Reading the Past
Part 2
"But what about our brothers?"
"What about them? They snooze they lose! They kept me from reading my book earlier; I sure as hell am not going to give them the chance to ruin another reading session."
The little gorgon gave Mira an annoyed look while she crossed her arms. "Mira, Dad said that you were supposed to read that to all of us. Now you put that book on the desk and read something else until Devon and Martial get back. Or if you don't I will tell father about how you decided to keep it to yourself and not share it with the rest of us; then it will be you who is cleaning the bathrooms."
The pink unicorn stepped back a little in nervousness. "Oh alright, I promise I wont read it without those scatter brains."
Content with her response Fate returned to smiling. "Thank you big sis; besides dad wanted this to teach our brothers a few lessons."
Mira looked to her sister in confusion. "Wait so dad was hoping for this" - she waved the journal into Fates face - "to teach them something when he is so stuck on teaching us in person? Something doesn't feel right Fate; I mean why give this to us now?"
Fates eyes closed as a tear fell down her cheek. "I've been very bad."
Her sisters face softened at Fates tears. "That's impossible, Fate I don't think father would do this because of you being bad."
Fate shook her head. "No Mira, I'm bad because I stayed and listened to dad and Boris argue before I left."
Now that had done it, Mira had her full attention on Fate. "Fate this is important what did they say!"
Fate wiped her eyes before answering. "I didn't hear everything except for the name Kaino; Boris went off about how dad was being a coward and that he should just say that he would come back. Mira what is going on, who is this Kaino?"
Mira usually had nerves of steel but once she heard the name Kaino those nerves became nothing more then Jello. Memories flooded back to her as she remembered the terrifying air Elemental. Out of all her siblings she was the only one with a past that withheld that thing. Mira had dropped to the floor with her hoofs over her head as she cried out in distress.
"Father you idiot! If he's going to be there why did you even go!" Tears now flowed down Miras face "No this is not happening! I need to find Boris now!" Mira bolted out the door leaving an after image like her brother Devon.
Fate still not understanding what had just happened just stared at her after-image as it dissolved.
Maybe I shouldn't say that name around her again.
Western Bathrooms
Boris stood and watched Martial while he scrubbed the white toilet.
"Hey now, don't be lazy; you forgot to scrub inside the bowl." Boris hadn't had this much fun in ages; in other words he hadn't had this much fun since last week when Devon put itch powder all over Martial while he was sleeping.
Off in the distance Boris can still hear Devon and his constant barrage of curse words. "You bird brained, dragon scat, bat shit crazy old fool! Get these guys off me and come after me yourself you coward!"
Even while Devon created all those names for him it didn't budge Boris one bit. In fact it brought an even wider grin on his face.
This bat shit crazy old fool still out smarted you pup. Hope your tongue is ready for a workout.
Before Boris could utter another word he was tackled by a pink blur.
"What in the hell!" Yelled the old Griffon as he landed on his back with a pink unicorn standing over him; Boris looked up to see Mira glaring down at him. Mira had a look that could probably kill. Her delicate white mane was now shambled; her eyes were red from the tears of frustration.
Oh, this can't be good.
"Where is he?" Mira was not playing around she was livid to the point of bursting.
"Mira you have to calm down; he will be fine I promise. You know where he's at; he's doing his job in keeping everyone here safe."
"Don't feed me that skat!" the pink ponies tail straightened out as she yelled. Martial now peeked out of the bathroom stall to see what all the fuss was about.
"Kaino is at that meeting; and your going to send Dad the help he needs right now!"
The old Griffon was taken aback. "How did you get that information?"
"That doesn't matter, you're going to send him reinforcements asap! I am not going to lose him to!"
Boris slowly placed his claw on the mares shoulder. "Mira listen to me and listen good. I can't do anything for him now. I already told him to take more guards but he insisted on leaving them here to protect you." Mira was frustration simmered down a little "Your father has made this choice, he chose to protect you and his family over himself."
"You think that's going to make me feel better? Kaino will try to kill him like he always does! Dad is no match for him and deep down you know it to!"
The comforting smile Boris carried had now evaporated. His eyes turned stern. "So you don't believe in your father? You don't believe he will come back alive? You forget he has faced that creature more than once and he has always survived."
"Yes but at what cost! He almost died every time; Father is no Celestia he can't take on Kaino alone!" Mira had brought back the water works.
"Your right he is most definitely no Celestia; but that doesn't mean he has no chance of success. Please for your fathers sake put some faith in him. Kaino is dangerous but take heart that your father is smarter then he is. I believe he will come back to us soon. Besides Kaino might not even be there; from what I heard that was just a rumor so don't get your hooves in a knot." Boris crawled himself away from Mira before he got up and dusted himself off.
"Now I think that your Dad had a job for you as well Mira. Please go see to it before the King returns; I promise to send the boys along as soon as they are done." Boris looked over in Martials direction.
"You better be scrubbing in there or I will have you doing this till your Dad returns!" The sound of a scrubbing toothbrush filled the restroom again; except this time it was a lot faster than before.
Mira still shook from the argument. "So its possible that he isn't even there?"
Boris raised an eyebrow as he looked at Mira. "Really Mira, your the educated one of the bunch. Do you really think that any king, Skaven or otherwise would be stupid enough to have Kaino represent their house and kingdom?"
Mira looked as if a weight had been lifted from her; a smile even graced her face as she wiped her tears away. "Your right Boris; I shouldn't have reacted the way I did and for that I apologize."
Boris was deep in thought as he brought a talon to his beak. "Now that I think about it; since you did attack me." - Boris handed her a purple toothbrush - "I think its time you learned from your charming brothers example; your magic isn't allowed so use your teeth."
Mira stared at the tooth brush as if it was going to bite her. Deep chuckling filled the air as Martial poked his head out of the stall to look at his sister with a smug grin. "Devon called it."
"Oh, shut up Martial!" Mira was now pinker in the face as she headed to an empty stall with the purple tooth brush in her teeth.
While her teeth were clenched Mira was able to grunt out a few words. "This is disgusting!"
Boris laughed heartily. "My dear, you and Martial are having it easy just wait till Devon gets caught; you both will see a new kind of hell."
"Let me go you serpent bitch! Ouch, ok I give I give." Devons shouts could barely be heard as the female gorgon tightened her grip.
"Ah, looks like Kana has captured the pup. If you two will excuse me your brothers tongue is needed for the bathrooms at the east wing. Keep up the work while I'm gone or better yet would you like to join your brother?"
The two siblings waved an arm in front of there faces as if they were trying to wave off some kind of stink.
"Nope I'm good Martial how about you?" Mira sweated nervously at the thought of being made to do the same thing.
"No thanks Mira, I'm perfectly happy with my job right now thank you." Martial had the same facial expression as his sister.
Boris pouted. "When your done in there you can return to your rooms; however if I find out that its not clean in there I will drag you back to finish the job. That time you wont be using tooth brushes understand?"
"We understand." They both shouted simultaneously while carrying huge forced grins. Boris left the room to have fun with his new catch; leaving the shaken siblings to their work.
Back at the Orphanage
Mira entered her room and flopped onto her bed with a massive sigh of relief. "That was absolutely the most degrading and disgusting thing I have ever done."
"What happened sis did Boris make you help out?"
"Ya, trust me it was jus..." Mira bolted up from her bed to see that her sister was sitting at her desk.
"Geez Fate, you frightened me!" Mira yelled as she attempted to wipe the sleep from her eyes.
Fate just pouted as she hid her face behind her hair. "Sorry Mira, I just wanted to wait here till you got back so we could start reading."
Her sister just shook her head. "No I'm sorry Fate I shouldn't have yelled like that. Its just that well ..." - Mira brought her hoof to her forehead as she thought of the easiest way to put it - "your just so quiet. I mean seriously, sometimes I feel like strapping a bell to your neck so I know your coming."
Fate giggled at her sisters jest. "So Mira, do you know when our brothers will be back?"
"Martial should be back any minute; but Devon I don't think we will see him for a while." Fate gave Mira a confused look.
"What do you mean Devon wont show for a while? Is he ok? Did Boris make him do something weird again?"
Mira cringed at the recent memory of watching from a distance as Devon cleaned the restroom floor with his tongue, "You could say something like that Fate?" Mira forced a grin to make things seem less awkward as they already were.
"Ok its official; I will not be pissing Boris off anytime soon." Martial croaked as he entered the room. From the look of him it seemed that he was on the verge of losing whatever dinner he had earlier. His tongue lopped onto the side of his mouth while his ears were flat against his skull; his paws held his stomach in a desperate attempt at calm it.
"So where is Devon? Did you talk to him Martial?" Mira had a look of uncertainty as she was afraid to know what befell her brother.
"He will be here soon; that's what I think anyways. He's scrubbing the crap off of his tongue; literally."
Mira cringed and smashed her face into her pillow in a feeble attempt to drown out whatever else he had to say. "Ewww, that's so nasty! Why does Boris push the punishments that far? I understand that Devon made a mistake by fighting with you again but just . . . " Mira couldn't finish her sentence as her face turned green while she ran out of the room like a bat out of hell.
"So what happened?" Fate looked at Martial cutely.
Still clutching his stomach Martial winked at his sister. "Nothing for you to bother yourself with sis; trust me its better to stay in the dark on this one." Martial returned to gazing at the floor while rubbing his stomach.
Fate grabbed Davis's journal off of the Desk to show Martial. She beamed at him with excitement. "Look at what dad left us brother!"
Martial looked up with a groggy expression. "Fate not to be a stick in the mud but its getting late; I'm going to go hit the hay and try to get rid of this feeling. You should do the same thing little sis; I don't want you waking up all cranky."
Martial turned to the door only to have his little gorgon sister cling to his back yelling, "Wait!"
Martial looked over his shoulder at his sis with a raised eyebrow. "What is it Fate; I'm tired and the pillow is calling."
When the last word left his mouth he got journal slapped right in the sniffer. "Ouch, Fate are you crazy!"
Once Fate gained the attention she wanted she held the journal in his eyesight. That did exactly what she hoped for; Martial didn't budge an inch. "Holy . . . is that Dads journal Fate? How did you get it?
"Dads letting me borrow it till he gets back. He wants Mira to read it to us so that we can learn about his past. I bet it will be romantic." Fate's eyes fluttered and shined with envy.
Without missing a beat her brother was there to snuff out that flame just as quickly as it had come. "Romance, really Fate? Does Dad strike you as the sort that would sweep a female off her feet, hooves, or tail?"
Fates turned her head to the side while her eyes squinted and she gave a little, "hmph."
"No if I know dad its going to be a story about hard work and determination, you know stuff like that." Martial turned his snout up as he carried a look of confidence.
"Your both probably right." Fate and Martial turn to see Mira carrying a very degraded looking grey coated pup. Devon hanged in her magical aura completely still except for some momentary twitching. She placed him onto her bed and exhaled a sigh of relief; glad to be rid of the weight.
"Plus we all know Dads past wasn't sunshine and daises." The other siblings excluding Devon nodded in agreement.
"Why is Devon twitching?"
"Well Fate, Devon seems to have gone into a state of shock after he finished cleaning himself up." Mira looked from her sister to Devon with a face of pity. "To be honest; this time I really feel sorry for him." After she said that one of Devon's legs twitched.
Fate raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to the side in thought. "Really? I never thought a little bit of work would've almost killed him?" Fate shrugged and smiled at Mira. "I can't wait to hear about Dad and his adventures. But I guess we should wait till Devon wakes up."
Mira gave Fate a dumbfounded look. "Are you serious? I'm not waiting another second."
Mira glared commandingly at Fate to prevent her from interrupting her. "No, we will not wait for him. Look, you told me to wait till we had everyone here and everyone is here; even if Devon is slightly in a coma I'm not waiting."
Martial looked up confused. "Coma?"
"It means knocked out." Mira huffed as she glanced annoyingly at her slightly uneducated brother.
"Why didn't you just say that he was knocked out?"
"Because it was simpler; now no more questions!" snapped Mira as her right eye twitched. Martial and Fate leaned back from there positions as if to dodge their sisters aggression.
After the pink mare took a few well needed breaths to calm down. "Everyone make yourself comfortable because this is going to be a long read."
Mira nudged Devons twitching form to the side while Fate and Martial got comfortable on the floor in front of her. Mira smiled at the fact that she finally go to reveal the secrets that have been kept from her. Mira used her unicorn magic to levitate the journal in front of her. "Everyone ready?"
Without waiting for a reply she flipped the journal open only for a small note to fall from it. Fate picked up the note and read aloud.
To my wonderful children,
I must warn you before you read this that I am slightly different from how I was back then. I beg that you wont think differently of me. Sadly I have a confession to make; I wasn't respectable or the gentleman sort. I was unfortunately more like Devon; I was overconfident, air headed, and I horrifyingly had the libido of a Minotaur during mating season. Ya, I know you didn't want to read that but its the truth; your old man was/is a perv. But besides that I learned many lessons through the years that tamed and molded me into the man I am today. So please be prepared for whats in store.
This is my story.
.
.
.
(silence)
Fate was teary eyed and mumbling. "What did I just read? I didn't want to know about dads libido."
Mira carried a look of shock and awe as she contemplated what she just heard.
Martial rolled on the floor laughing while he clutched his stomach. "Oh man, it hurts! My stomach hurts! My old man was a horny hound."
Mira sighed as she took the note from her sobbing sister. "Well I should have figured as much; this is real life after all. It sure is a weird way to begin a story."