Fluffs were loyal. Fluffs were dependable. Fluffs were kind, and caring, and above all, fiercely protective of their chosen families, their friends, and anyone else who, for whatever reason, was unable to defend themselves. That was why, a few years ago, Nosy and Dizzy had slithered away on a trip out into the countryside to help a young man who’d fallen down a cliff, seriously injuring himself.

Once they’d understood why their alien friends had acted as they had, Jack and Ianto hadn’t been angry, but they had insisted that in future, the Fluffs should alert them to whatever was happening before going into rescue mode. It would be a lot less stressful for everyone concerned.

Still, it had been years since that day. Dizzy was spending most of its time at the Hub with Tosh and Owen now that Lily was in school, while Jack and Ianto’s household now included three Fluffs, Nosy and its two youngest offspring, Squiggle and Spot, who were by now almost two metres in length, and quite robust. They needed to be, because the Harkness-Jones family’s two-year-old twins, Gareth and Jenna, were a handful, and any creature lacking a Fluff’s durability couldn’t have withstood their less than gentle affections.

Nevertheless, even the toughest and most resilient Fluffs occasionally needed time off from their responsibilities. Since the weather was good and the Rift was currently in a quiet phase, Jack and his husband had dropped their oldest daughter at a friend’s house, dumped the Holy Terrors on their long-suffering Auntie Rhi, and taken the family Fluffs out to the Brecon Beacons for some fresh air and exercise.

Such trips were a rare pleasure, and all five of them were having a good time. The Fluffs were playing tag around the rocks and bushes in a sheltered valley, rolling in the long grass, nibbling at moss and lichens, and letting the warm breeze run its fingers through their long, thick fur. Jack and Ianto strolled along in their wake, enjoying the break from routine themselves. They were in no hurry; the sun was shining, the blue sky dotted with a few small fleecy white clouds, the sheep of the skies, and the only sounds were skylarks singing high overhead, the burble of a nearby stream, and their own footsteps. The Fluffs were near enough silent except for occasional rustling sounds as they slithered through the undergrowth.

Everything was perfectly peaceful, almost idyllic, until the Fluffs came to an abrupt halt, their games forgotten, all three facing in the same direction, up the slope on their right, ramrod straight like a trio of hunting dogs pointing the way to their quarry. They sensed something humans lacked the empathic ability to detect.

Shedding their earlier lassitude, the two men hurried over to the aliens. Ianto crouched down beside them, addressing Nosy.

“What is it? Is someone in trouble?”

“HUM!” Nosy replied, practically quivering beneath Ianto’s hand, concern radiating from it over their bond.

Jack was already pulling a small tracking device out of his pocket. All Torchwood’s Fluffs were implanted with tracking chips, so they could be easily located, just to be safe. If the existence of Fluffs were ever to become common knowledge, everybody would want one, so it had seemed sensible to take precautions against abduction. Now the chips served a dual purpose, not only protecting the Fluffs, but allowing the humans to follow them more easily on their self-imposed rescue missions.

Ianto straightened up, stepping back, out of the way. “Go! We’ll follow as fast as we can.” Humans were no match for Fluffs when it came to speed, the snakelike aliens were the fastest things on no legs, even over such rough terrain, and they shot away up the slope like fluffy streaks of lightning, or three hairy arrows loosed from a bow. Before the two humans were halfway up the ridge, the Fluffs had already reached the top and were out of sight.

Scrambling up the slope, which grew steeper the higher they went, Jack and Ianto were grateful for the extra stamina their immortality gave them. By the time they reached the ridgetop, they could just see the distant blur of the Fluffs zigzagging their way up the even steeper slope at the far side of the next valley. Thankfully, the slope down into it was a gentler incline, allowing the two men in their sturdy hiking boots to make better speed than they’d managed so far. Reaching the bottom, they sprinted across the valley floor, hurdling the stream that ran along the middle, and already scanning the slope ahead for the best route up.

The Fluffs, according to Jack’s tracking device, had turned left along the ridgetop, so he and Ianto followed at a steady, ground covering jog, a pace they could keep up for miles. One good thing about working for Torchwood: it kept them fit. They followed the ridge for what Ianto estimated to be about three miles before they caught sight of the Fluffs again, halfway down the other side, near a cluster of rocks. Slipping and sliding, Jack and Ianto made their way down to join them.

There, wrapped safely in Nosy’s fluffy coils, was a child, a little boy, perhaps five or six years old, and all alone. Ianto crouched down.

“Well now, what are you doing way out here all by yourself?”

A tear-streaked face looked up at him. “I got lost.”

“How did you manage that?”

“Dunno.” The thin shoulders shrugged. “We were camping. It’s the school holidays, so dad put the big tent in the car and brought us out here. It was fun at first, but then my cousins started being mean. I wanted to go hiking with them and my dad and Uncle Ben, but they said I was too little, that I’d get in the way and spoil everything, and I had to stay at the tent with mum, and Sarah, and Auntie Carole, and my little sister. She’s not quite four, and she cries a lot. It was so boring, there was nothing to do, and nobody wanted to play with me, so when they weren’t looking, I tried to catch up with dad and the others, but I couldn’t find them. I walked and walked, and now I don’t know how to get back…” The boy trailed off, sniffling, and rubbing at his eyes with a grubby hand.

Nosy hummed sympathetically, and the boy smiled.

“I was so scared, but then these furry things found me and made me feel better. They’re nice.”

“Yes they are,” Ianto agreed. “The big one is Nosy, and the two little ones are its babies, Squiggle, and Spot. They’re younger than your sister. It was such a nice day, we decided to bring them out here for a long walk, and it’s a good thing we did. They can feel when somebody’s scared, so they came looking for you, to see if they could help.”

“Do you know where your family set up camp?” Jack asked, crouching down too.

The boy shook his head. “It’s by a stream, near some trees, and I tried to get back there, but I must’ve went the wrong way.”

“Well, don’t worry. We’ll help you find your way back. I’m Ianto, and this is Jack. What’s your name?”

“David, but everyone calls me Davy.”

“I have a nephew called David,” Ianto said, smiling. “He hates people shortening his name.”

“So do I, but no one ever listens to me. They listen to Sarah, because she’s the oldest, and everyone fusses over Jessica because she’s the littlest, but sometimes I think they forget about me.” David rubbed at his eyes again, and Ianto offered him some tissues. “Thank you.” He wiped his eyes and blew his nose. “I shouldn’t really talk to strangers, but you don’t feel like strangers.” He stroked the Fluffs. “They like you. I don’t think they would like bad people.”

“You’re right,” Ianto agreed. “They don’t. They can tell whether people are good or bad, and they’re very choosy about who they’re friends with. They like you.”

“I like them too.” David stroked the Fluffs, who hummed happily.

“Right,” said Jack, straightening up. “We should see about getting you back to your family. They’ll be worried if they can’t find you.”

“I know.” David sighed. “Mum always says I shouldn’t run off, I should’ve listened.” Then, in a small voice, “But I don’t know how to get back!”

“That’s okay,” Ianto assured the child. “The Fluffs will guide us. They’re very clever; they found you.”

David nodded. “Yeah, they did.” He sighed again, such a big sigh for a small boy. “Mum’s going to be so mad at me. So will dad when mum tells him what I did. It’s just not fair they won’t let me go hiking. That said last year I could when I got a bit older, but I’m six now and they still won’t let me.” David stood up and automatically reached for Ianto’s hand. “Robbie’s nine and Greg’s eleven, and they get to go, but they say they don’t want a little kid crying and ruining their fun. But I’m not a little kid, and I don’t cry, not like Jessica does!”

“Hummm,” said Nosy.

“See? Nosy agrees.”

“Parents can be a bit overprotective,” Jack said, smiling sympathetically. “We’re the same way with our own children. But they only want to keep you safe, and there are a lot of ways you can get hurt out here. Your cousins sound annoying though.”

“They are. They think they’re better than me just ‘cause they’re older. They leave me out of everything, and then mum says I should play with Jessica, but she never wants to play at things I like. She only likes her dolls!”

The boy, the two men, and the three Fluffs were all heading down the slope by now, David holding on to both Jack’s and Ianto’s hands while the Fluffs ranged out ahead, picking up the boy’s scent trail and leading the way. Down into the valley they walked, David sometime swinging between the two adults, then across a stream, around a bend, into another, narrower valley that branched off the main one, up another hill, along a ridge, winding among rocks, and down through some trees. It was a fair distance, at least three miles.

They stopped at last, still within the treeline, looking out across a wide, shallow valley. A few hundred yards away were two big tents on a flat area of ground beside a smaller copse of trees, a couple of cars a hundred yards or so beyond them, parked beside a gravel track.

“That’s our camp!” David cried in amazement.

There were people at the camp, two women lounging in deckchairs while a small girl played with her dolls on a blanket spread on the grass. An older girl with sun-streaked blonde hair was sitting on a flat rock, reading a book. She looked to be eleven or twelve.

“Don’t exactly look worried, do they?” Jack commented to Ianto. “Maybe they haven’t noticed David’s missing.”

“They should pay better attention to their kids,” Ianto huffed. “We don’t let ours out of our sight.”

“Might not be such a bad thing this time. If they don’t know David wandered off, he won’t be in trouble. Right, David?”

The boy grinned up at Jack, all freckles and wobbly front tooth. “Yeah!”

“Go on then, but don’t hurry, that’ll just get their attention. And it might be best if you don’t mention the Fluffs. Nobody’s really supposed to know about them; it’s safer for them that way.”

“It’s okay, I won’t say anything, I promise. No one would believe me anyway; I’d just get in trouble for making up stories.” David knelt down and hugged the Fluffs, one at a time. “Thank you for finding me and bringing me back.”

“Hmmmmmm!”

“Thank you too,” he added, looking up at his human rescuers.

“You’re welcome, David.” Jack and Ianto solemnly shook hands with the boy, who stood up straighter, suddenly feeling much more grown up.

“I bet next year they’ll let me go hiking with them.”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Ianto agreed.

“I hope I’ll see you again someday,” David told the Fluffs, hugging them again. “Bye.” Then he turned and ambled out of the trees, trying to pretend that he hadn’t gone anywhere, even though he had.

Jack, Ianto, and the Fluffs watched until the boy settled on a rock by the stream, dropping pebbles into the water, then they slipped quietly away, unnoticed by the campers.

Back at the campsite, David’s mother opened her eyes as he flopped down on the edge of the blanket furthest from his sister. She sighed at his dirty face and hands.

“What have you been up to, Davy?” She studied his dirt-streaked face. “You’re filthy!”

David shrugged. “I was just exploring. There wasn’t anything else to do.”

“Well, as long as you don’t wander off and get lost.”

“Don’t suppose you’d notice even if I did.”

“Davy! What a thing to say! Of course we’d notice!”

He SO wanted to tell them, but he’d sort of promised not to, and he didn’t want to break that promise. Still, with a sudden surge of defiance, he sat up straighter. “I HATE being called Davy. It makes me sound like a little kid. My name’s David.”

His mum chuckled indulgently. “Fine, David it is. You always did have a stubborn streak. You take after your dad.”

“Next time they go off hiking, I’m going with them, and I don’t care what anyone says.”

“We’ll see. They’ll probably be back soon, and they’ll be hungry, so we’d better start thinking about what to feed the hungry horde.” David’s mum stood up and stretched. “Go and wash your hands and face. You look like you’ve been rolling in the dirt.”

“Fine.” David wandered off to get cleaned up, smiling to himself. What an adventure he’d had. This was the best day ever!


The End