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"description": "And here we go right on with the next one on Sasha and Buddleia! Even more progress, the baler works and hay bales are made and sold. But something else very important had to be taken care of while they were at the Ag Co-op... something that had been going by the wayside for a bit too long, so it really had to be done. Poor Millie...\n\nThis one is quite a bit longer than the previous ones; I could maybe have split it up into two separate parts, but it all fits together since it's all the same day. But there is one HELL of a long phone call in here, which gets pretty darn very emotional, so be forewarned.\n\nTherefore, a Mature rating. Not because of anything sexual, but for the language and the pretty hefty emotions.\n\nBuddleia is © Fritti Breezedancer\nSasha Farr is © Fritti Breezedancer\nThe Minnaluna world and all characters therein are © Fritti Breezedancer",
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"writing": "A couple more days had passed, in the same fashion as the previous several days. Hard work, but pleasant work, that both showed a result and would ensure an income of some decent money.\n\nThe tall, lanky human woman Sasha had tested the hay tedder, and used it to ted all the grass she had mowed in the front-side field so it got all spread out and could dry further into hay in the warm sun. As the little old open Hanomag tractor could still only do at the very most a bit over four miles per hour with an engaged implement attached to its PTO shaft, the tedding had taken Sasha all day.\n\nThe next day, she had tested the single-wheel windrower they had fixed up, found that also to be operating well, and had used it to rake all the spread-out dried grass, which had turned into a very nice hay under the sun, into neat rows that would be easy to pick up with the baler. However, the windrower being almost twice as large as the tedder, attaching it to the open Hanomag's PTO shaft and engaging it sapped so much of the little old tractor's power that it do could only three miles per hour, so it still took Sasha all day to rake all the hay into neat rows even though the area of the windrower was a decent bit larger than that of the tedder.\n\nWhile the human woman was making her laps back and forth across the front-side left field on the open Hanomag tractor, the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia had been hard at work trying to get the other old Hanomag tractor with the half cab running again. That one had a slightly more powerful engine, and the extra power would be needed to pull and operate the small old baler. Halfway through raking the field with the single-wheel windrower, Sasha had looked in the direction of the rickety open shed with a smile when the rumble of an engine had sounded out from there, indicating Buddleia's success in getting the other tractor running.\n\nThat evening, they had celebrated with a cup of herbal tea and two of the cookies Buddleia had brought from the bakery in the small village a few days earlier when picking up the company bank cards that had been sent to the post office. They had also discussed their sleeping arrangements. Due to what had Sasha had witnessed Buddleia doing in the middle of the night a day or two earlier, and had talked about with the vixen-taur the next day, it made sense if they would stop sleeping in separate beds. However, as Buddleia's bed consisted of just a big heap of pillows and cushions on the floor of the small bedroom, that did pose a little bit of a problem. The vixen-taur did not quite fit into the regular bed Sasha was using, and the human woman had to keep using that bed for the simple reason she had to sleep with her back laying flat to not put any undue strain on her broken ribs that were slowly healing. Sleeping in the heap of pillows together with Buddleia did sound very comfortable and much more enticing, but it would still be a bit too risky for Sasha, for at least a couple of weeks yet. As a compromise, they had moved the bed from the one wall it was standing against to the opposite wall, so it at least was right next to the nest of pillows Buddleia slept in.\n\nRising bright and early the morning after their celebration over getting the other tractor running, the two women went through their morning routine of having a filling bowl of the really very tasty porridge Buddleia cooked every morning, enjoying it in the back garden in the soft grass while Sasha also booted up her laptop to check the weather forecasts and any messages she might have received. When getting into contact with the Agricultural Co-operation over the computer, the human woman had asked them to keep her updated on any second-hand equipment they got in, as well as anything they might still have sitting tucked away somewhere that could be sold for a low price.\n\nIt'd had one result so far. The old bale trailer needed four new tires and the original wheels of the small trailer behind the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline needed new tires as well so they could take the wheels of the wrecked Volvo station wagon off of it again as those were a bit too large for the small trailer. New tires were very much outside of their budget, so Sasha had asked the Ag Co-op if they maybe could locate some decent and as cheap as possible second-hand tires. They had in fact found several seven year old tires in the back of one of their storage buildings, and had informed Sasha they were willing to sell those for $25 apiece, and they would mount them free of charge as a service to help them out in their endeavor to get Buddleia's old farm back on its feet again.\n\nIn another stroke of good fortune and neighborly helpfulness, they had also informed Sasha they were willing to buy the large coils of barbed wire Sasha had mentioned were sitting in the workshop and they were not going to use, for $250 total. That would come to a bit under 25 cents per meter, which Sasha found to be a fair price after a little research. So before they hitched the little old baler to the second Hanomag tractor that morning, Sasha first put all the trailer wheels into the back of old Emmie, the 1948 Chevrolet, while Buddleia put on a pair of heavy leather gloves and a heavy leather apron that covered the entire front of her upper body so she could pick up the coils of barbed wire and put them on the Chevrolet's roof rack.\n \"We probably won't make it there today, but this is awesome, Leia,\" Sasha smiled when they had finished loading the old Chevrolet. \"We're cleaning up [i]and[/i] making money in the process!\"\n \"Yes! I not know why that was even here, grandparents never used it,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile while taking off the leather apron and gloves again. \"We never had livestock, and for most livestock barbed wire is not even suitable as fencing. Hmm, maybe except goats,\" she added after a moment's thought.\nSasha let out a light chortle.\n \"Should we get a goat? One would be doable, we can just let it graze, and we'd have fresh milk.\"\n \"You think we can afford, Sasha?\" Buddleia smiled. \"Goats go anywhere between hundred ninety to thousand dollars for grown up one.\"\n \"Ah... yes, maybe later,\" Sasha said with another chortle. \"We can't afford that yet, not even a cheap one. It was a nice thought though, one to keep in mind for later. It wouldn't cost us much in upkeep, and it would save on grocery money, because as I said, we'd get fresh milk, and we could even make cheese out of that.\"\n \"I like goat cheese, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile. \"We do maybe later, when we can afford, yes?\"\n \"Yes, I told you we'd take it one baby step at a time, so I should keep to my own words,\" Sasha smiled. \"And hey, when we bring the hay to the livestock dealer, it can't hurt to ask at least. But for now, let's go and make sure we actually have hay bales to bring there in the first place.\"\nBuddleia nodded again.\n \"You make bales, I go try and get Fiat tractor running.\"\nSasha put a hand on Buddleia's arm and chortled.\n \"Not so fast, fuzzbutt. I never worked with balers before, so you'll have to show me how it works first.\"\n \"Oh! Yes, I show,\" Buddleia smiled, leading Sasha around the small baler and showing a wide sort of scoop with a roll over the entire width at the front, leading into the internals of the machine. \"This the pickup. You set like so, these notches for lever is depth. Careful not to set too low, it hit rocks or stuff and get damaged. Only lower when you at field, lift back up when driving to or from field. These handles is for locking twine spools, make sure to unlock first, but only when you at field too, leave locked when you drive to field or spools unwind.\" At the back, the vixen-taur unfolded a metal framework so it formed a sort of chute under a large square opening and locked it in place with a few handles. \"This is bale chute, always unfold first and lock like this, so bales can come out. Machine pick up hay or straw, squeeze into cube and wrap with twine, all inside, bales come out here when done. You turn on PTO and drive over rows of hay or straw so pickup can gather, you no need to stop, bales will fall out back, machine keep going. Go no more than five miles, or machine jam from too much hay.\" She pointed at a lever on the side. \"When you done and no full bale come out, you can pull this lever to push out last hay inside, but if next thing you gonna bale later is hay again, you can leave leftover hay inside too. Only empty machine if next thing for baling is other stuff like straw. You get, Sasha, yes?\"\n \"I got it, Leia, thanks,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That seems simple enough, I don't think I'll have any trouble.\"\n \"Good, you make bales now, is fun,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Drive over rows of hay so hay go between wheels of tractor, yes?\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded again, leaning in to press a smooch on the side of Buddleia's muzzle. \"I'll get to it, should be done by suppertime I would think. Oh, how long do those spools of twine last?\"\n \"Is spool on either side and one in back, full spools make hundred fifty bales,\" Buddleia smiled with her whiskers wiggling at the smooch. \"I put full spools in, you should not have to change.\"\n \"Alright, awesome,\" Sasha smiled. \"Good luck with the tractor, fuzzbutt, I'll see you at lunch.\"\n\nShe pressed a smooch on the cool damp black pad of Buddleia's nose as well, getting a soft lick over the cheek in return. Checking if the pickup of the baler was lifted and the spools were locked, Sasha got onto the tractor with the half cab, which was really not much more than a windshield with a single small wiper, a roof and a side panel on either side flowing downwards in a half-circle so the seat could be reached. At the front-side left field, the human woman lowered the pickup, unlocked the spools, engaged the PTO and set the throttle lever on the tractor's steering column so it started rolling forwards at five miles per hour.\n\nMaking sure to keep the tractor's wheels on either side of the rows of raked-up hay, Sasha started slowly making her way across the field in the same intersecting laps she had been making with the mower, tedder and windrower. The small baler puffed and clanked and rattled behind her, and soon enough a small bale of hay of a little over three and a half feet by a little under two feet started making its way across the chute at the back in little shocks, being pushed along by the next one until it fell off the end. Sasha couldn't help chortling softly when she saw the first bale landing on the ground; those little bales looked pretty adorable.\n\nAs she was trundling her slow, repeating laps across the field, the human woman amused herself by calculating how many miles she had made already. Let's see now... four miles per hour with the mower and the tedder, three miles per hour with the windrower... ten hours per day, that made forty, forty and thirty, which in turn made... a hundred and ten miles. Wow, she had driven a hundred and ten miles on just that one field already in the past few days. That was pretty impressive, come to think of it. And not to forget, she'd do another forty to fifty miles again today with the baler as well.\n\nBy lunchtime Sasha was about half done with the field. After a hearty lunch of soup and sandwiches with herbal tea and a good hour of contently cuddling in the soft grass under the warm sun, the human woman was right back at it, continuing her slow, repetitive laps and smiling at the result of a number of small hay bales she left in her wake. At one point, a bit over an hour later, she smiled deeply and actually stopped the tractor for a moment, having just about reached the dip in the slope, when the sound of a roaring engine rang out from just inside the rickety open shed, where Buddleia had gotten the Fiat tractor running and was revving the engine loudly to blow thick clouds of black and blue smoke from its upright exhaust pipe. Squinting a bit through her glasses and leaning forwards a bit, Sasha giggled softly when she saw actual bits and pieces flying out the exhaust pipe as well; they called it 'blowing out the cobwebs', but it seemed like the once-orange Fiat tractor was literally blowing out cobwebs, as well as other bits of detritus.\n\nIt was still light, even though the sun had already dipped below the mountains, when Sasha finished the last row of hay. She drove the old Hanomag tractor over to the dirt path, disengaged the PTO and got off to lock the spools and lift the pickup of the small baler, stretched carefully with her hands pressed into the small of her back, rubbed her half-numb butt for a moment and smiled as she looked across the field. Making slow small motions with her right index finger, she silently counted the small hay bales that were spread across the field in neat rows. Seventy... seven. That was quite impressive. It were only small bales, but that was still a very decent yield.\n\nDriving back over to the open shed, Sasha backed the tractor and baler into it and left them attached to each other. She giggled softly at the streaks and stains of dirt and black oil and grease over Buddleia's face and forehead and down the sides of her upper body as the vixen-taur was putting away the tools she had used.\n \"Well fuzzbutt, no one can't say you haven't been working hard. Look at you, it looks like you're ready to go on the war path!\" she chortled.\n \"I sorry, is dirty work,\" Buddleia smiled. \"You done whole field? How many bales?\"\n \"Seventy-seven in total, plus about half of one left in the baler,\" Sasha smiled while picking up the toolbox and carrying it to the workshop while Buddleia carried a box full of parts and bits and pieces in her arms.\n \"Is nice!\" the purple and white and now also partially black vixen-taur smiled. \"Livestock shop say they pay twenty-two to twenty-five each for three string bales like this baler make. That good money we make!\"\nSasha nodded while doing a quick calculation in her head.\n \"At twenty-two dollars apiece, that's a good seventeen hundred bucks sitting in that field. Not bad for a day's work.\" She let go a light chortle. \"Well, realistically, four days of work with the mowing, tedding, drying and windrowing as well, but still, that's very decent money we can use very well.\"\n \"Yes! You so fast!\" Buddleia smiled. \"I not count that fast!\" Putting the box and the toolbox in the workshop, the vixen-taur started making her way back to the small farmhouse. \"I go make dinner, I got rabbit earlier.\"\n \"Not looking like that you don't!\" Sasha giggled, grabbing Buddleia by an arm. \"You're coming into the pond with me first so we can get you all cleaned up, fuzzbutt!\"\n\nBuddleia nodded happily and looked at Sasha grabbing an old, dusty half-full bottle of liquid dish soap and a small wooden cleaning brush from the shelf over the cabinets next to the workbench. Why that was in the workshop was anybody's guess, but at least it came in handy. Holding Buddleia's left paw in her right hand, Sasha led the vixen-taur over to the side of the pond where the dock was and sat down on the dock to let Buddleia take the flowery wrap off her chest before wading into the water. The vixen-taur followed her into the water and let herself fall over sideways with a splash to submerge herself and soak all of her purple and white fur.\n\nSasha shook her head with a giggle and sat down in front of the dripping wet vixen-taur once Buddleia had come back up. Pouring little bits of the dish soap onto the greasy streaks and stains in the white fur on the front of Buddleia's upper body, she rubbed it in with her fingers until it foamed and gently but firmly scrubbed at the stains with the small brush. She did the same, but much more carefully, on the streaks over Buddleia's face and forehead. When the human woman was all done, Buddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and chortled as she let herself fall over sideways again with another big splash, pulling Sasha along with her.\n \"Ackpt!\" Sasha sputtered and wiped her hands over her face when she surfaced again, looking at Buddleia with a laugh while she gathered up her long ginger hair. \"What did you do that for, you silly fuzzbutt?\"\nBuddleia giggled in short, cheerful yips as she shook her soaked purple hair and wiped it over her shoulders with both paws.\n \"You all clean too now, Sasha! Yee hee!\"\n \"I repeat my assessment from the first day I woke up here; you're nuts,\" Sasha chortled, leaning her head sideways and wringing out her hair a bit. She winked. \"But even if you're a totally nutso fuzzbutt, you're [i]my[/i] totally nutso fuzzbutt, you fuzzbutt.\"\nA deep, happy churr rolled from Buddleia's muzzle, her lips splayed into such a wide smile all of her teeth and a good part of her dark pink tongue were on full display. She tilted her head sideways and looked Sasha up and down for a few moments.\n \"Sasha, you my sweet noodle. Yes.\"\n\nSasha laughed cheerfully and leaned over, wrapping her arms around Buddleia's soaked upper body and pressing soft kisses on the perky ear with the wet blue feather hanging from it. Buddleia's churr deepened as she wrapped her arms back around Sasha's lanky form and gave a number of affectionate licks at the human woman's neck. Turning their heads, they let their lips meet and shared a loving kiss for several blissful moments before breaking apart and wading out of the pond.\n\nIn the back garden, Buddleia skinned and cleaned a rabbit she had apparently caught earlier in the day and built another small campfire in the circle of rocks that was still there. Sasha carefully dug up a few potatoes and several carrots from one of the vegetable patches, and they roasted the chunks of rabbit meat and the potatoes on an old cast-iron skillet over the fire. Combined with the fresh, crunchy raw carrots, it made for a simple but very tasty meal. Contently cuddling and softly petting each other in the soft grass after their meal and after Buddleia had put the flowery wrap back around Sasha's chest, they let the fire burn out on its own while the sky darkened and filled with stars. Eventually, as the fire died with a sigh and a puff of embers, the two of them got up to go into the small farmhouse and get into bed for a good night's sleep.\n\nThe next morning, after their porridge breakfast, Buddleia parked the old Chevrolet with its trailer next to the front-side left field so they could start loading the hay bales. Sasha leaned over by one and ran her fingers along the twine for a moment.\n \"They don't look too heavy; let's see if I can do this,\" she smiled.\n \"Careful, Sasha, not hurt yourself, okay?\" Buddleia said, holding a paw on Sasha's shoulder.\n \"I'll be careful, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled. She curled her fingers around the strings of twine for a good grip, drew in a deep breath and tried to lift the small bale, getting it a few inches off the ground before letting it drop back down. \"Hhumph..! Oof, darn, nope, that's a bit too heavy for me yet,\" she puffed, standing up straight and rubbing her right side with her left hand.\n \"You good, Sasha? You not hurt yourself?\" Buddleia asked, gently stroking a paw up and down the human woman's back.\n \"It gave a good twinge in these rebellious ribs, but I've gotten used to that,\" Sasha smiled, breathing deeply for several moments. \"I'm sorry Leia, but I'm gonna have to let you do all the work again.\"\n \"Is fine, I do all work by myself before you here too,\" Buddleia smiled, leaning in to give a soft lick to Sasha's neck. \"You tie them down when trailer full, okay? I put five, then five on top, then five on top, no more or trailer get bouncy.\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. She put a hand on her chin and made a waving motion with the index finger of her other hand a few times while mumbling to herself. \"Fifteen, back and forth... thirty, back and forth... forty-five, back and forth... sixty, back and forth... seventy-five, back and forth... and two left.\" She looked up. \"Damn Leia, that's five trips back and forth to that livestock place. Four hours there and four hours back, that's gonna take us a week. I really hope those pumps for the truck come in sooner, we really need that thing bad so we can pull the big trailer, because that's just stupid.\"\n \"Yes, is not much fun,\" Buddleia agreed. \"But is all we can do for now, and I already very happy we can bring bales to livestock shop and get money.\"\n \"True, at least we'll get paid for driving around all day,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Well, let's get started then!\"\n\nBuddleia smiled and also nodded as she began to pick up the small hay bales and put them in the trailer. Putting them length-wise on their narrow sides, she just managed to fit five next to each other, with a bit of pushing to get the last one to fit. On top of that she stacked five more, across, and on top of those five more, length-wise again. Sasha strapped them all down tightly with several ratchet straps, and they went into the small farmhouse to put on some clothes; a simple flannel shirt for Buddleia, and Sasha put on a pair of denim shorts, her beach sandals and a button-down shirt of which she left the bottom few buttons undone to keep the wrap around her chest free. Also putting on their sun hats, they got into the old car to undertake the four-hour drive to the livestock dealer.\n\nSasha looked around her through the cracked windshield and the missing side window. She had not been in that direction before; Buddleia drove down the driveway and onto the road that led straight away from the farm, around the hill covered in a forest of pine, fir and spruce trees opposite the farm and off between the rolling fields of grass and flowers and occasional copses and clusters of trees. It was a very pretty view, even if it was very open and absolutely empty. Sasha could see rabbits feeding in the grass sometimes, a couple of wild hares racing through one of the fields, at one point a row of whitetail deer bounding from a forest in the distance and crossing the fields to another forest.\n\nAfter a good three hours, Buddleia slowed the car and pointed through the windshield.\n \"Look Sasha, good for you to know.\"\nSasha looked at where Buddleia was pointing. A bit ahead of them was a somewhat unusual turn-off on the dirt road. Another wide dirt road coming from the left split into two narrower roads that connected to the wide dirt road they were driving on, forming a sort of triangle with a few boulders, bushes and birch trees in it.\n \"Go left here, that road go to Rolling Hills village,\" Buddleia smiled. \"About hour driving, go right through middle of village.\"\n \"Oh, that is indeed handy to know, yes,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Then I can get to the village by myself sometimes if I need to.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia smiled, pointing to the forest on their right. \"Go straight on this road, it make very wide curve around forest, and then is another triangle junction. Go left there, we get to Co-op and livestock shop.\"\n \"Good, we're almost there then? I feel like my butt is turning into a waffle from sitting on this crate, even with the cushion,\" Sasha chortled.\nBuddleia let go a short, yipping giggle.\n \"About hour more, Sasha. I not go faster, you feel how bumpy road is and I not wanna hurt you or tip over trailer.\"\n \"Yeah, it's a bit like riding in a paint shaker,\" Sasha nodded with another chortle. \"So just take it easy, Leia. I can hold out for another hour.\"\n\nBuddleia nodded with a soft chortle as well and took a paw off the wheel to gently pat Sasha's leg for a moment. They calmly drove further down the road, which gradually started curving around the forest on their right side.\n \"You know,\" Sasha remarked suddenly. \"I just got an idea. When we're back home, I'll see if I can put the passenger seat of my Volvo into this car. That'll make it much easier and comfier for me to ride in this car with you when we have to take these long drives.\"\n \"That is good idea, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"If it fit, you do that, you should be comfy in old Emmie.\"\n \"I'll make it fit if it doesn't,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"And I just realized something else; how come, as a farmer, you don't have a pickup truck, Leia?\"\n \"I not fit in pickup,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Cab too short, I got to sit up, and then I not able to reach the pedals very well and not see out the windshield because bumping my head against the roof the whole time.\"\nSasha let go another chortle and nodded in understanding.\n \"I hadn't even thought about that, but that makes so much sense. You would need at least a crew-cab without a backseat to fit all of you laying down like you have to.\"\n \"Yes, double-cab pickup with no backseat, I fit in that,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"We just never had one, old Emmie always bring us where we need to be.\"\n\nSasha also nodded again and smiled, resting her left hand on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and looking out the windshield and the missing side window again. As the road curved further towards the right, it eventually ran right into a similar kind of triangle-shape as the earlier turn-off, with all the sides curving smoothly. Buddleia followed the road towards the left, alongside another forest on their left and more open fields on the right.\n\nGradually, Sasha noticed a few more signs of civilization - or at least interference with nature - in the fields to the right of the road. A small building that had collapsed in on itself, a weathered sign with illegible text, an overgrown dirt path leading to an area that had once been an open dirt lot but was now overgrown again, even though some remnants of junk were still visible between the grass and bushes. And in the distance ahead of them, she could see the towering silos of a grain elevator on top of a hill. As they got closer, Sasha noticed the grain elevator was sitting on a huge yard paved with stone slabs, surrounded by a fence the dirt road was running right up to, with a narrower side-road splitting off to the left and running around the foot of the hill.\n\nClearing the forest on their left, the rest came into view. The paved yard stretched across the entire top of the hill, with several large brick buildings on the left of the grain elevator, a couple of which had an open front giving a view of the farming vehicles and implements sitting in them. There was a huge mound of something covered with a tarp sitting between some low concrete walls, and several larger heavy vehicles were sitting in a row next to and in front of that, such as backhoes, frontloaders and bulldozers. On the far right of the yard was an enormous building, two stories high, with a few large sliding garage doors, then a section of wall made of large floor-to-ceiling windows and a couple of large glass doors, and another brick section with a few regular doors and windows in it, and a sign on the roof reading \"Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation\".\n \"Well, I found where the Co-op is,\" Sasha giggled as Buddleia turned left onto the narrower road around the base of the hill.\n \"Yes, here is Co-op,\" Buddleia nodded with a chortle. \"Livestock shop is next to, just down the hill.\"\n\nThey rounded the hill, and Sasha spotted more buildings coming into view. Several low brick buildings close to the side of the hill, with one quite large and wide one, a few wood buildings off towards the back as well as two hay lofts, and stretching into the fields towards the left of the hill a maze of small pastures, pens and fences. A handful of white-ish grey Brahman cows were in one of the small pastures, and another one held two handfuls of tan and white Simmental cows, while in one of the pens about a dozen black Verata goats were milling about.\n\nBuddleia drove through the gate and up to the hay lofts, where a shaggy fox man and a fairly heavy-built hare man were busy lowering a large square bale of straw from one of the lofts. Once it was on the ground, the hare man turned to the old Chevrolet and the fox man climbed down a ladder while Sasha and Buddleia got out of the old car.\n \"Oy Buddsy!\" the hare man smiled. \"You got hay! Excellent! And is this the lady you were talking about?\"\n \"Yes, this Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, motioning a paw at the hare man and the fox man who had also walked up to them. \"Sasha, this Simon and this Harry, they run the livestock shop.\"\n \"Pleased to meet you fellows,\" Sasha smiled. \"No shoulder slaps please, I have broken two ribs and they're only just beginning to heal.\"\n \"Gotta be careful with that, Sasha,\" the hare man nodded while shaking Sasha's hand.\n \"And nice to meet you indeed,\" the fox man smiled, also shaking Sasha's hand. \"It's so nice to know Buddleia has someone to help her out on the farm, we've really been missing seeing that purple beast around.\"\n \"Well, you'll get to see her around a lot more now, and me as well,\" Sasha smiled. \"We're aiming to bring that farm right back around and make it super awesomely excellent.\"\n \"That'll be great!\" the hare man Simon chuckled. \"We need good farms around here, and super awesomely excellent ones are even better! And good golly thanks for the hay! You'd think with all the grass around here, we'd be up to our ears in hay, but no one around here makes it!\"\n \"Really weird, because all they need to do is mow, dry and bale,\" the fox man Harry nodded. \"But at least you brought us some now, so that's great.\"\n \"We have lots,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Seventy-seven bales, and that just one field so far.\"\n \"Awesome!\" Simon smiled. \"Let's have a look at it!\"\n\nThey walked around the old Chevrolet and to the trailer. Simon plucked a pawful of hay from one of the bales, looked at it and sniffed it, while Harry spread the hay of the same bale apart a bit to look deeper into the bale.\n \"Looking good,\" Simon nodded, twisting the pawful of hay in both his paws and checking it again. \"It's just grass, yeah? No legumes?\"\n \"Yeah, it's just the grass that's all over the place here, it's completely overtaken our fields too,\" Sasha nodded, while Buddleia started undoing the straps.\n \"That's pretty much perfect, we keep the animals we have here dry so they can't have too much protein,\" Harry said.\n \"Yeah, and I'm liking the quality of this,\" Simon nodded. \"Three-string bales I see, so we'll give you twenty-five bucks apiece, sound good?\"\n \"Sounds awesome, we need the money [i]so[/i] badly,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Let's get'em unloaded then! The ladies will be so grateful!\" Simon chuckled, motioning with his head in the direction of the few occupied pastures.\n\nSasha chortled softly and took the last straps as Buddleia undid them. The fox man Harry climbed onto the trailer surprisingly agilely and lifted one of the bales on top.\n \"Over a hundred, Simon.\"\n \"I'll get the cart,\" the hare man nodded, walking into the second hay loft.\nIn the meantime, the fox man began taking the bales off the trailer and dropping them on the ground. By the time the hare man returned with a flat cart, Buddleia had stacked two of the bales on top of each other and carried them over to the hay loft effortlessly.\n \"Hey show-off, leave some work for us!\" Simon chuckled as he started stacking the bales onto the cart, looking up at the trailer sideways. \"How many we got here, Har?\"\n \"Fifteen, looks like,\" the fox man said, quickly pointing a finger at the row of bales he was standing on top of.\n \"Good start,\" Simon chuckled.\n \"And I sure hope you won't mind it'll take a week to deliver the rest,\" Sasha chortled. \"As Leia mentioned, we have seventy-seven in total, and we can only carry fifteen at a time in this trailer. Not too bad in itself, but it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here, and then four hours back, so all we can do is fifteen bales a day as we'll be spending the whole day just driving back and forth.\" She shrugged. \"We have an old grain truck and a bale trailer, I'll be getting new tires mounted for the trailer nextdoor in a bit so that'll be rolling again, but it's gonna take three weeks before replacement parts for the truck will be in, and we need that truck to pull the trailer.\"\n \"Hell no, that ain't a problem, but that [i]is[/i] ridiculous!\" Simon said, shaking his head. \"Sure would like if it weren't so darn spread out here.\"\n \"Wanna use our old flatbed?\" Harry said as he jumped to the ground and started taking the last five bales out of the trailer. \"It's just standing around as we never use it anymore, and you can carry a ton more on that.\"\n \"Oh yes, [i]please[/i],\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That'll be [i]such[/i] a big help!\"\n \"We'll get these inside, and I'll show you,\" Harry smiled.\n\nTogether with Simon and Buddleia, he stacked the last five bales onto the trailer, and the three of them carefully pushed the cart into the hay loft, with Buddleia pushing and Harry and Simon walking on either side with their paws against the bales to prevent them from tipping over. Sasha rolled up the ratchet straps and put them in the back of the old Chevrolet before taking off her glasses and cleaning the dust off of them with a slip of her shirt.\n\nSeveral moments later, the human woman walked over as the fox man Harry made a wave with one paw while he started walking towards the buildings together with the hare man Simon and Buddleia. To the side of one of the smaller buildings sat a cab-over style 1966 Saviem S8 flatbed truck in white and yellow, and behind the building, with a ripped blue tarp partially covering the cab and the long nose, sat a 1953 MAZ-200 truck that once had been a dark blue-ish green color but had been badly painted over with a lighter green that was peeling off all over, and it had a regular bed of which the side panels and tailgate had been removed to form a simple flat bed, although the front panel and the uprights were still in place.\n\nHarry walked over to that truck and pulled the tarp off of it, revealing that the truck had two square-ish front windows with wipers coming down over them from above, the right-side front window being cracked, and that it had what looked like a three-piece hood of which the right side panel was missing. It was sitting on large tires with very deep profiles that were low on air but not flat, and a spare wheel was sitting on the frame under the bed.\n \"Ta-dah,\" Harry said with a light chuckle. \"That's our old workhorse, retired when we got the newer one we just walked by. Ran when parked, but I'm not sure if it still does, it's been twelve years.\"\n \"Yeah, tell you what,\" Simon smiled. \"You get it running, it's yours. Here it's just sitting and collecting rust anyway, and it sounds like you'll actually get some real good use out of it.\"\n \"Damn, thank you [i]so[/i] much!\" Sasha smiled. \"That's a [i]huge[/i] help, you have no idea!\"\n \"Hey, it's in our interest too,\" Harry chuckled. \"We get our yard cleaned up a bit, and you get something you can deliver us a lot more bales of hay in one go with.\"\n \"Still, I can't thank you enough,\" Sasha smiled, turning to Buddleia. \"What do you think, Leia? You got two tractors running in the past two days, think you can continue your lucky streak and get this monster running also?\"\n \"I can do,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"This big truck, I can reach everything easy, and is simple diesel engine. She not broken but just parked and left sitting, I get her running no problem.\"\n \"Have at it, Buddsy,\" Simon chuckled. \"We'll get you a toolbox, and anything else you need, just holler, okay?\"\n \"Yes, thank you, Simon,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I probably need oil, brake fluid and WD-forty to start with.\"\n \"On it,\" Harry chuckled, walking off.\n \"Okay, Leia, then while you work on this truck, I'll take Emmie over to the Co-op so they can take those rolls of barbed wire off the roof and put new tires on our trailer rims, okay?\" Sasha smiled. \"When I'm done there, I'll come back here and help you.\"\n \"Yes, is good, Sasha, you do,\" Buddleia smiled, nodding again. \"We get all things done, not wait for each other.\"\n \"Alright, I should be back soon,\" Sasha smiled. She shook paws with the hare man. \"Simon, again, thank you [i]so[/i] very much. Oh, and while I think about it, what would you advice for a good dairy goat for personal use?\n \"Alpines, definitely,\" the hare man nodded with a smile. \"Rather docile, friendly buggers, [i]very[/i] rich production and their milk is considered some of the best goat's milk you can get. You can make cheese from it, butter, ice cream, even soap. But if you're gonna drink it yourself, you gotta filter and chill it right away though, preferably immediately after milking, and keep it at forty Fahrenheit or four Celsius, or below.\"\n \"Right, we'll have to get the power restored first then,\" Sasha nodded. \"But would it be okay to have just one and let it graze?\"\n \"One should be fine, but be prepared for the girl to follow you around all over the place, they like some company,\" Simon chuckled. \"Grazing is fine too, but you best also feed some legume or mixed hay and power pellets, otherwise the milk production will decrease a decent bit. They like a bit of variation in their dinners too, just like us, you know,\" he added with a short laugh.\nSasha chortled and nodded again.\n \"Alright, that's good to know. What do those goats usually go for?\"\n \"About four hundred for a hundred-thirty-pounder,\" Simon said with a light shrug. \"At that weight they're ready to go with the milk, but they're a tad pricey because they're so popular with dairy farms.\"\n \"Ahhh, right,\" Sasha nodded slowly, with another light chortle. \"Yeah, that'll be out of our budget for a while yet. But like I said, we should still get the power to the farm restored first anyway to have cooling, so it will take a while anyway before we can look into anything that'll give milk.\"\n \"Have you ever tried milking a rabbit?\" Simon chuckled.\nSasha blinked.\n \"Uh, no? How would that even work?\"\n \"It doesn't, they're rabbits, you can't milk them,\" Simon laughed.\nSasha also laughed and shook her head.\n \"Oh you're a riot, Simon, aren't you!\" She shook his paw again. \"But anyway, thank you for the great advice and info, and thank you so very much again for the truck, too. If Leia gets that monster running, we'll be back here tomorrow with sixty-two more of those bales.\"\n \"I'll look forward to it, Sasha,\" Simon smiled.\n\nHe walked off in the same direction Harry had disappeared into after rolling a tool chest with a box on top over to the old truck, and Sasha walked back to the old Chevrolet. She moved the plastic crate over to behind the wheel, got in and started the engine, driving around the yard and back out of it to follow the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill. At the end she made the left turn up the hill and drove into the yard of the Ag Co-op, parking near the garage door that was closest to the glass wall and walking into the building through one of the glass doors.\n\nOn the inside was a very smooth and rather shiny floor, a few groups of chairs around low tables, several racks with magazines, and a few rows of smaller implements like motorized push-mowers and riding mowers, and one positively adorable small mini excavator. Over to the left side was a large counter with two computer screens on it, and behind it were a tan-colored lion man dressed in, strangely, a pair of denim overalls over a plaid flannel shirt and a suit jacket over that, and a rust-colored and white Border Collie woman dressed in a light blue blouse and matching skirt.\n\nThe lion man smiled and walked around the counter as Sasha stepped up to it, holding out a paw.\n \"You must be miss Sasha Farr! We've spoken through emails a time or two already. I'm Daniel Tawnto, I'm the Ag agent for this godforsaken wasteland... I mean this quaint, undisturbed valley,\" he chuckled.\n \"Very pleased to meet you in person, mister Tawnto,\" Sasha chortled as she shook the lion man's paw. \"I am indeed Sasha Farr, and I'm here with a few rolls of barbed wire and six wheels that need new second-hand tires.\"\n \"Please, call me Dan,\" the lion man smiled. \"And of course, I saw you parked out front, let's get you unloaded and set up!\" He walked over to the far right of the building, opened a door and looked through it while giving a loud whistle. \"Tim! Get the forklift, miss Farr is here with the barbed wire! And is Jack done with the tire mounter yet?\"\nTwo voices sounded from the room behind the door.\n \"Just about, boss!\" one of the voices said.\n \"I'll be right there!\" said the other voice.\n \"Good, when you're done, come out front with a cart, Jack, will you?\" the lion man said.\n \"Five minutes!\" answered the first voice.\nThe lion man closed the door and walked over to Sasha.\n \"They'll be right there,\" he smiled, leading the way to the glass doors. \"So you are the woman who is staying with dear Buddleia and helping her with her farm, right? That is so good to hear, Silvercreek farm has always been a very nice farm even if it was somewhat small, it was painful to see it falling into disrepair. My father was the Ag agent here before me, he always spoke very highly of Phlox and Verbena Silvercreek, and he's seen Buddleia practically grow up.\"\n \"He's known her grandparents?\" Sasha smiled. \"That's really nice. What were they like?\"\n \"Very purple,\" the lion man chuckled. \"Buddleia has it from no stranger, I can tell you. But they were the friendliest folks you could ever meet. Soft-spoken, but always giving help to anyone who needed it and always doing things for the community. You could knock on their door in the dead of night because your car had broken down, and Phlox would go out and pull it to the farm to fix it while Verbena would make you a pot of tea and some cookies while you waited. And if it was too late to travel further, they'd let you stay the night and give you a good breakfast in the morning, too.\"\n \"Leia has that from no stranger either, then,\" Sasha smiled. \"She's seen me go off the mountain in my car and raced over to save me, put me in her bed and nursed me back to health. Hell, I asked her about the suitcase in my car, and she went back out and dragged the whole damn car back to the farm.\"\n \"Holy cow, you've been lucky, that could have ended so much worse,\" the lion man said, shaking his head. \"But yes, that does sound exactly like Buddleia, alright.\" He waved at a grey and black tabby cat man in a pair of full-body green mechanic's coveralls driving over to the old Chevrolet in a forklift. \"You can put it behind the metal building with the used stuff, Tim.\" He turned back to Sasha with a smile. \"So how long will you be staying for, miss Farr? A good while, I hope.\"\nSasha curled her lips into a mild grin.\n \"First off, call me Sasha. Secondly, I broke two ribs in the accident, and I can't go anywhere before those are healed; that'll take several weeks at least. And after that...\" She grinned wider. \"Indefinitely, Dan, for ever, I won't be going anywhere until Leia and I have turned old and grey and wrinkly and fall over one day.\"\n \"That's the best news I've heard in a good while!\" the lion man Dan smiled broadly. \"So you two will be running Silvercreek farm together then? That's great!\"\n \"Indeed we will,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, looking at the tabby cat man deftly operating the forklift to take the rolls of barbed wire from the roof rack, putting them on the ground, stacking them and then picking up the whole stack. \"Oh, and Leia did mention her grandparents called it Silvercreek farm, but she never thought that was the actual farm name because it was their clan name. We've officially named it Butterfly Farm.\"\n \"That's nice! I like that!\" Dan smiled. \"Will you be sticking with the cereal crops?\"\n \"Likely, all the equipment for that is still there even if it's old and broken down,\" Sasha nodded with another smile. \"But for now, we're so dirt broke we're just reaping what's there, which is grass that overtook the fields. It's gonna take one or two years at least, I think, before we can think about planting any crops again. But when we do, yeah, probably cereals and canola and sunflowers again.\"\n \"Good, good, we can really do with a cereal farm around here,\" Dan nodded with a smile as well. They looked around when a ruddy-colored wolf man in a pair of full-body mechanic's coveralls walked through one of the glass doors while pushing a low cart. \"Ah, Jack, it's the seven year old tires I had you bring into the workshop the other day.\" He looked into the trailer. \"Where did you put the wheels, Sasha?\"\n \"Inside, we needed the trailer for the first load of hay,\" Sasha smiled. She opened the driver door of the old Chevrolet and leaned in to take out the small trailer wheels, putting them on the cart and smiling at the wolf man. \"Would you mind getting the larger ones? They're a bit too heavy for me, especially in that leaned-over position, because I have two broken ribs screaming at me.\"\n \"No problem, miss,\" the wolf man nodded with a smile.\n\nHe leaned into the old car to take out the four large wheels and put them on the trailer while Sasha stood back upright and rubbed her right side with her left hand. The lion man smiled at her again.\n \"Are you alright? Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea perhaps? And if there is ever anything we can do for you and Buddleia to help out, please don't hesitate to ask.\"\n \"A cup of tea would be nice,\" Sasha smiled. \"And thank you. You're already a big help with those cheap tires, and it would really help if I can wait here for them to be done, as it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here and four hours back again.\" She suddenly lifted her head further. \"Oh, and do you perhaps have a phone I could use? Mine got all smashed in the accident, and I should really call at least one of my friends in the city to let them know where I am and that I'm not a dead flat pancake.\"\n \"Of course, of course!\" Dan nodded. \"Please follow me again, Sasha.\" He led the way back into the building and over to the counter, smiling at the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman. \"Clarissa, please show miss Farr into the office so she can use the phone, and get her a cup of tea, would you please?\"\n \"Certainly, mister Tawnto,\" the canine woman smiled. \"This way please, miss Farr.\"\nSasha followed the Border Collie woman through a door behind the counter, into an office. The canine woman pointed at a somewhat old-fashioned landline telephone sitting on a desk.\n \"There is the phone, miss Farr. You need to dial a zero first for outside calls. Do you take sugar in your tea?\"\n \"Please,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"And thank you, too.\"\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded with a smile as well and stepped out of the office again. Sasha sat down behind the desk, took the receiver of the phone and held it to her ear, hearing a buzzing tone. She pressed the zero, and heard the tone changing to a dial tone. With a light smile and taking a deep breath in preparation, she dialed the number of the youngest girl from her small group of friends, the 22 year old chocolate Labrador Millie. That was the only number she knew by heart, as it was a relatively simple number to memorize; five sets of identical double digits.\n\nFor a moment, Sasha took another deep breath again. Well, here goes... seven seven, three three, two two, nine nine, four four. Holding the receiver to her ear again, the human woman listened to the line ring, somewhat dreading the reaction she would be getting once it was answered.\n \"Uh, hello?\"\n \"Millie? It's me, Sasha.\"\nAnd sure enough.\n \"[i][b]SASHA[/b][/i]?! Oh my god, oh my god, where are you?! What happened?! How are you?! It's been weeks! We thought you were dead! We called the cops and everything! What happened?! Where..!\"\nThe initial scream had been so loud Sasha had to jerk the receiver away from her ear, and both the lion man and the Border Collie woman by the counter looked around with surprise. Bringing the receiver back to her ear, Sasha took another deep breath.\n \"Millie! Millie! [i]MILLIE[/i]! SHUT UP! Shut the fuck up, be quiet and listen to me! I'll tell you everything, but you got to shut the fuck up and let me talk! Can you do that?!\"\n\nIt sounded very harsh, but Sasha knew that was the only way to get the somewhat excitable young Labrador girl to calm down. It worked. The voice through the receiver returned in an almost subdued and very low tone.\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good girl. Now listen, Millie. As you can hear, I'm not dead. But I [i]did[/i] have an accident.\"\n \"Oh my god! What happened?!\"\n \"[i]Shut up[/i]! Be quiet and listen! You can talk when I ask you something, but for the rest, keep your yap shut and let me talk! Can you do that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good. Do you remember that night when you saw me leaving the club?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right. I had three days to get back to the city and beg the tenement folks not to kick me out of my studio. Do you remember that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right.\" A movement from the corner of her eye made Sasha look aside and smile lightly as she saw the Border Collie woman quietly closing the door. \"I never made it, Millie. You know the way back to Fossil City, it's that stupid-ass mountain road. And it was night. When I got to a sharp curve, a box truck came around the corner, right at me. I slammed the brakes and the horn, the truck evaded but sideswiped me, and my car went through the guardrail and over the edge and rolled down the mountain for a good way.\"\n \"[i]Oh my god[/i], Sasha! Are you okay?!\"\n \"Shut, up! Yes Millie, I'm fine. I broke two ribs, I...\"\n \"Oh Sasha!\"\n \"Shut, the, fuck, [i]up[/i]! I'm not done yet! So I broke two ribs, I got cuts and scrapes and bruises all over, but that's it. I drive a Volvo after all. The broken ribs are the worst of my injuries, and they're healing up now, so I'm fine, Millie.\"\n \"How... did you get out..?\"\n \"A local woman saw the lights of my car go off the mountain, and she got me out of my car and brought me to her farm. I woke up two days later in her bed, cleaned up, with a wrap around my chest, and the woman dabbing my head with a wet cloth, and she's been nursing me back to health.\"\n \"Huu... I'm... I'm so glad to hear you're... you're okay, Sash. When we didn't hear from you for days, we thought... huu... we thought you were dead. Joanna said... huuu... she said... you probably killed yourself...\"\n \"Joanna's a bitch. Come on now, Millie, don't cry. Take a deep breath, okay?\"\nThere were a few moments of trembling breathing on the other end of the line before the voice returned.\n \"Sorry...\"\n \"It's okay, Mil. Don't worry, I really am fine. But listen to me and listen close, Millie. I need you to tell me a few things.\"\n \"Okay...\"\n \"Good. First and most importantly, you said you called the cops. When was that, and are they still searching for me?\"\n \"Hhuuu... They... Th-they... huuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Tell me what happened since that night, okay? Calmly, nice and easy now, and don't cry now, Millie. Take a few deep breaths, and tell me what happened after I left the club.\"\nThere was some loud sniffing.\n \"O-okay... That night when you left... We went back the next day... or at least, I asked Chelsea to take me back, I didn't feel like staying no more. We... we got to your place... it must have been the day after you said they would kick you out. They... hhhu... they were already moving out your stuff, Sash. We told them, that's our friend's stuff, she should be here but something must have happened, so they let us take what we could. I have it all, Sash, three boxes, in my storage unit downstairs. I have your glasses still, you left them on the bar in the club that night. A-and... huu...\"\n \"Deep breath again, Mil. Thanks for grabbing my glasses and my stuff, even if there wasn't much to grab. What happened next? When did you call the cops?\"\nAnother hard sniff.\n \"We... You had said, three days. It had been four when we got back... I said we should call the cops, but Joanna and Chelsea said not to be silly, you'd be fine, a-and... Joanna said... that. Huu... I was scared, Sash. I called the cops on my own the next day to... huuu... r-report you m-missing...\"\n \"Deeeeep breath now, Milbilly. What happened next?\"\nThere was an audible sob at the mention of the pet name, and some more hard sniffing.\n \"A... a cop came to my place to ask questions. Your name, age, what you look like, what you were wearing, what you were driving, where you had been going when I last saw you, what way you were taking... everything. I... I couldn't even remember what clothes you had on, but I did my best to give all the information I could. I even showed them your glasses, and the little picture of us.\"\n \"You did good, Mil. What did they say, and what happened next?\"\n \"They said... they'd put out a missing person report, and they would let me know any updates. Huu... A couple days later, they emailed me... They said... hhuuu... s-said...\"\n \"Get a glass of water and take a sip, Mil.\"\n\nThere was some rummaging on the other end of the line, a momentary sound of running water, and more trembling breaths and hard sniffing.\n \"Sorry... They said... they'd found a broken guardrail on the M-seventy-three, and... and damage to the plants on the mountainside that showed a car had gone through, and some bits of glass and stuff... b-but... they couldn't... huu... c-couldn't find your car, or any car at all...\"\n \"Take another sip, Millie. If that was five days or more after I went off that mountain... yeah, no wonder they didn't find the car, the woman who saved me brought it over to her farm so we could get my stuff from it, or whatever was left anyway, and that was pretty much three days after I went off. Did they give any more updates after that? It's been almost two weeks, are they still looking?\"\n \"Huu... They... th-they... hhuuu... they closed you as a c-cold case, Sash... Huuhuuu... N-no hope, they said...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Do it with me. Breathe in, now hold it, one, two, three, out again. Do it again. And take some more sips of water. There's no need to cry, Milbilly, honest. Now, tell me, did they at any point say they had gotten a report from someone else? From Bronto Valley or elsewhere?\"\nIt took several longer moments before the voice was steady enough to return.\n \"N-no... My report was the only one on you.\"\nSasha gritted her teeth for a moment.\n \"Sonofabitch, he just hit and ran. I hope he god damn well drove into the river with that fucking truck.\" She shook her head. \"It's weird though that they didn't notice the activity, I transferred my bank account to another bank, and dead bodies don't do that.\"\n \"Sash... Why... w-why didn't you call..? I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"Fuck, I wanted to, Milbilly, honest. The moment I could get out of that bed, we went through my car for my phone because I wanted to call you and let you know what happened. I did find my phone, but it's all smashed, Mil. And it's the fucking middle of nowhere here, there's not even electricity at that farm, let alone phone lines. But listen, Millie, this is very important, so listen closely and write this down. Do you have pen and paper? Get pen and paper and write this down, okay?\"\nA short pause with some rummaging and sniffing.\n \"Okay... I have a pen.\"\n \"Good. Write this down, Millie. I need you to call the police, and tell them that I've called you, that I'm alive and well, they can stop any searches and close the case proper. I'm not dead, I'm alive and doing okay, so their case is solved. Okay?\"\n \"Okay... okay, I have that, Sash. When should I do that?\"\n \"Immediately after I hang up. As soon as we're done with this call, you call the police and tell them I've been in contact with you and that I'm alive and well. And don't tell the others. Let them think I'm dead, with how they've been acting they're pretty much dead to me.\"\n \"Okay... Sash... where are you? How could you be... so far away from anything that they couldn't find you?\"\n \"Like I said, it's the middle of nowhere here, Millie. That stretch of open land between the mountains and the Arfajia Woods, you know? I found out it's called the Arfajia region or valley, and there's hardly [i]anything[/i] here. Right now I'm at the Ag Co-op, they're letting me use their phone, and it's four hours away from that farm I was brought to. I've seen a map, there's pretty much nothing here, Mil. That farm, one other farm miles away, a sawmill miles away, the Ag Co-op miles and miles away and a teeny tiny little farmer's village miles and miles away, and that's about it, apart from two milling factories. There's just hundreds and hundreds of miles of [i]nothing[/i], Millie.\"\n \"Oh... Okay...\" There was a shuddering breath on the other end of the line. \"Sash... when are you coming back..?\"\nSasha let out a sigh.\n \"I'm not coming back, Mil.\"\nThere was an actual wail on the other end of the line.\n \"Sasha-haaaaa! Please, no, please come back! I... I... hhuuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Mil. Listen to me, choco-snoot. I have nothing to go back [i]to[/i]. No apartment, no job, no car, no money, no life. But I have that here, Mil. I'm not going back to the city and be miserable again.\"\n \"No..! No, Sash, no! Please! You gotta come back! I'll let you stay with me! We'll figure something out! Please! You...\"\n \"Shut, up, Mil. Listen to me and listen close, okay? My place is [i]here[/i], Mil. I'm helping that woman who saved me with her farm, and not just until my ribs are healed. I belong here, Mil. That woman's had it as hard as me, the farm is in disrepair, and I'm helping her turn it back around. We registered it under both our names, Mil, we're partners now, and we're gonna stay that way. I am [i]not[/i] going back to the city, ever again, I belong [i]here[/i], my life is [i]here[/i].\"\nHiccupped gasps.\n \"Sash... No... Please... What... what am I... huuu... what am I gonna do... huuu... w-without you?\"\n \"Aw c'mon now, choco-snoot. You're a kid still, what do you need a cranky old noodle like me for? What could I possibly be good for, or better for than your friends of your own age?\"\n \"[i]Everything[/i]! They're all stupid! I stopped hanging out with them, because they're jerks! All they wanna do is party and shit, and they say dumb shit, and... and they treat me like crap, like I'm just a dumb puppy, Sash, you know that, you were the only one who [i]cared[/i]! Even... hu... even when you were always acting all cranky and stuff, you always... huu... you always took care of me, and... huuhuuu...\"\n \"Sip of water and deep breaths, choco-snoot.\"\n \"That's what I meannn! Huuu! You care, you always called me... huuu... sweet things, and... a-and you... huuu... you brushed me, and...\"\n \"Another sip of water, choco-snoot, and deeper breaths. Come on now, please don't cry, you're gonna get me going. And I'm sorry, Milbilly, but I really am not coming back to the city, that's final.\"\nLong moments of shuddering sobs and breaths.\n \"Sash... Please... at least let me visit..?\"\n \"Aw Millie, how would you even get here?\"\n \"I... I have a car now. You know I've been taking lessons, you... you helped me with them. I got my license last week, and... I got a small car, little Toyota coffee can, but it runs good and it's cheap. I can... I can come visit, Sash, [i]please[/i]...\"\n \"Okay choco-snoot, write this down too. Deep breath now. You still have that pen?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good, then write this down, okay? The Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. You should be able to at least find [i]that[/i] on a GPS. Now listen close, Mil, and write this down carefully. The Co-op is on a low hill, and from there a dirt road is leading down. Got that? Good. Follow that road down. After a while you'll see some sort of triangular junction, you follow the road to the right on that. Got that? Good. Keep following the road, it makes a long wide curve around a forest. You'll see another triangular junction, go straight ahead there. Got that? Okay. From there it's easy, just keep following the road. It'll take hours, but just keep following that road. After about four hours, all in all, the road will more or less end in another of those triangular junctions, onto a road that runs from left to right. You should be able to see our farm, at least the silo, it's a big rusty white tube behind a pond. Turn left there, the fence is along that road from left to right, and the driveway comes out on that road, so you can make a right turn onto the driveway and drive right up to the small house that's there. That's the place, choco-snoot, it can't miss because it's the only farm for miles and miles around. You got all that? Read it back to me.\"\n \"O-okay... Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. Down the hill, right on the triangle junction, follow the road around the forest, straight on at the second triangle junction, follow the road down for hours, left at the last triangle junction and right into the driveway.\"\n \"Very good, you got it, choco-snoot. I have no idea how long it would even take you to get to that Co-op, but that's the best directions I can give. If you wanna come visit, prepare for at least three days of travel, it's that far away, Mil. And should we not be there because you happen to come on a day we're at the sawmill or in the village or something, just wait there. Even if it takes all day, just wait there because we will come back to the farm if we're not there. Now, listen very closely and write this down too, this is very important, Mil. Do not, and I repeat do [i]not[/i] call this number to ask for me. Like I said, I'm at the Ag Co-op and they're letting me use their phone, so this number is the number of the Ag Co-op. If you call, I will not be there and they can't reach me because the farm is four hours away from there. So do not call this number. My own phone is smashed, but I ordered a replacement phone, and it will be at the post office in that little village sometime next week. I'll put my old sim-card into it, and then I will call you, Mil. So wait for that, wait for me to call you. Promise?\"\n \"I... Yes, promise, Sash...\"\n \"Good girl. I [i]will[/i] call you, Mil, that is [i]my[/i] promise. So do not call this number, wait for me to call you sometime next week when my replacement phone is here.\"\n \"O-okay, Sash... Thank you... thank you for calling me, I've been... huu... I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"It's okay, Milbilly. I'm so very sorry, I should have called you way earlier, but with no phone and we've been working so very hard, it just... Eh, never mind, I called you now and everything is good, yeah?\"\n \"Yes... thank you, Sash, I'm so glad to know you're okay. I'll... I can stop worrying now, and I'll wait for your next call.\"\n \"Good girl, choco-snoot. Now, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water. I'm gonna hang up now, my tires are ready, Leia is probably waiting for me, and we still have a four-hour drive back to the farm, so I gotta go now, Mil. But I promise you that as soon as my replacement phone is here, I will call you again, and you know my word is golden.\"\n \"Yes... you never went back on your word, I know... Thank you, Sash.\"\n \"You're welcome, choco-snoot. Like I said, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water, and then call the cops for me to tell them I called you and that I'm alive and well, and I will call you again next week.\"\n \"Okay... I'll hear from you then, Sash.\"\n \"Hear you then, Milbilly.\"\n\nSasha slowly put the receiver back on the phone and pulled in a very deep breath, leaning over with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking off her glasses with her right hand and running her right hand over her face. She only looked up when a cup of tea was set in front of her by the Border Collie woman.\n \"That... was intense, are you alright?\" she asked in a soft, worried voice.\nSasha managed a light smile.\n \"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Sorry for the long and intense call; that was my one good friend from the city and she's a young girl and been worried sick over not hearing from me for two weeks after I went off the mountain with my car.\"\n \"Oh dear...\" the canine woman said softly. \"That must have been so hard. Please take your time, miss Farr.\"\n \"Thank you,\" Sasha said with another light smile.\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her again. Sasha stirred some sugar through the cup of tea, still with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking slow, shallow breaths. The yelling she'd had to do at the start of the phone call had not done her ribs very much good; the emotions hurt even worse. Taking slow sips of the tea, the human woman gradually managed to breathe normally again, take her hand off her right side and sit up.\n\nWhen she had finished the cup of tea, she got up and walked out of the office. A light smile crossed her face as she saw Buddleia talking with the lion man Daniel, although the vixen-taur rushed over to her in almost a gallop at seeing the look on Sasha's face.\n \"Sasha! You okay? You hurt?\"\n \"I'm fine, Leia, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled lightly.\nBuddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and softly rubbed the human woman's back up and down with one paw while nuzzling at Sasha's hair. The lion man smiled softly over it.\n \"Isn't that so sweet. She had to make a phone call, Buddleia, and it was a quite intense one, we could hear it all the way out here.\"\n \"Who you call to make you look like that, Sasha?\" Buddleia murmured, still rubbing Sasha's back up and down.\nSasha smiled a bit deeper, leaning a bit sideways in the vixen-taur's embrace.\n \"I called Millie.\"\n \"Your friend! I remember you talk about her,\" Buddleia nodded. \"She okay too?\"\n \"She is now,\" Sasha smiled. \"But she's been scared and worried out of her mind for the past two weeks.\" She lifted her head a bit to look at Buddleia's face. \"She's the only one who knew I was driving back home, Leia, because she had seen me leave, and we even talked a bit about the reason I had to go back home that night. So she knew just about what day I should have been at my apartment, and when she didn't hear anything from me for two weeks after...\"\n \"She worry! Yes! I go crazy if I not hear from you for so long too!\" Buddleia nodded, holding Sasha close and giving a light lick to her neck. \"You call her now, she okay now?\"\n \"It took some doing, but yes, she's alright now,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"The problem is, she's so young still, and a Labrador, so I had to yell at her pretty loudly a few times to get her to quiet down so I could explain everything to her. And yelling like that, well...\"\nShe put her left hand on her right side again. Buddleia nodded again and slowly let go of Sasha.\n \"I understand, yes. You hurt.\"\nSasha also nodded and ran a couple of fingers along the vixen-taur's slender muzzle.\n \"Not too bad, though. But, well... that call got pretty damn emotional.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia said softly, stroking Sasha's hair with a paw. \"You good now, Sasha?\"\n \"I'm fine, we got it all talked out and figured out,\" Sasha smiled. \"So how about you? Since you were here waiting for me, I'm guessing you got that truck running?\"\n \"Yes, truck run,\" Buddleia nodded. \"I walk here because you take long time, and I can not drive truck, seat in there and cab too short too for me to sit.\"\n \"Right, of course,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Well, don't worry, I drove that Volvo daily, so I can drive anything. I'll drive it back home, Leia, no problem. Is there enough fuel in it to make it home?\"\n \"I not sure,\" Buddleia said with a light shrug of her upper shoulders. \"Is not much fuel in, but is big tank so might be enough still.\"\n \"In that case, do you have a diesel pump here we can fill up at, mister Tawnto? Dan, sorry,\" Sasha smiled, turning to the lion man.\n \"We do indeed, it's over there on the other side of the yard,\" Dan nodded, pointing through the glass wall. \"Usually, you scan your card at the scanner screen to unlock the pump, and the total amount will then be deducted from your account, but don't do that in this case, I'll unlock the pump for you.\"\n \"That's very generous of you, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled again.\n \"Small thing we can do to help,\" Dan smiled, letting go a light chuckle. \"Just this time, I'm not gonna let you fill up a sixty gallon or so tank for zip every time.\" He pointed again. \"Oh, and Jack finished your wheels, he put them in your trailer and strapped them down already.\"\n \"Again, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"I'll go get the truck then, we still have a four-hour drive to make home after all.\" She lightly ran her fingers along the side of Buddleia's slender muzzle again. \"I'll be back in a minute, Leia.\"\n \"Is good, yes, I wait here for you,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I talk some more with Dan, I not seen in long time.\"\n \"Good, see you in a bit then,\" Sasha smiled.\n\nShe walked out of the building and looked around a bit on the yard. There were indeed a couple of fuel pumps near the front fence. The fence also ran all the way to the end of the yard and along the side of it, so Sasha had to walk to the large opening where the dirt road entered the yard and walk down the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill to get to the yard of the livestock dealer.\n\nIt only took a minute or two. As she walked over to the building where the MAZ-200 truck was parked behind, the hare man Simon waved at her.\n \"Hey Sasha! You took your time, Buddsy went to look for you!\"\n \"Yeah, I had to make a very important phone call, and it took way longer than I expected,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Right, okay!\" Simon nodded. \"Well, anyway, the truck's all ready and yours for the taking! Buddsy said she had to go get you anyway because she can't drive the thing.\"\n \"Yeah, she can't fit in the cab,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"But it's fine, I can drive it. I'll sound like a broken record, Simon, but thank you so much again, you have really helped us out so very much with that truck. We'll be back here tomorrow with the rest of those bales.\"\n \"Absolutely and totally no problem, Sasha!\" Simon smiled. \"Glad you can use the old beast! We'll see you tomorrow then!\"\n\nHe waved again and stepped into one of the buildings, and Sasha walked around the other building and over to the old truck. Either Simon or Harry had even pumped up the tires so they weren't sagging anymore; that was nice! It was a little bit of a climb to get into the truck, and once behind the very large steering wheel the human woman looked around inside the cabin a bit. Wow was it rudimentary in there. Really nothing but the bare essentials, with the only hint of luxury being defroster mouths pointing at the two front windows, and those windows looked like they could swing open from the bottom as well. For the rest, just a simple metal dashboard, with to the left of the large steering wheel a rectangular panel holding a speedometer, and four smaller gauges on either side of that for fuel, oil pressure, temperature, and voltage, and two large rubber... things sticking out that Sasha could not determine what they were.\n\nTo the left of the steering wheel were a few more gauges directly in the metal dashboard; a large round rev counter, next to that an evenly large gauge with a scale of 0 to 10, and in between those a smaller round gauge with a wider scale of 0 to 5. Along the bottom were several pull-knobs and a few tumble switches, and in the left corner was a round metal plate with dots on it and a sort of turnable lever sticking through it. Small problem; it was all in Russian.\n\nSasha shrugged a bit. There were some universal symbols as well, so she could still figure out the switches for the headlights, blinkers, wipers and the like, and the plaque on the glove box lid showed with numbers that the gearbox was five speeds in a double-H pattern with Reverse below fifth gear. And there was an ignition switch with a key stuck in it, so that couldn't miss either. Everything that was needed was in there, so that was all that mattered.\n\nReaching down, the human woman turned the key and held it. A grinding noise and some loud clanks came from under the hood, some hiccups, and eventually the engine roared to life with a quite sharp, buzzy sound and a cloud of thick black smoke from the exhaust plus a puff of it out through the missing right engine cover. Shifting was not all too smooth either, but it did go into gear, so Sasha managed to put the truck into motion and slowly drive it around the building. She found she had to shift quite a bit to keep the revs up and slam the gearstick into the slots quite hard too, but again, it worked so that was what mattered.\n\nSasha pulled back into the yard of the Co-operation and parked the truck by the fuel pumps, leaving the engine running as she took the diesel nozzle and stuck it into the opening of the large round tank, having to hold the trigger squeezed down as it had no lock function. After several quite long minutes, the trigger did pop back to indicate the tank was full, and Sasha walked into the large building where Buddleia was still talking with the lion man Daniel.\n \"So they gave you their old workhorse, did they?\" he smiled at Sasha. \"Very nice. It's old, it's loud, it's slow, it's ugly and it's as basic as it gets, but it will always do the work you ask of it.\"\n \"It's thirsty too, I did put a bit over sixty-two gallons into it,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Thanks so much for that, Dan. Are all the finances taken care of now?\"\n \"Yes, I've credited your account for a hundred dollars, that's the payment for the barbed wire minus the price of the six tires,\" Dan nodded.\n \"Great, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"As I mentioned, any time you have something second-hand and cheap we could use, please let me know. And next week my replacement phone will be in so I'll give you a ring to let you know the number. A direct contact like that is handier than the emails.\"\n \"Indeed it is,\" Dan nodded with a smile. \"I'll look forward to your call, Sasha, and good luck to both of you with the farm. It was great seeing you again too, Buddleia, don't be such a stranger anymore, okay?\"\n \"Sasha and I make farm good again, so I be by much more now,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, shaking paws with the lion man. \"Was good seeing and talking to you again too, Dan.\"\n \"I'll be looking forward to that too,\" Dan chuckled. \"Have a good rest of your day, ladies, and until next time.\"\n\nThey waved, and Sasha and Buddleia walked back outside, hugging shortly.\n \"You go ahead of me, Leia, that thing is damn slow indeed,\" Sasha smiled, nodding at the truck.\n \"Okay, Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"You sure you good?\"\n \"Very sure, my sweet fuzzbutt,\" Sasha smiled. \"Let's just hurry home for as much as we can hurry in these relics, and you can hold me all you want.\"\n \"Yes. I hold you and pet you and cuddle you good,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile.\n\nShe gave a light lick to Sasha's neck before getting behind the wheel of the old Chevrolet. Sasha smiled and climbed back into the truck again, waiting for the vixen-taur to turn the car and trailer around and drive off the yard so she could follow in the large old truck. It took them a decent bit over four hours to get back to the farm, so by the time they got there, Sasha just parked the truck on the dirt path by the front-side left field and left it there.\n\nThey had a quick bath in the pond, a quick but tasty dinner, and just as quickly went to bed, where Sasha took the risk to her ribs of not sleeping in the bed itself but in Buddleia's nest of pillows and cushions so the vixen-taur could hold her close throughout the night.\n\n[i]What[/i] a day it had been!\n"
},
".description.json": {
"description": "And here we go right on with the next one on Sasha and Buddleia! Even more progress, the baler works and hay bales are made and sold. But something else very important had to be taken care of while they were at the Ag Co-op... something that had been going by the wayside for a bit too long, so it really had to be done. Poor Millie...\n\nThis one is quite a bit longer than the previous ones; I could maybe have split it up into two separate parts, but it all fits together since it's all the same day. But there is one HELL of a long phone call in here, which gets pretty darn very emotional, so be forewarned.\n\nTherefore, a Mature rating. Not because of anything sexual, but for the language and the pretty hefty emotions.\n\nBuddleia is © Fritti Breezedancer\nSasha Farr is © Fritti Breezedancer\nThe Minnaluna world and all characters therein are © Fritti Breezedancer"
},
".writing.json": {
"writing": "A couple more days had passed, in the same fashion as the previous several days. Hard work, but pleasant work, that both showed a result and would ensure an income of some decent money.\n\nThe tall, lanky human woman Sasha had tested the hay tedder, and used it to ted all the grass she had mowed in the front-side field so it got all spread out and could dry further into hay in the warm sun. As the little old open Hanomag tractor could still only do at the very most a bit over four miles per hour with an engaged implement attached to its PTO shaft, the tedding had taken Sasha all day.\n\nThe next day, she had tested the single-wheel windrower they had fixed up, found that also to be operating well, and had used it to rake all the spread-out dried grass, which had turned into a very nice hay under the sun, into neat rows that would be easy to pick up with the baler. However, the windrower being almost twice as large as the tedder, attaching it to the open Hanomag's PTO shaft and engaging it sapped so much of the little old tractor's power that it do could only three miles per hour, so it still took Sasha all day to rake all the hay into neat rows even though the area of the windrower was a decent bit larger than that of the tedder.\n\nWhile the human woman was making her laps back and forth across the front-side left field on the open Hanomag tractor, the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia had been hard at work trying to get the other old Hanomag tractor with the half cab running again. That one had a slightly more powerful engine, and the extra power would be needed to pull and operate the small old baler. Halfway through raking the field with the single-wheel windrower, Sasha had looked in the direction of the rickety open shed with a smile when the rumble of an engine had sounded out from there, indicating Buddleia's success in getting the other tractor running.\n\nThat evening, they had celebrated with a cup of herbal tea and two of the cookies Buddleia had brought from the bakery in the small village a few days earlier when picking up the company bank cards that had been sent to the post office. They had also discussed their sleeping arrangements. Due to what had Sasha had witnessed Buddleia doing in the middle of the night a day or two earlier, and had talked about with the vixen-taur the next day, it made sense if they would stop sleeping in separate beds. However, as Buddleia's bed consisted of just a big heap of pillows and cushions on the floor of the small bedroom, that did pose a little bit of a problem. The vixen-taur did not quite fit into the regular bed Sasha was using, and the human woman had to keep using that bed for the simple reason she had to sleep with her back laying flat to not put any undue strain on her broken ribs that were slowly healing. Sleeping in the heap of pillows together with Buddleia did sound very comfortable and much more enticing, but it would still be a bit too risky for Sasha, for at least a couple of weeks yet. As a compromise, they had moved the bed from the one wall it was standing against to the opposite wall, so it at least was right next to the nest of pillows Buddleia slept in.\n\nRising bright and early the morning after their celebration over getting the other tractor running, the two women went through their morning routine of having a filling bowl of the really very tasty porridge Buddleia cooked every morning, enjoying it in the back garden in the soft grass while Sasha also booted up her laptop to check the weather forecasts and any messages she might have received. When getting into contact with the Agricultural Co-operation over the computer, the human woman had asked them to keep her updated on any second-hand equipment they got in, as well as anything they might still have sitting tucked away somewhere that could be sold for a low price.\n\nIt'd had one result so far. The old bale trailer needed four new tires and the original wheels of the small trailer behind the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline needed new tires as well so they could take the wheels of the wrecked Volvo station wagon off of it again as those were a bit too large for the small trailer. New tires were very much outside of their budget, so Sasha had asked the Ag Co-op if they maybe could locate some decent and as cheap as possible second-hand tires. They had in fact found several seven year old tires in the back of one of their storage buildings, and had informed Sasha they were willing to sell those for $25 apiece, and they would mount them free of charge as a service to help them out in their endeavor to get Buddleia's old farm back on its feet again.\n\nIn another stroke of good fortune and neighborly helpfulness, they had also informed Sasha they were willing to buy the large coils of barbed wire Sasha had mentioned were sitting in the workshop and they were not going to use, for $250 total. That would come to a bit under 25 cents per meter, which Sasha found to be a fair price after a little research. So before they hitched the little old baler to the second Hanomag tractor that morning, Sasha first put all the trailer wheels into the back of old Emmie, the 1948 Chevrolet, while Buddleia put on a pair of heavy leather gloves and a heavy leather apron that covered the entire front of her upper body so she could pick up the coils of barbed wire and put them on the Chevrolet's roof rack.\n \"We probably won't make it there today, but this is awesome, Leia,\" Sasha smiled when they had finished loading the old Chevrolet. \"We're cleaning up [i]and[/i] making money in the process!\"\n \"Yes! I not know why that was even here, grandparents never used it,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile while taking off the leather apron and gloves again. \"We never had livestock, and for most livestock barbed wire is not even suitable as fencing. Hmm, maybe except goats,\" she added after a moment's thought.\nSasha let out a light chortle.\n \"Should we get a goat? One would be doable, we can just let it graze, and we'd have fresh milk.\"\n \"You think we can afford, Sasha?\" Buddleia smiled. \"Goats go anywhere between hundred ninety to thousand dollars for grown up one.\"\n \"Ah... yes, maybe later,\" Sasha said with another chortle. \"We can't afford that yet, not even a cheap one. It was a nice thought though, one to keep in mind for later. It wouldn't cost us much in upkeep, and it would save on grocery money, because as I said, we'd get fresh milk, and we could even make cheese out of that.\"\n \"I like goat cheese, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile. \"We do maybe later, when we can afford, yes?\"\n \"Yes, I told you we'd take it one baby step at a time, so I should keep to my own words,\" Sasha smiled. \"And hey, when we bring the hay to the livestock dealer, it can't hurt to ask at least. But for now, let's go and make sure we actually have hay bales to bring there in the first place.\"\nBuddleia nodded again.\n \"You make bales, I go try and get Fiat tractor running.\"\nSasha put a hand on Buddleia's arm and chortled.\n \"Not so fast, fuzzbutt. I never worked with balers before, so you'll have to show me how it works first.\"\n \"Oh! Yes, I show,\" Buddleia smiled, leading Sasha around the small baler and showing a wide sort of scoop with a roll over the entire width at the front, leading into the internals of the machine. \"This the pickup. You set like so, these notches for lever is depth. Careful not to set too low, it hit rocks or stuff and get damaged. Only lower when you at field, lift back up when driving to or from field. These handles is for locking twine spools, make sure to unlock first, but only when you at field too, leave locked when you drive to field or spools unwind.\" At the back, the vixen-taur unfolded a metal framework so it formed a sort of chute under a large square opening and locked it in place with a few handles. \"This is bale chute, always unfold first and lock like this, so bales can come out. Machine pick up hay or straw, squeeze into cube and wrap with twine, all inside, bales come out here when done. You turn on PTO and drive over rows of hay or straw so pickup can gather, you no need to stop, bales will fall out back, machine keep going. Go no more than five miles, or machine jam from too much hay.\" She pointed at a lever on the side. \"When you done and no full bale come out, you can pull this lever to push out last hay inside, but if next thing you gonna bale later is hay again, you can leave leftover hay inside too. Only empty machine if next thing for baling is other stuff like straw. You get, Sasha, yes?\"\n \"I got it, Leia, thanks,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That seems simple enough, I don't think I'll have any trouble.\"\n \"Good, you make bales now, is fun,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Drive over rows of hay so hay go between wheels of tractor, yes?\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded again, leaning in to press a smooch on the side of Buddleia's muzzle. \"I'll get to it, should be done by suppertime I would think. Oh, how long do those spools of twine last?\"\n \"Is spool on either side and one in back, full spools make hundred fifty bales,\" Buddleia smiled with her whiskers wiggling at the smooch. \"I put full spools in, you should not have to change.\"\n \"Alright, awesome,\" Sasha smiled. \"Good luck with the tractor, fuzzbutt, I'll see you at lunch.\"\n\nShe pressed a smooch on the cool damp black pad of Buddleia's nose as well, getting a soft lick over the cheek in return. Checking if the pickup of the baler was lifted and the spools were locked, Sasha got onto the tractor with the half cab, which was really not much more than a windshield with a single small wiper, a roof and a side panel on either side flowing downwards in a half-circle so the seat could be reached. At the front-side left field, the human woman lowered the pickup, unlocked the spools, engaged the PTO and set the throttle lever on the tractor's steering column so it started rolling forwards at five miles per hour.\n\nMaking sure to keep the tractor's wheels on either side of the rows of raked-up hay, Sasha started slowly making her way across the field in the same intersecting laps she had been making with the mower, tedder and windrower. The small baler puffed and clanked and rattled behind her, and soon enough a small bale of hay of a little over three and a half feet by a little under two feet started making its way across the chute at the back in little shocks, being pushed along by the next one until it fell off the end. Sasha couldn't help chortling softly when she saw the first bale landing on the ground; those little bales looked pretty adorable.\n\nAs she was trundling her slow, repeating laps across the field, the human woman amused herself by calculating how many miles she had made already. Let's see now... four miles per hour with the mower and the tedder, three miles per hour with the windrower... ten hours per day, that made forty, forty and thirty, which in turn made... a hundred and ten miles. Wow, she had driven a hundred and ten miles on just that one field already in the past few days. That was pretty impressive, come to think of it. And not to forget, she'd do another forty to fifty miles again today with the baler as well.\n\nBy lunchtime Sasha was about half done with the field. After a hearty lunch of soup and sandwiches with herbal tea and a good hour of contently cuddling in the soft grass under the warm sun, the human woman was right back at it, continuing her slow, repetitive laps and smiling at the result of a number of small hay bales she left in her wake. At one point, a bit over an hour later, she smiled deeply and actually stopped the tractor for a moment, having just about reached the dip in the slope, when the sound of a roaring engine rang out from just inside the rickety open shed, where Buddleia had gotten the Fiat tractor running and was revving the engine loudly to blow thick clouds of black and blue smoke from its upright exhaust pipe. Squinting a bit through her glasses and leaning forwards a bit, Sasha giggled softly when she saw actual bits and pieces flying out the exhaust pipe as well; they called it 'blowing out the cobwebs', but it seemed like the once-orange Fiat tractor was literally blowing out cobwebs, as well as other bits of detritus.\n\nIt was still light, even though the sun had already dipped below the mountains, when Sasha finished the last row of hay. She drove the old Hanomag tractor over to the dirt path, disengaged the PTO and got off to lock the spools and lift the pickup of the small baler, stretched carefully with her hands pressed into the small of her back, rubbed her half-numb butt for a moment and smiled as she looked across the field. Making slow small motions with her right index finger, she silently counted the small hay bales that were spread across the field in neat rows. Seventy... seven. That was quite impressive. It were only small bales, but that was still a very decent yield.\n\nDriving back over to the open shed, Sasha backed the tractor and baler into it and left them attached to each other. She giggled softly at the streaks and stains of dirt and black oil and grease over Buddleia's face and forehead and down the sides of her upper body as the vixen-taur was putting away the tools she had used.\n \"Well fuzzbutt, no one can't say you haven't been working hard. Look at you, it looks like you're ready to go on the war path!\" she chortled.\n \"I sorry, is dirty work,\" Buddleia smiled. \"You done whole field? How many bales?\"\n \"Seventy-seven in total, plus about half of one left in the baler,\" Sasha smiled while picking up the toolbox and carrying it to the workshop while Buddleia carried a box full of parts and bits and pieces in her arms.\n \"Is nice!\" the purple and white and now also partially black vixen-taur smiled. \"Livestock shop say they pay twenty-two to twenty-five each for three string bales like this baler make. That good money we make!\"\nSasha nodded while doing a quick calculation in her head.\n \"At twenty-two dollars apiece, that's a good seventeen hundred bucks sitting in that field. Not bad for a day's work.\" She let go a light chortle. \"Well, realistically, four days of work with the mowing, tedding, drying and windrowing as well, but still, that's very decent money we can use very well.\"\n \"Yes! You so fast!\" Buddleia smiled. \"I not count that fast!\" Putting the box and the toolbox in the workshop, the vixen-taur started making her way back to the small farmhouse. \"I go make dinner, I got rabbit earlier.\"\n \"Not looking like that you don't!\" Sasha giggled, grabbing Buddleia by an arm. \"You're coming into the pond with me first so we can get you all cleaned up, fuzzbutt!\"\n\nBuddleia nodded happily and looked at Sasha grabbing an old, dusty half-full bottle of liquid dish soap and a small wooden cleaning brush from the shelf over the cabinets next to the workbench. Why that was in the workshop was anybody's guess, but at least it came in handy. Holding Buddleia's left paw in her right hand, Sasha led the vixen-taur over to the side of the pond where the dock was and sat down on the dock to let Buddleia take the flowery wrap off her chest before wading into the water. The vixen-taur followed her into the water and let herself fall over sideways with a splash to submerge herself and soak all of her purple and white fur.\n\nSasha shook her head with a giggle and sat down in front of the dripping wet vixen-taur once Buddleia had come back up. Pouring little bits of the dish soap onto the greasy streaks and stains in the white fur on the front of Buddleia's upper body, she rubbed it in with her fingers until it foamed and gently but firmly scrubbed at the stains with the small brush. She did the same, but much more carefully, on the streaks over Buddleia's face and forehead. When the human woman was all done, Buddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and chortled as she let herself fall over sideways again with another big splash, pulling Sasha along with her.\n \"Ackpt!\" Sasha sputtered and wiped her hands over her face when she surfaced again, looking at Buddleia with a laugh while she gathered up her long ginger hair. \"What did you do that for, you silly fuzzbutt?\"\nBuddleia giggled in short, cheerful yips as she shook her soaked purple hair and wiped it over her shoulders with both paws.\n \"You all clean too now, Sasha! Yee hee!\"\n \"I repeat my assessment from the first day I woke up here; you're nuts,\" Sasha chortled, leaning her head sideways and wringing out her hair a bit. She winked. \"But even if you're a totally nutso fuzzbutt, you're [i]my[/i] totally nutso fuzzbutt, you fuzzbutt.\"\nA deep, happy churr rolled from Buddleia's muzzle, her lips splayed into such a wide smile all of her teeth and a good part of her dark pink tongue were on full display. She tilted her head sideways and looked Sasha up and down for a few moments.\n \"Sasha, you my sweet noodle. Yes.\"\n\nSasha laughed cheerfully and leaned over, wrapping her arms around Buddleia's soaked upper body and pressing soft kisses on the perky ear with the wet blue feather hanging from it. Buddleia's churr deepened as she wrapped her arms back around Sasha's lanky form and gave a number of affectionate licks at the human woman's neck. Turning their heads, they let their lips meet and shared a loving kiss for several blissful moments before breaking apart and wading out of the pond.\n\nIn the back garden, Buddleia skinned and cleaned a rabbit she had apparently caught earlier in the day and built another small campfire in the circle of rocks that was still there. Sasha carefully dug up a few potatoes and several carrots from one of the vegetable patches, and they roasted the chunks of rabbit meat and the potatoes on an old cast-iron skillet over the fire. Combined with the fresh, crunchy raw carrots, it made for a simple but very tasty meal. Contently cuddling and softly petting each other in the soft grass after their meal and after Buddleia had put the flowery wrap back around Sasha's chest, they let the fire burn out on its own while the sky darkened and filled with stars. Eventually, as the fire died with a sigh and a puff of embers, the two of them got up to go into the small farmhouse and get into bed for a good night's sleep.\n\nThe next morning, after their porridge breakfast, Buddleia parked the old Chevrolet with its trailer next to the front-side left field so they could start loading the hay bales. Sasha leaned over by one and ran her fingers along the twine for a moment.\n \"They don't look too heavy; let's see if I can do this,\" she smiled.\n \"Careful, Sasha, not hurt yourself, okay?\" Buddleia said, holding a paw on Sasha's shoulder.\n \"I'll be careful, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled. She curled her fingers around the strings of twine for a good grip, drew in a deep breath and tried to lift the small bale, getting it a few inches off the ground before letting it drop back down. \"Hhumph..! Oof, darn, nope, that's a bit too heavy for me yet,\" she puffed, standing up straight and rubbing her right side with her left hand.\n \"You good, Sasha? You not hurt yourself?\" Buddleia asked, gently stroking a paw up and down the human woman's back.\n \"It gave a good twinge in these rebellious ribs, but I've gotten used to that,\" Sasha smiled, breathing deeply for several moments. \"I'm sorry Leia, but I'm gonna have to let you do all the work again.\"\n \"Is fine, I do all work by myself before you here too,\" Buddleia smiled, leaning in to give a soft lick to Sasha's neck. \"You tie them down when trailer full, okay? I put five, then five on top, then five on top, no more or trailer get bouncy.\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. She put a hand on her chin and made a waving motion with the index finger of her other hand a few times while mumbling to herself. \"Fifteen, back and forth... thirty, back and forth... forty-five, back and forth... sixty, back and forth... seventy-five, back and forth... and two left.\" She looked up. \"Damn Leia, that's five trips back and forth to that livestock place. Four hours there and four hours back, that's gonna take us a week. I really hope those pumps for the truck come in sooner, we really need that thing bad so we can pull the big trailer, because that's just stupid.\"\n \"Yes, is not much fun,\" Buddleia agreed. \"But is all we can do for now, and I already very happy we can bring bales to livestock shop and get money.\"\n \"True, at least we'll get paid for driving around all day,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Well, let's get started then!\"\n\nBuddleia smiled and also nodded as she began to pick up the small hay bales and put them in the trailer. Putting them length-wise on their narrow sides, she just managed to fit five next to each other, with a bit of pushing to get the last one to fit. On top of that she stacked five more, across, and on top of those five more, length-wise again. Sasha strapped them all down tightly with several ratchet straps, and they went into the small farmhouse to put on some clothes; a simple flannel shirt for Buddleia, and Sasha put on a pair of denim shorts, her beach sandals and a button-down shirt of which she left the bottom few buttons undone to keep the wrap around her chest free. Also putting on their sun hats, they got into the old car to undertake the four-hour drive to the livestock dealer.\n\nSasha looked around her through the cracked windshield and the missing side window. She had not been in that direction before; Buddleia drove down the driveway and onto the road that led straight away from the farm, around the hill covered in a forest of pine, fir and spruce trees opposite the farm and off between the rolling fields of grass and flowers and occasional copses and clusters of trees. It was a very pretty view, even if it was very open and absolutely empty. Sasha could see rabbits feeding in the grass sometimes, a couple of wild hares racing through one of the fields, at one point a row of whitetail deer bounding from a forest in the distance and crossing the fields to another forest.\n\nAfter a good three hours, Buddleia slowed the car and pointed through the windshield.\n \"Look Sasha, good for you to know.\"\nSasha looked at where Buddleia was pointing. A bit ahead of them was a somewhat unusual turn-off on the dirt road. Another wide dirt road coming from the left split into two narrower roads that connected to the wide dirt road they were driving on, forming a sort of triangle with a few boulders, bushes and birch trees in it.\n \"Go left here, that road go to Rolling Hills village,\" Buddleia smiled. \"About hour driving, go right through middle of village.\"\n \"Oh, that is indeed handy to know, yes,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Then I can get to the village by myself sometimes if I need to.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia smiled, pointing to the forest on their right. \"Go straight on this road, it make very wide curve around forest, and then is another triangle junction. Go left there, we get to Co-op and livestock shop.\"\n \"Good, we're almost there then? I feel like my butt is turning into a waffle from sitting on this crate, even with the cushion,\" Sasha chortled.\nBuddleia let go a short, yipping giggle.\n \"About hour more, Sasha. I not go faster, you feel how bumpy road is and I not wanna hurt you or tip over trailer.\"\n \"Yeah, it's a bit like riding in a paint shaker,\" Sasha nodded with another chortle. \"So just take it easy, Leia. I can hold out for another hour.\"\n\nBuddleia nodded with a soft chortle as well and took a paw off the wheel to gently pat Sasha's leg for a moment. They calmly drove further down the road, which gradually started curving around the forest on their right side.\n \"You know,\" Sasha remarked suddenly. \"I just got an idea. When we're back home, I'll see if I can put the passenger seat of my Volvo into this car. That'll make it much easier and comfier for me to ride in this car with you when we have to take these long drives.\"\n \"That is good idea, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"If it fit, you do that, you should be comfy in old Emmie.\"\n \"I'll make it fit if it doesn't,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"And I just realized something else; how come, as a farmer, you don't have a pickup truck, Leia?\"\n \"I not fit in pickup,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Cab too short, I got to sit up, and then I not able to reach the pedals very well and not see out the windshield because bumping my head against the roof the whole time.\"\nSasha let go another chortle and nodded in understanding.\n \"I hadn't even thought about that, but that makes so much sense. You would need at least a crew-cab without a backseat to fit all of you laying down like you have to.\"\n \"Yes, double-cab pickup with no backseat, I fit in that,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"We just never had one, old Emmie always bring us where we need to be.\"\n\nSasha also nodded again and smiled, resting her left hand on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and looking out the windshield and the missing side window again. As the road curved further towards the right, it eventually ran right into a similar kind of triangle-shape as the earlier turn-off, with all the sides curving smoothly. Buddleia followed the road towards the left, alongside another forest on their left and more open fields on the right.\n\nGradually, Sasha noticed a few more signs of civilization - or at least interference with nature - in the fields to the right of the road. A small building that had collapsed in on itself, a weathered sign with illegible text, an overgrown dirt path leading to an area that had once been an open dirt lot but was now overgrown again, even though some remnants of junk were still visible between the grass and bushes. And in the distance ahead of them, she could see the towering silos of a grain elevator on top of a hill. As they got closer, Sasha noticed the grain elevator was sitting on a huge yard paved with stone slabs, surrounded by a fence the dirt road was running right up to, with a narrower side-road splitting off to the left and running around the foot of the hill.\n\nClearing the forest on their left, the rest came into view. The paved yard stretched across the entire top of the hill, with several large brick buildings on the left of the grain elevator, a couple of which had an open front giving a view of the farming vehicles and implements sitting in them. There was a huge mound of something covered with a tarp sitting between some low concrete walls, and several larger heavy vehicles were sitting in a row next to and in front of that, such as backhoes, frontloaders and bulldozers. On the far right of the yard was an enormous building, two stories high, with a few large sliding garage doors, then a section of wall made of large floor-to-ceiling windows and a couple of large glass doors, and another brick section with a few regular doors and windows in it, and a sign on the roof reading \"Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation\".\n \"Well, I found where the Co-op is,\" Sasha giggled as Buddleia turned left onto the narrower road around the base of the hill.\n \"Yes, here is Co-op,\" Buddleia nodded with a chortle. \"Livestock shop is next to, just down the hill.\"\n\nThey rounded the hill, and Sasha spotted more buildings coming into view. Several low brick buildings close to the side of the hill, with one quite large and wide one, a few wood buildings off towards the back as well as two hay lofts, and stretching into the fields towards the left of the hill a maze of small pastures, pens and fences. A handful of white-ish grey Brahman cows were in one of the small pastures, and another one held two handfuls of tan and white Simmental cows, while in one of the pens about a dozen black Verata goats were milling about.\n\nBuddleia drove through the gate and up to the hay lofts, where a shaggy fox man and a fairly heavy-built hare man were busy lowering a large square bale of straw from one of the lofts. Once it was on the ground, the hare man turned to the old Chevrolet and the fox man climbed down a ladder while Sasha and Buddleia got out of the old car.\n \"Oy Buddsy!\" the hare man smiled. \"You got hay! Excellent! And is this the lady you were talking about?\"\n \"Yes, this Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, motioning a paw at the hare man and the fox man who had also walked up to them. \"Sasha, this Simon and this Harry, they run the livestock shop.\"\n \"Pleased to meet you fellows,\" Sasha smiled. \"No shoulder slaps please, I have broken two ribs and they're only just beginning to heal.\"\n \"Gotta be careful with that, Sasha,\" the hare man nodded while shaking Sasha's hand.\n \"And nice to meet you indeed,\" the fox man smiled, also shaking Sasha's hand. \"It's so nice to know Buddleia has someone to help her out on the farm, we've really been missing seeing that purple beast around.\"\n \"Well, you'll get to see her around a lot more now, and me as well,\" Sasha smiled. \"We're aiming to bring that farm right back around and make it super awesomely excellent.\"\n \"That'll be great!\" the hare man Simon chuckled. \"We need good farms around here, and super awesomely excellent ones are even better! And good golly thanks for the hay! You'd think with all the grass around here, we'd be up to our ears in hay, but no one around here makes it!\"\n \"Really weird, because all they need to do is mow, dry and bale,\" the fox man Harry nodded. \"But at least you brought us some now, so that's great.\"\n \"We have lots,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Seventy-seven bales, and that just one field so far.\"\n \"Awesome!\" Simon smiled. \"Let's have a look at it!\"\n\nThey walked around the old Chevrolet and to the trailer. Simon plucked a pawful of hay from one of the bales, looked at it and sniffed it, while Harry spread the hay of the same bale apart a bit to look deeper into the bale.\n \"Looking good,\" Simon nodded, twisting the pawful of hay in both his paws and checking it again. \"It's just grass, yeah? No legumes?\"\n \"Yeah, it's just the grass that's all over the place here, it's completely overtaken our fields too,\" Sasha nodded, while Buddleia started undoing the straps.\n \"That's pretty much perfect, we keep the animals we have here dry so they can't have too much protein,\" Harry said.\n \"Yeah, and I'm liking the quality of this,\" Simon nodded. \"Three-string bales I see, so we'll give you twenty-five bucks apiece, sound good?\"\n \"Sounds awesome, we need the money [i]so[/i] badly,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Let's get'em unloaded then! The ladies will be so grateful!\" Simon chuckled, motioning with his head in the direction of the few occupied pastures.\n\nSasha chortled softly and took the last straps as Buddleia undid them. The fox man Harry climbed onto the trailer surprisingly agilely and lifted one of the bales on top.\n \"Over a hundred, Simon.\"\n \"I'll get the cart,\" the hare man nodded, walking into the second hay loft.\nIn the meantime, the fox man began taking the bales off the trailer and dropping them on the ground. By the time the hare man returned with a flat cart, Buddleia had stacked two of the bales on top of each other and carried them over to the hay loft effortlessly.\n \"Hey show-off, leave some work for us!\" Simon chuckled as he started stacking the bales onto the cart, looking up at the trailer sideways. \"How many we got here, Har?\"\n \"Fifteen, looks like,\" the fox man said, quickly pointing a finger at the row of bales he was standing on top of.\n \"Good start,\" Simon chuckled.\n \"And I sure hope you won't mind it'll take a week to deliver the rest,\" Sasha chortled. \"As Leia mentioned, we have seventy-seven in total, and we can only carry fifteen at a time in this trailer. Not too bad in itself, but it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here, and then four hours back, so all we can do is fifteen bales a day as we'll be spending the whole day just driving back and forth.\" She shrugged. \"We have an old grain truck and a bale trailer, I'll be getting new tires mounted for the trailer nextdoor in a bit so that'll be rolling again, but it's gonna take three weeks before replacement parts for the truck will be in, and we need that truck to pull the trailer.\"\n \"Hell no, that ain't a problem, but that [i]is[/i] ridiculous!\" Simon said, shaking his head. \"Sure would like if it weren't so darn spread out here.\"\n \"Wanna use our old flatbed?\" Harry said as he jumped to the ground and started taking the last five bales out of the trailer. \"It's just standing around as we never use it anymore, and you can carry a ton more on that.\"\n \"Oh yes, [i]please[/i],\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That'll be [i]such[/i] a big help!\"\n \"We'll get these inside, and I'll show you,\" Harry smiled.\n\nTogether with Simon and Buddleia, he stacked the last five bales onto the trailer, and the three of them carefully pushed the cart into the hay loft, with Buddleia pushing and Harry and Simon walking on either side with their paws against the bales to prevent them from tipping over. Sasha rolled up the ratchet straps and put them in the back of the old Chevrolet before taking off her glasses and cleaning the dust off of them with a slip of her shirt.\n\nSeveral moments later, the human woman walked over as the fox man Harry made a wave with one paw while he started walking towards the buildings together with the hare man Simon and Buddleia. To the side of one of the smaller buildings sat a cab-over style 1966 Saviem S8 flatbed truck in white and yellow, and behind the building, with a ripped blue tarp partially covering the cab and the long nose, sat a 1953 MAZ-200 truck that once had been a dark blue-ish green color but had been badly painted over with a lighter green that was peeling off all over, and it had a regular bed of which the side panels and tailgate had been removed to form a simple flat bed, although the front panel and the uprights were still in place.\n\nHarry walked over to that truck and pulled the tarp off of it, revealing that the truck had two square-ish front windows with wipers coming down over them from above, the right-side front window being cracked, and that it had what looked like a three-piece hood of which the right side panel was missing. It was sitting on large tires with very deep profiles that were low on air but not flat, and a spare wheel was sitting on the frame under the bed.\n \"Ta-dah,\" Harry said with a light chuckle. \"That's our old workhorse, retired when we got the newer one we just walked by. Ran when parked, but I'm not sure if it still does, it's been twelve years.\"\n \"Yeah, tell you what,\" Simon smiled. \"You get it running, it's yours. Here it's just sitting and collecting rust anyway, and it sounds like you'll actually get some real good use out of it.\"\n \"Damn, thank you [i]so[/i] much!\" Sasha smiled. \"That's a [i]huge[/i] help, you have no idea!\"\n \"Hey, it's in our interest too,\" Harry chuckled. \"We get our yard cleaned up a bit, and you get something you can deliver us a lot more bales of hay in one go with.\"\n \"Still, I can't thank you enough,\" Sasha smiled, turning to Buddleia. \"What do you think, Leia? You got two tractors running in the past two days, think you can continue your lucky streak and get this monster running also?\"\n \"I can do,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"This big truck, I can reach everything easy, and is simple diesel engine. She not broken but just parked and left sitting, I get her running no problem.\"\n \"Have at it, Buddsy,\" Simon chuckled. \"We'll get you a toolbox, and anything else you need, just holler, okay?\"\n \"Yes, thank you, Simon,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I probably need oil, brake fluid and WD-forty to start with.\"\n \"On it,\" Harry chuckled, walking off.\n \"Okay, Leia, then while you work on this truck, I'll take Emmie over to the Co-op so they can take those rolls of barbed wire off the roof and put new tires on our trailer rims, okay?\" Sasha smiled. \"When I'm done there, I'll come back here and help you.\"\n \"Yes, is good, Sasha, you do,\" Buddleia smiled, nodding again. \"We get all things done, not wait for each other.\"\n \"Alright, I should be back soon,\" Sasha smiled. She shook paws with the hare man. \"Simon, again, thank you [i]so[/i] very much. Oh, and while I think about it, what would you advice for a good dairy goat for personal use?\n \"Alpines, definitely,\" the hare man nodded with a smile. \"Rather docile, friendly buggers, [i]very[/i] rich production and their milk is considered some of the best goat's milk you can get. You can make cheese from it, butter, ice cream, even soap. But if you're gonna drink it yourself, you gotta filter and chill it right away though, preferably immediately after milking, and keep it at forty Fahrenheit or four Celsius, or below.\"\n \"Right, we'll have to get the power restored first then,\" Sasha nodded. \"But would it be okay to have just one and let it graze?\"\n \"One should be fine, but be prepared for the girl to follow you around all over the place, they like some company,\" Simon chuckled. \"Grazing is fine too, but you best also feed some legume or mixed hay and power pellets, otherwise the milk production will decrease a decent bit. They like a bit of variation in their dinners too, just like us, you know,\" he added with a short laugh.\nSasha chortled and nodded again.\n \"Alright, that's good to know. What do those goats usually go for?\"\n \"About four hundred for a hundred-thirty-pounder,\" Simon said with a light shrug. \"At that weight they're ready to go with the milk, but they're a tad pricey because they're so popular with dairy farms.\"\n \"Ahhh, right,\" Sasha nodded slowly, with another light chortle. \"Yeah, that'll be out of our budget for a while yet. But like I said, we should still get the power to the farm restored first anyway to have cooling, so it will take a while anyway before we can look into anything that'll give milk.\"\n \"Have you ever tried milking a rabbit?\" Simon chuckled.\nSasha blinked.\n \"Uh, no? How would that even work?\"\n \"It doesn't, they're rabbits, you can't milk them,\" Simon laughed.\nSasha also laughed and shook her head.\n \"Oh you're a riot, Simon, aren't you!\" She shook his paw again. \"But anyway, thank you for the great advice and info, and thank you so very much again for the truck, too. If Leia gets that monster running, we'll be back here tomorrow with sixty-two more of those bales.\"\n \"I'll look forward to it, Sasha,\" Simon smiled.\n\nHe walked off in the same direction Harry had disappeared into after rolling a tool chest with a box on top over to the old truck, and Sasha walked back to the old Chevrolet. She moved the plastic crate over to behind the wheel, got in and started the engine, driving around the yard and back out of it to follow the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill. At the end she made the left turn up the hill and drove into the yard of the Ag Co-op, parking near the garage door that was closest to the glass wall and walking into the building through one of the glass doors.\n\nOn the inside was a very smooth and rather shiny floor, a few groups of chairs around low tables, several racks with magazines, and a few rows of smaller implements like motorized push-mowers and riding mowers, and one positively adorable small mini excavator. Over to the left side was a large counter with two computer screens on it, and behind it were a tan-colored lion man dressed in, strangely, a pair of denim overalls over a plaid flannel shirt and a suit jacket over that, and a rust-colored and white Border Collie woman dressed in a light blue blouse and matching skirt.\n\nThe lion man smiled and walked around the counter as Sasha stepped up to it, holding out a paw.\n \"You must be miss Sasha Farr! We've spoken through emails a time or two already. I'm Daniel Tawnto, I'm the Ag agent for this godforsaken wasteland... I mean this quaint, undisturbed valley,\" he chuckled.\n \"Very pleased to meet you in person, mister Tawnto,\" Sasha chortled as she shook the lion man's paw. \"I am indeed Sasha Farr, and I'm here with a few rolls of barbed wire and six wheels that need new second-hand tires.\"\n \"Please, call me Dan,\" the lion man smiled. \"And of course, I saw you parked out front, let's get you unloaded and set up!\" He walked over to the far right of the building, opened a door and looked through it while giving a loud whistle. \"Tim! Get the forklift, miss Farr is here with the barbed wire! And is Jack done with the tire mounter yet?\"\nTwo voices sounded from the room behind the door.\n \"Just about, boss!\" one of the voices said.\n \"I'll be right there!\" said the other voice.\n \"Good, when you're done, come out front with a cart, Jack, will you?\" the lion man said.\n \"Five minutes!\" answered the first voice.\nThe lion man closed the door and walked over to Sasha.\n \"They'll be right there,\" he smiled, leading the way to the glass doors. \"So you are the woman who is staying with dear Buddleia and helping her with her farm, right? That is so good to hear, Silvercreek farm has always been a very nice farm even if it was somewhat small, it was painful to see it falling into disrepair. My father was the Ag agent here before me, he always spoke very highly of Phlox and Verbena Silvercreek, and he's seen Buddleia practically grow up.\"\n \"He's known her grandparents?\" Sasha smiled. \"That's really nice. What were they like?\"\n \"Very purple,\" the lion man chuckled. \"Buddleia has it from no stranger, I can tell you. But they were the friendliest folks you could ever meet. Soft-spoken, but always giving help to anyone who needed it and always doing things for the community. You could knock on their door in the dead of night because your car had broken down, and Phlox would go out and pull it to the farm to fix it while Verbena would make you a pot of tea and some cookies while you waited. And if it was too late to travel further, they'd let you stay the night and give you a good breakfast in the morning, too.\"\n \"Leia has that from no stranger either, then,\" Sasha smiled. \"She's seen me go off the mountain in my car and raced over to save me, put me in her bed and nursed me back to health. Hell, I asked her about the suitcase in my car, and she went back out and dragged the whole damn car back to the farm.\"\n \"Holy cow, you've been lucky, that could have ended so much worse,\" the lion man said, shaking his head. \"But yes, that does sound exactly like Buddleia, alright.\" He waved at a grey and black tabby cat man in a pair of full-body green mechanic's coveralls driving over to the old Chevrolet in a forklift. \"You can put it behind the metal building with the used stuff, Tim.\" He turned back to Sasha with a smile. \"So how long will you be staying for, miss Farr? A good while, I hope.\"\nSasha curled her lips into a mild grin.\n \"First off, call me Sasha. Secondly, I broke two ribs in the accident, and I can't go anywhere before those are healed; that'll take several weeks at least. And after that...\" She grinned wider. \"Indefinitely, Dan, for ever, I won't be going anywhere until Leia and I have turned old and grey and wrinkly and fall over one day.\"\n \"That's the best news I've heard in a good while!\" the lion man Dan smiled broadly. \"So you two will be running Silvercreek farm together then? That's great!\"\n \"Indeed we will,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, looking at the tabby cat man deftly operating the forklift to take the rolls of barbed wire from the roof rack, putting them on the ground, stacking them and then picking up the whole stack. \"Oh, and Leia did mention her grandparents called it Silvercreek farm, but she never thought that was the actual farm name because it was their clan name. We've officially named it Butterfly Farm.\"\n \"That's nice! I like that!\" Dan smiled. \"Will you be sticking with the cereal crops?\"\n \"Likely, all the equipment for that is still there even if it's old and broken down,\" Sasha nodded with another smile. \"But for now, we're so dirt broke we're just reaping what's there, which is grass that overtook the fields. It's gonna take one or two years at least, I think, before we can think about planting any crops again. But when we do, yeah, probably cereals and canola and sunflowers again.\"\n \"Good, good, we can really do with a cereal farm around here,\" Dan nodded with a smile as well. They looked around when a ruddy-colored wolf man in a pair of full-body mechanic's coveralls walked through one of the glass doors while pushing a low cart. \"Ah, Jack, it's the seven year old tires I had you bring into the workshop the other day.\" He looked into the trailer. \"Where did you put the wheels, Sasha?\"\n \"Inside, we needed the trailer for the first load of hay,\" Sasha smiled. She opened the driver door of the old Chevrolet and leaned in to take out the small trailer wheels, putting them on the cart and smiling at the wolf man. \"Would you mind getting the larger ones? They're a bit too heavy for me, especially in that leaned-over position, because I have two broken ribs screaming at me.\"\n \"No problem, miss,\" the wolf man nodded with a smile.\n\nHe leaned into the old car to take out the four large wheels and put them on the trailer while Sasha stood back upright and rubbed her right side with her left hand. The lion man smiled at her again.\n \"Are you alright? Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea perhaps? And if there is ever anything we can do for you and Buddleia to help out, please don't hesitate to ask.\"\n \"A cup of tea would be nice,\" Sasha smiled. \"And thank you. You're already a big help with those cheap tires, and it would really help if I can wait here for them to be done, as it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here and four hours back again.\" She suddenly lifted her head further. \"Oh, and do you perhaps have a phone I could use? Mine got all smashed in the accident, and I should really call at least one of my friends in the city to let them know where I am and that I'm not a dead flat pancake.\"\n \"Of course, of course!\" Dan nodded. \"Please follow me again, Sasha.\" He led the way back into the building and over to the counter, smiling at the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman. \"Clarissa, please show miss Farr into the office so she can use the phone, and get her a cup of tea, would you please?\"\n \"Certainly, mister Tawnto,\" the canine woman smiled. \"This way please, miss Farr.\"\nSasha followed the Border Collie woman through a door behind the counter, into an office. The canine woman pointed at a somewhat old-fashioned landline telephone sitting on a desk.\n \"There is the phone, miss Farr. You need to dial a zero first for outside calls. Do you take sugar in your tea?\"\n \"Please,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"And thank you, too.\"\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded with a smile as well and stepped out of the office again. Sasha sat down behind the desk, took the receiver of the phone and held it to her ear, hearing a buzzing tone. She pressed the zero, and heard the tone changing to a dial tone. With a light smile and taking a deep breath in preparation, she dialed the number of the youngest girl from her small group of friends, the 22 year old chocolate Labrador Millie. That was the only number she knew by heart, as it was a relatively simple number to memorize; five sets of identical double digits.\n\nFor a moment, Sasha took another deep breath again. Well, here goes... seven seven, three three, two two, nine nine, four four. Holding the receiver to her ear again, the human woman listened to the line ring, somewhat dreading the reaction she would be getting once it was answered.\n \"Uh, hello?\"\n \"Millie? It's me, Sasha.\"\nAnd sure enough.\n \"[i][b]SASHA[/b][/i]?! Oh my god, oh my god, where are you?! What happened?! How are you?! It's been weeks! We thought you were dead! We called the cops and everything! What happened?! Where..!\"\nThe initial scream had been so loud Sasha had to jerk the receiver away from her ear, and both the lion man and the Border Collie woman by the counter looked around with surprise. Bringing the receiver back to her ear, Sasha took another deep breath.\n \"Millie! Millie! [i]MILLIE[/i]! SHUT UP! Shut the fuck up, be quiet and listen to me! I'll tell you everything, but you got to shut the fuck up and let me talk! Can you do that?!\"\n\nIt sounded very harsh, but Sasha knew that was the only way to get the somewhat excitable young Labrador girl to calm down. It worked. The voice through the receiver returned in an almost subdued and very low tone.\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good girl. Now listen, Millie. As you can hear, I'm not dead. But I [i]did[/i] have an accident.\"\n \"Oh my god! What happened?!\"\n \"[i]Shut up[/i]! Be quiet and listen! You can talk when I ask you something, but for the rest, keep your yap shut and let me talk! Can you do that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good. Do you remember that night when you saw me leaving the club?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right. I had three days to get back to the city and beg the tenement folks not to kick me out of my studio. Do you remember that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right.\" A movement from the corner of her eye made Sasha look aside and smile lightly as she saw the Border Collie woman quietly closing the door. \"I never made it, Millie. You know the way back to Fossil City, it's that stupid-ass mountain road. And it was night. When I got to a sharp curve, a box truck came around the corner, right at me. I slammed the brakes and the horn, the truck evaded but sideswiped me, and my car went through the guardrail and over the edge and rolled down the mountain for a good way.\"\n \"[i]Oh my god[/i], Sasha! Are you okay?!\"\n \"Shut, up! Yes Millie, I'm fine. I broke two ribs, I...\"\n \"Oh Sasha!\"\n \"Shut, the, fuck, [i]up[/i]! I'm not done yet! So I broke two ribs, I got cuts and scrapes and bruises all over, but that's it. I drive a Volvo after all. The broken ribs are the worst of my injuries, and they're healing up now, so I'm fine, Millie.\"\n \"How... did you get out..?\"\n \"A local woman saw the lights of my car go off the mountain, and she got me out of my car and brought me to her farm. I woke up two days later in her bed, cleaned up, with a wrap around my chest, and the woman dabbing my head with a wet cloth, and she's been nursing me back to health.\"\n \"Huu... I'm... I'm so glad to hear you're... you're okay, Sash. When we didn't hear from you for days, we thought... huu... we thought you were dead. Joanna said... huuu... she said... you probably killed yourself...\"\n \"Joanna's a bitch. Come on now, Millie, don't cry. Take a deep breath, okay?\"\nThere were a few moments of trembling breathing on the other end of the line before the voice returned.\n \"Sorry...\"\n \"It's okay, Mil. Don't worry, I really am fine. But listen to me and listen close, Millie. I need you to tell me a few things.\"\n \"Okay...\"\n \"Good. First and most importantly, you said you called the cops. When was that, and are they still searching for me?\"\n \"Hhuuu... They... Th-they... huuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Tell me what happened since that night, okay? Calmly, nice and easy now, and don't cry now, Millie. Take a few deep breaths, and tell me what happened after I left the club.\"\nThere was some loud sniffing.\n \"O-okay... That night when you left... We went back the next day... or at least, I asked Chelsea to take me back, I didn't feel like staying no more. We... we got to your place... it must have been the day after you said they would kick you out. They... hhhu... they were already moving out your stuff, Sash. We told them, that's our friend's stuff, she should be here but something must have happened, so they let us take what we could. I have it all, Sash, three boxes, in my storage unit downstairs. I have your glasses still, you left them on the bar in the club that night. A-and... huu...\"\n \"Deep breath again, Mil. Thanks for grabbing my glasses and my stuff, even if there wasn't much to grab. What happened next? When did you call the cops?\"\nAnother hard sniff.\n \"We... You had said, three days. It had been four when we got back... I said we should call the cops, but Joanna and Chelsea said not to be silly, you'd be fine, a-and... Joanna said... that. Huu... I was scared, Sash. I called the cops on my own the next day to... huuu... r-report you m-missing...\"\n \"Deeeeep breath now, Milbilly. What happened next?\"\nThere was an audible sob at the mention of the pet name, and some more hard sniffing.\n \"A... a cop came to my place to ask questions. Your name, age, what you look like, what you were wearing, what you were driving, where you had been going when I last saw you, what way you were taking... everything. I... I couldn't even remember what clothes you had on, but I did my best to give all the information I could. I even showed them your glasses, and the little picture of us.\"\n \"You did good, Mil. What did they say, and what happened next?\"\n \"They said... they'd put out a missing person report, and they would let me know any updates. Huu... A couple days later, they emailed me... They said... hhuuu... s-said...\"\n \"Get a glass of water and take a sip, Mil.\"\n\nThere was some rummaging on the other end of the line, a momentary sound of running water, and more trembling breaths and hard sniffing.\n \"Sorry... They said... they'd found a broken guardrail on the M-seventy-three, and... and damage to the plants on the mountainside that showed a car had gone through, and some bits of glass and stuff... b-but... they couldn't... huu... c-couldn't find your car, or any car at all...\"\n \"Take another sip, Millie. If that was five days or more after I went off that mountain... yeah, no wonder they didn't find the car, the woman who saved me brought it over to her farm so we could get my stuff from it, or whatever was left anyway, and that was pretty much three days after I went off. Did they give any more updates after that? It's been almost two weeks, are they still looking?\"\n \"Huu... They... th-they... hhuuu... they closed you as a c-cold case, Sash... Huuhuuu... N-no hope, they said...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Do it with me. Breathe in, now hold it, one, two, three, out again. Do it again. And take some more sips of water. There's no need to cry, Milbilly, honest. Now, tell me, did they at any point say they had gotten a report from someone else? From Bronto Valley or elsewhere?\"\nIt took several longer moments before the voice was steady enough to return.\n \"N-no... My report was the only one on you.\"\nSasha gritted her teeth for a moment.\n \"Sonofabitch, he just hit and ran. I hope he god damn well drove into the river with that fucking truck.\" She shook her head. \"It's weird though that they didn't notice the activity, I transferred my bank account to another bank, and dead bodies don't do that.\"\n \"Sash... Why... w-why didn't you call..? I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"Fuck, I wanted to, Milbilly, honest. The moment I could get out of that bed, we went through my car for my phone because I wanted to call you and let you know what happened. I did find my phone, but it's all smashed, Mil. And it's the fucking middle of nowhere here, there's not even electricity at that farm, let alone phone lines. But listen, Millie, this is very important, so listen closely and write this down. Do you have pen and paper? Get pen and paper and write this down, okay?\"\nA short pause with some rummaging and sniffing.\n \"Okay... I have a pen.\"\n \"Good. Write this down, Millie. I need you to call the police, and tell them that I've called you, that I'm alive and well, they can stop any searches and close the case proper. I'm not dead, I'm alive and doing okay, so their case is solved. Okay?\"\n \"Okay... okay, I have that, Sash. When should I do that?\"\n \"Immediately after I hang up. As soon as we're done with this call, you call the police and tell them I've been in contact with you and that I'm alive and well. And don't tell the others. Let them think I'm dead, with how they've been acting they're pretty much dead to me.\"\n \"Okay... Sash... where are you? How could you be... so far away from anything that they couldn't find you?\"\n \"Like I said, it's the middle of nowhere here, Millie. That stretch of open land between the mountains and the Arfajia Woods, you know? I found out it's called the Arfajia region or valley, and there's hardly [i]anything[/i] here. Right now I'm at the Ag Co-op, they're letting me use their phone, and it's four hours away from that farm I was brought to. I've seen a map, there's pretty much nothing here, Mil. That farm, one other farm miles away, a sawmill miles away, the Ag Co-op miles and miles away and a teeny tiny little farmer's village miles and miles away, and that's about it, apart from two milling factories. There's just hundreds and hundreds of miles of [i]nothing[/i], Millie.\"\n \"Oh... Okay...\" There was a shuddering breath on the other end of the line. \"Sash... when are you coming back..?\"\nSasha let out a sigh.\n \"I'm not coming back, Mil.\"\nThere was an actual wail on the other end of the line.\n \"Sasha-haaaaa! Please, no, please come back! I... I... hhuuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Mil. Listen to me, choco-snoot. I have nothing to go back [i]to[/i]. No apartment, no job, no car, no money, no life. But I have that here, Mil. I'm not going back to the city and be miserable again.\"\n \"No..! No, Sash, no! Please! You gotta come back! I'll let you stay with me! We'll figure something out! Please! You...\"\n \"Shut, up, Mil. Listen to me and listen close, okay? My place is [i]here[/i], Mil. I'm helping that woman who saved me with her farm, and not just until my ribs are healed. I belong here, Mil. That woman's had it as hard as me, the farm is in disrepair, and I'm helping her turn it back around. We registered it under both our names, Mil, we're partners now, and we're gonna stay that way. I am [i]not[/i] going back to the city, ever again, I belong [i]here[/i], my life is [i]here[/i].\"\nHiccupped gasps.\n \"Sash... No... Please... What... what am I... huuu... what am I gonna do... huuu... w-without you?\"\n \"Aw c'mon now, choco-snoot. You're a kid still, what do you need a cranky old noodle like me for? What could I possibly be good for, or better for than your friends of your own age?\"\n \"[i]Everything[/i]! They're all stupid! I stopped hanging out with them, because they're jerks! All they wanna do is party and shit, and they say dumb shit, and... and they treat me like crap, like I'm just a dumb puppy, Sash, you know that, you were the only one who [i]cared[/i]! Even... hu... even when you were always acting all cranky and stuff, you always... huu... you always took care of me, and... huuhuuu...\"\n \"Sip of water and deep breaths, choco-snoot.\"\n \"That's what I meannn! Huuu! You care, you always called me... huuu... sweet things, and... a-and you... huuu... you brushed me, and...\"\n \"Another sip of water, choco-snoot, and deeper breaths. Come on now, please don't cry, you're gonna get me going. And I'm sorry, Milbilly, but I really am not coming back to the city, that's final.\"\nLong moments of shuddering sobs and breaths.\n \"Sash... Please... at least let me visit..?\"\n \"Aw Millie, how would you even get here?\"\n \"I... I have a car now. You know I've been taking lessons, you... you helped me with them. I got my license last week, and... I got a small car, little Toyota coffee can, but it runs good and it's cheap. I can... I can come visit, Sash, [i]please[/i]...\"\n \"Okay choco-snoot, write this down too. Deep breath now. You still have that pen?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good, then write this down, okay? The Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. You should be able to at least find [i]that[/i] on a GPS. Now listen close, Mil, and write this down carefully. The Co-op is on a low hill, and from there a dirt road is leading down. Got that? Good. Follow that road down. After a while you'll see some sort of triangular junction, you follow the road to the right on that. Got that? Good. Keep following the road, it makes a long wide curve around a forest. You'll see another triangular junction, go straight ahead there. Got that? Okay. From there it's easy, just keep following the road. It'll take hours, but just keep following that road. After about four hours, all in all, the road will more or less end in another of those triangular junctions, onto a road that runs from left to right. You should be able to see our farm, at least the silo, it's a big rusty white tube behind a pond. Turn left there, the fence is along that road from left to right, and the driveway comes out on that road, so you can make a right turn onto the driveway and drive right up to the small house that's there. That's the place, choco-snoot, it can't miss because it's the only farm for miles and miles around. You got all that? Read it back to me.\"\n \"O-okay... Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. Down the hill, right on the triangle junction, follow the road around the forest, straight on at the second triangle junction, follow the road down for hours, left at the last triangle junction and right into the driveway.\"\n \"Very good, you got it, choco-snoot. I have no idea how long it would even take you to get to that Co-op, but that's the best directions I can give. If you wanna come visit, prepare for at least three days of travel, it's that far away, Mil. And should we not be there because you happen to come on a day we're at the sawmill or in the village or something, just wait there. Even if it takes all day, just wait there because we will come back to the farm if we're not there. Now, listen very closely and write this down too, this is very important, Mil. Do not, and I repeat do [i]not[/i] call this number to ask for me. Like I said, I'm at the Ag Co-op and they're letting me use their phone, so this number is the number of the Ag Co-op. If you call, I will not be there and they can't reach me because the farm is four hours away from there. So do not call this number. My own phone is smashed, but I ordered a replacement phone, and it will be at the post office in that little village sometime next week. I'll put my old sim-card into it, and then I will call you, Mil. So wait for that, wait for me to call you. Promise?\"\n \"I... Yes, promise, Sash...\"\n \"Good girl. I [i]will[/i] call you, Mil, that is [i]my[/i] promise. So do not call this number, wait for me to call you sometime next week when my replacement phone is here.\"\n \"O-okay, Sash... Thank you... thank you for calling me, I've been... huu... I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"It's okay, Milbilly. I'm so very sorry, I should have called you way earlier, but with no phone and we've been working so very hard, it just... Eh, never mind, I called you now and everything is good, yeah?\"\n \"Yes... thank you, Sash, I'm so glad to know you're okay. I'll... I can stop worrying now, and I'll wait for your next call.\"\n \"Good girl, choco-snoot. Now, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water. I'm gonna hang up now, my tires are ready, Leia is probably waiting for me, and we still have a four-hour drive back to the farm, so I gotta go now, Mil. But I promise you that as soon as my replacement phone is here, I will call you again, and you know my word is golden.\"\n \"Yes... you never went back on your word, I know... Thank you, Sash.\"\n \"You're welcome, choco-snoot. Like I said, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water, and then call the cops for me to tell them I called you and that I'm alive and well, and I will call you again next week.\"\n \"Okay... I'll hear from you then, Sash.\"\n \"Hear you then, Milbilly.\"\n\nSasha slowly put the receiver back on the phone and pulled in a very deep breath, leaning over with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking off her glasses with her right hand and running her right hand over her face. She only looked up when a cup of tea was set in front of her by the Border Collie woman.\n \"That... was intense, are you alright?\" she asked in a soft, worried voice.\nSasha managed a light smile.\n \"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Sorry for the long and intense call; that was my one good friend from the city and she's a young girl and been worried sick over not hearing from me for two weeks after I went off the mountain with my car.\"\n \"Oh dear...\" the canine woman said softly. \"That must have been so hard. Please take your time, miss Farr.\"\n \"Thank you,\" Sasha said with another light smile.\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her again. Sasha stirred some sugar through the cup of tea, still with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking slow, shallow breaths. The yelling she'd had to do at the start of the phone call had not done her ribs very much good; the emotions hurt even worse. Taking slow sips of the tea, the human woman gradually managed to breathe normally again, take her hand off her right side and sit up.\n\nWhen she had finished the cup of tea, she got up and walked out of the office. A light smile crossed her face as she saw Buddleia talking with the lion man Daniel, although the vixen-taur rushed over to her in almost a gallop at seeing the look on Sasha's face.\n \"Sasha! You okay? You hurt?\"\n \"I'm fine, Leia, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled lightly.\nBuddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and softly rubbed the human woman's back up and down with one paw while nuzzling at Sasha's hair. The lion man smiled softly over it.\n \"Isn't that so sweet. She had to make a phone call, Buddleia, and it was a quite intense one, we could hear it all the way out here.\"\n \"Who you call to make you look like that, Sasha?\" Buddleia murmured, still rubbing Sasha's back up and down.\nSasha smiled a bit deeper, leaning a bit sideways in the vixen-taur's embrace.\n \"I called Millie.\"\n \"Your friend! I remember you talk about her,\" Buddleia nodded. \"She okay too?\"\n \"She is now,\" Sasha smiled. \"But she's been scared and worried out of her mind for the past two weeks.\" She lifted her head a bit to look at Buddleia's face. \"She's the only one who knew I was driving back home, Leia, because she had seen me leave, and we even talked a bit about the reason I had to go back home that night. So she knew just about what day I should have been at my apartment, and when she didn't hear anything from me for two weeks after...\"\n \"She worry! Yes! I go crazy if I not hear from you for so long too!\" Buddleia nodded, holding Sasha close and giving a light lick to her neck. \"You call her now, she okay now?\"\n \"It took some doing, but yes, she's alright now,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"The problem is, she's so young still, and a Labrador, so I had to yell at her pretty loudly a few times to get her to quiet down so I could explain everything to her. And yelling like that, well...\"\nShe put her left hand on her right side again. Buddleia nodded again and slowly let go of Sasha.\n \"I understand, yes. You hurt.\"\nSasha also nodded and ran a couple of fingers along the vixen-taur's slender muzzle.\n \"Not too bad, though. But, well... that call got pretty damn emotional.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia said softly, stroking Sasha's hair with a paw. \"You good now, Sasha?\"\n \"I'm fine, we got it all talked out and figured out,\" Sasha smiled. \"So how about you? Since you were here waiting for me, I'm guessing you got that truck running?\"\n \"Yes, truck run,\" Buddleia nodded. \"I walk here because you take long time, and I can not drive truck, seat in there and cab too short too for me to sit.\"\n \"Right, of course,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Well, don't worry, I drove that Volvo daily, so I can drive anything. I'll drive it back home, Leia, no problem. Is there enough fuel in it to make it home?\"\n \"I not sure,\" Buddleia said with a light shrug of her upper shoulders. \"Is not much fuel in, but is big tank so might be enough still.\"\n \"In that case, do you have a diesel pump here we can fill up at, mister Tawnto? Dan, sorry,\" Sasha smiled, turning to the lion man.\n \"We do indeed, it's over there on the other side of the yard,\" Dan nodded, pointing through the glass wall. \"Usually, you scan your card at the scanner screen to unlock the pump, and the total amount will then be deducted from your account, but don't do that in this case, I'll unlock the pump for you.\"\n \"That's very generous of you, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled again.\n \"Small thing we can do to help,\" Dan smiled, letting go a light chuckle. \"Just this time, I'm not gonna let you fill up a sixty gallon or so tank for zip every time.\" He pointed again. \"Oh, and Jack finished your wheels, he put them in your trailer and strapped them down already.\"\n \"Again, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"I'll go get the truck then, we still have a four-hour drive to make home after all.\" She lightly ran her fingers along the side of Buddleia's slender muzzle again. \"I'll be back in a minute, Leia.\"\n \"Is good, yes, I wait here for you,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I talk some more with Dan, I not seen in long time.\"\n \"Good, see you in a bit then,\" Sasha smiled.\n\nShe walked out of the building and looked around a bit on the yard. There were indeed a couple of fuel pumps near the front fence. The fence also ran all the way to the end of the yard and along the side of it, so Sasha had to walk to the large opening where the dirt road entered the yard and walk down the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill to get to the yard of the livestock dealer.\n\nIt only took a minute or two. As she walked over to the building where the MAZ-200 truck was parked behind, the hare man Simon waved at her.\n \"Hey Sasha! You took your time, Buddsy went to look for you!\"\n \"Yeah, I had to make a very important phone call, and it took way longer than I expected,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Right, okay!\" Simon nodded. \"Well, anyway, the truck's all ready and yours for the taking! Buddsy said she had to go get you anyway because she can't drive the thing.\"\n \"Yeah, she can't fit in the cab,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"But it's fine, I can drive it. I'll sound like a broken record, Simon, but thank you so much again, you have really helped us out so very much with that truck. We'll be back here tomorrow with the rest of those bales.\"\n \"Absolutely and totally no problem, Sasha!\" Simon smiled. \"Glad you can use the old beast! We'll see you tomorrow then!\"\n\nHe waved again and stepped into one of the buildings, and Sasha walked around the other building and over to the old truck. Either Simon or Harry had even pumped up the tires so they weren't sagging anymore; that was nice! It was a little bit of a climb to get into the truck, and once behind the very large steering wheel the human woman looked around inside the cabin a bit. Wow was it rudimentary in there. Really nothing but the bare essentials, with the only hint of luxury being defroster mouths pointing at the two front windows, and those windows looked like they could swing open from the bottom as well. For the rest, just a simple metal dashboard, with to the left of the large steering wheel a rectangular panel holding a speedometer, and four smaller gauges on either side of that for fuel, oil pressure, temperature, and voltage, and two large rubber... things sticking out that Sasha could not determine what they were.\n\nTo the left of the steering wheel were a few more gauges directly in the metal dashboard; a large round rev counter, next to that an evenly large gauge with a scale of 0 to 10, and in between those a smaller round gauge with a wider scale of 0 to 5. Along the bottom were several pull-knobs and a few tumble switches, and in the left corner was a round metal plate with dots on it and a sort of turnable lever sticking through it. Small problem; it was all in Russian.\n\nSasha shrugged a bit. There were some universal symbols as well, so she could still figure out the switches for the headlights, blinkers, wipers and the like, and the plaque on the glove box lid showed with numbers that the gearbox was five speeds in a double-H pattern with Reverse below fifth gear. And there was an ignition switch with a key stuck in it, so that couldn't miss either. Everything that was needed was in there, so that was all that mattered.\n\nReaching down, the human woman turned the key and held it. A grinding noise and some loud clanks came from under the hood, some hiccups, and eventually the engine roared to life with a quite sharp, buzzy sound and a cloud of thick black smoke from the exhaust plus a puff of it out through the missing right engine cover. Shifting was not all too smooth either, but it did go into gear, so Sasha managed to put the truck into motion and slowly drive it around the building. She found she had to shift quite a bit to keep the revs up and slam the gearstick into the slots quite hard too, but again, it worked so that was what mattered.\n\nSasha pulled back into the yard of the Co-operation and parked the truck by the fuel pumps, leaving the engine running as she took the diesel nozzle and stuck it into the opening of the large round tank, having to hold the trigger squeezed down as it had no lock function. After several quite long minutes, the trigger did pop back to indicate the tank was full, and Sasha walked into the large building where Buddleia was still talking with the lion man Daniel.\n \"So they gave you their old workhorse, did they?\" he smiled at Sasha. \"Very nice. It's old, it's loud, it's slow, it's ugly and it's as basic as it gets, but it will always do the work you ask of it.\"\n \"It's thirsty too, I did put a bit over sixty-two gallons into it,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Thanks so much for that, Dan. Are all the finances taken care of now?\"\n \"Yes, I've credited your account for a hundred dollars, that's the payment for the barbed wire minus the price of the six tires,\" Dan nodded.\n \"Great, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"As I mentioned, any time you have something second-hand and cheap we could use, please let me know. And next week my replacement phone will be in so I'll give you a ring to let you know the number. A direct contact like that is handier than the emails.\"\n \"Indeed it is,\" Dan nodded with a smile. \"I'll look forward to your call, Sasha, and good luck to both of you with the farm. It was great seeing you again too, Buddleia, don't be such a stranger anymore, okay?\"\n \"Sasha and I make farm good again, so I be by much more now,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, shaking paws with the lion man. \"Was good seeing and talking to you again too, Dan.\"\n \"I'll be looking forward to that too,\" Dan chuckled. \"Have a good rest of your day, ladies, and until next time.\"\n\nThey waved, and Sasha and Buddleia walked back outside, hugging shortly.\n \"You go ahead of me, Leia, that thing is damn slow indeed,\" Sasha smiled, nodding at the truck.\n \"Okay, Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"You sure you good?\"\n \"Very sure, my sweet fuzzbutt,\" Sasha smiled. \"Let's just hurry home for as much as we can hurry in these relics, and you can hold me all you want.\"\n \"Yes. I hold you and pet you and cuddle you good,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile.\n\nShe gave a light lick to Sasha's neck before getting behind the wheel of the old Chevrolet. Sasha smiled and climbed back into the truck again, waiting for the vixen-taur to turn the car and trailer around and drive off the yard so she could follow in the large old truck. It took them a decent bit over four hours to get back to the farm, so by the time they got there, Sasha just parked the truck on the dirt path by the front-side left field and left it there.\n\nThey had a quick bath in the pond, a quick but tasty dinner, and just as quickly went to bed, where Sasha took the risk to her ribs of not sleeping in the bed itself but in Buddleia's nest of pillows and cushions so the vixen-taur could hold her close throughout the night.\n\n[i]What[/i] a day it had been!\n"
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"description": "And here we go right on with the next one on Sasha and Buddleia! Even more progress, the baler works and hay bales are made and sold. But something else very important had to be taken care of while they were at the Ag Co-op... something that had been going by the wayside for a bit too long, so it really had to be done. Poor Millie...\n\nThis one is quite a bit longer than the previous ones; I could maybe have split it up into two separate parts, but it all fits together since it's all the same day. But there is one HELL of a long phone call in here, which gets pretty darn very emotional, so be forewarned.\n\nTherefore, a Mature rating. Not because of anything sexual, but for the language and the pretty hefty emotions.\n\nBuddleia is © Fritti Breezedancer\nSasha Farr is © Fritti Breezedancer\nThe Minnaluna world and all characters therein are © Fritti Breezedancer",
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"writing": "A couple more days had passed, in the same fashion as the previous several days. Hard work, but pleasant work, that both showed a result and would ensure an income of some decent money.\n\nThe tall, lanky human woman Sasha had tested the hay tedder, and used it to ted all the grass she had mowed in the front-side field so it got all spread out and could dry further into hay in the warm sun. As the little old open Hanomag tractor could still only do at the very most a bit over four miles per hour with an engaged implement attached to its PTO shaft, the tedding had taken Sasha all day.\n\nThe next day, she had tested the single-wheel windrower they had fixed up, found that also to be operating well, and had used it to rake all the spread-out dried grass, which had turned into a very nice hay under the sun, into neat rows that would be easy to pick up with the baler. However, the windrower being almost twice as large as the tedder, attaching it to the open Hanomag's PTO shaft and engaging it sapped so much of the little old tractor's power that it do could only three miles per hour, so it still took Sasha all day to rake all the hay into neat rows even though the area of the windrower was a decent bit larger than that of the tedder.\n\nWhile the human woman was making her laps back and forth across the front-side left field on the open Hanomag tractor, the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia had been hard at work trying to get the other old Hanomag tractor with the half cab running again. That one had a slightly more powerful engine, and the extra power would be needed to pull and operate the small old baler. Halfway through raking the field with the single-wheel windrower, Sasha had looked in the direction of the rickety open shed with a smile when the rumble of an engine had sounded out from there, indicating Buddleia's success in getting the other tractor running.\n\nThat evening, they had celebrated with a cup of herbal tea and two of the cookies Buddleia had brought from the bakery in the small village a few days earlier when picking up the company bank cards that had been sent to the post office. They had also discussed their sleeping arrangements. Due to what had Sasha had witnessed Buddleia doing in the middle of the night a day or two earlier, and had talked about with the vixen-taur the next day, it made sense if they would stop sleeping in separate beds. However, as Buddleia's bed consisted of just a big heap of pillows and cushions on the floor of the small bedroom, that did pose a little bit of a problem. The vixen-taur did not quite fit into the regular bed Sasha was using, and the human woman had to keep using that bed for the simple reason she had to sleep with her back laying flat to not put any undue strain on her broken ribs that were slowly healing. Sleeping in the heap of pillows together with Buddleia did sound very comfortable and much more enticing, but it would still be a bit too risky for Sasha, for at least a couple of weeks yet. As a compromise, they had moved the bed from the one wall it was standing against to the opposite wall, so it at least was right next to the nest of pillows Buddleia slept in.\n\nRising bright and early the morning after their celebration over getting the other tractor running, the two women went through their morning routine of having a filling bowl of the really very tasty porridge Buddleia cooked every morning, enjoying it in the back garden in the soft grass while Sasha also booted up her laptop to check the weather forecasts and any messages she might have received. When getting into contact with the Agricultural Co-operation over the computer, the human woman had asked them to keep her updated on any second-hand equipment they got in, as well as anything they might still have sitting tucked away somewhere that could be sold for a low price.\n\nIt'd had one result so far. The old bale trailer needed four new tires and the original wheels of the small trailer behind the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline needed new tires as well so they could take the wheels of the wrecked Volvo station wagon off of it again as those were a bit too large for the small trailer. New tires were very much outside of their budget, so Sasha had asked the Ag Co-op if they maybe could locate some decent and as cheap as possible second-hand tires. They had in fact found several seven year old tires in the back of one of their storage buildings, and had informed Sasha they were willing to sell those for $25 apiece, and they would mount them free of charge as a service to help them out in their endeavor to get Buddleia's old farm back on its feet again.\n\nIn another stroke of good fortune and neighborly helpfulness, they had also informed Sasha they were willing to buy the large coils of barbed wire Sasha had mentioned were sitting in the workshop and they were not going to use, for $250 total. That would come to a bit under 25 cents per meter, which Sasha found to be a fair price after a little research. So before they hitched the little old baler to the second Hanomag tractor that morning, Sasha first put all the trailer wheels into the back of old Emmie, the 1948 Chevrolet, while Buddleia put on a pair of heavy leather gloves and a heavy leather apron that covered the entire front of her upper body so she could pick up the coils of barbed wire and put them on the Chevrolet's roof rack.\n \"We probably won't make it there today, but this is awesome, Leia,\" Sasha smiled when they had finished loading the old Chevrolet. \"We're cleaning up [i]and[/i] making money in the process!\"\n \"Yes! I not know why that was even here, grandparents never used it,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile while taking off the leather apron and gloves again. \"We never had livestock, and for most livestock barbed wire is not even suitable as fencing. Hmm, maybe except goats,\" she added after a moment's thought.\nSasha let out a light chortle.\n \"Should we get a goat? One would be doable, we can just let it graze, and we'd have fresh milk.\"\n \"You think we can afford, Sasha?\" Buddleia smiled. \"Goats go anywhere between hundred ninety to thousand dollars for grown up one.\"\n \"Ah... yes, maybe later,\" Sasha said with another chortle. \"We can't afford that yet, not even a cheap one. It was a nice thought though, one to keep in mind for later. It wouldn't cost us much in upkeep, and it would save on grocery money, because as I said, we'd get fresh milk, and we could even make cheese out of that.\"\n \"I like goat cheese, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile. \"We do maybe later, when we can afford, yes?\"\n \"Yes, I told you we'd take it one baby step at a time, so I should keep to my own words,\" Sasha smiled. \"And hey, when we bring the hay to the livestock dealer, it can't hurt to ask at least. But for now, let's go and make sure we actually have hay bales to bring there in the first place.\"\nBuddleia nodded again.\n \"You make bales, I go try and get Fiat tractor running.\"\nSasha put a hand on Buddleia's arm and chortled.\n \"Not so fast, fuzzbutt. I never worked with balers before, so you'll have to show me how it works first.\"\n \"Oh! Yes, I show,\" Buddleia smiled, leading Sasha around the small baler and showing a wide sort of scoop with a roll over the entire width at the front, leading into the internals of the machine. \"This the pickup. You set like so, these notches for lever is depth. Careful not to set too low, it hit rocks or stuff and get damaged. Only lower when you at field, lift back up when driving to or from field. These handles is for locking twine spools, make sure to unlock first, but only when you at field too, leave locked when you drive to field or spools unwind.\" At the back, the vixen-taur unfolded a metal framework so it formed a sort of chute under a large square opening and locked it in place with a few handles. \"This is bale chute, always unfold first and lock like this, so bales can come out. Machine pick up hay or straw, squeeze into cube and wrap with twine, all inside, bales come out here when done. You turn on PTO and drive over rows of hay or straw so pickup can gather, you no need to stop, bales will fall out back, machine keep going. Go no more than five miles, or machine jam from too much hay.\" She pointed at a lever on the side. \"When you done and no full bale come out, you can pull this lever to push out last hay inside, but if next thing you gonna bale later is hay again, you can leave leftover hay inside too. Only empty machine if next thing for baling is other stuff like straw. You get, Sasha, yes?\"\n \"I got it, Leia, thanks,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That seems simple enough, I don't think I'll have any trouble.\"\n \"Good, you make bales now, is fun,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Drive over rows of hay so hay go between wheels of tractor, yes?\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded again, leaning in to press a smooch on the side of Buddleia's muzzle. \"I'll get to it, should be done by suppertime I would think. Oh, how long do those spools of twine last?\"\n \"Is spool on either side and one in back, full spools make hundred fifty bales,\" Buddleia smiled with her whiskers wiggling at the smooch. \"I put full spools in, you should not have to change.\"\n \"Alright, awesome,\" Sasha smiled. \"Good luck with the tractor, fuzzbutt, I'll see you at lunch.\"\n\nShe pressed a smooch on the cool damp black pad of Buddleia's nose as well, getting a soft lick over the cheek in return. Checking if the pickup of the baler was lifted and the spools were locked, Sasha got onto the tractor with the half cab, which was really not much more than a windshield with a single small wiper, a roof and a side panel on either side flowing downwards in a half-circle so the seat could be reached. At the front-side left field, the human woman lowered the pickup, unlocked the spools, engaged the PTO and set the throttle lever on the tractor's steering column so it started rolling forwards at five miles per hour.\n\nMaking sure to keep the tractor's wheels on either side of the rows of raked-up hay, Sasha started slowly making her way across the field in the same intersecting laps she had been making with the mower, tedder and windrower. The small baler puffed and clanked and rattled behind her, and soon enough a small bale of hay of a little over three and a half feet by a little under two feet started making its way across the chute at the back in little shocks, being pushed along by the next one until it fell off the end. Sasha couldn't help chortling softly when she saw the first bale landing on the ground; those little bales looked pretty adorable.\n\nAs she was trundling her slow, repeating laps across the field, the human woman amused herself by calculating how many miles she had made already. Let's see now... four miles per hour with the mower and the tedder, three miles per hour with the windrower... ten hours per day, that made forty, forty and thirty, which in turn made... a hundred and ten miles. Wow, she had driven a hundred and ten miles on just that one field already in the past few days. That was pretty impressive, come to think of it. And not to forget, she'd do another forty to fifty miles again today with the baler as well.\n\nBy lunchtime Sasha was about half done with the field. After a hearty lunch of soup and sandwiches with herbal tea and a good hour of contently cuddling in the soft grass under the warm sun, the human woman was right back at it, continuing her slow, repetitive laps and smiling at the result of a number of small hay bales she left in her wake. At one point, a bit over an hour later, she smiled deeply and actually stopped the tractor for a moment, having just about reached the dip in the slope, when the sound of a roaring engine rang out from just inside the rickety open shed, where Buddleia had gotten the Fiat tractor running and was revving the engine loudly to blow thick clouds of black and blue smoke from its upright exhaust pipe. Squinting a bit through her glasses and leaning forwards a bit, Sasha giggled softly when she saw actual bits and pieces flying out the exhaust pipe as well; they called it 'blowing out the cobwebs', but it seemed like the once-orange Fiat tractor was literally blowing out cobwebs, as well as other bits of detritus.\n\nIt was still light, even though the sun had already dipped below the mountains, when Sasha finished the last row of hay. She drove the old Hanomag tractor over to the dirt path, disengaged the PTO and got off to lock the spools and lift the pickup of the small baler, stretched carefully with her hands pressed into the small of her back, rubbed her half-numb butt for a moment and smiled as she looked across the field. Making slow small motions with her right index finger, she silently counted the small hay bales that were spread across the field in neat rows. Seventy... seven. That was quite impressive. It were only small bales, but that was still a very decent yield.\n\nDriving back over to the open shed, Sasha backed the tractor and baler into it and left them attached to each other. She giggled softly at the streaks and stains of dirt and black oil and grease over Buddleia's face and forehead and down the sides of her upper body as the vixen-taur was putting away the tools she had used.\n \"Well fuzzbutt, no one can't say you haven't been working hard. Look at you, it looks like you're ready to go on the war path!\" she chortled.\n \"I sorry, is dirty work,\" Buddleia smiled. \"You done whole field? How many bales?\"\n \"Seventy-seven in total, plus about half of one left in the baler,\" Sasha smiled while picking up the toolbox and carrying it to the workshop while Buddleia carried a box full of parts and bits and pieces in her arms.\n \"Is nice!\" the purple and white and now also partially black vixen-taur smiled. \"Livestock shop say they pay twenty-two to twenty-five each for three string bales like this baler make. That good money we make!\"\nSasha nodded while doing a quick calculation in her head.\n \"At twenty-two dollars apiece, that's a good seventeen hundred bucks sitting in that field. Not bad for a day's work.\" She let go a light chortle. \"Well, realistically, four days of work with the mowing, tedding, drying and windrowing as well, but still, that's very decent money we can use very well.\"\n \"Yes! You so fast!\" Buddleia smiled. \"I not count that fast!\" Putting the box and the toolbox in the workshop, the vixen-taur started making her way back to the small farmhouse. \"I go make dinner, I got rabbit earlier.\"\n \"Not looking like that you don't!\" Sasha giggled, grabbing Buddleia by an arm. \"You're coming into the pond with me first so we can get you all cleaned up, fuzzbutt!\"\n\nBuddleia nodded happily and looked at Sasha grabbing an old, dusty half-full bottle of liquid dish soap and a small wooden cleaning brush from the shelf over the cabinets next to the workbench. Why that was in the workshop was anybody's guess, but at least it came in handy. Holding Buddleia's left paw in her right hand, Sasha led the vixen-taur over to the side of the pond where the dock was and sat down on the dock to let Buddleia take the flowery wrap off her chest before wading into the water. The vixen-taur followed her into the water and let herself fall over sideways with a splash to submerge herself and soak all of her purple and white fur.\n\nSasha shook her head with a giggle and sat down in front of the dripping wet vixen-taur once Buddleia had come back up. Pouring little bits of the dish soap onto the greasy streaks and stains in the white fur on the front of Buddleia's upper body, she rubbed it in with her fingers until it foamed and gently but firmly scrubbed at the stains with the small brush. She did the same, but much more carefully, on the streaks over Buddleia's face and forehead. When the human woman was all done, Buddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and chortled as she let herself fall over sideways again with another big splash, pulling Sasha along with her.\n \"Ackpt!\" Sasha sputtered and wiped her hands over her face when she surfaced again, looking at Buddleia with a laugh while she gathered up her long ginger hair. \"What did you do that for, you silly fuzzbutt?\"\nBuddleia giggled in short, cheerful yips as she shook her soaked purple hair and wiped it over her shoulders with both paws.\n \"You all clean too now, Sasha! Yee hee!\"\n \"I repeat my assessment from the first day I woke up here; you're nuts,\" Sasha chortled, leaning her head sideways and wringing out her hair a bit. She winked. \"But even if you're a totally nutso fuzzbutt, you're [i]my[/i] totally nutso fuzzbutt, you fuzzbutt.\"\nA deep, happy churr rolled from Buddleia's muzzle, her lips splayed into such a wide smile all of her teeth and a good part of her dark pink tongue were on full display. She tilted her head sideways and looked Sasha up and down for a few moments.\n \"Sasha, you my sweet noodle. Yes.\"\n\nSasha laughed cheerfully and leaned over, wrapping her arms around Buddleia's soaked upper body and pressing soft kisses on the perky ear with the wet blue feather hanging from it. Buddleia's churr deepened as she wrapped her arms back around Sasha's lanky form and gave a number of affectionate licks at the human woman's neck. Turning their heads, they let their lips meet and shared a loving kiss for several blissful moments before breaking apart and wading out of the pond.\n\nIn the back garden, Buddleia skinned and cleaned a rabbit she had apparently caught earlier in the day and built another small campfire in the circle of rocks that was still there. Sasha carefully dug up a few potatoes and several carrots from one of the vegetable patches, and they roasted the chunks of rabbit meat and the potatoes on an old cast-iron skillet over the fire. Combined with the fresh, crunchy raw carrots, it made for a simple but very tasty meal. Contently cuddling and softly petting each other in the soft grass after their meal and after Buddleia had put the flowery wrap back around Sasha's chest, they let the fire burn out on its own while the sky darkened and filled with stars. Eventually, as the fire died with a sigh and a puff of embers, the two of them got up to go into the small farmhouse and get into bed for a good night's sleep.\n\nThe next morning, after their porridge breakfast, Buddleia parked the old Chevrolet with its trailer next to the front-side left field so they could start loading the hay bales. Sasha leaned over by one and ran her fingers along the twine for a moment.\n \"They don't look too heavy; let's see if I can do this,\" she smiled.\n \"Careful, Sasha, not hurt yourself, okay?\" Buddleia said, holding a paw on Sasha's shoulder.\n \"I'll be careful, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled. She curled her fingers around the strings of twine for a good grip, drew in a deep breath and tried to lift the small bale, getting it a few inches off the ground before letting it drop back down. \"Hhumph..! Oof, darn, nope, that's a bit too heavy for me yet,\" she puffed, standing up straight and rubbing her right side with her left hand.\n \"You good, Sasha? You not hurt yourself?\" Buddleia asked, gently stroking a paw up and down the human woman's back.\n \"It gave a good twinge in these rebellious ribs, but I've gotten used to that,\" Sasha smiled, breathing deeply for several moments. \"I'm sorry Leia, but I'm gonna have to let you do all the work again.\"\n \"Is fine, I do all work by myself before you here too,\" Buddleia smiled, leaning in to give a soft lick to Sasha's neck. \"You tie them down when trailer full, okay? I put five, then five on top, then five on top, no more or trailer get bouncy.\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. She put a hand on her chin and made a waving motion with the index finger of her other hand a few times while mumbling to herself. \"Fifteen, back and forth... thirty, back and forth... forty-five, back and forth... sixty, back and forth... seventy-five, back and forth... and two left.\" She looked up. \"Damn Leia, that's five trips back and forth to that livestock place. Four hours there and four hours back, that's gonna take us a week. I really hope those pumps for the truck come in sooner, we really need that thing bad so we can pull the big trailer, because that's just stupid.\"\n \"Yes, is not much fun,\" Buddleia agreed. \"But is all we can do for now, and I already very happy we can bring bales to livestock shop and get money.\"\n \"True, at least we'll get paid for driving around all day,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Well, let's get started then!\"\n\nBuddleia smiled and also nodded as she began to pick up the small hay bales and put them in the trailer. Putting them length-wise on their narrow sides, she just managed to fit five next to each other, with a bit of pushing to get the last one to fit. On top of that she stacked five more, across, and on top of those five more, length-wise again. Sasha strapped them all down tightly with several ratchet straps, and they went into the small farmhouse to put on some clothes; a simple flannel shirt for Buddleia, and Sasha put on a pair of denim shorts, her beach sandals and a button-down shirt of which she left the bottom few buttons undone to keep the wrap around her chest free. Also putting on their sun hats, they got into the old car to undertake the four-hour drive to the livestock dealer.\n\nSasha looked around her through the cracked windshield and the missing side window. She had not been in that direction before; Buddleia drove down the driveway and onto the road that led straight away from the farm, around the hill covered in a forest of pine, fir and spruce trees opposite the farm and off between the rolling fields of grass and flowers and occasional copses and clusters of trees. It was a very pretty view, even if it was very open and absolutely empty. Sasha could see rabbits feeding in the grass sometimes, a couple of wild hares racing through one of the fields, at one point a row of whitetail deer bounding from a forest in the distance and crossing the fields to another forest.\n\nAfter a good three hours, Buddleia slowed the car and pointed through the windshield.\n \"Look Sasha, good for you to know.\"\nSasha looked at where Buddleia was pointing. A bit ahead of them was a somewhat unusual turn-off on the dirt road. Another wide dirt road coming from the left split into two narrower roads that connected to the wide dirt road they were driving on, forming a sort of triangle with a few boulders, bushes and birch trees in it.\n \"Go left here, that road go to Rolling Hills village,\" Buddleia smiled. \"About hour driving, go right through middle of village.\"\n \"Oh, that is indeed handy to know, yes,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Then I can get to the village by myself sometimes if I need to.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia smiled, pointing to the forest on their right. \"Go straight on this road, it make very wide curve around forest, and then is another triangle junction. Go left there, we get to Co-op and livestock shop.\"\n \"Good, we're almost there then? I feel like my butt is turning into a waffle from sitting on this crate, even with the cushion,\" Sasha chortled.\nBuddleia let go a short, yipping giggle.\n \"About hour more, Sasha. I not go faster, you feel how bumpy road is and I not wanna hurt you or tip over trailer.\"\n \"Yeah, it's a bit like riding in a paint shaker,\" Sasha nodded with another chortle. \"So just take it easy, Leia. I can hold out for another hour.\"\n\nBuddleia nodded with a soft chortle as well and took a paw off the wheel to gently pat Sasha's leg for a moment. They calmly drove further down the road, which gradually started curving around the forest on their right side.\n \"You know,\" Sasha remarked suddenly. \"I just got an idea. When we're back home, I'll see if I can put the passenger seat of my Volvo into this car. That'll make it much easier and comfier for me to ride in this car with you when we have to take these long drives.\"\n \"That is good idea, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"If it fit, you do that, you should be comfy in old Emmie.\"\n \"I'll make it fit if it doesn't,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"And I just realized something else; how come, as a farmer, you don't have a pickup truck, Leia?\"\n \"I not fit in pickup,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Cab too short, I got to sit up, and then I not able to reach the pedals very well and not see out the windshield because bumping my head against the roof the whole time.\"\nSasha let go another chortle and nodded in understanding.\n \"I hadn't even thought about that, but that makes so much sense. You would need at least a crew-cab without a backseat to fit all of you laying down like you have to.\"\n \"Yes, double-cab pickup with no backseat, I fit in that,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"We just never had one, old Emmie always bring us where we need to be.\"\n\nSasha also nodded again and smiled, resting her left hand on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and looking out the windshield and the missing side window again. As the road curved further towards the right, it eventually ran right into a similar kind of triangle-shape as the earlier turn-off, with all the sides curving smoothly. Buddleia followed the road towards the left, alongside another forest on their left and more open fields on the right.\n\nGradually, Sasha noticed a few more signs of civilization - or at least interference with nature - in the fields to the right of the road. A small building that had collapsed in on itself, a weathered sign with illegible text, an overgrown dirt path leading to an area that had once been an open dirt lot but was now overgrown again, even though some remnants of junk were still visible between the grass and bushes. And in the distance ahead of them, she could see the towering silos of a grain elevator on top of a hill. As they got closer, Sasha noticed the grain elevator was sitting on a huge yard paved with stone slabs, surrounded by a fence the dirt road was running right up to, with a narrower side-road splitting off to the left and running around the foot of the hill.\n\nClearing the forest on their left, the rest came into view. The paved yard stretched across the entire top of the hill, with several large brick buildings on the left of the grain elevator, a couple of which had an open front giving a view of the farming vehicles and implements sitting in them. There was a huge mound of something covered with a tarp sitting between some low concrete walls, and several larger heavy vehicles were sitting in a row next to and in front of that, such as backhoes, frontloaders and bulldozers. On the far right of the yard was an enormous building, two stories high, with a few large sliding garage doors, then a section of wall made of large floor-to-ceiling windows and a couple of large glass doors, and another brick section with a few regular doors and windows in it, and a sign on the roof reading \"Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation\".\n \"Well, I found where the Co-op is,\" Sasha giggled as Buddleia turned left onto the narrower road around the base of the hill.\n \"Yes, here is Co-op,\" Buddleia nodded with a chortle. \"Livestock shop is next to, just down the hill.\"\n\nThey rounded the hill, and Sasha spotted more buildings coming into view. Several low brick buildings close to the side of the hill, with one quite large and wide one, a few wood buildings off towards the back as well as two hay lofts, and stretching into the fields towards the left of the hill a maze of small pastures, pens and fences. A handful of white-ish grey Brahman cows were in one of the small pastures, and another one held two handfuls of tan and white Simmental cows, while in one of the pens about a dozen black Verata goats were milling about.\n\nBuddleia drove through the gate and up to the hay lofts, where a shaggy fox man and a fairly heavy-built hare man were busy lowering a large square bale of straw from one of the lofts. Once it was on the ground, the hare man turned to the old Chevrolet and the fox man climbed down a ladder while Sasha and Buddleia got out of the old car.\n \"Oy Buddsy!\" the hare man smiled. \"You got hay! Excellent! And is this the lady you were talking about?\"\n \"Yes, this Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, motioning a paw at the hare man and the fox man who had also walked up to them. \"Sasha, this Simon and this Harry, they run the livestock shop.\"\n \"Pleased to meet you fellows,\" Sasha smiled. \"No shoulder slaps please, I have broken two ribs and they're only just beginning to heal.\"\n \"Gotta be careful with that, Sasha,\" the hare man nodded while shaking Sasha's hand.\n \"And nice to meet you indeed,\" the fox man smiled, also shaking Sasha's hand. \"It's so nice to know Buddleia has someone to help her out on the farm, we've really been missing seeing that purple beast around.\"\n \"Well, you'll get to see her around a lot more now, and me as well,\" Sasha smiled. \"We're aiming to bring that farm right back around and make it super awesomely excellent.\"\n \"That'll be great!\" the hare man Simon chuckled. \"We need good farms around here, and super awesomely excellent ones are even better! And good golly thanks for the hay! You'd think with all the grass around here, we'd be up to our ears in hay, but no one around here makes it!\"\n \"Really weird, because all they need to do is mow, dry and bale,\" the fox man Harry nodded. \"But at least you brought us some now, so that's great.\"\n \"We have lots,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Seventy-seven bales, and that just one field so far.\"\n \"Awesome!\" Simon smiled. \"Let's have a look at it!\"\n\nThey walked around the old Chevrolet and to the trailer. Simon plucked a pawful of hay from one of the bales, looked at it and sniffed it, while Harry spread the hay of the same bale apart a bit to look deeper into the bale.\n \"Looking good,\" Simon nodded, twisting the pawful of hay in both his paws and checking it again. \"It's just grass, yeah? No legumes?\"\n \"Yeah, it's just the grass that's all over the place here, it's completely overtaken our fields too,\" Sasha nodded, while Buddleia started undoing the straps.\n \"That's pretty much perfect, we keep the animals we have here dry so they can't have too much protein,\" Harry said.\n \"Yeah, and I'm liking the quality of this,\" Simon nodded. \"Three-string bales I see, so we'll give you twenty-five bucks apiece, sound good?\"\n \"Sounds awesome, we need the money [i]so[/i] badly,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Let's get'em unloaded then! The ladies will be so grateful!\" Simon chuckled, motioning with his head in the direction of the few occupied pastures.\n\nSasha chortled softly and took the last straps as Buddleia undid them. The fox man Harry climbed onto the trailer surprisingly agilely and lifted one of the bales on top.\n \"Over a hundred, Simon.\"\n \"I'll get the cart,\" the hare man nodded, walking into the second hay loft.\nIn the meantime, the fox man began taking the bales off the trailer and dropping them on the ground. By the time the hare man returned with a flat cart, Buddleia had stacked two of the bales on top of each other and carried them over to the hay loft effortlessly.\n \"Hey show-off, leave some work for us!\" Simon chuckled as he started stacking the bales onto the cart, looking up at the trailer sideways. \"How many we got here, Har?\"\n \"Fifteen, looks like,\" the fox man said, quickly pointing a finger at the row of bales he was standing on top of.\n \"Good start,\" Simon chuckled.\n \"And I sure hope you won't mind it'll take a week to deliver the rest,\" Sasha chortled. \"As Leia mentioned, we have seventy-seven in total, and we can only carry fifteen at a time in this trailer. Not too bad in itself, but it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here, and then four hours back, so all we can do is fifteen bales a day as we'll be spending the whole day just driving back and forth.\" She shrugged. \"We have an old grain truck and a bale trailer, I'll be getting new tires mounted for the trailer nextdoor in a bit so that'll be rolling again, but it's gonna take three weeks before replacement parts for the truck will be in, and we need that truck to pull the trailer.\"\n \"Hell no, that ain't a problem, but that [i]is[/i] ridiculous!\" Simon said, shaking his head. \"Sure would like if it weren't so darn spread out here.\"\n \"Wanna use our old flatbed?\" Harry said as he jumped to the ground and started taking the last five bales out of the trailer. \"It's just standing around as we never use it anymore, and you can carry a ton more on that.\"\n \"Oh yes, [i]please[/i],\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That'll be [i]such[/i] a big help!\"\n \"We'll get these inside, and I'll show you,\" Harry smiled.\n\nTogether with Simon and Buddleia, he stacked the last five bales onto the trailer, and the three of them carefully pushed the cart into the hay loft, with Buddleia pushing and Harry and Simon walking on either side with their paws against the bales to prevent them from tipping over. Sasha rolled up the ratchet straps and put them in the back of the old Chevrolet before taking off her glasses and cleaning the dust off of them with a slip of her shirt.\n\nSeveral moments later, the human woman walked over as the fox man Harry made a wave with one paw while he started walking towards the buildings together with the hare man Simon and Buddleia. To the side of one of the smaller buildings sat a cab-over style 1966 Saviem S8 flatbed truck in white and yellow, and behind the building, with a ripped blue tarp partially covering the cab and the long nose, sat a 1953 MAZ-200 truck that once had been a dark blue-ish green color but had been badly painted over with a lighter green that was peeling off all over, and it had a regular bed of which the side panels and tailgate had been removed to form a simple flat bed, although the front panel and the uprights were still in place.\n\nHarry walked over to that truck and pulled the tarp off of it, revealing that the truck had two square-ish front windows with wipers coming down over them from above, the right-side front window being cracked, and that it had what looked like a three-piece hood of which the right side panel was missing. It was sitting on large tires with very deep profiles that were low on air but not flat, and a spare wheel was sitting on the frame under the bed.\n \"Ta-dah,\" Harry said with a light chuckle. \"That's our old workhorse, retired when we got the newer one we just walked by. Ran when parked, but I'm not sure if it still does, it's been twelve years.\"\n \"Yeah, tell you what,\" Simon smiled. \"You get it running, it's yours. Here it's just sitting and collecting rust anyway, and it sounds like you'll actually get some real good use out of it.\"\n \"Damn, thank you [i]so[/i] much!\" Sasha smiled. \"That's a [i]huge[/i] help, you have no idea!\"\n \"Hey, it's in our interest too,\" Harry chuckled. \"We get our yard cleaned up a bit, and you get something you can deliver us a lot more bales of hay in one go with.\"\n \"Still, I can't thank you enough,\" Sasha smiled, turning to Buddleia. \"What do you think, Leia? You got two tractors running in the past two days, think you can continue your lucky streak and get this monster running also?\"\n \"I can do,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"This big truck, I can reach everything easy, and is simple diesel engine. She not broken but just parked and left sitting, I get her running no problem.\"\n \"Have at it, Buddsy,\" Simon chuckled. \"We'll get you a toolbox, and anything else you need, just holler, okay?\"\n \"Yes, thank you, Simon,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I probably need oil, brake fluid and WD-forty to start with.\"\n \"On it,\" Harry chuckled, walking off.\n \"Okay, Leia, then while you work on this truck, I'll take Emmie over to the Co-op so they can take those rolls of barbed wire off the roof and put new tires on our trailer rims, okay?\" Sasha smiled. \"When I'm done there, I'll come back here and help you.\"\n \"Yes, is good, Sasha, you do,\" Buddleia smiled, nodding again. \"We get all things done, not wait for each other.\"\n \"Alright, I should be back soon,\" Sasha smiled. She shook paws with the hare man. \"Simon, again, thank you [i]so[/i] very much. Oh, and while I think about it, what would you advice for a good dairy goat for personal use?\n \"Alpines, definitely,\" the hare man nodded with a smile. \"Rather docile, friendly buggers, [i]very[/i] rich production and their milk is considered some of the best goat's milk you can get. You can make cheese from it, butter, ice cream, even soap. But if you're gonna drink it yourself, you gotta filter and chill it right away though, preferably immediately after milking, and keep it at forty Fahrenheit or four Celsius, or below.\"\n \"Right, we'll have to get the power restored first then,\" Sasha nodded. \"But would it be okay to have just one and let it graze?\"\n \"One should be fine, but be prepared for the girl to follow you around all over the place, they like some company,\" Simon chuckled. \"Grazing is fine too, but you best also feed some legume or mixed hay and power pellets, otherwise the milk production will decrease a decent bit. They like a bit of variation in their dinners too, just like us, you know,\" he added with a short laugh.\nSasha chortled and nodded again.\n \"Alright, that's good to know. What do those goats usually go for?\"\n \"About four hundred for a hundred-thirty-pounder,\" Simon said with a light shrug. \"At that weight they're ready to go with the milk, but they're a tad pricey because they're so popular with dairy farms.\"\n \"Ahhh, right,\" Sasha nodded slowly, with another light chortle. \"Yeah, that'll be out of our budget for a while yet. But like I said, we should still get the power to the farm restored first anyway to have cooling, so it will take a while anyway before we can look into anything that'll give milk.\"\n \"Have you ever tried milking a rabbit?\" Simon chuckled.\nSasha blinked.\n \"Uh, no? How would that even work?\"\n \"It doesn't, they're rabbits, you can't milk them,\" Simon laughed.\nSasha also laughed and shook her head.\n \"Oh you're a riot, Simon, aren't you!\" She shook his paw again. \"But anyway, thank you for the great advice and info, and thank you so very much again for the truck, too. If Leia gets that monster running, we'll be back here tomorrow with sixty-two more of those bales.\"\n \"I'll look forward to it, Sasha,\" Simon smiled.\n\nHe walked off in the same direction Harry had disappeared into after rolling a tool chest with a box on top over to the old truck, and Sasha walked back to the old Chevrolet. She moved the plastic crate over to behind the wheel, got in and started the engine, driving around the yard and back out of it to follow the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill. At the end she made the left turn up the hill and drove into the yard of the Ag Co-op, parking near the garage door that was closest to the glass wall and walking into the building through one of the glass doors.\n\nOn the inside was a very smooth and rather shiny floor, a few groups of chairs around low tables, several racks with magazines, and a few rows of smaller implements like motorized push-mowers and riding mowers, and one positively adorable small mini excavator. Over to the left side was a large counter with two computer screens on it, and behind it were a tan-colored lion man dressed in, strangely, a pair of denim overalls over a plaid flannel shirt and a suit jacket over that, and a rust-colored and white Border Collie woman dressed in a light blue blouse and matching skirt.\n\nThe lion man smiled and walked around the counter as Sasha stepped up to it, holding out a paw.\n \"You must be miss Sasha Farr! We've spoken through emails a time or two already. I'm Daniel Tawnto, I'm the Ag agent for this godforsaken wasteland... I mean this quaint, undisturbed valley,\" he chuckled.\n \"Very pleased to meet you in person, mister Tawnto,\" Sasha chortled as she shook the lion man's paw. \"I am indeed Sasha Farr, and I'm here with a few rolls of barbed wire and six wheels that need new second-hand tires.\"\n \"Please, call me Dan,\" the lion man smiled. \"And of course, I saw you parked out front, let's get you unloaded and set up!\" He walked over to the far right of the building, opened a door and looked through it while giving a loud whistle. \"Tim! Get the forklift, miss Farr is here with the barbed wire! And is Jack done with the tire mounter yet?\"\nTwo voices sounded from the room behind the door.\n \"Just about, boss!\" one of the voices said.\n \"I'll be right there!\" said the other voice.\n \"Good, when you're done, come out front with a cart, Jack, will you?\" the lion man said.\n \"Five minutes!\" answered the first voice.\nThe lion man closed the door and walked over to Sasha.\n \"They'll be right there,\" he smiled, leading the way to the glass doors. \"So you are the woman who is staying with dear Buddleia and helping her with her farm, right? That is so good to hear, Silvercreek farm has always been a very nice farm even if it was somewhat small, it was painful to see it falling into disrepair. My father was the Ag agent here before me, he always spoke very highly of Phlox and Verbena Silvercreek, and he's seen Buddleia practically grow up.\"\n \"He's known her grandparents?\" Sasha smiled. \"That's really nice. What were they like?\"\n \"Very purple,\" the lion man chuckled. \"Buddleia has it from no stranger, I can tell you. But they were the friendliest folks you could ever meet. Soft-spoken, but always giving help to anyone who needed it and always doing things for the community. You could knock on their door in the dead of night because your car had broken down, and Phlox would go out and pull it to the farm to fix it while Verbena would make you a pot of tea and some cookies while you waited. And if it was too late to travel further, they'd let you stay the night and give you a good breakfast in the morning, too.\"\n \"Leia has that from no stranger either, then,\" Sasha smiled. \"She's seen me go off the mountain in my car and raced over to save me, put me in her bed and nursed me back to health. Hell, I asked her about the suitcase in my car, and she went back out and dragged the whole damn car back to the farm.\"\n \"Holy cow, you've been lucky, that could have ended so much worse,\" the lion man said, shaking his head. \"But yes, that does sound exactly like Buddleia, alright.\" He waved at a grey and black tabby cat man in a pair of full-body green mechanic's coveralls driving over to the old Chevrolet in a forklift. \"You can put it behind the metal building with the used stuff, Tim.\" He turned back to Sasha with a smile. \"So how long will you be staying for, miss Farr? A good while, I hope.\"\nSasha curled her lips into a mild grin.\n \"First off, call me Sasha. Secondly, I broke two ribs in the accident, and I can't go anywhere before those are healed; that'll take several weeks at least. And after that...\" She grinned wider. \"Indefinitely, Dan, for ever, I won't be going anywhere until Leia and I have turned old and grey and wrinkly and fall over one day.\"\n \"That's the best news I've heard in a good while!\" the lion man Dan smiled broadly. \"So you two will be running Silvercreek farm together then? That's great!\"\n \"Indeed we will,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, looking at the tabby cat man deftly operating the forklift to take the rolls of barbed wire from the roof rack, putting them on the ground, stacking them and then picking up the whole stack. \"Oh, and Leia did mention her grandparents called it Silvercreek farm, but she never thought that was the actual farm name because it was their clan name. We've officially named it Butterfly Farm.\"\n \"That's nice! I like that!\" Dan smiled. \"Will you be sticking with the cereal crops?\"\n \"Likely, all the equipment for that is still there even if it's old and broken down,\" Sasha nodded with another smile. \"But for now, we're so dirt broke we're just reaping what's there, which is grass that overtook the fields. It's gonna take one or two years at least, I think, before we can think about planting any crops again. But when we do, yeah, probably cereals and canola and sunflowers again.\"\n \"Good, good, we can really do with a cereal farm around here,\" Dan nodded with a smile as well. They looked around when a ruddy-colored wolf man in a pair of full-body mechanic's coveralls walked through one of the glass doors while pushing a low cart. \"Ah, Jack, it's the seven year old tires I had you bring into the workshop the other day.\" He looked into the trailer. \"Where did you put the wheels, Sasha?\"\n \"Inside, we needed the trailer for the first load of hay,\" Sasha smiled. She opened the driver door of the old Chevrolet and leaned in to take out the small trailer wheels, putting them on the cart and smiling at the wolf man. \"Would you mind getting the larger ones? They're a bit too heavy for me, especially in that leaned-over position, because I have two broken ribs screaming at me.\"\n \"No problem, miss,\" the wolf man nodded with a smile.\n\nHe leaned into the old car to take out the four large wheels and put them on the trailer while Sasha stood back upright and rubbed her right side with her left hand. The lion man smiled at her again.\n \"Are you alright? Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea perhaps? And if there is ever anything we can do for you and Buddleia to help out, please don't hesitate to ask.\"\n \"A cup of tea would be nice,\" Sasha smiled. \"And thank you. You're already a big help with those cheap tires, and it would really help if I can wait here for them to be done, as it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here and four hours back again.\" She suddenly lifted her head further. \"Oh, and do you perhaps have a phone I could use? Mine got all smashed in the accident, and I should really call at least one of my friends in the city to let them know where I am and that I'm not a dead flat pancake.\"\n \"Of course, of course!\" Dan nodded. \"Please follow me again, Sasha.\" He led the way back into the building and over to the counter, smiling at the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman. \"Clarissa, please show miss Farr into the office so she can use the phone, and get her a cup of tea, would you please?\"\n \"Certainly, mister Tawnto,\" the canine woman smiled. \"This way please, miss Farr.\"\nSasha followed the Border Collie woman through a door behind the counter, into an office. The canine woman pointed at a somewhat old-fashioned landline telephone sitting on a desk.\n \"There is the phone, miss Farr. You need to dial a zero first for outside calls. Do you take sugar in your tea?\"\n \"Please,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"And thank you, too.\"\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded with a smile as well and stepped out of the office again. Sasha sat down behind the desk, took the receiver of the phone and held it to her ear, hearing a buzzing tone. She pressed the zero, and heard the tone changing to a dial tone. With a light smile and taking a deep breath in preparation, she dialed the number of the youngest girl from her small group of friends, the 22 year old chocolate Labrador Millie. That was the only number she knew by heart, as it was a relatively simple number to memorize; five sets of identical double digits.\n\nFor a moment, Sasha took another deep breath again. Well, here goes... seven seven, three three, two two, nine nine, four four. Holding the receiver to her ear again, the human woman listened to the line ring, somewhat dreading the reaction she would be getting once it was answered.\n \"Uh, hello?\"\n \"Millie? It's me, Sasha.\"\nAnd sure enough.\n \"[i][b]SASHA[/b][/i]?! Oh my god, oh my god, where are you?! What happened?! How are you?! It's been weeks! We thought you were dead! We called the cops and everything! What happened?! Where..!\"\nThe initial scream had been so loud Sasha had to jerk the receiver away from her ear, and both the lion man and the Border Collie woman by the counter looked around with surprise. Bringing the receiver back to her ear, Sasha took another deep breath.\n \"Millie! Millie! [i]MILLIE[/i]! SHUT UP! Shut the fuck up, be quiet and listen to me! I'll tell you everything, but you got to shut the fuck up and let me talk! Can you do that?!\"\n\nIt sounded very harsh, but Sasha knew that was the only way to get the somewhat excitable young Labrador girl to calm down. It worked. The voice through the receiver returned in an almost subdued and very low tone.\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good girl. Now listen, Millie. As you can hear, I'm not dead. But I [i]did[/i] have an accident.\"\n \"Oh my god! What happened?!\"\n \"[i]Shut up[/i]! Be quiet and listen! You can talk when I ask you something, but for the rest, keep your yap shut and let me talk! Can you do that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good. Do you remember that night when you saw me leaving the club?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right. I had three days to get back to the city and beg the tenement folks not to kick me out of my studio. Do you remember that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right.\" A movement from the corner of her eye made Sasha look aside and smile lightly as she saw the Border Collie woman quietly closing the door. \"I never made it, Millie. You know the way back to Fossil City, it's that stupid-ass mountain road. And it was night. When I got to a sharp curve, a box truck came around the corner, right at me. I slammed the brakes and the horn, the truck evaded but sideswiped me, and my car went through the guardrail and over the edge and rolled down the mountain for a good way.\"\n \"[i]Oh my god[/i], Sasha! Are you okay?!\"\n \"Shut, up! Yes Millie, I'm fine. I broke two ribs, I...\"\n \"Oh Sasha!\"\n \"Shut, the, fuck, [i]up[/i]! I'm not done yet! So I broke two ribs, I got cuts and scrapes and bruises all over, but that's it. I drive a Volvo after all. The broken ribs are the worst of my injuries, and they're healing up now, so I'm fine, Millie.\"\n \"How... did you get out..?\"\n \"A local woman saw the lights of my car go off the mountain, and she got me out of my car and brought me to her farm. I woke up two days later in her bed, cleaned up, with a wrap around my chest, and the woman dabbing my head with a wet cloth, and she's been nursing me back to health.\"\n \"Huu... I'm... I'm so glad to hear you're... you're okay, Sash. When we didn't hear from you for days, we thought... huu... we thought you were dead. Joanna said... huuu... she said... you probably killed yourself...\"\n \"Joanna's a bitch. Come on now, Millie, don't cry. Take a deep breath, okay?\"\nThere were a few moments of trembling breathing on the other end of the line before the voice returned.\n \"Sorry...\"\n \"It's okay, Mil. Don't worry, I really am fine. But listen to me and listen close, Millie. I need you to tell me a few things.\"\n \"Okay...\"\n \"Good. First and most importantly, you said you called the cops. When was that, and are they still searching for me?\"\n \"Hhuuu... They... Th-they... huuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Tell me what happened since that night, okay? Calmly, nice and easy now, and don't cry now, Millie. Take a few deep breaths, and tell me what happened after I left the club.\"\nThere was some loud sniffing.\n \"O-okay... That night when you left... We went back the next day... or at least, I asked Chelsea to take me back, I didn't feel like staying no more. We... we got to your place... it must have been the day after you said they would kick you out. They... hhhu... they were already moving out your stuff, Sash. We told them, that's our friend's stuff, she should be here but something must have happened, so they let us take what we could. I have it all, Sash, three boxes, in my storage unit downstairs. I have your glasses still, you left them on the bar in the club that night. A-and... huu...\"\n \"Deep breath again, Mil. Thanks for grabbing my glasses and my stuff, even if there wasn't much to grab. What happened next? When did you call the cops?\"\nAnother hard sniff.\n \"We... You had said, three days. It had been four when we got back... I said we should call the cops, but Joanna and Chelsea said not to be silly, you'd be fine, a-and... Joanna said... that. Huu... I was scared, Sash. I called the cops on my own the next day to... huuu... r-report you m-missing...\"\n \"Deeeeep breath now, Milbilly. What happened next?\"\nThere was an audible sob at the mention of the pet name, and some more hard sniffing.\n \"A... a cop came to my place to ask questions. Your name, age, what you look like, what you were wearing, what you were driving, where you had been going when I last saw you, what way you were taking... everything. I... I couldn't even remember what clothes you had on, but I did my best to give all the information I could. I even showed them your glasses, and the little picture of us.\"\n \"You did good, Mil. What did they say, and what happened next?\"\n \"They said... they'd put out a missing person report, and they would let me know any updates. Huu... A couple days later, they emailed me... They said... hhuuu... s-said...\"\n \"Get a glass of water and take a sip, Mil.\"\n\nThere was some rummaging on the other end of the line, a momentary sound of running water, and more trembling breaths and hard sniffing.\n \"Sorry... They said... they'd found a broken guardrail on the M-seventy-three, and... and damage to the plants on the mountainside that showed a car had gone through, and some bits of glass and stuff... b-but... they couldn't... huu... c-couldn't find your car, or any car at all...\"\n \"Take another sip, Millie. If that was five days or more after I went off that mountain... yeah, no wonder they didn't find the car, the woman who saved me brought it over to her farm so we could get my stuff from it, or whatever was left anyway, and that was pretty much three days after I went off. Did they give any more updates after that? It's been almost two weeks, are they still looking?\"\n \"Huu... They... th-they... hhuuu... they closed you as a c-cold case, Sash... Huuhuuu... N-no hope, they said...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Do it with me. Breathe in, now hold it, one, two, three, out again. Do it again. And take some more sips of water. There's no need to cry, Milbilly, honest. Now, tell me, did they at any point say they had gotten a report from someone else? From Bronto Valley or elsewhere?\"\nIt took several longer moments before the voice was steady enough to return.\n \"N-no... My report was the only one on you.\"\nSasha gritted her teeth for a moment.\n \"Sonofabitch, he just hit and ran. I hope he god damn well drove into the river with that fucking truck.\" She shook her head. \"It's weird though that they didn't notice the activity, I transferred my bank account to another bank, and dead bodies don't do that.\"\n \"Sash... Why... w-why didn't you call..? I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"Fuck, I wanted to, Milbilly, honest. The moment I could get out of that bed, we went through my car for my phone because I wanted to call you and let you know what happened. I did find my phone, but it's all smashed, Mil. And it's the fucking middle of nowhere here, there's not even electricity at that farm, let alone phone lines. But listen, Millie, this is very important, so listen closely and write this down. Do you have pen and paper? Get pen and paper and write this down, okay?\"\nA short pause with some rummaging and sniffing.\n \"Okay... I have a pen.\"\n \"Good. Write this down, Millie. I need you to call the police, and tell them that I've called you, that I'm alive and well, they can stop any searches and close the case proper. I'm not dead, I'm alive and doing okay, so their case is solved. Okay?\"\n \"Okay... okay, I have that, Sash. When should I do that?\"\n \"Immediately after I hang up. As soon as we're done with this call, you call the police and tell them I've been in contact with you and that I'm alive and well. And don't tell the others. Let them think I'm dead, with how they've been acting they're pretty much dead to me.\"\n \"Okay... Sash... where are you? How could you be... so far away from anything that they couldn't find you?\"\n \"Like I said, it's the middle of nowhere here, Millie. That stretch of open land between the mountains and the Arfajia Woods, you know? I found out it's called the Arfajia region or valley, and there's hardly [i]anything[/i] here. Right now I'm at the Ag Co-op, they're letting me use their phone, and it's four hours away from that farm I was brought to. I've seen a map, there's pretty much nothing here, Mil. That farm, one other farm miles away, a sawmill miles away, the Ag Co-op miles and miles away and a teeny tiny little farmer's village miles and miles away, and that's about it, apart from two milling factories. There's just hundreds and hundreds of miles of [i]nothing[/i], Millie.\"\n \"Oh... Okay...\" There was a shuddering breath on the other end of the line. \"Sash... when are you coming back..?\"\nSasha let out a sigh.\n \"I'm not coming back, Mil.\"\nThere was an actual wail on the other end of the line.\n \"Sasha-haaaaa! Please, no, please come back! I... I... hhuuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Mil. Listen to me, choco-snoot. I have nothing to go back [i]to[/i]. No apartment, no job, no car, no money, no life. But I have that here, Mil. I'm not going back to the city and be miserable again.\"\n \"No..! No, Sash, no! Please! You gotta come back! I'll let you stay with me! We'll figure something out! Please! You...\"\n \"Shut, up, Mil. Listen to me and listen close, okay? My place is [i]here[/i], Mil. I'm helping that woman who saved me with her farm, and not just until my ribs are healed. I belong here, Mil. That woman's had it as hard as me, the farm is in disrepair, and I'm helping her turn it back around. We registered it under both our names, Mil, we're partners now, and we're gonna stay that way. I am [i]not[/i] going back to the city, ever again, I belong [i]here[/i], my life is [i]here[/i].\"\nHiccupped gasps.\n \"Sash... No... Please... What... what am I... huuu... what am I gonna do... huuu... w-without you?\"\n \"Aw c'mon now, choco-snoot. You're a kid still, what do you need a cranky old noodle like me for? What could I possibly be good for, or better for than your friends of your own age?\"\n \"[i]Everything[/i]! They're all stupid! I stopped hanging out with them, because they're jerks! All they wanna do is party and shit, and they say dumb shit, and... and they treat me like crap, like I'm just a dumb puppy, Sash, you know that, you were the only one who [i]cared[/i]! Even... hu... even when you were always acting all cranky and stuff, you always... huu... you always took care of me, and... huuhuuu...\"\n \"Sip of water and deep breaths, choco-snoot.\"\n \"That's what I meannn! Huuu! You care, you always called me... huuu... sweet things, and... a-and you... huuu... you brushed me, and...\"\n \"Another sip of water, choco-snoot, and deeper breaths. Come on now, please don't cry, you're gonna get me going. And I'm sorry, Milbilly, but I really am not coming back to the city, that's final.\"\nLong moments of shuddering sobs and breaths.\n \"Sash... Please... at least let me visit..?\"\n \"Aw Millie, how would you even get here?\"\n \"I... I have a car now. You know I've been taking lessons, you... you helped me with them. I got my license last week, and... I got a small car, little Toyota coffee can, but it runs good and it's cheap. I can... I can come visit, Sash, [i]please[/i]...\"\n \"Okay choco-snoot, write this down too. Deep breath now. You still have that pen?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good, then write this down, okay? The Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. You should be able to at least find [i]that[/i] on a GPS. Now listen close, Mil, and write this down carefully. The Co-op is on a low hill, and from there a dirt road is leading down. Got that? Good. Follow that road down. After a while you'll see some sort of triangular junction, you follow the road to the right on that. Got that? Good. Keep following the road, it makes a long wide curve around a forest. You'll see another triangular junction, go straight ahead there. Got that? Okay. From there it's easy, just keep following the road. It'll take hours, but just keep following that road. After about four hours, all in all, the road will more or less end in another of those triangular junctions, onto a road that runs from left to right. You should be able to see our farm, at least the silo, it's a big rusty white tube behind a pond. Turn left there, the fence is along that road from left to right, and the driveway comes out on that road, so you can make a right turn onto the driveway and drive right up to the small house that's there. That's the place, choco-snoot, it can't miss because it's the only farm for miles and miles around. You got all that? Read it back to me.\"\n \"O-okay... Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. Down the hill, right on the triangle junction, follow the road around the forest, straight on at the second triangle junction, follow the road down for hours, left at the last triangle junction and right into the driveway.\"\n \"Very good, you got it, choco-snoot. I have no idea how long it would even take you to get to that Co-op, but that's the best directions I can give. If you wanna come visit, prepare for at least three days of travel, it's that far away, Mil. And should we not be there because you happen to come on a day we're at the sawmill or in the village or something, just wait there. Even if it takes all day, just wait there because we will come back to the farm if we're not there. Now, listen very closely and write this down too, this is very important, Mil. Do not, and I repeat do [i]not[/i] call this number to ask for me. Like I said, I'm at the Ag Co-op and they're letting me use their phone, so this number is the number of the Ag Co-op. If you call, I will not be there and they can't reach me because the farm is four hours away from there. So do not call this number. My own phone is smashed, but I ordered a replacement phone, and it will be at the post office in that little village sometime next week. I'll put my old sim-card into it, and then I will call you, Mil. So wait for that, wait for me to call you. Promise?\"\n \"I... Yes, promise, Sash...\"\n \"Good girl. I [i]will[/i] call you, Mil, that is [i]my[/i] promise. So do not call this number, wait for me to call you sometime next week when my replacement phone is here.\"\n \"O-okay, Sash... Thank you... thank you for calling me, I've been... huu... I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"It's okay, Milbilly. I'm so very sorry, I should have called you way earlier, but with no phone and we've been working so very hard, it just... Eh, never mind, I called you now and everything is good, yeah?\"\n \"Yes... thank you, Sash, I'm so glad to know you're okay. I'll... I can stop worrying now, and I'll wait for your next call.\"\n \"Good girl, choco-snoot. Now, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water. I'm gonna hang up now, my tires are ready, Leia is probably waiting for me, and we still have a four-hour drive back to the farm, so I gotta go now, Mil. But I promise you that as soon as my replacement phone is here, I will call you again, and you know my word is golden.\"\n \"Yes... you never went back on your word, I know... Thank you, Sash.\"\n \"You're welcome, choco-snoot. Like I said, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water, and then call the cops for me to tell them I called you and that I'm alive and well, and I will call you again next week.\"\n \"Okay... I'll hear from you then, Sash.\"\n \"Hear you then, Milbilly.\"\n\nSasha slowly put the receiver back on the phone and pulled in a very deep breath, leaning over with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking off her glasses with her right hand and running her right hand over her face. She only looked up when a cup of tea was set in front of her by the Border Collie woman.\n \"That... was intense, are you alright?\" she asked in a soft, worried voice.\nSasha managed a light smile.\n \"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Sorry for the long and intense call; that was my one good friend from the city and she's a young girl and been worried sick over not hearing from me for two weeks after I went off the mountain with my car.\"\n \"Oh dear...\" the canine woman said softly. \"That must have been so hard. Please take your time, miss Farr.\"\n \"Thank you,\" Sasha said with another light smile.\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her again. Sasha stirred some sugar through the cup of tea, still with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking slow, shallow breaths. The yelling she'd had to do at the start of the phone call had not done her ribs very much good; the emotions hurt even worse. Taking slow sips of the tea, the human woman gradually managed to breathe normally again, take her hand off her right side and sit up.\n\nWhen she had finished the cup of tea, she got up and walked out of the office. A light smile crossed her face as she saw Buddleia talking with the lion man Daniel, although the vixen-taur rushed over to her in almost a gallop at seeing the look on Sasha's face.\n \"Sasha! You okay? You hurt?\"\n \"I'm fine, Leia, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled lightly.\nBuddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and softly rubbed the human woman's back up and down with one paw while nuzzling at Sasha's hair. The lion man smiled softly over it.\n \"Isn't that so sweet. She had to make a phone call, Buddleia, and it was a quite intense one, we could hear it all the way out here.\"\n \"Who you call to make you look like that, Sasha?\" Buddleia murmured, still rubbing Sasha's back up and down.\nSasha smiled a bit deeper, leaning a bit sideways in the vixen-taur's embrace.\n \"I called Millie.\"\n \"Your friend! I remember you talk about her,\" Buddleia nodded. \"She okay too?\"\n \"She is now,\" Sasha smiled. \"But she's been scared and worried out of her mind for the past two weeks.\" She lifted her head a bit to look at Buddleia's face. \"She's the only one who knew I was driving back home, Leia, because she had seen me leave, and we even talked a bit about the reason I had to go back home that night. So she knew just about what day I should have been at my apartment, and when she didn't hear anything from me for two weeks after...\"\n \"She worry! Yes! I go crazy if I not hear from you for so long too!\" Buddleia nodded, holding Sasha close and giving a light lick to her neck. \"You call her now, she okay now?\"\n \"It took some doing, but yes, she's alright now,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"The problem is, she's so young still, and a Labrador, so I had to yell at her pretty loudly a few times to get her to quiet down so I could explain everything to her. And yelling like that, well...\"\nShe put her left hand on her right side again. Buddleia nodded again and slowly let go of Sasha.\n \"I understand, yes. You hurt.\"\nSasha also nodded and ran a couple of fingers along the vixen-taur's slender muzzle.\n \"Not too bad, though. But, well... that call got pretty damn emotional.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia said softly, stroking Sasha's hair with a paw. \"You good now, Sasha?\"\n \"I'm fine, we got it all talked out and figured out,\" Sasha smiled. \"So how about you? Since you were here waiting for me, I'm guessing you got that truck running?\"\n \"Yes, truck run,\" Buddleia nodded. \"I walk here because you take long time, and I can not drive truck, seat in there and cab too short too for me to sit.\"\n \"Right, of course,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Well, don't worry, I drove that Volvo daily, so I can drive anything. I'll drive it back home, Leia, no problem. Is there enough fuel in it to make it home?\"\n \"I not sure,\" Buddleia said with a light shrug of her upper shoulders. \"Is not much fuel in, but is big tank so might be enough still.\"\n \"In that case, do you have a diesel pump here we can fill up at, mister Tawnto? Dan, sorry,\" Sasha smiled, turning to the lion man.\n \"We do indeed, it's over there on the other side of the yard,\" Dan nodded, pointing through the glass wall. \"Usually, you scan your card at the scanner screen to unlock the pump, and the total amount will then be deducted from your account, but don't do that in this case, I'll unlock the pump for you.\"\n \"That's very generous of you, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled again.\n \"Small thing we can do to help,\" Dan smiled, letting go a light chuckle. \"Just this time, I'm not gonna let you fill up a sixty gallon or so tank for zip every time.\" He pointed again. \"Oh, and Jack finished your wheels, he put them in your trailer and strapped them down already.\"\n \"Again, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"I'll go get the truck then, we still have a four-hour drive to make home after all.\" She lightly ran her fingers along the side of Buddleia's slender muzzle again. \"I'll be back in a minute, Leia.\"\n \"Is good, yes, I wait here for you,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I talk some more with Dan, I not seen in long time.\"\n \"Good, see you in a bit then,\" Sasha smiled.\n\nShe walked out of the building and looked around a bit on the yard. There were indeed a couple of fuel pumps near the front fence. The fence also ran all the way to the end of the yard and along the side of it, so Sasha had to walk to the large opening where the dirt road entered the yard and walk down the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill to get to the yard of the livestock dealer.\n\nIt only took a minute or two. As she walked over to the building where the MAZ-200 truck was parked behind, the hare man Simon waved at her.\n \"Hey Sasha! You took your time, Buddsy went to look for you!\"\n \"Yeah, I had to make a very important phone call, and it took way longer than I expected,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Right, okay!\" Simon nodded. \"Well, anyway, the truck's all ready and yours for the taking! Buddsy said she had to go get you anyway because she can't drive the thing.\"\n \"Yeah, she can't fit in the cab,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"But it's fine, I can drive it. I'll sound like a broken record, Simon, but thank you so much again, you have really helped us out so very much with that truck. We'll be back here tomorrow with the rest of those bales.\"\n \"Absolutely and totally no problem, Sasha!\" Simon smiled. \"Glad you can use the old beast! We'll see you tomorrow then!\"\n\nHe waved again and stepped into one of the buildings, and Sasha walked around the other building and over to the old truck. Either Simon or Harry had even pumped up the tires so they weren't sagging anymore; that was nice! It was a little bit of a climb to get into the truck, and once behind the very large steering wheel the human woman looked around inside the cabin a bit. Wow was it rudimentary in there. Really nothing but the bare essentials, with the only hint of luxury being defroster mouths pointing at the two front windows, and those windows looked like they could swing open from the bottom as well. For the rest, just a simple metal dashboard, with to the left of the large steering wheel a rectangular panel holding a speedometer, and four smaller gauges on either side of that for fuel, oil pressure, temperature, and voltage, and two large rubber... things sticking out that Sasha could not determine what they were.\n\nTo the left of the steering wheel were a few more gauges directly in the metal dashboard; a large round rev counter, next to that an evenly large gauge with a scale of 0 to 10, and in between those a smaller round gauge with a wider scale of 0 to 5. Along the bottom were several pull-knobs and a few tumble switches, and in the left corner was a round metal plate with dots on it and a sort of turnable lever sticking through it. Small problem; it was all in Russian.\n\nSasha shrugged a bit. There were some universal symbols as well, so she could still figure out the switches for the headlights, blinkers, wipers and the like, and the plaque on the glove box lid showed with numbers that the gearbox was five speeds in a double-H pattern with Reverse below fifth gear. And there was an ignition switch with a key stuck in it, so that couldn't miss either. Everything that was needed was in there, so that was all that mattered.\n\nReaching down, the human woman turned the key and held it. A grinding noise and some loud clanks came from under the hood, some hiccups, and eventually the engine roared to life with a quite sharp, buzzy sound and a cloud of thick black smoke from the exhaust plus a puff of it out through the missing right engine cover. Shifting was not all too smooth either, but it did go into gear, so Sasha managed to put the truck into motion and slowly drive it around the building. She found she had to shift quite a bit to keep the revs up and slam the gearstick into the slots quite hard too, but again, it worked so that was what mattered.\n\nSasha pulled back into the yard of the Co-operation and parked the truck by the fuel pumps, leaving the engine running as she took the diesel nozzle and stuck it into the opening of the large round tank, having to hold the trigger squeezed down as it had no lock function. After several quite long minutes, the trigger did pop back to indicate the tank was full, and Sasha walked into the large building where Buddleia was still talking with the lion man Daniel.\n \"So they gave you their old workhorse, did they?\" he smiled at Sasha. \"Very nice. It's old, it's loud, it's slow, it's ugly and it's as basic as it gets, but it will always do the work you ask of it.\"\n \"It's thirsty too, I did put a bit over sixty-two gallons into it,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Thanks so much for that, Dan. Are all the finances taken care of now?\"\n \"Yes, I've credited your account for a hundred dollars, that's the payment for the barbed wire minus the price of the six tires,\" Dan nodded.\n \"Great, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"As I mentioned, any time you have something second-hand and cheap we could use, please let me know. And next week my replacement phone will be in so I'll give you a ring to let you know the number. A direct contact like that is handier than the emails.\"\n \"Indeed it is,\" Dan nodded with a smile. \"I'll look forward to your call, Sasha, and good luck to both of you with the farm. It was great seeing you again too, Buddleia, don't be such a stranger anymore, okay?\"\n \"Sasha and I make farm good again, so I be by much more now,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, shaking paws with the lion man. \"Was good seeing and talking to you again too, Dan.\"\n \"I'll be looking forward to that too,\" Dan chuckled. \"Have a good rest of your day, ladies, and until next time.\"\n\nThey waved, and Sasha and Buddleia walked back outside, hugging shortly.\n \"You go ahead of me, Leia, that thing is damn slow indeed,\" Sasha smiled, nodding at the truck.\n \"Okay, Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"You sure you good?\"\n \"Very sure, my sweet fuzzbutt,\" Sasha smiled. \"Let's just hurry home for as much as we can hurry in these relics, and you can hold me all you want.\"\n \"Yes. I hold you and pet you and cuddle you good,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile.\n\nShe gave a light lick to Sasha's neck before getting behind the wheel of the old Chevrolet. Sasha smiled and climbed back into the truck again, waiting for the vixen-taur to turn the car and trailer around and drive off the yard so she could follow in the large old truck. It took them a decent bit over four hours to get back to the farm, so by the time they got there, Sasha just parked the truck on the dirt path by the front-side left field and left it there.\n\nThey had a quick bath in the pond, a quick but tasty dinner, and just as quickly went to bed, where Sasha took the risk to her ribs of not sleeping in the bed itself but in Buddleia's nest of pillows and cushions so the vixen-taur could hold her close throughout the night.\n\n[i]What[/i] a day it had been!\n"
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.description.json · embedded sidecar fallback Download

{
  "description": "And here we go right on with the next one on Sasha and Buddleia! Even more progress, the baler works and hay bales are made and sold. But something else very important had to be taken care of while they were at the Ag Co-op... something that had been going by the wayside for a bit too long, so it really had to be done. Poor Millie...\n\nThis one is quite a bit longer than the previous ones; I could maybe have split it up into two separate parts, but it all fits together since it's all the same day. But there is one HELL of a long phone call in here, which gets pretty darn very emotional, so be forewarned.\n\nTherefore, a Mature rating. Not because of anything sexual, but for the language and the pretty hefty emotions.\n\nBuddleia is © Fritti Breezedancer\nSasha Farr is © Fritti Breezedancer\nThe Minnaluna world and all characters therein are © Fritti Breezedancer"
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.writing.json · embedded sidecar fallback Download

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"writing": "A couple more days had passed, in the same fashion as the previous several days. Hard work, but pleasant work, that both showed a result and would ensure an income of some decent money.\n\nThe tall, lanky human woman Sasha had tested the hay tedder, and used it to ted all the grass she had mowed in the front-side field so it got all spread out and could dry further into hay in the warm sun. As the little old open Hanomag tractor could still only do at the very most a bit over four miles per hour with an engaged implement attached to its PTO shaft, the tedding had taken Sasha all day.\n\nThe next day, she had tested the single-wheel windrower they had fixed up, found that also to be operating well, and had used it to rake all the spread-out dried grass, which had turned into a very nice hay under the sun, into neat rows that would be easy to pick up with the baler. However, the windrower being almost twice as large as the tedder, attaching it to the open Hanomag's PTO shaft and engaging it sapped so much of the little old tractor's power that it do could only three miles per hour, so it still took Sasha all day to rake all the hay into neat rows even though the area of the windrower was a decent bit larger than that of the tedder.\n\nWhile the human woman was making her laps back and forth across the front-side left field on the open Hanomag tractor, the purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia had been hard at work trying to get the other old Hanomag tractor with the half cab running again. That one had a slightly more powerful engine, and the extra power would be needed to pull and operate the small old baler. Halfway through raking the field with the single-wheel windrower, Sasha had looked in the direction of the rickety open shed with a smile when the rumble of an engine had sounded out from there, indicating Buddleia's success in getting the other tractor running.\n\nThat evening, they had celebrated with a cup of herbal tea and two of the cookies Buddleia had brought from the bakery in the small village a few days earlier when picking up the company bank cards that had been sent to the post office. They had also discussed their sleeping arrangements. Due to what had Sasha had witnessed Buddleia doing in the middle of the night a day or two earlier, and had talked about with the vixen-taur the next day, it made sense if they would stop sleeping in separate beds. However, as Buddleia's bed consisted of just a big heap of pillows and cushions on the floor of the small bedroom, that did pose a little bit of a problem. The vixen-taur did not quite fit into the regular bed Sasha was using, and the human woman had to keep using that bed for the simple reason she had to sleep with her back laying flat to not put any undue strain on her broken ribs that were slowly healing. Sleeping in the heap of pillows together with Buddleia did sound very comfortable and much more enticing, but it would still be a bit too risky for Sasha, for at least a couple of weeks yet. As a compromise, they had moved the bed from the one wall it was standing against to the opposite wall, so it at least was right next to the nest of pillows Buddleia slept in.\n\nRising bright and early the morning after their celebration over getting the other tractor running, the two women went through their morning routine of having a filling bowl of the really very tasty porridge Buddleia cooked every morning, enjoying it in the back garden in the soft grass while Sasha also booted up her laptop to check the weather forecasts and any messages she might have received. When getting into contact with the Agricultural Co-operation over the computer, the human woman had asked them to keep her updated on any second-hand equipment they got in, as well as anything they might still have sitting tucked away somewhere that could be sold for a low price.\n\nIt'd had one result so far. The old bale trailer needed four new tires and the original wheels of the small trailer behind the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline needed new tires as well so they could take the wheels of the wrecked Volvo station wagon off of it again as those were a bit too large for the small trailer. New tires were very much outside of their budget, so Sasha had asked the Ag Co-op if they maybe could locate some decent and as cheap as possible second-hand tires. They had in fact found several seven year old tires in the back of one of their storage buildings, and had informed Sasha they were willing to sell those for $25 apiece, and they would mount them free of charge as a service to help them out in their endeavor to get Buddleia's old farm back on its feet again.\n\nIn another stroke of good fortune and neighborly helpfulness, they had also informed Sasha they were willing to buy the large coils of barbed wire Sasha had mentioned were sitting in the workshop and they were not going to use, for $250 total. That would come to a bit under 25 cents per meter, which Sasha found to be a fair price after a little research. So before they hitched the little old baler to the second Hanomag tractor that morning, Sasha first put all the trailer wheels into the back of old Emmie, the 1948 Chevrolet, while Buddleia put on a pair of heavy leather gloves and a heavy leather apron that covered the entire front of her upper body so she could pick up the coils of barbed wire and put them on the Chevrolet's roof rack.\n \"We probably won't make it there today, but this is awesome, Leia,\" Sasha smiled when they had finished loading the old Chevrolet. \"We're cleaning up [i]and[/i] making money in the process!\"\n \"Yes! I not know why that was even here, grandparents never used it,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile while taking off the leather apron and gloves again. \"We never had livestock, and for most livestock barbed wire is not even suitable as fencing. Hmm, maybe except goats,\" she added after a moment's thought.\nSasha let out a light chortle.\n \"Should we get a goat? One would be doable, we can just let it graze, and we'd have fresh milk.\"\n \"You think we can afford, Sasha?\" Buddleia smiled. \"Goats go anywhere between hundred ninety to thousand dollars for grown up one.\"\n \"Ah... yes, maybe later,\" Sasha said with another chortle. \"We can't afford that yet, not even a cheap one. It was a nice thought though, one to keep in mind for later. It wouldn't cost us much in upkeep, and it would save on grocery money, because as I said, we'd get fresh milk, and we could even make cheese out of that.\"\n \"I like goat cheese, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile. \"We do maybe later, when we can afford, yes?\"\n \"Yes, I told you we'd take it one baby step at a time, so I should keep to my own words,\" Sasha smiled. \"And hey, when we bring the hay to the livestock dealer, it can't hurt to ask at least. But for now, let's go and make sure we actually have hay bales to bring there in the first place.\"\nBuddleia nodded again.\n \"You make bales, I go try and get Fiat tractor running.\"\nSasha put a hand on Buddleia's arm and chortled.\n \"Not so fast, fuzzbutt. I never worked with balers before, so you'll have to show me how it works first.\"\n \"Oh! Yes, I show,\" Buddleia smiled, leading Sasha around the small baler and showing a wide sort of scoop with a roll over the entire width at the front, leading into the internals of the machine. \"This the pickup. You set like so, these notches for lever is depth. Careful not to set too low, it hit rocks or stuff and get damaged. Only lower when you at field, lift back up when driving to or from field. These handles is for locking twine spools, make sure to unlock first, but only when you at field too, leave locked when you drive to field or spools unwind.\" At the back, the vixen-taur unfolded a metal framework so it formed a sort of chute under a large square opening and locked it in place with a few handles. \"This is bale chute, always unfold first and lock like this, so bales can come out. Machine pick up hay or straw, squeeze into cube and wrap with twine, all inside, bales come out here when done. You turn on PTO and drive over rows of hay or straw so pickup can gather, you no need to stop, bales will fall out back, machine keep going. Go no more than five miles, or machine jam from too much hay.\" She pointed at a lever on the side. \"When you done and no full bale come out, you can pull this lever to push out last hay inside, but if next thing you gonna bale later is hay again, you can leave leftover hay inside too. Only empty machine if next thing for baling is other stuff like straw. You get, Sasha, yes?\"\n \"I got it, Leia, thanks,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That seems simple enough, I don't think I'll have any trouble.\"\n \"Good, you make bales now, is fun,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Drive over rows of hay so hay go between wheels of tractor, yes?\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded again, leaning in to press a smooch on the side of Buddleia's muzzle. \"I'll get to it, should be done by suppertime I would think. Oh, how long do those spools of twine last?\"\n \"Is spool on either side and one in back, full spools make hundred fifty bales,\" Buddleia smiled with her whiskers wiggling at the smooch. \"I put full spools in, you should not have to change.\"\n \"Alright, awesome,\" Sasha smiled. \"Good luck with the tractor, fuzzbutt, I'll see you at lunch.\"\n\nShe pressed a smooch on the cool damp black pad of Buddleia's nose as well, getting a soft lick over the cheek in return. Checking if the pickup of the baler was lifted and the spools were locked, Sasha got onto the tractor with the half cab, which was really not much more than a windshield with a single small wiper, a roof and a side panel on either side flowing downwards in a half-circle so the seat could be reached. At the front-side left field, the human woman lowered the pickup, unlocked the spools, engaged the PTO and set the throttle lever on the tractor's steering column so it started rolling forwards at five miles per hour.\n\nMaking sure to keep the tractor's wheels on either side of the rows of raked-up hay, Sasha started slowly making her way across the field in the same intersecting laps she had been making with the mower, tedder and windrower. The small baler puffed and clanked and rattled behind her, and soon enough a small bale of hay of a little over three and a half feet by a little under two feet started making its way across the chute at the back in little shocks, being pushed along by the next one until it fell off the end. Sasha couldn't help chortling softly when she saw the first bale landing on the ground; those little bales looked pretty adorable.\n\nAs she was trundling her slow, repeating laps across the field, the human woman amused herself by calculating how many miles she had made already. Let's see now... four miles per hour with the mower and the tedder, three miles per hour with the windrower... ten hours per day, that made forty, forty and thirty, which in turn made... a hundred and ten miles. Wow, she had driven a hundred and ten miles on just that one field already in the past few days. That was pretty impressive, come to think of it. And not to forget, she'd do another forty to fifty miles again today with the baler as well.\n\nBy lunchtime Sasha was about half done with the field. After a hearty lunch of soup and sandwiches with herbal tea and a good hour of contently cuddling in the soft grass under the warm sun, the human woman was right back at it, continuing her slow, repetitive laps and smiling at the result of a number of small hay bales she left in her wake. At one point, a bit over an hour later, she smiled deeply and actually stopped the tractor for a moment, having just about reached the dip in the slope, when the sound of a roaring engine rang out from just inside the rickety open shed, where Buddleia had gotten the Fiat tractor running and was revving the engine loudly to blow thick clouds of black and blue smoke from its upright exhaust pipe. Squinting a bit through her glasses and leaning forwards a bit, Sasha giggled softly when she saw actual bits and pieces flying out the exhaust pipe as well; they called it 'blowing out the cobwebs', but it seemed like the once-orange Fiat tractor was literally blowing out cobwebs, as well as other bits of detritus.\n\nIt was still light, even though the sun had already dipped below the mountains, when Sasha finished the last row of hay. She drove the old Hanomag tractor over to the dirt path, disengaged the PTO and got off to lock the spools and lift the pickup of the small baler, stretched carefully with her hands pressed into the small of her back, rubbed her half-numb butt for a moment and smiled as she looked across the field. Making slow small motions with her right index finger, she silently counted the small hay bales that were spread across the field in neat rows. Seventy... seven. That was quite impressive. It were only small bales, but that was still a very decent yield.\n\nDriving back over to the open shed, Sasha backed the tractor and baler into it and left them attached to each other. She giggled softly at the streaks and stains of dirt and black oil and grease over Buddleia's face and forehead and down the sides of her upper body as the vixen-taur was putting away the tools she had used.\n \"Well fuzzbutt, no one can't say you haven't been working hard. Look at you, it looks like you're ready to go on the war path!\" she chortled.\n \"I sorry, is dirty work,\" Buddleia smiled. \"You done whole field? How many bales?\"\n \"Seventy-seven in total, plus about half of one left in the baler,\" Sasha smiled while picking up the toolbox and carrying it to the workshop while Buddleia carried a box full of parts and bits and pieces in her arms.\n \"Is nice!\" the purple and white and now also partially black vixen-taur smiled. \"Livestock shop say they pay twenty-two to twenty-five each for three string bales like this baler make. That good money we make!\"\nSasha nodded while doing a quick calculation in her head.\n \"At twenty-two dollars apiece, that's a good seventeen hundred bucks sitting in that field. Not bad for a day's work.\" She let go a light chortle. \"Well, realistically, four days of work with the mowing, tedding, drying and windrowing as well, but still, that's very decent money we can use very well.\"\n \"Yes! You so fast!\" Buddleia smiled. \"I not count that fast!\" Putting the box and the toolbox in the workshop, the vixen-taur started making her way back to the small farmhouse. \"I go make dinner, I got rabbit earlier.\"\n \"Not looking like that you don't!\" Sasha giggled, grabbing Buddleia by an arm. \"You're coming into the pond with me first so we can get you all cleaned up, fuzzbutt!\"\n\nBuddleia nodded happily and looked at Sasha grabbing an old, dusty half-full bottle of liquid dish soap and a small wooden cleaning brush from the shelf over the cabinets next to the workbench. Why that was in the workshop was anybody's guess, but at least it came in handy. Holding Buddleia's left paw in her right hand, Sasha led the vixen-taur over to the side of the pond where the dock was and sat down on the dock to let Buddleia take the flowery wrap off her chest before wading into the water. The vixen-taur followed her into the water and let herself fall over sideways with a splash to submerge herself and soak all of her purple and white fur.\n\nSasha shook her head with a giggle and sat down in front of the dripping wet vixen-taur once Buddleia had come back up. Pouring little bits of the dish soap onto the greasy streaks and stains in the white fur on the front of Buddleia's upper body, she rubbed it in with her fingers until it foamed and gently but firmly scrubbed at the stains with the small brush. She did the same, but much more carefully, on the streaks over Buddleia's face and forehead. When the human woman was all done, Buddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and chortled as she let herself fall over sideways again with another big splash, pulling Sasha along with her.\n \"Ackpt!\" Sasha sputtered and wiped her hands over her face when she surfaced again, looking at Buddleia with a laugh while she gathered up her long ginger hair. \"What did you do that for, you silly fuzzbutt?\"\nBuddleia giggled in short, cheerful yips as she shook her soaked purple hair and wiped it over her shoulders with both paws.\n \"You all clean too now, Sasha! Yee hee!\"\n \"I repeat my assessment from the first day I woke up here; you're nuts,\" Sasha chortled, leaning her head sideways and wringing out her hair a bit. She winked. \"But even if you're a totally nutso fuzzbutt, you're [i]my[/i] totally nutso fuzzbutt, you fuzzbutt.\"\nA deep, happy churr rolled from Buddleia's muzzle, her lips splayed into such a wide smile all of her teeth and a good part of her dark pink tongue were on full display. She tilted her head sideways and looked Sasha up and down for a few moments.\n \"Sasha, you my sweet noodle. Yes.\"\n\nSasha laughed cheerfully and leaned over, wrapping her arms around Buddleia's soaked upper body and pressing soft kisses on the perky ear with the wet blue feather hanging from it. Buddleia's churr deepened as she wrapped her arms back around Sasha's lanky form and gave a number of affectionate licks at the human woman's neck. Turning their heads, they let their lips meet and shared a loving kiss for several blissful moments before breaking apart and wading out of the pond.\n\nIn the back garden, Buddleia skinned and cleaned a rabbit she had apparently caught earlier in the day and built another small campfire in the circle of rocks that was still there. Sasha carefully dug up a few potatoes and several carrots from one of the vegetable patches, and they roasted the chunks of rabbit meat and the potatoes on an old cast-iron skillet over the fire. Combined with the fresh, crunchy raw carrots, it made for a simple but very tasty meal. Contently cuddling and softly petting each other in the soft grass after their meal and after Buddleia had put the flowery wrap back around Sasha's chest, they let the fire burn out on its own while the sky darkened and filled with stars. Eventually, as the fire died with a sigh and a puff of embers, the two of them got up to go into the small farmhouse and get into bed for a good night's sleep.\n\nThe next morning, after their porridge breakfast, Buddleia parked the old Chevrolet with its trailer next to the front-side left field so they could start loading the hay bales. Sasha leaned over by one and ran her fingers along the twine for a moment.\n \"They don't look too heavy; let's see if I can do this,\" she smiled.\n \"Careful, Sasha, not hurt yourself, okay?\" Buddleia said, holding a paw on Sasha's shoulder.\n \"I'll be careful, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled. She curled her fingers around the strings of twine for a good grip, drew in a deep breath and tried to lift the small bale, getting it a few inches off the ground before letting it drop back down. \"Hhumph..! Oof, darn, nope, that's a bit too heavy for me yet,\" she puffed, standing up straight and rubbing her right side with her left hand.\n \"You good, Sasha? You not hurt yourself?\" Buddleia asked, gently stroking a paw up and down the human woman's back.\n \"It gave a good twinge in these rebellious ribs, but I've gotten used to that,\" Sasha smiled, breathing deeply for several moments. \"I'm sorry Leia, but I'm gonna have to let you do all the work again.\"\n \"Is fine, I do all work by myself before you here too,\" Buddleia smiled, leaning in to give a soft lick to Sasha's neck. \"You tie them down when trailer full, okay? I put five, then five on top, then five on top, no more or trailer get bouncy.\"\n \"Gotcha,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. She put a hand on her chin and made a waving motion with the index finger of her other hand a few times while mumbling to herself. \"Fifteen, back and forth... thirty, back and forth... forty-five, back and forth... sixty, back and forth... seventy-five, back and forth... and two left.\" She looked up. \"Damn Leia, that's five trips back and forth to that livestock place. Four hours there and four hours back, that's gonna take us a week. I really hope those pumps for the truck come in sooner, we really need that thing bad so we can pull the big trailer, because that's just stupid.\"\n \"Yes, is not much fun,\" Buddleia agreed. \"But is all we can do for now, and I already very happy we can bring bales to livestock shop and get money.\"\n \"True, at least we'll get paid for driving around all day,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Well, let's get started then!\"\n\nBuddleia smiled and also nodded as she began to pick up the small hay bales and put them in the trailer. Putting them length-wise on their narrow sides, she just managed to fit five next to each other, with a bit of pushing to get the last one to fit. On top of that she stacked five more, across, and on top of those five more, length-wise again. Sasha strapped them all down tightly with several ratchet straps, and they went into the small farmhouse to put on some clothes; a simple flannel shirt for Buddleia, and Sasha put on a pair of denim shorts, her beach sandals and a button-down shirt of which she left the bottom few buttons undone to keep the wrap around her chest free. Also putting on their sun hats, they got into the old car to undertake the four-hour drive to the livestock dealer.\n\nSasha looked around her through the cracked windshield and the missing side window. She had not been in that direction before; Buddleia drove down the driveway and onto the road that led straight away from the farm, around the hill covered in a forest of pine, fir and spruce trees opposite the farm and off between the rolling fields of grass and flowers and occasional copses and clusters of trees. It was a very pretty view, even if it was very open and absolutely empty. Sasha could see rabbits feeding in the grass sometimes, a couple of wild hares racing through one of the fields, at one point a row of whitetail deer bounding from a forest in the distance and crossing the fields to another forest.\n\nAfter a good three hours, Buddleia slowed the car and pointed through the windshield.\n \"Look Sasha, good for you to know.\"\nSasha looked at where Buddleia was pointing. A bit ahead of them was a somewhat unusual turn-off on the dirt road. Another wide dirt road coming from the left split into two narrower roads that connected to the wide dirt road they were driving on, forming a sort of triangle with a few boulders, bushes and birch trees in it.\n \"Go left here, that road go to Rolling Hills village,\" Buddleia smiled. \"About hour driving, go right through middle of village.\"\n \"Oh, that is indeed handy to know, yes,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Then I can get to the village by myself sometimes if I need to.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia smiled, pointing to the forest on their right. \"Go straight on this road, it make very wide curve around forest, and then is another triangle junction. Go left there, we get to Co-op and livestock shop.\"\n \"Good, we're almost there then? I feel like my butt is turning into a waffle from sitting on this crate, even with the cushion,\" Sasha chortled.\nBuddleia let go a short, yipping giggle.\n \"About hour more, Sasha. I not go faster, you feel how bumpy road is and I not wanna hurt you or tip over trailer.\"\n \"Yeah, it's a bit like riding in a paint shaker,\" Sasha nodded with another chortle. \"So just take it easy, Leia. I can hold out for another hour.\"\n\nBuddleia nodded with a soft chortle as well and took a paw off the wheel to gently pat Sasha's leg for a moment. They calmly drove further down the road, which gradually started curving around the forest on their right side.\n \"You know,\" Sasha remarked suddenly. \"I just got an idea. When we're back home, I'll see if I can put the passenger seat of my Volvo into this car. That'll make it much easier and comfier for me to ride in this car with you when we have to take these long drives.\"\n \"That is good idea, yes,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"If it fit, you do that, you should be comfy in old Emmie.\"\n \"I'll make it fit if it doesn't,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"And I just realized something else; how come, as a farmer, you don't have a pickup truck, Leia?\"\n \"I not fit in pickup,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Cab too short, I got to sit up, and then I not able to reach the pedals very well and not see out the windshield because bumping my head against the roof the whole time.\"\nSasha let go another chortle and nodded in understanding.\n \"I hadn't even thought about that, but that makes so much sense. You would need at least a crew-cab without a backseat to fit all of you laying down like you have to.\"\n \"Yes, double-cab pickup with no backseat, I fit in that,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"We just never had one, old Emmie always bring us where we need to be.\"\n\nSasha also nodded again and smiled, resting her left hand on the back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and looking out the windshield and the missing side window again. As the road curved further towards the right, it eventually ran right into a similar kind of triangle-shape as the earlier turn-off, with all the sides curving smoothly. Buddleia followed the road towards the left, alongside another forest on their left and more open fields on the right.\n\nGradually, Sasha noticed a few more signs of civilization - or at least interference with nature - in the fields to the right of the road. A small building that had collapsed in on itself, a weathered sign with illegible text, an overgrown dirt path leading to an area that had once been an open dirt lot but was now overgrown again, even though some remnants of junk were still visible between the grass and bushes. And in the distance ahead of them, she could see the towering silos of a grain elevator on top of a hill. As they got closer, Sasha noticed the grain elevator was sitting on a huge yard paved with stone slabs, surrounded by a fence the dirt road was running right up to, with a narrower side-road splitting off to the left and running around the foot of the hill.\n\nClearing the forest on their left, the rest came into view. The paved yard stretched across the entire top of the hill, with several large brick buildings on the left of the grain elevator, a couple of which had an open front giving a view of the farming vehicles and implements sitting in them. There was a huge mound of something covered with a tarp sitting between some low concrete walls, and several larger heavy vehicles were sitting in a row next to and in front of that, such as backhoes, frontloaders and bulldozers. On the far right of the yard was an enormous building, two stories high, with a few large sliding garage doors, then a section of wall made of large floor-to-ceiling windows and a couple of large glass doors, and another brick section with a few regular doors and windows in it, and a sign on the roof reading \"Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation\".\n \"Well, I found where the Co-op is,\" Sasha giggled as Buddleia turned left onto the narrower road around the base of the hill.\n \"Yes, here is Co-op,\" Buddleia nodded with a chortle. \"Livestock shop is next to, just down the hill.\"\n\nThey rounded the hill, and Sasha spotted more buildings coming into view. Several low brick buildings close to the side of the hill, with one quite large and wide one, a few wood buildings off towards the back as well as two hay lofts, and stretching into the fields towards the left of the hill a maze of small pastures, pens and fences. A handful of white-ish grey Brahman cows were in one of the small pastures, and another one held two handfuls of tan and white Simmental cows, while in one of the pens about a dozen black Verata goats were milling about.\n\nBuddleia drove through the gate and up to the hay lofts, where a shaggy fox man and a fairly heavy-built hare man were busy lowering a large square bale of straw from one of the lofts. Once it was on the ground, the hare man turned to the old Chevrolet and the fox man climbed down a ladder while Sasha and Buddleia got out of the old car.\n \"Oy Buddsy!\" the hare man smiled. \"You got hay! Excellent! And is this the lady you were talking about?\"\n \"Yes, this Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, motioning a paw at the hare man and the fox man who had also walked up to them. \"Sasha, this Simon and this Harry, they run the livestock shop.\"\n \"Pleased to meet you fellows,\" Sasha smiled. \"No shoulder slaps please, I have broken two ribs and they're only just beginning to heal.\"\n \"Gotta be careful with that, Sasha,\" the hare man nodded while shaking Sasha's hand.\n \"And nice to meet you indeed,\" the fox man smiled, also shaking Sasha's hand. \"It's so nice to know Buddleia has someone to help her out on the farm, we've really been missing seeing that purple beast around.\"\n \"Well, you'll get to see her around a lot more now, and me as well,\" Sasha smiled. \"We're aiming to bring that farm right back around and make it super awesomely excellent.\"\n \"That'll be great!\" the hare man Simon chuckled. \"We need good farms around here, and super awesomely excellent ones are even better! And good golly thanks for the hay! You'd think with all the grass around here, we'd be up to our ears in hay, but no one around here makes it!\"\n \"Really weird, because all they need to do is mow, dry and bale,\" the fox man Harry nodded. \"But at least you brought us some now, so that's great.\"\n \"We have lots,\" Buddleia smiled. \"Seventy-seven bales, and that just one field so far.\"\n \"Awesome!\" Simon smiled. \"Let's have a look at it!\"\n\nThey walked around the old Chevrolet and to the trailer. Simon plucked a pawful of hay from one of the bales, looked at it and sniffed it, while Harry spread the hay of the same bale apart a bit to look deeper into the bale.\n \"Looking good,\" Simon nodded, twisting the pawful of hay in both his paws and checking it again. \"It's just grass, yeah? No legumes?\"\n \"Yeah, it's just the grass that's all over the place here, it's completely overtaken our fields too,\" Sasha nodded, while Buddleia started undoing the straps.\n \"That's pretty much perfect, we keep the animals we have here dry so they can't have too much protein,\" Harry said.\n \"Yeah, and I'm liking the quality of this,\" Simon nodded. \"Three-string bales I see, so we'll give you twenty-five bucks apiece, sound good?\"\n \"Sounds awesome, we need the money [i]so[/i] badly,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Let's get'em unloaded then! The ladies will be so grateful!\" Simon chuckled, motioning with his head in the direction of the few occupied pastures.\n\nSasha chortled softly and took the last straps as Buddleia undid them. The fox man Harry climbed onto the trailer surprisingly agilely and lifted one of the bales on top.\n \"Over a hundred, Simon.\"\n \"I'll get the cart,\" the hare man nodded, walking into the second hay loft.\nIn the meantime, the fox man began taking the bales off the trailer and dropping them on the ground. By the time the hare man returned with a flat cart, Buddleia had stacked two of the bales on top of each other and carried them over to the hay loft effortlessly.\n \"Hey show-off, leave some work for us!\" Simon chuckled as he started stacking the bales onto the cart, looking up at the trailer sideways. \"How many we got here, Har?\"\n \"Fifteen, looks like,\" the fox man said, quickly pointing a finger at the row of bales he was standing on top of.\n \"Good start,\" Simon chuckled.\n \"And I sure hope you won't mind it'll take a week to deliver the rest,\" Sasha chortled. \"As Leia mentioned, we have seventy-seven in total, and we can only carry fifteen at a time in this trailer. Not too bad in itself, but it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here, and then four hours back, so all we can do is fifteen bales a day as we'll be spending the whole day just driving back and forth.\" She shrugged. \"We have an old grain truck and a bale trailer, I'll be getting new tires mounted for the trailer nextdoor in a bit so that'll be rolling again, but it's gonna take three weeks before replacement parts for the truck will be in, and we need that truck to pull the trailer.\"\n \"Hell no, that ain't a problem, but that [i]is[/i] ridiculous!\" Simon said, shaking his head. \"Sure would like if it weren't so darn spread out here.\"\n \"Wanna use our old flatbed?\" Harry said as he jumped to the ground and started taking the last five bales out of the trailer. \"It's just standing around as we never use it anymore, and you can carry a ton more on that.\"\n \"Oh yes, [i]please[/i],\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"That'll be [i]such[/i] a big help!\"\n \"We'll get these inside, and I'll show you,\" Harry smiled.\n\nTogether with Simon and Buddleia, he stacked the last five bales onto the trailer, and the three of them carefully pushed the cart into the hay loft, with Buddleia pushing and Harry and Simon walking on either side with their paws against the bales to prevent them from tipping over. Sasha rolled up the ratchet straps and put them in the back of the old Chevrolet before taking off her glasses and cleaning the dust off of them with a slip of her shirt.\n\nSeveral moments later, the human woman walked over as the fox man Harry made a wave with one paw while he started walking towards the buildings together with the hare man Simon and Buddleia. To the side of one of the smaller buildings sat a cab-over style 1966 Saviem S8 flatbed truck in white and yellow, and behind the building, with a ripped blue tarp partially covering the cab and the long nose, sat a 1953 MAZ-200 truck that once had been a dark blue-ish green color but had been badly painted over with a lighter green that was peeling off all over, and it had a regular bed of which the side panels and tailgate had been removed to form a simple flat bed, although the front panel and the uprights were still in place.\n\nHarry walked over to that truck and pulled the tarp off of it, revealing that the truck had two square-ish front windows with wipers coming down over them from above, the right-side front window being cracked, and that it had what looked like a three-piece hood of which the right side panel was missing. It was sitting on large tires with very deep profiles that were low on air but not flat, and a spare wheel was sitting on the frame under the bed.\n \"Ta-dah,\" Harry said with a light chuckle. \"That's our old workhorse, retired when we got the newer one we just walked by. Ran when parked, but I'm not sure if it still does, it's been twelve years.\"\n \"Yeah, tell you what,\" Simon smiled. \"You get it running, it's yours. Here it's just sitting and collecting rust anyway, and it sounds like you'll actually get some real good use out of it.\"\n \"Damn, thank you [i]so[/i] much!\" Sasha smiled. \"That's a [i]huge[/i] help, you have no idea!\"\n \"Hey, it's in our interest too,\" Harry chuckled. \"We get our yard cleaned up a bit, and you get something you can deliver us a lot more bales of hay in one go with.\"\n \"Still, I can't thank you enough,\" Sasha smiled, turning to Buddleia. \"What do you think, Leia? You got two tractors running in the past two days, think you can continue your lucky streak and get this monster running also?\"\n \"I can do,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"This big truck, I can reach everything easy, and is simple diesel engine. She not broken but just parked and left sitting, I get her running no problem.\"\n \"Have at it, Buddsy,\" Simon chuckled. \"We'll get you a toolbox, and anything else you need, just holler, okay?\"\n \"Yes, thank you, Simon,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I probably need oil, brake fluid and WD-forty to start with.\"\n \"On it,\" Harry chuckled, walking off.\n \"Okay, Leia, then while you work on this truck, I'll take Emmie over to the Co-op so they can take those rolls of barbed wire off the roof and put new tires on our trailer rims, okay?\" Sasha smiled. \"When I'm done there, I'll come back here and help you.\"\n \"Yes, is good, Sasha, you do,\" Buddleia smiled, nodding again. \"We get all things done, not wait for each other.\"\n \"Alright, I should be back soon,\" Sasha smiled. She shook paws with the hare man. \"Simon, again, thank you [i]so[/i] very much. Oh, and while I think about it, what would you advice for a good dairy goat for personal use?\n \"Alpines, definitely,\" the hare man nodded with a smile. \"Rather docile, friendly buggers, [i]very[/i] rich production and their milk is considered some of the best goat's milk you can get. You can make cheese from it, butter, ice cream, even soap. But if you're gonna drink it yourself, you gotta filter and chill it right away though, preferably immediately after milking, and keep it at forty Fahrenheit or four Celsius, or below.\"\n \"Right, we'll have to get the power restored first then,\" Sasha nodded. \"But would it be okay to have just one and let it graze?\"\n \"One should be fine, but be prepared for the girl to follow you around all over the place, they like some company,\" Simon chuckled. \"Grazing is fine too, but you best also feed some legume or mixed hay and power pellets, otherwise the milk production will decrease a decent bit. They like a bit of variation in their dinners too, just like us, you know,\" he added with a short laugh.\nSasha chortled and nodded again.\n \"Alright, that's good to know. What do those goats usually go for?\"\n \"About four hundred for a hundred-thirty-pounder,\" Simon said with a light shrug. \"At that weight they're ready to go with the milk, but they're a tad pricey because they're so popular with dairy farms.\"\n \"Ahhh, right,\" Sasha nodded slowly, with another light chortle. \"Yeah, that'll be out of our budget for a while yet. But like I said, we should still get the power to the farm restored first anyway to have cooling, so it will take a while anyway before we can look into anything that'll give milk.\"\n \"Have you ever tried milking a rabbit?\" Simon chuckled.\nSasha blinked.\n \"Uh, no? How would that even work?\"\n \"It doesn't, they're rabbits, you can't milk them,\" Simon laughed.\nSasha also laughed and shook her head.\n \"Oh you're a riot, Simon, aren't you!\" She shook his paw again. \"But anyway, thank you for the great advice and info, and thank you so very much again for the truck, too. If Leia gets that monster running, we'll be back here tomorrow with sixty-two more of those bales.\"\n \"I'll look forward to it, Sasha,\" Simon smiled.\n\nHe walked off in the same direction Harry had disappeared into after rolling a tool chest with a box on top over to the old truck, and Sasha walked back to the old Chevrolet. She moved the plastic crate over to behind the wheel, got in and started the engine, driving around the yard and back out of it to follow the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill. At the end she made the left turn up the hill and drove into the yard of the Ag Co-op, parking near the garage door that was closest to the glass wall and walking into the building through one of the glass doors.\n\nOn the inside was a very smooth and rather shiny floor, a few groups of chairs around low tables, several racks with magazines, and a few rows of smaller implements like motorized push-mowers and riding mowers, and one positively adorable small mini excavator. Over to the left side was a large counter with two computer screens on it, and behind it were a tan-colored lion man dressed in, strangely, a pair of denim overalls over a plaid flannel shirt and a suit jacket over that, and a rust-colored and white Border Collie woman dressed in a light blue blouse and matching skirt.\n\nThe lion man smiled and walked around the counter as Sasha stepped up to it, holding out a paw.\n \"You must be miss Sasha Farr! We've spoken through emails a time or two already. I'm Daniel Tawnto, I'm the Ag agent for this godforsaken wasteland... I mean this quaint, undisturbed valley,\" he chuckled.\n \"Very pleased to meet you in person, mister Tawnto,\" Sasha chortled as she shook the lion man's paw. \"I am indeed Sasha Farr, and I'm here with a few rolls of barbed wire and six wheels that need new second-hand tires.\"\n \"Please, call me Dan,\" the lion man smiled. \"And of course, I saw you parked out front, let's get you unloaded and set up!\" He walked over to the far right of the building, opened a door and looked through it while giving a loud whistle. \"Tim! Get the forklift, miss Farr is here with the barbed wire! And is Jack done with the tire mounter yet?\"\nTwo voices sounded from the room behind the door.\n \"Just about, boss!\" one of the voices said.\n \"I'll be right there!\" said the other voice.\n \"Good, when you're done, come out front with a cart, Jack, will you?\" the lion man said.\n \"Five minutes!\" answered the first voice.\nThe lion man closed the door and walked over to Sasha.\n \"They'll be right there,\" he smiled, leading the way to the glass doors. \"So you are the woman who is staying with dear Buddleia and helping her with her farm, right? That is so good to hear, Silvercreek farm has always been a very nice farm even if it was somewhat small, it was painful to see it falling into disrepair. My father was the Ag agent here before me, he always spoke very highly of Phlox and Verbena Silvercreek, and he's seen Buddleia practically grow up.\"\n \"He's known her grandparents?\" Sasha smiled. \"That's really nice. What were they like?\"\n \"Very purple,\" the lion man chuckled. \"Buddleia has it from no stranger, I can tell you. But they were the friendliest folks you could ever meet. Soft-spoken, but always giving help to anyone who needed it and always doing things for the community. You could knock on their door in the dead of night because your car had broken down, and Phlox would go out and pull it to the farm to fix it while Verbena would make you a pot of tea and some cookies while you waited. And if it was too late to travel further, they'd let you stay the night and give you a good breakfast in the morning, too.\"\n \"Leia has that from no stranger either, then,\" Sasha smiled. \"She's seen me go off the mountain in my car and raced over to save me, put me in her bed and nursed me back to health. Hell, I asked her about the suitcase in my car, and she went back out and dragged the whole damn car back to the farm.\"\n \"Holy cow, you've been lucky, that could have ended so much worse,\" the lion man said, shaking his head. \"But yes, that does sound exactly like Buddleia, alright.\" He waved at a grey and black tabby cat man in a pair of full-body green mechanic's coveralls driving over to the old Chevrolet in a forklift. \"You can put it behind the metal building with the used stuff, Tim.\" He turned back to Sasha with a smile. \"So how long will you be staying for, miss Farr? A good while, I hope.\"\nSasha curled her lips into a mild grin.\n \"First off, call me Sasha. Secondly, I broke two ribs in the accident, and I can't go anywhere before those are healed; that'll take several weeks at least. And after that...\" She grinned wider. \"Indefinitely, Dan, for ever, I won't be going anywhere until Leia and I have turned old and grey and wrinkly and fall over one day.\"\n \"That's the best news I've heard in a good while!\" the lion man Dan smiled broadly. \"So you two will be running Silvercreek farm together then? That's great!\"\n \"Indeed we will,\" Sasha nodded with a smile, looking at the tabby cat man deftly operating the forklift to take the rolls of barbed wire from the roof rack, putting them on the ground, stacking them and then picking up the whole stack. \"Oh, and Leia did mention her grandparents called it Silvercreek farm, but she never thought that was the actual farm name because it was their clan name. We've officially named it Butterfly Farm.\"\n \"That's nice! I like that!\" Dan smiled. \"Will you be sticking with the cereal crops?\"\n \"Likely, all the equipment for that is still there even if it's old and broken down,\" Sasha nodded with another smile. \"But for now, we're so dirt broke we're just reaping what's there, which is grass that overtook the fields. It's gonna take one or two years at least, I think, before we can think about planting any crops again. But when we do, yeah, probably cereals and canola and sunflowers again.\"\n \"Good, good, we can really do with a cereal farm around here,\" Dan nodded with a smile as well. They looked around when a ruddy-colored wolf man in a pair of full-body mechanic's coveralls walked through one of the glass doors while pushing a low cart. \"Ah, Jack, it's the seven year old tires I had you bring into the workshop the other day.\" He looked into the trailer. \"Where did you put the wheels, Sasha?\"\n \"Inside, we needed the trailer for the first load of hay,\" Sasha smiled. She opened the driver door of the old Chevrolet and leaned in to take out the small trailer wheels, putting them on the cart and smiling at the wolf man. \"Would you mind getting the larger ones? They're a bit too heavy for me, especially in that leaned-over position, because I have two broken ribs screaming at me.\"\n \"No problem, miss,\" the wolf man nodded with a smile.\n\nHe leaned into the old car to take out the four large wheels and put them on the trailer while Sasha stood back upright and rubbed her right side with her left hand. The lion man smiled at her again.\n \"Are you alright? Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea perhaps? And if there is ever anything we can do for you and Buddleia to help out, please don't hesitate to ask.\"\n \"A cup of tea would be nice,\" Sasha smiled. \"And thank you. You're already a big help with those cheap tires, and it would really help if I can wait here for them to be done, as it's a four-hour drive from the farm to here and four hours back again.\" She suddenly lifted her head further. \"Oh, and do you perhaps have a phone I could use? Mine got all smashed in the accident, and I should really call at least one of my friends in the city to let them know where I am and that I'm not a dead flat pancake.\"\n \"Of course, of course!\" Dan nodded. \"Please follow me again, Sasha.\" He led the way back into the building and over to the counter, smiling at the rust-colored and white Border Collie woman. \"Clarissa, please show miss Farr into the office so she can use the phone, and get her a cup of tea, would you please?\"\n \"Certainly, mister Tawnto,\" the canine woman smiled. \"This way please, miss Farr.\"\nSasha followed the Border Collie woman through a door behind the counter, into an office. The canine woman pointed at a somewhat old-fashioned landline telephone sitting on a desk.\n \"There is the phone, miss Farr. You need to dial a zero first for outside calls. Do you take sugar in your tea?\"\n \"Please,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"And thank you, too.\"\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded with a smile as well and stepped out of the office again. Sasha sat down behind the desk, took the receiver of the phone and held it to her ear, hearing a buzzing tone. She pressed the zero, and heard the tone changing to a dial tone. With a light smile and taking a deep breath in preparation, she dialed the number of the youngest girl from her small group of friends, the 22 year old chocolate Labrador Millie. That was the only number she knew by heart, as it was a relatively simple number to memorize; five sets of identical double digits.\n\nFor a moment, Sasha took another deep breath again. Well, here goes... seven seven, three three, two two, nine nine, four four. Holding the receiver to her ear again, the human woman listened to the line ring, somewhat dreading the reaction she would be getting once it was answered.\n \"Uh, hello?\"\n \"Millie? It's me, Sasha.\"\nAnd sure enough.\n \"[i][b]SASHA[/b][/i]?! Oh my god, oh my god, where are you?! What happened?! How are you?! It's been weeks! We thought you were dead! We called the cops and everything! What happened?! Where..!\"\nThe initial scream had been so loud Sasha had to jerk the receiver away from her ear, and both the lion man and the Border Collie woman by the counter looked around with surprise. Bringing the receiver back to her ear, Sasha took another deep breath.\n \"Millie! Millie! [i]MILLIE[/i]! SHUT UP! Shut the fuck up, be quiet and listen to me! I'll tell you everything, but you got to shut the fuck up and let me talk! Can you do that?!\"\n\nIt sounded very harsh, but Sasha knew that was the only way to get the somewhat excitable young Labrador girl to calm down. It worked. The voice through the receiver returned in an almost subdued and very low tone.\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good girl. Now listen, Millie. As you can hear, I'm not dead. But I [i]did[/i] have an accident.\"\n \"Oh my god! What happened?!\"\n \"[i]Shut up[/i]! Be quiet and listen! You can talk when I ask you something, but for the rest, keep your yap shut and let me talk! Can you do that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good. Do you remember that night when you saw me leaving the club?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right. I had three days to get back to the city and beg the tenement folks not to kick me out of my studio. Do you remember that?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Right.\" A movement from the corner of her eye made Sasha look aside and smile lightly as she saw the Border Collie woman quietly closing the door. \"I never made it, Millie. You know the way back to Fossil City, it's that stupid-ass mountain road. And it was night. When I got to a sharp curve, a box truck came around the corner, right at me. I slammed the brakes and the horn, the truck evaded but sideswiped me, and my car went through the guardrail and over the edge and rolled down the mountain for a good way.\"\n \"[i]Oh my god[/i], Sasha! Are you okay?!\"\n \"Shut, up! Yes Millie, I'm fine. I broke two ribs, I...\"\n \"Oh Sasha!\"\n \"Shut, the, fuck, [i]up[/i]! I'm not done yet! So I broke two ribs, I got cuts and scrapes and bruises all over, but that's it. I drive a Volvo after all. The broken ribs are the worst of my injuries, and they're healing up now, so I'm fine, Millie.\"\n \"How... did you get out..?\"\n \"A local woman saw the lights of my car go off the mountain, and she got me out of my car and brought me to her farm. I woke up two days later in her bed, cleaned up, with a wrap around my chest, and the woman dabbing my head with a wet cloth, and she's been nursing me back to health.\"\n \"Huu... I'm... I'm so glad to hear you're... you're okay, Sash. When we didn't hear from you for days, we thought... huu... we thought you were dead. Joanna said... huuu... she said... you probably killed yourself...\"\n \"Joanna's a bitch. Come on now, Millie, don't cry. Take a deep breath, okay?\"\nThere were a few moments of trembling breathing on the other end of the line before the voice returned.\n \"Sorry...\"\n \"It's okay, Mil. Don't worry, I really am fine. But listen to me and listen close, Millie. I need you to tell me a few things.\"\n \"Okay...\"\n \"Good. First and most importantly, you said you called the cops. When was that, and are they still searching for me?\"\n \"Hhuuu... They... Th-they... huuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Tell me what happened since that night, okay? Calmly, nice and easy now, and don't cry now, Millie. Take a few deep breaths, and tell me what happened after I left the club.\"\nThere was some loud sniffing.\n \"O-okay... That night when you left... We went back the next day... or at least, I asked Chelsea to take me back, I didn't feel like staying no more. We... we got to your place... it must have been the day after you said they would kick you out. They... hhhu... they were already moving out your stuff, Sash. We told them, that's our friend's stuff, she should be here but something must have happened, so they let us take what we could. I have it all, Sash, three boxes, in my storage unit downstairs. I have your glasses still, you left them on the bar in the club that night. A-and... huu...\"\n \"Deep breath again, Mil. Thanks for grabbing my glasses and my stuff, even if there wasn't much to grab. What happened next? When did you call the cops?\"\nAnother hard sniff.\n \"We... You had said, three days. It had been four when we got back... I said we should call the cops, but Joanna and Chelsea said not to be silly, you'd be fine, a-and... Joanna said... that. Huu... I was scared, Sash. I called the cops on my own the next day to... huuu... r-report you m-missing...\"\n \"Deeeeep breath now, Milbilly. What happened next?\"\nThere was an audible sob at the mention of the pet name, and some more hard sniffing.\n \"A... a cop came to my place to ask questions. Your name, age, what you look like, what you were wearing, what you were driving, where you had been going when I last saw you, what way you were taking... everything. I... I couldn't even remember what clothes you had on, but I did my best to give all the information I could. I even showed them your glasses, and the little picture of us.\"\n \"You did good, Mil. What did they say, and what happened next?\"\n \"They said... they'd put out a missing person report, and they would let me know any updates. Huu... A couple days later, they emailed me... They said... hhuuu... s-said...\"\n \"Get a glass of water and take a sip, Mil.\"\n\nThere was some rummaging on the other end of the line, a momentary sound of running water, and more trembling breaths and hard sniffing.\n \"Sorry... They said... they'd found a broken guardrail on the M-seventy-three, and... and damage to the plants on the mountainside that showed a car had gone through, and some bits of glass and stuff... b-but... they couldn't... huu... c-couldn't find your car, or any car at all...\"\n \"Take another sip, Millie. If that was five days or more after I went off that mountain... yeah, no wonder they didn't find the car, the woman who saved me brought it over to her farm so we could get my stuff from it, or whatever was left anyway, and that was pretty much three days after I went off. Did they give any more updates after that? It's been almost two weeks, are they still looking?\"\n \"Huu... They... th-they... hhuuu... they closed you as a c-cold case, Sash... Huuhuuu... N-no hope, they said...\"\n \"Deep breath, Millie. Do it with me. Breathe in, now hold it, one, two, three, out again. Do it again. And take some more sips of water. There's no need to cry, Milbilly, honest. Now, tell me, did they at any point say they had gotten a report from someone else? From Bronto Valley or elsewhere?\"\nIt took several longer moments before the voice was steady enough to return.\n \"N-no... My report was the only one on you.\"\nSasha gritted her teeth for a moment.\n \"Sonofabitch, he just hit and ran. I hope he god damn well drove into the river with that fucking truck.\" She shook her head. \"It's weird though that they didn't notice the activity, I transferred my bank account to another bank, and dead bodies don't do that.\"\n \"Sash... Why... w-why didn't you call..? I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"Fuck, I wanted to, Milbilly, honest. The moment I could get out of that bed, we went through my car for my phone because I wanted to call you and let you know what happened. I did find my phone, but it's all smashed, Mil. And it's the fucking middle of nowhere here, there's not even electricity at that farm, let alone phone lines. But listen, Millie, this is very important, so listen closely and write this down. Do you have pen and paper? Get pen and paper and write this down, okay?\"\nA short pause with some rummaging and sniffing.\n \"Okay... I have a pen.\"\n \"Good. Write this down, Millie. I need you to call the police, and tell them that I've called you, that I'm alive and well, they can stop any searches and close the case proper. I'm not dead, I'm alive and doing okay, so their case is solved. Okay?\"\n \"Okay... okay, I have that, Sash. When should I do that?\"\n \"Immediately after I hang up. As soon as we're done with this call, you call the police and tell them I've been in contact with you and that I'm alive and well. And don't tell the others. Let them think I'm dead, with how they've been acting they're pretty much dead to me.\"\n \"Okay... Sash... where are you? How could you be... so far away from anything that they couldn't find you?\"\n \"Like I said, it's the middle of nowhere here, Millie. That stretch of open land between the mountains and the Arfajia Woods, you know? I found out it's called the Arfajia region or valley, and there's hardly [i]anything[/i] here. Right now I'm at the Ag Co-op, they're letting me use their phone, and it's four hours away from that farm I was brought to. I've seen a map, there's pretty much nothing here, Mil. That farm, one other farm miles away, a sawmill miles away, the Ag Co-op miles and miles away and a teeny tiny little farmer's village miles and miles away, and that's about it, apart from two milling factories. There's just hundreds and hundreds of miles of [i]nothing[/i], Millie.\"\n \"Oh... Okay...\" There was a shuddering breath on the other end of the line. \"Sash... when are you coming back..?\"\nSasha let out a sigh.\n \"I'm not coming back, Mil.\"\nThere was an actual wail on the other end of the line.\n \"Sasha-haaaaa! Please, no, please come back! I... I... hhuuu...\"\n \"Deep breath, Mil. Listen to me, choco-snoot. I have nothing to go back [i]to[/i]. No apartment, no job, no car, no money, no life. But I have that here, Mil. I'm not going back to the city and be miserable again.\"\n \"No..! No, Sash, no! Please! You gotta come back! I'll let you stay with me! We'll figure something out! Please! You...\"\n \"Shut, up, Mil. Listen to me and listen close, okay? My place is [i]here[/i], Mil. I'm helping that woman who saved me with her farm, and not just until my ribs are healed. I belong here, Mil. That woman's had it as hard as me, the farm is in disrepair, and I'm helping her turn it back around. We registered it under both our names, Mil, we're partners now, and we're gonna stay that way. I am [i]not[/i] going back to the city, ever again, I belong [i]here[/i], my life is [i]here[/i].\"\nHiccupped gasps.\n \"Sash... No... Please... What... what am I... huuu... what am I gonna do... huuu... w-without you?\"\n \"Aw c'mon now, choco-snoot. You're a kid still, what do you need a cranky old noodle like me for? What could I possibly be good for, or better for than your friends of your own age?\"\n \"[i]Everything[/i]! They're all stupid! I stopped hanging out with them, because they're jerks! All they wanna do is party and shit, and they say dumb shit, and... and they treat me like crap, like I'm just a dumb puppy, Sash, you know that, you were the only one who [i]cared[/i]! Even... hu... even when you were always acting all cranky and stuff, you always... huu... you always took care of me, and... huuhuuu...\"\n \"Sip of water and deep breaths, choco-snoot.\"\n \"That's what I meannn! Huuu! You care, you always called me... huuu... sweet things, and... a-and you... huuu... you brushed me, and...\"\n \"Another sip of water, choco-snoot, and deeper breaths. Come on now, please don't cry, you're gonna get me going. And I'm sorry, Milbilly, but I really am not coming back to the city, that's final.\"\nLong moments of shuddering sobs and breaths.\n \"Sash... Please... at least let me visit..?\"\n \"Aw Millie, how would you even get here?\"\n \"I... I have a car now. You know I've been taking lessons, you... you helped me with them. I got my license last week, and... I got a small car, little Toyota coffee can, but it runs good and it's cheap. I can... I can come visit, Sash, [i]please[/i]...\"\n \"Okay choco-snoot, write this down too. Deep breath now. You still have that pen?\"\n \"Yes...\"\n \"Good, then write this down, okay? The Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. You should be able to at least find [i]that[/i] on a GPS. Now listen close, Mil, and write this down carefully. The Co-op is on a low hill, and from there a dirt road is leading down. Got that? Good. Follow that road down. After a while you'll see some sort of triangular junction, you follow the road to the right on that. Got that? Good. Keep following the road, it makes a long wide curve around a forest. You'll see another triangular junction, go straight ahead there. Got that? Okay. From there it's easy, just keep following the road. It'll take hours, but just keep following that road. After about four hours, all in all, the road will more or less end in another of those triangular junctions, onto a road that runs from left to right. You should be able to see our farm, at least the silo, it's a big rusty white tube behind a pond. Turn left there, the fence is along that road from left to right, and the driveway comes out on that road, so you can make a right turn onto the driveway and drive right up to the small house that's there. That's the place, choco-snoot, it can't miss because it's the only farm for miles and miles around. You got all that? Read it back to me.\"\n \"O-okay... Arfajia Valley Agricultural Co-operation. Down the hill, right on the triangle junction, follow the road around the forest, straight on at the second triangle junction, follow the road down for hours, left at the last triangle junction and right into the driveway.\"\n \"Very good, you got it, choco-snoot. I have no idea how long it would even take you to get to that Co-op, but that's the best directions I can give. If you wanna come visit, prepare for at least three days of travel, it's that far away, Mil. And should we not be there because you happen to come on a day we're at the sawmill or in the village or something, just wait there. Even if it takes all day, just wait there because we will come back to the farm if we're not there. Now, listen very closely and write this down too, this is very important, Mil. Do not, and I repeat do [i]not[/i] call this number to ask for me. Like I said, I'm at the Ag Co-op and they're letting me use their phone, so this number is the number of the Ag Co-op. If you call, I will not be there and they can't reach me because the farm is four hours away from there. So do not call this number. My own phone is smashed, but I ordered a replacement phone, and it will be at the post office in that little village sometime next week. I'll put my old sim-card into it, and then I will call you, Mil. So wait for that, wait for me to call you. Promise?\"\n \"I... Yes, promise, Sash...\"\n \"Good girl. I [i]will[/i] call you, Mil, that is [i]my[/i] promise. So do not call this number, wait for me to call you sometime next week when my replacement phone is here.\"\n \"O-okay, Sash... Thank you... thank you for calling me, I've been... huu... I've been so worried and scared...\"\n \"It's okay, Milbilly. I'm so very sorry, I should have called you way earlier, but with no phone and we've been working so very hard, it just... Eh, never mind, I called you now and everything is good, yeah?\"\n \"Yes... thank you, Sash, I'm so glad to know you're okay. I'll... I can stop worrying now, and I'll wait for your next call.\"\n \"Good girl, choco-snoot. Now, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water. I'm gonna hang up now, my tires are ready, Leia is probably waiting for me, and we still have a four-hour drive back to the farm, so I gotta go now, Mil. But I promise you that as soon as my replacement phone is here, I will call you again, and you know my word is golden.\"\n \"Yes... you never went back on your word, I know... Thank you, Sash.\"\n \"You're welcome, choco-snoot. Like I said, take another few deep breaths and finish that glass of water, and then call the cops for me to tell them I called you and that I'm alive and well, and I will call you again next week.\"\n \"Okay... I'll hear from you then, Sash.\"\n \"Hear you then, Milbilly.\"\n\nSasha slowly put the receiver back on the phone and pulled in a very deep breath, leaning over with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking off her glasses with her right hand and running her right hand over her face. She only looked up when a cup of tea was set in front of her by the Border Collie woman.\n \"That... was intense, are you alright?\" she asked in a soft, worried voice.\nSasha managed a light smile.\n \"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Sorry for the long and intense call; that was my one good friend from the city and she's a young girl and been worried sick over not hearing from me for two weeks after I went off the mountain with my car.\"\n \"Oh dear...\" the canine woman said softly. \"That must have been so hard. Please take your time, miss Farr.\"\n \"Thank you,\" Sasha said with another light smile.\n\nThe Border Collie woman nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her again. Sasha stirred some sugar through the cup of tea, still with her left arm over her chest and her left hand rubbing her right side while taking slow, shallow breaths. The yelling she'd had to do at the start of the phone call had not done her ribs very much good; the emotions hurt even worse. Taking slow sips of the tea, the human woman gradually managed to breathe normally again, take her hand off her right side and sit up.\n\nWhen she had finished the cup of tea, she got up and walked out of the office. A light smile crossed her face as she saw Buddleia talking with the lion man Daniel, although the vixen-taur rushed over to her in almost a gallop at seeing the look on Sasha's face.\n \"Sasha! You okay? You hurt?\"\n \"I'm fine, Leia, don't worry,\" Sasha smiled lightly.\nBuddleia wrapped her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back and softly rubbed the human woman's back up and down with one paw while nuzzling at Sasha's hair. The lion man smiled softly over it.\n \"Isn't that so sweet. She had to make a phone call, Buddleia, and it was a quite intense one, we could hear it all the way out here.\"\n \"Who you call to make you look like that, Sasha?\" Buddleia murmured, still rubbing Sasha's back up and down.\nSasha smiled a bit deeper, leaning a bit sideways in the vixen-taur's embrace.\n \"I called Millie.\"\n \"Your friend! I remember you talk about her,\" Buddleia nodded. \"She okay too?\"\n \"She is now,\" Sasha smiled. \"But she's been scared and worried out of her mind for the past two weeks.\" She lifted her head a bit to look at Buddleia's face. \"She's the only one who knew I was driving back home, Leia, because she had seen me leave, and we even talked a bit about the reason I had to go back home that night. So she knew just about what day I should have been at my apartment, and when she didn't hear anything from me for two weeks after...\"\n \"She worry! Yes! I go crazy if I not hear from you for so long too!\" Buddleia nodded, holding Sasha close and giving a light lick to her neck. \"You call her now, she okay now?\"\n \"It took some doing, but yes, she's alright now,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"The problem is, she's so young still, and a Labrador, so I had to yell at her pretty loudly a few times to get her to quiet down so I could explain everything to her. And yelling like that, well...\"\nShe put her left hand on her right side again. Buddleia nodded again and slowly let go of Sasha.\n \"I understand, yes. You hurt.\"\nSasha also nodded and ran a couple of fingers along the vixen-taur's slender muzzle.\n \"Not too bad, though. But, well... that call got pretty damn emotional.\"\n \"Yes,\" Buddleia said softly, stroking Sasha's hair with a paw. \"You good now, Sasha?\"\n \"I'm fine, we got it all talked out and figured out,\" Sasha smiled. \"So how about you? Since you were here waiting for me, I'm guessing you got that truck running?\"\n \"Yes, truck run,\" Buddleia nodded. \"I walk here because you take long time, and I can not drive truck, seat in there and cab too short too for me to sit.\"\n \"Right, of course,\" Sasha nodded with a smile. \"Well, don't worry, I drove that Volvo daily, so I can drive anything. I'll drive it back home, Leia, no problem. Is there enough fuel in it to make it home?\"\n \"I not sure,\" Buddleia said with a light shrug of her upper shoulders. \"Is not much fuel in, but is big tank so might be enough still.\"\n \"In that case, do you have a diesel pump here we can fill up at, mister Tawnto? Dan, sorry,\" Sasha smiled, turning to the lion man.\n \"We do indeed, it's over there on the other side of the yard,\" Dan nodded, pointing through the glass wall. \"Usually, you scan your card at the scanner screen to unlock the pump, and the total amount will then be deducted from your account, but don't do that in this case, I'll unlock the pump for you.\"\n \"That's very generous of you, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled again.\n \"Small thing we can do to help,\" Dan smiled, letting go a light chuckle. \"Just this time, I'm not gonna let you fill up a sixty gallon or so tank for zip every time.\" He pointed again. \"Oh, and Jack finished your wheels, he put them in your trailer and strapped them down already.\"\n \"Again, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"I'll go get the truck then, we still have a four-hour drive to make home after all.\" She lightly ran her fingers along the side of Buddleia's slender muzzle again. \"I'll be back in a minute, Leia.\"\n \"Is good, yes, I wait here for you,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"I talk some more with Dan, I not seen in long time.\"\n \"Good, see you in a bit then,\" Sasha smiled.\n\nShe walked out of the building and looked around a bit on the yard. There were indeed a couple of fuel pumps near the front fence. The fence also ran all the way to the end of the yard and along the side of it, so Sasha had to walk to the large opening where the dirt road entered the yard and walk down the narrower dirt road along the foot of the hill to get to the yard of the livestock dealer.\n\nIt only took a minute or two. As she walked over to the building where the MAZ-200 truck was parked behind, the hare man Simon waved at her.\n \"Hey Sasha! You took your time, Buddsy went to look for you!\"\n \"Yeah, I had to make a very important phone call, and it took way longer than I expected,\" Sasha nodded with a smile.\n \"Right, okay!\" Simon nodded. \"Well, anyway, the truck's all ready and yours for the taking! Buddsy said she had to go get you anyway because she can't drive the thing.\"\n \"Yeah, she can't fit in the cab,\" Sasha chortled lightly. \"But it's fine, I can drive it. I'll sound like a broken record, Simon, but thank you so much again, you have really helped us out so very much with that truck. We'll be back here tomorrow with the rest of those bales.\"\n \"Absolutely and totally no problem, Sasha!\" Simon smiled. \"Glad you can use the old beast! We'll see you tomorrow then!\"\n\nHe waved again and stepped into one of the buildings, and Sasha walked around the other building and over to the old truck. Either Simon or Harry had even pumped up the tires so they weren't sagging anymore; that was nice! It was a little bit of a climb to get into the truck, and once behind the very large steering wheel the human woman looked around inside the cabin a bit. Wow was it rudimentary in there. Really nothing but the bare essentials, with the only hint of luxury being defroster mouths pointing at the two front windows, and those windows looked like they could swing open from the bottom as well. For the rest, just a simple metal dashboard, with to the left of the large steering wheel a rectangular panel holding a speedometer, and four smaller gauges on either side of that for fuel, oil pressure, temperature, and voltage, and two large rubber... things sticking out that Sasha could not determine what they were.\n\nTo the left of the steering wheel were a few more gauges directly in the metal dashboard; a large round rev counter, next to that an evenly large gauge with a scale of 0 to 10, and in between those a smaller round gauge with a wider scale of 0 to 5. Along the bottom were several pull-knobs and a few tumble switches, and in the left corner was a round metal plate with dots on it and a sort of turnable lever sticking through it. Small problem; it was all in Russian.\n\nSasha shrugged a bit. There were some universal symbols as well, so she could still figure out the switches for the headlights, blinkers, wipers and the like, and the plaque on the glove box lid showed with numbers that the gearbox was five speeds in a double-H pattern with Reverse below fifth gear. And there was an ignition switch with a key stuck in it, so that couldn't miss either. Everything that was needed was in there, so that was all that mattered.\n\nReaching down, the human woman turned the key and held it. A grinding noise and some loud clanks came from under the hood, some hiccups, and eventually the engine roared to life with a quite sharp, buzzy sound and a cloud of thick black smoke from the exhaust plus a puff of it out through the missing right engine cover. Shifting was not all too smooth either, but it did go into gear, so Sasha managed to put the truck into motion and slowly drive it around the building. She found she had to shift quite a bit to keep the revs up and slam the gearstick into the slots quite hard too, but again, it worked so that was what mattered.\n\nSasha pulled back into the yard of the Co-operation and parked the truck by the fuel pumps, leaving the engine running as she took the diesel nozzle and stuck it into the opening of the large round tank, having to hold the trigger squeezed down as it had no lock function. After several quite long minutes, the trigger did pop back to indicate the tank was full, and Sasha walked into the large building where Buddleia was still talking with the lion man Daniel.\n \"So they gave you their old workhorse, did they?\" he smiled at Sasha. \"Very nice. It's old, it's loud, it's slow, it's ugly and it's as basic as it gets, but it will always do the work you ask of it.\"\n \"It's thirsty too, I did put a bit over sixty-two gallons into it,\" Sasha nodded with a light chortle. \"Thanks so much for that, Dan. Are all the finances taken care of now?\"\n \"Yes, I've credited your account for a hundred dollars, that's the payment for the barbed wire minus the price of the six tires,\" Dan nodded.\n \"Great, thank you so much,\" Sasha smiled. \"As I mentioned, any time you have something second-hand and cheap we could use, please let me know. And next week my replacement phone will be in so I'll give you a ring to let you know the number. A direct contact like that is handier than the emails.\"\n \"Indeed it is,\" Dan nodded with a smile. \"I'll look forward to your call, Sasha, and good luck to both of you with the farm. It was great seeing you again too, Buddleia, don't be such a stranger anymore, okay?\"\n \"Sasha and I make farm good again, so I be by much more now,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile, shaking paws with the lion man. \"Was good seeing and talking to you again too, Dan.\"\n \"I'll be looking forward to that too,\" Dan chuckled. \"Have a good rest of your day, ladies, and until next time.\"\n\nThey waved, and Sasha and Buddleia walked back outside, hugging shortly.\n \"You go ahead of me, Leia, that thing is damn slow indeed,\" Sasha smiled, nodding at the truck.\n \"Okay, Sasha,\" Buddleia nodded with a smile. \"You sure you good?\"\n \"Very sure, my sweet fuzzbutt,\" Sasha smiled. \"Let's just hurry home for as much as we can hurry in these relics, and you can hold me all you want.\"\n \"Yes. I hold you and pet you and cuddle you good,\" Buddleia nodded with another smile.\n\nShe gave a light lick to Sasha's neck before getting behind the wheel of the old Chevrolet. Sasha smiled and climbed back into the truck again, waiting for the vixen-taur to turn the car and trailer around and drive off the yard so she could follow in the large old truck. It took them a decent bit over four hours to get back to the farm, so by the time they got there, Sasha just parked the truck on the dirt path by the front-side left field and left it there.\n\nThey had a quick bath in the pond, a quick but tasty dinner, and just as quickly went to bed, where Sasha took the risk to her ribs of not sleeping in the bed itself but in Buddleia's nest of pillows and cushions so the vixen-taur could hold her close throughout the night.\n\n[i]What[/i] a day it had been!\n"
}

17324.json · CAS artifact Download

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