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stories of the world I created myself, with characters I created myself. This is an on-going series of loose stories.", "count": "36", "submission_left_submission_id": "3752619", "submission_left_file_name": "5799509_Fritti__buddleia-sasha_09_-_power_to_them.txt", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5799/5799509_Fritti__buddleia-sasha_09_-_power_to_them.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5799/5799509_Fritti__buddleia-sasha_09_-_power_to_them.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5799/5799509_Fritti__buddleia-sasha_09_-_power_to_them.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "250", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "167", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "100" } ], "description": "A long one this time!\n\nIt was about time Millie showed up! Sasha's dear chocolate Labrador friend from the city, who has been so worried about her, finally has the time to come visit! And it's such a sweet reunion, with almost some tears, some good emotions, and by the end of the evening a funny secret is even revealed, which leads into a, to some, really quite funny request!\n\nA request that also opens the door for some naughty fun later... but that's a whole other story! >~_^<\n\nI did give this one a Mature rating; not because anything naughty happens, but there is a bit of uncouth language and some talk about sexy stuff, so better to be safe than sorry! And as there is nothing naughty happening, I feel safe enough posting it here in my IB gallery as well, despite the Mature rating on a story with a human woman in it.\n\nBuddleia is © Fritti Breezedancer\nSasha Farr is © Fritti Breezedancer\nMillie Stokes is © Fritti Breezedancer\nThe Minnaluna world and all characters therein are © Fritti Breezedancer", "description_bbcode_parsed": "A long one this time!

It was about time Millie showed up! Sasha's dear chocolate Labrador friend from the city, who has been so worried about her, finally has the time to come visit! And it's such a sweet reunion, with almost some tears, some good emotions, and by the end of the evening a funny secret is even revealed, which leads into a, to some, really quite funny request!

A request that also opens the door for some naughty fun later... but that's a whole other story! >~_^<

I did give this one a Mature rating; not because anything naughty happens, but there is a bit of uncouth language and some talk about sexy stuff, so better to be safe than sorry! And as there is nothing naughty happening, I feel safe enough posting it here in my IB gallery as well, despite the Mature rating on a story with a human woman in it.

Buddleia is © Fritti Breezedancer
Sasha Farr is © Fritti Breezedancer
Millie Stokes is © Fritti Breezedancer
The Minnaluna world and all characters therein are © Fritti Breezedancer", "writing": "Affection levels had spiked. There already was a tremendous amount of love between the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia and the tall, lanky human woman Sasha, so much so it seemed as if they couldn't love each other more if they wanted to. And yet, somehow; they managed.\n\nHaving experienced just how much Sasha enjoyed pleasuring her after the human woman had caught Buddleia again suppressing her arousal and needs out of fear for hurting Sasha and had taken the lead in releasing the vixen-taur from her pent-up feelings, with proof that it had not exacerbated her physical injuries and with the positively wonderful aftercare she had given, Buddleia had almost regressed to a more primal and feral version of her already still quite animalistic tauren self. Not submissive, but adoring, like a pack animal puppy snuggling up to an alpha female. After every bath in the pond, after they were done drying and brushing each other and they were cuddling in relaxation before starting or ending the workday, the vulpine taur held her arms and her feral forepaws wrapped around the human woman's lanky body protectively - and somewhat possessively - and ceaselessly lay number after number of loving, affectionate licks on Sasha's neck and cheeks.\n\nSasha, in her turn, had introduced her beloved vixen-taur wife to the wondrous relaxation and tranquility of tantrism. During every bath in the pond and during the brushing and cuddling afterwards, the human woman applied soft and tender touches and petting that included breasts and nipples - not to pleasure sexually, not even to induce arousal, but to release and relieve it. To bond, to share in the wondrously calming and relaxing state of just being together, feeling one another, transmitting their love for one another through the close and intimate contact between their bodies, their fingers applying tenderness upon each other. It had relieved the worries in Buddleia's mind so completely that the vixen-taur even found herself comfortable enough to tease every now and then - and Sasha showed her a thing or two about teasing in return.\n\nIt had also given the fluffy vulpine taur the relaxed patience to anticipate. She wanted to explore her beloved human wife in the close, intimate and indeed sexual manner like how Sasha had explored her so badly, but she had the calmness now to wait and anticipate the time when the tall and lanky human woman would be fully healed without it throwing her hormonal needs into hyperdrive.\n\nIt had brought them even so much closer together than they already were. It had also increased the length of their relaxation breaks after each bath and after lunch by a good amount. But they had the time. They were together, every day, with no obligations to go anywhere, so they could take their time. And they had in fact caught up with the actual farming work. While there was still a lot of work to do, they had caught up with any harvesting. All the grass had been mowed, only the hay in the rear-side left field still needed baling, and there was nothing left to do in the fields but to wait for the grass to regrow to harvesting length, which would take at minimum three weeks.\n\nA lot of the freed-up time was spent relaxing, cuddling, petting one another, tenderly, lovingly, adoringly. Most of the time was still spent bringing the small farm up to scratch. They had spent almost two weeks with the old machinery; one day per implement, fully disassembling the tedder, windrower, weeder and fertilizer spreader, as well as both the sickle bar mower and the deck mower, and the cultivator, disc harrow and planter, and even the old plow, cleaning them down to the bare metal, properly repairing the stick-welded and baling wire fixes with the MIG welder, reassembling them and painting them in the muted light lavender color that had become their unofficial company color. Having identified some of the larger fir trees in the large copse covering the hill behind the silo and new shed as Douglas firs, they had cut down a couple of them and brought them to the sawmill to be turned into double-thickness planks, which were used to replace the splintery old deck of the long bale trailer - after which that, also, was painted the light lavender color. It had made such a difference in just the appearance; looking at the implements parked in the shed, it was clear they were very old in design, but they looked almost brand new.\n\nDuring two of the days when Buddleia had been re-decking the bale trailer and reassembling the planter, Sasha had taken her toolbox and the old orbital sander to the 1953 MAZ-200 truck the livestock dealers had given them and had improved its appearance a thousandfold. All the peeling light green paint as well as a good deal of the original dark bluish green paint and all the surface rust was sanded off, and the human woman had even removed, or at least loosened, all the gauges and switches on the inside so the metal dash could be sanded as well. The worst dents were hammered as smooth as she could get them, and finally utilizing the second-hand air compressor and basic paint gun she had bought at the hardware store in the tiny village, as well as rolls of old masking tape and a stack of old newspapers that had been in one of the boxes in the workshop, Sasha had proceeded to respray the old truck inside and out, using only one can of the mixed pink and light blue paint despite giving the truck three coats of the muted lavender color, including the still very sturdy and solid deck of the flat bed and even the massive and solid rims.\n\nTruth be told; it was a rather unusual combination. The rough and raw utilitarian look of the large truck, in that soft, indeed somewhat feminine color made the massive vehicle look... almost unsettlingly endearing. Especially after Sasha had cleaned and reinstalled all the gauges and switches and knobs and had used part of the other half of the faded flowery bedsheet Buddleia had used half of to wrap her chest in to cover the simple driver's seat as well. The soft, sweet paint color and faded flower print were... ridiculously out of place.\n\nStill! The truck looked a million times better with a fresh coat of paint, very importantly it matched the rest of the equipment, and Sasha had even taken apart a part of the old two-stroke diesel engine to clean and refresh some of the worn parts. All through the day as she was reinstalling the gauges and switches, the human woman was also enjoying herself in advance over the reaction they would get when they'd show up at the livestock dealer with the old rough truck in its new feminine appearance.\n\nThe simple work Sasha had done on the engine, and very importantly, the exhaust, had certainly been a big improvement as well. The truck was still slow, but it was a lot less ugly, it definitely was a lot less loud, and with the passenger seat removed and a few cushions on the floor it was even relatively comfortable for Buddleia to ride along in it - with the provision that the vixen-taur had to fit her quadruped lower body in the footwell so she had to ride back to front with her back pointing at the double windshield. But that wasn't too much of an inconvenience, and Buddleia was even enjoying it quite a bit as it allowed her to look at and lean up against Sasha as the human woman drove the truck to the livestock dealer with their latest and largest load of hay bales.\n\nPulling into the yard of the livestock dealer, Sasha was certainly not disappointed. The large hare man Simon was walking to one of the buildings with a box full of cans, and at the sight of the truck he stopped short, dropped the box so the cans rolled every which way, and he dropped his lower jaw as well. The lanky human woman laughed loudly, holding her right hand on her right side against the small stabs of pain her recovering ribs sent shooting through her side as she climbed out of the truck and very cheerfully waved at the stunned hare man with her left hand.\n \"Mornin', Simon! I think you dropped something!\"\nIt took several moments of opening and closing his mouth and blinking his eyes before Simon managed to find his voice.\n \"Ho... ly... [i]beefcows[/i]! Jeesus tapdancing Christ Sasha! Is [i]that our[/i] old truck?!\"\n \"Oh, yes, I gave it a lick of paint so it's now our company color,\" Sasha grinned cheerily, rubbing her right side a bit. \"Like it?\"\n \"God [i]damn[/i], Sasha! I don't believe my own damn eyes!\" Simon said, turning a bit to the building he had been heading towards. \"Harry! [i]Harry[/i]! You [i]gotta[/i] see this, man!\"\n\nThe heavy-built fox man came trotting out of the building. At the sight of the truck his feet stopped so dead-suddenly his upper body almost made a headlong dive into the dirt of the yard.\n \"[i]What[/i] the [i]fuck[/i]!\" he yelped wide-eyed, only just managing to keep himself upright. \"That can't be the pile of crap we gave you, Sasha!\"\n \"Eh, a lick of paint and a seat cover can do wonders, you know,\" Sasha laughed, folding her right arm around Buddleia's shoulders as the vixen-taur had also jumped out of the truck and was now gently rubbing her right side with a paw.\n \"Oh my [i]god[/i]!\" Simon burst out laughing as he walked up to the truck and looked into the cab through the open driver door. \"The flower print! Hahaha! Oh goddam that's hilarious! And you even painted the inside! Hahaha! Oh man! Well, I'm glad to see you're apparently aiming to use this beast for a good while to come, Sasha! Haha! Goddam, I would give you such a big pat on the shoulder, but that would be bad for your ribs, so I'll just...\" He slammed a fist down on the flat bed of the truck and laughed again. \"This is [i]amazing[/i]!\"\n \"I'm glad my hard work is appreciated,\" Sasha chortled cheerfully. \"There's still plenty of that old sheet left too, so I may even put in a headliner later to get rid of the oil drum sound of that cab. And hey! Check it!\" she gestured at the stacks of hay bales piled onto the bed. \"Ninety-three bales, gentlemen! The last of our first cut, so make'em last!\"\n \"Awesome!\" Simon nodded, still laughing. \"Back into the hayloft, Sasha, you know the way by now!\"\n\nNodding with another cheerful chortle, Sasha climbed back into the truck to maneuver it around and backed it into the left one of the two haylofts at the edge of the yard. Buddleia helped Simon and Harry pick up all the cans and put them back in the box, and helped unload the truck and stack all the bales onto a large lift platform as well so they could be brought up to the top of the loft. After a very welcome payment of almost twenty-five hundred dollars had been processed, both the hare man and the fox man walked Sasha and Buddleia back to the truck so they could have another good look at it and even pull out their phones to snap a few pictures, laughing heartily again.\n\nAs she walked around to the driver door, Sasha halted for a moment and looked through the doorway of the other hayloft where bales of straw were stored, tilting her head a bit at a few giant round white plastic bales sitting just inside the doorway.\n \"What's with the big marshmallows?\" she asked. \"Is that silage?\"\n \"Yup,\" the fox man Harry nodded. \"We get it from a large farm just outside of Arfafield, it's the closest by here where we can get it. Keeps well and the ladies love it.\"\n \"If you wanna make good money, you may wanna consider switching to silage, Sasha,\" Simon smiled. \"Going price for that stuff is about ten times as much as for hay and straw, and we'll pay top price for it, especially if we can get it more locally.\"\n \"Wow, damn,\" Sasha said with a light chortle, running a hand over her chin. \"I do love the idea of getting ten times the money, but I doubt we could do anything like that anytime soon. We'll need a bunker for starters, and we don't have the space and definitely not the money for that.\"\n \"You don't need a bunker necessarily, you can use a bale wrapper,\" Harry smiled with a light shrug. \"Bale grass right after mowing, wrap the bales, then you just need a shelter to store them as they ferment. Much more manageable than a bunker and much easier, too.\"\n \"Really?\" Sasha said, tilting her head with an eyebrow quirked. \"My grandfolks made some silage from the corn they grew on their farm every so often, I thought that was the only suitable stuff for it?\"\n \"Oh no, we actually prefer using grass silage, and we prefer it in bales,\" Simon said with a smile, gesturing at the large round white bales. \"To be honest, with how few animals we keep here at any given time, those are even a bit too big for our needs, so smaller bales are much more suited to our needs.\"\nSasha leaned against the large left front fender of the truck and lit a cigarette.\n \"Okay, educate me, I'm intrigued. What would I need, apart from that bale wrapper thing you mentioned, to make good or at least decent quality silage that you guys would be happy with, and how would I make it?\"\n \"Well, for one, you want the grass well-chopped,\" Simon smiled. \"I noticed that in the last two batches of bales you brought, the grass was already more chopped than in the first few batches, so I'm guessing you switched to a different mower?\"\n \"Yeah, we started out with a sickle bar and used that until the parts were in for the deck mower that was sitting around, and we're using that now,\" Sasha nodded. \"Is that good enough?\"\n \"It's a good start,\" Simon nodded as well. \"I'm guessing it's a two-blade or two-string deck? You may wanna look into at least a three-blade deck to chop the grass even finer, or even get a mulcher, that would be the best. Then just bale it like normal, right after mowing, and when you're done, make another pass with a bale wrapper to wrap the bales. Dan should be able to find you one that'll take square bales and is not too expensive.\"\n \"I definitely like the sound of that,\" Sasha nodded with a chortle, through a cloud of smoke waving from her nostrils. \"Anything else we absolutely need?\"\n \"You'll want a moisture meter and a thermometer,\" Harry added. \"The ones with a long needle, so you can stick them into the bales and reach about the middle. And a PH meter, same thing, long needle one.\"\n \"Yeah, you'll want the temp to sit between sixty-five and eighty-five F, or eighteen to twenty-nine C, and the moisture level to sit between sixty and seventy percent,\" Simon nodded. \"That's your optimal ranges. You can inoculate the bales to aid the fermenting and bring out different qualities, but that ain't really a purely necessary step. Just stack them someplace safe so they can maintain those temp ranges and make sure they're sealed real well; the tiny holes you stick into them with the meters don't really matter much.\"\n \"Leave'em to do their thing for three to four weeks, check every day or every two days for the temp and moisture, especially in the first ten days, also start checking the PH levels after day ten, and a good four weeks later, presto, silage,\" Harry added again. \"That's when you stick your PH meter in for the last time, and you should see a PH of between three point eight and four point two, that's the ideal range, but anything up to five is alright.\"\n \"A bonus, aside from the much higher going price, is that by the time your first bales are done, your grass is ready to be cut again for the next batch,\" Simon chuckled. \"The first batch is your longest investment because you'll have to wait about a month before it's done and you get paid, but after that, you're just raking in the cash; you'll get about ten times as much dough for the same grass, and it'll even take you less work too because you don't have to ted and dry and windrow it.\"\nSasha took a slow drag from her cigarette and also nodded slowly.\n \"Alright, that sounds much more doable than getting a chopper, a forage wagon, a bunker, a compactor and a frontloader or something,\" she smiled. \"But now answer me this; say we'd only use our back field for the grass. That's ninety-three of those small bales we just brought you. Wouldn't that be way too much for you guys? Especially if we would bring a load like that every month?\"\n \"Hell yes,\" Harry chuckled. \"Grass silage keeps for up to a year, and we don't go through that much of it with the small amount of animals we keep here at any given time.\"\n \"But here's the clincher,\" Simon chuckled with a light wink. \"You make ninety-three small silage bales. We'll buy, say, a dozen to keep us going for a year. The rest, you can sell to the BGA, they love the stuff as well and they'll pay about as much as we do for locally sourced silage, and they will take as much as you can bring them, any time.\"\n \"Okay, that's a clincher alright, I'm convinced,\" Sasha chortled while pinching out the butt of her cigarette and sticking it in a pocket of her shorts, curling her lips into a small grin. \"But don't expect our next load to be silage already. We'll need to get a storage area, and most importantly, we'll need to get one of those bale wrapper things, second-hand and cheap so we can actually afford it, and who knows how long it'll be before one of those pops up.\"\n \"Just go nextdoor and bug Dan, he'll keep his ears open and his eyes to the ground,\" Harry chuckled.\n \"Definitely gonna do that,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, shaking paws with both men. \"Guys, have a great day, and thanks a bunch for the awesome tip.\"\n \"Same to you, and thank [i]you[/i] for the awesome laugh,\" Simon chuckled, nodding at the lavender truck. \"Seriously, that is [i]wild[/i]!\"\n \"Yeah, I love it!\" Harry nodded with a chuckle as well.\n \"Thanks, guys,\" Sasha chortled. \"Keep your ears perked, you may hear a roar in a minute when we pull up in front of the Co-op, too.\"\n\nWith more cheerful chuckles and a wave, they said their goodbyes. Sasha climbed back into the truck and looked aside at Buddleia making her way into the cab as well and laying her quadruped lower body down in the passenger footwell, giggling in staccato yips.\n \"That was so funny! Yee yee hee! They look so funny when they see the truck!\"\n \"Yeah, I got a real kick out of that,\" Sasha nodded with a giggle of her own while she started the truck. \"And how about that silage idea, huh? I definitely like the thought of getting way more money for less work, ha!\"\n \"Yes! Is so good idea!\" Buddleia nodded. \"I never think to make silage, even though I know BGA likes!\"\n \"Well, I sure hope Dan can find us one of those wrapper things fairly quickly,\" Sasha smiled, calmly driving the truck out of the livestock yard and down the narrow dirt road around the base of the hill. \"Damn, to think I never even know about that option even though we sometimes made silage on my grandfolks' farm.\"\nShe made the left turn and pulled into the yard of the Ag Co-op, and sure enough, as the human woman parked the truck by the large glass doors, a loud laugh rang out before they had even gotten out of the cab.\n \"Whaaaaa! Ha ha ha! Oh good grief!\" Stepping out of the building, the lion man Daniel laughed loudly and cheerfully as he waved at Sasha. \"Is that still Simon's old truck? Ha ha ha! That's amazing, Sasha! You sure spruced that old beast up, didn't you!\"\n \"Hey, we have an official company color, so all our equipment and vehicles should match,\" Sasha chortled with a light grin. \"I may even paint butterflies all over it in the future, too.\"\n \"I'd damn well [i]pay[/i] you to see that!\" Daniel laughed. \"Oh man, that's great! Ha ha!\" He shook his head for a moment and ran a paw over his face to control himself a bit. \"And of course, hello Sasha, hello Buddleia, good to see you two! How's things going?\"\n \"Very well actually,\" Sasha smiled with a laugh. \"We've got the last hay off the land, and we got a good deal of our equipment taken apart, cleaned, fixed, painted and put back together so it's all looking loads better.\"\n \"Yes, is all super nice purple now!\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"Well, a lot, not all yet, but we getting there!\"\n \"That's great to hear!\" Daniel smiled. \"And what can I do for you today?\"\n \"Well, the fine fellows nextdoor gave us the great idea to turn our grass into silage rather than hay,\" Sasha smiled. \"So we're in the market for a cheap second-hand bale wrapper, and maybe a storage shelter although we can probably build one ourselves. Could you maybe show us some options?\"\n \"By all means!\" the lion man nodded with a smile. \"Come on in! That is an excellent idea, it will increase your income by [i]so[/i] much.\" He held open the glass door and led the way over to the large counter. \"Have a seat, have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?\"\n \"Tea please, Dan, thank you,\" Buddleia smiled, accepting the large flat cushion the lion man pulled from behind the counter and handed her.\n \"I'll have a tea as well, thank you,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, sitting down in one of the chairs by the counter and playfully resting her feet on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body as the vixen-taur lay on the flat cushion next to her.\n \"Of course,\" Daniel nodded, turning to the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman behind the counter. \"Clarissa, please be so kind to get the ladies a cup of tea?\"\n \"Certainly, mister Tawnto,\" the canine woman smiled, also sending a smile at Buddleia and Sasha. \"Good afternoon, dears, it's nice to see you again.\"\n\nShe disappeared through a door behind the counter. The lion man sat down behind the counter and swiveled one of the computer screens to face Sasha and Buddleia, doing a bit of tapping and clicking on the computer. Soon after, a row of pictures appeared on the screen.\n \"As you can see, there's quite a selection you can choose from,\" Daniel smiled, enlarging the pictures by clicking on them. \"This is pretty much the industry standard; a round baler and wrapper combo. Picks up the grass and makes it into standard four thousand liter round bales that are then wrapped in the same machine. The downside of these, if you ask me, is that you have to stop all the time to unload the wrapped bale, and sometimes you even have to wait until it's done before you can continue baling because both chambers are full.\"\n \"It also looks like a machine that needs a darn powerful tractor to pull and operate it,\" Sasha remarked.\n \"Yes, horsepower requirement is usually in the two hundred fifty to four hundred range,\" Daniel nodded. \"So you'd need at least a medium-sized tractor.\" He clicked some more pictures. \"These are pretty much all similar, just different brands, and some make different sized bales as well. Then you have this, this is just a wrapper that picks up a round bale and wraps it. Again, you'll have to stop to let it unload once it's done, but at least you can just simply drive up to the next bale while it's wrapping. Or there are these, they are stationary and you drop the bales on them to be wrapped.\"\n \"Still looks like it'd need a pretty powerful tractor, and... oh, thank you,\" Sasha smiled as the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman set a cup of tea on the counter for her and Buddleia. \"Anyway, the additional problem is that we would also need a baler that makes round bales. Simon actually said they prefer our smaller sized square bales, so we'd rather have a wrapper that can handle those, and preferably one on wheels because I don't feel like spending extra money for a forklift or a loader attachment with forks for any of our current tractors, [i]if[/i] they can even have one installed.\"\n \"Yes, in that case you'll be wanting an inline towed wrapper,\" Daniel nodded, clicking another picture. \"Something like this would be your best option, the Kuhn SW forty-fourteen. It's not exactly inline as it offsets to the side of the tractor, but you can drive up to a bale, the rollers will pinch under and lift the bale so it can be wrapped, and then extend and set the bale back on the ground. Only requires... let me see... ninety horsepower minimum.\"\n \"I'm not sure what the ratings of our current tractors are,\" Sasha smiled, sipping her tea. \"But yes, that model looks pretty much exactly like what we'd be wanting.\" She chortled softly. \"Also, looking at that price is making my ribs as well as my wallet hurt, so hopefully you can maybe locate one for us that is used and a [i]lot[/i] cheaper? Hell, I don't even care if it's broken if that lowers the price even more, we can fix it.\"\n \"Let me have a look-see,\" Daniel smiled, doing more typing and clicking. \"Hmmm... not much in the market currently, but I will put the word out and keep my eyes open for you, Sasha. Is it very urgent? Because we can also rent you one, and I'll only count the hours it's been in use, not the amount of days you have it, because you have pretty much a whole day of travel to get here and back to your farm.\"\n \"If you can't find one in the near future, that is definitely an option we will go for, Dan, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"And there's no immediate urgency, our grass won't be ready for a next cut until three weeks or so from now. Maybe two for the first fields we did. Oh, and while you're looking, Simon mentioned fine-chopped grass, so if you could also find a used mower deck with three blades, or better yet, a mulcher, that'll be awesome.\"\n \"Alright, as I said, I'll put out the word and keep my eyes open for you,\" Daniel smiled, clicking the pictures away again. \"As soon as I find something, I'll shoot a text your way, okay? What's the price range you're willing to go to?\"\n \"Sounds great, Dan, thanks,\" Sasha smiled, finishing her tea. \"As for the price, you know our financial situation, so the cheaper the better, and the most we can do is a grand. For the mower deck or mulcher, I'm also willing to trade in our old one.\" She let go another chortle. \"And while we're here, do you have anything else cheap we could use?\"\nThe lion man chuckled softly while he did some typing on the computer again.\n \"I have an old log splitter sitting out back you can have?\"\n \"Heh, that's actually not bad, our stove runs on firewood,\" Sasha chortled, smiling at Buddleia. \"What do you think, Leia, would you like a machine to take over for you swinging an axe for a day?\"\n \"Would be nice, my arms always tired after chopping wood,\" Buddleia nodded with a light chortle. \"We take it, Dan, thank you much.\"\n \"And weird question, Dan, but would you mind if I did a bit of dumpster diving?\" Sasha giggled. \"I'm looking for some sheets of thin fiberboard or something, sturdy but a bit pliable, so I can make a headliner for that truck out there. Oh, and maybe some of that self-sticking sound deadener stuff.\"\n \"Haha, sure, it's yours, and you can go right ahead, Sasha. Not sure if there's anything you can use, but heck, what do I know, so have a look,\" Daniel nodded with another chuckle. \"And I may actually have some sound deadener for you, hang on.\" He walked out from behind the desk and over to the doors in the far right wall, opening one and sticking his head around it. \"Tim! We got any rolls of sound deadener matting that's been opened?\"\n \"Got one that's 'bout half a roll or so!\" came a voice from behind the door.\n \"Hand it to me, would you please?\" A few moments later, the lion man walked back to the counter with a roll of silver and black material under his arm, setting it upright against the counter. \"Here you go, Sasha, take this, we hardly use it anyway.\"\n \"Thank you so much, Dan, I appreciate it,\" Sasha smiled with another soft chortle. \"And if your mechanic fellow back there has one of those roller things and a box cutter or scissors I could borrow for a minute, I'll be even more grateful because then I can put some of this in the truck right away and make that four-hour drive back home a lot less loud and annoying.\"\n\nDaniel laughed shortly and walked back to the door in the right wall, returning another few moments later with a plastic roller and a large pair of scissors which he handed Sasha. The human woman chortled again and took the tools and the roll of material outside to the old MAZ truck, cutting strips of the material, sticking them against the inside of the roof and rolling them firmly. A few strips were also placed in the footwells, against the side kick panels and under the driver's seat for as far as Sasha could reach. In the meantime, Buddleia followed Daniel to behind the large building somewhere and walked over to the truck several moments later with an old motorized log splitter in her arms which she put on the bed of the truck and strapped down. Returning the tools, the human woman followed the lion man out of one the doors in the rear and over to an area behind the building as well, where several large dumpsters were sitting. Behind one of them, several sheets and plates of material were leaning against the back wall of the building. Sasha checked them, finding most of them being plywood or MDF that was too thick, but between two sheets of plywood she found a sheet of 5mm thick fiberboard of which one side was very smooth and shiny and the other side was roughly textured. It also had a tear in one side and two corners were crumbled, but that was not a problem as it had to be cut to size anyway.\n\nSasha slid that sheet into the cab of the old truck, against the back wall, along with the half roll of sound deadening, and shook the lion man's paw.\n \"Thanks a bundle, Dan. I'll look forward to hearing a beep from you on a wrapper, and if not, you'll see at least me sometime next month or so to come rent one,\" she smiled. \"Oh, and if you happen to hear about any restaurants going under, I'm also in the market for one or two large stainless steel sinks and some stainless steel food prep tables or counters, and maybe some fridges or freezers too, so I'd be obliged if you can look out for anything like that as well.\"\n \"Any time, Sasha,\" Dan smiled. \"I'll keep an eye out for the restaurant stuff as well, even though that's not something we usually get notified about as an Agricultural Co-operation. But again, I'll put the word out. Are you planning to open a restaurant too?\" he chuckled.\n \"Hee, hell no,\" Sasha chortled. \"But we're making goat cheese now, and we've discussed making wine as well because that plum tree we have drops so darn many plums and we found some elderberry bushes. So if I want to have a serious look into doing that, I'd rather do it right and have a good work area with good equipment. We do have a good space, there's a bunker under the windmill Leia showed me and it has a large room next to it that was used for storage. It's real nice and cool in there, and I'm already making the cheese in there.\"\n \"Oh, that's real nice!\" Daniel smiled. \"When your first cheese is ready, I'll be the first to buy some, I [i]love[/i] goat cheese.\"\n \"We have some aging right now,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Some good sized ones and a bunch of mini ones because I did my first experiments in an old muffin tray, and that's such a nice size for mini cheeses. When they're done aging, I'll bring you one of the mini ones, they're just regular cheese from milk, and I'll let you be the first one to buy one of our larger Beech Butterflies, which are going to be our special-flavor ones with a pinch of pink Himalayan salt and chopped roasted beech nuts.\"\n \"Oh my gosh you're making me hungry,\" Daniel chuckled. \"I can't wait, Sasha! Hey, have a great day, and you too, Buddleia, it was good seeing you.\"\n \"Yes, you have good day too, Dan,\" Buddleia smiled.\n\nThey waved and said their goodbyes, Daniel walking back into the building and Buddleia and Sasha climbing into the truck. Sasha started the engine and slammed the truck in gear, slowly turning around and driving off the Co-op yard.\n \"Oh man, that is already [i]so[/i] much better,\" she smiled as she drove down the hill. \"Now it's not like we're driving around inside a giant echo chamber anymore.\"\n \"Yes, I can hold my ears up now,\" Buddleia nodded with a light chortle, actually perking and flicking her ears at the sound of a melodious tone. \"What that?\"\n \"That's my phone,\" Sasha chortled. \"Wouldn't it be something if Dan already found something for us?\"\n\nWith a bit of wiggling and leaning, Sasha managed to take her phone from a pocket of her pair of shorts. She smiled as she checked the screen, seeing the number of her 22-year old chocolate Labrador friend Millie and a picture of the brown canine girl with her tongue poking out.\n \"Aw, it's Millie.\" She rested the phone on the steering wheel so she could swipe it. \"Heya Milbilly! Hang on a sec, I'm gonna give you to Leia.\" She switched the phone to the speaker function and held it out to the vixen-taur. \"Can you hold it out for me, Leia, please?\" Buddleia nodded and took the phone, holding it in Sasha's direction. \"Okay, that's better. Sorry Mil, we're on our way home from the Co-op so I'm driving an ancient truck down a bumpy dirt road and I need both hands. How's it going?\"\n \"Oh, okay,\" Millie's voice sounded from the phone. \"It's going well, Sash. I, uh... I have a couple weeks off. Do you think... is it okay if I come visit?\"\n \"Of course, choco-snoot!\" Sasha smiled. \"Any time! You know how to get here, yeah?\"\n \"Yes, uh... I found that Ag Co-op you were talking about, I know how to get to there. It's like... uh, twenty or so hours, but I can get to the Bluetit Inn right near the M-seventy-three tonight and, uh, catch some sleep and get up early and drive down the M-seventy-three and be at that Co-op tomorrow between, uh, two or three PM or so, and from there it was, like, four hours, you said?\"\n \"Yes, now that I have a phone again I checked, and it's a hundred seventy-six miles from the farm. So you can probably make it in under four hours, but for the old bangers we're driving it's a good four hours or more, depending on what we're hauling.\"\n \"Okay, uh... I still have those directions you gave me, Sash. So... it's okay if I come over?\"\n \"Absolutely, choco-snoot. It'll be great timing too, you'll get here right about suppertime or a bit after, so we'll make sure to toss a bit extra in the pot for you. Are you bringing my old stuff with you?\"\n \"Yes, uh... yes, I have it all sitting in the trunk of my car, Sash, ever since that time you called me. I have your glasses too.\"\n \"Good girl, choco-snoot. We'll see you tomorrow then. Wow, that's quicker than I thought you would be able to make it, awesome. Hey, drive carefully on that goddam mountain road, okay?\"\n \"Mnnyeeh... I, uh, I will, Sash, promise. I'll, uh, I'll see you tomorrow evening then.\"\n \"See you then, Milbilly. Hey, howl at the moon.\"\n \"Hee, yeah... howl at the moon, Sash.\"\n\nThe contact was cut. Sasha reached aside to tap out her phone and smiled at Buddleia as she wiggled and leaned to slide her phone back into her pocket. The vixen-taur also smiled, looking back at Sasha with a slightly wondrous expression.\n \"Why howl at the moon, Sasha?\"\n \"That's just a funny little thing Mil and I always say as a goodbye,\" Sasha smiled, sitting up straight again. \"She's even more of a hayseed than I am, you know, she even looks the part; always wearing old cowboy hats and wearing her hair in two braids, because that's how she grew up on the farm of her aunt and uncle.\" She chortled lightly. \"They had a farm dog that was part coyote, and she would always tell me about how it would howl at the moon, so that became a bit of a thing between us.\"\n \"Aww, is cute,\" Buddleia smiled. \"She sound like very sweet girl, I already like her and I not even seen her yet, yee hee!\" She tilted her head a bit, displaying her upper canine teeth in a slightly wider smile. \"But her name Millie, you say, so why you call her Milbilly and... choco-snoot? I know is like how you call me fuzzbutt, but why choco-snoot?\"\nSasha let go a louder chortle.\n \"I told you, she's an even bigger hayseed than I am. Some of those chicks from our group called her a hillbilly, and she hated it, but because her name is Millie I made it into Milbilly, just to make her giggle, and it stuck.\" She looked aside and smiled. \"And she's a chocolate-colored Labrador girl, you know. Not just her fur and her hair, even her skin is chocolate-colored. Really very pretty, to be fair. But the other chicks always picked on her, because she's the youngest, and still a quite naive country bumpkin, or at least she was in the beginning. I felt bad for her, so because I was the oldest, by quite a margin actually, I took her under my wing a bit, protected her a bit, because I was really just a country bumpkin too, no matter how hard I tried not to be. Well, one day they had gotten her with water balloons, poor girl was drenched to the bone, so I took her to my studio and helped her get all dry, and I brushed her fur and everything.\" A light giggle escaped Sasha's lips and she shook her head a bit at the memory. \"Damn, she was so awkward and embarrassed sitting there in her panties on the very edge of my bed in my tiny apartment, she was blushing so hard you could see it through her fur. But because I was brushing her, I could see how nice and sleek her fur was and what a nice chocolate-y color her skin had and all, so when I was done brushing her I said... jeez, what did I say again? Something along the lines of, hey, don't listen to what those others say to you, you're a very pretty girl, choco-snoot. For her chocolate colors, you know.\" Sasha laughed softly. \"But damn, I swear you could've seen her blush from outer space when I called her that! But it looked so [i]adorable[/i], so from then on, I started calling her choco-snoot whenever I could.\"\nBuddleia yipped a light giggle and playfully pushed one of her feral front paws against Sasha's leg.\n \"You embarrass her because it look cute? You big big meanie, Sasha, yee hee! I think when she here, I should protect her a bit from you, yee hee!\"\nSasha laughed shortly again.\n \"Be prepared to be wearing a chocolate Labrador backpack for however long she may be here if you do that, fuzzbutt. Once she likes you, she gets clingier than velcro! Hey, and you know what, I only realized that later, but I never called her that around the others of our group. Only when no one but she could hear it, so nobody could tease her for it.\"\n \"I not surprised, actually,\" Buddleia smiled, showing her upper canines and the tip of her tongue while she lay her feral forepaw on Sasha's leg. \"You very sweet woman, Sasha. I bet even when you try be all grumpy or snap at folks or yell at folks, you still very very sweet woman underneath. You really care for Millie girl, I can tell.\"\n \"Are you trying to make [i]me[/i] blush now, fuzzbutt?\" Sasha chortled. \"Well tough cookies, that ain't gonna work, I can tell you that.\"\n \"I just say truth,\" Buddleia smiled, leaning her upper body over to nuzzle her snoot into the nape of Sasha's neck and give a few affectionate licks to the human woman's neck.\n \"That makes you a very very sweet woman too, fuzzbutt, just so you know,\" Sasha smiled with a light chortle, taking one hand off the steering wheel to softly pat the vixen-taur's feral forepaw resting on her leg.\nBuddleia churred and gave more soft, affectionate licks to Sasha's neck, the firm round toes of her feral forepaw curling lightly to give more or less a gentle squeeze to the human woman's long, slender leg.\n \"You say she, Millie, young girl. She really so young?\" she smiled after a last lick to Sasha's neck.\n \"Young is relative, but compared to the rest of us, yeah, she's young,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle, taking the large steering wheel in both hands again. \"I was the old geezer of the group at thirty-five, the others were all in their mid to late twenties, but Millie is just twenty-two, so she's just a kid, really.\" She let go a short laugh. \"Few days before our wedding when I was inviting everyone, I called her too when I was at the sawmill. Fred was there when I did that, and he said he could hear it was clearly I friend I had been talking to, so we got to talking about her a bit. I mentioned to him that I could've been Mil's mother, although I would've had to have a kid at the age of thirteen.\"\nBuddleia yipped a light giggle again.\n \"Is young to have kits, yee hee! But you be good momma, Sasha, I sure you be very good momma, yes. \"\nSasha let go a soft giggle as well.\n \"Well, thanks, fuzzbutt. We'll probably never find out, but that's very sweet of you to say.\"\n\nCalmly talking, they arrived back at their farm before they even knew it. Sasha parked the old MAZ truck in the rickety open shed where the old Skoda grain truck and the two combine harvesters were also still sitting as they were still non-runners. Buddleia went into the small farmhouse to start preparing dinner for them as it was already past suppertime, and while the vixen-taur was doing that, Sasha took some time to measure and cut the thin sheet of fiberboard to size and glue the rest of the faded flower-print bedsheet to the smooth side of it. There were edges around the ceiling of the old truck where it could be wedged under, and in the middle was a crossbar from between the two windshields to the back of the cab that was not connected to the roof; an interior light had once been on that. Sasha slid the sheet-covered fiberboard over that crossbar and wedged it into the narrows slits formed by the raised edges around the perimeter of the cab so it drew the strips of sound deadener from view and gave the cab a nicer ceiling.\n\nAfter they had finished their dinner, Buddleia spread out in the soft grass of the back garden in her very comfortable position of laying on both her backs, and Sasha lay her tall, lanky self down on top of the fluffy vixen-taur, being hugged close by Buddleia's arms and feral forepaws. It had become their go-to position for cuddling after dinner; it was just so comfortable, they had the wonderful feeling of their whole bodies touching and snuggling against each other - and it was a perfect position to kiss, as well.\n\nSasha had also said she was only going to sleep in the bed for a further two weeks more. Her ribs had almost healed by now, and while she kept a safe margin to eliminate any possible risks, the bed was going to be finito soon so they could also spend their nights comfortably cuddled up close against each other in the pillow nest Buddleia used to sleep in. The vixen-taur was still sleeping in a somewhat unusual position, with her feral forepaws and her upper body resting on the bed so she could hug Sasha, so it would be much more comfortable for her as well once they would finally get to sharing the pillow nest.\n\nThey spent a longer time cuddling, kissing and petting each other after their porridge breakfast and morning bath in the pond the next morning as well. There was a clear hint of excitement in the air; even if neither of them mentioned it, Buddleia could still tell Sasha was anticipating the arrival of her friend, and she herself was also a bit excited over it, along with plain curious about what the girl looked like and would be like.\n\nGetting to work, their morning routine had expanded with the additional actions of feeding the chickens, rabbits and the goat and milking the goat, which they did in turns. Sasha brought the milk into the underground room, filtered and bottled it, and once the fresh bottles were labeled with the date and set in the freezer, the human woman took the hour the bottles needed in the freezer to take some bottles of the oldest milk to make a good number more of the miniature butterfly-shaped cheeses, tacking a card with the date to the front of the shelf they were laid on to age. More time was taken up in the small farmhouse, where Sasha put the large, wide pot Buddleia used for making jam on the stove and filled it with water. She stoked the furnace quite hard, bringing the water to a boil relatively quickly and using it to clean out and sterilize the bottles she had emptied, which were set upside down over a strip of metal with upright bars that Buddleia had welded together for her so the bottles could dry.\n\nIn the meantime, Buddleia had pushed the small old baler into the rickety open shed and put a large toolbox near it. Laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body, the vixen-taur started taking the old baler apart to thoroughly clean out the inside, laying all the parts out neatly on an old sheet she had spread out over the dirt floor. Once Sasha was done cleaning the bottles, she joined Buddleia in the old open shed and helped by sanding and cleaning all the parts Buddleia took out of the old baler and painting the ones that could or should be painted. The lanky human woman looked up every now and then with a light chortle at Buddleia leaning deeper and deeper into the old machine, sort of humming a tune to herself by means of rhythmic churrs and soft whines as she took part after part out of the old baler. Sasha was also a bit surprised at how intricate the inner workings of the old and simple baler turned out to be.\n\nDue to that, and the fact there were so many parts of which some put up a fight when Buddleia tried to remove them, the work on just disassembling the old baler took them the whole rest of the day. They even decided to forego on their lunch to keep working, so there might be a chance they would at least have the disassembling finished by the time it was time to have dinner. Fortunately the dirt floor of the old open shed was packed so hard from all the machines moving in and out of it over the years no loose dust or sand blew up in the light breeze to ruin the painting work Sasha was doing. The little flies and other small bugs that every now and then got stuck in the fresh paint... eh well, they could be picked out, and it was just old farm equipment after all, it didn't need an absolutely perfect paintjob.\n\nWorking in tandem, the fluffy vixen-taur and the lanky human woman did manage to get the entire baler disassembled and the parts cleaned and painted by the time the sun had hidden behind the mountains in the distance. The light still stayed in the sky a long time after the sun had gone behind the mountains, and there were lights in the old open shed which allowed them to finish their work. Once done they tied another old bedsheet in place over the entrance of the open shed to keep any loose debris from blowing in and getting stuck to the fresh paint. Deciding to wait with having their bath in the pond and even their dinner as it was getting very close to the time Sasha's friend Millie would be arriving, the fluffy vixen-taur and the tall human woman merely stretched out comfortably in the soft grass of the field in front of the house, near the rabbit hutches and runs, cuddling up against one another and softly petting each other to pass the time.\n\nIt wasn't too long before Buddleia suddenly perked and swiveled her ears, which made Sasha look up as well. A pair of headlights could be seen coming down the dirt road, and as they turned into the driveway of the farm and came closer, it could be seen the headlights belonged to a 1994 Toyota Starlet 1.3 XLi 3-door hatchback in a deep dark blue color that was slightly faded and had patches of the clearcoat peeling off. Getting to all six of their combined feet, Sasha and Buddleia looked at the small car coming closer with a smile.\n\nIt stopped a little ways away from them. The driver door was opened, and the next moment a chocolate Labrador girl got out of the car, dressed in a pair of jeans, a flannel button-down shirt and, indeed, a felt cowboy hat from under which a pair of floppy triangular ears and a pair of thin braids hung down.\n \"Sash!\" the girl cried out. \"You look so... healthy!\"\nShe started running over towards Sasha, who quirked an eyebrow and quickly took a step aside so the canine girl ran past her.\n \"Whoa, no you don't, Mil!\"\nStumbling to a halt, the young brown Labrador girl turned around, panting and with her eyes wide.\n \"Wha... Sash... why, not..?\"\nSasha smiled and patted the flower-print wrap around her chest with a hand.\n \"Broken ribs, Milbilly, remember? You can hug me, but you gotta be careful about it, I don't need you squeezing the shit out of me and hurting or even damaging my ribs.\" She smiled deeper and opened her arms. \"Now c'mere you, choco-snoot. It's good to see you.\"\n\nWith a relieved and happy whine, the chocolate Labrador girl walked back over to Sasha and wrapped her arms around the tall human woman's sides in a rather tight, but careful hug. Her hat fell off as she pressed her cheek and muzzle against Sasha's chest with her eyes closed, her sleek and somewhat thin, narrow tail wagging lightly while more quiet whines escaped her lips, deepening and mixing with quiet sniffles as Sasha put her left hand on the back of the canine girl's head and gently ran her right hand up and down the girl's back.\n \"I... snf, snf... I missed you so much, Sash... Snf, snnf... It's so... so good to see you... snf...\"\n \"It's good to see you too, Milbilly,\" Sasha smiled, lightly petting one of the floppy triangular ears. \"Now c'mon, keep the tears inside, okay? There's no need to cry, as you can see I'm very much not dead or nothing.\"\nMillie let go a quiet whimper and sniffed harder, pressing her whole face into the flowery wrap around Sasha's chest.\n \"I've... I've been [i]so[/i] worried and scared, Sash... I... snf snnf, hhhu... I thought I'd... lost you forever...\" She rolled her head slightly to look up at Sasha's face, her hazel eyes brimming with unshed tears ready to fall. \"I've... I almost had a heart attack when you called me... snnf, snf... After I'd called the cops for you, I... snf... I've been crying all night...\"\n \"Aw, there there now, choco-snoot, it's okay,\" Sasha smiled, lowering her hand to gently brush her fingers along Millie's cheek. \"I'm not dead, I'm even almost healed and already so much better than ever, and I sure ain't planning on dying for a long time to come, I can promise you that. Now, c'mon, take a deep breath, Milbilly, and say hello to my wife, okay?\"\n\nThe chocolate Labrador girl sniffed hard several times and squeezed her eyes for a moment while lifting her head off Sasha's wrapped chest. Letting go of the tall human woman, she turned to look at Buddleia, who had picked up her hat, and her hazel eyes shot wide open.\n \"She's a [i][b]taur[/b][/i]?!? Why didn't you tell me, Sash?! Why... how..!\"\nWith a louder giggle, Sasha reached out with her right hand, putting her thumb under Millie's chin and folding the other fingers over the top of the light brown canine girl's muzzle, effectively silencing Millie by gently holding her muzzle shut.\n \"Because I knew [i]this[/i] would happen, Milbilly, is why I didn't tell you. Besides, didn't you see it on the video call during our wedding? You must've not been paying very much attention, choco-snoot.\"\n \"I was looking at youuu!\" Millie whined from a corner of her mouth. \"Because I missed you so much!\"\n \"I suppose that's understandable,\" Sasha nodded with a chortle, letting go of Millie's muzzle and pressing the tip of her right index finger against the soft, damp chocolate-colored pad of the canine girl's nose. \"Now, take a deep breath again, Milbilly, calm down a bit, and again, say hello to my wife Buddleia.\"\n\nIt took several long and deep breaths, with her head leaned down, before Millie managed to compose herself a bit again. Eventually, she lifted her head back up and once again turned to Buddleia, making a forced effort to look at the vixen-taur's face and not stare at her quadruped lower body.\n \"It's, uh... it's very nice to meet you, miss... I mean, missus... Buddleia,\"\n \"Is very nice to meet you too, Millie,\" Buddleia smiled, putting the hat back on Millie's head. \"Sasha tell me much about you, all nice things, yes.\"\n \"You talk so weird!\" Millie blurted out.\n \"[i]Millie[/i]!\" Sasha admonished while biting back a chortle.\n \"I'm sorry Sash, but she does!\" Millie said, turning to look at Sasha so rapidly her hat fell off again.\n \"That may be so, but that's my wife you're talking about, Milbilly,\" Sasha said, letting go the chortle she had bitten back earlier. \"And she's even a few years older than I am, so show respect, kiddo.\"\nMillie dipped her head and her slender tail.\n \"Sorry...\" She turned back to Buddleia. \"I'm sorry, uh, missus Buddleia...\"\nThe vixen-taur just yipped a light giggle.\n \"You so funny! Up down, up down reactions, you like rollercoaster! Yee hee!\" She stepped closer and pulled Millie into a big hug with both arms. \"I not mad, Millie, you sweet girl, yes.\"\n\nMillie meeped as she was pulled into the hug. For a while she just stood there with her arms dangling down the sides of her body, not knowing how to react. Very slowly, her slender tail began wagging again, very lightly, and she rested her cheek against Buddleia's fluffy chest.\n \"Uh... thank you... You're very nice too.\" She looked up a bit. \"Please... take good care of Sash.\"\n \"I will, I am,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile that displayed her upper canines and the very tip of her dark pink tongue.\n \"Hell yeah, she's been taking excellent care of me, Milbilly,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"You said it yourself; I look so healthy. And it's because of her my ribs are healing so well, too. So don't you worry 'bout a thing, choco-snoot, Leia's taking the best care of me anyone has ever taken of anyone.\"\n \"Thank you...\" Millie murmured.\n\nShe sniffed hard again, but managed to keep herself under control. As Buddleia released the hug, the chocolate Labrador girl still couldn't help looking at the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body, however.\n \"Wow... I've never seen anyone like you before. It's... I dunno, it looks weird, but... really nice too. You're... you're very pretty, missus Buddleia.\"\n \"Thanks, Millie,\" Buddleia smiled. She picked up the cowboy hat again and put it back on Millie's head. \"You can say Leia too, like Sasha do, is easier, yes.\"\nMillie nodded quietly and gave a small smile, looking around when Sasha put a hand on her shoulder.\n \"And now that we have all the shocks and emotions of the reunion out of the way, go on and park your car over there by our cars, Milbilly,\" the human woman smiled, pointing at the open area where the old workshop had been and where now the beat-up 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline and the rusty 1956 Citroen 2CV AZU were sitting. \"It's really high time we get supper started, we haven't eaten anything yet since breakfast.\" She smiled at Buddleia as well. \"Can you go build a campfire in the backyard, Leia? I'll make my granny's stew tonight.\"\n \"I need get rabbit too, I do that first,\" Buddleia smiled.\n\nThe purple and white vixen-taur turned and walked off, disappearing around the left side of the small farmhouse. Millie nodded quietly in response to what Sasha had said and got back into her car, of which the engine was still running. Sasha walked further up the driveway as Millie drove over to the open area, quirking an eyebrow as she spotted the rear hatch of the small Toyota was not closed but held down with a bungee cord, because what looked like a small tree was sticking out the back of the trunk. She thumbed at it when Millie had shut off the headlights and the engine and got back out of her car.\n \"What's that, Mil? I know I had some plants at my place, but I sure don't remember having anything like that.\"\nMillie took off the bungee cord and opened the rear hatch of her car, taking out what was indeed a small tree and setting it down on the ground on the large plastic pot it was sitting in.\n \"That's, uh... I stopped by that Co-op on the way, Sash, and I picked this up for you as, uh... as a wedding gift,\" she said in a low voice but with a small smile. \"It's a Rainier cherry tree, auntie Ruth has them on the farm too, and I always loved the sweet yellow cherries that come from it.\" She reached into the trunk and took out another, smaller tree in a plastic pot. \"And this is a Bing cherry tree, you should plant that six to eight feet away from the Rainier one, they have to pollinate each other, you know.\"\n \"Aren't you just a darling!\" Sasha smiled, pulling Millie into a hug and pressing a soft smooch on the light brown canine girl's forehead. \"Thank you so much, choco-snoot, I absolutely love it!\"\n \"I'm so glad, you're so welcome, Sash,\" Millie smiled softly, nuzzling her cheek against the wrap around Sasha's chest, but suddenly perking her floppy ears as much as she could perk them and whipping around her head at a sharp squeal sounding from somewhere behind the copse of trees behind the farmhouse. \"What was that?!\"\n \"That's just Leia hunting,\" Sasha chortled, gently patting Millie's shoulder. \"C'mon, I'll show you to the backyard, I gotta dig up some veggies for the stew.\"\n \"Oh... okay,\" Millie nodded, taking a deep breath. \"Uh... can I freshen up a bit somewhere, Sash? It was such a long drive, and kinda dusty and all.\"\nSasha chortled again and gestured at the pond.\n \"Right there, Mil. But if you're not ready for a full bath yet but just wanna splash some water in your face for now, we do actually have a bathroom. C'mon, I'll show you.\"\n \"You... you bathe in... in a pond..?\" Millie blinked as she looked at the pond. \"Uh, anyway, yeah... just a splash of water is good for now, Sash, thank you.\"\n\nShe followed the tall human woman to the small farmhouse, looking around a bit as they walked up to the front door and stepped inside. It was relatively clear the young light brown canine girl wanted to blurt out again about the small size, the cracked windowpanes, the lack of furniture, the cracked and crumbling plaster on the inside walls and the scuffed and scratched floor, but she managed to control herself and not say a thing. Sasha saw her into the small bathroom and pointed at the sink against the far wall.\n \"There you go, Mil. The water actually works here, but I don't know how warm it may get, Leia said that boiler is not too good anymore and we honestly haven't used this bathroom because we've been taking our baths in that pond outside.\"\n \"It's, uh... it's okay, Sash,\" Millie said with a small smile. \"Thanks.\"\n\nShe turned to the sink and tried the faucet, then holding her paws under the stream of water and splashing it into her face a couple of times. Sasha stepped back out of the bathroom and looked at Millie with a smile while she filled the mini cauldron and a regular pot with water, and three mugs with goat milk from one of the bottles sitting in the small refrigerator under the counter.\n \"Did you see our goat outside?\" she smiled when Millie stepped out of the bathroom as well with the fur in her face still damp, handing the light brown canine girl one of the mugs. \"Here, try this, you must be parched after the long drive.\"\n \"Aw, you have a goat?\" Millie smiled lightly. \"No, I didn't see it, but that's cute, I like goats.\" She took a sip of the milk. \"Is this her milk? It's so tasty!\"\n \"What if I told you that's Leia's milk?\" Sasha chortled, letting out a cheerful laugh at Millie's eyes shooting wide open. \"Just kidding, Mil! That is in fact milk from our goat outside, honest. She's a very generous girl as a matter of fact, she gives over a gallon of milk every day! I had to start making cheese because we got way too much milk to keep fresh real fast.\"\n \"Yeesh, you... you scared me for a bit, Sash,\" Millie said, breathing deeply. \"But yeah, this, uh... this does taste like goat milk, and it's really very tasty. I've always liked it better over cow milk.\"\n \"Good, good,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, sticking her left arm through the handle of the mini cauldron so she could carry it while holding the other pot in both hands. \"Can you grab those other two mugs too, please? We usually do our cooking on this stove, but for this, I prefer cooking over an open fire.\"\n\nMillie nodded and took the other two mugs, carrying all three of them while she followed Sasha out of the house and around the right side of it to the back garden. Buddleia was already there as well, building a campfire in the circle of rocks while a dead rabbit was laying next to her. The vixen-taur smiled as she rose to her four feral feet after lighting the fire.\n \"I get my knife, you need anything from kitchen, Sasha?\"\n \"Just that big-ass knife, the cutting board and the stand from the fireplace, fuzzbutt, thanks,\" Sasha smiled, setting the pot of water next to the tree stump they used as a table, then setting the mini cauldron by the fire. She smiled at Millie as well. \"You can set the mugs down on here, Mil. We have no chairs, but the grass is real comfy.\"\nMillie nodded again as she set the three mugs down on the tree stump and looked around.\n \"This is a really nice garden, Sash. Look at all those vegetables, they look so good and happy and healthy.\"\n \"Yep, that's the care Leia gives to them, so you can imagine what it's been doing for me,\" Sasha nodded with a chortle.\n\nShe started picking several of the staked vegetables; a couple of tomatoes, a red bell pepper and several green and white beans and pea pods. Laying those down by the tree stump, she turned to the other vegetable patch to pick a leek, dig up a well-grown onion, a few of the carrots and a few of the largest potatoes, dropping the latter straight into the pot of water. Buddleia returned in the back garden with the wood cutting board, the large knife, her own folded hunting knife, the large jar of salt and two earthenware bowls and the metal stand. She handed Sasha the cutting board and the large knife, set the stand over the campfire and hung the mini cauldron over the fire, then she lay down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body near the tree stump, setting the earthenware bowls in the grass in front of her, the jar of salt next to her, and unfolding the large hunting knife to start skinning the dead rabbit.\n\nMillie sat down in the grass as well, looking mainly at Sasha as the tall human woman began washing all the vegetables in the pot of water, scraping and chopping the carrots and the leek, chopping the tomatoes, the bell pepper and the beans, peeling the outer skin off the onion and chopping it as well as its greens and shelling the peas, and eventually dicing the potatoes with skin and all after thoroughly washing them in the pot of water. As she dropped all the prepped vegetables in the mini cauldron along with some salt from the glass jar, she shook her head with a light chortle.\n \"Wouldn't you know, I forgot to ask you to bring the ladle,\" she smiled at Buddleia. \"Don't get up, fuzzbutt, I'll get it myself.\"\n\nShe walked around the left side of the house, returning a moment or two later with the bent ladle, a thin metal skewer with a narrow wood handle, three of the smoother soup bowls and three spoons, setting the bowls and spoons down on the tree stump and poking the skewer into the ground while she slowly stirred the ladle through the mini cauldron. Millie more or less focused on that, to try and keep her eyes away from Buddleia cleaning the rabbit and dropping the innards and bones in one of the earthenware bowls while rubbing each chunk of meat with some salt before dropping them in the other earthenware bowl.\n \"That's gross...\" she mumbled, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on her knees.\n \"How do you think the butcher does it, Milbilly?\" Sasha chortled, taking the prepared chunks of meat, cutting them into smaller pieces and searing each piece on the skewer for a moment or two before dropping them in the mini cauldron. \"Same thing you know, but here it's the middle of nowhere so we have to do it ourselves.\"\n \"I know...\" Millie nodded. \"I'm sure it'll, uh... taste real good, Sash, but that doesn't mean I have to like looking at it.\"\n \"You look other way, look at pretty flowers, Millie, I almost done,\" Buddleia smiled.\nMillie sent the vixen-taur a small smile and directed her gaze back at Sasha, who had gotten up to pick a few of the chanterelle mushrooms from the rotting tree stump in the copse of trees behind the back garden.\n \"Wow, it's, uh... like, really as natural as it gets, isn't it?\" she said with another light smile. \"Freshly hunted rabbit, freshly picked veggies and mushrooms, straight from the earth into the pot... you sure don't get that in the city.\" Her smile deepened a bit. \"And I didn't even know you can cook, Sash?\"\n \"I can't,\" Sasha chortled while she washed and sliced the mushrooms and added them to the mini cauldron as well. \"Only this, it's something my granny always made after first harvest for my gramps and me and all their helpers. But I'm learning more recipes, so that's really awesome.\"\n \"Aww, your grandmother did that too?\" Millie smiled. \"Auntie Ruth always bakes a huge stack of barley flapjacks after first harvest for everyone, it's like a tradition.\"\n \"You live on farm too, Millie?\" Buddleia asked with a smile that displayed the lower ends of her upper canines, rubbing the last chunk of rabbit meat with salt and washing her paws in the pot of water.\n \"Not anymore, but I grew up on my auntie and uncle's farm, and I still go back every summer if I can,\" Millie smiled. For a moment, she dipped her head and let go a light sigh. \"Honestly, I'm thinking about going back to their farm altogether, it's no fun in the city.\"\n \"It's true what they say,\" Sasha smiled with a light chortle, cutting up the last chunks of rabbit meat, searing them and dropping them in the mini cauldron. \"You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl. Look at me, I've lived in the city as long as I've lived on my grandfolks' farm just about, I was convinced life was so much better and more glamorous in the city, and what did those seventeen years of misery teach me? That I'm a farm girl in my heart, my soul and my bones.\"\n \"You, uh... I always knew that, Sash,\" Millie said with a light smile. \"Whenever it was just, like, you and me, and we'd talk about auntie Ruth's farm, the way you talked about the farm of your grandparents clearly showed me how much you actually always liked it there. Even if you always seemed uninterested and reluctant to talk about it.\"\n \"Guess I didn't hide it as well as I always thought I did,\" Sasha chortled while slowly stirring the ladle through the mini cauldron. \"But then again, I thought a lot of stuff that was utterly stupid when I lived in the city, especially the thought that I could escape my true destiny of being a farmer.\"\n \"It, uh... it shows, Sash,\" Millie nodded lightly. \"As much as I would want you to come back, you... you just look so much happier and healthier here, and so... I dunno, in place. Even, uh...\" She hid her muzzle behind her knees she still had her arms wrapped around as she blushed. \"Even with you... being naked, it... it doesn't even look, like, weird or... provocative or nothing, it just looks, well... natural.\"\n \"It feels natural, Mil,\" Sasha nodded with a smile which slowly turned into a light grin. \"And I know you love it, you've always loved staring at my tiny titties every time we had showered and I brushed your fur, so you must be having a field day now.\"\nMillie meeped and blushed deeper, hiding her muzzle even further behind her pulled-up knees so only her eyes were visible above her knees.\n \"They're... not that small, Sash...\" she mumbled.\nBuddleia chortled softly as well and came to the rescue, giving Sasha a light, playful push with one of her feral forepaws and smiling at Millie.\n \"You pay no mind, Millie, Sasha big tease. Where is farm of your aunt and uncle? What you grow there?\"\n \"I... I know she is, she's, uh... she's always teasing me...\" Millie mumbled from behind her knees, slowly lifting her head back up a little bit and managing a light smile. \"Their farm is south of Fennfield, they grow huge fields of sunflowers and poppies.\" Her smile deepened a bit. \"There's like this bagel shop in Fossil City that sells poppyseed bagels, and they're actually made with poppy seeds from my auntie and uncle's farm.\"\n \"Flowers! Nice, I like!\" Buddleia smiled with her upper canines and the end of her tongue on display. \"Grandfather and grandmother grew small field of sunflowers here too, I always like, they so pretty.\"\nMillie nodded with a deeper smile as her blush receded, tilting her head a bit and even letting out a giggle as she looked at Sasha pulling up a ladleful of stew from the mini cauldron, poking the pieces of meat with the skewer and softly saying a high-pitched \"ouch\" each time.\n \"Oh my god, Sash, don't tell me you do that stupid little thing your grandma used to do!\"\nSasha chortled and turned a bit, waving the skewer at Millie.\n \"Hey hey hey, no bad words about my granny, Milbilly, or the next piece of meat this thing is gonna poke into is your butt!\"\nMillie giggled softly, and a bit louder when Buddleia turned and lay both paws on Sasha's shoulders to turn the human woman back towards the mini cauldron.\n \"Now now, you do cooking and not threaten nice girl, Sasha, is not nice,\" she chortled.\n \"Thank you, Leia, you're nice,\" Millie smiled. \"I really don't think I'd want my butt skewered, hee.\"\n \"Then mind your words, Milmmwmbl,\" Sasha started saying, but she got muffled by one of Buddleia's paws folding over her mouth.\n \"Is guest, Sasha, you be nice to guest now,\" the vixen-taur chortled again.\n\nSasha grinned a muffled chortle and poked out her tongue to give light licks over the pads of Buddleia's paw over her mouth, causing the vixen-taur to croon and splay her fingers a bit while lightly wagging her bushy tail through the grass. Millie giggled softly again, resting her chin back on her pulled-up knees she was still hugging to her chest with both arms.\n \"Gosh, you two are so cute together...\"\n \"Thanks, Mil,\" Sasha chortled when the soft paw left her mouth. \"Hey, would you mind giving me one of those mugs over there? And there's one for you too, Leia, by the way.\"\n\nMillie nodded and let go of her knees so she could get up and step over to the tree stump. She took the two mugs she had not been sipping from herself, handing one to Buddleia and the other to Sasha, then taking the third mug and sitting down in the grass again, taking a small sip. Sasha took a few sips from her mug as well and poured the rest of the milk into the mini cauldron, stirring it around with the ladle a bit quicker for several moments. Buddleia took a sip from the mug Millie had handed her every now and then as well, laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body in between Sasha and where Millie was sitting in the grass and smiling at both of them with her whiskers twitching happily at the scent rising from the mini cauldron.\n\nSasha kept stirring the stew and every now and then lifting a ladleful to poke the skewer at the pieces of rabbit meat, saying the high-pitched \"ouch\" under her breath each time. When the stew was eventually done, she asked Leia to put the mini cauldron on the tree stump so it could simmer and cool, getting to her feet herself and walking around the left side of the small farmhouse, and returning another moment or two later with the glass bottle of goat milk to refill the three mugs. Not long after, she also filled the three soup bowls with the stew and put the spoons in them, handing one to Millie and one to Buddleia and sitting down in the grass with the third one herself, leaning comfortably against the side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body.\n\nMillie pulled up her knees again and set the bowl on her knees, closing her eyes as she sniffed at the stew.\n \"Wow, this smells real good, Sash,\" she smiled, picking up a spoonful, blowing on it and sticking it in her mouth. \"Oh gosh, it tastes even better!\" she said with her mouth full. \"This is delicious, Sash, I didn't know you could cook this good!\"\n \"Like I said, I can't, except for this,\" Sasha smiled, giving her head an amused shake at the sight of the chocolate Labrador girl beginning to rapidly stick spoonful after spoonful into her mouth. \"And savor it, Milbilly, blow on it and chew it slowly, don't gobble it up like that, you'll burn your tongue.\"\n\nMillie did slow down, her slender tail slowly but continuously wagging through the grass behind her. For several long moments, the only sounds were the last chirping of the birds, the crackling of the fire and the clinking of the spoons in the bowls. When the last bite of stew had been devoured, Sasha collected the bowls and dropped them in the pot of water before stretching out on the grass with her shoulders and head resting against the fluffy side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body. Millie relaxed as well, leaning against a tree and stretching out her legs a bit while resting a paw on her tummy.\n \"Gosh, I can't remember when I last had such a good home-cooked country meal,\" she murmured contently. \"Well, actually, yes I can, it was last summer on my auntie's farm, but that's way too long ago.\" She rolled her head a bit to smile at Sasha. \"Thanks so much, Sash, it was really delicious.\"\n \"You're welcome, and thank you for the compliment as well, choco-snoot,\" Sasha smiled. She tilted her head backwards to look up at Buddleia's face with another smile. \"Hey, and guess what, fuzzbutt? Millie brought us a really nice wedding gift.\"\n \"Oh! That so sweet! Thank you much, Millie,\" Buddleia smiled so brightly both her upper and lower canines and about half of her dark pink tongue were on display. \"What you bring?\"\n \"I, uh... I brought you a Rainier cherry tree,\" Millie smiled. \"My auntie has them on the farm, it gives yellow cherries and they're so sweet. And, uh, a Bing cherry tree sapling too, for pollination.\"\n \"That so nice! I like cherries! Thank you so much, Millie, that so very sweet of you!\" Buddleia smiled with a rolling churr.\n \"Hee... you're very welcome,\" Millie nodded with a very light giggle at the roll in Buddleia's voice. \"It, uh, it'll be a couple years at least before it'll be big enough to give fruit, though, it's still a small one.\"\n \"That okay! We have time!\" Buddleia smiled. \"And it have nice flowers too, will be nice to look at, yes!\"\nMillie nodded again and smiled, sitting up a bit.\n \"So, uh... what do we do now?\"\n \"Now we relax, Milbilly,\" Sasha smiled. \"Let the food settle a bit, and just lounge and enjoy the warmth and the breeze.\" She closed one of her gray eyes in a quick little wink. \"And we do that after our bath in the pond as well while we brush each other and dry up.\"\n \"Oh... yes, okay, that sounds, uh, nice,\" Millie nodded with a light smile, letting go a light but not unhappy sigh. \"I always so love when you brush me, it feels so nice.\"\n \"Sasha very good at brushing,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile as well.\n\nThey let several content moments pass by, and a few relaxed whiles as well. The chirping of the birds gradually got less as the light started fading from the sky more and more. Millie rolled her head against the tree she was leaning against every now and then as she listened to the sounds of the birds, and even sometimes the quick, staccato drumming of a woodpecker, looking up when Sasha scrambled to her feet.\n \"We'd better take our bath now, before it gets too dark to see what we're doing,\" the human woman smiled with a light chortle. \"Are you coming too, Mil?\"\n \"I'd... I'd like a bath, yes, it was such a dusty long drive,\" Millie nodded quietly. \"Uh... should I... should I be, uh... naked, too?\"\n \"That [i]is[/i] the common way people take a bath, choco-snoot, isn't it?\" Sasha giggled, holding out a hand to help Millie to her feet. \"And it's not like there'll be anything either of us hasn't seen before; we've been naked together before, we've had showers together.\"\n \"Uh... yes...\" Millie said softly and with a light blush, taking Sasha's hand and scrambling to her feet as well. \"Uh... where... should I put my clothes, Sash?\"\n \"You can put them inside, with our stuff we've worn before, we have to go inside to get the brush and soap and a towel anyway,\" Sasha smiled, giving a gentle squeeze to Millie's paw. \"It's okay, choco-snoot, it's like you said; natural.\"\n\nThe corners of the chocolate Labrador girl's lips lifted into a faint smile at the reassuring squeeze to her paw, and she lightly nodded again. Following Sasha and Buddleia around the right side of the small farmhouse and into it, she smiled again at Sasha staying with her while Buddleia stepped into the bathroom to get the bottle of shampoo, the bar of soap and a towel, as well as the brush from Sasha's toiletries bag. Millie emptied her pockets, laying her phone, wallet, keys and a half-finished roll of hard fruit candies on the low table next to the stove and slowly unbuttoning and taking off her flannel shirt and stepping out of her jeans to hand them to Sasha. There was a slight hesitation as the Labrador girl got to her white cotton bra and panties, but at a comforting nod from Sasha she did take off her underwear and handed it to the human woman as well, who put it on the heap of previously-worn clothes laying in the bathroom. She really was a very pretty girl to see; standing at an even six feet, with just a 30C bust size and covered all over in very sleek and glossy chocolate-brown fur, her skin actually being very slightly lighter in color than her fur while her just below shoulder-length hair was a tint or two darker, hanging down over the front of her shoulders in the two thin braids, her short, almost delicate whiskers and her fairly large, hazel-colored eyes.\n\nMillie was grateful for the slowly increasing darkness hiding her blush, but she couldn't hide the fact her slender tail was lightly wagging as Sasha took her paw again and led her along with Buddleia to the pond. On the small dock, she stood off to the side a bit and looked at Sasha sitting down on the edge of the dock and Buddleia laying down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body to take the flowery wrap off of Sasha's chest, smiling softly at the gentle and indeed tender way the vixen-taur was doing that. While Buddleia rolled up the long broad ribbon of faded flowery fabric, Sasha waded into the pond and held out her hand to Millie again with another smile. The chocolate Labrador girl took Sasha's hand with a slightly deeper smile and carefully descended the small steps on the side of the dock, shivering a bit as she stepped into the water but settling down a moment or two later.\n\nBuddleia waded into the water as well, and at Sasha's directions, Millie sat down in lotus position on the sandy bottom of the pond. Sasha sat down behind her in lotus position as well, with Buddleia laying down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body behind the lanky human woman. As the vixen-taur began to scoop pawfuls of water over Sasha's head and long ginger hair, Sasha leaned over a bit towards Millie's back and began gently undoing the two slim braids on either side of the canine girl's head and ran her fingers through Millie's hair softly while scooping a few handfuls of water over it. Millie let out a light and content sigh again, closing her eyes and eventually even letting out soft, light whines under her breath as Sasha poured some shampoo onto her head and started massaging it into her hair.\n\nBehind the tall human woman, Buddleia did the same to Sasha's hair, and Millie looked around and let go a light giggle when she saw Sasha sitting down on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body to massage shampoo into the vixen-taur's long purple hair as well. The lanky human woman also rubbed the bar of soap all over the back and front of Buddleia's upper body to lather up the soft fur, and Millie closed her eyes again and smiled lightly as Buddleia started doing the same to her.\n \"Your fur so pretty, so smooth,\" the vixen-taur smiled as she ran her paws up and down along Millie's sides.\n \"Thank you...\" Millie murmured, turning her head a bit to look at Buddleia with a small smile. \"I like your fur too, it's such a nice color.\"\n \"And it's super soft when well tended to,\" Sasha smiled across Buddleia's left shoulder. \"She's even more like a cloud than you are after I've brushed her.\"\n\nMillie nodded quietly and leaned down her head with her eyes closed again, relaxing under the soft rubbing of Buddleia's paws up and down along her sides and back. When they were done with their bath and had rinsed the soap and shampoo away by submerging a time or two, all three of them waded out of the pond and stood dripping on the dock. Millie shivered a bit again at the light chill, but smiled when Sasha took her paw and pulled her close after the tall human woman had dried herself a bit with the towel.\n \"You're gonna wanna take a step or two back and stay behind this while Leia dries herself, Milbilly,\" she chortled.\nMillie blinked for a moment.\n \"You mean... Surely she's not gonna... Ohmigosh, she [i]is[/i]! Heeeee!\" Millie giggled suddenly, ducking behind the towel as Buddleia firmly shook the water from her fur. \"Oh wow, that's so funny! Hee hee!\"\n \"That was my reaction too when she did it the first time, yes,\" Sasha nodded with a chortle, draping the towel around Millie's shoulders and rubbing the chocolate canine's sleek fur with it.\n \"That's really funny!\" Millie giggled. \"Look at you, missus Leia! You're all poofy!\"\n \"Is easiest way to dry,\" Buddleia smiled with a light chortle of her own. \"I always do like that.\"\n\nMillie still giggled softly as they all three walked back to the small farmhouse and around it. Near the still burning campfire, they sat in the grass in the same position they had been sitting in the pond; Millie in lotus position, Sasha in lotus position behind the light brown canine girl, and Buddleia laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body behind the tall human woman. She handed Sasha a brush and took one herself as well, softly brushing the human's long ginger hair while Sasha started softly brushing Millie's medium-length brown hair and sleek chocolate-colored fur.\n\nQuiet, content whines rolled from the chocolate Labrador girl's lips again and she heavily leaned her paws on her legs with her eyes closed as Sasha brushed her, slowly wagging her slender tail a bit and smiling to herself as it brushed back and forth against Sasha's lower legs and feet. She didn't even notice Buddleia eventually scooted around Sasha's side and looked at the lanky human woman slowly and gently brushing the chocolate Labrador girl all over with her ears perked forwards to the happy sounds Millie was letting go, and she only very slowly became aware Sasha had eventually stopped brushing her. Slowly opening her eyes and lifting her head a bit, she drew in a deep breath and smiled at Sasha sitting on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body to begin brushing the vixen-taur's long purple hair.\n \"I missed that so much, Sash...\"\n \"I did too, choco-snoot, you're such a pretty girl and it's so nice to brush you,\" Sasha smiled.\n\nMillie let go a quiet, happy whine again, once again pulling up her knees and hugging them against her chest with both arms. Her slender tail kept wagging lightly while she looked at Sasha brushing Buddleia all over, her smile deepening a bit as Buddleia rolled onto her side a little bit to let Sasha cuddle up against the side and chest of her quadruped lower body. Letting go another quiet whine, the chocolate Labrador girl leaned over a bit with a hopeful smile and an almost begging expression.\n \"Sash... please, hold me..?\"\nSasha smiled warmly and opened her arms.\n \"C'mere, choco-snoot.\"\n\nWith a deeper whine, Millie leaned over further and crawled over to where Sasha was laying against Buddleia's quadruped lower body, snuggling up against the human woman's right side and laying her head on Sasha's chest with her eyes closed. Sasha smiled even deeper and wrapped her right arm around Millie's shoulders to hold the light brown canine girl close, softly running the fingers of her left hand through Millie's now loose-hanging hair and every now and then lightly petting her floppy triangular ears. Millie shivered happily and kept letting go quiet, content whines, nuzzling her cheek and muzzle against the freckled skin of Sasha's chest and wrapping her arms around the lanky human woman's sides in a careful but close hug, her slender tail lightly tapping against the grass in its slow wagging.\n\nBuddleia looked at it with a happy smile that displayed her upper canines and the end of her dark pink tongue as well, turning and leaning over her upper body a bit and reaching out to gently pet along Millie's right shoulder and arm. A light chirped giggle rolled from her lips as well as her eyes met Sasha's eyes.\n \"See Sasha? Is like I said, you be good momma, yes.\"\n \"Ye-ess... mommy...\" Millie murmured with a soft happy whine, nuzzling her cheek even closer against Sasha's chest.\nSasha snorted a giggle and gave her head a light, amused shake.\n \"Yeesh Milbilly, do you have a mother complex or something?\" she chortled, giving her head another amused shake as she felt the warmth of Millie's blush glowing against her freckled skin.\n \"Uh... ah... in... a way, I guess..?\" the chocolate Labrador girl mumbled softly. \"I, uh... I...\" She very slowly rolled her head a little bit and opened her eyes to look at Sasha's face, still blushing deep enough it could be seen through her sleek light brown fur. \"Just like you, I've never known my mom, Sash, you know that... But I... I, uh... I always kinda... saw you as my mom... You always made me feel... so nurtured and protected whenever I was with you.\"\nBuddleia yipped a cheery giggle and clapped her paws together in front of her face.\n \"I knew! Yee yee hee! I knew! You her momma, Sasha! Yee hee!\"\n \"Oh quit it, you silly fuzzbutt you,\" Sasha giggled, poking out her tongue at Buddleia before leaning down her head to look back at Millie with a playful and only mildly teasing grin curling the ends of her lips. \"So then, you silly little choco-snoot, are we talking a Jungian kind of mother complex, or a Freudian kind?\" Millie blushed furiously and pressed her face into Sasha's chest, causing the human woman to let out a loud laugh. \"Oh my god! Haha! Is that why you always make those noises whenever I say you've been a good girl?\"\n\nMillie couldn't even stop it if she wanted to; a trembling and almost wanton whine escaped her lips again, even if muffled by how hard she was pressing her face into Sasha's chest. Another loud laugh rolled from Sasha's lips and she shook her head again, giving a light scritch at the base of Millie's floppy right ear.\n \"Jeezus Millie, you're as nuts as this nutso fuzzbutt here! Haha! Oh my god, but that's really fucking funny actually, hahaha!\"\nBuddleia tilted her head with a wondrous expression and leaned her upper body over a bit more.\n \"I not understand, Sasha, what you talking about?\"\nSasha rolled her head a bit and curled her lips into another cheerful grin.\n \"Ah, well, you see, fuzzbutt, the Jungian mother complex is mainly about the influence on someone by the care and nurturing or lack thereof they get from their mother. The Freudian kind however more refers to the Oedipus theory about sexual desire of a child towards its mother, and while the Oedipus thing is usually about a son, it can also apply to a daughter.\"\n \"Oh... oh!\" Buddleia said with her ears suddenly perking in understanding.\nSasha nodded with a small, quick wink and rolled her head back down, wiggling her hand between her chest and Millie's cheek so she could gently lift the Labrador girl's head a bit.\n \"Hey Mil, but why didn't you ever tell me that? We could've had some real good fun together, you know,\" she chortled.\n \"I... I... I wanted to, Sash, but... I was afraid to...\" Millie mumbled with her eyes still closed and blushing deeply. \"I was... scared you'd think I was... like, a freak or something...\"\n \"Nothing wrong with that, Milbilly,\" Sasha giggled. \"Hell, I'm a freak too! You wouldn't believe how goddam much I found I enjoy eating out the animal cooch of this big sexy fuzzbutt here!\"\n \"She real good at too,\" Buddleia chortled with a nod of her head.\nMillie blushed furiously again and turned her head to bury her muzzle and face into Sasha's hand on her cheek.\n \"Nnyeeh... Sash... please... please don't... hate me?\" she said in a near-whimper.\n \"Hey now, choco-snoot,\" Sasha smiled, putting both her hands on Millie's cheeks and lifting the light brown canine girl's head a bit more. \"Open your eyes and look at me, please.\" Her smile deepened when Millie did so. \"Absolutely no reason for me to hate you, choco-snoot, seriously. It's fucking hilarious, it explains a whole bunch of shit, but it's no reason for me to hate you or even think bad of you, and I mean that, Mil. You're still and will always be my sweet little choco-snoot, and you're still a good girl.\"\nThat might have been a bit of a tease, but it was a darn effective one. Millie trembled all over and let out a long-drawn whine again, trying to bury her face and muzzle into Sasha's hands.\n \"Nnnyeeeh-ehh... Sash... nnyeeh... please... please be... my mom..?\"\nSasha let go a cheerful laugh again and tilted her head back to look up at Buddleia's face with a cheerful grin.\n \"Whaddaya think, fuzzbutt? We can never have kids together, do you think maybe we could adopt a poor parentless puppy?\" she giggled.\nThe purple and white vixen-taur chirped a yipping giggle again.\n \"You her momma already, Sasha, yee yee hee! I maybe be aunt, yee hee!\"\n \"That's still a yes, then,\" Sasha sniggered. She tilted her head back down and pressed a soft smooch on the glowing warm, damp chocolate pad of Millie's nose. \"Hey, even if you can't live here, it's all good, choco-snoot, I'll be glad to be your mommy for you.\"\nMillie let go a long-drawn, almost wailing whine and crawled up close against Sasha's tall lanky body, wrapping her arms around the human woman's shoulders and burying her muzzle and face into the nape of Sasha's neck, shuddering with quiet but happy sobs.\n \"Thank you... thank you, Sash... thank you...\"\n\nSasha gave her head another cheerful and amused shake, folding her arms around Millie's shoulders and holding the light brown canine girl close while gently stroking Millie's hair and back with one hand. Buddleia leaned over her upper body a bit again and also softly petted along Millie's back and side with a paw, turning her head a bit to give a soft lick over Sasha's cheek.\n \"She very sweet girl, and you very sweet woman, Sasha. Is so nice you make her so happy,\" she churred softly.\n \"Yes, well, what can I say, I'm just as big a softie as you are I suppose,\" Sasha chortled, rolling her head to smooch the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose. \"And she here is definitely as nutso as you are, but it's still freaking hilarious and also endearing.\"\n\nBuddleia nodded with a soft smile that displayed her upper canines, and both of them kept softly petting and stroking Millie's hair and back. After quite a while, the chocolate Labrador girl calmed down a bit and relaxed, letting go quiet and happy whines again while her slender tail began slowly wagging at the soft petting.\n\nThey lay cuddled together and relaxed for quite a while. Only when the stars already filled the sky and the campfire collapsed in a sigh of sparks and embers and died out did the three of them slowly get up. Hugging each other, they walked around the right side of the small farmhouse and went inside. In the small bedroom, Sasha sat on the edge of the bed while Buddleia put the flower-printed wrap back around her chest. She lightly squeezed Millie's paw as the light brown canine girl sat next to her and sent her a smile, which Millie answered with a soft whine and a happy smile of her own.\n\nIt was a little bit tight in the old bed as Sasha and Millie both lay down in it, but with snuggling up as close as Millie did, there was enough room just the same. Buddleia switched off the lights and settled down in her pillow nest, still resting her feral forepaws on the bed as well as her upper body, cuddling up against Sasha from the other side and wrapping her arms around both the lanky human woman and the young chocolate Labrador girl.\n\nSoon after, all three of them were asleep. That had certainly been an unexpected turn to the visit of an old friend - but a very amusing one, and potentially also exciting one.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Affection levels had spiked. There already was a tremendous amount of love between the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia and the tall, lanky human woman Sasha, so much so it seemed as if they couldn't love each other more if they wanted to. And yet, somehow; they managed.

Having experienced just how much Sasha enjoyed pleasuring her after the human woman had caught Buddleia again suppressing her arousal and needs out of fear for hurting Sasha and had taken the lead in releasing the vixen-taur from her pent-up feelings, with proof that it had not exacerbated her physical injuries and with the positively wonderful aftercare she had given, Buddleia had almost regressed to a more primal and feral version of her already still quite animalistic tauren self. Not submissive, but adoring, like a pack animal puppy snuggling up to an alpha female. After every bath in the pond, after they were done drying and brushing each other and they were cuddling in relaxation before starting or ending the workday, the vulpine taur held her arms and her feral forepaws wrapped around the human woman's lanky body protectively - and somewhat possessively - and ceaselessly lay number after number of loving, affectionate licks on Sasha's neck and cheeks.

Sasha, in her turn, had introduced her beloved vixen-taur wife to the wondrous relaxation and tranquility of tantrism. During every bath in the pond and during the brushing and cuddling afterwards, the human woman applied soft and tender touches and petting that included breasts and nipples - not to pleasure sexually, not even to induce arousal, but to release and relieve it. To bond, to share in the wondrously calming and relaxing state of just being together, feeling one another, transmitting their love for one another through the close and intimate contact between their bodies, their fingers applying tenderness upon each other. It had relieved the worries in Buddleia's mind so completely that the vixen-taur even found herself comfortable enough to tease every now and then - and Sasha showed her a thing or two about teasing in return.

It had also given the fluffy vulpine taur the relaxed patience to anticipate. She wanted to explore her beloved human wife in the close, intimate and indeed sexual manner like how Sasha had explored her so badly, but she had the calmness now to wait and anticipate the time when the tall and lanky human woman would be fully healed without it throwing her hormonal needs into hyperdrive.

It had brought them even so much closer together than they already were. It had also increased the length of their relaxation breaks after each bath and after lunch by a good amount. But they had the time. They were together, every day, with no obligations to go anywhere, so they could take their time. And they had in fact caught up with the actual farming work. While there was still a lot of work to do, they had caught up with any harvesting. All the grass had been mowed, only the hay in the rear-side left field still needed baling, and there was nothing left to do in the fields but to wait for the grass to regrow to harvesting length, which would take at minimum three weeks.

A lot of the freed-up time was spent relaxing, cuddling, petting one another, tenderly, lovingly, adoringly. Most of the time was still spent bringing the small farm up to scratch. They had spent almost two weeks with the old machinery; one day per implement, fully disassembling the tedder, windrower, weeder and fertilizer spreader, as well as both the sickle bar mower and the deck mower, and the cultivator, disc harrow and planter, and even the old plow, cleaning them down to the bare metal, properly repairing the stick-welded and baling wire fixes with the MIG welder, reassembling them and painting them in the muted light lavender color that had become their unofficial company color. Having identified some of the larger fir trees in the large copse covering the hill behind the silo and new shed as Douglas firs, they had cut down a couple of them and brought them to the sawmill to be turned into double-thickness planks, which were used to replace the splintery old deck of the long bale trailer - after which that, also, was painted the light lavender color. It had made such a difference in just the appearance; looking at the implements parked in the shed, it was clear they were very old in design, but they looked almost brand new.

During two of the days when Buddleia had been re-decking the bale trailer and reassembling the planter, Sasha had taken her toolbox and the old orbital sander to the 1953 MAZ-200 truck the livestock dealers had given them and had improved its appearance a thousandfold. All the peeling light green paint as well as a good deal of the original dark bluish green paint and all the surface rust was sanded off, and the human woman had even removed, or at least loosened, all the gauges and switches on the inside so the metal dash could be sanded as well. The worst dents were hammered as smooth as she could get them, and finally utilizing the second-hand air compressor and basic paint gun she had bought at the hardware store in the tiny village, as well as rolls of old masking tape and a stack of old newspapers that had been in one of the boxes in the workshop, Sasha had proceeded to respray the old truck inside and out, using only one can of the mixed pink and light blue paint despite giving the truck three coats of the muted lavender color, including the still very sturdy and solid deck of the flat bed and even the massive and solid rims.

Truth be told; it was a rather unusual combination. The rough and raw utilitarian look of the large truck, in that soft, indeed somewhat feminine color made the massive vehicle look... almost unsettlingly endearing. Especially after Sasha had cleaned and reinstalled all the gauges and switches and knobs and had used part of the other half of the faded flowery bedsheet Buddleia had used half of to wrap her chest in to cover the simple driver's seat as well. The soft, sweet paint color and faded flower print were... ridiculously out of place.

Still! The truck looked a million times better with a fresh coat of paint, very importantly it matched the rest of the equipment, and Sasha had even taken apart a part of the old two-stroke diesel engine to clean and refresh some of the worn parts. All through the day as she was reinstalling the gauges and switches, the human woman was also enjoying herself in advance over the reaction they would get when they'd show up at the livestock dealer with the old rough truck in its new feminine appearance.

The simple work Sasha had done on the engine, and very importantly, the exhaust, had certainly been a big improvement as well. The truck was still slow, but it was a lot less ugly, it definitely was a lot less loud, and with the passenger seat removed and a few cushions on the floor it was even relatively comfortable for Buddleia to ride along in it - with the provision that the vixen-taur had to fit her quadruped lower body in the footwell so she had to ride back to front with her back pointing at the double windshield. But that wasn't too much of an inconvenience, and Buddleia was even enjoying it quite a bit as it allowed her to look at and lean up against Sasha as the human woman drove the truck to the livestock dealer with their latest and largest load of hay bales.

Pulling into the yard of the livestock dealer, Sasha was certainly not disappointed. The large hare man Simon was walking to one of the buildings with a box full of cans, and at the sight of the truck he stopped short, dropped the box so the cans rolled every which way, and he dropped his lower jaw as well. The lanky human woman laughed loudly, holding her right hand on her right side against the small stabs of pain her recovering ribs sent shooting through her side as she climbed out of the truck and very cheerfully waved at the stunned hare man with her left hand.
   "Mornin', Simon! I think you dropped something!"
It took several moments of opening and closing his mouth and blinking his eyes before Simon managed to find his voice.
   "Ho... ly... beefcows! Jeesus tapdancing Christ Sasha! Is that our old truck?!"
   "Oh, yes, I gave it a lick of paint so it's now our company color," Sasha grinned cheerily, rubbing her right side a bit. "Like it?"
   "God damn, Sasha! I don't believe my own damn eyes!" Simon said, turning a bit to the building he had been heading towards. "Harry! Harry! You gotta see this, man!"

The heavy-built fox man came trotting out of the building. At the sight of the truck his feet stopped so dead-suddenly his upper body almost made a headlong dive into the dirt of the yard.
   "What the fuck!" he yelped wide-eyed, only just managing to keep himself upright. "That can't be the pile of crap we gave you, Sasha!"
   "Eh, a lick of paint and a seat cover can do wonders, you know," Sasha laughed, folding her right arm around Buddleia's shoulders as the vixen-taur had also jumped out of the truck and was now gently rubbing her right side with a paw.
   "Oh my god!" Simon burst out laughing as he walked up to the truck and looked into the cab through the open driver door. "The flower print! Hahaha! Oh goddam that's hilarious! And you even painted the inside! Hahaha! Oh man! Well, I'm glad to see you're apparently aiming to use this beast for a good while to come, Sasha! Haha! Goddam, I would give you such a big pat on the shoulder, but that would be bad for your ribs, so I'll just..." He slammed a fist down on the flat bed of the truck and laughed again. "This is amazing!"
   "I'm glad my hard work is appreciated," Sasha chortled cheerfully. "There's still plenty of that old sheet left too, so I may even put in a headliner later to get rid of the oil drum sound of that cab. And hey! Check it!" she gestured at the stacks of hay bales piled onto the bed. "Ninety-three bales, gentlemen! The last of our first cut, so make'em last!"
   "Awesome!" Simon nodded, still laughing. "Back into the hayloft, Sasha, you know the way by now!"

Nodding with another cheerful chortle, Sasha climbed back into the truck to maneuver it around and backed it into the left one of the two haylofts at the edge of the yard. Buddleia helped Simon and Harry pick up all the cans and put them back in the box, and helped unload the truck and stack all the bales onto a large lift platform as well so they could be brought up to the top of the loft. After a very welcome payment of almost twenty-five hundred dollars had been processed, both the hare man and the fox man walked Sasha and Buddleia back to the truck so they could have another good look at it and even pull out their phones to snap a few pictures, laughing heartily again.

As she walked around to the driver door, Sasha halted for a moment and looked through the doorway of the other hayloft where bales of straw were stored, tilting her head a bit at a few giant round white plastic bales sitting just inside the doorway.
   "What's with the big marshmallows?" she asked. "Is that silage?"
   "Yup," the fox man Harry nodded. "We get it from a large farm just outside of Arfafield, it's the closest by here where we can get it. Keeps well and the ladies love it."
   "If you wanna make good money, you may wanna consider switching to silage, Sasha," Simon smiled. "Going price for that stuff is about ten times as much as for hay and straw, and we'll pay top price for it, especially if we can get it more locally."
   "Wow, damn," Sasha said with a light chortle, running a hand over her chin. "I do love the idea of getting ten times the money, but I doubt we could do anything like that anytime soon. We'll need a bunker for starters, and we don't have the space and definitely not the money for that."
   "You don't need a bunker necessarily, you can use a bale wrapper," Harry smiled with a light shrug. "Bale grass right after mowing, wrap the bales, then you just need a shelter to store them as they ferment. Much more manageable than a bunker and much easier, too."
   "Really?" Sasha said, tilting her head with an eyebrow quirked. "My grandfolks made some silage from the corn they grew on their farm every so often, I thought that was the only suitable stuff for it?"
   "Oh no, we actually prefer using grass silage, and we prefer it in bales," Simon said with a smile, gesturing at the large round white bales. "To be honest, with how few animals we keep here at any given time, those are even a bit too big for our needs, so smaller bales are much more suited to our needs."
Sasha leaned against the large left front fender of the truck and lit a cigarette.
   "Okay, educate me, I'm intrigued. What would I need, apart from that bale wrapper thing you mentioned, to make good or at least decent quality silage that you guys would be happy with, and how would I make it?"
   "Well, for one, you want the grass well-chopped," Simon smiled. "I noticed that in the last two batches of bales you brought, the grass was already more chopped than in the first few batches, so I'm guessing you switched to a different mower?"
   "Yeah, we started out with a sickle bar and used that until the parts were in for the deck mower that was sitting around, and we're using that now," Sasha nodded. "Is that good enough?"
   "It's a good start," Simon nodded as well. "I'm guessing it's a two-blade or two-string deck? You may wanna look into at least a three-blade deck to chop the grass even finer, or even get a mulcher, that would be the best. Then just bale it like normal, right after mowing, and when you're done, make another pass with a bale wrapper to wrap the bales. Dan should be able to find you one that'll take square bales and is not too expensive."
   "I definitely like the sound of that," Sasha nodded with a chortle, through a cloud of smoke waving from her nostrils. "Anything else we absolutely need?"
   "You'll want a moisture meter and a thermometer," Harry added. "The ones with a long needle, so you can stick them into the bales and reach about the middle. And a PH meter, same thing, long needle one."
   "Yeah, you'll want the temp to sit between sixty-five and eighty-five F, or eighteen to twenty-nine C, and the moisture level to sit between sixty and seventy percent," Simon nodded. "That's your optimal ranges. You can inoculate the bales to aid the fermenting and bring out different qualities, but that ain't really a purely necessary step. Just stack them someplace safe so they can maintain those temp ranges and make sure they're sealed real well; the tiny holes you stick into them with the meters don't really matter much."
   "Leave'em to do their thing for three to four weeks, check every day or every two days for the temp and moisture, especially in the first ten days, also start checking the PH levels after day ten, and a good four weeks later, presto, silage," Harry added again. "That's when you stick your PH meter in for the last time, and you should see a PH of between three point eight and four point two, that's the ideal range, but anything up to five is alright."
   "A bonus, aside from the much higher going price, is that by the time your first bales are done, your grass is ready to be cut again for the next batch," Simon chuckled. "The first batch is your longest investment because you'll have to wait about a month before it's done and you get paid, but after that, you're just raking in the cash; you'll get about ten times as much dough for the same grass, and it'll even take you less work too because you don't have to ted and dry and windrow it."
Sasha took a slow drag from her cigarette and also nodded slowly.
   "Alright, that sounds much more doable than getting a chopper, a forage wagon, a bunker, a compactor and a frontloader or something," she smiled. "But now answer me this; say we'd only use our back field for the grass. That's ninety-three of those small bales we just brought you. Wouldn't that be way too much for you guys? Especially if we would bring a load like that every month?"
   "Hell yes," Harry chuckled. "Grass silage keeps for up to a year, and we don't go through that much of it with the small amount of animals we keep here at any given time."
   "But here's the clincher," Simon chuckled with a light wink. "You make ninety-three small silage bales. We'll buy, say, a dozen to keep us going for a year. The rest, you can sell to the BGA, they love the stuff as well and they'll pay about as much as we do for locally sourced silage, and they will take as much as you can bring them, any time."
   "Okay, that's a clincher alright, I'm convinced," Sasha chortled while pinching out the butt of her cigarette and sticking it in a pocket of her shorts, curling her lips into a small grin. "But don't expect our next load to be silage already. We'll need to get a storage area, and most importantly, we'll need to get one of those bale wrapper things, second-hand and cheap so we can actually afford it, and who knows how long it'll be before one of those pops up."
   "Just go nextdoor and bug Dan, he'll keep his ears open and his eyes to the ground," Harry chuckled.
   "Definitely gonna do that," Sasha nodded with a smile, shaking paws with both men. "Guys, have a great day, and thanks a bunch for the awesome tip."
   "Same to you, and thank you for the awesome laugh," Simon chuckled, nodding at the lavender truck. "Seriously, that is wild!"
   "Yeah, I love it!" Harry nodded with a chuckle as well.
   "Thanks, guys," Sasha chortled. "Keep your ears perked, you may hear a roar in a minute when we pull up in front of the Co-op, too."

With more cheerful chuckles and a wave, they said their goodbyes. Sasha climbed back into the truck and looked aside at Buddleia making her way into the cab as well and laying her quadruped lower body down in the passenger footwell, giggling in staccato yips.
   "That was so funny! Yee yee hee! They look so funny when they see the truck!"
   "Yeah, I got a real kick out of that," Sasha nodded with a giggle of her own while she started the truck. "And how about that silage idea, huh? I definitely like the thought of getting way more money for less work, ha!"
   "Yes! Is so good idea!" Buddleia nodded. "I never think to make silage, even though I know BGA likes!"
   "Well, I sure hope Dan can find us one of those wrapper things fairly quickly," Sasha smiled, calmly driving the truck out of the livestock yard and down the narrow dirt road around the base of the hill. "Damn, to think I never even know about that option even though we sometimes made silage on my grandfolks' farm."
She made the left turn and pulled into the yard of the Ag Co-op, and sure enough, as the human woman parked the truck by the large glass doors, a loud laugh rang out before they had even gotten out of the cab.
   "Whaaaaa! Ha ha ha! Oh good grief!" Stepping out of the building, the lion man Daniel laughed loudly and cheerfully as he waved at Sasha. "Is that still Simon's old truck? Ha ha ha! That's amazing, Sasha! You sure spruced that old beast up, didn't you!"
   "Hey, we have an official company color, so all our equipment and vehicles should match," Sasha chortled with a light grin. "I may even paint butterflies all over it in the future, too."
   "I'd damn well pay you to see that!" Daniel laughed. "Oh man, that's great! Ha ha!" He shook his head for a moment and ran a paw over his face to control himself a bit. "And of course, hello Sasha, hello Buddleia, good to see you two! How's things going?"
   "Very well actually," Sasha smiled with a laugh. "We've got the last hay off the land, and we got a good deal of our equipment taken apart, cleaned, fixed, painted and put back together so it's all looking loads better."
   "Yes, is all super nice purple now!" Buddleia nodded with a smile. "Well, a lot, not all yet, but we getting there!"
   "That's great to hear!" Daniel smiled. "And what can I do for you today?"
   "Well, the fine fellows nextdoor gave us the great idea to turn our grass into silage rather than hay," Sasha smiled. "So we're in the market for a cheap second-hand bale wrapper, and maybe a storage shelter although we can probably build one ourselves. Could you maybe show us some options?"
   "By all means!" the lion man nodded with a smile. "Come on in! That is an excellent idea, it will increase your income  by so much." He held open the glass door and led the way over to the large counter. "Have a seat, have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?"
   "Tea please, Dan, thank you," Buddleia smiled, accepting the large flat cushion the lion man pulled from behind the counter and handed her.
   "I'll have a tea as well, thank you," Sasha nodded with a smile, sitting down in one of the chairs by the counter and playfully resting her feet on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body as the vixen-taur lay on the flat cushion next to her.
   "Of course," Daniel nodded, turning to the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman behind the counter. "Clarissa, please be so kind to get the ladies a cup of tea?"
   "Certainly, mister Tawnto," the canine woman smiled, also sending a smile at Buddleia and Sasha. "Good afternoon, dears, it's nice to see you again."

She disappeared through a door behind the counter. The lion man sat down behind the counter and swiveled one of the computer screens to face Sasha and Buddleia, doing a bit of tapping and clicking on the computer. Soon after, a row of pictures appeared on the screen.
   "As you can see, there's quite a selection you can choose from," Daniel smiled, enlarging the pictures by clicking on them. "This is pretty much the industry standard; a round baler and wrapper combo. Picks up the grass and makes it into standard four thousand liter round bales that are then wrapped in the same machine. The downside of these, if you ask me, is that you have to stop all the time to unload the wrapped bale, and sometimes you even have to wait until it's done before you can continue baling because both chambers are full."
   "It also looks like a machine that needs a darn powerful tractor to pull and operate it," Sasha remarked.
   "Yes, horsepower requirement is usually in the two hundred fifty to four hundred range," Daniel nodded. "So you'd need at least a medium-sized tractor." He clicked some more pictures. "These are pretty much all similar, just different brands, and some make different sized bales as well. Then you have this, this is just a wrapper that picks up a round bale and wraps it. Again, you'll have to stop to let it unload once it's done, but at least you can just simply drive up to the next bale while it's wrapping. Or there are these, they are stationary and you drop the bales on them to be wrapped."
   "Still looks like it'd need a pretty powerful tractor, and... oh, thank you," Sasha smiled as the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman set a cup of tea on the counter for her and Buddleia. "Anyway, the additional problem is that we would also need a baler that makes round bales. Simon actually said they prefer our smaller sized square bales, so we'd rather have a wrapper that can handle those, and preferably one on wheels because I don't feel like spending extra money for a forklift or a loader attachment with forks for any of our current tractors, if they can even have one installed."
   "Yes, in that case you'll be wanting an inline towed wrapper," Daniel nodded, clicking another picture. "Something like this would be your best option, the Kuhn SW forty-fourteen. It's not exactly inline as it offsets to the side of the tractor, but you can drive up to a bale, the rollers will pinch under and lift the bale so it can be wrapped, and then extend and set the bale back on the ground. Only requires... let me see... ninety horsepower minimum."
   "I'm not sure what the ratings of our current tractors are," Sasha smiled, sipping her tea. "But yes, that model looks pretty much exactly like what we'd be wanting." She chortled softly. "Also, looking at that price is making my ribs as well as my wallet hurt, so hopefully you can maybe locate one for us that is used and a lot cheaper? Hell, I don't even care if it's broken if that lowers the price even more, we can fix it."
   "Let me have a look-see," Daniel smiled, doing more typing and clicking. "Hmmm... not much in the market currently, but I will put the word out and keep my eyes open for you, Sasha. Is it very urgent? Because we can also rent you one, and I'll only count the hours it's been in use, not the amount of days you have it, because you have pretty much a whole day of travel to get here and back to your farm."
   "If you can't find one in the near future, that is definitely an option we will go for, Dan, thank you so much," Sasha smiled. "And there's no immediate urgency, our grass won't be ready for a next cut until three weeks or so from now. Maybe two for the first fields we did. Oh, and while you're looking, Simon mentioned fine-chopped grass, so if you could also find a used mower deck with three blades, or better yet, a mulcher, that'll be awesome."
   "Alright, as I said, I'll put out the word and keep my eyes open for you," Daniel smiled, clicking the pictures away again. "As soon as I find something, I'll shoot a text your way, okay? What's the price range you're willing to go to?"
   "Sounds great, Dan, thanks," Sasha smiled, finishing her tea. "As for the price, you know our financial situation, so the cheaper the better, and the most we can do is a grand. For the mower deck or mulcher, I'm also willing to trade in our old one." She let go another chortle. "And while we're here, do you have anything else cheap we could use?"
The lion man chuckled softly while he did some typing on the computer again.
   "I have an old log splitter sitting out back you can have?"
   "Heh, that's actually not bad, our stove runs on firewood," Sasha chortled, smiling at Buddleia. "What do you think, Leia, would you like a machine to take over for you swinging an axe for a day?"
   "Would be nice, my arms always tired after chopping wood," Buddleia nodded with a light chortle. "We take it, Dan, thank you much."
   "And weird question, Dan, but would you mind if I did a bit of dumpster diving?" Sasha giggled. "I'm looking for some sheets of thin fiberboard or something, sturdy but a bit pliable, so I can make a headliner for that truck out there. Oh, and maybe some of that self-sticking sound deadener stuff."
   "Haha, sure, it's yours, and you can go right ahead, Sasha. Not sure if there's anything you can use, but heck, what do I know, so have a look," Daniel nodded with another chuckle. "And I may actually have some sound deadener for you, hang on." He walked out from behind the desk and over to the doors in the far right wall, opening one and sticking his head around it. "Tim! We got any rolls of sound deadener matting that's been opened?"
   "Got one that's 'bout half a roll or so!" came a voice from behind the door.
   "Hand it to me, would you please?" A few moments later, the lion man walked back to the counter with a roll of silver and black material under his arm, setting it upright against the counter. "Here you go, Sasha, take this, we hardly use it anyway."
   "Thank you so much, Dan, I appreciate it," Sasha smiled with another soft chortle. "And if your mechanic fellow back there has one of those roller things and a box cutter or scissors I could borrow for a minute, I'll be even more grateful because then I can put some of this in the truck right away and make that four-hour drive back home a lot less loud and annoying."

Daniel laughed shortly and walked back to the door in the right wall, returning another few moments later with a plastic roller and a large pair of scissors which he handed Sasha. The human woman chortled again and took the tools and the roll of material outside to the old MAZ truck, cutting strips of the material, sticking them against the inside of the roof and rolling them firmly. A few strips were also placed in the footwells, against the side kick panels and under the driver's seat for as far as Sasha could reach. In the meantime, Buddleia followed Daniel to behind the large building somewhere and walked over to the truck several moments later with an old motorized log splitter in her arms which she put on the bed of the truck and strapped down. Returning the tools, the human woman followed the lion man out of one the doors in the rear and over to an area behind the building as well, where several large dumpsters were sitting. Behind one of them, several sheets and plates of material were leaning against the back wall of the building. Sasha checked them, finding most of them being plywood or MDF that was too thick, but between two sheets of plywood she found a sheet of 5mm thick fiberboard of which one side was very smooth and shiny and the other side was roughly textured. It also had a tear in one side and two corners were crumbled, but that was not a problem as it had to be cut to size anyway.

Sasha slid that sheet into the cab of the old truck, against the back wall, along with the half roll of sound deadening, and shook the lion man's paw.
   "Thanks a bundle, Dan. I'll look forward to hearing a beep from you on a wrapper, and if not, you'll see at least me sometime next month or so to come rent one," she smiled. "Oh, and if you happen to hear about any restaurants going under, I'm also in the market for one or two large stainless steel sinks and some stainless steel food prep tables or counters, and maybe some fridges or freezers too, so I'd be obliged if you can look out for anything like that as well."
   "Any time, Sasha," Dan smiled. "I'll keep an eye out for the restaurant stuff as well, even though that's not something we usually get notified about as an Agricultural Co-operation. But again, I'll put the word out. Are you planning to open a restaurant too?" he chuckled.
   "Hee, hell no," Sasha chortled. "But we're making goat cheese now, and we've discussed making wine as well because that plum tree we have drops so darn many plums and we found some elderberry bushes. So if I want to have a serious look into doing that, I'd rather do it right and have a good work area with good equipment. We do have a good space, there's a bunker under the windmill Leia showed me and it has a large room next to it that was used for storage. It's real nice and cool in there, and I'm already making the cheese in there."
   "Oh, that's real nice!" Daniel smiled. "When your first cheese is ready, I'll be the first to buy some, I love goat cheese."
   "We have some aging right now," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Some good sized ones and a bunch of mini ones because I did my first experiments in an old muffin tray, and that's such a nice size for mini cheeses. When they're done aging, I'll bring you one of the mini ones, they're just regular cheese from milk, and I'll let you be the first one to buy one of our larger Beech Butterflies, which are going to be our special-flavor ones with a pinch of pink Himalayan salt and chopped roasted beech nuts."
   "Oh my gosh you're making me hungry," Daniel chuckled. "I can't wait, Sasha! Hey, have a great day, and you too, Buddleia, it was good seeing you."
   "Yes, you have good day too, Dan," Buddleia smiled.

They waved and said their goodbyes, Daniel walking back into the building and Buddleia and Sasha climbing into the truck. Sasha started the engine and slammed the truck in gear, slowly turning around and driving off the Co-op yard.
   "Oh man, that is already so much better," she smiled as she drove down the hill. "Now it's not like we're driving around inside a giant echo chamber anymore."
   "Yes, I can hold my ears up now," Buddleia nodded with a light chortle, actually perking and flicking her ears at the sound of a melodious tone. "What that?"
   "That's my phone," Sasha chortled. "Wouldn't it be something if Dan already found something for us?"

With a bit of wiggling and leaning, Sasha managed to take her phone from a pocket of her pair of shorts. She smiled as she checked the screen, seeing the number of her 22-year old chocolate Labrador friend Millie and a picture of the brown canine girl with her tongue poking out.
   "Aw, it's Millie." She rested the phone on the steering wheel so she could swipe it. "Heya Milbilly! Hang on a sec, I'm gonna give you to Leia." She switched the phone to the speaker function and held it out to the vixen-taur. "Can you hold it out for me, Leia, please?" Buddleia nodded and took the phone, holding it in Sasha's direction. "Okay, that's better. Sorry Mil, we're on our way home from the Co-op so I'm driving an ancient truck down a bumpy dirt road and I need both hands. How's it going?"
   "Oh, okay," Millie's voice sounded from the phone. "It's going well, Sash. I, uh... I have a couple weeks off. Do you think... is it okay if I come visit?"
   "Of course, choco-snoot!" Sasha smiled. "Any time! You know how to get here, yeah?"
   "Yes, uh... I found that Ag Co-op you were talking about, I know how to get to there. It's like... uh, twenty or so hours, but I can get to the Bluetit Inn right near the M-seventy-three tonight and, uh, catch some sleep and get up early and drive down the M-seventy-three and be at that Co-op tomorrow between, uh, two or three PM or so, and from there it was, like, four hours, you said?"
   "Yes, now that I have a phone again I checked, and it's a hundred seventy-six miles from the farm. So you can probably make it in under four hours, but for the old bangers we're driving it's a good four hours or more, depending on what we're hauling."
   "Okay, uh... I still have those directions you gave me, Sash. So... it's okay if I come over?"
   "Absolutely, choco-snoot. It'll be great timing too, you'll get here right about suppertime or a bit after, so we'll make sure to toss a bit extra in the pot for you. Are you bringing my old stuff with you?"
   "Yes, uh... yes, I have it all sitting in the trunk of my car, Sash, ever since that time you called me. I have your glasses too."
   "Good girl, choco-snoot. We'll see you tomorrow then. Wow, that's quicker than I thought you would be able to make it, awesome. Hey, drive carefully on that goddam mountain road, okay?"
   "Mnnyeeh... I, uh, I will, Sash, promise. I'll, uh, I'll see you tomorrow evening then."
   "See you then, Milbilly. Hey, howl at the moon."
   "Hee, yeah... howl at the moon, Sash."

The contact was cut. Sasha reached aside to tap out her phone and smiled at Buddleia as she wiggled and leaned to slide her phone back into her pocket. The vixen-taur also smiled, looking back at Sasha with a slightly wondrous expression.
   "Why howl at the moon, Sasha?"
   "That's just a funny little thing Mil and I always say as a goodbye," Sasha smiled, sitting up straight again. "She's even more of a hayseed than I am, you know, she even looks the part; always wearing old cowboy hats and wearing her hair in two braids, because that's how she grew up on the farm of her aunt and uncle." She chortled lightly. "They had a farm dog that was part coyote, and she would always tell me about how it would howl at the moon, so that became a bit of a thing between us."
   "Aww, is cute," Buddleia smiled. "She sound like very sweet girl, I already like her and I not even seen her yet, yee hee!" She tilted her head a bit, displaying her upper canine teeth in a slightly wider smile. "But her name Millie, you say, so why you call her Milbilly and... choco-snoot? I know is like how you call me fuzzbutt, but why choco-snoot?"
Sasha let go a louder chortle.
   "I told you, she's an even bigger hayseed than I am. Some of those chicks from our group called her a hillbilly, and she hated it, but because her name is Millie I made it into Milbilly, just to make her giggle, and it stuck." She looked aside and smiled. "And she's a chocolate-colored Labrador girl, you know. Not just her fur and her hair, even her skin is chocolate-colored. Really very pretty, to be fair. But the other chicks always picked on her, because she's the youngest, and still a quite naive country bumpkin, or at least she was in the beginning. I felt bad for her, so because I was the oldest, by quite a margin actually, I took her under my wing a bit, protected her a bit, because I was really just a country bumpkin too, no matter how hard I tried not to be. Well, one day they had gotten her with water balloons, poor girl was drenched to the bone, so I took her to my studio and helped her get all dry, and I brushed her fur and everything." A light giggle escaped Sasha's lips and she shook her head a bit at the memory. "Damn, she was so awkward and embarrassed sitting there in her panties on the very edge of my bed in my tiny apartment, she was blushing so hard you could see it through her fur. But because I was brushing her, I could see how nice and sleek her fur was and what a nice chocolate-y color her skin had and all, so when I was done brushing her I said... jeez, what did I say again? Something along the lines of, hey, don't listen to what those others say to you, you're a very pretty girl, choco-snoot. For her chocolate colors, you know." Sasha laughed softly. "But damn, I swear you could've seen her blush from outer space when I called her that! But it looked so adorable, so from then on, I started calling her choco-snoot whenever I could."
Buddleia yipped a light giggle and playfully pushed one of her feral front paws against Sasha's leg.
   "You embarrass her because it look cute? You big big meanie, Sasha, yee hee! I think when she here, I should protect her a bit from you, yee hee!"
Sasha laughed shortly again.
   "Be prepared to be wearing a chocolate Labrador backpack for however long she may be here if you do that, fuzzbutt. Once she likes you, she gets clingier than velcro! Hey, and you know what, I only realized that later, but I never called her that around the others of our group. Only when no one but she could hear it, so nobody could tease her for it."
   "I not surprised, actually," Buddleia smiled, showing her upper canines and the tip of her tongue while she lay her feral forepaw on Sasha's leg. "You very sweet woman, Sasha. I bet even when you try be all grumpy or snap at folks or yell at folks, you still very very sweet woman underneath. You really care for Millie girl, I can tell."
   "Are you trying to make me blush now, fuzzbutt?" Sasha chortled. "Well tough cookies, that ain't gonna work, I can tell you that."
   "I just say truth," Buddleia smiled, leaning her upper body over to nuzzle her snoot into the nape of Sasha's neck and give a few affectionate licks to the human woman's neck.
   "That makes you a very very sweet woman too, fuzzbutt, just so you know," Sasha smiled with a light chortle, taking one hand off the steering wheel to softly pat the vixen-taur's feral forepaw resting on her leg.
Buddleia churred and gave more soft, affectionate licks to Sasha's neck, the firm round toes of her feral forepaw curling lightly to give more or less a gentle squeeze to the human woman's long, slender leg.
   "You say she, Millie, young girl. She really so young?" she smiled after a last lick to Sasha's neck.
   "Young is relative, but compared to the rest of us, yeah, she's young," Sasha nodded with a light chortle, taking the large steering wheel in both hands again. "I was the old geezer of the group at thirty-five, the others were all in their mid to late twenties, but Millie is just twenty-two, so she's just a kid, really." She let go a short laugh. "Few days before our wedding when I was inviting everyone, I called her too when I was at the sawmill. Fred was there when I did that, and he said he could hear it was clearly I friend I had been talking to, so we got to talking about her a bit. I mentioned to him that I could've been Mil's mother, although I would've had to have a kid at the age of thirteen."
Buddleia yipped a light giggle again.
   "Is young to have kits, yee hee! But you be good momma, Sasha, I sure you be very good momma, yes. "
Sasha let go a soft giggle as well.
   "Well, thanks, fuzzbutt. We'll probably never find out, but that's very sweet of you to say."

Calmly talking, they arrived back at their farm before they even knew it. Sasha parked the old MAZ truck in the rickety open shed where the old Skoda grain truck and the two combine harvesters were also still sitting as they were still non-runners. Buddleia went into the small farmhouse to start preparing dinner for them as it was already past suppertime, and while the vixen-taur was doing that, Sasha took some time to measure and cut the thin sheet of fiberboard to size and glue the rest of the faded flower-print bedsheet to the smooth side of it. There were edges around the ceiling of the old truck where it could be wedged under, and in the middle was a crossbar from between the two windshields to the back of the cab that was not connected to the roof; an interior light had once been on that. Sasha slid the sheet-covered fiberboard over that crossbar and wedged it into the narrows slits formed by the raised edges around the perimeter of the cab so it drew the strips of sound deadener from view and gave the cab a nicer ceiling.

After they had finished their dinner, Buddleia spread out in the soft grass of the back garden in her very comfortable position of laying on both her backs, and Sasha lay her tall, lanky self down on top of the fluffy vixen-taur, being hugged close by Buddleia's arms and feral forepaws. It had become their go-to position for cuddling after dinner; it was just so comfortable, they had the wonderful feeling of their whole bodies touching and snuggling against each other - and it was a perfect position to kiss, as well.

Sasha had also said she was only going to sleep in the bed for a further two weeks more. Her ribs had almost healed by now, and while she kept a safe margin to eliminate any possible risks, the bed was going to be finito soon so they could also spend their nights comfortably cuddled up close against each other in the pillow nest Buddleia used to sleep in. The vixen-taur was still sleeping in a somewhat unusual position, with her feral forepaws and her upper body resting on the bed so she could hug Sasha, so it would be much more comfortable for her as well once they would finally get to sharing the pillow nest.

They spent a longer time cuddling, kissing and petting each other after their porridge breakfast and morning bath in the pond the next morning as well. There was a clear hint of excitement in the air; even if neither of them mentioned it, Buddleia could still tell Sasha was anticipating the arrival of her friend, and she herself was also a bit excited over it, along with plain curious about what the girl looked like and would be like.

Getting to work, their morning routine had expanded with the additional actions of feeding the chickens, rabbits and the goat and milking the goat, which they did in turns. Sasha brought the milk into the underground room, filtered and bottled it, and once the fresh bottles were labeled with the date and set in the freezer, the human woman took the hour the bottles needed in the freezer to take some bottles of the oldest milk to make a good number more of the miniature butterfly-shaped cheeses, tacking a card with the date to the front of the shelf they were laid on to age. More time was taken up in the small farmhouse, where Sasha put the large, wide pot Buddleia used for making jam on the stove and filled it with water. She stoked the furnace quite hard, bringing the water to a boil relatively quickly and using it to clean out and sterilize the bottles she had emptied, which were set upside down over a strip of metal with upright bars that Buddleia had welded together for her so the bottles could dry.

In the meantime, Buddleia had pushed the small old baler into the rickety open shed and put a large toolbox near it. Laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body, the vixen-taur started taking the old baler apart to thoroughly clean out the inside, laying all the parts out neatly on an old sheet she had spread out over the dirt floor. Once Sasha was done cleaning the bottles, she joined Buddleia in the old open shed and helped by sanding and cleaning all the parts Buddleia took out of the old baler and painting the ones that could or should be painted. The lanky human woman looked up every now and then with a light chortle at Buddleia leaning deeper and deeper into the old machine, sort of humming a tune to herself by means of rhythmic churrs and soft whines as she took part after part out of the old baler. Sasha was also a bit surprised at how intricate the inner workings of the old and simple baler turned out to be.

Due to that, and the fact there were so many parts of which some put up a fight when Buddleia tried to remove them, the work on just disassembling the old baler took them the whole rest of the day. They even decided to forego on their lunch to keep working, so there might be a chance they would at least have the disassembling finished by the time it was time to have dinner. Fortunately the dirt floor of the old open shed was packed so hard from all the machines moving in and out of it over the years no loose dust or sand blew up in the light breeze to ruin the painting work Sasha was doing. The little flies and other small bugs that every now and then got stuck in the fresh paint... eh well, they could be picked out, and it was just old farm equipment after all, it didn't need an absolutely perfect paintjob.

Working in tandem, the fluffy vixen-taur and the lanky human woman did manage to get the entire baler disassembled and the parts cleaned and painted by the time the sun had hidden behind the mountains in the distance. The light still stayed in the sky a long time after the sun had gone behind the mountains, and there were lights in the old open shed which allowed them to finish their work. Once done they tied another old bedsheet in place over the entrance of the open shed to keep any loose debris from blowing in and getting stuck to the fresh paint. Deciding to wait with having their bath in the pond and even their dinner as it was getting very close to the time Sasha's friend Millie would be arriving, the fluffy vixen-taur and the tall human woman merely stretched out comfortably in the soft grass of the field in front of the house, near the rabbit hutches and runs, cuddling up against one another and softly petting each other to pass the time.

It wasn't too long before Buddleia suddenly perked and swiveled her ears, which made Sasha look up as well. A pair of headlights could be seen coming down the dirt road, and as they turned into the driveway of the farm and came closer, it could be seen the headlights belonged to a 1994 Toyota Starlet 1.3 XLi 3-door hatchback in a deep dark blue color that was slightly faded and had patches of the clearcoat peeling off. Getting to all six of their combined feet, Sasha and Buddleia looked at the small car coming closer with a smile.

It stopped a little ways away from them. The driver door was opened, and the next moment a chocolate Labrador girl got out of the car, dressed in a pair of jeans, a flannel button-down shirt and, indeed, a felt cowboy hat from under which a pair of floppy triangular ears and a pair of thin braids hung down.
   "Sash!" the girl cried out. "You look so... healthy!"
She started running over towards Sasha, who quirked an eyebrow and quickly took a step aside so the canine girl ran past her.
   "Whoa, no you don't, Mil!"
Stumbling to a halt, the young brown Labrador girl turned around, panting and with her eyes wide.
   "Wha... Sash... why, not..?"
Sasha smiled and patted the flower-print wrap around her chest with a hand.
   "Broken ribs, Milbilly, remember? You can hug me, but you gotta be careful about it, I don't need you squeezing the shit out of me and hurting or even damaging my ribs." She smiled deeper and opened her arms. "Now c'mere you, choco-snoot. It's good to see you."

With a relieved and happy whine, the chocolate Labrador girl walked back over to Sasha and wrapped her arms around the tall human woman's sides in a rather tight, but careful hug. Her hat fell off as she pressed her cheek and muzzle against Sasha's chest with her eyes closed, her sleek and somewhat thin, narrow tail wagging lightly while more quiet whines escaped her lips, deepening and mixing with quiet sniffles as Sasha put her left hand on the back of the canine girl's head and gently ran her right hand up and down the girl's back.
   "I... snf, snf... I missed you so much, Sash... Snf, snnf... It's so... so good to see you... snf..."
   "It's good to see you too, Milbilly," Sasha smiled, lightly petting one of the floppy triangular ears. "Now c'mon, keep the tears inside, okay? There's no need to cry, as you can see I'm very much not dead or nothing."
Millie let go a quiet whimper and sniffed harder, pressing her whole face into the flowery wrap around Sasha's chest.
   "I've... I've been so worried and scared, Sash... I... snf snnf, hhhu... I thought I'd... lost you forever..." She rolled her head slightly to look up at Sasha's face, her hazel eyes brimming with unshed tears ready to fall. "I've... I almost had a heart attack when you called me... snnf, snf... After I'd called the cops for you, I... snf... I've been crying all night..."
   "Aw, there there now, choco-snoot, it's okay," Sasha smiled, lowering her hand to gently brush her fingers along Millie's cheek. "I'm not dead, I'm even almost healed and already so much better than ever, and I sure ain't planning on dying for a long time to come, I can promise you that. Now, c'mon, take a deep breath, Milbilly, and say hello to my wife, okay?"

The chocolate Labrador girl sniffed hard several times and squeezed her eyes for a moment while lifting her head off Sasha's wrapped chest. Letting go of the tall human woman, she turned to look at Buddleia, who had picked up her hat, and her hazel eyes shot wide open.
   "She's a taur?!? Why didn't you tell me, Sash?! Why... how..!"
With a louder giggle, Sasha reached out with her right hand, putting her thumb under Millie's chin and folding the other fingers over the top of the light brown canine girl's muzzle, effectively silencing Millie by gently holding her muzzle shut.
   "Because I knew this would happen, Milbilly, is why I didn't tell you. Besides, didn't you see it on the video call during our wedding? You must've not been paying very much attention, choco-snoot."
   "I was looking at youuu!" Millie whined from a corner of her mouth. "Because I missed you so much!"
   "I suppose that's understandable," Sasha nodded with a chortle, letting go of Millie's muzzle and pressing the tip of her right index finger against the soft, damp chocolate-colored pad of the canine girl's nose. "Now, take a deep breath again, Milbilly, calm down a bit, and again, say hello to my wife Buddleia."

It took several long and deep breaths, with her head leaned down, before Millie managed to compose herself a bit again. Eventually, she lifted her head back up and once again turned to Buddleia, making a forced effort to look at the vixen-taur's face and not stare at her quadruped lower body.
   "It's, uh... it's very nice to meet you, miss... I mean, missus... Buddleia,"
   "Is very nice to meet you too, Millie," Buddleia smiled, putting the hat back on Millie's head. "Sasha tell me much about you, all nice things, yes."
   "You talk so weird!" Millie blurted out.
   "Millie!" Sasha admonished while biting back a chortle.
   "I'm sorry Sash, but she does!" Millie said, turning to look at Sasha so rapidly her hat fell off again.
   "That may be so, but that's my wife you're talking about, Milbilly," Sasha said, letting go the chortle she had bitten back earlier. "And she's even a few years older than I am, so show respect, kiddo."
Millie dipped her head and her slender tail.
   "Sorry..." She turned back to Buddleia. "I'm sorry, uh, missus Buddleia..."
The vixen-taur just yipped a light giggle.
   "You so funny! Up down, up down reactions, you like rollercoaster! Yee hee!" She stepped closer and pulled Millie into a big hug with both arms. "I not mad, Millie, you sweet girl, yes."

Millie meeped as she was pulled into the hug. For a while she just stood there with her arms dangling down the sides of her body, not knowing how to react. Very slowly, her slender tail began wagging again, very lightly, and she rested her cheek against Buddleia's fluffy chest.
   "Uh... thank you... You're very nice too." She looked up a bit. "Please... take good care of Sash."
   "I will, I am," Buddleia nodded with a smile that displayed her upper canines and the very tip of her dark pink tongue.
   "Hell yeah, she's been taking excellent care of me, Milbilly," Sasha nodded with a smile. "You said it yourself; I look so healthy. And it's because of her my ribs are healing so well, too. So don't you worry 'bout a thing, choco-snoot, Leia's taking the best care of me anyone has ever taken of anyone."
   "Thank you..." Millie murmured.

She sniffed hard again, but managed to keep herself under control. As Buddleia released the hug, the chocolate Labrador girl still couldn't help looking at the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body, however.
   "Wow... I've never seen anyone like you before. It's... I dunno, it looks weird, but... really nice too. You're... you're very pretty, missus Buddleia."
   "Thanks, Millie," Buddleia smiled. She picked up the cowboy hat again and put it back on Millie's head. "You can say Leia too, like Sasha do, is easier, yes."
Millie nodded quietly and gave a small smile, looking around when Sasha put a hand on her shoulder.
   "And now that we have all the shocks and emotions of the reunion out of the way, go on and park your car over there by our cars, Milbilly," the human woman smiled, pointing at the open area where the old workshop had been and where now the beat-up 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline and the rusty 1956 Citroen 2CV AZU were sitting. "It's really high time we get supper started, we haven't eaten anything yet since breakfast." She smiled at Buddleia as well. "Can you go build a campfire in the backyard, Leia? I'll make my granny's stew tonight."
   "I need get rabbit too, I do that first," Buddleia smiled.

The purple and white vixen-taur turned and walked off, disappearing around the left side of the small farmhouse. Millie nodded quietly in response to what Sasha had said and got back into her car, of which the engine was still running. Sasha walked further up the driveway as Millie drove over to the open area, quirking an eyebrow as she spotted the rear hatch of the small Toyota was not closed but held down with a bungee cord, because what looked like a small tree was sticking out the back of the trunk. She thumbed at it when Millie had shut off the headlights and the engine and got back out of her car.
   "What's that, Mil? I know I had some plants at my place, but I sure don't remember having anything like that."
Millie took off the bungee cord and opened the rear hatch of her car, taking out what was indeed a small tree and setting it down on the ground on the large plastic pot it was sitting in.
   "That's, uh... I stopped by that Co-op on the way, Sash, and I picked this up for you as, uh... as a wedding gift," she said in a low voice but with a small smile. "It's a Rainier cherry tree, auntie Ruth has them on the farm too, and I always loved the sweet yellow cherries that come from it." She reached into the trunk and took out another, smaller tree in a plastic pot. "And this is a Bing cherry tree, you should plant that six to eight feet away from the Rainier one, they have to pollinate each other, you know."
   "Aren't you just a darling!" Sasha smiled, pulling Millie into a hug and pressing a soft smooch on the light brown canine girl's forehead. "Thank you so much, choco-snoot, I absolutely love it!"
   "I'm so glad, you're so welcome, Sash," Millie smiled softly, nuzzling her cheek against the wrap around Sasha's chest, but suddenly perking her floppy ears as much as she could perk them and whipping around her head at a sharp squeal sounding from somewhere behind the copse of trees behind the farmhouse. "What was that?!"
   "That's just Leia hunting," Sasha chortled, gently patting Millie's shoulder. "C'mon, I'll show you to the backyard, I gotta dig up some veggies for the stew."
   "Oh... okay," Millie nodded, taking a deep breath. "Uh... can I freshen up a bit somewhere, Sash? It was such a long drive, and kinda dusty and all."
Sasha chortled again and gestured at the pond.
   "Right there, Mil. But if you're not ready for a full bath yet but just wanna splash some water in your face for now, we do actually have a bathroom. C'mon, I'll show you."
   "You... you bathe in... in a pond..?" Millie blinked as she looked at the pond. "Uh, anyway, yeah... just a splash of water is good for now, Sash, thank you."

She followed the tall human woman to the small farmhouse, looking around a bit as they walked up to the front door and stepped inside. It was relatively clear the young light brown canine girl wanted to blurt out again about the small size, the cracked windowpanes, the lack of furniture, the cracked and crumbling plaster on the inside walls and the scuffed and scratched floor, but she managed to control herself and not say a thing. Sasha saw her into the small bathroom and pointed at the sink against the far wall.
   "There you go, Mil. The water actually works here, but I don't know how warm it may get, Leia said that boiler is not too good anymore and we honestly haven't used this bathroom because we've been taking our baths in that pond outside."
   "It's, uh... it's okay, Sash," Millie said with a small smile. "Thanks."

She turned to the sink and tried the faucet, then holding her paws under the stream of water and splashing it into her face a couple of times. Sasha stepped back out of the bathroom and looked at Millie with a smile while she filled the mini cauldron and a regular pot with water, and three mugs with goat milk from one of the bottles sitting in the small refrigerator under the counter.
   "Did you see our goat outside?" she smiled when Millie stepped out of the bathroom as well with the fur in her face still damp, handing the light brown canine girl one of the mugs. "Here, try this, you must be parched after the long drive."
   "Aw, you have a goat?" Millie smiled lightly. "No, I didn't see it, but that's cute, I like goats." She took a sip of the milk. "Is this her milk? It's so tasty!"
   "What if I told you that's Leia's milk?" Sasha chortled, letting out a cheerful laugh at Millie's eyes shooting wide open. "Just kidding, Mil! That is in fact milk from our goat outside, honest. She's a very generous girl as a matter of fact, she gives over a gallon of milk every day! I had to start making cheese because we got way too much milk to keep fresh real fast."
   "Yeesh, you... you scared me for a bit, Sash," Millie said, breathing deeply. "But yeah, this, uh... this does taste like goat milk, and it's really very tasty. I've always liked it better over cow milk."
   "Good, good," Sasha nodded with a smile, sticking her left arm through the handle of the mini cauldron so she could carry it while holding the other pot in both hands. "Can you grab those other two mugs too, please? We usually do our cooking on this stove, but for this, I prefer cooking over an open fire."

Millie nodded and took the other two mugs, carrying all three of them while she followed Sasha out of the house and around the right side of it to the back garden. Buddleia was already there as well, building a campfire in the circle of rocks while a dead rabbit was laying next to her. The vixen-taur smiled as she rose to her four feral feet after lighting the fire.
   "I get my knife, you need anything from kitchen, Sasha?"
   "Just that big-ass knife, the cutting board and the stand from the fireplace, fuzzbutt, thanks," Sasha smiled, setting the pot of water next to the tree stump they used as a table, then setting the mini cauldron by the fire. She smiled at Millie as well. "You can set the mugs down on here, Mil. We have no chairs, but the grass is real comfy."
Millie nodded again as she set the three mugs down on the tree stump and looked around.
   "This is a really nice garden, Sash. Look at all those vegetables, they look so good and happy and healthy."
   "Yep, that's the care Leia gives to them, so you can imagine what it's been doing for me," Sasha nodded with a chortle.

She started picking several of the staked vegetables; a couple of tomatoes, a red bell pepper and several green and white beans and pea pods. Laying those down by the tree stump, she turned to the other vegetable patch to pick a leek, dig up a well-grown onion, a few of the carrots and a few of the largest potatoes, dropping the latter straight into the pot of water. Buddleia returned in the back garden with the wood cutting board, the large knife, her own folded hunting knife, the large jar of salt and two earthenware bowls and the metal stand. She handed Sasha the cutting board and the large knife, set the stand over the campfire and hung the mini cauldron over the fire, then she lay down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body near the tree stump, setting the earthenware bowls in the grass in front of her, the jar of salt next to her, and unfolding the large hunting knife to start skinning the dead rabbit.

Millie sat down in the grass as well, looking mainly at Sasha as the tall human woman began washing all the vegetables in the pot of water, scraping and chopping the carrots and the leek, chopping the tomatoes, the bell pepper and the beans, peeling the outer skin off the onion and chopping it as well as its greens and shelling the peas, and eventually dicing the potatoes with skin and all after thoroughly washing them in the pot of water. As she dropped all the prepped vegetables in the mini cauldron along with some salt from the glass jar, she shook her head with a light chortle.
   "Wouldn't you know, I forgot to ask you to bring the ladle," she smiled at Buddleia. "Don't get up, fuzzbutt, I'll get it myself."

She walked around the left side of the house, returning a moment or two later with the bent ladle, a thin metal skewer with a narrow wood handle, three of the smoother soup bowls and three spoons, setting the bowls and spoons down on the tree stump and poking the skewer into the ground while she slowly stirred the ladle through the mini cauldron. Millie more or less focused on that, to try and keep her eyes away from Buddleia cleaning the rabbit and dropping the innards and bones in one of the earthenware bowls while rubbing each chunk of meat with some salt before dropping them in the other earthenware bowl.
   "That's gross..." she mumbled, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on her knees.
   "How do you think the butcher does it, Milbilly?" Sasha chortled, taking the prepared chunks of meat, cutting them into smaller pieces and searing each piece on the skewer for a moment or two before dropping them in the mini cauldron. "Same thing you know, but here it's the middle of nowhere so we have to do it ourselves."
   "I know..." Millie nodded. "I'm sure it'll, uh... taste real good, Sash, but that doesn't mean I have to like looking at it."
   "You look other way, look at pretty flowers, Millie, I almost done," Buddleia smiled.
Millie sent the vixen-taur a small smile and directed her gaze back at Sasha, who had gotten up to pick a few of the chanterelle mushrooms from the rotting tree stump in the copse of trees behind the back garden.
   "Wow, it's, uh... like, really as natural as it gets, isn't it?" she said with another light smile. "Freshly hunted rabbit, freshly picked veggies and mushrooms, straight from the earth into the pot... you sure don't get that in the city." Her smile deepened a bit. "And I didn't even know you can cook, Sash?"
   "I can't," Sasha chortled while she washed and sliced the mushrooms and added them to the mini cauldron as well. "Only this, it's something my granny always made after first harvest for my gramps and me and all their helpers. But I'm learning more recipes, so that's really awesome."
   "Aww, your grandmother did that too?" Millie smiled. "Auntie Ruth always bakes a huge stack of barley flapjacks after first harvest for everyone, it's like a tradition."
   "You live on farm too, Millie?" Buddleia asked with a smile that displayed the lower ends of her upper canines, rubbing the last chunk of rabbit meat with salt and washing her paws in the pot of water.
   "Not anymore, but I grew up on my auntie and uncle's farm, and I still go back every summer if I can," Millie smiled. For a moment, she dipped her head and let go a light sigh. "Honestly, I'm thinking about going back to their farm altogether, it's no fun in the city."
   "It's true what they say," Sasha smiled with a light chortle, cutting up the last chunks of rabbit meat, searing them and dropping them in the mini cauldron. "You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl. Look at me, I've lived in the city as long as I've lived on my grandfolks' farm just about, I was convinced life was so much better and more glamorous in the city, and what did those seventeen years of misery teach me? That I'm a farm girl in my heart, my soul and my bones."
   "You, uh... I always knew that, Sash," Millie said with a light smile. "Whenever it was just, like, you and me, and we'd talk about auntie Ruth's farm, the way you talked about the farm of your grandparents clearly showed me how much you actually always liked it there. Even if you always seemed uninterested and reluctant to talk about it."
   "Guess I didn't hide it as well as I always thought I did," Sasha chortled while slowly stirring the ladle through the mini cauldron. "But then again, I thought a lot of stuff that was utterly stupid when I lived in the city, especially the thought that I could escape my true destiny of being a farmer."
   "It, uh... it shows, Sash," Millie nodded lightly. "As much as I would want you to come back, you... you just look so much happier and healthier here, and so... I dunno, in place. Even, uh..." She hid her muzzle behind her knees she still had her arms wrapped around as she blushed. "Even with you... being naked, it... it doesn't even look, like, weird or... provocative or nothing, it just looks, well... natural."
   "It feels natural, Mil," Sasha nodded with a smile which slowly turned into a light grin. "And I know you love it, you've always loved staring at my tiny titties every time we had showered and I brushed your fur, so you must be having a field day now."
Millie meeped and blushed deeper, hiding her muzzle even further behind her pulled-up knees so only her eyes were visible above her knees.
   "They're... not that small, Sash..." she mumbled.
Buddleia chortled softly as well and came to the rescue, giving Sasha a light, playful push with one of her feral forepaws and smiling at Millie.
   "You pay no mind, Millie, Sasha big tease. Where is farm of your aunt and uncle? What you grow there?"
   "I... I know she is, she's, uh... she's always teasing me..." Millie mumbled from behind her knees, slowly lifting her head back up a little bit and managing a light smile. "Their farm is south of Fennfield, they grow huge fields of sunflowers and poppies." Her smile deepened a bit. "There's like this bagel shop in Fossil City that sells poppyseed bagels, and they're actually made with poppy seeds from my auntie and uncle's farm."
   "Flowers! Nice, I like!" Buddleia smiled with her upper canines and the end of her tongue on display. "Grandfather and grandmother grew small field of sunflowers here too, I always like, they so pretty."
Millie nodded with a deeper smile as her blush receded, tilting her head a bit and even letting out a giggle as she looked at Sasha pulling up a ladleful of stew from the mini cauldron, poking the pieces of meat with the skewer and softly saying a high-pitched "ouch" each time.
   "Oh my god, Sash, don't tell me you do that stupid little thing your grandma used to do!"
Sasha chortled and turned a bit, waving the skewer at Millie.
   "Hey hey hey, no bad words about my granny, Milbilly, or the next piece of meat this thing is gonna poke into is your butt!"
Millie giggled softly, and a bit louder when Buddleia turned and lay both paws on Sasha's shoulders to turn the human woman back towards the mini cauldron.
   "Now now, you do cooking and not threaten nice girl, Sasha, is not nice," she chortled.
   "Thank you, Leia, you're nice," Millie smiled. "I really don't think I'd want my butt skewered, hee."
   "Then mind your words, Milmmwmbl," Sasha started saying, but she got muffled by one of Buddleia's paws folding over her mouth.
   "Is guest, Sasha, you be nice to guest now," the vixen-taur chortled again.

Sasha grinned a muffled chortle and poked out her tongue to give light licks over the pads of Buddleia's paw over her mouth, causing the vixen-taur to croon and splay her fingers a bit while lightly wagging her bushy tail through the grass. Millie giggled softly again, resting her chin back on her pulled-up knees she was still hugging to her chest with both arms.
   "Gosh, you two are so cute together..."
   "Thanks, Mil," Sasha chortled when the soft paw left her mouth. "Hey, would you mind giving me one of those mugs over there? And there's one for you too, Leia, by the way."

Millie nodded and let go of her knees so she could get up and step over to the tree stump. She took the two mugs she had not been sipping from herself, handing one to Buddleia and the other to Sasha, then taking the third mug and sitting down in the grass again, taking a small sip. Sasha took a few sips from her mug as well and poured the rest of the milk into the mini cauldron, stirring it around with the ladle a bit quicker for several moments. Buddleia took a sip from the mug Millie had handed her every now and then as well, laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body in between Sasha and where Millie was sitting in the grass and smiling at both of them with her whiskers twitching happily at the scent rising from the mini cauldron.

Sasha kept stirring the stew and every now and then lifting a ladleful to poke the skewer at the pieces of rabbit meat, saying the high-pitched "ouch" under her breath each time. When the stew was eventually done, she asked Leia to put the mini cauldron on the tree stump so it could simmer and cool, getting to her feet herself and walking around the left side of the small farmhouse, and returning another moment or two later with the glass bottle of goat milk to refill the three mugs. Not long after, she also filled the three soup bowls with the stew and put the spoons in them, handing one to Millie and one to Buddleia and sitting down in the grass with the third one herself, leaning comfortably against the side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body.

Millie pulled up her knees again and set the bowl on her knees, closing her eyes as she sniffed at the stew.
   "Wow, this smells real good, Sash," she smiled, picking up a spoonful, blowing on it and sticking it in her mouth. "Oh gosh, it tastes even better!" she said with her mouth full. "This is delicious, Sash, I didn't know you could cook this good!"
   "Like I said, I can't, except for this," Sasha smiled, giving her head an amused shake at the sight of the chocolate Labrador girl beginning to rapidly stick spoonful after spoonful into her mouth. "And savor it, Milbilly, blow on it and chew it slowly, don't gobble it up like that, you'll burn your tongue."

Millie did slow down, her slender tail slowly but continuously wagging through the grass behind her. For several long moments, the only sounds were the last chirping of the birds, the crackling of the fire and the clinking of  the spoons in the bowls. When the last bite of stew had been devoured, Sasha collected the bowls and dropped them in the pot of water before stretching out on the grass with her shoulders and head resting against the fluffy side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body. Millie relaxed as well, leaning against a tree and stretching out her legs a bit while resting a paw on her tummy.
   "Gosh, I can't remember when I last had such a good home-cooked country meal," she murmured contently. "Well, actually, yes I can, it was last summer on my auntie's farm, but that's way too long ago." She rolled her head a bit to smile at Sasha. "Thanks so much, Sash, it was really delicious."
   "You're welcome, and thank you for the compliment as well, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled. She tilted her head backwards to look up at Buddleia's face with another smile. "Hey, and guess what, fuzzbutt? Millie brought us a really nice wedding gift."
   "Oh! That so sweet! Thank you much, Millie," Buddleia smiled so brightly both her upper and lower canines and about half of her dark pink tongue were on display. "What you bring?"
   "I, uh... I brought you a Rainier cherry tree," Millie smiled. "My auntie has them on the farm, it gives yellow cherries and they're so sweet. And, uh, a Bing cherry tree sapling too, for pollination."
   "That so nice! I like cherries! Thank you so much, Millie, that so very sweet of you!" Buddleia smiled with a rolling churr.
   "Hee... you're very welcome," Millie nodded with a very light giggle at the roll in Buddleia's voice. "It, uh, it'll be a couple years at least before it'll be big enough to give fruit, though, it's still a small one."
   "That okay! We have time!" Buddleia smiled. "And it have nice flowers too, will be nice to look at, yes!"
Millie nodded again and smiled, sitting up a bit.
   "So, uh... what do we do now?"
   "Now we relax, Milbilly," Sasha smiled. "Let the food settle a bit, and just lounge and enjoy the warmth and the breeze." She closed one of her gray eyes in a quick little wink. "And we do that after our bath in the pond as well while we brush each other and dry up."
   "Oh... yes, okay, that sounds, uh, nice," Millie nodded with a light smile, letting go a light but not unhappy sigh. "I always so love when you brush me, it feels so nice."
   "Sasha very good at brushing," Buddleia nodded with a smile as well.

They let several content moments pass by, and a few relaxed whiles as well. The chirping of the birds gradually got less as the light started fading from the sky more and more. Millie rolled her head against the tree she was leaning against every now and then as she listened to the sounds of the birds, and even sometimes the quick, staccato drumming of a woodpecker, looking up when Sasha scrambled to her feet.
   "We'd better take our bath now, before it gets too dark to see what we're doing," the human woman smiled with a light chortle. "Are you coming too, Mil?"
   "I'd... I'd like a bath, yes, it was such a dusty long drive," Millie nodded quietly. "Uh... should I... should I be, uh... naked, too?"
   "That is the common way people take a bath, choco-snoot, isn't it?" Sasha giggled, holding out a hand to help Millie to her feet. "And it's not like there'll be anything either of us hasn't seen before; we've been naked together before, we've had showers together."
   "Uh... yes..." Millie said softly and with a light blush, taking Sasha's hand and scrambling to her feet as well. "Uh... where... should I put my clothes, Sash?"
   "You can put them inside, with our stuff we've worn before, we have to go inside to get the brush and soap and a towel anyway," Sasha smiled, giving a gentle squeeze to Millie's paw. "It's okay, choco-snoot, it's like you said; natural."

The corners of the chocolate Labrador girl's lips lifted into a faint smile at the reassuring squeeze to her paw, and she lightly nodded again. Following Sasha and Buddleia around the right side of the small farmhouse and into it, she smiled again at Sasha staying with her while Buddleia stepped into the bathroom to get the bottle of shampoo, the bar of soap and a towel, as well as the brush from Sasha's toiletries bag. Millie emptied her pockets, laying her phone, wallet, keys and a half-finished roll of hard fruit candies on the low table next to the stove and slowly unbuttoning and taking off her flannel shirt and stepping out of her jeans to hand them to Sasha. There was a slight hesitation as the Labrador girl got to her white cotton bra and panties, but at a comforting nod from Sasha she did take off her underwear and handed it to the human woman as well, who put it on the heap of previously-worn clothes laying in the bathroom. She really was a very pretty girl to see; standing at an even six feet, with just a 30C bust size and covered all over in very sleek and glossy chocolate-brown fur, her skin actually being very slightly lighter in color than her fur while her just below shoulder-length hair was a tint or two darker, hanging down over the front of her shoulders in the two thin braids, her short, almost delicate whiskers and her fairly large, hazel-colored eyes.

Millie was grateful for the slowly increasing darkness hiding her blush, but she couldn't hide the fact her slender tail was lightly wagging as Sasha took her paw again and led her along with Buddleia to the pond. On the small dock, she stood off to the side a bit and looked at Sasha sitting down on the edge of the dock and Buddleia laying down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body to take the flowery wrap off of Sasha's chest, smiling softly at the gentle and indeed tender way the vixen-taur was doing that. While Buddleia rolled up the long broad ribbon of faded flowery fabric, Sasha waded into the pond and held out her hand to Millie again with another smile. The chocolate Labrador girl took Sasha's hand with a slightly deeper smile and carefully descended the small steps on the side of the dock, shivering a bit as she stepped into the water but settling down a moment or two later.

Buddleia waded into the water as well, and at Sasha's directions, Millie sat down in lotus position on the sandy bottom of the pond. Sasha sat down behind her in lotus position as well, with Buddleia laying down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body behind the lanky human woman. As the vixen-taur began to scoop pawfuls of water over Sasha's head and long ginger hair, Sasha leaned over a bit towards Millie's back and began gently undoing the two slim braids on either side of the canine girl's head and ran her fingers through Millie's hair softly while scooping a few handfuls of water over it. Millie let out a light and content sigh again, closing her eyes and eventually even letting out soft, light whines under her breath as Sasha poured some shampoo onto her head and started massaging it into her hair.

Behind the tall human woman, Buddleia did the same to Sasha's hair, and Millie looked around and let go a light giggle when she saw Sasha sitting down on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body to massage shampoo into the vixen-taur's long purple hair as well. The lanky human woman also rubbed the bar of soap all over the back and front of Buddleia's upper body to lather up the soft fur, and Millie closed her eyes again and smiled lightly as Buddleia started doing the same to her.
   "Your fur so pretty, so smooth," the vixen-taur smiled as she ran her paws up and down along Millie's sides.
   "Thank you..." Millie murmured, turning her head a bit to look at Buddleia with a small smile. "I like your fur too, it's such a nice color."
   "And it's super soft when well tended to," Sasha smiled across Buddleia's left shoulder. "She's even more like a cloud than you are after I've brushed her."

Millie nodded quietly and leaned down her head with her eyes closed again, relaxing under the soft rubbing of Buddleia's paws up and down along her sides and back. When they were done with their bath and had rinsed the soap and shampoo away by submerging a time or two, all three of them waded out of the pond and stood dripping on the dock. Millie shivered a bit again at the light chill, but smiled when Sasha took her paw and pulled her close after the tall human woman had dried herself a bit with the towel.
   "You're gonna wanna take a step or two back and stay behind this while Leia dries herself, Milbilly," she chortled.
Millie blinked for a moment.
   "You mean... Surely she's not gonna... Ohmigosh, she is! Heeeee!" Millie giggled suddenly, ducking behind the towel as Buddleia firmly shook the water from her fur. "Oh wow, that's so funny! Hee hee!"
   "That was my reaction too when she did it the first time, yes," Sasha nodded with a chortle, draping the towel around Millie's shoulders and rubbing the chocolate canine's sleek fur with it.
   "That's really funny!" Millie giggled. "Look at you, missus Leia! You're all poofy!"
   "Is easiest way to dry," Buddleia smiled with a light chortle of her own. "I always do like that."

Millie still giggled softly as they all three walked back to the small farmhouse and around it. Near the still burning campfire, they sat in the grass in the same position they had been sitting in the pond; Millie in lotus position, Sasha in lotus position behind the light brown canine girl, and Buddleia laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body behind the tall human woman. She handed Sasha a brush and took one herself as well, softly brushing the human's long ginger hair while Sasha started softly brushing Millie's medium-length brown hair and sleek chocolate-colored fur.

Quiet, content whines rolled from the chocolate Labrador girl's lips again and she heavily leaned her paws on her legs with her eyes closed as Sasha brushed her, slowly wagging her slender tail a bit and smiling to herself as it brushed back and forth against Sasha's lower legs and feet. She didn't even notice Buddleia eventually scooted around Sasha's side and looked at the lanky human woman slowly and gently brushing the chocolate Labrador girl all over with her ears perked forwards to the happy sounds Millie was letting go, and she only very slowly became aware Sasha had eventually stopped brushing her. Slowly opening her eyes and lifting her head a bit, she drew in a deep breath and smiled at Sasha sitting on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body to begin brushing the vixen-taur's long purple hair.
   "I missed that so much, Sash..."
   "I did too, choco-snoot, you're such a pretty girl and it's so nice to brush you," Sasha smiled.

Millie let go a quiet, happy whine again, once again pulling up her knees and hugging them against her chest with both arms. Her slender tail kept wagging lightly while she looked at Sasha brushing Buddleia all over, her smile deepening a bit as Buddleia rolled onto her side a little bit to let Sasha cuddle up against the side and chest of her quadruped lower body. Letting go another quiet whine, the chocolate Labrador girl leaned over a bit with a hopeful smile and an almost begging expression.
   "Sash... please, hold me..?"
Sasha smiled warmly and opened her arms.
   "C'mere, choco-snoot."

With a deeper whine, Millie leaned over further and crawled over to where Sasha was laying against Buddleia's quadruped lower body, snuggling up against the human woman's right side and laying her head on Sasha's chest with her eyes closed. Sasha smiled even deeper and wrapped her right arm around Millie's shoulders to hold the light brown canine girl close, softly running the fingers of her left hand through Millie's now loose-hanging hair and every now and then lightly petting her floppy triangular ears. Millie shivered happily and kept letting go quiet, content whines, nuzzling her cheek and muzzle against the freckled skin of Sasha's chest and wrapping her arms around the lanky human woman's sides in a careful but close hug, her slender tail lightly tapping against the grass in its slow wagging.

Buddleia looked at it with a happy smile that displayed her upper canines and the end of her dark pink tongue as well, turning and leaning over her upper body a bit and reaching out to gently pet along Millie's right shoulder and arm. A light chirped giggle rolled from her lips as well as her eyes met Sasha's eyes.
   "See Sasha? Is like I said, you be good momma, yes."
   "Ye-ess... mommy..." Millie murmured with a soft happy whine, nuzzling her cheek even closer against Sasha's chest.
Sasha snorted a giggle and gave her head a light, amused shake.
   "Yeesh Milbilly, do you have a mother complex or something?" she chortled, giving her head another amused shake as she felt the warmth of Millie's blush glowing against her freckled skin.
   "Uh... ah... in... a way, I guess..?" the chocolate Labrador girl mumbled softly. "I, uh... I..." She very slowly rolled her head a little bit and opened her eyes to look at Sasha's face, still blushing deep enough it could be seen through her sleek light brown fur. "Just like you, I've never known my mom, Sash, you know that... But I... I, uh... I always kinda... saw you as my mom... You always made me feel... so nurtured and protected whenever I was with you."
Buddleia yipped a cheery giggle and clapped her paws together in front of her face.
   "I knew! Yee yee hee! I knew! You her momma, Sasha! Yee hee!"
   "Oh quit it, you silly fuzzbutt you," Sasha giggled, poking out her tongue at Buddleia before leaning down her head to look back at Millie with a playful and only mildly teasing grin curling the ends of her lips. "So then, you silly little choco-snoot, are we talking a Jungian kind of mother complex, or a Freudian kind?" Millie blushed furiously and pressed her face into Sasha's chest, causing the human woman to let out a loud laugh. "Oh my god! Haha! Is that why you always make those noises whenever I say you've been a good girl?"

Millie couldn't even stop it if she wanted to; a trembling and almost wanton whine escaped her lips again, even if muffled by how hard she was pressing her face into Sasha's chest. Another loud laugh rolled from Sasha's lips and she shook her head again, giving a light scritch at the base of Millie's floppy right ear.
   "Jeezus Millie, you're as nuts as this nutso fuzzbutt here! Haha! Oh my god, but that's really fucking funny actually, hahaha!"
Buddleia tilted her head with a wondrous expression and leaned her upper body over a bit more.
   "I not understand, Sasha, what you talking about?"
Sasha rolled her head a bit and curled her lips into another cheerful grin.
   "Ah, well, you see, fuzzbutt, the Jungian mother complex is mainly about the influence on someone by the care and nurturing or lack thereof they get from their mother. The Freudian kind however more refers to the Oedipus theory about sexual desire of a child towards its mother, and while the Oedipus thing is usually about a son, it can also apply to a daughter."
   "Oh... oh!" Buddleia said with her ears suddenly perking in understanding.
Sasha nodded with a small, quick wink and rolled her head back down, wiggling her hand between her chest and Millie's cheek so she could gently lift the Labrador girl's head a bit.
   "Hey Mil, but why didn't you ever tell me that? We could've had some real good fun together, you know," she chortled.
   "I... I... I wanted to, Sash, but... I was afraid to..." Millie mumbled with her eyes still closed and blushing deeply. "I was... scared you'd think I was... like, a freak or something..."
   "Nothing wrong with that, Milbilly," Sasha giggled. "Hell, I'm a freak too! You wouldn't believe how goddam much I found I enjoy eating out the animal cooch of this big sexy fuzzbutt here!"
   "She real good at too," Buddleia chortled with a nod of her head.
Millie blushed furiously again and turned her head to bury her muzzle and face into Sasha's hand on her cheek.
   "Nnyeeh... Sash... please... please don't... hate me?" she said in a near-whimper.
   "Hey now, choco-snoot," Sasha smiled, putting both her hands on Millie's cheeks and lifting the light brown canine girl's head a bit more. "Open your eyes and look at me, please." Her smile deepened when Millie did so. "Absolutely no reason for me to hate you, choco-snoot, seriously. It's fucking hilarious, it explains a whole bunch of shit, but it's no reason for me to hate you or even think bad of you, and I mean that, Mil. You're still and will always be my sweet little choco-snoot, and you're still a good girl."
That might have been a bit of a tease, but it was a darn effective one. Millie trembled all over and let out a long-drawn whine again, trying to bury her face and muzzle into Sasha's hands.
   "Nnnyeeeh-ehh... Sash... nnyeeh... please... please be... my mom..?"
Sasha let go a cheerful laugh again and tilted her head back to look up at Buddleia's face with a cheerful grin.
   "Whaddaya think, fuzzbutt? We can never have kids together, do you think maybe we could adopt a poor parentless puppy?" she giggled.
The purple and white vixen-taur chirped a yipping giggle again.
   "You her momma already, Sasha, yee yee hee! I maybe be aunt, yee hee!"
   "That's still a yes, then," Sasha sniggered. She tilted her head back down and pressed a soft smooch on the glowing warm, damp chocolate pad of Millie's nose. "Hey, even if you can't live here, it's all good, choco-snoot, I'll be glad to be your mommy for you."
Millie let go a long-drawn, almost wailing whine and crawled up close against Sasha's tall lanky body, wrapping her arms around the human woman's shoulders and burying her muzzle and face into the nape of Sasha's neck, shuddering with quiet but happy sobs.
   "Thank you... thank you, Sash... thank you..."

Sasha gave her head another cheerful and amused shake, folding her arms around Millie's shoulders and holding the light brown canine girl close while gently stroking Millie's hair and back with one hand. Buddleia leaned over her upper body a bit again and also softly petted along Millie's back and side with a paw, turning her head a bit to give a soft lick over Sasha's cheek.
   "She very sweet girl, and you very sweet woman, Sasha. Is so nice you make her so happy," she churred softly.
   "Yes, well, what can I say, I'm just as big a softie as you are I suppose," Sasha chortled, rolling her head to smooch the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose. "And she here is definitely as nutso as you are, but it's still freaking hilarious and also endearing."

Buddleia nodded with a soft smile that displayed her upper canines, and both of them kept softly petting and stroking Millie's hair and back. After quite a while, the chocolate Labrador girl calmed down a bit and relaxed, letting go quiet and happy whines again while her slender tail began slowly wagging at the soft petting.

They lay cuddled together and relaxed for quite a while. Only when the stars already filled the sky and the campfire collapsed in a sigh of sparks and embers and died out did the three of them slowly get up. Hugging each other, they walked around the right side of the small farmhouse and went inside. In the small bedroom, Sasha sat on the edge of the bed while Buddleia put the flower-printed wrap back around her chest. She lightly squeezed Millie's paw as the light brown canine girl sat next to her and sent her a smile, which Millie answered with a soft whine and a happy smile of her own.

It was a little bit tight in the old bed as Sasha and Millie both lay down in it, but with snuggling up as close as Millie did, there was enough room just the same. Buddleia switched off the lights and settled down in her pillow nest, still resting her feral forepaws on the bed as well as her upper body, cuddling up against Sasha from the other side and wrapping her arms around both the lanky human woman and the young chocolate Labrador girl.

Soon after, all three of them were asleep. That had certainly been an unexpected turn to the visit of an old friend - but a very amusing one, and potentially also exciting one.
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