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

[calescent]

Okay. Through Kiri steps.

[lurkingkobold]

And a few seconds later, the kobold joins her.

[calescent]

And Kiri giggles and then shows her the kierten, after making sure no warm person-shaped spots are in the path.

[lurkingkobold]

Teleportation magic is super convenient like that, isn't it?

The kobold follows along, makes sure she understands exactly where Kiri wants the portals to let out, and carefully examines that area. Then they can go back to Chialto - or not, if Kiri would rather spend the night here and teleport back in the morning.

[calescent]

They should at least get Aleko. He will be confused if he is left there all alone.

[lurkingkobold]

True. What would Kiri prefer to do? The kobold doesn't care very much one way or the other.

[calescent]

Kiri would prefer to go back to Chialto.

[lurkingkobold]

Back to Chialto it is, then. This time the portal lets out in the kierten - the spot the kobold is planning on having the belt put her, if she'd like to tweak that at all.

[calescent]

Seems to work pretty well.

Hmm. She is sometimes in this house for extended periods of time. Can there be a double-belled portal in each target location, which rings one bell here and one in the country house? Or maybe two ropes braided together which split at the portal location?

[lurkingkobold]

Hm. The kobold is not actually familiar with the kind of bells-on-ropes setup Kiri is using, but, on examination, it seems straightforward enough; sure.

[calescent]

Kiri makes a shopping list - more bells, more ropes, materials to make little signs that say ring bell for Ardelay prime in case of fire - and then yawns enormously. Bedtime.

[lurkingkobold]

Huh, okay. The kobold isn't quite sleepy yet, but, sure, it's getting late.

[calescent]

Kiri shows her a little room. And gives her a few simple books.

[lurkingkobold]

This is an entirely acceptable way to handle this discrepancy.

[calescent]

Of course.

Kiri goes to bed.

[lurkingkobold]

Eventually, the kobold does too. She's awake and ready to go when Kiri comes to check on her in the morning.

[calescent]

"Do kobolds sleep less than humans?" wonders Kiri.

[lurkingkobold]

Maybe. The kobold doesn't know enough about humans to know, nor have a very good way to describe how long she was awake after Kiri left last night or how long she's been awake so far this morning, but it's certainly possible.

[calescent]

"Humans sleep about one part of three every day."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold considers this. Kobolds don't do timekeeping, and she's rarely awake for a whole day and night at once, and the lengths of days and nights vary enough over the course of the year to confound her attempts at estimating. One part in three doesn't seem obviously wrong, but it might be closer to one part in four, she's not sure.

[calescent]

Kiri shrugs. Breakfast - Aleko cooks - and then they pile into the carriage to go find good places to put things around the city. Kiri has selected some distantly-spaced places she owns: a library, a post station, a corner of a park with a statue of her great-great-great-grandfather, a theater. In each location Aleko hops off the carriage, and Kiri gets out, and they draw chalk on a part of a surface that would be suitable for a bellpull to appear from via portal for the kobold to see, and Kiri stands in a place it would be appropriate for her to spontaneously materialize in response to a fire-related emergency.

[lurkingkobold]

This is sufficient for the kobold's purposes. After the third or fourth one, she starts keeping a knotted-twine 'list' of the places, so she can review them in between stops and make sure she doesn't forget any of them.

There continue to be a ridiculous number of humans, which the kobold finds a little stressful, but between the curtains and her ring and her own ability to teleport, she feels secure enough to manage. (So many humans, though. How do they do it?)

[calescent]

When she wonders that within Kiri's range - well, Kiri has practice not reacting to amusing thoughts too much, but there is the inkling of a sporfle on her face.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold doesn't miss much, when it comes to body language - comes of being a member of a culture where so few people can talk. She's not going to ask as such, but she definitely noticed that reaction, and is a little confused at it.

[calescent]

"Humans happen the same way any person happens," Kiri says.