Page #15

With his breath labored and his nerve endings burning he looked around the room. “I’m home … Oh thank God.” Kota reached down and stroked the hair off of his little brother’s face. Scotty was sleeping peacefully even through the rain and thunder. With his brother asleep at the foot of his bed, Kota slipped out of bed and placed the blankets around Scotty. Downstairs he heard two hushed voices whispering though Kota couldn’t make out their words over the clattering rain, so he decided to slip part way down the stairs to hear better. Hidden partially behind the stairwell Kota could see the dim light of a single candle burning in study. “I believe Kota will make a full recovery but a shifter’s venom will stain his skin for the rest of his life. Those discolored veins will always be blackened. Others may see it as a sign of weakness but warriors will see it as a sign of his strength. Did you happen to notice the change in his physique?” Quesha’s voice was a welcome comfort Kota had grown up alongside her in the village. “No I haven’t noticed …” Drugen began, “Actually now that you mention it when Kota arrived through the warp gate I thought he looked undernourished and he seemed to have less muscle mass before.” Kota began looking at his arms and legs but didn’t notice any difference from before. “A shifter’s venom works by breaking down the proteins in muscles and in fat. Since the cure for a shifters bite reverses this process the cure cannot tell the difference from muscle and fat so it reconstructs the proteins as all muscle. This will continue throughout the next few months. Very soon Kota will be much stronger than ever before. But forever marked with the venom’s mark, fighter’s may wish to test his strength if they know of this it may make him a target.” Quesha spoke softly but her words carried much weight. Kota began to turn pale fighting had never been his strong point and he had barely survived his fight with this shifter. “We will deal with that bridge when we come to it Kota has many other strengths besides brute force.” Drugen had more pride in his son than Kota had realized. Kota smiled at that and began walking back upstairs, as he crawled back into his bed young Scotty stirred and began to look around sleepily rubbing sleep from his eyes, when his gaze finally rested on Kota his eyes lit up and a smile flashed across his face. “Kota you’re awake! Daddy, Quesha Kota’s awake!” Scotty screamed as he flung himself into Kota’s arms.