Mad Dog's Blessing
"Quinn got knocked up again?" Elsie drawled in her smokers voice as she sculpted her latest sculpture.
"Yup." Daria drawled in her monotone as she contemplated a couple plotbunnies for a story.
"So what'd your parents say?"
Daria laughed, "Come on Elsie, you know my parents."
Elsie snickered, "I was kidding. I know that the reason the elder Morgendorffer's aren't jet setters is because they're too damn lazy to get off the couch."
Daria laughed, "True that, I'm just thankful that Mad Dog had all that money stashed away. Otherwise we'd be in the poor house."
"Any idea where he got it from?" Elsie asked.
Daria winced, "Family secret."
"Oh come on," Elsie replied, "It can't be that bad."
Daria winced again.
Jungles of Vietnam, 1970
Sergeant Nathaniel Winston Morgendorffer smirked at his dead comrades as their blood flowed on the altar.
"Sorry boys," He sneered, "But the legends were clear, many could enter the Temple of the Dying, but only one could leave alive."
His gaze fell on the last one to croak as the magic began to activate, "Sorry Perkins, but you're gal and baby will have to fend for themselves."
Then the weird idol began to glow and Mad Dog readied himself to get the blessing of the Lost Gods.
Present
After getting Elsie to focus on another topic, Daria did her best to forget what her Grandfather had told her had happened in that terrible place.
Much less what it meant for her family.
"Since my worthless boy couldn't even father a son, after I die you gals will feel compelled to sleep around until you get pregnant with a boy." Mad Dog's voice echoed in her mind.
Daria suppressed a shiver, but she took comfort in the fact that she had been favored enough by the old bastard to be given a reprieve.
Instead Quinn would feel the compulsion two-fold, but so far all she had had were miscarried girls.
"But one of the boys at school will father a boy on her eventually." Daria contemplated darkly, "And when that happens the real blessing will kick in."
The baby would grow up, but wouldn't really be the son of Quinn and whoever wound up being the sperm donor.
It would be Mad Dog reborn, with all his memories intact.
"The money he made from all the gold and jewels in that Temple were just a side benefit." Daria reminded herself even as she played with her Rolex.
But the money had made her father into a worthless playboy who had only married Helen Barksdale because he had knocked her up and her family connections were too strong to risk offending them.
Daria smirked as she scribbled down another idea for her Agent Song series, knowing that whatever else happened that Mad Dog would one day return.
"And he'll have a favorite Auntie to help him." Daria whispered to herself.
"What?" Elsie asked as she put a finishing touch on her project.
"Nothing." Daria replied, continuing to write away.