Chapter 14
Carnage leaned his golf club in a corner of the room by the door, then went to the kitchen to wash his hands.
“I really like your home,” Avaleigh said. “It’s like living up in the trees.”
“It is!” Carolena said. “Carnage built it for us. He and Murder. He chose this location in particular so that we’d be up in the eucalyptus trees.”
“Oh?” Avaleigh asked.
“They keep mosquitoes away,” Carolena explained.
“How clever!” Avaleigh said.
“I thought so, too. He is very clever, though, he’d prefer no one is aware of it,” Carolena said.
Avaleigh happened to catch Carnage’s eye when she glanced toward him and he grinned at her as he yanked open their pantry and took a container of eggs out of it.
“No! Do not dare!” Carolena exclaimed.
“My do eet!” Carnage said.
“No you do not do it. You crush the eggs every time. I can get it myself,” Carolena said.
Carnage shrugged and walked away. He plopped himself into a chair across from Boon and Daniel who were sitting on the sofa.
“You do that on purpose,” Boon accused quietly.
Carnage smiled at his son.
“So, you don’t keep your eggs in the refrigerator?” Angelle asked.
“If you don’t chill the eggs when they’re first taken from the hen, you can keep them at room temperature indefinitely.
At the rate that we use them, they never last longer than a couple of weeks anyway, but don’t wash them, which removes the protective barrier on them when you take them from the nest, you just brush them off and keep them at room temperature,” Carolena explained.
“I had no idea,” Angelle admitted.
“Most people that don’t have chickens have no idea. It’s really convenient to not have to refrigerate them if you live way out here.”
“I can see that,” Angelle said.
“If you wash them, or chill them, then they have to remain chilled.”
“Maybe we should get some chickens,” Angelle said thoughtfully.
Avaleigh and Carolena shared a secret smile at hearing Angelle speaking about getting chickens. It meant she was considering living in Whispers.
Angelle saw the look pass between them and realized what it was about. “I mean Boon. Maybe Boon should get some chickens.”
“Boon never has a shortage of food. In fact, he’s usually sharing most of his hunt with others in the community,” Carolena said.
“‘Es. Boon hunt goood,” Carnage said.
“That’s very generous of him,” Avaleigh said.
“He is very generous, and very kind, just like his father, but neither want it to be common knowledge.”
“Boon hunt D’agon,” Carnage said while starting to laugh.
Boon started chuckling.
“You hunted a Dragon?” Daniel asked, not quite sure why he’d be hunting a Dragon.
Boon nodded while still wearing a grin. “Carrik. I hunted him down and told him he could either do right by my sister, or I’d kill him. It was up to him.”
Carolena and Carnage were both chuckling by that time.
“Boon was just a boy, just barely in his teen years, when Carrik suddenly roared into our lives. He was destructive, clumsy, completely unaware of the changes the world had seen in the thousands of years that he’d been standing in that clearing.
All he knew was the revenge that forced him to break free from that place.
After all was addressed and a shaky kind of peace settled into place, our Lily was still sad, distraught really, though she tried to pretend she wasn’t.
Boon decided he was going to hunt down the Dragon that made her sad, and make him do the right thing,” Carolena explained.
“Or kill him,” Boon added.
“Obviously, he chose to do the right thing, since he’s still with her,” Daniel said.
“He did.”
“I’m not sure he’d have killed Carrik, but it would have been a show,” Carolena said.
“At any rate, I hunted the Dragon, and found my sister a mate,” Boon said.
“I admire that. Your sister was hurting and you decided to fix it,” Daniel said.
“That’s about all there was to it. Somebody had to do something. Neither of them could manage to get out of their own way.”
“Family. That’s what it was all about,” Carolena said. “So much family,” she said curiously.
Avaleigh didn’t quite understand, but made a mental note to ask more deeply about it later.
“That’s all it ever should be about,” Boon said.
“‘Es,” Carnage agreed.
“And, if this thing between our kids turns out to be what we all think it might be, we’re going to be family. That means something,” Daniel said.
“If?” Boon asked. “Angelle is my only focus. This is our future. At least as far as I’m concerned.” Boon turned his seat to better see Angelle.
Angelle was sitting at the kitchen table, and smiled ever so slightly as she met his gaze.
Carnage sat staring at Daniel.
Daniel realized it and started staring back.
Carnage lifted a hand and pointed back and forth between himself and Daniel. “Faahmlee?”
Daniel thought about a million answers he could have given.
But from the interactions he was seeing between Angelle and Boon, it was only a matter of time before they stopped fighting their instincts and gave in — or Angelle did, since it was she who was still doing her best to hold out — he knew there was only one true answer… “Yes. We’re family.”
Carnage leaned forward. “Go’f, goood?”
“Do I think golf is good?” Daniel asked.
Carnage shook his head. “P’ay goood.”
“Not great, but better than some. Like I said, we’d play all the time at home and I usually won - not always, but usually.”
A grin slowly curved Carnage’s lips. “‘Arnge ween Trawl.”
Daniel laughed. “You want me to teach you how to beat someone named Trawl?”
“Trawl is Enthrall. He and Destroy play regularly, but it’s not officially golf.
There is no particular course to play. Some of the areas they call their golf course, don’t even have holes.
It’s more of a recreational thing. But if you can play the actual game, I’m more than certain that you could teach Carnage a few things Enthrall and Destroy wouldn’t expect him to know. ”
Daniel grinned mischievously as he nodded. “I’m in. Let’s turn you into a golfer.”
Carnage laughed, his unusual sounding laugh causing Daniel to laugh, too.
Angelle and Avaleigh shared a smile as they watched Carnage and Daniel bonding.
“He’s a wonderful husband, a fantastic provider, my best friend, and he has the biggest heart.
He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but he will forever be a man-child when it comes to outdoing his friends,” Carolena said, with a soft chuckle as she added flour to a bowl and started to cut in some lard to make biscuits.
“I think they all are in one way or another,” Avaleigh agreed.
Carolena looked at Angelle pointedly. “Let me tell you now, Boon is more like his father than you might expect. The only thing that saved him from being just like him is that he was raised in a family with love and kindness, rather than thrust into a warring military as a child. Otherwise, he’d be just like Carnage.
Don’t be surprised if that little boy comes out from time to time. ”
“Mom! Really?” Boon asked from the living room where he sat with the males.
Angelle laughed as she answered Carolena. “I’d be disappointed if he wasn’t harboring a little boy somewhere inside. All the best males are, I think.”
Carolena stopped mixing the lard into the flour and the baking soda and looked up at Angelle. “You know? I think you’re right. It keeps them, and you, young.”
“I can agree with that, too,” Avaleigh said.
“Mrs. Carolena, what can I help with?” Angelle asked.
“If you could cut some slices off that ham and get it frying for me, I’d appreciate it greatly.”
“Happy to,” Angelle said.
“Angelle is a great cook,” Avaleigh said proudly.
“That’s a wonderful skill to have. And it usually comes from cooking in the kitchen with one’s mother.”
“I do have lots of memories of just that,” Angelle admitted.
“Avaleigh, that must mean you’re a wonderful cook as well,” Carolena said.
“I can hold my own,” Avaleigh said.
“Don’t let Avaleigh fool you. She’s the best cook I’ve ever known. And Angelle has picked it up from her,” Daniel said.
Carnage nodded. “Goood. Boon eet goood.”
“Well, today you just sit and enjoy. We’re going to cook and you’re going to eat,” Carolena said.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Avaleigh said.
~~~
A few hours later after breakfast had been eaten, they all sat around the living room sharing stories of Boon and Angelle as they grew up. It took no time at all for the stories to change to those of how their parents met.
“How did the two of you meet?” Avaleigh asked. “As I understand it, you are the first human that was allowed in Whispers, and even then it was questioned.”
“You’re right. I stumbled onto the edges of Whispers trying to escape my captors. Carnage happened to be watching, and he interceded.”
“My saave Leenah.” Carnage said.
Carolena smiled lovingly at Carnage and laid her hand on his forearm.
“You did.” She looked over at Avaleigh. “I’d run from the men who were holding me against my will.
I ran blindly into the swamp thinking it was the only place I might have a chance.
I knew there were all sorts of creatures that lived in the swamps, but I had a choice, take my chances with the wild animals, or with the animals holding me hostage.
I chose the wilderness. It seemed a lot kinder to me. ”
“Thank goodness Carnage found you!”
“Yes! He dropped down behind me where I stopped to rest under a huge tree, took me in his arms and went right back up the tree. I was terrified at first. But I quickly realized that if he wanted me dead, or harmed, he’d already had plenty of time and he did nothing but keep me quiet and hidden from those beneath us searching for me.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out there was more to this unusual male than just brute strength.
Carnage is the best thing that ever happened to me. ”
“What happened to those who were holding you against your will?” Avaleigh asked.