Earl and the boys were off at work hunting down feral fluffies and monsters leaving Nugget and Lemon home alone again to mind the foals and chicks. They had grown to half the size of the adults by now making them as big as a regular fluffy, weaned and running around playing while Nugget watched over next to a resting pregnant Lemon. Swift was having a jumping competition with Banshee, taking turns clumsily climbing their doghouses and jumping off to see who could glide the farthest. Gobby was sitting in front of a small ball grunting and straining as he stared at it, trying to make it move like his daddeh. His concentration was broken when a soft foam yellow ball hit him in the back of the head and Shriek started laughing wagging her new prosthetic tail with the ball covering the end. The foals had grown to be more sleek and athletic like the adults, the chicks had gone from cutesy versions of griffins to looking closer to the creature of myth that inspired their creation.
-Come on, Gobby come pway wiff Shwiek!-
-Go way, wan pwactice magic wike daddeh.- Returning his attention to the ball.
Making a disappointed little “Hrumph”, Shriek bopped him again with her tail, when he continued to ignore her she smirked as an intrusive thought won. Grabbing the ball in her beak she ran off with Gobby now chasing her trying to get it back. Catching up eventually he tackled her and the ball went rolling through the chicken wire corral fence and well out of reach. Gobby tried to reach for it, pressing his face into the wire then poking his horn through trying to will it to him but alas, nothing. He finally gave up and sat down pouting, more upset about not having powers like his daddeh and uncles. When Shriek tried to get him to play again he just sulked even harder and turned his back to her leaving her feeling sad in failing to get him to play. She sat behind him as he stared through the fence at the ball, reaching her little bird claws out to touch his wing only to be brushed off by it. With a heavy sigh she stood up to walk away when she noticed that they were next to the corral door and Earl had only latched it shut, forgetting to put on the padlock. Steeling herself she reached her little bird toes through the fence hole and started to pull herself up and up and up, clumsily struggling with her back hooves. It took Gobby a minute to notice but when he did he looked on in awe as Shriek stuck her toe through the fence where the latch was and fumbled with it for what seem like forever until (click). They both froze as the door lazily lurched open an inch and looked behind them, lemon and Nugget were sound asleep under the tree. Shriek glided down and followed Gobby as he pushed the door open and happily retrieved his ball hugging it between his hooves.
-Shwiek sowwy. Can Gobby pway now?-
-(sigh)… Okay, Gobby pwactice magic watew.-
Sara looked at herself in the bathroom mirror in her underwear turning her whole body side to side trying to figure out if she was starting to show how pregnant she was. Her paranoid mind registered a barely starting to show bump then heard it growl at her having just ate but still hungry. Raiding the fridge again she reached for the open box of old Chinese take out when another mental flash hit. Reeling from the memories she looked for something to fix but by this time she had fixed and mended everything in the apartment and she was forced to be immersed in it. Resting her head on the kitchen table she rode it out and reality slowly bled back into focus. What made it worse was the visions seemed to be gearing towards more nurturing moments between young Earl and his mother vs lessons in engineering. There was no way her own fucked up head wasn’t messing with her, flooding an already warped and reeling mind with parental levels of turmoil. Appetite ruined she abandoned the take out and and stared at to half filled liquor bottles on the counter but snapped out of it when she heard the front door open. Phil was home, time to put on her costume. Slipping on an old robe, her form shifted and morphed into her anthro-fluff persona as Phil strolled in for a kiss just as she finished. She half dodged it getting a peck on the corner of her cheek and lip she let out an oof when he hugged her tight.
“Good news babe, I finally made the manager’s position!” He beamed holding her by the shoulders.
-Uh… Congratulations, Hun.-
“Isn’t it great? I’ll be getting more pay and better benefits!”
-Enough to get a better place other than this… place?-
“Sorry not that much, but with all the renovations you did this place is fantastic. You even cleared all the trash out of the spare room. I hadn’t been in there in years. Not since the rats took it over, thanks for clearing that up too babe. I never though you could be so handy. Where’d you learn to do all this?” Looking around the former crap hole now a decent and clean apartment.
-Myyyyy, um, mother. Yeah, uh, a real do it your selfer kinda gal.- She said almost compulsively.
“You mean the human woman who raised you, right?”
-Yeah that’s what I meant. Y’know how fluffies are, anyone caring for us is either mommy or daddy.-
“Ohh well come to daddeh, I think it’s time to celebrate my promotion.” leading her to the bedroom.
Gobby and Shriek knew they weren’t supposed to be out with out Earl or one of the grown up fluffies to watch over them but they felt big enough to play outside unsupervised. Taking one of Odin’s larger balls left out in the yard and chased it around seeing who could bat it away from the other. A wonderful way to spend a sunny day but then there was the crows. Smart little assholes who not only can hold a grudge they can teach others to hold the same vendetta against whoever pissed them off. Gremlin and the griffin chicks having done so weeks ago, the crows had now come back in greater numbers to torment their targets, waiting in the tree for the right moment. Shriek was one of course but unfortunately for Gobby looking like his dad and uncles, he too became a target. The first struck fast, swooping down it grabbed a beak full of feathers from the top of Shriek’s head and flew off with a loose feather or two.
-EEEEK! Owwies!-
And just like that the rest swooped in, a black cloud of feathers pecking and grabbing at fluff and feather with their feet, doing little to no damage save some sore skin and the odd scratch. The giant murder of crows, dwarfed by the much larger fluffs harassed and flew away before either could strike back. Gobby still thought he could use “magic” like his father and started to concentrate again trying to squish any bird he could flat. But getting pecked and scratched over the face kept breaking his focus, then one bird jabbed him right in the nuts and his hoof reflexively kicked cracking the bird’s head open.
-Gobby wun!- Shouted Shriek running away from the crows.
Having no other choice, Gobby ran behind Shriek with the crows chasing them both and neither could see clearly where they were going… until they ran into the side of the house. The squawking of the crows sounded like laughter mocking them as the two rubbed the sore spots on their heads. But the crows didn’t give them a chance to recover before they were swarming them again, they ran for the back deck hoping to find cover under it, then the started shitting on them. Shriek was last in and a crow latched onto the nerf ball on the end of her tail and it slid right off revealing a sharp spade shaped blade. One by one the birds landed hopping around at the edge of the deck looking in at the two cowering underneath but couldn’t see them in the dark. When Shriek’s tail lashed out slicing the lead crow awkwardly across the middle the rest of the murder took to the skies again.
-No, no, FUCK NO! I’m not going it!- Sara screamed storming out of the bedroom, tying her rob shut, shifting to her human form.
“Oh come on, babe. It’s not so bad. I mean you’ve been open with everything else we’ve done.” Phil nearly tripped trying to get his shorts up.
-Me growing a dick and wrecking your ass in one thing! Masturbating with my own tentacles while you watch I get! But why the fuck would I want to turn my nipples into dicks that I shit out of onto your chest and face?! I’m a fucking mutant and even I think that shit is weird! What. The hell. Is WRONG with you? HNRK! AH Fuck!- Suddenly clutching the sides of her head as a memory flash hit.
Sitting at the kitchen table trying to ride it out she didn’t realize she had been rambling throughout the memories of Earl learning to train the family dog from his mom.
“D…D-did you just say, pregnant?”
-Huh… Wha?- Snapping back to reality.
“You just said “Stupid pregnancy mind fuck bullshit.” Are you pregnant?”
-What? NO! No, noooooohohoho.- Shooting to her feet backing away as she pointed a finger at him. -Uh-uh, not possible! I’m a mutant fluffy, you’re a human! It’s not possible!-
“Holy shit you are… That’s great! HA! That’s why you’ve been so all over place. Hormones! This is gonna be great. And it gives me some great ideas! I’ll go get a box of adult diapers and we can set the bed up like a crib and then we can–”
As Phil prattled on about the weird shit he’d like to try Sara’s face slowly contorted into a slack-jawed look of shock and horror. He continued on and on, the warped scenarios getting worse by the second until something in her mind just… snapped.
Gobby and Shriek were still stuck under the deck, the crows had stopped trying to get under there with them after the fourth one got sliced apart by Shriek’s tail. Gobby had returned to trying to move things with his mind but did little more than grunt himself into a headache, not even a flicker of light from his horn. After what seemed like all the forevers to her listening to him grunt and strain she snapped at him.
-Gobby no am magic! Neva have magic! Neva gonna have magic! Just stop!-
Taken aback by her outburst he hung his head and sniffled, pouting in silence while Shriek stared down any crow that landed to see if they were still there. It had dissolved into a waiting game to see who would male the next move and the two were getting hungry and thirsty as the day dragged on. The midday sun’s rays shone through the deck slats and their little tummies started growling and then they heard the voices calling for them.
-Babbehs! Whewe awe you? No am supposed to be out nestie without mummah!- Lemon called from the corral door.
And that was the opening the crows needed, they had associated the other fluffies with Gremlin and were also on their shit list. The storm of squawking feathers took flight once again heading for the open corral door.
-Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Biwdie munstahs weave soom mummah awone! Owwies!-
Forgetting about their own safety the pair ran out from under the deck trying to swat away any crow they could pulling at Lemon’s fluff as watery white shit rained down covering everyone. The rest of the herd had also come running, Banshee sprang up like a cat snatching a crow mid-air she sank her beak into it’s body and bit clean through. Swift chased and bucked at any bird she could reach with little success while Nugget put herself between the murder and Lemon. A shotgun blast went off and the crows instantly fled as more shots rang out turning several clusters into clouds of blood and feathers. Others simply went splat mid air like they had been clapped between a pair of hands and this time no crow got away. The boys stood at the end of the driveway with Earl behind them shotgun in hand.
“Jesus Christ, what the hell is going one here? Who opened the corral?” Reloading more bird-shot then got out his phone. “Shriek! Your in big trouble you little birdbrain!”
-Shweik sowwy! Just wanted to get Gobby’s baww!- She cried trying to herself behind Lemon.
“Get over here!” Grabbing the scruff of her neck. “If you don’t want to spend anymore time in the sorry box you’ll hold still! Where the hell’s your tail’s safety cap?” He asked with a gruff huff. “Imp! Get the hose and wash everyone off, everyone else clean up these bodies.” He ordered walking to his workshop.
Reality fluttered back in to Sara’s world and she found herself standing in the kitchen, human form, naked, her underwear and robe in tatters on the floor. The room looked like a massacre took place in it, shattered table, oven door glass, windows with assorted impact holes in the walls and blood everywhere. Her right arm was still morphed into a long green tentacle, wrapped around the throat of Phil’s disemboweled, dismembered corpse. Then there was a knock at the front door.
“Sheriff’s department! We got a call about an domestic disturbance!” Shouted a man’s voice from the outside hallway.
-Oh shit.-
and Im sure Gobby still upset bout not having powers like his dad.