A New Beginning
Chapter 3: The Arrival
With a long drag of his cigar the Dandyman took in the morning sun. Blowing out a long cloud of smoke he admired the scene before him as the sun’s morning rays bathed the wide expanse that was his land. The estate was old, having originally belonged to an old couple in their late eighties that had passed some five years ago. The property had fallen into disarray as the couple had no offspring to inherit and the estate agents handling the old farm had thrown it into limbo to hover and sit without sale.
The Dandyman however found the old property called Russel Glen a quaint place to call home. It was a good one hundred kilometres from town and surrounded by outback woods, hills, rivers and land. There was no one around to disturb him. Peace and quiet is what he desired, that was until the arrival of the fluffy called Lemon.
Lemon was a rare female smarty and a white earthie fluff. She was polite, well spoken and intelligent. She hadn’t demanded the land but had asked for food and offered a trade to feed her herd. The Dandyman had suggested that she and her herd could eat the grass and weeds that were overgrown in return as work to help clear the land for him. She had accepted and left, that had been yesterday morning.
Doubting that she would survive the journey back to her nest, these lands were dangerous especially for a tiny fluff, the Dandyman had gone about preparing an area for the herd, encase she returned. Coordinating off a section he had begun removing the creatures that had made the land theirs. Sickles made quick work removing heads from eastern browns that had slithered in and made their nests. Nasty buggers that were rather aggressive and as soon as they spotted the farm’s new owner dashed out to bite. But the Dandyman had made short work of them and tossed the bodies aside. He would later have skinned and drained them, best not to waste good meat. The farm had been left in disarray for so long snakes, spiders and other crawlies were everywhere he looked. Though even if bit the venomous beasts posed no issue to his infernal constitution.
With the area closest to the homestead cleared, Dandyman had started on the nearby shed only twenty metres down from the house. Clearing and gutting the shed he removed an old pig trough. With a burst of flames and simple spell he had welded the holes shut before grabbing a rune pen. With a flourish runes had been engraved and the trough shrunk in size. It was now a suitable height for fluffies. If Lemon and her herd came couldn’t have the things dying of dehydration with the heat.
With a final drag Dandyman tossed the cigar to the ground with a flick before stomping it out. Whether the fluffies arrived or not would not alter his plans. The old farm would be fixed. The fluffies were simply a way to keep himself amused.
Rustling in the grass drew his focus as similar white fluff emerged.
“Hewwo nice mistah, fwuffy wemon is back.” The familiar visage of the white earthie smarty emerged from the overgrown her tail wagging in excitement.
“Well now if it isn’t my little friend. Welcome back. Have you returned as we agreed? Your herd will work for me by eating my grass as food.” The Dandyman crouched down bringing his tall form closer to the little creature. The white fluff smiled up at the traveller with her vibrant green eyes.
“Wes nice mistah fwuffy comsies wid herd fo wowksies.” Lemon responded to the question with a teeth showing smile. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she was incredibly proud of her herd.
“Well then little one why don’t you show me your herd.” Lemon nodded and turned to the grass behind her.
“Herd comsie, fwuffies says hi’sies to nice mistah.” Lemon spoke up she sounded bright and cheerful, but there was a twinge of nervousness.
Lemon beckoned to her herd and soon rustling came from the tall grass. Emerging from the thicket was seven fluffies, four of them encircling three others as if in a protective formation. The four protective fluffies consisted of deep olive broken horn unicorn, a brown short pegasus and two blue alicorns with different coloured horns. The ones in the middle consisted of three earth ponies one deep blue, another a bright pink and the last a smaller brown coloured fluffy.
“Dis am herdies dat coms diw wemon.” Lemon said as she pointed one of her small hooves to the approaching group. The fluffies appeared nervous taking small steps towards the traveller and eying him with suspicion. The two alicorns, unicorn and pegasus were on guard, their muscles tense and ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
Well, well the little ones are on edge. Quite guarded against me, the four are ready to jump in front of the three earth ponies without hesitation. Lemon despite her friendly disposition is also a little on edge, she’s tense. The Dandyman eyed each of the fluffies taking in their appearances and distinct features. The unicorn with the broken herd looked like a battle hardened veteran having no tail and was coated in scars.
“Is this all your herd? I don’t see any foals?” The dandyman suspected that perhaps it wasn’t the true extent of her herd, after all she had asked for food because she needed to feed babies, mothers and soon mothers. Yet he could see none amongst the current fluffies. “Don’t tell me she killed them, here I was hoping she was different from other fluffes I heard about.”
“Wemon nu bwing aww fwuffies. Nu twust hooman. Hoomans wiaws. Wiaws dat nu huwt fwuffies, nu gwiv fwowevew sweepies or wowstest huwties bwu du. Su Wemon onwy bwing sum hewd.” Lemon responded in kind as her fluff stood on ends taking a defensive position in front of her herd. She was watching the traveller with wary eyes after he had asked about the rest of her herd.
“That’s quite clever of you little one. You shouldn’t be so quick to trust others. But don’t worry I don’t intend to hurt you, not unless I have to. As long as you perform your end of the bargain and work here, you are safe. BUT you will have to follow some rules, understand.” The Dandyman reached into his suit jacket and removed a cigar. Taking a cigar cutter designed he cut the tip, instead of using his usual method of lighting he pulled out a tinderbox. With a lit cigar he took a long drag and blew out a cloud of smoke. The process gave Lemon’s tiny mind time to process his words.
“Wemon un hewd fwowwo wuwes.”
“Very good. The first rule is you will only work in the areas I tell you to. It’s a matter of safety for you and your herd, you understand.” The Dandyman looked at the little fluff with a serious expression, his voice hard and cold.
Gulp
The little fluff took a deep gulp, “Wes, wemon wundatwan.” She looked back at her herd who slowly nodded.
“Good rule number two, you will not demand things of me. I do not give things for free nor will I give you what you want. This includes spaghetti or sketti as you call it.” The moment he said that one of the earthies, the pink one her eyes lit up.
“Sketti! Nice mistah av skettis! Bewwy wah skettie, gib sketties tu bewwy nao!” The pink mare shouted loudly as she attempted to bound forward for her sketties. Only to suddenly receive a hoof to her snout courtesy of Lemon. The pink mare cried out as she rolled backwards, releasing a small torrent of shit as she did so.
“Huu huu, why gwiv bewwy sowwy hoovsies to smeww pwacsies, am gud fwuffy.” The pink mare now identified as Berry cried as she sobbed holding her snout. Lemon took a step forward and huffed staring down at the mare with a strong glare.
“Bewwy nu wask fu sketti! Nice mistah say wuwe numbah tooh. Bewwy be gwud fwuffy nao.” Lemon said as she stamped her hoof. Berry sniffled but soon stopped crying and gave a nod as she got up and stood back in line.
“Sowwy nice mistah, wemon hab tu be bwig meanie to bewwy, give smeww peace sowwy hoovsies, am mawke bewwy du scwawdie poopsies.” Lemon apologised and bowed her head to the Dandyman hoping he wouldn’t get upset with her.
“Apology accepted. That was very well handled Lemon. Which brings me to rule number three, Lemon you will keep your herd in order. If they do something bad like breaking my rules you will punish them.” Lemon nodded her head accepting the rule, she would have done it anyway. Lemon knew it was not wise to anger the humans, her mother had always warned her.
“Rule number four. If you need to go ‘poopies’ you will only do it where I tell you to.” The traveller pointed over to a nearby spot he had cleared on the far right of his front lawn. “You will go to that spot over there. I will use your faecal matter as fertiliser.”
“Wemon dun no wat fwert…fwertizer, bu du as towd.” Lemon looked to her herd and narrowed her eyes, “Su wiw hewd.” The herd quickly nodded their heads.
“Good. Rule number five there is to be no special huggies on my land. When you are here you are to work. You may of course take breaks when you’re tired.”
“Wemon ah’gwe. Wowk for nummies nu fo speshuw huggies. Fwuff hewd nu bwetta dan du speshuw huggies.” Lemon retorted, agreeing to the next rule.
"Rule number six you will not enter my home unless I say so. Rule number seven you will address me as sir or the Dandyman, I am not your daddy." Lemon again agreed as did her little herd mates. Some of them lit up at the mention of daddy but Lemon quickly shut them down with a pointed glare. The Dandyman thought it looked cute.
“Good that’s all the rules for now, but I will add more later. If you need water I have prepared a place for you to drink.” He pointed to the shrunken pig trough that had been placed close to the patio of his home that was filled.
“Wemon twank nice mistah fo wawa.”
“Now, do your herd mates have names?” Taking another drag of his cigar he pointed to the other seven fluffies, who besides the pink one momentarily acting up, had all been quiet and hadn’t spoken. They were well behaved at least.
“Wes. Wemon tells yu dare namesies. Dis am hewd tuffies! Oonicwown is Wock, pwegaswis is Bawk un awicown sissies Wiwwow un W’ose.” Lemon pointed to the four tuffies of her herd going from one to the other allowing the traveller to identify Willow as the alicorn with a red horn and Eose the sister with the pink horn.
'She didn’t call them monster’s, that’s a good sign.
“Den dis am hewd wowkies fwuffs. Wawa, Bewwy and Twig.” Not the most imaginative of names but they were to the point.
“Good, nice to meet you all.”
“Hewwo nice mistah.” The seven fluffies greeted the traveller each in different manners and tones. The one called Rock was gruff, his voice scratchy sounding. Twig was rather shy and reserved. Berry cried a little as she spoke no doubt from her previous experience. Water was bubbly and jumped around. Bark was long and drawn out, speaking rather slowly. The two sisters spoke in unison with deadpan expressions. It was a little creepy.
“Now then the areas you can work in are my front yard and backyard up to the fence line.” The Dandyman pointed to the area in front of his house and then indicated behind it as he walked and motioned for the fluffies to follow. He showed them to the fence that surrounded the main yards of the home, outside was the remaining fields of the property. The fence was old and in disarray it would need repairs.
“Stay inside the fenced area while you work. I have cleared it of snakes, spiders and other nasty creatures that could hurt you.” The fluffies looked up at him confused.
“T-t-twig nu n-n-no wha swake un, un spwi-da.”
“Mistah meansies nuudew munstah un weggie munstah.” Lemon chimed in before the traveller could respond to the little earthies question. The fluffies gasped and seemed to shiver in fright at the mention of the monsters.
“Yes I suppose those are noodle and leggie monster’s to you. They are gone within the work area. I have given them forever sleepies if you will.” At the mention of forever sleepies all eight fluffies gasped and shook.
“Dank u nice mistah.” Lemon said a little shake her eyes quivering with fear at the mention of death. No fluffy liked the idea of going forever sleepies.
“Wemon unt ask nice mistah if hewd tawke gwass nummies bwak tu uda fwuffies in hewd.” Lemon tenderly asked, she wanted to be able to bring some of the food back to her herd to help feed them. She held her breath and waited for an answer.
“You can. I’ll prepare something to help you carry it back. Just pull the grass and weeds up and place it by the patio.” He indicated a nearby spot opposite the trough for the grass to be placed.
Lemon beamed again once more jumping for joy as did her herd. The fluffies began to hug one another as they cried tears of joy. They were all shouting things like ‘biggest heawt happies’
, ‘hewd hab nummies’, ‘babbehs nu tummies hurties’, ‘nu fowehab sweepies’, ‘Milkies fu babbehs’ and ‘Nummies!’. The traveller merely shook his head at their antics and went about showing them what they needed to do, to pull the weeds from the roots and how to cut the grass at a low height using their teeth.
Once he had shown them he headed over to a shed, the one he had previously cleaned up. He went about gathering old wood, hammer and nails and started to build small sled-like carriages from the fluffies. The little wooden sled would have an angled front so it wouldn’t catch and high enough side to store the grass. Old ropes would be nailed onto the sides and knotted at one end so the fluffies could bite down on the knots and drag the sled behind them. The traveller would make two such sleds with two sets of reins so two fluffies could pull each sled.
The sleds wouldn’t take too long, barely even an hour just a simple cut and hammer job. Magic made it go so much easier and with a little mending made the sleds look good as new. Taking the two carrying tools he saw that the fluffies had already begun to make a tall pile of grass. From what he could gather they had held off eating in order to gather food for the herd first.
Walking over he coughed slightly making the fluffies jump, the earthies hid in the grass while the toughies and Lemon stood defensively, only to realise it was the traveller.
“Sorry for frightening you little fluffs. I have something for you.” Placing the sleds on the ground the fluffies slowly gathered and sniffed the wooden boxes curiously. Lemon poked one of them and looked at the Dandyman confused.
“Wah am dis mistah?”
“This is a wooden sled that you can put the grass in.” The dandyman grabbed some grass from the pile and loaded the sled like cart up. He grabbed one end of the rope and pointed to the knot, “Bite on this and two fluffies can drag this back to your nest when you’re done here.”
Lemon’s eyes lit up seeming to understand and she started jumping around in joy. The other fluffies watching her quickly did the same, perhaps not with the same level of understanding but if it made their leader happy then it must be a good thing.
“Now I’m going to go open the gates for you so you can take these sleds with you. After that i’ll be going inside. Don’t work to long little ones. You should return home before it gets dark.”
“Yus nice mistah! Fwuffies hab biggest heawt happies!” The group of fluffies shouted with joy and hugged each other again. The traveller almost felt like throwing up from the sugar.
“So sickening sweet it’s like I’ll get diabetes.” The traveller could now understand the internet ‘meme’ about getting diabetes from such sickening sweet scenes. The fluffies were adorable. He’d give them that.
"Now then little fluffs I’ll leave you to it." With that the Dandyman turned and drowned out the cries of yes and thank yous as the fluffies went back to work. Walking down the lane from his home the Dandyman lit up another cigar and walked away.
Chapter 3 is done.
The fluffies have arrived at the Dandyman’s homestead and begun to work. The Dandyman explained the rules, one of the fluffies got a little excited and demanding but Lemon quickly nipped that in the bud.
What will happen next? How will the Dandyman and Lemons’ herd get along? Will there be any more disturbances or bad fluffies?