Chapter 11 – Down To Business

Outside, the early morning fog was still lingering in the air, and the sun was just barely visible on the horizon in the distant mountains. Shrek and Fiona decided to indulge a little by taking a dip Shrek's parent's mud bath. Both knew that Maria and Cearl wouldn't be up for several more hours. As the stepped in into the hot steaming mud bath, both Shrek and Fiona relaxed. Shrek thought it might be a good idea to be in the mud for only a short time, since both of them left there cloths back at the quest house.

"I feel so bad doing this, but it feels good."

"Nothing to worry about Shrek, I'm sure Maria and Cearl take baths in here all the time with no cloths on. Your family is quite liberal when it comes to showing skin, the other day, I swore I saw your sister Erica laying nude on a hammock outside. If she can do it, we can certainly do what where doing now."

"Yeah, but I'm different, I don't exactly fit the description of beautiful, I can barely stand looking at myself in the mirror, not that any mirror was around long enough to look into. I'm surprised I haven't turned myself into stone yet."

"Shrek, you look fine, others may say otherwise. However, in my eyes, your great just the way you are. Now, where's that wine?"

"Oh, right."

Shrek reached behind and grabbed a bottle of red wine, he looked at the bottle for a moment then opened it with his bare hands. There was several large wine glasses that where nearby. As he poured his wife some wine, he talked about the upcoming roast that was scheduled for tomorrow.

"So what do you think this roast will be like? Sounds like it will be a blast from what I heard in my parents conversations."

"I don't know Shrek, I haven't heard much about it myself. I'm just as curious as you."

"I can't wait to see who's there, I hope some of my old friends from school are attending. It's been years since the last time I saw them."

Time passed quickly in the mud bath, Shrek and Fiona where soaking in the mud longer than expected. They had nothing to do today other than relaxing, Shrek was relaxed enough that he didn't worry about the time. As the couple where both talking, Shrek finally brought up the subject of the dream he had earlier in the night.

"You should have seen the dream I had last night, it was sure... weird."

"Oh? What happened? Nothing bad of course?"

"No, I think it was just my messed up memory acting up again."

Fiona sipped on her glass of wine and looked at Shrek with keen attention.

"Well last night I was just taking a small rest, well actually I fell asleep waiting for you to get out of the shower. Anyways, I was in the main room of the guest house, everything was in it's right place, nothing out of the norm. Then it got really strange, I started to hear voices talking to me. I don't know who it was or why this voice was talking to me."

Shrek stopped talking and thought for a moment on who else he saw in his outlandish dream. As he did, he starred off into nowhere, Fiona was wondering what else her husband saw.

"So what else did you see in your dream?"

"I saw my brother Murdoc."

Fiona surprised at what Shrek said, put her glass of wine aside and said to Shrek,

"Your still having thoughts about what Murdoc said to you that night? Honey, it's pointless trying to convince that cold hearted character what you really think. Just put it out of your mind and move on with other things."

"Well easy for you to say Fiona, this is my brother and I care about him." Shrek took a small sip of his wine. "It's a shame he doesn't feel the same towards me."

"Don't get your mind tied up about it, won't do you any good."

"Yes sweaty, I'm trying to put it out of my mind. The dream however, sure made me think of him. I wonder why he was in my dream? Hmm, well whatever. Nothing to worry about."

"That's the way to think Shrek, the five days we spend here with your family are meant to be a enjoyable. Being with family is supposed to be relaxing."

"Your right Fiona."

Shrek and Fiona sipped on wine in silence for a few minutes, at the same time enjoying the soothing warmth of the mud bath. Shrek finally felt like he was living in the lap of comfort, perhaps the rest of his life would be like this. Shrek drifted away and thought about what the rest of his life would be like.

The wine Fiona consumed seemed to make her a bit restless, only after one glass of wine she began to show her more promiscuous side. She moved in front of Shrek who was daydreaming. Shrek noticing his wife in front of him, came back into reality and looked at Fiona with a puzzled face.

"Fiona?"

Fiona rubbed up against Shrek, she looked into his eyes with a lustful look. Shrek immediately knew what his wife was trying to do.

"Here?"

"Come on, know one's looking."

Shrek looked around the area cautiously making sure nobody was nearby.

"lets get a little naughty." Fiona said with a grin on her face.

Shrek hesitantly accepted his wife's advancements. He took Fiona's hands and lightly lifted her onto his lap. Fiona was not at all nervous, unlike Shrek who was still looking around to see if any one else was nearby. Fiona just smiled and said,

"You worry to much Shrek, loosen up."

Fiona rubbed Shrek's chest and lower body for a while to try and loosen him up a bit. It soon worked, Shrek was blissfully enjoying being fondled by his wife. Fiona however, was just getting started. She put her mud covered arms around Shrek's neck, and then lowered her head to kiss. Shrek and Fiona kissed passionately for several minutes, meanwhile doing there business at the same time.

About twenty minutes later after Shrek and Fiona relieved themselves, both thought it was time to get on with the rest of the day.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" Fiona said with a satisfied voice.

"Haven't had that feeling for a long time, we should do this more often."

Fiona put her hand on Shrek's chest and said,

"We will Shrek, we will."

"I assume your done?" A voice from behind said.

Shrek froze upon hearing the lone voice. He slowly looked up behind himself and saw that it was his mother Maria! The steam from the mud bath cleared, standing beside Maria was Cearl. Shrek was indeed in a very awkward position, he looked at Fiona for a moment, then quickly pushed her off his lap. Shrek looked behind himself again, With a slight embarrassed grin on his face he said,

"Mom! Dad... when did you get here?"

"Oh, well, a little while ago. Cearl and I didn't want to interrupt anything, so we just stayed on the sideline until you where finished."

"That's comforting to know." Shrek said with a exaggerated voice. "You could have at least said you where here!"

"What where we supposed to do? Just barge in on your privacy?"

Shrek didn't know what to say in reply.

"Well" Can we come in?"

Shrek just rolled his eyes and shook his head in unbelief. He was dumbfounded to how his parents could stand around while him and Fiona made love.

"Ok? It's fine to come in Shrek?"

"Yes..."

"Ok Tayer, Erica, Dorhal and Peter! It's alright to come in now!"

Shrek's eye's grew in horror. Just to add to the already embarrassing situation, his brothers and sisters where nearby as well. "This must be just another bad dream I'm having, I can't believe this is happening." Shrek said in his mind. He didn't bother trying to say anything to his parents or the other ogres about how he felt of them intruding on him and his wife's privacy, seeing how it wouldn't do any good. Shrek looked at Fiona with a confused face, she didn't appear to be at all embarrassed at what just happened. He would soon learn that the wine was influencing some of her moves and thoughts.

Maria and the other ogres began to take off all their cloths. Shrek was shocked at his parents and siblings carefree actions. Shrek however, could only sit back and helplessly watch. He put his hand over his face to hide his embarrassment, his face almost red. Shrek was almost ready to cry in frustration. Maria, Cearl, Tayer, Erica, Dorhal and Peter climbed into the hot mud bath.

"Ahhhhhh, so nice to be in the old mud bath."Cearl said as he relaxed.

Tayer and his sister Erica sat directly across from Shrek and Fiona, Maria was sitting to the Right of Shrek, While Cearl, Dorhal and Peter sat to the left of Fiona. Tayer brought along several large extravagant bottle of wine to consume. The bottles where sent around the group for each to drink out of, since there where no glasses to drink from.

"So Fiona, how's life treating you?"

"Nothing much Maria..." Fiona took a large gulp of her wine. "A little eating here, a little sex there..."

"Fiona!" Shrek said as he lightly poked her in the side.

"Why lie? We just did it a few moments ago."

Shrek knew that the wine was talking.

"That's nice to know, Cearl and I used to do it all the time in this mud bath-"

"I really didn't need to hear that!" Shrek interrupted.

"My son is just happy everyone." Maria stretched her left arm around Shrek's waist and tugged him towards her lightly. "My little baby is all grown up, finally going to have some new grand children I hope!"

Shrek didn't find it very comforting being rubbed up against his naked mother.

"Please mom."

"What? Hey Tayer! pass over some of that wine!"

Tayer reached behind and grabbed a bottle of wine that was near Erica. "here ya go, enjoy!" Tayer tossed the bottle over to Maria, but the bottle fell short of Maria hands and landed into the hot mud.

"There goes another one, I wonder where all those bottles go to? Oh well, Tayer, again?"

Tayer grabbed another bottle and tossed it over to Maria, this time she caught.

"How about the wine Fiona?"

"Just fine Maria, my fifth glass already!" Fiona said with a slight intoxicated voice.

"Well have as much as you want, we have lot's of it."

Shrek was tempted to poke his mother in the side for encouraging his wife to drink more wine. He already saw that it was making her act foolish.

Fiona, Maria and the rest of the family continued to talk about wine and their love lives. Shrek was not at all happy about this, he tapped his fingers on the side of the mud bath and pretended that he wasn't listening.

"Ohhh great, here we go again."

The group stopped talking and looked at Shrek.

"If I distinctly remember one thing about living here, is that I would often bring home an ogress over for the night and we would end up here! Sitting in the mud bath talking about wine and sex."

"Come on Shrek, join in the conversation!"

Shrek seeing how it wouldn't make any difference whether he resisted or not joined in the conversation the group was having. After several chugs of wine and a few jokes let loose, Shrek was soon almost as silly as his wife Fiona. Shrek put his arms around his wife's side and laughed his head off as he listened to Tayer's many adventures gone bad, and Cearl's experiences serving in the army.

"So this kid comes up to me and says "Ewe! An ugly ogre!" and I say to him in reply, "I hate to burst your bubble kid, but your going to be just like me when you grow up" His eyes grew in horror. He ran away screaming, I never seen a human ran so fast, heh heh."

The group began to laughed uncontrollably at Cearl's story. Shrek was almost in tears as he joined in the laughing

"Your so funny dad, you know, I never actually thought that I would be back here again exchanging old jokes and stories again. Reminds me of the old days when I was younger."

"Well son, history has a funny way of repeating itself, here we are again doing what ogre's do best – have fun, drinking wine, and making love!"

The rest of the family raised there glasses to Cearl's comment and said all at once,

"Agreed!"

Laughter broke out again.

"Sir, there is someone here to see you."

The family stopped laughing and looked towards the voice. Cearl looked behind, it was Mugo, the resident ogre servant.

"Oh, hi Mugo! Who's here?"

"They're the parents of Lorian sir, they want to speak with you."

"Ok, well..."

Cearl reached over to a dial that controlled the mud bath's heat, he tuned the dial to a considerable level. At once the mud bath gave a loud belch sound and bubbles started to rise up to the surface. The temperature of the mud quickly rose. Cearl looked back again and said to Mugo with a slight chuckle,

"Just tell them that we'll be ready in twenty minutes."

The family again burst into uncontrollable laughter, even Mugo who was not very easily humored couldn't help giggle a bit.

Maria's family, including Shrek and Fiona left the mud bath to attend to other matters. Cearl and Maria went over into the main living room inside the main house tom see what Lorian's parents wanted. When Maria saw the sad face of Amira, Lorian's mother, she knew that something terrible had happened.

"Hello Amira and, what is your reason for coming over."

Amira was about to say something, but her husband Zelig murmured something in her ear then said to Cearl and Maria in a serious voice,

"My wife and I have come here to tell you something... I'm afraid we have some bad news on your son Murdoc."

Maria and Cearl looked at each other with deep concern.

"We think Murdoc has ran away. We also have reason to suspect that he might have taken our son Lorian with him as well."

Maria and Cearl sat in silence for a short period. Both of them knew that their son might do something like this when he'd grow up. Maria broke the silence.

"That's to bad, we where hoping that something like this wouldn't happen. My husband and I aren't really surprised that this would happen. It was in the back of our minds for a long time, I guess we never acted soon enough. I'm sorry that Murdoc had to drag your son into this."

"No it's not your fault Maria; Cearl, I always told Lorian to be cautious of Murdoc. Both my husband and I knew that there was something suspicious about Murdoc. Lorian I guess, didn't see any thing wrong about his good friend until it was too late."

"Hmm, Amira how do you know that Murdoc and Lorian ran away?"

"For one thing, we never heard from our son after he went to Murdoc's a few days ago. And when we went over to see what Lorian was doing at his friend's, we found the place abandoned."

"Sounds like something Murdoc would do, well Zelig and Amira is there anything we can do to ease your pain?"

"Not really, all you can do is contact any of Murdoc's other friends and see if they would know where Murdoc might be heading."

"Knowing that Murdoc doesn't have many friends, it may be a dry well Amira, but we'll look into it."

Amira was almost in tears about her missing son when she said,

"Thanks you two, it's nice to see someone care enough to help us out."

"Whatever helps, Amira and Zelig. Remember, we're always here to help and comfort. If you need someone to talk to, just come over anytime and we'll talk. Or stay over night if you need to, even if it's in the middle of the night feel free to enter."

Amira wiped her tears and said, "Thanks Maria, Cearl." Amira and Zelig got up and left the living room to leave. Cearl and Maria sat in silence for a while thinking deeply about what just happened.

"Look, Maria we'll have to tell the rest of our family."

"I agree with you Cearl, however we shouldn't tell Shrek just yet. I don't want him to feel like he is responsible for Murdoc's disappearance. Let's tell Shrek after the roast is over and once he has left."

"Sounds good honey, look get the rest of the children together. I'll break the news to them and make sure they don't tell Shrek."

Several hours later Cearl and Maria gathered most of the family together in the main living room. She made sure that each family member except Shrek was informed that a family meeting was in the works. At the small family meeting inside the main living room, Maria gave a more detailed explanation of what was going on.

"Thanks for taking time out of your busy lives."

There was a mild chuckle that followed.

"Anyways, we seem to have lost another family member."

The room fell silent.

"Murdoc appears to have ran away, I got word of it about three hours ago from Lorian's parents."

"Murdoc left? To where?"

"We don't know Tayer, he may have fled to Paris."

"Paris? Why would Murdoc go there?" Tayer interrupted again.

"Well Cearl and I searched the inside of Murdoc's house and found papers describing a place in Paris. It might be one of his friends or not, we don't know."

"We'll have to Shrek as soon as-"

"No, Tayer. We must keep this as secret as possible until after the roast, once Shrek is more relaxed. I don't want to make him feel like he is responsible. It was bad enough that his brother gave him a hard time for coming back home."

The rest of the family agreed and nodded their heads in agreement.

"And I have some more bad news, Erica I'm sorry you have to hear this. Murdoc appears to have taken Lorian with him as well."

Erica's face immediately turned to shock.

"Gone! No... But how? What did he do?"

"I'm afraid I don't have those answers Erica. Look, Cearl and I will try our best to find Lorian and Murdoc as soon as possible."

There was a short pause.

"In the meantime, we have to get down to business."

Cearl decided that it might be a good idea to just move on with the roast.

"Look everyone, we'll move on with our plans, the roast will happen and Shrek and Fiona will have a fun time. No dark clouds are going to hang over this special occasion. Now my wife and I are going to call all the attendees again. Maybe it won't rain again this time."

Maria and Cearl started to leave, so did the rest of the family that attended the family meeting. Tayer still had one question in the back of his mind.

"I do have one question Maria."

Maria and Cearl stopped and looked at Tayer.

"How are we going to tell Shrek about this?"

"I don't know Tayer, we'll cross that bridge when that time comes. We have to wait for the perfect moment ok?"

Maria's family left the main living room to put the finishing touches on the roast before six pm when the dinner started. Many of the family members who where at the family meeting where left wondering what would become of Murdoc and his good friend Lorian. Erica was especially impacted by the announcement of her boyfriend leaving with Murdoc. Maria took her to another room and tried to comfort her.

"I'm sorry about this Erica, I don't know why Lorian would just leave without telling you. To tell you the truth I'm very angry at Murdoc for dragging Lorian into this."

"There's no point in crying over it, I know. Sigh, I'll just have to get another friend I guess."

Maria put her hand on Erica's left shoulder and said with a slight smile,

"Sure, I'll help you, I know a few fellows who are looking your way."

Maria and Erica left the room, as they did, both talked about possible relationships.

Most of what was needed for the roast was already in place; the guest where called, tables and chairs together, entertainment lined up and a big surprise for Shrek was ready. This was going to be a night to remember.