Due, in part, to the weather, and general home-life, the two weeks that followed her fader's brief conversation with the alien man were slow for her and her family. Along with heavy rain falling on the secondth, third, and fourth, and decent weather being experienced on the fifth and sixth, they experienced near thirty-two degree Celsius temperatures on the seventh, ninth, eleventh, and fourteenth. She and her sister were allowed to go out on the fifth and sixth; after that, they were house-bound.
While her sister kept herself busy with helping their mutter around the house, and with the huge make-up kit that she got from their parents on her birthday, she "reverted" to her old habit of looking at the old Kaufer house. Her fader came close to grounding her on the eighth of May—upon coming home from work, he found her staring out the living room window in the direction of the neighboring house. A big lecture on why one didn't stare at others was given, then a threat of "three months in the hole" was given, then she was sent to her room. Another lecture, this one coming from her mutter, was given on the twelfth; like her fader, her mutter found her staring at the old Kaufer house after coming in from work. A dual lecture happened the following day—after discovering that she was staring at the house again, her fader made the decision that both he and her mutter were needed to get her straight.
Even though she could of pointed out the fact that her mutter was doing the same as she—whenever she went into the kitchen, she'd find her staring out the window that was over the sink; her mutter seemed to also be making a habit out of "cleaning" the window that was both on the far side of the living room and looked out on the neighbor's house almost daily now—she hadn't. She would of been grounded if she said anything on them two facts. She decided to give her habit of staring at the house a break after that lecture was given.
Even though it was abnormally cool for that time of year, the sixteenth of May started out beautifully. After doing her usual, she went across the street to Kirstin's place. Her fader, who had only just gotten up from a nap, gave her his blessing in doing this; he watched as she went across the street then, after she entered the house that the Abbing's lived in, he turned then went into their own.
"Hey, Kirstin," she said after being led to where her friend was.
"Hey, Petra." Kirstin Abbing, who was seated on the living room's navy blue velvet sofa, said.
The black-haired, blue-eyed girl, that she went to see, was one of her oldest kept friends. Their friendship began soon after she and her family moved to the neighborhood; a small conversation at their old school, and the exchange of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a ham and cheese sandwich, was what started it.
The Abbing house had just one working parent in it—Kirstin's dat, Benedikt, worked in the city of Karlsruhe as a lawyer. He made good money, and he treated his family well; the man, though big in girth, and tall in stature, was just as gentle as a teddy bear. He got along with just about everyone—Luther Kaufer, one of the people who use to own the house that the Irene's lived in, was the only man that she saw him have it out with. Mr. Abbing was currently at home; he was re-taking his seat on the room's matching armchair. Once he was seated, he grabbed and then opened the morning newspaper.
She had to bite her tongue to not ask the man the question that she wanted to ask. Mr. Abbing had an "encounter" with the alien man two days ago. From what she was able to gather, the man was coming back from a run up the street; Mr. Abbing, after getting his attention, had conversed with him for about five minutes before going to his house. Mrs. Abbing had an "encounter' with one of the extras that were living in the Irene house too—just that morning, when the girl alien was spotted as taking a walk around the Irenes' front yard, she went over to say hello. The girl and Mrs. Abbing spoke for maybe three minutes before going their separate ways—she wondered if they had a pleasant conversation, or if something happened to make their talk so short.
She sat beside her friend, who was sifting through the many magazines that were on the room's glass coffee table, which was held up by a very highly detailed, cute as can be, brown bear cub. She let her friend do as she was for a few seconds before talking to her.
"First real day of the month that the sky's not fallen, or the ground's not cracked open, or it's not too cold." she said.
"Hope that when the weather shapes up, we can have a decent stretch of warm weather. No cold, no heat, just good, warm weather." Kirstin returned.
"For six months." she said.
"A year would be better preferred." Kirstin stopped what she was doing to turn and then give her a wink. She returned to sifting through the magazines after winking her eye.
"Being a bit rude this morning, aren't we?" Benedikt Abbing said from behind the paper.
"No, not trying to be." Kirstin replied.
"You have a friend over, why not forget them magazines and talk to her?" Benedikt Abbing suggested. "Or go up to your room, or call some of your other friends over. Go into town or something."
"K,"
Her friend stood to her full height of five foot, three inches then gestured for her to follow her. She, at once, knew that something was amiss and that Kirstin was only looking for a way to get away from her fader. Kirstin led her down the blue-carpeted hallway, then to the blue-carpeted stairs, then down the second level's hallway, which had the same colored carpet on it, before stopping before the door that went to her bedroom. After opening the door, she went into the room; she followed her then closed the door behind them. Kirstin automatically sighed, then leaned against the room's sky blue bookcase.
"Was hoping that he'd get up then leave so I could talk to you in private." Kirstin said. "My vati's been keeping close tabs on me for nearly a month now and I'm about sick of it."
"That bad?" Petra asked.
"Yeah. He's been Mighty Vati ever since that alien dude's been seen in the neighborhood."
"My dat talked to him at the start of the month. He said that he didn't sound bad. Just relu—"
"Reluctant to talk? Yeah, that's what my vati said too. My vati talked to that guy two days ago; he said that he seemed to not want to talk to him... and that he's concerned for Miss. Irene." Kirstin said.
"Con... why? Why's he concerned for Miss. Irene?" Petra asked.
Kirstin looked at her friend before going towards her bedroom door. The dial, that was on the knob, was twisted; what she had to tell her friend didn't need to be heard by anyone else—not her vati, who, she hoped, was still in the living room, reading his newspaper; or her mummy, who was outside, hanging laundry on the line that was in the backyard; and especially not her overly nosey baby bruder, who was being nothing more than a fussy tot that morning. After locking the door, Kirstin led her friend to her bed; once Petra was seated, she started telling her what she overheard.
Her vati worked anywhere between eight and eleven hours a day. The fourteenth of May was a normal, eight-hour workday for him so, after clocking out, then getting into his car, he wasted no time in driving home. Her vati claimed to of jumped clean from the seat that he was sitting on when he saw the alien man running up the street that their house was on. With the temperature being what it was, most everyone was inside their homes. No one was willing to do much of anything that day, so it was a surprise to see the alien running up the street. Her vati drove the rest of the way home, then parked his car, then did nothing but sit there until seeing the alien man again. She was in the living room at the time, so she was able to see him tearing out of his car and then go towards him. The two did nothing but stand by the Irenes' driveway; for all of five minutes, they talked. By the time her vati came in, he was drenched in sweat... he also had a rather confused and alarmed look on his face.
"I don't know if it was the heat, or the fact of his being new here, or if he's afraid of losing someone or something, Beate, but he seems to have quite a contrasting personality." her vati said about an hour after coming in. After coming in, he went up to his and her mummy's bedroom; his sweaty suit and other items were removed then he got in the shower. After putting on a pair of normal jeans, and a white t-shirt, he came down to say hello to her, Burke, and her mummy. After he said hello to everyone, he took her mummy by the arm then led her to the basement; she eavesdropped on them by standing by the door that went to the room that they were in. "He said something about his just returning from doing some sort of business on some planet called Motalini—something about just returning from having a hearing in some court with his nephew. Even after telling him what I do for a living, he wouldn't say anything on what that business was."
"It's possible that he's just wary of you—neither of you have seen or spoken to one another before." her mummy said.
"While he wouldn't emphasize what his business on Motalini was, he did say that he had no trouble in getting into the shield that surrounds our town." her vati said. "The fact that he said something about owning several galaxies doesn't settle well with me."
"Come again?"
"He said that he owns three galaxies. He also said that he's left the shield to conduct certain, undisclosed business on them for the last few weeks." her vati said. "His tone changed after I mentioned something about Miss. Irene. He didn't so much as bark at me for calling her Miss but he did get a heated tone to his voice. He left soon after I said what I did on her."
"What'd you say on her?"
"Nothing more than she's a nice, well-composed, smart, and beautiful woman."
"Maybe he saw what you said in a wrong way."
"A normal man wouldn't get stone-like in the face after hearing a neighbor speak truth of his wife." her vati said. "Before he left to go inside, he said something about his being married to our neighbor."
"New marriage jitters? You had them for the first few weeks of our marriage, remember."
"I don't know, Beate. To me, he seems to be of the friendly sort when Miss. Irene's not spoken of. Once she, or anything about her, is mentioned, he gets... snappy, or possessive. I worry about what's going on in the Irene home, and about our heroine and her sons. Possessive men are notoriously famous for being abusive, I'd rather not see our neighbor, or any of her sons, walking around with bruises on their bodies."
Her mummy, who had a previous history with possessive men, had started to worry about their neighbor right after speaking with her vati. The man that she dated before meeting, dating, and then marrying her vati was very possessive of her; from what she told her, this man followed her all over the place, had insisted on her dropping certain family members and friends, and had insisted on her answering her cellular phone whenever he called her. On two of the four times that she didn't answer his calls, he beat her; it took the combined efforts of her parents to get rid of him. Her mummy's left eyelid drooped and she couldn't carry or bend her right arm like a normal person could thanks to that man.
Her mummy's conversation with the alien girl wasn't bad. The girl, according to her mummy, was very polite and pleasant. The only thing that she held against her was the fact that she seemed rather nervous or shy around her. Her mummy also took note of now "exquisite" the girl's clothing and jewelry were—it was an automatic deduction that the girl's vati was very well off money-wise... this deduction was adding more fuel to her parents' concern for their neighbor. Men who were rich, or well to-do cash-wise, were notoriously famous for being abusive. She had seen the programs on tv about how a rich, or well-off, man would beat his spouse and then try the sweet routine in getting her an expensive gift as a way to make it be "forgotten".
"As far as I can tell, Miss. Irene's still leaving the house. My mum saw her at U-Krop-It a few days ago; she said that she looked in good health." Petra said after being given the scoop on how her friend's parents were concerned for their neighbor.
"My mummy saw her yesterday as well. She went to the store to see if she was still working there, and to see how she was getting around." Kirstin said. "She said that she saw a burn mark on two of her fingers."
"Maybe she got it from working the stove? I got a steam burn on my hand from taking the noodles from the stove last week." Petra said, she then held her left hand up. True to her words, there was a burn area on her hand, right between her thumb and index finger. There were two, popped and scabbed-over blisters on the same area. "Burns are slow to heal."
"My mummy got real close to Miss. Irene after seeing them. She says that they look new—as in, twenty-four hours old."
As the two girls were talking about her and her husband, she was dealing with an issue that she started treating on the twenty-eighth of February. Of the forty-eight marks that Guyunis received on that fate-filled day, all but eight had healed; these unhealed marks required constant medical care, which they were about to get. After hearing Bile's request to do the wound treating in the dining room, then seeing that Guyunis agreed with it, she led them to the room then went to retrieve what was needed to tend their wounds with. Once everything was retrieved, and she was before the younger of the two boys, she started the slow removal of the bandaging that was around his upper torso. As usual, she retained the urge to wince after the first of the eight lashes were unveiled.
"He's lucky to of not gotten a nasty infection after these were given to him." Angel thought while removing her son's wrapping.
While she was happy to see that her son was still healthy, she was annoyed over his having the marks on his body. She didn't place blame on Guyunis for his destroyed back; the same went with Bile, who was there to see him receive these horrid marks. Guyunis didn't deserve the ruin that was his back—on the day that he received these marks, he was doing nothing but having a foot-race with Bile. After losing to his brother by a slim margin, then getting some of his wind back, he found himself as having to fight the very man who was behind his creation. If not for ShaamVile Kondee Surfeit, her son's back wouldn't look the way it did.
By way of using her Healing abilities, she had made it possible for her son's normal-given lashes to leave behind smaller, or thinner than usual, scars. Nothing on her part was going to make the scars, that were left behind by the eight remaining lashes, to be less severe.
"Hold very still, G." Angel said after coming upon a section of bandaging that was stuck to one of her son's gashes.
Her instruction was no more made before she wished she could take it away. With what she was seeing, she knew that his doing her command was going to be next to impossible so, when he stiffened up, then pulled himself forward after she started to remove the bandage that forged itself to one of his injuries, she didn't snap at him. She was slow in taking the bandage from the wound; after it was off, both she and her son sighed. Upon examining the wound after the bandage was removed from it, she fought to suppress the curse that wanted to come out.
The last wrap of bandaging hadn't done its job in protecting her son's back. Sadly, her son's luck had run out on his not getting any infections. From what should could see, he had more than two infections going on.
With her son's skin being as black as it was, one would have to look hard at him to see if he was blushing or bruised. Despite this, she didn't have to look hard to see the discolored flesh that was around the eight gashes or the infection that had formed on two of them. The burned skin, that was around the gashes, was a medium-red color; the gash, that ran across the back of her son's shoulders, then went down to nearly the middle of his back, had a yellowish look to it while the one that ran on a slant—from his right shoulder on down to the left side of the back of his rib cage—had a solid white scab on it that was peeling away in several places. Both of these gashes had a foul odor to them that she was quick to note. She had only to look at the oozing, yellowish liquid that was coming from the second one to know that it was badly infected. She shook her head while suppressing the urge to get real rip-roaring mad at the man who caused this to happen to her sweet boy then set to work in trying to help her son.
"Ouch!" Guyunis exclaimed.
"They that sore?" Angel asked her son. She had merely touched the first of the two infected marks; for him to flinch, and then voice his pain, only emphasized how infected they were.
"Yeah," Guyunis breathed.
While Guyunis was seated before her, Bile was seated across from her. From the beginning of their getting their injuries, she put herself on a schedule on how to treat them. Both were on a twice daily de-wrapping, examining, medicating, and then re-wrapping schedule; if either of them had expressed a wish for her to take them to a doctor, or the hospital, she would of done so with no lip or tear. Both of their injuries were bad enough to warrant a trip to one or the other. Instead of being asked to be taken to one of them medical professionals, her sons were insistent on her being the one to treat their injuries. As of the last near-month, she was doing the doctor-nurse routine on her sons upstairs. Either in her room or in one of theirs. If not for Bile's request, and then Guyunis agreeing with it, she'd be treating them up there now.
Except for Tazir, who was in the basement, collecting the laundry, everyone was upstairs. In a room. Doing what they and only they knew.
"They weren't like this yesterday." Angel thought while taking the used bandaging to the trash.
A rocket scientist wasn't needed to tell her that her son's marks became infected during the night hours. Her son had probably done a lot of sweating while he slept, which caused the two wounds to become infected. She was surprised that he didn't wake up complaining of fatigue, or about having a headache, and she was really surprised that he didn't wake up screaming.
"Think, for the next few days, you need to stay inside." she said as she carefully peeled the more infected mark's scab off. She was quick in grabbing the sponge that was on her lap after most of the scab was removed; she used it to catch the liquid discharge, that was coming from the newly opened wound. "You have a few things to keep you busy, right?"
"Yeah. Go-k-t two models to do—one of a 1912 Henderson, and the other of a WWII German BMW R75 mo-k-torcycle. The lat-k-ter comes with a sidecar, mum." her son replied.
"Got enough paints and glue to do them with?" she asked.
"Uh..." her son looked at the ceiling for a second. "No. Maybe for one, no-k-t for both."
"Didn't you just get a new thing of model paints and glue?" Bile asked. "You bought, like, four models on the fifth. Could of swore that I saw you coming in with a box of fresh paints and glue as well."
"Three, Bile." Guyunis corrected his brother. "The model of the mu-k-tated mummy took most of my new stock."
"If everything's cool on me, I'm willing to go and get him some paint. The paint's all you need, right?"
"Right, I'm all good on the glue. Jus-k-t need more paint."
"Think you need to stay in as well, Bile. Judging by the clouds that're coming in, we'll be getting some rain here in the next hour to two hours time." Angel said. "I'm going into town right after finishing up with you two. I'll be more than happy to get him his paint, and anything else that'll keep him preoccupied."
"C-can you get two discs of music for me too, mum?" Guyunis asked. "There's two bands t-k-hat I like and that I'd like some music by."
"Don't see why I can't." Angel replied. "What're their names?"
"Hellyeah and Airbourne."
"Dude! You best be expecting for me to play steal on the latter band if she gets you any music by them." Bile exclaimed. "I've been looking for some music by them for weeks now. None of the stores that I've gone into have anything by them."
"Is Airbourne a new band, or one of them bands that's just hard to find anything by?" Angel asked.
"According to Aubin, they formed in 2003. He says that they were right popular back then; they must still be pretty popular—all of the stores that I've gone into have a slot with their name on it but there's no music available by them to purchase." Bile responded.
"They sound like AC/DC, mum." Guyunis said.
"I'll see what I can do on finding and then getting something by that band for you two then." Angel said.
The two wounds were stripped of their scabs, then given a full examining, before she decided to give her Healing abilities a try. Quite surprisingly, even after two dozen healing sessions with her powers, the eight lashes hadn't healed or become less severe. It was just the same with Bile, who had a nine-inch long gash that went on a slant, from his right shoulder on down to the center of his chest then on down to the left side of his upper stomach region; her healing abilities were just not helping her sons in either feeling better or not being injured anymore. Even after trying Water Healing, Fire Healing, Smoke Healing—an ability that she learned via the scrolls that she received from a friend of hers over two thousand years ago—, and a form of Ground Healing—an ability that she wasn't really as adept in using—, their injuries had remained.
She told her son to sit as still as he could before getting to her feet. Her hand was set ablaze a second later. She was fast in dousing the flame, and in using the smoke that was billowing up from her unscathed skin. She was just starting to move the smoke that she was using back and forth, over the still-injured part of her son's back, when her husband came up from the basement. Even though she noticed him, she didn't acknowledge him. She had more important matters to take care of. Saying hello to him could wait until she was done in doing this little used and nearly forgotten ability of hers. Tazir, non-surprisingly, placed the basket of clothing down then walked over to see what she was doing.
"Nothin'," she thought. She had spent the better part of five minutes using her Smoke Healing ability and not a bit of the eight gashes were healed. After that failure, she decided to go on and try another of her healing abilities—who knew, maybe Smoke Healing was a nearly forgotten maneuver for a reason. Maybe it wasn't as strong as the other known and used healing abilities or, maybe, it was dope in comparison to them. She had just turned to go in the direction of the kitchen when she saw that Tazir was no longer "a distance" from Guyunis. Tazir, her ever handsome Universal Husband, was practically standing beside her adopted son... and Guyunis knew that he was as close as he was.
"Have any tubes or containers of Niglosen in this place?" her husband asked her.
"No," she replied. Niglosen was a form of antiseptic lotion that was a dark green color. While said to be a fast-acting medicine, and to cull down on infections setting in, it stung like hell after being applied to a wound.
"No Terminshol either?"
"No," Terminshol was said to be another fast-acting medicine; along with being a near-black color, and having a foul odor to it, it also stung like hell after being applied to a wound.
"One or the other would of helped with these," TazirVile said. His hand came deathly close to her son's back; Guyunis was quick to both turn towards and hiss at him.
Guyunis, despite still being wary of her husband, and Eshal, was now coming out from his room. He was also mingling in with the family more often. As of the last five days, he was emitting a low or barely audible growl or hiss whenever her husband came near him—she didn't know if she should laugh or chide him for this; at the moment, she was letting him do it. Least he was expressing himself with the man instead of doing his best to stay clear or tip-toe around him. Whenever Eshal came near him, he didn't growl or hiss at her; he just moved away from her.
The hiss that her son just issued wasn't barely audible. She, Tazir, and Bile heard it loud and clear.
"G, stop that now. Don't think he's trying to hurt you." Angel said.
"Go away!" Guyunis said to her husband.
"Guyunis!"
"What! He's one of them tha-k-t saw this—" her son gestured at his back. "—happen. Knowing him, he had a cheap thrill from seeing-k it happen. Probably go-k-t a good rise from it too."
"Guyunis!" Angel exclaimed.
"Au contraire, I wasn't a spectator to what happened between you and your father. I was busy with getting your brother under control." TazirVile said. Although he sounded pleasant, she knew that Guyunis's words had struck a deep, inner chord with him. "I honestly wanted nothing to do with it; I was just there to retrieve Bile."
"Sure you was." Guyunis said sharply.
He bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood; if not for his wife being in the room, and his knowing that he deserved what was coming from the kid's mouth, he would of given Guyunis a good piece of his mind. The event of what happened on that final day of February wasn't one of them things that one could forget in the blink of an eye. As much as he hated to admit it, he was involved in what happened and, thanks to that, he wasn't regarded well by the boy who was viciously treated. He knew that he was getting a good dose of the youngster's naturally gotten distrust.
The boy's back reminded him of his and his wife's own. Scar city. His grandfather had placed forty normal lashes to that young back before giving eight more. The whip was used normally for the first forty then it was set on fire for the remaining eight—thus the reason behind the burned outer edges of the ones that had yet to heal. While he was curious over the move that his wife was doing to heal Guyunis's back—he had never seen or heard of it before and his wife had surely not said a thing on being able to do it—, his curiosity over how bad the boy's back looked was higher. His stomach went just as cold as ice after he saw the kid's back; mental images of he, as a young teenager, getting lash marks to his body, and of his wife's very badly scarred over back, had happened right after he saw the state of Guyunis's back.
He moved away from the boy then went to retrieve the basket of clothing. Only after grabbing the basket, then leaving the kitchen, did he stop to tell his wife that he'd place Guyunis's clothes in her room—that way Guyunis wouldn't start accusing or grow even more distrustful of him. His wife was told to not come in to work that day; the human that she regarded as her boss had called to tell her to take the next two days off. She had worked too many hours over the last nine months and was required to take a few-day vacation—which he was glad for her to be having.
"Along with being asked to do a double shift on the fourteenth and yesterday, she came home with a very sore set of feet and being very tired." he thought while going up the stairs.
It was no surprise to him that, when he was rubbing her feet on the day of her initial double shift, she fell asleep on him. The same went when he found that she burned two of her fingers on the morning following her second overtime. With these two events being known to him, he was hoping that the next five months went by swiftly—get her on Moas and she won't ever have to worry about having to go off to work again.
After reaching the residence's second level, he did as he told his wife he would in putting Guyunis's clothes in her room. With the basket being empty of the six pairs of pants and socks, that were owned by that young man, he went to give the remaining clothes to his secondborn son. Of the ones in the house, only Eshal, Bile, Lhaklar, and Lazeer had gone down to retrieve their clothes; Guyunis and Hazaar were the only ones to not do so.
Thanks to his use of his Telepathy on the fifth of May, he was able to see who slept in what room of the house's second level. This knowledge caused him to not go from room to room, asking who owned what or where his secondborn's room was. Once before the room that was across from the one that was owned by Guyunis, he stretched his hand forward to knock.
"Take it that this emphasizes his personality." he thought after looking at the sign that was on the door.
The sign was one of them aluminum types. It had a No Trespassing slogan on it; below the slogan was a very on-guard Doomonshur Stanture—to the humans, the breed was called the Doberman Pincher; to the contrary belief, it wasn't an Earth-bred dog. The "Doberman Pincher" had come from the planet Doomonshur, which it got its name from. Like with so many other things that the humans were able to acquire over the last three thousand years, a craft was felled and then captured; on it were forty of the Doomonshur Stanture—the humans took all of the survivors after finding them in that craft then, after years of breeding and then giving it a new name, they started distributing them as a guard dog and pet to the populace.
Non-surprisingly, there was a slogan below the dog. It said Attack Dog on Premises.
He was exhibiting a side of him that became embedded in him during his early childhood when he knocked on his son's bedroom door. He wasn't one to enter a room without warning; he preferred to knock and then wait for a verbal invitation to come in.
"Hold on!" his secondborn son, who had a tough-sounding voice, said from inside the room. He was forced to wait for a little while before the door was opened. "Dad?"
"Hey, Hazaar." he said. He held the basket of clothing out. "Thought you might need these."
"Thanks, guess it's better that you bring these up than Lazeer—he's been saying something about putting itching powder in my drawers for the last few days." his son, who took the basket from him slowly, said.
"No problem, and itching powder in one's drawers doesn't sound like fun."
His son, who, after giving his hair a trim in late-September, then saying a spell to make it combine into a long, thin strand, started wearing an attachment on his rattail, turned then went into his bedroom. He stood by the still-open door for a second before turning and then starting the process of going downstairs. He had no more started on his way before hearing his son calling out to him—which was good damn surprise to him!
He and Hazaar had a minor falling out on the morning of the thirteenth. Angel had said something about his needing to clean his room and he came back saying that he'd "get to it when he got to it". A five to ten minute round of talking and chiding occurred; Angel had really gotten on their son for his not cleaning his room and Hazaar had continued to try to put it off. Eshal had spoken on what Angel wanted her brother to do then Lhaklar had jumped in to add his two cents. Hazaar had snapped at both of them. He had stepped in to put a halt to the situation after Lhaklar was snapped at; Hazaar had both snapped at and done plenty of mouthing off and cursing his fool head off about not wanting to do what was asked of him to him.
Hazaar had only gone up to do as he was told after both he and Angel teamed up to put to bed the situation on whether or not he cleaned his room now or later.
He was on his way down the stairs when his son called out to him. He stopped, then turned around, then went up the few steps that he went down, then went to the room that his son was in.
"And it looks like he did as he was told." he thought after entering the room.
Once in the room, his eyes were directed to one thing—the bed. Like Lazeer's, it was big enough for one; unlike Lazeer's, it had a different look to it. His secondborn son's bed was both shoved against the center of the room's back-facing wall and encased in a faux-brown leather material that, from his distance, looked right smooth. The bedding was multi-blue and black colored, and had white and yellow lightning bolts on it; the pillow cases, that were on the two pillows, matched it perfectly. There looked to be a dark blue fleece blanket between the comforter and flat sheet.
On the baseboard of the bed was a pelt. It could belong to no other animal than the Chamois goat—along with being a nice, rich brown color, it had a near-black stripe running down its back and a white rump patch on it.
A dark brown, walnut-like bedside table was to the left of the bed. Instead of having doors or drawers on it, it had a small storage space on it. One of them Salt lamps—the sort that even he had an interest in as a young teenager—was on its surface. The lamp really did have a crystallized rock appearance to it; since it was on, he could see that it was a multi-orange, yellow, and red color—even though he reached adulthood a long time ago, he was still intrigued by it. A vintage style, locomotive model alarm clock was beside the lamp. The locomotive-part of the clock was made to look like one of them Steam engines that were used from 1890 to 1910; the clock-part of the clock was on the locomotive's cab.
Like with his limited knowledge of Lazeer's interests, he didn't know much about Hazaar. He knew that he liked building train and spaceship models—from general observation of the room, he thought that his son had dropped one of them interests. Along with knowing about them two interests of his son's, he knew that his son was also very caught-up in the phase that he was going through.
"Someone either did some hunting in some off location on this planet or came by one fine piece of taxidermy." he said after noticing the bigger of the two preserved animals that were at the foot of his son's bed.
He knew very well what a Red river hog was. The hog, that was standing to the left of the foot of the bed, was both large and very impressively preserved. The animal, which was mounted on a piece of brown wood, had striking red fur with black-colored legs; it had a tufted white stripe going down its spine and tufted ears. The animal had white markings around its eyes and on its cheeks and jaws; the rest of its face was black. It had very recognizable humps on the sides of its snout; it also had two small, but very sharp, tusks. The animal was approximately sixty inches long; it stood about thirty-one inches tall.
Like with his knowledge of the planet's Red river hog species, he knew well what a Klipspringer was. It just so happened that his son had a preserved specimen of that animal to the right of the foot of his bed. The animal was twenty-two inches tall; it had a thick, speckled "salt and pepper" coat of an almost olive shade. The horns, that were on its head, were four inches long. The animal was mounted on a piece of bark wood; if he was seeing things correctly, it was of the female gender. Like with Lazeer's preserved Dik-dik, the Klipspringer was one of the planet's smallest-known species of antelope.
"From my hunts," Hazaar, who was putting his clothes away, said. His son was standing before a simple, brown dresser that had five drawers on it; a 30" flat screen tv was mounted above it. "Actually caught three of the hogs and four of the antelopes."
"More hunting trophies?" he asked after going towards the room's four-shelf, dark brown espresso bookcase, which was between the closet and upper left corner.
"Yes," his son answered without turning to see what he was asking about.
On the bookcase's top shelf was a set of Pronghorn Antelope hooves. Beside them was a Ruffled Grouse, a bird that was built like a chicken, but that had multi-gray feathers and scales on their bodies, and no spurs on their feet. The skull of a Giant forest hog piglet was beside the Ruffled Grouse; beside it was a set of four Chamois hooves.
The stereo, that was on the second shelf, looked very eerily like that of Lazeer's. There was a collection of magazines and music discs on either side of it. While the second shelf had nothing else on it that caught his attention, the one below did; like his brother, Hazaar had a right unique sword on display in his room. The sword had a long, straight, silver-coated blade that had a real ruby-colored tip to it; the grip and pommel had a very elaborate, gold and ruby design to it. The sword was on an acrylic stand, which looked to be holding its weight well. When he asked his son about the sword, he found that, like Lazeer's, he got it when he was real young. Hazaar claimed to of named it the Rubinus Aureum Gladium, which meant Golden Ruby Sword in Latin.
The next shelf had a right weird assortment of trophies on it. A jar, that contained a very finely preserved Warthog piglet, was the first item that he looked at; a perfectly preserved head of a Vervet monkey was beside it. The fur, that was on the monkey's head, was a mostly grizzled-gray color, while the fur on the face was black. There was a tinge of white hair around the animal's dark face. A Mongoose was beside the Vervet monkey head; it was long and lean and had a tawny-brown coat. The eyes, that were in its face, were narrow; there were ovular pupils in both of them. While the Mongoose was the last item on the shelf it wasn't the final hunting trophy that was in his son's room.
"Very impressive!" he thought after seeing the Pronghorn Antelope head, that was on the wall above the bed. Beside the Pronghorn head was an equally impressive bull skull; when he asked about these two items, he learned that the Pronghorn head came from one of his son's hunts while the bull skull was something that he came across while on a walk.
When he looked down, he saw that there was a rather expensive looking rug beside the bed. It was both charcoal gray and synthetic shag, which he liked. He looked at the rug for only a second before turning to look at the contents that were on the set of shelves that were in the top left corner.
All four of the shelves were sturdily rigged to the wall and were full to capacity; he contained his shock over seeing that each of them were full of models. The lowest shelf contained a model of the Orion Space Shuttle—a craft that the humans started putting together on May 24, 2011, and that they sent out to space on June 12, 2024; it was designed to carry more than two to destinations at or beyond the planet's orbit. An Apollo Lunar Space craft model was beside the Orion model while, beside it, was a model of what he thought was a massive, amphibious warship. Warships that were designed to travel on both air and sea were made for over two millenia now; he wasn't but so surprised to see that the humans had made a model of such a craft—he doubted if they knew that they existed. The human race had yet to branch out from their planet and the galaxy that it was in.
A model of a spaceship that was shown in the old, Earth-made tv show called Galaxy Quest was beside the amphibious warship. If he recalled correctly, the craft that the model depicted was given the name of N.S.E.A Protector. Yet another model of a spaceship that was depicted on one of the planet's old tv shows was beside the N.S.E.A Protector; Space:1999 was a British run science-fiction show that the second oldest of his mother and stepfather's sons had grown an interest in for a few hundred years. He wasn't surprised to see that his son had a model of the Eagle Ultra Probe in his room.
"Voluptuous, but covered. Thank the Gods!" he said after taking in the Belle of Tortuga resin model figure that was on the shelf above the one that had the spaceship models on it. The model was of a female pirate, who was standing over a treasure chest; while her white shirt was open, it covered her breasts. The model wasn't wearing pants... instead, her lower parts were concealed by a g-string and loin cloth. A red parrot was on her left shoulder.
A resin model of Dracula and Miss. Lucy was beside the Belle of Tortuga model and, beside it, was a model of a rather busty Jessica Rabbit. He had seen both films, so he knew what the models were based on. The werewolf-transformed Dracula was... well, having sex with the red cloth draped figure of Miss. Lucy—even though he identified what the figures were doing, he was okay with the model. The female figure was clothed; nothing was exposed on her. A resin model figure of the Crypt Keeper was beside the model of Jessica Rabbit; it had fake doll hair on it. A resin model of The Fly—he had only seen the film once; he had no intention of seeing it again—was beside the Crypt Keeper. The next model was of the Newborn Alien from Alien 4: Resurrection.
"From The Angry Red Planet, right?" he asked after seeing the diorama that depicted the three men that were fighting off the bat-rat-spider monster that's legs were mistakenly seen as being trees.
"Kick ass film! Yeah, that's based from the movie." Hazaar exclaimed. "You've seen that movie, dad?"
"Seen it more than four times now. Your mother's the one responsible for me seeing it." he replied. Since he was there, and looking at his son's models, he thought he should address the issue of the room lacking any model trains. "Did you decide to put your interest in trains to the side? I'm surprised that you have no model trains in your room, son."
"I have a bunch, dad. They're in a box in my closet; no space to put them up right now."
A resin model of a naked man battling a Great Ape was on the second shelf; beside it was a model of a wingless flying dragon. Quite surprisingly, there was a replica that depicted a Henodus turtle—one of the planet's extinct reptile life—beside the wingless flying dragon. The shelf above the one that the Henodus turtle replica was on had two items on it: a lamp and a small statue. The lamp had a town in it; the town, that was in its dome, was shown as being half-cloudy. When he went to give the lamp a closer look, he noticed that the cloud-mass was moving. It took him a second to realize that the lamp was one of those that detected and then imitated the weather that was happening outside. The statue depicted a tortoise that had a tall and broad shell; the sculpted head and limbs were long and quite finely detailed.
"I'll probably have to do the same with you on the chamber that's beside the one that you have on Moas, son." he said as he turned around. "Knowing how you are with these models, you'll need a bigger space to display them in."
"Huh?" Hazaar looked up from where he was; along with being on his bed, it looked like he had an open magazine on him, which he seemed to be trying to hide from him.
"On Moas, the chamber that's beside yours is empty. Was thinking about putting a door on the side of your chamber—make it so you can display all of your models in that chamber, so your bedroom won't become swallowed up, or get overly crowded with all of what you've built."
"Oh, okay. Yes, I'd like that." his son said as he closed and then hid the magazine that he was holding.
After turning around, he saw that there was a very finely preserved specimen of a Brown hyena beside the dresser. The hyena was fifty-five inches in both head and body length; it had long and shaggy hair that was a combination of brown, dark brown, and gray. A quick measuring told him that the hair that was on its neck and back was twelve inches long. He was quick to take in the trophy before moving on to look at what was on the table that was near the room's upper right corner.
"Well now, I see that you also have pets." he said after seeing the animals that were in the long, glass aquarium that was sitting on the small, but very sturdy, white oak table.
"Those're my Golden Coin Turtles." Hazaar, who now sounded very alert, said.
Like with his discovery of Lazeer's interest in polliwogs, he was quite surprised over seeing that Hazaar had an interest in turtles—or Cooters, as he called them.
The cage, that he was looking at, had an evenly divided environment in it. Its right side consisted of a land-like environment while the left was water-like. There looked to be two, thin slabs of rock on the cage's right side; a fine layer of mixed dirt, gravel, and sand was over them. The two slabs of rock made the cage's land part look higher than its other side. The environment in the cage's right side was very natural looking; along with there being two, flat, cork bark pieces lying near the water, there was a mass of Spagnum moss in the top left corner. There looked to be an artificial tree bark stump in the other corner. Fake autumn leaves were strewn about the dirt substrate; there were several, uncoiled, fake Ivy vines hanging from the screen top—they only came down from its left side.
The water-portion of the cage had decorative river rocks lining its bottom. There were two, small, artificial logs floating in the water. The back of the cage had a tropical background taped to it to give its inhabitants a little more comfortable setting. The screen top had a low-wattage basking light and a reptile UVB light on it.
There were two cooters in the cage and both of them were nearly five inches long and wide. They were rather colorful. Their shells were a dull yellow-gold color, while the limb sockets, and the undersides of the limbs and tail, were a brilliant pinkish-orange color; the sides of the limbs on both of the animals were either a brown, a gray, or an olive-green color. The cooters had narrow and pointed heads, that were also colorful. One of the cooters had a yellow dome on its head while the other had an olive-green dome on it; both of them had yellow-orange patches behind their eyes. While both of the animals had a thick, black line extending from their noses to the side of their faces, one of them possessed a little thinner line. The upper and lower jaws of the two animals were yellow while the underside of their necks was a pinkish-orange color. It looked like their shells were hinged—when he went to look at the cage, one of the animals pulled its head, tail, and limbs into its shell. Both of the animals were walking around the land-mass part of the cage; one was under an artificial leaf while the other was near the bark stump.
"How long have you been interested in cooters, son?" he asked.
"Take it that a cooter is a turtle?" his son, who suddenly appeared at his side, asked.
"Yes,"
"Since I was real little."
"Around the same time that Lazeer got his interest in poli... in frogs?"
"Yeah—he kinda got his interest from me. Came home with a Spiny softshell turtle one day when I was a kid; Lazeer started getting an interest in frogs a few weeks after momma said I could keep it."
Before going on to look at the room's five posters and three signs, he went to look at the cage that was on the surface of the room's dark brown, two-shelf bookcase. Even though he knew his son had cooters as pets, and even though he told himself to expect to find something around the area of a cooter or two in the cage that sat atop the smaller bookcase, he was surprised over what he saw. The cage was set-up much like that of the Golden Coin Turtles' own; the land and water parts had "swapped" places but, for the most part, it was very nearly spot-on to that of the other cage. It was the three cooters that were in it that blew him away.
The animals resembled a species that was commonly seen on Moas... commonly seen by folk who were more located in-land than near the coastlines, that was. He had only seen the species a handful of times after moving in.
Two of the cooters had a mostly red-brown shell that had a yellow spinal ridge. The third had an amber color to its shell and a smoky spinal ridge. All of them had sharp, pointy spikes running along the edges and spines of their shells; two of them also had three or four spikes jutting up from between the spinal ridge and edges of their shells. Two of the cooters were nearly six inches long and wide; the smaller of the three was an inch to an inch and a half smaller than them.
"Do me a favor when I get you back on Moas," he said after standing to his full height. "Don't do any cross-breeding. Let's keep it as having one species breeding within that species."
"No problem—not sure if I have any females yet. Think I do—two of them have shorter tails than the other does." Hazaar said. He was on his way over to look at the room's posters and signs when his son suddenly cleared his throat. "Don't forget to look at the other turtles that're on that bookcase, dad."
He went back to the bookcase then stepped back; sure enough, there was another cage on it that he had missed. He crouched low then peered at it soon after noticing it. This cage, he was quick to note, was of the fully aquatic type. There was about twelve inches of water in it; the water system, that was attached to the right-side glass panel, was keeping the water nice and clear and healthy for the animals that were in it. There were three, green, artificial Hagen Hortwort plants, two artificial sword leaf plants, and two artificial Begonia plants in the tank; two, Fin Rock cave ornaments were in its center. The cage had an underwater Amazon forest background taped to its back. The three floating Lily Pads, that were floating about on the water's surface, were the final two decorative pieces in the cage. The screen top had a UVB light and a low-wattage heat light on it; there was a temperature reader on the left-side glass panel that currently read fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit.
"Hazaar, what in the vast known Universe are these... things?" he asked.
Hazaar had said turtles just a few seconds ago... While the cage's creatures looked to resemble that animal they also looked to resemble a totally different animal too. He had never seen anything that looked like what he was looking at before in his life.
The two animals, that were swimming about in the tank, had broad, flat shells that were a mostly dark green color. The plastron, or underbelly part of the shell, was very broad; one of the cooters had a creamy-colored plastron while the other's was yellow. If not for the length of their necks, he wouldn't be but so interested in them—both of the animals had long, narrow necks that were nearly as long as their shells. The animals' mouth structure was set like that of a smile; both of the cooters were five and a quarter inches long and wide.
"They're Eastern Long Neck Turtles, dad." Hazaar said.
"Are their necks always this long?" he asked.
"Yes."
Like with Lazeer's interest in polliwogs, newts, and salamanders, he had no interest in cooters. He composed himself well, regardless of his lack of interest in the creatures. He nodded his head at the cooters, asked a few more questions on them, promised to have them brought back to Moas in five months, then went to look at the room's posters and signs.
The first poster that he looked at was on his son's closet door. It, non-surprisingly, had all sorts of spaceships on it—all of what was on it was sent into space some thousand to two thousand years ago. The poster that was to the left of the closet looked similar; it had a lot of fictional spaceships on it—like the Millennium Falcon, from the movie Star Wars; the Tardis, from the British science-fiction television program Doctor Who; and the Voyager, from the American television program Star Trek. The poster that was screwed to the back of his son's bedroom door had a woman on it that was wearing a right showy brown bikini; the necklace, that was hanging from around her neck, had three, circular topaz stones in it. The woman, for some reason, was covered in blood; he had to give the poster a closer look to see that she had a pair of vampire fangs in her mouth, which was open in a snarl.
He was openly acceptive of the poster that had the vampire-looking girl on it. The girl was wearing something over her parts; no skin or private areas were able to be seen on her.
The poster that he looked at next was tacked to the short section of wall that was between his son's bookcase and closet. The two trains, that were on it, were heading for a head-on collision.
The aluminum sign, that was screwed to the wall that was to the left of the bedroom door, said You Are Being Monitored. There were two stick figures running above the slogan; the second one, for some reason, had a computer monitor in its arms. He couldn't help but laugh at the large aluminum sign that was to the right of the bedroom door; it had a cartoon baby on it that had a full diaper. The caption, that was on it, said A boss is like a diaper... Always on your ass, and usually full of; there was a little arrow behind the word of pointing at the diaper. The aluminum sign, that was beside that one, was made to look like a comic; there were three kids sitting on a bench, which was in front of an office that had the word Principal on the door's window. It looked like all of the kids had gotten into some sort of trouble. The quote that was above the grumpy, blonde-haired girl character that had a bow in her hair said I said the "S-H" word while the quote that was above the grumpy, hipster-like boy character said I said the "F" word. There was a nervous, skinny kid beside the hipster-like character; the quote that was above him said I said "Christmas".
The aluminum sign, that was over the room's four-legged corner desk and chair—which were in the bottom right corner—, caused him to emit another laugh. Along with being black, it had a silver border on it; in its center, it said Middle Child: I'm the reason why rules are made. In a sense, Hazaar was his middle-born child. The sign, to him, made a lot of sense.
"Think I best get out of here—you look to be needing some "time" with that magazine that you're trying to hide from me." he said as he started for the door.
"Magazine? What magazine? Think you need your eyes checked Old Man, I have no magazines near me." his son shot at his backside.
"The one that you slid under your pillow, son."
While he would much prefer for his son to not be as frequent a reader of them pornographic magazines that he had an interest in, he couldn't really stop him from getting or looking at them. All of his sons had come home on the fifth of May with a pornographic magazine in their month-supply of May editions; while he did a quick browse of the one that Bile left on the kitchen counter, he didn't grow excited or consider grabbing it and then going to a part of the house that he'd get some privacy in. Up to his marriage to Angel, he was a semi-frequent viewer of them pornographic magazines. All throughout his marriage to his first wife, he used them types of magazines as a means to release his sexual appetites on. Bespe had either refused him in bed or insisted on their actions in the bedroom being short—with no "sweet" action added in for flavor; aka the hop-in then hop-out routine.
Angel had taken care of his issues in that regard after they were discovered as being partners. There was no need for sexual stimulation via the use of pornographic means after their marriage. No sort of pornographic material was purchased by him for over two thousand years now.
Even after Angel "took off" with the boys, he didn't revert back to wanting to buy porn magazines. He was so busy in trying to find her and their sons that he forgot all about his sexual needs.
"So, stranger, been noticing that you've been staying with my neighbor for a while." he remembered the big, tall man, who had short, black hair and steel-gray eyes, saying two days ago. With his just returning to the planet after seeing his nephew in court, and after going to his place on Moas to square away matters with the substantial bills that he hadn't paid in over six months, he had figured that a little run up the street was needed. A little run, just to put his stresses over Vile not wanting to accept the responsibility, or see the wrong in his actions over what he did in trying to take his firstborn and secondborn sons' lives, behind him; that was what he wanted to do. The run was nice; no one bothered him. His return to the house was slowed up by some man named Benedikt Abbing, who damn near broke his neck in getting to him.
"Yes, nearly a month now." he replied.
"She's a right nice lady,"
"Indeed,"
"Right smart, and nicely composed—don't think I've ever seen a woman as beautiful as Miss. Irene either, to be blunt honest with you."
"Mrs., not Miss." he came close to spitting at the man. That damn "Miss." tag had, yet again, been applied to his wife's name; he was quick in voicing his annoyance over it. It was just the unmarried tag that got under his skin; he was perfectly fine with having other men voicing how well composed, nice, smart, and beautiful his wife was.
"Mrs.?" the Benedikt-man said.
"Yes, she's my wife." he said.
He and the man spoke for twenty more seconds before parting ways. He went into the house, showered, then put on a fresh suit, then waited for his wife to return home; he didn't know what Mr. Abbing did and, honestly, he didn't really care. What the humans who lived around him and his family did in their homes was their business. He gave respect where it was needed. Always had, always would.
"Five more months and you and yours won't have to worry about these humans again." he thought as he went downstairs.