Guard Duty

	It was a cold, dreary night, and the lone soldier couldn't help but grumble and complain as he forced into guard duty. Usually, he had company from his comrade who will occasionally trade with him, but after the latest battle, he never returned. There was nothing to return home other than the personal belongings of his friend. He couldn't help but feel sorry as he was a good friend.

	'Why do I gotta guard this lousy road if there is no one on the other goddamn side?' thought the lone soldier. 'Especially in this cold night, with no one to talk to.' He couldn't help but pace up and down his guard post (miserable foxhole) in a futile attempt to gain some heat. His gloved hands held unto a jagged stock; with false hope, the rifle would provide some warmth. He remembered when he would bring cigarettes for a trade, and his nameless comrade would bring alcohol, and they would talk all night until the sun came up. Digging into his pockets, he pulled out a flask, all beaten and discolored, realizing it was from his old friend. He couldn't help but let a sense of melancholy come upon remembering his fallen friend. He remembered all the dumb conversations they had from sports to just complaining over the incompetent officer staff. Looking towards the moon, he poured one out to his comrade; "Cheers mate, have one on me" after running some of the cognacs for some time, he deemed it good enough for his friend. Taking a swig of the flask, he felt the burn of the cognac as it makes its way to his stomach.

	Feeling a pair of eyes falling on him, he turned his gaze towards the other end of the road and watched from the south end side a wolf soldier on guard duty. He couldn't help but dislike that wolf; they're the reason he got conscripted to this lousy ass war. He looked down his binoculars and saw it was wolfess, pretty evident by her fluff, as most females had an extra bit of fur around their necks. She was spying him with binoculars, and upon noticing him, she waved at him.
'Yeah, keep waving filthy furfag as if that'll make me trust you.' he thought to himself. 'Why do they always try being friendly? Pretty fuckin' rich coming from them seeing as they started the damn war.' The wolfess immediately started approaching him, with something. Weirded out, he unslung his rifle and looked down the sights, seeing she was carrying a package of some kind wrapped in paper? "What the hell is she doing?" muttering to himself, he decided to take action, well. "Hey! What are you doing? You have to stay in your post!

	"Hallo! I bring trade!" she said out loud. He could see her clearly; she stood at 6 feet, dark fluffy fur, and had a very shapely body with a large bust somewhat held back by her uniform. She was quite alluring in his eyes, appearing very beautiful.
 	"Uh, hi, what do you bring?" he responded, 'I hope she has cigarettes or maybe some booze.'
	"I bring some chocolates and sweets for you!" she responded in a weird accent, clearly evident that she just learned English.
	"What." His brain just went blank. For what damn reason will she trade with him? Plus, she was damn fur! 
         "Don't be shy, come closer; it's just a gift!" As if to cement her words, there was a small red bow on top of the box. Unsure of what to do, he just stood up from his fox hole. On the one hand, he could get some random gift; on the other, it could be a trick, and god knows what will happen. 
	"Alright, I'm coming over. Stay there." Placing the rifle on the dirt wall, he was about to climb out and immediately stopped. Remembering where exactly he was at, he took a spare revolver in a pocket inside the greatcoat and stepped out of the fox hole.

	What may have been an eternity or a couple of seconds, he slowly approached the wolfess. The closer he got, the larger the wolfess became, and the more he realized how retarded his decision was. Standing approximately 5 feet away from the wolfess, he realized she was probably closer to 6'5''.
	"Hi, I'm James, the soldier just on guard post b." greeted James quickly, hoping to get this over with and slinking back to his foxhole.
	"Hallo, I am Bertha, from guard post c." she giggled at him, or at what he said, James was not entirely sure. She was still struggling with her words, placing weird emphasis on the t's and c's.
	"Why are you gifting me something? Do you not realize where we are? Wouldn't it be better to trade rather than giving me a lousy gift?" It appeared that James' response might have hurt her a little.
	"Well, I just wanted to do something nice for you; I could sense you were a bit sad as of late," she responded after some deliberation and shoved the box in his face.
	"So accept it and be a little happy, please." Bertha looked at James with what one would describe as puppy eyes. Deciding not to drag things on, James just took the box, much to Bertha's pleasure, and turned around to his foxhole. Immediately he heard her squeal, but James didn't want to stick around and just ran back to his post. 

   	 Back in his little foxhole, James looked at the box and thought, why did he even accept this damned box? She could've just traded or sold it for something back on camp. 'Well, guess I gotta open the box now.' Slowly taking the red bow off and ripping the papers off, he gazed at the little wooden box. Scratched and beaten to hell, it had a small brass oval on top with a language he couldn't read. 'Figures, it's in that fur language, doesn't take a genius to know that.' Opening it, he saw the contents inside; two chocolate bars, the wrapping having words in that weird alphabet, four packets of gum, if the wrapping is any indication, they are cherry flavor and a small envelope. Annoyed at the care Bertha put in this gift, he opened it, looking at a poem in that language he could not read. In the back, there was a photo that made James' heart drop. 
           It was Bertha in those skimpy outfits he had seen in the pin-up mags, accompanied by some writing and lipstick kiss on it. The photo had her wearing a short skirt showing her long and shapely legs in grey fur and a uniform shirt tied at the midriff showing her deep and ample cleavage. Quickly putting away the image, James became worried if he got caught, he could be facing a year of latrine duty 'Goddamn it! As if it weren't bad enough now, I got literal fur porn on me!' worried over his lecherous content, he quickly shoved it down his pants pocket for later studying. 'Why the hell she go outta her way for me? I'm just some dumb ass conscript' looking at the sweets, James realized he wasn't going to let a good thing go to waste. Ripping off the chocolate wrapping, he bit into it and felt the sweet mix of caramel and chocolate, which turned out to be a favorite flavor of his. Befuddled, he wondered how the hell she got the bar of chocolate, specifically his favorite flavor? Glancing at the box's contents, he saw the second bar was the same one. Again, how did she know? Or is it pure coincidence? 
	The hours went on until the replacing soldier marched up to James, getting him out of the cold night hours. Looking up, he noticed it was a male bear, shirtless, due to his massive dark amounts of fur. Had it not been for the glowing green eyes in the dark, James would not have noticed him. Climbing out of the foxhole, he left without much fuss, checking to make sure he had his gift in his greatcoat's inner pocket, which also happened to have his beaten flask. 'Say what you will about the furs they made some good shit.' thought James. Moving south from the foxhole, he marched down the clearing and followed the dirt path. He kept walking south until he reached the guard towers and barbed wire held by massive tree trunks. 
	"Halt, who goes there?" Cried out a voice in from of him. It was a human guard, also wrapped in a blue-grey trenchcoat with a heavy wool cap.
	'Great, it's a new guy, another dumbass.' thought James quickly. "Hey man, I'm just one of the guards coming back to base!"
	"Hey, don't mind Private Retards here. I know you, James comes on in" Thank god, it was Sargeant Pieve, a lion wrapped in the blue-grey tunic uniform and James squad Sargeant.
	Without further talking, James just walked past the two soldiers. He quickly went down the corridor between the massive tent city until he found his own. Unbuttoning the entrance, he walked into the cramped space, placed his rifle on the tent wall, took off his once brown boots, and went to sleep—the last things on his mind where the gifts and the mysterious wolf.