Yuzu gently herded you outside before leading you home. With the sky turning orange the two of you walked back to Yuzu’s truck in silence.
You didn’t know where your herd was. You didn’t know where your parents were. All you knew Frosting was badly, badly hurt and sleeping in a way that made you think it was the forever sleep you’d heard of. You tried to push the image of her all broken and bloody out of your head as it made your chest hurt.
How did this happen? Why did this happen? Frosting was a good fluffy! Sure, she talked back to Smarty occasionally but she didn’t deserve to be hurt so badly. No one did. Yuzu said the humans hurt your herd. That thought also hurt your chest, and you tried to shove it away as well. That couldn’t possibly be right. Humans were good and kind and love fluffies, you knew that deep down! You loved those humans, you had seen them so briefly but that woman was all you could think about. In your thinky place you could see her, smiling and holding out her arms to you.
As the sour smell of the dump entered your nostrils you put it together. Yuzu must be hiding the humans from you. She had been a human’s fluffy before, she must be trying to get back to them! That was why she hid you, if the nice lady saw you she would know that you were meant to be her fluffy and not Yuzu!
This was solidified by Yuzu stopping at the entrance to the truck and speaking.
“Gu inside, stay dewe. Yuzu make suwe dey nu fowwow fwuffies.”
You nodded, keeping your knowlege to yourself. You watched her leave before beginning to formulate your plan.
You needed to find your daddeh and the rest of your herd. You could only guess they had gone with the humans somewhere after they rescued them from whatever hurt Frosting so much. You hoped no other fluffies were hurt, but humans had magic that surely fixed them, you don’t know why they left Frosting behind. Maybe they didn’t want fluffies that already had a human? Maybe thats why Yuzu was trying to keep you away, you would tell them that she already had a human.
Well you’ll show her. You’d find them and get to have all those wonderful things humans could give her.
It could be a long journey, though, and you hadnt eaten all day. You waddled to the latched box she kept her nummies in. It was hard to open but you could smell that delicious something and the mystery of what it could be. When you finally managed to get it open sorted piles of dried out leaves were all you saw. It was disappointing, but you could still smell whatever that was. Pawing the leaves aside you saw something shiny and pulled it out.
Your mouth watered at the sight of the dark brown shard tucked into the silver wrapper. It smelled sweet and rich, and you didn’t even get a closer look at it before you bit down. The flavor burst on your tongue, better than even your mother’s milkies! It was like nothing you’d ever tasted before and it wasn’t long before you were licking the inside wrapper in hopes of getting another hint of that flavor.
There was a small gasp from behind you, and turning you saw Yuzu standing in the entrance, staring at you.
“Wha… whewe…” she stammered.
You stomped your hoof down on the wrapper. “Meanie mawe! Wai yu keep nice wady an’ guud nummies fwom Bestest?!”
Yuzu didn’t reply, eyes locked on the empty wrapper under your hoof.
“Bestest am smawty! Knu wha’ meanie doin’, yu wan’ keep aww guud tings fo yu’self! Meanie!” You kicked the wrapper aside. “Bestest taek nummies an’ gu find nice hoomans. Bestest gun’ teww humans an’ hewd wha’ meanie mawe du an’-”
You were cut off by Yuzu’s hooves slamming into your face. She wasn’t strong enough to wound you but it hurt, no one had ever hit you like this before.
“DUMMEH!” she screeched, pounding her hooves into you. “YU AM DA DUMMIEST FWUFFY YUZU EBAH MEET! DAT AM YUZU’S WASTES NUMMIES, NU FO STOOPID BABBEHS!”
“Nu am fo’ stoopid owd mawe eithew!!” You retorted, shoving her backwards.
“Yuzu wish nebah find dummeh babbeh!” She spat at you. “Wish yu gu foebah sweepies wif’ yu dummeh hewd!”
How dare she! “Bestest gunna gu get Daddeh an’ cum bak to show yu wai yu be nicey to Bestest Babbeh!” you replied.
“Gu ‘head!” She snarled back. “Yu get dummeh thinkie pwace fwom dummeh daddeh! Gu foebah sweepies wif him!”
You snorted. “Daddeh nu am foebah sweepies, dummeh nu knu nuffin’.”
“Yuzu nu nuffin’?! Dummeh babbeh knu nuffin’! Nu eben knu wha’ dawk times awe! Yuzu saw yu dummeh daddeh am nummed by bawky-munstah! Yu nu eben knu!!” She gloated, nose in the air above you. “Yu knu nuffin! Yuzu teach dummeh babbeh ebweyting!”
The fire in your chest died down somewhat as she spoke. You tried to keep the worry from your face as you turned and ran from the upturned truck.
She was wrong. She had to be. She was a meanie who was saying whatever she could to hurt you. Your daddeh was the strongest, smartest, bestest fluffy, he couldn’t be sleeping forever! Yuzu was dumb, what did she know! He was probably just regular sleeping!
Still, the worry grew in the pit of your stomach as the wires of the fence racked your back. You hadn’t seen any sign of him in days. And she insisted you not search the dump for him…
As you scrambled up the hill of garbage you gritted your teeth as if you could bite down on your hope. Your daddeh wouldn’t be there. If he was, he would be fine. You slowed before cresting the hill, swallowing heavily to keep that hope within you. He would be just fine.
He wasn’t fine.
Immediately bile rose in the back of your throat, you vomited up your purloined nummies on the garbage before you.
Scattered through the valley of refuse were the parts of many fluffies, all of which you remembered from the group that left with you. Near the center, all on its own, was a horribly familiar bright orange head.
You slowly marched towards it in the twilight almost against your will. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be him. It had to be a dream. It had to be fake. The head faced away from you, you knew who it was but you slowly circled around it until you could see the face clearly, or what was left of it. His jaw had been ripped off along with the skin and flesh of his neck. Undeniably, this was the stallion that raised you, that played huggie tag with you, that picked out the best nummies from the pile for you, that hugged you tight when you fell and hurt yourself and kissed the owwies away. His dull, foggy eyes stared blindly at you.
You sat down in front of him. What else could you do? Everyone was gone. You knew now what Yuzu had meant about the difference between a title and a name. With everything and everyone taken from you you didn’t know who you were. You couldn’t be Bestest if there was no one to be better than.
You were just a fluffy and the world was so, so much larger than you had ever known.
A noise interrupted your silent vigil, you turned to see nothing but teeth coming to you. Before you could even feel mortal fear your vision was once again nothing but yellow fluff.
The beast reared back, Yuzu’s head clenched in its jaws, then yelped and dropped her. You trembled in place as she got to her bloody hooves, back to you. The monster stared her down, blood dripping from a small cut on its cheek.
“Am… yu huwt?” Yuzu growled, keeping her eyes locked on the monster.
“N-nu!”
“Stay cwose tu Yuzu.” She ordered. You quickly darted to press yourself against her tail, she brandished the sharp silver-edged thing clenched in her teeth.
The beast’s yellow eyes flicked between you and her as she slowly backed away from the carnage. After quite a few stressful steps away from it, the monster decided they weren’t worth the effort and started to rip into another of the dead fluffies.
“Wun ‘way. Yuzu be wight behind.” Yuzu said softly.
You turned and let your fear fuel you up and over the hill and to the break in the fence. To your great relief heard Yuzu’s panting breath behind you.
“Wha’ am dat ting?!” You asked. You turned back to Yuzu and your jaw dropped.
Yuzu panted through a large tear in her lip that revealed her back teeth. The eye on that side was also squished shut, the fluff between soaked in fresh blood.
“Bawky-munstah.” She said plainly.
“Yu am huwt!” you shouted.
“Shh! Munstah cum bak, nee’ weab.”
You let her lead you back to her truck den. As your adrenaline wore off the dread began to settle in your stomach once again. Yuzu couldn’t hide her pain well, a low groan emanating from her ruined face every few steps. She was hurt bad, and you didn’t know the first steps of helping her.
She entered the truck slowly, beginning to dig in her piles of supplies while you sat down, staring at the silver wrapper on the floor. It wasn’t worth it. tears dripped from your cheeks. You had thrown away the only friend you had left in the world for a scrap of food that you didn’t even get to digest. Yuzu was right about you. Everything she said was true.
“Hey.” Yuzu’s voice snapped you from your thoughts. The open wounds on her face were starting to crust over with dark red scabs and bits of of the fabric scraps she used to soak up the blood. “Yuzu am sowwy.”
“Sowwy?! Wai?! Fwuffy am biggest dummeh!” You wiped your tears with your hoof. “Dummeh wun ‘way, Yuzu shouwd hab wet fwuffy be nummed by munstah.”
She limped across the den and colapsed into her blanket pile with a grunt. “Nu, Yuzu am dummeh. Wie tu fwuffy, nu teww dat daddeh am foebah sweepies ‘tiww angey. Shouwd hab say wight ‘way.”
“Yuzu pwotec fwuffy.” You stared at your hooves. “Fwuffy nu desewb.”
You waited for her to agree. To send you away.
“Dat nummie was fwom Yuzu’s onwy fwend. Wong time ago, fwend was gun’ gu foebah sweepies and gabe nummies tu Yuzu su Yuzu nu gu wif’ him.”
She spoke softly, reverently.
“Yuzu… nu wan’ it gu ‘way. Feew wike if it gu way den he gu ‘way.”
You couldn’t feel more horrible. It was just a scrap of something delicious to you. You didn’t even appreciate it.
“Fwuffy am su sowwy… nu knu. Jus’ thought Yuzu be meanie, wan’ keep Fwuffy fwom hooman mummah an’ guud nummies. Fwuffy dummeh.” you said softly.
“Yuzu wie. Yuzu say meanie tings dat nu mean.” She sighed. “Yuzu weawwy am meanie mawe.”
There was a long silence between the two of you before she spoke again.
“Nu mowe wies. Hoomans nu am guud nu mowe. Nu am aww guud befowe, buh nu hooman guud nao.” she explained. “Hoomans nu hab food ethew, dey wan’ fwuffies tu num. Nee’ stay ‘way.”
Your eyes widened. Your family was… eaten. By these monsters. These humans.
“…Wai? Yuzu say hoomans hab wots and wots!!"
Yuzu sighed. “Yuzu teww stowy again. Nu wies. It am… nu am guu stowy.”
She patted the blankets next to her with a hoof. You laid down next to her as she began.
“A wong, wong time ago, Yuzu hab a hooman mummah who nu wan’ Yuzu nu mowe…”