Craig woke up, blowing the dark hair from his eye only for it to fall back in place, he groaned hearing the ringing of the phone alarm he had set up. Looking at the time it was 10:30 am, he had apparently hit snooze a few too many times. Even though he didn’t have work he knew his mom would be upset with him getting up so late. He sighed and sat up, having slept in his jeans and ACDC tank top. Stepping out of bed and roughly tugging his phone from the charger, he headed downstairs enticed by the smell of mama’s cooking. He trudged down the stairs and stopped halfway hearing his brother, Tommy, and his annoying ass fluffy singing a dumb fortnight song or something…
“Number one victory royale!” the young 10 year old yell-sang out the song as it played on the xbox’s youtube.
“Somthin something uh- fowt-nite get down!!” the fluffy yelled out forgetting the lyrics but singing with his owner as they both danced. Well ‘danced’ is a loose term as the fluffy hopped on its back legs and waved its front legs wildly as tommy mimicked fortnight emotes.
“Don’t you have homework to do or something?..” Craig called out grumpily from the stairs, walking down them as Tommy blew a raspberry at his older brother. Flamerider, the fluffy mimicking him and getting confused about how to do it, and just sitting down trying to look at its tongue. Craig rolled his eyes and headed into the kitchen, ignoring his brother yelling “Boogie bomb!” at him and then do the ‘L’ dance. The fluffy trying to do the same but being unbalanced and having no fingers, fell on its butt.
Craig trudged over to the island counter and pulled over a chair, grabbing a pancake off the stack with his bare hand and started eating it. A rather plump woman was at the stove cleaning up, she wore a sweater and an apron with a cute skirt under it.
“Ah, good morning Craig-y” She said cheerily, noticing how he was eating her round little nose scrunched up as she placed her hands on her hips. “Craig use a fork, not your hands,” she said, grabbing a fork from a drawer and placing it in front of him.
“Only if you don’t call me ‘craigy’ again…” he grumbled, getting a kiss on the cheek from her.
“Fine, fine, but you’ll always be my baby.” she said, passing him a fork, which he reluctantly used.
“Hey hun, i’m off for work.” A tall woman in business attire and a briefcase walked in, getting a quick kiss from the shorter plump woman, before she looked at Craig. “You’re supposed to have been awake before now” She said sternly.
“And you’re late,” he snarked back at his mom.
“Shit-” she mumbled looking at her watch, “Ok fine, but we’re having a talk when i get home” she shook her finger at her edgy child.
“Love you Craig! Love you Tommy!” she called out racing to the door.
“LOVE YOU MOOOOOOOM!” Tommy yelled out obnoxiously, getting a chuckle from the plump woman, his mama. “Fwame widow wub yuu tuuu!” the fluffy called out racing to the door before it was closed with a quick “love you too buddy-” from Mom. The plump woman laughed again, clearly finding it endearing.
“Ok, you woke up just in time Craig. Today we’re gonna help at the local fluffy shelter’s ‘adoptathon’.” she said cherily.
“What?.. I don’t wanna do a dumb adopta-whatsit thing, come ooooon Mama…” he grumbled as she shook her head, raising three fingers.
“One, you could use the sun, you’re as pale as the snow, vitamin D is good for a growing boy,” she said as she went back to cleaning the stove. “Two, it’s good for FlameRider to interact with other fluffys. And Three, we may end up finding a fluffy you like! How cute would that be?”
He scoffed at the idea of a fluffy for him, a bright pink street rat? He’d rather smack it with his foot.
“No, not happening…” He grumbled. Though, against his wishes, he was dragged to the adoptathon.
It was dumb, a bunch of crates filled with fluffys, fluffys and their owners running about and having fun, being Loud… Tommy and Flame Rider ran around playing ‘skibbity toilet’ where they sang a dumb song and pretended to be toilets or something, Craig couldn’t care less. He just plugged in his headphones and listened to his music.
After about an hour of being bored, watching his brother play games with the other kids and his own fluffy and others, or watching his mom help around with the staff, caring for fluffys like they were real pets, or small kids, he was sooooo bored. So Craig decided to get up and look at the fluffys available for adoption, just for the fun of it or something.
“Hewwo! Be nyu daddeh?” a bright pink fluffy asked, clamoring against the edge of her cage to be as close to him as she could.
“Pht, no-‘’ he snarked at the fluffy, flicking her in the snout. Getting a whaling cry from her and many ‘huu huu’s. A staff member walked over to craig
“What happened? Why’d she start crying?” he asked, concerned.
“I said I wouldn’t be her dad and now she’s sobbing” craig lied effortlessly, gesturing at the fluffy like she was just a bratty child.
“Oh yeah, that’s petal, she’s been rehomed about twice now… We’re trying to find her a forever home whether it’s with a family or a breeder.” The teen staff spoke about the obnoxious fluffy in the cage. Craig scoffed a bit and rolled his eyes. Walking away to look at other fluffys. Though, pausing when he saw what he thought for a second, was an empty cage.
Stepping back he saw an all black fluffy, thing… It had a pair of horns sticking out of its head, an orange tag on its ear, and its mane covering its eyes. It just sat there, quietly.
“Metal…” Craig whispered as he saw the fluffy, getting it to slowly look up at him. It didn’t seem to care he was there, and looked back down. “Oh, come on fella say something…” Craig said having never seen a quiet fluffy before.
“Wan die…” The fluffy spoke, getting a shocked look from Craig. A fluffy wanting death? He’d never seen something like that before.
“Yo, lil dude, you good?..” He asked the fluffy, now genuinely concerned for this emo-looking fluff-thing.
“Numbah twewve nu cawe… Nu one cawes fow fwuffy… Why shud numbah twewve cawe?..” The fluffy mumbled out, laying on its front hooves, which more resembled a cow than a horse.
“Damn… that’s rough buddy… I mean, I get it. Sometimes it feels like no one cares, but… People do. Don’t you have like- a mom or something?..” Craig asked, pressing his hand against the pet crates cage opening.
“Nu, twewve nebah had fwuffy mama… ow human mama… Nu know mama song, nu hab fwendsies since oda fwuffys scawed of hownsies… Two hownsies make twewve a munstah…” he said letting out a soft “Muuuu huu huu…”
“Damn… I’m sorry bud. I’ll uh… I’ll be your friend.” Craig said reluctantly, wanting to cheer up this sad fluffy.
“Not fow wong… Soon you go homesies an fwuffy stay hewe in sowwy box…”
Craig felt bad, like, really bad. This fluffy spoke the truth yet, Craig felt a connection with this fluffy for some reason. It was a dumb toy, a dumb fluffy, but yet, he wanted to make it feel better… Wanted to make Him feel better.
“Hey bud, that’s not true, you could get adopted today.” Craig spoke softly now, trying to cheer up the fluffy.
“Yuu fink so?.. Someone may wike numbah twewve?..”
“Yeah, I mean I like you.”
The fluffy looked shocked for a moment before smiling a little, it got to its hooves and walked over to the cage door, limping on one of its hoofs as it did.
“Fwuffy wike yuu tuu, fwend.” he said, sitting down now in the light a bit, it was easier to see the fluff covering his eyes was dirty, straw and gunk stuck in it.
“Oh, you’re a mess little dude. Uh- here- lets get you cleaned up." Craig said, grabbing a brush from the toy table and opening the cage. Craig softly brushed out all the gunk, slowly, from the semi-matted hair of the fluffalo, catching the attention of an employee.
“Oh, you like number twelve?” She asked sweetly, a smile on her face.
“Uh, yeah, why do ya call him that anyways?” Craig shyly admitted and switched topics.
“Yeah that was his old name, he was a breeding fluffalo.”
“What’s a fluffalo?..”
“A farm fluffy bread for work or to be milked, they’re a lot like cows, especially in their hooves and horns, and they tend to moo. Twelve was the last fluffalo we rescued from an abandoned farm, we just got him in too so we haven’t had time to take him to the vet. We don’t expect him to be adopted yet due to all the care he’s gonna need. But it’s nice to let him get some fresh air.” she spoke happily.
“What kinda care?..” Craig asked, going from looking in the cage to softly holding the black fluffy, who just melted in his arms, making a soft mix between a moo and a cooing noise.
“Oh, well you may have seen it already but he’s got a bad hoof. He needs someone to check his hoof for puss or erosion under his hoof. It’ll require removing the hoof horn and placing a block on it, only a real professional should do it.” She said quickly noting off the facts.
“Wait how do you know all of this?”
“Oh, my father worked on a ranch, so I know a lot about farm animals, plus I’m training to be a vet so I know a few things.”
“Oh” Craig was silent for a moment before asking “So you can do it right?”
“What?! I-i’ve had no practice i don’t know what i’m doing-”
“Yeah but he’s in pain, if we help him now he’ll be in less pain” Craig said unsure of why he wanted this little fluffy treated so quickly.
“I- I mean, I could… Ok fine, follow me” She said reluctantly, leading Craig over to the ‘fluffy care station’, a little area with everything one may need for fluffy care.
“These tools arent for cows hooves but they should remove hoof horn just fine…” she mumbled to herself, taking out a ‘fluffy hoof cleaner’ tool from a bag.
“You got this. Ready little guy?” he asked the fluffalo, placing him on the table.
“Wan hoofsies tuu stop huwting, yus.” he said, seeming nervous over the sharp tool but he stood strong, well sat since he’s on his hind little legs. Twelve held up his little hoof for the practicing vet student to look at, and she started gently removing the hoof horn, one small layer at a time, it seemed painless, like trimming a fingernail. The fluffy didnt react until.
“Oh fuck-” she said as puss flowed out from a hole on the hoof, the fluffy wincing and letting out a soft “Moooooooooohuuuuuuuuuuuu owwies- huuuhuuu” as the pus drained.
“Shit, what happened?-” Craig asked frantically.
“I-i cut a bit deep, he’s fine it just- oh fuck that smells…”
she was right, it reaked bad, other people started looking over to see the source of the smell. The soon to be vet had no choice but to keep chipping away at the little hoof, exposing more and more of the cavity inside, and letting out more and more of the puss…
“Its ok buddy- it’s alright” Craig pet the fluffalo’s back as he huuhuued, it was clear the pain was now getting to him “Can you go any faster?”
“Not without risk of nicking him…” She said, chopping away at the hoof till eventually… “There! Thats all of it, now i need to disinfect it…” she mumbled taking out a spray bottle and spraying a blue substance on the wound, getting another set of soft huuhuus. “There we go, this should feel better soon.” she wrapped a bandage around the fluffy’s hoof block and left the other side unwrapped so it could still walk
They all sat still for a bit, all relieved it was over and shaken up from the experience.
“You did great lil guy.‘’ Craig said to the fluffalo, petting his fur as the chick cleaned up the leftover puss.
“Um, what the hell are you two doing over here?” A staff member said, causing the girl to jolt a bit.
“Oh- Jim- we uh- s-see number twelves hoof needed to be relieved of a pus infection and-”
“Didn’t you say wait for a professional fluffy vet to do it? Debora what the hell?” Jim asked suddenly.
“I was asked too- i-t was hurting him and i didnt wanna let him stay in pain…” She said getting an exacerbated sigh from the older fella.
“Fine, fine. And what are you doing here?” he asked bluntly to Craig, who toughened up and subconsciously held the fluffalo.
“I’m uh- well-” Craig was stumbling over his words, unsure of what to say till twelve spoke up.
“Nice mistah hewp twewve free betew, hoofsie not huwt as much.” he said, shaking his little hoof. Jim smiled a bit and let out a sigh.
“Well at least you’ve found a friend twelve. Do you know how to care for a fluffy?” Jim asked Craig who nodded a it
“Uh, yeah my brother has one, we have fluffy kibble and everything.” Craig said, getting kinda shy, rubbing the back of his neck and clamming up a bit. Standing up and starting to think up an excuse to go when his escape was interrupted.
“Oh, Craig, what’s this you have here?” His mom walked over, a soft smile on her face as she walked up to him, happily starting to pet the fluffalo.
“Oh- uh- this is a fluffy, he needs a new name but- yeah he’s a fluffy” he said sorta, done with socializing for the day, so he defaulted to petting number twelve.
“What name do you think he should have?”
“Well… Tartarus would be metal.”
“Ok,” she nodded her head and looked to Jim, “We’ll take little Tartarus here.” She said suddenly, a smile on her face.
“Wait, what?-”
“We can take him home, we’ll foster him till someone else can take him in” She said, seeing her son hug the fluffy a bit closer at the mention of fostering, knowing they would be the fluffy’s new forever home.
“I uh- I guess…” he said looking away, the fluffy looking up at him and smiling a bit.
“Tawtawus wike nyu name, fank yuu…” he spoke softly, “Du dat mean da saddies gu away…?”
“Oh, we’ll have to get you on some meds for that.” Craig said petting the fluffalo, his mom chuckling and gently lifting up the fluffy to carry him.
“Alright, I think we’ve helped out enough today. Let’s get going home.”
“Finally, Craig sighed standing up ready to go.”
“Oh, you’ll need this” Jim offered, handing them a bright blue collar and leash. Mama happily put the collar on the fluffy and walked away as he’s still leashed being carried in her arms.
“Thank you, Tommy, time to go! Flame rider come here boy!” mama called out, causing the boys to come running over.
“Coming mama!” Tommy ran over as fast as his short legs would go.
“We comin! We comin!” Flamerider called out after Tommy, bouncing over on his little hooves.
Flame rider was smaller than Tartarus, which made sense since the fluffalo grew up on a farm, even though flame rider was athletic for a fluffy, Tartarus was bigger. Though still fluffy sized.
In the car Craig smiled, petting Tartarus, His fluffy.
