From what he was able to see, it looked like his halfway normal, and pleasant, day was about to come to an end; with things in the house being calm again, and with it being so nice out—no rain, or torrential breezes, had been forecast for that afternoon—, he and his brothers had been given the green-light to go outside. He and his brothers were just ten minutes out the door—none of them had bothered in staying around one another after venturing out from the house; they had just dispersed in different directions and then started doing as they merry well pleased.
With the way Selik and Sudir were looking, it looked like he was in for a run of being bullied—they, who had been allowed to come out before he and his brothers were given the word to do so, were coming towards him and not in a friendly manner either. It almost looked like they had picked a place to stand in and then wait for someone—he and Lazeer, probably—to amble by. While he tried to ignore their forward progress, and while he tried to think that they were interested in something other than he, he knew that they were focused on him and that something was about to happen—and that someone, he was sure, was going to get hurt.
When the kids reached to within a few yards of him, he wasn't but so surprised that his figuring on what they had up their sleeves was correct.
"Hey girlie-boy!" Sudir snapped. After saying this, he rushed at and then pushed him. With there being a puddle of mud under his feet, he lost his footing; after colliding with the mud, Sudir jumped on him then, working fast, probably trying to impress his companion, he bound his hands behind his back. After the kid's knee went into his side, he gasped—when he tried to get up, that same knee went sailing into his gut. He started wheezing at once after his wind was removed from him; Selik and Sudir responded to his wheezing by laughing.
"Lookit the baby wheeze and cough," Selik sang happily. "He's practically dying without air, Sudir!"
"Look at that hair! Kept so crisp... so clean... and so, so long." Sudir said while keeping him down in the mud. "He keeps it like my sister keeps hers, and look at the braids and beads!"
"Queer! My dad hates his hair." Selik said. What he said next came out in a near haunted sort of way that seemed to creep Sudir out. "He wants it to be cut completely off his head."
"Why don't we help him out with that?" Sudir said.
As of the last couple of days, it seemed that Selik, the younger of the two boys that were bullying him, was the leader of the gang that took a fancy to him and Lazeer; Sudir seemed to take very good care in "following" the orders that the twerp gave him and he also seemed to not have a lead-role bone in his body—with Sudir's brother, Baruk, being the leader of the other bully gang, this probably didn't mesh well with him. While Baruk and Sudir seemed to get along, and not have but so many fights between themselves, he did like to imagine that Baruk, being the big bully that he was, was sickened by the fact of his "baby brother" not taking after him in being the leader of his created group of bullies.
After hearing what the two had planned for him, and after seeing Sudir's hand removing a pair of silver scissors from one of his pants pockets, he wrenched free of his attacker then turned on him—there was no way in hell that he was about to let Selik or Bone-Boy, as he commonly called Sudir whenever they were alone, or whenever he got on his nerves, cut his hair or remove his hair from his body. He'd put in a merry fight before they were allowed to do so.
Once free of his attacker, he jerked his leg up. Sudir yelled after his shin was assaulted by his foot, then he yelled again after his foot came in contact with his chin; with Bone-Boy backing off, and looking to be more concerned with his injuries than with what he was doing, he got up then charged at him. A kick sent the pair of scissors flying. The pair of scissors, which looked of the elegant sort, and which looked like something one would use in the bathroom, landed a few feet away a few seconds later—due to the fight that was going on between he and Sudir, they didn't bother in worrying about retrieving or sending them farther away.
Sudir, who's full-name was SudirVile Sorras Surfeit, but who went by plain Sudir by both family and the ones that knew him, stood six foot, two inches—despite being taller than he, he had him bested two-to-one. The kid looked much like his mother—his bone-like body was a milky-red color while his head was the only thing on him that was bi-colored. The left side of the kid's head was red while its other side was a golden color. Like his mother, he had no visible ears on his head; unlike his mother, who was eye-less, he had a pair of dark red eyes in his eyes sockets. His body was lean, and looked to possess little in muscle mass. The last he had heard, he was just barely one thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-five years old. The kid was wearing a brown-colored, long sleeve, button down shirt and dark brown breeches; the slacks that came from the ends of the breeches weren't all that crisp or clean—due to Sudir's habit of jumping on him after he lost his footing and then fell in the mud, he had gotten himself all muddy from the knee on down. The vest, that was over his shirt, was a light brown color; it had gold and red embroidery and button detailing on it. The black shoes, that were on his feet, had a small, gold buckle on them.
He delivered four punches to Bone-Boy after colliding with him. The first sailed into the cavity that was his nose while the second crashed into the side of his head; the third and fourth clipped his shoulder while the fifth, which was sadly the last one that he was able to dish-out to the kid, smacked into his chest. Selik ran in right when Sudir backed off—he guessed that the "leader" of the twosome had grown tired of seeing his prey getting the better of him and his group and he also guessed that he was hoping to take him out so he and Sudir could get the upper hand.
Try as he might, he wasn't able to throw his all into Selik—he managed four punches, and a slap, before the fight was knocked out of him. Selik managed to deliver two low blows, then a hard blow to his side, before throwing the punch to his groin—if not for this punch, he would of continued to fight him and he might of also been able to beat him back.
He dropped to his knees after the crippling blow was delivered; Selik, looking just as proud as ever, motioned for his lackey to come forward. Sudir brushed his hand across his face—blood, and a good lot of it, was flowing from his nose cavity but, at the moment, he didn't seem to care about it—before coming in. He grabbed him by his arms, then jerked him back, then held him steady; Selik, meanwhile, retrieved the pair of scissors. Try as he might—he jerked, he twisted, he yelled, and he did his best to flip the bully that was holding him over him—, he wasn't able to avoid what was to happen next.
The shine of silver was seen as the scissors were opened and then closed; he saw this twice before the one who was holding them walked around him. Except for the two strands of fully braided hair, and the one strand that was half braided, but that had a series of gold beads on it, his hair was loose—Selik grabbed his hair then, with a jerk, held it straight so he'd be able to cut it cleanly. The snip that he heard two seconds after his hair was grabbed caused him to become enraged—with the strength that he was able to muster, he got to his feet then, after using his Elemental Ground power to propel him up, he shot up from where he had formerly been restrained at.
"Wimp!" Selik shouted after the pillar of mud appeared between he and Sudir, and after his and Sudir's prey was propelled from their reach. "You run like a cow—"
He landed between the two of them right before he could be called a coward; after forming his hands into a big fist, he swung them at Selik and then at Sudir.
He punched them in rapid succession; he kicked his legs at them; he sent all sorts of mud at them after deciding to use a combination of his Elemental Water and Elemental Ground power; then, when both were down, he made vines shoot up from the ground around them. Sudir managed to evade the vines while Selik wasn't so lucky—he left Selik where he was; with Bone-Boy being within his reach, and with his being as angry as he was, he had a score to deal with with him.
Sudir rolled over to his side, then managed to get to his knees, before finding himself as being knocked over. He yelled, then screamed, after he started rolling him around in the mud. He got the bully's clothes all wet and muddy, and he also caused a few rips and tears to occur in his breeches.
He didn't stop there; after getting Sudir's clothes all muddy, and after causing his breeches to be damaged, he dropped to his knees then started grabbing handful after handful of mud. He rubbed each handful of mud that he collected in Sudir's face; at the last second, he yanked Sudir's shirt up then started slathering mud on his stomach and chest. When Sudir managed to kick him from him, he turned around then started crawl-running—he had only gone a short distance before being jumped on. Sudir, the one who had held him while Selik cut his hair, screamed after the back of his underwear was grabbed and then whisked over the back of his head. A kick to the ass finished the business with him—Sudir was just going face-first into the mud when he turned to collect the pieces of hair that he was able to see.
Surprisingly, all of what was removed from his head was able to be collected; after taking his hair up, then pocketing it, he turned to face and take care of Selik, who had long since managed to get loose of his vine-like binds.
"Dad..." Selik gave a weak cry after seeing him as coming for him. "Da—"
He leaped at him then he grabbed him by one of his horns; with a yank, he jerked Selik's head down then flashed a fist at him. A punch to the face, then to the gut, was done before he found his grip slipping—Selik, after finding himself as being free, spat before giving his head a shake; he was just opening his mouth to begin the process of yelling for someone to come save his pathetic ass when he saw his knee coming for him. Try as he might, he wasn't able to avoid the knee—the knee, after colliding with his chest, sent him reeling back into the mud, which splashed up before spewing around him after he fell into it. He found himself as no more colliding with the mud before finding the one that he had tried to bully on more than four occasions over the last couple of days jumping on him.
After jumping on Selik, he battered him with punches to his face and chest—punch #3 caused one of Selik's eyes to be halfway shut while punch #5, 6, and 7 caused more than two cuts to appear on Selik's chin, cheeks, and on the side of his nose; punch #10 had only just been given when Selik decided to put his hands up to protect himself.
In all, it took five minutes before he decided to let up on Selik; he wasn't but so surprised over seeing Selik jumping from where he was or running off in the direction of the mansion's back porch after his weight was lifted from him.
"Go tell your daddy you little porker! I've got a dose for him if he wants a go." Hazaar yelled after seeing Selik running from him.
Sudir, after relieving himself of the pressure that his underwear was giving him, crawled to the mud puddle's edge before getting to his feet then turning around. He, who, as Hazaar had suspected, had only been going by the orders given to him in restraining him so Selik could cut his hair, looked at him for the longest of time before finding himself as being spoken to.
"You want another go you little pustule?"
"You're cr—" Sudir started to say. Initially, he wanted to turn tail then flee the area; the ocean was nearby... he could well go to it, then give his body, and his clothes, a quick cleaning before heading towards his uncle's mansion. His mother, he imagined, would flip after seeing him while his father would be enraged; a certain someone, who had just gotten his hair cut clean from his head, might be in a lot of trouble afterwards while he'd be pampered, cleaned, and maybe given a treat or two as a way to soothe his anxiety. This want of his was never done; after seeing Hazaar lunging towards him, he readied himself for Round Two of the brawl that he was experiencing.
The "gully washer", as his son continued to call them ocean-oriented storms, had broke up after gaining a bit of speed; the storms, that blew in early last evening, had been enough to wake the dead but, from what he was able to see, everyone had slept through them fine.
While he was a happy resident in the M-51 Galaxy, and while he liked all of the planets that were in the galaxy, Moas was, without a doubt, his least favorite in the galaxy. The near-constant, nine months out of the year seventy to seventy-seven degrees was good, yes, but the two to three times a month ocean storms were a hassle—while the storms had been bad last night, they hadn't done all that much damage to the property that his son lived on. The mess of mud, that stretched from one corner of the backyard to the other, was the only thing that gave credence to the storm's occurrence. The ocean had swept into one of the lower-lying horse pastures, and had caused some of the grass in that pasture to be eroded, but the fence was still intact—all his son would have to do was get his staff to replace the artificial grass.
With the yard being so mudded up, he was expecting for each and every child that was out and about to be in-need of getting either a bath or a shower after being called in. Uevaa, Kaasa, and Eshal, and the two Ubalki girls, were being smart in staying inside while most of the boys were outside. He didn't know nor care where Phaggo Ubalki was; his daughter, and his two granddaughters, were either with Cyla or Irka while Blaiga and Defe Ubalki were with Ashaklar—he was glad for this; he didn't much like the idea of his children, or any of the children of his relatives, to be hanging around with folk of common blood. Like his wife, he thought that the children born into his family had better than fine blood in their veins and that they were royal-bred; he viewed that his family's offspring should only associate themselves with folk of their pedigree or that had a pedigree that wasn't plain common or peasant-like in origin.
"And there goes one of the Ubalki boys." he thought after seeing Qhuakiz, the younger of "Mr." and Mrs. Ubalki's sons, doing a belly-flop in the mud.
After seeing this disgusting sight, he turned to look at the one who was standing just out of reach of the yard's seemingly endless mud puddle. Cheshire Ubalki was standing with his back against one of the yard's horse pastures; he not only had a silver flask in his hand but he also looked to not have a problem with what his son was doing. Duru rolled his eyes; what a man! Just stand there, drinking whatever you have in your flask while your son's having "a blast" in getting himself all filthy.
A kid could get a broken leg or could well break both legs. A kid could break an arm. Hell, a kid could also break his spine or neck in the slop that was in the yard. Concerning yourself with what was in your flask wasn't the appropriate thing to be doing right now—the man should be yelling at his son, telling him to get out of the mud or go inside, or he should be rushing forward to stop what his son was doing instead.
He couldn't believe that his ex-wife had gone and married such a fool and he couldn't believe that she was still with him or that she had allowed herself to be bred and then have the fool's children. It was only by force that he had kept in contact with Ashaklar; Tazir continued to have dealings with her, and with that peasant farmer/miner of a husband of hers—if not for this, he'd of forgotten all about her. Cyla, in his opinion, was the better of his wives; he loved her so much—and, truthfully, he had still been in love with her when the meeting with Ashaklar occurred. If not for his meeting Ashaklar, then becoming enamored with her, he would of never divorced Cyla or, for the matter, married any of the other women that he had met and then had relations with after his and Ashaklar's marriage was over.
Cyla was much more mature. She was prettier, she was smarter, and she... well she was just plain better. Of the five women that he had married, it was only Ashaklar that he still saw and, sometimes, spoke with—the other women, he had seen, and spoken with, but their contact with him was very brief... he very rarely saw or spoke with them and they, it did seem, were being respectful in keeping themselves well away from him or in making sure that he and they didn't meet one another when family-done holidays came around.
"Bile!" DuruVile yelled after seeing movement to his extreme right. When he turned, he saw that his great-grandson was running towards the mud puddle; his yell was no more expelled from him when the youngster dropped them slid along on his side. Bile's sliding motion carried him a good distance before slowing up and then stopping; when he got up, his whole right side was covered in mud.
Bile had no more gotten up, and then moved off from the puddle, when his brother ran in. For Duru, this was nonsense; first the Ubalki brat, then Bile, and now Lhaklar. Lhaklar, his secondborn son's oldest biological son, imitated Bile's action by running to the mud puddle, then dropping, then sliding a good ways. When he got up, he saw that, like Bile, his whole, right side was covered in mud.
"Lhaklar!" DuruVile yelled after seeing that the youngster looked to have an interest in doing a repeat of his previous action.
"Drop it, Duru." Cheshire yelled from across the yard. "Let them be boys."
They could be boys all they wanted to and still retain their dignity, Duru was thinking; after thinking this, he looked over to the side. Baruk and Gaajah were standing under the branches of a nearby tree. It looked like they were talking, and it looked like they weren't about to engage in any sort of inappropriate activities. Qhuakiz, he saw, was now making mud-patties while Bile and Lhaklar were having a "rousing" game of mud-ball.
Except for Sudir and Selik, all of the boys were present and accounted for; he left his good-blooded stock be for a bit before deciding, for their sake, to call them in. Kuruk, though looking to be a little more lenient than he in the paternal game, was like him when it came to a child's outside playtime—the kids could play, and rough-house all they wanted, but they had to stay clean and uninjured while doing so.
Baruk and Gaajah were obedient in coming to him after he called for them; with a simple gesture of his jerking his head towards the mansion, he told them to go inside, which they did. Bile and Lhaklar gave him long, inquiring looks before hearing Cheshire's yell of their continuing as they were—he yelled at them to come to him twice and Cheshire, in response, yelled for them to continue as they were each time. He scowled at the man then, at the last second, he decided to leave the two be—he'd conversate with them on their disobeying him later, and he'd speak with Cheshire on his overruling him too.
When Selik and Sudir didn't run into view, or come to him after being called, he grew a bit concerned. After sucking in enough air to fill four sets of lungs, he yelled for them to come to him again—he put every ounce of authority that he had in him into his yell. When the two didn't come, or appear after being called, he grew angry; where were they and what the hell were they doing, he wondered.
Duru took one step from where he was standing before stopping and then turning around; the click of the mansion's back door was what caused him to take in who was coming out. After turning around, he saw that it was Angel who had come outside; she walked across the porch, then descended the porch steps, then walked by him as if he didn't exist—this gave him cause to be both concerned and, well, sad.
"Wouldn't be giving you the cold shoulder if what happened last night, and this morning, didn't happen." he thought after she went past.
The three days following Kuruk and his family's arrival had been half-so pleasant for her; while her sons were having a time in getting settled among his and Kuruk's kids, and while she was having a time in letting them get in the groove of finding their niches among the ones that were their age, she, for the most part, had been left alone. That had stopped happening last night, just after the spheres took on their nighttime colors.
His father had made the decision in trying to slip her the pill that'd make her milk supply dry up; after speaking with her on the issue, and trying to make her come to her good senses on what she was doing, he had made a trip to the house's smaller kitchen—a sort of shake had been made for her, then given to her, then a quarter drank before being set down and then forgotten. After learning that the drink had the pill in it, and that his father was the culprit behind it being in the drink, she had gotten very angry—Pubba and she had gone at it twice before supper was made and then placed on the table. Pubba had also tried to slip the pill into one of the rolls during supper too; after giving her it, then apologizing for his actions earlier, he had watched as she ate it. Angel had gotten in maybe two or three bites before putting it down—"Mr." and Mrs. Ubalki, Tazir, and all of her children had gasped after seeing the white pill being removed and then held up for all to see. While another fight occurred between her and his father after the pill was found she wasn't the only one involved in it—Tazir had given his father an earful and so had Mrs. Ubalki.
With the exception of Tazir and the Ubalki's, who seemed unacceptive of what happened last night, everyone knew that his father was just looking out for her and was on his side for what he did; Angel had left the table without excusing herself after that pill was found—no conversation between her and his father, or her and he, had happened that morning, which he thought was a bit uncalled for and unfair, since he hadn't had any involvement in what happened with the the pill being slipped to her.
In his opinion, it should be Tazir who was trying to slip her the pill; Pubba shouldn't be the one giving her the pill or concerning himself about trying to get her to take it. Angel should heed their advice in weaning her sons, and in letting her milk dry up; they could pressure her with words, and try to keep her from her sons for short periods of time, but the pill that would cause her milk to dry up should only be given to her by her spouse, not by her great-great grandfather, great-grandfather, or grandfather.
"And then we have what happened after breakfast was eaten..." he thought after she stopped before the mud puddle.
Breakfast had been good; very appetizing, and very satiating to all of their taste-buds, but the event that occurred after it had made all of that good food become very hard to digest. Kuruk had made his way up to the level that the boys' chambers were on after everyone was dismissed from the table; after seeing that Lhaklar's, Hazaar's, and Lazeer's chambers were unlocked, he had entered them and then done a spell that'd make all of the models and magazines, several posters, and most of the music that the boys owned become small and then appear in a box. After all of what had been put in the box was in the box, Kuruk left the level that the rooms were on.
The three boys, after noticing that their things were missing, got mad and then went to see Tazir and their mother; after hearing "testimony" from one of the maids, who had been on the level at the time, and who had seen Kuruk leaving Lazeer's chamber with a box, Kuruk had been requested to give all that he had taken back—he had only done so after both Angel and Tazir started running their mouths at him.
All of what had been taken had been returned to their prior stations; from what he had seen, Bile and Hazaar had been the ones to sort out the magazines and then return each to the one that owned them.
With the exception of "Mr." and Mrs. Ubalki, and their kids, no one was allowed entrance to the rooms that the boys slept or did their "recreational" activities in.
"And then we have the event that happened four hours ago," he thought before going on in trying to gain his son's, and his grandson's, attention.
Kuruk and Irka, it did seem, had come across Angel letting Hazaar nurse from her; after seeing her as letting one of the boys have her milk, they had taken it upon themselves to try to keep her away from her sons. For two hours, they had either followed her or had kept her in their sights; they had also tried to keep her sons from coming within any sort of distance to her. After the game was noticed, Angel turned and then gave them a good yelling-at for their attempt in trying to "keep her company" from the boys.
As far as he knew, nothing else occurred either last night or that day.
He was hoping that she'd snap out of giving him the cold shoulder; he missed speaking with her and, well, he didn't deserve for that shoulder to be given to him.
"Selik! Soo—" after yelling the name of one of the currently missing boys, then getting a portion of the other missing boy's name out, DuruVile's jaw dropped. His youngest son was running towards him in a frantic sort of way and it looked like he was in a more than messy condition.
Her interest in giving anyone who wasn't her husband, or her kids, or the Ubalki's, the cold shoulder was forgotten after Selik was seen as running out from the bushes that flanked the yard's right side. Selik was a mess. His clothes were ripped, and he was covered in mud, and it looked like he had a series of injuries on his face; after seeing this sight, then realizing that Hazaar wasn't anywhere to be seen, she started thinking up the form of an avian.
An energized breeze fell from her as a pink energy wrapped itself around her; she remained wrapped in this energy, and she continued to give off this energized breeze, for a few seconds before stepping away from where she was standing. The form that she had taken was very Robin-like—she was a fiery red color, and her wings had a foot to a foot and a half span to them, and her beak was long and pointy. The eyes, that looked out from her avian face, were a solid emerald-green color. Once her form was achieved, she flew off in the direction that Selik came from.
Her sons had gone in different directions after being told that they could go outside; Bile had gone towards the bushes while Lhaklar had gone towards the beach. Lazeer, she did believe, was in the horse stable while Hazaar went in the general direction that Bile went. Bile and Lhaklar were able to been seen; she assumed that Lazeer was still in the horse stable. Since Hazaar wasn't able to be seen, and since Selik had come from the direction that he had been headed towards, she figured that something had happened between he and her son.
She gave two hops before flapping her wings; while gliding above the ground, a fiery red glow showered from her. In all, it took her two to three minutes of flight before coming upon the scene that was going on in the near-center of a large mud puddle—Hazaar, she saw, was fiercely locked in battle with Sudir, who looked almost like one of them mud-monsters that the Earth-residing parents sometimes spun yarns about to their kids as a way to keep them from playing with or going near the mud. After seeing what was going on, she dove down then started the process of returning to her true form. Once her true form was achieved, she went to separate the two kids, who were still locked in battle, and who had yet to notice that she was in the area or that she was coming towards them.
When she reached them, she grabbed the back of Sudir's shirt; the sleeve of Hazaar's shirt was only barely able to be grabbed when she started the process of forcing the two apart. Her son, after feeling her hand on his shirt sleeve, stopped fighting while Sudir continued to fight.
"What—" Angel gave Sudir a hard yank to the side after he continued to fight her son; he dropped to his knee for only a second before getting back up and then trying to return to throwing his fists at her son. "—is the reason for this? Hazaar, why are you fighting S—"
Hazaar yelled after seeing the hand—the boney, milky-red hand that belonged to none other than his former opponent—rushing towards his mother. While he tried to get in the way, and take the blow for his mother, the mud prevented him from being fast; there was a loud whapping sound, then his mother's head turned, then he heard his mother's raspy, and very anger-filled, breathing. Sudir's slap had so much power in it that it caused her fiery red hair to fly from one shoulder to the next, but, curiously, it didn't cause her to take any steps from him or to lose her footing and then fall into the mud.
His mother took in two breaths before turning to look at Sudir; her emerald-green eyes, Sudir was fast in noting, were hot with anger, and it looked like the golden-yellow rings, that were around their pupils, had grown to nearly twice their size. Hazaar thought that his mother looked gorgeous while he thought that she looked hideous—the beauty that had been present in the woman was no longer present; the anger had taken that beauty... the woman before him was now a hideous beast, and a former shell of her former self.
Sudir took two steps back in fear; after the second step was taken, he felt his feet as flowing out from under him. He fell on his butt in the mud, then he bounced up, then he ran in the direction that the mansion was in. Angel, after he was off on his run, shook her head; after giving her head a shake, she turned to look at her son, who disclosed no fear in her.
"Explain yourself." she said.
"Selik and Sudir ganged up on me, momma. They beat me and they..." Hazaar reached into the pocket of his pants; once his hair was in his grasp, he took it from his pocket then showed it to his mother. "They cut off my hair, momma."
Angel looked at the hair, that had formerly been on the nape of the back of her son's head, for the longest of time before reaching forward to take it. She stuffed it into her pocket, then grabbed her son by his arm, then led him to where she thought he'd want to be. While she knew the spell that'd reattach her son's rattail to his head she didn't want to say it right off so quickly—she wanted her husband to see the severed hair before doing so.
After coming upon a pair of silver scissors, that looked very uncomfortable in the area that they were in, she stopped long enough to pick them up. She thought that they were important, which was why she pocketed them and then moved on in getting her son to where he needed to go. Hazaar, she noted, had a few nicks and scratches on him; he was covered in mud, and it looked like he was, once again, plagued by an injury to his groin—her son, while using his legs to get to where she wanted him to go, was walking in a very bow-legged way.
It took a few minutes to get to the portion of the yard where most everyone was; Cheshire, she saw, was on the back porch with a rather muddy, but happy-looking, Qhuakiz, while Bile and Lhaklar were still rough-housing in the mud puddle. Lazeer, she saw, was just now leaving the stable. Bile and Lhaklar stopped their rough-housing after seeing her and Hazaar; when she saw them as coming towards her, she held her hand up then made the motion for them to go back to doing what they had previously been doing. Lazeer, who noticed her motion, remained where he was for a short while before going towards the area where the now-demolished outdoor garden was.
Hazaar, when he reached the porch, went up the four steps slowly; he crossed the porch after he reached it then he went into the mansion. She followed him as he went along.
The first person that he, and, a second to two seconds later, she, came upon after entering the mansion was Cyla, who didn't look in any way happy.
"You discipline him and you discipline him good, Angel!" Cyla yelled. "Sudir's face is a bloody mess, Selik's face is all cut up, and both Selik and Sudir's clothes have to be thrown away because he des—"
"Hazaar won't be disciplined for what happened between he and Selik and Sudir." Angel said while marching Hazaar past Cyla. Her great-grandmother glared at her after she went past, but she said no more to her.
"Mom, is dad going to be mad because of this?" Hazaar asked.
"Probably, honey. But it won't be directed towards you." Angel replied.
After reaching one of the stairwells that went up to the second level, they went up then started the process of going down the hallway; they did this once more before reaching the level that her son's bedroom was on. On the way to the second level, and then down that level's hallway, they had lots of eyes looking at them, both from family and from the ones that worked the house. Eldass, from what she was able to see, acted like he was going to say something while Homsi and Zshon looked like they were about to assist in taking her son upstairs—she, in a way, was glad that the two men pulled back at the last second. With the exception of Tazir, she wanted to be alone with her son. She also wanted to calm down from what was just experienced.
Once they were in the room that was her son's, she told her son to undress himself and then get into the shower; the first shower was completed, and the tub was in the process of being cleaned, when she decided that she might as well reattach the hair that was taken from her son's head.
The braids were undone, then the beads were taken out, then each strand was arranged in a neat and tidy way before she held it to where it had been cut from; at first, the spell that she did looked to not have any effect on her son's hair. After two to three seconds passed, she tried again—unlike the last time, where the rattail wasn't reattached to her son's head, her son's hair was returned to where it was suppose to be. A yellow spark was seen, then the strands of what remained on her son's head reattached themselves to the hair that she was holding; after her son's hair was back to where it was suppose to be, she gave it a gentle tug—to see if it was on right and to see if it was strong enough to continue being on her son's head.
With her son's hair being back on his head, she told him to finish what he was doing in the bathroom then get back in the shower; the first shower, while getting a lot of mud from his body, hadn't gotten all of the mud from him. Her son said okay, then returned to cleaning the tub of its mud and grime, then got the water going again; he was just getting into the shower when she left his room.
After leaving the room, she walked right into Tazir, who was two to three steps from their son's chamber, and who looked both mad, confused, and concerned at the same time.
"I suggest that you both dispel your anger and then turn around and leave the level if you're angry at our son." she said after coming upon her husband.
"What happened? My father claims that Hazaar beat up Selik and then Sudir while being outside." TazirVile asked.
"It's the other way around, Tazzy. They ganged up on him, then beat him up, then snipped his hair off." Angel replied. "Hazaar responded by getting mad and then defending himself."
"They cut his h... Where's Hazaar?" TazirVile blinked his eyes; his father had said nothing about that after entering the house. All while dragging Selik down one of the downstairs hallways, he had yelled all of what his son had said to him. Sudir had come in on his own; Irka had done the same thing after finding him as running towards her.
"In his chamber—taking a shower. He's got more than two layers of mud on him that needs to be washed off." Angel replied.
"Do you have his h—"
"It's already been reattached." Angel said. With this said, she reached into the pocket that the scissors were in. Once the scissors were in her hand, and then were out of her pocket, she gave them to her husband. "Those were found near to where I found Hazaar and Sudir fighting. I believe that they're what was used to cut his hair with."
If they had been a normal pair of scissors, he would of asked his son if he could see the memory of what happened before believing a word of what his wife said; since Angel didn't look to be in the best of moods, and since the pair of scissors resembled the ones that belonged to his father, he knew better than to do this.
The scissors were silver, and were antique; the grape, and grape vine designs, that were on their grips, were very prominent. When he turned the scissors around, so that he could see the other side of their finger loops, he saw that his father's name was on them—these were his father's alright, no doubt on that now. After seeing the name, he pocketed what he had been given then went past his wife. He went straight to the stairwell that'd take him to the house's fourth level, then he went up the stairs, then he went down the hallway to the room that his father and Cyla had been given.
Angel and the boys had had it rough for the last twelve to fourteen hours and, really, so had he and Eshal; with her being so targeted-at last night, he hadn't been but so surprised to see her as not sleeping in their chamber or in spending much time with him. While most of the hours that they had been asleep had been pleasant, they had been aroused from a sound sleep after hearing a commotion coming from Bile's room—Baruk, for some unknown reason, had gotten it into his head about taking a trip to the house's third level and then going into Bile's bedroom chamber; Bile, after seeing that he had an "intruder" in his room, had jumped and then taken said "intruder" down. Angel had been fast in separating the two right after the take-down occurred.
Except for saying that he had "gotten lost", Baruk had given no explanation as to why he wandered into Bile's bedroom chamber at 2:35 a.m., and he had also expressed no apology for waking Bile, or most of the rest of the house, up.
After reaching the door that went to Room 17, he stopped then turned to knock on it. He gave the door two knocks, then he waited, then he gave it another two knocks after no one answered. He was about to knock again when the door was opened; his father, who looked none too happy at the moment, acknowledged him right after opening the door.
"What is it you want, Tazir?" DuruVile asked. "Cyla's already told me that Angel's planning on not disciplining Hazaar for what occurred between he and Selik and Sudir. I'm not very happy over hearing that, or about what happened between the three of them."
"She has a good damn reason to not discipline him." TazirVile responded. He took the pair of scissors from the pocket of his green striped tuxedo then he gave them to his father. "Angel found those in the location that Sudir and Hazaar were found in. According to what my son told my wife, Selik cut his hair with them."
He stared at the pair of scissors for a short while before reaching to take them from the hand that they were near-neatly nestled in; once they were in his possession, he placed them on the chocolate brown dresser, that was beside the door to his and his wife's assigned chamber. He had been looking for his pair of scissors almost all day; the idea of their still being in one of his and his wife's suitcases had come to him—the cases had been checked, and quite thoroughly too, without anything being found as being in them—then the idea of their being misplaced in the bathroom that was adjacent the room that he and his wife slept in had been thought—the bathroom had been combed, and quite thoroughly too, without any results being found of the missing scissors—then he had thought that he had left them at home, in the bathroom that was adjacent his and his wife's bedroom chamber—a trip home, and a near-repeat of combing the bathroom that he and his wife used after waking, was done; the same results occurred.
With his scissors not being found, he had asked his wife if she knew where they were—her response had been no Duru, and I don't know of one who'd be interested in taking off with a pair of scissors that you use on your groin or in your nose either. His youngest son, and his youngest grandson, having the scissors had never crossed his mind; he had just figured that they had been left behind at his father's place—since he wasn't able to locate his father after breakfast was consumed, he hadn't been able to ask him if he could check his place for them.
He was honestly surprised that he had any sort of use for a pair of scissors; after what happened between he and Kankuranger, he was very lucky to be alive. After placing the pair of scissors on the dresser, he was instantly reminded of his being asked about the events that occurred during the near-conclusion of his first first with Kankuranger and about what happened after the fight ended.
"All I know is the basics—that you spent twenty thousand years in cryospace, and then seventy-nine thousand years out of cryospace. What happened both before and after you left cryospace?" Angel, he recalled, asked him on a rather cold, blustery afternoon.
Though it had taken some thinking-time—about fours days worth, actually—he had come clean with her on what happened; the call had been made with the sole, initial intention of her wanting to see how he and his were, and about how his monkeys and lizards were, and about if he wanted to spend an off-afternoon with her on Earth. The conversation had been put to a fast conclusion after she started asking him about his ordeal with Kankuranger. After four days passed, he had rang her up and then asked if she had time to swing by Glen of Nablodrak at around ten minutes to twelve in the afternoon of June 12—the date and time had been set, then they had gone their separate ways, then, at around the time of the scheduled meeting, they sat down to dine and then talk of the events that she wanted to know.
He had barely survived the first fight with Kankuranger; the bastard had taken a weapon—a gun that fired a very high-powered laser—out and then used it on him. His clothes, his skin, and nearly all of his muscles had been burned away after the trigger was touched—before the gun was used, and, he liked to think, before the idea of the gun "needing" to be used came to the guy, the battle between them had been long and grueling; three hours of fighting, with him being either all on top or nearly all on top of the guy, occurred before the coward decided to whip the gun out. After the trigger was released of its pressure, the guy walked up to him, then asked him how he "felt" before pointing the gun back at him. He, by the Grace of the Almighty Gods, had found the strength needed to teleport before the second round of being fired at occurred—Mooshang had been on his mind at the time and that was where his still-steaming body landed; he had come very close to dying after appearing on the planet.
Luck must of been on his side because he had teleported to where a church was; a team of priests and nuns, after seeing his near-dead self, had put him on a stretcher, then had taken him into the church, then had started praying over him before initiating the move in sprinkling his body with Holy Water. It had taken him three hours before finding the strength needed to say Roklar's... contact Dr. Whekbar.
"I fainted after saying that." he said to her, who had been listening, and taking in all that he told to her, very keenly. "One of the priests took a trip to the far north of where I was found at after phoning Roklar's, which is a very top secret facility that very few know of. While it was difficult to get into the facility, and while he had to fuss and fight with one of the Generals that kept watch of the facility, he did manage to bring a few people back to look at me."
After waking, he had said two words before finding himself as falling back into that black, dreamless world that had been his constant companion for nearly a hundred thousand years; the name that he had said had been the ticket to his living to the present, and to his getting the treatment that he needed so he'd not look like a cripple—or like something out of a horror movie.
An ambulance had been called; he had been put in it, then checked into, before being carted to the facility that the priest went to. A sort of drug had been given to him to force him into being awake after he reached the facility—due to their needing his verbal consent in order to do the experimental procedure that was needed to be done for him to live, and due to their needing his signature on a contract that'd say that he was deceased, it had been required for him to be aroused from his dreamless sleep. After being explained what was both needed and wanted to be done on him, and after being told to sign the contract, and after signing the contract, he had been carted to a long, cylindrical vat. All sorts of tubes had been put up the cavity that was his nose, then into his mouth and other orifices; after the tubes were in-place, he was placed in the vat and then left alone. A sort of blue liquid had flown over him from the vat's many holes; it had just reached his face when a white gas was released—the twenty thousand years of his being in the vat had happened after the gas forced him into a prolonged sleep.
The people who had manned the cryospace chamber had done round-about work on making sure that the chemicals for tissue and muscle regrowth were flowing into the chamber, and that his vitals were both fine and being recorded, and that nothing amiss happened. All while he was being healed up, his family—which, at the time, consisted of just his two sons and ten daughters—were mourning his death.
"They were still mourning my "death" when I was taken from the vat and then placed in the room that I found myself as being in after waking from my too-long sleep."
According to the team of doctors and nurses, all that had been wearing white and blue gowns and/or jackets, the experiment had been a success; all of his flesh, and veins and muscles, had been re-grown over the bone and organs that had been left exposed to the elements by the first round of that laser gun being fired at him. They had also said that he was nearly back to being himself again—after being told that he might not grow hair on his body again, he had sighed and then reached down underneath the sheet that had been over him.
The laser gun, while causing most of his flesh, veins, and muscles to "melt" away from him, hadn't been able to tamper with his penis or testicles—before the gun was whipped out and then used, he had received a crippling kick down there; his hands being cupped over that part of his body had protected that part of him from being zapped away. He had been more than a little happy over feeling, and then seeing, that his manhood was still there—he could deal with his being no longer able to grow hair on his body, and he could live without an ear or an arm or leg, or without both of his ears, arms, and legs, but he didn't think he could live without having the part that made a man a man.
After waking up, he had been given three to four days to rest before the process of his regaining the full use of his body occurred; during them three to four days, he had wondered what his children were up to and if they had had any children of their own and if they had made anything of themselves and, most importantly, if they still remembered him.
The process of regaining the full use of his body, and of making the regrown muscle reattach itself to the tendons of his body, was a long and painful one; according to the doctors in charge of his care, while his body was back to being what it had formerly been, and while the muscle was present on him, the muscle was hollow—as the doctors said it, it had just been hanging on his body "for show".
"Very nearly gave up several times during the therapy, and physical training, that was given to me."
The pain had been so bad; all of the medication in the Universe that one used for pain management hadn't even cut through the cheese on him—if not for them doctors and nurses, and for the two priests that looked after him during the times where he partaked in trying to regain himself in his religion, he would of given up.
He had walked while having two, steel bars being alongside his body; he had lifted two pound dumbbells for months before getting his cue to go on to lifting the five and then the seven and so on and so forth; he had done the arm-stretching thing; and he had used an exercise bike for thousands of years before receiving word that he could leave Roklar's. He left the facility seventy-eight thousand, four hundred, and ninety-two years after being admitted to it; while he hadn't been fully healed, or in-tune with himself, the doctors had assured him that they had done all that they could for him and that the rest of the process of regaining his body was his and his alone.
A small cottage, that overlooked a cliff, had already been in his name at the time—how that had managed to stay in his name was beyond him but it had; he had gone to it and he had used it for the rest of his stay on Mooshang. He had continued with his physical training and therapy after reaching that cottage, and he had also kept tabs on his family while living in that cottage—he still owned that place to that day; he had no intent in getting rid of it or in having it demolished.
The doctors had said that he'd not have the full-range of use of his muscles, and that some of his muscle mass might fall on him, before he left the facility—he was more than proud to boast that they were wrong. They had also said that his mobility with his arms and legs wouldn't be like it use to be and that he wouldn't be able to have anymore children too—all of this had been proven as incorrect too.
"I have full mobility, Girl. I can use my arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, and muscles to their full extent and, as you know, I'm also very able in putting out the juices in being able to make children." he had said.
While he had been a little embarrassed by admitting this to her—it had taken him a few minutes to do it, and to get up and then go to where she was sitting—, he was also able to grow hair on his body. He had to shave his private area three times a month, and he had to clip the hairs that grew in his nose two times a month, and, on occasion, he did shave the hair that decided to grow on his arms. He wasn't all that "hairy" a person, so he didn't have to deal with having to shave his arms all the time, and he had never been one to grow much hair on his legs, so he didn't have to put but so much care into shaving what grew on them parts of his body.
Before showing his ugly, but very much alive mug to the Universe, he had gone by the alias of Bofalis Shragle—for about five hundred and eight years, that was; before taking on that name, he just donned an invisibility cloak and then moved about, grabbing what all he needed or getting some out-of-the-house exercise.
The rest was history; he had married, had made four more children, and had made a return to the conquering scene. He had also gone back to defeat Kankuranger—who he had the stuffed remains of in his trophy room.
His father being returned from Limbo was a surprise to him; he owed Angel his thanks for that as, if not for her going to the planet that she called "Jupiter", then finding his remains, then rearranging his remains before placing her bleeding hand on them, he'd not have him in his life.
"Selik and Sudir had these?" DuruVile asked Tazir.
"Unless one of my staff took them, then played toss-the-scissors, yes, they did." TazirVile replied.
"Hazaar alright?" DuruVile asked.
"Must be—according to Angel, he's showering." TazirVile said.
"I'll be sure in taking care of matters with your brother." DuruVile said. "Thank you for returning the scissors."
"No problem," TazirVile responded. After saying this, he started down the hall, towards the stairs that'd take him to the house's fifth level.
In order to get himself fully clean, he had to take three showers; after donning a pair of green jeans, that were faded at the knees, and a brown and gray t-shirt, that had net-like sleeves on it, he checked to see if his hair was both still on his head and was strong enough to remain on his head. A single tug did the trick, while a session in braiding, and then de-braiding, half of it assured him that it was fine. After doing this, he left the bathroom; the first thing that his eyes landed on, after entering the main area that was his bedroom, was his stereo.
Since he didn't want to leave his bedroom, and since he wanted to sit, or lie, on his bed and read a magazine or two before being called down for a meal—which would either be half-eaten or not eaten at all—, he went to put some music on. A mixed-song disc, that had songs that were just on hair on it, was taken down then put in the machine; the button for the machine to turn on was pressed, then the spell that'd cause everything that happened in his room to not be heard from outside of it was done, then he went to his bookcase.
If he had been asked if he was obsessed with his hair, or with hair in general, he would of said no—which was the truth; he wasn't obsessed with his hair, or with hair in general, at all. He liked his hair, and he liked how it grew, and he liked its color fine but he could live without it if he absolutely had to, and he didn't spiff his hair up all the time either. The piece of paper, that was taped to one of the disc's container's sides, said that it had twenty songs on it—Almost Cut My Hair by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Bangs by They Might Be Giants; Bald by The Darkness; Cut My Hair by The Who; Cut Your Hair by Pavement; Devil's Haircut by Beck; Devilock by The Misfits; and Get a Haircut by George Thorogood, among others. After taking one of his magazines down from the bookcase, then sitting on his bed, the first song on the disc started playing—either it was coincidence or he was just not having all that grand an afternoon because, right when the first song started playing, a knock on the door was heard.
He grumbled, but he didn't ignore the one who had knocked on his door. After placing his magazine to the side, then pressing the PAUSE button on his stereo, he went to the door; once the door was opened, he blinked his eyes. It was his father who had knocked on his bedroom door.
"Uhhh... hello." lame; he knew how lame it was for him to address the man in that way but... but that was all that he could think of to say. He was very nearly paralyzed after thinking that his father had come to square-off with him on what happened between he and Sudir and Selik.
"Hello Hazaar," TazirVile said in return. "How've you been?"
"Good," Hazaar blinked his eyes. "you?"
"Very well, son. Seems that you had an altercation with Selik and Sudir earlier."
"Yeah,"
"I see your mother fixed your hair up—it's back to normal again." his father said after taking one to two steps into his room. "She claims that you gave her your hair after you and Sudir were separated, is that right?"
"Yes,"
"Very wise of you to do. You aware the Repousser Potion, son?"
"Yeah—it can either be taken by mouth or through a syringe." Hazaar answered. "Makes whatever was lost, meaning a limb, digit, ear, or hair, grow back."
"Good boy," his father sounded pleased. "While I have that potion on-hand, I'm glad that your mother knows and did the spell instead." after saying this, he moved the bundle, that he was holding behind his back, to his front-side. "Still doing your model?"
"Had to stop—no paint." Hazaar said. A couple of days ago, he had asked his mother if she'd get him some paint; his father had said that he'd take care of it after learning that he was out of just about all of the colors that he used to paint with. He liked to believe that, due to all of the shit that had been going on, his father hadn't been able to get him the paint that he needed.
"You have plenty now." TazirVile said. He pushed the bundle that he was holding into Hazaar's arms before turning to leave the room. "Don't damage your hearing with that stereo now."
"Thanks dad!"