Hugz swallowed hard, forcing the half-chewed medicine down his throat. It was stringy and dry with what felt like gallons of salt in every bite sliding into his stomach. His eyes were squeezed shut against the enveloping darkness of his room. In the past he’d become ill trying to eat his medicine, it made knots of his stomach to think about what he was doing, what he was eating. Carnivore therapy and the mantras repeated there dulled the sting but not by much. “Survival is not a crime,

Tearing off another chunk of meat about the size of his hand and chewing it quickly he couldn’t stop himself from sobbing gently. His stomach was painfully full already and he had only eaten a quarter of the bag; hardly more than he was supposed to be eating daily when he gently set the bag on his bed and covered it with a blanket like it held a shameful vice.

Or a corpse.

Only once had he seen a dead creature larger than a frog, A squirrel floating in the nearby creek after being killed by some small predator that found the meal too large to finish. Hugz had stared at the body for what had felt like hours at the time until his mother had seen what he was staring at and gently coaxed him away. He remembered her seeming sad, disgusted, and maybe even a little scared though he couldn’t have said of what. Now the image of that squirrel was superimposed by his mind’s eye over the bag of medicine he couldn’t stand to look at directly. Wiping the tears from his face he took the small compact mirror off his desk to clean himself up after a lengthy eating and crying session. He decided to cheer himself up as best as he could. “You’ve got this, colt” he whispered to himself “you have to be tough for mommy or she’ll be sad”.

A few minutes later Hugz was able to pull himself out of his room, looking for all the world like he had just woken up and dressed himself in high spirits, save for the puffy red eyes that betrayed his true feelings. He looked around the living room and connected kitchen for his mother, but saw no sign of her. Her purse and saddlebags sat on the kitchen table, and her bedroom door was wide open affording Hugz a view of the unfurnished room containing scant few boxes but not his mother.

Hugz was rechecking the kitchen when a pair of hooves attacked vulnerable space on his sides below his ribs, the soft frog of the hooves wiggling their way up and down. He stumbled backwards in a giggling fit and stared up at his mother’s sapphire eyes. Harshwhinny continued her ruthless tickling until her son finally pulled himself away towards the ground and rolled until she couldn’t reach him. His eyes no longer held the same melancholy as before, now flicking between her and his possible escape routes to put distance between himself and her evil tickling hooves.

Her chest heaved with some effort as Ms. Harshwhinny realized she had been laughing along with him. Composing herself and straightening up as she grabbed her saddlebags and purse she began to walk towards the front door of their little home. “Come along now Hugsworth, we don’t have all day to enjoy our walk around town” she tutted “we simply don’t have time to dawdle.”

Hugz pulled himself to a standing position as he tried to catch his breath “You we-were the one to ti-tickle me!” he said indignantly.

“I simply don’t remember what you are talking about you silly colt, now get a move on I don’t have all day” she smiled as she spoke. She opened the door and led her bipedal child through.

“How do you hide like that?” he asked.

“Stealth suit” she replied without shifting her forward gaze.

Author's Note

A little mini chapter while I get back into this whole writing thing.