We Know Not What We Do
Part 5
It’s been almost a month since Steve rescued the two fluffies. Both have gotten bigger, less chirpy, well, except Prince, when he gets scared he still chirps. Prince continues to shy away from Steve, if he surprises the fluffy sometimes Prince shits himself, and while funny, it quickly became tiresome, not just from the smell, but also the cleaning he had to do. Prince ended up needing a bath almost daily. Mocha, however, hadn’t had any accidents since she was punished in that Tupperware container turned sorry box.
Steve did notice just how much they were eating, not just because he had to make larger amounts of formula, but also in cleaning the litter box. The foals were starting to get their teeth. He caught on two separate occasions the foals chewing, perhaps gumming would be more accurate, the corners of the blocks. He had prepped himself for this, and was quite happy that he wouldn’t have to waste so much time feeding them. Sure, it was cute holding a tiny foal suckling on a bottle. Mocha especially, as she made a weird humming sound akin to purring and her wings would flutter, as she became more full, the humming would quiet and the wings would slow.
This feeding, Steve though, would be time to switch over to kibble. Into two small dishes he poured the kibble. “You aren’t babies anymore, eat your kibble.” He sat the dishes down by their beds. Both Mocha and Prince looked at each other, at the bowls, at Steve, and back to the bowls. The look of disappointment plain on their faces. But, he didn’t notice. He just shut the door to their near empty safe room and went back to work.
Her nose scrunched as she took a bite. The piece of kibble was small brown cube, standard pet food shaped kibble. It didn’t look appealing. It didn’t smell appealing. Dese nummies nu gud nummies she thought and nudged a piece with her hoof, giving her brother a sad look. She held up the piece, it was almost too big to fit in her mouth, took a deep breath, and bit down.
peep!
The piece of kibble fell from her hooves. The kibble too hard for her to chew. Her hooves rubbing her muzzle against her gums. “Pwince, Mocha hungwy…” She wined to her brother and she laid down, the kibble almost touching her nose, her eyes going crosseyed staring at the huge piece of kibble.
She stuck her tongue out, licking at the single bit of food. “Dis nu nummie,” she complained again, her only thought about how hungry she was. She rolled onto her side, watching Prince stare at his own bowl of kibble. It was such a huge bowl, it came up to their neck. She watched at he took the smallest bit of kibble in the bowl and walked over to the water dish. “wat yu du?” She sat up, confused. Even more confused when he dropped it into the water. It didn’t take long before he struggled to pull it out of the water dish.
Mocha wasn’t a smart fluffy by any means, she didn’t understand what happened, but somehow the water made the food mushy enough for them to eat. Prince chewed on the kibble with a disappointed look. As she pulled out her own piece from the water the smell hit her, it smelled as bad as it tasted. Both of them only managed a few pieces, the poor taste ruining their appetite.
Mocha and Prince were getting bigger, and unfortunately for them, Steven hadn’t done much more research, had he done so, he would’ve known they still needed formula. Even with a bit more information he would’ve made sure to pick up foal food. Instead he had stared dumbly at the shelves full of food and colorful pictures clearly designed to advertise to the fluffies, not the humans. Much like advertising for children, and Steve not being the sharpest tool in the shed, he bought the bag with a fluffy holding a foal. That’ll be good enough
With the kibble came more free time. Finals were fast approaching and work has been ramping up. During this time, he had started to let them out while he was gone. While this wasn’t necessarily a trust thing, it was more so that he kept forgetting to close the door to lock them in. With no longer feeding them formula meant his work schedule went back to normal, no more running home on his lunch break. And for the two foals, they were still only left with each other, three blocks, a ball, two pillow beds, and their food.
It was after midnight when Steve got home, after class they had a study session, followed with a study session at the local dive bar. Neither fluffy greeted him at the door, he figured they were sleeping. That was partially right. Mocha was curled up on Prince’s bed, but Prince wasn’t there. After a half hour of searching the house up and down, mostly down as they couldn’t climb onto anything to cause any real trouble, he found Prince on the floor in the kitchen, curled in front of the oven. He felt genuine affection for the colt. He scooped up the foal who softly peeped and shoved a hoof into his mouth. It was too adorable. Next to his sister he ended up, a purple and brown little fluff pile.
Steve has been making sure to take showers in the evening and being as quiet as possible in the morning. His morning routine was much earlier than the fluffies would wake up for on their own. He learned the hard way when he kicked the coffee table, Mocha woke up and started chirping and peeping, which turned into a high pitch voice begging for daddeh. He was late for work as he spent a half hour calming her down. Prince quietly watched as Mocha was babied.
The next morning, unfortunately for everyone, Steve slept through his alarm. In the process of frantically getting dressed and out the door, he again forgot to close the safe room door. And he also forgot the kibble. Half a dozen bits and some crumbles at the bottom of the bowls remained, not even half a meal.
Prince stretched. His tiny tummy growled and he rolled over onto his back staring the bowls of kibble that hadn’t been refilled. They hadn’t been filled in several bright times. Prince was smart, but not smart enough to count. He knew by now that daddeh was gone. He knew that it was just him and Mocha. Awkwardly he rolled off the pillow turned bed, landing on his back he still stared at the inverted food dish.
Dese nummies aw gwoss… Prince though as he chewed the bit of kibble. It was all that he could do to choke it down. He missed the miwk, and he especially missed his mummah’s miwk. But he loved his daddeh. He had so much love for daddeh, but he was also afraid of him. He’s gotten so many owies and heart hurties that he didn’t know what to do. Daddeh nu wub Pwince, am bad babbeh, his thoughts kept repeating as he choked down another mouthful of kibble.
He wasted so many fowebahs just starting up out the window at the dreary sky. There wasn’t much they could do. The highest they could stack the blocks was two high. They were still too heavy for babbehs. Pushing the heavy ball around made both him and Mocha too tired. That left sleeping, eating, and espwowin.
It was past the time that daddeh used to visit and feed them. There were still many fowebahs before daddeh would be home. Down the hall and into the living room he trotted. Under the chair by the teebee was his favorite spot. He was close to daddeh, but not close enough for daddeh to grab him. From that vantage he saw an open door. He knew that was where daddeh slept.
Prince wandered about the room, piles of clothes scattered about, and things scattered about on the floor. Mocha not far behind him, they both start wandering about the room, very curious. Still only a few inches off the ground, there was no way for them to climb up the bookshelf or even make it into the open dresser drawers. But in the corner by the dresser he found a small mirror leaning against the wall. He gasped and shouted “NYU FWUFFY?!” His excitement quickly dashed as he realized that it was himself he was staring at.
Mocha was not as smart. She came running as fast as her tiny hooves could managed, tumbling down a large pile of clothes. Out of breath she stared at her reflection. “Hewwo,” and waved at herself. “Pwince, dat fwuffy am pwetty!” Her attention back to the mirror, “Fwuffy am Mocha, jus a babbeh. Dat bwotha, Pwince. Yu come pway?” Her head tilted. “Pwice, dat fwuffy nu tawkie,” she whined to him.
Prince bopped her on top of the head, “yu dummie babbeh.”
