While he loved and respected his mother he did have to agree with what Bile had said on their having weird parents. To him, his and his brothers' parents were very opposite of one another—the style was enough to say this while the animals that they kept as pets was really the cincher on how different they were.
His father was loaded with dough and, judging by the house, looked to prefer a life that was full of extravagance; his mother, he knew, was one for a more normal, simple lifestyle—she might like and enjoy a few extravagant-like things from time to time but she wasn't one who liked getting overly pampered or be thrown one extravagant thing after another on a day-in to day-out basis. He guessed that the animals that they owned told of how gender-opposite they were—his father owned a mostly male-interested animal that was mostly hairless, that could carry rabies, and that ate insects, while his mother owned a mostly female-interested animal that was covered in soft fur, that was cute and cuddly, and that looked to be domesticated—but why would his father pick a bat to be a pet? What was so masculine about an animal that did nothing but sleep during the daytime hours then fly about, searching for insects, at night?
Before following his brother to the old man's office yesterday, he had been told a few things that revolved around the care and sometimes daily activities that occurred with the bats. Along with being the only one to feed and care for them the man also went into their cages and enclosures—he let his animals fly around him, and sometimes even land on him, and he sometimes took to sitting on the floor of the cage or enclosure that he went into. Bats were on record for generating a lot of guano a day so, whenever his father sat down, or allowed a bat to land on him, he was allowing for any of the bat-generated bacterias to get on him... plus, he was also allowing for shit to get on him. Before being told this, he had figured that his father was one of them clean freaks who screamed after getting a speck of dirt or a tiny bit of dust on them; after being told this... well, his perception of the man being a "clean freak" was no longer present. He had honestly been disgusted after learning the antics of his father after he entered his pets' cages and enclosures.
Seeing as he had nothing better to do, and seeing as Lazeer had taken to following him after seeing him descend from the foyer's left-side stairwell, he took his brother to the hallway that the bats were on. Lazeer looked at the two enclosures; he made a few comments on what he was saying then he said something about wanting to leave the hallway—he was fast in figuring that the dry, scratchy sounds, that the bats were making while flying about in their enclosures, had made him grow a bit tense. After getting the cue to leave the hallway, he led his brother down the hallway then made a turn.
"Was it dad who said something about us "not forgetting the fish" or was it mom?" Lazeer asked after they had gone halfway down the hallway that he had led them to.
"Huh?"
"Upstairs, in their room—someone said something about us not forgetting the fish. Who was it?" Lazeer clarified his question.
"I have no idea—I'm more concerned about our mother at the moment." Hazaar said. Before he could muster the strength to stop himself from saying it he said, "She's never acted like that before."
"Like what?" Lazeer asked. "What're you—"
"Remember how she shot up from the couch in that one room then dropped the book that she was holding?" Hazaar asked. Lazeer nodded his head. "She acted like something had scared her or something."
"Probably saw a spider clinging to, or crawling across, the back of the book that she was holding—you know how she is with spiders." Lazeer said.
And, with the room being used as a sort of museum, he could see how a spider could of been on the final photo album's back. Spiders were notoriously famous for popping up in places that things were stored in, and in buildings that certain items were displayed in—a museum, one time, about three years ago, had to close its doors after one of its visitors came across a nest of Brown recluse spiders in one of its back wings and, six months after that occurred, another museum was condemned after a nest of numerous species of spiders was discovered as being in its attic and walls. As long as spiders, and their insect cousins, were outside, in their natural environments, momma was fine with them; if a normal insect was seen as being in the house, she'd evict it by scooping it up in a cup and then hand-delivering it outside... if a spider was seen as being in the house... well, a scream would be heard then Bile would be called to "take care" of it.
He remembered the incident that occurred two hundred and thirteen years ago very well; he, Lhaklar, and Lazeer had been at home, on vacation from the University of Telepathy at the time, and momma had been busy in tending a bushel of apples that had come from one of the local farming stands. A big, yellow spider had been seen as crawling from the inside of an apple, that she had been reaching to pick up at the time—a loud-ass scream had been heard then that apple had gone sailing across the room; Bile had done the "honors" of killing the spider and of taking said apple up and then disposing of it. Another time, about fifty years later, when he and his brothers had been on another school-done vacation, momma had screamed herself raw after seeing a big brown spider crawling across the floor of the bathroom that had been in the apartment that they had been living in at the time. Bile, who had just come into the apartment, had run up to see what it was that she was so freaked out over; after a few seconds of garbled speech, he had deduced that she had seen a spider in the apartment's one bathroom. Bile, who had "a way" of dealing with the dismissal of the noted spiders that were in the housings that they lived in, had cracked his knuckles after deciphering her garbled speech; a lot of yelling, screaming, cursing, and sounds of porcelain and wood breaking, had been heard after he entered the bathroom that the alleged arachnid had been seen in.
Most of the time, after he "took care" of the spiders that their mother saw and then flipped out over, he'd just come out of the room that the arachnid had been seen in, then hold a small, blackish-brown bundle up, and then say that he had taken care of the arachnid trespasser and that he had also sent a message to the arachnids residing outside of their apartment to not trespass or spook their mother—he had done this after the big brown spider had been "disposed of"; the spiders mustn't of gotten his message because, a week later, a repeat of the bathroom incident occurred. As always, the rooms that Bile destroyed while going after the arachnid that had dared to spook their mother were repaired about an hour to two hours after the spider was killed.
He and his brothers still joked about how spooked their mother was over spiders; any other bug known on the planet didn't bother her... it was just spiders that she was scared of.
He was just remembering another incident where a spider was "dismissed" from their home when loud clap of thunder was heard; this thunderclap caused the mansion to "shake" for a second and it also caused him and his brother to come to an abrupt stop.
"Where's a window? I need to look outside!" Hazaar said excitedly.
"Uhhhh, right there." Lazeer pointed at the window that was a few feet down the hall from them. The window that he was pointing at was small, and circular in shape; it had a short, dark blue curtain hanging over it.
He wasted not a second in going to the window or in drawing the curtain back; no consideration on his part was given to checking if there were reporters around or if he was able to be seen by anyone who was outside—at the moment, all he could care about was looking out the window to see what the storm was doing.
At first, he saw nothing. Despite the fact that it was still morning, it was pitch black outside—this, he knew, meant that the storm was a bad one and that he should be careful of touching the window's glass. After drawing the curtain back, he waited for another lightning strike, which occurred about twenty seconds later—an electric blue band was seen as dropping from the sky, then the entire backyard was lit up, then a loud boom of thunder was heard; he paid no mind to the thunder, he took in what he was allowed to take in of what the back of his father's property looked like quickly.
The backyard was half-covered in what looked to be blue grass; the non-grass covered backyard consisted of rocky terrain that looked both sharp and smooth to the naked eye. The grass-covered yard was fenced off; he saw a huge stable, that looked to run along the far left side of the fenced in side of the yard, and he saw several horse pastures and paddocks both before and to the left and right of it. The farthest pasture had a terrain of half grass and half rock in it; at the moment, it was half-submerged in water. He was wondering what was in the stable when another lightning bolt was seen—with his father being as wealthy as he was, there might just be horses or cows, or goats or sheep, or some sort of weird alien animal housed in the structure. With his father being as rich as he was, he could see him as having more than two of each of them animals in the structure.
The thunderclap that followed the second lightning bolt had no more sounded before a pink-colored bolt of lightning zapped down; another portion of the backyard was exposed to him after the third bolt of lightning occurred.
"Momma probably likes them trees." he thought after taking in the tall trees that were in the backyard. The trees' branches were widely spread out; due to the storm's procured winds, the red and pink flowers that were on them were being blown to and fro maniacally.
There were around a dozen or so of them trees in the yard; they were placed sporadically throughout the yard. A line of hedges ran along the fence that was to the left of the stable—when the next bolt of lightning occurred, he was able to see that they closed the small, square section, that was to the left of the stable, off. The fourth bolt of lightning caused him to take in the fact that his father's home was situated near the beach—the ocean went on for miles; at the moment, it was a very choppy, dark blue color. After the fourth bolt of lightning occurred, he was able to see that there was a wrought iron bench and swing set near the shoreline; there looked to be a sort of wrought iron table between the two items.
Another lightning bolt followed on the heels of the last one; this one exposed the rest of the yard to him.
"There's even a garden back there!" he came close to saying.
Or, uh, that's what he thought he saw. There was a break in both the fence and hedges that was to the left of the stable; a row of bushes, that had red roses on them, ran around a large area that looked to have a set of yellow lights in it. There were paths leading away from each of the pastures and paddocks and there were paths that led to unknown regions of the yard that ran along the mansion's right side. A concrete structure looked to be near the beach and, close to it, a sort of pier was present. A sort of cave, that looked to have a wooden door on it, was very close to the ocean—the waves were battering the door crazily; he was fast in thinking that the structure was flooded on the inside thanks to this.
Why his father had gotten a building built so close to the beach was beyond him; he was very curious about the concrete structure, and the cave-like structure, and he was also curious about what was in the area that was flanked by the rose bushes.
When the next bolt of lightning struck, he and his brother, who had since joined him in looking out the window, were able to see the ocean as it slammed into the lowest-lying pasture. The water came close to swallowing the pasture completely before pulling back.
"Last night, before we went to bed, Lhaklar said that what's going on outside is something similar yet not similar to a hurricane—think he needs to pick up a book on them storms because this doesn't look or resemble or come anywhere near to resembling a hurricane." Lazeer thought while looking out the window.
He had seem some pretty spectacular lightning bolts in his life... what he was seeing, and what the storm was producing, was very new to him. He had never seen a storm like this before and he bet that Hazaar would agree with him whole-heartily on this.
The bolts that he was seeing were either a red, an electric blue, a pink, or a white color; the last bolt of lightning that he had seen had been a unique, two-tone green color. He had seen cloud to cloud; cloud to ground; and, most fascinatingly, unattached bolts that seemed to electrify the ocean after coming in contact with it. On just this one observation, he was able to note that there was only a five second window before a thunderclap was heard after a lightning bolt was seen as crashing down from the heavens. The wind was horrible while the rain and hail was even worse—there was no way in hell that this storm resembled or could be considered anywhere near to resembling a hurricane!
Hurricanes usually had a few to couple hour window before dropping in strength or moving on to other areas—this storm had been happening for nearly twenty-four hours and it seemed to be growing stronger by the hour. The winds that were recorded as coming from hurricanes went in one direction—counter-clockwise—until after the eye passed over the area that was being affected by the storm, then the winds blew in the opposite direction. The winds procured from this storm were blowing all over the place—north for a short duration of time then east the next and then west the next and then south the next and so on and so forth. There was no way in hell that this storm was hurricane resembling—it surpassed the storm's known to pass through on Earth by a mile... maybe two to three by conservative opinions.
A bright green explosion of cloud-to-cloud lightning sent him and his brother away from the window; they decided to walk down the hallway after the explosion occurred and they also decided to try to ignore the storm. They had seen enough of it for the time being.
They walked for a short while before stopping at the first door that they came by on the hallway; he wasted precious time in grabbing and then twisting the door knob after stopping before it.
"Locked?" Hazaar asked.
"Very! Can't even twist the... is this a door knob or a piece of art?" Lazeer asked.
The door that they had stopped at was made completely of opaque glass; the knob that was on it was in the shape of a starfish and was gilded. Lazeer thought about using his Telekenetic powers as a way to see what was in the room before deciding to not do so—the old Foggy had put him in the dungeon of his ship once... if he entered a room, or used his powers to see what was in a room that was locked, he might well get worse than that.
Lazeer stepped away from the door then took the initiative to lead his brother around; he was very near to exiting the hallway that the locked door was on when he stopped—the door that he had noticed was made out of very highly polished mahogany wood. It had a very shiny glass knob on it that was shaped like a bat's head. Before he could try the door, to see if it was locked or not, his brother pushed him to the side then reached forward; Hazaar grabbed the glass knob, then twisted it, then pushed the door in. He went into the room after the door was half open.
Lazeer remained in the hallway for a few seconds; before going into the room, he looked to the left and right—to see if anyone was keeping watch of him, or if anyone was coming down the hallway towards him. After entering the room, he very nearly left it—Hazaar was fast in barking at him after seeing that he had left the door to the room open. His action of closing the door seemed very stiff to both himself and his brother, who had since returned to taking in the room's inhabitants.
"I-I thought those bats in the hallway—"
"Apparently not." Hazaar said.
Apparently their father's interest in bats was deeper than that of what they had originally thought it was—the room that they were in had wire-mesh cages in it that bats of various sizes and ages were in. A row of counters was to the left of the room; a section of stacked wire-mesh cages were to its right while, directly before them, was a window that was half-lit. Around a quarter of the cages had paper lining their bottoms; the ones that weren't inhabited by a bat were bare. When he and his brother gave the room's window a closer look, they saw that a specially built enclosure, that looked very similar to that of what was in the Bat Hallway, was in the room; the bats that were flying about in the enclosure were huge, and looked pretty mean in the face and eyes—it took them a short second or two to see that the enclosure housed a colony of large, red-colored bats that had little horns on their heads and a short row of spikes running down their backs.
Hazaar, after taking a step closer to the wire-mesh cages that lined the room's right side, saw that the bats that were in the cages were either sick or injured. The five female bats, that had a pup attached to their underbellies, that were in the cages were very malnourished; the one male bat, that was in the far distant cage, looked to be lacking one of its legs while the bat that was in the cage that was underneath it looked to be favoring a badly injured wing. A quick check of the cabinets that were above the counters told him what the room's purpose was.
"Sick Bat Bay?" Lazeer said in a small, weak voice.
"Must be." Hazaar replied.
"Let's get out of here before the old man comes in and does cartwheels over finding that we've intruded his room." Lazeer said. He turned then tore out of the room; Hazaar followed on his heels.
While their brothers resumed their trek down the hallway, and tried to put as much distance between them and "Sick Bat Bay" as they could, they were getting down and busy with the gym's various work-out equipment. He, after entering the room, had set his sights on a set of 40-pound dumbbells; he had used them for a spell before the red and black striped speed bag grabbed his attention. He was just getting through a rousing session of abusing the speed bag, which he was one to usually call a uvula, due to its uncanny resemblance to one, when Bile entered the room. Bile was fast in doing a four-lap run on the room's track, which wound around the portion of the room that the more upper body work-out equipment was on, before training his attention on a set of weights, that were to the far left of the room.
Surprisingly, yet non-surprisingly, the house's gym looked exactly the same as it had been on the day that he, his mother, and brothers left for Earth. The track that wound around the more upper body work-out equipment still had synthetic dirt on it; the bench was still between the racks that contained the dumbbell and weight sets on them; and the two punching bags, and the one speed bag, were still the same color and had the same wear and tear on them. Most of the walls in the room were made of golden-brown plywood while the floor that the track circled was still made of mocha fossilized eucalyptus wood; the ceiling in most of the room was a light gold color, the beam that ran around its edges kept the room very well lit.
Shortly before their exit of Moas and their return to Earth occurred, a black roman chair, that had dull-ended spikes on it, had been added to the room; the chair was still in the room and it looked to of been put to some use during the time that they hadn't been here. He had given a good thought about trying the chair out, and seeing how long he could endure the uncomfortable feeling that the spikes gave his backside before having to get down from it, before deciding to just concentrate on "wakening" the muscles that were in his arms. The two ropes, that were hanging from the room's ceiling, were new to the room but he hadn't gone near them and that went double for the one handbar that had spikes on it—Ye Olde Man must of crossed over in the mental department; he couldn't see a soul using or wanting to use the spiked handbar for any sort of exercise.
That was all that was on this side of the gym; the gym's other side, which use to be a whole separate gym at one time in the mansion's long history, had nothing but strenuous exercise equipment in it. A treadmill, that's belt rose at an angle every thirty or so seconds, was the first of the room's equipment that he had looked at. The treadmill that had a helmet on it, that projected all sorts of images to the runner, who needed to avoid them in order for the treadmill's belt to continue being run at its current pace, had been the second piece of equipment that he had looked at. The unicycle, that was forged in place, was new—he could see one doing pull-ups while using that piece of equipment. A normal treadmill, and a normal exercise bike, was beside the unicycle—these were old pieces to the room.
One of the walls in the adjacent room had a series of grooves, hand holds, and door knobs on it; the ceiling in the adjacent room had them same things on it—this was also an old piece to the room. He had given it a good consideration about using the climbing wall after putting the dumbbells down—if not for the "uvula" catching his eye, he would of donned the vest, that had a rope and two bungee cords attached to it, and then gone to town in seeing how high he could go up it.
He had no more decided to end his resumed session in punching the "uvula" when his attention was pulled in Bile's direction; Bile, who had since placed a 50-pound weight on one of the ends of the weight bar, was in the process of lugging another 50-pound weight to the bar. He watched as his brother placed the weight on the bar, then applied the clamps, that would keep the two weights steady on the bar, to the bar then took his place on the bench before deciding to go over to see and speak with him.
"A hundred and thirty pounds?" Lhaklar shook his head; with seeing his brother lugging a 50-pound weight to the bar, he had figured that he'd find him as lifting an even one hundred pounds—the clamps, he saw, had added an extra thirty pounds to the bar. He was wondering where his brother had gotten the two weighted clamps from when he suddenly remembered that his father, about thirty to thirty-five years before their exit of Moas occurred, had purchased several 10, 20, and 30-pound clamps from one of the places that he purchased his work-out equipment from. Bile had issues in lifting anything that was over a hundred and twenty pounds and it looked like he was having a little trouble in lifting what was on the bar. "Think you're asking for trouble? That's a lot of weight for y—"
"Hush up—you'll make me lose count if you continue jowling me." Bile said while pushing the weight up and then allowing it to fall back to nearly his chest. "One of these days I'll have to graduate from my measly one hundred and twenty pound regiment, why not start now?"
"Need a spotter or—"
"I would say that he does."
Due to their not knowing that anyone was in their immediate vicinity, Bile gasped then dropped the weight that he was lifting; Lhaklar, thinking fast, grabbed the weight before it had a chance to crash to his brother's chest. The both of them moved the weight to the stationed bar that'd keep it steady until its next use before turning to take in the one who had spoken.
The Goblin, they saw, was half-in, half-out of the gym; his white tuxedo was very crisp and clean and it did seem to go well with his hair color, which was as pristine white as could be. It took them a second or two to realize that the light blue skinned Goblin, who had light blue eyes in his face, which was poked with more than enough wrinkles on it, and which sported a long nose that had large nostrils on it, was Eldass Zultoa, their father's second Most Trusted Butler; after noting who it was that was in the gym, they nodded their heads then went their separate ways. Bile returned to lifting the weight while his brother grabbed two dumbbells then started using them.
The Goblin entered the room silently; the entrance to the room was full of both confidence, experience, and curiosity. Bile had only just pushed the weight up for the fourth time when the Goblin appeared beside him.
"Your father would probably prefer for you to not lift anything over what you are now, Sir." the Goblin said after looking at the weights, that were on the steel bar, that Bile was lifting up.
"Not planning on adding anymore weight to it." Bile replied while pushing the weight up for the fifth time. "Hoping to add an additional ten to twenty pounds to what I'm lifting in the next few weeks to month or so."
"Young Master Bile! For one your age you shouldn't be considering the option of lifting anything over a hundred and thirty pounds." the Goblin's voice, though elevated, had a calm and confident tone to it.
Yeah yeah, he could hear it now. He was big for his age; he had more muscle that what he should; and he should slow it up and not try to grow up so fast—he had heard this and more from other concerned people, both parents and not parents, and he had also seen and heard his mother being gotten on for how she allowed him and his brothers to live their lives. One time, when he had asked his mother if she thought he was overdoing it in the muscle department, she had come back as saying that he was fine and that she was fine with how his life was going for him. A small lecture on where he had gotten his body build from, and on where his muscles had come from, had been given before she had praised him on having a good head on his shoulders.
The male members of his family were usually headstrong, tall, and big in muscle; she had shown no concern over his work-out regiment or about his packing on enough muscle to be the two hundred and fifty pounds that he was. She cautioned him to be careful whenever he was working out but she never told him to stop working out or drop a certain exercise that he did. If you're happy with how you look then why bother in listening to others, she had asked him after he had asked her, yet again, if he was too over-muscled or big in body—no more questions on his body build or muscle mass had been asked by him after that had been said; he had accepted that she was fine with who he was and with what he looked like.
After lifting the weight an additional ten times, he set it down then got up from the bench; he removed his shirt in one fluid movement then he went over to one of the room's treadmills—the one that's belt rose every so often was what he wanted to use and that was what he got on and then started to use after his shirt was off of him. The Goblin didn't follow him; he had no more started using the treadmill before hearing the man badgering his brother after he started lifting an eighty pound dumbbell.
"Young Master Lhaklar, please, don't lift but so much weight with one arm." the Goblin sang. "For both your, and your parents', sake, slow down a bit—surely your parents wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."
"How is my lifting an eighty pound dumbbell hurting me?" Lhaklar asked. "While it's a lot of weight for one arm to lift, and while I'm having a bit of a struggle to get it lifted, I'm fine with lifting this."
"Sir, seriously, you're still very young and your muscles have—"
"Look," Lhaklar stopped lifting the dumbbell; he placed it on the floor, between his feet, then turned to speak to the man who was giving him a bit of a headache. "I see your concern and I appreciate it but it's not needed. I'm perfectly fine, and so is my brother."
While on the way to work in a portion of the house that had a window that wasn't fogged over and that one could look out from he had heard the sound of someone using the equipment in the house's gym; the brown oak accordion doors, that went to the adjoined gyms, had been open so he had wandered in without checking to see who it was that was inside first. While finding the two older boys of his employer's in the adjoined rooms had been a minor shock finding them as either lifting weights without a spotter being nearby or lifting weights that were a little over what they should be lifting had been a major shock—he was a bit concerned for the both of them.
The two were still young and their muscles, while looking rather ample on their bodies, were still inexperienced and fragile; he didn't want neither of them to get hurt by using the room's various equipment so he decided to stick around to see if he could speak some sense into them.
Due to their youth, they were overconfident in what they could do; he had more than enough experience on how a mid-teenager acted with gym equipment and with their trying to "beef up" to impress either their peers or some gal that they had the hots for. Zshon, after maturing enough to gain an interest in the opposite gender, and after noticing the new girl who had been assigned to his class when he had been a student in Staffer's Academy, had tried to pull the old impress-me routine by lifting a one hundred and fifty pounds weight—all his act had done was gain him some torn muscles in his back and arms and it had also gained him the distinct pleasure of falling over backwards; if not for the weight flying out of his hands and then crashing just above his head, he would of been crippled. Daosi, at two thousand, three hundred, and twenty-five years of age, had actually pulled his biceps completely from the tendon in both of his arms after his chums started challenging one another on who could lift a two hundred pound weight. Yhozah was the one who held the most ridiculous reason to become injured while trying to impress someone—while trying to impress his cousins and his maternal grandmother, who had been asked to watch him and his cousins but who hadn't been doing so, he had tried to lift the front-end of a car; all his attempt had done was cause one of the discs in his one thousand, eight hundred, and thirty-four year old back to slip from alignment.
Eldass looked at the two youngsters that were in the gym; while happy to see that they were back to where they were suppose to be, and while glad to see that they were settling in, he was still shocked over how big, tall, and well-toned they were. In his eyes, they were taking their sizes too far in lifting items that they shouldn't be lifting. He followed the oldest of his employer's biological sons around for a few minutes, trying to get him to either slow up in lifting the weights that he was using and trying to get him to take breaks between each session that he took in lifting one or more of the room's various weight-base equipment, before stopping; Young Master Lhaklar's action of putting the climbing wall's appointed vest around himself, and then going towards the rock wall, was what did it for him. He turned tail then ran out of the room; he went straight up to the second level then he used his instinct to track his employer down with.
"You idiot!" Hazaar snapped right when the Goblin was ascending one of the foyer's stairwells. "You led us down a blind-spot! We're fuckin' lost!"
"How was I suppose to know that a bunch of left's and a bunch of right's and then a walk down a real long hallway, that looked to be made completely out of stone, would take us to a dead-end?" Lazeer asked. "I don't have a compass, or a map of this place, in my head. Bile and Lhaklar might know the layout of this place—since I wasn't raised in this place, I don't know a thing about it."
"Shut up!" Hazaar's yell sounded down the hallway rather loudly; just about everyone on the level that they were on heard it. After yelling, he turned then started down the hallway; Lazeer followed behind him a few seconds later.
"Ooooh, is my owwwder browder angwy at me for getting him wost?" Lazeer said in an annoying, girl-like fashion.
When one said that a certain structure was like a mansion on the inside they were usually talking about a structure that was larger than that of what they were either living in or what they had formerly been living in—in his case, saying that the inside of his father's place was "like a mansion" would be more than off-shooting the phrase. His father's place was gargantuan, and there seemed to be more than five hallways on the first level that one could well find themselves as being or getting lost in. While he hadn't meant to get them lost he had still enjoyed the fact of his brother growing more and more hysterical over their not knowing where they were—they had seen stone-made statues of bats; bronze statues that had Sword fish on them; and statues of all sorts of colors during their time in being lost. He wouldn't be forgetting about the jade, silver, gold, gold and silver, silver and jade, silver and ruby, and bronze-colored statues of fish and bats that they had seen for a long time and that went double for the statues that they had seen on the hallway that was completely stone-made. The stone-made hallway had more than ten statues of mermaids, mermen, bears catching salmon, and eagles that were flying off with fish in their talons on it... and it had also been decorated with a variety of framed fish bones, some that were normal in color while others being gold or silver or ruby. The only room that they had chanced to open and then go into had only had a skeletal representation of a Nemicolopterus, a species of Pterosaur that had been described in 2008, in it; they had spent a short amount of time in the room before leaving and then going by their own in trying to figure out where they were and where they were headed.
His brother had yelled at him several times, and he had actually charged down one of the hallways that they had reached in a blind panic; he still held a beef with him over his pushing and shoving him down the one hallway that was flanked on one side by one-way bay windows. Hazaar was actually the one to take charge of leading them down the one hallway that branched onto the one that they were currently on; he wasn't about to say anything on his not meaning to get them lost because he knew his brother would scoff at him and then claim otherwise.
"You're useless sometimes, you know that?" Hazaar spat. "Useless!"
"Hey man, I didn't mean to lead us so far into the house." even though he knew that his brother's mood was being fueled by his Temperamental phase he couldn't help but feel a trifle bit hurt over being called useless.
"Yes you did—I never should of let you take change! You can't lead in daytime anyways because you're too damn blind!" Hazaar snapped. "Useless, blind, you're never going to do anything with y—"
"Shut up, Hazaar!" Lazeer said. His shock was turning into anger. "Watch what comes out of your mouth—you're just as blind and useless as I am in this place."
"You're useless and blind even when you're outside of this place!" Hazaar stopped; after turning to face his brother, he pushed him hard enough to fall to the floor. "Ugly as homemade soup as well."
"That goes double for you too." Lazeer said while getting up from the floor.
The shove, followed by his brother's continuous verbal abuse, was what caused them to fight; he had just ducked the fist that was being thrown in his direction, and he had just slugged his own fist into his brother's stomach, when Bile and Lhaklar left the gym, which, quite ironically, was just a hallway away from them.
There were no statues on the hallway that they were on—which was a good thing because, if there had been any on the hallway, they would of gotten broken and fast.
Lazeer was fast with his fists and sturdy with his feet; his left fist collided with his brother's left eye while his right one collided with his brother's gut. He had just ducked the blow that was meant for the center of his face when his brother jumped at him. Hazaar tackled him to the floor, then pinned him down, then started raining punches on him; due to his present state, he ducked, and kicked his legs, and yelled. After a fist opened his lower lip, he wrapped his hands around his brother's legs; with a rip to the side, he threw his brother from him. He had only just jumped onto his brother, to give him a sort of payback for the injuries that he had given him, when Lhaklar's arms wrapped around him. He was heaved up, then thrown to the side, then Hazaar was picked up; Bile was in the process of grabbing Hazaar, who had turned on Lhaklar, when their parents ran into view.
Their father was fast in separating Bile from Hazaar while their mother was fast in putting herself between Lhaklar and he; Hazaar had no more been released of their father's grip when he lunged in his direction. A quick slap from their father did the trick in canceling that action out.
"What in the blue blazes is going on between you four!" TazirVile demanded. "Temper phase or not, and burly-bodied or not, no physical fighting in the house!"
"Hazaar, I'm very surprised with you." Angel said, while she was upset she wasn't voicing it as much as her husband was. "When you were on Earth you knew that physical fighting in a house wasn't allowed—sit and chill when your temper's made an appearance but don't let it explode or cause you to turn on another."
"He got us lost." Hazaar said. His anger was starting to subside; as always, it was being replaced by dread and depression. He suddenly felt bad for what he had said to his brother and for his fighting him. "He-he—"
"Getting you lost isn't a good cause for one to f—"
"Tazir," Angel placed her hand on her husband's arm; when he was calm, she turned to tend her son, who was starting to get hysterical. She turned him towards her gently. "Getting you lost isn't a reason for you to let your anger take over, or for you to fight your brother."
Hazaar's hysteria broke to the surface fully; he grabbed his mother in a hug then he started crying into her shoulder. While Angel tended him, telling him that all was fine, and patting his shoulder and back, she listened to Tazir as he got on Bile and Lhaklar for what Eldass had claimed they had been doing while being in the gym. According to Eldass, both of her sons had been struggling to pick up the weights that they had been lifting and they had also been jumping from one weight to the next—while she hadn't been in the room with them she knew that his claim wasn't true. She knew her sons; they wouldn't lift weights that they couldn't handle and they wouldn't be jumping from one weight to the next after the former's use was concluded. The two were very wise in their work-out regiments and they also knew their limits well—sure, the two had tried to go past their limits a few times, and had gotten hurt on occasion during them attempts, but they knew better than to overdo things with their bodies. From what she had gathered from Eldass, Bile had been lifting a hundred and thirty pound weight, which she viewed as very appropriate for her son—if he had been lifting a hundred and fifty or two hundred pounds she would of gotten very concerned for him but, seeing as he had been lifting ten pounds over his usual limit, she wasn't but so concerned for him—and Lhaklar had been lifting a single, eighty pound dumbbell—this was within his limit so, again, she wasn't but so concerned about him on that regard. She had mostly been concerned about their hopping from one weight to the next and about what Tazir had in mind to do with them in accord to what had been told to them.
Angel had Hazaar sit down then she stepped forward; she had just gotten to Tazir's side when he did something that made her blood boil. Lhaklar, who was a bit too worked up, claimed that he and Bile had been fine, and that they hadn't been doing anything out of the ordinary in his gym; his usage of an elevated voice caused his father to strike him. She lunged forward, then she placed herself between her husband and her two, older sons, right after the light blue hand assaulted her secondborn's hip.
"That is enough, Tazzy." Angel said strongly. With this being said, she turned to look at Lhaklar who was fast in looking at her and then at the wall opposite her. "Were you and Bile struggling to lift any of the weights that are in the gym?"
"No, ma." Bile said quickly. "We weren't having any difficulties at all—the hundred and thirty pound weight, for me, was a struggle but I was doing well with it."
"No problem experienced on my end with the eighty pound dumbbell that I was using." Lhaklar said. He didn't like how his father was glaring at his mother.
"Eldass claims that you two were struggling." Angel said. "And that you were also running from one piece of equipment in the gym to another."
"No, ma. We experienced no issues with the weights that we were lifting and we weren't jumping from one thing to the next either." Bile replied, then told of what he had done while being in the gym. "I ran four laps around the room, then I used the weight for a few minutes before going off to use one of the treadmills. Lhaklar was using the speed bag when I came in; not sure what he used before I came in but he did use an eighty pound dumbbell after punching the bag and he also used the climbing wall as well."
"Went up seven or eight feet—came down after my arms started showing fatigue. Sat on the bench, that's beside the accordion doors, after taking the vest off." Lhaklar said.
"I suggest that, if you use that wall, you stay at either that height or lower." Angel said. She knew well the wall that her son had used; Tazir, and his friend and old school chum, Gloar, were frequent users of it. They sometimes raced one another when they used the wall; Tazir, who could climb both the wall and the ceiling-portion of the wall, was always the winner of each of the races held between them. She had no issue with her son using the wall. "Anything over seven feet on that wall is a right impressive height for you to gain, but no further than what you did today, okay? Neither your father or I want you to fall down because you've lost your grip or—"
"From now on, you two are only allowed to use the gym when I say its okay or when I'm headed down to use it myself."
Eldass watched as his employer and his employer's wife fought; while shocked over the two's fight, which only occurred after Mistress Angel contradicted what her husband said in regards to their two older sons using the house's gym, he wasn't about to pick sides or retract what he had told them about what he had seen in the gym. He saw his "tattling" on the Young Masters as a good thing—instead of watching them go from one piece of equipment to another, and instead of watching them put themselves in probable danger of injury, he had gone to retrieve their parents.
Mistress Angel was still a spitfire woman... she was still full of fire regardless of the fact that she had raised four boys on her own. The woman who was his employer's Universally married wife still had a better than fine body on her—it looked like she hadn't given birth to any children, or raised any children on her own, or gone through any of the stresses that'd wear a body down. The woman still had the same figure that she had possessed sixteen hundred years ago—he was still surprised over the fact that her breasts were the same size that they had been when she had disappeared with the boys.
A woman's breast size sometimes dropped after the young were born; Aboshi's breasts had dropped in size after Akavira and Lorboyan had been born, they had gone back to being their original size after Zardox's birth occurred. Her breasts had also either gone up in size or dropped in size after the weaning of their young happened—they had barely been visible on her chest after Zshon, Daosi, Molfwuff, and Mekaia and Faalia were weaned while, when Saplina, Devlor and Seiqo, and Malmeen and Bamaia stopped nursing from her, they had grown to nearly twice their original size. At the moment, after Akavira, Lorboyan, and Zardox stopped nursing from her, her breasts were their normal size—34A, which was fine for both him and her. No more pain being felt by her because of her breasts being too big for her and no more worrying for him on whether or not she was healthy.
He stayed clear of the fighting—his involvement need not happen; the fight that was going on was happening between a husband and wife, not between husband, wife, and one of their employees. After the two fought about who knew more about the boys, on who knew what was best for the boys, and when not to discipline the boys, Mistress Angel concluded the session by walking away from her husband; her sons followed behind her like shadows.
"Bastard!" Angel thought while leading her sons up to the house's second and then third levels.
Seeing as things were as they were—Hazaar being both a hysterical and a nervous wreck, Lhaklar looking to be a bit upset over being hit by his father, Bile looking to be angered over seeing one of his brothers being striked at, and Lazeer looking about ready to succumb to his anxiety over what just happened—she took them to Lhaklar's bedroom chamber, where she figured they'd be left alone for a while. After entering the room, then going to the bed that was in the room, she undid her top then held her arms out for two of her sons. Hazaar and Lazeer stepped forward; they were fast in latching on and in taking half of the milk that was in her—her breasts were equally fast in gasping their relief in finally being rid of the excess milk that was in them.
Twenty minutes passed; when her two, younger sons de-latched from her she sent them on their way then held her arms out for Lhaklar, who had since taken to pacing before the bed's foot, and Bile, who had done nothing but stand before the room's closed door. The two came to her then latched on. In all, it took her an hour to calm all of her sons down.
"Hazaar, you alright?" Angel asked. Her son was seated by one of the room's windows.
"Yeah," Hazaar said. "Mom, can I peak out Lhaklar's window?"
"No, I think that's something you shouldn't do." due to the windows in Lhaklar's room looking out on the front yard, she didn't think that her son should chance the risk of being seen by the reporters, who were still milling around the property's front gate and fence.
"Why not? Are the reporters still out there?" Hazaar asked.
"Mhmmm, yes. Reporters can be a rather stubborn lot—some are standing out in the storm while wearing slickers and galoshes while others are being a little more smarter by waiting things out in their cars; the ones in the cars won't waste a second, or groan over getting rained or hailed on, in leaving their cars if you or your brothers were noted as looking out the windows that looked out on the house's front side."
"Lazeer," Hazaar turned then looked at his younger brother.
"Yeah,"
"I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't mean any of what I said when we were lost."
"Guess a lot of the fault's on me for not watching where we were going or what hallway we were going down." Lazeer said. "Don't think much of it."
He decided to do an attempt in making up for what he had said and for what he had done after he and his brother had gotten lost; Lazeer was invited over to his bedroom for magazine reading, and to listen to some tunes, and to play some video games—his brother was fast in accepting his invite and in following him to his room. Yesterday, he had noticed that some of the game systems, that had been on the entertainment center in their former residence, were in his room; he hadn't played any of the games, or had even went to see if the two units that were in his room were hooked up properly, but he had noticed them nonetheless. The two units were on a three-shelf bookcase that was beside his dresser; the third shelf of the bookcase contained a lot of games on it—until he and his brother decided to forgo the magazine reading and music listening, he had figured that they all went to the Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo. The games that were on the bookcase's third shelf, they discovered, were compatible with the Playstation 2 and 3—which were in Lhaklar's bedroom; the Playstation 4 had been discovered as being in Lazeer's bedroom and Lazeer's Gameboy had been discovered as being in Bile's bedroom at the same time that the other gaming systems' whereabouts had been discovered.
Hazaar grabbed the games after seeing what unit they went to; in all, he had around twenty or so games in his arms when he left his room, Lazeer had nearly triple that amount in his arms when he left the room. The games were put on the bookcases that their compatible game units were on—the same type of bookcase that the Nintendo systems were on had also been added to Bile's, Lhaklar's, and Lazeer's bedrooms yesterday—then the games for the Nintendo systems were tracked down, retrieved, and then taken to the room that their compatible systems were in.
"Alright, now that the games are all squared away, what should we play?" Hazaar asked.
"Is Blue Marlin anywhere around?" Lazeer asked.
"You know it is."
"Pop that sucker in," Lazeer said while taking one of the Super Nintendo remote controls up from the bookcase's top. "Get ready for your booty to be beaten—I've been wanting to play this game for a while now."
"Mom said that she'll be making Lhaklar's fish for us tonight." Hazaar said as he slid the game into the Super Nintendo console then powered the console up. "Looking forward to what she's cooking—fish steak and whatever it was that Lhaklar wanted her to make for him."
"What was it that Lhaklar wanted her to make?" Lazeer asked.
"Something called Fishcake,"
"I imagine that as not being very tasty." Lazeer said. "Fish baked into a cake, that has frosting and all other matter of decorative items on it? Gross!"
"When I was in Bile's room, I retrieved your Gameboy and its games for you. They're all in your room, on your bed." Hazaar said while putting his name into the game that they were gearing up to play.
"Thanks," Lazeer said. When it came time for him to add his name to the game, he did so and quickly. "Course, if either of you ijits wish to play that game, or the Playstation 4, just say so. Neither belong to me, you know. They belong to all of us."
In the time between breakfast and lunch was consumed, he lost track of his bearings and of the time that was slowly, yet not so slowly, slipping past. Since it seemed that everyone was on the third level, and since it looked like they weren't "welcomed" to be on the first level, and since nothing of high importance was going on, he had made the decision to give his room's new stereo system a try. As far as he could tell, the system, one of them kick-ass JVC H2X Model 2's, was killer fine—after taking up residence in his room, he had listened to Ozzy Osbourne's Scream, Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime, ACDC's Black In Black, and, lastly, Manowar. The final disc of music that he listened to was loud enough to make the eardrums of one who was downstairs burst—Manowar hadn't been recognized for breaking the sound barrier for nothing; in 1994, they had been recorded as playing 129.5 dB in Hanover... they had been added to the Guinness Book of World Records ten years earlier for playing even louder than that, which was both scary and outstanding at the same time. While listening to his tunes, he looked at the edition of Hustler that he had purchased last month; ma had already given him and his brothers their December allowances, and she had also promised to make a trip to their former planet of residence to pick up their usual magazine editions as well. He was looking forward to getting his December editions and he was also looking forward to the other promise that she had given them—quite surprisingly, she had said that she was also going to do their cigarette and weed restocking for them.
When he looked at the clock that was on the room's bedside table he gasped; here it was, nearing lunch-hour, and he was near to missing the meal that should be nearing its cooking or prepping conclusion. With the time noted, he tossed his magazine to the side then got up. His stereo was turned off, the disc of music that was in the system was removed and then returned to its case, then he left his room; it was quite obvious that his brothers had also just noticed the time because, when he left his room, they were also leaving theirs.
"Mom went downstairs to make lunch nearly an hour ago." Lhaklar said while leading them down to the house's second level.
"Wonder what it is that's been cooked." Bile said.
"Same here." Lhaklar said. "Finished a model while we were room-stuck."
"Cool," Bile said while walking towards their younger brothers' turned backs; the two had said nothing to them after leaving their rooms, he decided to pay them back for their not noticing or acknowledging them. When he was within grabbing distance of his brothers, he said boo then grabbed them by the back of their shirts. "And what type of trouble did you two decide to talk about doing after your session with the Nintendo's was up?"
"Man! We didn't speak nothing about causing trouble—we just played Blue Marlin, Super Black Bass, and then Tournament of Champions before listening to some music." Hazaar said after tearing his shirt free of his brother's grip. Once free, he turned then slugged his fist into his brother's back. "What'd you do?"
"Listened to some music while looking at a magazine." Bile replied.
"Should I wash my hand now?" Hazaar asked.
Bile took over in leading them down the second level's hallway, and then down the stairwell that wound around the foyer's right side; he found himself being de-throned as being the leader of his brothers after Lazeer elbowed past him. From what they were able to hear, it was still storming outside—Lazeer's quick-glance out one of the first level windows confirmed that it was worse than ever. Lazeer was about to comment on how soggy the front yard looked when Bile's hand wrapped around the collar of his shirt; Bile tore his brother away from the window then pushed him down the hallway.
Before they entered the kitchen area, where their mother had been said to be in, they smelled the very appetizing aroma of food being cooked; they were aware of their mother having two others in the room with her so, when they entered the room, they weren't but so surprised over seeing that their father and sister were in it.
"You boys decide that it's time to come downstairs to fill them tummies of yours?" their mother asked after they appeared in the kitchen.
"Yes!" Hazaar and Lazeer said in unison.
"Most definitely!" Bile said.
"Playing fishing games has made both me and Hazaar very hungry, mom." Lazeer said.
"What she's making probably tastes better than what you two were "catching"." Bile said.
"And better on the eyes as well." Lhaklar said.
"What does virtual fish taste like?" Lazeer asked.
"Have no idea, pro—" Bile winced; Lhaklar had fallen into one of their younger brother's carefully yet not carefully placed traps.
"Like cardboard and newsprint!" Lazeer exclaimed.
"Your jokes seem to be getting lamer, Laz." Hazaar said.
"So's your face."
"Lazeer, watch it now." Angel said.
"Yes, mom." Lazeer said, he then zipped his mouth shut.
While she wanted to blurt it all out she decided, for her sake, to keep it in—she had just been reprimanded for voicing her opinion on her brothers, and on how she felt about their being in the house, with her and her father, anyways so why bother in making a repeat happen.
While her parents might not see it her way she saw her brothers as being nothing more than trouble and she also saw them as causing trouble for the ones that both lived and worked in the house; her father had reprimanded them a few times, Eldass had caught wind of two of them doing something that they shouldn't of been doing, and the other staff in the house were still being forced into being silent while working. Other than Bile, none of her biological half-brothers had said so much as two words to her after "settling in", which made her opinion of them be quite low. While she was glad to have her mother back in the house she was no longer glad over having her brothers being back to where they had either been born and raised or just plain born in—the admission of this had caused her father to give her a watch-it look; a reprimanding from her mother had followed on the heels of her father's given look. It seemed that with each passing day her mood towards her brothers was growing dimmer—she couldn't stop this from happening and, really, she wasn't trying to stop the dim feeling from growing stronger in her. Her happy, content attitude towards her missing family's return home had turned from being happy and content to dread; to her, it felt like life in the house wasn't the same anymore... and it felt like she had to tip-toe either down the hallway that her and her brothers' chambers were on or around her brothers whenever she and they were around one another.
The thought of why she hadn't been given sisters instead of brothers had happened while she had been reprimanded—if two or three of her brothers had been born as girls instead of boys she wouldn't be as nervous around them or feel the way that she did about them. She felt that she'd get along better with a sister, or numerous sisters, and she felt that she'd feel more confident with having a sister or two in the house; they'd gossip, and read girlie magazines, and do their hair, and watch girlie shows together, and try to replicate their mother's culinary skills, and drive the boys batty... she and a sister would be able to do so much more than she and her brothers were. Her brothers had more masculine interests in mind; they had their smut-magazines, and their too-loud music, and their bodies and muscle-building, and being tough and unruly to worry about. To her, the activities that her brothers were interested in weren't needed and were unacceptable—her daddy didn't read them smut magazines, or obsess about his muscles, or talk or act tough, and he was definitely not unruly. Her daddy was a respectable, responsible man who, she believed, steered clear of them... interests.
An example, of sorts, of how respectable her father was had happened after she and he had entered the kitchen; daddy had gone right up to her mother and then apologized for the events that occurred earlier that morning. Why he had apologized for something that she believed he had been in the right of doing was beyond her but, yeah, he had apologized for being so "uptight" with her brothers. She knew that her father was one of them overly protective types—a male parent who jumped after hearing a small gasp, or the dreaded dad, come quick—, and she also knew that he was a very patient and understanding man—this, and the overly protective side that he had to himself, told a fine story on how great a man, and father, he was and it also told how much respect he should get from the ones that lived in his house—but why had he apologized for disciplining Lhaklar and Hazaar and why had he apologized for taking back her brothers' "privilege" in being able to use the gym without being supervised?
She figured that her brothers were spoiled rotten, and that her mother was trying to keep them that way—when she had said this her mother had been fast in going off like one of them rockets that were shot during either special occasions or holidays. Her father had done nothing in going to her defense; he had just glared at her while her mother got on her—she had said that she had been very disrespectful, rude, and that what she had said was very far from the truth on what her brothers really were. Her mother had said that her brothers were taking things slow and that they'd need time to adjust to their new living arrangements—if not for mam's running off, and taking her brothers with her, they wouldn't be but so "nervous" of their surroundings or "slow" in taking their surroundings in and they wouldn't need "time" to adjust to the house or their new "way of life" either.
Her father had agreed with what her mother had said right when she had decided to speak not a word more on the subject of what she felt about her brothers and about her personal opinion towards her brothers.
"Was fine with them a week ago... now, I'm not." she thought after seeing that Lhaklar was coming towards her.
She had been fine with Bile's size before; now, she was terrified that he'd hurt her. She was afraid that he'd slug a fist at her, or pick her up and crush her to death, or run at her and then trample her to death. She wished that her father would put her adopted brother on a diet or something... she'd feel much calmer and much more relaxed around Bile if he wasn't so burly.
Lhaklar seemed a bit too arrogant to her; here he was, standing up to daddy, and mouthing off at him, and challenging him... that hadn't been apart of her little brother before, when he had been five hundred years old. She wished that her daddy would get on him and fast about his arrogant attitude because, as it stood now, she was afraid to speak to him—he might contradict what she said, or he might come back with something that was irrelevant to what she had said, or he might just get nasty with her over something that he hadn't understood of hers, and that she wasn't able to explain.
Hazaar seemed to have a real issue with his temper; Temperamental phase or not he should know better than to let his temper get the better of him and he should also know better than to act out whenever he was in a tempered mood. As it stood, she was afraid to be in the same room with him because of his high-level temper—he might get mad at her for just saying hello to him, or he might just turn and slug a fist at her for her being present around him. She wished that her daddy would put this brother of hers on some medication that'd calm him down—she'd feel so much better if his moods weren't so hair trigger-like and if he didn't have such a thin string to his temper.
Lazeer... well, her opinion on him wasn't very good. Yes, he was the youngest in her family; yes, he was the youngest of her brothers; and yes, he was a boy, but did he have to try to be so "funny" all the time? To her, his continuous jokes and joke-like nature were wrong; she saw him as being very rude and disrespectful. She wished that her daddy would get on him about his habit of throwing out continuous jokes and she also wished that her daddy would get on him for his dress-sense—torn and ripped clothing wasn't presentable clothing; both he and Bile shouldn't be wearing anything that was ripped... they should be wearing non-ripped, presentable clothing that'd show none of the skin that was underneath it.
Her main fear and worry was centered around her father. Her brothers seemed very well behaved for their mother while, for their father, they didn't seem to show or give him any sort of respect; no love or well-done behavior was being expressed between them in regards to their father, which was both infuriating, shocking, and saddening. She worried that Bile would snap one day then go for her father; she worried that Lhaklar would challenge their father one too many times, which would result in a fight that only one would come out on top of; and she worried that Hazaar and Lazeer would gang up on her father and then beat him up just for his showing up in their immediate vicinity. This fear of hers was so great that she was nearly blinded by it—Mekaia Zultoa had been confided in about this fear; all she had said was everything is fine, Miss. Eshal. The feeling that you're feeling is very normal and natural; you'll find that it'll go away after everyone's fully settled in the house. After confiding that she was also scared for the members of her father's staff Miss. Zultoa had said that she had nothing to fear about them and that her brothers wouldn't harm a soul. How did she know that? How was she so sure of everything settling down and of her brothers not harming anyone? Hazaar and Lazeer had had a fight earlier that day, so that, in itself, told her that they would result to violence; while hopeful over the maid's words being true she didn't believe that everything would be peachy-fine after everyone "settled down".
When her father, who was standing over by the stacked over, walked over to Lhaklar, who had since taken the stool that was beside hers, she held her breath; she readied herself for a fight—any fight—to happen between the two of them.
"I'd like to apologize for my earlier actions towards you and Bile, son." TazirVile said. Lhaklar, Eshal viewed, sized their father up before looking him in the eye. "I let all of what was told to me cloud my better judgements and I let my protective side take over after hearing the claim of what you and Bile were doing in the gym."
"Guess all of us let it get out of hand earlier," Lhaklar said. "With Hazaar spazing out, then picking a fight with Lazeer, and then with you being told what you was told about me and Bile, and then a fight happening between you and mom, something was bound to happen. Think we were all not thinking clearly."
"True." TazirVile agreed on the bit about their not thinking clearly. "Eldass offers his apology for taking things out of context; he was only acting out of concern for you and Bile."
"I'll let what happened this morning slip from my memory banks."
"You and Bile can use the gym whenever you wish," TazirVile said. After saying this, he turned his attention to Hazaar and Lazeer. "That goes for you two as well—have fun in there, but please don't overdo it."
"K," Lazeer said. Hazaar just nodded his head.
"I'll be honest with you—came close to tearing all of the muscles in my arms after trying to lift a weight that was too over my limit." Lhaklar said. His father did nothing more than blink his eyes then stare at him. "I don't want that to happen again."
"Learning from a past experience, like that." TazirVile said. "What was it that you was trying to lift?"
"A hundred and twenty pounds."
"What's your limit?"
"A hundred and ten."
"You'll get there one day, son." TazirVile said. "At your age, my limit was five pounds over that. Be wise in using them weights and, one day, you'll be lifting more than what you are now."
Soon after sitting on the stool, he had noticed that his sister had gotten up and then gone around the island; she was now seated on the stool that was across from him. While he had a mind to ask her if she was okay, or if there was something wrong in his sitting beside her, he didn't say anything to her—after his father started speaking about what he was planning on doing in the next few days all interest in asking her if things were fine between them or if there was some unknown thing going on between them dropped.
Dad had plans to visit the Elder Courts on Brol to see if the order that he had gotten pertaining to Bile's guardianship was still valid or if he needed to reinstate his case; the man also claimed that he had another interest on Brol that he was to also square away while on the planet. He was about to disclose the purpose of his second interest when Bile asked him a question.
"What's the second reason to why you're going to Brol?"
"To see if I'm still on record for being your adoptive father figure." TazirVile replied.
"Shouldn't you already know that answer?" Bile asked. "I mean... with you being my adoptive figure when I was six hundred years old shouldn't you still be my adoptive figure now?"
"That's what I'm aiming to check." TazirVile replied. With that matter squared away, he said something pertaining to his planned few-day absence. "It's up to your mother if she wants to take control of the home or not; if she doesn't wish to have that burden placed on her, I'll put Eldass in charge of running things."
"I can take care of the house," Angel said. "I'll make sure that everyone's working and that the animals and everything are tended to."
"When I get back you four can officially explore the outside." TazirVile said. "The back first, then the front."
"What's in that room that has that gilded starfish door knob?" Hazaar asked. His father was fast in looking at him; he hadn't expected for his secondborn son to say anything to him. The man's action of looking at him caused him to be a bit nervous. "When me and Lazeer were exploring earlier we came upon it... i-it was locked, so we couldn't get in to see what was in it."
"That's your daddy's fish room." Angel was fast to say. "There's lots of tanks in there; all are full of fish."
"I keep it locked because the tanks are rather fragile—due to how easily the tanks can break, I don't want any of my staff going in there." TazirVile said.
"Because of the water pressure." Lhaklar said. "The pressure against the glass is so great that so much as a finger tapping or touching it can make it break."
"Yes, that's right." TazirVile said. "The glass on the tanks is as thick as my arm yet it's still rather fragile."
"Wasn't you, at one time, thinking about switching the glass in the tanks to something stronger?" Angel asked.
"I was looking into changing the glass to acrylic at one time; due to how the clarity changes as the acrylic ages, I decided against switching over." TazirVile replied. "Was thinking about changing over to both glass and acrylic as well but, after you five left, I never did so. Finding you five was all that I could think of."
Bile's cheery mood was dropped a few notches after the man who he regarded as his true paternal figure spoke about who all was coming to see him and his siblings in the next few weeks; he didn't much like the idea of his real father being in the house, with him and his siblings, and he also didn't like the idea of his older half-brother and sister, and his older sister's husband, being in the house either. Pretty much everyone was coming over. His grandparents, Kuruk and Irka, and their current young children; his great-grandparents, Duru and Cyla, and their current young children; his adoptive father's sisters and their assortment of families; and his great-great grandfather, Shaam, were all slated to come over to see and "interact" with him and his brothers. The Ubalki family, consisting of his adoptive grandparents, Ashaklar and Cheshire, and their assortment of kids, were also slated to come over and so was one named Gloar Rovnitov and his wife, Vixbie, and their kids—the old man claimed that he was going to wait until Mr. Rovnitov's schedule cleared up before sending him his invite to come over. His great-great-great uncle, TrobrencusVile Surfeit, and his family were said to be getting their invites to come over after everyone else's had been sent out. That was a crap-load of people coming over, taking up the house and possibly making trouble for him and his; when he turned to look at his mother, he saw that she was wearing a thin layer of nervousness on her about the list of people who were coming over. He could comply with the feeling—he was nervous too. Judging by the looks that were on his brothers' faces, they were nervous too.
"Alright everyone, grab a tray, or a dish, then follow me." Angel said after taking up a tray then starting towards the kitchen's open doorway. "Lunch is ready but no eating until we get to the proper place."
"No need to tell me twice," Lhaklar grabbed an oval dish, that looked to have some chicken tenders in it, then followed her. "I'm hungry and I've been missing your cooking."
"Make way for the Lunch Train," Lazeer said while grabbing a dish that was separated in the middle by a silver bar. The dish that he had grabbed had normal french fries and seasoned french fries in it. "Smells so good that I might gobble it all while we're on the way to the dining room."
"You do that and I'll cream you." Bile said. He grabbed a medium-sized tray, that had more than enough hoagies on it, then he followed his family as they left the room.
Hazaar grabbed the tray that looked to have some sort of pigs in a blanket on it then followed his family; his father took the tray that had a loaf of onion bread and cinnamon bread on it then followed on his heels while Eshal grabbed the dish of salad then trudged behind them.
The "Food Train" thing, where her family grabbed a tray, or a dish, then followed the one who was at the head of the line to the dining room was very new to her; she had never done this before and, really, she saw no point in doing it. Why not they just go to the dining room then instruct two to three butlers, or maids, to cart everything that was in the smaller kitchen to the room for them?
She was dreading the fact of her father's few-day absence in the house; with her fear towards her brothers being as high as it was she didn't want to be left with them. While she loved, trusted, and respected her mother she didn't think that she'd treat her fairly after her father left to deal with matters on Brol. She, while on the way to the dining room, made plans to ask her father about taking her with him when he went to Brol; if he wouldn't do that then, maybe, she could pursuade him into letting her stay with a friend of hers until he came back or something.
"And, if neither of that is given an okay from him, I'll just sit in my chamber and not leave it until he comes home or stay near one of the hired help that I trust." she thought just before entering the house's dining room.
When everyone reached the dining room, and then the table, they set the trays and dishes down, then took their places, then started in on the meal that had been made for them. The meal, within ten minutes, was over; they were stuffed but, judging by her mother's face, they weren't yet through with eating. She was in awe over what she had eaten—it had been very good and she had come very close to having a third plate before placing a firm stop to eating anything else.
"Hope you don't mind but I made several desserts," Angel said to her husband after the "main course" had been eaten. "Five, to be exact."
"I'll be needing a restraining order to keep me from eating each dessert that you made, ma." Bile said. "That and I'll also be in need of a new notch in my belt."
"Your cooking is splendid, My Love." TazirVile said. "I can see how the boys got to looking so healthy."
"Good food and good exercise." Bile and Lhaklar said at once.
A small team of butlers took the trays and dishes away while another team of butlers brought in three trays and then two dishes; once the new items were on the table, TazirVile stood up then started the process of taking their tops off. They were all surprised over seeing that one of the dishes contained a better than decent helping of lemon sandwich cookies, that had a lemon-cheese filling in them; they emptied that bowl of that dessert item then they went to the other items that were on the table.
Apple chocolate brownies had been made; they had, at least, two of them before grabbing one of the mini-pies that were on one of the table's trays. TazirVile, try as he might, wasn't able to stop at just that; he found himself as taking two of the churro dogs, that had a slathering of whipped cream, caramel sauce, ice cream, and chocolate on them, from the tray that they were sitting on. They finished the meal off by devouring three marshmallow pops that had been coated in frosting and sprinkles or frosting and chocolate pieces. Once the meal was over, and they were full, they slumped back in their chairs.
"Think I'm with Bile on this one, sweetheart." TazirVile said a minute to two minutes after everyone slumped in their chairs. "I'll need a new notch in my belt here and soon... and a visit to the gym as well."
"That... that was very good, mam." Eshal, who was just about as stuffed as could be, said.
"Now that we've been fed, we need to take it easy. What we've eaten will need a few hours to digest." Angel said.
"No worries on that." everyone said at once.