//------------------------------// // Man's Best Friend // Story: A Snowy Day // by The Ancestor //------------------------------// Lyra awoke not due to any particular sensation, but rather due to a lack of sensation. She remembered falling asleep next to, and in a rather comfortable embrace of, Equestria's one and only human. Lyra put dwelling on her reason for doing so in a deep corner of her mind, instead reminiscing on his absense. Was he supposed to do something this morning? He probably was, considering the rather pressing issue of freezing to death. Lyra's eyes shot open as the reality of the situation set in, a shiver going down her spine. The unicorn jumped down to the floor, landing on her hooves, and looked around the room, searching for anything useful to do. Her gaze fell to a small white note plastered to the fridge, being held by a small magnet. Approaching the fridge and magicking the note closer to herself, she noted a rather brash cursive right next to a scribbled line of unidentifiable lettering. The unicorn mare squinted, trying to discern the less than stellar hoofwriting -"Handwriting?"- the letters finally making sense after a good minute of staring. "Don't panic, went to get firewood. Didn't have the time to make breakfast. Sorry. Eggs are in the fridge if you're feeling well. She gave up on trying to read the scribbled lettering, and instead turned to the stove, eyeing it with a obvious intent. She was about to open the fridge and look for the aformentioned eggs, when another chill went down the mare's spine, prompting her to shiver. This time, however, the reason was far more obvious and had more to do with her immidiate situation. Namely, the cottage being pretty friggin' cold. Lyra shivered, wishing she'd brough more clothing with her when she went on her little trip. "Clothing... Oleg wears clothing all the time, he has to have a wardrobe full of it!" She concluded, scanning the room for any furniture that woud likely hold the coveted apparel. First and foremost, her eyes darted to the small box that was filled to the brim with discarded clothing. A single whiff of it's contents helped Lyra make her mind, as she staggered back from the foul smell. "No way in Tartarus I'm wearing that!" Lyra looked over the room once more, walking to a rather sizable wardrobe when she noticed it. The double doors of the wardrobe opened with a flare of Lyra's magic, laying bare a rather sizable collection of clothing before the mare's eyes. She scanned the contents of the wardrobe, appraising everything: from shirts to sweaters, from pants to shorts, yet there was only one thing that caught her interest. A pine green plain hoodie was practically screaming at her to put it on, and Lyra saw no reason to argue with the apparel. The clothing, encased in a golden glow, hovered towards the mare at breakneck speeds, stopping just shy of hitting her in the muzzle. Not without troubles, the mare stuck her front legs into sleeves of the hoodie, her hooves soon dinding purchase on the wooden floor. She snaked her head through the soft confines of the apparel, until she saw the light of day again, the hood resting against the back of her neck. It was as comfy as it was warm, and Lyra noticed that despite not being in the 'laundry box', it smelled faintly of pine sap, sawdus and sweat. The mare didn't mind the smell, as it was faint at best, besides, it was not entirely unpleasant. She turned towards the fridge, taking the first step, only to trip and fall muzzle-first onto the wooden floor. She yelped in surprise, rubbing her nose as she sat on her haunches, a confused look on her face. She concentrated on her hoof, finding it to be green all of a sudden. Realisation dawned on her as she blushed, so she rolled up her sleeves, and approached the fridge. "This hoodie is way too big for me." She proceeded to cook breakfast, the appetising smell of baked eggs filled the room, accompanied by the warmth of the burning stove. Just as she finished putting the egg-filled plates on the wooden table, the door opened, and a rather winded human walked in, breathing heavily as he set a heavy-looking bag on the floor. His face was flushed red as he shivered, taking off his heavy winter coat and boots. "Good morning." Lyra greeted with a wave of her hoof, grabbing the human's attention. "Good to see you're back already. Come, I've made breakfast!" She said, motioning him to sit next to her. "Good morning to you too." Oleg said, dropping on the bench next to her, a small smile visible on his face. "Glad you're feeling better," He grabbed the fork, scarfing down a good third of his breakfast in one go. "thanks for making breakfast, by the way, it's amazing." Lyra blushed, batting her hoof at him. "Oh, it's nothing. It's the least I could do to thank you!" She said with a smile, one that wilted just a tad when she noticed the strained look he was giveing her. Before she could say anything, he put his hand on her shoulder, one that was surprisingly hot. "Never think you owe me anything, horosho? Anybody would've done the same thing, it's nothing spectacular." He said with a determined look in his eyes, her lips formed into a small smile. "I-I just..." Lyra stopped as she felt something unusual, a sort of vibration coming from the man. "Oleg? Are you shivering?" She asked, carefully looking at him. "Huh?" He asked, holding his hand in the air, closely watching as it shook slightly, despite his best attempts to keep it still. "I guess I am." He said, turning to the mare. He tensed up when he noticed a worried look in her eyes, continuing. "It's cold here, is all. I'll get something warmer to wear, don't worry." He gave her a faint smile, one that was painfully easy to see through. "Really?" Lyra said, incredulous. "Let me check your temperature." She said, reaching to touch his forehead with the back of her hoof. "T-there's no need!" He exclaimed, inching away from the steadily approaching unicorn. "To worry about me, I mean!" He stammered halfway through, out of breath. "I'm comletely fine!" He said a little too fast to be believeable, still insistant on Lyra not touching him. "Now, stay still mister!" Lyra said, a golden glow enveloping the man, making it harder to move as he froze up. "I'll let you go, but will you please let me check your temperature?" She asked with a stern expression. "It's for your own good." She added softly. "F-fine." He stammered, breathing a sigh of relief as Lyra's golden glow died out around him. "Can you not do that, like, ever again?" He said, his cheeks flushed against his otherewise pale face. "That was a tad too... claustrophobic, for my taste." "Promise." Lyra assured, finally sitting as close to him as possible, touching his forehead with the back of her hoof. She gasped, as her hoof felt like it was put against a hot stove. "Oleg, you're burning up!" She exclaimed in a worried tone. "Heh, to bad there's no Majors around." The man replied with a faint smile, shaking his head when he noticed Lyra's puzzled expression. "No matter, it's probably just a cold. It'll go away by itself." He said with a wave of his hand. "And what if it doesen't!?" Lyra exclaimed, a frown on her face. "You can't say things like that!" She scolded the man as he rolled his eyes. "You matter Oleg, and I'm worried about you." She said in a soft voice, putting a hoof on his shoulder. He was about to say something, when a suspiscious rattling coming from the entrance grabbed their attention. As the two of them looked towards the source of the noise, Lyra's breath hitched in her throat. A pile of twigs slowly rattled together, forming a quadrupedal form of a wolf. Before Lyra could react, the man shoved her behind him, standing between the timberwolf and her with his arms outstretched. Seconds passed in tense silence as the two of them expected the beast to pounce at the man, to growl, to swing its claws at him or snarl. Something unusual happened instead. The timberwolf hobbled meekly towards the corner of the room, leaving tiny drops of amber liquid in its wake. It reached its destination, before curling up into a small ball, a low whine emitted from its maw. Lyra was about to speak up when Oleg took a tenative step towards the beast, the timberwolf seemingly not noticing. "What are you doing?!" Lyra hissed, keeping her eyes fixed on the wolf. "It's dangerous, don't get closer to it!" "It's wounded." The man replied, pointing at a sizable hole in the wolf's side. He knelt down, scooping a drop from the floor and licking it. Lyra's face contorted into a disgusted expression. "What are you doing!?" She repeated. "Pine sap." Oleg concluded, standing tall once again. "I told you it's wounded." He continued approaching the animal, but not before grabbing a sizable piece of birchwood. "Stop! I told you it's dangerous!" Lyra exclaimed, thankfully, the timberwolf remained unresponsive. "Why are you approaching it?" "I want to help it." He said with a determined expression. "Come again?" Lyra said in disbelief. "It's a wounded animal, I have to help it." He said in a nonchalant tone stepping closer to the animal. "What? Why?" Lyra asked, confused as to why would Oleg do such a thing. "Because," He said through gritted teeth, growing irritated of Lyra's constant questions. "I pains me to watch it suffer." He said before stepping closer to the wolf. "I-" Lyra's words were cut short when she heard a low growl coming from the timberwolf, a lump forming in her throat. The animal finally taking notice of Oleg's approach, snarling at the man as he froze in place. "Tishe, tishe. Ya tebya ne obizhy." The man cooed, lowering himself to the ground. "Ya hochu pomoch'. Na, derzhi." He said, putting a piece of birchwood between them, before taking a few steps back. The timberwolf conventrated on the piece of wood, weakly hobbling towards it, picking it up with his mouth. It chewed on the piece of birch enthusiastically, the wooden chunk disappearing down his throat, the hole in his side slowly closed, leaving a black and white patch that stood out against its otherwise dark green wooden 'coat'. "Nu vot, tebe luchse?" The man asked in a soft tone, outstretching a hand towards the timberwolf. Lyra's heart skipped a beat when the beast sniffed Oleg's hand and opened it's maw. "It's going to bite him!" Lyra was shocked, however, when instead of doing something harmful, the timberwolf licked Oleg's hand, before once again retreating into the corner and lying down to sleep. Oleg turned to Lyra with a pleased smile, walking to sit beside her. "See? Told you he just needed help." "He?" Lyra asked incredulously as the man sat down beside her. "It's a he?" She eyed up the timberwolf suspisciously as Oleg continued with his breakfast. "He sure is." The man said in a self-assured tone. "I think I'll call him... DD." He said, finishing his plate in record time, getting up to put his plate into the sink. "We're keeping him?" Lyra sounded surprised as Oleg picked up the still-hefty bag, and approached the stove. "I've a good feeling about him." The man said, opening the stove up and fishing a few smaller chunks of wood out of the bag. "Besides, I always wanted a dog, can't pass a chance like that up." Lyra frowned as she approached the man, who was currently in the process of stoking the embers. "What if he tries to eat me again?" Lyra asked, closely watching Oleg's dexterous hands fiddle with the chunks of wood. "He won't." Oleg said, using a lighter to start a fire, nodding to himself as he did. "I have some chicken in the freezer, he'll have to make do." He assured her, patting the mare on the back and walking towards his bed. He sat on the bed with a rather tired expression, his shoulders sagging as he did. "You know, you might be right about the whole 'sick' thing." He said, rubbing his face with both hands. "I feel way more tired than normal." Lyra sat beside him on the bed, and heard him mutter "Ne minuty pokoia..." to himself, before sitting straight. "Right, sulking won't help matters. If memory serves me right, I need to 'sweat it out'." He said, standing up to grab more covers from the second story of the bunk bed. "Sweat it out? What do you mean by that?" Lyra asked, not sure what the man was about to do. "My parents always told me you need to get sweaty when you're sick. So all the toxins exit your body with sweat." He said, getting under what looked like double layers of wool covers, still shivering. "Or something like that." "Can I help you in any way?" Lyra asked, her voice full of concern. "A hot tea would be great." He said, closing his eyes. "If it's not much of a bother." Lyra nodded, returning with a hot cup of tea a few minutes later. "Here's your tea." She said, levitating the cup closer to him. "It's very hot, so be careful." She said as he took the cup, blowing at the hot liquid inside. "Thanks." He said, taking a deep breath before downing the whole cup in one go. His face contorted into a mask of pain momentarily, before he handed the now empty cup to the mare. "That'll do nicely." He croaked. Lyra just shook her head as she watched the man shiver under the thick covers. "Hey!" He exclaimed, a playful smirk on his face. "You've stolen my hoodie!" He said in a mock-pout. "I was getting cold!" Lyra said in her defense, playing along. "What else was I supposed to do?" "Well, now I'm getting cold." Oleg said, crossing his hands under the blankets. "Mind returning it?" "I have a better idea." Lyra said with a playful smirk, raising the covers with her magic. "What-" Was all the man could say as Lyra scooted into the bed, laying close to him. "What am I doing?" Lyra said as she lowered the covers, getting a nod in return. "Helping you warm up, of course!" She said snuggling closer to the human. "L-lyra," The man stammered, his cheeks flushed. "you can't do that. What if this thing's zoonotic?" He said as the mare wrapped her hooves around him. "Zoo-what now?" Lyra mumbled into the side of his cheek, nuzzling it. "What I'm saying," He said, trying to wiggle out of Lyra's vice like grip. "is what if you catch it too?" "Then we'll 'sweat it out' together." She said with a smile, resting her head in the crook of his neck. "You're a weird mare, Lyra." The man said without a hint of malice in his voice, before sighing and reciprocating the hug. A small giggle sent an exhale of hot breath tickling the side of his neck. "And you're stuck with me." She said proudly, earning a grunt in responce. "I could throw you out to the cold, you know." He said in a serious tone, although Lyra easily saw through his bluff. "Yeah right, Mr. 'You're my responsibility now', I totally believe you." Lyra said with a roll of her eyes. A comfortable silence fell upon the room, one that lasted for a good while, but was inevitably broken. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask," Oleg began, unsurely. "are all ponies this... clingy?" He said slowly. "Don't take it the wrong way, this is nice and all." He cleared his throat, as if trying to stall to find the right words. "I'm just... not used to this. People from back home aren't so... physical, especially not with people they know for less than a week." "Well, here's ponies 101 for you:" Lyra said in a playful tone. "We love physical contact! We hug our friends when we meet them, hug when we want to thank somepony, hug when we want to calm somepony down..." She trailed off, thinking about something. "Come to think of it, we hug a lot. But you get the idea." She paused, silence once again filling the room. "I wanted to ask something too." Lyra began, taking the silence as a sign to proceed. "Sometimes when you talk, I can't understand you. Not too often, only sometimes. Why is that?" She asked, curious. "Well, that's easy. I'm just speaking my mother tongue. English is my second language, you see, so I sometimes slip up, usually when I'm tired or frustrated." He explained, running a hand through Lyra's mane out of habit, much to the mare's delight. "What's the other language you know then?" She asked, trying and failing to ignore the waves of pleasure that eminated from behind her ear. "Russian, my country's language." He said in a distant voice. "Heh, you wouldn't believe how inventive we got with swear words." He said with a chuckle. "How was it? Your home, I mean." Lyra asked carefully. "It... It was nice." He said with a sigh. "Life wasn't always easy, and we had our problems... But you can say the same about any other country in the world." He said with a shrug. "I've had a time-consuming, but well paying job, I've been saving money for some time now so I could buy a good house, I've had friends..." He trailed off, his head hanging low just as he stopped scratching behind Lyra's ear. "And now I have nothing." He said with a crushing amount of ennui in his voice, one that emphasised the finality of the statement. Lyra frowned, not liking the tone of his voice, before holding him even tighter. "You've got me." She said in an encouraging tone of voice. "And you've got DD... For what it's worth." She smiled as the comment got a laugh out of the man. "You really don't like him, do you?" He chuckled, resuming his petting. "Not. One. Bit." The mare hissed, wallowing in the affection. "You'll warm up to him. He's a real diamond in the rough, I just feel it." He, stifling a yawn. "Christ on a bike I'm tired." "Then let's relax. You're not cold anymore, are you?" Lyra said, taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes, a strong smell of pine sap and sawdust mixed with a bit of sweat entered her nose. "No, no I'm not." Oleg said with a smile, closing his eyes. "And I've got you to thank for that."