Somewhere In The Forest

Broken

It was warm, too warm, it felt soft and comfortable where I was. My eyes struggled to open as I awoke from my deep sleep, blinking rapidly against the light. The pain in my ankle immediately hit me once again, making me groan loudly in pain as I shifted. One of my shoulders slipped off the edge of whatever I was on, and that sent my entire body over the side. I fell a very short distance with a loud thud, another scream leaving my throat when my ankle collided with the floor beneath me.

I sucked in a breath through my teeth, throwing my head back against the ground while squeezing my eyes shut before hearing a voice.

"Gott, Frau, bleib einfach still" a deep voice rumbled somewhere near me. Although the pain in my ankle was nearly blinding me, I managed to lift my head to look up for the source of the voice.

A figure stood a few feet away from me, a hulking shadow of black, this man was a giant. I got up on my elbows, trying to back away from him quickly, grabbing my thigh only to find my blade was gone.

"It wouldn't be very smart of me to leave you with a knife, even if I just saved you" his voice was deep, yet somehow managed to be smooth as silk. I glared up at him, only to be met with more darkness, his face covered with a large hood, and what you could have seen below was also covered by a black ski mask. My head still felt fuzzy and I couldn't think of what to say before a sudden realization hit me. I looked around rapidly only to see a small living room with a couch I had just fallen off of and a small stove fire.

"My dog, Twig, Twig!" I called, sucking in another deep breath in pain while I tried to sit up more,

"You need to stop trying to move around or you're just going to make it hurt more" he scolded, while moving over to the front door. He gently pulled the door open and leaned his head out to whistle outside, and almost immediately the ball of fluff came barrelling through the doorway. I'm sure I hadn't smiled that wide in years as I reached out for him, he whined as he laid his head on my chest, making me shiver from the cold collected on his fur.

"Wolf nearly took off my hand when I was trying to help you. Luckily he's smarter than he looks," the man gruffed, folding his arms over his chest as he sat on the edge of the couch. I looked up at him while patting Twig's head,

"He's a malamute," I corrected, he looked over at me, eyes squinting slightly as if he was smiling under the mask.

"Who names their huge dog Twig?" he questioned, tilting his head slightly, I didn't respond for a moment, not really understanding why I was even talking to this stranger.

"It was sort of a joke when we first got him, but then it ended up sticking," I shrugged, smirking down at him. The man chuckled dryly, sitting there in silence while looking at me, I finally opened my mouth to hopefully get some answers of who he was.

"Who are you?" my voice sounded more scared than I meant it to,

"Ames" he responded plainly,

"And you are?" he asked, I didn't respond for a moment, wondering if I should even tell him my real name or come up with something else.

"I won't get any use out of your name, especially if I only get your first" he added, his gaze digging into me.

"It's Emma" I responded quickly, looking up at him, he nodded in response, his gaze drifting over to the fire. I don't know why I lied about my name, he had a point that telling him it wouldn't really help him anyway but I had panicked at the moment.

"Where are we?" I asked, looking down at Twig,

"This is my cabin, we're about 3 miles away from where you passed out in the snow." He replied,