28

Kaz is awoken early the next day by a ticklish feeling on his nose, his vision is clouded by a brown haze. The feeling intensifies, causing Kaz to let out a sneeze, he grabs whatever is clouding his view. He hears Lucia whimpering in front of him, "Can you please let go of my tail, dear?" She shudders as Kaz rubs his face in the soft fluff of Lucia's tail. He releases his grip and turns to their unknown friend on the floor, still unresponsive yet very much alive. Kaz sits upright, as does Lucia, he leans down and gently pats Lucia's stomach before he gets up to stretch. Tasi slithers down the support pillar from the second floor and greets the two of them with a warm "Good Morning." Lucia heads into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Tasi holds Zavi out to Kaz, he takes the tiny snake and allows it to wrap around his arm and crawl into his shirt through the sleeve. Kaz begins to laugh as Zavi squirms around inside his clothes and eventually pops her head out of the collar next to his. Tasi watches with a loving gaze as she sits at the table. Roarke followed soon after Tasi, coming down for breakfast.

Tasi notices the stranger on the floor by the fireplace and before she could ask, Kaz explains to Tasi and Roarke what had happened last night. Tasi puts a finger to her chin and ponders her thoughts for a few minutes. Not long after Lucia comes out with plates of breakfast for everyone, and one extra. The smell of biscuits and eggs exploded into the room engulfing everyone's sense of smell. Roarke sits on the opposite side of Kaz and Tasi, he begins to dig in, breakfast is brought to a halt when the stranger starts groaning and sits up on the ground. Lucia picks up the extra plate and slowly walks it over to the wolfman, she pulls a stool up beside him and sits down. She hands the plate to him, "You must be starving, mister. Here, eat up and we'll have a talk after." Lucia tells him with a kind smile. The man looks at Lucia, then the food, and back at Lucia.

He grabs the food and begins cramming it into his maw, Lucia gets up and returns with a cup of water and she sets it next to him. Once he finishes every speck of food on the plate he downs the water. He gets on his knees and prostrates himself before Lucia, "Thank you for the food miss." He expressed his thanks and sat back up, he turned and looked past Lucia at the rest of them sitting over at the table. He eyes Kaz before getting up and walking over, he bows before Kaz, "Pardon me, might you be Kaz? The one who took his slaves to that clothing store in Vance a few months ago?" He inquires. Kaz got up and walked over to Tasi and Lucia, "They're not slaves, they're my family." He corrected the wolfman. The stranger looked shocked, gazed over at Lucia, seeing her ring. His eyes then fell on Tasi at the table, with her ring and little Zavi who was attached to her mother like a leech.

The front doors flew open, Saphana struts in, "What's this I overheard about a stranger?" She grunts as she leans forward into a stretch. The wolfman lastly looks at the gold ring adorning her left horn. Roarke gets up to go clean his plate and repeats a shorter version of what had happened last night, Kaz was surprised at how good Roarke's dragon tongue was getting. Saphana yawns again and lies on the now unoccupied pile of blankets in front of the fireplace. The man turns to Kaz and gives a formal bow, "My sincerest apologies Master Kaz, it was wrong of me to assume. I am called Telos, would you lend me your ear for a few moments?" He asks in a very professional sounding tone, almost as if he were a butler of some sort.

Kaz agrees to hear Telos out, Kaz leads him up to his bedroom and shuts the door behind them. "You can't be comfortable in those ragged clothes." Kaz states as he rummages through his closet and pulls out one of his cotton t-shirts, the same kind Tasi had grown fond of back when they first met. Telos sits himself on the chair by Kaz's desk, "No no, I am perfectly fine. You've no need to…" He is interrupted by Kaz slamming the closet shut. "No, you're not fine, you're a wreck. Look, you're covered in scrapes, bruises and bloodied fur all over. The rags are going." Kaz grunts as he pulls the shredded clothes over Telos' head. Kaz takes one look at his back and falls to his knees and shouts, "Oh my god!"

Kaz starts apologizing over and over, he hears stomping coming up the stairs and then the door flies open. "What, what happened?" Lucia barges in yelling. She starts panting from exhaustion and holds her stomach as she catches her breath. She looks up and sees several vertical scars overlapping all up and down Telos' back. She places her hand over her mouth in disbelief. The topless wolfman grabs a blanket off of Kaz's bed and covers his back. He then rolls up in a corner and begins to whimper softly, Kaz gets up and sits next to him. "Hey, I'm sorry. If I'd known I wouldn't have." Telos cuts him off, "It's alright." He snuffles.

Kaz looks at Lucia and waves her out of the room. "If it's not too much trouble, may I at least treat your injuries?" Kaz begs. Telos sits up and nods, he removes the blankets and allows Kaz to look at him. Lucia returns with a bucket, a rag, and clean cloth to wrap up his cuts and scrapes. Lucia bends over Telos' legs dabbing the matted blood from his thick fur, Kaz on the other hand is behind him turning the pages of one of his spell guides. Lucia shifts to the other leg, her shirt collar falls past her shoulder. Telos averts his gaze, "E-excuse me Miss, your shirt. Err, chest." He raises a finger to point it out while looking away. Telos apologizes and Lucia begins to giggle, "It's alright." She whispers to him. Telos lets out a long sigh, "Master Kaz, you mentioned earlier that these women are all your family? Does that mean you're the one who…" Telos is interrupted, "Yep." Kaz quickly replies, "You are married…" Telos is cut off a second time, "Yessir." Kaz replies hastily. "Even the dragon, you managed to…" Telos' words are cut short once again, "Yes, I did. Now please sit still." Kaz says in an annoyed tone.

Kaz raises both of his hands and places them just above Telos' back and chants an incantation under his breath. A shining gold light covers the wolfman's back and as it dissipates his horrid scars are nowhere to be seen, just a thick patch of fur. Kaz winks at Lucia, "How do you feel Mister Telos?" Kaz asks. Telos reaches his hands around and feels his back as best he can, he then lets out a loud howl and leaps onto Kaz and licks every inch of his face. Kaz peels the oversized dog off of him and stands up. He looks down at Telos, "Now, you're going to tell me who did that to you." Kaz says with a sinister smile and an angry look in his eyes.