Chapter 8

For several days, the whiteout continued. I was learning to live without TV and Internet, though the itch never went away. It was certainly nice to have a vacation and rest with my girls, but that wasn’t to say we weren’t busy. My driveway was bound to get plowed sooner or later, and when it did, all that snow would be pushed up right in front of my house-if the plow could even get that far. In preparation, we spent countless hours shoveling the snow, trying to get as much of it off the driveway as possible. We dug out my car and I was able to boost it with the generator.

Our days were simple: wake up, play for a bit, have breakfast, do some shoveling, take a nap, play a bit more, shovel, lounge, have dinner, and play until bedtime. It was a nice life.

“Masteeeeerrrrr! Momo’s sick of shoveling!” the feline groaned.

“Yeah, me too,” I replied, “but it needs to be done. Just focus on getting the top layers.”

Momo grumbled and continued to work. She stuck her shovel deep into the white powder and tossed it over her shoulder. Zooming back and forth with her tongue hanging out and a big grin on her face, Sonja jumped into the air and let the snow slam into her. For some reason, she just loved getting blasted with it.

“Sonja, come on, we need help. Quit screwing around.” Sonja pouted but retrieved her shovel and continued hauling powder.

I turned to Chloe, who was having the hardest time due to her size. The snow was high enough to reach her ears and her shovel was a little too big for her, but she did look cute, all dressed up. “Chloe, how are you doing?”

Hearing my voice, the tiny hybrid tensed up and squealed. “I’m ok! Master doesn’t need to worry about me!”

She said that, but her cheeks were flushed and her breathing was ragged. Without saying a word, I walked over and picked her up. But rather than cradling her in the ‘princess carry’, I was holding her vertically and upside down, making her squeak and terror.

“Sonja, Momo, let’s break for lunch!”

Both the cat and dog cheered and followed me as I carried Chloe inside.

Later that day, the plow came and cleared the road. Unfortunately, it was the public plow service, so my driveway was untouched. However, it did give me an idea. We got more clear weather the next day, so after eating breakfast and shoveling a path for my car, I turned to the girls.

“How would you three like to go for a drive?”

Momo looked at me in confusion. Sure, she had been in the car plenty of times before, but that was just to take her and Sonja to the park, and that was at night, as well as when I drove them to the cabin to show it to them. Until now, I had done everything I could to keep them hidden from the world, so what changed? Beside her, Sonja, the lovable airhead, was happy as could be at the prospect of going for a drive. Chloe pulled down her wool hat as far as it could go and was trembling. Unlike Momo and Sonja, she had never seen the outside world. Before I showed her those ‘planet earth’ documentaries, Earth to her was the ten-mile diameter circle around the house. Nothing else existed in her known universe, save for the mystical lands of “my office” and “the store” that I would disappear to during the day.

“Master, why would you take us with you? Momo thought you didn’t want us to be seen.”

“I still don’t, but I was thinking we could just check out how everything looks, see the damage. Besides, it might be good for you to see a little bit of the outside world. I need to pick up some things anyway. As long as the three of you stay in the car and keep your hats on, you’ll be fine. So, what do you say?”

The girls oohed and awed nonstop during the drive. I was in the same state, unable to believe the damage that the storm had caused. Every single tree had its branches weighed down near to the point of snapping, countless power lines were torn, and several houses were almost completely buried, save for their smoking chimneys. What was alarming though was how little work I was seeing done. Not even a single Central Maine Power truck could be found, and only a few sites of fallen trees had any kind of traffic cone or warning. I suppose this was a Catch 22: the fallen trees and branches had knocked out the power, but lines they landed on caught them and stopped them from falling into the street.

All three girls were in the back seat, namely due to Chloe’s anxiety. She was so nervous that she couldn’t face the outside world unless she was sandwiched in between Momo and Sonja. Hers were the widest eyes of all. With her tiny world view, she had expected us to enter a whole new ecosystem after driving just a few miles. Momo and Sonja were barely any better informed. To them, the planet was about the size of Azeroth in World of Warcraft.

“Master, are there really people living in all these houses?” Chloe asked.

“Yep, every single one. There are over a million people in the state alone.”

“How many is a million?”

“It’s a one with six zeroes.”

Her face somehow became even paler as she tried to imagine such a number. Our first stop was the gas station to get fuel for the generator, but it took a while to find one that actually had power. We arrived to find a long line ahead of us with cars idling on either side of the road, everyone waiting for their turn.

“Master, are you sure it’s ok for us to be here?” Chloe asked.

“Don’t worry, you’re completely safe. Just don’t make eye contact with anyone.”

I turned up the radio, listening to news of the weather. Apparently, we hadn’t even reached the halfway point and blizzards would just keep coming. This really was the storm of the century. In the back seat, Momo was snoozing, Sonja was breathing on the window and drawing shapes, and Chloe was wringing her tail. Every couple of minutes, one of the pumps would become available and the line would slide ahead, making the girls all perk up. At last, my turn arrived.

First, I topped off my car, then began filling up empty gas cans. Now that we were actually at the station, there were a lot more people around. The girls did as they were told, looking out through the windows but avoiding eye contact. For Momo and Sonja, it had a long time since they had seen other people in real life, and for Chloe, it was the first. I watched their eyes dart around, wondering what they thought of all of these people. Were they maybe comparing me to them in some way?

Once my task was completed, we took off, heading to the nearby grocery store. Just like before the storm, the lot was completely packed, and I had to circle around again and again until someone finally left their spot. Before getting out of the car, I turned to the girls and handed them my phone.

“I’ll be back soon, so just wait quietly and don’t get out of the car. Here, play Angry Birds until I get back.”

“Uh ... M-Master?” Chloe asked.

“What is it?”

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

This would prove troublesome.

“Can you hold it until we get home?”

She shook her head.

“Ok, they’ll have a bathroom inside. Come with me.”

After tucking her tail into her sweatpants, she climbed out of the car and took her first nervous steps onto the cold pavement. As soon as I started moving towards the store, she grasped my hand and clung to it like a little kid, though because of her size, that’s all anyone would think she was. I could feel her breaths becoming frantic as we approached the door, with people passing in and out.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

The automatic doors scared her, but we got through them without issue. She was utterly amazed once we stepped inside the store, unable to believe that a building could be so large or that there were so many people on Earth. Of course, the store was packed, and there was little left on the shelves. Even in the storm, they had been receiving shipments of food, though it clearly wasn’t enough the satiate the desperate and unprepared. The store was running on generator power, so only half the lights and a few refrigerators were working. It was kind of cool to see it this way, almost post-apocalyptic.

She continued clinging to me as I led her to the bathrooms. Once there, I got down on one knee. “Ok, just go through there and you’ll find a row of stalls with toilets. Pick one, do your business, and come back out. I’ll be waiting for you right here. Can you do that?” She nodded. “Good girl.”

It took some courage, but she let go and entered the female restroom.

In the car, Momo and Sonja bounced and chirped in excitement as they took turns with my phone. Due to their childlike intellects and personalities, the games on my phone held their attention like they were eight-year-olds kept pacified in a fancy restaurant. The sounds and colors were like crack to them. The only thing that broke their focus was the owner of the car next to Sonja arriving. The two girls did as they were told, keeping their heads down and their eyes focused on the phone, waiting for the woman to leave. But as soon as she pulled out, another car took her place, this one driven by a man.

Again, Sonja and Momo waited for him to leave before daring to look out the windows. Sonja’s nose picked up the scent before her eyes took in the sight. She whipped her head around, looking into the other car. She had her face pressed to the window, which was open just a crack to let fresh air in. The owner of the car next to her had done the same thing, leaving a window slightly open, and it was through those small gaps that two scents were exchanged and Sonja now found herself locked in a staring contest with a black and white Border Collie.

The two dogs were completely fixated on each other. The unnamed hound was confused beyond words, unable to tell what Sonja was. Was she a dog? Was she a person? She smelled like a mix of both. Sonja was equally bewildered, finally meeting one of her own kind since she had become a person. It felt like it happened a million years ago. Living on four legs, unable to talk, covered in fur; she had almost completely forgotten what that life was like. Behind her, her tail began to wag, and seeing it, the collie began wagging his own tail.

He then began to whine and paw at his window, wanting to get out and further investigate. Sonja reached for the door handle to let herself out, but Momo stopped her and pulled her back.

“Don’t! Master said that we have to stay in the car!”

“But I want to play with the dog!”

“You can’t let anyone see you!”

“Nobody will see me!”

“You’ll make Master sad again!”

Sonja became dead still, with her tail now limp and her ears drooping. With a despondent look on her face, she ignored the whining dog and resumed playing Angry Birds.

Chloe peaked into the public bathroom, holding her breath and hoping no one was inside. It was a strange room, with so many sinks and toilets. But where was the shower? Chloe hurried into one of the stalls and closed it behind her, managing to figure out the latch. She would have preferred to be in a real bathroom with a full door, but this would have to do. She took her place and was about to let nature take its course, when the door swung open and she heard footsteps. Chloe covered her mouth to keep a terrified squeak from escaping. A woman passed by, Chloe could see her shoes. She stopped at Chloe’s stall for just a second, checking whether the door was simply closed or was actually latched.

Chloe tried to control her breathing, feeling like she was once again a tiny mouse and a large hawk had just landed in the tree above her. The woman moved on to the next stall and did her business, with Chloe, of course, too scared to do her own. Once the woman was gone, Chloe hurriedly peed, went to the sink to wash her hands, and ran back outside. I was waiting on a bench next to the bathrooms and called out to her as she zoomed by. She scurried back over, clearly frazzled.

“Hey, are you ok?” She nodded. “Did everything go all right in there?” She nodded again. I saw that woman go in and of course I worried about Chloe, but if something was wrong, I knew she would tell me. “Well, I’m proud of you. Come on, I’ll walk you back to the car.”

After I finished my shopping, the girls and I drove back home to our cozy house. While it was nice to get out for a bit, I was glad to get back home. Once we got home, we prepared for the return of the storm and each grabbed several armfuls of firewood. With the fire stoked up, we returned to our lethargic lifestyle. We lounged, had dinner, had sex, and then fell asleep in our nest by the stove.

Aw fuck, I’m sick. I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew it was true the moment I woke up. My head was stuffed up, my throat felt like it was filled with gravel, my nose was stinging, and my body was completely drained of energy. I must have caught a cold the previous day when I ran those errands. Sonja was the first to figure out something was wrong. After clinging to me throughout the night, she perked up.

“Master, you feel warmer than usual.”

“Ugh, I have a cold.” The girls looked at me in confusion, not knowing what they should ask first. “It means I’m sick.”

“What does sick mean?” asked Chloe.

“It means there is something in my body making me weak and my immune system is trying to fight it off. Momo, do you remember all those shots that you got at the vet?” Momo tensed up, her hair standing on end and her tail erect. “Those shots were to keep you from getting sick.”

Chloe began to panic. “Is Master going to die?”

“No, I won’t die. It’s just a common cold. I get one almost every year. But Jesus, I feel like shit. I just need to rest, stay warm, and drink lots of water. If I feel up to it, I’ll go outside, but otherwise, I don’t think the generator will be coming on today.”

Other than my misery, the day passed no different from usual. The girls and I all lounged, each of us using a different way to pass the time. I would be reading, Momo would be drawing, Sonja batting around a tennis ball, and Chloe watching the storm. As much as I hated getting sick, I was glad that it happened now when I didn’t have to be anywhere. Sitting at a desk when you have a cold must be one of the levels of Hell that Dante wrote about.

“Master, how are you feeling?”

My loyal hound, Sonja would constantly crawl onto the bed and check in. “Fine,” I’d say, and she’d lie down on her stomach, looking at me with a somber expression. It was the same expression she’d have back when she was a normal dog and I left for work every morning. Sometimes she would stay like that for just a few minutes and then return to her game, other times she would stay next to me and snooze for a while. It’s a lot easier to get over a cold when you have someone caring for you.

By the evening, I was feeling a bit better, at least enough to prepare dinner. I made us all some oatmeal, piping hot. The girls took their usual spot at their bowls and slurped up the meal and I was at the table, eating and watching them by candlelight. After we all brushed our teeth, it was off to bed. I took my spot in the middle and the girls all huddled around me.

“Master, are you too sick to play tonight?” Sonja asked.

Despite my clogged sinuses, her question made me snicker. “Well, I don’t really have any energy to move around, and I can’t kiss for very long since my nose is stuffed up, but my member is ready whenever you are if any of you feel like taking the initiative.”

As expected, the insatiable Momo was the first to make her attack. First things first, she pulled my cock free from my boxer and began sucking on it, relishing the taste of my salty sweat. Once I was at full mast, she spun herself around and settled on it. Bless her heart, she stuck the landing. Once I was balls-deep, she halted and began to purr. Rather than aggressively riding me the way she usually would, she was slowly shaking her hips, panting as my paintbrush reached every corner of her canvas. She leaned forward on her hands and knees and then began thrusting back against me as I gripped her ass. Her lips were moist, her eyes swimming. I could see the worry in the usually cool and calm Momo’s face. She was trying to make sure I wasn’t over-exerting myself.

I knew her well enough to be sure I had given her an orgasm by her sudden moan. Normally, she would make a sound like I had stepped on her tail, but that was when I was drilling her like an oil rig. I had also cum a bit, leaving my manhood semi-inflated. Sonja declared her turn by taking my cock in her mouth, licking up Momo’s wetness and sucking me back to the full erection. From there, she jumped on my lap and started riding me, a little more enthusiastically than Momo. She was in a crab walk, heaving herself up and down and letting her tits rumble and her ears flap. I couldn’t help it, I had to reach out and massage those melons. I held onto them like they were reins, keeping Sonja in place. Her innocent yet lustful smile gained a red hue as I fondled her, especially when I pulled on her nipples. She came after a few minutes and moved to the side.

Last was Chloe. Whether because she thought it was expected of her, because she was imitating Momo and Sonja, or because she wanted me to feel good, she repeated the pattern of first licking me clean, using her tongue on every nook and cranny of my manhood. She stroked it to work out any hint of softness while using her lips to massage the head. Once it was restored, she took her place on my lap, but more gingerly than the other two.

She began to bounce on it, squeaking like a chew toy. I held her small hands as she rode me, making sure she was happy as her eyes became watery. I wasn’t able to make her cum in time, as my stamina was already drained. I emptied myself into her, and she shivered as she felt my hot seed fill up her womanhood. She moved off my lap, and usually, Momo or Sonja would blow me to lick up every last drop of semen, but they had already fallen asleep beside me. I pulled the blankets over the four of us and Chloe and I joined them.

“Masterrrrrr! Momo feels siiiiiick!”

“Masterrrrrr! My head hurts!”

“Masterrrrrr! I need tissues!”

What a great way to wake up, having three sick girls nasally whining in my ears. I felt back to 100%, but by the laws of comedic irony, Momo, Sonja, and Chloe had all caught my cold and were miserable beyond words.

“Don’t worry, girls. I’ll take care of you. Just hold on and I’ll make a big pot of chicken noodle soup.”

The snow hadn’t stopped, but it was less than a blizzard when I pulled into the library parking lot. I had come here once already during one of the clear days in order to enjoy the free wifi, and I needed another dose of online goodness. But unlike before, this time I had the girls with me. That night I slept in the closet, I came to the decision that at some point in the near future, I would have to reveal the girls’ existence to the world so that this strange phenomenon could be studied and hopefully explained. I still had no idea how to do it, but until I did, I could at least get them accustomed to the outside world a bit. It was just a small-town library, but that made it the perfect testing ground for them.

This was actually my second trip here today. I had come here the first time in order to see how many people were in the building. Only the librarian was present, so I deemed it safe enough to return home and come back with the girls. They were all looking at the building with wonder, both hopeful and fearful that I would bring them inside.

“Master, what is this place?” Sonja asked.

“It’s called a library. It’s full of books for people to read. I thought maybe you girls could find something you like while I use my computer. Just remember to keep your tails and ears hidden and don’t talk to anyone. Keep your voices down, and if someone is in earshot, call me by my name instead of Master, got it?” They all nodded. “Good, then let’s go.” We left the car and walked across the icy pavement to the entrance. “Remember: talk only in whispers, stay where I can see you, and avoid drawing attention to yourselves.”

We stepped inside, having no choice but to pass by the front desk. Behind it sat an old woman, still dressed up in a coat and hat despite being in a heated building.

“Good morning! Is there anything I can help you find?”

Behind me, the girls all reacted differently to be spoken to. Momo was aloof as a cat would be, Sonja was happy and excited, and Chloe was nervous and shivering. Luckily, they each managed to avoid actually showing their reactions, just standing prim, proper, and silent like regular girls.

“No, thank you. We just came to use the Wi-Fi,” I said, holding up my laptop case and charger.

She wasn’t surprised, but I could tell part of her was hoping we were actually interested in reading. We went past her and I led the girls into the maze of shelves. They were all dumbfounded by the massive number of books, unable to believe that the world contained so much information.

“Now let’s see if we can find something to interest you three.”

It had been a long time since I actually set foot in a library before this storm, let alone had to look for something, but I was able to find my way around thanks to labeled shelves. I showed the girls to books about art, nature, and other simple subjects. Luckily, this library had a large selection for elementary school readers, so there was plenty of material to keep them busy.

We finally settled at a table in the corner farthest from the librarian, I on my laptop and the girls with their books. While I was looking around on Facebook, Momo was reading a book about marine life, Sonja reading a book about dogs, and Chloe was trying to find Waldo.

About an hour after settling down, Sonja had finished her book and was now looking for another one. She was in the children’s section, unsure of what she even wanted. She was also here for another reason. Even though she was expressly forbidden, she couldn’t help but untuck her tail and let it wag freely. Whether she tucked her tail into her coat or her pants, it was always bent uncomfortably. Hidden in the bookshelves was the only safe space.

“Whoa!”

She spun around, hearing a stranger’s voice. It was a six-year-old boy, staring at her tail. She was still wearing her hat to keep her ears hidden, so she didn’t hear him approach. This was exactly what she had been warned against and she was now terrified.

“Is that real?” the boy asked.

Sonja thought back. She had been told what to say in this situation. “No ... I ... uh ... I got it for Christmas.”

“Can I touch it?”

Sonja should have said no, but as a dog, she was a slave to her need for attention. She turned around and let the boy touch her tail, fighting with all her strength to keep from wagging it in joy.

“Sonja?” I called out to her from the end of the aisle, causing her to freeze up. “Come on, it’s time for us to head home,” I said while flashing her the evil eye.

Days later, the icy cluster-fuck finally came to an end, leaving the entire state buried in snow. Of course, that didn’t mean everything was back to normal. There were power outages as far as the eye could see, and work crews had barely been able to do anything because of the constant weather. Countless powerlines were torn or cradling fallen trees. First, electricity had to be restored to the towns, then to the suburban populations, and way down at the bottom of the totem pole was my area, out in the Lovecraftian boondocks. The truest definition of misery is having to go to work each day and come home to a powerless house.

Nearly four weeks after the first storm hit, the power finally came back on. I’ll be honest, I almost cried in joy. You don’t realize how much you take cable and the Internet for granted until they’re gone.

The weeks passed, with winter giving way to spring, and with spring came warmth, and with warmth came something beautiful. I came downstairs one sunny Saturday morning, leaving behind Momo still napping in bed. In the kitchen, I found Sonja and Chloe, wearing nothing but socks. It was 50º outside, which to a Mainer is tropical weather, and the girls had finally shed their winter garb.

Seeing me, Sonja pranced over. “Good morning, Master!”

My eyes fell to her breasts, somehow breaking the laws of physics and bouncing with much more energy than the movements that caused said bouncing. I had missed seeing those sweet pink areolas every morning.

“Good morning, Sonja,” I said as I rubbed her head. I then stepped over to Chloe who was making a sandwich and embraced her from behind. She yelped as I moved my hands across her naked body. “It is ridiculous how soft you are.” She just smiled and clutched my arms.

Momo came downstairs and stretched, groaning in joy at the feel of fresh air against her bare skin. “Master, we don’t have to do anything today, do we? Momo just wants to lie in the sun.”

“Actually, today I was thinking we could make a vegetable garden. I looked it up and April is the month to start planting. Enjoy it while you can, while it’s still the time of year for work to be done later in the day rather than earlier. Everyone, get yourselves ready and we’ll start at noon.”

“Wow, this is looking good.” I had just opened one of the bags of composted leaves gathered from the fall, which had mulched beautifully. This past winter had certainly been erratic, with constant drops and heat blooms. It looked like the frequent thawing and freezing had helped break the leaves down even faster than normal.

“Master, what is this stuff?” Chloe asked.

“Well before you appeared, we gathered all these leaves that had fallen from the trees and bagged them up like this so that they would decay. Now we’ll mix them into the soil as fertilizer.”

Chloe lowered her head and wrinkled her nose. “It’s stinky.”

“That means it’s good stuff. Ok, girls, gather around.”

I brought them to the middle of the backyard, where we were lucky to have plenty of sun. All three girls were naked, except for shoes, as the ground was still cold.

“What we need to do is mark a large rectangle here and start digging up the soil. It has to be nice and fluffy for the seeds we’ll plant. After that, we’ll start digging trenches around the sides for drainage. Now, we have only two big shovels, so while Sonja and I are digging the trenches, Momo and Chloe, I want you two to start tearing up the grass.”

We established the largest garden we could, marking it with big sticks from the woods. Sonja and I started from the same corner and moved in different directions, carving deep ravines into the earth. Out here in the wilderness, the soil was black and soft from countless seasons of fallen leaves decomposing. We might not even need our mulch for it. With small gardening spades, Momo and Chloe started peeling up the sod. They’d tear off a piece, shake off some of the soil, and toss it into the woods. Sonja, of course, gave in to her instincts and went chasing after the grass balls on more than one occasion.

I had almost finished one side of the garden when I stopped, staring at my shovel stuck in the earth. My skin felt chilled. “Girls, there is something I need to take care of. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

I took my shovel and walked off. No questions were answered. I headed into the woods, following a familiar path. The spring thaw was just about finished, with the soil unfreezing and just a few patches of dirty snow left in shaded areas. I had to walk quite a distance to get to where I was going, and unfortunately, my sense of smell helped guide me to my destination. I finally found her, the deer, but no matter how much I had braced myself for it, the sight was almost too much for me to bare.

I was staring at the poor girl, feeling sick to my stomach. She, like the forest, had thawed with the warmth of spring, but nature was cruel to her, depriving her of the dignity she deserved. Her body was in the early stages of decay and her smell had attracted other animals. The coyotes had already done a number on her and now bugs were taking their turn. But even now, she was beautiful, as if with one eye I was seeing her as she was before me, but my other eye saw her as she would have been.

Her face was cold and pale, like weathered stone, but in my mind, it was warm and tan, and she was smiling with happiness and love. Her eyes were closed, but I could see them, sparkling with her head resting on the pillow next to mine as she greeted me every morning. Her body was in the shadows of the branches overhead, but I saw it shined upon by the sunlight passing through my bathroom window as we lay in the tub, our bodies interlaced beneath the steaming surface of the water. Out here in the woods, she had only the stench of death, but my nose twitched from a scent that wasn’t there, the scent I would have found when I embraced her each day and smelled her chestnut hair. The one thing that my imagination couldn’t produce was her voice. I could only watch her silently mouth the words “I love you”.

I turned away, my face soaked with tears. It took several minutes before I regained my composure. Once my eyes were dry and my breathing steady, I began to dig. The deeper I went, the harder the soil became, still out of reach of the warmth of spring, but I powered through it. Giving her a proper burial was the least she deserved and the least I owed her, and I wasn’t going to let a little ice take that away. I hacked through frost and tree roots, and finally stopped when I could go no further. I moved the girl into the grave and made sure she was comfortable. I brushed aside a lock of her hair that hung over her eyes, then I draped my shirt over her face like a veil.