First contact
It was a typical summer day for Dylan and Sarah. School was out, and with their parents busy, they spent most of the nice days outdoors. Even with Dylan getting to the age where he was starting to hate his family, they never understood him, he didn’t mind spending time with Sarah. At just eleven years old, he was bordering on being insufferable, puberty was near.
Sarah tolerated Dylan pretty well. She wasn’t into much “girly” things, maybe it was because she treated him as her best friend for as long as she could remember. And today was no different. Behind the house was hundreds of acres of state land. They couldn’t go playing back there from October through March because of the hunters and too much snow. But the summer? That land was theirs.
Dylan and Sarah had several lean to shelters built with branches, leaves, and tall weeds. They forged paths through the woods. There was even a small creek they would splash and run through on those hot summer days. Together they saw deer and squirrels, numerous birds and chipmunks. In the summer, the fields and forest became their world’s of adventure.
“Quick, we gotta escape the goblins! Get to the castle!” Dylan yelled out swinging at stick at the tall grass.
“We’re almost there, Sir Dylan!” His squire Sarah yelled back, swinging her own stick as they rushed to one of their many lean to shelters turned castle.
They regrouped, awaiting imaginary reinforcements under the shade of the sticks and leaves.
“Sssh! Do you hear that?” Dylan put his finger to his lips. Both Dylan and Sarah listened and looked around. Softly, “I swear I heard a voice. It sounded like a little kid.”
Faintly there was something. A tiny voice carried on the wind. “It does sound like a little kid… Why the fuck would a little kid be out here?”
Sarah frowned, “language, Sir Dylan.”
“Whatever. Let’s check it out, if it’s a kid they could be in trouble. And a knight needs to protect the innocent.” Sarah didn’t look convinced, but reluctantly joined him.
The two crept along the forest floor, both children silent, their ears open, their eyes darting around. The child like voice getting louder, and sounding a bit too high pitched, almost unnaturally so.
Suddenly the voice went quiet. They weren’t close enough to make out words yet. They were near one of their many castles.
Dylan whispered to Sarah, “I think it’s in our fort. Castle. Whatever. Be very quiet.”
They tiptoed through the brush, the opening almost in sight.
-snap!-
Sarah winced as the branch snapped under her foot.
“Shit!” Dylan couldn’t hold back the expletive.
“SCREEEEEEEEE!”
Both children covered their ears at the unnaturally high pitched scream. There was rustling and and the scream quickly trailed off, leaving just a horrid smell that hit them, almost knocking them over. The noise and the smell was too much for them, both Dylan and Sarah screamed and yelled all the way back home.
Both Dylan and Sarah were out of breath after running half a mile back home. Both parents were on the deck enjoying some adult beverages listening as best half drunk parents could.
After the two stopped talking over each other and caught their breaths, their dad spoke up. “So, you’re telling me you heard a child talking, and when you got close you scared them, they screamed, shit themselves, and ran away?”
“I mean, maybe? Kinda. Yeah.” Sarah felt almost ashamed hearing it described that way. “But what if there is a little kid out there? Can you at least check? Please?”
Their dad could never say no to Sarah. “Okay, lemme get my boots.” He looked at the sky, “and a flash light.”
Dylan was excited and nervous as they led the way with their dad in tow. Dylan was regaling his father with their adventures against the goblins, orcs, dragons, and all various types of fantastic bad guys.
“Do you even know where you are going?” Their dad asked as they followed a small trail blazed by the two kids.
“Yeah, over there is fort Kicka… Kick Butt. And that way is the Silver Castle and Wood Castle.” Dylan listing his favorite locations where they defeated the forces of evil.
“And down that one is Castle Unicorn. It’s my favorite. It’s right next to the Bubblegum River.”
The two babbled the entire way to Castle Dragonscale. The smell of pungent, lingering in the air.
“Jesus Christ, that’s rank.” As the sun was setting the three searched the area, only finding a massive pile of the most disgusting feces in their castle. “Well, kids, looks like Castle Dragonscale has fallen. I dunno if a kid did this, but I don’t see anything and I haven’t heard anything. Let’s go home…”
Twenty feet away hidden under some brush, a brown fluffy waited for the scary and loud humans to leave.
John and Gina agreed that the kids needed to be more careful, just in case it was an actual person out there and forbid them from going that deep into the woods.
Being children, they of course ignored that rule. Near Fort Kickass they heard it again, a high pitched child like voice mumbling.
Through the brush the two intrepid explorers, swords (sticks) in hand, crept closer to the sound. Inside their fort was a smallish brown animal with a bright pink tail. It was like nothing they had ever seen. No paws, but weird looking hooves, a muzzle, ears that looked closer to a dog’s. And it was about the size of a small dog or a really large cat.
Dylan held his finger up to his lips, Sarah snapped her mouth shut and watched. She was enamored by this creature, something she had never seen before. And then it spoke.
“Soon mummah nee moaw nummies…” The mare walked around their fort, walked as best a pregnant fluffy could, which was a slow waddle.
Sarah took a step closer, she couldn’t stop herself, “oh my gosh what are you?!”
The mare gasped in shock and scurried backwards, pressing against the sticks and branches forming the walls.lf their fort. “Pwease nu hewt fwuffy, am soon mummah, nu num babbehs!” Her eyes fell on the sticks the two were carrying, “pwease nu sowwy sticks! Am gud fwuffy! Am gud fwuffy!”
“You can talk?!” Sarah knelt down at the entrance, “what are you?”
“Pwease, Fwuffy am fwuffy, am soon mummah, pwease nu hew.” The mare was shaking in fear, her eyes locked on Dylan as he was still holding the stick.
“Don’t touch it, Sarah.”
“But…”
“Don’t.” He knelt down next to her, “can you understand what it’s saying?”
“Sorta? It’s like, baby talk or something. Maybe it’s an alien?”
“Fwuffy am nu awien. Fwuffy am fwuffy.” Pwease nu owies fwom sowwy stick!" The mare started begging, standing on her hind legs trying to get farther from the two.
“I think it said it’s name is Fwuffy. And maybe it called your stick a sorry stick? Don’t hit it!” Sarah raised her voice as Dylan tried to poke at the animal with the stick.
“I’m not gonna hit it!” He poked at the animal, once in the stomach and once in its teat.
“Screeeee! Nu hewt soon mummah! Pwease, tummy babbehs nu wike!”
“I think it’s a she and she’s gonna have babies.” The fluffy was heavy but not to the point of being immobile, and near her makeshift nest was a pile of food.
Dylan set down the stick, “so, what are you? Do you have a name?”
“Fwuffy am Fwuffy. Say dat awweady,” the mare went back down to all fours, and the two got a better look. Her brown fur was dirty, the fluff around her backside was much darker and she smelled like hot garbage. “Fwuffy am soon mummah, nee nummies fow babbehs and miwkies… can widdle hoomins geh Fwuffy nummies?”
The siblings shared a confused look, Sarah speaking up first, “you’re going to have babies?”
“And you need food?” Dylan chimed in.
Fwuffy huffed, becoming frustrated, “widdle hoomins nu unnastan. Fwuffy,” the mare patted herself, "nee nummies, "she pantomimed putting something into her mouth and chewing, “fow tummy babbehs,” followed with rubbing her enlarged stomach.
“Oh my god, babies! I wanna see them!” Sarah squealed in delight, finally comprehending.
“Nee nummies befow babbehs time. Can widdle hoomins geh Fwuffy mummah nummies?” Fwuffy put on the most pathetic and begging look possible, her eyes wide and glistening, her lip lightly quivering, she even curled and hugged at her tail.
“Yes!” Sarah grabbed Dylan’s arm, “let’s go get her food right now!”
“But, we gotta tell mom and dad…” He was cut short as Sarah pulled on his arm causing him to fall over.
“Cmon! She needs food!” She pulled on his arm even harder, “we’ll be back!”
With their allowance mostly spent, the two trudged through the forest with a bag of dog food and half a dozen cans. They could at least leave the bag open in between visits where they could open the cans.
Fwuffy was not impressed. It smelled bad, as dog food was not designed to smell appealing to many things beyond dogs, and the taste was even worse.
Fwuffy couldn’t move now, she had grown so big she couldn’t leave the nest in the shelter. Every day the two would return and open a can of food and leave it close enough for the mare to scoot forward and choke it down. Each time she had to force it down, finding the taste disgusting, but it was filling and nutritious.
Neither Dylan, nor Sarah would touch Fwuffy. As much as Sarah wanted to, the smell was too much, and with the mare being immobile, she couldn’t leave the fort to relieve herself.
Just a few days later while defending Castle Unicorn from the orcs trying to cross Bubblegum River they heard a scream, one they instantly recognized as Fwuffy.
The two ran, towards the scream, against all common sense. Dylan reached the lean to first.and skidded to a stop, to find Fwuffy on her side with two tiny balls of fluff on her teats, two other ones crawling on her side, and one in her hooves getting licked clean.
Fwuffy shifted and placed the foal into her fluff. “Fwuffy hab babbehs. Hab two an two an one babbehs. Mummah wub aww babbehs. Hab pwettiest babbehs.”
Sarah poked her head in and saw the lumps of color crawling around and suckling, she couldn’t hold back a squeak of delight. “Shhhh! Babbehs nee miwkies and deh sweepies, nu be woud an scawe babbehs.”
For the next hour, Fwuffy ignored her own advice and showed off all five of her babies. The red wingie baby, the blue pointy baby. The other three were earth types, a green, a white, and a purple baby.
As the light was turning golden, Sarah didn’t want to go, even with Dylan grabbing onto her shirt and dragging her back.
Dylan stared at Sarah from his bedroom window. In a spat of prepubescent anger he managed to get into a fight with both parents and was promptly grounded for two days.
Sarah waved from the edge of the field, his squire skipping along through the tall grass to disappear into the wilds.
Fwuffy was soundly sleeping on her side, her five foals on top of her, three were sleeping with two crawling about. Sarah watched for a bit as Fwuffy’s legs twitched while dreaming.
She held her breath, to steady her nerves, to not wake Fwuffy, and to keep from getting any closer to the stank. She avoided the discarded empty cans of dog food and the overturned and opened bag of kibble. Deftly, slowly, she scooped up the blue “pointy” unicorn foal.
Fwuffy didn’t even stir, and the foal just rolled over in her hand to hug at her finger. Just as quietly Sarah backed out of the primitive lean to. She was amazed, never had she held something so small, so young, and just so God damned cute.
The foal waved it’s head, his eyes not even open, he sniffled for his mother, as soft as Sarah’s hands were, they weren’t the same softness as Fwuffy’s fluff. He rolled again and hugged at Sarah’s finger.
Sarah fought the urge to squeal in delight, as most nine year old girls were known to do. He latched onto her finger tip and started suckling. Unfortunately nothing came out, frustrating the foal. He lifted his head back, “chirp! Peep peep chirp!”
“Babbeh?” Fwuffy roused, looking around for the sound of distress. Red, green, white, and purple. Blue. Where was blue? She heard another round of distressed chirps and ushered the four into her back, “babbeh? Mummah coming!”
“Oh fuck!” Sarah never used that language, but standing there with a baby she stole from a furry creature that could talk and may or may not be alien scared her. She didn’t know why, but the adrenaline kicked in and she ran.
She was halfway home before stopping, the foal still chirping in fear. At some point it had shit and pissed all over her hands. She shifted the foal between hands as she wiped the mess into the dirt. Every pet, every prod, every touch forced another distressed chirp from the foal.
Then he heard the fluffy, “widdle hoomins, pwease gif babbeh! Babbeh nee mummah! Pwease bwing bwue babbeh back!” The mare got closer and closer, and Sarah ran again.
She hid next to the steps of the deck, blocking her from the field out back. She was crouched down holding the blue unicorn and petting it, trying to get it to stop chirping and peeping. Her anxiety grew, she had stolen a baby… Something. A baby something. And it was very upset. And it’s mother was also very upset. And soon, if she couldn’t get it to stop chirping, her own mother would be very upset.
“Babbeh?” Fwuffy marched into the yard, following the chirps of her missing baby.
At the same time Sarah’s mom came out onto the porch, the chirping and unfamiliar voice drawing her attention. “What the…” She stopped at the sight of the brown and pink animal. “What the fuck is that!?”
Sarah ran from the side of the steps up to her mom, “I found that thing in the woods! That’s what me and Dylan had been talking about!” She started talking faster, “her name is Fwuffy and she had babies and this is one of them!” She held the blue foal up to her mom, “they can talk and they are so cute!”
He mother didn’t have the same reaction, she snatched the foal out of her hands and threw it towards the mare, grabbing onto Sarah’s wrist and yanking her towards the door. “Get inside! Wash your hands!”
As the two humans rushed inside Fwuffy screamed, “nuuuuuuuuuu!” Her scream stopped short when the blue foal hit the ground with a sickening thud, bouncing and rolling towards the field in the back.
“So you’re telling me this is a real animal? I’ve never seen animals with those colors.”
She paused, listening to he officer on the line.
“Well this one is called Fwuffy.”
“Oh, so they are also called fluffies?”
“Okay, thank you.”
Sarah sat across her mother, her hands freshly scrubbed, and looking very guilty.
“You’re going to be grounded. For at least a week. At least!” She tilted her head back and shouted, “Dylan Ashmore get your ass down here!”
The siblings looked at each other, both looking guilty. “Look, mom, I just… I just wanted to hold one of the babies!”
Her mom sighed. “You should’ve told us about this… Thing. So, the police just said they are these biotoys, or whatever, and they are called fluffies. They used to be pets or toys, or both? I don’t know. But they got loose and they aren’t considered animals under the law. But, they can talk and to not be afraid of them. Just… I’m going to go onto the deck and I’m going to talk to it.” She looked out the window, the brown and pink mare was curled up on the lawn with her foals, including the blue one she threw. “You two stay inside. I still don’t trust that thing.”
Dylan was already in trouble, and dint need any more. Sarah, well, she couldn’t stop herself sometimes. “I wanna apologize to her.”
“Let me talk to it first.”
Sarah and Dylan watched through the screen door on the deck. Their mother stood at the steps, not wanting to get too close to this clearly unnatural creature. Loudly, “what are you doing?”
“Fwuffy am cweanin’ babbehs and gibbin’ dem miwkies and huggies an wub… Nu wan babbehs be scawed. Babbehs jus wost bwue pointy bruddah.” Fwuffy didn’t look up as she set down the purple foal and started to hug and clean the red one.
“I’m sorry, I got scared. You… You can really talk, huh? You’re not just some weird robot with fur?”
“Fwuffy nu wobot.” She held up her red foal, “Fwuffy am awive, hab babbehs. Fwuffy nu am munsta, nu am ‘awien,’ Fwuffy am fwuffy…” She turned away from the human to pick up the green foal, licking and hugging it.
“Fwuffy am awive…” She continued, “fwuffy hab eeemotuns, fwuffy habe wub in heawt, an hab wowstest saddies, dis babbeh neba gwow up an hab wub and huggies. Fwuffy hab sweepies time pictures, dat fwuffy hab hoomins dat wub fwuffy. Fwuffy can tawk, fwuffy can count.” Fwuffy holds up each baby, counting to four. She picks up dead foal, the blue pointy foal, “Fwuffy hab five babbehs, buh nao owly fouw babbehs…”
The three humans watched Fwuffy hug the dead foal, it’s head lazily flopping around in the process. The tears started again, “dis babbeh neba gib owies ow heawt huwties. Dis was gud babbeh… Yu… Yu gib babbeh foweba sweepies!”
“I… I didn’t know, I was scared that you were some kind of monster!” Sarah watched her mom, knowing full well this was her fault.
“Yu widdle hoomins, yu widdle mummah stowe babbeh! Stowe babbeh fwum mummah an wan away! Den yu thwew babbeh su faw and gib babbeh foweba sweepies! Babbeh neba hug ow wub mummah again.” Fwuffy glared, even from this distance Sarah could feel her hatred. “How wud yu wike it if fwuffy bweak intu yu home an steaw yu babbeh, yu widdle mummah back dewe, den gif foweba sweepies?”
Sarah opened the door and joined her mom on deck. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to hold your baby and I got scared when you caught me.” She looked up to her mom, “what do we do?”
“Pwease nu mowe heawt owwies, wet fwuffy gu, promise nu botha hoomins, yu awweady giv fwuffy tewwible heawt owwies.” The four foals chirped and crawled around the grass in front of Fwuffy.
“Is that why you two came home with dog food?”
“Yeah, I didn’t mean to hurt her babies.” Sarah looked to be near tears.
“Look, I’m not going to stop you, and these two won’t bother you any more if you go. Right you two? But… Do you wanna try staying here? At least let me try to make it right for killing your baby.”
“Fwuffy nu knu… Yu widdle daddeh poke fwuffy wif sticky, and gif owies tu fwuffy spechul pwace.” Fwuffy paused. “Yu babbehs nu gud babbehs. Tink yu bad mummah.”
“What’s a special place?” Dylan blanched as his mom asked that question. She completely glossed over being called a bad mother by a furry horse abomination.
Fwuffy huffed in frustration. “Aww mawes hab spechul pwace, dat whewe babies cum fwum.”
“Dylan!” He went white, his mom turned red. “Get the fuck out here right now!”
He stepped out onto the deck only for her to smack him on the back of his head, “wait till your father comes home.”
“Yeah, well, wait till he found out you killed her baby.” Dylan quickly covered his mouth with both hands, he knew soon as he started he was going to regret that.
“If you ever do anything like that again, well, I don’t know what we will do… Go to your room, we’ll talk about that later.” Having been spared a sudden beating, he retreated quickly.
Sarah looked up towards her mom, not Knowing what to say or do. She was too young to fix it, nor was she old enough to fully grasp the situation she caused.
“Go inside, the moms need to talk.”
Sarah left Fwuffy and her mom on the deck, watching from her bedroom window.
“Sarah! Dylan! Get down here!” Their dad yelled up the stairs. He didn’t give them much of a chance to get down before following with a threat, “if you don’t get your asses down here, I’m getting the belt!”
The flurry of stomping feet filled the house as Dylan and Sarah rushed down stairs.
“I don’t want to hear a word from you two until I’ve had my say. Your mom told me everything. You’ve got two choices. Either you go out there, an apologize to that… creature.”
“Fluffy, dear.” His wife chimed in.
“That fluffy. Either you apologize to the fluffy and then get a month being grounded, and maybe, just maybe I won’t beat your ass red…” He took a deep breath. “Or, you still go out there, apologize to that fluffy, and this weekend we build her a dog house… er… fluffy house.”
Sarah looked confused, Dylan even more so. She piped up first, “wait, you’re saying we can keep her?”
Her mom took over, “well, Fwuffy was more agreeable, and this would make up for what the three of us did. And your father, your sweet, loving, caring, wonderful father, is willing to do the labor of making a temporary outdoor home for her.” She placed a hand on his arm, the same arm she twisted behind his back to agree to this deal. Literally, in the ensuing argument she ended up pinning him on the couch with his arm behind his back.
“That’s right. So, no matter what, you are all going to apologize. ALL OF YOU.” He glared at his wife, not pleased with the strong armed deal he was forced into. He sat down on the deck with a beer to watch his wife and two kids apologize to Fwuffy, and to offer her a new home.
