The end of the year was nigh. November had come, and with the sale of another 555 small bales of silage for $116,550 it had gone again. Consequently, with several days of mowing, windrowing, baling and wrapping the grass in fields 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8, December had come. It had been a few very busy days of working around the weather, and the end result stacked up in the new bale shelter at the end of field 2 proved that the Minnaluna land was in its winter season; there had only been enough grass to make 500 bales altogether.
Even if it was almost impossible, the tiny village of Rolling Hills looked even cozier once December got underway. The temperature might not have dipped below 62F, but with the skies being less bright and often overcast, there was a warm glow in the stores from the strings of little lights that had been strung around the windows and along the signs. There had been more rain, but it had mainly been dreary drizzles, and fortunately no more thunderstorms had drifted over the valley either. And despite the still relatively warm yet drizzly weather, a sense of Christmas was slowly creeping into the air.
In the downtime after the busy days of mowing and baling grass, the tall freckled human woman Sasha and the fluffy purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia spent a lot of their time indoors, cuddling on the thick rug by the fireplace Buddleia had fired up for the first time of the year. Not for the heat, the weather was still warm enough to allow both of them to do their farming work outside in the nude, but merely for the atmosphere. It was amazingly cozy and relaxing, and it made for a perfect atmosphere to snuggle and cuddle and do a lot of talking.
A lot of talking was in fact done. Plans for the future of the farm were laid out and discussed, several of the side projects were looked at and talked about to find ways of fitting them as best as possible between the regular farm work, even a few more small projects were offered and reviewed to see if they would be viable. And one big thing was being discussed between the two of them very thoroughly. Sasha had brought it up, Buddleia had almost been hopping with joy over the idea, and once the vulpine taur had calmed down enough, they had spent several evenings talking about it, looking at it from all angles, determining how much it would affect the farm work and finding out it wouldn't. No matter how they looked at it, they could only see positives. The only thing slightly less positive was that it required a fair amount of travel that would leave Buddleia alone on the farm for almost a week to look after their animals - but she'd survive. She had said so herself.
As the second Friday of December came around, the two of them calmly went through their morning routine. A breakfast of warm porridge, a quick bath in the pond - as the water had gotten a bit chilly - and taking care of the chickens, the rabbits and Choco the goat. The little chicks they had gotten from Mrs. Stebbins of the general store had all grown up, and soon they would be laying their first eggs, which was an exciting prospect. While Sasha filtered, chilled and stored the goat milk, Buddleia rummaged through the large shed and the workshop, looking for and eventually finding the small wooden box with the air holes the chicks had come in, cleaning it and putting in a few pawsful of hay so she could set the lop-eared female from the litter of rabbits that had been born in the box to take it with them on their visit to the village.
After putting on some clothes, Sasha actually drove old Emmie, the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline, as Buddleia wanted to hold the box with the young rabbit in it. Of course, she was constantly lifting the lid to look and croon at the young rabbit and wiggling her fingers at it all the way to the village. Fortunately there was not a lot of mail to pick up at the post office, so they could make their way over to the general store relatively quickly. The black and white Border Collie proprietress, Mrs. Stebbins, smiled at Sasha carrying in a sizeable box, but tilted her head at Buddleia carrying the smaller wooden box.
"Oh my, what are you bringing this time, dear?"
"Oh! Oh! I think I know! Wheeeee!" the chocolate-colored Labrador girl Millie cheered as Sasha set the box on the counter. "It's my bunny! Isn't it?"
"You got it, choco-snoot," Sasha chortled. "We transferred the boys to the other run, and this little lady here is old enough now to live on her own with you."
"Yay!" Millie smiled brightly, lifting the lid of the box a bit. "Aww, look how cute she is! Missus Stebbins, look! She's so adorable! Can I be excused for a few minutes to bring her home? I got everything set up and ready for her already!"
"She is very adorable indeed," Mrs. Stebbins agreed with a smile. "Of course you can run home for a minute to get her put into her new home, Millie."
"Thank you! I'll be back soon!" Millie smiled brightly again.
She made to take the box and step from behind the counter, but stopped as Sasha put a hand on her shoulder.
"Not so fast, choco-snoot. I know you're eager, but I have to first let you know that I will be walking with you so I can borrow your car."
"Whu..?" Millie blinked and tilted her head. "Well, sure, of course, you can borrow my car anytime, Sash. Is yours broken?"
"It's fine, Milbilly, but it's hella slow," Sasha chortled. "I have some very important business to take care of all the way out Fennfield way, and while that Citroen is great to sleep in along the way, I'm sure as hell not gonna drive all that way in a tin can of a car that screams at me for making it do sixty. I wanna get there quick and in relative comfort."
"Of course! That makes sense!" Millie nodded. "Yeah, like I said, you can borrow my car any time, no problem! I only use it to get over to your farm anymore anyway, here in town I can walk everywhere! But will you be okay sleeping in it? I mean, like, that far away, it's still gonna take you at least two days, and my car is a lot smaller than yours."
"I'll make it work, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled. "With that car, I'll be more comfy behind the wheel so I can drive longer into the night, and I can drive faster so I will be there sooner."
"Well, okay!" Millie's already bright smile grew even brighter. "Hey, if you're gonna be near Fennfield, are you gonna stop by auntie Ruth's farm? If you do, tell auntie Ruth and uncle Chester hi from me and give them my love, please?"
"I'll keep that in mind, choco-snoot," Sasha nodded with a smile, patting the Labrador girl's shoulder with the hand that was still resting on there. "Now let's go and put that bunny of yours in her new home, shall we?"
"Okay! Yeah! Yay!" Millie nodded with a cheery giggle.
She almost skipped out of the store, followed by Sasha who was cheerfully shaking her head. Buddleia and Mrs. Stebbins looked after them with a smile.
"Important business I take it?" the black and white Border Collie woman smiled. "The city Sasha came from is out that way, right?"
"Yes, and is Co-op in Fennfield where we got bale wrapper from," Buddleia nodded, chirping a chortle. "Is big big plan, but I not say more, Sasha say is surprise!" She put the large box on the counter with a smile that showed the lower halves of her upper canine teeth. "And look! Is lots cheese for you, and some butter too!"
"Ah, that is lovely, thank you, dear," Mrs. Stebbins smiled. "We only have two of your cheeses left, so this will let us replenish our shelf right away."
"You welcome!" Buddleia smiled with her full upper canine teeth on display. "Where you want, missus Stebbins?"
"I'll take some right now to put on the shelf," Mrs. Stebbins smiled, opening the box and taking out a dozen of the fairly large butterfly-shaped goat cheeses. "There, that will do. If you would be so kind to put the box in the cooler, dear? Off in the back on the right side, you can set it on that table, we shall unpack it later."
"Is good! I know where is!" Buddleia nodded cheerily.
She picked the box back up after Mrs. Stebbins had closed the flaps of it and carried it off through the door behind the counter. In the meantime, the black and white Border Collie woman took the dozen cheeses and stacked them neatly on a shelf in a display refrigerator with double glass doors sitting against the rear wall of the store. By the time Buddleia returned, Sasha also stepped back into the store together with Millie who was happily chattering and wagging her slender tail. They actually spent some more time in the store, as Sasha stocked up on snacks and some cans of soup and stew, with Millie cheerfully suggesting several candy bars and small-size bags of candies and savory snacks that were just so very yummy! With a light grin, Sasha got a few of all of them, and at the end unwrapped one of the candy bars and stuck it in Millie's mouth to quiet the excitable canine girl down.
Laughing cheerfully, they said their goodbyes. Sasha and Buddleia walked back out of the store and to the parking spots where old Emmie was sitting, now with Millie's dark blue Toyota Starlet sitting next to it. It was clear they had prepared well before going to town; opening the trunks of both cars, Sasha transferred her old suitcase, a box or two, the little electric camping stove, the cracked cooler filled with drinks and sandwiches, the small generator and several metal 20-liter jerrycans from old Emmie to the Starlet. At the fuel pumps by the garage across the road, she filled all the jerrycans with gasoline and one with two-stroke gasoline and also filled the tank of the little Toyota to the brim.
After a last check to see if she had everything with her, Sasha took Buddleia into a close hug and a loving kiss, running the fingers of one hand through the vulpine taur's long purple hair and down along the side of her slender muzzle.
"I'll step on it so I'll be back as soon as I can, my big sweet fuzzbutt," she promised with a smile. "Take good care of our animals and the farm, okay? And if you want, you can put the other girl bunny with the boys for a bit so we'll have another litter of baby bunnies in a month or so."
"Yes! Okay! I do!" Buddleia nodded cheerfully. "Maybe I catch wild girl bunny too! And I make butter from milk too, I can do, is easier than cheese, yes."
"That's good, you do that," Sasha smiled. "There's still a few batches of bottles ready to be processed, and we'll end up with another week's worth of milk by the time I get back, so it'll be best to make some more butter we can keep longer." She smooched the damp, cool black pad of Buddleia's nose. "And maybe see if you can find a nice spot to hang some herbs to dry? Some of the thyme plants are ready to be cut."
"I put in underground room, hang from bars of windmill around generator, yes!" Buddleia smiled with her upper canines and the tip of her tongue on display.
"Perfect," Sasha smiled, curling her lips a bit further into a mild grin. "And if you get lonely, feel free to pay our neighbors a visit or have them over for some... company, huh?" She closed one gray eye in a cheerful wink. "I better hit the road now, so I can get some miles under the wheels before it gets too late. I'll call you when I get there."
"Okay! I do! Yee hee! They so cute!" Buddleia chortled in several staccato yips, hugging Sasha again. "You drive safe but quick, Sasha, yes! Maybe bring something nice? Yee hee!"
"Trust me, babe; a stop in Fennfield means a stop at Pastry Passion for their signature apple pie," Sasha grinned. "I'll be sure to bring plenty treats. You behave yourself while I'm not around, fuzzbutt, and by that, I mean, behave like you always do."
They hugged and kissed again, and Buddleia waved after the little dark blue Toyota as Sasha got behind the wheel of it and drove off down the narrower dirt road running along the left side of the tiny village behind the church. She also made a few more stops in town, while Sasha looked around her as she drove past the village and into the landscape. So this had been the way Buddleia's grandmother had driven them to town for a while after that bad accident; it looked pretty much the same as the other dirt roads, smoothly winding along the low, rolling hills, and eventually, after a couple of hours, crossing the road that ran east to west in front of their farm at a somewhat strange, more or less spiderweb-looking crossing, as the roads crossed straight, but from all four sides an inward-curved sliproad connected all the roads as well.
Past that crossing, about half an hour later, the tall human woman passed Waving Grain Farm. She actually slowed down a bit to look at the farm as she drove by it, smiling to herself and giving a light nod of her head. A sizeable three-story house was sitting in the yard, with large sheds along one side in which older but well-kept machinery and vehicles were sitting, large fields looked recently harvested, in one large field a flock of fluffy white sheep with black heads were milling about, and a tractor with a long flat trailer behind it was trundling through a grass field with a younger chipmunk girl standing on the trailer and stacking bales that were being heaved onto the trailer by a similar-looking chipmunk boy of roughly the same age. Clearly a farm that was doing well, which was always a great sight to see.
Increasing the speed again, Sasha kept making her way further down the dirt road. There was another crossing after an hour or so, with the road running off towards the left laying over the top of some large, flat rocky plateaus and heading in the direction of where the sawmill was. It was all connected, it seemed like. Still continuing west, Sasha gradually kept pressing down on the accelerator. The little Toyota was doing remarkably well, tracking straight down the somewhat uneven dirt road even as the speed kept climbing; 75, 80, 85, a bit past 90mph. Not bad, not bad at all! And Millie clearly had a decent taste in music, as the radio was tuned into Radio 2 - Sasha blasted the volume as Virgin Snow came on with one of their lesser known hits, "Here comes the storm", a song their guitarist had translated and adapted from a Dutch song. It had a kicking bass-line, that just made one put their foot down on the go-pedal as hard as they could.
The time kept creeping by, the light leaving the sky slowly as the cloud-shrouded sun sank, then rapidly as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Still Sasha kept her foot down, blazing the headlights, eventually also the high-beams as she sped down the empty dirt road. The music on the radio was energizing, the anticipation of the plan she was effectuating was energizing, and the more miles she could get down in a day the better. It was only well after one o'clock at night, close to two o'clock even, when the freckled human finally slowed down and pulled the small car off the road to park it in the shelter of a cluster of huge boulders.
Setting up the small generator and an old work light, Sasha unbolted the passenger seat from the car and set it with its back against one of the boulders. She used a wooden crate she had brought as a table to set up the electric camping stove, heating up a can of soup for a very late dinner and washing it down with some of the fresh goat milk she had brought in the cooler. Getting a bit of an idea, the freckled human woman then bolted the passenger seat back into the car, but facing backwards. With the backseat folded down flat and the passenger seat reclined, Sasha could stretch out pretty well across the full length of the small car and get a pretty decent night of sleep.
A light rain was falling early the next morning. Not putting her clothes back on, Sasha calmly walked back and forth a bit through the grass around the cluster of boulders while munching on a sandwich, letting herself be showered by the rain to freshen up and fully wake up. She did dry herself with a towel she had taken with her before getting back behind the wheel of the small Toyota, again blasting the radio and cheerfully singing along with several of the songs that sounded from the speakers as the time passed by. With the light rain drizzling down, the lanky human woman did keep the speed down a bit, however; between 80 and 85mph. She still made way better time that way than if she would have been driving her old Citroen delivery vehicle.
By the time the light started fading from the overcast sky again, a road crossing turned the dirt road into a graveled road that led further westwards. Sasha pulled over for a moment so she could slip on some clothes, as the wide-open horizon now showed the shapes of buildings dotted here and there. The valley was coming to an end, the first spots of civilization were showing up between the endlessly stretching fields and low rolling hills. Small farms, harvested fields, meadows of sheep and cows. And gradually, larger farms, larger harvested fields, larger meadows with more cows or numerous sheep, the towering, gleaming cylinders of a grain elevator from behind which a plume of smoke was slowly rising into the air from the smokestack of, surprisingly, an old steam locomotive at the head of a long row of grain wagons.
This time, Sasha didn't have to sleep in the car. A few miles past the random loading station that apparently still utilized a steam train, a narrower dirt road turning off the gravel road led to an old boarding house built out of rough fieldstone. Several cars parked in the open area of packed dirt out front showed the boarding house was still in service. Sasha parked the small Starlet as well and rented a room for the night for only a couple dozen dollars. Another tenner bought her a simple but very tasty warm meal as well, and a large shared bathroom with a row of shower heads separated by scratched acrylic panels even had running warm water. Untold luxury for a building that looked like it had been left in the nineteen tens.
After a just as simple but just as tasty breakfast and a quick shower the next morning, Sasha was underway again. She kept the speed down as there was actual traffic on the gravel road; sparse, but it was there, consisting mainly of tractors pulling implements or loading wagons, and pickup trucks. Every now and then a passenger car mingled with the agricultural traffic, and Sasha found herself occasionally driving through communities and villages that were not much larger than the village of Rolling Hills. Halfway through the day, another road crossing again changed the surface, as the gravel road turned into a blacktop road. Keeping up with the now slightly denser traffic, Sasha still made decent time and smiled to herself when she even started seeing poles with purple arrow-shaped signs showing names of larger towns plus a number indicating the number of miles the towns were away at more regular road crossings.
As evening crept in, Sasha actually stopped at one of the road crossings and just looked at the pole with the purple signs. The one pointing to the left read "West Yarrow, 27" and below that, "Fennfield, 44". A light sigh escaped her. Forty-four miles away was her childhood, a simpler time, a time of memories that were happy even if back during that time it had seemed dull and boring. She would go there. She would be seeing it all back.
But not yet. A horn sounding behind her jolted Sasha out of her thoughts, and she waved a hand in an apologetic gesture while she accelerated and went straight ahead on the crossing. Further westwards. The simple blacktop road turned into a local highway, the directional signs became illuminated, and before too long, the main name appeared on one of the signs for the first time. Fossil City. Sixty-three miles to go. Forty-seven miles. Twenty-three. The horizon was no longer open, it was filled with the silhouettes of large buildings, towers, lights. Sasha drew in a deep breath and steeled herself the closer she got to the large city. Who would have thought she would ever return to that place; yet here she was. A necessary evil.
It was still before midnight, if only just, as Sasha pulled into the parking lot of a Bluetit Inn, took her suitcase and the cooler and checked into a room for the night. She threw off her clothes, munched the last couple of sandwiches from the cooler, put her phone on the charger and flopped down on the bed. Despite the higher level of noise in the air, the freckled human woman managed to have a pretty good night of sleep. The next morning, she had a simple breakfast in the adjoining restaurant, returned to her room to have a quick shower and sat down on the edge of the bed to brush her long ginger hair while tapping her phone on the bedside cabinet to call Buddleia.
"Sasha! Is you! You there already?"
"Hey babe. Yeah, I arrived late last night, and I just had breakfast and a shower. How are you and the farm holding up?"
"We do good. I caught wild girl bunny! I put in run with boys to let her wake up. Boy bunny I caught before is from same warren, maybe they recognize each other, yee hee!"
"Haha, well, who knows. Did the boys help themselves to her as well?"
"Both do when she wake up, yes! I put in other girl floppy-ear bunny too. Not the one who had babies, but other one. They both get done, I put them back in girl bunny run, maybe we have two litters!"
"There's a good chance of that. Hey, you never guess what I found. Just outside of this small town called Campion Crossing is a big grain elevator, and they had a loading station with a steam train. And a few miles down the road was this really old boarding house where I got a room, so I only had to sleep in the car one night."
"That so nice! I glad you got a bed, Millie car not so large, you have to fold up to sleep in that, yee hee!"
"It wasn't that bad actually, I flipped down the backseat and put the passenger's seat in back to front."
"You so clever! And now you in big city, yes? Is very big? Many big buildings? Lots cars, lots people, yes?"
"I'm only at the outskirts, but yeah, still looks as big as when I left. And it still stinks, heh."
"Maybe you hold nose when you go to office, yee hee!"
"I'll manage, babe, I survived seventeen years of it after all. And I guess I better go now, because the sooner I get this done and can get away from this city again, the better I like it."
"Okay, you go do secret thing, Sasha, yee hee! You be home soon? Three days maybe?"
"Possibly four, I will have to make a stop in Fennfield as well, and it depends a bit on how long that will take. But hell, I might grab a twelve-pack of energy drinks while I'm here and drive through all three days and nights to get back as soon as I can, haha."
"No! You not do, Sasha, is not good, not healthy. You stop for night and get sleep, yes?"
"I was joking, fuzzbutt. I may actually grab some energy drinks, but no worries, I will stop every night to get some sleep. Hell, that boarding house was so nice despite how old it was, I wanna spend another night there. At my first stop there, I had dinner too. It was just boiled potatoes with pan-fried fish, but it was ten times better than what this more fancy restaurant at the hotel could offer for breakfast."
"Sound yum! Maybe I make tonight too! And you go make thing happen now, Sasha, yes! Choco say behbeh to you, bunnies say snuffsnuffy, and I say lovieloves!"
"Haha! Yeah, you're nuts, fuzzbutt. But I love you too, and I'll try to be back as soon as I can, promise. Bye now, my sweet nutso fuzzbutt."
"Bye Sasha! See soon, yes!"
The contact was cut, and Sasha cheerily shook her head as she tapped out her phone. Yeesh, that fluffy taur was so silly! But it definitely brightened up the whole day. Getting up from the edge of the bed, Sasha put on some clothes, got her things together, checked out and put her suitcase and cooler back into the small Toyota before getting behind the wheel herself and setting off again.
Further into the city. It was almost unsettling how smoothly she made her way through the traffic, down the streets - as if she had never left. Familiar sights, familiar sounds, familiar smells. Fortunately her destination was in the north side of the city; she could stay well enough away from her usual haunts, and prevent herself from accidentally running into anyone she might know but had no desire to see.
A large, concrete office tower. Several hours of going through paperwork. Dull and boring, but with an underlying anticipation of what the result would be keeping it just exciting enough to sit through. A binder full of paperwork under her arm as Sasha walked back to the small Toyota in the parking lot, a silent smile around her lips as she got behind the wheel. A burger from a drive-through - alright, she had to admit, she had kind of missed that a bit. A wide skirting around the south-eastern sector of the city to avoid her old stomping grounds, a stop in the southmost sector of the city to get some provisions for the long drive back to the Arfajia Valley brought a bit of an unexpected surprise.
Next to the supermarket was a pet store, and just because she was there, Sasha glanced at the items on display, more out of habit than anything else. Her eye fell on a sign that had writing on it in brightly-colored felt-tip marker, reading "Hello, my name is Bubliny, pretty please give me my forever home?" The sign was attached to the bottom of a fairly wide cage with a plastic bottom, and in the cage was a quadruped cat. A very unusual cat, as it almost seemed to lack any paws; it had such incredibly short legs that it almost looked like a dachshund, and its black and white fur was so long it hung down and completely obscured the super short legs. From above a somewhat short and blunt muzzle decorated with numerous incredibly long whiskers, a pair of amazingly pretty sky blue eyes set an almost pleading look upon Sasha as the tall human woman looked at the cat. Before she even realized it, Sasha spoke to the cat.
"You are so coming with me."
"Myew," was the simple response, and Sasha swore she could hear an inflection of gratitude.
An arctic vixen in a pair of pants and a blouse as white as her fur informed Sasha that the cat was a female, and that they had designated her breed as 'Munchcoon', as she was a cross between a Munchkin cat and a Maine Coon cat, which explained the ridiculously short legs as well as the incredibly long and thick fur. She sold Sasha a 10-pound bag of dry catfood, a feeding station, some cat toys, a plush kitty bed, some disposable cardboard litterboxes and a spacious travel coop with a fluffy blanket in it and small food and water bowls clipped to the inside of the metal mesh door, and Sasha made another quick stop at the supermarket next to the pet store to also buy a full tray of small bottles of spring water for the cat. That was certainly an unexpected way to end the day!
Another Bluetit Inn at the southern outskirts of the city, another room for the night, where Sasha was allowed to keep the cat for the night as well. A somewhat more extensive dinner in the adjoining restaurant, a light scoff at the advertised "country stew" she ordered not even tasting as good as the fish with potatoes she'd had at the boarding house, let alone coming even near the taste of Buddleia's cooking - or the stew she sometimes made herself after her grandmother's recipe, come to that.
The morning that followed tingled with anticipation, however. Now everything was getting positive, with the prospect of leaving the city behind for good. A quick breakfast, a quick shower, putting on the bottle-green denim dress with brass buttons the Warmelink sisters had made to measure for her, checking out, and off the tall, freckled human woman went, now accompanied by the very fluffy short-legged cat which she let out of the travel coop in the car. Within minutes, the city was nothing more but a memory in the rearview mirror, and the open roads were stretching out in front of her. A smoothly asphalted highway eventually turning into a two-lane blacktop road. The traffic once more favoring pickup trucks over passenger cars. The directional signs soon enough showing the name of Fennfield again.
Sasha made sure to approach the town from the north. She tempered her speed, just enough to keep up with the traffic while looking around her. The silent smile around her lips slowly growing deeper at familiar sights from a longer time ago. The large white, mint green and sky blue buildings with gleaming aluminium roofs of RootCool, the refrigerated vegetable and root crop storage warehouses. The tall, narrow cylindrical yellow corn dryer towers of Maize Masters, with their silly logo of an ear of corn with an overly cheerful cartoon face and a straw hat. The unusual divided Fennfield Station, with its passenger rail and terminal on one side and a freight area on the other side, separated by a narrow bus station from where the somewhat short, late 1960s Volvo B54 buses in their muted yellow color with purple bumpers connected by a purple band along the bottom of the body and the oversized pictures of wheat heads over the back and the front of the body serviced the passenger transit routes to and from Fennfield and the outlying communities. The rows of semi-circular greenhouses covered in black plastic of Fennfield Fungi Farming. And of course the farms, stretching out along both sides of the road.
A mile or two outside of town, Sasha pulled over again, in front of one of the farms. She got out of the car and leaned against it, lighting a cigarette and looking at the farm. There was a memory, for sure. It looked better than it had last time. The house still looked the same, even if it was now painted brown with dark green trim and door and window surrounds. The old corn crib was gone, and in its place now sat a brown hayloft storing bales of straw. The open-front sheds at the right side of the yard were still there, although they were newly clad in brown-coated aluminium panels, and several newer-looking tractors and implements were sitting in them. The fields were looking good; some recently harvested and covered in stubble, some filled with thick, lush winter barley waving calmly in the breeze. The largest difference was the sign on the fence next to the entrance of the yard, reading Amber Waves Farm.
It looked peaceful. It looked right. It filled Sasha's mind so much she didn't even notice that after almost twenty minutes of her standing there, a rather burly calico shorthair cat woman with long ginger hair matching the orange patches in her fur and dressed in a pair of brown overalls over a brown flannel shirt walked up to her. She only noticed when the woman spoke up and snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Uhm, hello, ma'am? Do you have business here perhaps? Can I help you with anything?"
"Oh!" Sasha looked up and gave her head a short shake. "Ah, I do apologize. It must have looked rather strange, me just standing here looking, but I was just reminiscing."
"What do you mean, exactly?" the feline woman asked.
Sasha smiled and gestured at the farmyard with a hand.
"This used to be Farr Out Farm, and I am Sasha Farr. My grandfolks owned and ran this farm, and I grew up here."
"Oh, goodness!" the calico cat woman said, her eyes widening while a wide smile appeared on her muzzle. "You're the previous owner? That's amazing! I don't think we ever got to meet you before, we bought this farm via the Co-op."
"Yes, I used to live in Fossil City at the time, having made the grave mistake of thinking that the farming life was not for me," Sasha nodded with a smile of her own. "I'm cured of that thought pattern now fortunately, and I'm currently running a small farm deep in Arfajia Valley with my wife who originally owned that little farm."
"Oh my goodness, that sounds wonderful," the calico cat woman smiled. "Would you perhaps like to come in for a bit? Would you like a cup of tea?"
Sasha smiled again and shook her head.
"That is very friendly of you, but I'm afraid I have to decline. I have a very important appointment on the other side of Fennfield I should be getting to. But I just had to stop and have a look at the old place while I was here. It is... so good to see the old place is doing so very well, I'm really happy to see that and it's a very comforting thought to know the farm is in such good and capable hands."
"Aw, you are too kind," the feline woman smiled. "We work hard every day, but I have to say the farm has been very good and very generous to my parents, and now to us as well."
"It certainly looks like you have kept it in very good shape over the years," Sasha nodded, taking one of the calico cat's paws in both her hands and smiling warmly. "Thank you."
"Aw, thank you, too," the feline woman smiled. "I won't keep you from your appointment, but it was very nice to meet you, missus Farr. If you're ever in the vicinity again, do feel free to visit any time you like."
"It's a good three-day trip from where I currently live to here, so I don't think that would happen very much," Sasha smiled with a light chortle. "But if it might happen I ever find myself around here again, you can be sure I will pay a visit. For now, knowing the old place is doing so well is all I need. Have a very lovely day, and keep up the good work."
"You can be sure we will," the calico cat woman nodded with a smile. "A very lovely day to you too, missus Farr."
She waved as she walked back towards the farmhouse. Sasha smiled and waved as well before getting into the little Toyota Starlet and looking at the fluffy black and white cat laying in a compact bundle on the backwards-facing passenger seat.
"Well, off we go again, kitty, further down memory lane."
"Mrew," murmured the cat, squeezing her sky blue eyes at Sasha.
With another smile, Sasha started the engine and drove the rest of the way to the town of Fennfield. Again she looked around her at the drive through town, smiling quietly as she noted what had changed over the years. Not much. The stationery store had evolved into an office supplies store. Eddy's Electronics now was a white goods store. The C1000 supermarket was still a supermarket, but now operated by a local family as indicated by the signs saying Halma Family Market. And there was a small ice cream parlor on the corner where the soda fountain used to be. But overall, the town still looked the same as it had twenty, twenty-five years ago.
Turning onto Vehicle Boulevard, another smile crossed Sasha's face as she saw there was still not a single new car dealer along the entire street; only two used car dealerships, one selling passenger cars, and Petey's Pickups, exclusively selling, as the name suggested, second-hand pickup trucks. The rest were all tractor and farm equipment dealerships, with at the very end the large yard of the Fennfield Agricultural Co-operation. And of course, on the corner at the very start of the street, the specialized artisan bakery called Pastry Passion. Sasha made a stop there, buying several of their signature apple pies and a box of assorted Berry Bites, which were small triangles of crunchy, puffy thin pastry filled with different kinds of berries.
As she drove past the Co-op, Sasha for a moment considered pulling into the yard and visiting the Co-op to see what they might have on offer. But she decided against it. She was so close to her goal now, and she felt a tingle in her tall, lanky body that seemed to set all her freckles aglow. Not far now; she could already make out the fields, looking fresh and green with a low cover crop on them. Only moments later she pulled into the yard of Sunny Pop Farm, parking the small Toyota next to a dull orange 1969 Chevrolet C10 pickup truck, which still had the blue driver door on which a name and logo had been painted over with a brown-ish primer. With a smile, Sasha petted the fluffy black and white cat on the passenger seat, cracked both windows a bit for some fresh air and got out of the car.
She drew in a deep breath and calmly let it go as she stepped over to the front door of the farmhouse and knocked on it. After a moment or two, the door was opened by an older, slender Saluki dog woman with terracotta-colored sleek fur that showed hints of gray, long dangling ears covered in very long and silky fur that was even longer than her somewhat thin, ruddy hair, and a pair of small glasses on her long and slim muzzle. The canine woman tilted her head as she looked at Sasha, adjusting her glasses and suddenly pulling in a short gasp as a gleam of recognition appeared in her light brown eyes.
"Oh my! Sasha Farr? Is that really you?"
"Hello, missus Stokes," Sasha smiled at the Saluki woman. "Yes, it is really me, in the still very freckled flesh."
"My goodness, it's been so long!" the Saluki woman smiled. "It's certainly an unexpected but pleasant surprise to see you again after all those years, dear. To what do we earn the pleasure of your sudden visit?"
Sasha smiled deeper.
"I just drove three days to come over, because I wish to have a quite serious conversation with you and your husband, missus Stokes, and I have a very serious request to make."
"Oh dear, that sounds very, well, serious," the Saluki woman said, adjusting her glasses again. "But do come in, dear, do come in!" She turned towards a shed at the right side of the yard. "Chester! Chester! Come see who is visiting!"
Moments later, a quite large fawn-colored Bullmastiff man whose black muzzle and short dark brown hair were graying with age walked out of the shed and over to the farmhouse, also tilting his head at the sight of Sasha.
"As I live'n breathe, if it ain't Sasha Farr!" he said in a deep voice, the smile breaking on his muzzle quivering the natural wrinkles on both his short, broad muzzle and over his eyes. "We ain't seen ya 'round these parts in a coon's age, dear." He spotted the dark blue Toyota parked next to his pickup truck. "Is our Millicent here too?"
"Hello, mister Stokes," Sasha smiled. "No, I just borrowed Millie's car to get here, because the car I have would have made the trip two days longer. She does send her love, though!"
"Fair, it's a good ways out there where y'are now," the Bullmastiff man nodded. "So what made ya take that whole trip here, if ya don't mind me askin'?"
"As I just mentioned to your wife, I wish to have a quite serious conversation with both of you, and make a very serious request," Sasha smiled.
"Well now, sounds important!" the large canine man said with a short nod of his head. "Do come in, dear, an' tell us what ya have on yer heart."
Sasha nodded with a smile, for a moment reaching into the small Toyota to pet the fluffy short-legged cat and take the binder and one of the flat boxes before following the two canines into the farmhouse. Her smile was cemented firmly in place as she looked around on the way to the living room; it might have been almost two decades since she had last been on the Stokes farm, but everything still looked exactly the same. Well, except for the sagging sofa by the low rectangular coffee table near the window in the back, that one had been replaced with a different sofa, but all the knitted throw pillows were still on it. And by the front window still was the high table with its knitted tablecloth and the five wooden chairs with a plump cushioned seat, and one more ornate wooden chair with velour-cushioned seat, armrests, backrest and bolsters.
The Bullmastiff man sat down in that chair and took a round tin from the windowsill, from which he took a quarter-bend pipe which he started stuffing with tobacco from the tin. And before the Saluki woman could walk to the kitchen, Sasha offered her the flat box.
"Here you are, missus Stokes, a little something to go with the tea."
The Saluki woman lifted the lid and smiled at the Pastry Passion apple pie in the box.
"Oh my, you shouldn't have, dear."
"Come on now, the one time I'm back in Fennfield, surely you don't think I would miss the opportunity to get a Pastry Passion apple pie, did you?" Sasha smiled with a light chortle.
"Of course!" the slender canine woman nodded. "Well, give me a few minutes, tea will be up in a bit, dear!"
She disappeared to the kitchen, and the Bullmastiff man pulled near an ashtray of thick glass and gave Sasha a light for her cigarette after lighting his pipe.
"So how's life been treatin' ya lately, Sasha? Millicent said ya gone back to farmin', way out in that valley she moved to."
"Yes, I fell into that valley with my car from the mountain road along the side of the Dino Mountain," Sasha nodded. "But it was a blessing in disguise, because I was rescued by an amazing farmer woman. She's been running a four hundred year-old little farm out there, and it had been getting away from her, so once I was back on my feet, I started helping her get that little farm back on its feet."
"Darn, that's quite somethin'," the canine man said, slowly puffing on his pipe. "All goin' well now?"
"Oh yes," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Everything was overgrown with grass so we started making hay and selling that, which gave us some funds to repair some of the equipment. And the people there are so friendly and so helpful. The fellows at the livestock dealer said, hey, you should make silage with all that grass, you'll get lots more money, so we started doing that. With all the fields we have, we make over a hundred grand in silage a month now, and we already have two fields of winter rye growing. Plus we have chickens we got from the proprietress of the local general store, the one where Millie works now, we have rabbits we got from the butcher, and we have a goat we got as a wedding gift from the fellows at the livestock dealer, and that girl is giving us so much milk each day I started making cheese that is selling very well."
"That's mighty good to hear," the Bullmastiff man Mr. Stokes nodded with a smile that creased his muzzle wrinkles again. "It be plenty outta the way, but that village is a little spot of heaven, I had a look 'round when I helped Millicent move there. Proud of that girl, it's so nice to see she got outta that big city an' followed her heart into such a nice community, even if it be quite a ways away from here. An' that woman runnin' the general store she went to work for is such a wonderful person."
"Missus Stebbins is truly the pillar of the whole community," Sasha nodded with a deeper smile. "When that village was established sometime in the eighteen hundreds, the Stebbins general store was the first store there, and missus Stebbins is the sweetest, kindest and most generous woman I ever had the pleasure of meeting. The very first time I came to that village to introduce myself, she right away gave me her old chicken coop, an adult chicken and six chicks, to give our farm a leg-up while we worked on getting it back to its feet."
The canine man nodded appreciatively.
"Goin' into sunflowers, Millicent said, are ya?"
"Coming season, yes," Sasha smiled. "Leia grew up on that farm with her grandparents, and she often mentioned how her grandparents used to grow a field of sunflowers, and she wanted to get back to that again. We actually purchased some additional land, and the fellow from the local Co-op managed to get us an amazing deal on a planter with tractor and a Fortshritt harvester with corn header, so come spring, we'll be planting a couple dozen acres of sunflowers."
Mr. Stokes nodded appreciatively again.
"Got a decent sales market for that out there?"
"According to Leia, there's two mills nearby," Sasha nodded. "A flour mill where her grandparents and she sold the grain they grew, and an oil mill where she sold the canola she grew. She told me her grandparents sold their sunflowers there as well, so I'm sure they'll be happy to see us turn up with a truck full of sunflower kernels again."
"That's good, sounds like ya got all ya need 'round there, even if it be so much outta the way," Mr. Stokes nodded.
"And things are even growing," Sasha smiled. "Only recently, new families moved into the village to set up enterprises, for the first time in decades."
"It looks like such a wonderful little place, I've seen some pictures Millicent showed us," the Saluki woman Mrs. Stokes smiled as she returned in the living room, carrying a tray with a tea set and three saucers with a slice of apple pie on them.
She set the tray on the table, passed out the saucers with the slices of pie and poured three cups of tea. For a little while, they sat together to sip the tea and enjoy the pie, until Mrs. Stokes looked up again and adjusted her glasses.
"Please do excuse my curiosity, dear, but what is the serious topic you wanted to speak with us about?"
"The serious topic is Millie," Sasha smiled, sipping the last bit of tea from her cup. "I wanted to know, when her mother passed shortly after giving birth to her, did the two of you ever officially adopt her?"
Mrs. Stokes rubbed a finger along the side and top of her long, narrow muzzle.
"I don't think we did, come to think of it," she said slowly, turning to the Bullmastiff man. "Did we, Chester?"
"Nope," Mr. Stokes said with a light shake of his head. "We just took her in an' raised her as our own."
"Do you mind me asking why you wanted to know that, dear?" Mrs. Stokes asked.
"Not at all, it does seem like an unusual question after all," Sasha smiled. "The thing is, you see, that you two hiring me to babysit her when she was a baby puppy has had a bit of an effect on her. And when she moved to Fossil City later to find me, that effect intensified because during those years in the city, I've been very protective of her and mothered her even more than I had been doing those first several years of her life when I babysat her. Apparently, it led to her seeing me as a mother, and she felt that very strongly."
"She did sometimes mention something along those lines, yes," Mrs. Stokes nodded, again adjusting her glasses.
"Yes, well, to be honest, I was unaware of it," Sasha said with a light smile. "That is, until I had my accident where I ended up in that remote valley, and she came to visit me after I had gotten back to my feet. During the talks we had at that time, the subject came up and she told me of how strongly she thought of me as a mother. She actually almost begged me if I would please be her mother."
"That's really quite sweet actually, when ya think 'bout it," Mr. Stokes said, looking up from cleaning his pipe.
"Yes, we always tried our best to give her all we could, but there were some things we couldn't give her, no matter how hard we tried," Mrs. Stokes said with another nod that had her glasses sliding right back down to the tip of her long, narrow muzzle.
"I found it very endearing as well," Sasha nodded with a smile. "So I told her I would be glad to be a mother to her." A light chortle escaped her. "From that time on, whenever we're together, she consistently calls me mom, which is really very cute."
"That is rather adorable," Mrs. Stokes said, taking off her glasses to clean them and push the legs of them together a bit so they would grip the sides of her head a bit better.
"Yeah, it's real nice to know she has found someone she can say that to," Mr. Stokes nodded. "It's somethin' we been wantin' to give her, but we never could."
"And that brings me to the purpose of my visit," Sasha smiled. "Has she by any chance mentioned anything about that nasty event with Joanna a few months ago?"
Mr. Stokes nodded shortly.
"A bit. Said that woman suddenly showed up in the store she works at an' started cussin' her out, an' that she went at that woman, but she don't remember much of it."
"I always said not much good could come of it when she spoke of those people she used to hang out with in the city," Mrs. Stokes said, putting her glasses back on.
Sasha also nodded seriously.
"It was fortunate Leia and I had to be in the village on just that day, so we were there when it went down. And since I already always had to keep Joanna's miserable temper under control back in the city, I stepped in. I was not having that bi... excuse me, that nasty woman so gravely insulting my little choco-snoot friend and the wonderful little village and the people living there the way she was doing. It led to a stand-off between us, and she physically assaulted me. That snapped something in Millie, she bellowed out about Joanna hurting her mom, meaning me, and if I hadn't stopped her, she would have seriously injured Joanna, or even worse, because she was in such a red haze she was more than ready to do worse."
"Oh dear..." Mrs. Stokes said softly, with a paw over her muzzle.
"Good thing ya was there to prevent her from makin' a grave mistake," Mr. Stokes said with a short nod of his head.
"Yeah, it was bad," Sasha nodded. "Our good sheriff arrested Joanna, but I had to have our doctor sedate Millie to even get her to calm down." A smile formed around her lips again. "She fully got over it though, so there is no need for you to worry about her. I can assure you she is completely back to being the super energetic, happy, cheerful and enthusiastic puppy she's always been. But that whole incident so clearly and definitively showed me just how incredibly deep and strong her feelings for me as her mother are, and the thought hasn't left me alone since. So that's why I'm currently here." With another smile, she lay a hand on the binder of paperwork she had put on the table. "These are adoption forms I obtained in Fossil City yesterday. Now, as you two never officially adopted Millie as your daughter, and she is a legal adult now, technically I do not need to have your permission to adopt her as my and Leia's daughter. But it would mean so very much to me if you would still give me your blessing and sign your consent on these forms."
Mr. Stokes stopped in the middle of the motion of bringing his pipe to his mouth to blow it out, and Mrs. Stokes dropped her paw from her muzzle and stared at Sasha without realizing her glasses again slid to the very tip of her long, narrow muzzle and off it, falling on the thick knitted tablecloth. For several moments, a silence hung between them, until eventually Mrs. Stokes noticed her glasses laying on the tablecloth and picked them up to put them on again.
"Would you... Do you really want to do that for her, dear?" she asked softly.
Sasha nodded with a warm smile.
"I would want nothing more, missus Stokes. Leia adores Millie, I adore that sweet little choco-snoot, she adores both of us, we both already agreed to be a mother for her, and, well..." Her smile deepened ever further. "It'll be Christmas soon, and I could think of no better gift for her than to lawfully and officially have become our actual daughter."
"Ya have a good heart, Sasha," Mr. Stokes said, finally blowing out his pipe and doing it an extra time or two to hide his emotions. "Where do we sign?"
Smiling, Sasha opened the binder and leafed through the papers in it, eventually turning the binder around and pointing out a few dotted lines on a couple of the documents. From a cup on the windowsill, Mr. Stokes took a thick fountain pen, screwed the cap off it, placed his signature on the required lines and handed the pen to his wife. Mrs. Stokes took several deep breaths with the pen in her paw, looking at the documents and placing her signature near those of her husband, catching her glasses with her other paw just before they toppled off her narrow muzzle again. Sasha blew over the ink to dry it and smiled as she closed the binder, looking at the Saluki woman fiddling with her glasses and the Bullmastiff man screwing the cap back on the pen slowly and setting it back in the cup.
"Thank you."
"Thank you, dear," Mrs. Stokes said, finally unable to keep the quaver out of her voice. "That is... that's the sweetest thing... thank you."
"Pup deserves it," Mr. Stokes said slowly. "Yer a good woman, Sasha."
"I appreciate it so very much," Sasha smiled. She poured three more cups of tea and let go a light chortle. "It'll be at best three days before I'm back home again, so I predict that in four days from now, you will get an amazingly enthused and emotional phonecall from a certain chocolate puppy. You may want to turn down the volume of your phone for that, heh."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Stokes nodded with a short, quiet laugh at that.
"It sounds like a long way home, but surely you'll stay for dinner, dear, won't you?" Mrs. Stokes asked.
Sasha checked her phone and closed her eyes for a moment.
"Gosh, I would love to, missus Stokes. But if I leave in the next ten or so minutes, I can get a couple hundred miles under my wheels and I may be able to reach the boarding house in Campion Crossing to stay the night there, and from there I'll only have to sleep in the car one night. Besides, I don't know if you had seen it, but I actually also adopted a cute kitty in Fossil City today, who is waiting in the car for me. I should really get her home too."
"That's important, gotta take good care of yer animals," Mr. Stokes nodded. "We understand, Sasha."
"Oh yes, but do give me a minute before you go, dear!" Mrs. Stokes said, quickly rising to her feet and crossing the living room. She opened a door next to an old armchair and started rummaging through the inbuilt closet behind the door. After several moments, she closed the door and stepped back up to the table, handing Sasha what looked like a small leather-bound book. "Here, please take this, I want you to have this."
Sasha opened the book and smiled deeply. It was a thick leather cover around a stack of small plastic sleeves, and in each of the sleeves were two photographs back to back. Baby photos of Millie, with many of the photos also showing a teenage Sasha playing with the baby chocolate Labrador puppy as it were all photos from the first five years of Millie's life.
"That is such a wonderful gift. Thank you so very much, missus Stokes, I shall treasure it forever," she smiled.
A few minutes were spent sitting around the table, quietly sipping their tea. Eventually, Sasha rose to her feet, solemnly shook the large paw of Mr. Stokes and answered the embrace Mrs. Stokes took her into. With the binder under her arm and the small photo album in her hand, the tall freckled human woman went back to the small Toyota Starlet, accompanied by both canines who again shook her hand warmly and gratefully - and smiled at the fluffy short-legged cat laying on the passenger seat of the car.
Getting behind the wheel and blowing the horn, Sasha calmly drove off the farmyard and waved at Mr. and Mrs. Stokes who waved after her. She calmly made her way back through the town of Fennfield, smiled again as she passed Amber Waves Farm on her way out at the other side of town, drove over to the main road crossing and took a right turn. Slowly and gradually pressing down the accelerator more and more as the traffic grew more sparse again, the lanky human woman drove back in the direction of the valley as fast as the road and the traffic allowed her. It was well dark and well past dinnertime by the time she reached the old boarding house near the small grain station, but the keeper of the boarding house was willing to whip up a quick meal for Sasha, and even offered a fish head for the fluffy cat Sasha was allowed to bring into her room with her.
Early the next morning, Sasha already was on her way again after a quick shower and evenly quick breakfast. She was just itching to go, both to get far away from Fossil City again, but mainly to bring the wonderful news back home. Used to keeping her foot to the floor in her old Citroen delivery vehicle, she did the same in the Toyota and the small car showed its best side; out on the open road, free from any traffic, it reached over 100mph. Way too fast, of course, but impressive nonetheless. And making much more ground than she had expected to that way, Sasha found herself closer to home than she thought she would be by the time the light left the sky. The blacktop road had long been left behind, and even the gravel road was already behind her.
Pulling over for a quick stop to eat some food and stretch her long legs a bit, Sasha checked her phone for both the time, and the remaining distance she still had to travel. Near 8PM, and a bit over 350 miles left to go. That was amazing; even if she'd keep the speed to a more or less decent 70mph, she would still get back to Butterfly Farm by one o'clock in the morning. Worth it!
Giving her head a resolute nod, Sasha took off her clothes as she was plenty far away from civilization to get away with that, put the camping stove and small generator back into the Toyota, got behind the wheel and clipped her phone into the holder on the windshield, and set off while tapping her phone to call Buddleia.
"Sasha! Is you! You call late! It all go good? Papers all good? Millie aunt and uncle say all good?"
"All good, babe. And this little car is amazing as well, I made incredible time. At this very moment, I'm a good three hundred fifty miles away. I just had a quick supper, and now I'm back behind the wheel and I'm stepping on it. I'll be home tonight, babe, near one in the morning at the latest, but most likely earlier because I'm gonna feed this little cookie tin some serious onions."
"Yay! That so good! We real momma of Millie now! I so happy! And you home soon too! Yay!"
"Haha! Not until she actually signs, fuzzbutt, but I have no doubt whatsoever that she will. And guess what! I did some more adopting, too! I'm bringing home the cutest little kitty that you'll have ever seen!"
"Yeeeee! Kitty! Cute! I like! I wanna see kitty! And see you! And hold you! I not go to bed, Sasha, I wait till you home, yes!"
"I'll be there in a few hours, babe. Count on it. This little thing does over a hundred. I'm not gonna go that fast, that's a bit crazy, but ninety is doable, and I may even make it before midnight."
"Yay! Yes! Is good, Sasha! You not drive dangerous, but you drive quick, yes! And I wait for you, yes! I fix light by start of driveway maybe!"
"That would be nice, fuzzbutt, but keep this in mind; with the way I'm taking, I'm coming in from the back of the farm. The road I'm on connects to that road that goes into Rolling Hills from the northeast, so I can take the turnoff by Waving Grain Farm and drive straight to the back of our place."
"Oh! Okay! Is nice! I go put lantern from underground room on fence by back road, yes! You see easy! Yeeeee! You home soon! With cute kitty! I all bouncy, yee hee!"
"Hahaha! Maybe you should run a few laps around the farm when you're done with that lantern, fuzzbutt, so you'll be calmed down by the time I get there. I'll be super glad to see you again too, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to be bowled over by a bouncy foxtaur trying to jump into my arms, haha!"
"Yee yee hee! I maybe do, Sasha! I not wanna hurt you, but I so happy you home soon, yes!"
"Then go on ahead and fiddle with that lantern, babe, and I'll hang up now so I can concentrate on driving as fast as I can, okay? See you soon, you big silly bouncy fuzzbutt you!"
"Yes! See soon, Sasha! Yay!"
The contact was cut, and Sasha tapped out her phone with a cheerful laugh, looking aside at the fluffy short-legged cat.
"Well, fasten your seatbelt, kitty, we're gonna throw some dust."
The freckled human woman popped one of the cans of energy drink she had bought, took a long deep swig, flicked on the high-beams and gave the volume control of the radio a swing while firmly planting her foot down on the accelerator. With the speed gradually increasing again, Sasha kept it a bit above 90mph, swooshing down the wide dirt road without even noticing how fast she was going as the rapidly disappearing light turned the endless stretches of fields and low hills and forests into an impenetrable mass of darkness.
It was almost like that hurried drive down the M-73 mountain road all those months ago. Almost. Importantly, it was much better. The road was flat, the ground on either side of the road was flat as far as the eye could see, rather than dropping a couple thousand feet steeply, there was no traffic whatsoever coming the other way, and there was no threat of being evicted from a dinky little studio apartment in the city the tall human woman was hurrying towards, but a big, soft, fluffy and very loving and sweet vixen-taur who was bouncily anticipating her return. And tomorrow, an undoubtedly squealing and jumping for joy chocolate Labrador girl as well.
The complete black of the darkness robbed time from all meaning. There was no sensation of speed with the lack of visual cues outside the car windows, there was no sensation of time passing save for the songs coming and going on the radio, and some commercials, the news and weather every hour on the hour. It was only due to the newscasts that Sasha knew it had turned 9PM, 10PM, 11PM. An insignificant and unmeasured amount of minutes after 11PM; there were the buildings, the fields, the fences of Waving Grain Farm showing up in the beams of light from the Toyota's headlights.
Sasha slowed down a lot to take the right turn at the crossing of the two dirt roads, then pressed the accelerator back down. But less firmly; this road was a bit bumpier. After a while, she also flicked off the high-beams. Had she seen that correctly? Squinting through the windshield while leaning over the steering wheel a bit, Sasha stared hard ahead of her. Yes, she had seen it correctly. In the distant darkness, a tiny speck of light was bobbing back and forth. It suddenly bobbed even more erratically.
Almost half an hour later, Sasha let go a cheerful laugh as the origin of the little bobbing light was revealed. The Starlet's headlights picked up the happily bouncing form of a fluffy purple and white vulpine taur holding an old lantern in one paw. Playfully, Sasha started beeping the horn and flashing the high-beams rhythmically as she got closer and closer. Buddleia waved wildly with the paw she was holding the lantern in and hopped up and down on her four feral feet, then trotted after the Toyota as Sasha drove past her and turned into the dirt path between the fields behind the farmhouse.
They both arrived in the open area in front of the large shed and double silo at the same time. Sasha killed the engine and got out of the small car, closing the door again for the safety of the fluffy short-legged cat and laughing as the next moment, she was picked up clear off the ground in a cheerful and close and bouncy hug.
"Sashaaa! Yeeeee! You back! Yay yay yay!"
"Put me down, you fluffy menace! Hahaha!" Sasha laughed. She pushed her glasses back up her nose as Buddleia's cheery bouncing had caused them to slip all the way to the tip of her nose and drew in a deep breath once Buddleia had set her back on her feet. "Jeez you're nuts! But I'm super happy to see you again too, fuzzbutt!"
"I not jump in your arms, Sasha!" Buddleia giggled in many quick, staccato yips. "I take you in mine! Is better, yes?"
"Being in your arms is always the best, fuzzbutt," Sasha chortled, wiping several locks of her long ginger hair behind her ears and sending Buddleia a cheery grin. "But now; sit! Calm down! I gotta show you our new farmkitty, and I don't want the poor thing to have a heart attack!"
Buddleia chirped more cheery yips and plonked her feral rump down onto the ground with a thump, even curling her bushy tail around her feet.
"I calm, Sasha! See? I all nice and calm, yes, yee hee!"
"Good!" Sasha sniggered, opening the Toyota's driver door and leaning over to reach into the small car, then standing back upright with the fluffy, short-legged black and white cat in her arms. "Meet Bubliny, our new farmkitty. Gently meet Bubliny, our new farmkitty! She's a she, and apparently she's a cross between a Maine Coon and a Munchkin. She was sitting in a pet store in Fossil City, waiting for her forever home, and with the look she gave me, I just had to bring her home with me."
Buddleia still hopped right back to her four feral feet and clapped her paws with almost a squeal at the sight of the fluffy short-legged black and white cat.
"Yeeeee! She so cuuute! So short paws! So fluffy fur! She so cute!" She wiggled the fingers of one paw at the small cat's nose. "Hello Bubbeleeby! You so cute!"
The fluffy short cat sniffed one of Buddleia's fingers with her whiskers twitching and a look in her sky blue eyes that clearly said "what kind of nutter is this?"
"There's a big bag of catfood in the back, go grab that and the feeding station and kitty bed and bring it inside, fuzzbutt," Sasha sniggered while nodding her head at the Toyota. "She's gotta settle down calmly after that crazy long trip, and we gotta go to bed! It's past midnight, and we have to go into town tomorrow to make a chocolate pupper bounce even worse than you were doing."
"Yes! Yeee!" Buddleia chirped happily, opening the small car's rear hatch. "Oh, you brought lots! I take all inside, Sasha?"
"No, just bring the bag of food, the feeding station and the kitty bed," Sasha smiled. "The rest can wait till tomorrow, because hell, it already is tomorrow."
"Yee hee! Yes! Is late!" Buddleia chirped, grabbing the bag of catfood, feeding station and plush kitty bed in one paw and closing the car's hatch with her other paw. "We go cuddle and sleep, yes!"
She was already almost by the front door of the small farmhouse by the time Sasha had turned to the car to switch off the headlights and grab the binder of paperwork and the small photo album. The short fluffy black and white cat in her arms turned her head to look up at Sasha's face, and Sasha let go a laugh again at the look in the cat's sky blue eyes.
"You'll get used to her, kitty," she chortled. "C'mon, let's go look at your forever home, shall we?"
"Myew," said Bubliny.
Sash chortled again and carried the cat into the small farmhouse. Inside, Buddleia was trying to stuff the large bag of catfood into one of the small cabinets under the kitchen counter, causing Sasha to cheerfully shake her head again.
"Just pour a bit of it in the feeding station, fuzzbutt, and leave the bag on the counter. We'll keep it in the shed with the other feed bags," she chortled, taking the plush kitty bed and setting it down by the small fireplace. "And here you go, kitty, your own little spot, nice and cozy by the fireplace."
"Oh! Yes! Is good idea! You so clever, Sasha!" Buddleia chirped. She put a cupful of the dryfood in the food bowl of the feeding station, and fresh water in the water bowl, before setting the feeding station in the corner of the front and right wall of the small farmhouse. "Look, is your numnums here, Bubbeleeby!"
"Good, that'll do," Sasha sniggered, playfully putting both hands on the rump of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and pushing. "Now, bed bed bed! It's tomorrow! Yeesh!"
Buddleia giggled in cheery staccato yips again and held her bushy tail lifted as she wagged it to playfully brush it back and forth over Sasha's chest and tickle her face while they stepped into the small bedroom. Settling down in the big nest of cushions and pillows, Sasha was immediately taken into a close hug of both Buddleia's arms and her feral forepaws again, and even then, the fluffy vulpine taur kept wiggling for a while as the excitement only very slowly died down in her double body. But before too long, both of them were asleep, as it was after all in the middle of the night and they'd both had a very long day.
It was therefore close to seven o'clock when they woke up again the following morning. As Buddleia started preparing their breakfast porridge, Sasha stepped outside to take the rest of her things from the small Toyota; her suitcase, the boxes, the small generator and the electric camping stove, the trays of cans of energy drink and bottles of spring water, the cat toys and travel coop, the box of Berry Bites and all but two of the flat boxes with the apple pies from Pastry Passion. A light rain started drizzling down again, so they had their breakfast indoors and also did their cuddling indoors. While snuggled up against the soft and fluffy side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body, Sasha flipped through the binder of paperwork and explained it to Buddleia, and showed her where to sign after she had put down her signature on the required lines herself. Buddleia happily put down her signature as well, showing she had an almost just as elegant handwriting as what Sasha had seen on the old farm records that had been kept by the vixen-taur's grandmother.
After a quick bath in the pond and drying off, Sasha took some time to unbolt the Toyota's passenger seat and bolt it back in the right way around, put the backseat back up and also take out all the metal jerrycans, emptying one of them into the small car's fuel tank. The empty ones went into the back of old Emmie, and the camping stove went back in the underground room, where Buddleia was already filtering and chilling the milk of Choco the goat she had just finished milking. With everything taken care of, the purple and white vixen-taur put on a shirt and her yellow sun hat with the bow, and Sasha actually put her bottle-green denim dress with the brass buttons back on, as well as her pink sun hat with the two ribbons. Due to the drizzle of rain, and just to be safe, they did leave the fluffy short-legged black and white cat inside the small farmhouse as they walked outside and closed the front door. Setting the binder of paperwork on the now once again properly positioned passenger seat, the freckled human woman got behind the wheel of the small Toyota and followed Buddleia driving old Emmie towards the little village of Rolling Hills.
Knowing that the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline could go faster than Buddleia usually drove it, Sasha playfully and a bit teasingly rode the old car's rear bumper in the small Toyota the whole way, spurring Buddleia on to put a bit more pressure on the accelerator. It took them only three and a half hours to reach the village that way. Sasha stopped by the fuel pumps of the garage and topped up the Toyota's fuel tank before parking it in one of the spots in front of the general store. She gave Buddleia the two flat Pastry Passion boxes to carry, holding the binder of paperwork under her arm and walking past the store and over to the small church. Looking around as she stepped inside, she smiled as she spotted the winged white-furred jerboa woman polishing a small silver bell.
"Good morning, priestess."
"Ah, good morning sister Sasha, good morning sister Buddleia," priestess Kyeeru smiled, setting down the bell and tilting her head as she looked at Sasha. "That is a very pretty dress you are wearing, sister Sasha."
"Thank you, the Warmelink sisters made it to measure," Sasha chortled with a light grin. "And they were very, very thorough in the taking of the measurements."
Priestess Kyeeru chortled softly behind one of her delicate small paws.
"I'm sure they were. What can I do for you, Sister Sasha?"
"We're about to drop a bomb in the general store," Sasha chortled. "Would you mind accompanying us? We may need you to shoot a tranquilizer dart."
"Oh dear, and my blowpipe is in the shop for repairs," priestess Kyeeru chortled. "But I'll do my best, sister Sasha."
She accompanied Buddleia and Sasha out of the church and into the general store. Millie giggled cheerfully as Sasha tossed the Toyota's keys on the counter from halfway across the store.
"Hi Leia, hi Sash! You're back already! Wow, you look nice in that dress! And hello, miss Kyeeru! Gee, how fast did you drive, Sash? We weren't expecting you back until at least tomorrow!"
"I may have pushed that cookie tin of yours up to over a hundred every now and then, choco-snoot," Sasha sniggered.
"Wow, yeesh, Sash!" Millie chortled, shaking her head. "You're terrible! I didn't even know my car could go that fast! And is that even safe, on those roads around here?"
"There's much better roads once you start reaching civilization, choco-snoot," Sasha chortled, playfully booping the cool, damp chocolate-colored pad of Millie's nose with a wink. "And you know as well as I do that the roads in and around Fennfield are smoothly asphalted."
"Hee hee! That's true I guess!" Millie giggled, wiggling her nose. "Did you stop in Fennfield?" She glanced at the flat boxes Buddleia set on the counter and let go a cheery yip. "Ooo, you did! That's Pastry Passion boxes! Did you say hi to auntie Ruth and uncle Chester?"
"I did, and I even said a lot more to them, choco-snoot," Sasha chortled, laying the binder on the counter as well. "But before I tell you all about that... good morning, Doris. You may want to step back a bit, but be ready to rush in."
"Is something wrong, Sasha?" Mrs. Stebbins said, tilting her head a bit.
"Very much the contrary," Sasha smiled. She turned back to Millie and opened the binder, flipping to certain pages. "I first and foremost need you to sign here and here, Milbilly."
Millie looked down at the binder curiously.
"What's that? Hey! That's auntie Ruth's signature! Sash, what's..?"
Sasha put a hand down on the pages and leaned in a bit.
"Sign, it, Milbilly."
Millie blinked in surprise, but she did take the pen from the holder on the counter and put her signature on the dotted lines Sasha pointed out. Sasha smiled and closed the binder, motioning at Mrs. Stebbins and priestess Kyeeru with a very small grin.
"Step back and be ready." She leaned on the counter with one hand over the text on the front of the binder and looked Millie straight in the face. "Now listen closely to my words, Milbilly. You've been a good girl, listening and doing as I said, as I, am, your, mother."
It took a few moments for Sasha's words to sink in. The paw over the mouth of Mrs. Stebbins and the warm smile on the slender muzzle of priestess Kyeeru proved they almost instantly understood it, but Millie initially stared back at Sasha in silence, until her mouth started sinking open and her eyes started growing round and wide.
"Sash... w-what... Do you... do you mean..."
With a smile, Sasha took her hand off the cover of the binder and gestured at the text she had covered up, showing that it read "Chosen Ones Adoption Agency, Fossil City and surroundings".
"I mean that yes, these are documents from the adoption agency in Fossil City, the signatures of your aunt and uncle prove their consent, the signatures of Leia and myself prove our intentions, and as you are a legal adult, your signature just made it officially official; you are now actually and officially Leia's and my daughter. Merry early Christmas, my sweet little choco-snoot."
The bomb exploded with success. Millie let out a choked wail and all but jumped over the counter, squeezing her arms tightly around Sasha's tall, lanky body and burying her face into the freckled human woman's chest, howling with happy tears streaming from her eyes.
"Mommy!! Huuuuu! Sash, mommy, my mommyyy! I love you! Huuuuu! I love you, I love youuuuu!"
Sasha wrapped an arm around Millie's shocking shoulders and held the crying chocolate Labrador girl close, running the fingers of her other hand gently through Millie's hair while she smiled at the others.
"I don't think we'll need the tranquilizer dart, priestess. But Doris, a strong cup of tea may be in order."
"Of course," Mrs. Stebbins nodded with a soft smile, toddling over to the door and flipping over the sign to read 'Closed'. "Oh my goodness, that is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Do follow me to the back."
"Leave it to you to make a truth out of those classic Christmas orphan fairytales, sister Sasha," priestess Kyeeru smiled warmly, allowing a light chortle to pass her lips. "And you saying I'm something else, pf!"
"I never did contradict your saying I'm something else as well, priestess, now did I?" Sasha smiled with a soft chortle of her own, still holding Millie close. "Besides, trust me, with our history, this was only a small and very logical next step."
"She sweetest puppy ever, she feel so strong, she deserve," Buddleia smiled, lightly rubbing a paw up and down Millie's back.
"I couldn't agree more," priestess Kyeeru nodded with a smile.
Sasha leaned down her head to press a couple soft smooches on Millie's floppy ears, using one hand to loosen the tight embrace of the chocolate Labrador girl's arms around her body and leaning over to slide her arm to the back of Millie's knees.
"Come now, choco-snoot, hhh-upsy-daisy with you," she smiled, lifting Millie up off the ground and cradling the light brown canine girl in both arms against her chest. "Elevensies are up. Try not to wipe your nose on my dress, okay?"
A watery smile formed around Millie's lips, her wet eyes closed and her wails dying down into happy, hiccupped sobs while she wrapped her arms around Sasha's neck and rested her cheek on the tall human woman's shoulder. Sasha calmly stepped through the door behind the counter Buddleia held open for her, carrying the flat boxes in her other paw, while priestess Kyeeru held open the door to the back room with the soft armchairs, bringing the binder with her. Sinking down in one of the old armchairs, Sasha let Millie slide down into her lap, where the chocolate Labrador girl snuggled up in almost a fetal position, wrapping her arms around Sasha's midriff and resting her head on the freckled human woman's chest with her eyes still closed while doing her best to swallow her happy sobs. Buddleia lay down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body right next to the chair and let go a light, rhythmic churring sound while gently running the back of a paw along Millie's cheek.
Moments later, Mrs. Stebbins walked into the room as well with a tray holding a tea set and a plate with cookies which she set down on the small table between the chairs.
"Please, do have a seat as well, preacher, make yourself comfortable," she smiled, beginning to pour cups of tea. "Gosh, Sasha, this wonderful event deserves more than a simple cookie, but I'm afraid these are all I have at the moment."
"I foresaw and provided for the occasion, Doris," Sasha smiled, running the fingers of one hand through Millie's hair again. "Perhaps Millie may have told you about the lovely signature apple pies of this wonderful little pastry shop in our hometown of Fennfield, called Pastry Passions? Well..." She smiled and motioned at Buddleia. "Babe, if you'd please?"
"Yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile that showed her upper canines and the tip of her dark pink tongue, taking the flat boxes and offering them to Mrs. Stebbins. "Is one for you and Millie, missus Stebbins, and is one for tea now."
"Oh my, you shouldn't have, dear!" Mrs. Stebbins smiled, lifting the lid of the top box. "These look delicious, but quite expensive!"
"It would have been much more of a grave mistake if I had been in Fennfield and I hadn't brought any of Pastry Passion's signature apple pies," Sasha smiled with a light chortle. "One simply does not stop in Fennfield and pass up the opportunity to get one."
"Well, thank you, thank you very much, dear," Mrs. Stebbins smiled, taking the boxes. "Do give me another moment or two, I shall be right back."
She toddled back out of the room. Priestess Kyeeru smoothed out her long white robe and folded her small paws around one of her knees, smiling softly.
"I understand there is some renown coming from the town your and sister Millicent's origins lay in, sister Sasha? Is it a very small town?"
"It's a decently sized town, and yes, there's some artisans there," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Despite there being three bakeries, Pastry Passion is one such artisan enterprise, and they have carved out quite a niche with their exquisite pies and pastries." She let go a short laugh. "I'm surprised Dan from the Co-op hasn't been singing their praises all over this village already, he was floored by these apple pies when I had told him to let Jack know to bring one back after picking up the bale wrapper for us at the Fennfield Co-op."
"Now that you mention it, he did have quite an enthused story about a very special apple pie after one of my Sunday services some months ago," priestess Kyeeru nodded with a light chortle.
"Well, in just a moment or two, you may count yourself among the lucky few of this village who have had the pleasure of tasting this exquisite treat," Sasha chortled.
"I can hardly contain my anticipation," priestess Kyeeru giggled softly, sending Sasha a quick playful wink. "As to give me an indication, sister Sasha; is it a more exquisite treat than my ears?"
"Hahaha! Believe me, priestess, your ears are a special exquisite treat in a whole special quality of their own," Sasha sniggered. "I honestly couldn't tell you if I'd enjoy nibbling on your ears any more or any less than I would enjoy nibbling on a slice of this specific apple pie. But then again, I do enjoy nibbling on your ears in quite a different way and context. Perhaps you should drop by for a visit again sometime soon; Leia bakes a very nice apple pie as well, and we could bake your ears into one and see how much and how possibly similar enjoyment I might get out of nibbling that."
"Now that is just mean, sister Sasha," priestess Kyeeru giggled. "You know darn well how sensitive my ears are, so how could you even suggest I stick them in a hot oven for half an hour? Honestly!"
"Hey, you started it with your silly question of whether the pie or your ears are tastier," Sasha sniggered again.
"Oh dear, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Mrs. Stebbins said as she stepped back into the room with another tray that held several saucers with a slice of pie on them.
"Oh no, it's fine, Doris," Sasha smiled with a light grin. "The priestess was just being silly. I think it may have been one of her obscure manners of attempting to lighten and uplift the mood."
"Ah, right," Mrs. Stebbins nodded with a smile, passing out the saucers. "Well, here you are, everybody."
Sasha accepted two of the saucers and leaned down her head a bit, chortling softly.
"Now then, choco-snoot, would you mind terribly much sitting up a bit and holding your own slice of pie? I only have two hands, you know."
Millie nuzzled her cheek against Sasha's chest, still not opening her eyes and sniffing hard every now and then.
"I'm... hhhu, snnf, snf... I'm... snnf... I'm not moving, mommy..."
"Now listen here, you little choco-chip pupper," Sasha chortled with a small and cheerful grin. "You may now officially be my daughter, but that does not mean I'm going to feed you, got it? I've had enough of you spitting up on me when you were a baby. You may be my little choco-snoot, but you're a big girl and capable enough to hold your own cup of tea and slice of pie."
Everyone chortled softly, and Millie finally opened her eyes and rolled her head on Sasha's chest a bit, sniffing hard again and smiling softly.
"Snnf... o-okay, mom... I love you."
She lifted her head a bit, and Sasha grinned again while leaning back her own head the same amount.
"Hey hey, you can kiss me after you've blown your nose, snot-snoot!"
Everyone chortled again, even Millie let go a light chortle and smiled at Mrs. Stebbins leaning over to offer her a tissue. She blew and wiped her nose and also dabbed her eyes a bit before leaning back in and pressing a loving kiss on Sasha's lips. Sasha answered the kiss for a moment or two and closed one of her eyes in a cheery wink.
"There's a good girl, choco-snoot."
The happy whine rolling from Millie's lips was followed by a light blush as the others all chortled again at the sound. Taking one of the cups of tea and stirring a sugarcube through it, the chocolate Labrador girl held the cup in both paws and tried to hide her blush behind it by blowing over the cup and taking several slow, small sips. For a while, everyone sat together calmly, sipping the tea and praising the apple pie while letting the enormity of the bomb Sasha had dropped in the store die down a bit. Millie calmed down enough to partake in the conversation, even though she stayed in Sasha's lap and leaned up against the tall human woman's chest with her slender tail continuously wagging slowly.
Eventually, priestess Kyeeru set down her teacup and smiled.
"It has truly been an honour to be allowed to be part of this wonderful occasion, sister Sasha." She lightly patted the binder with a paw. "Do excuse my curiosity, and please do not take it as any kind of attempt to take away from the loveliness of this occasion, but dare I wonder how legit this is? Is sister Millie an actual orphan? Or does that not even matter, with her being a legal adult? I am curious about the procedure of adoptions where the adoptee is of legal age."
"My... my dad was not in the picture," Millie said softly, leaning against Sasha's chest and taking small sips from her cup of tea. "And my real mom... I never knew her, she died shortly after I was born and auntie Ruth and uncle Chester raised me. And Sash too, she was always there the first years of my life."
Sasha nodded.
"I have spent over four hours with someone from the adoption agency in Fossil City, going over all the legalities. Millie has been an actual orphan since birth, her aunt and uncle never officially adopted her as their own daughter. So for all the twenty-two years of her life, she has been viable for adoption, should it have ever come up. It just never did, until I showed up in their office a few days ago. And from the moment she turned twenty-one, the orphan thing indeed was no longer a significant matter, as from then on an adoption merely was a matter of consent between legal adults."
"I see," priestess Kyeeru nodded with a smile. "That is interesting, and it really is such an absolutely and amazingly sweet and wonderful thing of you to do, sister Sasha."
Millie rolled her head a bit against Sasha's chest again.
"Hey... but... mom? Why, uh... why did auntie Ruth and uncle Chester have to sign those papers? They, uh... didn't have to give me up, did they, if they never officially adopted me before?"
"They didn't have to, indeed, and they didn't have to sign those documents, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled. "I just asked them to, because it would mean the world to me if they gave me their blessing and their official consent, even if they technically didn't have anything to say about it."
"Awww..." Millie murmured, closing her eyes and pressing her muzzle into the nape of Sasha's neck, taking a couple of slow, deep breaths. "Wh-what, uh... what did they say..?"
"The first few seconds, nothing, as they looked at me the way you were when I told you," Sasha smiled with a mild chortle. "But then they said, where do we sign." She lightly ran the fingers of one hand through Millie's hair again. "Hey, and guess what, your aunt wanted me to have this little album filled with pictures of when you were a baby, and there's a quite young me in a bunch of them too."
"Awww..." Millie murmured again, into Sasha's neck. "I... don't think I've... ever seen those, I'd like to see them..."
"We left that little album at home, choco-snoot, but you'll get to see it in a bit," Sasha smiled, looking up and sending Mrs. Stebbins a smile as well. "Because I don't think you would object to Leia and I taking her home with us today and letting her stay with us for the rest of this December, Doris, would you?" A light chortle. "You'll get her back after New Year's."
"Of course I don't mind, not in the least," Mrs. Stebbins smiled. "Barry's Christmas holiday starts when he gets home from school on Friday, and she ought to be with you two for the holidays." She leaned over and gently patted Millie's leg. "And don't worry about your bunny, dear, we'll take care of it."
"Yeah, she'll be fine, she won't be big enough to eat until next year at least," Sasha sniggered.
"Mooom!" Millie whined. "That's meannn!"
"Yes, you big mean tease, Sasha!" Buddleia chortled with several short cheery yips, leaning over a bit as well and lightly squeezing Millie's leg. "We tickle her when we home, Millie, yes, that teach her, yee yee hee!"
"You'll have to catch me first, you pair of conspiring fuzzbutts you!" Sasha grinned.
Everyone softly laughed and chortled again. They had another cup of tea together, but eventually they all got up so priestess Kyeeru could return to her church, Mrs. Stebbins could reopen the store, and Sasha could ride with Millie in the small Toyota, following Buddleia in old Emmie driving back to the farm.
What an event! A Christmas fairytale alright! Life in Rolling Hills and on Butterfly Farm was now truly complete!
