CotFM-Continue
From Create Your Own Story
You awaken slowly; head throbbing, body aching. The first thing you see is the rafters of a thatched roof. Odd. You were in a cave last you checked. Your muscles are very stiff, but you manage to turn your head to see more of where you are.
To your left is a small window with the shutters open. You can see the sky is pinkish orange with sparse clouds and a chilly breeze washes over you. You hear long, low bird calls in the distance. Is it sunrise or sunset? You aren't sure. Somewhere a wolf howls.
Looking to your right, you see that you are lying on the floor of a one-room cottage. You feel a mat that someone has attempted to pad with straw beneath you. There is a foul-smelling pot near your feet that might be a chamber pot of some sort. You can't remember ever using one before, but now that you are awake you feel the desperate urge to relieve yourself. There doesn't appear to be anyone in the cottage with you, so you sit up with a groan. Just about every part of you hurts and you can feel bandages beneath your coarse clothing. Proof that your ordeal in the cave was more than just a dream. With great difficulty, you go about the process of relieving yourself as you take in your surroundings.
There is a fireplace nearby with a pot of something boiling over the fire. A simple bed stands on the other side of the fireplace, close enough to be warmed by the fire, but not so close as to catch the straw mattress on fire. A number of dried vegetables, pots, and ladles hang over what you assume to be the kitchen area. It appears that someone was recently chopping some wild onions on a wooden table, the smell almost strong enough to cover the stench of the chamber pot. Near the kitchen are shelves and cupboards filled with small sacks and vials of unknown ingredients as well as teeth, bones, and other animal parts, kept carefully preserved. The strangeness of it all leads you to wonder whether you may have woken up in a witch's hovel. You shiver as another cold breeze strikes your exposed skin.
At that moment, the door to the cottage opens and in walks a young woman with brown hair that just brushes the tips of her ears. The two of you lock eyes and you feel heat rising in your cheeks as you quickly struggle to pull up your trousers. She, on the other hand, seems only momentarily startled, then studiously ignores you as she goes to place a bucket of water on the table in the kitchen area.
"So you're awake," she says, with her back to you. You say nothing as you tie your rope belt, face hot. Your clothes feel strange and unfamiliar and a size or two too large.
"I had to replace your clothes," the young lady says, as if anticipating your thoughts. "They were in such a state when they brought you to me, that I had to borrow some of Trevor's. He was far too eager to comply." That last bit was muttered almost inaudibly as she turned to check the contents of the pot on the fire. Seeming satisfied, she grabs a bowl and starts ladling some soup into it. You ease yourself back onto the mat and watch her, uncertain what, if anything, to say. The thought occurs to you that this young woman has seen you naked and you aren't exactly sure how you feel about that.
