lurkingkobold (
lurkingkobold) wrote in
glowfic2015-10-14 05:23 pm
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One Curious Kobold
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.
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.
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Given that understanding, and enough self-awareness and self-care skills to safely put it to use, yes, she can do this thing, but she's very much an exception; for most kobolds, the taboo on being seen makes perfect sense, and seeing her flout that and survive is baffling.
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"Tribemates think me danger?"
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"Why kobolds no speak?"
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"Kobold want learn speak, kobold go tigerfolk, hide, listen, maybe learn. Go danger, small maybe learn - three, four kobold go, one kobold learn. Most kobold no go, danger scare."
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"Kobold person," she asserts, braced for action in case this gets a poor response.
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Back into range.
That's... not usually the standard she's held to. Usually it's speaking, and usually even with her being able to it's an uphill slog to convince whatever tigerfolk she's dealing with that it's not a trick; 'if kobolds are so smart, why didn't any of the other ones talk' has been the end of that discussion more than once, and she really, really doesn't want to think about how that came to be a thing. (None of those other kobolds are alive now. She's sure of that. She's not going to think about why.)
So - kobolds don't talk; they just don't; that's okay, and if Kiri has a problem with it, this one can go home now.
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Okay?
No, not really, but good enough. She's handled trickier situations in worse mental shape and come out okay.
Damn but she could use a hug right now, though.
Anyway.
Given that; given her options; where does she want to be right now?
Home is surprisingly not tempting. She wants a hug, but not nearly as much as she doesn't want to admit defeat, to deal with the smug looks from one faction and concern from the other that always happens when she comes back rattled from one of her trips, to deal with it being that much harder to go out again next time. Going someplace else - one of the private little crannies she's found in her travels - and hanging out for a few days while she gets her head together feels much more appealing. She could even come back here afterward, though that would probably cramp her schedule to the point where she might not be able to come back again like she agreed to. Or... she could stay. It's tempting. That impulse to fling herself directly at whatever she's afraid of will probably kill her eventually, she knows, but it's still there, and so far it hasn't actually steered her wrong, and anyway it's probably not actually going to kill her today.
So... she'll stay. And maybe portal back to one of the prettier winter caves for a while before bed tonight.
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"Person think danger: 'afraid'."
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The kobold is somewhat distracted thinking about various places - she offers some nouns from that. Tree. Rock. Dirt. Grass. Lake. Waterfall. Path. Bush. Leaf. Berry. Fruit. Nut. Cliff. Sky. Sun. Cloud. Rain. Snow. Wind. Hill. Cave.
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She does seem calmer, now. What's next?
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The kobold was assuming that Kiri's writing was similar to the kind of mnemonic device she sometimes constructs out of twine or rocks, where each knot or stone is a reminder of a particular idea, and the arrangement of them suggests connections between the ideas, but it's up to the user to know which things represent what; it's not really teachable like Kiri is suggesting.
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