Nike set her foals in the dirt in front of her. They cheeped and wiggled clumsily, their fluff little more than fuzz. She cast an eye over them. They were all so beautiful babens but she still had a ranking system. Her favoritest babbeh was turning out to be an inverse of her. A Tiffany Blue filly, and the first bits of white mane starting to show. She was favoritest not because of her appearance but because she was the first to figure out huggies. She gave big hugs and chirped happily while hugging and trying to flutter her wings and suck her hoof. Then came Nike’s other favoritest, a fire engine red colt who seemed to be growing faster than his siblings and was already able to scoot his little booty around in the nest, doing what Leo would have remarked as “awmy cwawl” while trying to suck his tiny hoof. Her other other favoritest was a wine purple colt and his special thing was that he was the loudest. He would call when he was hungry and when she wasn’t close he would wiggle and give a mighty “spe-eep!” that was just loud enough to actually hear outside of their nest room. He would also roll his little head back and forth while Nike sang to him and his siblings cooing softly and sucking his hoof. Nike reminded herself to teach him “all the songs” when he was a talkie baby. His “Ha-ooh” would be the loudest of all, she knew it.
Somehow it didn’t seem to occur to Nike that all 3 of her foals were wingy-pointy babbehs…
Nike sat with the other new mummahs, foals firmly planted in her fluff. It was a bright sunny day, the wind had decided not to show up, and the sun was warm in the clearing in front of the nest. Nike and the mummahs babbled about their foals, about nummies, and about nothing at all. There had been a bit of tension between a confused Nike regarding the other mummahs and her babies, until Leo himself put a hoof down and said all babies were special and to be treasured. This was backed up by the elders who pointed out the number of brown and drab green foals in other litters who were still treated with respect and responsibilities.
Leo was hard at work helping the stallions clear away the bones of the monstrous, huge and insane cottonmouth that had attacked the nest during the summer. Leo saved the hazardous work for himself, first inspecting, then poking at, and finally removing the fangs from the snake. He used a pair of small sticks as sheathes around them, feeling the slim teeth snap inside the stick as he forced the wood over them. He pushed until he hit the point the rooted at. Wiggling them from their base, he set the two sticks aside, now with the tips of the fangs sticking out of them like little spears. The wood along the points where the fangs had broken grew darkened with the moisture of the venom trapped within the fangs. He stuck each of these in the dirt, point up, and inspected the rest of the head, removing more teeth for use as tools by the herd before pushing the head into the water and watching it sink from sight. He felt a strange sensation as he glanced at the little spears. Pointy sorry sticks like the ones from his old sleepy-time movie, but filled with the hissy munstah stuff that had almost killed him. Why? Why did he feel the need to have them?
He pondered this, taking them and hiding them in a hollow in the top of the fallen tree and covering them with mud. Horrific weapons that he hoped to never use.
A week went by, and Leo spent every spare second he had between leading the herd and foraging for food, to play with and love his foals. They grew and became walkie-talkie babbehs, quickly desiring to explore the nest and the area around. Leo and Nike’s hearts sank as they named their colts, knowing that soon they would be expected to join the other colts in their world of discipline and violence. The yellow colt was named Duke, his red color and whispy gold mane reminding Leo of a video game that had always made his Daddeh laugh. The purple one, a dark steely blue mane growing in slowly was named “Maxeemush Deseemush Mewidiush” by Leo…and had his name immediately shortened to Max by Nike, who’s eyes had begun to derp a bit upon her 8th attempt to say the tongue tying sobriquet. Both of them were excited to learn “beeg fwuffy gamesies”.
The Tiffany blue filly, who’s white mane was filling in long and curly, was named after much consideration, after Eepor’s special friend, Nike’s grandmother, who had passed away peacefully in her sleep years before. Artemis, as the filly was dubbed, tossed her head and gave Eepor a cuddly hug, squeaking about how much she loved her name and “Awtemish wub gwampa Eepow”.
The snow began to melt as the first days of an early spring arrived, and the fluffies began to range father from home when foraging. A successful winter had allowed the herd to grow and their food needs were growing along with their numbers. Leo’s name had come up int the rotation for scouting and food gathering and he had set off down the creek, 2 of his most trusted tuffie friends, twin brothers Romulus and Remus, had joined him.
Leo had made his way for most of the day, finding wild apple trees with cold sweetened apples. He gathered enough to fit in all 3 fluffies winter long coats and carry in their mouths and cracked an extra one for himself and his 2 companions. The twins tucked in, crunching contentedly, though their eyes never stopped scanning the treeline. Leo lowered his head to eat…and froze.
They were here. Two sets of black eyes staring from black fluffed, silver maned faces. As he raised his head to say something the pair of Xerxes’ favored mute butt buddies took off. Romulus and Remus shouted and took off after them. Leo calling after them not to follow. But he was ignored. Leo took off after the quartet, crashing through the brush, following the hoofprints of the twins through mud and melting snow.
He came upon a meadow and witnessed the end of a brutal fight. One of the black fluffies lay on its side, it’s neck snapped in a way that indicated it had lost a head on collision and a hard “pushies” match. The other was trading blows with Remus, the blue fluffed, red maned tuffie ducking and striking like the seasoned brawler he was. His twin laid in the dirt nearby, unmoving, his rear leg twisted at an unnatural angle, his throat caved in, tongue lolling from when his breath had been stopped.
The two fluffies battled brutalized each other, until the black eyed fluffy fell on Remus, it’s teeth sinking into his neck and ripping away, pulling a small bit of blue fluff and skin. A gout of blood came from the side of Remus’ neck and he collapsed, dead as he hit the ground. The mute black fluffy spun and faced Leo, flanks heaving as it tried to catch its breath. It charged and Leo lowered his head, a small hollow crack sounding upon the impact of the two fluffies. Leo shook off the hit easily, but the black fluffy collapsed on the ground, huffing and puffing, eyes swinging wildly. Leo sent a strong kick into its ribs, rolling it onto its back. Leo yelled,“Why joo hewe!” The fluffy simply stared at him, “Why joo wun way wen Weo saw joo?” He demanded. A smug silence. “Why? Why jo-” Leo froze. He looked back. He had been far from home already and now he was even further, pissing away time with this dead eyed fuckstick when…oh sky-daddy, Nike and the foals!
The black fluffy saw the realization dawning on Leo’s face and smiled cold. Leo looked down in rage and slammed his hoof down on its throat, twisting until he felt the satisfying crack. Then he turned and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
Nike looked up as one of the mummahs asked “Nyuu fwen?”. There was a curious black fluffy with a silver mane walking through the clearing in front of the nest towards the mummah group. She thought for a second and realized even though the fluffy was still pretty far away, she was uncomfortable. For one thing…why hadnt the lookoits said anything? And for another…there was something Leo had told her long ago…something about black fluffies…well the particulars weren’t important. Just the message. “Mummahs, go back in da nestie. Ni-kee nuu feew safies” she said pointedly. Lifting Max and Artemis to her back and standing she picked up Duke by the scruff in her teeth and turned to return to the nest.
And came face to face with the old smarty friend of the herd, flanked by two of the black eyed fluffies. “Hewwo fwen!” The fat purple bastard yipped as he grinned evilly.