

My expedition to the valley to the east had been set on finding humans, but my search was focused on human things relative to the evolutionary progression that I knew. Power lines, lighting, large clusters of buildings, and roads. Based on the contents of this cave, humans haven’t advanced that far yet. I will need to refine my focus in the future.

I stood and gazed around the room, at the floor around me, at the walls, having to fix my eyes on the locations my headlamp illuminated. Then I saw wooden bowls set into the walls at intervals. I took one down and examined it. Candles … they made candles. A wick fashioned from bark strands set in a bowl of solidified fat. I lit them and the room came alive. I saw markings on the walls, like drawings. Some of the drawings were elaborate and detailed, some animals I recognized, a large bird was shown high above that I couldn’t make sense out of. Some drawings were low on the wall and more primitive, less structured … like children … drawings by children duplicating the efforts of elders. This wasn’t just a camp of hunters, but a location that housed at least one family and possibly a second. The rock wall in spots were worn smooth by repeated touching. The floor was smooth of sharp edges. This cave had been used over a continuous period.

There was a layer of dust, thick dust, over everything. I could see where Bo and I had walked and what we had touched. There were no other tracks or marks. It doesn’t take long for a layer of dust to settle on things when living in the wild, but this was different. This has been quite a while. This was far more than ‘they just haven’t returned from a hunting trip’ length of time. Far more. But, not like archeological time. Not like a hundred years or even a generation. My gut feeling was that it was about 5 years of absence. Of course, that was only my guess, but it felt right. I had witnessed enough sites in the wild that had been used only seasonally or been abandoned for several years and decades. This felt like much less than a decade worth of absence. They had carefully organized their belongings, rolling the matts and hides, placing bowls on top of each other, standing tools and weapons against the walls, and leaving a pile of wood next to the fire pits as though they expected to return shortly or in another season. Yet, they didn’t.

With one question answered, another opens: what happens to a whole group of people when all the evidence indicates they are intending to return? If they were nomadic, they would have taken more of their belongs. There was no indication of conflict, of fighting, or even illness. There were no bones of dead or broken weapons. If these were here, then there should be more in the region. More questions, more mystery, but an indication of more to this region than a completely primal environment. There were … are? … humans who were making a mark on their world. Perhaps, in time, I will get still more answers.

The cave was an enclosed room. I found no open thermal vents that might be a problem. Instead, heat from vents alongside the walls produced the heat which did radiate into the room. The temperature wasn’t hot, just warm, comfortable without jackets and multiple layers. How it would be in the summer might be interesting. It might just be a constant temperature year round.

Bo and I did spent that night in the cave. I was a little nervous, even though there were no signs, that an animal might decide to also claim it, so I built a fire in the pit outside as a warning. The cave had many benefits that included all the practical elements of security, protection from the weather, room to move, light, and now more tools. An additional benefit was christened that very night. The shelter had been practical and effective. It protected from rain and snow and offered a level of insulation from cold and wind, but only marginally from the cold except for the fire and bundling under the bear coat. Although it would be toasty under the coat at night, dogs apparently aren’t comfortable snuggling and … being amorous under the covers. I either froze or we didn’t do it in the severe cold. The cave with its warm, radiating walls and floor made it possible for us and we took advantage of the chance.

I unrolled two of the matts and lay them side by side, then a hide over them. I glanced to Bo and found him watching patiently. I thought for a moment that I was reading too much into his posture until I noticed the red tip of his cock sticking out of his sheath as I moved about the area. I went to him and chuckled as I kiss his snout, then stepped back and began removing layers of clothes, all the while facing him. It was an odd feeling. That first night felt kind of like sneaking into someone’s house, wondering if they had been delayed and may come back at any time. But, very soon my mind would be preoccupied by something else entirely.

Layer after layer was removed until I dropped my pants and was completely nude in front of Bo. I moved to him, squatted down in front of him and kissed his snout, again. Then reached out my tongue to him and we touch tongues. When we separated, his nose was working and his head moved down following my scent. He gave my inside thighs quick licks as he moved closer to my pussy, which received several licks. He looked up at me like an unassuming lover wanting to know I was okay with this, okay with taking it further. With my hands on his head, I reverse dock-walked the few feet to the center of the matts, sat down, and leaned back onto one hand for support while the other was around his head, encouraging him between my legs, deeply between my legs and he willing obliged.

I transferred my remaining hand behind me for additional support. I wanted to watch him take me orally, at least initially. As he began licking me, I made the decision, as my passion quickly rose, that this would be playful and teasing, that we would take our time and re-explore each other sexually. Being comfortable in the cold of winter seemed like an impossible thing after the days and nights of trying to manage the coldness that crept in from everywhere. I was going to enjoy this new opportunity to the fullest and I was going to make sure that Bo did, too.

Soon, I collapse onto my back while raising my knees and splaying them out to the sides, opening myself to the maximum extent possible. Bo only hesitated a split second as my legs moved, but seeing or sensing my effort to give myself more fully to him, his licking seemed to somehow become even more urgent and insistent. I reached down with my hands, touching his snout in the process of touching myself. He didn’t even flinch or hesitate this time. I stroked my clit a few time, raising my hips off the floor, then moving my fingers to either side of my pussy I pulled the lips apart, truly opening my pussy to his searching and probing tongue. After repeated licks, his tongue somehow curled and probed into my hole, nearly bringing me to orgasm as his tongue came out and slide over my engorged clit.

I clamped my thighs against his head and my hands pulled him up. I didn’t want to cum, yet. I wanted each of us to be teased and tortured, if possible, until we both came explosively together. That was my desire, anyway.

I encouraged him to lie down, I worked my way down his body and raised his rear leg, opening his exposed cock to me. I licked the tip to taste his pre-cum, then slipped the tip between my lips, and gently sucked the pre-cum from it. I removed my mouth and licked the exposed length and, in the process, seeing it grow more as I did. I engulfed his cock into my mouth and sucked voraciously at it and I felt it grow inside my mouth. I pulled back until just the tip was inside and I sucked at the pre-cum that had again formed, then plunged my head back down. Over and over, until I felt his cock twitch and the ball of his knot forming and push out from the sheath.

I pulled my mouth off him before he could cum, wanting him to feel the buildup and prolonged expectation just like happened to me. I rolled him onto his back and mounted him, staring down into his eyes. I could tell he was uncomfortable in this submissive position, but I was dying to try it. I lowered my drenched pussy to his cock and stroked it with my pussy, feeling it separating my lips as I glided over the length. But, he was too uncomfortable and scrambled out from under me. I calmed him with petting and whispering in to him, then maneuvered under him, taking his cock back into my mouth, holding my shoulders high enough with one elbow for support. I separate my legs and he seemed to get the idea. If we couldn’t get into a 69 with me on top, maybe we could with him on top. It seemed to work, at least for a short while. It seemed to work until his excitement caused an instinctive thrust by his hips that drove his cock tip into my throat and caused me to instinctively gag. One instinctive reaction as the result of another. Maybe that was something we could work on.

My reaction, though, resulted in our separation, again. But, I needed my release and I was pretty sure he needed his, as well. I rolled out from under him and positioned myself on my hands and knees. He came to me without hesitation, licking my ass and finding my pussy and asshole. I slapped my ass to get his attention properly focused and waited for him to mount me, which he did. With a slight guidance from my hand, he slid into my already pulsing pussy. In one thrust he was deep into me, his already forming knot hitting my lips on the outside. We both seemed equally desperate for conclusion and he pressed at me to push his knot into me as I pressed back onto him to the same conclusion. Our shared efforts squeezed the ball of his knot past my stretched out pussy lips, filling me unbelievably with cock and knot. I cried out my pleasure, hearing the cry bounce back to me several times as it echoed around the cave walls, floor, and ceiling. His hips were flying at my ass in the short, constricted movements allowed by the knot embedded inside me. I felt his cock jerk wildly inside, his cock growing still larger and with the first spurt of his cum spraying against my pussy walls, I came with him. I could feel my pussy wall clenching, spasming around his cock and knot, both pulsing inside me.

I howled into the flicking walls of the cave. I don’t know how else to describe it; it almost scares me that my throat could generate such a sound. But, I did. My orgasm was intense and consuming and I pulled away from him as it hit me and I rock and rotated my hips and pelvis. The action had the effect of randomly pressing his knot against my g-spot, shooting new charges of sensation through my body.

I collapsed to my front, my ass and thighs being the only parts still off the ground and then only because I was tied to Bo. But, as my orgasm started dying, I rotated and pulled on the knot more, sending occasional new jolts into my body, causing my pussy to clamp tightly around him inside. Little by little, my pussy milked the last of his cum.

After Bo managed to pull himself out of me, struggled to my feet, but only to blow out all the candles except for one. I wanted some glimmer of light for later, for later when my eyes searched for recognition of where I was. Then I collapse onto the mat and rolled the bear hide over me.

* * * *

It took days to move the old camp to the cave. I left the shelter in place since it might come in handy at some time. I could always move it, too, come spring and better weather, if the cave became too warm.

The cave became quite homey, partly because it was much easier to relax with fewer clothes and much more warmth. The light of candles at night and a separate space just outside to do major cooking, drying meat strips, and tanning hides while still warm made life much easier.

Bo and I were movers, though. Sitting around the warm cave passing the time just wouldn’t work for us. It was much easier for us to explore our sexuality and that first night was only the new beginning for that. It didn’t take us long after all to perfect our form of 69’ing. I was on the bottom, of course.

Sojourns outside were still a part of most days. It was just much easier when there was a warm home to return to. Winter and snow changed the outside world dramatically. I was sure the animal life wasn’t actually more prevalent, but it seemed that way. The snow allowed for the tracks to mark every passing animal of size and between snows, it seemed as if there must be constant movement, even though we saw few actual sightings without effort.

We were investigating a little north of the cave, even further from the old shelter. I had been seeing wolf and deer tracks of late and I was interested in a deer if I could find its route and establish a good location to sit and wait.

Bo was slightly ahead of me on a trail we had taken previously. I was watching the tracks of deer, elk, wolf, and even bear. There was game to be had, but I was clearly not the only predator in these parts. I didn’t intend to be competitive about a kill, there was plenty of game for the taking, if I was patient and planned properly. Bo and I haven’t been hungry yet. What I really didn’t want was to get into conflict with one of these other predators over food and for one of us to have to determine who really was at the top of the food chain. My Glock certainly tipped the scales, but I didn’t like the idea of ruining the peace of the region by using it unless absolutely necessary. But, I did make it a practice to wear it on my right thigh under the bear hide coat. The wolves were more of a concern to me than the bears. The bear tended to hunt solitarily. The wolves hunted in packs and finding us surrounded by a hungry pack wasn’t going to end well for me. I had little question about that, so I carried the Glock and I was cautious about observing the signs around me. But, sometimes, danger comes in unexpected forms …

Bo was stopped on the trail with his attention fixed across the lake. At this point, the lake was narrowing into the river so it was narrower, the water underneath would probably be running with something of a current and I would expect the ice covering the lake to be very thin. I followed his gaze and ducked down behind some brush. Across the expanse walked a wolf pack in single file along a trail. It would be one thing for them to see a ‘black wolf’ like Bo, but it would be entirely different to see me while covered in the bear hide.

Several of the large wolves did notice and stepped in front of the others to gaze across the icy separation of the lake surface. From what I could see, the pack looked to be made up of 3 large males and 2 smaller adolescent males, 3 mature females and 1 adolescent female with 3 pups. This was a larger pack, further evidence of the abundance of food in the region. Wolves can have a range of 50 to 100 miles, if necessary for their food. I suspected that wasn’t necessary here. All the animals looked to be healthy with good looking coats.

The problem with the pack came in the form of a curious youngster. Despite the mature animals, what my eye was drawn to was the precocious young pup being repeatedly pulled back by a female. Then, for some reason, Bo made a move off the trail toward the lake edge. It was only a few paces, but it got the attention of all the adults. Lost at that moment was that same pup moving around the adults in front of it to the edge of the lake on their side. He was far too curious about this strange male on the other side and before the others pulled their focus off Bo, the pup was 5 feet out onto the snow covered lake ice. The pup wasn’t small, probably 5 or 6 months old, and I hadn’t realized that I was holding my breath out of fear. My analysis of the expected condition of the ice gave me more concern than the animals perhaps would. That was until the large male moved out onto the ice and went through on its first step. Now the pack was barking warnings and commands, but the pup was singularly focused on Bo. It was past the halfway point of the 20 foot separation between the two shores and creeping closer all the time. The female was prancing nervously along the edge while the others barked and growled out warnings and commands that only they understood.

I tried to breath, but it was difficult as I was expecting the pup to fall through the ice at any moment. When the fluffy grey body disappeared below the ice and snow surface, I stood up immediately, which caused even more concern on the other side. Then, confusion and quiet was on the other side. A glance took in a drama playing out in only a moment as the alpha turned to leave, half the pack initially following. But, the mother, probably the beta of the pack, growling in protest before running downstream where she might know the crossing to be safe. I shrugged off the bear hide, then the backpack. I knelt, retrieved the rope I carried, which was about 10 feet long and might just be long enough. I tied one end to a small tree trunk on the shore and the other end around my ankle. I quickly went 5 paces back and sprinted for the edge of the lake, hitting it in a prone glide with my arms and legs spread out to the sides to evenly distribute my weight over the surface. It wasn’t a thought, just a reaction. I mistakenly didn’t consider the ramifications, only reacting to save the pup.

I slid to a stop at the hole. My arm was underwater before I thought about a course of action, felt the wet fur, pulled it out and threw it toward shore in one smooth motion, not sure where the strength came from. Now I tensed. Now I had to turn around to return to shore. I never turned all the way before I too went through the ice. My eyes instinctively sought out Bo … for help … maybe to say goodbye, I could easily die in minutes in the icy water.

I saw Bo in the broken ice at the edge with the pup being pulled to land by the scruff of its neck. I grabbed the rope in my hands and started pulling desperately. Every couple feet I crashed through the ice again. I could feel the bottom under my numbing feet, pressing forward with my legs, and pulling the rope with my arms. Once on shore, I didn’t hesitate. Stopping to shiver could be death. I wrapped the pup in the bear hide and put Bo on top of it. I dropped to the snow and brushed away the covering until I found ground underneath and some dry leaves and kindling. I ran around the area in a frenzy, collecting twigs, sticks, and wood. Returning to the spot I dug out a lighter from my pack, started the kindling and leaves, then carefully added more twigs and sticks, and finally heavier wood. Bo moved as I approached. I reached inside the hide and pulled the pup to me and the coat over me as I huddled over the growing fire, pulling the pup between my legs and the coat over the two of us, trapping much of the heat under the coat. Within the next minute, I saw moisture evaporating in the warm air from the pup and felt the warmth seeping into my shivering body.

I sensed Bo walking around us as I pulled the coat further over us, obscuring more of my view while trying to capture even more of the warmth under the coat. I became more aware of movement and sounds outside the coat as my body recovered from both wet and cold. Then, I remembered the wolf pack and made the association. I raised the coat edge enough to see the heavy black fur of Bo’s feet and legs pacing back and forth. I heard threatening growls to my left and saw Bo’s feet go into position for an aggressive attack. I had always sensed that Bo would never be one to back away from a fight when he felt it was needed. I saw Bo’s legs thrust him to the left and I raised the edge of the coat in response, needing to know what happened.

Instead of my eyes tracking Bo’s aggressive movement to the left, however, I was faced, literally, with the growling, fang-baring snarl of a desperate female wolf. Separated by only 2 feet, I was staring face-to-face, eye-to-eye, with the pup’s mother!

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Continued in Chapter 8