Saturday night
Sometime later, the mares were tucked peacefully into the extra crates in the boy’s room, bellies full of enough pasta and sauce to send them into blissful sleep, and both the teenagers and the other demonfluffs were called in for food. Four more bowls of spaghetti were waiting in the kitchen- these heavily loaded with fluffy mince meatballs and each of the demonfluffs’ usual supplements. Along with two plates of plain pizza all set for Jake and Genny to take with on their way home, as many longing looks as the pair shot the box of stuffed crust.
That said, even the clearly waiting feast wasn’t enough to keep three of the Pack fluffs from skidding to an abrupt stop the moment the dogs under the table were visible. Even the shorter of the herd dogs was half again as big as Aurora and nearly twice the size of either of the boys. Rook ignored the other’s reaction to stroll forward without concern. As he passed, he reached up to bump his muzzle against the border collie’s grizzled nose before he continued to the bowl marked with a storm-cloud the same color as his fluff and his name.
“Doggie-fwiends awe otay. Janie an’ Jessy awe… awe -’ he glanced between Asher and Shadow, seeming to come to a decision. “Awe guud Pack-fwiends, jus’ nu- talkie.”
That statement earned him three disbelieving stares and two amused snorts.
“Doggie-munsta mayb’ doggie-fwiend, mayb’ eben fwiends-to-pack, bu’ how can be Pack-fwiend? Nu Pack-fwuffy, nu eben fwuffy at aww!” Aurora was the first to speak, and for the first time in a week none of the others looked askance at her speaking up or the authoritative tone she slipped into. “Auwowa am soon-mummah, nu can-”
“Janie an’ Jessy awe Pack-fwiends,” Rook reiterated firmly. ‘Doggie-fwiend Daddeh am Mummah nyu speciew fwiend. Su doggie-fwiend am Pack-fwiends.” This earned him a long silence as the other demonfluffs looked uncertainly at each other, as Asher and Shadow shared a look and near simultaneous shrugs. There was the sound of unsteadily shuffling hooves on tile, of ruffling feathers as Glory and Aurora looked at each other. Foxfire was the first to move, the silence breaking with the clatter of her claws and a happy giggle.
The Pomeranian sized fluffy edged carefully closer, sniffing back at Jesse’s faded red nose as the heeler gave her a cursory going over and dropped her head back wearily on her paws. Jane leaned over as well, giving a curious huff before returning her attention to the half gnawed bone between her own speckled legs. At their calm reactions to Foxfire’s increasingly enthusiastic greetings, Glory visibly relaxed, his wings stretching before he tucked them loosely over his pale flanks. Aurora, however, seemed even more agitated at the sight of her tiniest sibling ducking under the fifty pound dog’s nose.
“Auwowa nu cawe wat Wook tink bout doggie- Pack-Fwiends. Dat am dummeh ide’, nu-pack-nu-fwuffies nu am Pack! Auwowa am soon- mummah, gun hab babbehs, su nu can twust-” Aurora started again, her voice going increasingly loud and shrill for brief moment before she noticed the way even Glory was looking at her, as Rook had lifted his head to stare almost imperiously at the larger demonfluff.
“Auwowa am yewwing ‘gain.” Glory deliberately turned his back on her at that, wings flicking as he trotted delicately into the kitchen. He chose his path carefully, curving just close enough to the humans for Shadow to run her hand over his head as he passed. This path still gave him several feet of clearance between himself and the area under the table the dogs had claimed on his way to his own marked bowl. “Yewwin’ am wude.”
“This is even more fun than watching a pack of Grandfather’s foxhounds sort themselves out,” Asher murmured, snagging another slice of pizza. “They’re almost endearing up close and clean, aren’t they? If they can all be trained half as well as yours-”
“This is mine on exceptional behavior, though. The Pack is at least usually smart enough to know the limits of what I’ll put up with, even if Rook’s the only one who seems to remember that there are cameras watching them when I am not.” She was smiling with the same amount of amusement he was. Aurora’s rant had cut off with Glory’s sharp remark, but she was still drawing herself up, wings fluffing out. The golden demonfluff got as far as a single ringing hoof stamp against the tile before she suddenly glanced away from Rook’s increasingly bared teeth. Her gaze sought out where Shadow was sitting, seeming to evaluate her expression before her posture immediately slumped.
“If I remember, you have co-workers who can’t remember that detail, sweetheart,” Asher noted, eyebrow raised as Aurora slowly edged her way over to the bowls behind the boys, huffing and muttering just loudly enough a pair of low canine growls rumbled up from under the table. “That tiny one is cute, but I can’t imagine her doing well against an alley of hardened ferals. Claws are all well and good, but she’d still need the size to leverage them properly.”
“Foxfire has her moments, but… yeah, I’ve noticed. It’s more of a bug than a feature. She’s supposed to be at least the size of the boys, Bill just keeps having problems quirk up with her phenotypes in gestation. What few survivors he has come out heavily stunted and fragile. I’m going to wait to breed her until she’s fully mature, cross her with the most stable of the other lots, and see if the problem continues in the next generation. If the claw phenotype keeps destabilizing viability that badly, it might just need to be given up as a loss.” The fluffy under discussion had circled her way around the dogs, enthusiastically swatting and nipping at a slow wagging plumed tail as a border collie studiously ignored her just as she would an obnoxious puppy.
“You have a weird job, Shadow. I should hang out here more often,” Asher laughed, as Jesse responded to Foxfire’s attempt to do the same to her with a disgruntled snort and enough of a backward kick to send the demonfluff rolling back into his feet.
“Oh! Dat am muwda?” an excited voice rang out, and Shadow and Asher turned sudden and belated attention to the floor between the bed and the TV. In the thin beam of light from the now cracked open door, a dark grey fluffy could be seen wedged between the drowsing dogs on the rug. He was focused on the screen and the decapitated norse bodies, tail swishing eagerly as the blood pooled. “Da beaw hoomin gu waoww an’ da udda hoomin gu spwuwty fwop an gu foeba sweepies! Am da beaw hoomins gu pwison nao?”
“Nah, the other humans, the norse with the armor and swords, they’re just going to murder them back. It’s way more fun, and they didn’t really have prison back then in viking times,” Asher answered before Shadow could stop him, ignoring the light tap to his tattooed shoulder.
“Otay! Dat soun’ muches funner. Wat am eskiwe? Eban nu wan hewp nyu vikin’ fwiends at fiwst?” Rook asked, eyes still fixed on the figures on screen until it froze mid scene. “Aww, why…”
“Rook, how long have you been down there?” Shadow asked, somewhere between irritation and amusement as she set the remote down again. “This isn’t a movie meant for fluffies.”
“Gwowy am pwaying wit’ nyu species huggie fwiends ‘gain, an’ Wook nu wan wisten tu dat an’ ‘Babbehs’ on nyu sweepy-woon teebee. Su Wook come see Mummah ‘stead, an’ doggie- Pack- fwiends wet Wook hab fwuff piwe. Teebee hab wowdies obaw scween fow’ wong wile, an’ den happy hoomin Pack habben nummies. Dne dey aww wet in wainy fwoaty ting, den guud stuff habbens! Wook wike dis teebee mobie ting,” Rook rambled happily, working back to his original question. “Eben say Eben eskiwed, wat mean?”
“Eskiw-Exiled?" Asher puzzled out with an amused sigh. "Um… Remember the pretty lady with the face scarf ‘Eben’ saw at the beginning? She was…uh… She was someone else’s special friend, and her special friend was in charge of things and didn’t like her being friends with ‘Eben’. So he told ‘Eben’ to go far away and not come back. That’s exile.” Asher explained, as Rook tilted his head and looked thoughtful.
“Eben am fwiends wit’ pwetty wady ow twy be pwetty wady nyu speciew fwiend?” Asher spread his hands noncommittally, and Rook fluffed his feathers out in a winged shrug. “Den Eben am wude. Speciew fwiends awe speciew fwiends, nu wan shawe. Dat aww siwwy bit an’way. Wan see mowe huwties an’ muwda, an’ west a’da stowy, pwease.” He tilted his head, giving Shadow his bst impression of a golden retriever looking at a steak. “Pwease, Mummah?”
“Oh, why not. But it’s also usually considered rude to talk during movies, little guy. Try to keep the questions to a minimum, and next time I’ll bring a really good movie called Hostel,” Asher offered, an anticipatory grin on his face until Shadow elbowed him.
“No.”
“Clockwork Orange?”
“No!”
“Cabin Fever?”
She sighed heavily, tipping her head onto his shoulder. “Please remember the demonfluffs are still nearly as impressionable as normal fluffies, even if some of them are far more okay with violence.”
“Can I at least bring the first Saw movie and we film his reaction to it?” Asher tried, grin broadening as she laughed. In the meantime, Rook had tapped wistfully at the paused TV screen a few times, before taking a running leap up onto the bed and staring in consternation at the many little buttons on the remote.
“Wat butt’n make teebee wowk ‘gain? Wan see mowe teebee stowy, pwease.” Shadow took it back and tapped play with another sigh. With a happy purring coo, Rook made a quick turn around on her pillow and settled with a good view of the screen. A few moments later, Asher cleared his throat, snapping his fingers and pointing back at the rug. With a reluctant glance at Shadow, Rook jumped back down, curling back up between the dogs. Within seconds, he was absorbed by the TV again, the humans on the bed entirely forgotten for the moment.
First Chapter- The Pack- because what we need is more fluffies bred to eat other fluffies. (1) by :Shadowfox
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