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The Morningstar ranch was not what Alastor expected at all. He had been afraid, in spite of Lucifer’s assurances, that it would be like Rosie’s.
When he first saw a van full of children empty out in front of the house, he prepared himself to drag Lucifer away from small grabbing hands and back into the forest as per their promise.
Relaxing on the back porch, they were enjoying the early autumn breeze when he heard the familiar sound of an engine. Lucifer perked up and sniffed at the air. He squirmed off of Alastor’s back calling “Visitors! Come on!” and traipsed down the stairs and around toward the side of the house.
“Wait, visitors? You never said anything about visitors!” Alastor scrambled to his feet, his mind reeling. “You said this wasn’t a petting zoo!”
Lucifer stopped and smiled over his shoulder at Alastor. “Its not one. We don’t have to say ‘hi’ unless we want to.”
“You said there wouldn't be any grabbing children!”
“And there wont be. Look, we can watch around the corner, and keep our distance. And if anything goes wrong we can go. Deal?” Lucifer held out his front hoof.
Alastor stared down at him and moved down the steps hooking Lucifer’s hoof with his own. “Deal.”
Lucifer led Alastor around the side of the house and showed him the best place to peek around the corner with out being seen.
They watched as a gaggle of thee children, one adolescent, and two adults poured out of a red minivan. Alastor felt the grabbing of sticky hands and the backbreaking weight of a child clinging to his neck. He growled low, expecting the worst.
And he listened. As Charlie gave a gentle but stern speech to the visitors about respecting the animals and using what she called ‘gentle hands’. That they should not try and harass animals that didn’t come over to the fence for pets or treats. That many of them were sick or injured and trying to recover. After all, how would the children like it if someone started yelling or poking at them while they were sick in bed? And, she promised that if anyone crossed any of the animals boundaries or broke any of the rules, they would get one warning before being asked to leave.
They all nodded earnestly. Then they paid for small paper cups and headed toward the fence.
Alastor tensed, ready to grab Lucifer by the back of his sweater and drag him away if any of the children seemed too enthusiastic.
But, to his surprise, they didn’t move to the gate to be let in to their area. Instead, they moved to the nearest side of the fence.
Charlie called out loudly, “Hey, critters! We have visitors!” Several of the mismatched residents made their way to the fence: Geese and ducks, sheep, goats and pigs, a miniature horse and two llamas.
The adults explained to the smaller ones through how to pet the animals gently. One of them, the smallest, only used a single finger to barely touch a duck on the forehead before pulling back, shriek-giggling nervously.
The teenager handed out the contents of her cup quickly before stepping back. She pulled out some kind of book from her back pocket and appeared to write something.
“Oh she's drawing!” Lucifer sounded excited.
“What does that mean?”
“They make lines on the paper and it ends up looking like something real, like a tree or one of us. Like this see?” Lucifer spent a moment making lines in the ground with his hoof, eventuality making some lopsided thing with legs, a head with antlers, and a smile. Well, if one squinted at it out of the corner of their eye.
Alastor snorted. “That looks nothing like me.”
“Well first off, you could clearly tell what I was drawing, so shut up!” Lucifer pouted. “And second, it takes a lot of practice. That’s why people like doing it here. There’s lots of stuff to practice on.”
Alastor hmmed at Lucifer’s silly drawing and moved his attention back to the humans. “They aren’t let through the gate?” he asked.
“Nope. It's 'cause so many of us are injured. Charlie wants us to choose if we want to say ‘hi’ to guests. Sometimes though, she has to put somebody away in the barn because they’re too sick to greet guests, but they still want the treats and attention. When Adam hurt his leg last year, he kept screaming to be let out whenever he could hear a group.”
Alastor’s eyes focused in on the burly goat shoving the others out of the way to get to the front.
The pair snickered as Charlie hopped the fence, scolded Adam, and grabbed him by the horns to pull him away.
“Adam, seriously? Why. Can’t. You. Be. Normal! If you keep trampling everyone, you’ll have to go in the barn for visits. You’re gonna hurt someone. Go.” She stood over him, pointing sternly in the direction of the other goats until he wandered away cursing for all the animals to hear.
“Hey, Vaggie, can you hand me one of those cups and cover things here? Thanks babe,” Charlie called, turned, and walked toward them.
Alastor felt the panic rise in his throat. He whipped his head around searching frantically for what else she could be moving toward. “I thought you said this was hidden.”
“From the guests, not from Charlie! She just knows.”
“Why is she coming over? Shouldn't she be keeping an eye on those little monsters?” Alastor took a step back.
“She’s bringing us treats!”
“I don’t want any of that disgusting, sour, mess they call treats!” He reeled back in disgust, recalling how the compressed feed that Rosie forced on him coated his tongue.
“Wait, sour? What are you talking about?”
“Those dry crumbling things that always taste old. That humans think we will like. That they use to make us do what they want.” Alastor stomped his foot in indignation.
“Are you talking about your old place? That’s definitely not what this is! Charlie’s dad makes all the treats for the ranch! They’re always fresh, chewy and crunchy.”
Alastor paused reflectively. Lucifer had not been wrong yet.
“I will try one. One. But she stays over there.” He growled, shoulders hunched and head low in a warning.
Lucifer gasped in excitement and pranced toward Charlie, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll get you one!”
He raced to Charlie, giving a excited little kick. When he reached her, he put his front hooves on her legs and asked politely, “Charlie, may I have a treat to give to Alastor?” Which, of course, she heard as a soft “Baaah”
Charlie cooed as she normally did, and handed Lucifer something from the cup. He took it gently in his mouth, and rushed back over to Alastor, and placed the treat in front of him . He sat back to watch eagerly.
Alastor leaned down cautiously and sniffed at the treat. It was the size of an acorn, slightly orange and smelled earthy and very faintly sweet. He hesitated, eyes darting to Lucifer who nodded at him encouragingly. Slowly he took the treat into his mouth.
The edges were crunchy while the inside was slightly soft and chewy. There was definitely no sour taste of old expired food. Instead, a very light sweetness undercut a deep earthiness, like the root of a plant in late winter.
It was unexpectedly enjoyable.
Swallowing he stood to his full height and looked down his nose primly at Lucifer’s expectant face. “I suppose they are passable.”
Somehow, impossibly, Lucifer’s face lit up even more. “I’ll go get you more!” He tuned and trotted back over to Charlie, who was crouched about ten feet away.
“Oh, Are you taking some to Alastor so I don’t have to bother him? That so sweet!” She set the cup of treats on the ground. Lucifer picked it up by the edge and carefully walked it over to Alastor before tipping out its contents on the ground.
“There. Now we can share!” Lucifer beamed up at him like the sun and Alastor had to squint.
He hmmed and bent to pick one up. Then Lucifer grabbed one for himself.
Alastor looked past Lucifer’s wagging tail to see the adolescent human crouching in front of the animals, showing them the book.
Morningstar Ranch was certainly a strange place.