"Wasn't it great seeing some air go out of that windbag?" Clarissa giggled as she and Natalie trotted behind Gail.

Natalie laughed gaily, part of her joy coming from seeing Clarissa walking with such a bounce in her step. It was the first time Natalie had thought Clarissa looked really relaxed and happy since her return from... that place. It had been three months. "Yeah, but don't you feel sorry for his poor girlfriend? She has to spend all her time with that know-it-all ass. He's probably already come up with an explanation, something about your boobs being weird or something."

Gail, leading them back to the barn by a single leash attached to the chain connecting their collars, laughed and shrugged. "All men are asses, Natalie. I thought we had that clear. Except Master Tom, anyway."

Natalie had waited for weeks for a sign that Clarissa might be ready for a turn at the milking stand again, never bringing the subject up, and deflecting all questions about it from the others, including Tom and Wendy, insisting "She'll know when she's ready." Finally, the day before, she had caught Clarissa's nearly imperceptible sigh as she watched Gail lead Jenny and Gwen out of their stall for their turn in the stand. It had still taken several minutes of Natalie's assurances that they couldn't be separated, that they'd be chained to the stand as well as to each other, and that Gail would be standing right there with a cell phone and a can of Mace, before Clarissa finally admitted that, as scared as she was of leaving the safety of the barn and going out beyond the security fence, she missed the things she'd enjoyed before. Natalie, of course, knew that already.

The rest of the girls were up at the gates of their stalls, all demanding to know how it had gone.

Clarissa tried to count up in her head. "Let's see, we did three big bottles and four smaller ones. No, five, right?" She looked at Natalie for confirmation.

Natalie grinned. "Tell them about the expert milker."

Clarissa laughed. "I was getting to that." She faced her sisters. "This guy, what was his name, Craig something, came with his girlfriend Lisa. He was telling her all about how superior girl-milk is to cattle milk, how much milk a girlcow gives in a day, and all about the "smooth, downward stroking motion" you use to milk a girl. And it was so obvious he'd never touched a girlcow in his life before, everything was out of books. 'Cause he must have spent two minutes pulling at my boob, and nothing came out. I was trying to relax and let it flow, but it was taking all my concentration not to laugh! And Gail was giving him suggestions, and Natalie was, and I was, and he was kind of ignoring us and getting pissed, and he said I must be dry! Gail finally reached down squeezed a couple of squirts into his bottle for him, and he went all red, and he tried again and I finally got flowing -- it still took him some time, even after watching Gail do it. And Gail was so sweet to him, telling him it took most people awhile their first time, like he might come back again if she was nice enough -- yeah, right, Gail." Clarissa looked up and winked at her.

Natalie said, "Yeah, but the rest of the people were really cool. There were a couple of older couples, like in their thirties, and the usual kids out on dates. Oh, Monica, do you remember Jeannie Lassiter and Ben Carter? They said they were in some classes with you in school."

Monica's eyes grew wide. "What, they came together? Ben always had the hots for Carol Childress. I can't even remember him looking at Jeannie."

Natalie shrugged. "Well, they're together now. They're getting married in a couple of months. Oh, I told them you'd be on duty tomorrow, if they wanted to see you. Is that okay?"

"Sure, I can do a little catching up if they come by. Find out what's been happening to everybody. A lot of weird stuff, I guess, if the two of them being together is a sample."

Gail interrupted. "Well, let me get you guys back in your stall. I need to start milking everybody so I won't be late making dinner."

Jenny caught Gail's eye. "Are we still on for tonight, behind the barn?" Wendy had recently been letting Gail and each of the girlcows in turn have some privacy for sex-play in the evenings once or twice a week.

"As far as I know. Miss Wendy hasn't said they need me in the house for anything. I'll ask her at dinner to make sure."

Jenny grinned. "I'll be licking forward to it. Oopsy, little slip of the tongue." She giggled.

Gail laughed and reached in through the bars to ruffle Jenny's short hair. "Yeah, right." She blew Jenny a kiss as she led Clarissa and Natalie back into their stall.

After Gail had secured them and returned to the house for a clean milk pail, Natalie looked expectantly at Clarissa. "So? How do you feel?"

Clarissa closed her eyes and sighed happily. "It felt so good to get out and do something. I'm sorry, I've probably been really mopey lately."

Natalie kissed her. "Not a bit. I could just tell you were ready."

Clarissa beamed at Natalie. "You know me pretty well, huh?"

Natalie laughed. "Well, I guess I ought to. Now, are you ready for one more step to get back to normal?"

Clarissa frowned uneasily. "I don't know about spending the night with Clarence. I know all the other girls say he's really sweet, and I know you'd be with me, but... I don't know, I guess he reminds me too much of... that other place. I know that's not fair, I mean, he helped me get out..."

"Oh, no sweety, that wasn't what I meant. I've done Clarence once, that time at the police station, and I don't feel like I have to do it again. And I guess I'd feel kind of uncomfortable too, because he knows I was using him then. I don't feel bad, because I would have done anything to get you back." She kissed her again. "But he still knows. It'd be different from the other girls." She giggled. "Anyway, he's probably got all the girlfriends he can handle. Karen says he doesn't show any signs of getting bored with girlcows."

"Karen's not bored with him yet either. Or Kirstie. Wonder if they'll still be doing it years from now." Jenny and Gwen had recently dropped out of the Clarence rotation for the time being -- not that they disliked it, but they admitted it seemed as if Karen and Kirsten were enjoying it more, and they wanted them to have more turns at it. "Do you think -- " She stopped, puzzled. "Oh, wait a minute, back to the question. What did you mean, then? About one more step?"

Natalie smiled. "Well, you loved going into town so much. Do you want to try that again?"

Clarissa gasped. "Oh, I miss that more than anything. But I just couldn't! Out in the milk stand, Gail's there with us watching us all the time, but if we went to town with Tom... you know he wouldn't just take us there to stroll around, he'd only be going because he needed to go to the store or something, and he'd have to leave us outside while he did that! Even with you there, I'd just feel so... exposed."

Natalie looked at her sympathetically. "I know, darling. I'm not going to push you. But just think about this. You know Detective Warren said there haven't been any girlcows stolen on the public streets in broad daylight in years. All those people watching, and half of them have their own dairy herds! And if somebody did decide to steal one, I kind of think they'd pick out one whose chains weren't quite so thick. I mean, look at this one." She shook and made the chain connecting their collars jingle. "Tom would lock us to the slave bar with one just like it. Even with bolt cutters, how long do you think it'd take to get us loose?"

Clarissa bit her lip. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"Look: I'd feel like we were safe there. Do you think I'd want us to do anything that would put you in danger? I don't ever want to lose you again!" She rubbed her cheek against Clarissa's. "But I want to have ALL of you with me. I don't want you to be missing something you love. And I know you loved going there." She grinned. "And just remember, good things happen sometimes when you go into town. We would never have met if you hadn't been there that day."

Clarissa laughed. At the far end of the barn, Gail had returned and was milking Karen or Kirsten. "Okay. When Gail gets here, we can tell her to ask Tom."

"Yay!" Natalie playfully threw herself against Clarissa, knocked her over and rolled on top of her, kissing her cheeks and her lips. "Now I've got all of you back!"

Tom pulled the ramp out from under the truck bed and bent to unlock the girls' connecting chain. Natalie and Clarissa shouted "No!" together and backed away. Clarissa spoke for them. "We don't want the chain off."

Tom blinked. "It's just for a few seconds. I'll be right here. There's no danger."

Natalie shook her head. "It's not that. The chain just really means a lot to us. We don't ever want it off."

Tom rolled his eyes in exasperation. "How are you going to get on the truck? The ramp's not wide enough for you to walk up together."

Clarissa opened her mouth to suggest he could easily lift them up onto the truck bed, but she closed it again. She disliked feeling that helpless.

Natalie looked at Clarissa, and then at the ramp. "Oh, I've got an idea. Follow me."

She turned so her rear end was facing the ramp, and backed up onto it. Clarissa burst out laughing as Natalie began backing up the ramp in short steps, her forelegs braced to take most of her weight. That set Natalie off, and she had to wait a minute, gasping for breath, until she subsided into giggles. She continued moving backwards up the ramp, just a few inches at a time, Clarissa following and walking up forwards, facing her, also giggling.

When they were finally established up on the truck bed, Tom sighed and shook his head, his eyes closed, and slid the ramp back into its place under the truck bed. He attached a single heavy-chain leash to their joining chain and locked it to the ring behind the cab, and gave them both a drink before climbing into the cab, still shaking his head.

Clarissa was very animated during the drive in, using her chin to point out landmarks to Natalie that she remembered from her childhood, something she hadn't done on previous trips. Natalie happily took it all in.

When they arrived and parked a block from the store, as near as they could get, Clarissa volunteered to back down the ramp. "That's probably easier than backing up it, so I'll do that when we get back on." Semi-conscious of a couple of odd looks from passers-by, they stood finally in the street behind the truck, suppressing returning giggles. Natalie kissed Clarissa, with no memory of once having been self-conscious about showing affection for her partner in public.

Clarissa looked down the cross-street as Tom led them by their common leash towards the store. Once the street went beyond the backs of the stores fronting on the main street, it became a tree-lined residential lane. In the yard of the third house down on the left, there was a small crowd gathered. Judging from the few stray bits of trash near the periphery, the crowd may once have been larger. "Tom, hold up."

"What is it?"

"Have we got time to see what's happening down there?"

Tom looked at his watch. "Not a lot."

"Half an hour? Please? Or less, if it's not anything interesting. It looks like a yard sale. You might find something useful," she went on, appealing to his practical side.

"That's more Wendy's department."

"Okay, we'll tell you if something's worth buying." She was already trotting down the sidewalk, Natalie taking a few quick steps to pull alongside, almost yanking the leash out of his hand before he could move to follow. He sighed, holding them back only to the extent of allowing him to maintain a dignified walking pace.

As they drew closer, they could see a long table set up on the near side of the front lawn, with a few people picking through the items displayed. But -- Clarissa sniffed, inhaling the aroma -- there was clearly something more than a yard sale going on. Next to her, she saw Natalie's nostrils flare. "Is that barbecued girlmeat?"

"We'll see in a minute. I see another table..." There were two, in fact, one on the far side of the lawn running parallel to the first one, holding a similar array of household possessions. Running between them, leaving a few feet of space on either side, was another table, this one holding platters of food, mostly empty. "Yeah, it's a neighborhood cookout!"

"Wonder if we're invited. Looks like it's nearly over."

Indeed, several of the platters were empty except for smears of sauces or bits of leavings. Behind the food table, up close to the front of the house, was a carving table, which had once supported a freshly cooked girl but now held little but her bones, and next to it a long barbecue pit on wheels, probably rented for the occasion. Behind the carving table, a man of about forty, wearing an apron, was slicing the remaining meat from the bones and piling it on a platter. He looked up at Tom and the girls and smiled. "Hi. Got a little left if you're hungry."

Clarissa judged that the man seemed friendly enough that he wouldn't mind being addressed by a slave. "Was she a family member?"

The man nodded. "My younger daughter. Got her draft notice just a couple weeks after her twentieth birthday. We decided we'd do her up here 'stead of taking her to the state butcher shop. She wanted something personal. Wanted to share her meat around with friends." He gestured to indicate the tables along the side of the yard. "Selling her stuff here."

Tom, with several experiences of helping out with the roasting of several of his aunts as well as his mother, nodded. "You slaughter her yourself?"

"Yuh... oh, not like you're probably thinking. She didn't just want her head chopped off." He smiled. "She kind of wanted to put on a show. She always did love dancing, so we hanged her from the tree up there, me and my older daughter Kerri." At the mention of hanging, Clarissa felt a sudden tingling she hadn't experienced in months. She looked up at the tree, picturing the girl dangling and kicking.

As if she'd been awaiting an introduction, a young woman, about twenty-two or so, emerged from the house carrying a small tub of potato salad. "This is all we've got left, dad."

"No problem, sweetheart. I think folks are about done." He looked at Tom. "Unless you folks want some. Got some thigh meat left."

Clarissa was staring at the girl, Kerri. She looked vaguely familiar. She looked back up at Kerri's father. "What was your daughter's name?"

He looked back at Kerri, then caught on to Clarissa's use of the past tense. "Oh, this one?" He indicated the bones with his knife. "This was Kammi."

Kerri's familiarity clicked into place. "Kammi Kerwin??"

The man grinned. "Oh, you knew her?"

"I went to school with her! Well, she was a year ahead of me, but we both tried out for Dance Team one year. I got to know her a little then, and I saw her around after that. So this is Kammi! That's really cool!" She looked at the bones as if somehow there might be a point of recognition. She remembered the bouncy, happy girl she had known at school, and marvelled at being able to see the foundation that had formed her body, had animated the dancer Clarissa remembered, and just hours ago had made her kick at the end of a rope as her family had hanged her. Clarissa had seen the skeletal remains of her mother and several aunts, but never a girl near her own age before. It made her much more conscious of being an adult now.

Kammi's father indicated the platter. "I'm sure she'd love you to eat some of her. Oh, name's Pete, by the way, Pete Kerwin." He held out his hand for Tom to shake.

Clarissa looked up at Tom. "Please, Tom, can we have some of her? I knew her!"

Tom knew better than to argue. He looked along the table. "Could we get a couple of bowls for them? And I'll need to cut it into pieces for them. And I wouldn't mind a plateful myself."

"Sure thing. This piece look good to you?"

"That the thigh meat?"

Kerwin nodded. "About all we've got left. I saved her breasts and pussy for me and Kerri, for later."

Clarissa was looking up at an overhanging branch. "You hanged her from that?"

Kerwin followed her gaze and smiled. "Yup. She picked it out herself. I'd been going to do it out back, but she wanted it to be more of a show."

Clarissa sighed. She understood the feeling perfectly. She looked around the yard. "Did you stand her up on a stool?"

He shook his head. "She wanted us to take a little more active role. We tied the noose in the middle of a real long rope, and tossed both ends up over the branch from opposite sides. She put the noose around her neck herself, then had Kerri tie her hands behind her. Then she kept wanting to wait for a little bigger crowd, and she couldn't stop talking -- you probably know how chatty she was. Stood there naked, and joking with the boys about how they looked like they were all thinking they'd missed their chance with her. I about thought I ought to tell her we needed to move it along if she wanted to get eaten before nightfall, but then she finally took a deep breath and told us to go ahead. So Kerri and me hoisted her, and stood off to the side holding the ropes so we wouldn't block anybody's view. She kicked about ten minutes -- didn't she, Kerri?" The girl, back from another trip to the kitchen, nodded. "Anyway, we kept her up there another ten after she quit kicking, just to be sure. Everybody clapped at the end. Wish she could'a heard it."

Clarissa was looking raptly up at the tree, seeing it all in her mind's eye. Again she felt the stirring between her hind legs, and wished she could have been here to share Kammi's excitement. "Ten minutes is pretty good for an amateur."

He smiled proudly. "She was real determined to make it worth everybody's time."

"Have you got her head?"

"Oh, sure. Wouldn't cook that, of course. Soaking it in preservative just now. When it's ready, we'll put it up on the mantle, next to her mom's. Did her mom about, oh, five years ago. Kammi used to stop by her mom's head on her way out the door to school and give her a kiss on the cheek. Did that all through high school. Sort of for good luck. She's been real excited, thinking about being mounted up there with her."

Tom had put a bowl of bite-sized meat chunks on the ground in front of her. At last she bent to eat. As she chewed the first piece, she looked at Natalie in astonishment. "This is really good."

Natalie nodded, also chewing. She swallowed, and said, "There's some kind of glaze on it. I've never tasted girlmeat like this."

Kerri beamed with pride. "My mom gave me the recipe for that. She got it from her mom, and so on. All the women in our family get cooked with it."

Clarissa looked up at Tom, who had his own plateful. "Good, isn't it?"

He nodded, and looked at Kerwin. "Any chance we can get a copy of the recipe?"

Kerwin hesitated, then shook his head, apologetically. "Old family tradition. Kammi's grandmother told us never to give it out."

Tom nodded. "No problem. I know how it is with traditions."

Clarissa finished the meat and licked the residual glaze off the sides of the bowl as best she could, noticing Natalie was doing the same. She opened her mouth to ask Tom if there was time to go inside and pay respects to Kammi's head, but he preempted her. "We need to get going."

She sighed in disappointment, but nodded. As Tom led her and Natalie away, Clarissa called back, "Thank you! She was a good dancer, and really good meat!"

He waved at them. "Thank you. She'd be really pleased to hear that."

Back on the main street, Clarissa said, "I wish we could have got that recipe."

Tom smiled back at her. "If I hear they're cooking Kerri, I might bring Gail along. She's a good cook. She may be able to figure out what's in it."

Clarissa beamed at him. "That'd be great!"

As he locked their leash to the slave bar, he said, "I'll just be about ten minutes. You okay for that long?"

Clarissa took a deep breath and bit her lip, looking at Natalie. Natalie nodded reassuringly, and Clarissa looked back up at Tom. "I guess. Don't take too much longer, okay?"

He patted her head and entered the store. Clarissa looked quickly up and down the street, alert for anything suspicious.

Natalie was looking at the store window. "Oh, Clarissa, look! This is her, isn't it?"

Clarissa saw she was reading a poster, and immediately recognized Kammi's picture on it -- looking coyly at the camera, very cute. Around the picture was an announcement about today's hanging and roast. Clarissa groaned. "If we just could have come here yesterday! We would have known this was happening!"

Natalie grinned. "They've got announcements like this all the time, right?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"So we'll just have to come to town more often, and then we won't miss things. Right? Right?" She looked at Clarissa expectantly.

Clarissa laughed. "Okay, okay. We'll come to town more often. I'm done hiding away in the barn."

Natalie laughed joyfully and kissed Clarissa passionately. "Great!"

Through the kitchen door, Karen could hear Wendy back the car out of the garage and into the street. She looked up at Clarence and grinned. "Well, how has your week been, Master Clarence? Or, what is it, about four weeks since I've been here?"

Clarence smiled down at her and shrugged. "Oh, you know. It's not the world's most exciting job. I could tell you the figures I've added and subtracted, and accounts opened and closed, but the fact is nothing much really happens. I spend the week mostly waiting for the weekends."

Karen looked up at him coyly, batting her eyes in the way that always made him laugh. "Well, we should get the weekend started, then. It's been a few hours since the afternoon milking. Are you thirsty?"

He did laugh. "Always. Wait, now how did we do that last time?"

She pretended to pout. "Oh, Master Clarence, are you still having trouble remembering what you did with Kirstie and what was with me? You said you were getting to where you could tell us apart!"

He looked contrite. "I can tell you from Kirstie. When I'm looking at you, anyway. It's remembering afterwards which one of you I did something with, that's the hard part. I'm sorry."

She beamed at him and rubbed her head against his leg. "Don't have such a long face, Master Clarence. I'm not mad at you. I could never be. Okay then, start by taking your shirt off and lay down on the floor. Now do you remember?"

In response, Clarence quickly unbuttoned his shirt and peeled off his undershirt. As he lay down on his back, Karen examined his chest, in which she believed there was a hint of muscular definition that hadn't been there before. It was just like him not to mention it, but she suspected his activities during the week now included some gym workouts. She wanted to tell him there was no need for him to try to be more manly for her, but bringing up the subject would have pushed his embarrassment level beyond the threshold he could comfortably deal with.

Once he lay on his back on the floor, his head next to her and tilted back slightly so he could keep looking at her, she padded forward, straddling his head with her forelegs so that her breasts hung over his face. She closed her eyes and sighed happily as he began sucking, gently but enthusiastically, making a good start towards draining her left breast before switching to her right. When it was clear he could drink no more, she whispered, "Take off your pants now, Master Clarence." While he fumbled with his belt and zipper, his fingers trembling, she crept forward, slowly, her tongue trailing along his chest and stomach, pausing to lick his navel playfully before arriving at his quivering erection. It was her turn to suck.

Stretched out lengthwise on the sofa, her head resting in his lap as he absently stroked her hair, Karen watched the credits scroll by on the TV screen, signalling the end of the rented comedy they had enjoyed together. Her skin felt fresh and clean, with a faint lilac scent from the bath oil he used as he bathed her after dinner, before starting the movie. Gail had given her a bath before Wendy had driven her over, but she never turned down a chance to have Clarence do it -- the intimate attention outweighed any practical benefit.

As Clarence clicked the Rewind button, Karen luxuriated in a cat-like stretch and kissed his relaxed penis, giggling as she saw it quiver with a hint of returning life -- surprisingly, after the energetic workout it had already engaged in this evening. She smiled sleepily up at him. "I think it's time for bed, Master Clarence."

As he clipped the gorgeous silver leash to her collar and led her to the bedroom, Karen thought about how hard it would be to explain to old friends from school why she enjoyed being treated the way she was, imagining them shaking their heads at the sight of the strong-willed Karen they had known being walked around the house on a leash, eating her meals from bowls on the floor, and frequently curling up at Clarence's feet when they watched a movie together -- tonight had been an exception, when he decided he wanted her up on the couch with him so he could pet her as they watched. They had all been surprised enough when she'd announced she and Kirsten had decided to be the first of a new generation of girlcows at their dad's farm, but they'd understood the power of family traditions. She knew their jaws would drop in astonishment, though, watching her enjoy being treated as a household pet.

She believed she might be able to explain it to them so they understood -- she was adept at self-examination, and had been immediatedly conscious of what it was that had attracted her to Clarence from the moment Natalie had first described him, before she had even met him: she realized that what she had always wanted, with a yearning that far outweighed her loyalty to her father and now to Tom as she served them as a girlcow, was a man who would worship her. To be with a man who adored her as a woman, not in spite of her highly modified girlcow body but because of it, was something she hadn't really realized she had wanted so much until the opportunity had come up. She knew that having a girlcow pet of his own was everything Clarence had ever dreamed of, and her ability to fill that role for him made him everything she had dreamed of.

She knew that, to the other girls, Clarence was a fun, stimulating novelty -- in the end, not sufficiently stimulating for Gwen and Jenny to continue with the game, and Karen suspected that Monica and Jill might also drop out of it before long. She hoped, in fact, it would be soon, since it would make her own trips to Clarence's house that much more frequent. Without talking about her feelings with Kirstie, she suspected her twin felt the way Karen did -- they had always had fairly similar tastes. But in any case, Karen knew she would continue the relationship with Clarence no matter what her other sisters did.

There were some changes and additions to Clarence's bedroom since Tom had first allowed the girls to sleep over. Clarence's sturdy, practical bed was gone, only the mattress from it remaining. It had been Karen's suggestion that he sell it, recovering some of the money he'd spent on the beautiful, expensive girlcow accessories, like the leash. It was much easier for the girls to get into the bed on their own, as low to the floor as it was now. Next to the bed was a girlcow nest, the perfect size to curl up in and rest on the satiny cushions and big, fluffy pillow. On the walls, the racy prints of anonymous girlcows had been replaced with blown-up photos of the six sisters who had taken turns keeping Clarence company for the night -- Clarence had taken the pictures himself, and the whole family was represented except for Clarissa and Natalie (Karen automatically now thought of Natalie as a sister, as did the other girls).

Clarence unclipped the leash, kneeling and giving her a kiss before she crawled into the nest and wriggled into the cushions, after which Clarence covered her with a satin sheet. She smiled up at him and said, "Night, Master Clarence," before nestling deeper into the softness, already feeling sleep beginning to steal over her. She always started out the night in the nest, partly because being in it made her feel like the queen of all girlcows (this part wouldn't be at all hard to explain to her friends), and also from the belief that Clarence probably wouldn't be able to sleep at all if a girlcow were in bed with him. She knew, though, that towards dawn she would crawl onto the mattress and snuggle up against him as he stirred dreamily, positioning her breast so he would wake up with her nipple in his mouth, feeding him breakfast as a prelude to some gentle lovemaking. They both liked to start the day that way.