Over the Road, Part 1, Honey-Maple and the Hitchhiker

The truck's pistons hissed as the massive cab and trailer finally ground to a halt.  The brake was engaged, locking the huge vehicle and its cargo in place.  The driver sighed, thumping their head back against the headrest.  Another 700 miles down.  Just as many left to go.  Just another day.  So why did she feel so beaten down and tired?

It was just another standard run across Canada for Gwendolyn Honeycutt.  The process rarely deviated; delivering freight for one of the various companies that typically hired out long-distance truck drivers like her was fairly standard.  She had already checked into the latest weigh station, as was protocol, been verified, and then driven along on her way.  She'd only even stopped at this station to get gas, use the facilities, and maybe grab some quick snack food to munch on while she drove.  She wasn't at her quota for the day yet before having to take a mandatory rest.  But again, the sense of exhaustion and humdrum boredom seemed unable to be shaken.

Grumbling, she checked her mirrors one last time, readjusted the shoulder straps of her coveralls, and put on her thick winter coat over her furry shoulders.  Her trucker hat sat atop her head of golden-blonde hair.  A pair of short, fuzzy ears poked out of holes cut in the top of the cap.  Digging around in her glovebox with one huge paw, the Ursid woman extricated her toiletry bag and, tucking it under one arm, opened the door of her cab.

Frosty, autumn air blasted into the truck momentarily, making her sigh already.  The cold didn't bother her physically, covered in a thick coat of dark-brown fur as she was.  Honestly, at any other time, she loved the cold, more than the heat anyway.  Her species were built for harsher conditions than others; Anthros were considerably more durable and hardier than any Human could hope to be.  It was the view of the ever-grey, rumbling storm clouds that loomed in the distance that made the biting chill of the wind sink through her fur and into her bones.  Her old injuries tensed up as she sensed the storm wasn't going to take that much longer in arriving.

A few hours, maybe?  Her bones were hardly ever wrong.  She wasn't even old, 24 this winter, but the minor injuries she had taken during her military service, compulsory for all Anthros when they graduated High school, tended to play up more when weather fronts like this one rolled in.  She relieved the tension in her back, knee, and left wrist by rolling her huge frame and popping the aching areas with loud cracks.

She slammed the door closed behind her, locking the doors with a single chirp of her keys.  Another gust of air, tinted with the smell of rain and snow, blew past her, making her ears twitch.  It felt like the day it was, a thoroughly miserable one.

Gwen stomped over to the gas station across the huge parking lot.  On her way, she passed probably a good dozen or more similar trucks to hers.  She even recognized a few of the faded decals on them.  That brightened her spirits a little bit.  Truckers depended on one another for company and comradery when the road seemed to stretch on too far out of sight and it was just them, the radio, and their thoughts.

The door chimed with a tiny bell as she ducked her head underneath the entrance.  It was much warmer in here.  A friendly young Male Canine smiled at her and waved and she immediately crossed to the counter.

"Evening, ma'am!" the boy said, looking up at her with respect and wary appreciation for how much bigger she was than him.  He looked to be part Doberman and part something else if the natural stripes in his dark fur were natural.  He barely came up to her chin with his ears and he was only half as wide across the shoulders as her.  As most people did, his brown eyes strayed just a touch south from her fuzzy face to the immense straining front of her jacket, coverall front, and the blouse she wore underneath.  Even the slightest movement set her girls to swaying.  His ears folded a bit down before he looked back up into her face, grinning sheepishly.

She smiled back at him, showing only one tooth just to tease the kid.  He probably was only seventeen.  Already working too; there was nothing to not respect about someone like that.  "Evenin'," she rumbled cheekily.  "Eighty on Pump 5."

"Of course!" the boy responded cheerfully, seeming relieved that he hadn't offended her.  She passed him her Fleet card, paid for by her most recent employer to cover travel expenses within reason.  It was fairly standard protocol anymore and actually saved money for everyone in the long run.  The register took a while to process but it eventually dinged and she was handed the blue metal card back.  She tucked it firmly back into the pocket of her coveralls.  She patted it once, winking down at the boy.  He gulped at what the motion did to her.

"Y'all got a bathroom?" she asked then.

He stuttered and nodded, pointing with a paw towards the back of the store.

"Thanks, sugar!" she grinned, flashing her biggest smile.  She turned and flounced her way back across the store, unafraid to put a little swagger in her rounded hips and give the kid a bit of a teasing show of her just as endowed posterior in her tight jeans.  That put a bit of pep back in her step.  On her way, she passed multiple rows of assorted confections, candy, jerky, chips, and various other snack food that were typically seen at stores like this.

Her visit to the bathroom was uneventful, as the cramped, but immaculately clean little room was empty save for her.  Whilst inside, she also brushed her teeth, redid her hair, and washed her paws and face in the sink.  Feeling refreshed after she had blow-dried her fur back out again, she exited the room, turning the light off behind her.

She heard noise and laughter coming from around the corner from the bathroom at what was probably the gas station diner.  She recognized a few voices and immediately beamed.  She whirled around the corner, leaning her huge weight against the tiled wall.

"Piggle-Power, that you, you old sonnuva bitch?!" she snarled good-naturedly.

The crowd of around half a dozen various patrons sitting at the diner table all whirled around to see who had spoken.  As one, their eyes lit up with joy.  The one in the back, a gnarly and rather ugly Boar stomped up to his feet and threw his bristle-hair-covered arms wide.  "Honey-Maple!" he bellowed.

The two hulking Anthros crossed the distance between them in barely a step between them and embraced hard, laughing.  She slapped his solid back beneath his sleeveless denim biker's jacket, a gesture which he returned.  The rest of the truckers present stood as well and repeated the hug with her to a man, even the ones she didn't know as well.  She felt overjoyed to see them all.

"I didn't expect to see y'all's sorry asses this far north!" she exclaimed when she let go of the last, a currently one-horned Ram who went by Hardhead.  She tugged on his chin beard teasingly and he punched her in the arm in return.

"What can we say?" asked Piggle-Power, whose real name, she knew, was ironically Hammet.  "Work is steady and the road is long."

"So long as we get back home where we belong!" the entire group chorused in return.  They all laughed again.  Huck, a fierce-eyed Equine, passed her a cup of steaming coffee and she palmed it gratefully.  They all took seats at their table again, eagerly shooting the breeze while they continued to warm up from the miserable weather outside.  Social interaction it seemed had been exactly what she had been missing.

"How long's it been?" asked Hammet to her eventually.  She arched an eyebrow at him, currently halfway through her coffee.  "Since you been home?"

She put down her cup and pondered her fuzzy-faced features in its steaming liquid.  "Probably a month?" she pondered.  Everyone whistled.  "Work's been steady."

"Well, can't complain about that," hissed a Reptilian she didn't know too well but she had seen a couple of times at various weigh stations over the last year or so.  He seemed new.  Dog-tags jingled around his scaly neck.  They drew attention to the horrible-looking scar on his throat, a simple, round hole that resembled a bullet wound.

She nodded in response.  Behind them all, the door jingled again and her keen ears heard the attendant give the same, chipper greeting.  She put it out of her mind, even though she hadn't heard any new vehicles pull up to the building's driveway.  Anthro senses were so sharp that she knew she could probably hear a truck parking at the farthest end of the lot, so long as the wind wasn't blowing too hard.  In Canada, that wasn't uncommon.  In her home state of Alaska, it was even harsher.

"Woah..." said Hardhead then, getting her attention as she chewed on a piece of jerky that Hammet had handed her because she 'looked hungry'.  She had suitably poked him in his upturned nose, joking that she was fat enough as it was, but taking the snack anyway with a grin.  The other truckers looked up at the Ram.  His hourglass eyes were fixed on the entrance to the station since from where he was sitting he was the only one who could see around the corner.  "Look at this guy..."

As one, the group of truckers leaned around the corner and peered at who their friend was talking about.  She spotted him at once, ears perking up immediately in alarm.  It was a Human, a young man but easily an Adult by his species' standards, although his exact age was hard to tell.  He looked tired; completely worn down, and beyond past any sort of comfort of where he was or state his body might have been in.

He wore a thick white, oversized hoodie over his upper body as well as a drooping backpack whose straps were far too loose to be comfortable, forcing his back to bow unnaturally out of alignment.  Its black nylon fabric was highlighted by multiple brightly colored, mismatched tags, meant to reflect light from headlights or lamps and make him stand out more in the dark.  His posture was terrible, sagging and making her own backache just to imagine it, more than it usually did anyway, but what struck her the most were his eyes.  They were empty, cold, and distant.  Dark bags hung underneath them, taking away from the otherwise brilliant green color.  His shaggy brown hair hung raggedly over the majority of his otherwise handsome face, appearing unkempt and uncared for.

<figure></figure>

His outfit was nothing close to what a Human would need for the weather outside: hoodie, jeans, boots that were frayed at the soles and had definitely seen better days, slender gloves over long-fingered hands, and a scarf that was currently hanging limply from around his neck underneath the hem of his sweatshirt.  A pair of headphones likewise dangled from underneath, hanging across his chest as he inspected a line of energy drinks.

Gwen's 'Momma Bear' instincts flared and she stood up, leaving her half-finished coffee behind.  "You need help?" asked Hammet.  She shook her head, thick head of hair waving, and silently walked around the corner towards the Human.  He didn't seem aware at all of her or his surroundings.  She kept her distance, for now, not sure why she felt obliged to make sure nothing was going to happen.

People like this guy, they varied in their actions when they appeared this run-down, exhausted, and so out of it.  Either he was drugged out and about to start trouble, or he was completely out of his element and pushing himself too hard.  She'd seen the type before for either but he didn't seem to be twitchy of fidgety like a junkie would.

Her nose flared silently and she smelled him from the distance she was keeping away.  He didn't smell horrible, although it was obvious he hadn't bathed in a couple of days.  The cold probably kept him from stinking that badly but it was obvious he was a long way from home.  The sharpness of his admittedly nice cheekbones were alarming, and while the hoodie concealed his build, she suspected that he was probably not eating well, and hadn't for a while.  What was more he just smelled...sad.

That was when he finally moved.  His head whipped around and he looked up at her with an expression she had never seen before.  All at once, he went from detached, unaware sonder to completely tense and ready to spring into action.  His entire body stiffened and he shifted a foot or so back with a simple slide of his heel on the tiled floor.  His eyes were wild, white-rimmed, and even his hair seemed to bristle.  His teeth were bared as well.

She knew that stance, what it meant.  Her ears drooped immediately.  What had this guy been through to look at someone else he didn't know with such hostility and immediate preparation to run or fight?  He didn't even seem put off by their vast difference in height or weight, despite that she was confident she could probably use his entire body like a dumbbell in just one of her massive paws.

Lifting them in a gesture of peace, she met his frantic, nearly panicked eyes and smiled gently, not showing any teeth.  "Hey there," she said, voice soft and gentle.  "Sorry to spook you there, hun.  Wasn't my intention."

He didn't relax.  He eyed her suspiciously, refusing to drop his guard.  He even took another shuffling step back, entire body tense as a spring.  She even recognized the stance he was using with some shock; that was Ahn-Happido 'the Uncovered Claw', a fighting style taught to usually only Anthros in the Legion.  A cross-species technique, it depended on total body concentration and mastery of breathing while channeling Aggression into any number of brutal combinations for augmented strength.  Aggression was something Humans didn't have, thus just adding to the bizarreness of the situation.

It wasn't that uncommon for a Human to have learned it since the Legion had been Cohabitation friendly for years now, but even so...  The boy's stance was solid but he didn't have even one indicator he had actually served.  Any member of the Legion always had some kind of marker: a tattoo, jewelry, a tag, or badge worn on their clothing, so that any other member could easily identify one another in public.  It was a mark of honor and pride.  Ahn-Happido even more so, for it had been passed down over the ages since the Peacekeeper War had begun.

He must have been taught it by someone else.  He didn't have the instincts naturally needed to fully utilize it like an Anthro.  He couldn't know that it was a fighting style only used when you were prepared to fight to the death at a moment's notice.  What was worse, he might actually have known, which just made it all the more alarming.

Her instincts surged to life and she had to work hard to tamp them back down.  Her paws remained soft and unaggressive, her face stayed calm and passive, eyes gentle and friendly.  She even backed up a step from him.  "Easy there, darlin'," she cooed.  "I didn't mean to make you feel unsafe."  Very slowly, she tilted her head to the side, hair falling to the other side, and baring her throat to him just slightly.

There was a long pause before the Human finally relaxed at the display of passivity she was making.  His air of steel-hard intensity fell away like a wave washing off of a rock and once again he sagged where he stood.  His face flinched and he slowly lowered his hands.  He didn't move back to where he had been standing and thus closer to her but she hadn't expected him to.  "It's...it's fine," he eventually grumbled.  His voice sounded harsh, phlegmy, and grating, most likely as if he was sick or getting there.  His pale cheeks flushed an unhealthy color and he blinked hard several times, eyes once again unfocused.  He shook himself once and then, to her shock, stood straighter and bared his throat back at her.  "Sorry."

Her eyebrows shot up into her thick bangs, blue eyes wide.  "Oh, sweetie, there ain't no need to be apologizing to me," she immediately assured him.  "I had no intention of..." she trailed off, looking him up and down once again.  His entire stance was unrefined but completely rigid as he attempted to hold himself in the Legion stance for acknowledging of a superior.  Again, he didn't seem unnatural doing it, but he lacked the telltale signs that it came from actual experience.  He shuddered beneath her gaze.  "Sweetie, can I ask something, if it ain't too prying?"

He nodded.

"Are you all right?"

The Human flinched.  His face contorted and he immediately dropped his position of attention.  "I'm fine," he snapped.  He looked away from her, crossing his arms and then sighing heavily.  One hand lifted and rubbed across his tired features, sweeping back through his messy hair before he met her eyes again.  "Just. Tired.  Been on the road a while.  Cold out."

"Yeah, it is," she agreed.  "I didn't mean to offend you I just..."  Her usually rambunctious social side was slipping for some reason.  He seemed to still be so hostile and ready to flee at a moment's notice.  His nerves must have been stretched to a breaking point.  She glanced at the parking lot outside, still shadowed by the gloomy clouds and iron-gray sky that was rapidly growing darker.  She didn't see any new cars anywhere.  The distant shapes of the trucks were the only vehicles in sight.

By the time she looked back, the Human had once again seemingly checked out mentally.  His gaze was fixed firmly behind her shoulder.  She cleared her throat and he switched back to looking somewhat directly at her again.  "Can I help you...?" he asked warily.

She grimaced.  "I...was about to ask you that," she admitted, which only made him twitch again in seeming irritation.  "It's a hell of a night to be...walking...out...this late...I just wanted to make sure you were...traveling...safely."  Her voice trailed off to barely audible at the severity of his gaze on her.

"My car's parked out near the gas pumps," he snapped.  "Only an idiot would be hitchhiking in the middle of Canada, in Autumn, with a storm blowing in."

"Right..." she mumbled.  She finally tore her eyes away from him, feeling awkward and unsure what to do.  The guy was obviously irritable and quick to anger.  Usually, rude people like him just made her shrug and walk away.  They chose to have that outlook and reaction with other people around them.  This man, though...he didn't seem like this was a choice to act this way.  She watched him return to eyeing the energy drinks, obviously done with the conversation.  "Sorry for bothering you..."

Gwen turned to go, feeling small for the first time probably ever.  She returned to sit with her fellow truckers, occasionally glancing at the man as he shambled throughout the store, grabbing up various things.  He looked barely to be her age but already had seen things that made him skittish and his every motion jerky.  Any movement or activity around him, including a bag that fell off of an overstocked shelf, made him jump back into battle readiness before he relaxed again.  She looked away from him, wishing she could help somehow.  Her friends eyed her in surprise before they glared across at the Human who currently had his back to them all.

"Little prick..." grumbled the Reptile, claws clicking steadily in a rhythm on his scaly arm.  "No need to be that rude to someone."

"Yeah," grunted Hammet.  He patted Gwen's shoulder with a big hand.  "Don't sweat him, Honey-Maple.  Tiny dude like that's probably just got a bad attitude."

She shrugged.  Her previous good mood was gone.  She swigged the remainder of her lukewarm coffee down and handed Huck a couple of bucks to repay him for it.  Truckers had their own sense of honor after all, and handouts were, while nice sometimes, hard to not feel guilty about accruing.  She stood then and the others looked up at the Ursid unhappily.

"Heading off?" Hammet asked.

Gwen nodded.  "Need to gas up and get back on the road before the storm forces me to take an early break," she told them.

"Good advice," Hardhead noted.  "We should all probably get going."  The six of them agreed, paid for their various things, and headed out the station, one after the other until Gwen was the last one left.  The attendant waved goodbye just as she was finally gathering up her own mental list of snacks, drinks, and medicine to refill her stockpile.

Just as she was approaching the register, she noticed that the Human was already standing there, forcing her to adjust her hold on the dozen or so items in her paws as she waited.  He had quite the pile of his own assembled before him in bags as he patted at various pockets, no doubt searching for his wallet.  He swore softly, making her ears flinch, and began digging around in his backpack.

Despite knowing that it wouldn't go well, Gwen couldn't help herself.   "Hey," she rumbled softly, getting the teenager behind the counter and the Human's attention abruptly.  They were the only three left in the store.  "Ring me up with him.  I'll cover it."

"Wow that's really nice of you!" exclaimed the Canine boy, grinning.  He started to immediately add stuff up.

The Human...growled.  Actually growled.  "Why the hell would you want to do that?" he demanded of her, turning slightly with a pivot of his heels.  The harshness of his eyes made her internal predator rumble in discomfort, unsure whether to raise her own hackles in response.  "Think I'm just a bum or something who can't pay for his fricking stuff?"

Her ears drooped and she immediately felt small again.  "No, that's not it at all," she tried to say.  "I was just trying to..."

"What, be nice?" he snapped back at her, cutting her off.  "People aren't that nice to just pay for someone else without being asked to.  I don't need or want your charity, Bear lady."

"Hey, dude," the teenager exclaimed.  "There's no need to be rude to her like that."  The Human turned, flashing the boy a look that immediately quelled him.  The kid's ears and tail drooped completely and his eyes went wide.  "W-well there isn't..." he muttered.  He glanced at her as if worried for her suddenly.  He was separated from the two of them by a bulletproof sheet of plexiglass.

Gwen finally was starting to lose her patience of being nice to this guy.  "Hey, you can talk to me any way you want," she growled.  "But you aren't going to be mean to some kid."  She adjusted her grip on her items, now glaring down at the Human from their considerable difference in height.

He turned slowly around fully to face her.  His stance once again began to tighten and his fists clenched at his sides.  They stared daggers at one another before, just as suddenly as his ire had begun to rise, he deflated again.  He swayed alarmingly on his feet and barely caught himself on the counter.  A black leather wallet flopped out onto the floor, skidding across the tiles toward her.

Without thinking, she bent down and snatched it up just as he was getting his balance back.  The wallet was old and worn, flopping open even as she gingerly lifted it between two fingers.  A gleaming flip-coin, adorned with a skull bleeding from the eyes and the words 'Heads I win, Tails you lose' winked at her from the internal fold alongside a driver's license picture that seemed several years old.

The man in the picture was clean-cut, straight-haired, and actually smiling.  It was a nice smile, not toothy but genuine like a high-school yearbook photo, coupled with an attractive brightness to his eyes that made him nearly shine.  His name seemed to all but leap off the plastic at her.  Zent, Laris Borean.  Age 21.  His listed address made her actually stiffen in alarm.  Castle Rock, Colorado.

What in the world was he doing this far north, 1400 miles from home?!

She looked back up at Laris as he finished standing up straight again but still with that horrible slouch to his stance.  Mutedly, he held out a hand to her.  She dumbly handed the wallet back, feeling him snatch it from her paw.  He dug out cash from an inner pocket despite that she had clearly seen credit cards in another sleeve, paid for his things, and stuffed the bags into his backpack in a rush.

The Human, Laris Zent, left.  Gwen and the cashier watched him go, her eyes easily tracking the bobbing sway of the reflector tape attached to his backpack before he finally passed out of sight.  He didn't ever go towards the gas pumps.  Because there was no car there.

The Ursid trucker paid for her own items, unable and unwilling to speak.  She gave the cashier a thankful nod for trying to help but declined to have him call the police about Laris.  Whatever internal torment he was trapped in, she wanted no part in making it any harder on him, even despite how rude and hostile he had been.

Climbing back into her truck, she drove it towards the nearest Diesel pump and fueled up in contemplative, dejected silence.  In short order, she was once again rumbling down the now nearly pitch-black highway, settling into her old habits to comfort herself while her mind continued to race with sad, depressing thoughts of being helpless and worrying about those who she didn't truly know and didn't care to know her.  The only thing that disturbed the otherwise nearly solid wall of night were the beams of her headlights and the occasional others that either whizzed past her in the opposite lane or crossed in front of her.  The red taillights they left behind in her vision reminded her too much of the intensity of the Human's eyes.

She remembered all too well the memories of her own troubled past, kept repressed and shoved into the least perused section of her brain, that had once almost hardened her as much as he had become.  The trials, the horrors, the questioning of self-worth, and the never-ending chain of punishments inflicted by her upon herself as if to make up for the wrongs she had done, no matter how trivial.  She didn't want to remember those dark days.  Many hours of therapy had finally allowed her to move on.  She felt endlessly grateful to her counselors and friends who had been there for her when she most needed it.  More than anything...she just wished she could do the same for someone else someday.

Spirits, she prayed to the silent dark around her, not even turning on her radio.  Give him peace.  He is just lost and without a path before him to follow.  No soul that young deserves to be that alone in the dark.  Give him someone that can and will help him, open his heart to be able to accept it.  Please.  I ask only your blessing, not for myself, but for that little Human with such angry eyes.  Let him smile again.  It was such a beautiful smile.

Something flashed in her eyes, making her jerk her thoughts once again back onto the road.  She didn't need to swerve off the highway and crash.  No matter her good intentions worrying about a boy that obviously wanted nothing to do with her, it wouldn't do her any good to get herself hurt while doing so.  She focused her attention on her immediate field of vision.  Something was growing brighter in her windshield and the path of light her truck's beams were casting.

Then she saw it.  The gleam of reflective tape.  In an instant she had sped on past, leaving her once again facing the wall of darkness, leaving behind that solitary figure in faded, saggy clothing, drooping backpack, and hollow, unfocused eyes.  Her paws gripped the wheel with uncertainty, her mind racing.  Then she stomped hard on her brakes.  The wheels squealed.  Sometimes, the Spirits handled things in their own way.  And sometimes they gave you the courage and opportunity to do it for yourself.

Switching on her reverse camera on the back of her trailer, Gwen threw the huge truck into reverse.  Sure enough, she saw Laris standing where she had passed him.  As before he was completely and utterly tense even from this oblique of an angle that the camera showed.  Putting the truck in park, she opened the door and then glanced down.  Oh.  Right.  She rolled her eyes but redid the straps of her coveralls.  It was too easy of a ritual to slip into given how long she had been a trucker.  People in her profession usually ended up falling into little habits while driving to help them be at their most comfortable.  For Gwen, that was driving without pants.  Not like the cab had windows to be able to see her lower half anyway.

Once her outfit was once again firmly in place she threw open the door and climbed down out of the cab.  The lights of her trailer were all turned on, casting a dim radiance in the gloom.  Mist and droplets of the coming storm hung heavy in the air as she strode to the rear of her trailer.  Laris stood there, a good twenty feet or so away and still stiff as a board.  He blinked hard as he tried to peer through the darkness at who was in front of him.  His night vision obviously wasn't as good as hers.

"Only an idiot would be hitchhiking," she growled over at him, crossing her burly arms.  Her voice rang out loud and clear.  "In Canada.  During Autumn.  While a storm is about to roll in."

Laris' eyes went wide and he was seemingly so shocked that he actually dropped out of the martial stance he had been holding.  "You?" he asked, voice even raspier.  He coughed then, ragged and deep, making her ears twinge at the way his chest rattled.  "Why...what..." he tried to demand but was interrupted each time he did by yet more coughs.

Her heart sank as she watched him almost doubling over, hands on his knees as he hacked and nearly retched in front of her.  She had never seen someone so miserable before.  So pathetic.  So...heart-wrenchingly sad that she wanted nothing more than to hug him and make everything okay.

"I'm gonna give it to you straight, darling," she told him when he finally wheezed to a stop and stood there in front of her, panting for breath.  "I don't know what you've gone through before tonight, but it's hurt you in ways that I won't pretend to understand.  Probably because I know close to if not exactly how much but I don't want to remember those things myself.  And I'll be damned if I leave someone suffering from all that without at least doing my utmost to help them."  He seemed about to speak up but she held up a paw.  "Not done, sugar.  I won't force you, but I can't drive on past you without doing and saying this first.  That ain't who I am.  Now, you are gonna listen to what I gotta say, and then you can decide what you want to do after.  Good?"

Laris wiped at his mouth with his sleeve and shivered before her.  Another gust of wind howled down around them.  He stared hard up at her before, finally, he nodded in silence and understanding.

She smiled, gentle and soft.  "Good.  I don't know how far you're heading, but it ain't safe to walk on the side of a highway, at night, in the negatives.  The Spirits put me on your path for a reason, and I intend to make the most of it."  She jerked her head at the truck.  "Come with me.  I'll take you as far as I can on my trail that I can or until we've reached the nearest town if you don't want nothing to do with me after that."  She stuck out a paw toward him.  "Take it or leave it."

Laris eyed her outstretched paw and then his eyes traveled up it to her face again.  His expression hardened from uncertainty.  "You...can't make me..." he growled quietly.

She glared right back.  "See, that's where you're wrong, darling."  She took a rumbling step toward him and he flinched back.  "If I really wanted to, I could bundle your skinny ass in my paws like an empty coat, fling you in my truck, and drive you to the nearest hospital.  You're obviously sick, and you'll die out here if you keep going like you obviously have been.  What on earth makes a man walk over a thousand miles from Colorado to Canada?!"  She flung her paws out wide to emphasize the intensity of her question.  They fell to her sides then as she sighed.  "But that's your business.  All I know is that, if I wanted to, I could make you stop this fool's errand and get the help you desperately need.  Even if you don't want it, or are too stubborn to accept it."

He looked up at her with complete and utter certainty that he knew she was right.  Their size difference was too vast, even given his knowledge of the martial arts.  He was sick too.  If he were fully healthy and mentally aware, maybe he could challenge her, Ahn-Happido gave any warrior the skills to take on any kind of opponent, great or small.  She saw it in his eyes; he knew that for everything he had been trying to guard against if he picked this fight he would lose.

Then she calmed.  She smiled again.  "But I won't make you," she said, voice soft.  She extended her paw again.  "Let me help you, Laris.  Because you know."

He twitched when she said his name.  "Know...what?" he asked, voice finally relaxing as did his body.  He allowed his fear and confusion to show in his voice for once, letting her know just how afraid and uncertain, how hopeful he was, of what she was offering him.

"You know you're worth it," she uttered.  His eyes went wide.  "You know you deserve every happiness in the world, to be healthy, to trust people again.  You deserve the brightest world possible ahead of you.  And I wanna help you find it again.  If you'll let me."

His feet crunched on the paved ground beneath him as he slowly, cautiously, approached her.  He kept looking at her paw.  His gloved hand lifted, shaking beneath her eyes.  "You don't...know me," he objected with barely a foot of distance between them now.

"I don't have to," she told him.  Her paw folded around his hand as he finally closed the remaining space and stood in front of her.  "Your smile in that picture told me everything I needed to know about you.  I wanna help you find that Laris again."

"But..." he started to say but she shook her head.  Tears brimmed his eyes and he seemed intent on continuing.  His voice had started to weaken.  "I don't...I don't even...I was so..."

She shook her head again, ears twitching.  "I don't care if you were mean earlier.  That's not who you are.  I don't need to know exactly who you've always been to know that I want to meet you, the real you.  No matter how long that takes."

"But...why?"

She winked down at him.  "Because you've got one hell of a smile, handsome.  I wanna see it for myself."

He blinked.  He stared into her eyes and she stared down into his.  Time seemed to stop.  Color bloomed gently in his cheeks as they almost seemed to dilate as Human gazed at Ursid without the need for any words.  He could see how honest, how earnest, how deeply she felt the words she spoke, just in the way her eyes sparkled.  His chapped, split lips slowly spread.  The white of his teeth showed at one corner.  The expression transformed his entire face.

Laris dared to smile, even a little bit, to have someone reaching down into his darkness to pull him out and toward the light.

Gwen beamed.  "That's a start."  Then she was pulling him forward, nearly yanking him off his feet.  He grunted in alarm before her arms wrapped around him, kneeling down to be nearly on the same eye-level as him.  His chin thunked into her shoulder and his tiny frame shuddered in her grasp as she embraced this lost little soul tight against her bulk.

Shakily, she felt his hands slowly lifting to touch around her as much as he could reach.  It was so minimal that it honestly warmed her heart, giving her the tiniest thrill.  She didn't let herself enjoy it too much, what he needed right now was a warm, understanding heart that put no expectations on him other than what he needed right then: for someone to not need to truly know him to care.

"I don't..." he whispered up into her ear.  "I don't even know your name..."

She chuckled.  "It's Gwen.  Gwendolyn Honeycutt."

His grip tightened on her just a bit more and she was surprised but overjoyed to feel real strength there despite his slender build.  "I've...always loved that name," he muttered.  There was a shudder, one that traveled up and down his body, and then Laris went limp in her arms.

She very nearly dropped him in surprise.  Cradling his body in her paws, she looked down at him in alarm and concern.  Leaning her big head down, she pressed her quivering ear tip against his chest.  She found his heartbeat, low but solid, after a few tense seconds of concentration.  She smiled in relief.

Gwen carried Laris back to her truck, making sure to bring his meager belongings, his backpack, along with her.  Climbing back inside the cab, she kept going, squeezing past the front seats and into the rear of the truck's front.  Her living quarters were rather cramped, even if they had been built for even an Anthro of her species' size in mind.  Turning around, she tugged a curtain divider to the side, revealing her personal bunk, a bed which was situated right above the seats.  It was a heavily cushioned space, strewn with pillows, blankets, a gaming device, and more than several books she read when alone at night and in the need of some...mental companionship.

She laid Laris down on the bed and immediately worked on extricating him out of his frayed shoes, pants, and hoodie.  She left him in just his t-shirt, boxers, and socks, hoping that he would be able to sleep now that he was less dressed and able to get more comfortable.  He didn't respond other than a light moan right at the end as she covered him with a thick blanket.  She sniffed at the fabric of his hoodie and grimaced.  Definitely needed a wash.  She put it, the pants, and his shoes in a plastic bag, carefully placed his wallet beside him in the bed, and then collected her smut books to hide them in a trunk along with many others.  She blushed to her ears as she also took care of the other items in her bed that she used to...aide herself in her occasional, late-night relief session.

Gwen wasn't like most girls.  She wasn't ashamed of her sexuality but she didn't let it overpower her personality or interests.  It helped since, for one, she was a long-distance truck driver.  Romance didn't exactly fall into her lap all that often, nor were there many chances to spend physical intimacy with anyone even remotely special.  The other truckers all adored her but she didn't see any of them in that way.  The occasional one-night stand when she passed through a small town or city was fine but she had long wanted more than that, and she had particular tastes: she liked smaller guys, or at least males that let her feel strong but doting.  Gwen was a dom.  It was just in her nature.

But therein lay her second greatest obstacle, and yet another reason she wasn't like many other women.  Gwen was also a herm.  And while the wide world beyond was marginally accepting of that, since while the condition was rare, not everyone minded.  Hell, online, she often could find any number of text-based partners who were more than happy to help her live out her fantasies like in her books.  When it came to the physical world, however, she had to depend on the luck of the draw that the occasional partner she allowed herself to lower her standards enough to bed wouldn't be one of those types that were repulsed.   When they saw what she had in addition, that being an equally impressive endowment to match her prodigiously voluptuous chest, curved knockout ass, bulky but gentle arms, and a severe height difference between her and them, she couldn't always count that they'd still want to go all the way.  Foreplay wasn't really her preferred method when it came to finally get around to knocking boots.

With her shame carefully locked away in her personal chest of sinful material and toys, Gwen touched his slumbering cheek with a paw.  He stirred softly but didn't wake.  The nearly uncontrollable urge to lean down and kiss his cheek flared through her but she just shook her head, leaned back, and drew the curtain closed over the sleeping bunk.

She returned to her driver's seat, chugged an energy drink that she was worried was going out of production and set the truck to driving forwards once more.  She wasn't entirely sure she knew what she was doing was right or not, but she knew that her prayer to the Spirits couldn't be more clearly laid out in front of her.  If she truly wanted to help Laris, she'd have to make the effort.  The Spirits taught many lessons, and that was one of the most important ones.

She just hoped she was up to the task.  No.  She would be.  Anything to see Laris smile again as he had in the picture.  It was too perfect a smile.  He was too handsome to live his life with no light to those beautiful eyes of his.  It was an entirely benevolent wish of hers to bring him as far as she could before their paths inevitably split.  Entirely selfless.

A twinge through her made her growl softly to herself and she glanced once at her waist and then up above herself where he rested in the unseen bunk.  "Okay...maybe not entirely selfless..." she admitted out loud.  He was really cute, even as tired, grumpy, and forlorn as he currently was.  While carrying him, she hadn't been able to ignore how nice his body had felt beneath her paws.

His legs were firm and toned with impressive muscles.  They'd have to be strong to walk all this way and still have further to go if her suspicions were to be believed.  His chest was lean and probably equally trim.  His hair was soft to the touch.  And yes, she'd noticed the shape of his bubble-shaped butt when she had removed his clothes enough for him to sleep comfortably in.  It practically begged her to fondle it in one of her big paws...

No.  Bad.  Down girl.

Gwen glared at her crotch and rubbed at the bulge in the front of it angrily, trying to shove it back down to slumber once again now that her mating urges had risen just enough to screen wonderful mental images into her brain.  It was like an actual animal with its own mind, poking its head out of its cave and sniffing the air hungrily.  She wouldn't stand for it.  She squeezed her thick thighs tighter and tried to think of distracting thoughts until the beast went back to sleep.

It took a long time to do so.  The open road helped.  Focusing on keeping her precious cargo safe was enough.  She just wanted to help him.  She just wanted to make him smile.  Whatever it took, and no matter if her own personal fantasies never came to light.

She thanked the Spirits for this opportunity to do their will and help Laris.  She only had one question for them.

Why did you have to make him so perfect?!

Nothing but the silent rumble of the road beneath her tires and the blackness of the starry night sky beyond came.  With it, a tiny voice made itself heard before she pummeled it into oblivion and ignored it as best as she could.  Still, its words clung to her brain like a burr, a mantra she had long drilled into her mind, as did every Anthro once old enough to utter the words of the Spirits' first and most important lessons.

The Spirits can give many things, but most important of all are these: life, love, and remembrance.  Be kind. Be true. Be loving. To others, and to yourself. Honor those who come before, and do no evil. And remember this:  the strongest and most important gift they can give is the opportunity to accomplish your own dreams, fulfill your own wishes.  Do not deprive yourself of joy, for life is for the living.  For you matter.  Never squander Life.  And never abandon Love.

Gwendolyn Honeycutt looked to the stars high above.  They twinkled brighter.  Were they just stars?  Or were they the Spirits, encouraging her to finally pursue her own happiness?  She would never know until she took fate into her own paws.  She dared to hope.  His smile would come first.  Who knew what lay over the next hill after that though?  No one could predict what came Over the Road next.

TBC!!!