Journey of the Alacritous Regress Volume 1: The Dead Canary

Installment 6: The Modern (Abnormal) Family

After nearly two hours of driving, we arrive at the family ranch. My dad's side of the family arrived at Nike aboard the first colony ship, giving them access to a rather large portion of land that is still in my families possession. The ranch, as we call it, is so large that it is more akin to a small country then to a farm; it even has its own monarch.

Well, monarch is a little strong a word for it, but the only other word that could come close to describing her is dictator. My quick tempered grandmother from my dad's side rules with an iron fist. Well, almost rules. Grandpa is the actual family leader, a man of few words and fewer actions. Grandma's power is merely influential, grandpa's is law.

Grandma's name is Velvet Claw, although every one just calls her The Claw, but only when she isn't listening. Grandpa's name is Bark Fur, shortened simply down to Bark. He rarely goes directly against his wife's "suggestions", although he usually turns off his hearing implants during her rants so her "suggestions" just as rarely get implemented.

One of the few times he did go directly against her wishes though, was when he granted an indefinite lease on a plot of land to my mom's family. And that's how Claw and her sworn enemy, Adrian, my other grandmother, ended up being next door neighbors.

The trucks pull up in front of a quaint log cabin. It is in no way small, having room for all of Adrian's children and grandchildren, a considerably small number compared to Claw's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Me and Alex jump out of the bed of my grandma's truck; behind us, Tail and Rivan are jumping out of our parents' truck. It takes a matter of seconds from after Alex's feet touch the ground for the front door of the cabin to burst open. Rushing outside, a small Engea cub goes straight for Alex's leg.

I bend over to get a good look at him. "You must be the Knight I've heard so much about?" The little tiger buries his head into Alex's leg. "Shy of strangers, is he?" I ask Alex.

"Only the initial meeting, he usually opens up to people after a few minutes, except for The Claw. Rather then opening up, he actually started crying after a few minutes, and she hadn't even done anything yet. Now he'll cry if she gets within ten meters of him, even through walls."

I lean over again and stare at Knight, he turns his head to stare back up at me, he then smiles. "Hi, I'm your cousin, Shooting." I hold out my fist to him. "Fist bump." He unwraps one of his arms from around his dad's leg and bumps my fist.

"Hey, you!" Tail yells from the porch, "Come on in." She follows the rest of the family into the house.

I point to Knight. "Want me to pry him off?"

"Go for it."

With the go ahead received, I reach down and slide Knight off of Alex's leg. Carrying him, I proceed to enter the house. Sitting on several couches in the middle of the room, the rest of the family is already chatting. I join them, taking a seat next to grandma, Knight still in my lap.

Tail gets a look at Knight and leans over from a couch adjacent to mine. "Who's this? You are so cute." Knight shies away for several seconds before squirming out of my lap to get into hers.

"Tail and Rivan were just telling us a bit about the rest of your crew," mom tells me, "It's a shame that you didn't introduce us to them when we were at the ship. We could have brought them back to the ranch, its not like we don't have the room."

"Would have been a little hard getting all eight of us back here, wouldn't it," I tell her.

"We could have rented a bus," dad tells me.

"One the could hold two Magi?"

Mom's eyes go wide.

"You have two!" dad spurts.