The girl asked if what he had was contagious, but Cassius laughed and shook his head. "Naw, hun, I ain' sick, 'f tha's whu' you wus thinkin'. Ain' sick at all." Being attacked wasn't contagious as far as Cass knew, but he didn't know too much about fights anyway. She sat at the edge of his bed, smoking what looked like a cigarette but smelled like a skunk. Just like old Razekiel. That dude had been away for a while. but this for sure had to be one of his kids. That kind of personality ran in the family pretty strong.
She took another drag of the skunk-cigarette thing and replied to his question. She had two sisters then, and she was in fact looking for her father. An interest set of developments. She held the joint out to him, but he held his hand up hesitantly. "I.. dunno wha' tha' is..." But it didn't matter when she spoke Kaena's name. That just about sealed the deal. "Aw, I though' there wus somethin' f'miliar 'bout cha! Y'all Razekiel's kids, right? I met that crazy fella a while ago. 'Fore I got like this," he said, motioning to his broken body. "An' I'm Cassius Arphralos, but y'all can jus' call me Cass. Name's a bit of a mouthful sometimes," he joked, coughing a little bit.
"I met Kaena too, a while back. I seen 'er out by them gas stations," he continued. "'Jack's Pop and Gas", I think. Yah, tha' sounds 'bout right." He shook his head and continued on. "Well, I done met lotta yer aunts 'n uncles 'n cousins 'n all that. Y'all gotta big fam'ly 'round 'ere in 'Ferni." The Southerner coughed again, some gunk coming out this time. He sighed and patted his chest softly. "Ooh, done feels li'e I's gettin' old a li'l too early," he chuckled.