Child Labour - Chapter One
Sassafras was a good fluffy. She knew she was a good fluffy because she had the kindest and most hard-working daddy in the entire world! And all good fluffies got to have good daddies. That was just a fact of life.
Daddeh’s real name was Timothy, or Tim. Tim was always tinkering in his workshop. He was always fixing something, or building something, or doing chores and maintenance around his home and vast property. Sassafras’s daddy’s job was very important! He called himself a “han-dee-man.”
If you ever asked Sassy (who would tell you matter-of-factly that only Daddeh gets to call her ‘Sassy’) to give you one good word to best describe her daddy, she would probably answer, “cwumsy.” That was okay, though! She didn’t mind that at all. He was the greatest daddy anyone could have ever asked for and Sassafras (being a very good fluffy) always had limitless patience with him and his antics. Even when his clumsiness caused her the worstest hurties, Sassafras would forgive. That was what a good fluffy would do when someone she loved so much made a mistake. She knew a good fluffy would forgive. Always!
Silly Daddeh. When he had accidentally crushed one of her leggies, she had cried and cried. It had been the worst pain she had ever felt in her entire life. But then her daddy made it all okay again. Well… he did his best. Tim told her that when a fluffy gets broken, they can’t always just be fixed like a broken toaster or a chair. Sometimes a fluffy stays broken forever. Even with all of the magical tools in his workshop, Sassafras’s daddy had no ability to repair her shattered leggie.
Her brain would also make her remember the one other time when Tim gave her the worstest hurties. He had hurt her while she was helping him with an important wood-cutting project. Sassafras was always her daddy’s special helper. She dutifully held the big, thick pole steady so Tim could begin his cutting. She loved watching him when he worked. She could swear that as clumsy as her daddy was, he was nothing short of a wizard. His magic tools were so strong and powerful. The small electric chainsaw munstah had slipped so eagerly out of his grip that day, and its hungry gnashing teeth bit right through one of Sassafras’s front legs! She watched it cut clean through her flesh and bone. She remembered seeing pieces of her beautiful peach-pink fluff getting caught between its teeth. She remembered that the pain came only after she had already starting screaming for help.
She’d never forget what it felt like, nor how the sight and the strong odor of her own boo-boo juice had caused her to make sickies all over herself.
Daddeh had fixed her both times. His strong hands skillfully stitched up her stumps and his rough fingers applied a healing gel. Daddeh was so good at taking care of her boo-boos! How could she ever feel angries toward him? He hadn’t been mad at all (not even a little bit) about the two times she made bad poopies on the living room sofa. Sassafras fondly remembered the moment of peacefulness and relief when he just told her it was fine. Both times!
Daddeh had said, “Now we’re even,” each time he had accidentally given her the worstest hurties. He said it right after she volunteered her forgiveness to him and promised that she wasn’t mad at him. He had forgiven her back then in the living room, and then she had forgiven him back when it was her turn!
This kind of understanding between them was exactly why Sassafras and Daddeh were bestest friends!
Sassafras woke up and ambled onto the skateboard that acted as her mobility aide now that she had only one front leggie and one back leggie. Her left front leggie pulled her skateboard across the hardwood floor of the saferoom while her right hind leg propelled from behind. Walking wasn’t easy or fun anymore. It was hard, and doing it made her so tired.
The fat peach-pink fluffy let out a few tears and some quiet, tiny ‘huu-huus.’ It was still very early. She could see through the very large window that the bright ball hadn’t even fully woken up yet. He was still partly tucked in behind the faraway pointy hills.
This was the disabled little fluffy’s private time. She set it aside for herself to let out the saddies she felt all the time now. A good fluffy would never let her daddy know just how sad his accidents had made her. That would only make it so her daddy was sad, too! Sassafras made it her duty to ensure that Daddeh never found out how much she cried. She missed running. She missed playing even more than she missed running. But most of all, she dearly missed helping Daddeh in his workshop when he was doing his amazing projects. Now daddy just locked her inside a big stinky metal cage outside all day and worked without her. He just wanted to be alone all day now.
Maybe… Maybe Daddeh was also sad. Maybe, thought Sassafras, Daddeh had felt so bad about giving the worstest hurties to a good fluffy like herself. That must be why he wanted to be alone so much now instead of playing with her and letting her help him in his workshop. He must be secretly crying, too! Just like Sassafras! That was the only thing that made any sense. Poor Daddeh…
Sassafras wiped her tears away with her front hoofsie. She propelled herself over to a small mechanism bolted to the saferoom floor that had a big shiny button fixed in the center. Sassafras pressed it which caused the flatscreen on the nearby wall to flicker to life. Soft and colourful light filled the grey room. The volume was locked on a low setting but an angelic (if clunky) song floated out of the television’s speakers.
'Mummah wuv babbehs, babbehs wuv Mummah…"
The image she saw on the TV was a glorious one. It shone on Sassafras’s enraptured face, causing her to gape in awe as if she were bathing in the very light of Skettiland itself.
“Babbehs…” The word escaped her lips like a kiss blown tenderly into the wind.
‘Our soon-mummah, Catherine, gave birth last night! Wow. Look at those four tiny, fuzzy heads poking out from underneath her blanket. Good job, Catherine!’
The narrator asks a question that seems aimed toward the fluffy mother. A human viewer would be able to tell that the human’s voice was added in post-production.
‘So, Catherine. What do you hope is your babies’ first word?’
The mother on the screen is glancing down at her colourful brood as if passionately studying every last soft little hair on their tiny new bodies. Each little chirpy baby may as well have been a priceless and delicate work of art.
‘Wuv…’
Something inside of Sassafras just… clicked. Her small and simple mind was practically overheating from the amount of thinking she was doing. That was it! That was the perfect answer to all her problems. No. All of their problems! The narrator’s voice speaking over the TV’s speaker became nothing but background noise in her world. She knew what she had to do. They were all she could think about.
No more lonely, grey saferoom. No more watching FluffTV all by herself. No more toysies going un-played with. No more heart hurties for Sassafras!
Most importantly of all, having babies would mean no more heart hurties for Daddeh! And she could make it a surprise, like when Daddeh gave her birthday gifties. She always loved getting surprise birthday gifties so much. Babies already made everyone happy, but surprise giftie babies would be extra special!
Babies were the best. That was a fact of life. But Sassafras’s babies would be the bestest babies of all!
The plan was set. Sassafras would surprise her daddy with babies and then all of the heart hurties that had been plaguing their once-happy life together would go away. It would all be okay again!
It had been so many bright times since Sassafras came up with the best idea ever. The chain-link enclosure she found herself in on that breezy summer morning used to just be for when she had been a bad fluffy. But now that Daddy wanted to be alone when he worked, he just left her in there every day while he did what he had to do.
The cage had a roof over it so she could stay inside it even during the rain. Every single day, Sassafras waited patiently for Tim in that cage. It was tucked far out of the way on the edge of his junk-strewn property. The corroded frames of old cars and stacks of bald worn-out tires dotted the landscape outside. The floor of her cage was a concrete slab so it was usually very cold against her hoofsies. But the uncarpetted floor did make it sort of easy for the fluffy to move herself around on her skateboard now that walking unassisted wasn’t possible for her.
The mare made all her poopies and pee-pees in one corner of the cage. The smell of her bodily waste was always bad but being outside in the open air made it less so. By now she had learned how to best position her back end so she could relieve herself easily without worry of getting the wheels of her skateboard in her poopies. Daddeh would clean the cage’s floor by spraying water across it with a hose a few times a week. The remnants of the poo had fertilized fuzzy green mosses that were now taking over the edges of the concrete slab foundation. Sassafras liked to stroke the mossies with her front hoofsie because she could pretend she was outside touching the cool green grass, like she used to do.
The crippled fluffy’s soft ears twitched in response to a rustling in the thickets just outside her enclosure. There were bushes growing there that Sassafras used to take berry nummies from, in past Hot Times. Nowadays she could never quite reach their branches from inside those chain-link walls. Her broken body and the metal barrier itself both made the idea of feasting on those tart little treats a hopeless fantasy.
She stayed silent. Another shake of the branches and steadily-approaching crunching sound of something moving through the old brown leaf litter caused her to startle slightly and let out a small squirt of scaredy poopies.
A white horn emerged first from the green shrubbery, followed by a round black-and-white head framed by long floppy ears. Dark green eyes, almost the colour of the leaves framing the feral fluffy’s face, stared back at her.
Any human would have compared the stallion’s pungent odor to something perhaps like, “dirty hamster bedding.” But to Sassafras he just smelled like a rough-and-tumble stallion. He was homely, but strong-looking and plump. His long ears had torn-up ends. They looked, to her, almost like the flippy-flappy parts on those yummy-tasting boots Daddeh used to have.
“H-hewwo? Huu comin’ tu Sassa-fass home?”
The stallion snorted loudly and pulled his monochrome head back into the bush. With her view of him now fully obscured, the mare cautiously maneuvered herself closer to the fence that separated her from where he was. The sound of her wheels rolling on the concrete was almost louder than his voice was when he spoke up again.
“Dummeh mawe. Be quiet!” His voice was a hissed whisper. She stopped advancing toward him. “You so woud, bwing too mush attention tu Bwackwock.”
The branches of the berry bush shook about. Dark berry nummies rained onto the ground below. The male fluffy came out from hiding again and began gathering the nummies into a beat-up purse which he then scooped up around his neck by one gaudy strap.
“Bwackwock?” Sassafras tilted her head.
“Das Smawty’s namesie. Seen you once befowe wen came fow nummies wast Hot Time. Buh now mawe hab onwy two weggies. Hmph. Wha happun?” The feral grunted and glared at her.
“Sassa-fass Daddeh make assident an’ Sassa-fass weggies hab tu go 'way. Dey too bwoken tu be fix. Eben aww Daddeh’s magic powah tools nu can make weggies wowk 'gain.” She frowned solemnly and felt the tiniest of tears threatening to fall from her big indigo eyes.
“Wowie.”
“Ya, an-” was all she could get out before Blackrock cut her off by speaking again.
“Yu daddeh awso big dummeh if he du someting su stoopie wike dat by assident.”
Sassafras snapped back, “Daddeh nuu am dummeh! Daddeh am bestest daddeh in da whowe widest ebewyting!” Blackrock desperately shushed her again.
“Pwease shuddup, dummeh mawe!”
“Dis ‘mawe,’ hab namesie. Am Sassa-fass!”
“Fine.” The stallion resolved to level with her. He couldn’t exactly make her shut up with sorry hoofsies while that big metal wall protected her. “Sassa-fass. Smawty hab tu gathew many nummies fow hewd. Pwease nu get in smawty way by bwing hyoomie attention. Tank yuu.”
“Bwackwock am smawty of hewd? Bwackwock mus’ be vewy stwong an’ su smawt.” The gears in her head were turning. Slowly, but turning all the same. “Meb-bee… Meb-bee Bwackwock be nyu special fwen fow Sassa-fass? Gib Sassa-fass pwetty babbehs?”
“Smawty nuu can be special fwend fow dummeh mawe. Dat nebbah gon’ happun.” Shot down. “Smawty awweady hab special fwend.” Sassafras dropped her head and sighed. “Buh…” the stallion continued. That caught the mare’s attention. “Smawty wiww gib mawe pwetty babbehs. Come obah hewe, if das wha yu wan.”
Sassafras and Blackrock stared at each other through the chainlink fence for what felt like many forevers. She contemplated her choice. Did she really want to be a mummah without a special friend? She hadn’t thought much about this part before. She had mostly only thought about babies.
Well, she reasoned in her tiny mind, she had already come this far! She had to have babies so that she… So both her and Daddeh could be happy again.
“Yus. Gib Sassa-fass special huggies fow hab babbehs.”
The mare somehow managed to back her special place up until it was pressed tightly up against the fence. She got her long white tail to stick out through the metal links and Blackrock grabbed the end of it in his mouth to hold himself steady. He pressed up against the fence and managed to get just the tip of his no-no stick to penetrate the mare through the frustrating barrier keeping them apart. Because of the difficulty the fence created, it took him a long time to complete the job.
“Good feews! Good feews!!”
And with that, the stallion released his hold on Sassafras’s pretty tail and fell back onto the grass outside her cage. He speedily gathered more some more berries into his raggedy purse and then tossed a few of them through the fence so that they landed on the mossy concrete floor by the wheels of Sassafras’s mobility skateboard.
“Hewe, mawe. Tanks a wot fow da gud feews. Meb-bee Bwackwock be back nudda time. Gud wuck wiff babbehs an yu dummeh daddeh.” Then he turned and disappeared back into the forest before Sassafras could respond. The last she heard from Blackrock was the sound of his hoofsies shuffling through the underbrush as he moved ever further away. But as the sound from the male faded into the distant wilderness, something else was coming quickly to her attention.
It was a feeling of happiness, warmth, and well-being. It grew stronger and clearer until it covered her whole body like a soft blanket right out of the dryer.
She thought back to that day when she had first hatched her ingenious plan. Sassafras was a pretty useless fluffy with only two legs, but now she would be able to make her daddy happy again! That beautiful song from the television floated through her mind.
“Mummah wuv babbehs… Babbehs wuv Mummah… Mummah hab babbehs… Babbehs fow Daddeh~♡”
She once more felt tears forming in her eyes. But this time they were tears of absolute, indescribable joy. She was a soon-mummah now and everything was going to be okay!
The happy pregnant fluffy sat and sang her Mummah Song all day until the bright ball was just starting to get ready to settle in for beddy-bye time. The shadows were long when one of them crept up on Sassafras from behind. She turned her head to look over her shoulder at the shadow’s owner. It was Daddeh!
“It’s time to go into the house, Sassafras. Did I hear you singing just now? Was that a song you heard on the radio?” Tim unlocked the door at the front of the structure and entered to pick up his half-pillowed fluffy. He crouched down and scooped her up easily, carrying the skateboard under his other arm.
Sassafras was so absolutely thrilled that she couldn’t contain her excitement for even a moment longer. She had to tell him right now!
“Suh-pwise, Daddeh!!” Her face beamed with a grin and she raised her one front hoof into the air.
“Wha-”
“Sassa-fass hab tummy-babbehs! Sassa-fass am soon-mummah!”
So that was the first part of my first fluffy fic! I haven’t written a narrative story in years, so I’m probably really rusty. Of course this is going somewhere so I hope I got people kind of interested. Thanks so much for reading!