THREE WEEKS LATER

It was about an hour after the evening milking. As the bitter taste of Natalie's milk had departed, her milk was now mixed in with the others', with a volume of production that nearly matched Clarissa's. Wendy had been back doing the milkings for the last week, getting a lot of compliments on how fast she was regaining her shape after the babies. The babies themselves, of course, were a big hit, and the cows had been taking turns watching after the girls, Abby, Annie, Ashley, and Adrienne, while Wendy was out doing chores.

Natalie pointed at the television screen with her foreleg. "Look, that's such a cool idea!"

Clarissa opened her eyes. She felt so comfortable leaning back against Natalie's soft breasts, she'd almost drifted off. They were in their usual TV-watching position, Natalie sitting up leaning back against the wall of the stall, her hind legs spread wide and hugging Clarissa's waist, her forelegs underneath Clarissa's and rubbing Clarissa's sides softly, her chin resting on Clarissa's shoulder as they both watched the screen, Natalie occasionally planting a wet kiss on Clarissa's neck.

"What's a cool idea?"

"That commercial, for the butcher shop in the City. 'Sam and Sally's.' Their girlmeat packages come with the girl's picture and a short bio. So the customers feel like they're eating somebody they know."

"Oh! That must be really neat for the girl, too. Knowing that whoever eats them will know something about them." Usually only Grade A girls had that privilege, being eaten at big corporate banquets or expensive parties, or by occasional individual consumers able to pay top dollar for the best meat. Grade B or C girls were often eaten at family barbecues, but most ended up as anonymous servings processed by butcher shops, B's distributed in packages, C girls ground up in cans.

"Yeah! I wouldn't feel bad about being Grade B or whatever, if I knew somebody was going to get to know me while they were eating me."

"You weren't graded before... you know. Were you?" The subject of how Natalie had become a girlcow was still a slightly touchy one. Girlcows weren't subject to the draft, since they spent their whole adult lives contributing to the food supply, but Natalie had turned eighteen several months before her conversion.

"No. Of course you don't have to until you're nineteen, and... well, things were a little disorganized at home." She fought back tears and snuggled more closely against Clarissa.

Clarissa twisted around and kissed her on the lips. "Well, you would have been Grade A for sure. You've got such a great body!"

Natalie giggled and kissed her back. "I didn't have these boobs, you know."

"You know breasts aren't what they go by for grading, silly. You're so trim, and your legs must have been in great shape from being on the basketball team. And you've got such a cute face!"

Natalie laughed and kissed her again. "I'd rather look at yours any day. But anyway, those, what are they called, 'Manda Packs,' the ones with the bios of the meat in them -- we ought to get to do something like that."

Clarissa quirked her eyebrows. "What do you mean? We're not going to be eaten by strangers anyway. We'll get barbecued right here on the farm."

Natalie shook her head. "No, I mean the milk! I mean, we're just anonymous milkers, like girlmeat packages. People sit at home and drink us, but they've got no idea where the milk is coming from. They don't know anything about us."

"Well, I guess Tom could start putting our pics on the bottles or something, and say something about us. It'd cost him more..."

Natalie's eyes were alight. "No, I mean people could really come and milk us themselves! And they'd take it home and drink it, and they'd know who it came from! We could have, like, a milking stand, in front of the house, by the road, you know, like a fruit stand!"

From the next stall, Jill called out, "What are you guys talking about?"

Clarissa was catching Natalie's excitement. She shouted for all the cows to hear, "A milking stand! People could milk us themselves and take the milk home! What do you think?"

The sound of the spirited discussion carried out to the house. In about ten minutes, Tom opened the barn door. "What's up?"

As Tom let down the tailgate of the truck and pulled out the ramp, Natalie bit her lip uncertainly. "Clarissa, are you sure people won't be staring at us? I felt so ashamed at the auction. Everybody was looking at me."

"Of course they were all looking at you, sweetie! They were trying to decide if they wanted to buy you. But we'll just be walking around town. Men like seeing a naked girl anytime, but they won't make a big deal of it. They see girlcows on the street every day. And..." She looked intently at Natalie, as Tom unhooked their leashes from the rings behind the cab. "You know there isn't any shame in being a girlcow, right? I know it's not what you wanted. It's not what I thought I wanted, either. But we're so important to people! I mean, we give more than the average woman. We're not just going to be food after we die -- we're providing for people every day, all through our adult lives!"

Natalie smiled. "I know, I know, you don't have to keep telling me." She walked down the ramp behind Clarissa, wishing she could do it as smoothly as Clarissa did -- Clarissa insisted it just took practice. "I don't have to remind you my feelings have been all messed up, right?"

As she reached the bottom of the ramp and stood on the sidewalk, Clarissa kissed her. "I know, don't worry about it. Oh thanks," she said to Tom as he offered her the water bottle.

Natalie bit her lip, looking nervously from side to side for spectators, as her lover sucked water through the oversized nipple. She loved kissing Clarissa, but felt funny about kissing her in public, as if there were something unusual about two girlcows showing their affection. A man walking on the other side of the street glanced over casually, not breaking stride. Natalie relaxed a little. After Clarissa had finished, Natalie took the nipple eagerly, her thirst far outweighing her self-consciousness.

Clarissa looked up at the sign on the printer's shop. "How long do you think it'll take, Tom?"

Tom shook his head. "No idea. Don't worry, you'll get your ice cream." He grinned.

Natalie's jaw dropped. "Huh?"

Clarissa laughed. "Don't tell the other cows, okay? Kind of our secret."

"All right!" Natalie giggled.

After Tom had locked their leashes to the slave-bar and disappeared inside the shop, Natalie looked around nervously again. "Are we safe here?"

Clarissa rubbed her shoulder against Natalie's. "There haven't been any cows snatched right out in a public street for a long time. Look down the street. I can see five girlcows parked in front of the buildings." Three were in front of the supply store, in the next block. "Their owners wouldn't bring them if it wasn't safe."

Natalie sighed. "I guess I'll get used to it."

Clarissa's eye was caught by a poster in the window of the print shop, advertising a public hanging. "Oh, look, somebody's going to swing."

They both read the sign:

"Oh!" Clarissa exclaimed. "I know her. I had some classes with her at school." She shook her head. "She hardly ever showed up, though. She'd blow off a class because her nails weren't dry, stuff like that. I'm not surprised she didn't register. Probably had something more important to do," Clarissa sneered.

Natalie was shaking her head as well. "It's so unfair when a girl doesn't register. We all have to share the responsibility for the food supply. And everybody knows they hang you if you don't. Slow hanging..." She shivered. "I don't think I'd want to do that." She looked at Clarissa. "Sorry, I know that was what you wanted. The Academy and all that."

Clarissa's eyes lit up. She'd been looking for a good opportunity to tell Natalie, with none of the other girls within earshot. "Promise you won't tell the other girls this?"

"Tell them what?"

"I'm going to be hanged in a few years, as soon as a couple of my sisters get old enough to replace me. It'll be so cool, Tom's going to... what?" She stopped as she saw the expression on Natalie's face.

"I... I... I don't want to lose you! I just found you! When is this happening?" Her lower lip was quivering.

"Oh, no, this isn't right away, it's almost three years from now."

"But... but... I was thinking we'd be together till we were forty!" A tear slid down along the side of her nose. "I don't want to be without you!"

Clarissa shook her head. "Natalie, Natalie, shhh, no." She kissed Natalie's lips, and her cheeks where more tears were streaming down. "I'd never go without you. You'll come with me, won't you? Won't you?"

"I -- three years. I... don't know if I'd be ready then."

Clarissa looked at her, puzzled. "Natalie, you do want to be eaten, right? We're women, it's what we're here for! No matter what else any of of does with our lives, even women who can't find a way to contribute any other way, we've all always got that!"

"Oh, I know, you don't need to tell me. It's just, well, it's a big step. I know a lot of girls do it easily, you know, give it up to be food, but... well, it's harder for some of us."

Clarissa looked at her in wonder. She suspected Natalie's odd reluctance to being consumed might relate to the trauma of her betrayal by her father, leaving her with a feeling of having so little control over her life. She was getting better, but the emotional scars remained. "Natalie, I'll make you a promise, okay?"

Natalie sniffled, rubbing her cheeks against her shoulders to dry them. "What?" She clearly wasn't sure the promise would fix anything.

"When the time comes, when my sisters turn eighteen -- if you're not ready to come with me, then I won't go. I'll wait for you, till you are ready. As long as it takes."

Natalie's eyes widened. "You'd stay alive? For me?"

Clarissa laughed. "Of course! I love you, you idiot, don't you know that?" It was rewarding to see Natalie's face light up.

"I love you too!" Natalie kissed Clarissa, locking her lips tightly to Clarissa's, not caring this time if anybody was watching.

A clop-clop sound from the street brought both girls back to here-and-now. Natalie turned to follow Clarissa's gaze, and saw an elegant ponygirl approaching, drawing a small carriage with a single occupant.

The ponygirl was clearly a well-trained one, high-stepping until the carriage reached the curb, afterwards standing motionless and staring straight ahead. It was impressive that she could stand so still, with such regal bearing, in spite of the lack of feet: like the girlcows, she had hard metal hooves, though in her case they were grafted to her ankles where her feet had been amputated, with hard rubber coverings that probably needed to be replaced monthly if she was used a lot -- and based on the uniform deep tan on her naked body, she probably was. Her legs were powerfully muscular, but still feminine and shapely. The traces from the carriage were attached to a metal belt permanently encircling her waist. Her shoulders ended with rounded knobs where her arms had been, marking her as a member of the elite among ponygirls -- most ponygirls simply had their arms tied behind them with colorful ribbons, making it easier for them to throw their breasts forward as they strutted. This girl had a lovely lush mane of blonde hair, combed straight back -- not held in the usual pony tail, but flowing freely down her back. Her driver was holding her reins, a pair of lightweight chains that ran up over her shoulders, through rings at the sides of her collar, and down to the rings piercing each nipple -- a right turn would be signalled by a tug on the right nipple ring, for example. He dismounted, and gave the girl a drink from a water bottle similar to the one Tom carried -- a pony wouldn't need water as often as a girlcow, since her body wasn't trying to process all available raw materials into milk, but the glow of sweat covering her body suggested she'd travelled some distance, and the refreshment was obviously welcome. She would no doubt get a cooling rubdown by the stable slaves, and luxurious bath, when she returned home. Her master wore jeans and a light blue denim shirt, though unlike Tom's they were absolutely spotless. He was probably the owner of one of the area's larger farms. He locked the reins to the streetside hitching post -- the pony, of course, couldn't come up onto the sidewalk to be secured to the slave bar that held Clarissa and Natalie, the latter staring at her wide-eyed. Without a glance back, the man, carrying a briefcase, strode to the building next door to the print shop, which advertised itself as the office of a local attorney.

Clarissa knew not to bother trying to talk to the pony -- ponygirls never spoke while on duty except to their masters, and then only when requested. She tried to decide whether she'd ever met the ponygirl before, but the pony looked about twenty-five, well beyond the age of the girls Clarissa had known in school -- possibly Karen and Kirsten might have known her. Clarissa wondered if the girl was part of a stable of several similar girls -- a large enough farm might own four or five -- but in any case, however many ponies the man had to choose from, he had the impression this girl was his favorite. She stood calmly, waiting for her master's return, her whole demeanor suggesting immense pride in her work for the master.

The man reappeared within minutes -- possibly he'd simply been picking up some papers at the attorney's office. He petted the pony's neck, stroking her cheek, as she looked at him in seeming adoration. Clarissa had a feeling, looking at their interaction, that she might be his bed-slave in addition to her pony duties -- it was not that unusual. He reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and held out what appeared to be two sugar cubes. The ponygirl grinned, bent and licked them out of his hand. He patted her again, unlocked the reins, climbed into the carriage, and gave her a light slap with a crop on her right buttock to get her started. As she moved into the street, her knees lifted high with each step, the effort to get the carriage moving showing in her buttocks and thighs but not in her face, Clarissa turned back to Natalie. "Do you think you'd rather be a ponygirl, or a girlcow?"

Natalie watched the pony disappear into the distance, looking thoughtful. Clarissa recognized how far Natalie had come, even to consider the question. Just a few weeks ago she had been buried in her private hell, hating what she had become without her consent.

"Well, being a ponygirl might be kind of fun. They're probably not hungry and thirsty all the time, and they get around a lot more than we do. And her arms are gone, so she's probably got grooming slaves at home to feed her, bathe her, brush her hair, and all that. And she obviously feels really useful. But... I guess I'd want to be a girlcow, still." She grinned. "Of course, it's not like I can change. I think my hind legs are a leeetle short. But, sometimes I think about how people all over town are drinking what comes out of me. Oh, and of course if this milk-stand idea works out, I can even meet them, the customers. And well... " She kissed Clarissa. "If I wasn't a girlcow, I never would have met you."

Clarissa returned the kiss, the tingling between her hind legs nearly making her ask if Natalie would think about doing it here, now, in the street. But before she could say anything, Tom emerged from the shop, carrying a sheaf of posters. He held one up for the girls to see. "What do you think?"

"Yeah, that looks great! What do you think, Natalie?"

Natalie was bouncing on her hooves in excitement. "Yes! I think people will really do it! It's so great we're really going to do this. Thank you so much, Master Tom." She rubbed her head against his knee.

He reached down and petted her head. "Let's go put these things up. I hope shopkeepers don't decide to charge too much for putting them in their windows."

Clarissa reminded him, "Advertising expense, Tom. You have to spend money to make money. And maybe they'll take a promise to pay later."

Tom shrugged. "That's a thought. Anyway, let's go down the street and see how it goes." He unlocked their chains. Natalie, beaming, started trying to pull him along the sidewalk immediately. He laughed. "Slow, down, okay? It's a long street. Save some energy."

"Yes, Master Tom." Her eyes bright, she led the way as they started down the street.

Clarissa wished fervently she could help put up the posters, but without hands there weren't too many ways she could be of assistance. She and Natalie, though, took it upon themselves to offer plenty of unsolicited advice on their location, deciding which streets would have the heaviest foot traffic and which trees or lampposts would get the most attention. They idled outside as Tom went into several stores, emerging from most of them with permission to post the notice in their front window. Clarissa peed against the wall of one store whose owner had refused permission, as Natalie stifled giggles.

At last they waited outside the supply/grocery store while Tom picked up a few necessities. Clarissa looked at Natalie, her eyes bright. "I guess it's too late to change our minds, huh? People have probably seen some of the posters already."

Natalie laughed. "Yeah, they'd be pretty pissed if they showed up Monday and found out there weren't any boobs to squeeze."

"I can't believe Tom is willing to try this. I think Wendy talked him into it. Her milk all goes to the babies, so she knows what it feels like to... give milk personally, I guess you'd call it."

The front door of the store swung open, and Tom came out, one arm around a satchel of building materials he'd bought for putting the finishing touches on the milk stand, the fingers of his other hand spread and wrapped around two ice creme cones. He seemed to realize, suddenly, that he couldn't open the door of the truck without putting the cones down, but there was no place to put them. With a sigh he let the bag drop out of his arm, and it fell by the curb with a loud metal clank. He muttered, "Good thing it wasn't eggs," and sat on the curb, shifting one of the cones to his other hand so he held one in each. "They were out of chocolate chip, Natalie. How's rocky road?"

"Uhh... close enough. I guess." She looked at Clarissa with a small shrug and a smile, and the girls approached him from either side to start licking at the cones.

When Natalie finished, he gave Tom an ice-cream-covered kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Master Tom."

On the other side, Clarissa said, "Yeah, thanks," giving him a matching smear of vanilla on his other cheek.

Tom laughed. "Great, now Wendy's going to ask who kissed me in town, and where does she get her lipstick?" He wiped away the melted ice cream on the shoulders of his shirt and stood up. As they waited for him to pull out the ramp, the girls licked their lips clean. Natalie giggled and said, "Got a little on the tip of your nose," and she licked it off.

Clarissa laughed. "Wish I'd got it between my hind legs."

"Oh yeah, like I'd need an excuse." She kissed Clarissa on the lips, and followed her up onto the truck bed for the ride home.

Clarissa woke up first the next morning. She and Natalie were in their usual sleeping position, their heads cushioned between each others' hind legs. The first to wake up usually licked the other awake, as Clarissa did this morning. Natalie stretched, squeezing Clarissa's ears against the sides of her head, wriggled her hips, and started licking Clarissa in return.

Following their morning lovemaking, and sharing each other's milk for breakfast, Clarissa grinned at her partner. "So, you nervous?"

Natalie giggled. "Nooo, not nervous. Kind of excited, though. Don't mind me if I trip over stuff today. Think anybody'll come?"

Clarissa shrugged. "No idea. None of the farmers, of course. They've got their own girlcows. Some of the town people will, though. We put up enough posters. We ought to get a few. Oh! I was going to ask you yesterday, but then I got all caught up in going to town and forgot. What was Jenny saying to you out in the field yesterday?"

Natalie blushed and looked away. "Oh, uhh... She was wondering, ummm..." She looked at the wall of the stall, knowing Jenny might be listening from her own stall.

Clarissa raised her eyebrows and grinned. She whispered, "She asked if you wanted to play, right?"

"She, uhhh... yeah. Clarissa, she did ask, it wasn't me."

"Natalie, it's okay, really! Do you want to?"

"I... Well, you know, I... never thought about doing it with a girl, except you... and I really only just want you. You know?"

"I know, sweety." She kissed Natalie. "But I just think she's trying to kind of... welcome you to the family. You're one of us. You know that, don't you?"

A tear rolled down Natalie's cheek. She nodded. "I do want this to be my family. All of you. But... so you wouldn't be mad? Are you sure?"

"Mad? Because..." Clarissa looked at Natalie and shook her head. "Natalie, look: You're my partner, and you always will be. And I'm not going to share my life with anybody but you. I love you! But this is really special. Jenny was SO sweet to ask. The girls were..." Clarissa hesitated, always a little uncomfortable talking about Natalie's past. "They were kind of mad at you, when you... first came here. I mean it about all of us being a family, you and all of us. And this is part of that. You understand?"

Natalie bit her lip uncertainly. "I think so. So... you want me to?"

Clarissa rubbed her cheek against Natalie's. "I want you to have fun! And I want you to get to know all my sisters... they're your sisters too, see? As long as I know you'll always come back to me. Okay?"

Natalie laughed. "Don't worry about that. But... I'll feel kind of embarrassed, doing it with everybody watching."

"Oh! Well, don't worry. I can ask Wendy to let the two of you stay outside after she brings the rest of us back in." She looked at her with mock sternness. "I'll want a full report, of course." She looked up and called out over the wall of the stall. "Jenny, you've got a date later this morning." She could hear Jenny and Gwen giggle in response.

Natalie's heart was pounding as Wendy led the girls back to the barn after their morning fertilization of the fields. For some reason, after talking with Clarissa, Wendy had attached the heavy in-town chain leashes to both Natalie's and Jenny's collars -- the rest of the girls were wearing their usual lightweight leather leashes. It was hard to tell if the girls were acting any different -- there was always a lot of giggling on the way to and from the field, though not so many whispers. Jenny had smiled at Natalie, but wasn't staying especially close to her: Karen was between them, once or twice looking at Natalie, smiling with her eyebrows arched. Somehow Natalie imagined all eyes were on her, though she couldn't catch anybody staring.

As they returned to the door of the barn, Wendy stopped and began unhooking the leashes, all except Natalie's and Jenny's. "I'll come back and lock all of you in as soon as I get these two set up." Gwen playfully thumped her hip against Jenny's and went back to her stall to wait. Clarissa stayed next to Natalie as the other girls went inside.

"Clarissa, you're sure this is okay?"

Clarissa shot Jenny a what-am-I-going-to-do-with-her look, and faced Natalie. "Of course it's okay! It's great!" She kissed Natalie. "Just have fun, okay? And tell me all about it later." To Jenny she said, "Just don't drive her too nuts, okay? She's new at this."

"Aw, no, Clary, I'll just ravish her till she comes her brains out." She laughed. "Just kidding, we'll just have a nice time together. Now go, shoo!"

Clarissa laughed, and kissed Natalie one last time. "See you in a little while. We've got a busy afternoon later."

Natalie blinked. "Whole day's kind of busy, if you ask me."

Clarissa backed towards the barn door, pursing her lips and blowing Natalie one more kiss as she vanished into the shade indoors.

Wendy finished wrapping the leather leashes into one big ball, and tugged on the chains the two girls were wearing. "I've got a nice place for you two, on the back side of the barn." She led them around the corner.

Natalie looked around as she walked, not having been back here before. There was a stand of trees about fifty feet away, but the area next to the barn was clear of vegetation except for sparse grass. She took in all the details, as a way of avoiding looking at Jenny.

Wendy stopped near a water pipe standing upright in the ground a few feet from the wall of the barn. "I need to lock you here. Clarissa thought it would be a good idea to leave you two totally alone." Natalie had mixed feelings -- she was glad there wouldn't be any witnesses, but it was a little scary being alone except for the company of Jenny, a girl she barely knew.

Wendy finished locking their chains to the water pipe. The chains, about six feet long, gave them enough slack to do the moving around they would need to do. She patted each of them of the head, and told them, "I'll come back in... oh, ninety minutes. We need to get Natalie a bath before she starts her session in the milk stand, so that's about all the time I can let you have."

Jenny nodded. "That should be plenty, thanks." Natalie blinked and nodded, too nervous to speak. Wendy gave them a little wave and walked away, disappearing in a moment around the corner of the barn.

Jenny looked at Natalie for a long moment, as Natalie watched an ant laboring with a twig along the ground. She said quietly, "It's okay, I..." She giggled. "I was going to say I won't bite, but maybe you'd like that." Natalie finally laughed. Jenny went on, "You've never, uhh, been with a girl before, except Clary, right?"

Natalie nodded. "I... well, I was never interested, I was really into boys... not that too many of them got into me, if you know what I mean." They both laughed.

"Well, I don't know why boys wouldn't want you. You've got such a pretty face."

Natalie looked up, at last, and examined Jenny. It took a little imagination to perceive Jenny as Clarissa's sister. There were some similarities. But while Clarissa's almost brush-cut hair was straight and dark, Jenny's and Jill's identical hair was in tight blonde curls close to their scalps. Probably their mother's hair had been like that. But they seemed to have their father's nose, a little broader than Clarissa's. Natalie hadn't yet determined how to tell Jenny and Jill apart, though Wendy didn't seem to have trouble. She knew, from the family history she had learned from Clarissa, that Jenny and Jill had come from the same litter, though she would have guessed that anyway -- yet while they were clearly identicals, their brother Jack had been born with them, so that litter was a rare mix of identicals and fraternals, no doubt aided by the fertility drugs their mother had used. Jenny was twenty-two, something of an older woman to Natalie, which added to her nervousness.

Jenny's face, under her intense scrutiny, loomed closer as if through a zoom lens. It didn't occur to Natalie, her mind locked into camera-mode, that it was happening because Jenny was leaning closer to her. She jumped a little as their lips suddenly met. Her eyes widened, and it didn't occur to her to kiss back.

Jenny backed off slightly. "Okay?"

Natalie searched for her voice. "Uhh, yeah. I'm sorry, my mind was kind of elsewhere."

Jenny smiled. "We should try to bring it back here then." She leaned forward again, this time kissing Natalie's cheek and giving it a slow, sensual lick.

Natalie closed her eyes and shivered. "Oh, yeah, I think that did it." She moved forward and kissed Jenny, her lips moving and tasting her, as a tingling and coolness began between her hind legs.

As Wendy led her back into the barn, flushed and sweaty, she grinned as she entered her stall. Clarissa looked ready to leap at her. "Well?? So how was it?"

"It was... oh, really good." She giggled. "She's really... well, she's got lots of energy."

Clarissa laughed. "So do you. We could hear you guys, through the wall."

Natalie gasped. "You could hear us?" Her blush deepened.

"Oh, yeah! So you've got to tell me what that was all about."

"Well... I've got something new I can show you."

"Ooh, neat! Are you up for it now?"

Wendy interrupted. "I think she'll still remember it later. Right now we need to get the two of you in a bath." Wendy had told the girls earlier she was changing the bathing scheme a bit: rather than bathing all eight girls every few days, she'd bathe the two who were scheduled for the milk stand each day. Natalie and Clarissa, as the instigators of the idea, were taking the first turn.

"Aww, okay." Clarissa grumbled. "But later, okay?"

Natalie laughed. "Definitely."

After their bath, Clarissa and Natalie followed Wendy around the side of the house towards the road in front of the property, and through the rear door of the small shed, still smelling of fresh white paint on the wooden walls. Wendy was carrying two little baskets holding the four babies, who were cooing and waving their hands, trying to grab at tree leaves that were forty feet away. Monica and Jill had spent some time watching them through the morning, but Wendy didn't want to spend the whole afternoon away from them.

Clarissa and Natalie looked at each other and giggled nervously as they walked up the ramp that led up to the platform, about four feet off the floor, on which they would present themselves to be milked. Wendy set her girls down on the floor in their baskets, at the back of the shed.

Clarissa grinned at Natalie. "You ready?"

"I don't know how to get ready. All we have to do is stand here." She fidgeted, shifting her weight from hoof to hoof.

"I mean, ready to see your idea come to life?"

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Maybe it wasn't that great an idea." She stood still as Wendy fastened the inevitable chain to her collar, securing her to a thick metal ring screwed into the platform below her legs. Wendy hadn't thought the chain was necessary, but Tom pointed out that having the girls directly exposed to a flow of strangers, with only Wendy to guard them, was inviting trouble. Natalie giggled. "I feel like a pen on the bank counter." Clarissa and Wendy both laughed, and Wendy fastened Clarissa's chain.

The front of the shed consisted of a vertically-swinging board that would be propped open once they were open for business, but was currently closed, its bottom end flush with the boards forming the platform. Clarissa looked at it and took a deep, nervous breath. "What time is it, Wendy?"

Wendy looked at her watch. "One fifty-five. I might as well open it up now."

Clarissa looked at Natalie, who took a deep breath of her own and nodded. Clarissa looked back at Wendy. "Yeah, let's see if we get any customers."

Wendy left the shed by the rear door and came around to the front, lifting the swinging board upward and slipping a loop of wire around a nail underneath it to hold it open. Sunlight and a warm breeze filled the shed, as Clarissa and Natalie looked out to the deserted road in front of them.

Natalie cleared her throat. "Uhhh, not a real big crowd, is there?"

Clarissa rubbed her shoulder against Natalie's. "Don't worry, they'll get here."

"I'm not worried. Maybe kind of relieved."

"Oh, stop, this'll be fun!" Clarissa managed nearly to convince herself, at least.

At two-fifteen, as Natalie was sucking water from the bottle Wendy was holding for her, she choked and let the nipple drop out of her mouth. "Car coming!"

An old car pulled uncertainly up to the edge of the road in front of the house, its occupants craning their necks as if to make sure they were in the right place. A young man about twenty emerged from the driver's side, and a girl about the same age from the passenger side. The girl giggled as her boyfriend took her hand and they walked up to the shed. He cleared his throat and said to Wendy, "This must be it. I mean, the... where you milk the girlcows yourself?"

Clarissa looked closely, but didn't recognize the boy. She thought the girl looked half-familiar, perhaps from a couple of years ahead of her at school. She thought her name started with L, but that was as much as her memory told her.

Wendy smiled. "This is the place. You can fill a four-ounce bottle for three dollars, or an eight-ounce bottle for five. We're limiting it to eight ounces per customer." Wendy looked beyond him to the road, as if a long line of customers justified the limitation.

The boy looked at his girlfriend, and back at Wendy. "Are we like, uhh, two customers?"

"Two... oh, you mean could you get sixteen ounces? Umm... sure."

The girl was hiding slightly behind him, her face partly hidden behind his shoulder. "Let's just get eight, Stevie. I haven't decided if I want to do it."

"Aw, come on, it'll be fun," he replied, unwittingly echoing Clarissa. Clarissa hoped this would at least be fun for somebody.

Wendy took a sparkling empty eight-ounce bottle from a crate on the counter, and stood looking expectantly until it occurred to the boy he needed to get his wallet out. She traded it to him for a crisp five-dollar bill. "Do you have a cooler? You shouldn't let this get too warm before you get home."

"Oh, yeah, out in the car." He licked his lips nervously, and tried to exude a little more confidence by standing straighter. "Do I just... I mean, does it matter which one?"

Wendy shook her head and smiled. "Just pick a breast."

He looked at Natalie. "This one's kind of cute." Natalie blushed and bit her lip.

His girlfriend glared at him and slapped his shoulder. "Hey!"

"Oh, hey, sweety, I just said cute, not lovely, beautiful, hauntingly bewitching, such as yourself." The anger in her face melted and she kissed him, as intended.

He turned back to Natalie, who was no longer sure whether to feel complimented or insulted. She shifted her forelegs to make her breasts more available.

As he tried to maneuver the bottle underneath her, she realized they should have practiced this beforehand. With her nipples just a couple of inches off the platform, there wasn't really enough room to stand the bottle upright underneath her. She moved up towards the front edge of the platform, spreading her forelegs a little wider and leaning forward, her nipples hanging beyond the edge.

He looked up at Wendy. "So I just, like, squeeze?"

She nodded. "And pull a little. Not too hard."

Giving his girlfriend a quick look, trying to draw confidence from the realization that she expected it of him, he reached down and tentatively touched Natalie's left breast with his fingertips. She let out a quick breath, forcing herself to hold still and not flinch away. He brought his thumb forward and gently squeezed her breast. Nothing happened.

Wendy repeated, "Pull down a little, while you're squeezing."

Natalie gritted her teeth as he gave her breast a soft yank. He looked at her as if apologizing, and she said, "It's okay, but you don't need to pull quite so hard. Just kind of..." She looked at his girlfriend. "Uhh, fondle. See what I'm saying?"

He nodded, and on his next pull, a dribble of milk splashed into the bottle. Natalie sighed. "Yeah, there you go!"

As he got more of a feeling for it, the milk soon squirted steadily into the bottle. When it was about half full, he grinned and turned to his girlfriend. "Want to try it, sweety?"

She opened her mouth in surprise, looking uncertainly at Natalie. Natalie smiled at her. "Go ahead. If you could do me a favor and get it from my other breast."

The girl bit her lip, looked at her boyfriend, and said, "Uhhh, okay." With a lot of giggling, she poised the bottle under Natalie's other nipple.

Her boyfriend covered her hand with his own, trying to show her how to do it. "Just squeeze right here. Yeah, like that." In a moment, a stream of milk was cascading into the bottle. The girl grinned breathlessly. "This is so cool!"

Once the bottle was full, Wendy handed the boy a cap for it. "Unless you want to drink it now."

The girl looked at the boy, and smiled. "No, we'll do it later, I think." She giggled again, obviously planning a romantic game involving sharing the milk.

Natalie remembered something she'd resolved to do. "Oh! What's your name?" The whole point had been to make milk distribution less anonymous.

The boy responded. "I'm Steve. This is Leslie."

Natalie smiled. "I'm Natalie. When you drink it, just remember where you got it."

Steve grinned. "Oh, we'll remember." Leslie elbowed him in the side, and he winced. "What?"

She glared at him. "Just don't think about her when you're kissing me."

"Oh, honey, I never think about anything when I'm kissing you." She elbowed him again, and he said, "Anything else, honey." He took her hand, probably more to protect himself from further attack than as a show of affection, and they walked back to his car.

Clarissa rubbed her shoulder against Natalie's. "So how was it?"

Natalie laughed. "Well, he was still pulling a little, and it feels better when Wendy does it. But it was okay."

"They're all going to want to do you. They're going to go for the pretty face."

"Hey!" Natalie looked at her partner in exasperation. "Miss Wendy, you tell her, she never believes me."

Wendy patted Clarissa's buttock. "Clarissa, really, your whole family is so cute! Why do you think I married it?"

Clarissa was about to reply, but Natalie said, "Another car!"

This one was a newer model, but no less tentative. It pulled slowly onto the grass shoulder in front of the house, with a rustle of leaves and sharp cranking sound of the parking brake. The driver was alone, and for several minutes made no move to get out. Clarissa looked at Wendy. "Maybe we need a parking valet."

Wendy laughed. "I'll bring it up with Tom at the next stockholders' meeting. Wonder what he's waiting for."

Natalie shook her head. "Just shy, maybe. Try to look inviting." She smiled and arched her back to bring her breasts forward.

At last the driver's side door opened, and a small, thin man emerged. He put his hand to his chest as if trying to catch his breath, and walked towards the stand, looking left and right as if to determine whether there were any witnesses.

He seemed to be about thirty, but surprisingly, Clarissa couldn't see a wedding ring. With as few men as there were with so many women, it was very rare for a man over twenty-two or so not to be married.

He stopped several yards short of the stand, just close enough to have a conversation with Wendy without raising his voice unduly. "This is...?" He pointed vaguely.

Wendy nodded. "The milking stand. Yes, this is the place."

He looked at Natalie and Clarissa and licked his lips. "So can I...?"

"Milk them? Yes, that's what they're here for. You can fill a four-ounce bottle for three dollars, or an eight-ounce bottle for five dollars."

"I... I don't suppose I could just... drink it straight?"

Wendy looked quickly at Clarissa and Natalie, who looked at each other. Both gave a tiny negative head shake.

Wendy cleared her throat. "We, uhh, hadn't really talked about that. You're quite welcome to fill a bottle, though. We limit it to one bottle per customer."

Clarissa could easily read the disappointment in the man's face. "It's not because we don't like you. You really seem very sweet." She smiled at him. "But drinking it straight is... well, it's very intimate, you know. We just like to do that with each other."

He seemed to relax a little. "I guess I... well, what do I do?"

Wendy held up a bottle of each size. "Four or eight?"

"Oh, uhhh, eight please!"

She handed him the bottle, noticed his fingers seemed to be trembling. "Which girl would you like to milk?"

He looked back and forth, indecisively. Clarissa tried to set him at ease. "What's your name?"

He blurted out "Clarence," and stopped suddenly, obviously not sure he wanted to identify himself any more than that.

She grinned. "Oh, my name's Clarissa. Kind of similar, huh?"

He smiled tentatively. "Would you mind if I... milked you?"

To answer, she moved to the front edge of the platform as Natalie had done, spreading her forelegs apart, arching her back, thrusting her huge breasts forward. "I was hoping you'd say that."

The tension seemed to go out of him. He placed the bottle under her left nipple, reached out, and hesitated with his fingers inches away from her breast. She caught his eye, and gave him an encouraging nod. At last his fingers stroked the soft skin near her nipple. She closed her eyes and shivered, loving the feeling of being stroked.

As with Steve earlier, he wasn't immediately able to provoke the emergence of any milk, but with some helpful hints from Wendy, eventually the desired white fluid was spurting into the bottle. Clarence continued milking Clarissa, with a look of excitement and wonder, agreeably switching breasts at Clarissa's suggestion, until the bottle was full.

As Wendy handed him a cap for the bottle, he asked, "If I... owned a girlcow, I could do anything I wanted to with her. Is that true?"

Wendy, a little surprised, though not much, responded, "Well, she'd be your slave, of course. You really would own her, and any use you made of her would be up to you."

Clarissa bit her lip. She had a strong feeling that "what he wanted" included more than just milking her. She suspected he had always had a girlcow fetish, and today's experience had just whetted his appetite for more intimate adventures. The desire wasn't all that unusual -- not even in her own family, her brother Jack being a good example.

"You wouldn't... well, would you consider selling one of your girlcows?"

Wendy stopped herself from laughing, and just shook her head. "Oh, no, none of ours are for sale."

"Do you know where one might buy one?" He was breathing quickly, as if his dream were near coming true.

"Well, there are auctions, of course. But you may not realize what kind of cost we're talking about. You'd be lucky to get one for under... oh, eight thousand or so."

He paled at the figure, looking longingly again at Clarissa. "Well, thank you very much. It has been... very nice." He suddenly leaned in and kissed Clarissa on the lips.

Clarissa used all her will to keep from flinching, and gave him a nice kiss in return. He really was sweet, and he wanted a girlcow so much. Beside her, she was aware of Natalie moving closer to her, glaring at Clarence. He withdrew before she could say anything.

He straightened up, reddening, looking as if he regreted giving in to the impulse. He seemed on the verge of apologizing, but simply said, "Thank you again." Holding the milk bottle against his chest, he retreated quickly to his car and drove away.

Natalie said through gritted teeth, "That was creepy."

Clarissa rubbed her hip against Natalie's. "He really was sweet. And he was gentle when he was milking me. Really, Natalie, he wasn't going to do anything more than what he did."

"You know he wanted to. You saw his little willy pushing up his pants, right?"

"I know, but you saw how shy he was. It took a lot to even get himself to do this much."

Wendy asked, "Do both of you still want to do this? You don't have to."

Natalie looked uncertain, but she was unwilling to abort a project that had been her own idea, and for which Tom had already gone to so much trouble. "Let's see how the rest of the day goes. Miss Wendy... does Master Tom have his cell phone with him? Do you have yours?"

Wendy shook her head. "He doesn't usually take it out in the field with him."

"Well... let's get through today, but do you think tomorrow you could ask him to take his phone with him? Just for the time when the stand is open. If anything looks dangerous, you can call him. On speed dial, you could reach him without anybody even noticing."

Clarissa said, "Natalie, it wasn't that big of a deal..."

Natalie stopped her with a look, her eyes penetrating Clarissa's. "People aren't always nice. You have to know that, Clarissa."

Clarissa swallowed. She knew Natalie hated talking about her past, but the girl carried in her memory some valuable life lessons. She nodded and turned to Wendy. "I think that's a good idea."

Wendy nodded. "I'll make sure Tom has his phone tomorrow. Karen and Kirsten will be on duty. They'll probably feel better that way."

Clarissa wanted the subject put in the past. "So tell me about you and Jenny."

Natalie suddenly laughed. "I told you I'd show you tonight. What do you want, do it right here?"

Clarissa grinned. "Well, I bet Wendy won't mind. I'm sure she's seen it all."

Wendy made a waving away gesture, and said, "I've seen enough to know I always like participating better than watching. But I don't imagine you want to do it in front of those people in the car there."

"What... oh!" Both girls became aware that a couple was already emerging from a newly-arrived car. Clarissa gasped. "Oh! It's Gail and Chuck. I went to high school with Gail, Natalie." Clarissa remembered running into Gail the day she'd been registered at the police station.

Gail and Chuck trotted across the lawn to the stand, holding hands, Gail shading her eyes with her other hand. "Clarissa! That is you, isn't it? I was thinking this was your place as we drove up."

Clarissa beamed at her. "Hi! Natalie, this is Gail from school, and her boyfriend Chuck. Gail, this is my..." She paused and smiled at Natalie. "My lifetime partner, Natalie."

Gail responded automatically, "Hi, Natalie," and then squinted her eyes in puzzlement. "Clarissa, I thought it was just your family on the farm."

"Oh! Well it was, but Tom bought Natalie... what, about a month ago. She's my stallmate now." She grinned and kissed Natalie -- as she saw how affectionate Gail was with Chuck, she felt moved to make her own love clear.

"Oh, that's really neat. Hey, have you been in town lately?" She explained to Natalie, "I saw Clarissa outside the supply store a couple of months ago."

"Yeah, Natalie and I were in town last week, with Tom when he put up the signs. I guess you must have seen one. Oh! I saw they were going to hang Bridgette. That goof."

Gail nodded. "Yeah, we went and watched. Right up till they hoisted her she was trying to explain she just forgot to register." Gail rolled her eyes. "Yeah, forgot for a whole year. She was such a flake."

"What else have you heard about kids from school? It's hard to keep up from here."

Gail looked into the distance, trying to collect her thoughts. "Well, the usual kind of stuff. Ginny and Kim are away at college, of course -- everybody knew they'd go. Penny got married to Clark Hammond." She rolled her eyes and giggled. "Let's see... oh! Julie got drafted, so I guess she's the first one in our group to go, that I know about. Her dad barbecued her and had the whole neighborhood over. I got a slice from her hindquarters, and she was pretty good. And Sherry went to the Breeding Farm. She already had four babies, girls, and she's pregnant again, and ultrasound says it's five this time. You know how it is, she'll probably have fifty babies by the time they eat her when she's forty."

Clarissa laughed. "I guess that's the way to go, if you don't mind a whole lifetime of morning sickness."

Gail giggled. "I know. I guess the doctors there take good care of the breeders, though. Oh, I almost forgot what we came here for!" She looked at Wendy. "So what do we do?"

Wendy explained the prices again. Gail looked at Chuck. "Eight ounces?"

He grinned. "Sure."

Being milked by an old school friend felt very strange, but exciting. As Gail stroked her breast and a stream of milk issued forth, Clarissa suddenly remembered an incident in fourth grade. "Oh! Remember that time I lost my lunchbox, and you shared your milk and part of your sandwich with me? That was so sweet! I guess I'm finally paying you back."

Gail giggled. "Okay, then how come I'm paying five dollars for it? No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, it's fine!" she went on as she saw the quick look Clarissa shot at Wendy. Clarissa laughed.

Clarissa felt a cool wetness between her hind legs, something that didn't happen daily with Wendy and hadn't happened when Clarence had been milking her. Of course, she was always wet when Natalie was sucking, but that was in anticipation of what would come next. She was embarrassed at the possibility that Gail would see juices dripping down Clarissa's hind legs, but luckily Gail let Chuck take a turn before that happened. He didn't seem to have the same effect on her.

As Gail sealed the bottle with the cap Wendy provided, she said to Clarissa, "I'm still going to bring pizza some day, like we talked about." She looked at Chuck. "Maybe some day when you have to work and I don't, and I'll just come and hang out with the girls." She giggled and kissed him.

Clarissa beamed. "That'd be great. Maybe around lunchtime, because two of the cows will always be working in here from two to five. Oh, and it needs to be enough pizza for nine now, not eight." She smiled at Natalie, who was wide-eyed at the sudden potential for a pizza party.

Gail looked at her watch. "Oh! We've got to get back. We both just managed to get a couple of hours off. But really, I'll see you soon, okay?" They exchanged goodbyes, and a "Nice meeting you" to Natalie, along with a quick hug for Clarissa from Gail, and the two of them ran back their car.

Natalie grinned at Clarissa. "That's two couples coming here for a date, so far. I hope that keeps happening. That'd be fun."

Clarissa laughed. "Yeah, Tom could put up a sign that calls us 'Lover's Lane' or something."

"No, 'The Milk Club.' 'Hey, baby, let's go check out the Milk Club.'" All three of them laughed, interrupted by a cry from Ashley, in her basket with Adrienne.

Wendy adopted her cooing mommy's voice. "Ohhh, is somebody hungry?" She lowered the flap on her nursing blouse and picked up Ashley, as well as Adrienne while she was at it, with a practiced sweep of her arms, quickly settling both of them in with their mouths up to her nipples.

Clarissa and Natalie both looked on with interest and a hint of sadness -- they would spend their lives feeding people from the same source, but never their own babies. No cars were coming at the moment. The only sounds were babies suckling, and birds chirping in distant trees.

Natalie broke the silence. "Miss Wendy, you're going to charge them five dollars, right?" All three women laughed again.

Clarissa and Natalie had a little left for the evening milking, but not much. They had sold nine eight-ounce bottles and two of the four-ounce, altogether bring in more than fifty dollars. Their contributions had been nearly equal, six of the customers choosing to milk Clarissa, the other five Natalie. Wendy had given them warm hugs at the end, and they had speculated on possible uses for the extra income.

After finishing with the feeding trough, Clarissa looked at Natalie expectantly, one eyebrow raised. "Well?"

"Well what?" Natalie responded, and laughed. "Yeah, I know. Let's kind of get in the mood first." She smiled at Clarissa, came towards her and kissed her -- not the type of kiss they had exchanged regularly through the day. With her lips moving softly against Clarissa's, their tongues rubbing softly, this was the kiss that always made their legs feel weak, and their pussies tingle.

As Clarissa made a move to lay down -- their next move was usually to lay facing each other, continuing the kiss, their breasts pressed together, smearing their breasts and stomachs with a mixture of milk from both of them -- Natalie whispered hoarsely, "No, keep standing. Stay right there." Clarissa nodded dreamily as Natalie walked past her, to her rear, then backed up against her, pressing her buttock against Clarissa's. "Keep standing," Natalie repeated, as she swung her right hind leg up, twisting her waist to accomodate the move, until her thigh rested on top of Clarissa's butt. She pushed back again, this time bringing her pussy in contact with Clarissa's. She let her left hind leg slip ahead, under Clarissa's hind legs, and told her, "Spread your hind legs a little more, and let them slip back. Stay up on your forelegs, though. Brace yourself with them, and push back as hard as you can." She let her left hind leg slip in farther underneath as Clarissa's rear hooves skidded slowly back on the floor. Clarissa's hips fell slowly towards the floor, with Natalie's left hind leg pinned under her.

Clarissa gasped as the idea became clear to her, and rolled her hips a little to the left to make the position more symmetrical. Natalie's pussy ground tightly against hers, held snugly there by their interlocked hind legs.

Natalie had no need to explain any further. Bracing themselves with their forelegs and pushing back hard, they rubbed their pussies against each other, their hips writhing, feeling an intense tingling that spread outward from their crotches, carried in waves of heat and cold. They shivered and gasped, their bodies covered in a sudden sheen of sweat, exchanging moans, closing their eyes to concentrate on the sensations emanating from between their hind legs.

Clarissa came first, her twitches of orgasm setting off Natalie's seconds later, both of them nearly screaming at the unexpected intensity of the spasms that shook them. They continued grinding their pussies together, hitting a plateau of excitement from which, eventually, they slowly descended. In their post-orgasmic exhaustion, neither girl could stop her forelegs from sliding forward, bringing their upper bodies thumping to the floor, laying there afterwards panting for breath.

As soon as she could speak, Clarissa called out loudly, "Thank you, Jenny!" As Jenny and Gwen both exploded in laughter, Monica inquired from the adjacent stall, "What the HELL did you guys just do?"

Clarissa giggled. "It's kind of hard to explain exactly." She realized Jenny and Gwen must have been doing this regularly, but either they were better at keeping it quiet or else it just didn't hit them at quite the level of intensity that it did for herself and Natalie.

Jill said, "Show us tomorrow, okay? One of us, anyway." From farther away, Karen said, "Yeah, us too."

Natalie untangled her hind legs from Clarissa's and slowly got up on her hooves. "Would it be okay if Jenny or Gwen showed you? I want to get to know all of you better, and play with you like Jenny and I did today. But what we just did... I only want to do that with Clarissa. Okay?" She walked around and lay down next to Clarissa, facing her.

Several voices called out, "No problem!"

Natalie smiled at Clarissa. "Okay?"

Clarissa kissed her, lovingly. "No problem at all." They snuggled up against each other for a little less intense lovemaking.