The Shadower

by Punk19

With their just being returned to Moas, Angel and her sons are trying to settle into their new environment; it's not long before they become stressed by some force that continues to shadow and torment them and it's not long before their family adds more stress to what they're feeling. Who is shadowing them and will he stop to allow them to return to their former, new way of living?

8. Chapter 8

From the Moas Proctoris Times, December 2, 4099 (Page 2)
Still No Word From Surfeit Mansion

Questions abroad are still being asked a week after the return of Mr. Surfeit's previously missing family, consisting of his wife, Angel Irene Vile-Surfeit, and their four sons—Bile Vile, LhaklarVile Closhu Surfeit, HazaarVile Tlair Surfeit, and LazeerVile Zuluduz Surfeit—, occurred; while it's known that certain activities are going on in the residence owned by Mr. TazirVile Lajoshu Surfeit no word on how everyone in the structure is or on what is going on inside it has been disclosed. All calls placed to the residence's landline have gone unanswered—instead of gaining a willing participant to speak with all one gets is the machine—and any and all attempts to speak with both staff of Mr. Surfeit's and Mr. Surfeit's family have been unsuccessful. While certain activities have been known to be happening in the residence neither the residence's owner or his daughter, EshalVile Eskara Surfeit, have been seen. That goes double for there being no sightings of the recently returned Angel Irene Vile-Surfeit and her sons.

"There's probably nothing going on in Mr. Surfeit's house," Kooduz Harec, a child and parent behaviorist, said after being asked about what he thought was going on with the family members that were recently returned to Moas and to Mr. Surfeit's home and life. "There will be a fear period experienced by the boys—they will be nervous of their surroundings for a short while before deciding to explore the place that they've been brought to. Their mother, who knows the place more than her sons do, will settle down faster than they and they will take their cues on that in calming down and in moving about more freely. Once everyone is calm, and more settled down, things will go back to being normal within the residence."

Mr. Gloar Rovnitov, the neighbor, good friend, and old school colleague of Mr. Surfeit's, has also not responded to questions pertaining to what's going on in the mansion owned and resided in by his friend and his family; his claim of being enthused with the Moas Derby has been validated by more than four sources. Mr. Rovnitov, who owns the track that the derby is run on, claims that the upcoming derby will be even more entertaining than the current year's—with the candidates for the upcoming race now putting in preparatory races, and gaining the necessary points that will gain them a spot in the derby, this does seem to be a fact.

A report from the Bula Galaxy, the most recently conquered galaxy by Mr. TazirVile Lajoshu Surfeit, shows that Mr. Surfeit is still working normally; he is still collecting his monies and is still checking on certain governmental affairs. The same is said to be happening with Mr. Surfeit's other galaxies—the Vaisha and the Andromeda. At current, the most pressing question for all is what is going on in the mansion owned by the man and on how Angel Irene Vile-Surfeit, who disappeared sixteen hundred years ago with her four sons, is fairing and on how the four boys are settling into their new home and lifestyle.

The denizens of the Universe are waiting, and, it does seem, will continue to wait until some word is heard from the mansion; the throng of reporters, that appeared before the mansion owned by Mr. Surfeit on the night that he and his returned home, and that have grown over the week that Mr. Surfeit and his family have been returned home, haven't moved an inch from their post so, it is both presumed and hoped, something should come around in the answers department soon.

After reading the paper, then folding it so that it was closed, she tossed it over to her son, who had been eyeing it like a hungry bear for this past five minutes; Lhaklar, for as long as she could remember, was a fanatic for newspaper reading—she had taken it up from the bench that it had been placed on before he had had a chance to think about grabbing and then running off with it.

Tazir had done as she had requested of him to do in keeping the reporters away; thanks to the article that she had just gotten through reading, she knew that no one knew what was going on with her and hers. Regardless of knowing that her and her sons' living statuses weren't known she was still nervous—what happened after one of her sons decided to look out one of the house's windows? The mansion had a lot of windows on it; some were big, some were normal, some were octagonal while others were circular... if one of her sons decided to partake in looking out one of the house's windows would his picture be taken and then flashed all around the Universe or would he just be noted as being seen without being disturbed? What would happen after the opportunity came around for her sons to explore the exterior grounds of the property? The acreage that her husband's house sat on was right extreme—one hundred acres, that was either covered in artificial blue grass or that was taken up by rocky shoreline; except for the ocean and shoreline, which couldn't be fenced in, all of it was fenced in... would a reporter chance it in jumping the fence, or slipping through a portion of the land that wasn't fenced in? Would the reporter that decided to be brave by trespassing run over to disturb one of her sons, who was doing nothing more than exploring the area that he'd be allowed to frolic and play in, or would he or she just take pictures, or video, of what he, or she, was seeing from a distance? Would a reporter, who suddenly came in on a boat, come ashore and then rush forward to question one or more of her out and about sons or would her sons be left totally to themselves?

So many questions were being processed in her brain; she sighed after the one about the reporter coming in on a boat ran through her processor before leaning back. Bile and Lhaklar, over the last twelve hours, had left the room several times to explore the level that they were on; she had not once stopped them or given them a set time to return to the room. They, after returning, would speak of what they had seen then they'd either sit and watch tv or look at the walls—or, Lhaklar would; since Bile had the two magazines that Hazaar had gotten for him he had something to do between going out to explore the house's second level and then returning to the room.

Hazaar and Lazeer were still as nervous as could be; she had a feeling that it'd be a while before they settled down and stopped being so nervous. Lazeer's model plane was finished; after looking over the impressive job that he had done on it, then telling him that she was proud of him for how the model looked, she had found herself being asked, yet again, about whether she'd change into her dragon form so he could base some of his dragon model off of it. Lhaklar had been asked if he'd use his Telepathy on her to extract the memory of when she had last transformed into being a dragon; Lhaklar, though reluctant, had done so with no lip given. Lazeer's model dragon was also done—both it and the model plane had been removed from the room and then carted up to his chamber an hour to two hours after they were done; due to her son's models having been completed, and away from his ever-wondering gaze, he had nothing but magazine reading to do now. Hazaar's model Tyranaglat was also done; like with Lazeer's two models, it had been taken up to his given chamber. Even though he had his magazines to look at, and re-read, he was bored and had nothing to do.

The 1969 Chevrolet model that Lhaklar had gotten from Hazaar had never been opened; with Lhaklar being so busy in house exploration, he had forgotten all about it. Like with Hazaar's and Lazeer's models, his still-boxed car model had been taken up to his chamber—she was still wondering when he'd start asking where it had gone and if he could have it back so he could do it.

Tazir, that morning, after breakfast, and then the paper, had been given to them, had offered to take them up to the house's third level; he had obviously wanted to show the boys their rooms. The boys, quite surprisingly, had said no on the offer given to them—she had a feeling that they had been too enthused in breakfast to worry about what their given chambers looked like; with the way Tazir had looked after hearing the boys' response to his given offer, she had a feeling that he had something in the planning stages for that day. She, while nervous about what he might have in store for them that day, was curious about what was to happen that day.

It was eleven-thirty—close to being noon; she had a good mind to get to her feet and then tell her boys to follow her. A trip to the third level would be done, then the rooms that had been set-up for her sons would be tracked down and then shown to them before they'd come back to take up residency in the room that they had spent all of a week in—with her having a feeling that Tazir had something cooking upstairs that revolved around them rooms she just didn't have the heart to do so and, besides, she didn't know which chamber had been set-up for who. Tazir did but she didn't, which was another reason to what was keeping her in the room and this idea of hers in-check.

Even she was bored now; a week of being in the same room, just sitting and watching as her sons settled down, had caused the hours in the last four days to go by very slowly. Other than talking to Tazir, or giving him a small bit of affection, she had nothing to do; whenever she gave her husband any affection she made sure that it was small—Hazaar, she had noticed yesterday, didn't seem to like the idea of her or her husband being all affectionate with one another. For his sake, she was keeping the affection giving small and slight instead of giving it in large amounts.

She, as of the last week, had been getting her Mately Pains whenever Tazir was around—he could either be walking down, or up, the hallway, either on his way to the house's first level or on his way to his office or their bedroom chamber, or he could be standing by the room's door, getting ready to come in, or be walking into the room... she was getting them pains a lot lately and, as of the last three days, she had been purposely standing close to Tazir just to warrant a response from him. A simple touch by him did the trick in making her pains go away and he, either consciously or unconsciously, was fast in giving her her needed relief whenever she was close to him. It was going to take a while before she got use to the pains again—before leaving the mansion with her sons, she had been quite use to them.

"Hazaar, quit opening and closing your knife please." Angel said to her son, who wasn't only sitting behind her but who, for the last three hours, had been opening and then closing his pocketknife. Just hearing the click of the blade returning to the knife's handle was annoying and made her feel a little more nervous and stressed out.

"Yes momma." Hazaar said.

Any one person would get to feeling a bit stressed out by simply staying in one room for a week; while she loved her sons dearly she did feel like she needed to have a little space of her own to enjoy. With the way that day seemed to be going, and with Hazaar and Lazeer still being as nervous as could be, she doubted if that'd happen anytime soon—with Tazir being "allowed" to roam the house so freely, and with Bile and Lhaklar going around, exploring the house without a worry on their shoulders, she couldn't help but be a bit jealous of them.

Hazaar and Lazeer, while having stopped the routine of keeping their father at a distance, were still tip-toeing around him; if Tazir so much as cleared his throat, or made any form movement while they were walking by him, they'd either jump, stop, or high-tail it away from him. Lhaklar, though looking to be a bit more calm and settled, was still acting in a nervous way with the man while Bile was still acting a bit tense around him.

Even though she knew the house, and the people who either lived or worked in it, she still had a few fears to her that she wasn't able to get rid of. While she still loved her husband she feared that he might, both intentionally and unintentionally, hurt one of her sons and she also worried that he didn't understand them as much as she did.

Her oldest son, regardless of being two inches taller, and thirty-five pounds heavier, than the man, was still a boy; Lhaklar, regardless of being his father's exact height, but being forty-five pounds lighter than he was, was also still a boy and so were Hazaar and Lazeer, who were one to two inches shorter than the man and who also weighed less than he did. Bile, though knowing how to fight and when it was right to fight, and though looking to be able to hold himself up well with a grown man, might not be able to keep up the pace that Tazir set if any sort of physical altercation occurred between them; that went double for her other sons. Tazir had more than enough experience on his side; he knew well how to fight and he also knew well how to trick his opponents into thinking that he was bested or that the fight was over—her husband could well hurt her babies if a physical altercation occurred between them.

Bile was fast; he could get away from anything in the blink of an eye, and he was strong, intelligent, and sure-footed. Lhaklar, while being slow at first, would get to being fast and in the groove of either getting out of the way or getting involved in the thing that suddenly came up that required any sort of physical actions from him to be put into effect. Hazaar... well, it looked he liked to fight and it also looked like he liked fighting—she knew that if anything happened between Tazir and Bile, or Tazir and Lhaklar, Hazaar would become involved to both be included in the fight and to also help his brothers. Lazeer was strong, intelligent, powerful, and sure-footed, and he could well put in a bruiser of a fight, as well but he was handicapped by his photo sensitive eye, which would keep him out of a fight if said fight was happening in broad daylight.

She worried about all of them; while some of her concern was also being directed towards Tazir she was directing most of her concern towards her sons.

"Have to commend him, though. He's not been rushing things with the boys and he's been quite calm and controlled around them." she thought.

Before the landing in the underground hangar occurred, she had decided to not be but so distrusting towards her husband; she had decided to be a little distrustful of him but she had also told herself to be wary of him in accord to the boys, who had gone through so much in the hours that had happened between the apartment being discovered to be robbed and their arrival to Moas.

The act of her rushing into the room that was in her husband's ship, then seeing her sons all cowering near the bed or wall, crying their eyes out over being wrongly disciplined by Tazir, would forever be burned into her memory banks—Tazir had promised to never use a weapon on their children in a disciplinary way; his act of using a belt on three of her four sons had thrown that promise out the door, as had his placing Lazeer in the dungeon of his ship. That, and the act of their not knowing him anymore, coupled by their just getting through fighting him, was the reason to why they were all nervous around him.

Tazir had said that it had to be done... that, after they attacked him, and his Goblins, the disciplining with the belt had to be done as a way to "shape them up". If she had been the one to show up to the apartment first, or if she had shown up before the belt was used, she would of given him a royal kicking in the ass. In her mind, nothing of what happened on Earth seven days ago should of happened—Tazir should of been wise in approaching them normally, and then integrating himself among them slowly; instead, he had caused problems for them and he had also hurt certain members of her family.

While she still loved the man, she didn't fully trust him; if she had to make any guesses, her Trust Meter, at the moment, was set at a low five to five and a half. Her Universal Husband had a ways to go before having her full trust again.

"Hand it over," Angel said after the click of a knife being opened was heard again. She turned around then held her hand out for the knife. "I gave you a warning, Hazaar."

"That wasn't me, momma." Hazaar said. He held his hands out; his pocketknife was neither in them or was able to be seen.

"Baby?"

Of course, she had forgotten. Some of the doors in the house made clicking sounds after their knobs were turned. Except for the knob that was on the door of her and her husband's bedroom chamber, each and every door knob on the level was silver and embellished; as far as she could remember, the door knobs on the other levels were the same as the ones on this one—unless the room that they went to had a purpose, and a good one, they were all silver and embellished.

After turning to take in her husband, who had since entered the room, she apologized to her son for accusing him of something that he hadn't done; with that done, she went to him. Hazaar, who was sitting on the chair that had the ottoman before it, moved to the ottoman after feeling her fingers poking and prodding at the matted up, and very greasy, tail of hair that he had on his head; she was fast in taking the chair and in going to work in working the many knots and tangles out from his hair.

In the week that they had been residents of the room not once had they been given any extra clothing articles, or items to keep themselves clean with, or things that they could use to keep themselves well-groomed with; Tazir had mostly concerned himself with bringing them their meals, or their snacks, and nothing el—

"That's not fair and you know it." her conscious told her. "He was taking things slow and he was also keeping his involvements with you and the boys simple. If you had asked him to bring you and your sons some extra clothes, or some shampoo and soap, he would of done so with no lip given. Quit beating up on the man for his simple, slow actions of trying to do an integration with you and your sons."

She forced herself to calm down and to think rationally; to do both was a good thing but to also be careful in her tending of her son's hair was also important. Due to the phase that her son was going through he was especially touchy whenever anyone touched or messed with his hair. She neither wanted to pull his hair, or pull any out from his head, or cause any damage to occur to it. Hazaar was silent the entire time that she was busy in taking the knots and tangles out from his hair; when she was done, she kissed the side of his head then sent him on his way. He thanked her before going off to where the room's bed was.

"Angel, if you and the boys will please follow me." TazirVile said. Angel, he had noted, had gone through a change in demeanor; yesterday, she had been a bit playful and affectionate while, that early morning, she had been a little stressed out. It looked like she was a lot more stressed out now. When Angel went to tend their son's hair, he had figured that a small reprieve in what he wanted to do that near-afternoon could wait—the chambers weren't going anywhere and there was no time restriction on when he showed the boys their chambers. "I'd like for the boys to see their chambers."

"Ma—"

"Sure, but, just so you know, I'll be staying on the third level with them." Angel said as she stood up from the chair.

A week was long enough; he really wanted the boys, and his wife, out of the room and then experiencing a more normal, natural lifestyle than what they had gone through that past week. A normal, natural life would assist in getting their nervous little selves to be less nervous and it would also help them in settling down more—and it would also help him, who had gone through a solid week of hell in experiencing nightly emissions and too good dreams. It was time to get the ball moving on actually having the boys become a real part of his and Eshal's lives and it was also time for him and his wife to start acting like husband and wife.

At first, he had been able to handle the emissions and the dreams; as of the last three days, both had been happening too often and too extremely. The fact of his not being able to remember all of what he had dreamed of was just as annoying as his having to cart his bedding down to the laundry room for cleaning each morning—he remembered Angel speaking to him, and undressing herself, and he also remembered her getting into the bigger of the two pools that were in his house, but he couldn't remember anything more of what happened after she was in the pool. Seeing them curves of hers, and them breasts, which were in the 40C-cup range, and that fiery red hair, that had done more than light the entire room that his pool was in, in his dreams was torturing while knowing that he had her in his house, and that he could get to her, was even more torturing—for his sanity, and for his family, it was time to get things rolling forward in how their lives were suppose to be.

While true, he did want them out of the room, he didn't just want them to be out of the room so he could get and then have at his wife; Angel would be allowed to stay upstairs, on the third level, with the boys until it was time for them to all go to bed then she'd be coming down to the second level to be with him—he wouldn't force her into sleeping with him but he would prefer for her to sleep in the same bed as he and he'd also prefer for her to be close to him. The act of their being in the same bed, and sleeping together, would cancel out them annoying nightly emissions and dreams and it'd also give her, who he was sure was also going through her own demons, some relief too.

"Getting them out of the room would also drop their stress levels—I neither want them to be nervous or stressed out while being here, so this move to the third level is a better than grand one." he thought as his family lined up behind him then followed him from the room.

After leading his family from the room, then making a turn to go down the hallway, then going down the hallway a ways, he found himself as having to stop; one of his younger sons had put the brakes on to look at one of the photographs that were on the hallway walls. He neither grumbled nor said for them to keep following him—this was his sons' home too... they had a right in looking at anything that was on the walls.

"I sure didn't have much hair back then," Hazaar said.

"It was there, just barely though." Angel said to her son. "At that age, it was about a quarter of an inch long."

TazirVile smiled—his secondborn son had, indeed, been born with a very short tail of hair. Though being the same color as it was now it had been much shorter. His son, during the sixteen hundred years that he had been on Earth, with his mother and brothers, had grown it out; not only was it four and a quarter inches long but it was quite full.

His father, he recalled, had wanted him to shave his son's tail of hair off; at just two days of age, the man had approached him and then "discussed" with him about the tail of hair that the boy had been born as having and about how "ridiculous" it both made him look now and on how it'd make him look later on in life. All of what his father had said hadn't been taken to full heart; the hair that his secondborn son had been born with was still on his head and was still intact and it would remain that way—or, unless his son decided to lop it off on his own.

He had a feeling that his son would be pleased with how the adjacent bathroom to his bedroom chamber was arranged—during his time in the apartment that his family had previously been living in he had felt an anomaly under the floor of the downstairs bathroom; Kalach Speelin had been the one to get the order to tear the floor in the bathroom up and to remove all that he found under it. Three boxes, containing a vast assortment of beads, feathers, hair color dyes, ribbons, hair-use rubber bands, and other hair-care items, had been found; all had been taken from the floor and then sent here and then set-up in the bathroom of the room that his son was to inhabit. It had been an automatic thing for him to think of the items that had been found in the floor belonging to Hazaar—his secondborn son was the only male child of his to have hair long enough to accommodate such items.

While the basic room set-up had been done by a maid in his service he had been the one to get the hair-care items set up to, what he hoped and believed, meet his son's qualifications—Mekaia Zultoa, the daughter of Eldass Zultoa, was the one accredited to how the basic room decor and arrangement was.

"Remember that old episode of The Fairly Odd Parents where Timmy Turner's Godparent, Cosmo, looked at photographs of Timmy wearing dresses?" Bile asked Hazaar after the trek to the stairwell that'd take them to the house's third level was resumed.

"Yeah—his parents wanted a girl... they said that they'd be crushed if the baby was born as being a boy." Hazaar replied.

"That's what ma and pop did with you," Bile said. "With you coming out as being a boy instead of a girl, they decided to dress you up as a girl and then try to pass you offer as being a girl instead of a boy."

"That's why mom calls you Hazie." Lhaklar said.

"Shut up you wet ends!" Hazaar snapped. Lazeer, who was in front of Hazaar, stopped suddenly; his brother walked right into him. "Hey! You have feet—use them!"

Angel gave her son a tap on the elbow then went to Lazeer, who was looking at a photograph that she really wished wasn't on the wall of the hallway—while she understood that Tazir might not of had very many photographs of their youngest son to frame she still wished that the photograph that was on the wall wasn't on the wall.

Lazeer, in the photograph, was around three or four hours old; his tiny baby self was wearing a small, blue cap and the smallest of diapers—which still looked much too big for his near-five inch long body. A piece of near-clear tape was holding two tubes, which were going into her then-infant son's nose, in place; her son's coloration wasn't good and his eyes were shut. The doctors had simply put the tubes into her son's various orifices and then plopped him in the pod; no blanket, or any other items with which he could use to keep warm with, had been given to him. Both she and Tazir had been furious over how uncaring the ones who had been given the chore to look after their preemie baby—Tazir, she remembered, had had it out with the doctor's in charge of their son's care more than once in the three and a half weeks that he had been in the hospital.

The photograph that was beside that one was a much more appropriate one; her son, who was four months of age, was much healthier—she guessed that this was one of the reasons to why the pod-picture was on the wall... Tazir had wanted to show to the ones that walked this hallway that their youngest son had survived past the odds that had been placed on him.

The four-month old Lazeer depicted in the photograph was in his crib; he was on his side, so the faint horizontal red line, that ran around the sides and back of his head, could be seen. The hair that her son currently had hadn't grown in until he had reached six months of age—even at that age, it had barely been able to be seen. The then-infant Lazeer in the photograph had his eyes open—barely though; he looked so tired to her, which was heart-wrenching to her. At the start of her son's life outside of the womb, he had weighed nearly two pounds and had been nearly five inches long; at the time that she and her sons left Moas for Earth, he had been ten inches from head to foot and had weighed somewhere around nine pounds—still small, and still weak, but, most importantly, still alive. She still believed that her action of leaving Moas for Earth was correctly done—she might just be lacking one of her sons if not for that action being done.

"You was a very early arrival," Angel said to her son. "You came out when I was twenty-two weeks along in my pregnancy."

"Had a fight with them blasted doctors," TazirVile said. "We wanted to give it a try with the pod while they didn't."

"Your daddy put a lot of money into the hospital just to keep you going for the three and a half weeks that you were in it," Angel placed her hands on Lazeer's shoulders. "They had no faith in you surviving, we did."

"And, by that, here you are." TazirVile said. "I was never one who liked hospitals—they like to be fast. Get you in, work on you, then get you out. I had to throw more than two threats of suing them if they didn't continue with your care after week one—I actually did file a lawsuit on them after you was released."

"It was ma, and her constant care of you, that caused you to survive past both the two days that they placed on your survival after you was released from the hospital and after we appeared on Earth." Bile said. "After we got to Earth, she'd not allow herself to put you down—"

"—much less leave you for a minute." Lhaklar finished for his brother. "After fifty years passed, she calmed down... she just took a deep breath then started leaving you alone for short periods of time. She did the same with Hazaar."

"She had you, and Hazaar, at her breast all the time... she was constantly eating and drinking to keep the milk flowing for you two." Bile went on. "If she allowed another to hold you, or Hazaar, so she could tend me or Lhaklar she'd have her eye glued to that person. If the one that was holding one or the other of you started moving away from her—

"—she'd go 'where are you going with my baby! Bring him back this instant'." Lhaklar finished.

Finding out by word of mouth the doing's of his wife during her time on Earth was just as good as his coming across her work résumé, which had been found in one of the back-rooms of the Green River, Wyoming Food Lion a week ago—going by what Bile and Lhaklar had just said, it was quite apparent that she had continued with her stressful mothering of their two, younger sons. He listened for a while as his two, older sons spoke of how Angel had worried herself to a frazzle over Hazaar and Lazeer and he also listened to how she had also tried her best to divide her time equally between her two infants and the two children who had been both walking and talking by the time the move to Earth was made.

Thanks to his wife's résumé, he knew quite a lot of where the family had lived and what some of his wife's daily life consisted of. Between 2499 and 2712, he knew nothing of what Angel and the boys had done with their lives; Angel and the boys had taken up residency in a place called Okarche, Kingfisher County, Oklahoma for a little under a year before moving up to the northern region of the North American continent—they had lived in various locations in Canada between January 3, 2713 and June 4, 3779. The happenings that occurred between June 4, 3779 and July 17, 4084 with his wife and sons weren't known; there were a few gaps in her résumé that gave him both the curious bug and a small spook. Along with having many, normal, peasant jobs his wife had also taken on several movie-making jobs—the boys' educations had been paid by the act of her becoming a "Special Effects" person in the movie business.

What had happened during the periods that weren't listed on her résumé? Taking from what Bile and Lhaklar had just blindly made known to him, he now knew that she had been around others before the job at Max's Shoes was taken on—she had had help in keeping up with the boys. Who had helped her; surely, all of the friends that she had known from when Bile and Lhaklar had been babies had already perished—unlike her, they weren't immortal like she and their children were. Sixteen hundred years was a long time; had she been faithful to him by not having sex with anyone or had she given in to her need?

The questions that he both wanted an answer to and that he didn't want an answer to jumped around in his brain after he resumed the trek to the stairwell that wound up to the house's third level; they were still bogging him down after he started his ascent up the stairwell. By the time he reached the house's third level, he was haunted by the unknown answers to his questions. Since he was at the head of the line, he squinted, then made a few faces—he forced himself to return to normal and to get a grip on himself. The answers, he told himself, would come in time—while nervous over what the answers to his many questions were he told himself to have faith and confidence in his wife.

He had just gotten through telling himself this when he stopped before a door, that was as black as night, and that had a seemingly black metal frame to it, that was really wood that had been given a very fine paint job. He turned after stopping before this door, then looked at the boys, then reached forward; the amethyst door knob was grasped and then twisted then the door was pushed in.

"Hazaar, this one's yours." TazirVile said. He gave his son a simple look before stepping back; the happenings of what happened next were totally on his son's shoulders. Hazaar, alone, was the one to make the decision on going in and in checking the room out.

Angel, after ten seconds passed with no movements from her son being noticed, told Lazeer to remain where he was; she walked by her husband then went into the room, Hazaar was behind her by nearly two steps.

Hazaar, after entering the room, stopped on a dime; his eyes went wide right after he saw what the room looked like.

A series of shelves, from which a train track was positioned on, ran around the room; an old, antique-looking, train was sitting at the start of the track, it looked like it had somewhere around four cars on it. To the left of the room, stationed underneath one of the shelves that contained a section of train track, were a few more shelves; the spaceship and train models that he had done in the past were on them. In the bottom right corner was a corner desk and chair; the shelves that were above the desk had bottles of paint, paint thinner, paintbrushes, napkins, and containers of model glue on them. The second car to the model train that he had purchased a few weeks ago was on the desk's surface—not only did it look rather comfortable on the piece of furniture but it also almost looked like there was a little sign above it that said Build Me Hazaar.

A tall bookcase, that all of his books and magazines were on, was to the right of the room; it looked like the room's walk-in closet was beside it. A dark gray dresser was on the other side of the open space that he thought was the closet; his cast iron steam engine train clock was on its surface. Above the dresser, mounted on the wall, was a 40" screen—which he guessed was the room's tv.

The bed that was in the room was much like that of what he had once owned and slept on while being on Earth; the only thing that was different about the two was the bedding—a steam engine, that had smoke coming out from the smokestack, was depicted on the comforter. The two pillows that were on the bed were in plain, simple, pillow cases that were a striped gray and white color. The bedside table that was beside the bed was as black as could be; along with his newly done Tyranaglat model, and, for some odd reason, a bulky remote control, it had a black metal lamp, that had a twist basket base on it, on it—while glad to know that his model was in the room he wasn't but so glad over the lamp that was on the table. The lamp, to him, didn't match him or his style—but, seeing as a sense of common decency was needed to be shown, he swallowed this fact; he accepted the lamp.

The room had a dark purple carpet in it; the walls and ceiling were a little lighter shade of purple. The two windows, that were placed on the wall that was clear across from him, had dark purple drapes on their stationed curtain rod—he wasn't but so surprised over seeing that the drapes were closed.

After taking all of this in, then taking two steps forward, he stopped; by the Gods, it looked like he also had a walk-in bathroom! No more having to fuss or wait for the bathroom to become vacant for him—all he'd have to do in the morning was wake up then go straight to the bathroom that was adjacent his bedroom.

"Like I said earlier, I'll be on this level with you four for a while—I'm not going anywhere so, if you need me, give me a yell. Okay?"

"Okay, momma." Hazaar said.

The hallway that was on the house's third level had torches on it; the carpet was a striped, blue, black, and white color while the walls and ceiling were a dark gray color. If she recalled correctly, both she and her grandmother, Irka Shaiden, had dusted and then re-dusted the various statues that were on the level when they were both nearing the end of their pregnancies—she with Lhaklar and her grandmother with Baruk. The ceiling had a milky-white bar running down its center; despite the presence of the torches the hall was relatively well lit by the light that emitted from the bar.

Tazir wasn't like his brother, father, or grandfather—or her father, for that matter. As far as she could remember, her father had a very Gothic style to him while his grandfather's Gothic style was a little less pronounced; her grandfather, KurukVile Shonsinu Surfeit, had a more medieval style to himself. She couldn't remember what her great-great grandfather's style was—while it wasn't medieval it wasn't full-on Goth either. Tazir, in regards to the four men, had a more modern style to himself—though having some Gothic qualities to his style he was mostly modern.

When she left the room that had just been noted as being Hazaar's, she noticed that her husband was a bit off—to her, he looked both nervous and in a hurry. After leaving the room, then saying that her son was doing as any other boy would after being given a room that was to be all his and no one else's, she followed her husband as he resumed the task of taking her and her children down the hall. Tazir took her and her remaining three sons past two doors before stopping; the door that he turned towards was a dark gray color. It had a glass-shatter design painted on it; the knob that was on it was black and as shiny as could be. Tazir, after turning to look at the door, grabbed the door knob; he twisted it then he pushed the door in. He then stepped back.

"Bile, this one's yours." TazirVile said.

Bile gave her a look, then winked one of his eyes, then went into the room; she took his easy-going entrance of his bedroom chamber as a sign for her to go on in following her husband down the hall. Instead of following behind her husband she stepped up beside him; the vibe that she had gotten from him earlier had, for some reason, gotten worse—not only did he not turn to look at her, or smile or acknowledge her after she appeared at his side, but he remained just as cold and as distant towards her as could be. She shrugged her shoulders after feeling this new vibe of his then dropped back to following him from behind; Lazeer, the second she was back to following his father from behind, grabbed her hand.

TazirVile went by two more rooms quietly; he said not a word to her, or to her two remaining sons, or to anyone that they passed while on the way down the hallway. When he finally did stop, he did so after reaching a mahogany door that had a rustic feel and appearance to it. After stopping before the door, he gave his shoulders a shake then reached forward; his hand had no more been placed around the door's silver, copper, and bronze flecked knob before it was twisted. Like with before, the door was pushed in after the knob was turned.

Lhaklar didn't need to be told that the room was his—he could see the model cars that he had completed over the years on the shelves. Lhaklar went by his father silently; while he entered the room normally he kept his eye on his father the entire time that he went by him. With her secondborn son now checking out his room, and with herself having just a cold and distant husband and her lastborn son to worry about, Angel turned to the final task at hand—which was to, once again, follow Tazir as he led them to the final chamber that had yet to be given out.

Lhaklar had no more entered his chamber before his father turned then started back up the hallway again; Angel and her final-born son followed behind him like silent ghosts. They went by another door before stopping—the door that Tazir had stopped before was made out of solid oak; it had a very modern design to it that just screamed Tazir. The knob that went with the door was square in shape and was white-gold in color; TazirVile, after stopping at the door, grabbed the knob then twisted it. He exposed the room's interior after pushing the door in.

"Come on," Angel mumbled to her son as she went towards the room. Lazeer followed behind her at a snail's pace for just a second before quickening his pace.

The first thing that he saw, after entering the room that was all his, was that the floor had a dark red carpet on it; the walls and ceiling were a medium-red color, which, he thought, contrasted rather well with the carpet, The second thing that he saw were the shelves—all of his dinosaur and model planes were accounted for and were on display. He, after completing most of the models that were on display in the room, had put most of the plane and dinosaur models in a box; most of what was on display he hadn't seen in years.

A dark brown oak dresser was to the left of the room; a 40" screen was mounted on the wall above it and, above it, was the clock that he had purchased some years ago but hadn't had a chance to take out from the box or put up—while the clock's outer frame was a mostly dark green color the image on the clock's face was very forest-like. A pack of Deinonychus were hunting a Sauropod dinosaur that looked eerily similar to a Camarasaurus.

The bedside table that was beside the bed was a dark gray color; it had a solar powered lamp, that had little planes hanging down from the mechanical arms that'd turn after the lamp was turned on, on it. This lamp was a new piece to him—he had never seen or owned one like it before; he found himself liking it right away. The B-17 Jet Aircraft Military alarm clock, that was beside the lamp, had been in the room that he and Hazaar had shared on Earth but, like with the clock, and a majority of the room's displayed models, it hadn't been used—he had purchased it and then placed it in the closet of the apartment's second bedroom, where it had remained until now.

His bed was like that of the one that he had owned and slept on when he had been a resident of Green River, Wyoming; it had plain green sheets on it while the comforter had a bizarre camo design to it. The pillow cases that were on the two pillows matched the comforter's design well. The poster, that was above the headboard of his bed, had a pair of Tyrannosaurs on it; due to their having just dived in on the Triceratops that they had brought down, their jaws were all bloody. The poster that had Baby Sinclair on it was to the left of the room's dresser while, beside it, was the poster of a series of dinosaurs running away from a dust cloud. While them posters were known to him, and had been in his possession when he had been on Earth, the poster that was on the room's walk-in closet's door was new; this poster had a model on it that was a babe. She was dressed very much like a flight attendant; her hair was long and blonde in color, her eyes were blue, and her lips were all puckered up. The shirt of the outfit that she was wearing was tight around her breasts—he could see a small bit of cleavage thanks to how tight her shirt was.

A bookcase sat to the room's right side; it had all of his books and magazines on it. The three-headed dragon model, that he had just gotten through completing, was on the bookcase's second shelf—at the moment, it had the shelf all to itself.

The desk, that was placed in the room's bottom right corner, had an incomplete model on it—and how long it had been since he had worked on any model, much less his WWII Lockhead P-38. He had a good mind to start in on it soon—the shelves that were above the desk, which contained several jars of paint and paint thinner, paintbrushes, napkins, and model glue, looked well stocked to him.

"You going to be okay while I go check on your brothers?" Angel asked her son. Lazeer, it seemed, was very centered on the model that was on the desk; she wouldn't be but so surprised if she came in a little later on to see him building it.

"Uh-huh." her son said while still gazing at the room's desk.

She left the room that her youngest son had just been given; upon leaving the room, she saw that Tazir was no where in sight. Either he was with one of the boys, talking, and possibly trying to get the still murky air that was still between them to be lifted, or he was downstairs.

That distant feeling that she had gotten from him still bothered her—she guessed that it had come from the task that he had been doing but she also guessed that something upstairs had been bugging him, which had caused him to be a bit rude to both her and her sons. While she was curious, and a little concerned, about her husband's demeanor she let him be; men needed time to themselves too—time to be their gender and time to unwind from the day's events and time to just think and worry about their own problems.

For some reason, she had a feeling that he was thinking about the activities that she had done while being on Earth—if that was the reason to why he was being so distant with her and the boys then she'd just let him think and wonder for a little while longer. She had never thought about taking a male partner on to relieve the itch of her sexual impulses and she had never indulged in sexual fantasies or activities with another while being on Earth—not only had she been too busy with the boys to think about sex but she had also still been with him. The ring that she had been given after Lhaklar had reached nine months of age was still on her finger; unless to wash the dishes, or to shower, it had never been removed. She was still as loyal as could be towards Tazir, so he had nothing to worry about on whether she had engaged another man in sex or had done any sex deeds during her time spent on Earth.

Angel walked down the hallway; she paid special attention to the rooms that she passed before stopping before the one that had been given to her and Tazir's firstborn son. When she entered the room, she was fast in finding her son—he was sitting in the chair that went to the room's stationed corner desk; it looked like he was overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the last five minutes.

"Lhaklar, you alright?" Angel asked her son.

"Somewhat." Lhaklar answered initially before saying, "Mom... I'm a bit... I'm a bit..."

"Come here, Lhakie." Angel said. Her son stood up then walked over to her; she was fast in wrapping her arms around him after he reached her. "Take it in slowly—I know it's a lot to take in but, do please, don't stress yourself out over what's been given to you. Let me do the stressing, okay?"

"I'd prefer for you to not be stressed either, mom." Lhaklar said. "I love you and I w—"

"Don't you worry about me," Angel said. "I'll be fine. I'm an adult, and I know well how to handle my stresses."

The carpet in the room matched the walls—both were dark brown in color, but the floor was the only one of the two that was shag-like in appearance. The ceiling, which was a mostly medium-brown color, had light red stripes painted on it. The domed light, that was in the ceiling's center, was what kept the room well-lit. A light brown dresser was beside the room's walk-in closet; the 40" screen, that was on the wall above the dresser, had been turned on twice before he had made the decision to not go but so overboard with it.

The room's two, seemingly normal windows had a shelf placed between them; all of the model cars that he had built over the years were on it. The red and silver painted, 1931 Studebaker looked right pretty on the shelf; the dark blue painted, 1960 Chrysler New Yorker was sitting right beside it while the red-painted Model A was beside it. The black and silver painted, 1941 Cadillac Series 62 4-door convertible looked just as proud as the Studebaker—that was the final model on the shelf.

The desk that was sitting in the bottom left corner of the room had three boxes on it; the Buick Streamliner, a 1940's vehicle that had recently been returned to market on Earth, was the only one of the three boxed models that was out and in the open—at the time that he had been taken from Earth, he had been around halfway through with getting the model's main body done. The model kit for the 1948 Lincoln Continental Coupe, that he had purchased while being snuck out of his family's now former residence, still had its plastic on it and so, too, did the model of the 1969 Chevrolet that he had gotten from Hazaar a few days ago.

A black metal bookshelf stood just three feet from the desk; it had most of his books and magazines on it. Quite shockingly, the tin can, that was full of cards that described the cars that had been made from the 1880's to the current day, was also on it. His pornographic magazines, the book on Acidic powers, the scrolls that showed one the various moves that one with Elemental powers could do, and his jade figures were missing—while curious as to where they were he was too nervous to ask about them.

His bed was like that of his old one; it had a black and gold comforter set on it, the pillow cases were either solid black or gold in color. The poster of Uncle Fester, a character that Christopher Lloyd had portrayed in the 1991 film The Addams Family, was on the wall above his headboard; his moose skull and antlers were on the wall that the bed's side was pushed up against while the bull deer rack, that he had gotten from his last hunt, was on the back of the room's door. The Black bullhead catfish, that he had caught on the day that he and his had been removed from Earth, was above the switch plate, which was to the left of the door.

A chocolate brown bedside table was beside the bed; the lamp, that he had made by using both his Acidic and his Elemental Water powers to create an ice-cube around a light bulb and then to make that ice-cube become a permanent fixture to the piece, was on its surface. The upside down light bulb alarm clock, that he had purchased some years ago for $12, looked just as snug as a bug beside the lamp.

"There's a few things missing," Lhaklar said as he pushed himself away from his mother. "Some of my magazines, the book that you gave me on Acidic powers, the scrolls on the moves that can be done by one who has Elemental powers, my jade figures, and my poster of Marilyn Monroe, mom. That's what's not here."

"I'll do my utmost best to get all of what's missing returned to you—when your poster's returned to you, you keep it well-hidden." Angel said.

"Would my returning it to being behind my Christopher Lloyd poster be "well-hidden" enough?" Lhaklar asked.

"Yes—very!" Angel replied. With this matter disclosed, she turned to the other issue that she was worried about. "Take a seat and take it in very slowly, okay? Don't jump into all of this fast."

"K," Lhaklar said, he then started towards the room's bed.

"I need to go check on Bile and Hazaar... will you be okay until I get back?"

"Think so," Lhaklar said as he sat down on the bed. "I'll be right here—on the bed—when you get back."

As she left the room, then went down the hall, she started to wonder if their being in the mansion was the best thing. She understood what Tazir was doing, and she appreciated that he was being slow with them, and she gave him a lot of respect for each step that he took with the boys, but she was wondering if her sons could take what was currently going on in their lives. All of this extravagance... it had to be overwhelming to them.

She had raised her sons the best that she could; sure, she wished that they could of had their own rooms when they had been children and then just before going off to school, and, sure, she wished that she could of bought or gotten them anything and everything that they wanted... during her time on Earth, she and they had had to be careful of their activities, which included any and all purchases that were made and any and all things that they did with their time when they were out of their lived-in residence.

She had felt a fear that, if her father caught wind of anything over the ordinary happening on Earth, he'd come, and then discover that they were on the planet, and then do something to cause some, or all, of her youngs demise and, possibly, her own. She had trained each and every one of her boys on how to use their powers, and on how to use a sword; along with being proud of their training progresses she had also been worrying about whether her techniques in getting them ready for the real world were good enough. The last thing that she wanted, both then and now, was for them to go out into the world, then get into a fight, then be killed because she hadn't prepared them well enough—she did not want to lose any of her babies!

She had been very surprised when Bile's letter came in the mail; this letter, which had included all of the usual stuff that he'd put in it, had also had a sentence in it that had caught her by surprise. Bile had been in school and running track at the time of the letter's receiving... along with also wanting to continue running track he had also wanted to do wrestling. While taken aback by the request she had also told herself that he was a child and that he had the same rights as all of the other children who wanted to become involved in one of their school's sports activities. Along with sending the payment for her son's continuation in track she had also sent the initial payment of $30 for his first wrestling sessions to take place—her son had been most appreciative towards her for this. Like any other good parent, she had always been in the bleachers come time for her son's track or wrestling meets—while her hair had been a different color she had still been the same old Angel Irene.

She had been as good of a parent as she could with her children both before and after their school days occurred and, by the Gods, was she to continue being so now.

When she got to the chamber that had recently been given to her oldest son, she stopped then knocked on the door—which was just as closed as could be. The door's knob was twisted, then the door was opened; she went in right after her son recognized who it was that wanted to come in.

"How're you doing?" she asked her son after he closed the door halfway.

"Getting use to it—it'll probably take me a while but I'll get use to this new lifestyle of mine." her oldest son replied.

The first thing she saw, after entering the room, were the two posters—the one of Raquel Welch was on the back of her son's walk-in closet's door while the other one was to the left of the closet. The poster of Raquel Welch was an old one; Ms. Welch had been on the set of One Million Years B.C., which she had been apart of. She was wearing the two-piece, deerskin bikini that she had worn when she had been filming the movie. The lady in the poster was on her knees; one of her legs was held back just a bit from the other. One of her hands was on her hip while the other was placed to her temple. From what she had been able to gather from her son, he had found the poster in the Green River, Wyoming Flea Market; it had been under a bunch of old, torn up posters at the time of its discovery. He had spent $1.25 to get it—the price, alone, was surprising... with the poster being of a movie that was now a cult classic, it should of been priced much higher than that.

The poster that had Rita Hayworth on it was a very old one; Ms. Hayworth had been photographed while being on the set of the 1946 cult classic film, Gilda—she was on the bed, on her knees, and she was wearing something akin to a silk gown, that looked to have lacing on the top. She had a very seductive look on her face. Like with the Raquel Welch poster, Bile had found this one at the Green River, Wyoming Flea Market; he claimed to of taken a "fancy" to it. Like with the Raquel Welch poster, she had been shocked to learn the price of what he had been charged for Ms. Hayworth—$0.67... her son had spent just sixty-seven cents on a rare, black and white poster that could well be worth hundreds, if not thousands. He had really made off with a bargain buy on both posters.

She hadn't had any beefs with her son buying posters, or with his going to the Flea Market and then returning with the two posters that he had come back with—er, well, she had had a minor issue with the Raquel Welch poster... but she had gotten over it and fast. She'd rather her sons express themselves, and their sexualities, than to keep themselves bottled up.

A dark silver bookshelf was in the room's bottom left corner; all of her son's magazines, knives, and jade figures were on it—the dragon figures were her son's while the bear and rearing horse figures, all of which were on the bookcase's third shelf, were not. She made a note to speak to her son about having them figures, which belonged to Lhaklar, returned to his brother. From first glance, she noted that her oldest son's scrolls on the moves that one with Elemental powers could do were also missing—this gave her cause to be concerned over Lhaklar's Acidic power book, and the scrolls that she had given to her sons, being left on Earth.

The rustic-made dresser, that was beside the bookshelf, looked similar to the one that her son had had when he had been on Earth—the only difference that she could see was that it looked sturdier than the one that her son had previously used. Bile's lamp, which was nothing more than a paper-mache eye-ball, and the skull-like item that Hazaar had gotten for him, were on the dresser's surface.

The Water Buffalo skull, that had come from one of her son's hunts, was on the wall above the headboard of her son's bed while the Buffalo's rack was above the room's door. Her son's skull-shaped alarm clock was on the black-metal bedside table, which was beside her son's bed; the room's bed had a pine-wood frame to it that looked very rustic—Tazir must of put two-and-two together on what this son of hers liked. The comforter set that was on the bed had black, white, and purple deer skulls and antler designs on it; the pillow cases that were on the bed's two pillows had dark gray leg-bones on them.

Her oldest son's chamber had dark green walls in it; the carpet that was on the floor was the darkest of green color. The ceiling above matched the walls to perfection—but, like Lhaklar's, it had stripes painted on it; each stripe was a lime green color, which, she thought, contrasted really well with the wall and carpet colors. The domed light that was in the ceiling's center was much like that of what was in Lhaklar's room.

"Lhaklar's missing a few items—some of his magazines, his jade figures, his Acidic power book, his scrolls on Elemental powers, and his Marilyn Monroe poster." she said after taking in her son's room.

"I did notice that there's something extra in here that's not mine." Bile said. He went to the bookshelf then he carefully removed the jade bear and rearing horse figures. "I'll be making a return of these to him—not sure where the magazines, poster, the book, or the scrolls are. Even I'm missing my scrolls."

"Thank you," she said after seeing that her son was compliant in returning his brother's missing, yet not so missing, figures.

She was about to say something about asking Tazir about the magazines, the poster, the book, and the scrolls that were missing when the door to the room was thrown open; Hazaar rushed in then practically bulldozed her to the floor. Bile was fast in protecting the jade figures and in helping her in not falling to her rump.

"Thank you, Biley." she thanked her oldest son. With that done, she turned her attention to her thirdborn son. "Hazie, what's wrong?"

Hazaar said nothing, so she figured that she'd best leave the room to see what it was that he was so spooked about—one look at his face told her that he was scared. She told Bile that she'd speak to his father about the missing items that were desired to be returned then she escorted his brother from the room; upon exiting the room, she saw that the hallway was empty except for one lone Goblin. She looked at this Goblin for a second before leading her son to his chamber; the Goblin, she figured, had either gone into her son's room to see what was going on in it or to see why it was open instead of closed—while doing one or the other, he had given her unwary, and still nervous, son a scare.

The Goblin was obviously of the male gender—the tuxedo, which was a medium blue color, was enough to tell her what his gender was. He stood four foot, five or six inches tall; he had a dark blue skin complexion and large, yellow eyes. The wrinkles that were on his face were right pronounced on his cheeks and forehead; he had a small wart on his left cheek, the wart that was on the end of his slightly crooked nose was very tiny. The hair that was on his head was dark brown in color; it looked to be right soft.

She acknowledged the man by nodding at him then she took her son into his room; the question of what was bothering her son to make him be so spooked was about to be asked when the name of the man in the hallway came to her. She backtracked to the room's entrance, then poked her head out of the room, then left the room after seeing that the Goblin was still in the hallway.

"Daosi?"

"Yes, My Mistress." the Goblin named Daosi nodded his head.

"You look well." Angel said.

"My Mistress, I thank you." Daosi said. "I do hope that I didn't upset Young Master Hazaar—I merely said hello to him."

And, with that admission, she not only remembered how Daosi Zultoa, Eldass Zultoa's secondborn son, acted but she also knew what had happened. Daosi was one who acted before he thought; while he was a very loyal Goblin he was also one who got more than one reprimand in a day—of the four children of Eldass's to of been employed by her husband it was Daosi who got reprimanded more for his actions or choice in words.

In October, Hazaar had picked up and then thrown Daosi's father and he had also fought him afterwards—it was very possible that Mr. Zultoa's son's innocent "hello" to her son wasn't so innocent. Daosi, for all she knew, might well have plans to make her son feel guilty over causing his father harm and he might also have plans to hurt him—she, right then and there, decided to keep her eye on this man.

Angel said nothing else to the Goblin; she went back into her son's chamber. Hazaar looked at her, then he looked at the open door of his bedroom, then he walked over to her.

Her sons had started asking her for comfort by nuzzling their heads up against hers at an early age; Hazaar and Lazeer, after seeing Bile and Lhaklar doing the head nuzzling thing for comfort, had imitated it and then decided to continue doing it.

Angel, after her son reached her, gave him a warm hug then, after he started nuzzling her, she returned his nuzzle. After a full five minutes of both asking and then receiving the comfort that he wanted from her her son stepped away from her then went towards the room's corner desk; she watched as he took his seat at the desk and then went to work on the model that was on its surface.

"Must of completed the engine that he started a few weeks ago," she thought after seeing that the box, that her son was opening, had one of them passenger cars depicted on it. Her son had started doing a Halloween-theme model train engine a few weeks ago; he had purchased a few cars to go with it, which he had yet to get started on. She put on a smile, then said that, if he needed her, to check his brothers' chambers, then left the room; she went straight to Lhaklar's chamber afterwards.