Bathory was very thirsty, but the nice lady looking after him said he wasn’t allowed to drink any more, not until after his surgery. The special medicine needed to make him sleep and not feel any pain would be affected if he had anything more, so he had to be patient.
It took an awful lot of effort to stand up and limp to the litter box to make good poopies and peepees, but Bathory did it anyway. He didn’t want to make his mummah’s t-shirt dirty, or his lovely new snuggy-friend! He took a moment to stand in place, feeling the textures beneath his soft, overly-sensitive hoofpads. His leggies throbbed all the way up and down and his knees especially hurt.
The concept of having no leggies hadn’t quite set in. He wasn’t going to be able to walk like this ever again! But he’d never been able to walk properly. He wasn’t able to keep up with his siblings when they played huggie-tag in mummah’s enclosure back at the mill, always limping, stumbling and falling over himself! He asked the nice lady what a ‘bone spur’ was and she explained it to him as pointies that grew from the bones inside him that were supposed to be smooth. That was why it hurt so badly! And his leggies bent the wrong way, too, so it always made trotting along difficult since they buckled inwards.
But now, they were going to fix him!
The nice lady lifted Bathory gently onto a trolley with a little mattress on it. He asked her for his mummah’s shirt and she folded it up and tucked it under his head like a pillow, so he could smell her for the whole procedure. She wheeled him through the practise and just before the last set of doors was his mummah! She gave him a kiss and stroked his head, told him he was very brave, then waved as he went into the extra-bright operating room.
Waiting for him was the nice doctor.
“Hello, Bathory. Your mommy told us that you made your decision. You’ve been very brave. We will help to look after you any time you need it,” Doctor Fields reassured the little colt, who cheeped up at him from nerves. It was a huge decision. But he needed it. “There will be a little pinch and you’ll start to feel sleepy. Take nice, deep breaths…”
The needle made Bathory squeak, but before he knew it, he was sniffing his mummah’s shirt deeply, slipping away to sleep without a care in the world. All his pain felt so very far away like he didn’t need to think about it any more. He was somewhere dark and warm, snuggled up in his fluffy-mummah’s tummyfluff, curled up on his human-mummah’s lap while the radio played somewhere far away.
——
The procedure was simple and so much easier with the foal anaesthetised. The young vet tech could shave the incision sites without upsetting their tiny patient, quickly buzzing his soft, downy first coat away. Doctor Fields was able to cut the flesh away on the legs to properly see the still-soft bone and where it needed to be clipped. He left extra flaps of skin for the finishing and was sure to check the shoulder and hip joints for spurs. Luckily, they were all concentrated in the knees and ankles. One was growing long enough to pierce down through the first layer of marshmallow-soft pad. It looked like a horror movie growing inside the poor colt’s legs.
He cauterised the flesh and applied a thin film of biogel, then cut the flaps of skin for suturing. Bathory was left with rather robust stumps that were sure to grow with him and if there were any problems, correcting them or removing future spurs would be simple. Each stitch was neat and tight, with enough skin to give him room to grow.
That was a common problem with botch pillow jobs— ruptured stitches and not enough skin.
He’d discussed neutering with Ariadne, but she agreed that he needed to grow first. His skeleton was weak and he needed all of the hormones he could get in order to develop properly, so prematurely removing his lumps would be crueller than it was kind. After all, Ariadne was the frank sort—talking to a Fluffy about sex wasn’t something that perturbed her.
Each limb was neatly removed, checked and sewn shut. With the extra time he had allotted in case of emergencies, Doctor Fields cut the colt’s severed legs open and exposed the extent of the damage in his knees. There almost wasn’t a smooth surface in sight. Knobbled and pointed where they ground together, no wonder it was so difficult for him. He had Bathory cleaned and returned to his enclosure, then invited Ariadne to examine the remains before it went into the biowaste. She took several photographs on her mobile phone to catalogue his condition and use on his insurance claim to confirm that it was, indeed, a medical necessity.
Doctor Fields peeled his gloves off and shook Ariadne’s hand before he went to get ready for his next patient.
——
Bathory’s eyes opened and he could tell they were in the vroomy-car. His head was fuzzy and he couldn’t feel much of anything, but there was something soft and comforting snuggled next to his face and mummah’s shirt was draped across him like a blanket. He sighed deep and content and went back to sleep.
——
When his eyes opened again, he knew where he was! This was his favourite bed next to his mummah, freshly-changed to match his clean-feeling fluff. His leggies were a little bit sore, but in a different way. A raw kind of way, instead of a sore kind of way. The bedside light was on and mummah was right there, gently snoring under the not-decorative blanket with a book on her chest.
Bathory put his weight down on his right-front leggie to turn around a bit more, but peeped! It hurt! In a different way!
He gave up on that. Instead, he laid his head back down and went back to sleep again.
——
Mummah woke him up next. She fed him some meddy-kay-shun that tasted sweet, soft and chewy and gave him some miwkies from a bottle.
“It’s easier on your tummy right now,” mummah explained. “And when you need to, make good poopies and peepees where you are. You don’t need to move, just rest. I’ll clean you up.”
That sounded so embarrassing! Bathory nodded blearily, then went back to sleep again.
——
He could feel something hot and wet underneath him, soaking into his fluff. It was pee! Bathory peeped for his mummah, until he felt his bowels loosen and sludgy poopies plopped out from his butthole. That felt the worst! It smeared down his fuzzy rear and piled up on his little balls. He pushed without realising and a spray of miwkie-poopies splattered behind him!
He’d not lost control like this since he was a chirpie! Tears stung his eyes and he peeped despondently for his human mummah, until he felt a hand scoop under his tummy and a warm wet wipe sopped up all the waste.
Coooo…
That was so much better!
He cheeped in relief at being clean once more and mummah laid him back down on a fresh, soft pad. He felt like a chirpie with his eyes closed and cleanies coming from a loving mother again. It wasn’t a terribly bad feeling, as he drifted back off again.
——
This cycle continued for several days. Ariadne moved Bathory into her office so she could get back to work, the thudding of her typing a comforting background sound to his sleepy recovery. Voiding himself, being cleaned. Being fed his medication and some warm miwkies, then going back to sleep.
——
“Hey, babygirl. How’s the wee man doing?”
Ariadne kissed her partner on the cheek as she took the tall woman’s leather jacket. She was wide-shouldered, dark-eyed, pierced in three places through her nose and had a buzz cut kept close to her head. Where Ariadne was curvy, Iris was lanky and hard-edged. She was butch as fuck and loved it. Ariadne was her grumpy little femme chick and the two adored each other since high school.
“Sleepy. He needs a few days for his stitches to cure and bones to heal, so he’s out cold. Fuck, babe, it was so scary,” Ariadne sighed and hung up her girlfriend’s coat, only to be greeted immediately with a hug. Iris was flat as a board and tough from her work processing lumber, but her hugs sunk perfectly into Ariadne’s soft flesh.
“You been sleeping?” Iris asked.
“Barely.”
“You go lay down with him, I’ll make you something to drink,” Iris smiled and kissed the top of Ariadne’s head, then patted her back towards the bedroom.
She settled onto the bed and laid back properly for what felt like the first time in forever. By the time Iris made her way in, both goth and fluff were out cold.
——
When Bathory woke up, nothing hurt.
“Mummah?” He called out, as he rose his head and planted his shoulder-stumps down. They felt different, but not bad. His eyes were bleary and the living room began to come into view, with someone sitting on the couch watching the big box, pictures moving around on it. He stretched and felt his bones pop down his body and wiggled his hips. “Nu weggies… nu huwties!”
“Addy! He’s awake!” The lady called, then petted Bathory on the back. “Hey, good boy! Feel better?”
“Whewe mummah?” Bathory asked, his voice wobbling a bit, but when he sniffed at her wrist, he could smell mummah’s perfume and something familiar.
“She’s on her way. I’m Iris, I guess I’m your other-mummy now?” She said, smiling down at the Fluffy. “She’s my special friend,” Iris explained, unsure if a baby would know such words but Bathory seemed to understand.
Wow! He was so lucky to have two human-mummahs!
Without thinking too hard about it, Bathory put one stump forwards and used it to help pull and wiggle himself towards Iris. The smooth surface of the leather couch made him slide easily on his tummy-fluff and he made his way to her thigh to smoosh his face against his third-mummah.
“Wub! Baffwee wub mummah ‘pechow fwend!” He burbled and cooed contentedly when she stroked his head and down his newly grown-in mane!
Footsteps approached from the small apartment’s hallway and Ariadne emerged from the bathroom with her hair in a towel.
“Bathory!” Ariadne called to him and watched in joy as her Fluffy used his stumps to help turn himself around to look at her. “Look at you! Do you feel better? Did that hurt?”
“Mummah!!” Bathory squealed. “Baffwee nu hab weggie huwties! Wub stumpies!” He giggled and raised one to wave at Ariadne. “Wub Iwish too!”
Ariadne wasted no time in scooping her Fluffy up into her arms and held him tight to her chest. She buried her nose between his ears and into his mane, finally able to stop worrying. Tears welled up in her eyes.
“Mummah smeww suuuuu nicey,” Bathory sighed as he stretched his arm stumps around Ariadne’s chest. “Stumpie huggie stiww gud huggie,” he said sagely. “Hab bigges’ heawt happies.”
Ariadne sat down next to Iris and leant into her as one strong arm reached around her shoulders, squeezing her tight.
“Wub mummahs…” Bathory mumbled, as the comforting warmth of his owner’s chest sunk into him, eventually falling back asleep on her.
It felt like his life could finally begin.
————
First Chapter
Previous Chapter
We can have a little bit of hugbox. Just a lick.