32

The three arrive in the main hall for supper, Lucia shows Malcolm his seat. "Why thank you m’lady!" Malcolm smiles as he sits down next to Tasi, who is holding little Zavi in her arms. Malcolm lightly strokes the top of Zavi’s head, “So smooth!” he whispers. Ishvara was waiting in the library for Kaz to call her in. Kaz notices Lucia bumping into things on her way back to the kitchen, he finds this odd. "She's never this clumsy." He thought to himself. Kaz gets up and heads back to the kitchen to check on Lucia, he sees her leaning against the wall panting heavily in a puddle of liquid. Kaz could only guess what had just happened, he rushed to her side and swept her off her feet. He dashes back into the hallway and runs upstairs to Kaz's bedroom, he yells down at Tasi to meet him up there. Tasi and Malcolm looked puzzled, but they both shrugged and ran upstairs to meet Kaz with Telos not far behind.

They entered the bedroom to find Kaz next to Lucia on the bed breathing heavily. He grasped her hand and looked over to Telos, "Fetch me a bucket of cold water and a washcloth, quickly!" He barked orders to Telos while stroking the hair out of Lucia's eyes. "Malcolm, go get Ishvara from the library and tell her to go outside and around the manor. You'll meet her on the balcony." He points to the large double door across from the bed. Malcolm nods and rushes back down to the library, a high pitched shriek shortly followed. Kaz threw his free hand up to his face, "I should let him know she was a dragon too." He mumbled. Malcolm returned looking pale, he then went out and met Ishvara on the balcony and showed her in.

Ishvara sees the situation and rushes in, Telos returns with the bucket and washcloth. Kaz dips the cloth in the cold water and wrings it out, he then places it gently over her forehead as she continues to pant. Lucia spreads her legs and begins heaving, Kaz continues to hold on to her hand she continues to slowly push out a single newborn kobold. "It's a boy!" Ishvara and Tasi shout in unison. Kaz grabs one of the blankets from the closet and gently wraps the child in it, he hands it to Lucia. Kaz looked closer at the infant, it didn't look a thing like him except for one feature they shared, his light blue eyes looked exactly like Kaz's. A familiar furry hand grabs Kaz's shirt collar and reels him in, Lucia places her lips on his. Everyone else in the room watched with a smile, "He has my eyes." Kaz tells Lucia. She laughs and hugs the child close, "He does, but everything else is mine." She adds with a chuckle. Telos runs downstairs and brings up a stack of plates, he lists off what they had and runs down to serve up each plate individually and bring it up to them in Kaz's bedroom. Everyone ate dinner sitting around the bed along with Kaz, Lucia and their newly born son.

Malcolm was the first to break the silence, "This food is phenomenal Miss Lucia!" He compliments. Lucia expresses her thanks, she turns to Kaz. "How about Ezra? I think that's what we should name him." She says. Kaz puts a finger to his chin, "Hmm, I think Ezra is perfect. It sounds like a strong name." He replies. "Tasi, what do you think?" Kaz asks. Tasi was still stuffing her face with food, ripping off little bits and letting Zavi enjoy the feast as well. Kaz laughs, "Ezra it is then." He concludes. Malcolm got up and walked over to Ishvara, "Ehem, Miss Ishvara. I must say, you look dashing in those glasses." He says. Ishvara looks down at him, a small spout of steam spews from her nostrils, "Why thank you Mister Malcolm, they were a gift from Kaz." She replies in perfect English much to his surprise.

"Oh, I see! Kaz is quite the likable fellow, isn't he?" Malcolm replies. "Yes, that I can agree with you on." Ishvara says back as she takes another bite of her large portion of meat Lucia had prepared. Malcolm returns to his seat and nudges Kaz, "You were right, dragons are rather normal when you get to speak with them, though it is still rather intimidating the first time." He whispers. Kaz nods as he takes the last bite of his dinner, he then hands his plate to Telos who was already finished and waiting to take the dishes down. Everyone hands Telos their plates as they finish their food, he takes them all to the kitchen and returns.

Malcolm gets up and stands behind Kaz to get a look at Ezra, "Oh my, what an adorable little cub!" He cries gleefully. Lucia smiles and holds Ezra up to Malcolm, "Care to take him for a bit? I'd like to clean up a bit." She asks. Malcolm carefully takes the toddler into his arms and rocks him back and forth. Kaz offers to take Ezra and let him and Telos get back to making his suit. The two of them nod and head downstairs and return to the backroom to continue their work. Ishvara stands up, "Thank you for the meal, I must be going now. I can see you have made a trustworthy friend Mister Kaz. I wish you good luck with your plan." She says as she bows her head and exits from the balcony. Immediately after she hops down, Saphana hops up. "This damn balcony only holds one. I had to eat by myself, you owe me Kaz. But I heard what happened, and I understand, congratulations." She licks Kaz's cheek and hops back down and returns to her spot by the fireplace in the main hall.

Lucia returns in a towel and takes Ezra from Malcolm's arms, "You should spend tonight with Saphana, I feel terrible for leaving her out tonight." She whispers in Kaz's ear and returns to her bedroom. Kaz felt pretty bad about it as well, he changed the sheets on his bed to clean ones and headed downstairs. It was pretty late already, so he cleaned up in the bathroom and sneakily approached the sleeping dragon on the floor. He slips under her foreleg and wiggles into place with his head leaning against her neck. Her foreleg pulls him closer and a single eye opens, "Our manor is starting to get pretty busy." She grumbles. "Yeah, it really is." Kaz adds with a yawn. Saphana yawns also, Kaz looks up and strokes her cheek slowly. "You don't have to worry about me, we don't lay our eggs for quite some time." She tells Kaz. He sighs in relief, "That's good to hear, I wouldn't have a place to house them." He replies. Saphana giggles, “We're dragons, we don't need a house." She says with another yawn. "I'm beat, Good night Saph." He mumbles and kisses her cheek before snuggling into her foreleg.

The cuddling couple wakes up to the smell of eggs and bacon again. Kaz and Saphana get up to see Lucia cooking breakfast with Ezra strapped to her chest in a cloth sling. He goes to see what became of Malcolm and Telos, slowly he opens the door to the back room and finds Telos spooning Malcolm on a pile of fabric. Kaz shakes the two softly and tells them to get up, they both sit up, rub the gunk from their eyes and yawn. "Breakfast you guys." Kaz says as he claps his hands get them up faster. He joins Roarke and Tasi at the table, Saphana is still lying down near the table staring at the roaring fireplace. Malcolm and Telos both emerge from the backroom and sit at the table across from Kaz. As Lucia brings the plates of food out Malcolm taps the table in front of Kaz, "Mister Kaz, I wanted to make a proposition. Telos and I talked, well, I talked and he agreed. I thought it would be a splendid idea for him to work at my store." He explained. Kaz raised his eyebrow, "Go on." Kaz prodded. "You see, if he was to work there. More and more people would see how wonderful he is. Possibly improve their opinions of beastmen a bit." He continued.

Kaz nods, "What do you think Telos?" Kaz asked. "I am thankful for all the help you've given me Kaz, but I agree with Malcolm. I won't change any minds working here with you in Rath. He even offered me a room in the loft above his shop to live in." Telos told him with a smile. Kaz started to dig into his breakfast as Lucia sat Saphana's food down and then fetched her own plate as well. Kaz sighs, "Telos, you're more than welcome to go. But don't forget, you're always welcome back here if things don't work out." Kaz says as he points a fork at Telos. He is tackled to the floor by a large black and grey blur moving too fast to recognize. "Okay, okay! You're happy, please get off Telos!" Kaz scolded him.

A bit later Malcolm, Telos, and Kaz all load up in the car and begin their drive back to the Capital of Vance. It wasn't a particularly nice day, it was pouring rain and humid out. Nevertheless, they arrived in the same amount of time. Kaz wasn't going in this time, he instead got out and gave Telos a hug and grabbed something from the trunk, "It was good having you Telos. If anyone gives you trouble, tell Malcolm. This is from me and the girls." He says as he hands Telos a sack of coins and a handwritten book. "For anything you might need, and the book has a handful of phrases for you to practice in English that'll help you at the shop. I'll be visiting from time to time, so behave yourself." Kaz gives him one last hug before he waves the two off. He watches them enter the gate from the rear view mirror as he starts the engine and drives back to Rath.

Kaz is greeted by Roarke out in front of the manor, "Did everything go okay?" He asks Kaz. Kaz nods and walks past to open the double doors to the main hall. He finds Lucia cleaning up, they had already eaten apparently. Lucia sees Kaz come in and sit down, she gracefully snatches a plate off of the counter and slides it down the table so it comes to a stop right in front of Kaz. He dug in despite it being a bit cold, he feels something crawling up his leg.

To his surprise it was little Zavi who had sniffed out the meat on his plate. Kaz picked her up, she was about the size of his leg now, and he ripped off pieces of the beef on his plate and gave them to Zavi, who was now coiled around his arm and cooed happily with every chunk she was given. Lucia watched from the kitchen with a happy smile on her face as she continued to observe the two. Kaz finished his dinner and brought his plate to the kitchen and decided to head up to bed. He passed his own bedroom and headed to Tasi's instead with Zavi still coiled around his arm. He slowly entered and found Tasi knitting a small tube top for Zavi. Kaz came to the awkward realization that his daughter was slithering around in the nude this whole time. Tasi finishes the top just as Kaz sits beside her, Zavi climbs up to Kaz's face and gives him a quick peck on the cheek before jumping into her mother's lap.

Kaz gets up and sits down on the newly replaced mattress, Tasi slips the top on over Zavi's head, picks her up and brings her over to join Kaz on the bed. "She's a sneaky little one." Kaz says as he playfully boops Zavi's nose with his index finger. "She conned me out of my dinner with that adorable face earlier." Kaz continues jokingly as he falls over sideways on the bed and lays his head on Tasi's lap. "Oh, did she now?" Tasi laughs as she strokes the top of his head. Kaz lays himself out on his back, Tasi wraps herself around him and Zavi coils up on his stomach. Kaz raises his head up and gives Tasi a kiss before lying down for the night.