One Curious Kobold

[lurkingkobold]

It's winter, and all is well with the tribe. Their new magic, an ability to make portals from one place to another, which was found by one of their members during the early-summer trip to meet with the other tribes in the area, let them both build up a decadent food stockpile and move to a much deeper part of the cave system without the worry of being unable to find their way back out. No-one has had to go hungry, and even the fiercest ice storm doesn't reach them; they are as content as kobolds can be.

Well, aside from their new mage, that is. She's bored, and curious. Making portals to known places is straightforward enough, with the magic she found, but that's far from the limit of what it can do... so one day, she slips away, portals off to a different cave system - one can't be too careful, after all - and experiments.

Temperature roughly the same... gravity roughly the same... air the same, not into stone or underwater or in a volcano or on top of a mountain... but, instead of patterning it after a place she knows, what happens if she only specifies those things, and lets the innate patterns of the spot she's casting on do the rest? Particularly this one part, which seems to specify the world...

She finishes the spell, and hesitates for just a moment before activating it.

Comments

[lurkingkobold]

And here is a kobold, heading for those woods. The portal closes behind her after a minute or so.

[of_all_trades]

The house and woods make no comment. The woods are pretty nice and quiet, the kobold can't see any large animal for several minutes.

Except for that large bear over there.

[lurkingkobold]

It seems to be late spring, so this bear is probably not hungry enough to be dangerous, but better safe than sorry - she'll hide out in... well, not that bush, that's a berry bush and the bear might want to check it out, but this other bush is a suitable place to hide while she waits to see what the bear is up to, so that's what she'll do.

[of_all_trades]

The bear is slowly walking through the woods, then it shape contorts briefly and now the "bear" is another creature entirely, something two-legged, the visible skin is beige, and the short head hair is blond. It continues walking like nothing weird happened.

[lurkingkobold]

Well, that's odd and a little alarming. The kobold is glad she's already hiding; she'll keep doing that.

[of_all_trades]

The non-bear continues on it's merry path, not paying attention to the direction where the kobold is hiding at all. Suddenly the non-bear stops and tilts his head slightly.

[lurkingkobold]

She - very carefully, so as not to make any unfortunate noises - looks in the direction the creature was heading. It doesn't appear to have seen anything interesting; maybe its hearing is better than hers, or it smelled something.

Hiding continues to be the proper response.

[of_all_trades]

The non-bear remains still for a moment, the looks around and speaks "Hello? I am friendly. Eh, sorry if I am scaring you. I mean no harm."

It is the kobold own language.

[lurkingkobold]

Um.

Um?

This is very strange. The language itself, especially - she knows other languages besides animalperson exist, so she certainly wasn't expecting to find someone in another world who speaks it. Maybe she's not in another world? Maybe someone else from her world has teleportation magic, and has been here to learn or teach the language? Either of those might cause some problems for her, here, if her species' reputation precedes her.

There doesn't seem to be anyone else around that the creature might be talking to, but she also doesn't seem to have been spotted - at least not directly; maybe she wasn't quite careful enough with her tracks, and the creature figured out she's nearby that way. Does she want to answer? She considers, a bit, and decides to wait and see what happens next first.

[of_all_trades]

The non-bear creature keeps looking around, still not spotting the kobold, but he doesn't seem to be trying very hard.

"I hope I didn't scare you. I don't know exactly where you are, only that you are nearby."

[lurkingkobold]

Well then.

The creature doesn't seem threatening. And she can teleport away if she needs to, and it probably doesn't know that.

She quietly removes herself from the bush, and then gives a greeting yark to let the creature know where she is.

[of_all_trades]

The non-bear turns around and spots the creature. His eyes widen in pleasant surprise, he covers his mouth with both hands.

"So cute!" he mutters too low for the kobold to hear "Hello," he says louder waving a hand.

[lurkingkobold]

Aw. ^^

That seems to answer the reputation question, maybe? Well... only maybe. Let's see how this goes: She taps her chest and says "kobold".

[of_all_trades]

The non-bear nods, and repeats the gesture, saying the funny word "human" instead, he then says "My name is Franklyn. What is yours?"

[lurkingkobold]

Yup, that's pretty definitive. Huh.

"Kobold no do of name; kobold kobold."

She's still not approaching, but she seems a little more at ease now.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn listens and then pays attention to his power. The kobold is hard to read, non-human brain after all, but he should have gotten that cultural fact.

"Why are you here?" Franklyn asks after a moment.

[lurkingkobold]

Shrug, "magic". She doesn't seem too concerned about it.

[of_all_trades]

Not exactly the kind of answer he was expecting. Franklyn focus... Some kind of teleportation magic, too big to fit through Franklyn's power.

Powers which he should be more upfront about it.

"I can do magic. Knowledge magic, copy things like language, but not personal stuff. Know how to talk to you, but not who you are or where you from..."

[lurkingkobold]

...slow blink. Dismayed noise. Deeply worried kobold.

[of_all_trades]

That must be what it feels like to kick a puppy.

"Sorry, eh..." Franklyn says "I know people find it scary, but it won't get... if you did something wrong or what you are planning to do, or how you feel about someone. It won't tell me people's names, or where they are, and with you it was hard to notice that kobolds doesn't do names. I also can turn into a bear and make people feel happy."

[lurkingkobold]

Okay, that's less worrying. She thinks some more, and realizes - "know-magic do of teach of move-magic?" This prospect is also concerning.

[of_all_trades]

"I know that you have it," Franklyn says "but it is... big, my magic can't hold it. Did you use it to come from another world? I never heard of kobolds on Earth."

The name "Earth" isn't translated to avoid confusion.

[lurkingkobold]

Oh, good.

"Move-magic is of small of new; kobold do of try of move magic, kobold do of small of thing of place, magic do of big of thing of place - magic do of here, kobold do of go of magic, do of go of here."

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn has some problem translating that, but he manages to guess. Some kind of experimentation or curiosity with magic.

"We have move-magic," Franklyn says "but not between worlds. People with magic here gain some powers, like mine, but changes from person to person."

[lurkingkobold]

"Kobold magic, person do of teach of person - person is of new of magic, magic is of danger of person," she clarifies. "Person do of magic of person, no do of teach, no danger," a pause for consideration, "hex danger, no of other of danger."