However, none of the previous characteristics could top her most distinct feature, and that was the all-too-visible stench fume rising from her body. It was as apparent as heat waves, swirling over hot coals.
It arched its eyebrows and tapped its foot with impatience.
Still covering her nose, Sing greeted her. “Morning, Your Highness.”
You would think that this repugnant thing would be more concerned with her hygiene! She’s practically royalty, and yet we have servants that come from the streets who smell better than she…and that breath, my God!
“And where are you off to in such a hurry, you little whore?”
That damn word again!
“Why don’t you go in and ask your husband?”
“Don’t give me lip! I don’t know why Phyllamon needs such a lazy, peasant tramp anyway! If the decision were in my hands, I’d have banned you from the castle long ago!”
Banned? …Oh, God, please let me get banned!
“Forgive me, I’ll do better.”
“And why are you always covering your nose when I speak to you?” Helena asked, as her fiery breath nearly singed Sing Yi’s eyebrows.
“…It’s…err…ummmm…my sinuses,” she lied, seeing the greenish yellow gas float from Helena’s mouth, circling about them.
“Have you finished the laundry yet?”
You hideous, smelly ass, bad-breathed bitch! I bet you don’t even know how to do laundry, seeing that you don’t even wash your own body! You really want to see your laundry? It’s resting in my pocket—I stole it years ago from Phyllamon’s private armoury. It has a long chrome handle and a twelve-inch blade. Though I keep ‘the laundry’ nice and clean, I’ve yet to see how easily blood washes off! Let’s find out, shall we?
But again, she restrained herself.
“It’s done. I brought his Majesty’s robe to him. Then he…held me up...from the rest of my chores, so that’s why I’m hurrying. I should be getting back to work, don’t you think? …And you should probably be checking in on your husband.”
“Don’t tell me what the hell I should be doing! I know damn good and well what to do around here…”
Sing had already begun hurrying down the hallway.
Helena stood idle with anger for a moment. All of the other servants were truly obedient, due to their own need for survival, but she had a strange feeling about Sing. This girl may have followed orders, but she seemed to do so with her own agenda. As one who found it difficult to hide her emotions, Sing was a terrible actress, and therefore Helena saw right through her humble façade. Instinct told her that the handmaiden was not afraid of her, or Phyllamon, at all. It made her uneasy to see one of her servants so strong willed.
A shiver ran down Helena’s spine as she went to the Master Chamber, shoving the door open. She was shocked to find him standing naked in the middle of the room with a huge…blood rush.
Phyllamon jumped as she entered, and although Helena wasn’t sure, for a moment it looked as if he was…
Yes…nooo…YES?! Masturbating!
“Dammit to hell, woman, would you knock!” he yelled, knowing that she enjoyed doing this on occasion, as she resented his insistence on having his own sleeping quarters.
“Usually that’s an action reserved for guests and servants—not married couples! Or have you forgotten that I’m wearing your ring?”
Helena glared lustfully at his genitalia. Deep down, she knew that only a certain twenty-year-old servant with fire red hair could’ve given such an erection. However, her rational mind wouldn’t allow her to come to terms with this reality.
“I see you have something waiting for me,” she said, lying to herself. “It’s been soooooo long, my love…shall we?”
Helena dropped her robe to the floor.
The putrid smell of an unwashed ass spread throughout the entire chamber. Phyllamon’s head sunk with disgust.
“Oh...yes, dear…I suppose so.”
VII
Banana-Chocolate-Chip-Butter Bread; a Hoverbike; an Evil Little Brat, Named Felix; and an Ass Whipping
1
As Phyllamon and Helena finished doing their deed, in the distant forest town of Rhameeryla a mother and daughter were about to happily receive a visit from an unexpected guest.
Inside, a tall brunette was putting her body to the test—a body that looked to have been sculpted by gods. Greatly appreciating Zynathian’s gift, she took very good care of herself. She was no longer confined to a hoverchair and was healthier than ever, definitely more so than most physically fit people. Though she could become fatigued like a normal person from lack of sleep or not eating properly, as far as physical exercises went, they didn’t faze her at all.
The physical attributes that this girl daily flaunted in front of her mother had come about one year previous. From childhood up until then, however, there were numerous flaws to her health. Her bone structure had been very fragile, seeming that she could break every one of them under the weight of a feather. She also suffered from a crooked spine that prevented her from sitting up straight. Adding to the list of childhood horrors was a misshapen collarbone, which had been broken whilst inside her birth mother’s womb and never healed properly. This latter ailment induced her head to a perpetual lean downward to her left shoulder.
In all, these afflictions caused Bahzee to pray for death most of her childhood. The pain and embarrassment was nigh on insufferable. Then one day, a boy in town (a boy that she was quite in love with) introduced her to two other children that he called his ‘cousins.’ After getting to know Bahzee well enough, Khyeryn and Lyn Sha eventually brought her home to meet their father, and that was that.
“Bahzee, you’ve been doing pushups for an hour straight. Give yourself a break,” Asha Sunkharei, her foster mother, said.
She was a widow, who’d found a newborn Bahzee in a heap of trash. Asha took the child as her own and nursed her back to health as best she could. It was quite a blessing, as she was no longer able to have children of her own. Her system wasn’t right due to a terrible incident involving Phyllamon Xyecah years before.
Asha had a different look about her. She was a mixed woman born to a white father and a black mother. She had a fair caramel complexion with large blue eyes, and a slender build that kept itself up with no effort. Also, she had long black dreadlocks, stretching all the way to her hips. Although fifty, there wasn’t a trace of gray hair. Though not a great beauty by any means, she still had the aura of a work of art. Her eccentricity was the reason people liked looking at her so.
“Sorry, Mom, I just keep testing my limits. As far as I can tell, I don’t have any!” Bahzee said cheerfully.
“Bless that man…”
…that beautiful, talented, sexy man! I love him.
It had been well over a year since Zynathian had made the changes for Bahzee. Khyeryn and Lyn Sha had lied and told Asha they were just taking Baz to visit their home for a few weeks. However, they had ulterior motives.
When they brought Bahzee back down, Zynathian accompanied them. Asha had not only been stricken with unspeakable happiness for her daughter, but also with an undying ailment she had not felt for any man since her husband died. Love.
Bahzee stared at her mother for a moment, amused by the fact that she was so smitten. Although only fourteen, she knew that when love hit you, it just did. That was how she herself felt about Teshunua.
“Daydreaming about anything in particular, Mom?”
“Oh, shut up, girl,” Asha said as her cheeks reddened.
“Sorry.”
Asha tackled her daughter. “No you’re not, you little snot!”
“No, Mommy, stop it, you promised you wouldn’t anymore!” Bahzee cried out, knowing that her gut would soon fatally explode from laughter. Usually her mother near tickled her into oblivion.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it!”
“Oh no, no, no…you asked for this!”
There was a rap at the door.
�
��Mommy, quit it…who’s there?”
The person on the other side of the door jumped at the sound of that voice. It sounded like some serious warfare was going on inside, and he was missing out on all the fun!
“Open up, silly, it’s me!”
They were puzzled by the early visit, as Zynathian and the kids didn’t usually show until midday or later. Asha and Bahzee abruptly stopped their rough housing.
“Oh my, Zynathian’s here…I must look awful! Don’t let him in until I’m decent!”
“Mom, I’m not gonna’ make them stand outside, it’s too cold.”
“Okay, just let me get to the bathroom, so I can wash up!” Asha turned to run.
“Mom, watch it! You almost stepped on Toodles!”
Bahzee was extra protective of the cat, being that he was still in such a fragile state. Zynathian had to give him a new leg. Although it worked wonderfully, the rest of Toodles’ body wasn’t healed yet, for it had only been two weeks since the incident.
Asha was clumsy with excitement, knowing that she was about to see her man. “Sorry, Baz…sorry, Toodles!”
She’s such a doofus, Bahzee thought, rolling her eyes, grinning. Then she hopped up and sprinted to the door.
Bahzee swung the door open and embraced Khyeryn as if they hadn’t seen each other in ages.
Mchwahh Mchwahh Mchwahh…
As she wet his face with kisses, Bahzee swung Khyeryn about as if he weighed as much as a feather! Breathing heavily, Khyeryn’s face and ears went apple red, as always.
“Baz, cut it out, this is embarrassing!”
“How are you? I’ve missed you sooooooo much!” she said, completely ignoring his subtle request to be let down.
My god, she’s so strong!
“It’s only been a week, you goof!” he said, still marveling at her strength.
Although Khyeryn saw Bahzee often, this was the first time she had ever picked him up and slung him to and fro like a rag doll. He briefly wondered if his father had done more during Bahzee’s operation than he let on.
Khyeryn’s intuition was spot on. Zynathian, who never operated without taking the extra step, had given Bahzee an immeasurable amount of strength. He figured that if he was to heal someone’s body, then he might as well make it exceptional rather than ordinary.
Whatever you do, do it the very best that you possibly can—part of his motto, and he intended to live by it. However, he never told any of them exactly how strong Bahzee was, lest she show off and be noticed by the wrong people.
“A week, really? …It seems so much longer!” She let Khyeryn down. “Where’s my little Lynnie?”
Bahzee looked around and didn’t see anything but a sleeping Jalum, whose body seemed to take up more than half the forest. She glared at Khyeryn with a scold.
“Khye, why are you by yourself? You know that’s against the house rules!”
“C’mon, Baz…I couldn’t bring her. I wanted her present to be a secret,” he said, still hugging her, breathing in the fragrant aroma of Asha’s banana chocolate chip bread.
“Where’s Mama?” he asked, walking indoors to the stove, seeing if the bread was done yet.
“Sssssshhhh! She’s in the bathroom washing up…she thinks that your father is here!”
Khyeryn rolled his eyes and laughed. “Aw, man, now she’s gonna’ be disappointed.”
“Don’t be a butthead. She’s always happy to see any of you. Papa Zynnie would have just been the icing on the cake.”
Khyeryn smiled and then looked down to see what it was that was rubbing up against his leg.
“Toodles, how’s it hangin’ ?” he said as he scooped that cat up into his arms, observing the cat’s new leg. “How’s he doing, Baz?”
“Oh, he’s so much better than he was last week. The leg was fine right away, but since Zynathian decided not to do anything else, the rest of Toodles’ body is still healing. He got kicked pretty hard, remember?”
Khyeryn frowned. “Baz, he hasn’t been by has he?”
“No, he hasn’t, thankfully,” she said, both saddened and infuriated by an expression of such worry from him.
Considering the reasons they were all in a constant state of flux, worrying over each other, Bahzee was suddenly fuming with hatred.
“I swear on my soul, I’m going to kill him one day…both he and his father!”
Her muscles tightened as her hands curled into fists. If there was one scary thing about Bahzee, it was her temper. It was not a quick temper by any means, but you still did not want her to lose her cool. The only reason a certain person hadn’t caught her wrath so far was because he was kin to Phyllamon.
Khyeryn, naturally reserved, was a bit more patient and good at calming her down whenever he saw Bahzee this angry.
“Hey, hey…relax,” he said, rubbing her shoulder. “Let’s not do anything rash. Acts of vengeance aren’t going to do anything but bring us all more problems than we’re prepared to deal with.”
Bahzee nodded, lowering her head as a tear fell.
Khyeryn knew that she was momentarily reliving the incident with the hoverbike…
2
...It was the fastest model around at that time, and Nhad would strap Bahzee on and give her the ride of her life.
Though she was still crippled then, Nhad dismissed her deformities, thinking her smart and quite lovable. Some days, they’d speed through the towns and the forest from sunup to sundown, never tiring of their adventures. They were the best of friends.
One day, Felix Xyecah (a frequent terror to Mashyuvah) came to town. He was riding a bicycle when he arrived…a bike that probably wasn’t his, as its look was a bit on the feminine side. The observant bystanders thought this to be some sort of omen, as it was clear that Felix had already stolen something, meaning that he was in a particularly bratty mood, looking to make trouble.
Even though he already had his own mode of transportation, he couldn’t prevent himself from coveting Nhad’s new hover. As it is the way of the rich and spoiled to be insatiable, Felix politely asked to take it for a spin.
“Hey you, with the bike…give it up!”
The contents of Bahzee’s stomach somersaulted, as she recognized the voice and spun around in her hoverchair. Nhad turned and found himself facing a boy about his age, sixteen years old, but significantly smaller.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me! I wanna’ ride your hoverbike, and I want it now!”
“Just give it to him, Nhad…let it go. We’ll find some other way to get you a new bike,” Bahzee said, fearing the repercussions for her friend if he got into it with Felix.
“No.”
“Nooooo?”
“No.”
“Do you know who my father is? If you don’t give up that bike right now, the consequences will be most dire!”
“I don’t care who your father is, you are not taking my bike! Now, I’m about to take my friend for a ride, and I wish you would get the hell out of our way!”
He huffed, turning to address Bahzee. “She floats around all day in that goddamn hoverchair already, so, if you ask me, that crippled whore doesn’t need to ride anything! I should come over there and kick your paraplegic ass outta’ that chair just like I did before!”
Nhad stood paralyzed with anger, knowing.
“Bahzee, this is the person that you’ve been telling me about? Listen friend, it’s the good thing that I don’t want Bahzee to see what I would do to you had I met you on the street, alone! Now step aside, and let us go before I take Bahzee’s payback outta’ your ass!”
Bahzee cringed.
They’re going to fight! …Please, God, no!
“Dammit! I am Felix Bartholomeau Xyecah, and you’ll drop to your knees and beg for my forgiveness…immediately!”
Felix, used to being waited on hand and foot by servants his entire life, just like his father, had never been told “no” before. He was puzzled that a person of such low stature could have the audacity to
refuse an order by…royalty! His father was the king; he was the prince, and this person before him was a peasant! How dare he?
What Felix was unaware of was that Nhad’s family was independently wealthy from a farming and trading business they owned. Therefore, they weren’t indebted to the Xyecah’s like so many others. In theory, Nhad didn’t have to do a damn thing for him if he didn’t want to.
“I said ‘NO’.”
His impatience getting the better of him, Felix was at last taken with a violent fit. As the tears streamed down his face, he began running in circles with a cloud of dust following.
Nhad wanted to burst into laughter. It was splendid to see a teenage brat throwing a temper tantrum as if he was two. However, he refrained from showing the slightest bit of amusement at the situation, wanting Felix to remain slightly apprehensive of him.
“What a pathetic, whiny ass, little baby! Why don’t you go home to your mother now...I think it’s time for her to breast feed you!”
Embarrassed, and unable to believe this person had gotten so far beneath his skin that he was crying, Felix took his antics to the next level. Wide-eyed and howling like a lunatic, he charged Nhad. He was going to have this bike, one way or another.
Unfortunately when Felix closed in, Nhad side stepped him and stuck out his foot. Suddenly Felix found himself soaring through the air—without the aid of the bike he wanted.
He landed on his knees, ripping the skin from them as he slid along the earth. Felix didn’t have a scratch anywhere else, however. An extraordinarily large pile of manure, which gave him a cushion, prevented the manifestation of other injuries.
Excreted by specially bred super cows, these were house-towering mounds of waste. In fact, unless one saw it with their own two eyes, they would never have believed that a pile of shit could become so incredibly massive. On the days of the month when the cows were brought through town, each was made to do their business all the way in the vacant corner of the business district, where the wind most often led the fumes in the direction of the sea and couldn’t easily disturb the district’s commerce.
Felix, buried in feces from the hips on up, was disoriented and wondering what the upper half of his body was swimming in. He placed his palms on the ground and hoisted himself from the pile of manure, managing to open his eyes, despite the fact that the lids were extremely heavy.
The Gift of Volkeye Page 7
