Little Strongheart
You have been sitting for so long now that all you want to do is stand up and walk around, just a little. Chief Thunderhooves has been working out the ‘terms’ of this job with you for almost four hours now. Either you or your boss have worked out a contract of some kind with everypony (or other sentient being) you’ve ever washed (actually with their parents or guardians) but this is different. More than conventional terms, Thunderhooves is more concerned that you understand the lifestyle of his people, and is far more concerned with your relationship with the buffalo as a whole than this job in particular. It’s not that you don’t appreciate it, but this is so uncomfortable for you, and Thunderhooves can have a tendency to ramble in a way that puts even his fellow buffalo to sleep.
After what feels like an eternity, he utters words you thought you’d never hear, “And also… um, actually, come to think of it, that’s probably everything there is to know about buffalo. Well, make yourself at home then.” You get back on your feet, glad they still work after sitting like that for so long. “Now then” continues the Chief, “I suppose it’s time to start worrying about that bath for my dear Little Strongheart. I wonder where she is anyway?”
It is only just barely afternoon, nowhere near time for a bath yet, “Actually chief, I do the whole foalsitting, um excuse me, calfsitting job, not just the bath. I’m sure there is still a lot to do before bathtime.”
Thunderhooves turns and points away from the tribe, “No doubt, but the river is that way. We only have small streams running through this area, enough to wash a calf I suppose, but really the stream is better.” A stream? The chief didn’t really expect you to wash her in a stream did he? Thankfully he seems to notice your confusion, “Understand Foal Sitter, we buffalo pride ourselves on cleanliness, though we do not have the tools of bathing I have heard you speak of. While the sun is high, and the river is warm, that is the best time to bathe. In the winter, you can take sweat baths, very warm, very traditional, but now is the wrong time of year for that. Now is the time for a bath in the warm summer river. But if you wait much longer, the sun will start to go down, and the water will get cold.”
You pause. You had never really considered their way of life. Hearing about their traditions was one thing, but actually seeing and hearing how they went about day-to-day life is something else. You and the chief head out immediately, if what the chief said was true, you couldn’t afford to waste daylight. You both arrive down by the river, and fortunately find the foa… ahhem, correction: calf, you are looking for.
Your heart nearly jumps out of your chest at the adorable sight. Little Strongheart is sitting by the river, no more than a mere buffalo calf. She notices the Chief and lets out what in a human, or even a foal would be a cooing sound, but due to her bovine heritage, it’s more of a mooing sound. The Chief introduces you to each other, and tells you that he’ll leave the rest to you. You take note of the ‘tub’ being a whole river, and the daww you had been holding in comes out as a worried sigh. You’re really not sure how to handle this.
You start to put your mat down near the riverside, but Little Strongheart gestures to a different spot in the river. You decide to follow her lead, and go along with it. The water is shallow here, meaning not only is it not too deep, but the sunlight reflecting off the smooth river rocks makes that spot warmer. You can’t help but be a little embarrassed that this calf knows more about bathing than you. You get out some shampoo that the buffalos gave you, and pour it on her… mane? Hard to say in this case. Though not fluffy, buffalo fur is definitely thick, so you scrub extra hard. You worry you’ll hurt her, but she doesn’t flinch.
Once her head, for lack of a better word, is clean, you scoop up some water to start rinsing. You don’t get a chance though, because she sticks just the part of her head that is sudsy into the oncoming stream. The moving water acts like a shower rather than a bath, and the suds are gone in no time. Strike two of you being shown up by this calf.
You wonder whether or not to wash her tail, but seeing how it’s not as big or a furry as a ponies, you decide to use a different approach to the rest of this bath. You get out your most underused bath tool: the brush. You decide to bathe the whole body for this bath. You pour a generous helping of soap on the brush and begin scrubbing. Though short, her fur is extremely thick by pony standards, and doesn’t even start to lather. You tell her to say something and stop you if you scrub to hard, and she nods in understanding. You keep scrubbing until you finally have her whole body coated in soapy bubbles. She moos cutely and your heart melts away at the cute little baby bison before you. She rolls around in the river, having the river-current shower her clean.
It dawns on you that the reason she was so willing to have the bath, as well as the reason that she knows more about it than you, is because even as a calf, she participates. Rinsing is done by the river, and is best done personally. She already knows how to give herself showers, in a way.
You want to have playtime, but you sadly can’t give her toys, they’d wash away. But destiny demands that cute things happen around you, and a family of little ducklings comes paddling its way up river. Forget rubber duckies, Little Strongheart plays with real duckies. The calf and ducklings play gently in the warm summer river, and a symphony of quacks and moos echo each other. Even the mother duck doesn’t mind this exchange, and preens one of the bigger ducklings. Like all children Little Strongheart wants to imitate the adults in her life, so she takes the preened duckling feather and puts it in her hairband behind her ear. It is still yellow, like a baby duckling, and as soft as a down feather.
Having nearly imploded from cute overdose, you ready the towel for when she wants to get out, but don’t dare break up this scene. A few minutes later the mother duck as moved her little ducklings upstream and Little Strongheart is ready to dry. Outside in the warm summer air, drying takes place very quickly, and you are both ready to walk back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, you speak with the chief about installing a hot spring, having heard that if and when they are available, other buffalo tribes have used them for baths. You assure him it would be feasible with the boss’s magic, and he says that he will consider it. “This is all very interesting Foal Sitter, but there is something that we should do first. Follow me please.” Not knowing what’s going on, you follow Thunderhooves to a great bonfire, with all the buffalo gathered around. The chief clears his throat and gives a speech, “Today, this human has helped us in our daily lives, and been of great help to us. I think it is only fitting then, that we make Foal Sitter and honorary member of the tribe.” You are shocked, but delighted. You don’t know why you never noticed that the chief was calling you Foal Sitter as a name.
The chief lifts up Little Strongheart so that she can put a headband on your head, equipped with one feather of your own. You feel a warm fuzzy feeling spread outwards from your heart, and eventually out of your eyes as liquid pride. “To Foal Sitter!” cries the chief, which is echoed by the rest of the tribe, complete with ceremonial stomping in place, “To Foal Sitter!”
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I love this job
You know what, I could use a good laugh...
As always well put together.
This was great starry
Because rubber duckies are to mainstream.
It always makes me mad how unfairly we treated the Native Americans. We forced them off their lands and forced them into unfair treaties just because we wanted all that land for ourselves. And now they live on reservations and their way of life isn't what it use to be.
3159428 I feel sorry for them too, they had a wild free life and we utterly ruined it. We took their land and killed off their food source.
3205833 Yup. And now we do the same thing in the Middle East because we need their oil. Thankfully we may finally be wising up and learning to leave things that don't concern us alone and take care of ourselves.
3206107 The US are a bit like a Changeling Hive-which is not to say that most Americans are evil, any more then most changelings are.
3209647 We just think we can tell the world what to do. Our founding fathers feared this and specifically warned us not to take such actions. But after The War of 1812 we ignored them and believed we always had to monitor the world. It is nice to see that a lot of us are waking up and realizing why that is wrong. Hopefully before long we can restore America's reptuation in the world as a friendly neighbor, not a bully or big brother that always tries to enforce its views.