The doorbell rang again just as I reached it. Whoever it was sure as impatient. Everything from salesmen to faith-spreaders danced through my mind. An ensemble of shit I didn't want to deal with. I had half-considered just pretending not to be home.
I braced for the worst as I opened the door but was taken aback at what awaited me. Before me stood a man in a delivery uniform, a clipboard in hand and an expression that told me I had kept him waiting too long. Standing in the shadow of him, too shy to be seen, was a girl. Well, not quite a girl. A pair of small horns and floppy cow ears poked out from beneath her long, dark hair. As my eyes travelled down her, my suspicions were confirmed. Her legs were covered in a fine black and white fur, ending in small cloven hooves. She was a holstaur.
I hadn't seen many holstaurs in my life. They were quite expensive. The only people I knew who owned one were my parents, and even then, I had only briefly seen her when I visited last Christmas.
'A delivery for a mister Woods.'
'Uh... yeah, that's me.'
'Sign here, please.'
Before I could protest, he shoved the clipboard and a pen into my hands. My head spun as I wrenched my gaze from the holstaur to the paperwork. I scanned each word as quickly as possible, conscious of him waiting.
'So... what is this?'
'Just confirmation of the delivery. Whatever else you needed to sign should have already been done. Now, if you could go ahead and sign that, I have more deliveries to get to today.'
I was still lost. That was definitely my name at the top of the paper. My address, everything. But I hadn't ordered anything of the sort. Great, it was worse than a salesman. It was going to be a trip down to the post office to sort out a mix up.
I scribbled a signature and handed it back to him.
'Thank you. Here's your accompanying handbook with everything a holstaur owner needs to know. Have a nice day!'
With that he was off down the driveway to his van before I could protest. I stared blankly after him before finally turning to the holstaur. She seemed to flush at my gaze, her eyes falling to the ground. She held her hands tightly in front of her, her thumbs dancing together. I couldn't help but notice how much her arms pushed her large breasts together like that. And they were quite large, filling out the front of her shirt to an almost impossible level. But, I suppose my parent's holstaur had large breasts too. It must have just be a trait amongst them.
'You can come in.'
Her eyes shot up to meet mine. I would be lying if I said it didn't have any effect on me. Her eyes were so soft. A warm brown that drew your attention to them. Kind and loving. They looked as if they had never held a glare, or even could.
'Thank you.'
She stepped past me, only pausing to brush her hooves on the doormat. I shook myself out of my daze and reminded myself what she was. It would be weird to develop a crush on a holstaur. Although, I couldn't help but wish I could find a girl that looked like her. Despite being a holstaur she was very pretty.
I followed her into the living room, trying to keep my eyes focused elsewhere. She had a very nice figure. Fairly slim leading to wide hips and thick thighs which swayed with each of her hooved steps. A thin black and white tail fell from her backside, ending in a tuft of hair somewhere around her knees.
I threw the handbook onto the coffee table and pulled out my phone.
'I think there's been some kind of mix up. Let me just call around to fix this.'
I began searching my phone for the post office's number. With luck, I could sort this out over the phone rather than having to go down there. Although, I would probably still have to take her there anyway. Having my day ruined by running aorund seemed unavoidable.
I jumped as my phone rang in my hand. My parent's number flashed up on the screen.
'Hello?'
'Hello darling. Happy birthday!' my mother's voice greeted me.
'Thanks... but my birthday isn't for a few weeks.'
'We know, but we couldn't resist getting you your present early. Has it arrived?'
I spun around to face the holstaur. She stood once more with her hands bunched up in front of her, her eyes cast down as if she was somehow to blame for being brought here.
'Wait, do you mean... what did you get me?'
'Well we couldn't stand seeing you drink that horrible store bought milk anymore. Probably full of chemicals. So we decided to get you a holstaur of your own! Trust me, you'll love it. We've never felt better since making the switch. Has she arrived yet?'
'Oh... yeah. Yeah, she just got here.'
The holstaur met my eyes once more, full of curiosity.
'Oh wonderful! What do you think? She has quite big breasts, doesn't she? She had the biggest at the farm. We couldn't risk letting someone else take her.'
'Mum!'
I turned away from the holstaur, hoping that she couldn't hear my mother's shrill voice from there.
'Oh, please. These are important things to discuss about a holstaur. She will give plenty of milk with those and that's what you want.'
'Okay, okay.'
'So do you like it? Perhaps we should have asked you first.'
'No, no. She's great, I just...' My mind was still trying to wrap around the concept that I was no longer taking her back to the post office. That she would instead be staying here. There were so many questions that I hadn't even thought to consider. 'What do I have to do? You know, to look after her?'
'They're really very easy to keep. Just give her food and water, and milk her once a day. Besides that, she'll take care of herself. She came with a handbook, didn't she?'
'Yeah.'
'Good, then that should fill you in on everything.'
'Wait, where's she going to sleep?'
I looked around, contemplating the space in each room.
'You've seen what Millie sleeps on, remember? That large, flat cushion that we have in the corner. She loves curling up on that.'
'I don't think I have the space for something like that.'
'Sure you do. Just move some things around and it'll fit. Anyway, we have to go now dear. Make sure to let me know how everything goes. Bye.'
She hung up after my goodbye, yet I still held the phone to my ear, lost in uncertainty at everything that had just happened. The holstaur watched me expectantly.
'Um... I guess you will be staying here after all.'
Her tail swished behind her as her eyes lit up.
'Thank you. I look forward to getting to know you, master.'
'Uh, you don't have to call me that. Just call me Roy.'
She gave a small nod.
'If you would like. I'm Madeline.'
'Nice to... meet you, I guess.'
A silence fell between us as I found myself with nothing to say. What was there to say upon discovering that a holstaur would suddenly be living with you? My eyes instead fell to the handbook on the coffee table. If I was going to be responsible for her, I should study up.
'You can have a seat if you want.'
I motioned to the couch as I grabbed the handbook, flicking through the pages.
'You have a lovely home.'
I looked up from the handbook to see her gazing around the room in wonder. My place wasn't anything fancy.
'Thanks. It's not that much really. Actually, that's kind of the problem. I don't have anywhere for you to sleep. This was all a surprise to me.'
'That's fine. I can sleep anywhere. This couch is pretty comfy, actually.'
She let herself fall back into the cushions, bouncing slightly on impact. I couldn't help but stare at her breasts as they wobbled beneath her shirt. Was she even wearing a bra? Did holstaurs wear bras?
She looked over at me and I buried my head in the handbook. My cheeks flushing at the thought that she had seen where I was staring.
'I can't believe how comfy this is. We had nothing like this at the farm.'
I poked my head back up.
'Really? What did you have?'
'Just hay. It was piled up along the sides of the barn for us to sleep on at night. But this is so much better! It's so soft!'
She flopped to her side and rubbed her body into the couch before shooting upright with a shocked expression.
'I'm sorry, master! I should have asked.'
'It's fine, it's fine. You're welcome to make yourself at home. And you really don't have to call me master.'
She thanked me but remained upright. Her tail was swishing behind her again, rustling against the fabric of the couch.
I returned to the handbook once more and flipped to a page on diet.
'You only eat a vegetarian diet?'
'Mhmm.'
'Hmm, I'll have to buy some new ingredients.'
The smile fell from her face.
'Oh! I hope I won't be an inconvenience.'
I closed the handbook and stood up.
'No, no. I need to improve my diet anyway. Perhaps you living here will be a good thing for me.'
~
The rest of the day went by without issue. It was certainly strange having someone suddenly living here with me, but I couldn't quite tell if it was due to Madeline being a stranger, or because she looked like a cute girl.
Over the course of the night my eyes wandered across her more times than I could keep count of. Part of me was just innocently curious about how a holstaur's anatomy worked. Such as how her legs appeared so human above the knee, yet conformed to different bones beneath it. I wanted to just explore her body and find every minute difference.
The other part of me wanted to enjoy doing so.