by Eden Ember
While Piper teetered up onto the roof, the snow started falling quickly again. Behind her, she saw nothing through the trees. It didn’t matter; she had to shovel the snow from the roof of the cabin. She took a step and her foot almost slid out from under her. The snow came off the edge of the roof in big clumps as Piper pushed the shovel through, losing her footing and sliding to the edge headfirst. She screamed even though she knew no one would hear her as she was powerless to stop what would be a devastating blow to her body.
As she fell off the roof, she landed in the arms of someone. It shocked her, and she turned to see the face of the most beautiful man she’d ever met. He had striking blue eyes that were as large as hers as he carried her up the steps and set her down. Piper’s heart thumped so hard that she thought she might pass out as she turned around to see who had rescued her. Her eyes widened in shock as she took in the naked man standing before her. Snow caked his feet and legs and he didn’t even act as if the cold bothered him.
What struck Piper even more odd, was how the man didn’t seem to be bothered being naked in front of her. “Um, thank you for rescuing me. Where are your clothes?”
“I, yeah, I guess I forgot to wear them,” the man said. His deep rumbling voice flowed like smooth warm butter from his mouth. Piper couldn’t help gawking at the man as he was so well built, with muscles stacked upon muscles, and his manhood; wow.
Piper turned away as a fierce blush rode across her face. “You need clothes,” she said as she blinked fast. Her body became very warm and she wanted to remove her coat.
“I beg your forgiveness because I don’t have clothes with me. Where I’m from this is very normal. I’m so sorry if it offends you,” the man said in his strange accent.
He appeared to shiver, and Piper knew that she had to invite him into the cabin because he had just saved her life while being naked.
“Please, come in, it is nasty out here,” she said. Even Piper shivered as the wind blew snow onto the porch. The sunlight soon moved down in the sky, and the shadows melted into darkness. It wasn’t fit for man nor beast out there. Everything within her knew better than to invite a naked, strange man into her home. However, she felt giddy in his presence.
The man stood by the door with his hands folded in front of him trying to hide his manhood. It was a difficult thing to do, considering it was so large that his large hands couldn’t hide it. Piper smiled.
“I’ll be right back. I’m sure I can find something for you to wear and then you can tell me why you don’t normally wear clothes in the snow,” she said as she giggled and walked into the bedroom to look into the closet.
Her father’s clothes had hung untouched since he was there well over a year before. Piper found a pair of jeans, a long john shirt, and a flannel shirt, hoping that they would fit the stranger. The little drawers had just what she needed as she pulled out a pair of boxer shorts and a thick pair of socks. There were also shoes in the closet, but Piper wasn’t sure if they would fit because the man appeared larger than her father.
Piper walked into the front room and kept her eyes averted. She held out the clothes for the man to take. “You may go into the bathroom to change,” she said. Then Piper laughed because he wasn’t needing to change clothes; he needed to dress.
Within a few minutes, the man came out wearing her father’s clothes. Everything fit rather tight on him, but still the clothing covered everything as they should. Piper breathed a sigh of relief seeing the man fully dressed. But it was odd that she had seen him naked only moments earlier and still could not shake this image from her mind. She scooted the kettle across the top of the stove as the water began to boil. “Care for a cup of hot tea?” she asked.
The man nodded. “Um, sure,” he said as he smiled.
Hot tea steamed from the two cups as Piper invited the man to sit down in the living room. She wanted to learn more about who he was and why he was naked out in the Alaskan winter. The man who saved her was an enigma, and she wanted to dig into this puzzle as the night fell upon the small cabin in the woods.
Chapter 4
Elzarr was as shocked as Piper about the situation. If he had not come forward to save her, she almost certainly would have landed headfirst into the snow and broken her neck. He had no choice. In her kindness she gave him clothing in this form, and a hot drink as well. The human woman sat down and turned her hazel-green eyes upon him, and he took in what a beautiful creature she was.
“I’m Piper. I guess I didn’t know that I had a neighbor as close by as you. There are so many questions that I have, I don’t know where to begin,” she said as she smiled. He sensed her nervousness and wanted to ease her mind.
“I am Elzarr. I don’t mean to startle you with my appearance. You must understand, I came to Christmas Town thinking that I wouldn’t run into another human being out here. Where I’m from we walk around in the nude while out in the wild. I guess you could say my body is used to the extreme cold and it usually doesn’t bother me.”
“Well, I’m not sure where you’re from but in the United States it’s not conventional to run around in the snow while naked,” Piper said.
Elzarr chuckled. “I don’t mean harm by it. I was out wandering around and didn’t know anyone lived here. The cabin sat empty for a long time so you can imagine my surprise when I came up and saw you on the roof,” he said.
“Ah, strange,” Piper said. At least she seemed a bit more relaxed with him now. “I guess it’s just the way I grew up. However, there is no way that you can survive out there in that snowstorm.” She opened the door as the blustery air billowed in and stood on the porch, shivering. It was a whiteout outside. After shutting the door, Piper turned to him again. “Where do you live?”
Thinking fast, Elzarr came up with another half-truth. “There’s an old cabin on the ridge beyond here. I was out wandering through the woods, hunting, when I saw your place lit up and saw you on the roof.”
“Hunting, huh? There are some reindeer in the woods,” she said as she walked into the kitchen and pulled out food to make a stew. Elzarr’s blood ran cold at the insinuation. However, Piper turned to him with a huge grin. “I’d be upset if you killed my reindeer.”
“Oh? You have a reindeer?” Now Elzarr smiled.
“Yes, the most majestic animal I’ve ever seen. He comes around often. I’m surprised that you haven’t seen him.” She turned and narrowed her eyes at him. “In fact, right before I fell, he stood in the very spot you came from. Odd, if you didn’t see him.”
“I didn’t. I was tracking a lonesome elk.” Elzarr smiled at his wit for coming up with quick stories. “I suppose I should be going. I’ve taken up enough of your time and generosity.”
Piper stood and shook her head. “You can’t leave in this weather. You wouldn’t make it back to that cabin across the ridge. It’s freezing and dark out there. No, you can stay here on on my sofa. I insist. It’s the least I can do for you since you saved my life.”
Elzarr didn’t want to say no. Being honest about his identity was impossible because then she would figure out that he wasn’t from Earth. No, that was too much to explain. So instead, he bowed his head.
“Thank you. You’re very kind,” he said.
“Where did you say you were from?” Piper asked.
Elzarr thought quickly. “Not around here. But North,” he replied. It wasn’t a lie, because if he flew off the planet, he would follow the North star and keep going until he came to his home planet and the systems far away from here.
“North? You have an accent. Scandinavian?” she asked.
“Yeah, someplace like that. My people are very different and it’s very remote. We sometimes settle over here because we can be who we are without offending people,” he said.
Piper seemed to accept his story as she didn’t ask for further details concerning his explanation.
“I’ve never been outside the USA. I know very little about the Scandinavian people.” She smiled, and he felt better
letting her believe that he was from Scandinavia.
The snow piled higher and higher has it snowed all night. The next morning, Piper couldn’t walk out of the cabin through the door because it was so high. She began cutting a path to the woodshed to gather wood and gasoline for the generator. Elzarr hopped up from bed and dressed in the clothes that she gave him. He also had free access to her father’s closet because he told her he didn’t bring many with him. He smiled at Piper’s kindness in letting him wear the clothes hanging in the closet.
“Why don’t you let me earn my stay and I will chop the wood. I’m very strong and I can get it done faster. You stay in the cabin and keep the fire going,” Elzarr said.
Piper agreed and headed back to the cabin. He thought she’d never leave. Elzarr needed to shift into his other form and run off some of his pent-up energy. He couldn’t do that with her around.
“I’ll find more trees to cut and prepare for drying in the woodshed,” he told her. It was a good excuse. Elzarr wandered behind the shed and came out of the clothing, and after digging a snow cave, placed the clothes inside. His body stretched and his reindeer form came out. It felt good being back in the animal form. He took off running through the woods working his muscles and keeping himself strong. His antlers had grown even larger, and he needed to rub them against a tree to keep them in check.
It’s funny how time flew when Elzarr ran in his animal form. He stretched his legs and pranced through the deep snow, calling out in his animal form. A distant wolf bayed, and he ran in the opposite direction. The snowstorm dumped so much snow that it was too deep for him even as a reindeer. He lost track of time as he ran the perimeter of the forest, one of the many things he had been doing before he met the human named Piper. And as he had been doing for a while, Elzar ran around the perimeter of her cabin’s property, hoping to run into her. He suddenly realized it was growing late. When he came around the side of the cabin nearby, Piper was standing outside and saw him.
She smiled and waved at him, as if she knew him. “Hey there, come on, come to me. I promise, I won’t hurt you,” she said as she beckoned to him.
Out of impulse, he walked towards her a little as he wished she knew the truth. Suddenly, she looked around, her eyes peering through the branches in the trees. “Elzarr? Where are you? Elzarr, come here, please!”
She panicked when he didn’t answer her in his Rodii form. He was compelled to come closer to her as she called for him, hoping it distracted her enough to not look for his human-like form. But his eyes held the secret. She’s an intelligent human, and Piper looked into his eyes while hers were narrowing. Holding out her hand, the woman said, “Come here. Please come. Elzarr!”
Her eyes peered through the dense forest looking for the other him. Every time she said his name his body pulsed with energy, a strange feeling that traveled through his chest into the pit of his stomach. Every time Piper called out, he wanted to come to her and to tell her the truth.
“Elzarr! Where are you? Elzarr, please come back,” she yelled.
He suppressed shifting as his eyes widened. Turning from her as fast as he could he ran away. It was the most difficult thing he had ever done, running away from Piper as she was calling out for him. Everything within him wanted to run back to her and be honest about who he was. Her screams were panicking, and he ran deep into the forest where he could shift back into his alternate form.
Piper gave up yelling for him and went back inside the cabin. Elzarr had to change. Stepping back as far as could he peered at the cabin and saw the puffs of smoke coming out and realized that she had gone back inside. He shifted into his human form and ran to the back of the shed where he’d made the little snow cave for his clothes. The cave had collapsed on the snow coated clothing; however, he had no choice but to dress, anyway. Then he looked around with some distress because he had forgotten to chop firewood. Even so, Elzarr needed to return to her. He could sense her anxiety over his absence.
Chapter 5
Piper went back into the cabin. The cold blustery air proved more than she could handle. While shivering, she moved close to the wood stove and stood there while warming her hands. The harsh wind hit the cabin, the wood slats groaning under its stress. Piper’s father had insisted that he had built the cabin soundly. His claim was proven, as it had survived years prior from all the snowstorms that hit Alaska. Still, it worried her that the place could fall apart during something like this storm and that she would be helpless to fix it. But then again, she had Elzarr, the odd man from Scandinavia who didn’t own a stitch of clothing.
After opening the door again, she peered outside into the bleakness of the snowstorm and saw no sign of her new friend. Piper found it unusual that when Elzarr was around, she never saw the reindeer. He would probably get a kick out of seeing an animal that majestic. But then, he was running naked through the snowy woods before she met him. He probably slept with wolves too. Her laughter rang through the warm room in the cabin.
Piper shoved her hands back into her gloves and slid on a coat to go back outside. Perhaps Elzarr had fallen in the snow. She needed to find him. The giant flashlight would flood enough space ahead with light that when the sun sank below the horizon, she would be able to see. Piper wanted to search for him. Once she was outside, she could hear in the distance the knocking of an ax against wood resounding through the forest. Surely that must be Elzarr chopping wood.
He stood over the fallen tree, lifting the ax when she stepped around the woodshed. Furrowing her brow, she walked closer. “Where have you been? I was out here yelling for you for a long time,” she said.
Elzarr paused and smiled at her. “I’m sorry. I wanted to see how far I could trek. I didn’t make it very far. This snow is something else. We need a snowmobile to get around,” he said as he continued chopping the wood.
Piper helped as she carried bundles to the porch. Elzarr joined her as they walked back and forth until the porch had a nice new stack ready for burning. Once inside the cabin, she shivered and stood in front of the stove. Elzarr joined her, rubbing his larger-than-life hands together.
Whether Piper wanted to admit it or not, she was glad the snowstorm had kept Elzarr with her. She was glad that she didn’t have a snowmobile, and she doubted her Jeep would get her out of the drive of the remote cabin anyway. They turned to warm their bodies near the stove and bumped into each other. She glanced up at Elzarr and smiled as he smiled down at her.
“Perhaps I should invest in a snowmobile, huh?” she asked as she looked up at him.
He made a face and nodded. “Yeah, I can see the benefit of owning one around here,” he replied.
Piper hadn’t thought about it before, but she now wondered how he got around and how he had arrived to live here. “How did you get here? I mean I know you walked to my place sans clothing, but how did you get to Alaska?” she asked.
Elzarr inhaled deeply. “I flew here. I’m very used to walking on my feet everywhere I go. But this snowstorm, it’s something else,” he said as he peered out the window. It was dark, and they saw nothing outside.
Elzarr was such a mystery to Piper. Try as she might, she could not get her guest to be very forthcoming with more detail about his life. The thoughts kept crashing through her brain, and she wanted to find out more about him. “Are you on the run from the law?” she asked.
He chuckled. “You could say it’s something like that. But don’t worry, I’m not a criminal or anything. My people, they expect more than I’m willing to give. There’s a lot of drama from my home and I just needed to get away from it all. I escaped the drama,” he said.
Piper settled on the sofa and pulled her feet up on the coffee table in front of her. She sighed. “I can relate to that. I left the rat race behind when my father died. It surprised me when I found out about this place. He asked me to come up here and do what I wanted to do with it. And to be honest, I hadn’t thought very far ahead. I just know that I wasn’t thrilled living back there,” she said.
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Elzarr nodded and took a seat on the chair after he got a glass of water. “What was your job back where you came from?” he asked.
“I worked for a publishing house as an editor while I also attended school. An acquisitions editor, which meant I read through a lot of slush piles. I’m glad I had that job because it kept me grounded to a place where my father eventually found me. He turned out to be sick, so I had to quit my job to take care of him. He let me know about this place and about his bank account.” Piper shakes her head. “Well, I’m sitting here telling you all these things and I really know very little about you. For all I know, you may be someone who wants to steal my money,” she said as she laughed.
“Trust me, I have more money at my disposal than you.”
“And yet you came here naked,” she replied, causing them both to laugh.
“It’s my prerogative. Clothing is relative,” he told her.
Piper stepped away from the stove and headed toward the kitchen. “How about we fix a hot meal? I’ve got a freezer full of beef, pork, and chicken. Let’s make a nice big pot of beef and vegetables,” she said.
Elzarr laughed as he stepped into the kitchen with Piper. “For a minute, I thought you would tell me you had a freezer full of venison. That would not be acceptable,” he said.
Her brow furrowed. “You don’t like to eat venison?” she asked.
“Would you want to eat that beautiful majestic reindeer you said you saw?”
“Ah, good question.” She shook her head. “No, you’re right. I would never eat that beautiful creature.” Did Elzarr just sigh in relief?
Piper pulled the beef out of the freezer and stuck it into a pot of boiling water. He looked at her and grimaced. “It’s all frozen but no worries, I have an instant pot, and we can make this meal quickly. But you need it thawed so that you can cut it into chunks for me,” she said while grinning.
