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

[of_all_trades]

"If you want ask, I can tell you what everything does," Franklyn says "for example. This thing is a light-switch. Light off. Light on. See?"

[lurkingkobold]

"Okay." Hm. "Kobold is of safe of magic thing - kobold do of touch of thing of magic, kobold want of magic, thing do of magic; kobold no do of want of magic, thing no do of magic. ...maybe. Human magic maybe do of different."

[of_all_trades]

"Not magic" Franklyn explains "it is technology," he says the english word "like making a fire isn't magic, or making trap isn't magic, it is knowing how to do things. It does light. It does fire to cook. It does cold for food storage," He points at the lights, the oven and the refrigerator while saying that.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold blinks, first intimidated, then intrigued.

[of_all_trades]

"Humans discovered how to do many things without magic," Franklyn says "this is a cell-phone and that is a telephone, both can be used to talk over distances. If I press this things the right way," he points at the buttons "it will make another phone ring, it will make a sound and if someone picks up they can talk with me. Wanna see it?"

[lurkingkobold]

And, back to intimidated. She shakes her head.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn winces "Sorry... Would it better if I made them go silence so it doesn't startle you? The sound isn't uncomfortable but it can be surprising."

[lurkingkobold]

She considers, briefly, and then nods.

[of_all_trades]

He does that. He also takes a few food items from the bag, including a entire bowl of fruit, on their respective cabinets.

"Do you want to do anything while we wait?"

[lurkingkobold]

More consideration. "Franklyn do of tell of other of human?"

[of_all_trades]

"One is called Amy," Franklyn says "she has a different kind of move-magic, she needs many tries to go where she wants. They might use my sister, Temperance, she does copy-magic and will copy Amy. Temperance can copy one human-magic power at time, and she needs to touch the person to do it. I don't think she can copy you and wouldn't do it without asking," he reassures "even if she did, it wouldn't get the move-magic. I don't think she can get the kobold illusion magic. One will take us to the Mars' move-magic so you could make a big portal there. I told them that kobolds don't like too many not-kobold people."

[lurkingkobold]

She looks a little confused at the mention of illusion magic, but nods and relaxes a little when Franklyn's done talking. "Other of other of human?"

[of_all_trades]

"The other people involved with the Mars move-magic?"

[lurkingkobold]

Headshake. "Human of no of magic. Trouble human."

[of_all_trades]

"They don't know where Mars move-magic is. We will keep it a secret until we have people living there."

[lurkingkobold]

She nods, "good. Tell more? Trouble is of...?"

[of_all_trades]

"Several kinds," Franklyn says "Violence and fear. Some trouble humans believe their god hates magic. Some are afraid of magic. Sometimes trouble humans will hurt magic humans, but sometimes they do stuff that is like... kicking the magic human out of their tribe. Not all magic human are perfect, but the trouble humans will be bad to the good ones too. Magic humans are kept good by the Lighthouse" he offers the English word "that is recent, but good, different from... what it was before."

Franklyn face gets a weird distant look, very unlike every face he made before.

"Sorry," He says "The Mars thing is a Lighthouse thing."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold makes a small sympathetic noise and moves to offer the human a hug.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn hugs back "Thanks," he says brightly then in a sad tone "Those people are gone now and we have been fixing their mistakes, what they did to people... to me. One of my brothers is a major part of that."

[lurkingkobold]

More hug. The kobold looks curious, but stays quiet.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn gets the meaning, through some combination of copied and native talent, and since he already started talking about it...

"There was a bad person with a bad mind magic. He manage to get me one one day and he made my power go bad, it was like every person around me screaming in my head..."

[lurkingkobold]

She makes another sympathetic sound, and nudges his hand with her nose.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn smiles, albeit there still a bit of that distant look in his eyes, tentatively he scritches the kobold.

[lurkingkobold]

She grins, just a little. "Franklyn okay?"

[of_all_trades]

"I am," He smiles fondly continuing the scritching "it just... it was bad, and other people were hurt too, but they are healed or in the way to get healed. Thanks for being so nice."