Chapters The Book of Milk Chapter 5
“My face… changed… but… how? It was different before… wasn’t it? My memory… all wrong…” Cow 87 was still trying to process this newest blow as the water stopped. She looked up and “Brad” was standing in front of her. “Enough with the beauty routine, lassie! It’s time for a little walk outside!”
Outside? Maybe she could use this to…. Cow 87 checked herself. Maybe she could finally see something else than this barn for a change. It was also a welcome distraction from the image of her transformed face that was now burned into her mind as the only real one. “Brad” pulled the makeshift leash again and she followed. He hadn’t bothered to dry her, so she was still dripping with water and catching every passing chill as she walked the way back. Using her tongue absentmindedly, Cow 87 licked up the wetness from around her muzzle. “No, it’s muzzle…” she thought, but there was no energy behind her denial. While her hunger was still there too, her thirst had now become almost unbearable.
After a while they walked past her stall. They all looked identical, only a number telling them apart. Hers said “8” and “7” but of course these were now only two strange symbols to her, she only recognized it because the door was slightly ajar and the mess she had left on the floor was in plain sight. Would the man, her handler or whatever he was, clean it up? Cow 87 guessed it didn’t really matter, yet still she thought, “Why don’t I care?” She was distracted as her tail swished left and right with the movement of her hips, brushing the back of her thighs, a feeling that never ceased to be bizarre (and just a little bit titillating).
Now, she started to feel anxious to leave the relative security of the barn, though she dared not pull on the leash, as they approached a large double barn door. However, there was a smaller door set on the left side, which “Brad” now opened. It was only closed with a simple latch mechanism which even a child could have opened. For someone without arms however, it was an almost insurmountable obstacle.
Aware of the program, Cow 87 tried to not even think about what that meant. Instead, she meekly followed the man through the now open door into the sunlight. As they emerged from the barn and Cow 87 blinked against the bright sun, she heard a new voice calling out. “Hey, Jack! Have you finally decided to join us with the newbie? You took your sweet time, you already have some fun with it? I won’t snitch if you did!”
Cow 87 froze like a deer (or rather a cow) in headlights. She had become accustomed to being naked in front of “Brad” (whose real name was apparently Jack), but now she was out in the open for everyone to see, with a new stranger already leering at her. She blushed immediately, though she also felt strangely tingly. Unconsciously, she pushed her udders out.
Jack laughed. “No, just gave her a first milking earlier today. The slutty cow was so horny she actually came right in front of me, can you believe that? And despite being covered in piss and shit too. But maybe she liked it like that, the dirty little thing. Anyway, once she was awake again, I gave her a good rinse and here we are.”
“No, that’s not true!” Cow 87 thought. “Well, okay, I was feeling pretty… hot all over just then and then… then I actually came when he… milked me…ugh… that was so embarrassing… felt kinda amazing though… but… but still. No. I need to keep it together. This is not me. This is all that… thing inside my head.” But she wasn’t so sure about that last part anymore.
“And did you also water her?” The other man asked.
“Aw shit, Bradley. Totally forgot.” Jack/Brad answered.
“Well, it happens. Grab yourself a cold beer and bring me one too while you’re at it. I’ll take her from here.”
Cow 87’s mind reeled. She had hoped that Jack was nice (at least for one of the people who kidnapped her), but apparently he was actually quite callous. And now he had abandoned her to the whims of this other guy, Bradley. The irony of the name mixup almost made her laugh, until she looked at him. He had brown hair with streaks of grey in it and a pockmarked face with irregular stubbles. His nose was too large for his face and also marked by bad skin. His eyes were brown but somehow cold even if he grinned with crooked yellow teeth, as he did now looking at her. In comparison to this ugly guy, Jack was even better looking and Cow 87 was wishing that despite what he had said, Jack would come back quickly and take over again from…
[NON-COMPLIANT PREFERENCE OF INDIVIDUAL CARETAKER DETECTED. INITIALIZING SELECTIVE PROSOPAGNOSIA FOR ALL CARETAKERS. BLOCKING OF NAMES FOR ALL CARETAKERS IS ACTIVE. REFERENCE TO ALL CARETAKERS SET TO “CARETAKER”.]
“…Caretaker, because Caretaker wasn’t… Huh? Oh, it happened again, didn’t it? What now? I can’t call Caretaker and Caretaker anything but Caretaker anymore?” Confused, Cow 87 shook her head. “This is insane! I don’t need their names to tell them apart! Caretaker is more… he’s not as… but Caretaker is… is slightly less… a lot more…”
Now even more bewildered, her eyes focused on Caretaker’s face again. He was still standing right in front of her, in bright daylight, but now Cow 87 couldn’t identify his face anymore. She couldn’t have told if he was ugly now, even when remembering that he definitely had been just mere moments before. She saw individual parts of his face quite clearly too. His eyebrows for example. His chin. His ears. But every time when she tried to put those elements together, her mental picture melted together into a jumbled mess. It was a horrible, helpless feeling and a small sob escaped her throat.
“Ha, the Implant just got ya, didn’t it?” Caretaker said, holding her rope steady. “When you’re doing this job a while, you can tell, you know. The eyes sort of glaze over. Don’t make a fuss about it. It’s not actually harmin’ ya. Quite the opposite. Turns you into the best cow you could possibly be. You’ll see. Now be a good lassie and let’s trot over to [CARETAKER].”
Cow 87 glanced over at the other C… no… he was the same! She looked back at Caretaker holding her leash and then at Caretaker across the yard, and they were wearing different clothing but… they were both Caretaker! He was in two places at once. He had made her orgasm in the stall and now was here next to her but also washing his hands in a big bucket, one and one and one and… some way away. What the bad place was going on in her head?
She groaned with helpless, muted desperation, but of course it came out as a low “Mooooo…” Caretaker looked back at her while still pulling the leash. “Yeah, I know you’re thirsty. C’mon now.” Caretaker, too, had finished washing his hands and was now waiting for her and Caretaker. Seeing them next to each other as they arrived, chinking beer bottles, made her dizzy with the wrongness of it. It was almost like seeing double after going partying and having too much to drink…
[IRRELEVANT KNOWLEDGE DETECTED: CONCEPT “PARTYING” DELETED.]
She blinked. Thinking about drinking and seeing Caretaker and Caretaker taking swigs from the bottles made her thirst come back with a vengeance and she licked her dry muzzle. She mooed shyly at them, hoping they would give here the chance of drinking from the beer too.
Caretaker looked at her. Caretaker, not Caretaker who… it didn’t matter, Cow 87 decided. “Well, what are you waitin’ for, you stupid cow? The water is right in front of you!” She looked from Caretaker to the bucket. It was actually more of a rain barrel and it’s rim was at the same height as her hips. With two small clip-clopping steps, she was standing in front of it and looked down. The water inside looked brackish and murky, with dead insects floating on it. “I’m supposed to drink.. that?” She asked herself. She was disgusted, but also incredibly thirsty. Maybe she could just take a small sip to tide her over? Cow 87 lowered her head until it was just above the water, her udders scraping the side of the drum. Opening her muzzle, she extended her tongue to touch the water and…
Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed one of her horns and pulled her head down. “Damn it, slowpoke, don’t waste our time.” Her head was submerged and warm water flooded her open muzzle. Instinctively, she swallowed several times. Then some of the water entered her airway and she choked. The grip on her horn was released and she pulled her head out, gasping for air and coughing. “Moooo…. agh agh… oooo!” Her belly was now so full with water she felt it bulging.
Caretaker and Caretaker laughed at her misery. Bent over with the weight of her udders, coughing, catching her breath, Cow 87 looked up and glared at them, eyes burning with anger. “Aw, stop giving me that look, darlin’.” Caretaker said.
[ORDER RECEIVED. FACIAL DISPLAY OF EMOTION “ANGER” DISABLED.]
Immediately, her face went slack. Now her muzzle was hanging slightly open and her eyes were half closed. Puzzled, Cow 87 looked into the water below her. The face that looked back was that of a retard thinking about an extremely difficult math problem. She still felt angry, but it didn’t register in her face anymore. “What… how…?”
She looked up again. “Yes, perfect, now you look like the stupid cow you are. Keep that face, it suits you.” Caretaker said.
[ORDER RECEIVED. CURRENT FACIAL EXPRESSION LOCKED IN AS STANDARD RESTING TEMPLATE.]
“No!” Cow 87 thought. Her eyes widened and she closed her muzzle. “Wait, I… I can still control my face? Maybe the implant didn’t work this time.” She thought. Had she been able to stop it somehow? It was an encouraging thought.
“Time to meet the rest of your herd, 87.” Caretaker announced.
Hearing that, her mental focus on her facial expression slipped. Immediately, it went back to being slack jawed and dull-eyed, a furrow of confusion on her hairless brow. Cow 87 didn’t notice it, however, trotting along laboriously on her hooves behind Caretaker, trying to find a lumbering rhythm to keep her udders from sloshing around too much, quite unsuccessfully.
“My… my herd? What is that supposed to mean?” Cow 87 thought.
[DESCRIPTIVE TERM “HERD” LOCKED IN. OVERWRITES DESCRIPTIVE TERM “FAMILY”.]
“So, this herd is meant to be my new herd now? Oh. Well, that answers that.” She thought, sad to have lost another human term to the program.
“Hey, wait a minute, [CARETAKER]!” Caretaker said suddenly as he joined Caretaker and Cow 87. “Before her big entrance we should pretty her up, don’t ya think?”
“Oh, you’re right, of course! She still needs her jewelry! Thanks for the reminder, [CARETAKER]! You’ll love being pretty, cow!”
[ORDER RECEIVED. VANITY INCREASED BY 100 PERCENT.]
Cow 87’s brows furrowed even more. “Pretty me up? Jewelry? What are they planning to do now?” Whatever it was, she was sure it was more sinister than it sounded like. Although she liked the idea of being pretty…
With a sharp pull from the leash, she was led in a slightly different direction. Next to the back of a large stone building, a long wooden post had been thrust into the earth. From the top of it, a short chain hung down. Next to the post, there was a cheap picnic table bleached out from the sun. On it, something metallic glinted, but Cow 87 couldn’t identify it. There was also something else lying there, small and of a bright yellow color, but again, she didn’t get a good enough look at it. Trying to catch a glimpse, she almost walked right into the wooden post, as she had automatically put one hoof in front of the other..
“Hahaha, slow down, 87! Looks like someone is eager to be a pretty little cow.” Caretaker said and Caretaker guffawed.
Cow 87 blushed. She couldn’t help it. After all, here she was all naked and a man was calling her pretty. Well, sort of. She blinked. Why did she think this? It was completely inappropriate in this situation! She couldn’t help but suspect the implant of having done something to her thoughts, yet again.
She could dwell on it however, as suddenly Caretaker pushed his right index finger through the hoop of her muzzle ring and sharply pulled it upwards. Mooing in surprise, Cow 87 had no choice but to tilt her head back, strain her neck and stand as straight as possible as her muzzle was painfully stretched. It happened so fast that she didn’t even have time to offer any resistance. With a fluid, practised motion, Caretaker pulled his finger out of the ring and just a quickly, closed a carabiner clasp around it. The clasp was attached to the post’s chain which now grew taut as she finally tried to pull her head back. But a sharp tugging pain was the only thing that happened. Mooing in distress, she minced right and left on her hooves, but the chain was unrelenting. The tail swished quickly from one side to the next, and she let out a series of farts as if in protest.
Then she felt the prick of a cattle prod between her legs. “Eeeeasy there, 87. You really don’t want to rip off your [MUZZLE] ring. Would be a shame about your cute cow face, hm?” Immediately, Cow 87 stood as still as she could, partly out of fear of the prod, but also out of surprise to get another compliment, which made her blush again. She tried to look out of the corners of her eyes what the Caretaker was doing, but couldn’t see anything. Then she felt the rope around her neck being taken off.
Next, she suddenly felt something else on her stretched neck. It was cold and hard. Then It closed behind her head with an audible click. Caretaker released his hold on it and she felt it settle heavily on her collarbone. Her shoulders twitched as she had an impulse to feel it with her hands.The only result was a curious clanging noise under her head.
[COW COLLAR DETECTED. LOCK ENGAGED. PARAMETER FOR UNLOCKING SET TO: END OF CURRENT WEARER’S EXISTENCE]
“What was that? I’m supposed to wear this until I die?!” Cow 87 thought.
Just as she tried to stomach this new idea, Caretaker grabbed her right ear and stretched it even further out from her head as it already was. Then she felt as sudden pain as something sharp was pushed through the soft tissue and there was again a small click as something was closed. Now a new weight hung there too, but it was almost imperceptible.
[COW TAG DETECTED. BIO-SENSORS ONLINE. RFID TRANSPONDER ONLINE. GEOFENCING ESTABLISHED.]
“Oh no!” Cow 87 thought. “This tag has an RFID chip for geofencing? But that means…”
[IRRELEVANT KNOWLEDGE DETECTED: CONCEPT “ELECTRONICS” AND ASSOCIATED DATA DELETED.]
“…means…what?” She shut her eyes in frustration and opened them again, a single tear running down her face. Something had been taken from her, something she had worked hard to get, something she even went to university for, some kind of special knowledge of things that beeped and blinked like… like… Once again, she had the distinct feeling that just as she had been on the brink of a vitally important thought, it had been snatched away before she could fully grab it and now it was forever beyond her reach. All thanks to that implant… that voice.
Now Caretaker first clipped something to the front of her new collar, then unclipped the clasp through her muzzle ring. Before she had a chance to catch her breath, he already pulled her away from the post, using a new leash made from dark leather, which looked a lot sturdier than the old rope. As she turned awkwardly on her hooves, she could hear the clanging again, louder this time, from the thing on her neck. She knew what it reminded her of, but she did her best not to think about it.