Diaper Wishes and Baby Powder Dreams Chapter 7
The sound of the engine as it rolled down the highway made a constant drone as Raven plotted his course to his destination. In the trailer was a load of top soil and mulch that was going to his home town. He was to deliver it to the Council Gardens nursery on the edge of town. He had never been there before, besides driving past it so it was going to be a new place to visit. But he wasn't thinking as much about the delivery as to whom he knew was going to be there. Its hard to think about business when a person you like is going to be at the same place. It seemed like the road was flying by as he got into town. The miles kept clicking away on his odometer. Finally his destination was in front of him. As he backed the truck into the dock and headed into the receiving office to give them the paperwork.
Lotus was busy tending to the centerpiece of the garden. This garden was specialy sanctioned by the council for specific properties to one particular flower. It was called Retrogradus Lotus, a special version that had regenerative properties. You see the council were elders that had lived for generations and this was the source of their long lives. However it was only one of the catalysts of their longevity. Each one had a different trigger to activate the chemicals inside the lotus. It was also the reason Lotus got her name as such. She was handpicked to be their caretaker. Her nurturing nature was well suited for the delicate flower. She too had used the flower for her life, which was now at around 200 years old, despite her somewhat youthful appearance. As she was caring for the flowers, she heard a familiar voice up near the front office. She turned and saw a white fox standing there talking to the receiving manager as they were unloading his truck. Lotus just smiled to herself but then went back to her work. She was more focused on the flowers anyhway. A few of them were set to go into full bloom any day now and she had to be ready to collect the flowers when they did. A few moments later as she was looking over one of the plants, there was a soft voice in her ear. "A Lotus by any other name would still smell as sweet." Lotus looked up to see Raven standing there. She smiled at the line, a clear paraphrase of a famous line from a Shakespeare play.
"So I see you had to deliver the mulch for the garden today?" she asked him, her attitude more business than pleasure currently. "Yeah, I was shocked to see where I was going with this myself." said Raven as he looked at the wolfess tending to the plants. All of a sudden the receiving manager was calling for him. "Wow that was fast in unloading today." said Raven out loud as he turned to walk away. "I'll see you later my flower!" he said to her as he quickly walked to the front of the garden. As he began to walk away, a familiar scent began to emanate from some of the plants around him. It almost smelled like....happiness. As he walked up to the front, Lotus too began to smell the same scent. Her ears perked up and she turned, seeing a beautiful flower begining to open. It was one of the lotus flowers. As she went towards it she looked down and noticed a couple strands of fur, laying beside the petals. They were white in color and she knew exactly who they had come from as she smiled while now looking directly at the fox heading out the front door. "I see you've come at the right time as well." she said as she quickly harvested the flower and hurried it into a cooler as the truck pulled away from the dock.
As Raven headed toward the yard, and his weekend time off, he smiled, being glad that he made it home early for a change. Then his phone rang as he started to get the truck on the road. "Yea this Raven!" "I what?" "Oh yes I am still interested in that position." "You have?!" "Oh thats great news!" "When can I start?" "How about 2 weeks?" "Oh...I have to move to where for this?" "No, no thats not a problem, no I still accept it. I just need about a month now." "Thank you again!"
Raven was torn. His dream job had come in, but he sighed as he was told the next part. He was going to have to move away. "How am I going to break this to Lotus?" he thought as he drove on home. It wasn't long before Raven had got home. After getting settled in he sat back in his recliner with the tv on and some time later, fell asleep.
The sun was shining on his eyes as he moved his head, his mind slowly coming out of his nap. "I thought I closed that damn shade before I turned on the tv." he said to himself as he opened his eyes. His eyes made out a piece of white painted wood right in front of him. The sun was shining through a window behind it and he began to stretch out. As he started to stretch he heard "Aww the baby is waking up!" from the voice of a little girl. Raven didn't think much of it, figuring it was just something on the tv. That was until the wooden panel moved and a pair of paws reached in and scooped him up. Raven squirmed a bit until his eyes saw his captor. It was Miss Celani and she had the little kit well in hand as she cradled him in her arms. "Well I see our little explorer finally has woken from his little nappy nap hmm?" she said as she carried him over to a high chair. "And just in time for your nummy lunch!" she said as she sat the fox down and strapped him in then slid the tray into place. "Now here's your baba of juice while I go get your food and bib for you ok little man." said the lioness as she set the bottle into his paws and scruffled his hair. Raven just giggled despite himself and began to suckle the bottle.
He may have still had some adult thoughts but his adult side was even saying he was thirsty and so he sat there drinking his bottle of juice. Quite greedily too at that. It was apple juice and very sweet to his tongue. The fox noticed that it seemed his sense of taste for tart and sweet were more enhanced now and the flavor was incredible. He hadn't remembered apple juice tasting this good before and this was the watered down baby juice version at that! It wasn't long before Melanie came back, holding a jar of baby food and a spoon. But what was different was the bib was being held by her young daughter Ashley who was being a helper in the feeding area. As he suckled the bottle the younger lioness proceeded to put the bib on, following the directions of her mother while Raven stayed focused on the bottle. "Thats right, gently tie it into a bow like that" said Melanie as Ashley happily complied. Anyone could tell the young girl was enjoying helping. She was getting to play baby dolls with real babies and she couldn't have been happier to do so. "Can I feed him too mom?" she asked as the older lioness opened the jar of baby food. "Not today hun, I think you can go back to playing with Nikki, now run along and play." she said to her daughter as the girl skipped off into the bigger kid's room.
"You must have been a parched lil kit huh?" said Miss Celani as she gently pulled the now half empty bottle from Raven's lips. "But now its time for some chicken and rice for a little happy foxy!" "Special delivery for a baby's tummy!" said the lioness as she began to spoon feed the playful and squirmy fox. Raven at first tried to resist the babyfood, but all that ended up doing was causing his cheeks to get smeared with the near missed spoonfuls of pureed chicken and rice. It seemed that his body would try to turn back whenever he wanted to turn away. After a while he just gave up and let himself be fed. Which if you think about it isn't that bad. I mean if all you had to do was sit there and open your mouth to get fed a good meal, you'd do it right? And besides it didn't taste that bad either Raven thought. "Just could use a bit of hot sauce." he thought. In no time the kit was happy as a lark, clapping and giggling as the lioness fed him. After the chicken and rice was a jar of vanilla pudding and then he was back to finishing the bottle. Melanie just chuckled at how messy he had gotten while she fed him. It seemed that the bib had gone through a war with all the dribbles of food all over it from feeding this squirmy little kit. "If I didn't know any better little one, I'd say that you were learning to be fed all over again." she said as he finished the juice. After being cleaned up she picked up the young kit, patted his back for a quick burping and then carried him away for a quick diaper change and then out to play in the sand box outside. It wouldn't be long before his mommy came to get him and take him home after that.
And so it was that a couple short hours later Raven was crawling and yipping happily as he went over to his mama wolf who scooped him up and took him into her arms. "Is someone happy to see mommy hmm?" she said to him as she then looked up at Melanie. "So how was his first day here?" "Well he's a messy eater and he's a bit of a sprinkler at times in his diaper but otherwise I think he did fine today." she responded as Lotus gentl took Raven's paw and had him wave goodbye. "Well we will see you tomorrow, wave goodbye to Miss Celani Raven!" she said to him and then carried him over to the stroller, strapped him in and headed down the sidewalk back home.
To Be Continued....
