Pretty much everyone agreed that the weather was just waiting to show how Jekyll and Hyde it was. Unlike the first week of September, where mostly pleasant weather was experienced, most of the people who lived near the Rhine were treated to seeing better than torrential thunderstorms when October rolled in. Hazaar, being the nut of the family who enjoyed storms, did more than bust his buns to see what was going on outside while the rest of them either stayed in the living room, dining room, kitchen, or basement.
On a guess, the wind was close to seventy miles an hour. The rain came down so hard that, at times, Hazaar wasn't able to see out the window that he was looking out of. The thunder and lightning were so powerful that their mother found herself as literally leaping for the ceiling with each crack or flashing light. On the first day of this crazy system, which many agreed came from up north of them—England was sure tore up, so it was presumed to come from there—, it wasn't too awful bad. On the days that followed the first of October, the storms either grew in strength or became angry with the stretch of country that they found themselves as sitting on. With the way the wind was, it was no surprise that some of the house's trees didn't last. The Linden tree blew over onto the property that was behind them on the third; two of the Guayacan trees fell following a rather oddly long-lived seventy mile an hour wind gust on the following day; and one of the trees that flanked the driveway lost most of its limbs before collapsing to its side.
While nothing was harmed when the Linden and Guayacan trees fell, something was hurt when the Dwarf Crepe Myrtle tree fell. Their mother's car wasn't under the carport when the tree succumbed to the elements—and was she ever glad for that; instead of finding her car as being tree squashed, she found that it had some minor dings and scrapes on it. Their mother decided to move her car the night before the storms came in; while she was smart in doing this, they weren't. Lazeer, who used the BMW last, parked it under the carport then came in from his planned activity. At the time, he saw his doing that as standard procedure; since none of them knew of the storms coming their way, they didn't blame him for what happened.
On the fifth of October, the Dwarf Crepe Myrtle tree fell on the carport, and on the car that was under it. The carport, while sturdy during all the other storms that they encountered over the months, hadn't been able to withstand the tree; it looked much like a buckled, mangled mess on the day that the storms left the state of Baden-Württemberg. The fallen branches of that tree managed to knock each of the BMW's windows out, and do more than enough scraping and scratching on the side of the car that faced the tree that they formerly rested on. Along with taking the carport out, the tree took the car that was under it out too.
"Dude! Someone call the gian-k-t who did this and file a complain-k-t!" Guyunis exclaimed on the day that they left the house, then took in their surroundings and the many damages that the storm procured.
"My eyes! I'm going back in then going to bed." Hazaar said after seeing the mangled mess of tree, carport, and BMW.
"We have insurance..." Lhaklar said after coming out then seeing what they were.
Yes but, unlike their mother, who had full coverage on her Porsche, they had liability. Their insurance, while protecting the other insured drivers that were out there, and anything that they either drove into or have fall on them, didn't cover them for anything that happened on, with, or to their car. After Lazeer mentioned this, they went into a glum period. They went on their way; thoughts of the tree and carport being carted to the dump, and of the BMW being given its final ride to a junk yard, occurred for all of them.
The town was pretty ravaged, and there were other vehicles out there that were either in equal disarray or worse shape than theirs. They spent about two hours looking at the various buildings and storm-ravaged vehicles before returning home. As expected, the tree was gone from where it was; their mother used her powers to withdraw it from the carport, then hack it into several pieces that could be easily removed. The carport was, surprisingly, still where it was... but it was no longer damaged or destroyed. Until the thought of their mother using a spell to repair it came to them, they thought that she bought another then rigged it up during their absence. The BMW was gone, but not gone as in being sent to where they thought it was.
"Your mother did a good arm-twisting on me about that car." their father said a few hours later. It took all the rest of the eighth, which was yesterday, before he acknowledged where the BMW was and what was happening with it. "Not sure when, but it might be back to being under that carport before we leave for Moas—its being worked on by someone who works on the cars that I own; expecting to find myself throwing somewhere over $3000 on it for everything to be fixed up."
And so, while they had no car to drive, they still owned one. The BMW would look "like new" when it was returned to them. They had no choice but to thank the old man for his shelling out the dough for their car to be repaired, and for it to have full coverage on it following the repairs being made. Their father, while accepting their thanks, was fast in saying for them to calm down and start thinking of what was to be boxed up for the impending move in November.
His room looked odd now. Instead of putting it off, like the rest of his brothers did, he decided to head up then see what he could "live without seeing" for a month or two. Most of his posters were gone from where they were; a quarter of his models were missing on their shelves; the entertainment center, and its lamps, were gone from where they were; and some of his hunting trophies were a curious absence on his bookshelf. Seeing as his room on Moas had no entertainment center in it, and that he would need one to display his lamps on, he decided to pack and then bring the one that he currently owned on the trip—when he heard of his decision to do this, his father took him to the side then "discussed" with him what was and wasn't to be brought to the mansion.
Apparently, most of the furniture was to be left where it was. Of the five of them, only Guyunis was to be given the "honor" of bringing all that he owned in furnishing to Moas. For some peculiar reason, the man had something against his and his biological brothers bringing their stereos with them—Hazaar and he got into it on this twice before the man "got mean" in telling him that his "word" was "law". The old man also put a bug in his ear on his needing to "pick wisely the risque items that you own", which he thought was translation for his and his brothers being forced to leave some of the items that showed skin behind when the move was made. While he agreed to do that, he had a plan in motion for the items that he owned that showed some skin—they were coming with him, but the old man wouldn't see them being put up or even know of his having them. He was going to do one of the spells that'd prevent him from seeing them.
The entertainment center was still coming with him, regardless of what his father said in it not. After their talk ended, he started to wonder what was to come of the house that they lived in. Would it, and all that was in it, be allowed to to "rott" where it was or would it be preserved as a sort of museum? Was Mr. Leinart, who would probably be given the deed before they left the planet, going to keep or sell it?
"It'll be a few weeks before I say for you to pack some more of your stuff." their father said that morning, while they were having breakfast, and discussing their plans for the day. "I'm only getting you to pack like this because I want half of the work to be done before the final two weeks of our stay arrive—better to not be in a rush, Boys."
He wasn't to pack his Megan Fox poster, the rest of his models, his music and magazines, or the rest of what he owned until the final few days of their stay came around. From what he could tell, his brothers' rooms were in equal shape to his; Eshal's room looked almost the same as it did when she moved into the house. The only difference in her room? The lack of trinket boxes, dolls, and decorative pillows; the "mermaid pillows" were still in her room, as were her two hedgehogs, but everything else was either neatly packed away or on Moas.
"Dad said for Eshal, Guyunis, Hazaar, and Lazeer to hold off on packing their pets until the morning of the move. Think he wants to do something with them to ensure their trip to Moas being stress-free or something." Bile thought while waiting to cross the road.
Unlike his brothers, who were told to stay home to finish the packing that they were told to do yesterday, he was out and about in Rastatt. Since he needed to hang around his uncle, and keep his mind off the "babe" that he couldn't stop himself from talking about on the twenty-ninth of last month, he had company with him. He and Efagti were doing a simple stroll now but, in the next ten to twenty minutes, they were to shove off for Egypt. He received permission to do a hunt that morning; since it might get the old man off his back on this one hobby of his, he was taking his uncle with him to show him that he wasn't all that incompetent in doing it. Or needed help while doing it.
Efagti, while being cool and placid with them, was showing his adult side. An example of this happened at the festival—he "tested" the thing of chicken that he had, and made sure to get them together after a certain amount of time passed. Another example was when he got on Guyunis and Lazeer for something that they did when the storms were reeking havoc on them. Lazeer was "snapped at" twice on the secondth; once for wanting to play one of the living room's game consoles, and again for his actually going through in hooking the Super Dendy up then starting to play it. On the sixth, he got on Guyunis for using a word that went against both his religion and some of the religions of Earth—the man, after coming up, then placing his hand on his brother's back, was given a shock when Guyunis turned then said what he did. At the time, Guyunis was voicing his desire in not wanting him to touch him, and the pain that he felt when he touched one of his uncovered marks. Up to that day, he forgot that the Ubalki's were of the Median Faith—he didn't know what, exactly, this was; despite this, he wasn't about to disrespect the man or ask him all sorts of questions on it. While Lazeer simply shrugged his shoulders, then turned the game system off then went off to do something else on the house's first level, Guyunis experienced a regression where he didn't want no one but their mother around him. Guyunis had yet to make a return to his old self; along with being fast in eating his meal that morning, he went up to his room then locked himself in. It'd probably be a while before he decided to unlock his door then come out to interact with the family.
The old man was planning to hang around Hazaar and Lazeer that day. After hearing their plan of going to Durmersheim's Ball Pit, he couldn't fathom the idea of not going with them or seeing what it was that they were planning on doing. With it being a Monday, their mother was to stay at U-Krop-It all day; rather interestingly, Eshal said she wanted to spend a few hours with her. It was presumed that she was either learning the tricks of their mother's workplace or just hanging around her to see what she did with the eight hours that she wasn't home. Lhaklar was planning to be the only one of them to stay home and keep an eye and ear open on Guyunis. Knowing Lhaklar, he was probably going to go through the two catalogs that, somehow, didn't blow away when the mail was distributed on the fourth—both were up his alley; one was on old cars, while the other showed specific models that were based on them cars. With their allowances being given to them before they went off to do as they said they were, his brother might use some of what he was given to buy a few of the one catalog's models. He might use some of the money that was being put in his savings too, come to think of it.
Seeing as he had so much money in his envelope, Lhaklar surprised nearly all of them by stopping and then shoving an extra hundred euros in their hands. With €180 on him—the bulk from his allowance and brother, with the remainder coming from the funds that he had on him when he and his family left the festival that they attended last month—, he could purchase enough pot to last him a month and a half plus his other monthly usuals and anything else he saw and found himself as liking. He had a mind to check a few things out in Cairo, Egypt after his hunt was done—one being the massive flea market that was in the area, while the other was the book fair that was currently going on.
"While he "cautioned" us on our purchases, dad never said that we couldn't buy anything while out and about in town, or in the towns or cities around Elchesheim-Illingen. I see no reason in not splurging on some stuff that'll keep us busy when the weather's not good, or when we have nothing to do at home." Bile thought after crossing the road.
"So, your parents just let you and your brothers wander wherever you want?" Efagti asked after catching up to him.
"Yes and no." Bile replied before doing a quick change on what he said. "Uh... as long as we receive permission to go somewhere that's a distance from home, or are just moving around the town or towns that we live either in or near, yes. If we go out to hunt, we can't leave the shields; we must get permission to go anywhere that's past this district."
"Take it that none of you have broken the barrier with your parents on one or more of them rules?"
"N... only Lhaklar and I." Bile caught and then corrected what he was about to say. "Unlike Lhaklar, who went out about a year and a half ago to hunt some location without permission, and got in trouble for it, I forgot how I needed permission to go to where I went and didn't get in much trouble."
"What was the purpose in Lhaklar going to where he went without say-so from your mother, and for you to go where you went?" Efagti asked.
"We were living off the land, and Lhaklar wanted to ensure that we had enough to eat; he just went to hunt where he went with the thought of keeping us sustained for a few nights. It was after we moved into the house when I went to Amsterdam to both scope it out and see what I could buy for my room." Bile replied in a half-so true way.
When Efagti asked for the cause of their living off the land last year, he was honest with him. From January to July, their mother was working on getting Guyunis to trust them and not be but so negative towards humanity; at the time that he was adopted, his view on humanity was so bad that it was shocking. He literally hated the humans, and wouldn't hear a word of what anyone said in their not being all that bad or horrible. He and his brothers, while relishing in the opportunity to hunt, hadn't based their hunts on gaining trophies or the honor or glory of being the "hero" of the family—along with enjoying a hobby that they were formerly forced to abandon, they were providing for the family by bringing home meat and pelts to keep them fed and warm with.
For the first week of February, they lived in the Cave of the Winds, which was located in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado, just west of Colorado Springs, on U.S. Highway 24, near the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, before moving. With the cave having near-constant tours done in it, it was just not ideal for them; the one that they moved into next was better suited to them. They stayed in it for three months before moving.
The Hobo Cave, which was actually a set of bouldering problems that were beneath a rock buttress on Boulder Mountain land, found on Flagstaff Mountain, in Boulder, Colorado, was where they were allowed to stretch out, breathe a little, hunt, and do a little gathering of what they needed to survive on. During each of their walks, or runs, they picked up sticks, branches, tinder for the fire, and rocks; while he, Guyunis, Hazaar, and Lazeer didn't do much fishing there, Lhaklar did. Their mother mostly let them do the hunting and supply collecting. Her "main" duty was keeping the cave safe, them fed and well hydrated, and looking after them when they came back from their activities with injuries; he and his brothers pitched in on keeping the fire going. If not for his wicked father—Master Vile, aka Dark Dad—, they would of stayed there longer.
There were few areas in Africa where people still lived. Their mother picked the one in Ogbunike, Anambra State, which was in Nigeria, Africa, for them to live in after Horace A. Smith told her to take them then not worry about the Americas or ousting her father from them. The Ogbunike Caves were where they lived in for a month; along with being located in a valley, they were in a tropical rainforest. At the time of their moving to this location, Guyunis wasn't allowed to hunt—he was a "dangerous" hunter, who preferred to hunt from beneath the animal, and fight it after springing out to take it down, before she saw to teach him how to properly do a hunt. Their mother also took up his power-training while in this location.
In July, she decided to move them to the Sannur Cave, which was ten miles southeast of the city of Beni Suef, which was in Egypt. Like with Africa, most of Egypt was empty of people; she picked this location because it was both near a city, far from where Guyunis's mother lived, and she thought it was time for Guyunis to do gradual integration with the humans. After seeing that Guyunis was spending time in the city, and with the ones who lived either in or outside of it, she decided to move them to a move civilized setting. Germany was where she chose to move them to, and that was where they moved to.
"Guyunis didn't much like the idea of moving here—he experienced one of them regressions of his when he learned that we were moving here. Thanks to ma, he calmed down and accepted that we were moving far from his former wards and weren't getting rid of him." Bile finished the explanation that he was giving to his uncle.
After hearing what he did, Efagti was close to saying that his nephews, Guyunis included, were both an abnormally mature, yet still immature, bunch. Bile's words were very frank, so he didn't dispute any of what he told him. From what he was told, Lhaklar was grounded after going to New Mexico, and then Oregon, to hunt what was available there; he had a feeling that Bile's "innocent-sounding" trip to Amsterdam wasn't so innocent.
He knew of the boys' smoking habits, and was trying to help their father in getting them to give them up. Angel, rather surprisingly, didn't seem all that phased by what the boys were doing; she either turned a blind eye to their smoking at their age or claimed that they were fine as long as they didn't smoke but so much. He had actually come across Lhaklar smoking by his ajar bedroom window twice during the storm system that blew through, and he also caught Guyunis letting Lazeer share the stick that he was smoking on the fifth. While Guyunis's regression mostly came from his touching him on his still-sensitive back, which was only unwrapped to be allowed to air out, it also came from the other things that he did during the week that it was storming.
On the third, he entered Bile's room while Guyunis was in there. Bile was dusting these two beer steins that he had, and talking to his brother about how to not be but so "shy" or "nervous" around one of the opposite gender at the time. While he understood the notion of Bile explaining why one shouldn't be but so nervous when they're around the opposite gender—shit, he did the same with Amadh when he was both a teenager and decided to approach him on the subject—he didn't understand why Bile was talking about what one did to entice another to bed, or how to attract one enough to get "a date". Bile was a mid-teenage boy, and so was Guyunis, so neither of them should know how to get someone in bed or gain a date.
Along with getting on his nephew for improper knowledge on how to acquire a date, he asked him if his parents knew of his having beer steins in his possession. While getting a yes-answer from Bile, he was looking the glasses over—one was black, but had a lot of knight and bell pewter designs on it, while the other was made of chain-mail; even though they were pretty, he didn't think they were appropriate for one of Bile's age to have. Up to when Tazir told him about the steins that Guyunis had, and was displaying in his room, he was a bit negative towards his nephew; he felt like a heel when this was made known to him, and when he learned that Tazir was fine with their having their steins and that Lhaklar had two as well.
After learning that Lhaklar had some beer steins in his possession, he grew curious about them. On the fourth, he went into his room with the intent of checking them out; it was then that he caught his nephew smoking, and having his window open during the storm.
"Wasn't you taught that, when you have an open window in a house, the pressure generated by a storm is increased?" he remembered asking his nephew after seeing what he did. As a young boy, this yarn was spun on him—while he wasn't crazy about storms, he did like to feel the energy that came from them. His parents, after the upteenth time in finding that his bedroom window was open when it was storming, started trying to get him to stop doing this by telling him what he was asking his nephew about.
"No." his nephew replied while putting his cigarette out.
"You're causing a lot of pressure to build up in here, which is destabilizing the storm. You're also opening a good possibility to you being struck by lightning, and debris."
He felt right hot in the cheeks after saying this. After seeing how puzzled his nephew was, he smiled, shrugged his shoulders, then did a quick glance of the room for the two steins that he didn't see when he was shown it on the eighteenth. It took him but a second to notice that both were on the beside stump that acted as a table; he took a liking to them at once. One was pewter, and had a hunter on horseback, three mountain goats, and three hunting dogs on it, while the other was made of glass and had flaming designs on it. Lhaklar, while mentioning that he was on the fence about finding a place for them in his room, or packing them up for the move to Moas, had said that he just started using the glass-made one as the source that his nighttime water was put in.
While things mellowed out between him, Bile, Lhaklar, and Lazeer, and stayed the same between him and Hazaar, they grew dim for him and Guyunis. Guyunis grew to be a trifle nervous of him after he entered his brother's room, then started getting on him about what he was telling him; following his attempt to put a more minor-feel in on what his brother was telling him, he grew uncomfortable with him. Guyunis started putting some distance between them after he tried to put a more age-appropriate explanation to what he was told. On the sixth, the boy's feelings towards him were exposed and they started growing a bit negative towards each other—he, Efagti Izorot Ubalki, was of the Median Faith and plain refused to hear any words that went against his or any other religion out there; when he heard the boy use that word, he flipped then started targeting him on the "filth" that he was allowing to spew from his mouth and the demons that he was allowing to "dance" on the soil of good. It wasn't until suppertime on the seventh that Angel and Tazir took him to the side then asked for him to both cool it with Guyunis and stop trying to impose his religion on him.
He felt horrible for targeting Guyunis on his expressing himself with him, and he understood that he didn't say that word all the time. According to Angel, Guyunis had used that word a few times in May and June when he grew to being particularly emotional; she gave him a normal, mother-son talk on it before she went to get the house that her family were staying in. Up to October 6, the boy hadn't used or acted like he was going to use it—after hearing this, he remembered seeing the look of shock, then dread, fall over Guyunis's face following his use of that word; that, in itself, told him that it just popped out without check and that Guyunis wasn't at full fault for it being used.
"She'll need to give him another talk before the move is made." Efagti thought after following Bile into a magazine store, then started watching him as he looked through then picked up the magazines that he wanted to purchase. "Most of Tazir's staff are of the same religion as I, while the rest is of the Yewl or Minority—a similar instance to what happened between he and I, or something worse, will happen if he says that word in front of them."
Long before the gift of being half-immortal was given to certain peoples in the Universe, and travel between galaxies became a more readibly able thing to do, the denizens of each of the known planets went by their own set of religions and refused to acknowledge the other religions out there. It took a bunch of wars, and social and civil separation, before someone asked why they were doing as they were and couldn't accept the religions of the ones around them. A time of peace was experienced after everyone started accepting the religions practiced by their planetary brothers then, shortly after that peace began, the Gods started bestowing gifts on the ones that they deemed fit for immortality. While there were still planets out there where a different type of religion was practiced on, everyone agreed that there were just five main types of religion in the Universe.
The Old Faith was said to be the oldest of the five. It was practiced by about thirty percent of the Universe's populace. The New Faith, which derived from the Old Faith, was the next oldest; it was practiced by around forty percent of the people who lived in the Universe. The Median Faith had around twenty percent of the people who lived in the Universe following it while the Yewl or Minority had seven percent. The religion that didn't revere the Gods in any way had a mere three percent of the Universe's population following it—of the five, it was the youngest.
Earth, as much as it surprised some scholars, had a shocking number of religions on it. From what some scholars were able to find, there were over four thousand practiced religions on the planet; while some had many followers, and weren't threatened, endangered, or going extinct, there were some that had few followers and were either close to being extinct or extinct.
If Bile had asked him about his religion, which the Ubalki and Zoopray families were long followers of, he would of told him the basics on it without feeling a bit offended. In his mind, no one should keep their religion a secret or not answer the questions presented on it.
"The usual, or you just free-picking what you see on the shelves?" Efagti said after his nephew got in line at the nearest register.
"Except for one, all are what I get each month." Bile replied.
In all, Bile picked up eight magazines. He wasn't but so surprised over seeing WhiteTail, Water Fowl, Trophy Hunter, Predator Xtreme, Hunting Adventures, and Trapper and Predator Caller being picked up; what shocked him was the fact that his nephew grabbed the final copy of Hustler, which was a pornographic magazine, and then the first copy of Messer Magazin. Unlike the pornographic magazine, it took him a while to figure out what the Messer Magazin was about—when he saw the bucket of knives on the front flap, he put two-and-two together on it being on knives, which he knew his nephew had a better than keen interest in. After asking about the magazine that his nephew didn't get each month, Bile held up a mostly green book that had Dangerous Game Hunting in bold-white letters on it.
"It's an old magazine." Bile said while the cashier was running his purchases under the scanner. "Only printed once every three to four months and, when it is, people usually scarf it up like its candy."
"Get the last one?" Efagti asked.
"Nope, but the place where it's in might be empty after the next four or five people see it as being there." Bile answered.
Following the purchase of the magazines, Bile led them from the store then to the end of the block before stopping. He said the spell—and right perfectly too—to send what he purchased home then gave him the signal to draw in closer. It took but a second for him to realize that he was going to teleport them to Egypt, and then get busy with the sport that he was to watch him do; while nervous over what Bile was to do while in Egypt, he remembered the set of instructions that he was given well. Before leaving the house with his nephew, Tazir took him to the side then said for him to simply watch what he did. If something came up, where his nephew looked to be in need of help, he was to help him but, if nothing was seen, he was to just act as a spectator.
Upon the teleportation's completion, he found himself as being a very willing participant to just standing by the sidelines. He remembered Angel saying something about Africa and Egypt being abnormally dry for the last ten years, and about most of their civilized areas being abandoned following the drought that was experienced—she said this in early January of 4100... to him, it looked like Egypt was still dry and mostly abandoned. Sweat automatically started dripping from him, his clothes started feeling uncomfortable on him, and his skin started to voice its annoyance over the heat and sunlight that it was being subjected to.
In the corner of Germany where his family was staying in, it was in the mid-sixties. In his current location, it had to be close to a hundred... or over! He shook his head; shifted his feet, and moved his arms; and closed his eyes in an attempt to get over the heat. When this didn't happen, he searched out a tree. Unlike most of his siblings, who inherited just their mother's P.S.E., he inherited her other ailment—his skin could burn in any degree of heat if he wasn't careful. If he had known about the heat that was in area where his nephew's hunt would take place in, he would of brought his lotion with him. It would of helped in keeping his skin moist, and the chance of it burning from happening.
"Uncle Efagti?" Bile said after he was under the shade of one of the area's many palm trees.
"I'm fine. Go on and do your hunt—don't worry about me." Efagti mustered the strength to say.
After Bile stomped his foot, then grabbed the hard, compressed spear that shot up from the ground, he took notice of the geologic stresses that were present in the region. The sand, while nearly white, wasn't as fine as he remembered it being in the mid to late 1990's. Now, it was kind of wet and not all that stable. The trees around him, while numerous, were either very branchy, and leafy, or lacking leaves and had dead or dying branches on them. The grass was growing in patches in places, and wasn't all that healthy. He could see a sheppard to the east; it looked like he had a small flock of sheep and goats with him. When this man came closer to him—either to take a better look at him or bring his animals closer to the body of water that he was close to—, he saw that most of his flock were small, weedy, and borderline emaciated. Even though a breeze was present, it didn't take much from the heat. In the distance, he saw steam—from the wetness in the sand evaporating into the atmosphere, he presumed. There were no clouds in the bright blue sky, or a hint of clouds coming towards him, which meant that it was going to be hot for a while.
This hot, near-arid area was where his young nephew's hunt was suppose to take place in? He bet Bile was close to being drenched in sweat, and that he'd need to take down two to three bottles of water to replenish himself after they went home. He closed his eyes, then tried to envision himself in a cooler area, when the thought of how sunburned his nephew was going to be came to him; whether it was coincidence or not he didn't know but, when he opened them some time later, he saw that Bile was coming towards him. His nephew was dragging an animal behind him, which looked to be both near-healthy, old, and furry on the head, shoulders, and stomach. After seeing this sight, and the one of his nephew being unscathed from whatever endeavor he just did, he stepped out from the tree's shade then went towards him.
"What is this?" Efagti asked after reaching his nephew, who had since stopped after reaching a tall, and rather oddly bushy and leafy, bush.
"Think it's an Egyptian lion—the Barbary, which was renamed to the Egyptian in 2590." Bile replied.
"Think its big enough?" Efagti did a quick estimate on the animal's size. It looked to be nearly nine feet long; along with having the tawny coat of the regular lion, it had a mostly black mane that stretched back to the shoulders and then under the armpits and stomach. The only part of the mane that wasn't black was on the forehead, cheeks, and under the jaw. The tail, like the other lion breeds, had a dark tuft of fur on it.
"Yeah, wasn't expecting to find or bring it down. It'll keep the family going for a while." Bile said.
"And then some."
"Think the birds will do that." Bile stopped what he was doing, which was checking his kill for ticks or other things that the house didn't need in it, to give him a wink.
In all, they were in the Faiyyum Oasis for thirty minutes. In them thirty minutes, he found mostly birds to either look at or hunt. He caught nine Spotted sandgrouses—a thirteen inch bird that had a small, reddish-brown nape that was surrounded by a band of pale grey that extended to the bill and then around the neck in a collar—before finding nothing else to hunt. He was about to call it a day when the lion was seen. After giving it a thought, he ambushed it, then threw his spear, then ran at it. Two more spears did the trick in taking the massive beast, which was starting to show some rib and hip, down. Seeing as it was hot, and he needed to get back to his uncle, he grabbed the lion by its tail then started pulling it along—with it being over four hundred pounds, this wasn't an easy feat. By the time he reached the bush, he was soaping wet in sweat and in desperate need of a break.
The water in the nearby Birket Qarun looked refreshing. Historically, the lake use to be freshwater and much bigger; after it was abandoned following the nearest branch of the Nile shrinking in 230 A.D., it became saltwater and was allowed to shrink to what it was. While he couldn't drink from it, he could jump in to get some relief from the heat that he was feeling and the sweat that was on his body. After thinking this action over, he stood up then went to do as he wanted. His uncle watched as he did what he was then gave his head a nod when he returned to the bush that he and his kill were under.
"Encounter any issues while taking this down?" his uncle asked once he returned to within talking distance.
"Nope." he was about to spin a white lie when he decided to be truthful—honesty, he thought, might win his uncle over on this interest of his; it might also cause him to pursuade his father into both attending the next hunt and letting him continue it. "I ambushed it by standing by some bushes and grass; when it was within distance, I threw my spear then ran to finish it. Two more spears did the trick."
"Did it turn to defend itself?" Efagti asked.
"Yes, but I think it was taxed by the heat and its age. While it swiped at me, and gave a lunge in my direction, it never had contact with me or did much to defend itself." Bile replied.
"Going to keep anything on it?"
"The pelt and mane. Everything else'll be used by the family." Bile responded. "I'm not here for trophies. I'm here to bag something for the family."
"What're you doing after this? You done with your hunt, or are you not finished yet?"
He told his uncle what he was planning on doing before going to work in removing the lion's pelt and mane then sending them, plus the rest of his kill, home. Following the small cultivation of his kill, he motioned for his uncle to come closer then teleported them to Cairo. The venue where the book fair was taking place in was directly behind them, so they turned then went in. In comparison to how it felt outside, the building was cool and refreshing; he and his uncle found two machines where sodas, or bottles of water, were in right after entering it. After doing the spell that converted some of their cash into what was accepted in their location, they purchased something to drink, then drank it, then went to see what the fair was about.
With the building being as big as it was, and with there being as many tables and boothes in it as there were, it was no surprise that he found something to buy right after consuming his soda then throwing the can away. Guyunis seemed to be really into his Ripley's Believe It Or Not books, so he purchased all but the four that he owned from the man who was selling them. Following that purchase, which came close to draining him of funds, he did the Unlimited spell then went to find something else to look at and, possibly, buy.
Due to his being the son of Vile Skujik Vile, he found himself as having his service refused by some of the people who were manning some of the tables where decent to halfway decent books were being sold on. Efagti got a bit heated with two of the people who refused to let him buy anything from them, then he tried to get him to leave with him when an abnormally tall woman insulted him because of who his paternal figure was, before he stopped then said that all was cool and that he was use to this.
Following the most recent refusal of his service from one of the table's proprietors, he found something to buy for Lazeer. The series of books were old, but weren't falling apart; each were on the planet's extinct animals. He was about to leave the venue with the bags that he had, which were right heavy, and giving him some trouble in carrying, when his eye landed on the big book that was being sold on a small table that was by the venue's far back wall. After seeing this book, he looked to see if his uncle was still nearby; when he saw that he was, but was paying a table, and its proprietor, some business, he went on to what attracted his attention.
"Well now, I heard that you were here." the proprietor, who was one of the most beautiful women that he had ever seen, said after he approached her table. The woman, who had darkly tanned skin, olive-colored eyes, and the longest black hair that he had ever seen, gave his bags a glance before turning her attention back to him. "I see that you're not here to cause trouble, so how may I help you?"
"No ma'am. Wherever I go, I look to cause no trouble." Bile replied before gesturing at the table's biggest book. "What's that on?"
The woman smiled, then went to where the book was. When she opened it, he saw that it had a heavy film of dust on it. "My baba owned this. It was in his attic for a while, before being moved to mine then brought here. It charts the classiest cars out there that were built from when the automobile was first made to now; it also lists the cars that never made it to market, or have yet to be made."
"One of my younger brothers has an interest in classy cars, both from their inception to now, and I don't think he's seen a book that's got anything in it on the cars that weren't sold to anyone or have yet to be made. May I ask how much you're selling it for?"
"Seeing as I'd like to speak with your buddy, and that you might help me in doing that, I'll knock thirty from it for you." the woman winked at him. "Thirty and its yours."
"Deal."
Before buying the hefty book, he noticed the three books that were on the history of hip hop. He bought all four before calling his uncle over then introducing him to the woman who he just did business with. His uncle and the woman exchanged "words" for a decent stretch of time before the signal was given on his needing to turn around and then leave. His uncle, as expected, used him much like the woman did; only he did so in a way to get away from her instead of to get her to come over to where he was so he could talk to her. When he left the venue, his uncle was practically clipping his heels and looking more than a little flustered. Seeing as the trip to the flea market was out, they left Cairo; like with their speedy exit of Egypt, they were fast in going into the house. Once they were inside, he went to square away his purchases while his uncle went to take care of himself and the issue that he, in some small way, created.