This takes place directly after Herman’s epilogue in Hunting Wabbits but it’ll be its entirely separate thing. If you’d like some back-story to Herman and his Fluffies go and read that first, otherwise enjoy this little story.
Herman Mongola stepped outside and breathed in the fresh air, there was a slight tinge of Fluffy shit in the wind but Herman was amazed at how quickly he’d gotten use to it.
Of course he was use to his Fluffies and their semi-decent diet, this new smell came from ferals, and death.
Grabbing his shovel, Herman took a short stroll over to the body of the Smarty he killed minutes ago, he wasn’t the first Smart-ass trying to claim Herman’s farm as his own, and he wouldn’t be the last, but Herman had gotten use to handling the drone his nephew left him and, as evidenced by the flattened Fluffy in front of him, he was getting good at dropping bricks on Smarties to scare them off.
Herman stopped briefly to think of his nephew Jonathan, by now he was getting ready to stand trial for the murder of his parents. Herman couldn’t blame him, his brother Fitzgerald and his wife Vivienne were abusive and neglectful respectively, but it still made him sad to think of Jonathan being put into the position where he had to kill them.
Figuring there wasn’t much he could do about it, Herman went back to the task at hand, using the shovel to pick up the Smarty’s body and dump it into a bio-waste bin he had installed a few days ago. It wasn’t a heavy load, but Herman could still feel his old bones aching, at almost 70 years old he was in good health for his age, but he still had moments that reminded him he wasn’t as young as he used to be.
He figured that’s why he loved his Fluffies so much, they gave him a purpose whilst also filling his life with childlike wonder and glee again. Not a day had gone by since he adopted Hickory, Cinnamon and their daughter Pamela that they hadn’t gazed out into the clear night sky, away from the noise and the lights of the city, and asked a million and one questions about everything from what stars are, to existence of ‘Sky-Daddeh’ and what he means to Fluffies.
With the Smarties body disposed of, Herman took a quick walk through the wheat fields nearest his home, making sure none of the feral herd had stayed behind. 9 times out of 10 when he did The Brick Trick the others ferals got the message and fucked off, but Herman knew better than to think that was the end of it.
This time the ferals seemed to have all scattered, until Herman spotted something, something very small and very blue on the ground. Making his way over to it, he was shocked to find it was a foal, a very young one at that. The fact that it was still chirping and hadn’t opened its eyes yet told Herman it was only a few days old, if that, it must’ve fallen off its mother when she ran off in fright from the Smarty’s death.
Sure enough, Herman could see the streak of shit leading away from the foal, ironically it was the shit that saved the poor things life, it landed in the mess as it was thrown from its mothers back, making for a softer landing than the hardening ground.
Herman looked the foal over, it was a male, a unicorn, his fluff was a powder blue, mane a bright red, it was shivering from either fear or cold or both, and Herman could hear tiny little ‘Huus’ between bouts of ‘peep’ and ‘chirp’. Giving the numerous similarities Herman guessed he was the Smarties son, which made it all the stranger that his mother hadn’t come back looking for him, a foal like this would’ve easily made the cut for a bestesh babbeh. And yet there was no clueless mare calling out for him, no brightly coloured mother waddling towards Herman pleading not to hurt her son.
Feeling a pang of guilt, Herman gathered the foal into his coat sleeves, wiping some of the shit from his tiny body and carried him back inside.
By now Hickory and his family had left the Safe-Room and were sitting in the living room, Pamela trying to stack her blocks as high as she could. When Herman came bounding in they were all worried about his frantic expressions, and the strange smell he brought with him.
The smell of another Fluffy.
“Daddeh? Wai yu hab Fwuffy?”
“Found this little guy outside, must’ve been separated from his mother when the herd ran off. Couldn’t just leave the fella out there, he’s far too young to be left alone.”
Herman took the foal over to the kitchen sinks, while he ran a warm bath to clean him, he picked up Hickory and placed him beside the foal on the countertop. Hickory looked down at the tiny shaking form in front of him and gasped.
“It am chiwpie-babbeh, poow babbeh mush hab biggesh heawt huwties fow wosin mummah.”
“Yeah, I don’t know where she’s gone but she never came back for him. You mind keeping him warm while I run him a bath.”
“Daddeh, big wawa am bad fow babbehs, need hab tap wawa, howd babbeh unda, wike bawkie-babbeh on In-ta-net.”
Herman thought for a second about limiting the time he let the Fluffies online for but figured Hickory was right, while the older Fluffies could stand bathtime and even hold their breath for a few seconds to allow Herman to clean their face, a foal this young likely wouldn’t have the lung capacity, nor the knowledge, to handle such a task.
Draining out the water from the sink, Herman set the tap up to wash the foal under it, Hickory quickly put his hood under the running water and nodded.
“Dat gud wawa fow babbeh.”
With Hickory’s blessing, Herman cupped the foal in his hands and brought him over to the tap, almost instantly the foal starting crying out, his natural fear of water kicked in and feeling it against his stomach terrified the poor thing. Herman could feel a small amount of piss pooling in his hands but no scardie-poopies, little guy must’ve been starving, again strange for a foal of this colour to be abandoned and hungry.
Hickory positioned himelf on the edge of the sink and leant forward, stroking the foal’s cheek.
“Dewe, dewe babbeh. Nu am bad wawa, am gud wawa, hewp make babbeh smeww pwetty gain. Hicowy am hewe, nu wet aneefing bad happen tu babbehs.”
Hickory’s soft words seemed to do the trick and the foals calmed down, it was still crying but no longer wailing. Herman used that moment to softly massage the foal’s body, gently wiping the shit from his fragile body, the foal still shivered but he seemed to enjoy the massage, letting out a high-pitch ‘coo’ at Herman’s touch.
Sastisfied that the foal was clean, Herman grabbed his softest cloth and wrapped the little guy up, coddling him in the comforting fabric. He then carried Hickory and the foal over to Cinnamon and Pamela, letting them all get a good look at the boy for the first time.
“Babbeh am su pwetty.” Pamela smiled at the infant, she was still too young to have foals herself so she didn’t have the ‘babbeh feeling’, she just found him adorable. “Hewwo wittew babbeh, am Pamewa, am su happy tu see yu.”
“Are you guys ok looking after him while I run to the shops to get formula? I got nothing here to feed him with, just keep him warm and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Bu daddeh.” Cinnamon looked up at Herman with a smile like she’d cracked The Enigma Code. “Cin-a-min hab miwkies fow babbeh.”
“Are you sure Cinnamon, he’s not your foal so you don’t have to give him anything you don’t want to.”
“Cin-a-min suwe, wost babbehs tu meanie Smawty, happy tu be mummah tu Pamewa and hab biggesh heawt happiest u be soon-mummah gain, bud is babbeh hab nu mummah, Cin-a-min wan wook afta dis babbeh coz nu couwd wook afta wast wuns.”
Hickory and Pamela reached in and cuddled Cinnamon the memory of losing their last litter to Alpha was still fresh in their minds. Herman reached down and stroked her mane.
“You’re incredible for doing this Cinnamon, I’m so proud of you.”
Herman picked the foal up and slowly unwrapped him from the cloth, the poor guy noticed the removal of his blanket immediately and started crying again, his tiny limbs shaking blindly in their attempts to find his warmth and comfort again. But as Cinnamon took the foal into her arms and placed him gently onto her teat, the foal felt a new sense of comfort, a mothering comfort. He rubbed his face against Cinnamon’s fluff and latched onto her teat within seconds, greedily gulping down her warm, nutritious milk with everything he had, kneading her breast to push as much as he could out of her.
“Swow down babbeh, miwkie nu gun away. Mummah awway hab miwkies for wittew babbehs, mummah wub babbeh, babbeh wub mummah, dwink da miwkies, gwow big an stwong.”
Herman swore he saw the foal crying at the song, his tiny arms gripping onto Cinnamon even tighter than before.
“Poor thing is famished, doesn’t make any sense. He’s a unicorn, the same colour as his father, he must have been a favourite child at some point, why wasn’t he fed.”
“Babbeh am nu pointy daddeh.” Cinnamon spoke softly so as not to frighten the foal. “Babbeh am wingie-pointy, wook.”
She pointed to the foals back, and sure enough there were two barely healed scars from where his wings had been bitten off.
The foal was an Alicorn.
Cinnamon looked back at Herman. “Mummah take wingies, if babbeh am Smawty babbeh den pwetty Fwuff wikewy wai he nu gu foweba sweepies.”
Pamela gasped. “Dat awfuw, wai mummahs wan huwt babbehs?”
“Fwuffies fink wingie-pointies am munstahs, wike dey fink Cin-a-min an Hik-o-ree am poopies. It am bad finkies, an bad finkie make Fwuffies nu bad fings wen dey nu knyo betta.”
“Weww Pamewa nu cawe, Pamewa wan wook afta babbeh nu matta wha.”
Herman chuckled. “I’m glad to hear that Pamela, cause I think this wee guy will be staying with us a little bit longer.”
“Yay, Pamewa wub nyu babbehs fwiend.”
Oblivious to the conversations around him, the foal – now with a protruding belly filled with milk – unlatched himself from Cinnamon’s teat and loudly belched, before nuzzling into Cinnamon’s belly Fluff. He’d never known this comfort before and didn’t want to let it go anytime soon.
Cinnamon picked the foal up and brought it to her chest, hugging him with all the love she had to give. “It ok babbeh, Cin-a-min wub yu nyo.”
As she held the foal in her arms, she felt him start to move, she looked down and was amazed to see the foal’s eyelids starting to flutter.
“Daddeh! Babbeh see-pwace am openin.”
Sure enough, the foal’s eyes slowly but surely lifted open, this bright, blurry new world was frightening at first but he didn’t cry, because he smelt something, something unfamiliar but warm and inviting. As the blurred vision slowly came into focus, the foal looked up and gazed into Cinnamon’s eyes, her wide, beaming smile making him giggle.
“Heh heh. Mummah?”
Without even thinking, Cinnamon nodded, tears rolling down her eyes. “Yeh, am mummah.”
The foal opened his arms and pulled himself tighter onto her chest. “Wub mummah.”
Hickory and Pamela joined in, cuddling each other to create a small Fluff-pile with the foal in the middle. Herman looked down at the family and smiled.
“You know, I think we should name our new friend now, don’t you?”
The Fluffies nodded in excitement, even the foal joined in, something in his programming knew that a new name was the best thing that could happen to a Fluffy. Herman softly stroked the foal’s cheek with his finger, eliciting a soft cooing from him, he thought about how hard his life must’ve been in the few days since his birth, how close he had to have come from the forever sleep, only to be saved by sheer luck, to have been found by Herman and given a second chance.
“I think I’ll call him, Lazarus.”
to think its a poor alicorn without its wings. Guess that brick is better for that shitty smarty.
