The Family Descends! Part 1 of 4

"C'mon . . . Cossar! Don't spit it back out! ARGH!"
My son giggled at me as I cleaned strained spinach off my front. Glancing
around, I could see my helpers, Elkrys and Jubrin, were having as much
trouble with Timi and Kiama. It was a bit odd . . . how quickly the
children were developing . . . already crawling, eating semi-solid foods,
babbling to all of us at warp speed. As my son was right now, waving his
arms wildly, his little wings flapping rapidly.

"Baboo!"
Cossar chortled, grinning as he looked behind me. Preparing the next
spoonful for Cossar, I looked behind me. Hmm . . . that blue dress /does/
look quite nice on Tamy-san. It fit her like a second skin, flaring out
into soft billows at the knees and elbows. Cossack, as dear as he is to
me, just looked stupidly puzzled as he walked next to Tamy towards me. But
it was easy to see why he was confused, considering the sealed package in
his hands.

"Baboo! Baboo! Baboobaboo!"
Cossar crowed, reaching out his messy little arms demandingly towards his
father, squirming around as I tried to clean him off with a damp towel.
Cossack handed me the sealed package as he took the towel, dropping a quick
kiss on my forehead before picking up and starting to clean off our son.
Cossar, for his part, giggled happily, and promptly grabbed onto Cossack's
hair.

"You know Cossack, I don't think I would be suprised if little Cossar
started calling you Baboon."
Tamy grinned as she spoke, folding her arms. Cossack didn't reply, as he
was rather busily trying to rescue his hair before Cossar pulled it out. I
was staring at the package . . . or in particular, the seal upon it.

Silver wax. Gold flake on half of it.

The oroborus dragon looped in a seven-point formation.

CRUD!

Tamy noticed my expression, I guess, for she spoke next.
"Hey, Sarah, something wrong?"
And then Elkrys handed her a newly-cleaned Kiama to hold while he cleaned
off Kiama's chair.

I hurriedly broke open the seal, ignoring the question in favor of finding
out just what was going on. I dropped the box of candles on a nearby
table, ripping the letter that had accompanyied them to Doom open. I read
what it said . . . and couldn't believe it. I read it again. It still
hadn't changed.

The letter dropped from my hand to the floor . . . where Coba immediately
flopped down upon it and curled up for a nap. Guess he liked the smell of
the paper and ink. Timi began to cry softly, causing me to pick her up and
cuddle her to reassure her.

"My family's coming to Doom . . . all thirty of them, cousins, aunts,
uncles . . . siblings . . . "

The Family Descends! Part 2 of 4
Jenn looks sweet while she's sleeping, I'll give her that . . . even though
she was curled around three different man-slaves, using one for a pillow.
I almost regretted having to wake her up. In a fit of perverse humor, I
decided to go the cold-water route for waking her up.

"AAAAAAAAUUUGGHH!! SARAH!!"
Jenn /glared/ at me from a mess of icey-cold wet bedding and shivering
man-slaves, and glared in particular at the large globe of water I still
held. She then blinked and just stared at the globe of water.

"I didn't know you could do that."

"The kids altered my abilities in magic from rite-primary to elemental
control. In any case, that's not why I woke you up."

Reminded of her current state, Jenn snarled at me, and began working her
way out of the mess . . . the efforts of the man-slaves not really helping.
I began debriefing her on the situation as she worked . . . finally losing
my patience enough to cast a quick air spell.
" . . . in any case, that's what's going to happen. As far as I can tell,
it's only for one day, but knowing my family, /anything/ could happen."

Jenn frowned puzzledly at me as she struggled into a new shirt, her now-dry
hair puffing up around her head. To be honest, she looked a little stunned
if you ask me.

"Sounds to me the biggest problem is going to be food and entertainment."
Jenn commented absently, shooing the last of her man-slaves into the
bathroom to dry off.
"Have you talked to Sammie-ma and Tamy yet?"

"No, but Tamy-san was there when I found out they were coming. You're the
first one other than her I've told. Right now, Coss is asking Lotor to see
if he's willing to foot the bill for food."

***

Upon emerging from Jenn's room, we found all the other Scribes hovering
around in the main room . . . Valeta had managed to tap into the main Doom
Communications System (DCS), and they were listening in on Coss's
conversation with Lotor. Jenn and I only caught the tail end of it.

Lotor: < . . . I suppose it's better than some relative of hers munching on
the gaurds.>

Cossack: tastey.>

Jenn looked up at me thoughtfully, nodding slightly.
"Sounds like food won't be a problem. Now . . . " She rubbed her hands
together.
"To work."

***

It was just /amazing/ how much trouble three crawling babies could cause.
It took three hours to get the Harem compound cleaned up, even with the
help of all the man-slaves.Just in time for Aunt Peggie and her seven kids.

"Why hello Sarah! Are these the new ones?"
Aunt Peggie immediately began cooing at the triplets, who had been tracked
down and given a bath, to their shrieking dismay . . . well, Kiama liked
the bath, although her sibs didn't. My seven cousins promptly scattered,
looking at everything, and in Jason's case, levitating along the ceiling.
And then the rest of the family began to arrive.

***

"Sarah . . I think Zarkon's snuck in here somehow."
Samara whispered aside to me as I stuck the next batch of quiche in the
oven. My family eats a /lot/, so I was baking up extras for lunch, dinner,
and between-meal snacks. The only reason why the snack table out in the
main room wasn't groaning under the weight of the food was in the speed of
how it was being eaten.

I blinked a few times, and looking directly at Sammie-ma, kicking the oven
shut with one foot.
"Well, are any of the Scribes alone?"

Sammie-ma blinked herself, and thought on my question for a few minutes. I
took advantage of the pause to direct the imps in the preperation of new
dishes. Imps can be useful help, if watched carefully.

"I don't think so . . . everyone's escorting one or another member of your
family."

"Then don't worry."

At that point, a burst of Zarkon's laughter echoed through the kitchen from
outside.

The Family Descends! 3 of 4
Exchanging a glance, Sammie-ma and I headed out for the main harem area in
a dead run. And straight into a magical null zone. The world went
absolutely black for me for at least a few seconds, and I could barely feel
my body hit the ground. Both pain and nausea rushed through me . . . this
has happened to me only a few times before . . . for anyone with magical
blood, it takes at least a few minutes to adjust from a creature with magic
to a purely mundane creature . . . and even then, it's /very/
uncomfortable. I slowly regained full consciousness, becoming aware of
Sammie-ma supporting me with an arm behind my back, just below my aching
wings. And of the angry, pained, screeches of my children.

I opened my eyes to a scene of pure chaos as well as the seven guns pointed
at me and Sammie-ma.

Many of my relatives were unconscious, probably from a rapid shock such as
a split-second change from magic to mundane, and all of them were tied up,
as were the other scribes. Mom was trapped in her draconic form, and
looking bloody pissed off, bound like a turkey with her muzzle tied shut. I
met her eyes briefly before looking for my children . . . who were being
held by an uncomfortable-looking Mumm-ra, carefully wrapped in his cloak.
He met my eyes for all of two seconds before shrugging and looking down,
shifting his grip on /my/ little monsters. But honestly, better him than
Haggar.

Haggar was on the far side of the room, a burning brazier before her, her
eyes closed tight in concentration. Zarcon, of course, was standing in the
middle of the room with a rather sickeningly smug grin on his face. And
currently staring at Gina and Tamy.
"Now . . you are /all/ mine."
He laughed, his gaze lecherously skipping around, looking at all the
attractive females in the room, even my tiny cousin Briana . . . That's it.
Before I could do anything rash, Dom yelled something from where she was
tied to a statue.
"Not a chance, Fish-Face!"

Zarcon's face went absolutely red with rage, and he began stomping across
the room towards her.
"I will not tolerate such disobedience, wench! I am your lord and master!"

"Lord and master, ha! Only Lotor gets that title, and only when we want to
say that!"
V piped up from her own spot, tied up and dangleing upside-down from one of
the light fixtures on the ceiling . . . . now that I think of it, the whole
room looked like a bondage party gone to extremes. Zarcon's face turned an
uglier shade of red, nearly a purple, and he gave both V and Dom a backhand
slap.

Lotor roared in absolute rage, struggling against the chains that bound
him. For once ol' barracuda breath had thought ahead somewhat, and
immediately after having Haggar slap down the null zone had his guards
storm the room in threefold.

Across the room, Mom locked stares with me for a short bit, then nodded.
She was right, it was probably the only way we were going to get out of
this mess. I closed my eyes, knowing I would need to concentrate to do a
clear call through my emotions. This rite was going to take /some/
doing.

The Family Descends! 4 of 4
Mom has the gift for this, not I. I'm just glad she trained all of us to
act as 'batteries', so to speak, for that ability . . . to call any member
of the family, in magic or not, no matter where they are as long as she's
got enough power on hand to boost the call. I am going to have a /monster/
headache after this.

A loud roar heralded Great-Great-Uncle Shen's arrival. I opened my eyes to
the most-welcome sight of my great-great-uncle tearing his way towards
Zarcon . . . who promptly shrieked like a school girl who just had a frog
shoved down the front of her dress.

"Gaurds! KILL that DRAGON!!"
Barracuda breath shrieked as he ran from the room. His extra gaurds, as
pleased as they were to see him run, noted that this would be an excellent
time to disobey him . . . or they were just as scared as ol' Fish Face. In
either case, both Zarcon and gaurds split, leaving an entranced Haggar and
a grinning Mum-ra behind. Or he was grinning until Uncle Shen turned to
look at him, his voice thundering through the area.
*SET DOWN MY GODCHILDREN SAFELY AND UNTIE MY NIECE*

Mum-ra gulped audibly, set down my children, and promptly began to untie
me. What little I could see of his expression showed he had been utterly
cowed . . . but then, it's not every day you get ordered around by a
millenia-old chinese dragon.

****

Ahhh . . . things were back to normal. Moonie had disappeared off with my
cousin Chloe . . . judging by the grin on his face the last I saw, they
were enjoying each other immensely now. Cossack was behind me, rubbing my
shoulders and nibbling on my neck . . . I had /plans/ for later, yes yes
yes . . .

However, right now, my family and the harem were throwing a big-time bash!
The under 18 group of my cousins were in the sofa pit, watching Slayers
with Rosemary and about three of the man-slaves. Darien the man-slave had
last been seen in Gina's clutches. A large game of strip poker was going
on in the pool area . . . which had to be interesting, to say the least.
There were man-slaves, relatives, and the random scribe hovering around
the buffet table at all times . . . Wait a minute, who was that talking
with Great-Great-Uncle Shen?

Logrin?

And they were both laughing?

*****
And that's it folks! Unless someone wants to expand on this. :)
Sarah