Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Payne
“Awe, Wilbur, look at you; you’re awesome. I love your adorable ears and nose,” I said as I pet the first pig I’d ever petted in my life.
He snorted, and I giggled and petted him more as he snuffled and oinked at me. When Babe joined in, I was in hog heaven, literally. They were so cute and named after two characters I’d loved to read about when I was growing up.
“Animal stories were always my favorites, but I could never read the heartbreaking ones,” Payne explained.
“Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows were hard no’s, even when we were supposed to read them in school.
Even now, I absolutely cannot read a book or watch a movie where something happens to one of the animals. ”
“Same,” Master Thorin and Master Wylde replied, making me feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy inside.
I’d pegged them as animal lovers after the way they’d pet and stroked me while I’d worked, treating me as if I were a real cat that they couldn’t stop lavishing affection on, but hearing them agree with my no-harm rule when it pertained to animals, even fictional ones, made them even more endearing.
The nervousness I’d felt outside the gate had completely melted away during our conversation outside the cabin, and once inside, I’d felt nothing but peace and completely at ease as I’d cleaned up the place.
Whether they’d created the mess intentionally or were just that messy truly didn’t matter to me.
I’d been needed, and settling in by tidying up the place was way better than unpacking.
“The Incredible Journey and Fury were my favorites,” Master Wylde said.
“Mine were The Tale of Despereaux and The Incredible Journey, though I have to admit that there was a moment when I worried that I’d completely screwed up by choosing that one to read.”
“You’re not the only one,” I admitted. “I thought my dad had missed something, since he always read the books first, just to make sure that there weren’t any sad surprises.
When the older dog didn’t reach the family when the younger dog and cat did, I started crying, closed the book, and ran into the living room to fuss at my dad, who just hugged me and promised that he’d read every word and that I should too, so I did, and it was awesome. ”
“Wish I’d had someone warn me before I tried to watch John Wick,” Master Thorin muttered.
“That was the one and only time I ever left a theater without finishing a film, and the worst part was that I was seated in the middle of the row. I stepped on at least three people’s feet on my way out of there and elbowed someone’s box of popcorn.
Needless to say, it was not a graceful exit, and I know I upset a few people along the way. ”
“I don’t even want to know what you saw that made you take off that way,” I replied. “I’ve heard about that movie, and it is firmly on my will not watch list.”
“Never have I ever been so happy to have had the flu,” Master Wylde said. “I was supposed to go with him and was stuck in bed.”
Master Thorin snorted as he scratched behind Babe’s ears. “In hindsight, I’d have happily let you sneeze all over me if I’d known that scene was going to take place.”
Giggling, I reluctantly moved away from the pigs so I could go meet the goats.
There was even a feed dispenser available, just like the petting zoo section of the zoo I’d loved to visit back home.
Listening to their conversation gave me a glimpse into their history.
There was clearly a great deal of history between them and more stories like the ones I’d just glimpsed.
They didn’t seem shy about sharing them either, or talking openly and honestly with me, like I was a treasured friend, and this was just day one.
I still had thirteen and a half glorious days to learn more about them, and longer if I was granted permission to stay.
While I knew things would change once my stay as a guest was over, I hoped they’d still want to spend time with me.
“Clara and Clancy,” I said as I filled my hand with feed from the dispenser. The pictures on the front of their pens were labeled with their names, allowing me to tell which one was which. “Can I come here as often as I want?”
“You sure can,” Master Wylde said as he filled his hand with feed too.
“Oh, oh wow, their noses are so soft,” I said, giggling as Clara nosed at my hand while Master Wylde offered food to Clancy.
The flapping of wings caught my attention, then a blur whizzed past so quickly I didn’t have time to see what kind of bird it was. Clancy’s tail flicked up right before he fell over on his side.
“W-what happened?” I said, “Is he okay? Did he die? Oh my god, we shouldn’t have been talking about bad things happening to animals before we came in here. It was a bad omen, wasn’t it? What do we do? Can you help him? They have animal CPR, right?”
Warm heavy hands settled on my shoulders, grounding me, right before Master Thorin’s deep, soothing voice spoke in my ear, his lips tickling my earlobe.
“He fainted. Clancy is afraid of birds. Some goats, especially fainting goats, will stiffen up and fall over whenever something startles them or if they get too excited. He’s just fine. As soon as his muscles relax, he’ll be back up on his feet and eager for more food.”
“Are you sure?”
“A hundred percent,” Master Wylde said, stroking my hair, occasionally touching my ears, as if I could feel every caress, instead of just the motion of my headband moving when he did it.
Even that was soothing.
“Can we wait and watch, just in case?” I asked, still worried about poor Clancy, who lay as stiff as a board.
“Of course we can, sweet kitty,” Master Wylde said.
So there we stood, with Master Thorin’s hands on my shoulders and Master Wylde stroking my hair and shoulder until Clancy twitched, kicked, rocked, and righted himself again.
“Oh, good boy, you’re okay,” I said and immediately reached for more feed to give him while I rubbed his ears.
Not only did he happily eat it, but his stubby tail gave several shakes as he did. Relief flooded me as he nibbled the feed from my hand, and I could finally breathe easily, knowing the sweet goat would be just fine.
Only now that he was, I absolutely couldn’t resist pulling my mini-sketchbook and drawing pencil from my pouch so I could draw him.
The scratchy sound of lead on paper erased the last of the worry I’d felt when Clancy fainted, while the sounds around me dulled.
The only way to describe it was like being underwater.
Sound existed, but in a faint, inconsequential way.
While I hadn’t been able to see the bird who’d frightened him, my mind’s eye conjured up the image of a barn owl, one in leather chaps, boots, and a vest, just like the ones Master Wylde had worn earlier.
I lengthened the feathers around the owl’s heart-shaped face and added slight fringy waves to them until they resembled Master Wylde’s hair, and then, just to add an element of fear to the whole scene and a reason for the goat I’d drawn with a mesh crop top and lacy boy shorts to be lying sprawled on the ground, like Clancy had looked when he’d fainted dead away, I placed a studded leather paddle in the owl’s hand.
Chosen because I never wanted to feel an implement like that one on my backside, which likely would lead to hollering my safe word as I crumpled to the ground.
I loved the way it rounded out the image.
A story would come later, maybe even tonight as I lay in bed.
For now, I was happy to have drawn something I was actually pleased with and to have found my inspiration in the wonderful morning I’d shared with Master Wylde and Master Thorin, as well as these adorable members of Rawhide’s petting zoo.
And they’d said I could come as often as I wanted.
Oh shit!
Blinking, I tore my focus away from my sketches, which had grown from one page to three, to find them several feet away, still in my line of sight, Master Wylde scattering feed for a trio of chickens who were happily clucking around his feet.
Not only didn’t my Doms seem bored or eager to move on to the rest of the animals, but their posture suggested that they were perfectly at ease and not the least bit in a hurry.
My eyes met Master Wylde’s, and he smiled and made a shooing motion I took to mean that it was okay to go back to my drawings.
I needed that bit of encouragement and appreciated that he’d seemed to know that and had given it to me the moment I’d turned my attention towards him.
Instead of wasting time wondering if it was because of the information I’d filled out in my Q I was too busy enjoying the chaos that continued to unfold to sketch them out now.
How something so small could be so stubborn and tenacious was mindboggling, but that little guy was giving my big Doms a run for their money.
The kitty hissed at Master Thorin’s newest attempt to remove it, while Master Wylde hissed and tried to twist away when it dug its claws in. “Ow, ow, ow!”
“Quit moving and hold still.”
“Tell that to him.”
“I’m telling it to both of you,” Master Thorin declared. “Ow! Wow, you weren’t kidding about the claws.”
“Ya think!”
Oh yeah, there would be drawings, as that tiny kitten effectively eluded their best efforts before leaping down in a huff and scurrying off, tail in the air like it was just done with all of us.
“Kitten one, Master Thorin and Master Wylde, zero; it really had your numbers,” I said, giggling at the messy state of Master Wylde’s clothes and hair. “Is there a first aid kit at the cabin? You both have some scratches that need attending to.”
“At least I can put off the haircut for a while longer,” Master Wylde muttered as he finger-combed his hair back into place.
“You shouldn’t cut it too short,” I blurted. “Long hair looks awesome on you.”
His grin told me I’d pleased him.
“You don’t have to worry; he never has them take more than an inch or two off the ends,” Master Thorin said. “It’s been like that for as long as I’ve known him.”
“How long is that?” I asked as we began to make our way back to the UTV.
Knowing that I could come back to the petting zoo whenever I wanted made it easier to leave despite not having seen all the animals.
“Sixth grade,” Master Thorin replied, “when he enrolled at my grandfather’s rodeo school.”
“There are schools for rodeo? What did they teach you?”
“Mostly how not to get broken when you get thrown,” Master Wylde said. “But eventually, we learned how not to get bucked off, or at least, how to stay on for eight seconds more often than we got hurled to the arena floor.”
“Personally, I’d much rather face a half dozen of those murder mittens than be trampled by hooves and tossed in the air by horns heavy enough to break bones and puncture organs, but that’s just me,” Master Thorin said, shooting Master Wylde a scowl that seemed to convey a wealth of meaning.
Interesting.
I filed that away for later, wondering what the hell it was all about, and then bobtail bobbing, I skipped the rest of the way in the UTV, looking forward to preparing the first meal I had planned for them.