cumulus pls

Cumulus stamped her feet impatiently as she stood on her lead, casting grumpy looks towards Halo.

“I know, I know,” Halo soothed. She didn’t exactly want to have to give Cumulus a bath either… but it was hardly her choice, when the little cowcap had decided to go roll around in the regolian enclosure. “But Mom is allergic to those volcanic spores you’re covered in right now, so we can’t take you back to the living quarters until we clean you up, okay?”

Cumulus whined, trying to headbutt Halo’s leg, hoping affection would let her escape this predicament.

Halo barely dodged it - she didn't want to have to wash herself too... "You were naughty, you have to pay the price," she said, sighing as she grabbed the hose. She sometimes wondered why her parents even cultivated volcanic mushrooms with Solaria's allergy, but it wasn't like Solaria ever came into this enclosure. None of their pets or companions were supposed to either... but Cumulus had decided she just had to follow Halo into it today. The enclosure was going to get its own little desert bloom, at this rate.

Cumulus wailed her distress as the hose turned on. Water cascaded over her shroomcap and down her back. Once satisfied her back and top had been rinsed enough, Halo straddled the cowcap and began to point the hose underneath her, to clean her tummy and the insides of her legs.

"You're not getting out till you're clean," she said, sighing as the wailing continued. "Looking cute and crying will not help your cause, Cumulus."

At least Nimbus hadn't followed her into the enclosure. Trying to clean just one of them was nightmare enough - well, in Nimbus' case, the nightmare was mostly from trying to get her out of the water, rather than into it. Halo wasn't sure which of them was worse, though - Cumulus might be bigger, but she mostly just stood there and let things happen even if she cried the whole time. Nimbus... Well, Nimbus was another story entirely.

With the first rinse done, Halo grabbed the soap and began rubbing it onto Cumulus, lathering her up. The wailing from Cumulus did not end, of course, but simply increased in pitch.

"I know, it's really uncomfy," Halo said, pinched by guilt. She knew the soap would be even more uncomfortable for the cowcap than it was even for her, but it was needed for removing the volcanic spores. "I'll get it off quickly, sweetie..."

She grabbed the sprayer immediately after, not even washing her hands off from it, so she could clean Cumulus off first. Her hands itched, but it didn't matter...

Cumulus calmed as the soap was rinsed off, though she didn't stop crying until the water turned off after Halo rinsed her hands off completely.

Halo bundled the cowcap into a big towel and scooped her up. Her arms strained a little with the effort, but she managed to lift her still, and staggered to press the button for the decontamination scan. Once that had cleared, she pressed the button to open the airlock and enter it, and then the button to close that side of the airlock and enter the residential area once more...

Finally free, she set Cumulus down and triggered that airlock shut again. "We need some baby gates or something for you," she sighed to Cumulus. "But that is a later problem, for now let's just lay down..." Bathing a cowcap who didn't want to be bathed was far from an easy task...