The kelpie mummah had poured everything she had learned within her short lifetime into these two fillies, hoping they learned what she taught them so that they may one day survive on their own. They watched as she stalked her prey, waiting for the right moment to strike. From luring stray stallions to the water to drown them, to targeting a vulnerable soon mummah in her nest while her special friend was away, to snatching foals that wandered too far from their mummahs. The kelpie sisters learned so much about how to kill fluffies and helped their mummah with the killing blows. Any meat they couldn’t eat in one sitting was stashed in clay deposits or buried in mud to keep for the next meal.
Sometimes while they were out traveling, they’d take keen interests in the beautiful plants growing around them. Their mother would take notice of this, asking which ones were their favorites. Upon receiving their answers, she would carefully gather clippings of their favorite plants eventually beckoning them over for lickie-cleanies. Her daughters gladly oblige, of course, only to find their mother making a horrible noise before laving their manes with a thick and sticky mucus. It was a disgusting ordeal, and both complained about ‘not feeling pretty’ and asking why she was giving ‘yicky-cleanies’ before she began planting the clippings into their thick hair, using the mucus as an organic adhesive. It was then, the sisters were finally bestowed their names.
“Yo namesie am Wawa Poppy, an’ yo namesie am Fow-get-me-nu.”
The fillies giggle excitedly, tapping and hopping in ecstatic dances as they repeat their own names over and over with unbridled glee. Their mummah smiles fondly, beaming with pride at her daughters achieving this very important milestone. Soon, they will be ready to prove themselves capable of hunting without her help.
The time came, their mummah told them that it was a big game. If they could find their own nummies without her help, and bring back proof of their hunt, they would win. With a little psyching up, the sisters were raring to go. They split off in different directions, using all the knowledge they had learned, tracking down their prey. They soon realized that they reunited and found the same target. A stray mummah, her special friend, and their nest of newborn chirpie babbehs. There were enough targets to share between the two. The sisters quietly argued, deliberating what to do. Both agreed to wait for the stallion to leave in search of nummies, for he was too much of a threat for the both of them.
After quietly waiting in the tall grass for what felt like so many forevers, he finally left, promising his special friend that he’d be back soon with nummies. As soon as he was out of sight, the two young kelpies made their move. They carefully, warily snuck from their hiding place, creeping up to the poorly dug scrape under the bush the fluffies called their nest. It was clear that one or both of them were strays that weren’t used to living out in the wild. Peering under the leaves of the bush, they’re alerted to the mummah’s soft snores, her tired eyes closed in exhausted slumber. Seven babbehs are tucked against her belly fluff in a cozy fluffpile, softly peeping and cooing in comfort and sleep.
Forget-me-not is the first to creep forward, pausing every few steps to make sure the nummie fluffies remain asleep. She eyes the nearest foals, looking for the easiest one to grab. She had to be careful. One mistake could have the babbehs peeping up a storm and alerting their mummah. One of the babbehs, a blue one, stretches, yawning wide with a whisper of a peep. The choice is made, she strikes. The foal doesn’t have a chance to screech so much as draw in another breath as her teeth sink into it’s throat. Moving quickly as she can, she drags the foal’s body away from the rest. The chirpie weakly kicks, gurgling as it chokes on it’s own blood. Within seconds it dies, leaving Forget-me-not to leave the scene with her prize.
Upon seeing her sister’s success, Water Poppy decides to make her move, looking for a suitable target. A larger pink and sunset orange babbeh rests near the center of the fluff pile, it’s belly round and looking full of sweet milkies. It looked far too appetizing to pass up. Water Poppy took her chance, tip-toeing through the fluffpile to snap her teeth around the fatter foal’s throat. Unfortunately, the thickness of the babbeh’s neck coupled with the awkward angle at which she bit did not keep the infant from snapping out of their sleep, screeching as loud as their tiny lungs could. Startled by the sudden noise, Water Poppy stumbles back, stepping on the leg of another babbeh, sparking a chain reaction of the whole nest erupting into screes and peeps of fear.
“Babbehs?!”
The mummah startles awake, her eyes snapping open at the sound of her young’s distress and the smell of blood. Instantly, her gaze is transfixed on Water Poppy and she gasps, recognizing the strange filly as a threat.
“BABBEH THIEF! NU HUWT MUMMAH’S BABBEHS!! TAKE WOSTEST SOWWY HOOFSIES!!!”
The mare shouts in anger, causing Water Poppy to scramble over herself in panic, her hooves kicking and flailing, leaving the babbehs squealing as new bruising injuries pock their tender bodies. The mummah lashes out, striking her hoof across Water Poppy’s face. The young kelpie shrieks as pain blossoms through her eye. The mummah continues her assault, stomping and hitting the filly repeatedly as she desperately tries to claw her way out of the fluffy’s nest. Fueled by fear and a desperate will to live, Water Poppy scrambles away from the nest, tail tucked and crying, barely even registering the alarmed calls of the stallion returning to the sounds of his enraged and distressed special friend. She bolts, as far and fast as her battered body will allow her, diving into the cold river water to hide in safety. She allows the current to carry her, drifting until she recognizes the familiar area where her family was staying. Catching herself on the bank, she limps home, her head hung low in shame at her failure.
Reaching the burrow, she finds her sister already there, being praised by their mummah for the catch she had brought home. The two turn to see the state that Water Poppy was in. A horrified gasp escapes Forget-me-not as their mummah hurries over to check Water Poppy’s injuries, asking her what happened. Water Poppy recites her experience, crying over her failure at losing the game and not catching any nummies. They console her with hugs, and clean her with licky-kisses. Their mother assures her that not all kelpies win their hunts, even when grown up, but that this loss must be an important lesson for future hunts. Forget-me-not tries to share part of her nummie babbeh with her sister, but Water Poppy refuses, too upset and embarrassed to feel hungry.
Days pass as Water Poppy recovers, her mother bringing her food and forcing her to chew bitter tasting plants to make the hurties go away faster. Once she well enough, she is brought along on hunts again, having to hone her skills. Eventually, she is sent to hunt on her own like her sister. They do not find the same target this time. Instead, she finds a young, earthie colt no bigger than herself.
It won’t be nearly as easy as stealing chirpies from a nest. She has to be tactful. He appears to be a nummie finder for a herd, and he had just found a delicious bushel of raspberries. She uses his distraction to sneak up on him, waiting for the right moment before charging forward, her teeth clamping down on his front right leggie and pulling and twisting with all her might. He screams in shock and pain, and before he can fully retaliate to defend himself, she darts away, hiding in the tall grass. The sudden retreat confuses him, leaving him sitting there with his scattered pile of nummies to ask pointless questions to himself.
“Huuhuu! Wai munstah fwuffy gib huwties?! Am guud fwuffy! W-Whewe munstah fwuffy gu?! D-Did munstah fwuffy get scawdies an’ wun ‘way? Huuhuu, weggie hab huwties, nee’ wun ‘way, b-buh smawty wiww gib wostest huwties if nu bwing nummies! huuhuuu, wha’ du? Wha’ du??”
She watches as he feebly tries to gather the scattered berries, wincing and crying every time he steps on his injured leggie. He’s distracted again, she takes another chance. This time she tears a chunk out of his flank, making him scream and buck. He cries and flails as she darts back into hiding. He tries the run after, threatening to give her worstest hurties if she doesn’t stay away, but loses her in the grass. He grabs a cheekful of berries, and tries to hobble back to his herd. She follows. It doesn’t take long for the bloodloss and the crippled leg to start taking it’s toll. Hearing the grass rustle behind him, he turns and sees her, watching, waiting. He nearly chokes on the raspberries in his mouth, most of them getting squished in the process. Saliva and berry juice dribble down his chin as he tries to quicken his pace. She chases, he attempts to flee. Her jaws catch his back leg, her body rolling to twist it until there is an audible pop. The colt tries to scream through his full mouth, frantically pawing at the dirt in an attempt to crawl away.
She has to work quickly, she doesn’t know how far away his herd actually is. He chokes on the berries, his screams are rendered silent. A stroke of good luck for Water Poppy. She can drag him further away, stomping him in the side to make breathing even harder. His movements grow slow and sluggish from blood loss and suffocation. She tries to tear into his neck, but his dulap of extra skin and fluff make it too difficult to kill him that way. So she tears into his belly, ripping out his insides and filling herself on warm, fresh meat. She can’t stay for long, she can only snack on what she can chew through first. With the colt finally dead, she tries to drag him away further towards the river, only to discover that he’s far heavier than she anticipated. She nearly exhausts herself trying before finally realizing that she can’t carry all of him back to the nest.
Quickly checking her surroundings to make sure there’s no immediate danger, nor threat of the colt’s herd, she gnaws through the meat of his back leggie. It takes precious time, and she has to check periodically to make sure she’s still safe. Eventually, she manages to tear through enough that with several hard tugs, she could rip the whole leg off. It’s an exhausting ordeal, and she’s spent a dangerous amount of energy in doing so. She cannot risk to hide the corpse for later eating, no matter how tempting it is. So instead, she takes the leg and heads back to her mother and sister as quickly as she can. In a world of apathy, where starvation is at stake, bringing back anything from a solo hunt is considered a win.
The kelpie sisters have now reached approximately three months of age. By now they’ve developed their own preferences in hunting. Water Poppy took a preference for persistence hunting, trailing after her prey and taking opportunistic pot-shots until they were too weak too fight or run. Forget-me-not favoured ambush hunting, stalking and waiting for her prey to wander away from safety or approach her so she could take them by surprise.
They’ve had several successful hunts on their own, and they’ve been showing interest in branching out further and further. In fact, it appears the longer they stay in proximity to each other, especially in nests and scrapes that cannot safely house the family trio, agitations and arguments appear to arise more frequently. Their mother sees the signs, and knows it is time.
“Wawa Poppy, Fow-get-me-nu. ‘Ou am tuu big fow stay in nestie wif mummah nao. ‘Ou nee’ gu an’ find yo own nesties.”
“B-Buh mummah, Fow-get-me-nu wuv mummah, wan stay! Mummah nu wuv nu mowe?”
The kelpie mummah hugs her daughters closely, knowing it might be the last time she does.
“Mummah awways wuv ‘ou. Mummah am su pwoud. ‘Ou am aww gwown-uppsies big an’ stwong. Am time fow widdwe kewpies to gu find nyu pwaces fow hunt and fow nest, pwepawe fow cowd timsies, an’ when weady, hab yo own babbehs.”
Her daughters hug her back as tight as they can before wishing her goodbye. They set off together, only glancing back a couple of times before their mother is completely out of sight. The two travel together for a little bit, before eventually getting into yet another argument about where they should stay for the night, and who was taking up too much space in the nest. Before long, the sisters would go their different ways, finding that having their own personal space much more preferable than butting heads.
Being on one’s own though, emphasized the host of preexisting dangers that threaten the kelpie’s existence. The world is dangerous for any form of fluffies, and kelpies are no different. Some predators of ferals include but are not limited to big cats, foxes, birds of prey such as eagles, canids like coyotes or wolves, large fish, foxes, otters, large snakes, crocodiles or alligators, bears, and even other aggressive fluffies or hungry cannibals. Yet the most dangerous predator shared amongst fluffykind are humans.
With the encroaching darkness of night, the fear of these dangers weighed heavily on Forget-me-not’s mind as she processed her newfound vulnerability. Digging out a shallow scrape under the concealing foliage of a thick shrub, the kelpie pegasus curls up in the dirt in an attempt to camouflage herself within the grass and leaves. Being the first night she’s ever spent alone, Forget-me-not finds it difficult to sleep. Every sound has her on edge, and the lack of body warmth from her sister or mother leaves her feeling colder than what she was used to.
