[Gift] Warm and Cozy

The year before Irody and Obscura created a comfortable and big nest in the cellar of a since long broken down house. There was barely anything left of the house anymore but the house ground that it stood upon had proven rather sturdy. So even this year Irody and Obscura had decided on making this their winter home. It had been helpful the year before so they both doubted it would be anything other than comfortable this year as well. 

But this year they were expecting someone else. A grey iggy from the world of Atlantis would soon be joining them and stay for at least a couple of days, if not longer. So both Irody and Obscura had been hard at work. They had removed any branches and leaves that had been damaged by any water or that was similarly, or even if they were just looking bad. They both spent a lot of hours going into the forest to find new ones before the snow started falling. Now the area outside of the cellar was covered in snow and freezing. 

“We have to make sure that we can close and open the door.” Irody, the siamese green Styra told the laced, brown Pachy. “To make sure that there's no big gust of cold wind that will be able to grab us.” 

“What if it locks and you can’t get out?” Obscura was looking over the big, flat rock they had found months earlier. 

“Then you will just have to throw down food every now and then to me.” Irody laughed as she joked. The Pachy looked horrified at the thought that she would not be locked down there together with Irody.

“If you think you can lift this block by yourself you are more than welcome to test it rather than me.” Irody taunted her slightly but the Pachy chuckled.

“No, I understand how it works. Don’t worry. If you can’t move it I will make sure to just-” She jumped up into the air as she landed a couple of chops with her feet onto the ground with a rather gentle thud in the snow- “I will make sure to just break the rock so be sure you are not in the way.” 

They both laughed for a bit before they got ready to try their make shift door. They had a door the other year but during the last snow storm before spring it had broken down and they had yet to find anything easier to manage to close the hole leading down into the cellar with. It was heavy, but they knew that already. But they had managed to move it over from where they found it and Irody, although she didn’t tell her partner this, was sure that she could probably shove it herself. She still appreciated the willingness to help the Pachy always had. Irody knew she would go through anything if it meant she could help her. And Irody would do the same for her.

As they were ready to push the rock they were stopped abruptly by steps in the snow. They both looked up as the grey Iggy Grus slowly walked her way through the bare forest that encircled the cellar. Irody and Obscura immediately stopped pushing the rock and turned around to face the newcomer. Obscura, who had been so against Atlantians overall, had become friendly to the grey Iggy after they had met as they climbed the mountain during fall. Irody loved how she now met the grey Iggy with a smile and warm welcome.

“Grus!” The Pachy rushed forward to meet up with the Iggy before she managed to walk up to them. 

“Obscura.” She smiled back at the Pachy. “Irody.” She added as she turned her gaze back up to meet the much slower Styra who made her way to also join up with the Iggy.

“It’s been so long.” Irody remarked. 

“It really has been.” Grus answered.

“Was it hard to find this place for you? What took you so long? Where did you go? Is there even more snow on the outside of the forest?” Obscura didn’t seem to care especially much that she wasn’t really breathing between each question or giving the Iggy time to respond either.

“Obscura. Obscura.” Irody had to repeat herself twice before the Pachy whipped her head back to face her. She looked so happy Irody couldn’t help but to chuckle. “At least let our guest breathe before you bombard her with all your questions. Let’s show her around. Or would you prefer to rest?” Obscura was doing her absolute best to not just jump up and down beside Irody as she waited for an answer to any of the questions she or Irody had asked.

“I would love to see your home.” Grus said, finally able to speak. Irody nodded as Obscura practically sprung up into the air, turned in place and hurried over to the entrance to the cellar. 

“Here! Over here! This is where we lived last year and will live this year as well now that it’s cold.” Obscura didn’t wait for them both to get to the entrance before she hurried down. Grus carefully looked down the entrance. The stairs that once had gone from the bottom to the top had long since gotten destroyed by the elements as it had been exposed to it. Instead Irody and Obscura had made it into a somewhat stair-esque small ramp. There were places where you could step your feet to help you not slide down the entrance completely. “We were just going to test the new door we found. To help us keep it really warm and cozy.” Obscura shouted from the cellar as she had disappeared into a corner of it where they couldn’t see her anymore.

They all agreed that they would test the rock before they really showed Grus the big space that was their cellar. Irody and Obscura got back to the side of the flat rock. They had been lucky, while the rock was heavy it was also rather flat. So when it was in position Obscura could push it so that it gently slid in front of the opening. They had placed bigger rocks at the entrance that caught the rock and stopped it from going all the way down and rather left half of the entrance open. There was enough space for Obscura to crawl her way down into the cellar but not enough for Irody or Grus to crawl her way out. Instead Irody used her body, with the help of Obscura as well as she could in the small staircase to the entrance, to push the rock up and to the side. They would have to reset the stone, which was the only hard part of this solution really.

“Perfect. But next year we will find a proper one like we had last year.” Irody nodded as they both got the rock back.

“Wow. That’s really amazing.”

“I think it will really help keep it warm and comfortable. We have already stocked up on food for many days. But the best part is we don’t have to close it unless there’s a snowstorm really. Or just very windy. Because the temperature down here is really steady.” Both Irody and Obscura looked proudly as they sat beside the Iggy.

“Do you want to see how it looks?” Obscura asked and Grus responded by nodding.

“I would love to.” 

Obscura was unsurprisingly first down the cellar again, standing ready at the bottom to show off the room they had made sure to make comfortable another year. As Grus made her way down, followed by Irody, she could see the effort they had put into making the cellar comfortable. There was a stack of branches in one corner, practically taller than the Pachy, and a pile of leaves in the other corner. This one was not as impressive but Grus could tell that there was a lot of work put into collecting all of those leaves. And the rest of the cellar - far from the entrance - had the floor covered in a thick layer of old branches and leaves from the year before and then on top of it new, fresh branches and leaves making for a rather soft and comfortable looking bedding. 

“You both know what you are doing.” Grus nodded as she carefully walked further into the room. It was warm down there. There was no gust of air in the same way as there was above them. It would probably get even warmer when they were down here for the night. 

“You are welcome to stay all winter if you want.” Obscura and Irody both said almost at the same time. Grus had to take a few seconds before she figured out what they had said.

“I might take you both up on that. They say it’ll be a rather cold winter this year.  And this sure is a comfortable place you’ve chosen and created.”

That night, instead of being just two in the great, big cellar. Obscura and Irody had a third roommate staying in the cellar. Creating an even warmer and cozier area for them.