Small Lurker in Milliways

[lurkingkobold]

Here is a kobold.

To people familiar with the species, it's obviously a young one, not quite three feet tall to the adults' three and a half foot average. Its fur is blueish-grey and relatively dull, a sign that it hasn't been eating properly recently, though it's not thin. It's wearing a simple animal-skin skirt and carrying a stick, not quite long enough to serve as a walking stick, but useful for shielding itself from the worst of the undergrowth at least.

It is moving through the forest at speed, not following any path, and then suddenly it is elsewhere. After a few minutes, it notices the difference in the light; after a few more, it notices that the trees are subtly wrong - wrong species, wrong growth patterns, wrong in subtler ways that defy describing, but that tell the kobold that it is not in the forest where it grew up.

After even more minutes, it stops, having come to a clearing. There is a building, which, despite not being alarmingly large, cannot be traveled around.

The kobold does not have permission to enter the building.

The kobold cannot go back to where it was.

The kobold sits, and waits.

Comments

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold squints sightly, and looks back and forth from the cat to the human.

Very quietly: "...hello?"

Almost as she's saying it, and not in reaction to anything the other two have done, she goes wide-eyed and fearful.

[first_and_final]

The human stops where he is, and gives her a small, reassuring smile.

"I don't think I recognize what sort of creature you are," he says. "My name is Milo, and I'm a human; this is Cath, who is a cat."

Cath jumps lightly down from his shoulder and approaches the kobold.

[lurkingkobold]

She uncoils, a little, at the smile, and more at the human's tone.

She offers Cath more petting, and after a few moments, while not making eye contact with either of them, says "kobold". She doesn't panic, this time.

[first_and_final]

"Is that your sort of creature?" the human asks. He sits down on the ground. Cath, meanwhile, snuggles up to be petted.

[lurkingkobold]

She nods. She's still not making eye contact, but it seems less intentional now, more like habit.

(Cath gets petted, because of course.)

[first_and_final]

"Well, it's nice to meet you," he says. "Are you hungry? We can get food inside," with a nod back toward the building.

Cath purrs. She approves of being petted.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold visibly perks up at the prospect of food. She gives Cath a final pet, and then stands.

[first_and_final]

Cath climbs up to Milo's shoulder again, and he cheerfully leads the kobold toward the building.

[lurkingkobold]

In they go!

[first_and_final]

Milo leads her to a long wooden counter, which he addresses thusly:

"Delightful bar! I would like to buy this kobold a good meal, please."

[alicornucopia]

Certainly. And here is a bowl of mixed greens, with dressing that inconspicuously contains a high volume of nutritious cricket flour.

[lurkingkobold]

Food.

Wait, no, politeness. Politeness. Right.

Is the human going to eat? She raises an eyebrow at him, questioningly.

[first_and_final]

"Thank you, delightful bar." He smiles, and picks up the bowl, and hands it to the kobold. "There you go."

[lurkingkobold]

This does not actually answer the kobold's question. When a few moments' wait doesn't produce any particular reaction, though, she sets to eating the salad.

This kobold was very hungry.

[first_and_final]

...hm.

Milo pays for the kobold's meal. Cath jumps down from his shoulder to a barstool, and he stands next to it and scritches the cat.

[lurkingkobold]

Eventually, she runs out of salad. (At some point before that, she sits - on a barstool, though she apparently also considers sitting on the floor.) She puts the bowl and fork on the bar, neatly, and hops down from the stool to appreciatively nudge Milo for scritches.

[first_and_final]

Cath helpfully meows, the same word she said when the kobold was petting her. Milo scritches the kobold. "Better? You must've been very hungry."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold gives Cath a curious look, when she meows. Then there are scritches, and scritches are excellent.

Milo's comment gets a nod, and the kobold looks as if she's trying to work out something to say, but she quickly gives up.

[first_and_final]

"Hmm?" he prompts curiously.

[lurkingkobold]

She shrugs. "Better." Then, after a beat, she gives a reasonable imitation of Cath's pet-me meow.

[first_and_final]

Milo giggles. "I've met a few people who learned to understand a little of Cath's language," he says, obligingly petting the kobold, "but you're the first to start speaking it."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold giggles, too.

After a few minutes, she catches Cath's eye and does some complicated body language at her. This human is really nice, would you mind sharing? I'll be good.

[first_and_final]

Cath meows a fairly lengthy sentence. Milo watches the cat thoughtfully, and then looks thoughtfully at the kobold.

"Cath says she's worried about you," he says.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold is confused, though not particularly alarmed. She raises an eyebrow at the cat.

[first_and_final]

Cath meows further. She supplements her recitation with cat body language and some kind of mime or reenactment, at one point jumping down from her barstool to briefly sit on Milo's foot.

"Cath says you're welcome to stay with us, and I agree," says Milo. "She also says I should tell you the story of how she and I met. You see, in my world, cats are people—"