This is just going to be a short little chapter setting up the stage for what’s next in The Josef Mongola series, this story is going to jump in time a little bit to explain a few things but I’ll try my best to keep the timeline understandable.
This is going to be Act 2 of Frederick’s Filthy Fluffy Farm so I’d recommend giving that a read, it’s also going to follow on from events set up in Favour For A Friend so that is required reading as well. Giving what I’m planning this will probably be more human-based than Fluffy-based, but hopefully you’ll see why as the story goes on, and Fluffies still have an important role to play in the story.
Katherine Townsend watched as her Fluffy Lily pushed her limp body over to the food bowl and began to half-heartedly eat her breakfast.
It had been just over a year since her violent gang-rape and mutilation by a pack of infected stallions, and despite Katherine’s best attempts Lily was still suffering from a dark depression. The two-wheeled harness that Katherine had made to replace Lily’s front legs did nothing to alleviate the pain of never being able to hug again, her torn Fluff had regrown but the scars from where the stallions had bitten into her left her fur patchy and unappealing. Worst of all was that Lily’s desire for babbehs seemed to have died with her forced miscarriage, a few months back Katherine noticed Lily was getting better so she treated her to a visit from a breeding stallion so she could have babies again. The stallion took one look at the deformed Lily and started attacking the ‘munstah’, sending Lily right back into the pit of despair, never asking for babies again.
It broke Katherine’s heart to see her like this, Lily was already self-conscious about her missing eye before the attack, now she was in a state of borderline wan-die. Even for an abuser like Katherine, seeing an innocent Fluffy suffer because of other Fluffies, it hurt to look at.
In the year since the attack, the scientists at Katherine’s work place, The Farm, had learnt more about the degenerative disease known as F.A.07, but not enough to stop it. They knew it affected almost exclusively males which was lucky for Lily since all her attackers were carriers, there seemed to be no correlating evidence for transmission suggesting an airborne variety, and it was getting stronger, where a fully grown male Fluffy could withstand the effects of F.A.07 for up to 24 hours when they first discovered it, now they were lucky to manage 8 hours.
But none of that mattered to Katherine, all she wanted was for Lily to be her old self again.
Katherine knelt beside her girl and scratched her ears, hoping to get a smile or something out of her, Lily just sighed and let Katherine do her thing.
“Come on Lily, you need to eat up, grow big and strong remember.”
“Wiwy nu dat hungwy.”
“Well, could you eat a little more, just for mummah. Would get awful heart hurties if Lily go forever sleepies.”
Lily looked to say something, but decided not to and turned back to her bowl, slowly putting the kibble into her mouth, barely registering it as food.
Katherine didn’t want to leave Lily alone again, but she couldn’t take the time off work and with the F.A.07 outbreak about to burst into public knowledge, she knew she wouldn’t be able to ask even if she wanted to. Carefully she carried Lily through to the living room and placed her down in front of the TV, making sure that her toys and her litterbox were close at hand.
“Now don’t worry Lily, mummy’s just gotta go to work, I’ll be back by dinner time tonight, ok?”
“Ok mummah.” Lily’s voice was monotone, lifeless.
Katherine thought for a moment as an idea came to her, it was risky given what just happened with the breeder, but it was worth a shot.
“How would you like it if mummy brought home another Fluffy to play with you, I’ll make sure they’re a good friend, maybe even a special friend if you want.”
“Wiwy nu wan speciaw-fwiend, speciaw-fwiend mean babbehs, an Wiwy awways wose babbehs.”
“Hey now, you got unlucky once, it’s not your fault those bad babies killed your good ones, you’re a good Fluffy Lily, and you’d make a great mother if you tried.”
“Wiwy nu wan twy, bu wouwd wike pway fwiend, git vewy wonewy wen mummah gun.”
“Ok then, I’ll see what I can pick up at work. Bye Lily, love you.”
“Wub yu tuu mummah.” Her voice was still flat but Katherine picked up the tiniest hint of happiness and that was enough.
Katherine pulled into the work car park a few minutes before her start time, she noticed that it was a fairly quiet morning which was a good sign, too many times had she pulled in and noticed a clusterfuck from the night before.
She went inside and clocked in, taking a moment to enjoy the quiet. She had her issues with Lewis Carter’s rebranding of The Farm to a more positive, hug-boxer kind of place, but even she had to admit that the cleaner walls and polished floors did make a big difference, even just making it a nicer start to the day.
The Filthy Farm was no longer Filthy.
As Katherine clocked in she spotted Alan Fairfield, one of the old guard from before the revamp, taking a final coffee before the end of his nightshift.
“How’s the graveyard shift Alan?”
“Depends on the day, it’s either too dead to care or too alive to worry. Last night thankfully was dead, got a few Ringers in last night but nothing we couldn’t handle.”
“Sorry, Ringers? The fuck are you talking about.”
“Sorry, we’ve taken to calling the F.A.07 Fluffies ‘Ringers’ cause of the yellow ring on their eyes, makes it easier to know what the fuck we’re talking about. Anyway, we had about 7 or 8 of them come in which is a good low number, means we might actually be making a difference.”
“Yeah, thank god we haven’t got rid of the other bays yet, else we wouldn’t have the space for them all.”
“Ha, well I’m not gonna say you’re wrong. Just don’t let Lewis hear you say that, he worked hard to shit those bays down, he hates that they’re back up.”
“Carter can suck my fat one, that cocksucker’s made life a fucking chore now, fucking telling us all to ‘treat the Fluffies fairly’. Fuck off.”
Alan paused for a moment, before handing Katherine his untouched coffee.
“Here, you sound like you need it more than I do.”
“Cheers Alan, but it’s not tiredness. We’ve just past the year mark since Lily got attacked, and she’s still not the same. I know that she needs time to heal but if anything she’s regressed and now I have to come in here and fucking look at these creatures, all with the same disease as her attackers, and try NOT to gut them. It’s been hard Alan, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be venting on you like this.”
“Vent away, it’s the most interesting thing to happen to me all night.”
“Cute, anyway I told Lily that I’d pick her up a new friend today so she wouldn’t be as lonely without me in the house. I know I should’ve done it sooner but when I tried with that fucking breeder it just made things worse. If you have any suggestions from the pens let me know and I’ll have a look on my break.
Alan went quiet for a moment, his exhausted mind had a spark of an idea forming.
“Does it matter if this friend is male or female?”
“Either or but I was hoping for male, if I can find one friendly enough they might actually fuck and get her out of her slump.”
“I might have just the Fluffy. Follow me.”
Alan led Katherine down to the holding pens, with the rise in F.A.07 cases The Farm had to reopen it’s holding areas to house the infected Fluffies, once it was revealed that it was affecting males the worst Frederick Peterson had all the male Fluffies put into isolated quarantine to ensure no harm came to the mares or the foals. Thankfully Alan was taking Katherine to Bay 7, where Non-Infected Fluffies were kept as a precautionary measure.
“This guy came in with his family a little over six months ago; two parents and a sister with him. They’d been on the streets a while, all of them came from an abuser, killed three of their siblings and maimed the parents, but that actually works in your favour, his dad lost a leg and his junk so he’s ok with amputees, and his mum lost an eye so he’s already seen pirate Fluffies before.”
Katherine glared at Alan for his bad joke, at least he had the wherewithal to look guilty about it.
He turned a corner and continued talking. “Best of all, he’s an Alicorn, so if he and Lily decide to ‘Get it on’, you’ve got a good chance of some quality foals.”
“He sounds perfect, what’s the catch?”
“Catch is he’s a little… rough around the edges, bit of a temper on him. He can hold it around Fluffies fairly well and he’s a goddamn angel with his sister, but around humans, he can be a bit of a handful. Just be honest with him, explain why you want to bring him home and go from there.”
Alan finally stopped in front of a holding cage, inside a black Alicorn stallion slept, his back to them. Alan gently knocked on the glass of the cage.
“Rise and shine sonny, you’ve got a visitor.”
The Alicorn stirred awake, confused as to the interruption, he stood up and looked at Alan, then at Katherine, his mood not brightening upon seeing the new human.
“Who dis?” He asked with no small amount of spite.
“Katherine, allow me to introduce you to Spike, Spike this is Katherine, she’d like to talk to you about getting out of here.”