Teaser

For days all I could was crawling around in darkness, my only guidance was my sense of smell. Sometimes I would bump into something or someone, it was difficult to know if there was the same thing or multiple ones since I couldn’t see. All I knew about the thing I bumped into was that it smelled like the thing I was getting food from, maybe it was a part of it that I kept bumping into. Although I couldn’t hear anything I still noticed that occasionally there would be some sort of vibration in the ground, at those times I wished that I could see what was going on. I wanted to know where I was so that I could figure out a way to get back home before my parents noticed that I had gone missing. But as the days went by and nothing changed it became clear that I wasn’t going to leave this place anytime soon. Just as I had started to accept this new life of mine I heard something. It was some sort whining, but I was so surprised. Until now I hadn’t heard anything, so this little change made the world bigger. My hearing made it possible for me to understand that besides me, there were nine other beings. Back and forth there would be ten, all of us smelled like one another and yet we all smelled completely different. And whenever the ninth came it would be time for food. So even if I were far from satisfied with what I could and couldn’t do, life in itself couldn’t have been better.

One day it happened again, but this time it was my eyes. What in the world was going on? I couldn’t see much but the different bright spots gave me hope about seeing the world once more. It might just take some time, but I wished and hoped that there would be a day when I would see everything clearly, at this point it looked like nothing would happen but if I just worked on it a bit then maybe. The following days I spend as much time as possible looking at different directions, trying to notice anything that would be standing out. I slowly started to notice different shapes and every time I saw something new, it felt like I was learning more about this world. There was just one thing bothering me and it was that I didn’t see as many colours as I used to see. But with the colours that I did see, I had learnt that the other eight beings that I used to hear and smell, were small furry beings. All of them were black and white, where these colours would be on them differs depending on who they were. And while I had been looking at them, I had taken a quick look on my own feet just to notice that they were the same as theirs. While I think that I was expecting this to be the case, I was still surprised over the fact that I didn’t see my hooves.

Everything kept following the same routines as before, and now that I could see things clearly I noticed that we weren’t living in this place by ourselves. Living along with us was a pair of giants and their kids, once a day they would pick us up and move us to a different place. The place had a tall fence that was impossible to see through, with a closer look I could tell that the fence was made of wood. The floor was also made of wood, and yet whenever we came out here it smelled so good. What I smelled had nothing to do with this boring wood prison, it was the scent of warmth and rain. There was nothing I liked better than getting out to the wonderful scent and explore or play with the other furry beings. It was somehow more fun to be out here as well, especially to explore together with the other furry beings. One day while we all were outside, one of the furry beings told us all to come. Curious as we were, everyone rushed over to see what they had found. It turned to be a gap two parts of the wooden fence. And in order to prevent us from using that gap to leave, someone had placed a net like fence there. As busy as we were admiring our new entertainment, we didn’t notice the giants coming. They picked us up, one by one and took us back inside again. It felt absolutely devastating to be back indoors without even getting the chance to explore the fence or dreaming about the things that were on the other side. Sure, I knew that we would be allowed to be there tomorrow, but I wanted to be there now. There was something about being outside that reminded me of home, and I wanted to know why. The next day I was in a rush to get to the net fence, but so was everyone else. Thankfully I was among the biggest ones so getting there first wasn’t hard, the worst part was that no one else knew how to slow down so they all ended up running over me. We tumbled around, wrestling for a bit. Someone bit me on the ear, and I bit someone, probably not the same one on the ear. Once we were done, we shock the playful energy away. Now it was time to inspect the fence a bit further. And as we stood there once again, the giants came and picked us up to bring us inside.

And just like that we spent most of the following days, somehow we always forgot about the fence once we ran into each other and started playing instead. But each time it happened it never felt like we were missing out of anything. We just kept repeating yesterday like there was no need for tomorrow. Then one day the giants had visitors, it was other giants. Our giants picked up one of us and then left along with the visiting giants. None of us understood what was going on, and after some time they would come back. The furry being that came back were incredibly excited and wagging their tail so fast that their entire body swayed. The rest of us didn’t understand why, and we had to wait until it had calmed down so it could tell us. When it finally calmed down, it started telling the rest of us about how the visitors had been cuddling and petting. And when it happened to do something clumsy, they all started to laugh. Everyone besides me seemed to get a bit jealous of the amount of attention that they hadn’t received. I was however scared, it felt unpleasant to have giant hands all over me. And even worse, I wouldn’t even know them! I hoped that I would never have to experience it myself.

And since that day, the giants started to have visitors more often. Sometimes there would be more coming and sometimes there would be as few as one or two, but the thing that always remained the same was that each time a visitor came, one of us would get picked up and brought away. At times one of us would get picked up, just to get put down again. Thankfully for me, I was never their target. Then when we had started to get used to this new routine, everything just stopped. One day there were no one coming over to pick up the others, and we could once more enjoy some playtime with everybody. Of course, we were happy about not having new giants coming over, but it also felt strange, as if there was something missing. Then it happened again, as if it never stopped. A visiting giant, but this one wasn’t like the other giants that had been visiting. Although I clearly could see that it was a giant, it was still around the same size as the younger giants, and yet it gave off the same feeling as the adult ones. After confirming the visitor, I stopped paying attention. So far I had remained in the box without getting picked up, so why would it be any different now? Being lost in my thoughts I never noticed the giant’s hands reaching out to me, until I was put in the arms of the visiting giant. It was such a shock for me that I froze, why was it me? Why not any else? Just as fast as I had been taken away, I got moved back to the others. It gave me mixed feelings of relief and frustration, wasn’t I good enough for them? Me? I was the best one among all these furry beings! But I was also happy because now no one would mess up my fur, little did I know that I would be picked up a second time when I once again wasn’t paying attention. And before I knew it I was in the arms of the visiting giant, but there was something different about this one. First, I didn’t find myself being bothered by the fact that this giant was holding me, secondly they were just holding me. The other giants had been stroking the furry being that they had been holding, while speaking in a high-pitched voice. Those were things that I didn’t like about the visiting giants, but this one was on another level. Just holding me gently while not uttering a word, could they be mute? Was it possible for giants to be mute? At home there did exist a few creatures that were mute, but none of them had been a giant. Before they started to walk, I noticed how they tighten their grip around me. Almost as if they were holding a treasure that they didn’t want to break, it made me feel so safe that I decided to look at their face. And it had me baffled, although I could clearly see signs of them being the same as the other adult giants. Most of their face looked like young ones, it would be a lie if I said that it didn’t fascinate me.