FSE

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Serpentine Adventure

O n the day of her trial of aptitude, Shriszra felt anything but a knowledgeable princess. She hadn’t been able to close a single eye the night before due to worries. Her muscles ached from the shivers that kept her awake. And even when she finally settled in her bed of corals with her eyes forced shut, dreadful nightmares teleported her before the towering monstrosity that was her father. His normal turquoise colors were awkward; replaced with an angry red that sizzled and spat with smoke and fire. Her worries, given shape. Under normal circumstances, she would have blazed through whatever task the king required like an arrow through the sea.

But things changed since she took Edward under her care, and not all were for the better…

By the time the sun ascended over the dry lands above the sea she called home, fatigue completely took control of Shriszra’s senses. She received a small party of serpents in her crevasse to be dressed in the ornamental plates required by the trial by serpents she did not hear or see. Her body was there, but her mind…her mind was still with Edward.

After about ten minutes of preparations, Shriszra made her way to the palace. Instinct carried her out of her habitat, keeping her tail swimming while her absent mind lingered in a realm of nothingness. Fear crawled back into her body halfway into her journey thanks to a coral keeper who paused from his duties to adorn her head with an assortment of freshly plucked midnight corals.

“For peace and sssstability,” the well-meaning serpent murmured while Shriszra sought only to distance herself from everything and everyone. Adrenaline kept Shriszra swimming towards the Sapphire Heart of the city. The king’s residence. Also known as the Seamforged palace; the place of power from which her father directed the affairs of his kingdom from the comfort of his resplendent crystal throne.

The female serpent had dreaded the upcoming meeting for a while. A hundred of scenarios ran through her restless mind for the past week, all ending in dark ways apart from the one she shared with her mate, Edward, a few days before…this. That dream embodied everything Shriszra wanted: to live in peace with her mate in a body of water around which both humans and serpents coexisted happily. Some would have called that a foolish dream. To Shriszra, it was the only thing she kept fighting for.

The reflection of a small speck of violet light gave Shriszra the necessary strength to swim towards the intimidating fortress rising ahead of her at the end of the Path of Glory, named such after the glorious return of his conquering brothers. The seamforged palace looked like the lair of an ancient beast from this distance. Surrounded by eight pillars topped with blazing light-collectors, the palace was a spiky nest of sapphire crystals that reflected back the light from each of the eight spires across the four edges of the world to light up the darkness of the seas. Or so the old legends said. Shriszra feared a different type of beast; one that no memory crystal could help against.

As she approached the palace’s shimmering gates, more serpents flocked to her side to assault her with their greetings. Coral keepers adorned her body from head to tail with bracelets, greaves, and trinkets taken from the sunken ships of the humans. Symbols meant to give her wisdom, courage, and insight in the battles to come. The warriors were a much simpler folk, content with watching the youngest and last of the king’s daughters enter the dragon’s den. Shriszra even heard a group of rugged males place bets on her ability to win her father’s admiration. They quickly dispersed once a hunter pointed the passing princess to them.

None of them matter. Focus on the task at hand. You’re only doing this for Edward. For peace. Shriszra repeated in her mind every time her conviction wavered. She stared ahead, at the crystal-garbed form of her friend-turned-mate who started to swim towards her.

“Edward!” she embraced him protectively within her coils. “What madnesssss prompted you to-“

“Your father knows.” The human said quickly after he hugged one of her fins like the serpent custom dictated.

It could have been a joke. Edward’s humor was an odd thing. He delighted in painful exaggerations. His eyes however looked too stern, too focused to lie.

He must have been speaking the truth.

Shriszra’s heart climbed in her throat, turning whatever words she tried to utter into a jumbled string of snarls and hisses. She found herself pulled away from the crystal path by Edward, who took Shriszra around the fence, just beneath the main gate, in the shadow of the crystal barrier that surrounded the palace.

“The guards started talking as soon as they spotted you. I didn’t want to believe the shiny crystal fuckers at first, but then Boran comes right out of the palace spouting something about a tail getting paid what is owed. I can only assume the tail in question is our old stalker friend.”

“The ghosssst? But we took precautionssss! We’ve only mated in the shadowsss, where none ssserpent could ssseee us.”

“Well, one of them did, and they’re spreading the word around like wildfire. They’re calling you human fucker, and me, a slave.” Edward jabbed a finger towards the palace. “There is no time to search for proof when your laws stretch as long as the seabed. You have to go in there assuming the worst.”

Shriszra could hardly believe the past resurfaced. The timing of it all!

Edward pulled the princesses’ frozen snout against his delightfully warm chest. “I have to go back to my post. Please…contain your anger. It’s still gossip. Do not say or do anything to endanger our plan. Our future depends on you, my dearest.”

“Wait. Edward?” Shriszra tried to swim after him. The human was fast. Even faster than her on his enchanted sea-legs. In a society where his kind built most of the city, the resourceful human had no troubles in climbing his way to the top of the serpent society. After all, this was the only way to ensure lasting peace between two races that feuded over centuries, if not millennia. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer applied perfectly to the SeaLord’s view of the world. He was not going to let the lover of his daughter out of sight…or out of the range of his wrath.

Shriszra eventually caught up with Edward. She expected encouragement after how carefully they’ve orchestrated this plan for peace. Instead, she found only doubt as Edward dipped his head in shame.

“It can wait. Your safety means more to me than an ideal. You are fierce, my serpentess, but you have to swallow your pride and do whatever your father asks of you. It is…the only way.”

And just like that, Edward slithered back to his post, leaving the confused princess in the dark shadow cast by the crystal barrier that surrounded the entire palace like a clam protecting its pearl.

Careless. Stupid. Naïve. Many words arose to describe her lack of wit in dealing with this stalker. Though she did not know who exactly her father hired, serpents liked to talk, and during a feast organized in the name of Cervon, one of Shriszra’s older brothers, words had a way of parting from the mouths of revelers. It was Edward that brought the information to Shriszra. From that day, the two of them played their roles perfectly. The Seaord did not suspect a thing…until they made love in a coral keeper’s home a day before the trial.

Kernan. It has to be him…

Only that Kernan had close ties with the king’s family. His parents were the head of the coral keepers in the city and thus enjoyed a great deal of respect and wealth.

Shriszra shook her head. It had to be someone else. Someone that eluded her completely.

How stupid was I, to think I could get away with a simpler life? The serpent swam back towards the palace’s gate. One way or the other, she had to embrace her fate. Edward played his role of a crystalforged guard well, barely acknowledging Shriszra as she approached the gate. Shriszra had half a heart to disappear right now.

I cannot leave him to fight this battle alone, the little speck of courage stirred by the warm moments she spent in the embrace of her human mate whispered to her. If I turn back now, I will run away for the rest of my life.

The swim across the crystal road referred by the serpents as the Path of Glory tightened her stomach. After Laken’s recent success against a fleet of serpent murdering pirates, traveling the shiny crystals became a gut-tightening experience. Shriszra spared no glance for any of the serpents she passed by, her eyes firmly rooted on the simmering gate that fizzled into nothingness at her approach.

“Shriszra! We are glad to receive you,” one of the four attendants at the gate swam towards her while the others, guards and servants trailed behind to brush their tails past her. “Are you in bright spirits? I can see you are positively shaking with excitement!”

“Yessss…sssomething like that.” Shriszra brushed past the serpent.

Her soft words made the attendant tilt her head in confusion, though she made no attempt to inquire any further. Shriszra followed her in silence. One of the perks of being a princess was that no one could make you talk unless you wanted to.

“Your father has called for the council to assemble after your departure. Try to keep brief and most of all, avoid asking any questions. The king is feeling a bit…indisposed in the light of an unpleasant rumor.”

“What rumor?” Shriszra snarled. “I wassss not aware of such thingsss. How comesss nobody told me? Ssstop. Ssssstop now!”

The attendant refused to do so until Shriszra seized her tail between the long claws of her flippers. “I assssked you a question, ssservant of my father. Tell me what you heard.”

“N-nothing much,” the female’s voice immediately cracked under the weight of indecision. “I am not at liberty to hear or discuss such things. Let me go.”

“I want to know.” Shriszra insisted.

“Please…you’re hurting me, princess.”

Shriszra did not realize how tough her grip was until she noticed a few rivulets of crimson substance dispersing in the water after the female weaseled her way out of her grip. “He’s right ahead.” The attendant led her up to the final door. “May the currents never shift, princess,” she dipped her head in fright at Shriszra, then scampered back as if darkness itself was on her tail.

Shriszra looked back at her departing form. Strangely enough, there was no gut-ripping regret to claw at her stomach, nor fear to fetter her in place. Once the magical barrier leading to the throne room shimmered into nothingness, Shriszra set her eyes ahead on the one and only task she came here to accomplish.

“Shriszra. My last and greatest of daughters! Approach!” the king’s powerful voice drew her attention towards the resplendent throne that lay at the end of a simmering crystal path that glowed with a pleasant blue sheen. “Come, come! Put that tail to use. You have stolen a few of my minutes already with your unnecessary tardiness.”

Shriszra started to swim towards the king. The passing of years did little to alter SeaLord’s constitution. With a crown of bright crystals mounted atop his already spiky head that mirrored the color of his azure throne, the king embodied the traits of serpentine perfection. Sharp grey spikes raced from the top of his head across his serpentine form, tapering off in size towards his bifurcated tail. Each of the ends was equipped with a crown of shards; needles sharp enough to bleed out a serpent within minutes if struck, perhaps even pierce through a dragon’s scales. Unlike Shriszra’s dull onyx claws, her father’s bore the bright blue sheen of the crystal path, reflecting the light back in the form of a dazzling curtain of colors.

Shriszra found no fondness for bright things. In fact, she found her eyes growing tired mere seconds after they gauged the health of her father. SeaLord seemed energized by last day’s celebrations. He tapped the crystals of his throne with two claws while his tail tip caressed the soft corals layering the fancy throne. Instead of looking at the king or the replica of a chair he sat upon, Shriszra swam forth slowly, head bowed, a gesture that seemed to agree with the ruler of all four seas and Highfather of the serpent race.

“Humbleness befits you, daughter. It lifts my heart to see you’ve finally learned your place in our society. Those humans you keep on saving know nothing of prosperity.” The king pushed himself from the winding throne to swim around the smaller, duller serpent. Unlike her father, Shriszra wore the faded colors of kelp upon her hide, with a dark violet and a faded belly that hinted at turquoise.

“Not all of us are born conquerors.” The king resumed his speech as he looked down on her with shame, not pride. “It really is no shame to accept the binary side of life. Divest of your armor. Shed these trinkets. You have not come into this world dressed in bright metals, have you?”

Shriszra swallowed back her pride just like her mate told her. The pieces of metal clattered against the crystal ground until not one remained on Shriszra’s bare, scaly body.

SeaLord smiled and pushed his brilliant claws under those of his daughter. The king lifted one of her flippers to inspect it with a critical eye, nodded to himself, then proceeded to tease Shriszra’s spike-less back by running his smooth flipper along her spine.

“I’ll have to ask my smiths to fashion you something sturdier for your spine. Look at it. See how easy it is to break you?”

Shriszra hissed when the sharp tips of the king’s claws almost broke through her scales/

“I won’t have my daughter die in her first great battle just because she’s got the fragile body of a crystal tender. There will be no discussion on this.”

Shriszra endured shame before. Her father’s poking was the least of her concerns, even though it stung to have her flaws pointed out.

“Indeed. While fate does bless some like Laken with the ability to accomplish great feats, it also curses others with eternal mediocrity…It is something I have to accept, even if one such serpent happens to be my last daughter.”

Shriszra breathed a sigh of relief. With her father swimming back to relax, all she had to do was to-

“I confess though,” the king never made it to his throne. Instead, he turned around to slither his way back through the waters. Back to Shriszra.

“I never expected anything short of a failure from a cunt who couldn’t even rid herself of the hissing feats. Accent, as your human puppets call it. From the moment you crawled out of your mother like a beggar, with those little hooks of yours tearing into her flesh on your way out, I realized how foolish I was to think I could produce another worthy heir. Fate was trying to tell me something I never wanted to hear. It whispered to me at night, in my dreams…telling me of the downfall of our species. I was too proud, too stubborn to see past my ambitions…and now Shuzek sprays the foulness of the deep upon me.”

Shriszra froze in place. It wasn’t the mention of the God of the Deep that ailed her, but her father’s words that drove a spike into her shrinking heart. He never seemed so agitated. So mad. So…enraged.

“F-father…what…what are you talking about?”

“Bow down your head and hold it flat against the crystals until your worthless neck stiffens!” the king erupted with the authority of fate itself. “A breeder of seedless humans? That’s what sprouts from the seed I buried within your mother for four long years while the disease that is you widened her belly, bent her bones and spilled her stomach after every meal? This is how my legacy ends? At the end of a cock that rams point in fucking ass?”

SeaLord slapped the water with his mighty tail. He was upon Shriszra in seconds before the female could react, his weight crushing the smaller serpent under the much larger, imposing form of her father. Shriszra gasped as she found herself slammed into the hard crystals below. Pinned in such fashion, she had no way to move. No way to even breathe properly. She felt claws surround the back of her head, lifting her towards her father’s snout; a snout that seethed with anger.

“Tell me, girl! Look me in the eye and tell me it’s not true! Tell me you haven’t forgotten all that makes you strong and traded it for the weakness of their scale-less flesh.”

“I…Immmmmm….I’m nnn-not…I’m-“

“Pathetic!” SeaLord snarled in her face. With a shove of his flipper, he sent Shriszra face-first into the crystals that flared with energy at the contact.

“Your mumbling tells me nothing. Too weak to even address me properly.” The king kept shaking his head in disbelief on the way back to his throne, the only perch that seemed to contain his seething anger. “No matter. I have a dozen sons better than you. Why should the runt matter when the rest of the pack towers above her trembling form? Let her feed on scraps and let the seas judge her worth. From now henceforth, I cast you adrift to wander the shallow waters until your body is pierced by the steel weapons of the humans you seem so keen on mating with.”

Shriszra’s maw opened, though no words came out, only a soft, wincing whimper.

SeaLord let out a satisfied chuckle. “That is amusing, is it not? To find yourself at the end of a spear or skewered by an arrow. Then again, perhaps it will be a dragon that takes an interest in you. I have heard tales of scaled pirates who prefer to fornicate with their victims before sending them to deserved end. Your soft body will be perfect for such a beast…if you live that long.”

Shriszra propped herself upon her two weakened flippers. “Father…” her voice shook with weakness, her scared eyes not daring to face the wrath of her father. “You have every rrreassson to desssspissse me, but…a chance is all I need.”

“A chance?” The king laughed. “A chance to what? Embarrass me further by bedding our mortal enemies? He’s a pirate for Shuzek’s sake! You should be out there on the seas, fighting them, not receive his barren seed inside your womb.”

“Know your enemy. That’s what you taught ussss, to learn everything we can sssso that we may ssssurprise the enemy in battle.”

The king remained silent for a moment. He had a hard time to admit the truth but nevertheless he gave a painful nod of his head. “You do not speak mistakenly.”

“Why would I? If I know the mosssst intimate detailssss of how these humansss live, I can anticipate their thoughts. Devise tacticsss none of them think usss capable of.”

“You speak true…” SeaLord said. “but where does this keen sense of duty sprout from, when you never looked up to your brothers? Shuzek’s cock…you’ve yet to be properly seeded by one of our own. Where is your mind at, daughter?”

Shriszra paused for a moment. She had to say this right. “I admit I went on a different path than the one you planned for me, but I can still ssssserve you, fatherr. Just give me a-“

“To darkness with that!” Corals broke around SeaLord’s spiked tail as he smashed it upon the throne, the might of his slam even making the crystal path flicker in distress. “You had ample chances to prove your worthiness BEFORE you decided to raise your tail for a filthy, lying castaway. You besmirch the name of our family, our very station by giving in to such base needs. If Krenor’s family happens to stumble upon such…affliction, the good name of our family will forever be buried in muck. Perhaps it’s best we cull the weed before it has a chance to grow. Yes…I should summon this Edward before me and gauge his worth upon the spikes of my tail.”

Terror filled Shriszra. Her thoughts flickered with gruesome images of her broken mate impaled upon her father’s tail, and SeaLord looking at her with a satisfied smile.

“Father…you can’t. He’s a guessst in our city, placed under my protection.”

“Can’t I? Are you the king now, girl? What are you if not a stain in my palace?” SeaLord barked with anger. “The nerve, to ask for favors only to throw demands later. Can the minnow make demands of the shark? Bow. Bow until you scrape the dust off my crystals with your soft, worthless belly! Edward’s life is mine to command, as are the millions of serpents who dwell in my seas under the protection of my sons! Edward is the given name of a wretch who polluted my daughter’s mind with lies and deceit. He infested you with the vilest of lusts and what does my daughter do in the wake of such deceit? She raises tail to invite deeper ramming!”

The king rose from his throne when he heard nothing but silence coming from his daughter. For a moment Shriszra feared he might unleash his fury upon her, so she bowed like her father asked, tapping her forehead against the warm surface of the living crystals of the Path of Glory. From this position she couldn’t see much, but her ears told her enough. The waters trembled with anger, rage, and frustration.

“I know exactly how to deal with this plague. First, I will have his cock rendered from his pitiful body, root and stem, until all that remains is the hollow gap of a female. Then I will cast him over to the warriors to be rammed in both holes until he bleeds, fucked in the mouth until his teeth fall off, then filled with so much seed that food loses its luster. Then, and only then, I will allow my daughter to gaze upon her mate. I am most curious if your affections for Edward remain as pristine after I’m done with him.”

“You sssspeak of forbidden wayssss.” Shriszra squeaked from the ball she formed around himself. “What will our people think of their king if one of his loyal subjects isss flayed?“

“The brave warriors who lost their lives for Sendryn are a thousand times more loyal than this scum!” The king thundered. “This Edward will pay a fitting price for what he did to you.”

“He’s done nothing I haven’t allowed! I don’t love him. I usssse him. He’s nothing more than my plunder.”

“Plunder, you say?” The king’s voice grew louder. “Plunder?!” he was close now. Close enough for Shriszra to feel the warm water expelled by his seething throat. “Kernan gave up his honor, his family, his friends. He’s lucky to scoop muck from the crystals for the rest of his life, and you know why, girl? Can you guess why a male who grew corals for fifty long years threw his entire life away? Because the depravity he witnessed inside his very home bested the fear of a dark lonely life.”

The king took a deep breath and unleashed an even longer sigh. “Kernan told me things that will haunt all the nights I have left in this life. My daughter…my own daughter…to enslave herself willingly…to be capable of such…depravity,” the king shook his head. “You wound me deeper than any weapon crafted by the humans, girl.”

The king started to swim back to his throne, but Shriszra could not allow him to go just yet. If he sat back on his throne, if he allowed his hatred to cement…everything would be lost.

“Father, I am sssstill your daughter, am I not? Heed reason. What I did…it wasss not monstrous or gross or whatever Kernan sssspouted from his lying mouth. He’s trying to divide ussss. Can’t you ssssee he covets your throne…”

“Cease begging like pirate scum! You might share my blood, but you are deluded by weakness, to think a beggar can have any sway on a king.”

The painful truth of her father’s words shook the core beliefs that Shriszra built over her life. As the lowliest of the king’s offspring, she had gotten used to ridicule from her betters, which meant almost every noble in the city. Like sharks, they smelled weakness from miles away, and in order to appease the nature of the older of the king’s sons, many serpents shunned Shriszra publicly to keep a strong façade. Only a few showed her kindness, none more than her last of humans, Edward, who cast away his past and agreed to live his entire life with her, in the depths of the ocean.

“I don’t care where my life takes me.” Edward said to her on the day when he cast away the chains with which his previous life bound him. “I want to make my own choices, and right now, I choose you, my princess, for I have grown to know, to care, to love you more than I can ever love a woman of my species.”

A tear almost came to Shriszra’s eyes. It was painful to ponder upon such happy moments from the bottom of the looming pit that was her father’s wrath. The king towered above her from his resplendent throne, his Path of Glory only serving to amplify Shriszra’s anger. She wasn’t a warrior…but that didn’t mean she was any lesser than her brothers. The serpent looked down at the scratches she made with her snout, faint, almost invisible for any serpent but her. The runt of the litter. A failure without future, if she was to believe the gossip.

Tears threatened to escape from her amber eyes. What would Edward do if he stood in front of the king right now? Shriszra felt shame rise within her knotted stomach. She knew the answer. Edward confronted his fate and emerged on top. Even with all the rumors that circulated around him, all the flaws and weaknesses of his race, he chose her over any other female of his species.

Shriszra planted her claws into the ground. Slowly but surely, she pushed herself up, her eyes rising to match the intense gaze of her father.

“What is this?” the king’s widening eyes spoke louder than any other combination of words.

“What are you doing, you lust-ridden, human addled wretch?” SeaLord shouted when his daughter started to swim towards him. “Bow down, depths take you. Bend your head or I will have my guards bend your back instead with their tails.”

Shriszra ignored him, hooking one flipper over the other to crawl her way closer towards her father.

“Very well,” the king propped his claws on his throne, not rising up just yet. “If foolishness is what you wish to display, rest assured I have seen plenty more throughout my long life. I thought we could come to an agreement, that you would finally learn your place is at the very bottom of the sea. I can see now that the words I spoke about your slave hurt you deeply. Perhaps even deep enough to risk spending a few days in the prison with the rest of the rabble. Either way, this defiance will cost you dearly… my dear daughter.”

The king spat that last word with utmost hatred as he stood up to swim in front of Shriszra. “I’ll give you one last chance to fall under my rule. Put your eyes down, kiss my tail, and perhaps I will forget this mishap ever happened.”

Shriszra stopped her advance. Bowed her head. But she refused to touch the spiked menace that hovered in front of her face.

“Lick it!” the king hissed.

Shriszra looked up instead. “I have a better bargain.”

“Bargain?! Have you heard nothing of what I said?”

“I will distance myssssself from Edward and pledge myssself to your ssssservice, now and forever, to be your earssss, your will, and your vengeance, however you ssssee fit.”

The king paddled his way back to his throne where he contemplated what he just heard.

“There is only one way I will entertain such delusions.”

“Name it and it shall be done.” Shriszra added flair to her words by performing a perfect bow.

The king smiled, the tapping of his claws against the luminescent crystals acquiring a more lively rhythm. “I want your cunt to drip with the seed of a worthy male by the end of the week. Beshir is the apt leader of the crystal tenders of the Red Sea and has been tonguing my ass since his last son’s seed thickened. I suggested a few of my closest allies for a match, yet he keeps barking in my ear about his deepest desires of seeing my royal bloodline added to his family. He wants the cunt of a princess to milk the virgin seed out of his son’s pristine cock. If you can perform the deed by the end of this week, I shall strike all the inky spots we’ve been through from memory.”

Shriszra found the twist amusing. Edward ran from the responsibilities of his species to be with her, and now she had to do what her mate could not. Mate with one of her own.

“I accept.” Shriszra said. “With an added requessst.”

“Storms, girl! You tongue my slit only to stuff it after?”

“There will be no action taken againsssst Edward. Whoever you put on my trail before Kernan…I want them gone as well, though not before I learn their name. I find it fair, that the instrument that sssset these eventsss in motion issss brought into the light before being cassst back into darknessssssss.”

“Lopen. He’s a nobody. A runt, lowest of the low. Satisfied now? I can see how well you know that name on your face. Kernan came with the juiciest bits. Never wondered how that smiling, kind coral keeper said nothing of your endless visits? Shuzek’s cock! I was amazed he even resisted my initial request, but after I saw his two sons taken care of, even the most honorable of serpents could not refuse the command of their king.”

“H-how long did this go on?” Shriszra slouched over, the knots in her stomach turning into painful boulders.

The king delighted in her suffering. “He whispered everything into my ear, from the way you moan when the rift below your tail is tended by his little cock to the trembling release you have when that mate of yours takes you like an amorous dragon. My stomach turns to imagine such things, yet part of me feels…intrigued about this union. Edward is a hard worker. I summoned him at my palace several times on account of his exploits. The fool only ever wanted the best for you…A serpent. Not just a serpent, but…you.”

Shriszra deflected his poison with a shake of her head. “Enough of that. Can I trusst you will keep your word on thisss agreement?”

“On my honor as a king, my princess!” SeaLord performed a mocking bow. “And if not honor, you can always count on family ties. Off with you now. I have a few plans to make in the light of such unexpected turns of events,” The king flicked his spiky tail, making it obvious he grew tired of this talk. “The rumors about your distasteful addiction to Edward’s hands will vanish as soon as you couple with a proper partner. Oh, and one more thing. Your test commences at midday. I will send for you when the time comes.”

Shriszra swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. “And the nature of my mission?”

“In due time. Now swim away from my palace before I have my guards escort you to that hovel you call a home.”

To be Continued...