The room that he entered had a total of sixteen people in it; he ignored all but one of them while limping towards the chair that he was now a frequent user of. While en-route to his chair, he was very aware of the stares that he was getting and of the limp that he had—after reaching the gym, then turning his music ring on, then getting down to business in lifting a one hundred pound weight, he had found himself as being spooked by his father. The old man had come into the room—he claimed that he had only gone in to check on him, and to see if he was lifting over his limit, after noticing that he was in the room—silently then he had strode right up to his backside. Hello son had been said then the weight had been dropped then he had been carted to the house's medical chamber—he had received a broken foot thanks to one of the 50-pound weights falling on it, and thanks to his father's silent approach and then sudden startle.
The medical table had managed to heal some of the damage caused to his foot while the rest—the mild fracture of the Lateral and Medial cuneiform bones, plus the fracture of the Metatarsais that went with his little toe—it hadn't been able to take care of. As of the last several hours, he had been icing, re-icing, and re-re-icing his foot and sitting on his bum in his room—under no circumstances had he been "allowed" to get to his feet and then move about, although he had done so during special occasions like bathroom breaks and plain wanting to not become stiff.
His foot was pretty well swollen, and it did hurt him a great deal, but he was trying his best to be as independent as could be—Zshon Zultoa had been asked to help him down to the dining room; even though he had been polite in "dismissing" the man he had still found him as following him and in wanting to help him in getting to the room where supper was about to be served.
"It's Duck-Foot!" Lazeer exclaimed after seeing him coming towards the table. "How's the flat-as-a-pancake foot this evening?"
"Hurts like hell and I wish that I could give it to you." Lhaklar replied.
"That sounds like fun." Lazeer joked. "Do you waddle when you walk now, or have you decided to relocate to a pond or lake somewhere?"
"Think he waddles now," Hazaar said. "Better call Bile... there's a big green duck in the house that he needs to take care of."
"Green ducks are pretty ducks but I'd imagine that the one that just waddled in here doesn't taste very good." Bile commented. "He might make for a good trophy, and story for the future kids, though."
"You alright, son?" TazirVile's voice was heavy with concern.
"Peachy," Lhaklar said while taking his seat at the table.
"Don't you mean quack-quack?" Hazaar laughed, as did Defe, Qhuakiz, and Phaggo.
"Alright, Lazeer. That's enough." Angel said.
"Yes, mom." Lazeer said.
"Quack quack." Hazaar said.
"Goes double for you, Hazie." Angel said.
"So, who's the duck again? Is it the mint-green one, or the one that has the deep purple tail of hair sticking out from the back of his head?" Bile asked. He leaned over, then held his hands up, after his mother gave him a look. "Hey now, ma. I'm just trying to figure out which of the two ducks that're in the house I'm suppose to hunt tonight."
"That's not funny, young man." Angel said to her firstborn son.
They started eating after Lhaklar was situated; after everyone started playing the grab game with the table's many placed food items, Ashaklar found that each of her grandsons had very healthy appetites to them. Tazir, earlier, had told her that Angel, for the last two days, had been letting one of the hired chefs help her in cooking the evening meals; half of that evening's meal had been prepared and then cooked by Angel while the rest had been cooked by one by the name of Ulision Volvio.
Angel was responsible for the present, but currently being devoured, pot roasts; a whole slew of BBQ chicken wings, a large bowl of homemade mash potatoes, and a few bowls of cabbage, artichoke, and spinach salad had also been made by her. Mr. Volvio had been the one to make the three leg of lamb and the steamed carrot and mini corn cob casserole. She didn't need to be told that her husband had two slices of pot roast, a slice of leg of lamb, and a helping of mashed potatoes on his plate; the man had started making his plate right after Tazir had and he had also made himself feel right at home at the table right after sitting down to enjoy his meal. She, and most of her children, had a few BBQ chicken wings and a helping of potatoes on their plates; Efagti and Phaggo had been the only ones of her brood to indulge in having three slices of leg of lamb and a helping and a half of the casserole.
"My goodness! Bile looks to be quite an eater." QeetaVile exclaimed after noticing that Bile had nearly the same amount of food on his plate as that of what her stepfather had on his.
"Bile's always been a fine eater," Angel said. "Same with the rest of my children."
QeetaVile Tintissi Surfeit, or Qeeta, as she seemed to like being called, and as he remembered her being called during his childhood years, looked very much the same. The woman was his adoptive father's only full-blooded sister and she was also his younger sister—she was five hundred years younger than the man who had taken him on as his own. Regardless of her being his adoptive father's sister, she didn't look like him.
Aunt Qeeta stood five foot, eight inches tall; she had long, jet-black hair that was currently half wavy. Her teardrop-shaped head resembled that of his father's—the holes where a nose would normally be were her nose while the mouth was O-shaped, but feminine in appearance. She had small breasts and a pencil-thin like body; like her brother, she had suction cups on the ends of her fingers. The complexion of her skin was teal; her eyes, which were silver in color, were circular in shape. She was wearing a light pink shirt that was pleated at the top; the pair of slacks, that were worn over her bottom half, were black while the slip-on shoes that were on her feet were a tinge darker than her shirt. The pink agate, that was hanging from around her neck, was the only piece of jewelry that she was wearing.
Since nothing adverse had been said about what he had on his plate he did nothing more than smile at the comment that had been made about his meal—if anyone had put up any fusses about what he had made for himself he would of pointed out the fact that most of the males seated at the table had similar plates to his before them; since no bad comments had been made on his meal, he spoke none of what everyone else was eating.
"Just you wait until dessert comes around," Angel said, then gestured at her husband. "The man who sits at the head of the table is just as bad as my boys are when it comes to filling his plate of the goodies."
"You made dessert, mam?" Eshal asked.
"Made half of it—Mr. Volvio's responsible for the rest of what was made."Angel replied.
"Mam cooks good," Eshal said to her grandparents. "We've been having to pull time in the gym after every meal."
"I can see how the boys got to being so healthy," TazirVile spoke. "If not for my now usual trips to the gym after meal-hour I'd be needing a new notch or two put in my belt."
"Lookloor looks like you, Tazeer." Defe said.
"A regular chip off the old block, Defe." TazirVile said.
"Had a feeling that you fell off a rock after you was born." Lazeer said to Lhaklar.
Mr. and Mrs. Ubalki's—her in-laws—had a rather cute set of younger children; the older of the two had a very unique appearance to her in regards to how the rest of her family looked.
Defe Tooke Ubalki was her name; from what her husband had told her, the child was five hundred and ten years old. Defe had the darkest of blue skin; her eyes were large, and oval in shape—the light bronze color that they had to them had, without a doubt, come from her father. Defe was the only one in her family to have hair—it was long, blonde in color, and, as of right now, it had a few flowers braided into it. Miss. Ubalki, who stood a tall, five foot two, was wearing a very pretty purple dress that had all sorts of floral designs on it; the shoes that were on her feet matched the dress very well, and they had little, light purple bows on them to boot.
While the Ubalki's, and her husband, didn't know this she did—she was keeping a good eye on her sons. She remembered very well that the Ubalki's weren't ones for people cursing in front of their growing children; she didn't want any of her sons to speak such language while being present before Defe or Qhuakiz, or anyone else that was slated to come in that was rather young for that matter. She knew all too well how hard it was for a parent to get their child to stop saying a specific word that he or she had heard or picked up from someone who was just passing by. Lhaklar, just after taking his place at the table, had been gotten on for his usage of 'hell' then had been told to keep his words basic for the evening—he had said 'okay' before waiting for his father to start the meal off.
"So, Lazeer, I hear that you like doing jokes, and being funny." Amadh said.
"Uh, yeah." Lazeer responded.
"Good to know—now that I'm here, I can take you under my wing and then teach you some fine stuff in doing both."
"Let him get use to you before you do so, dear." Ashaklar was fast to say.
Lazeer looked at the woman who had just "cautioned" his uncle to be slow in getting acquainted with him; his grandmother, Ashaklar Zoopray, had dark blue skin and a petite body—due her having medium-sized breasts, her body looked a little unbalanced. The eyes that were in her teardrop-shaped head were large and oval in shape—the old Foggy had, obviously, gotten his eyes from his mother. Like with the rest of the Ubalki family, she had two holes where a nose would be and an O-shaped mouth; she also had suction cups on the ends of each of her fingers.
She was wearing a red puff, long sleeve dress; the two-inch heels, that were on her feet, matched her dress perfectly. The red coral necklace, that was hanging down from around her neck, looked rather plain and simple while the green tourmaline and diamond ring, that was on her ring finger, looked rather expensive—he was fast in thinking that this ring, which had a gold band on it, was what she had been given on the day that his grandfather had finally popped the question.
Since he didn't want to attract any unwanted attention, or cause any fights to erupt between he and any of the male members at the table, he looked at his plate after seeing the basics of his grandmother.
"How is it that my father made just one child that has hair while my brother made two?" Blaiga asked.
While Cheshire, the girl's father, gave his daughter a sharp look they either glanced at her or stared at their plates. The one who had just spoken was another of their aunts; Blaiga Sarewelba Ubalki could well be passed off as being Phaggo's twin—she had dark blue skin, that was very girlie, and large, oval-shaped eyes that were a shiny, silver color. With her being two thousand, six hundred, and fifty-seven years old—about seventy-seven years younger than Phaggo was—she was in the age group that Eshal hung out with. She was wearing a blue and green, tie-dye blouse, that kept everything on her top half contained, and a pair of brown-colored jeans; the pair of sandals, that were on her feet, had a few beads on their foot-loops, and were light brown in color.
"What? I'm not asking in a bad way," Blaiga said after her seeing her father's steel-like look being centered on her. "While Lhaklar looks like a mint-green version of Tazir, and while he looks fine with not having hair, Hazaar and Lazeer are rather cute with the hairstyles that they have."
"They get their hair from me," Angel was fast in saying. "Tazir played a good part in making Lhaklar be mint green, and in Hazaar having dark blue skin and deep purple hair and eyes, and in Lazeer having periwinkle blue skin. Lazeer, at present, is the only one of my children to take after me in hair color."
"Did my part well in putting a good stamp on my boys." TazirVile said.
The comment shared by Blaiga caused Bile to feel left out; Lhaklar looked unfazed by the comment while he and Hazaar felt a little awkward. After Blaiga's comment was made, and after their father spoke about how he had "put a stamp" on them, they ate in quiet; it seemed strange that Defe and Qhuakiz were so quiet but, yeah, they said not a peep after absolute silence commenced in the room—with the two being in the age range that they were, they had expected for them to speak or make some sort of noise while eating their meal.
In all, it took about fifteen minutes for the meal to be consumed; after everyone was done with eating, they sat back then waited for the butlers to take up the table's assortment of items. The room's quiet air was shattered after his mother stood—the subject of dessert, they were sure, was about to be spoken of.
"Now that the main course has concluded we can now dive in on the course that the children have been chomping at their bits for." she said.
"Who said that it was just the children who were chomping at their bits in anticipation of dessert?" TazirVile asked. "Think I can vouch for everyone, My Dear—we're all looking forward to what you, and Mr. Volvio, have made."
When it came to eating any sort of meal, he was more for the main course rather than for the course that consisted of light items, like salads and soups, and sweets that consisted of the dessert round of the meal. He had enjoyed the main course that he had just consumed; while he wasn't "chomping at the bit" for dessert he was looking forward to what had been made—he wasn't going crazy over this part of the meal, though.
Tazir's seemingly high-interest in the meal's desserts caught him by surprise; his stepson was much like him when it came to meal hour—he was a meat, veggie, and potatoes type of man, and he preferred them types of items to the sweets.
Whenever his birthday came around, he was quite steadfast in having his wife keep the cake as being small and simple over large and exquisitely decorated and the same went with the ice cream—he'd do the honors of cooking his birthday meal on the grill, and he'd do more than smack his lips and belch after that part of the meal was consumed, while his wife took care of the "sweet" side of that day of the year's meal. He conducted himself decently after that part of the meal was consumed.
He watched as Angel, Tazir, and Bile stood up then left the room; they were gone for all of a few minutes before returning—Tazir, upon returning, had a tray on him while Angel had two silver dishes on her. Bile came in with a tray and a dish evenly balanced on his person. The items that had just been retrieved were placed on the table, then the ones who had retrieved them re-took their seats, then the first tray's lid was removed.
He was fast in seeing why his stepson seemed so excited over the dessert round of that evening's meal after the lids to all of the trays and dishes were removed.
"Great Gods!" he, Cheshire Keueitt Ubalki, came close to saying.
The first tray had three loaves of Banana bread on it while the second had a tier-like system rack on it that contained a blueberry, a pecan, and a glazed apple cream pie on it. One of the silver bowls had peanut butter cookies, that looked to have a strawberry filling in them, in it; another of the silver bowls had an "army-sized" serving of cinnamon-flavored donut holes in it while the other had nothing but strawberry lemonade ice cream in it.
Tazir started the dessert round of the evening meal by taking a slice of blueberry pie; he put a slice of each of the pies on his plate before taking four of the cookies from their bowl. He sat down after all of that was on his plate. The rest of the table's inhabitants went crazy in filling their plates to the brim after he was through in getting what he wanted—everyone but he, that was. He had a slice of blueberry pie, and then two of the cinnamon-flavored donut holes, before deciding to leave the rest to the others.
The decision to leave the rest of the meal's wide assortment of dessert foods to the table's other inhabitants was no more made before being retracted—his wife "slipped" in putting a dollop of the one bowl's ice cream on his plate; he had no sooner cleaned the "oops" spot on his plate before finding his palate as wanting more of what had been forced upon it. He had a single bowl of the strawberry lemonade ice cream before sitting back in his chair.
"Lazeer," TazirVile said after noting his stepfather's demeanor. Lazeer was fast in looking up and then over at him. "There's one final item in the smaller kitchen, can you get it for me?"
"Uh, yeah sure." Lazeer said.
He did as he had been asked to do; all while going to the smaller kitchen, to retrieve the item of interest that his father wanted to be brought to the table, he thought that what he was doing was odd. He and Bile, as of the last few days, had pretty much taken up the chore of helping their mother in cleaning the assortment of dishes and utensils that had been used with their morning and then evening meal; to find that he was retrieving something that had some unknown thing on it instead of taking certain dishes to the kitchen for cleaning made him feel like something was up.
Bile, just last night, had asked if a sort of cookie that was large and that's main ingredient was brown sugar could be made for one of the future-attended evening meals' desserts; their mother had said that she'd look into doing so one day but she hadn't said that it'd be anytime soon that he'd see his cookies as being made or served for dessert—he figured that the old Foggy, aka dad, had overheard Bile asking their mother about the cookies being made and had decided to make a batch for him himself and he also figured that what he was picking up was them cookies.
After reaching the kitchen, he saw that there was a large dish on the island; he'd need to be very careful in taking the dish to the dining room—if he dropped it he might well get yelled at by one of his parents or worse, both. He was slow in taking the dish up and he was also slow in leaving the room with it—it was heavier than he had originally thought it was and the aroma that was coming from it was rather intoxicating. He had a time in not stopping to see what it was that he was carrying.
In all, it took him all of five minutes before reaching the dining room with the overly-heavy dish; it looked like everyone had been waiting for him, which made him feel a trifle bit nervous. His mother, who must of known that he was nervous, stood from her chair then went to him—she aided him in taking the dish to the table and she also aided him in placing it right before his grandfather. With the dish on the table, she reached forward for its lid; a single rip up was what caused him to nearly laugh—while he had been carrying a dish that had Bile's Coyotas cookies on it he had also been carrying a dish that had something else on it.
There were two rings of Coyotas in the dish; in the center of them two rings was a large Lincoln biscuit—a sort of short dough biscuit that had a pattern of concentric, circle-like dots on its top.
"I remember you well, Mr. Ubalki." Angel said to Cheshire, who was staring at one of his more preferred dessert dishes. She had slaved herself to make this dessert; she hoped that he, who had looked so reserved during dessert's "main course", liked it.
"Tazir, make sure to make a reservation for me for your gym's use tomorrow morning." Cheshire said while standing from his chair. He took one of the knives, that had been used on one of the three still-present pies, up from the table then he set in on cutting himself a piece of the Lincoln biscuit.
The meal, as a whole, came to a close in five minutes time; with the meal done, their father stood then gave the signal for them to both vacate the table and to follow him. While the butlers and maids took care of the table's various items, they followed the man from the room and then down the hall—Lhaklar, with his "flat-as-a-pancake-foot", brought up the rear while their grandparents, and their kids, were between him and them.
That day hadn't been all that bad for him; while he had gotten up on the bed's wrong side, and had been a bit too cranky that morning, he had mellowed out enough for one to hang around with without having to be careful of what they said or of what movements they made. The Ubalki family had come over for their visit at nearly noon—with Zeta Ren being in a different time-zone than them, and with their having eaten breakfast only an hour and a half to two hours before coming over, they had skipped out on eating lunch. The old Foggy had been back and forth, checking on his mares and speaking to his mother and stepfather, and, when one or more approached him, his siblings, all day. Except for the mishap with Lhaklar and the weight, the man had left him and his brothers alone that day.
His exit of the table and dining room that morning had been done out of pure crankiness and his desire in wanting to test his father and sister out on how much "resolve" they had in not getting on him for something that he either did or didn't do—Eshal had spoken about it plenty while the old Foggy hadn't, so he guessed that his sister's resolve wasn't as thick or as good as the old man's. After leaving the table, he had gone upstairs to resume work on his model of the Spirit of Mississippi—it was coming along very well, and he was nearly done with it. He and his brothers had found themselves as having to be content with what they had for the last few days; the models that they had gotten from the old man a few days ago had been done in a very short amount of time, so they had had nothing to do to keep themselves room-bound and content in the two days that occurred between December 12 and December 14—but that didn't mean that they hadn't been content or busy during them days.
Along with visiting the gym, and using its various equipment, they had also explored the house and gotten use to some of the people that worked in it—while all who worked for his father seem pretty serious he had been able to hit it off rather well with one of the Gzujus twins; Lhaklar seemed to of hit it off well with Mr. Khrelan and the younger of the Speelin brothers while Bile seemed pretty chummy with the older of the Speelin brothers. Hazaar, from what he had been able to detect, hadn't made nice with anyone or made any sorts of connections yet—for some reason, he was keeping anyone who had the Zultoa surname at a distance from him. If talking to the staff, or working out in the gym, or exploring the house wasn't available to them then they just listened to music or watched the tv's that were in their rooms or looked at their December editions.
"Lhaklar's Munster Koach was completed yesterday; he wasted no time in calling all of us, and in inviting mom and the old man, to his room to see it." he thought while following Hazaar, who was walking in front of him.
Lhaklar's collection of model cars was getting rather impressive now; his brother's bookcase was getting rather full so it was looking like it was time for either another bookcase or some more shelves to be placed in his brother's room. The Buick Streamliner, the 1948 Lincoln Continental Coupe, the Cadillac Coupe De Vil, and the Buick Roadmaster Convertible Phaeton had been placed on shelf one and three of the bookcase while, sitting on the bookcase's fourth shelf, was the Ford Tudor Coupe, the 1929 Bentley 4.5 Litre, the Nautilus, and the Munster Koach—with the bookcase having five shelves on it, it was looking a bit car-overloaded right now. Lhaklar was rather proud of his collection and he wasn't afraid to show it to anyone who looked to have an interest in it—this had been shown after the incident occurred in the gym; Uncle Efagti had "popped" his head into Lhaklar's bedroom, which had prompted Lhaklar into telling him to come in and to "check out" his bookcase's collection of models.
The recently arrived Ubalki's had spent around an hour to an hour and a half on the house's fourth level before coming down to see and speak with the old man and to, of course, "pop" in on them and start in on introductions. As far as he could tell, the family was nice and respectable—the head of the family, a man who looked rather work-beaten and experienced, had cleared his throat twice before giving the door to his room a slight tap; he had said for him to come in then he had spent around five awkward minutes of talking to him, and in trying to figure him out, before seeing him on his way. The one who was the man's wife had done the same to him and his brothers about fifteen minutes later then Efagti and Amadh had come down to see and speak with them; they had yet to have any type of conversations, or interactions, with their other children. From what he could tell, the only one of his brothers who hadn't received the Ubalkis' introductions, or act of popping in for a look-see of the rooms that they had been given, was Hazaar—Mr. and Mrs. Ubalki had said hello to him, and had popped in on him to see how he was, and to, he guessed, look at his room, but they hadn't stayed for long after seeing how nervous he was of their company. Either Mr. and Mrs. Ubalki had told their two, older children how nervous Hazaar was or Efagti and Amadh had noted Hazaar's demeanor on their own—they hadn't popped in to see him, or to speak with him, or even to look at his room.
Bile had been the only one of them to be overly open in having the Ubalki's come into his room and speak with him; Mr. Ubalki—Granddad Cheshire, as he was suppose to call him—had looked a little "off" after seeing Bile's posters, and the two resin figures that had women on them that were near-naked or near scantily clad, but he hadn't said anything about them. Mrs. Ubalki—his grandmother—had conducted herself well in regards to them items while Efagti had acted in the same way that his father had about them; Amadh had been the only one to speak on them—from what he had been able to decipher, the man had just said a joke or two about them before "excusing" himself from the room and his brother's presence.
Eshal had been seen as spending a lot of time with the Ubalki's; she had spoken with them for long stretches, so he and his brothers were quite confident that she had said a lot of either untrue or negative things about them. Their sister, while having calmed down for and around their mother, hadn't stopped acting strange around them—she was still either hanging around the Goblins, or their mother, or she was playing shadow with the old man; when neither of them three things was available for her, she remained in her bedroom, doing what the Gods only knew.
"And the Bros say that I'm the weird one—think Eshal's taken that slot over these past couple of days." he thought just before his father opened the door to the room that he was leading them to.
Until now, he, and, he presumed, his brothers, had figured that the room was nothing worth his interest—with the set of double, heavy oak doors, that were covered in all sorts of dull gold knobs, being found as being shut, he had figured that it was a plain, normal ballroom, which was a room that he had no sort of interest in or wanted to be anywhere near. Instead of the room being a ballroom, he found that it was a living room instead—like with the rest of the house, it was extravagantly decorated.
The floor was made of a very well and highly polished walnut hardwood that looked to have a hand-scraped appearance to it; the walls looked to of been made out of a type of light and medium gray ledgestone while the ceiling was a soft gray color. All sorts of white and yellow bulbs were inserted in the ceiling; when the old man flipped the room's switch, all of the lights turned on—everything that had already been able to be seen was able to be seen in even more grand scale thanks to the lights being turned on. There were a total of three couches and chairs in the room—the two, coffee brown ones were placed more in the room's center while the third couch, that was a degree or two darker than they were, was against the room's left-side wall; one of the coffee-colored couches was contemporary in style, and had rounded edges and soft upholstery on it, while the other was a sectional. The dark brown couch was a super long, sectional that was half overstuffed. A brown leather chair sat before the two center-lying couches; in the room's bottom right and left corners sat two, light gray colored modern-looking chairs that had ottomans before them. A normal-looking, walnut wood coffee table was between the two center-lying couches and the one chair that sat before them; the super long couch had no table before it, but it did have a light brown, oak side table beside its left arm.
He'd be asking if he was in the residence owned by his father if no bat decor was present, or was able to be detected, in the room. The room's stationed fireplace, which looked to be made out of genuine ledgestone, wasn't lit but it did look to match the walls that were present in the room; photographs, of him and his brothers, of his father and one or more of his children, of Eshal, and of various other members of the family decorated the sides and about a quarter of the fireplace mantle. A portrait of a flying bat, that looked to be both snarling, grimacing, and smiling at the same time, was hanging above the mantle. The pit that the fire would roar in had a mesh gate hanging before it.
"Well, at least it's not "swallowed up" by bat-decorables." he thought while going towards the contemporary couch; Bile and Hazaar sat on either side of him while Lhaklar took up residency on the super long couch. Eshal sat "at a distance" from Lhaklar while Qeeta, Efagti, Amadh, Phaggo, and Blaiga sat between them. Granddad Cheshire and Grandma Ashaklar sat on the other center-lying couch while Defe and Qhuakiz "squeezed" in-between them. The old man took up residency in the chair that faced the fireplace. Their mother, both casually and not casually, sat on the arm of the chair that their father had taken to sit on.
It was quiet for a while after they took their seats; after five minutes passed, and after Qhuakiz had his "fun" in climbing from one of his parents' laps to the other before making the decision to run over to one of the room's vacant chairs, his grandmother decided to start up a conversation.
"So, Angel, it's been a while." Ashaklar said.
"It has, yes." Angel said. "Too long, if you asked me."
"You look good for one who's raised four boys on her own for sixteen hundred years." Ashaklar said.
"Thank you—it was a feat not made easy all the time. The first fifty years, I was rather thin. And frail." Angel said.
"Thin, and frail? What happened?" Cheshire, who sounded rather concerned, asked.
"Nothing more than usual round the clock nursing, and stressing over Lazeer, and the rest of my sons' healths."
"I'll be honest here," Cheshire leaned forward. "I'm very surprised that Lazeer's alive, and is as healthy as he is. We figured that he'd not live for long after you and your sons disappeared."
"Never underestimate a woman when it comes to the survival of her kids." Angel said.
"Tazzy tells me that you still let the boys nurse, is that true?" Ashaklar asked.
"Mhmmm. Yes, I do." Angel replied. "But only when they're especially stressed out, or injured or sick. Most of the time, they consume what I make for them from a glass."
"Pardon me for saying this but you should of weaned them by now." Ashaklar said. "By your continual nursing, you're putting yourself at risk for—"
"Mastitis, I know." Angel cut Ashaklar off. "I've been getting myself tested for breast cancer for years now. The doctors that I've seen have all said that I'm very healthy up top."
"Just so you know, and don't take my words incorrectly, I'm not picking on you about your continued breastfeeding of the boys." Ashaklar said. "I asked purely out of concern—I love you, as does my husband and family, and want nothing bad to happen to you." she said nothing after saying this for a short while; she let what she had just said sink in before speaking again. "When Tazir and Qeeta were little, I let them nurse until they were four hundred years old—and I only stopped letting them have the milk that I was producing for them after Duru started busting my can about how I was making them "dependent" of me."
"From what I've been told, long-term breastfeeding makes for better mental, physical, and emotional health." Angel said. "I've had my milk tested a few times—it's very high in everything."
"You still produce milk that's high in antibodies?" Ashaklar asked.
"Yes,"
"I'm surprised—when I was a student at the Academy of Womanhood I was told that a woman's natural milk will lose its antibody counts, and sugars, proteins, and waters, with each year that a woman partakes in letting her children nurse from her." Ashaklar said. "Are you able to keep up to the demands that they put on you? Can you produce enough milk for all of your sons?"
"I wake every morning to find myself full." Angel replied. "Have enough to make a half-glass for all of them."
"I can vouch for her on how "full" she is every morning—been finding myself as needing to be careful of touching her anywhere up-top with every waking." TazirVile verified what his wife had just said.
"That's very... interesting." Ashaklar said. "I guess if everything's going well with the feedings, and with your health, and with the milk that you're producing, then you should keep doing as you are with them. I'd not let them continue taking milk from you after they reach twenty-five hundred years of age, though—I weaned Efagti, Amadh, Phaggo, and Blaiga when they reached that age and I plan on doing the same with Defe and Qhuakiz."
That was... very awkward. With the women speaking of breastfeeding, and of weaning and general child-care, he felt very out of place; when he chanced a glance at his brothers, and at Phaggo, he saw that they were also feeling out of place.
His adoptive grandmother asked his mother a slew of questions about how she went by raising them and about how she managed to scrounge up the cash to pay for lodgings and for their basic needs; his mother responded by speaking about the jobs that she had taken on, and about her being in the movie business, and she also spoke about some of the places that they had taken to live in. She, either purposely or not purposely, left out the fact of their having taken up residency for two hundred years with his great-great grandmother, Dione, and her brood—while them years had been pleasant, and while he and his brothers had been able to grow and thrive while living in her underground, and underwater, castle, they had been glad to leave her abode for one of their own and they had also been glad to live a more natural life after leaving her and her broods' home.
His mother had just finished telling the tale of how they had fared during Earth's plague and disaster years when he decided to try to get up and then leave the room; he was just gearing up to say something about his going upstairs for an early nighter, and he was about to get up from the couch that he was sitting on, when his mother started speaking of something that he wanted to hear.
"Heard anything from the others, Tazzy?" they automatically knew that she was asking about the others that had been "accidentally sent" their invitations.
"Other than my grandfather? No—I was discreet with him on the invites when he called; according to him, he's neither seen nor gotten anything from me." TazirVile replied. He let this sink in for a minute before speaking again. "I'm thinking that we'll know the second everyone who's been sent an invite gets their invite—the bell will be continuously going off, or we'll be hearing the door being knocked on continuously, then we'll see the one who rang the bell, or knocked on the door, going down one of the above floor hallways."
"Is your father the same?" Angel asked. "Still rather mean? And contr—"
"Yes. He's still the same." TazirVile replied.
"Think he'd mind my asking him to not strike, or yell at, the boys do you?" Angel asked. Her husband gave her a long look before answering.
"Think it'd make him become a bit irked at you." TazirVile replied. "He might say a few things, and he might start a fight or two about the boys, but I don't think he'd hit one of them."
"Think we know why Angel asked the question on your father, Tazzy." Cheshire said. "She's thinking about the boys, and about their well-beings."
"Which is a good thing to think about when my ex is expected to make a visit." Ashaklar, who had been married to DuruVile Bolushi Surfeit, and who had gone through so much during her marriage to him in regards to worrying about whether or not he'd go too far in mishandling their son, for over two thousand years, commented.
"I'll put forth a warning now—if I find that he's put so much as a finger on either of my boys there's going to be one hell of a fight between the two of us that no one will be able to quell." Angel warned.
"Good to know that you're still the same in the protective sense towards your sons." Cheshire nodded his head after saying this. "Us men, we can be a rather protective sort when it comes to our young, but, when a woman's involved, things can get nasty and fast."
"Yes," the men in the room all said in unison.
While one of the newspaper articles, that she and her sons had read while being in the room that was now in-frequently being called the "Museum", had mentioned her older sister, and her husband, as having a child no other mentions of any of her other family having kids during her and her sons' tenure on Earth had been noted; she decided to ask the question on how many new arrivals had been added to the family after the warning on everyone watching themselves if a fight between her and her husband's father was initiated was given. While chatter on this subject was low, she learned that Tazir's father, and his wife, hadn't had any other children after Selik was born. From what she was able to gather from her husband, her grandparents had also not added any other children to their family; no word was given on whether any of her husband's sisters, or nieces, had given birth to any more children. Tazir did just about all that he could in dodging the question on whether Trobrencus and his wife, Bahne, had added anymore children to their family—Trobrencus and his wife were a rather private bunch so she pinned that as the reason to why Tazir wasn't speaking on their having or not having anymore kids; she had no explanation as to why he wouldn't tell her how many kids his sisters and nieces had birthed during her and her sons' absence.
The room grew very quiet after the conversation on the probable, or maybe not so probable, additions to the family were spoken about; Bile stared at the wall while Hazaar and Lazeer fidgeted for a bit before sitting still. Lhaklar fiddled around with his injured foot by removing its wrap of bandaging; he re-wrapped his foot after hearing his father clearing his throat then he did nothing more than look at the floor. Eshal picked at the arm of the couch that she was sitting on while Defe and Qhuakiz started making their rounds of the room; the two Ubalki children sat in the two chairs, then walked around the center-lying couches, then walked around the couch that their parents were sitting on, before being grabbed and then plopped on their parents' laps. She remained silent and still on the arm of the chair that her husband had taken to sit on before, at the very last second, deciding to get up and then move to the couch that Lhaklar, Qeeta, Efagti, Amadh, Phaggo, Blaiga, and Eshal were sitting on—Tazir groaned when she left him, and he acted like he was about to grab and then "force" her to remain where she was, but he didn't voice his displeasure in her leaving his side. She had a hard time in suppressing the chuckle that wanted to come out—it was often said that absence made the heart fonder; for Tazir, this saying was very accurate.
She had only just taken her seat between Lhaklar and Qeeta when Lhaklar decided to break the room's silence.
"How many bats did you count today?" Lhaklar asked.
"Came close to hitting three hundred, and that's not including the pups that're in the enclosures." TazirVile replied.
"So, the full tally is somewhere over that number?" Lhaklar speculated. "Like fifty to a hundred more?"
"Possibly."
"Still have the Platypuses that you caught on one of your birthday trips to Earth?" Bile asked.
During the room's second-felt quiet spell, he had suddenly remembered the fact that his adoptive father figure had gained a fancy in Earth's Platypus; the man had been so fascinated by the species that he hadn't been able to not capture and then bring a few home with him. The animals had lived in a half-adequate enclosure for a few months before one of the non-used rooms on the first level was prepared and then approved for their use—like with the bats, only the old man had been allowed to go into the room and interact with the animals. At the time that he and his family had taken up residency on Earth, the man had had a colony of around ten or so Platypuses in that room.
"If he does have them then they've probably grown in size—he, when I was a kid, wasn't keeping them from breeding and wasn't culling their numbers." he thought after remembering the fact of his adoptive father figure having a group of Platypuses during his childhood.
TazirVile didn't answer Bile vocally; he stood from the chair that he had taken to sit on then he gestured for everyone to follow him. Bile stood then followed his mother as she led him and his brothers from the room; Lhaklar, due to his crippling injury, brought up the rear. The Ubalki's dawdled for a bit before tracking them down and then following them to where they were going—Phaggo and Blaiga had been told to go upstairs and get ready for bed; Defe and Qhuakiz had been told to go with them.
They went down a couple of hallways, and made a bunch of left's and right's, before coming upon a short flight of steps; a large door, that had a pane of near-opaque glass on its top half, was beyond the steps—they went to it after descending the four steps that were present on the hallway. Once they were at the door, they stopped then watched as their father dug a key-ring, that looked to have more than four dozen keys on it, from one of his pants pockets.
"Regain your size," the man said after the key-ring, and its assortment of keys, was out of his pocket. "regain your shape, your size and your grooves. Grow to the size of your originality."
The keys on the key-ring grew to their appropriate size in the blink of an eye; after they were their original size, TazirVile took the one that went to the door's lock then inserted it. Once the door was unlocked, and the key-ring was back to being in his pocket, he opened it then went into the room that it sat before; his wife and children, and the remaining members of his mother and stepfather's family, entered the room in a near-neat line after he did.
The Platypuses, he had discovered soon after acquiring them, were semi-fast in reproducing and growing in size; after getting the room ready for them, then putting them in it, he had found himself as finding his four-member compromising group of egg-laying mammals growing from four to eight and then from eight to thirteen and so on. He had actually come under the belief that he had lost several of his female animals after they went into their underwater burrows to lay their eggs and then tend their young—without his wife's assistance, and insistence that they were fine, he would of gone insane with worry over whether his new pets were fairing well under his care. His wife had given him pointers on how to get the chamber decorated for the animals that were to inhabit it and she had also helped him in gaining a better understanding to the animals and in providing the female animals with items that'd aid them in bringing up their young.
He had sold several of his home-bred animals over the years; when their numbers grew to a level that was difficult to maintain, or when the gender ratios were found to be uneven, he had caught and then carted certain individuals to places where they'd be sold. He mostly sold his animals to private collectors, zoos, and oddity exhibits that wanted to show weird, or exotic, animals that came from other planets but, on occasion, he did sell to people who had an interest in wanting to acquire the animal as a sort of exotic pet. At the moment, his group of Platypuses was twenty-one strong.
"Cachu sanctaidd!" Bile exclaimed in Welsh, which was one of his learned languages.
"Watch your language, Bile!" TazirVile said sharply.
"I'd say that he still has them!" Lhaklar said after taking the room in.
"Bats and now Platypuses," Hazaar shook his head. "what else are you into?"
"Give me a minute and I'll show you." TazirVile replied.
Other than the general appearance of the animal, he had been fascinated by the fact that, at one time in the past, it had been seen as a pure hoax—after Angel spoke of these animals, then persuaded him into taking the trip to see them, he had figured that she was just pulling a tall-tale as a way to stay on Earth for a while longer. Angel had caught the first individual in his colony; after holding it up, then cautioning him about the spur, that had been present on the animal's back leg, he had found himself as being in awe.
It had the brown body, and tail design, of a beaver while its face had a bill on it; the feet were web-like in design—it was these alone that had told him that the animal was mostly aquatic instead of land-based. Only the male carried a venomous spur on its back legs; the females, while also having a spur on their back legs, didn't have a venomous spur on them. The females, quite interestingly, also had only one working ovary. The breeding cycle ran between June and October, two to three eggs were laid, and, for the most part, the animals were separate acting—while his colony was twenty-one members strong none of them twenty-one animals worked as a team or lived in the same burrow.
The original floor in the room had been taken out then a section of the floor had been lowered as a way to make a sort of lake; the trees, and the two dozen bushes that were present both before, to the left and right, and behind the trees, made the room look almost forest-like. He had been the one to put in the rocks, and apply the dirt surface that was present around the pond; a few of his staff had helped in filling the pond. Due to his habit of tossing three to four bags of loose leaves on the dirt floor of the room once every two to three months, the room had more than enough leaf litter in it to accommodate the female animals' needs when they got pregnant and then started the process of getting ready for their youngs' births—the female animals, he had observed on several occasions, collected the leaves and then took them to their nursery burrows for the nests that they were working hard to make.
It had taken him three years before he had learned that the animals were deaf and that they used a form of electrolocation as a means to find their prey—this had sealed his interest in the animals; why, bats also used electrolocation as a means to find their prey so, in a few ways, both they and the Platypus were similar.
Most of the animals were swimming in the pond while others were in their burrows; the two that were climbing the rocks, that lined one side of the room's created pond, were quite large. He and his family spent all of two minutes in looking at the room's inhabitants before turning to leave; once they were out of the room, he turned then locked the door—no need for any of the animals to get loose, or for anyone who lived or worked in the house to be nabbed by the spurs that were present on the males' back legs. He had no desire in having his pets confiscated from him and he had no desire in having to take one of his family to the hospital for having been poisoned by one of his pets.
After leaving the room that his Platypuses were in, he turned then started the process of leading his family towards the room that his collection of fish was in. It took all of two minutes for him to reach the room but, due to Lhaklar's injured foot, and to his having to move slowly and carefully because of his injured foot, it took nearly seven minutes for everyone to reach the room.
"Please, don't touch, or tap on, the tanks." TazirVile said just before inserting the room's key into the present door knob that looked like a gilded Starfish.
He remembered the vast assortment of tanks, and the animals that dwelled in them, right after entering the room that they had been set-up in; despite remembering all that was in the room, he kept his mouth shut—why spoil the "fun" of the room, or the old man's enthusiasm over wanting to show them something that he had an interest in?
Due to the vast assortment of tanks that were present in the room, the room was large; the hallway that was in the room went around in a circle, but the tanks that were in the room didn't allow for one to see any of what was going on on the room's other side. At one time in the mansion's long history, the room had been nothing but a plain, normal ballroom—from what he had been able to collect from his mother, the man had made the decision to do a full-room change sometime after he married his first wife.
The tanks stretched from floor to ceiling and were lit in a variety of ways; some were quite bright, while others were semi-bright, and then there were the two that were nearly dark. The first two tanks that he and his siblings saw belonged to two species of rays and sharks. To his left, a type of shark, that had an electric blue, horizontal stripe running down its sides, and a type of mini-White shark were swimming about in a near pitch black tank; to his right, a type of Rayfish, that was a mostly yellow color, and that was flecked with all sorts of light blue dots, was swimming in a semi-bright tank. The Rayfish had come from Earth while its companion species was a breed that came from Moas—the black and gray dotted, yellow bodied ray had a long trunk on it that it used to suck up crustaceans and other floor-bound items that made up its diet; the tail that it had sported a pronged end and two poisonous spikes on it.
The next two tanks that they saw had nothing but fish and small-range sharks in them. The first one that he looked at had several Blobfish, Angelfish, Starfish, Eels, and a Moas-based fish that's gills, flippers, and tail were a bright green color. The other tank had an interesting fish in it that had translucent skin and large, black eyes; the Turrentfish, Mandarian Gobby, Yashia Shrimp Gobby, and the Cubicus Boxfish were all present and looked rather happy in their captive environment—all of these had come Earth sometime in the past.
He and his brothers were just passing the tank that had the Cubicus Boxfish in it when two other fish were noted as being in that species' tank. The first shark was long, and black striped; when it latched onto the glass of the tank, they saw that it had a suction-like mouth on it. This shark was a native species of Gamma Vile—at the time that he and his brothers were removed from Moas, the shark had been deemed as an endangered species. The old man had been required to get a special permit to keep the individuals in his care after the species was added to the GVEFL—the Gamma Vile Endangered Fish List. A type of shark that's mouth was on a long tube, and that was a lime green color, took the place of the other shark after the other shark removed itself from the tank's glass side; this species of shark had come from another planet in the M-51 Galaxy—by all initial opinions, it looked happy and healthy and it also looked to be thriving in its captive environment.
"Hey, I think this fish wants someone to give it a kiss." Lazeer said after the shark latched itself onto the glass side of its tank.
"That's one of my Suction Sharks, son." TazirVile said. "Have five of those."
"Maybe he wants a kiss from you, Little Man." Amadh said. He had no more said this before the fish de-latched itself from the side of its tank; it swam off then disappeared right after removing itself from the cold glass that surrounded its watery environment.
"I'm sticking my neck out of this but I think his intended target was you." Lazeer said. Efagti and Phaggo chuckled lightly while Amadh simply smiled back.
They were just making the turn, and were just starting in on looking at the other tanks that were in the room, when their mother, grandmother, and Qeeta shivered; their father, having noticed the trio's shiver, hurried them along. They saw the other tanks, that had their colorful coral reefs, or that were near bare for the sharks or other fish that required a non-colorful environment to live in, and that had a varied ecosystem in them, quickly before making their exit of the room. Once they were out of the room, and once the door was locked, their father continued to lead them along; he led them down two hallways before he decided to step up beside Hazaar; they had yet to say much to one another after that morning's fight and he had yet to apologize for what he had said to him. His brother glanced at him, then made a small sound that told him that he had seen him, but he didn't say hello or even say two words to him.
He guessed that his older brother was still miffed at him; he dropped to his previous position in the line that was following his father then he looked at the floor. While he wanted to make-up to his brother for the things that he had said, and while he wanted to talk to him, he saw himself as not being able to do so—why speak to another when that person is giving you the cold shoulder, or obviously doesn't want to talk or play the make-up game with you?
They went down this hallway, and then that hallway, for a short duration of three minutes before losing sight of the one who was leading them; after a two-second panic, and after turning the corner, he saw where his father was—the man, who seemed to be in a big hurry for some peculiar reason, was standing in the hallway's center. It looked like he was waiting for them. He gave them a small smile after seeing them as rounding the corner then he turned; he resumed the task of leading them down the hallway.
He and his brothers were just suppressing yawns, and were starting the process of thinking boring thoughts about what they had done over the last several minutes, when they came upon a hallway that was flanked on both sides by fish tanks.
"Bats, Platypuses, and fish," Hazaar thought after seeing the hallway. "I have one weird father."
Bile was thinking around the same as Hazaar was; while he liked to indulge in an occasional fishing trip, and while he liked eating fish, he wasn't all that big a fan of keeping fish as pets or of taking tours of places that were semi or completely dominated by tanks of marine life. His adoptive paternal figure, while looking to be taking good care of his collection of pets, had really gone overboard with the bats and fish—he wondered for all of two seconds if the man was alright upstairs before figuring that the man was and that he was just really into the hobby that he had decided to become involved in.
The tanks in the fish room were for the bigger or more aggressive saltwater fish while the ones that were on the hallway were for the smaller, more colorful, and less aggressive saltwater fish; each tank had crystal clear, blue water in it and they also had a rocky background and sandy bottom to them.
The orange and white, and the blackish-red and white variety of Clown fish were swimming about in the tank that was to the left of the hallway; dark blue Jewel Damselfish, that had light blue spots on their sides, fins, and tail, were darting in and out of the tank's coral while Neon Damselfish, that had blue stripes on their bodies, and Flourescent Blue Damselfish, that were the brightest of electric blue color, were swimming above the tank's placed coral. Black and gold, bi-color Chromis, Blue-green Chromis, and Fiji Devil Damselfish, the latter having a body that was separate in color, with one half being blue while the other was yellow, were swimming around the tank's rocky background. The fish that were swimming near the sandy bottom of this tank were called Radiata Lion fish—all of the fish that were in this tank had come from Earth and, in fact, they had been caught one day when the old man and their ma went deep sea fishing.
All sorts of alien fish, of various colors, sizes, and shapes, were in the hallway's other tank; he looked at these fish for only a second, taking in their strangeness, and wondering, once again, why his father had taken such an interest or had such an interest in creatures such as what was in the tank, before latching onto the idea of coming up with an excuse to leave the group. It was heading on eleven o'clock; the old man would want him and his brothers, and Eshal, in bed and he'd also want them to go to sleep—they had learned rather quickly that the man was okay with their turning their tv on to watch a program or two after finding that they weren't able to go to sleep a few days ago. Lhaklar had pushed the envelope by staying up for most of the night, to put together a model, and to watch his tv, yesterday; the old man had not been pleased with learning that he had done that and he had actually "threatened" to remove the tv and any and all unfinished models from his room if he was caught staying up again.
"Pardon me, I've greatly enjoyed seeing, and remembering, the fish in the room, and in this hallway, but I do think I need to head upstairs for the rest of the evening." he said. He stopped, then turned, then made to go down the hallway in the opposite direction that his family was going in. "I do, after all, have a mint-green duck to catch sometime in the future. And it's getting late."
"Night, Bile. Sleep well. See you in the morning." TazirVile said. "Now that he's mentioned it, it is getting rather late. Think it's time that all of us retire for the evening."
"What's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Angel asked her husband.
"Nothing more than have you and the boys reaquaint yourselves with my mother, stepfather, and their family." TazirVile said. "The day after, I have something in the planning stages for you five."
"What do you have planned?" Hazaar asked, he hoped that it wasn't another escort through Fish Paradise.
"You, your mother, and your brothers will find that out in two days time." TazirVile replied.
"No fair! You're keeping us in the dark. That means that we'll be up all night, staring at the ceiling, or at the walls, wondering what all you've—"
"My son, you and your brothers will find that all of that ceiling and wall staring to be a good thing." TazirVile said. He smiled, nodded his head, then held his hand out for his wife; Angel took it then followed him as he led her down the hallway, and away from her sons. "Night everyone, sleep well."
"He really is a weird one." Hazaar whispered to Lazeer. His brother, while shocked over finally hearing him say something to him, couldn't agree more with him.