Yet another story I wrote in a half-asleep haze and only given one quick proof read so the quality may fluctuate, either way, hope you enjoy!
A country song that would bore anyone but an avid consumer of the genre warbled out of an old, beaten radio as a man sang along out of tune while cruising down a windy wooded road.
The evening sunlight passed through the trees and his windshield at the perfect angle to blind him as he rounded another curve. Even if his sun visor hadn’t fallen off two decades ago, the sun was too low for it to have made a difference. Without any sunglasses to help him either, the man groaned and opted to squint and shield his eyes with his hand.
This did little to help, but he knew the roads well enough to keep his usual pace. What he didn’t know, though, was what just caused the audible thump on his front right bumper just as he had driven around another turn.
“Christ!” he hissed and ground his teeth. The truck slowed slightly as he turned down the radio, listening for anything that may sound like an issue. After a moment, with nothing seeming out of the ordinary, he decided that another dent in his ducktape and zip-tie truck wasn’t problem enough to stop for whatever caused it. He continued down the road turning the radio back up, disappearing around another turn as he left behind a small stain of red on the road behind him.
“M-mummah am otay?” a small orange filly asked her stumbling mummah.
Just a moment ago, she and her similarly colored orange mother were getting ready to cross the street. The mare was experienced enough to know just how dangerous these roads could be with the metaw-munstahs that patrolled them. Unfortunately, no matter how smart or experienced a fluffy is, it’s still a fluffy. Should fluffies have hindsight, this one would be that even when looking both ways, it isn’t wise to cross at a blind turn.
“Mleh- behbeh buh…” was all the mare could manage as she stumbled around in the middle of the road. “Woady nu am safe mummah! Ou’-” The filly stopped as she noticed something dripping off her mother as she shambled about moaning nonsense… it was booboo juice!
The filly gasped and soon forgot about the dangers these roads possess. She needed to help her mummah! She needed the bestest of huggies to make the bad booboo juice go away!
She galloped as fast as her tiny stumps for legs would take her to her mummah but stumbled and tripped when her mummah finally managed to turn around and face her. The booboo juice was all over her, and one of her seeing places was dangling around!
The young filly had seen gruesome scenes when the rest of her siblings had been taken one by one by the harsh conditions of these densely forested hills. But this… this was a new level of gore and brutality that strained her young psyche.
Her mummah stumbled or tripped every other step as she began to try and walk to her lastest little baby.
The pain from slamming her face into the ground when running to her mummah was soon forgotten due to the sight before her. She wobblingly stood back up as her tiny legs threatened to give out again from their tremendous shaking.
As her mummah stumbled closer, she backed up in step with her.
“Muh wuh bah…” the mare slurred through her broken teeth and jaw. “Huhie bo beheh.” she continued babbling as she shambled to her little filly like a zombie. Why wouldn’t her baby help mummah? Mummah needed huggies for her hurties and booboo juice! The arduous trek sent jolts of pain with each step she took. Her seeing places didn’t seem to want to help her either as they continued to grow foggy like whenever she had just woken up, but now wasn’t the time for sleepies!
The filly kept her distance from her scary mummah as she backed away, only for the asphalt to disappear beneath her, causing her to fall onto the grass. “Pwease be nice mummah, nu munstah mummah, huuuu…” the filly began to cry. She squeezed her eyes shut as her mummah stumbled closer, unsure of her mother’s intentions now since she looked like a monster.
As she waited, hoping that nothing would happen if she just kept her eyes shut, she felt a breeze go past her and heard a thump in the ditch behind her. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes when all had become silent and was only met with the road and treeline in front of her. Her head shot left and right, looking for her mummah, when she heard a low moan behind her.
The small ball of fluff craned her head to look down behind her. It was hard to see at first because the sun had almost disappeared under the horizon. Still, sure enough, there was a larger ball of ruffled orange fluff lying motionless.
“Mummah?” She called out cautiously, with only a cold gust of wind to answer her.
“M-mummah?!” She made another vain attempt for a response.
“Huuuuuu…” The filly sniffled and went down into the ditch, stopping a foot before her mummah. Her only discernable movement was her fluff ruffling as a breeze blew past the two.
The situation continued to grow worse for the tiny baby as night quickly crept in as the bright ball in the sky disappeared.
Her mummah had gone to sleep. That had to be it. Her mummah wasn’t a monster. She was tired and needed sleepies and huggies to feel better after the mean metaw-munstah had given her hurties.
She cooed at her revelation, “Babbeh su’ smawties.” she took some solace in her reasoning for all of this. As she approached her sleeping mummah, a ping of apprehension remained, but another cold draft dispelled her hesitation. Luckily for her, it was too dark to see her mummah’s face when she walked around to her front to cuddle up in her legs.
“Cooo… wub ou’ mummah.” she said, cozying up to her warm fluff as the light finally faded beyond the horizon and for her mummah.
The respite from reality didn’t last, as not long after having fallen asleep within the loving legs of her mother, she was unwillingly awoken by the cold night’s air.
“Huuu, mummah it am cowd!” she complained, pushing herself further into her mother’s fluff. However, the fluff wasn’t warm anymore; no matter how close she was, she couldn’t escape these mean cold breezes.
“Huuhuu… mummah pwease gib babbeh huggies! Am cowd…” She whined to no avail.
Crying out into the night for comfort did succeed in drawing the warmth of another living body that she so coveted.
Her undeterred whining finally fell silent when she heard the faint sounds of light steps grow near. Was it a munstah? Her mummah would keep her safe… she always did! But her mummah was still asleep? Maybe if babbeh went back to sleep too, whatever it was would go away. Once again, babbeh was so smawt!
A proud smile crept onto her face. Her uncontested logic and reasoning had saved the day again. However, it seemed a blast of cold wind disagreed with her and carried that pride and comfort away. The smile had faded as quickly as it came. She was still cold and now heard the munstah beside them.
As much as her programming and instincts screamed at her to start crying and begging to save her life, she knew better than that. She wouldn’t be mummah’s wastest if she hadn’t, so she stayed quiet.
The light footfalls had been replaced with a soft sniffing sound near her mummah. The filly held her eyes and mouth shut through the ordeal, using her hooves to keep her tawkie-pwace from betraying her and telling the munstah where she was.
The munstah started making a weird squishy, and crunchy noise as mummah started moving again.
Nuu! Mummah nu mob when munstah wight dewe! She used her thinky place to yell at her mummah for moving with imminent danger so close to them.
Mummah wouldn’t stop moving, and the munstah kept making that scary noise too! Mumma nu stop mobing! Munstah nu weabe! Babbeh stiww cowd! “Huuuuu…” Her relentless grievances and woes as she pitied herself boiled over, leading to her accidentally letting out a small cry.
Her eyes shot open at her slip-up. Uh nu. Unfortunately, her mistake didn’t slip past the munstah either, as the sounds it had been making stopped. Fighting against her quaking body, she looked up above her mummah. A single silhouette stood above her, highlighted by the moon’s light behind it.
A cold drop hit her face making her unintentionally yelp. The munstah’s head snapped to her. Their eyes locked. Its stare bore a hole straight through her with its hungry, predatorial gaze.
She was stunned like a deer in the headlights. Her tiny lungs worked their hardest as she began to hyperventilate.
“M-m-munstah!” was all she managed before it lunged at her, catching her leg in its mouth as she fell backward. “SCREEEEE! WET GO! NU GIB HUWTIES TO WITTOW BABBEH!” she yelled, all of her pent-up fear and grief exploding into a maelstrom of screeching.
She kicked, yelled, and shit herself in an attempt to get free of its terrible grip. It seemed only the latter had any effect on the Canidae. The foul stench made it draw back, tearing her leg away in the process and eliciting another scree.
“HuuuHuuuu.” she cried and whined at her newly detached leg. “Weggie gone! Huuuu!”
Her self-pity was short-lived as her attention was drawn back to the leg thief and her mummah. Her mummah, who had caused this munstah to find them from all of her moving, her mummah who didn’t care she’d just lost her leg! She looked at her in pain and anger, ready to release a torrent of angry wails and cries. Nothing could escape her lungs, though, not when she finally got a good look at her mummah again in the cascading moonlight.
Her mummah’s face was still mangled and broken from the metaw-munstah. Half of her once beautiful orange fluff, like the filly had, was now a dark shade of crimson. The same shade that the munstah’s muzzle was coated in. The pieces had begun to click, but it was too little too late. Mummah hadn’t gotten better. She’d only gone to sleep, the kind she wouldn’t wake up from.
Now it was only her left. Somehow the young filly, once the pride of her mother’s litter, was the last. After watching her siblings die one after the next, she managed to outlive her mother and witnessed her demise as well.
This couldn’t be real. She and her mother were asleep right now, warm and together. This had to be a bad sleepy picture. But the bloody teeth and her small stolen arm in the monster’s maw screamed otherwise.
She ran or tried to as she forgot she was missing a leg and faceplanted on the first attempt. Quickly getting up and stumbling forward, she didn’t bother to look back at the terrible scene behind her. She just needed to leave before the munstah made her go forever sleepies as well.
“Peep! Peep! Cheep! Chirp!” was all she could manage as she struggled to hobble away.
Meanwhile, the fox stared at the small creature as it managed to meekly hobble only a few feet away. It decided the stench and noise weren’t worth what little meat was on her and returned to gorging itself on the mother’s carrion.
“Huff Huff Awmos dewe! Jus nee get tu twees Huff den am safe! Huuu chirp!” The small tripod tried and failed to comfort herself with the notion that if she managed to cross the street, she’d be safe. This couldn’t be the end for her; she’d outlived everyone else because she was so smart and the best baby there’s ever been. To prove it, she’d already made it halfway across the metaw-munstah path!
This was it, she could feel freedom and safety a few feet away! Even through the pain, she was so excited it even felt like the ground was starting to shake!
“Yus! Am gown make it! Hee- Huh?” While she was certainly excited about being so good once again, she didn’t think the ground should be shaking this much.
Then a light appeared to her right down the scary road. Was it bright time already? She turned to look at the bwite ball, even though her mummah had told her not to before, but she’d proven that she was smarter than her mummah and decided it was ok to look at it.
It was definitely getting brighter, a bit too much. “Go way’ bwite baww! Am too bwite, nee to hide in dawkie!” She demanded to no effect as it continued to grow in luminosity. “SCREEE! See pwaces huwties! Mummah!” She lost her balance and fell when she was nearly across the road, trying to cover her eyes with her only front hoof.
“Nu mowe! SCREEEEE-” Her scream eventually blended and faded with the sound of a roaring engine as the truck screamed past, promoting her from best and smartest baby to a blood stain.
“Gah! Son of a bitch, same damn spot, too!” the man yelled over his radio, passing by the same spot he had earlier. This time instead of a thud, he’d felt a bump. At least it wasn’t one of the other alignment-killing potholes on this road… but it didn’t feel like he’d dipped, almost like he went over something. So long as it doesn’t gunk up anything, he shrugged at the possibility it was roadkill. The old truck could handle it; he used to run down fluffies in it some years ago. Good times.
