Nightly Lessons Book I: The Book of Beginnings

[Peeker]

"Right. You can't do much of anything like this, dear. That's the point."

With the finality of a closing coffin, the water stopped running in the tub.

"Instead, you need to sit there obediently and let me do it. ...just as you are supposed to obediently remember your place the rest of the time, and when I tell you to do something, you are supposed to do just what I tell you."

The girl was bodily lifted up, and the bathrobe removed from her as she was immersed in the water.

Aleksandr took his time rolling up his sleeves, watching the girl fume, before picking up a washcloth. "I expect a bit of self-control, Alice. Right now. Understand? There will be no splashing, no fighting, and no arguing with me, or you'll have a hot wet bottom, and be put straight to bed." He gave her a pointed look. "Your attitude will leave both of us feeling poorly, and I don't want that. I want to have a nice night with my Alice... but this unpleasantness must be moved past, first."

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice wanted to scream in frustration over Aleks' actions. She was seventeen years odl. Too old to have someone wash her. Barring her fangs at Aleks, Alice looked disgusted about the normally green and cream marble now turned pink with cartoon characters on the tiles. She was officially getting to hate the spell with a pa' distaste towardsthe dress, her arms crossed over her none exsisting chest out of habbit.

"I hate you..." She finally snarled , looking more humiliated and unhappy in the tube. Moving her hands so that one was covering her, the crimson blush covering her face, Alice reached her free hand out palm upwards. "Give me the damn cloth. I can wash myself."

This wasn't how she had pictured her bath. She had pictured it being norml, resting her back against the rim of the tube with And One playing on a CD player on the counter and the scent of rosemary and passion fruit from her body soaps filling the air. What she was exsperiencing now was nothing short of a humiliating nightmare come true. Sure the first time at Mikeal's had been fun, but she had also been wearing a bikini while she was in the water and she hadn't been angry at Aleks.


"Please?" She huffed annoyed. the idea of a well spanked wet bottom wasn't exactly one she wanted either.

[Peeker]

"There's nothing to keep you from taking a bath on your own later, dear. I never said you were going to stay a chlid all night. ...but this is a lesson in humility. It is a punishment for acting so rude to me at the dinner table... and it will not be ended early. ...now if you stay still, we can both be done with this unpleasant business as quickly as possible."

True to his word (as he nearly always was) Aleksandr began to wash the child in a brisk fashion, taking care not to cause her any more discomfort than her embarrassment allowed. "I really am sorry dear, but even I can change my views. ....I am not in the mood to paddle you every time you give me lip. ...if this turns out to be a more effective way of controlling your attitude, then little Alice may be showing up more often. That's all there is to it. ...I do not think any less of you, love... I am still learning, just as you are, just how the two of us get along best. ...this is another experiment, another guess... and I'm making it. That's all."

Whlie he lectured, he cleaned the girl up, and then stood, offering her a towel, suggesting she could step out and be dried off, if she so (probably) desired.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice sat stiff as a board in the tub, her eyes transfixed on the surface of the water. She wanted to scream at, kick, and blast Aleks all at once, but she couldn't decide which one would give her more satisfaction. If she did any of them she most likely won't get a chance to do the others before he would have her across his lap again.

"...."

Alice bit back a shiver and reached for the towel. She growled unhappily when she found she'd have to crawl out of the tub to reach it, something which was exstremely difficult and lead to a needed hand from Aleks to do so. Shse didn't thank him, merely reached out fothe the towel as she began to shiver when she found wrapped gently around her as Aleks gave her a brisk rub rub downfrom her head to her legs. At lest he was kid enough to allow her to do most of the drying herself, but dispite her silence, it was clear that Alice was still very angry with him. She swear heatedly in her mind, all of them directed towards Alkes and her inner termoil showed that one thing she really wanted to do was simply cry, yet her exsterior just showed a very angry and upset little girl hugging a towel closer and ignorring her Sire's lecture the best she could.


"Get out," She ordered in a stiff voice as her small hand pointed at the door. The blush of embarassment hadn't left her face at all nor had her eyes looked up at him. Mostly that was because she honestly left like crying in the moment but didn't want Aleks to see how much this really upset her. "Get out so that i can dress into... something."

[Peeker]

The man was torn. ...now he was the one who wanted to hold onto the girl and give her comfort, while she pushed him away.

Saying nothing, Aleksandr rose, turned, and headed out of the bathroom with a polite nod to the girl. As the door closed behind him, there was a flash of light: the bathroom and the girl were returned to normal.

...he could do her that kindness. She was upset. ...she'd obviously been punished enough. He hoped. ...now came the hard part: letting her forgive him. In truth she had been wrong, and unfortunately, she was doing it again: she was taking his actions as a personal affront, and refusing to adapt, or to accept what she'd done as being wrong... and she didn't appear willing to take that lesson to heart.

Dammit.

The man headed to his study to think, until she was ready to speak to him again.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice felt a shift in size and turned her back quickly to the door using her body weight to hold the door shut. Once her back was firmly pressed against it, she allowed her nees to gently slide her down the wooden surface and hugged her knees.

She hadn't found the exsperience pleasent in the lest, and she hadn't planned on being anywhere close to that size until the day of Aleks' birthday. It was humiliating to be undressed like that and sit in a tub nude when her seventeen year old mind was still wide awake.

"That jerk..." She muttered listening as Aleks' low heels shoes clicked across the floor and the soft whisper of her bedroom door clicking shut. "he didn't have to do that."

She roase again and stepped into her room going to the cloest and finding a set of clothes to change into. Once she was dressed in a baby blue middrift T and a bell bottom jeans along with a blackkk sweater, Alice moved to her bed and plopped down on it, allowing herself to brood some more against her sire.

It took fifteen minutes for her to start questioning her actions, a half an hour before she felt guilty about it, and finally an hour and a half before she finally wanted to smuther herself with a pillow for idiotcy.

"All this over a fucking dusting chore..." She muttered into her pillow. "Really fucking mature Alice. No wonder he made you little. You were acting like it!"

She glanced over at Klo whom had rejoined her. He gave her a look that translated to her 'what are yah gonna do now?' which made her groan louder and rise up from her bed and head for the one place she could think of were Aleks would be. She didn't bring anything with her, she didn't feel she needed to, her day turning more and more rotten by the seond. However once she reached the door to the study and rose her hand to knock, she froze, realizing she had no idea on what to say to him, and just remained standing oddly infront of the door.

[Peeker]

After thirty minutes, Aleksandr had begun to wonder if she'd show up. ...more than a little bothered, he'd delved back into his work, and gotten back to doing a bit of spellcrafting for the Festival. His sleeves were rolled up once again, jacket undone, as the man circled around a floating piece of parchment in the center of the room, encased in a hot beam of light. He was murmuring to himself, magical energies bending and swaying swiftly, binding themselves to the spell as he worked his way around it, when he heard Alice approach the door. ...not wanting her to think she'd be ignored... had she knocked? He didn't think so... but even so...

The man let the door swing open of its own accord, and continued to work though the spell.

"...Thhhhe prrrrriice agreeeed....."a silibant voice hissed from the center of the page, calmly.

"Of course." Aleksandr replied, calmly. He clapped his hands together. An imp shuddered into the room - this one was different, somehow - bright green, angry... fanged... eyes glinting.

"Sarabn'tamarr--" The creature began to rant, angrily, looking as though scrapping for a fight.

Aleksandr gripped its skull, and plunged it into the beam of light. It vanished in a hot red mist.

"Accceppptable..."

The column of light vanished, leaving the page of paper glowing the same hot blue as the beam that had encased it. With another clap of his hands, the paper bound itself tightly, was sealed with a few runic marks, and leapt up onto his desk.

"...sorry about that, Alice. All done here." Aleksandr said, running his hands through his hair, and turning to her, slightly flushed from exertion. He looked at the girl quizzically - hoping that she was here to say what he wanted her to. He fought to keep the relief that she'd shown up at all from slipping into his eyes.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

Alice gave a tiny jump as the doors opened and looked look at Aleks behind the desk. She did want to say sorry but at the same time she still didn't feel she had deserved the bitter humiliation he had put her through with the bath. Even if it was because of her stupidity.

"Aleks I...." She started when it occurded to her he was casting a spell, one she didn't reconize. "what are you...?"

"...Thhhhe prrrrriice agreeeed....."

Alice felt silent, the sound of the voice eeiry to her ears and made her blood run cold in her veins. ?Just what was Aleks doing?

"Of course." Aleksandr replied and smmned a bright green imp, angry... fanged... eyes glinting. Alice had never seen it before and given two years as the daughter of the Rastline house it bothered Alice somehow that she didn't know the hell spawns name.

'What is going on here?' Alice took a nervous step into the room. She was causious and with good reason. She still hadn't forgotten the demon that Aleks had summoned that one night in order to for the boundry spell for the festival.

"Accceppptable..."
Alice snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Aleks clapping his hands, the paper bound itself tightly, was sealed with a few runic marks, and leapt up onto his desk.

"...sorry about that, Alice. All done here."

Alice blinked looking from her sire and back before frowning.

"What the hell was that?" She flinched at her own tone, the words coming out corse and demanding, as if their roles had changed, that she was the Sire and Aleks t he fledgling. With a mental groan the girl bit back a little of her pride and looked back at her Sire with a pained exsperssion. "Sorry... that... came out wrong...."

She still didn't know what to tell him about the original reason that she was standing there. she still felt unfairly treated and yet somewhere deeper inside herself she felt she had deesevered all of it and more.

[Peeker]

"At least you know that." Aleksandr said, rolling down his sleeves and straightening himself out. "...that was a feral imp... not trained, as Kapad or Gleebo or any of the others are - quickly pulled from the limbos, and sacrificed rather quickly as well." The elder explained, calmly.

He ran his hands through his hair once again, and then approached the girl, buttoning his shirtsleeves as he did so. The girl appeared distracted - or at least unsure, as though she didn't know what to say. Her impulse had brought her here, but that was all it seemed to have done.

"So are you feeling better? Everything alright?"

Might as well simply set her up to say what she had to say, to him or at him, and let her recover from there. The girl was like a bullet, sometimes, ricocheting off of everything until she was satisfied. She'd be a terror when she came into her adulthood.

[Kira_Wolf_Cub]

"Fine... everything's fine."

She crossed her arms and leaned against the wooden frame of the doorway, trying to seem calm and collective. But she was a poor illusionist and even a human could see she was feeling inwards guilty over her behavior. It almost felt like it would be easier to get over her stubborn pride being little even if it lead her into trouble 90% of the time.

She allowed the silence between them stretch a little before she sighed in defeat and moved over to press against Aleks, her arms losely wrapped around him.

"... you didn't have to go and do that though..." She said after a silent appology. "It was humiliating."