Chapter 25: I’m Sorry Little One
“FUCK! FUCKIN SHITTING GODDAMN WORTHLESS CUNTING SHITEBAG FUCK!”
Travis was awoken the next morning by violent shouting and swearing coming from the basement, groggily he peered out of his cage, trying to see what was causing Mister Gus to lash out like this.
Luckily, Minster Vincent was already looking into it.
“Gus? GUS? What the hell is the problem?”
There would a battering and a bellowing as Gus charged up the stairs, he burst from the door panting and sweating, his face beetroot red from exertion and from anger.
“She’s dead Vinny. The fucking white cunt, our fucking gold mine is fucking dead.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“No, I just saw her laying there and freaked the fuck out for no reason. OF COURSE I’M SURE, stone fucking cold, stiff as a concrete erection and she ain’t fucking breathing. She’s dead, has been for a long fucking time.”
“You didn’t check on her before we closed up for the night?”
“No Vinny, I was too busy trying to keep her fucking shitrats kids from killing themselves in their sleep to check on mum. Besides you wanted her ready for that fucking green prick you love so much, why didn’t you check on her? Maybe he fucked her to death.”
“Travis didn’t even fuck her, told me so himself, said she was too sad to look at. If she was dead then either he never noticed or never said, either way one of us should’ve checked. Now look, I know this is a set-back, but we still have that first litter and we’ve got plenty of good stock from there, this just puts us back a few months but we’re not completely fucked.”
Gus sighed, taking in a few deep breaths as he mulled over what Vincent was saying.
“Fuck it, you’re right. No point in crying over dead Fluffies. I’ll have some of the nurse-mares take in the kids, they can raise them up until we’re ready for them. I’m gonna for a smoke first.”
“Mind and shut the door when you come back…”
Gus waved Vincent’s complaints off, already heading for the backdoor “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
Vincent sighed and turned to Travis and Leon. “Sorry about that boys, we lost one of our mares last night, Gus is pretty upset about it.
Travis choked back a sob, knowing they’d been talking about Angel. “Dat am su sadies.”
“Yeah but… these things happen, can’t do anything about it. Let’s not focus on that though, the two of you need to get to work.”
Travis did his best to keep himself together as Vincent carried him and Leon through to the play-area, his Angel was gone, she’d just been returned to him and he’d lost her all over again. He tried to find comfort in the knowledge that she was with their foals again in skettiland, but he felt a hollowness thinking of her like that, of not being with him anymore, now so definitely gone.
He managed to hold on long enough to make it to the play-area before the tears started rolling down his face.
“Am sowwy speciaw-fwiend, Twavis neba fowgit yu.”
Citrus, spotting his father and friends arrival first, bounded over to see why Travis was crying. “Twavis? Wha wong, wai hab see-pwace wawas?”
Leon hobbled forward between his son and Travis. “Twavis fwiend gu foweba sweepie, he hab sadies fow dem.”
“Dat am su sadies, Citwus gib huggies, huggies make ebewyfing betta.”
Citrus started to toddle forward only to be stopped by the stern hoof of his father, Leon had other plans.
“Twavis? Twavis wook at Weon. Twavis!”
A short, sharp bop on his nose broke Travis out of his stupor, with tear-stained eyes he looked up at the exasperated Leon.
“Wha… wha guin…?”
“It time, nu hab wong Mistah Gus am ousside nyo, need move qwick. Yu wememba pwan?”
Travis wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded, it wasn’t the best plan, but it was all they had.
The two stallions looked over towards the till-counter to double-check Vincent was still occupied, his back was to them as he re-stickered some old stock, once they were sure they were safe, Travis climbed onto Leon’s back, the grey stallion heaved with the extra weight but his bulky form held strong and Travis was able to climb over the play-fence and drop down to the floor below, landing with a soft thump against the hardwood floor.
Travis bit his tongue to keep from crying out from the sudden pain, he held his breath waiting to see if Vincent had heard him, but he gave no indication of noticing any noise.
Citrus looked out of the gaps in the fence where Travis was now on the other side. “Daddeh, wai am Twavis nu in pway-pwace? Am Twavis bad Fwuffy?”
“Nu babbeh, Twavis am wunning way fwom meanie minstahs, an babbeh am guin wiv him.”
“WHA? Nu, dat am bad Fwuffy fing tu du, Mistah Vin-sent nu wike bad fwuffies.”
“Mistah Vin-sent am bad mistah, gib Fwuffies huwties an foweba sweepies, he take speciaw-fwiend tu bad pwace, whewe she hab bad speciaw-huggies bu neba awwowed tu see hew babbehs. Daddeh heaw Mistah Vin-sent say he wan make babbeh gib bad speciaw-huggies tu udda mawes wen yu big Fwuffy, daddeh nu wan babbeh be bad Fwuffy, wan babbeh be gud Fwuffy an hab bestesh speciaw-fwiend an babbehs.”
Citrus was in tears now, hearing the horrific fate of his mother, and what awaited him if he stayed. “Bu… Citwus nu wan weave daddeh, daddeh am aww Citwus hab.”
Leon looked his son in the eye, smiled gentle and lied to his face.
“Fwuffy be wight behin yu.”
Before Citrus could argue any further, Leon lifted the colt up and over the play-pen fence, passing him to Travis who carefully carried the colt to the other side.
“Pwease wook afta babbeh.” Leon pleaded with Travis.
Travis nodded, telling himself that this time would be different.
By now Travis and Citrus escape attempt was gathering a crowd with the other foals coking to investigate, Leon quickly leapt into distraction mode, leading the foals in a race to see if they were faster than a three legged stallion.
Only Travis could see it, but beneath Leon’s smiling face as he played with the foals was a worried, hurt look in his eyes, watching his son leave with another Fluffy.
Travis worked quickly, because of the layout of the store he was out of Vincent’s eye-line fairly quickly as he rounded the corner towards the open back door, sticking close to the wall to avoid being caught in the open. He had seen Crowley’s herd do the same thing when hunting other Fluffies, sticking close to the trees to hide their movements as much as they could.
Travis felt sick in learning anything of use from Crowley’s herd, but needs must at that moment.
On his back, Travis could hear Citrus sobbing away. “Huu, nu wike dis, wan daddeh bak, wan huggies.”
“Nu tawkies babbeh, awmosh ousside, need be siwent.”
Travis was right, the open back-door was mere feet away from them, however so was Mister Gus, Travis could just see the back of his head from his hiding spot underneath a table. If Leon was right, then Mister Gus would come back inside but leave the door open; that would be their chance to escape.
But what if he didn’t? What if Mister Gus shut the door this time? Travis and Citrus would be trapped, and they would have no way of getting back to the play-pen in time before…
Travis felt the floor beneath him shift slightly, and he looked over to see Mister Gus coming back inside, mumbling away about ‘Stupid shitrats can’t even breed properly’, and the back door left wide open.
Travis didn’t wait, he darted outside and into the back alley of the store, he kept running until he could feel the hard concrete of the pavement beneath his hoofs and then he stopped. The air was colder than he remembered, the weather just starting to turn towards the approaching autumn, there was the faint smell of rot coming from the skips just to the side of him and the hard ground hurt his hoofs.
But he was free, Travis breathed in that cold, rotten air like he’d never breathed before, he was outside again.
Citrus however, was much less enthused. “Nu wike ousside, wan gu bak, wan see daddeh.”
“Daddeh nu am comin babbeh, he wan Citwus hab gud wife way fwom meanie-pwace, but nu hab enuff weggies tu wook afta babbeh. Nu wowwies, Twavis wook afta babbeh nyo.”
Travis turned and started walking away from his captors, ready to start a new life as a surrogate father…
Only to stop again when he felt Citrus jump off his back.
“Need gu bak, need save daddeh.”
“BABBEH! Citwus come bak, Weon nu can fowwow, babbeh need come on.”
“NU! Nu can weave daddeh, need sabe daddeh.”
Travis tried to grab onto the little orange colt, but he kept slipping out of his grasp and getting closer and closer to the door.
“DADDEH! BABBEH AM COMIN DADDEH!”
“Citwus, nu tawkies, need gu nyo.”
“NU, NEED FIND DADDEH!”
Travis felt his heart frantically pounding in his chest, they needed to leave and quickly, but Citrus was making too much noise and risked alerting…
“GUS! THE FUCKIN DOOR’S OPEN AGAIN!”
No. Someone was coming, they would hear Citrus, they would see Citrus, their whole plan would be ruined.
“Citwus come on, need gu NYO!”
“Nu can gu wivout daddeh, Citwus wub daddeh.”
“Weon wub babbeh tuu, dat wai he hewp Twavis weave meanie pwace, nyo wet’s gu.”
“NUUUUHHHHUUUUUUHHHHUUUUUU!!! CITWUS WAN DADDEH, NU WAN WEAVE DADDEH IN MEANIE PWACE!”
“Babbeh pwease, nu tawkies, meanie mistahs heaw yu.”
“HUUUUHHHUUUU WAN DADDEH, WAN MUMMAH, WAN GU HOMESIES!”
“Nu tawkies babbeh, pweae nu tawkies.”
“HHUUUUUUUHUUUUUUHHUUUUUUUUU!!!..”
CRACK
Travis watched as Citrus was thrown to the ground with an almighty force, something had smacked the young colt so hard that his jaw had been broken, the poor little guy landed bleeding onto the ground, the pain too immense to even keep crying.
Then Travis looked over to his own raised hoof, and realised that it was himself that had attacked Citrus.
The orange foal turned, eyes brimming with confused tears, and looked up at Travis, the stallion he thought was his friend.
“Wa…Wagh gigb baggba huwgi…?”
Travis shot another hoof out, snapping one of Citrus’ front legs almost in half, the foal HOWLED in pain as every nerve in his body screamed out. By the time Gus came to shut the door, Travis was already underneath the skip.
“Hello, what have we here?” Gus sniggered as he saw the wailing Citrus laying in a crumpled, sobbing heap on the ground. “How’d you get out here?”
“Twaghas gibg huwgees, meagnig Fwguhghee gibg wowgegh…”
“Yeah, yeah whatever, probably smacked yourself retarded trying to escape. You’re that grey cunt’s kid ain’t ya, I bet he had a hand in this. Oh he’s not gonna like what I’m gonna do to him now.”
Gus carried Citrus back inside, ignoring the colt’s pained screams and protests as he kept trying to point to where Travis was hiding, but his broken jaw made his speech unintelligible so Gus ignored him as he stepped back inside and closed the door and an almighty thud.
Travis lay under the skip for several minutes, partly in fear that he could still be caught, mostly in shame for what he had done.
“Am sowwy babbeh, nu mean tu gib wowstesh huwties, Twavis nu knyo wha du.”
He lay there for a little longer, wiping the tears from his face and trying to justify his actions to himself.
“Nu, babbeh nu wisten tu Twavis, need weave him behin, need fink of Twavis fiwst. Twavis am aww Twavis hab nyo, need gu, find mummah, find bwudda and sissies, need gu tu Twee-Pwace gain.”
With his new goal in mind, Travis set off in search of the tree-place, and in search of his family again, quickly putting the events of the little shop of howwows behind him.
He wouldn’t realise it, but he would forget about Citrus much quicker than he expected.
Epilogue
Travis had been by himself for a few days now, he’d escaped the city yesterday and was now back in the forests, but he hadn’t found any Fluffies yet, nor had he found anything familiar to lead him back to where he’d lost his family.
He was starting to lose all hope, when he heard voices just through a clearing; familiar voices. Risking a look, Travis saw three stallions, standing by a tree, a rusty orange earthie was shouting at a red earthie and dark blue earthie.
Travis recognised them all, they were from Crowley’s herd, Copper was shouting at Crusher and Breaker.
“WAI DU DUMMEHS NEBA WISTEN TU SMAWTY, SMAWTY SAY NU TUFFIES NU GIB ENFIE TU UDDA TUFFIES NYO, IT NU AM WIGHT!”
Crusher sobbed. “Bu Coppa…”
“NU! NU AM COPPA NU MOWE, AM SMAWTY NYO, NU CWOWWEY, NU CWOW, NU WOAWKE, SMAWTY AM SMAWTY AN TUFFIES WISEN TU SMAWTIES!”
Travis could see the rage building in Breaker’s eyes and decided he didn’t want to be part of this anymore, he turned to leave but as he did, Breaker caught sight of the movement in the grass.
“SMAWTY WOOK OUT, WHU DEWE?”
Travis froze, this was the worst situation to be in, of all the Fluffies to run into, he had to find the one who likely wanted him dead. But seeing no other option, Travis slowly stepped out of the grass.
Crusher gasped upon seeing Travis. “Yu, yu am Twavis, yu am babbeh dat gib Cwow foweba sweepies.”
Copper snorted. “He nuffin, Cwow was dummeh babbeh, Twavis jus git wucky.”
Crusher shook his head. “Nu, Cwow was Smawty, Twavis gib Smawty foweba sweepies, dat make Twavis nyu Smawty.”
Copper flipped his fucking lid. “WHA YU SAY? YU NU FINK COPPA AM SMAWTY, YU WAN FOWWOW DIS DUMMEH? COPPA GIB DUMMEH FOWEBA SWEEPIES AN…”
THUMP
Copper was thrown to the ground by a hefty punch of the back of his head, dazed and confused, he turned round to see Breaker standing behind him, a look of righteous fury in his eyes.
“Wha dummeh duin, yu wan be…”
Crusher cut Copper off by smacking him in the jaw, then in the nose then the eyes, then he kept pounding him over and over and over. Breaker joined in, helping his special-friend crush and break and batter and beat Copper, ignoring his cries of pain and protest as he was stomped to death by his own Toughies.
Travis could only watch on in horror, confused about what was happening, why this violent display was taking place in front of him. Eventually, after far too long for Travis’ liking, the beatings stopped, Crusher and Breaker were stained with the blood of their former Smarty and clearly ready to embrace each other with the passionate violence of their love, but Breaker held off as he turned to Travis.
“Twavis gib Smawty foweba sweepies, Twavis a Smawty nyo. Wha Smawty wan Tuffies tu du?”
Travis blinked. Crusher and Breaker had been decent to him in the herd, even teaching him how to defend himself, but he still had expected them to kill him for Crow’s death.
Instead, they had claimed him as their new Smarty, a role Travis wasn’t sure what to make of.
“Uh… find pwace fow sweepies, Fwuffies west up den gu wook fow nyu hewd in da bwite-time.”
“Wight Smawty.”
Crusher and Breaker nodded and started looking around for the best place to hunker down for the night. Travis felt his worries starting to ease slightly, he wasn’t scared that he was about to be killed anymore and he wasn’t alone anymore, he had the start of a herd, a herd he was the Smarty of.
Travis didn’t gloat about it, but as he looked down at Copper’s broken corpse, he could feel the slight tug of a smile just at the corner of his mouth.
