Pairs of Pumpkins, Episode 11: The Teleporting Tours of a Top-Heavy Teenager Ch. 02/13

Duayne scooted his chair closer to his sister, reaching out to rest a hand on hers. "It's going to be okay."

Eva sat silent and trembling, her eyes glossy in a storm of emotion. She remained still until the crack of ozone in the next room confirmed a teleport spell had been cast.

After a heavy sigh, she started to speak but movement interrupted her. The door from the kitchen opened on its own. No one should have been in there.

The swinging door presented a wall of nine armed and armored half-wolves and half-brothers: the Duodecaplets. Three knelt in the front and three standing behind them leaned in, with the last three waiting in the rear, deftly coordinated so that the most of them might eavesdrop at once.

The kneeling Duos stood up and led the rest of them to pour into the room, weapons jingling and heavy boots clopping on the stone floors, then the large, dining room carpet. They split to line up in two rows to flank both sides of the table.

The closest one reached for her shoulder, pausing with a hovering hand before a soft nod gave him permission to touch her.

"Are you okay?"

"I... No, I'm not okay. It's not like I wanted to marry Zarron and have a family with him but what else was I going to do with my life?"

"We know what that's like. We were raised and trained as soldiers but we are sentries at best, in this isolated place where nothing ever happens."

"And the one mission we could..." A second one started.

"... and should..." a third added.

"... be undertaking is to recover our brothers that the Master gave away to that cat witch." The first one finished the sentence.

Eva looked down at the hand on her shoulder. Had any of them touched her before?

"It seems without Anastasia, he's trying to forget about this place and all of us along with it. I wonder if he's fertilizing new eggs anymore." Evangeline slouched in her seat and huffed a breath. "She really ruined all of this, didn't she?"

Heads tilted curiously around her and she pulled herself back up by the edge of the table, gritting her teeth.

"Ana and mother. I'd like to find them both and smother them in their sleep."

One of the Duos further down the line hesitated before speaking. "We don't know if this is either of their faults."

"Ana betrayed us. She betrayed us and she abandoned us."

"All we have is Zarron's version of the story," the same Duo spoke.

"Of her and our mother," another added.

"Why should we believe anything he tells us?" a third asked.

"I saw our mother with our brother, Joseph! He was inside her and she loved it. I saw them with my own eyes. Disgusting!"

"You weren't there when Anastasia teleported away. And all that happened when he and that cat witch were messing with our brothers. Something doesn't add up."

"Ana's gone and she didn't come back. He's gone because of her."

The Duos exchanged looks amongst themselves. Another one stepped closer to Evangeline. "We could go too. Find our sister. Find our brothers."

"How long would it take him to notice?" one said.

"He's away for months at a time," another added.

Eva signed and leaned into the table, planting her elbows on it. She rubbed her muzzle, beneath her eyes. "You nine, sure. You can fight. You can make a living fighting or as bodyguards. What am I going to do? I haven't learned anything about surviving outside these walls and I'm not sure I want to. I just wanted a family. A husband. Some children to love and need me. That's the best I could hope for with the cards Zarron dealt. I'd be fine if I was a wizard like my bitch sister." Her words dripped with resentment.

"We can protect you. Both of you."

"You can find a husband and make a family."

She sighed and rubbed her head. "I don't know what I want. I never thought I had any choice."

"Then perhaps it's time we all start deciding for ourselves. There's no sense in waiting around here anymore."

Duayne's attention moved between his nine older, half brothers and his sister, eyes widening. He slowly started to nod.

Another Duo spoke up. "What if we break the teleport seal? Like mother did in the Pale Lands?"

"Stop Zarron from coming back," another affirmed.

"There were multiple seals hidden in the Pale Lands House," Evangeline uncovered her face.

"And they broke them all."

"Because Joseph knew where they all were!" Duayne jumped in. "It was his job to maintain them and it's mine to maintain the ones here. I know where they are."

"What if we broke every last one of them and prevent him from ever returning?"

"The man can still walk, brother. "

Another Duo spoke. "What if we dumped out the armory on the platform and they teleported right into a pile of swords and spears?"

"Keep a fire burning on each one of them?"

"Our sisters with him are innocent, as far as we know," a Duo countered.

"I'm not so sure," Eva said.

"We aren't powerless, Evangeline. And he's betrayed every one of us."

She perked up at their duplicitous musings. Palms laid flat on the table and she sat upright in her chair, looking up at the two ranks of elite soldiers before her. They watched her and waited.

"And what do we do after this great betrayal? The man is basically our father."

"You were planning on staying here your whole life?" One of them asked.

Eva blinked and canted her head, "I suppose I did."

"We could take over the family business?"

"You've heard his customers balk at the prices. Even if we sell his current inventory, he charges a ransom for every single one," another added.

"If you want to stay here, you'd at least be free and rich."

"Or not sell them and have a family?" Duayne suggested. "Be a mother without having to be a wife to him."

Drumming fingers on the table, she looked back to him then her nine, half-wolf brothers. All eyes were on her. Why were they waiting? The Duos could do anything they wanted. Did they see their eldest sister as their leader now?

Evangeline cleared her throat. "If we break the seals, he can get back here by conventional means. It may take years but we'd be living in fear and he'll eventually come back and kill us all. Whatever we do, he needs to not see it coming."

"If we're going to take over the business, we can't just kill Zarron. If we keep him alive, we could keep producing and selling."

"Unless Branka or Zentalia know how," Duayne eagerly added.

She nodded. "Yes but we can't assume. We need to neutralize them. Mother had something that stopped magic and Ana mentioned another substance. Aspen? Regi-something?"

Another Duo spoke up. "I wonder if there's some in the library? Or the lab?"

Eva rubbed her chin. "Let's start in the lab. I wonder if we can figure out how it all works. Do you think we could make more? He's so lazy, he's probably automated most of the process by now."

Duayne was the first one out of his seat. "Would that make you happy, Evangeline? Revenge on Zarron? Taking over for him?"

"I think stopping him would be a good start. We can think about family after."

"You have a family," Duayne took her arm in both hands and stepped up to her. "We just weren't allowed to act like it."

A Duo cleared his throat. "Zarron wasn't going to be able to give you a child, you know. Not in the natural way."

Eva nodded and dipped her muzzle. "Obviously. It was the best I was going to get."

"You can be a mother. But you need another fox for a father."

Several of the Duos shifted nervously, looking to their bolder brother, pointedly watching her.

She looked at him for a long moment and squinted slightly before she glanced at Duayne then back. Her gaze darted down the line of them, nine strapping, young men who also happened to be her brothers.

Half-brothers.

"Let's go to the laboratory. See what we can learn about all of this baby breeding business."

She pushed out of the table and stood, walking purposefully from the room, the ten brothers falling in behind her. With a shove, the double doors to the Main Hall swung open, doors swinging gently back and forth, settling in to close.