The decision had been made. No more sleeping outside in the grass under the stars.
It was just an unofficial decision. There were more important decisions to make to have Butterfly Farm keep on making progress. Such as; the grass in the front-side left field was ready for mowing. Mow it now and turn it into hay, or wait for the bale wrapper to arrive? The human woman Sasha decided to mow the grass and turn it into hay. It would still be a few days before the Ag Co-op worker Jack would be back with the bale wrapper that had to be picked up all the way in Fennfield, and the Ag agent Daniel had mentioned that he had sent Jack to Fennfield via the Arfajia Woods B-road; as Jack took such joy in being on the road, Daniel had sent him one of the longer ways around, so it would take longer for him to get back as well. And the income from seventy-seven hay bales, even if it was not as much as it could be, was still badly needed to keep Butterfly Farm's cash flow up.
The mowing work actually went at the incredibly rapid pace of a bit over five miles per hour. The young chocolate-brown Labrador girl Millie who was still visiting had done some tuning to the old Hanomag tractors and the old Fiat tractor, replacing worn parts in the engines with cleaned-up and polished parts they had found in one of the boxes that had come from the old workshop, and fiddling with the carburetors a bit with tricks she had learned from her uncle. It resulted in the power of all three old tractors having increased a bit, with much less of a drain when the PTO was engaged, so the work could be done a bit quicker and more efficiently. The light brown canine girl had also happily helped the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia setting up some of the scaffolding they had been gifted by the Co-op and painting the large shed in the muted lavender color - although she had been so cheerfully energetic she had ended up wearing quite an amount of the paint. Combining that with the size of the shed, Sasha had to mix two more cans each of the pink and light blue paint they had been gifted together to create enough of the muted lavender paint.
There was another decision that had to be made. The Ag agent Daniel had informed them the back-order on the second-hand pumps for the 1959 Skoda grain truck had been extended by two more weeks. They had already asked the Steppe wolf man Jonathan, the mechanic who ran the garage and fuel station in the small village of Rolling Hills, to see if he could possibly get the needed lift pump and injection pump second-hand somewhere; so far, he had had no luck either. So they had to decide; wait for the pumps to become available, or just order new ones? The price of new pumps was more than double as what the second-hand ones were listed for, but they could afford it by now with the money they had earned from selling hay and wood, as well as a large number of the jars of plum jam Buddleia had made and which were sold for them by Mrs. Stebbins in her general store. More than double the money was still significant however; they decided to wait. They now had the old MAZ truck to transport logs and bales and possibly pull the bale trailer, so it was no longer a pressing necessity to have the Skoda truck running.
One of the most important decisions was; would they continue with mowing the grass in all the fields belonging to Butterfly Farm, or would they make a start with turning one or more of them back into crop fields? Buddleia was used to growing oats and canola; summer crops planted in spring. The vulpine taur also was interested in growing a small field of sunflowers again, like her grandparents used to do, but those also were planted in late spring, as were most of the cereal crops her grandparents used to grow. But the summer was nearing its end, and while even in the north of Minnaluna, even as close to the mountain ranges that saw snow in winter such as the Sawtooth Mountain Range and the Dino Mountain Range, the weather still tended to stay at late spring to early summer temperatures through autumn and winter, traditional growing seasons were still adhered to by almost every farmer in the country. And some of the bags on the overstacked pallet of old crop seed they had been gifted by the Ag Co-op contained seeds for winter rye and winter barley. They could potentially get a crop into the ground and make that much more progress on bringing Butterfly Farm back around.
They decided to wait a week. The grass in the smaller fields at the back, behind the copse of trees behind the small farmhouse where Buddleia used to grow oats, and behind the low hill with the small forest on it behind the old silo, where the vixen-taur's grandparents used to grow sunflowers, would have grown back fully by that time and ready to be mowed again for another harvest of hay, or possibly silage. The money earned from that would be used to order replacement belts and chains for the combine harvesters, so they could get at least the Deutz Fahr cereal harvester up and running in the time the new crops would be growing and have it ready to go by the time the new crops were ready to be harvested. Sasha had also noticed, upon closer inspection, that the large light green combine in the rickety old open shed was not a Starliner with the cab removed to allow access for taur folk, but it was in fact a 1979 Deutz Fahr M 922 - a predecessor of the Starliner model Sasha remembered her grandparents using on the farm she had grown up on.
Millie's youthful energy had been a flurry of fresh air around the old little farm. In the days Sasha trundled her intersecting laps over the front-side left field to mow, ted and rake the grass and bale the hay it had dried into, the chocolate Labrador girl had not only helped Buddleia paint the large shed, but also sand and paint the old rusty silo, and even repair the auger in the old silo. She had even shown to have a bit of artistic talent by using some of the different colors of the still usable old tractor paint they had found in the old workshop and paint the name and logo for Butterfly Farm Sasha had designed on her laptop onto the old silo, above the large sliding doors of the new shed and on the doors of the 1953 MAZ-200 truck, along with additional smaller butterflies because it was just so much fun. Sasha had even taken a day between raking and baling to sand and paint the cab of the 1959 Skoda grain truck in the muted lavender color, so once that was dry, Millie could paint the name and logo onto the doors of that truck as well.
The light brown Labrador girl was clearly in her element. Sasha had taught her how to milk Choco the goat, which she took to very rapidly and happily. The day after painting the Skoda truck, she helped loading the hay bales onto the back of the old MAZ truck, speeding up the process by a significant amount. Where usually, Buddleia would push a row of bales up against each other so Sasha could park the truck near them and stack the bales as Buddleia pitched them onto the back of the truck, with Millie's help Sasha could just put the truck in gear and let it idle along the rows of bales while Millie stood on the back of the truck and stacked the bales as Buddleia walked alongside the truck and heaved each bale onto the bed. It made the whole process go that much smoother, and saved them enough time to make the four-hour drive over to the livestock dealer and arrive a good bit before lunchtime.
Their arrival was met with more loud and cheerful laughs as the large hare man Simon and the heavy-built fox man Harry saw the logo and all the additional cheery butterflies painted all over the old truck, and a similar reaction came when they pulled into the yard of the Ag Co-op to pick up the second-hand bale wrapper as during the days they had been painting and making hay, the mechanic Jack had returned from Fennfield. The lion Ag agent Daniel's reaction was even extra funny, as he pulled a $20 bill from his wallet and pushed it in Sasha's hand once he had managed to stop laughing.
"Fair's fair, Sasha! I said I'd damn well pay you to see butterflies painted all over that truck, so here you go!" he chuckled.
"I thought that was just a joke, but thanks, Dan," Sasha chortled, waving the banknote at Buddleia and Millie who were loading the bale wrapper and a large box full of rolls of purple plastic wrap onto the flat bed of the old truck. "Hey girls, Dan is buying us lunch in town today!"
"Yay!" Buddleia chirped a cheery giggle. "We have pancakes at diner! Missus Marm's pancakes are so yum!"
"Haha! In that case, have a cup of tea on me as well!" Daniel chuckled, pushing an additional $10 bill into Sasha's hand.
"You're too generous, but we certainly appreciate it a lot, Dan," Sasha smiled with another chortle, stuffing the banknotes in a pocket of her denim shorts. "Say, did Jack bring back that apple pie, or did he only bring back crumbs after that long drive?"
"He did actually bring back a whole pie!" Daniel nodded with a chuckle. "And some crumbs as well, so he must've gotten himself something at that bakery you mentioned too. But good golly Sasha, that pie was delicious! It had such a fresh note to it that I never tasted in an apple pie before, and believe me, I have tasted a lot of them!"
"I believe Pastry Passion's secret is that they use a special mixture of two kinds of apples, Elstars and Granny Smiths. Apparently it's the fresh and sour Granny Smith apples that give it that distinctive fresh note," Sasha nodded with a smile. "But don't quote me on that, it might very well be just a rumour they put out to protect their recipe, heh."
"Well, whatever they did, they sure know how to bake a good pie!" Daniel smiled. "And of course, that was not all Jack brought back with him; I have two boxes for you sitting in the office, so come on in and I'll get them for you."
"Of course, my granny's belly jars!" Sasha smiled.
She followed the lion man into the large building and around the counter through the door behind it to step into the office. Near one of the desks two boxes were sitting, with a car cover and an old duvet draped over them. Sasha chortled softly as Daniel took those off and folded them.
"Is that Jack's bedcover? Did he take that with him to sleep in his car on that long journey?"
"Haha, no, he picked this up at a thrift store before stopping by the Stokes farm," Daniel chuckled. "The car cover happened to still be in the car, but he wanted to take absolutely no risks with these boxes so he got some extra protection for them." The lion man chuckled again and grinned a toothy grin. "Possibly because I had told him that if the jars were damaged by the time he got back here, I'd make him eat the shards."
"You're a harsh boss, Dan," Sasha chortled. "But if that's not anyone's bedcover, then I'd like to use it to wrap around the boxes as well for our long drive back to the farm over that terribly bumpy road."
"Of course, no problem, it's better to be extra safe than sorry after all," Daniel nodded with a smile, laying the folded duvet on a chair.
"Right. Now, let's have a look and see if it has helped or if missus Stokes packed the jars so well he needn't have worried at all in the first place," Sasha chortled again.
Using a pair of scissors from one of the desks, the human woman slit the tape holding the top of one of the boxes closed. Folding open the flaps, she chortled softly as it appeared the box was filled with nothing but excelsior wood wool, but pushing the fine curly shavings aside a bit did reveal a gold-colored metal lid with a faded picture of a fruit basket on it. Screwing off the lid showed that even the giant jar it was covering was completely filled with the fine wood wool.
"Leave it to an older farmer lady to know how to transport old glass preserve jars," Sasha smiled, screwing the lid back onto the jar. "I don't think the duvet was needed after all, but I sure do appreciate the extra care. And this will also make excellent kindling for our stove, we're starting to run out of old newspapers," she added with a chortle.
"Yes, that is amazingly well-packed," Daniel agreed with a smile.
He carried one of the boxes out of the building while Sasha carried the other box, setting them in the cab of the old MAZ truck. Daniel also went back inside to grab the old duvet for Sasha, which they lay over the boxes for the time being. When Buddleia and Millie were done strapping the old little bale wrapper and the box with rolls of wrap to the bed of the old truck, they said their goodbyes as well as another few thank-yous and climbed into the cab of the old truck. Sasha set the boxes on the driver's seat for a moment as Buddleia got her quadruped lower body settled in the passenger footwell and Millie had sat down on the back of the vixen-taur's lower body, then she set the boxes on the platform the passenger seat had been attached to and wrapped them in the old duvet, after which Buddleia folded her feral forepaws around them to keep them extra safe.
Using the shortcut running through the forest near the livestock dealer's yard, Sasha drove the truck over to the tiny community village and parked it out of the way on the open square of packed dirt where the farmer's market was set up on Saturdays. In the diner of Mr. and Mrs. Marm, a Manchester Terrier couple of which the woman had folded-over button ears and the man had pricked-up erect ears but who otherwise looked stunningly similar in appearance as they both had sleek black and tan fur and short black hair, a very tasty lunch of pancakes was enjoyed, along with a cup of black tea with which they cheerfully toasted to Daniel's health and generosity.
After lunch, they sat on one of the benches along the edges of the small square to enjoy the sun, while Sasha smoked a cigarette. Or at least; Sasha was sitting on one of the benches, Buddleia was laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body next to the bench Sasha was sitting on, and Millie was happily and excitedly bustling about and crooning over how adorable and quaint everything looked as she had not been in the tiny village before. Pinching out the butt of her cigarette when she had finished it and sticking it in a pocket of her denim shorts, Sasha chortled softly as she rose up from the bench and brushed her fingers along the side of Buddleia's slender muzzle.
"Why don't you go and show this excited puppy here around a bit, fuzzbutt? You can see if we have any mail and collect any jam money from missus Stebbins and get some groceries and all while you're at it," she smiled.
"Is good idea, Sasha, yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "You not coming too?"
Sasha pointed across the small square at the little church.
"I see there's a doctor's office next to the church, so I'm going to drop in there for a moment and see if they can do something about an X-ray," she smiled. "My ribs should have fully healed by now, but I want to make absolutely sure so hopefully they can help me out."
"Oh yes, is good idea too!" Buddleia nodded with a chortle, rising to her four feral feet and giving herself a brief shake. "Come Millie, we go to post office and missus Stebbins store, and I show you other stores afterwards, yes?"
"Okay! That sounds like fun! I love this place, it all looks so cute!" Millie nodded happily. She gave Sasha a careful hug. "Good luck, Sash! I hope your ribs are all good again!"
"Thanks, choco-snoot," Sasha chortled, playfully taking Millie's old cowboy hat off her head, ruffling the Labrador girl's hair, which was put into two narrow braids again, and putting the hat back on Millie's head. "You have fun with Leia, and try to be a bit calm and not give the poor people of this village a heart attack, okay?"
"Hee hee! I'll be good, mom, promise!" Millie giggled cheerfully, giving Sasha another hug before taking one of Buddleia's paws.
Sasha gave her head an amused shake as they walked off the small square towards the left. At the narrow dirt road outlining the small village on that side, the vixen-taur and the Labrador girl turned left to walk to the post office, and Sasha crossed the narrow road and walked over to a small, white-painted brick building sitting next to the small church. The door was open, and inside the human woman found a small counter that was unmanned, but there was a brass bell sitting on a laminated card that said "please ring" in very neat handwriting.
Dinging the bell with a smile, Sasha leaned against the counter to wait, but turned when she heard a door opening on the opposite side of the hallway. She tilted her head for a moment when the woman stepping through the door turned out to be the white-furred jerboa preacher with the downy white wings on her back.
"Oh, good afternoon, miss Kyeeru," she smiled. "Are you the doctor as well as the preacher?"
"Indeed, missus Farr," the jerboa woman smiled with her very pleasant soft voice. "I am in fact medically qualified, and as the only other medical person here is mister Wessel the veterinarian, I was glad to take the role of village doctor upon me as well." She let go a light chortle. "After all, that is much more pleasant for the people of this village, not having to go to a veterinarian when they have a medical need themselves. And what can I do for you?"
"You have quite a good point there," Sasha nodded with a chortle. She patted the flowery wrap around her chest under her rolled-up t-shirt. "It has been two and a half months at least since I had the accident, so I'm pretty sure my ribs must be healed by now, but I wanted to have them looked at to make sure. Do you actually have any X-ray equipment here?"
"Unfortunately, such equipment is well out of the league of a small doctor's office in a very small community village," the winged jerboa woman smiled. "However I can have a look at you if you wish, and print you a reference for the nearest hospital to have an X-ray or a CT-scan done for absolute certainty."
"That will be great, miss Kyeeru, thank you," Sasha nodded with a smile.
"Then please follow me, missus Farr," Ms. Kyeeru smiled, motioning with a paw. She led the way into a small, bright examination room and pointed at a chair. "Please remove your shirt, and your bra if you are wearing one, and have a seat."
Sasha nodded with a smile, taking off her glasses and laying them on a small table standing near the chair Ms. Kyeeru had pointed at, unrolling her t-shirt and taking it off, draping it over the back of the chair and sitting down on the chair while putting her glasses back on. The winged jerboa woman had taken a stethoscope from a cabinet and hung it around her neck, checking a computer sitting on a desk for a moment.
"I see you have no file yet, missus Farr, so I will have to make one for you," she smiled, looking up from the computer screen. "Ah, and could you perhaps also remove the wrap around your chest, please?"
"I'm sorry, but no," Sasha chortled softly. "Leia puts the wrap on me after bathing, and she has it fastened in some manner on my back which I cannot reach myself, so I will require a bit of help."
"Of course," Ms. Kyeeru nodded with a smile. "I shall lend you a hand, the making of your file can wait until we are done." She stepped over to the chair, while Sasha shifted on the seat to turn sideways a bit and gathered her long ginger hair over her left shoulder. Finding where the flowery wrap was fastened with a few safety pins right in the middle of Sasha's back, the winged jerboa woman undid the pins and began gently removing the broad fabric ribbon. "This has been very well applied, missus Farr," she smiled. "It may not be an official medical brace of any kind, but your wife certainly seems to know what she is doing."
"She does at that," Sasha smiled, giving a light nod with her head leaned forwards a bit and holding her long hair to the side. "From the moment I first woke up after my accident, I felt how supportive this wrap has been, and she has been taking it off and putting it back on twice a day after our morning and evening bath. I suppose being as far away from everything as one would be around here, that makes people find quite ingenious solutions for just about everything."
"I have found that the people of these remote communities do tend to have an amazing amount of household knowledge and tricks," Ms. Kyeeru nodded with a smile. "Some even work just as well and in some cases even better than what any doctor or hospital can do. And truth be told, a padded rib brace works no better than a bedsheet," she added with a light chortle, folding up the flowery wrap once it was fully removed and laying it on the small table. "You can sit up, missus Farr, but please do keep facing that direction for a moment or two."
Sasha straightened up and draped her long ginger hair over the front of her left shoulder, smiling softly as she felt the winged jerboa woman touching along her back with her fingertips. The touches varied in pressure and slowly moved in both directions to her sides, then stopping as Ms. Kyeeru faced the human woman and smiled.
"Please face forward now and keep your back straight, missus Farr, and tell me if any of my touches cause discomfort."
Sasha nodded with a smile and shifted on the seat of the chair again, draping her long hair back over the back of her shoulder and straightening her back. The winged jerboa woman started gently pressing her fingers against the human woman's freckled skin again. Moving from the middle of Sasha's chest to her sides, Ms. Kyeeru eventually used her entire small paws to press gently against Sasha's sides, her amazingly large ears perked straight up and swiveled forwards to monitor the human woman's reactions as she kept her eyes on her own paws. One eyebrow lifted ever so slightly, and the winged jerboa woman lay both her paws against Sasha's right side, running up and down a time or two, then very carefully squeezing a very little bit at about the tall human's midriff.
"These were them, number five and number six," she smiled in a soft voice. "Is it tender here, missus Farr?"
"Would you believe I forgot to concentrate on that?" Sasha chortled softly. "It was more ticklish, that kind of drew my attention. Could you give slightly firmer pressure?"
The winged jerboa woman let go a soft chortle as well.
"That is a good sign actually, missus Farr. But yes, do please concentrate and tell me if any of this feels tender or otherwise uncomfortable."
Sasha nodded with a smile and closed her eyes, feeling Ms. Kyeeru gradually applying more pressure with both small paws to her right side.
"It's not hurting, but when you get right over them, it is a touch tender, I would say," she smiled.
"That is normal," Ms. Kyeeru nodded with a smile. "Let me check your breathing for a moment."
She put the buds of the stethoscope in her incredibly large ears, causing Sasha to chortle softly for a moment.
"Do you even need that thing, with those amazing ears?"
The winged jerboa woman smiled warmly.
"I can hear a whole lot with them, missus Farr, but not everything. I don't need a stethoscope to check someone's heartbeat, but I do need it for smaller things like heart murmurs for instance. And in this case, my aim is to check for any creaking sounds in your rib bones and cartilage when you breathe. So if you could please take a deep breath?" She placed the end of the stethoscope against the right side of Sasha's chest, slowly moving it around over the right-side area of the human woman's chest, midriff and side. "Another one... and another one... and another one... very good, now please take as deep and long a breath as you can, missus Farr."
Sasha pulled in a long and very deep breath and held it for a moment or two, then slowly let it go again at Ms. Kyeeru's instruction. The jerboa woman smiled as she stood up straight and took the buds of the stethoscope out of her ears again.
"Not a creak or murmur that I could hear, very good, I am most content. Now I will in fact utilize the power of merely my ears, so please remain upright for a few moments more, missus Farr."
She knelt down in front of the chair and lay one of her small paws on Sasha's right side, then placed one of her amazingly long ears flat against the right side of Sasha's chest as she lightly tapped on her paw with the fingertips of her other paw.
"Oh gosh," Sasha smiled with a very soft chortle, causing the winged jerboa woman to look up.
"Is something not right, missus Farr?"
Sasha let go another light chortle.
"Everything is fine, but you did give me a strange temptation for a moment there."
Ms. Kyeeru's lips curled into a deeper smile.
"Dare I ask what this temptation was, missus Farr?"
"Well... your ear felt so soft and warm against my chest and it looked so soft right in front of my face, I wanted to pet it and nuzzle it," Sasha smiled with a louder chortle.
The winged jerboa woman let go a light chortle as well.
"That is also normal, I found they do tend to have that effect on people." A slightly louder chortle mixed with the smile she sent Sasha. "You are a mature and adult woman, missus Farr, but do allow me to tell you what I tell the children who visit this clinic; if you can let me do my work without touches to my ear, I will let you pet it when I'm done."
Sasha laughed softly.
"Heck, that's better than a lollipop, so I'll take it!"
"Very well, then please sit up again, and if so needed, sit on your hands," Ms. Kyeeru chortled softly.
Sasha laughed shortly again and sat up straight, looking at the winged jerboa woman laying the incredibly large ear against the right side of her chest again. Also placing her small left paw back against Sasha's right side, Ms. Kyeeru lightly tapped her paw with the fingertips of her right paw, slightly moving her left paw now and then and giving more taps. After a few moments, she took her ear off Sasha's chest and rose back to her feet, sending the tall human woman another smile.
"Your ribs certainly sound fully healed, missus Farr," she smiled. "Good solid sounds, no indication of the bones having misaligned or retained splinters during the healing process." With a light giggle, she leaned her head forwards and down to flop her incredibly large and long ears in Sasha's direction. "You may pet them now."
Letting go a cheerful laugh, Sasha let one of the long ears rest over her left hand and very softly and gently ran the fingers of her right hand over the downy-furred outside of it.
"Wow, they're even softer than I imagined," she smiled. For just a brief moment, she took the very tip of the long ear between her thumb and index finger and rubbed very lightly before letting go. "You must be the envy of many long-eared folk, and good golly do I envy the special someone in your life who gets to cuddle and touch these lovely ears regularly."
"Ooo, ehh," the winged jerboa woman smiled, lifting her head as well as her incredibly long ears again and for a moment closing her eyes before looking back at Sasha with a smile. "That was a quite sensitive pressure point you touched that made me shiver, missus Farr, and I can tell you not many women can manage to make me shiver so easily, or at least not in a pleasant manner like that." She brushed a few locks of her snow-white hair from her face and smiled again. "There have been many people who told me they wished they had ears like mine however, so in that regard you are quite correct."
"I do apologize for my moment of impertinence," Sasha smiled. "I just could not help myself, your ears are just wonderful." She leaned back in the chair and chortled softly. "Leia's ears are super soft and plushy as well, and Millie's ears are absolutely adorable and very soft too, but damn, I think I would develop an ear fetish if I had a lover with ears like yours."
"There is nothing wrong with that, so long as you don't bite," Ms. Kyeeru chortled lightly, sitting down behind the desk and adjusting the computer screen. "Now then, let me create a file for you, missus Farr, and register you as a patient of this clinic. Can you please give me your personal details and the details of the insurance company you have a health insurance with?"
"I can even do that very easily," Sasha smiled, taking her wallet from a pocket of her denim shorts, taking out her ID card and another card and laying them on the desk. "There you go, that is my ID and my insurance card, all the information you need should be on those."
Ms. Kyeeru nodded with a smile.
"Thank you."
For several moments and a couple of whiles, the winged jerboa woman alternated her look between the computer screen and the two cards while rapidly typing on the keyboard. Glancing up as she entered the last details, she smiled at Sasha just looking at her.
"I shall not reapply the wrap as I do believe your wife will do it better than I could, so you may put your shirt back on, missus Farr."
"Oh right, I should probably do that, we're not at home yet after all," Sasha nodded with a soft chortle.
"Do you not wear any clothes when you're at home, missus Farr?" Ms. Kyeeru smiled, checking the back of the insurance card. "Not even while doing your farming work?"
"Only my glasses, a sun hat and that wrap," Sasha smiled, pulling her t-shirt over her head and smoothing it down her chest before rolling it back up to just below her small breasts. "And once that wrap will not be needed anymore, just my glasses and a sun hat."
"I see," the winged jerboa woman nodded with a smile. "That is very good, it has likely been a contributing factor in your ribs healing so nicely, having the support of the wrap but not any pressure from overlaying clothing. I do advice you to take care when you do work that has bits of debris or sparks flying, however. Without the protection of fur, your skin is quite vulnerable to damage or getting small objects lodged in it."
"I'll be careful, but there is not much of that work around the farm to be honest," Sasha smiled, putting her glasses back on. "Only cutting down a tree now and then, and I'll leave the welding to Leia, she's much better at that than I am anyway."
"Very good," Ms. Kyeeru nodded again, turning back to the computer and doing some clicking and some more typing. "You can take your cards back, missus Farr. Now, the closest place where they have the proper equipment available is the Nightingale Medical Centre in Arfafield; I shall print you a reference for a CT-scan there, as that is more precise than an X-ray. You do not need to make an appointment, but it is advisable to call ahead and let them know you aim to visit."
"Do you have an address?" Sasha smiled, putting her cards back in her wallet and putting that back in her pocket, meanwhile pulling her phone from her other pocket and typing the address Ms. Kyeeru gave her into a GPS app. "Hmmm... that's over sixteen hours away. I'll have to call them two days in advance then, that's good to know."
"Yes, unfortunately there are no clinics closer by where they have such equipment," Ms. Kyeeru smiled, turning to a printer which had printed out a paper and handing the paper to Sasha. "Here is your reference, missus Farr. Do you aim to make the visit soon?"
Sasha thought for a moment or two.
"Hmmm... not until next week. I'm gonna have to order a phone for Leia and wait for it to get here, so she can stay in touch with me if I'm gonna be gone for... at least four days, it looks like. So I'll only go once she has a phone to call me with."
"Very well, there is no rush," the winged jerboa woman smiled. "I would tell you to be careful with any sudden moves and such, but I do believe you have been practicing such care over the past couple of months diligently already, so just keep it up for a few weeks more and you should be fine. Do you have any further questions?"
"I actually do, a very important one," Sasha nodded with a smile. "How safe are my ribs at this moment for any strenuous activities?"
"As I said, you only need to take care with any sudden sharp moves," Ms. Kyeeru smiled. "I do believe you will be safe for the work on your farm. As I understand, you currently make hay, and that work is perfectly fine to do, I would only advice against trying to lift any bales by yourself."
"Yeah... not quite what I was getting at," Sasha smiled with a light chortle. "I was trying to stay polite, as you're also a preacher, but come to think of it, with you being a follower of Bastet, I think you would understand this more than anyone. What I meant, miss Kyeeru, is; how safe are my ribs at this moment for sex? Not giving, I'm already giving a lot, but receiving, and in particular the arching, the shocking, the straining and the screaming during orgasm. Poor Leia is dying to explore me sexually, and to be fair, I'm about dying for that too by this point."
"Ah, yes," the winged jerboa woman nodded with a smile. "You are correct, as a follower of Bastet, I am more of a priestess than a preacher, but we do indeed preach the beauty, pleasure and healthiness of sexual activities. And you should be safe to be brought to climax, missus Farr, but again, I do advice to take care. Start out slow, let your wife build your arousal, and if at any point on the way to climax you feel any pain or discomfort from your ribs, I would advice to not go past that point. In that case, switch to tantric sex, and just build it up from there, daily, preferably more times per day if possible, and taking it to further and further points when you feel you can handle it without discomfort until eventually you will reach the point of climax. And even then, keep taking it slow and do not go past one climax the first time, but build that up slowly as well. Your ribs are safe for the physical strain, I do not believe the physical effects of reaching climax would damage them, but you must take care with the discomfort." She smiled a bit deeper. "Of course, discomfort is a rather broad term, so I will try to be a bit more specific. What you mentioned as feeling tender when I examined you is fine. Only pause and possibly stop when you feel what you would describe as sharp stings or stabs, or any unusual pressure to your side or your chest."
"That is very useful information, and kind of what I dearly hoped I would hear," Sasha smiled with a chortle. "You have just made my wife one heck of a happy fuzzbutt, miss Kyeeru, and me a very happy noodle as well." She picked up the flowery wrap and the safety pins from the small table and smiled again. "Would you also prefer if I refer to you as priestess?"
"I do think it fits me more, so doing so will gain you my appreciation, missus Farr," Ms. Kyeeru nodded, chortling softly as it made her ears bob and brush Sasha's face. "Oh, do excuse me."
"Yeahhh, you'd better not wave those in my face, or I won't be able to control myself and snuggle and pet and nuzzle and lick the heck out of them," Sasha smiled with a light snigger.
The winged jerboa woman let go a light laugh.
"Was that perhaps an attempt to come on to me, missus Farr?"
Sasha grinned.
"If you were not a preacher or priestess and this was not a doctor's office and I was not married; hell yes. But since I am married, this is a doctor's office and you are a priestess; no, not in the slightest."
Ms. Kyeeru laughed softly again.
"That is the best answer to that question I have ever heard. Very good, missus Farr, well played as they say." She walked Sasha out of the examination room and held the door for her, smiling a warm and friendly smile. "I will tell you that being a priestess does not mean I do not enjoy being seduced; as a matter of fact, being a priestess of the following of Bastet, I welcome it. So you do not need to worry about having offended me or anything, and you need not worry about having possibly offended your wife either. I have been a priestess and doctor here long enough to know Buddleia very well, thus I know she is one of the sweetest, most open and loving persons one could meet." She let go a light and cheerful laugh. "I would in fact encourage you to tell her about every detail of your visit here, she will find it most amusing and very sweet, and she may even share her experience with my ears."
"Oh my god, this is too hysterical," Sasha laughed, shaking her head. "Certainly not what I would have ever expected from a priestess and doctor of a conservative, teeny tiny farmer's community village, I'll tell you what." Her lips curled into a cheerful grin as she touched the tip of her right index finger against the petite pad of the winged jerboa woman's nose. "You are something else, priestess. Because I am experienced enough to recognize what happened, and that was a veiled come-on from you to me, you can't tell me it wasn't." Another laugh rolled from her grinning lips. "Well! Interesting day! I just wanted to get my ribs checked, and I'm walking away with doctor's orders for a threesome. Good thing we've already been having that with Millie, so I know Leia is not aversive to the idea."
The winged jerboa woman laughed a clear and cheerful laugh as well.
"That was not specifically what I was getting at, but you're not far off, missus Farr. And allow me to compliment you on your perception, as I was being subtle in a manner that, from my experience, not many people would see through so easily or quickly."
"I'm just that awesome, I guess," Sasha laughed. She folded the paper Ms. Kyeeru had given her, stuck it in the back pocket of her denim shorts and took one of the winged jerboa's small paws in both her hands, giving a light bow with a smile. "Either way, thank you for your care and your advice, priestess, we shall heed it. And who knows, maybe in the future we may heed your seduction as well and also share our sexuality with you," she added with a cheerful snigger.
"I shall look forward to hearing the result of your visit to the Nightingale Medical Centre, sister Sasha," Ms. Kyeeru smiled, putting her paws against each other in front of her chest when Sasha had let go and giving a light bow as well, in which she quite deliberately let her amazingly long ears bob forwards and against Sasha's face again. "Walk in light and love, sister Sasha, and have a very pleasant day."
Sasha laughed again and shook her head for a moment. As she turned to walk back to the small square, she closed one gray eye in a cheerful wink and blew the winged jerboa woman a playful kiss. With a cheery wave and a smile, Ms. Kyeeru waved and mimicked catching the kiss in her paw before closing the door, eliciting another laugh from the tall human woman. Looking around on the small square, Sasha found neither Buddleia nor Millie were there, so she just put the flowery wrap in the cab of the old MAZ truck and calmly sauntered off the square and in the direction of the general store.
The tinkle of the bell over the door made the black and white Border Collie woman Mrs. Stebbins look up from behind the counter and smile at Sasha.
"Ah, missus Farr! How nice to see you! I do hope you're doing well, Buddleia just mentioned you went to visit the doctor's office when she was here."
"I'm doing very well indeed, missus Stebbins," Sasha nodded with a smile. "The doctor's visit was merely to make sure my ribs have healed, and according to priestess Kyeeru, they have indeed."
"That is such good news! Congratulations, missus Farr!" Mrs. Stebbins smiled. "Can I do something for you today? You have just missed Buddleia, she has already been by to get some groceries. And what a delightful friend she had with her!"
"Millie is a darling, yes," Sasha smiled. "I do hope she will manage to come visit more often, I'm very familiar with the farm she grew up on, so I have known her for much longer than just the four or so years we've been friends in the city. And you can in fact do something for me, missus Stebbins. I don't know what Leia may have bought while she was here, but I am in need of a good amount of raisins, and would you perhaps have any cane sugar as well?"
"Cane sugar! That is a somewhat unusual request, but I do believe I have some in the back, dear," the black and white Border collie woman smiled. "How much would you need, and what kind of amount of raisins were you thinking of?"
"Hold on, let me look at my granny's recipe in my mind," Sasha chortled softly. She bowed down her head a bit with her hand on her chin and her index finger tapping lightly against her cheek for several moments before looking up. "Wow, okay, at least ten pounds of cane sugar, and more if you have it, missus Stebbins. And raisins... in what kind of containers or packets do you sell those?"
"Oh my, I think I may have that amount, but let me check, dear," Mrs. Stebbins smiled, motioning at one of the shelves against the back wall. "There are packets of raisins on that shelf, you can see if what you need is there, and if not, I have larger containers in the back as well."
"Thank you, missus Stebbins," Sasha smiled. "I'll have a look at the raisins and give you some time to look in the back."
The Border Collie woman nodded with a smile and disappeared through the door behind the counter. Sasha stepped over to the shelf Mrs. Stebbins had indicated and indeed found some stacks of packets of raisins, but the largest she could find was half a pound, which was not enough by her calculations. Waiting by the counter instead, the lanky human woman smiled when after several more moments, the black and white Border Collie woman returned through the door behind the counter, pushing it open with a foot and a shoulder as she held a sizeable box in both arms which she set on the counter with a puff.
"Oof, I should have told my son to bring it out," she smiled. "This box contains fifteen one-pound bags of cane sugar, dear, will that be enough?"
"That will suffice for three batches," Sasha nodded with a smile. "And I'm sorry to add to your workload, missus Stebbins, but I do in fact have interest in your larger containers of raisins, as the packets will not be enough."
"Oh dear, I do wonder what you are planning to make, missus Farr," Mrs. Stebbins smiled with a light chortle. "Please do give me another moment, and I will fetch one of our raisin jars for you." She disappeared through the door again, returning another few moments later with a fairly large glass jar she set on the counter. "Would this be more like what you were looking for, dear? This jar is about five pounds of raisins."
"That is more than enough, yes, thank you so much, missus Stebbins," Sasha nodded with a smile again. "Am I allowed to take the jar as well, or would you rather keep that here?"
"I would prefer to keep the jar here for storage, dear, yes," Mrs. Stebbins smiled. "So if it's not a problem, I'll put the raisins in a bag for you."
"That is not a problem at all, missus Stebbins," Sasha smiled. She leaned against the counter a bit while the Border Collie woman took a large, heavy paper bag and carefully poured the raisins into it. "I will take two large hardpacks of Chesterfields as well, please. And as for what I need all that sugar and those raisins for; it's part of my granny's recipe for sunny wine."
"That sounds very cheerful," Mrs. Stebbins smiled, closing the paper bag and taking two 45-packs of Chesterfield cigarettes from the rack behind the counter. "Is it a very special type of wine? The name suggests possibly the involvement of sunflower seeds, but I do not believe it would be possible to make wine with those."
"It would be worth a try," Sasha chortled. "But no, my granny called it sunny wine because she made it in several very large glass jars she set out in the sun to steep, but it is in fact elderberry wine. You steep them in hot water for a few days in the sun, then strain them, and at that point the cane sugar and raisins come in as several cups of sugar are added to the juice as well as a good generous cupful of chopped raisins to provide the yeast for the fermenting process. My granny also kept that mixture in those large glass jars out in the sun until it was done fermenting, and only then did she bottle it and put it away in a dark and cool place to age." She smiled. "The aunt of that dear Labrador girl, Millie, who was with Leia, runs a farm on the other side of the town my grandfolks had their farm at, and when they passed away, Millie's aunt bought several of my granny's preserve jars, including the huge ones she made her sunny wine in. By pure coincidence, Millie remembered that and someone from the Co-op had to be in that town to pick up a bale wrapper for us, so after a very pleasant phonecall, it was arranged that he would also bring two of my granny's old large preserve jars back with him that Millie's aunt let me have. We just picked them up, and there are several blue elderberry bushes behind our garden which are beginning to bear fruit now, so I'm aiming to make a few batches of my granny's sunny wine in the exact same way she used to do it."
"Oh my! That sounds positively wonderful, dear!" Mrs. Stebbins smiled brightly while she tapped keys on the register. "I'm sure it will be very tasty, and I do hope you will bring it to us; Buddleia's jam has been very popular already!"
"Heh, well, I have two of the two-gallon jars, and one makes about eight to ten bottles of wine, so we may well have a surplus to sell," Sasha smiled. "They do however need to age for a year at least to be any good, so it will be a while before I will have any bottles ready to sell. We will however bring you some of our new goat cheeses next week, the first batch of those should be ready by then."
"You have been so productive! That is so wonderful to see, dear," Mrs. Stebbins smiled, ringing up the total. "We shall of course be happy to sell your cheeses for you as well, certainly!" She tilted her head a bit as Sasha paid and put the packets of cigarettes and the large bag of raisins in the box with bags of sugar before lifting the box in both arms. "Do you need help carrying it to your car, dear? I'll get my son to..."
"It's fine, missus Stebbins, I can assure you," Sasha smiled. "If you could hold the door for me, that will be plenty of help already."
"Of course, of course!" The black and white Border Collie toddled over to the door and held it open for Sasha to step through. "Are you sure you will manage?"
"Positive, missus Stebbins," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Thank you very much, and have a lovely day now, okay?"
"Of course! Thank you as well, dear, and have a wonderful day too!" Mrs. Stebbins smiled.
Sasha nodded with another smile and stepped out of the general store. Only a moment later, she halted on her way around the building at Buddleia's voice calling out.
"Sasha! Oh, you have big box! I come help!"
The purple and white vulpine taur and the chocolate Labrador girl had just stepped out of the bakery, and Buddleia quickly trotted over to Sasha to take the box from her arms.
"Thanks, fuzzbutt," Sasha smiled. "Did you get something tasty at the bakery?"
"We got apple fritters!" Millie smiled happily, holding up a large paper bag. "They're so yummy! And some bread and hard cookies!"
"Yes!" Buddleia nodded with a smile that showed her upper canines and the tip of her dark pink tongue. "What you get, Sasha? This not a light box!"
"I got a whole bunch of cane sugar and raisins, fuzzbutt," Sasha smiled as they walked back to the small square. "That's what my granny used to make her sunny wine, and since those elderberry bushes are beginning to fruit, I'm planning to make some soon, too."
"Oh, is nice, I like," Buddleia smiled, setting the box on the flat bed of the old MAZ truck once they had reached it. "Oh, I not think it fit inside, we put it out here, yes?"
"Sure, but here," Sasha smiled, opening the passenger door of the truck and reaching inside to take out the flowery fabric that had been around her chest. "Make sure to cover that bag, that's holding the raisins."
"Oh! Oh! Miss Kyeeru take off wrap? Your ribs good now, Sasha?" Buddleia smiled brightly, displaying her lower canines as well and even more of her dark pink tongue.
"According to her, they're all healed up, yep," Sasha nodded with a smile, draping the folded fabric over the bag of raisins. "And she gave me a reference for a hospital in Arfafield so I can let them take a picture of them to make absolutely certain." She laughed softly and sent Buddleia a cheerful wink. "She also gave me the go-ahead to have sex, my sweet fuzzbutt, so we can soon have some good sex together. Or with her, apparently, she became quite seductive near the end of the visit," she chortled.
"Yay! I so happy, Sasha!" Buddleia smiled brightly, wagging her bushy tail and taking Sasha into a happy, but still careful hug and also yipping a chortle. "Miss Kyeeru teach sexy things, yes, she very good at! Such nice things!" She gave a playful and affectionate lick to Sasha's cheek and yipped another chortle. "She let you touch her ears? Her ears so super soft!"
"That's pretty much what she started seducing me with, yes," Sasha sniggered. "And you're absolutely right, fuzzbutt, her ears are fucking amazing! Not just in size, but in softness as well, goddam!"
Buddleia nodded with a cheerful chortle, and even Millie smiled despite the blush on her muzzle. Having made sure the box with sugar and raisins was secure, all three of them got into the cab of the truck, and Sasha quickly started it and slammed it into gear to start on the drive back to their farm. It was still a long drive home, after all.
But it had most certainly been a very productive day! With successes and results very much worth celebrating!
