It was only the next day. There was just so much to do suddenly!
The first livestock of Butterfly Farm! Granted, it were just an adult chicken and half a dozen of baby chicks, and a rabbit, but that still counted as livestock. And livestock needs a place to live! That was provided for by means of the chicken coop that had been generously gifted to the lanky human woman Sasha and the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia by the proprietress of the general store in the tiny village of Rolling Hills, who had also given them the chickens, but the rabbit needed its own living quarters. It could stay in the chicken coop for a few days, but would soon need its own pen, especially when more rabbits were going to be added.
But while the chicken coop was a complete structure that had been gifted to them, a rabbit hutch needed to be built. And for that, materials were needed. The farm did provide raw materials in the form of the trees that had to be cut down, but those materials needed refining before they could be used for building. So very quickly after their porridge breakfast - which had this time been sweetened even further with the plum jam Buddleia had been making the day before - Sasha put some clothes on, planted the cute pink sun hat with the two long ribbons Buddleia had given her on her head and climbed into the cab of the old and battered MAZ-200 truck that had been loaded with the trunks of all the trees they had cut down during the previous days. Mainly pines and firs, they were narrower and lighter so the trunks only needed to be cut in half for Buddleia to be able to lift them, and they were much straighter as well so they would make for excellent planks and beams.
Sasha floored the accelerator all the way to the sawmill. The old truck struggled to reach fifty miles per hour as it was, and loaded with a good amount of logs, it struggled even harder to get up to any half-decent speed, the two-stroke diesel engine roaring in protest. It was no surprise, therefore, that once the human woman pulled into the yard of the sawmill a bit over two hours later, she did not even need to honk the horn as a tall gray and white squirrel man dressed in yellow overalls over a green flannel shirt walked quickly from the rightmost of the three buildings in the front left corner of the yard.
"Wow, folks'll definitely be able to tell when you approach," he chuckled as Sasha climbed out of the cab, tilting his head a bit. "Say, is that Simon's old beast?"
"It is," Sasha nodded with a smile. "He and Harry very generously gifted it to us as they weren't using it anymore and we're in dire need of equipment." She let go a light chortle. "I was also expecting to see Fred, I don't think I have met you yet?"
"Fred's in the crate building," the squirrel man chuckled, looking up and around Sasha for a moment. "Check that, your noise has lured him out, there he is!" He held out a paw. "And I'm Franciscus, because my parents insisted on being fancy, but just plain old Frank will do."
"Well, pleased to meet you, Frank," Sasha chortled, shaking the squirrel man's paw. "I'm plain old Sasha, because my parents didn't give a shit about being fancy. Or at least that's what I'm supposing as I've never known them, they died before I could even walk properly."
"Very nice indeed to meet you, Sasha," the squirrel man nodded with a smile. "I've heard many good things about you already."
"And now we can't hear a thing anymore! Holy hedgerow Sasha, that truck of yers is louder than our sawmill!" the beaver man Fred chuckled as he walked up to the two of them.
"It's actually not too bad when you're inside it," Sasha chortled. "Besides, look how awesome it is, it allowed me to bring all that here in one go!" she pointed at all the long longs on the truck's flat bed with a louder chortle.
"That is some very good wood you've got there, yes," the squirrel man Frank nodded, walking to the back of the truck and examining the logs. "What we got here... pine and fir, yes, very good wood indeed."
"Yes, and a good amount," the beaver man Fred agreed, tilting his head a bit and making motions at the logs with a finger. "Without even weighing it, I'd say ya got a good five grand in wood sitting there, Sasha."
"Dammit, Fred," Sasha said with a giggle. "Now you've given me a dilemma!"
"Uh oh, I'm sorry?" Fred chuckled. "What's the dilemma?"
"Well, you know how very badly we need all that precious money," Sasha chortled. "And five grand? Damn, that's such a good boost to our bank account. But we also very much need building materials, and we need them right now. So that was actually what I brought all this wood here for; to get turned into planks and beams that I can bring back to the farm and we can build rabbit hutches we badly need and fix the fences and everything." She looked at both the beaver man and the squirrel man with another chortle. "Help a girl out here, fellows. Would the five grand for this wood buy as many materials as this wood makes when it's all sawn up?"
"Nope," Fred chuckled. "That's an easy one, Sasha; ya definitely get more materials out of this wood than what five grand would buy ya."
"Yeah, if you need materials that badly, I would absolutely advice you to let us saw this stuff into materials for you," Frank nodded with a chuckle as well. "You'll get a good amount of materials, and you even still get some money as well because we'll pay you for the woodchips it generates from the leftovers."
"Thank you, that makes the decision so much easier," Sasha chortled, motioning at the logs. "Cut'em up, boys, we need the beams and planks too damn much."
"You got it, Sasha," Frank chuckled. "If you can park under that crane, length-wise, and unstrap the lot, I'll get them picked off the back of your truck and put in the rack."
"Alright, cover your ears," Sasha chortled.
She climbed back into the cab of the truck, of which the engine was still running. With a bit of maneuvering back and forth, she got it parked under the overhead gantry crane with its nose pointing towards the right, helped by Fred giving directions. The beaver man also already started undoing the straps while the squirrel man walked into the large building to start up the crane. Once all the straps were removed and rolled up, Fred motioned Sasha to step out from under the gantry, after which Frank began operating the crane.
As the logs were being picked up, twisted around and placed into metal racks from where they would move into the sawmill, Sasha turned to Fred again.
"I have another question as well," she smiled. "Do you fellows have a stump grinder I could borrow or rent? Oh, and some real sturdy ramps to get it onto the back of that truck? Most of those trees came from right in the middle of one of our fields, and I need those stumps all ground into powder so we can sow and reap right over them in the future."
"I'll tell ya what; I'll do ya one better than that," Fred chuckled. "We have a stump grinder with a catchment system so it catches all the chips the stumps get ground into. It is for rent, but it comes with either me or Frank to operate it. So here's my proposition; what if I bring it over to yer farm tomorrow and grind those stumps for ya, and rather than ya paying the rental fee, I just won't pay ya for the woodchips it picks up and call that the payment, how's that sound?"
"That sounds positively awesome to me, Fred, thank you so much," Sasha smiled, shaking the beaver man's paw. "It is quite a drive for you to get to our farm, after all."
"Hey, it'll be worth it, I wanna see how it looks now that ya gals are bringing it back to life," Fred chuckled.
The squirrel man stuck his head around a door.
"Hey, before I start this circus up, what exactly do you want the logs cut into, Sasha?" he asked. "Beams and planks you said, but what sizes?"
"As for planks, just the regular size planks you always cut, whatever size that may be," Sasha smiled. "The beams, four by four please, and as many one by twos and one by ones you can cut out of all those niggly corner bits, because we'll need those for the rabbit hutches we're building. And a question back at you; is it going to take longer than four hours?"
"Not by far, two, two and a half at most," Frank said with a shake of his head. "So four by fours, one by ones and one by twos, gotcha. Do you want it split evenly between the amount of logs you brought? As in, we do a fifty-fifty split to cut one half of the logs into beams and the other half into planks."
"Hmm, no, do it sixty-five to thirty-five please, sixty-five percent planks and thirty-five percent beams. We need a lot more planks than we do beams," Sasha smiled. "And if it takes two hours, I'm waiting for them, because you'll be done by the time I get back to the farm and then I have to make another two-hour drive back here, that's just wasting time."
"You got it, Sasha," Frank nodded, giving a thumbs-up. "Go on into the office and have a cup of coffee, or don't have a cup of coffee but go into the office anyway because I'm about to make a helluva lotta noise here. Fred, lemme know when you have the dumper in place, okay?"
"On it," the beaver man nodded. "I'll meet ya in the office in a bit, Sasha."
Sasha nodded with a smile and walked over to the rightmost of the three buildings in the front left corner of the yard. She stood in the doorway for a few moments, looking at the beaver man driving over and old dump truck and parking it under the curved pipe that came out of the side of the large building. He leaned in through the door the squirrel man had looked around earlier and said something, and moments later the large building hissed and thumped and roared into life loudly, soon followed by the shrill whine of sawblades. Not long after that, Sasha noticed woodchips beginning to shoot out of the pipe into the dump truck. So that's what those pipes were for, the human woman mused with a light smile.
The beaver man Fred trotted over to the building as well and stepped inside, sending Sasha a smile as he walked over to a kitchenette in a small room next to the office.
"Cup of coffee, Sasha?"
"I don't drink it very much, but yes, thank you," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Okay if I make a few phone calls while I'm here?" She pulled her replacement phone from a pocket of her shorts. "I have my own phone now, so I won't need to use yours."
"Sure, go right ahead," Fred nodded while pouring water into a coffee maker.
"Thank you," Sasha smiled. "And I also have a very important question for you."
"Sure, what can I do for ya?" Fred smiled, scooping powdered coffee into a filter.
"Do you know that small church at the edge of Rolling Hills village?" Sasha smiled.
"Yup. The woodwork of it all came from this place," Fred nodded, sliding the filter holder into the coffee maker and switching on the machine. "That was waaay before my time though. What about it?"
Sasha hid a light chortle behind a hand and smiled again.
"Can you and Frank be there, coming Saturday, around five in the afternoon? Along with any other crew from here that may show up before Saturday?"
Fred quirked an eyebrow while he readied some cups and spoons.
"Sure, what for?"
Sasha chortled again.
"Not gonna say, but it's very, very important. I really want you guys there coming Saturday at five."
"If it's that important, of course we'll be there, Sasha," Fred nodded with a smile. "It's just Frank and me here at this place for the next five months. There's two crews, him and me are one and Sam and Dave are the other, and we rotate in six-month time periods but we just switched over last month so it's me and Frank here for a while now."
"That's good to know, at least I won't be surprised when I suddenly see two totally unfamiliar guys here at one point," Sasha chortled. "Well, time for my calls, I guess."
She sat down at a table and pulled a folded piece of paper from the other pocket of her shorts, unfolding it and checking the numbers she had jotted down on it. The first call was to the Agricultural Co-operation.
"Ag Co-op, Daniel Tawnto speaking."
"Dan, it's Sasha."
"Sasha! Haven't talked to you over the phone yet! How's things going?"
"I just picked up a replacement phone yesterday. That's why I'm calling, to let you know the number so you can reach me directly whenever needed, and because I have an important question to ask."
"Of course! I'll save the number in our system, that will make things a lot handier indeed. And what can I do for you?"
"Can you make sure you and all the other people working at the Co-op are at that small church in Rolling Hills, coming Saturday at five in the afternoon?"
"Whu? Sure, what for?"
"A surprise, one that is very important to me."
"Good enough reason for me. I'll get the whole crew there, Sasha."
"Thank you, Dan, see you Saturday then. Sorry to spring on you and run, but I have a whole list of calls to make here."
"Go right on ahead, Sasha. We'll see you Saturday."
Ringing off, Sasha checked her list. Next was the livestock dealer.
"Rolling Hills livestock. You want cows, you want sheep, you want goats, we got you covered! How can Simon here help you?"
"I'm looking for a couple of pink giraffes for Butterfly Farm, Simon."
"Sasha! Haha, sorry, I'm not sure if I can arrange giraffes for you, let alone pink ones. But how are you? How's the truck working out for you?"
"Very well, it just brought a full load of logs to the sawmill. They swear they heard me starting it way back at our farm already."
"She's a tad loud, ain't she? But glad to hear you're getting such good use out of her! Any reason you called?"
"An important one. For one, I got my replacement phone so I'm letting you know the number so you can reach me directly if needed. For another, it's very important to me if you and Harry can be at the Rolling Hills church next Saturday at five in the afternoon."
"Excellent, got you added as a contact, Sasha. And are you gonna preach? Wouldn't wanna miss that, we'll be there!"
"Awesome, see you guys then. I got more calls to make, so gotta go now."
"See you Saturday, Sasha!"
The human woman rang off again and looked at the paper. Two more numbers, so the post office was next.
"Rolling Hills post office, good morning, this is Lisa Dobbart speaking?"
"Good morning, missus Dobbart, this is Sasha Farr."
"Oh, good morning miss Farr! What can I do for you? There has not been any mail for you yet."
"I wasn't expecting anything, missus Dobbart. I just wanted to let you get my phone number in your system, even though I did write it down on the form for the post box as well. And I have a very important question for you."
"Oh my, of course dear, how can I help you?"
"It would mean very much to me if you can let everyone in the village know that I need everyone, you and your husband included, to be at the church coming Saturday at five o'clock in the afternoon. Could you please make sure that everyone in the village knows about that, especially missus Stebbins? It is very important that they will all be there."
"Oh my! Certainly dear, I shall ask my husband to let everybody know when he makes his mail round tomorrow morning. Coming Saturday... at five o'clock in the afternoon, I have it written down, dear. We shall see you then."
"Thank you very much, missus Dobbart. I'm sorry I can't give any details yet, but I have still more calls to make."
"That is alright, dear. I hear machinery in the background, so I'm sure you must be very busy. Have a good day, miss Farr, and we shall see you coming Saturday."
"Thank you again, missus Dobbart, and have a good day as well."
Again ringing off, Sasha smiled lightly and stirred a sugar cube through the cup of coffee Fred had set down on the table for her. With a deeper breath, the human woman took a sip of the coffee and picked up her phone again. The last number... and she didn't even have to check the piece of paper; she could just scroll through her contacts list. This was going to be the most important call, and likely a bit of an emotional one. It certainly started with a shout.
"Sasha! Oh my gosh, it says your number on my screen! Do you still have your old number?"
"Heya Milbilly. Of course, I told you I was gonna put the sim-card from my old phone into the new one, didn't I? So it kept my old number and all my contacts and stuff. How've you been holding up, choco-snoot?"
"I've been... I've been so much better since you called, Sasha. Knowing you're okay, and I didn't have to worry anymore... How have you been? Is... is it going well on that farm and all?"
"That's great, I'm happy to hear that, Mil. Yeah, things keep looking up. We got some chickens now, Mil, the absolute darling of a woman of the general store gave us some chicks and their old coop and all. And we even have a bunny too, a Verdant Island Lop no less."
"Aww, those are so cute. I'm... I'm glad it's going okay, Sash. But... I miss you."
"Hey, c'mon now, Milbilly. I have a phone again now, so you can always call me, okay? Just don't be surprised if I sometimes don't answer right away, we have so much work to do here. You know how much work a farm is, Milbilly, you and I have always been the hayseeds of the group. Hey, you didn't tell anyone about me, did you?"
"Yeah... yeah, I know, Sash. And no, I haven't told the others. Chelsea did notice I was more cheered up and she said that to me, but I didn't tell her why, because you had asked me not to."
"Good girl, choco-snoot. I really appreciate that. Hey, and I didn’t get to say congratulations yet for getting your driver's license, and a car even! So congratulations for getting your license, choco-snoot! I'm proud of you, I really am."
"Nngh-huu... th-thank you, Sash..."
"Now now now, come one now, choco-snoot, don't cry now, okay? You're a big girl, with your own car now even and everything."
"Snf... snnf... I'm sorry, Sash. Can I... when can I come visit sometime..?"
"Honestly, any time you want, Mil. But you're gonna need a whole week at least just to get here and back, even if you would just stay the night and leave the next morning. Do you have that amount of time available any time soon?"
"Aw... n-no, not for a bit yet..."
"Could you make it here coming Saturday?"
"I'd... need to leave... Wednesday, I suppose... Aw, no... I can't make that, Sash... I have... stuff to take care of at work, I won't have a whole week until... after next week at least."
"Aw shit, that sucks donkey dick, Mil. I really wanted you to be here. But hey, you have my number and I have a phone again now, so call me, okay? Write this down, Mil; coming Saturday, five in the afternoon, you call me, and make it a video call. Be at home, no visitors, just you, and video-call me."
"O-okay Sash, I will so do that. I've written it down, coming Saturday at five, video call."
"Good girl, choco-snoot. It's really important, and I wish you could've made it in person, but this will be the next best thing. Have you called the cops too?"
"Yes... just like you told me to, right after you called the other day, I called them and said you had called me and that you were alive and all."
"You've been a very good girl, choco-snoot. Thank you for doing that for me. Hey, and when you get here week after next or whenever it will be, bring my glasses with you, okay? I'm wearing my spare pair, but they still make it a bit fuzzy in the distance."
"Mmnyehh... of course, Sash, I'll do that... Should I bring the rest too? The stuff from your apartment that we picked up, I mean?"
"To be honest, I'm really not sure what I would want of that stuff. Oh, but do at least bring the rest of my clothes. I only have what I packed for that stay at Jessie's, and even though I only put on some clothes when I have to go to the village or the Co-op or the sawmill, where I am now, I'm starting to run out of clean things because there's no washing machine, and like I said before, not even electricity."
"Uhm... uh... you're... you're, uh... naked..? Like... the whole time..?"
"Yeah, no big deal. The freaking middle of nowhere couldn't be more empty than this place, so who the hell is gonna see me? And it feels great, the sun is doing me a world of good out here. I'm no see-through ghost with freckles anymore, Mil, I'm actually getting some color on me. And even more freckles."
"Nnyee... uh... that's... that's good to, uh... to hear, Sash. I, uh... yes, I will bring your, uh, your other clothes... Do you really not want the rest?"
"You know what, bring all you got from my place. We'll go through it, I'll see what I wanna keep and you can throw out the rest or keep of it what you want, okay?"
"O-okay, that sounds good, Sash, I'll do that. I'll put everything in my car in a minute so I won’t forget about it."
"Thanks, Milbilly, I really appreciate that. We'll talk on Saturday, and after that we'll arrange for a visit sometime, okay? Hey; howl at the moon, Milbilly."
"Hee... yeah, howl at the moon, Sash. Talk to you Saturday. And... thanks for calling me."
"Any time, Mil. Hear you Saturday."
"Hear you then, Sash."
Sasha rang off a last time, lay her phone on the table and took a deeper breath or two before finishing her cup of coffee. That didn't go too badly at all. The beaver man Fred sent her a smile from behind the desk he was sitting at.
"That was a friend, I could tell."
"I had a small group of people who said they were my friends in the city, but yeah, she was a real one," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Good kid, I like her, even though I could have been her mother. Well, if I had kids at thirteen, that is, but still."
"Yeah, that happens," Fred chuckled, getting up from behind the desk. "Want a refill?"
Sasha shook her head with a light chortle.
"God no, that's hella strong stuff, Fred. I could run the truck on it, for crying out loud. But thanks."
"Well, gotta stay energized when you're lugging logs around all day," Fred chuckled while pouring himself another cup.
"So you're running that crane on it?" Sasha sniggered. "See, I knew it, I could run that damn truck on the stuff. I'm surprised you haven't keeled over yet. But hell, I'm sure you're actually a white beaver and it's just that coffee that made your fur so brown."
Fred laughed and held a paw over his head.
"Hell, I was transparent, so I had to fill myself up all the way up to here so people could actually see me."
They laughed again and calmly chatted to pass the time. Sasha filled up her plastic bottle of water under the faucet in the kitchenette and every now and then took a sip from that. When a little more than two hours had passed, the squirrel man Frank stepped into the office as well and poured himself a cup of coffee.
"You're all set, Sasha. I pulled the truck out from under the gantry and loaded her up with pallets and strapped everything down for you, too. It's a nice haul, should last you for a bit I'd think. Chip count come through yet, Fred?"
The beaver man turned to the computer and did some clicking with the mouse.
"I see it. Thirty-three cubic feet, not too shabby, very good even. That'll give ya some pocket money, Sasha; sixty-six bucks to be precise, as the going price is two bucks per cubic foot. Not much, but hey, it's money for waste byproduct."
"And with our current financial situation, even sixty-six bucks is a help," Sasha smiled. "What do you do with that stuff, anyway? I've seen it used in gardens and parks in the city, but surely that's not the only use?"
"No, most of what we produce goes to the BGA," Fred nodded.
"Yeah, they squeeze it into pellets that they burn to generate power," Frank added.
"That sounds sustainable and eco-friendly," Sasha smiled with a light chortle. "Do you only chip branches and bits of trees?"
"Nope, we can run any kind of wood through the chipper," Fred said. "So if ya have any broken planks or fence posts or other waste wood from buildings or what have ya, ya can drop that off here to be chipped as well. But if it's painted, the price will be lower because the processing costs for the BGA are gonna be higher as the chips will have to be cleaned."
"I see," Sasha nodded. "Well, that's still preferable over just tossing it in a heap and burning it, I guess. So yeah, I'll keep that in mind for if we have any waste wood, from like the broken fences and stuff, I'll keep that apart and drop it off here every now and then." She rose up from the table, stretched for a moment and smiled. "Hey, thanks a lot, guys, I appreciate the help and all the info. See you Saturday, okay?"
"I'll even see ya tomorrow, with the grinder," Fred chuckled. "What time ya want me to be there?"
"Right!" Sasha nodded with a smile. "We get up at six and we're usually done with breakfast and a bath and stuff at seven, so you can show up any time after seven, Fred."
"It'll be eight at least then, we start at six too and it's a bit of a drive to yer place," Fred chuckled.
"That's perfect. We'll probably be fixing fences, so just have a look around to see where we're at. You know where to find the place?" Sasha smiled.
"Yeah, it's pretty much down the road, even if it's a long way down the road," Fred nodded with a chuckle, printing out a few papers he handed to Sasha. "Here ya go, receipt and work order confirmation for the sawing job."
"Thanks," Sasha smiled, shaking the beaver man's paw, and then the squirrel man's paw. "Have a great day, guys, and see you tomorrow and Saturday."
They waved as Sasha stepped out of the office and walked over to the old MAZ truck. She smiled at the sight of the flat bed being loaded with several pallets full of long planks and a few filled with long wood beams, and one filled with bundles of long and much thinner beams, no more than slats. The human woman even took a couple of deep breaths; freshly cut wood, man that smelled nice.
Climbing into the cab of the truck and starting the engine, Sasha made her way off the sawmill yard and back down the dirt roads towards their farm. Once the truck was in fifth gear it went decently enough, but it sure took some work to get there. A better gearbox would be no unnecessary luxury, because whatever gear reduction the current gearbox had might be good for torque but it was killer for actually going down the road. Still, it was still within two hours when Sasha got back to the farm and drove up the dirt path between the two left fields.
She smiled as she reached the house and turned onto the driveway for a bit. Buddleia was laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body in the grass by the chicken coop, looking at the baby chicks, the mature chicken and the lop-eared rabbit with a happy smile and her bushy tail wagging through the grass behind her. And she hadn't been wasting time, either; Sasha saw the generator and the stick welder sitting nearby, which the purple and white vixen-taur had used to weld a good number of the T-profile fence posts and the mesh into neat frames, out of which she had built a new run for the chickens that looked much straighter, smoother and neater than the slightly haphazard one they had built the day before by just hammering posts into the ground and stretching the mesh along them.
Buddleia had of course perked her ears and looked up at the very loud sound of the old truck driving up the dirt path, and she displayed her upper canines and the end of her tongue at Sasha in a smile as the human woman pulled the truck into the narrow front field.
"Sasha, you back! And you got lots planks and beams!"
"Yep, looks good, fuzzbutt, don't it?" Sasha smiled as she climbed out of the cab. "We even made sixty-six bucks from the sawdust." She gave the vixen-taur a light hug and smooched the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose. "Whaddaya think, can you build a nice bunny hutch out of all this?"
Buddleia crooned a soft churr and gave Sasha a light lick to the cheek back before stepping over to the truck and checking the pallets.
"Ten if I want! This so much planks and all! And such good quality!"
"Two will do for now, I'd say," Sasha chortled while she began undoing straps. "Let me know what you need, I'll try to help as best as I can even if I'm not too handy with a hammer yet."
"I teach you! Yes!" Buddleia nodded happily. "You get good at too, Sasha!"
"Sounds like it will be a whole lot of fun, Leia," Sasha smiled. "Although for now I'll leave most of the work to you, we do want these hutches to actually look decent and not collapse when a butterfly lands on them."
Buddleia nodded with a yipping giggle and started lifting the pallets off the back of the truck. By the vixen-taur's request, Sasha went over to the workshop and got a few handsaws, a miter box, a couple of the boxes of nails and screws and a hammer and some screwdrivers, as well as an old sturdy wooden crate. Amazingly, without a manual or even a plan, Buddleia started measuring and sawing the wood, sometimes using a tape measure and sometimes simply using a paw or an arm, and proceeded to build a roomy rabbit hutch with a separated part along the entire width in the rear that got sectioned off into six equal boxes to serve as sleeping quarters for individual rabbits, a full-width framed mesh front that opened downwards, a roof that opened upwards and slightly slanted towards the back, and an opening with a planks with short crossbeams to serve as a ladder on one of the sides.
It was all Sasha could no not to stare in awe and amazement at how all of that had apparently not only been inside Buddleia's head, but also came out so smoothly and flawlessly, without any printed step by step manuals with pictures that showed precise measurements and everything. The human woman might have been able to construct a simple hutch if she'd had a manual with pictures and measurements, but this... that was beyond impressive!
"Holy fucking hell babe!" she said slowly when after a few hours, Buddleia sat back and smiled. "That is... I don’t even have words for that! How the hell did you do that? I can't believe my own damn eyes here!"
"You like?" Buddleia smiled happily, wagging her bushy tail. "I do lots when I little, yes! Grandfather teach me good, he always tell me to do good job, so I practice lots, I build lots bunny hutches for kids in the village, yes."
"Damn!" Sasha said while shaking her head. "That's not good, babe, that's amazing! Way beyond amazing even!"
"Yeee! I happy you like, Sasha!" Buddleia smiled so happily both her upper and lower canines and the front end of her tongue were on full display. "I make small one too now, for when we get boy bunny! So much fun, I enjoy doing again so much!"
"Yeah... okay, you know what, you do that," Sasha nodded, pulling in a couple of deep breaths and smiling after she had rubbed her eyes and put her glasses back on. "I'll go and do something I know I can do at least, grab some of that paint and paint these."
"Yes! Make them nice color, I like!" Buddleia nodded happily. "What color you gonna make them, Sasha?"
"Well, you know that paint missus Stebbins gave me?" Sasha smiled. "It's pink and blue, so when I mix that it'll make a purple that should look just like your fur. That's gonna be the new color of our farm, Leia."
"Yeee! I like! I like so much!" the vixen-taur smiled with almost a giddy squeal. "Yes, you go do, Sasha!"
"You got it, babe," Sasha chortled.
She leaned over to hug Buddleia and press another smooch on her cool, damp black nose pad before walking over to the workshop again. After some rummaging around, she found a 5 gallon can with an open top that had once held carburetor cleaner. The lid was missing, but that wasn't too much of a problem. Sasha cleaned the can as best as she could, opened a few of the boxes Mrs. Stebbins had given her and took out a can of blue paint from one and a can of pink paint from another. Using a screwdriver to pry off the lids, the human woman also used the screwdriver by lack of anything better to stir the light blue and soft pink paint until it actually looked like paint again and no more thick lumps were pulled from the bottom of the cans.
After carefully emptying both cans of paint into the large can, Sasha poured a bit of the paint thinner in each can, hammered the lids back on and shook the cans as hard as she could for several moments. Prying the lids back off, she poured the last of the dissolved paint into the large can as well, leaving the paint cans relatively clean on the inside. With a metal rod she found lying in a corner of the workshop, Sasha stirred the paint in the large can until it was fully mixed into a very nice, slightly muted light lavender color. She took a few sheets of sandpaper and one of the paint brushes from the box in the tall cabinet and the large can with the mixed paint back over to the field, where Buddleia was already busy measuring and sawing again.
"Hey, sit up for a moment, fuzzbutt," she chortled as she set down the large can and sank into the grass onto her knees.
Buddleia looked around and chortled, sitting up and looking at Sasha dipping the brush into the paint and then holding it near the back of the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body.
"Is such nice color! I like lots, Sasha!"
"Yes, it's a bit lighter than the purple of your fur, but it's very pleasant on the eye," Sasha nodded with a smile, letting go a light chortle. "We'll be Lilac Butterfly Farm now!"
"I like! Yes!" Buddleia churred, clapping her paws together.
"Good, because we're gonna have to paint everything this color, it's the only good paint we have and we have a lot," Sasha giggled. "So I better get started!"
She took a small leftover chunk of wood to wrap a sheet of sandpaper around and used it to smooth down the rough sawn edges on the large rabbit hutch Buddleia had built, and dusted them off with the paint brush a bit. While Buddleia built the second, smaller hutch, Sasha got on with painting the large hutch on both the outside and the inside, the only thing she did not give a lick of paint to being the plank with the small crossbars that served as a ladder up into the side of the hutch. Once she was done, the human woman took the chunk of wood wrapped with sandpaper to the chicken coop to smooth out the old wood of that a bit as well, and proceeded to also paint the coop in the same muted light lavender color so it looked fresh and new again.
Buddleia was done with the second, smaller hutch a bit before Sasha was done painting the coop, so the vixen-taur started putting the pallets of planks and beams back onto the bed of the old MAZ truck and put all the leftover cut-offs in the crate she had used as a stand to saw the planks to size on. While she was still at that, Sasha finished painting the coop and went on to paint the smaller hutch as well. When they were finally done, the human woman carefully poured the leftover lavender paint back into the two empty cans and even used the paintbrush to wipe as much of it out of the large can as she could and wipe it into the paint cans so there was as little waste as possible. Even if they had gotten a whole darn lot of paint, it was still good practice to save as much of it as they could.
It would have been time for lunch by the time they were finished, but as there had been four hours of driving to and from the sawmill and two hours of waiting at the sawmill, it was already a bit past time for dinner when they had finished up their work. Sasha cleaned the paint brush and the spatters and stains of paint off her skin while Buddleia went into the farmhouse to make some dinner. They enjoyed their dinner out in the soft grass of the front field, cuddled up against one another and looking at the fresh lavender chicken coop and rabbit hutches, and their new animals going about their business in the run of the coop.
The next morning, after enjoying their breakfast porridge in the same manner, Buddleia started welding together more metal mesh panels to build a large run for the rabbit hutches with. Sasha got onto the old Hanomag tractor with the half cab and the old little baler behind it to start baling up the hay that had been drying in the field behind the copse of trees that was behind the farmhouse, as that had been laying there for a few days already. And now they could actually use some of the bales for themselves as well, to provide bedding and a bit of feed for the lop-eared rabbit.
About two hours into her laps across the field, Sasha looked up and smiled at the sight of a 1973 cab-over style MAN 16 truck with a long flat bed driving down the dirt road and up to their farm from the direction of the sawmill. It was carrying a large heavy yellow vehicle on the bed, with a massive enclosed solid metal roll full of large teeth on a maneuverable frame on the front. The horn honked as it turned into and drove down the narrower dirt road that ran along the back of the farm, and Sasha waved her hands to indicate it to stop while she shut off the baler and the tractor and walked towards the large truck.
The beaver man Fred was behind the wheel of the truck and leaned out of the driver door window with a chuckle as he looked at the lanky human woman wearing nothing but her glasses, pink sun hat with ribbons and the flowery wrap around her chest.
"That's a look for ya, Sasha."
"Enjoy it while you’re here, but hands off as this is all for Leia only," Sasha chortled. "Anyway, I had you stop because you're already next to the field I need you in."
"Oh, no worries, I already knew ya were off-limits after that first time ya and Buddleia showed up at the mill," Fred smiled, opening the door and climbing out of the truck. "So show me, where do ya need me?"
Sasha pointed as they walked into the rear-side left field.
"Over there, see that open spot in the grass? That's where we cut down most of the trees I brought you yesterday, and those stumps we need gone."
"Yeah, that's a waste of good crop ground," Fred agreed with a nod. "I'll get that done for ya, no problem. Is there anything else while I'm here that ya need my help for?"
"Look over there," Sasha pointed in the direction of the farmhouse. "See where Leia is working? That strip of trees are the elm trees we brought you some of, so if you can reach any of the stumps we left there with that beast you brought, it'd be nice if you could remove those as well."
Fred scratched the back of his head for a moment as he looked at the strip of elm trees.
"That might be harder to get the grinder into, but I'll see what I can do, Sasha."
"Yeah, if you can't reasonably reach any of the stumps, it's fine to leave them, so don't sweat it too much," Sasha nodded with a smile.
"I'll get to it, then," Fred smiled, waving at Buddleia who looked in their direction. "Hey Fourpaws, good seeing ya!"
Buddleia waved back with a smile, and while Fred walked to the back of the large truck, Sasha walked back to the small old tractor to get onto it and start it and the baler again. Calmly making her laps across the field, she smiled lightly to herself each time she drove from the right side to the left side which allowed her to see what Fred was doing.
The beaver man had lowered a couple of massive ramps at the back of the truck and had driven the large yellow vehicle off the back of it. Maneuvering it into the field, he drove over to the open area where the trees had been, lowered the massive enclosed metal roll full of teeth at the front and every now and then moved it left and right with a mix of loud roaring and grinding sounds, sending some woodchips flying, but the majority of them were sucked up into a large container on the back of the vehicle.
As lunchtime came around, Sasha was two-thirds of the way done with the field behind the copse of trees and Fred was already loading the huge yellow vehicle onto the back of the large truck again. Walking over to him, Sasha looked around the copse of trees as well and smiled at seeing Buddleia was still doing welding work near the rabbit hutches.
"All done, Fred?"
"Yup," the beaver man nodded with a smile as he began to strap the grinder down. "I got a couple of those elm stumps, but the other trees were too in the way of most of them for me to get to them."
"That's fine, don't worry about it," Sasha smiled. "Will you join us for lunch?"
"That's mighty nice of ya, Sasha, but I gotta get this machine back to the mill," Fred smiled.
"Fair enough. But don't leave just yet, walk with me to the house first," Sasha chortled softly. She led the way through the field and down the dirt path between the fields, waving at Buddleia. "Lunchtime, fuzzbutt! And I do believe you have something for Fred and Frank, don't you?"
"Yes! I go get!" Buddleia nodded, getting to her four feral feet and trotting over to the house.
Fred chuckled softly.
"I get a gift for doing work here? Ya gotta let me come around more often, Sasha." He looked at the chicken coop and the rabbit hutches. "Holy hedgerow, those look good. Ya built all of that out of that wood from yesterday?"
"The coop and the chickens were a gift from missus Stebbins," Sasha smiled. "But Leia did build those two hutches from scratch, and I painted them with paint missus Stebbins also gave us."
"Bless that woman's heart, she's a jewel for the community," Fred smiled. "I like the color, and man do those hutches look nice."
"You should have seen it yesterday when she was building them," Sasha chortled. "No drawn plans or nothing, she did it right from her head. My jaw was in the grass, I can tell you."
"I can imagine!" Fred chuckled, looking around. "Hey Fourpaws, awesome job on them hutches!"
"Thanks!" Buddleia smiled, handing Fred three jars of plum jam she was carrying in her arms. "Is for you and Frank! I made lots plum jam!"
"Hey, awesome!" Fred smiled broadly. "Thanks a bundle, Fourpaws! We're gonna have lunch when I get back to the mill, so we'll make sure to enjoy some!"
"You welcome! I hope you like!" Buddleia smiled.
"I can assure you we will, Fourpaws," Fred smiled, holding the jars in one arm and patting Buddleia's shoulder with his free paw. "I'm glad to see things looking so nice around here already. Keep up the good work. I would stay for lunch, Sasha did invite me, but I gotta get that beast over there back to the mill, so maybe next time, okay?"
"Thanks! Is good, yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "Say hello to Frank too!"
"Will do, Fourpaws. Have a good one, y'all!" Fred smiled, waving as he walked back to the large truck.
The two women waved back and walked into the small farmhouse to prepare some lunch, which they had in the soft grass of the front field by the coop and the hutches. Sasha also touched the wood of the hutches and found the paint to be dry, so when they had finished their lunch, she asked Buddleia to bring over one of the hay bales she had made. A decent layer of hay was put into the large hutch, and as Buddleia had already built a large run around it with the metal mesh panels she had welded together, Sasha took the lop-eared rabbit out of the chicken coop and put it in the run with the hutch in it. Buddleia also took some of the shorter planks that had been left over from the build and built two platforms, using parts of the branches of the elm trees that they had kept for firewood to make legs for the platforms, putting one in the run of the chicken coop and one in the run of the rabbit hutch so the animals had a place to hide under or sit on top of as well.
In the same calm, steady routine that let them do a lot of good work but allowed for plenty of time to relax, they kept doing more work to fix up and improve the old farm throughout the following few days. Sasha mowed and tedded the grass in the rear-side left field so it could dry into hay, Buddleia walked along the dirt road running in front of their farm with a harness strapped to her upper back and the back of her quadruped lower body to remove and collect all the broken planks and posts of the fence that ran along the front side of their farm. While the mowed grass was drying, Sasha helped Buddleia plant new wooden fence posts - or actually old but still good ones that were laying in a large heap behind the rusty silo - and nail new planks in place to repair the fence.
With the grass dried into hay on Friday, Sasha spent the day raking it up into neat windrows, while Buddleia continued repairing the fence along the front side of the farm, and continuing with collecting broken planks and fence posts from the fence that ran along the backside of the farm. On the Saturday that followed, Sasha chose not to bale the raked grass but spend the morning helping Buddleia repair the back fence, getting a good bit of the fence done by the time they stopped for lunch.
As they were relaxing in the grass after finishing the soup and sandwiches Buddleia had prepared, Sasha checked her phone and smiled at seeing the time getting towards one o'clock.
"Hey Leia, I need your help," she smiled, running her fingers along the side of the vixen-taur's slender muzzle.
"Of course, Sasha, what you need me to do?" Buddleia smiled while nuzzling her snoot against Sasha's fingers.
The lanky human woman's smile was very wide as she looked up at Buddleia.
"I need you to drive me to the village, Leia."
"Yes, I can do, Sasha," Buddleia smiled. "But maybe you can do by self? You did before, and then I can fix fences more."
"Not this time, my sweet big fuzzbutt," Sasha smiled. "It's really important that you drive me there today."
"Okay?" Buddleia said with a touch of surprise mixed with a hint of confusion. "I do, Sasha, of course, yes."
"Thank you, fuzzbutt, let's get going," Sasha smiled, smooching the cool, damp black pad of the vixen-taur's nose.
Without a further word, the human woman got up and walked into the farmhouse to put on some clothes and her pink sun hat with the two ribbons, making sure to put her phone in a pocket of the skirt she had put on. Buddleia followed her and also put on a shirt over her upper body, and her faded yellow sun hat with the bow. Getting into the old Chevrolet, the vixen-taur started driving them down the dirt road towards the small village.
Every now and then she looked aside at Sasha, but the human woman was simply leaning her right arm on the edge of the passenger door and her chin in her right hand, looking out the missing window and quietly humming a tune to herself. She only looked back at Buddleia when they had taken the left turn off the wide dirt road and started approaching the small village. Getting closer, Sasha pointed at the left turn just beyond the wooden sign with a smile.
"Turn off there and park behind the church, Leia, please."
The purple and white vixen-taur did so, blinking in surprise at seeing all the inhabitants of the village were gathered on the small market square in front of the church. Sasha also smiled at the cozy hubbub of voices in the air, and took Buddleia's right paw in her left hand as they got out of the car. Again Buddleia blinked in surprise as they stepped around the church and she looked at the small crowd.
"Dan? Simon, Harry?" she said, her head whipping from person to person. "Fred, Frank? Why you all here?"
"Sasha asked us to be here at this time, Buddleia," the lion Ag agent Daniel smiled.
The vixen-taur turned her wide, surprised golden eyes towards Sasha.
"Sasha? Why you ask them all to be here? What going on?"
Sasha smiled deeply and put her right hand on Buddleia's cheek, still holding the vixen-taur's right paw in her left hand.
"We're getting married, fuzzbutt."
Buddleia didn't faint. She did shoot her ears up into the air and widened her golden eyes with a shock while her muzzle fell open so much her tongue lolled out a bit. Then she suddenly pulled her paw from Sasha's hand so she could wrap her arms tightly around the human woman's shoulders and back, pressing her muzzle into the nape of Sasha's neck and letting out happy and trembling whines.
"Sasha! Oh Sasha! My Sasha!"
The lanky human woman smiled deeply, but with clenched teeth and closed eyes for a moment while she put her hands on Buddleia's shoulders.
"Ribs, fuzzbutt, ribs..."
Buddleia quickly let go of Sasha and gently ran her left paw along the human woman's right side while rubbing her right paw over her own shimmering golden eyes, her whiskers twitching on the trembling but happy whines still escaping her throat. Sasha smiled again and gently brushed her fingers along the vixen-taur's muzzle before taking her paw and a few steps further towards the front of the church. The winged white-furred jerboa woman was waiting there for them with an almost serene smile, dressed in a long white dress that wavered out widely around her tiny feet.
"Shall we proceed?"
"Please," Sasha nodded with a smile.
They stepped up to the front of the church where a lectern had been placed at the edge of the market square, along with a low table holding a six-armed silver candelabra in which were two clear white candles in the middle, two sky blue candles on either sides of the white ones and two deep red candles in the outer two arms. Standing behind the lectern and turning to the crowd on the small market square, the white-furred jerboa woman took a small silver bell and rang it to attract everybody's attention.
"Good afternoon, my fine people of Rolling Hills and Arfajia Valley," she spoke in a soft but clear voice and with a serene smile. "I understand most of you do not yet know why you were asked to be present here today, so I will give the word to miss Sasha Farr to let her explain her intentions behind the request she made of all of you. Miss Farr?"
Sasha stepped forwards with her left hand holding Buddleia's right paw and looked at all the people on the market square looking back at her, smiling deeply.
"Good afternoon, everyone," she smiled. "Gosh, it's so beautiful to see you all here. And yes, you must have been wondering for the past few days why I asked all of you to be present at this location, at this time, on this day. Let me please tell you my story." Her phone rang, causing her to giggle softly. "And that is perfect timing, the one friend who should have been here but who couldn't make it, please give me a moment." She took her phone and tapped the video-call button. "Heya choco-snoot."
"Hi Sash," the chocolate Labrador girl's voice sounded from the speaker, with a touch of surprise as she could see glimpses of what was around Sasha on the screen. "What, uh... what's going on?"
"You will find out in just a sec, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled. "Just listen and watch, okay?" She looked up and at the crowd of people. "Would someone please be so kind as to hold up my phone so she can follow along?"
"I got it, Sasha," the lion man Daniel smiled.
He took the phone after Sasha had switched the camera to the one on the back and stood at the front of the crowd of people, holding up the phone and pointing it at Sasha. The human woman took a step back again and took Buddleia's right paw back in her left hand while she smiled at all the people.
"So, as I was saying, please let me tell you my story. Some of you I already told bits and pieces of this to, but here is the whole thing. I grew up on a farm, and I always said I hated it, so when I had turned eighteen I left and fled to the glamour of the big city of Fossil City, certain I would find so many much more exciting things there and a good job to make a lot of money. Well, that was a grave mistake. For seventeen years, I drifted from job to job, and I was miserable. The past three or so years, things started going downhill even worse, and I found myself in a spiral I could not escape. I chain-smoked, drank too much, hardly ate what you could call decent food, fell behind on paying the rent to my tiny apartment... the final straw came a bit over a month ago, when I lost the last job I had managed to find." She smiled softly at the expressions of worry on most of the faces looking at her. "Now, I had a small group of friends in the city, or people that called themselves friends, anyway. They tried to cheer me up a bit, and invited me to join them on a trip to the city of Bronto Valley to stay a few days with another friend, so I could get a breath of fresh air and a change of scenery to take my mind off things for a bit. But I am thirty-five years old, and all these friends are much younger than I am, so their ideas of fun and mine did not exactly match. What they did to cheer me up was take me out into the city to go from bar to bar and from nightclub to nightclub. Not my thing, so it did not cheer me up. And while we were at one of those clubs, I got a message from the administration of the tenement building I rented my tiny apartment at. They were giving me three days to make arrangements for the back rent I owed them, and if I failed to comply, I was going to be evicted."
Soft murmurs rose up in the small crowd here and there, but Sasha raised her right hand with a smile.
"Bronto Valley is a two day trip away from Fossil City, so I had to make tracks. I left the club, jumped into my car and started making my way back to Fossil City. The fastest way there from Bronto Valley is the M-seventy-three that runs along the side of those mountains in the distance over there, at more than two thousand feet high. It was the middle of the night, so it was dark, I had forgotten my glasses in the nightclub, and I was in a hurry so I was going as fast as I could. At one point..." She lowered and shook her head for a moment, then looked up with another smile. "At one point the beams of a pair of headlights came from the opposite direction. When they rounded a sharp bend in the road, I saw them coming straight at me, so I hit the brakes and the horn. It was a box truck that was not paying attention. At my honking it evaded but still sideswiped me, my car hit a rock and got pushed to the left, and it went through the guardrail along the edge of the road, over the edge, and started rolling down the mountain."
There were audible gasps in the crowd, and many pairs of rather wide eyes were looking at the lanky human woman. Sasha kept the smile on her face and let the murmuring die down.
"I found myself waking up two days later in an old bed, standing in a small room lit by an oil lamp, and as I opened my eyes, I was looking at a sweet face." She looked aside and ran her fingers along Buddleia's cheek softly. "This face. This sweet woman here had seen the lights of my car go down the mountain and had run over to find me and get me out of my wrecked car, bringing me to her farm, cleaning and bandaging my wounds and nursing me back to health." There were more and louder murmurs, and nodding of a number of heads in the small crowd. Sasha smiled again. "She told me her name, where I was, that I had broken two ribs. Over the days that followed, she kept watch over me and fed me tea and porridge that I could swallow without too much pain. She let me walk around a bit, and as I did, I could not help but notice how sorry the whole small farm was looking. As I said, I grew up on a farm, so it was saddening to see what once must have been a very nice farm being in such a state of disrepair. And this woman was so sweet, so helpful, it struck me so much and a desire grew in me to return her kindness. We talked about everything, about my miserable life, about her hardships that caused her to lose her motivation to keep up with her farm, and I pledged her my help. I promised her I would help her bring her dear old farm back around and make it flourish again."
She shifted a bit on her feet and took a moment to sip from a bottle of water, drawing in a deeper breath before continuing.
"Her kindness struck me in so many more ways as well, and we grew so very close in such a few short days that it was almost unbelievable. During one of our talks, where I pledged her my help, we... at one point, I told her I had nothing to go back to in the big city. I had no life there, I no longer had an apartment as I had gotten evicted for failing to show up, I no longer had a car as it was completely wrecked from tumbling down the mountain, and the only money I had was fifty-three dollars in cash in my wallet and a couple hundred in my bank account. I had nothing anymore, but in those few days, I had found so much. So, so much..." She drew another deep, and slightly trembling breath and took another sip of water. "Do excuse me. I found that what I had been saying and the help I already had been giving to the best of my recuperating abilities had also struck this sweet woman. At one point during our talk... I begged her to let me stay with her on her farm, and she begged me to not go away to the city. I had realized that my life was always meant to be on a farm, and I realized even stronger my life was meant to be on that small farm, with this sweet woman."
Again murmurs rose up from the crowd, deeper ones uttered with smiles and nods of heads. Even some soft but not unhappy whines sounded from Sasha's phone held up by the lion Ag agent Daniel. Sasha let the murmurs die down again and sent a deep smile at the entire small crowd.
"As I grew stronger and more able to do things, we started getting things ready. I registered the farm as Butterfly Farm under both our names and opened a joint company account. We had officially become business partners, Leia had hope and believed we could turn the farm back around, because I believed we could do it. We started repairing equipment, and re-tying connections with local enterprises. And oh my gosh... seriously, the people I have met so far have only made my resolve to stay here that much stronger. You have all been so amazingly kind and helpful. Simon, Harry, your help in buying our hay, and just giving us that truck... Dan, your help with our finances, finding us some good deals because we can't afford anything yet... Fred, Frank, your help with boosting our bank account by buying the trees we had to cut down... Missus Stebbins, oh my gosh, I can't even begin to say how much you have helped us, how unbelievably kind you have been so far already." Sasha smiled deeper at the black and white Border Collie woman. "You may remember the offhand remark I made during our talk last week. It was not that offhand. After I left your store, I visited all the other ones to introduce myself, meet everyone, and I also visited this nice little church and spoke with the lovely miss Sareash Kyeeru here. I asked her about what I so offhandedly remarked during our talk, missus Stebbins. And not only is she willing, she is even going to give us her very best." She swept her gaze over the entire small crowd again. "So that is why I asked for all of you to be here today, you wonderful, wonderful people. I had not even told Leia here, to surprise her, but, yes..." She turned to look at the purple and white vixen-taur with a deep smile. "We're getting married today, in front of all of you, because I so much wanted for all of you to share in this happy moment."
There were cheers and applause from the crowd now, and a hubbub as many began to speak at once. Sasha just held on to Buddleia's paw and leaned against the vixen-taur's side a bit, smiling at all the people and letting the hubbub die down again, a silence falling as she raised a hand again.
"This was not planned. This was just an idea born out of a feeling of love and a desire to be here for ever," she smiled. "And we are still very poor, to be honest. We have started making some money, but all of that will have to be put back into the farm to bring it back to life. So there will be no big party. There will be no reception with music and cake and drinks and what have you. There will not even be any flowers, and I do not even ask for any gifts, because you have all given us so much already, and just getting to be here, to experience this wonderful little village and all its amazing people, is the biggest gift I could ever ask for. That, and to be..." She looked at Buddleia again and wrapped her arm around the vixen-taur's upper shoulders. "...with this super sweet, big soft fuzzbutt here for ever and ever. What she, and all of you, have given me, is a life I could have never hoped or dreamed I would have, so please let me give you the gift of sharing in our happiest moment." She swept a warm, smiling gaze over the small crowd again and turned to the white-furred winged jerboa woman. "Miss Kyeeru, please, bond us."
"It shall be an honour, and my utmost pleasure, miss Farr," the jerboa woman smiled warmly. She stepped up behind the lectern again and looked out over the smiling crowd. "Indeed, my beautiful brothers and sisters of Rolling Hills and Arfajia Valley, we are gathered here today at the request of our sister Sasha Farr to witness her and sister Buddleia pledge their love to one another and be bonded together. I shall now proceed to perform the ritual to do so."
Everyone looked on with some anticipation and a mild touch of surprise over what was going to happen, including Buddleia. The white jerboa woman stood up straight and raised both her arms into the air while placing her head in her neck with her eyes closed and spreading out her downy angelic wings to their full span, speaking up in a louder, but still gentle and clear voice.
"O great lady of Bubastis. She of divine feline form. Who giveth life and power. I ask thee now to harken. To my words and my heart. O mistress of the oracle. And carrier of the sacred eye. She who is known as; the Lady of the East. I call to thee now. Grace us with your presence. Grace us with your blessing." She lowered her head and opened her eyes, turning to the table standing off to the side and striking a long match that gently flickered in the breeze. "O wonderful Lady Bastet, Cat Goddess of the East, for your divine light, I now alight the angelic white." The jerboa woman lit the two white candles, lifting her head again. "O wonderful Lady Bastet, Cat Goddess of the East, for your celestial omnipresence, I now alight the heavenly blue." She lit the two sky blue candles and again raised her head. "O wonderful Lady Bastet, Cat Goddess of the East, for your power over fertility and your guidance over sweet and loving sexuality, I now alight the passionate red."
She lit the two deep red candles in the outermost arms of the candelabra. There were quiet sounds of awe in the crowd, but apart from that a respectful silence hung in the air. Sasha gently squeezed Buddleia's paw with her hand and smiled. She found it very mildly amusing that a woman of rodent species would pray to a feline deity, but to each their own, and it was a very beautiful and touching ritual.
As the candles gently flickered in the light breeze, the white jerboa woman turned to Sasha and Buddleia, stepping in front of them with a smile.
"Sister Sasha, look into my eyes." Sasha did so, and the jerboa woman smiled again, lifting her head and speaking to the crowd. "Through my sense of sight, I have seen before me sister Sasha Farr, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." She turned to Buddleia. "Sister Buddleia, look into my eyes." The vixen-taur did so while breathing quiet happy whines, and again the jerboa woman smiled and spoke to the crowd. "Through my sense of sight, I have seen before me sister Buddleia, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels."
A moment was taken to let more soft murmurs die down, then the jerboa woman stepped close to Sasha again, touched noses and breathed in deeply.
"Through my sense of smell, I have seen before me sister Sasha Farr, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." She turned to Buddleia, touched noses and breathed in deeply. "Through my sense of smell, I have seen before me sister Buddleia, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." She turned back to Sasha again, leaning in to lay one of her amazingly large ears against the human woman's chest while perking her other amazingly long ear straight up. "Please say your name."
"Sasha Farr," Sasha smiled.
The jerboa woman lifted her head back up and smiled.
"Through my sense of hearing, I have seen before me sister Sasha Farr, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." She turned to Buddleia, laying one of her large ears against the vixen-taur's chest while perking her other large ear straight up. "Please say your name."
"Buh... Buddleia," the vixen-taur murmured with a trembling whine.
Again the jerboa woman lifted her head and smiled.
"Through my sense of hearing, I have seen before me sister Buddleia, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." Once more turning back to Sasha, she lay her small paws on the human woman's cheeks and splayed her fingers, slowly running them down Sasha's cheeks and along the sides of her neck. "Through my sense of feeling, I have seen before me sister Sasha Farr, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." She lay her small paws on Buddleia's cheeks as well with her fingers splayed and running them slowly down the vixen-taur's cheeks and the sides of her neck. "Through my sense of feeling, I have seen before me sister Buddleia, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels."
Taking a step back for a moment, the winged jerboa woman smiled and gave the two women a moment to take a deep breath. Then her smile deepened.
"This might seem a bit unusual, but I assure you it is innocent." She stepped back forward and leaned in a bit. "Please touch your lips to mine." Without any hesitation, Sasha did so, and the jerboa woman held the position for a heartbeat before lifting her head. "Through my sense of taste, I have seen before me sister Sasha Farr, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels." She smiled at Buddleia and leaned in slightly. "Please touch your lips to mine." Buddleia also did it without a moment's hesitation, and after a heartbeat of holding the position the jerboa woman lifted her head again. "Through my sense of taste, I have seen before me sister Buddleia, and I acknowledge her closeness and the love she feels."
Once more the winged jerboa woman took a step back and gave both women as well as everyone else a moment or two to catch their breath, as well as to let a few soft murmurs die down. As silence again descended, she placed her head in her neck, raised both her arms to the sky and spread her downy white wings out to their full span in a quite magnificent display as she spoke to the crowd in a louder but gentle and warm voice.
"Through all five senses of my body and my life, I have seen before me sister Sasha Farr and sister Buddleia. Through all five senses of my body and my life, I have seen the love they feel for one another and the desire in their hearts to share their life and their souls with one another. O Lady Bastet, Cat Goddess of the East, gaze down upon them and see that it is so and see that it is good and see that it is pure."
Leaning over, she took a box from under the lectern and put it by the table, taking out a copper bowl and several small flasks, as well as two red roses. She gave Sasha and Buddleia each a red rose to hold and turned to the table, emptying the small flasks into the copper bowl, mixing their contents with her left index finger and turning to Sasha and Buddleia to draw a symbol on their foreheads with her left index finger after dipping it into the mixture. Setting the bowl back down, the winged jerboa woman took a pawful of red rose petals from the box in each paw and sprinkled them over Sasha's and Buddleia's heads at the same time.
With a deeper smile, she took Sasha's free hand and placed it on Buddleia's chest, and placed Buddleia's free paw on Sasha's chest. Laying her own left paw on Sasha's shoulder and her own right paw on Buddleia's shoulder, she once more placed her head in her neck and spread her downy wings to their full span, speaking up.
"O Lady Bastet, Cat Goddess of the East, connected by love stand before you sister Sasha Farr and sister Buddleia. Gaze upon them and see their love, gaze upon them and see their desire to share their love, their life and their souls with one another, and give them your blessing to become bonded for the rest of their mortal lives and the infinity thereafter."
A sudden breeze blew out all six candles in the silver candelabra, eliciting quiet gasps and murmurs from the small crowd. Opening her eyes and lowering her head, the winged jerboa woman looked at Sasha and Buddleia with a warm smile.
"It be so. With the power bestowed upon me, and with the blessing of Lady Bastet, it is my humble honour to pronounce you bonded in matrimony." She took her paws off both women's shoulders, placed them against each other in front of her chest and bowed down her head. "You may kiss."
A mix of cheers, sobs and applause rose from the crowd as Sasha and Buddleia turned to each other, leaned in and pressed their lips together in a loving kiss which they held for several long, happy moments. Eventually breaking apart, Sasha gently ran her fingers over Buddleia's cheeks to brush away a few tears and folded her arm around the vixen-taur's shoulder while turning to face the small crowd with a smile, speaking merely two words in a soft and slightly trembling voice, but clear enough to be heard.
"Thank you."
It were two simple, but deeply heartfelt words. More light cheers and soft applause rose from the crowd while Sasha and Buddleia stood before them and smiled at them, with an arm around each other's shoulders and leaning against each other's side. When eventually the hubbub died back down, Sasha lifted her head with a deeper smile.
"It saddens me to say that we can not be with you today for a longer time. But it is unfortunately a drive of four hours long back to our farm, so it will be quite late at night by the time we arrive back there," she smiled. "And tomorrow will be no honeymoon, it will be a continuation of the work we have already been doing so far to bring Butterfly Farm back from its near-death and we will need to be rested. I can however promise all of you that neither of us will be going anywhere, ever, and we shall return to this lovely village very soon as well to speak with you about this beautiful day. But for now, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so very, very much for being who you are, and for being here to witness this."
"It has been a most magnificent honour, and I think I can speak for everyone here when I say it has been the sweetest and most beautiful thing I have ever seen," the lion Ag agent Daniel said with a warm smile, handing Sasha back her phone. "Allow me to be the first to offer you my deepest congratulations, missus Farr." He smiled at Buddleia as well. "And also to you, missus Farr."
"Yes..." Buddleia nodded with a trembling, happy whine, squeezing her eyes at a few more tears escaping. "I missus Farr... Thank you, Dan."
Sasha gave a nod and a warm smile as well, but had to look down at her phone because of the trembling whimpers coming from the chocolate-colored Labrador girl crying on the screen.
"Sash... huuu... that was... huuhuuu... s-so beautiful... huuu..."
"I didn't quite know what to expect honestly, but yes, it very much was, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled softly.
"Huuhuuu... I'm... I-I'm... huuu... I'm s-so happy f-for you, Sash... huuu..."
"Thank you so much, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled softly again. "Take a sip of water, okay? And please forgive me for having to go now, but we have a crowd to get through here and four hours to drive back home."
"Huuu... y-yes, of course... huu... it's... i-it's cool, Sash... huuu... y-you gotta get h-home... huuu... I'll... I'll t-talk to you l-later... huuu..."
"Hear you later, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled softly, her smile deepening at Buddleia leaning over towards her phone a bit as well.
"You so sweet, Millie, please not cry..."
"Huuhuuu... I-I'll try... huuu... p-please be so so happy f-for ever... huuu..."
"I be, yes..." Buddleia nodded with a soft happy whine, and Sasha smiled at her phone again.
"We'll talk soon, choco-snoot."
"H-h... huuu... hear you then, Sash..."
The contact was cut, and Sasha slipped her phone into the pocket of her skirt, drawing in a deep breath for a moment and closing her eyes, but still smiling. Everyone in the small crowd had kept a respectful distance, and continued to do so as the human woman turned to the winged white-furred jerboa woman and hugged her gently.
"Thank you so much, miss Kyeeru."
"It has been my utmost pleasure and honour, missus Farr," the jerboa woman smiled warmly.
Buddleia also hugged the jerboa woman and gave a light lick over her cheek.
"Thank you much..."
"It warms my heart to see such true and deep love, missus Farr," the jerboa woman smiled at Buddleia. She lay a paw on the vixen-taur's shoulder and her other paw on Sasha's shoulder, smiling deeper. "Lady Bastet be with you, my sisters. Walk in love and light and blessing for ever."
As the winged jerboa woman turned and took the candelabra, Sasha and Buddleia also turned and stepped towards the crowd smiling at the two of them. They hugged each and everyone in turns, silently, just sharing a smile and a couple of tears here and there.
Finally, they walked over to the old Chevrolet sitting behind the church. As Buddleia got behind the wheel, Sasha ushered her to move further into the back of the car.
"I'll drive us back, my sweet soft fuzzbutt."
Buddleia crawled further into the car and set the crate behind the wheel so Sasha could sit down. All the way back to their small farm, the purple and white vixen-taur held her arms wrapped around Sasha's lanky body from behind and lay her head against the human woman's shoulders with her eyes closed and breathing in deep, trembling whines of happiness.
Back at the farm eventually, the went into the small farmhouse to take off the few clothes they were wearing, have a sandwich with plum jam, and cuddle up as close as they could against each other in the nest of pillows and cushions, holding each other close throughout a night of emotional, but sweet and blissful sleep.
They were truly bonded.
