Imakarum had to fight very hard to keep himself from staring. He had known, on an intellectual level, at least, that Kenji’s voice would have broken when he was aged in the processing-tank, but hearing his own voice coming out of Kenji’s mouth was something that he had not been at all prepared for.

"Good morning, Kenji-chan," Imakarum said gently as Kenji blinked the last of the sleep from his eyes.

"Where’d you get that new pair of sunglasses, dad?" Kenji asked, staring up at his father’s visor with his newly slitted pupils. "They look really neat."

Feeling somewhat uneasy, Imakarum gently stroked Kenji’s left cheek, but it was only after his son had closed his eyes in pleasure that Imakarum felt comfortable enough to respond. Seeing Kenji with the body of a grown man was one thing, but to see the catlike eyes of a Zoalord staring out of his son’s face… it was just too much to deal with at once.

"A friend gave them to me," he answered, still rubbing Kenji’s cheek and hoping his son would keep his eyes closed for a little while longer.

"That was nice of them." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "have I met them?"

"No." Imakarum lifted his hand and ruffled Kenji’s hair. "But you will as soon as we get you up and dressed."

Taking his son’s hand, Imakarum gently helped him stand for the first time since he had undergone the processing to become a Zoalord.

"Ah!"

"What is it, Kenji?" Imakarum asked, worried.

"The floor’s all cold," he said plaintively, hopping from one foot to the other.

It was such an unexpected answer, yet at the same time so much like Kenji, that Imakarum had to laugh, and it wasn’t all that long before his son joined him. However, the knowledge that Lord Alkanphel was expecting him kept Imakarum from getting too carried away with his mirth. Giving Kenji a quick hug once they had both calmed down, Imakarum turned and led him to his closet.

"I hope your feet aren’t so cold anymore, Kenji," he commented, trying to keep the worry from his voice.

He had by now remembered that Zoalord bodies were not supposed to be vulnerable to environmental threats such as temperature changes and the like—if something had gone wrong with Kenji’s processing, Imakarum wanted to know quickly so that he could correct the problem.

"No, I’m fine now," Kenji said, stretching out his arms above his head and yawning deeply.

"You’re sure?"

"Yeah, I don’t even feel the cold anymore."

Imakarum considered his son’s words even as he stepped up to the closet and opened it. Perhaps it had merely been a case of human reactions overriding Zoalord adaptations, thus making Kenji think that he was cold when he really wasn’t. As Imakarum pulled Kenji’s nightshirt off over his head and helped him into a new shirt of almost the same color, Imakarum decided that that had most likely been the case.

As he helped Kenji to dress himself in his new clothes, Imakarum wondered why his son hadn’t started asking questions yet. He had expected him to be at least a little curious about the fact that he was being given clothes that under any normal circumstances would have been several sizes too big for him, but Kenji seemed to be taking the changes to his body with a truly remarkable amount of equanimity.

Imakarum was well aware that his son was very adaptable, but this kind of drastic change had made even him uneasy—the first thing that Imakarum himself he had done when he had first awakened as a Zoalord, though he hated to even think about it even now, was to attack Lord Alkanphel. He had not done any damage to his master, thankfully, but even after he had apologized and been granted forgiveness, he was still reluctant to discus the subject.

Imakarum hoped fervently that Kenji would not try anything like that, since if he did Imakarum doubted that even he would be able to protect his son from Lord Alkanphel’s fury. But still—this strange acceptance on Kenji’s part was almost as unsettling.

"Kenji?"

"Yes, Dad?"

"Aren’t you frightened?" Imakarum asked, gently taking hold of Kenji’s wrists so that he could hold the larger, stronger hands up into Kenji’s line of sight. "You’ve… changed a lot, Kenji-chan."

"I know," Kenji answered, looking at his hands.

They were clearly no longer the hands of a six-year-old boy, being instead the powerful, well-developed hands of a twenty-five-year-old man. And not just any man, either, Imakarum knew, but one who would shape the future of the world. Kenji was a Zoalord now, and even though he would never be a part of the Council of Twelve, Imakarum knew that his son would have an important part to play in later events.

"I know I’m different now, dad, but he said that I shouldn’t be scared." Kenji turned back to Imakarum, his blue-green eyes shining with happiness and a wide smile on his face. "He also said that you’d be here to help me adjust." Now he wrapped his arms around his father and leaned his head against his collarbone. "I’m really glad you’re still here, dad."

Imakarum smiled to himself, running his fingers through Kenji’s long hair again. "I’m glad you’re here with me too, Kenji-chan." Imakarum was silent for a moment, thinking about what Kenji had just said. "Who told you not to be afraid?"

"I don’t know his name," Kenji said, sounding only mildly concerned. "But he told me that he knew you."

Imakarum, holding Kenji tighter, decided to just this once see what memories that Kenji had of the person who had told him not to be afraid. Concentrating, Imakarum felt Kenji’s mind open up to him.

-Show me…-