A couple of days had passed. A couple days in which... nothing really had happened, to be perfectly frank.
Sasha had just been recuperating. Most of the time, she spent sitting in an old and rather threadbare armchair that was in the small room that also held the old bed and heap of pillows and cushions. There was a small window in the outside wall of that room, divided into four small square panes of glass - all of them cracked - which overlooked the small back garden of the run-down farm the tall, lanky human woman had found herself waking up in after her accident.
It actually was not all that bad sitting in that chair and looking out the window at the back garden. The large purple and white foxtaur woman Buddleia was often in that garden, tending to a couple of vegetable patches. It was quite nice to just observe her while she worked. Sometimes even amusing; the vixen-taur clearly gave the plants a lot of care, and every now and then Sasha could see her lips moving, so she was most likely talking to the plants as well.
It also was about the only thing Sasha could do. Buddleia had plain and simply refused to let the human woman do anything at all until she could at least take deeper breaths without it hurting her chest and the two ribs she had broken when her car went off the mountain road and tumbled down the mountainside two... no, four days ago now. The foxtaur woman allowed Sasha to walk around, but that was it. The thin, lanky human woman had a lot of resting and recuperating to do first before anything else.
By the second day, Sasha had to admit to herself that while it was nice to do nothing, it also was beginning to bore her out of her mind. Doing nothing is great - unless it was forced. Then the mind started to rebel and the body started to protest. But well, Sasha's body was also still badly protesting any too hard or too sudden motions or even breaths with stabs of pain, so the lanky human woman resigned herself to the doing of all the nothing.
She tried to alleviate her boredom a bit by looking at Buddleia tending to the vegetable patches and trying to make out what kind of vegetables the purple and white vixen-taur was growing. First without her glasses on. Just as a challenge. On one side of the garden were rows of stakes holding up tall plants, on the other side were beds of low plants growing in the soil. Some of the plants on those stakes, Sasha could make out even without her glasses. Tomatoes, white and green beans, bell peppers. For the rest, she had to put her glasses on to see the plants more clearly. Some of the plants along the stakes looked like they could be beans as well, or perhaps peas. And... chili peppers? The ones in the back looked like chili peppers.
With her glasses on, Sasha could also make out the low plants in the beds on the other side of the garden. Onions, what looked like leeks, carrots, a couple of short rows of heads of lettuce and cabbage. A row of summer squash, and what looked like eggplants. And what seemed like it might be potatoes. Sasha actually quite amused herself with determining all the different vegetables. That's what having grown up on a farm had done for her; some of her friends in the city hadn't even known what a fresh vegetable looked like. They thought the things they saw in the supermarket came fully grown and pre-packaged from some kind of factory or something.
During the morning and midday meal times, Buddleia had given her some kind of porridge made from grains and bread and sweetened with fruits to eat. A bit monotonous, but it was quite tasty just the same. In the evenings, the vixen-taur had heated up soup from cans and had served them with slices cut from a somewhat rough loaf of bread so they could be dipped and soaked into the soup. All to help Sasha get some solid food inside her that she could actually swallow without wincing and gasping in pain.
The meals were simple, plain and actually more than a bit monotonous, but Sasha had to admit to herself; she was eating better than she had done the past few weeks, months even. It seemed as if Buddleia was not only aiming to nurse her back to health, but also to fill out her gaunt, thin and somewhat underfed body a bit. And it was working, actually. Combined with that herbal tea the vixen-taur brewed all the time, the soft and somewhat mushy meals actually went down without too much pain, and Sasha found she could more easily swallow somewhat firmer things without it hurting too much.
Taking off her glasses to run a hand over her eyes and face for a moment, Sasha drew in a deeper breath and held it for several heartbeats, like Buddleia had also advised her to do. After she let go of the breath, the tall and lanky human woman put her glasses back on and slowly rose up from the old armchair. For a moment she looked at her old, battered suitcase sitting by the bed, but then gave a light shake of her head. She had been naked without it bothering her for the past several days already, and putting on some clothes now also made no sense with what she was aiming to ask of the purple and white vixen-taur.
Slowly walking out of the small shack-house and around the side of it, Sasha made her way over to the small garden in the back, where it was sheltered between the small, run-down farmhouse and a forest - well, that was generous; it was at most a slightly sizable copse of pretty large trees, mostly pines, firs and spruces, with occasional birch and beech trees dotted between them. Buddleia perked and swiveled an ear, looking up and exposing her upper canine teeth in her special smile when she spotted Sasha walking around the house and up to her.
"How are you feeling, Sasha?" she asked.
Her speech pattern had started improving now that she had someone to talk to who actually returned the conversation. Sasha sent the purple and white vixen-taur a light smile in return.
"Alright enough, considering. I want to ask you something, Leia."
"Sure, what?"
"I want to bathe. I feel dirty and clammy. Do you have a shower here?"
Buddleia rose up from her leaned-over position, although her quadruped lower body remained in a lying-down position.
"I have a tub. Leaks a bit. I just use the pond."
"What, that one over there you mean?" Sasha asked, thumbing across her shoulder.
In front of and to the right of the small farmhouse, in front of a somewhat rickety building and a large rusty silo and next to what could be considered the driveway, was a fairly large pond; large enough to have a small island of only a few feet across in it, with a single, positively gigantic weeping catkin willow tree on it. Buddleia nodded and rose up further, getting to her four feral feet and shaking herself lightly for a moment.
"Yes. On the forest side is shallow, good for bathing. Tub is a bit small for me."
"I guess I can see that," Sasha nodded slowly. "But isn't it cold?"
"Not colder than water coming from the old water heater," Buddleia smiled. "Sun warms it all day. Is pretty pleasant actually. You want to try?"
Sasha nodded slowly again, running a finger along her nose.
"I do really want to bathe. Like I said, I feel dirty and clammy, and my hair feels like unraveled rope. If it's not that cold... yeah, please, I'd like to try it. Do you have any soap?"
Buddleia nodded with a smile that exposed both her upper canine teeth and the tip of her very dark pink tongue.
"I even have sponges. I go get. You go to the small dock on forest side of the pond. Don't go in yet, wait for me."
"I'm not gonna play any 'last one in is a rotten egg' games, Leia," Sasha said with a light chortle that only sent a mild and momentary sting through her side.
"Is not for that," Buddleia smiled, stepping over to Sasha and laying a paw on the human woman's shoulder. She slowly ran the paw down along Sasha's side, over the strips of fabric printed with faded flowers that were wrapped around the human's chest. "I need to take off this first. It get wet and then dry, it shrinks and squeeze you, not good for your ribs."
"Okay, that actually makes sense," Sasha nodded. She took the paw Buddleia had run along her side in her hand. "I'll come with you actually, I want to get my brush from my suitcase."
They walked around the right side of the small farmhouse together and went inside. While Sasha walked further into the small bedroom to put her suitcase on the bed, open it and take out the toiletries bag that was in there, Buddleia walked over to where the small counter was and disappeared through a door squared to the counter. The vixen-taur reappeared a few moments later with a bar of soap in one paw, a shampoo bottle in her other paw and a slightly ragged towel draped over one arm. Stepping out of the bedroom, Sasha lifted an eyebrow for a moment.
"Okay Leia, I know my granny could make her own soap, but I'm not gonna believe you can make your own shampoo. Is there a store nearby or something?"
"Nearby is relative," Buddleia smiled with a light shrug of her upper shoulders. "Four hour drive south-east of here is small community village. I buy some things there sometimes." She held up the bottle. "Like shampoo. Still half full, I don't use much."
Sasha covered her mouth with her free hand for a moment to hide a deeper, amused smile.
"No offense, Leia, but I can tell. Your hair looks worse than mine feels." She lowered her hand and tilted her head a bit. "And hang on, do you have a car?"
"Old Emmie," the vixen-taur nodded. "Looks like crap but runs good, uses not much fuel too."
"Old Em... you know what, never mind," Sasha said with a light shrug of her own that only made her wince slightly. "Show me sometime. But for now, I really would like to bathe first."
"Yes, come."
Buddleia put the neck of the shampoo bottle between two fingers of the paw she held the bar of soap in so she had her other paw free to take Sasha's hand. Stepping outside through the front door, they walked a bit down the dirt driveway.
Seen from the front of the house, a dirt path ran in front of what was left of the picket fence fencing off the small front garden, all the way between the grassy fields to the right and around the bend of the large copse of trees behind the house on the left, in front of a large open shed filled with old, rusty farm vehicles and implements and right past an old windmill of which the circle of blades was leaning against the rusty frame on the ground. From that dirt path, a wider dirt path that could be considered the driveway ran straight ahead, past an open space that had been covered with gravel in a grey and distant past. The large rusty silo was there, a bit furtheron was a small wood building with loose bits and pieces of metal siding nailed to the walls and a varied collection of junk scattered around it.
Beyond that was a group of rocks and boulders, right on the edge of the large pond that was between the dirt driveway and another much larger copse of pine, fir and spruce trees covering a small, low hill. The shore of the pond was sandy dirt, with here and there some rocks or a larger boulder. Where it bordered the large copse of trees, the shore sloped more smoothly, and there was indeed an old, short wooden dock on that side.
Buddleia calmly led Sasha over towards that small dock. With a light smile, Sasha realized even the dirt was quite soft under her bare feet, so she had no troubles walking barefoot towards the pond. At the dock, she saw there was a leftover of a small rowboat on the left side of the dock, which had sunk a long time ago, and on the right were several steps leading down towards the sandy bottom of the pond, which was quite shallow at that end.
Holding on to Buddleia's paw, Sasha carefully stepped onto the first step and just as carefully dipped the small round toes of her right foot into the water. For a moment she shivered while goosebumps crawled up her enormously long legs, but she drew in a slow and deeper breath and set her foot down on the second step which was under the water. The purple and white vixen-taur still held on to her hand, and actually prevented her from descending the last three steps.
"Wait Sasha, sit down first. I take this off first."
"Oh, right," Sasha nodded.
She carefully leaned over a bit, reaching down with her free hand to one of the posts of the dock to support herself as she lowered herself further down until she was sitting on the edge of the small dock. Buddleia lay herself down on her feral chest and tummy and set down the bar of soap, bottle of shampoo and the towel so she could start undoing the strips of faded flowery fabric that were wrapped around Sasha's chest. With smooth motions of her paws handing the fabric over from one paw to the other continually - left paw to right at Sasha's front and right paw to left at the human's back - the vixen-taur unwrapped what turned out to be one long broad ribbon of flowery fabric from around Sasha's chest, rolling it up at the same time.
Sasha leaned her hand on the dock next to where she had set down her toiletries bag and leaned down her head a bit to look at the fabric being smoothly removed from around her chest. Slowly she released a few deeper breaths as she felt the tightness relieving, bringing up her other hand to touch her fingers against her freckled skin as more and more of it got exposed. There were some cuts and scrapes in her skin, but no serious lacerations.
When all of the fabric had been removed, Sasha turned her head a bit to look at Buddleia rolling up the long strip of fabric.
"Why was that around there so tight if there was no serious bleeding to stop?" she inquired.
"Support your ribs," Buddleia smiled, laying the roll of fabric on the dock. "I put it back when bathing is done, too. You need support still for a few weeks."
"Oh. Could you maybe not make it so tight next time though?" Sasha asked. "It's really not very comfortable."
"I try, but it should be quite tight to give good support," Buddleia nodded. "Sorry, but is for your own good."
"Wow, I haven't heard that one in a long time," Sasha said, smiling a bit in spite of herself. "Anyway, thanks for taking it off. Let's have that bath now."
With Buddleia's help she got back to her feet and descended the last few steps on the side of the dock until she felt the soft sand under her bare feet. Looking down, she found the water only reaching up to a bit above her thin knees - which meant she could sit down on the sand and still have her head above water. Actually, the water only reached to just at her collarbone as she sat down, Sasha noticed.
She bent her legs to more or less sit in lotus position as Buddleia waded into the water next to her. The water reached up to the vixen-taur's shoulders as she lay down on her feral chest and tummy, her purple and white fur waving out under the water a bit. With a smile, Buddleia scooted herself around a bit on the sandy bottom of the pond until she was sitting at Sasha's other side so the water wasn't as high up her upper body and she could use both her paws to scoop up amounts of water and pour it over Sasha's head to soak the human's long ginger hair.
Sasha smiled lightly as well and closed her eyes while she leaned back her head a bit. She had been fully prepared to tend to herself once they were in the water, but it was really nice that Buddleia was still taking it upon herself to take care of and help the human woman with everything. And once in it, the water was indeed of a pleasant enough temperature.
A light sigh escaped Sasha's lips when she felt Buddleia pouring some of the shampoo onto her head and beginning to massage it into her long ginger hair with the fingertips and pads of both paws. Oh, that felt nice, actually... Sasha only opened her eyes at the sound of a light bloop in front of her. Were there fish in this pond too? No, the human woman noticed her glasses had slipped off her nose and dropped into the water. With another light smile, Sasha picked up her glasses and handed them to Buddleia to lay them on the dock.
Once the human's long ginger hair had been thoroughly lathered up, the purple and white vixen-taur rubbed the bar of soap between her paws and started gently running her soapy paws along Sasha's skin. From the sides of her neck across the tops of her shoulders, down her arms, back up and then down along the human's sides and back. Every now and then Sasha could feel how Buddleia was running one finger over her skin here and there.
"So nice skin..." she murmured. "Sasha? Is this where your fur used to be?"
Unable to stop herself, Sasha let out a laugh that had her almost doubling over and groan deeply at the stabs of pain it sent through her chest and side. For a few moments she sat gasping with her head leaned down and her eyes closed while holding one hand on her chest and the other on her right side, then she slowly opened her eyes and leaned her head back up to look at Buddleia with a smile.
"Oww, fuck that hurt... but that was just too funny," she smiled through slow, shallow breaths. "I take it you've never seen a human before, Leia? We don't come with fur, all of these are just freckles."
Buddleia had been gently patting and rubbing Sasha's back during the episode of pain with a somewhat worried expression, but her upper canines showed themselves again when she saw the human woman smiling at her. She tilted her head slightly and pulled her eyebrows and forehead into an expression of thought.
"Freckles." She closed her deep golden eyes and thought for a moment or two longer before opening her eyes and smiling back at Sasha. "I like freckles, they pretty."
"You know, it's kinda weird but funny, actually," Sasha smiled while her breathing returned to normal. "Most people who have them hate them, but most people who don't have them love them."
"You hate freckles?" Buddleia asked.
Sasha gave a light shrug.
"They never bothered me. I don't think they make me look particularly pretty, but at least I've been able to make jokes about them." A very light chortle escaped the human woman's lips. "When I first met some of my friends, they were surprised because I have so many freckles. I told them those are all the rusty ends of my nerves of steel."
Buddleia let go a soft giggle.
"That is funny. And I think your freckles are pretty, Sasha." She lay both paws on the human's shoulders. "Sit up on your knees please? Your back to me."
Sasha did so, smiling lightly again when she felt Buddleia's paws returning to her back with more soap and rubbing slowly and gently up and down along her back and sides. The pads on the vixen-taur's paws felt surprisingly soft and quite warm. Standing up when Buddleia asked her to, Sasha shivered again for a moment at the light breeze against her wet bare skin, but the light smile remained on her lips, even when she felt the vixen-taur's paws running over her skinny and somewhat bony butt before traveling further down her long upper legs. From there, Buddleia ran her paws back up and once more trailed them along Sasha's sides, in a slower and more thoughtful fashion.
"You so thin," she murmured. "Too thin, is not good, Sasha. Bones should not be so close under skin."
Sasha gave a light shrug.
"To be honest, I didn't make very much money at that job I lost, and most of it went into paying the rent and buying cigarettes. I bought more of those than I bought food, because I never had very much money left for food." She smirked a bit. "It did make me quite adept at finding specials at the supermarkets where they had samples to taste. Those were often my meals."
Buddleia shook her head.
"Is not good, you not take good care of yourself, Sasha." She gave a resolute nod of her head. "I take care of you, give you good meals, yes."
Sasha nodded silently, lapsing into thought with a faint, quiet smile on her lips. She sat back down on her knees at Buddleia's instructions and looked down as the purple paws with the white fingers began rubbing over her stomach and midriff. Every now and then she winced slightly, especially when the vixen-taur's right paw ran along the right side of her midriff. It was all too clear where the broken ribs were.
When Buddleia was done, Sasha sat down in lotus position again, turning her head slightly as the vixen-taur's paws landed on her shoulders and gave light pressure.
"Lean back, Sasha." Sasha did so, a bit hesitantly when Buddleia kept coaxing. "Further. Further, Sasha. I not let you go under, promise. Just easier to rinse like this."
With a light nod of understanding, Sasha did lean back more and more until her shoulders were resting against one of Buddleia's arms which gave a firm, solid support. Most of her head was still above the water, and Buddleia's free paw started waving the long ginger hair around in the water, every now and then scooping a pawful of water over the top of Sasha's head as well to rinse out the shampoo.
Once the rinsing was done and Sasha was sitting back upright with the help of Buddleia's paws, she ran both hands over her face and gathered up all her long hair to drape it over her left shoulder, smiling at the purple and white vixen-taur.
"Let me do you hair now, okay?" She took the bottle of shampoo and looked down into the clear water for a moment. "Can I sit on your... well, your back?" She patted the vixen-taur's feral lower back. "This one? It'll be easier to do your hair."
"Is good," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "I can hold you easy. I not move, Sasha, I let you do."
"Thank you," Sasha smiled. "Yeah, I did notice you seem to be insanely strong."
She sat down on the back of the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body in side-saddle fashion and took the bottle of shampoo, for a moment looking at the brand name and logo before pouring some of it onto Buddleia's unkempt purple hair. It came down to just above the shoulders of her quadruped lower body, and as Sasha started rubbing in the shampoo, she noticed how Buddleia's hair had a few different hues of purple, with even a few streaks of black running through it. It also did feel much tougher than Sasha's own hair had felt - it was rather clear Buddleia did not take all too much care of her hair; definitely a lot less than she took care of her fur which felt very soft indeed.
Unable to help herself, Sasha very lightly petted at Buddleia's soft, pointy ears when she was done rubbing in the shampoo, smiling at the light flicks of the ears under her fingers.
"What's this feather, Leia? I like it, I've never seen a feather this blue," she smiled.
"Don't know," Buddleia smiled, turning her head a bit to look at Sasha. "This my grandparents farm, I stay with them and help out a lot when I was a kit. Found the feather on the island." She pointed at the small island with the giant weeping willow on it in the middle of the pond. "Liked the color, so I always kept it." The upper canine teeth and tip of the dark pink tongue went on display again as the vixen-taur smiled deeper. "Grandmother gave me little bud earring so I could put the feather in my ear."
"It's very pretty," Sasha nodded with another light smile. She slid off Buddleia's lower back and sat down on her knees. "Would you mind rinsing your hair yourself? I really don't think I could hold you up like you did me earlier," she said with a very soft chortle.
"Heh. Is good," Buddleia nodded with a short chortle of her own.
She waded further into the pond and fully submerged herself. Sasha was rather impressed with the water of the pond being so clear she could easily see the purple and white vixen-taur under the water, shaking her head in a few slow, wide arcs so the long purple hair waved from left to right in slow-motion. Coming back up, Buddleia drew in a deep breath, wiped the water off her face and muzzle with one paw and used both paws to wipe the hair from her face and gather it up to drape it along her upper back.
Helping Sasha to step back onto the small dock, the vixen-taur took the old towel and draped it around Sasha's narrow shoulders, slowly rubbing along her back and sides to dry the freckled skin. As Buddleia took a few steps away, Sasha held up the towel in front of herself and tilted her head a bit with an ever so small grin beginning to form on her lips.
"Hey, don't tell me you're going to... Ohmigosh, you are!" she said with a sudden laugh, ducking behind the towel when Buddleia started shaking herself like a dog, sending sprays of droplets flying through the air.
It was quite effective for drying off, but it did leave the purple and white fur rather poofed out. Giving herself a last shake, Buddleia gathered up her hair again and flipped it to her upper back while smiling at Sasha who was still hiding behind the towel. Lowering it, the human woman shook her own head for a moment and laughed softly, holding one hand on her right side.
"Oh man, you look silly... Hehh, ow... you really should stop making me laugh like that, Leia," she smiled through slow, shallow breaths.
"Sorry," Buddleia smiled, picking up the bar of soap, bottle of shampoo, roll of faded flowery fabric and Sasha's glasses and toiletries bag. "I always do like that."
"I suppose that's easier for you," Sasha nodded with a smile, draping the towel over her left arm. "It still looked funny though, and you look funny now too. That's gonna take a lot of brushing to get it smooth again."
"It lay back down when dry," Buddleia smiled with a light shrug, handing Sasha her glasses. "Come, I put wrap back on you."
Sasha put on her glasses and smiled again.
"Actually, could you wait a bit with that, please? I'd like to lay in the sun and warm up for a bit if you don't mind, I never had the chance to do that at home. I had to go to the beach for it, whenever I had a sliver of free time to go to the beach." She smiled deeper. "And I'm going to brush your hair and your fur, and don't you say no to that."
Buddleia smiled as well and nodded.
"Is good. We take some time, lay in grass in back garden out of the sun. Is warm but is safer, not let your skin burn."
"Thank you," Sasha smiled. "And actually, you don't need to worry about me getting sunburn. My skin may be fair, and I don't tan very much, but I also don't really burn." She held out her right arm. "The sun just gives me more and more of these freckles." A light giggle escaped her. "When I was a little girl, my granny would tease me by taking out her dentures so she'd lisp, and she'd say to me, Sister Sun Says Spotty Skin Stays Strong."
Buddleia laughed cheerfully.
"Funny! I like that! Sister Sun... yes."
She held out her left arm. Sasha lay her right hand on Buddleia's left arm and followed the vixen-taur back to the small farmhouse and around it to the somewhat sheltered back garden. In the middle, between the vegetable beds, they settled down in the tall grass and relaxed. For several moments, Sasha just stretched out a bit and lightly wiggled her small round toes through the grass while resting her shoulders and head against the side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body.
"You're very soft," she smiled. "Thank you for helping me bathe, Leia, I feel much better now."
"I liked helping," Buddleia smiled. "Your hair and skin very soft, very nice."
"Yes, hair, let's do something about that," Sasha nodded with another smile. She opened her toiletries bag and took out a brush. "I'm going to sit on your back again if you don't mind."
Buddleia nodded and looked at Sasha sitting up a bit, rolling over and getting up on her knees so she could stand up and sit down side-saddle fashion on the vixen-taur's lower back again. With a silent smile, Sasha ran her fingers through Buddleia's purple hair and gently ran the brush over it, being careful to not nick the pointy ears. Taking her time, the human woman kept brushing until all of the long purple hair was much smoother than it had been and even showed a bit of glossiness in the light of the sun.
Continuing right on, Sasha brought her brushing further down to smooth out the purple fur on Buddleia's back and sides and arms. She slowly slid off the vixen-taur's lower back and turned to sit up on her knees again, drawing long, smooth strokes of the brush all along the length of the lower back and sides of Buddleia's quadruped lower body. Several long, calm moments were even spent brushing all the purple and white fur of the vixen-taur's bushy tail. Eventually, the human woman sat down in lotus position in the grass again and draped her own long ginger hair across her left shoulder so she could brush it, looking at Buddleia with a deeper smile.
"You should take a bit more care of your hair and your fur, Leia. Look at you, you look so much prettier now with just some shampoo and a good brushing already."
Buddleia also smiled and gave a light shrug of her upper shoulders.
"Frankly, here on my own by myself, no need to look pretty. Clean is good enough. But thank you, Sasha. Brushing felt nice."
"Well, it seems I'm going to be stuck here for a good while, so I'll have to look at you a long time and I rather look at a pretty vixen rather than a disheveled one," Sasha smiled while she brushed her long hair. "Being clean is important, definitely, but a little care of your hair, and in your case also fur, goes a long way to make you feel better. Millie always said she felt light as a cloud when I'd brushed her hair and her fur."
Buddleia nodded with a smile.
"Who is Millie?"
"One of my friends, the youngest one," Sasha smiled. "She's a nice kid. Chocolate-colored Labrador girl, she's really quite pretty when her fur is brushed smoothly, and she's actually the only one of my friends who let me do that to her." For a moment the human woman's eyebrows pulled into a light frown. "Fuck, I should really call her if my phone still works, she must be worried."
Buddleia nodded again, running her paws down the chest and tummy of her upper body to smooth down the off-white fur a bit.
"Where is your phone, do you know?"
Sasha moved all of her long ginger hair to her back again and gave her head a light shake, putting the brush back in her toiletries bag.
"It should be in... what's left of my car. Unless it got tossed out when the windows broke in all those tumbles, then..." She shrugged. "Then it's somewhere on the side of that mountain and most likely lost forever."
Buddleia nodded and got to her four feral feet, holding out a paw and helping Sasha to her feet as well.
"We look in your car."
They walked around the left side of the house and up to where the wreck of the white Volvo station wagon was sitting. The crumpled front left door was hanging open far enough for Sasha to get herself into the deformed driver's seat. With a sigh, the human woman started looking around the interior of what once had been an old, rusty, but solidly reliable car.
Deflated airbags hung from the steering wheel, the dashboard and above the front doors. The glove compartment lid had flown open and everything that had been in the glove compartment was flung all over the inside of the car. A small toolkit that had been in the trunk had been popped open at being tossed around and all the tools were scattered throughout the interior. Even the spare wheel had popped up from its compartment under the trunk floor and was sticking up crookedly below the carpeted panel. It was a testament to the Volvo's sturdiness that while the door windows had cracked and shattered, the doors were still all closed - even the tailgate.
"Hey, Leia?" Sasha said eventually. "If you could pull open the tailgate, would you mind collecting all those tools and put them back into that box? I think those might still be useful."
Buddleia nodded and walked to the back of the station wagon. Sasha pulled the tailgate release, without much hope or even expectation of it working, but there still was an audible snap when she pulled it. A moment later the sound was followed by sounds of creaking when Buddleia pulled and tugged at the tailgate to pull it open. While the vixen-taur put her feral forepaws into the back of the station wagon and leaned her upper torso inside to start picking up the loose tools and put them back in the small plastic toolbox they had flown out of, Sasha pushed her glasses further up onto her nose and continued looking around the interior in the front, pushing aside the deflated airbags and picking up papers, glancing them before tossing them onto the backseat.
Her eyes for a moment lit up when she spotted her phone laying half under the passenger's seat, the camera lens having sparked a glint in the sunlight when Sasha pushed away the deflated passenger airbag. She leaned over and picked up her phone with a soft sound of excitement, but deflated the next moment as she turned over her phone and saw the screen was all smashed in and the liquid crystal had leaked out.
"Ah... fuck. Well, so much for that I guess."
Buddleia looked up from half inside the cargo compartment.
"Not good, Sasha? Not find your phone?"
"Oh, I found it," Sasha sighed, tossing the phone into the open glove compartment. "It's all smashed up and broken though."
"Oh," Buddleia said, picking up the last tools and closing the toolbox after putting the last tools in it. "Yes, not good. Sorry."
"Meh, it's fine I guess, could have expected that," Sasha said with another sigh. "I don't suppose you have a phone here?"
Buddleia shook her head while crawling out of the cargo compartment with the toolbox in her left paw, offering Sasha her right to help the human woman out of the driver's seat.
"No phone, no. Sorry."
"Oh well."
Sasha stretched carefully, with her left hand in the small of her back and her right hand on her right side. Taking Buddleia's right paw, she walked back to the small farmhouse and sat down on the bed, waiting for the vixen-taur to put away the toolbox and collect the soap, shampoo, roll of fabric, towel and toiletries bag from the back garden. She pulled her long hair to the front and leaned over a bit as Buddleia started to wrap the flowery fabric back around her chest, every now and then wincing or letting out a light gasp, but staying silent and just letting the vixen-taur work.
Once she was wrapped back up, Sasha drew in a careful deeper breath and stood up from the bed, following Buddleia into the front room. With a bit of curiosity she looked through the door by the small counter the vixen-taur stepped through, seeing there was a small, rudimentary bathroom behind the door, with a very old-fashioned bath tub on feline-looking iron feet on one side and an old water heater on the other side, a sink in between those against the back wall, and a cabinet under the sink where Buddleia put the soap and shampoo back into.
She also put Sasha's toiletries bag on the cabinet and stepped back through the door, opening a cabinet over the small counter and reaching into it to pull out a can with a dent in it.
"I make soup," she smiled at Sasha. "You sit, will not take long."
Sasha slowly lifted her head a bit higher and lay a hand on Buddleia's arm with a smile when she saw the vixen-taur taking a metal pot from the sink that looked like a mini cauldron.
"Wait, Leia. Do you have something to hang that thing over an open fire?"
"Mm?" Buddleia tilted her head slightly. "Yes, stand in fireplace. Grandmother used to cook like that when I was a kit. Why?"
"Can you build a small campfire outside to hang it over?" Sasha smiled. "Let me cook this time, please? I want to do something back for you, Leia. I may not know much about cooking, but I do know this sort of wild stew my granny used to make back on the farm. She'd cook it in a big old cauldron over a fire outside under the stars after first harvest for my gramps, me and their helpers. It's one of the few nice memories I have of the farm, and I'd really like to make it for you, as a thank-you for taking care of me. Can I use some of the vegetables from your garden?"
Buddleia displayed both her upper and lower canines and almost half of her dark pink tongue as she smiled a very wide smile.
"That so sweet. Yes, is good. You can take vegetables you need. Need anything else?"
"Just this thing half full of fresh water, a chopping board and a knife," Sasha smiled. "Oh, and do you have some raw meat?"
"I can get some," Buddleia nodded. "I make fire in back garden, no breeze there."
She filled the mini cauldron half full of water from the long curved faucet over the sink, took a scuffed and scratched wooden board and a large knife from the one drawer the counter had and a small metal framework from the small fireplace on the other side of the room. Sasha took another pot from the counter and put water in it, following Buddleia outside and to the back garden with a small but happy smile on her lips.
At an open patch in the grass where a somewhat overgrown dirt path ran into the back garden from between the trees, Buddleia set down the items she was carrying and collected a few pawsful of fairly large rocks she built a circle with. For a moment, she looked at Sasha stepping over to the staked plants on the right side of the garden and picking a tomato, smiling at the way the human woman gently wrapped the fingers of one hand around the red globe and used the tip of her index finger to press against the stem, then twisting the tomato backwards so the stem snapped without bruising the tomato itself.
"You do that good, Sasha."
"My granny would not let me pick her tomatoes until she had taught me how to do it the correct way, and she was quite strict about it," Sasha smiled. She gave her head a light shake, picking another tomato. "It's so weird, when I think about it... I've lived on my grandfolks' farm from I can't even remember how early on, and I hated it and ran off to live in the city as soon as I turned eighteen. But now... I'm remembering all the things I actually learned there without even knowing it, and I'm realizing I'm liking this much more than any job I had in the city."
"You be good farmer," Buddleia smiled, taking one of the leftover rocks and getting to her four feral feet. "I get some meat, be back soon."
Sasha gave a nod of her head while slowly stepping along the staked plants, picking an orange bell pepper, a few green beans and several pods from what were indeed pea plants. As she made her way over to the vegetable beds on the other side of the garden, she stopped short and lifted her head when a sudden sharp squeal rang out from somewhere behind the copse of trees, and she blinked when several moments later Buddleia appeared from the overgrown dirt path between the trees, with a dead rabbit in her left paw.
"How did you..." She shook her head. "Never mind, I don't even want to know."
Buddleia gave a smile that seemed a bit apologetic, laying the rabbit down by the circle of rocks and walking around the left side of the house. Sasha knelt down by the vegetable beds and lightly ran her fingers through the soil. She selected a few mature carrots, a well-grown onion and a leek, and lightly digging around the green stems and leaves in one of the rows on the far side showed those were indeed potato plants, so she carefully dug up a few of the larger potatoes as well. Looking around between the trees behind the garden, the human woman smiled when she spotted chanterelle mushrooms growing on and around a slightly rotting tree stump and collected a few of the golden-colored mushrooms as well.
With everything in the pot of water she had brought with her, Sasha set the mini cauldron and the pot by another tree stump near the border of the garden and put the old scuffed chopping board on the stump. Sitting in lotus position by the tree stump, she smiled at Buddleia returning in the back garden with two earthenware bowls, a large glass jar full of salt and a sizeable folded hunting knife. While the purple and white vixen-taur unfolded the hunting knife and started skinning and cleaning the dead rabbit, rubbing each chunk of meat with a bit of the salt and putting it in one of the bowls while putting the bones and intestines and everything in the other bowl, Sasha started preparing the vegetables she had picked, washing and chopping the tomatoes and the bell pepper, scraping and slicing the carrots and the leek, chopping the green beans and shelling the peas, firmly washing the potatoes and cubing them with skin and all, washing and slicing the chanterelle mushrooms and peeling the outer skin off the onion and slicing it as well as its greens, putting all of it in the mini cauldron.
Done with cleaning the rabbit, Buddleia used the water in the pot Sasha had washed the vegetables in to wash the blood off her paws and built and lit a small campfire in the circle of rocks, setting the metal stand over it and hanging the mini cauldron from it. Sasha took the chunks of rabbit meat and cut them into smaller cubes, spearing each one on a thin stick she had found and holding it in the fire close to one of the small logs for a moment. Buddleia looked at it with a tinge of surprise.
"Not in middle of fire, Sasha."
"Yes, actually," Sasha smiled. "The fire is a bit hotter there so the meat sears quicker, and that's all I need, plus it won't get sooty from the ends of the flames." She gently patted Buddleia's left feral forepaw with her free hand. "Please trust me, Leia, I do actually know what I'm doing."
"I trust you, Sasha," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "I never cooked over open fire, but when grandmother did it, she always had meat above the fire, so that all I know."
"Yes, that is for a nice slow, gradual roast," Sasha nodded, dropping each piece of seared rabbit meat into the mini cauldron as she kept spearing and searing more pieces. "But that's usually when you have a whole animal roasting over the fire, to make sure the meat cooks evenly. In this case, the meat will get done from boiling, so I just need the outside of the chunks seared for a moment."
Buddleia nodded with another smile and just looked at Sasha finishing the last chunks of rabbit meat and dropping them in the mini cauldron. The human woman stirred the content with the large chopping knife for a moment and added some of the salt from the glass jar.
"Do you have a ladle or something, Leia?" she asked after a while.
"Yes, I go get," Buddleia nodded with a smile, rising to her four feral feet.
"Can you bring two more bowls and two spoons as well, in that case?" Sasha smiled. "Once this is done, we may as well enjoy it out here under..." She looked up at the sky for a moment and let go a light chortle. "Well, it's still light so there's no stars yet, but out here in the fresh air, anyway."
"Yes, I go get all that," Buddleia smiled.
Sasha blinked for a moment when the vixen-taur lightly stroked the hair on top of her head with a paw while walking out of the back garden, but then smiled again. She stirred the content of the mini cauldron with the large knife again as it slowly started bubbling. A few moments later Buddleia returned again with two smoother earthenware bowls - the ones they had been eating the soup from the past few days - two spoons and a large, slightly bent ladle. Sasha used the ladle to stir the content of the mini cauldron, every now and then lifting it and poking at the chunks of meat and pieces of vegetables with the point of the large knife.
Each time, she mumbled a high-pitched "ouch" with a light giggle, much to Buddleia's surprise.
"You hurt, Sasha?"
Sasha looked up and shook her head with another soft giggle.
"No, don't worry. It's one of my granny's silly jokes. When asked how you could tell when meat is done, she always said to poke it, and it if says 'ouch', it's not done yet. I later learned you actually tell by the texture and firmness of the meat, but whenever my granny was preparing meat, she would say 'ouch' each time she poked it until it was done."
Buddleia nodded in understanding and chortled softly.
"Your grandmother funny woman." She lightly patted Sasha's arm. "But she teach you well."
"I suppose she did, even if I did not realize it," Sasha nodded with a soft smile.
She kept stirring the ladle around in the mini cauldron as the content bubbled and started spreading a pleasant scent on the light breeze. Several times more she lifted the ladle to poke at the chunks of meat, mumbling a high-pitched "ouch" each time but the last time, looking up with a smile.
"It no longer says ouch, so it's done. Can you set it on that stump so it can simmer and cool for a bit, please?"
Buddleia nodded with a smile, lifting the mini cauldron off the hook it was hanging from by its handle and setting it on top of the chopping board on the tree stump. Sasha sat down near the stump in lotus position and stirred the content every now and then again, eventually taking the bowls they had been eating the soup from the past two days and filling them with what had cooked into a steaming stew. She handed one of the bowls to Buddleia with a smile and just looked as the purple and white vixen-taur scooped up a spoonful of the stew, blew on it and stuck it in her mouth, her bristly purple whiskers fanning out and twitching and her ears perking.
"This so tasty! You good cook, Sasha. Thank you for making this."
"I'm not really a good cook, but this I can make," Sasha smiled. "You're welcome, Leia. I really wanted to do something back for you taking care of me. I'm glad you like it."
She blew over a spoonful of stew and chewed on everything carefully so it wouldn't hurt too much when she swallowed. And she hummed slightly under her breath with another smile. The small chunks of rabbit meat were tender and had a tinge of a sweet taste to them, and all the vegetables had just enough crispness to them still and had a rich, smooth taste. It was almost as if she could taste that the vegetables had been freshly taken out of the soil only moments before cooking.
The stew was enjoyed in content silence, the only sounds being those of the birds in the trees, the crackling of the fire and the tinking of the spoons in the earthenware bowls. When the bowls were empty, Buddleia stretched her quadruped lower body in the grass a bit with her hind legs pushed out to the side and her bushy tail resting over them. She smiled as Sasha moved over to her and also stretched out in the grass while leaning comfortably against the side of the vixen-taur's lower body. They still did not speak, just smiling at each other and relaxing contently and silently as they let the food settle and basked in the warmth of it in their tummies.
Only after several long moments, Buddleia leaned over a bit to take the pot Sasha had used to wash the vegetables in and the bowl with the leftovers of the rabbit. Sasha rolled her head a bit, looking at the vixen-taur carefully scraping the pelt and stretching it over a frame of sticks, and scraping and washing the larger bones and laying them in a small heap on the tree stump. She hardly noticed she was softly petting the left feral forepaw Buddleia had rested over her right leg, just smiling at the vixen-taur's busywork.
"What're you doing that for, Leia?" she asked with a smile. "I can understand saving the pelt, but what good are the bones?"
"Small craft store in community village, they buy them to make small tools and things," Buddleia smiled. "Make curved needles and fish hooks from ribs, and pins, reamers, fishing knives and scrapers from larger bones, even small flutes and decoy whistles and buttons, combs and hair pins." With a light giggle, she picked up the rabbit's skull and stuck the thumb of her right paw into it from below, using it to move the lower jaw up and down while speaking in a funny high-pitched, warbled tone. "I useful animal, all parts of me used for things."
Sasha sniggered softly and shook her head.
"I've said it before; you're nuts. But that was pretty funny." She smiled again. "So they still make things out of bone these days? I never knew that."
"Some tools better when they are bone," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "Fishermen prefer bone scrapers and knives, better for cleaning fish. Hunters rather use bone decoy whistles than wood, they say sound is better, more natural. And polished bone buttons simply are pretty."
"I'll take your word for it," Sasha smiled, gently squeezing the vixen-taur's left feral forepaw resting over her right leg. "Hey, next time you go to that village, you gotta take me with you, I wanna see it."
Buddleia patted Sasha's leg with her left forepaw.
"Not until you healed. Is all dirt road, very bumpy. Four hours drive in old Emmie, all your other ribs be broken too."
"Aww c'mon Leia, are you gonna leave me here all alone and be bored to tears while you're off having fun? That's not fair," Sasha chortled.
Buddleia let go a chortle as well and patted Sasha's leg with her left forepaw again.
"Maybe you healed already next time I go to village. I only go very sometimes. Not worth driving four hours for three dollar eighty of bones, I only go when I have box full of them."
"I suppose that makes a whole ton of sense," Sasha nodded with another light chortle. "But you still gotta take me there sometime at least." She started lightly petting the vixen-taur's left feral forepaw again. "And for now, I'll stop distracting you from your work. It's actually pretty nice to watch you do it, and I'm really fucking comfy like this I gotta admit."
Buddleia nodded with a smile and returned to cleaning the rest of the bones while Sasha relaxed against the side of the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body. By the time Buddleia was finished, the light was beginning to leave the sky. Both of them got up, and Sasha carried the mini cauldron with the leftover stew in it into the house to set it on the counter while Buddleia threw the rest of the mushy leftovers of the rabbit into the pond and brought the bowls, the other pot and the cutlery into the house, putting them in a plastic tub that was in the sink of the small counter.
They sat outside in the grass in the front garden for a while, until the light blue sky had turned via orange to dark blue. Going back into the small farmhouse, Buddleia helped Sasha into the old bed and curled up in the heap of pillows and cushions herself for a good night's sleep.
It was a slow pace, but things were beginning to look up.
