Running through a desert, I see an oasis of water ahead of me. I can feel needles, the type used for meth, poking through the souls of shoes. They’re buried in the sand, litter from a long gone civilization. The water must be close, but with each step it moves farther away.

The anxiety of always running towards some unachievable goal. Ever since I did DMT did I know what these dreams meant. I was unsatisfied with this plane of existence, but I keep waking up to a new one. I’ll never reach a goal, but I must imagine Sisyphus as happy.

It’s a common dream, the only uncommon part about it is the lizard latched onto my chest. I don’t have any anxiety about lizards, so why would I be dreaming of one?

When I opened my eyes there was a kobold on my chest. The one I saved from the cage. I had made camp last night, despite it still following me. The fire was out now. The sun was breaking through the tree canopy. The lizard had a wispy snore. Petting the scales on it’s alligator like snout. It brings a clawed hand up. Swatting at my hand, I hold my hand steady and it wraps it’s small claws around my finger. It’s skin is cold. It shakes awake. Opening its eyes, looking into mine. It gives a sheepish smile. Pulling it’s head back, a blush turnin it’s green scales purple. “Human warm. Kree cold.” They’re cold blooded like lizards back on earth. I nod, it is understandable. I don’t mind having a kobold suck my warmth while I sleep. It feels like a cold pillow.

I get up, grabbing another potato from the sack. I hand one to Kree. Out of curiosity I ask. “What gender are you?”

“Kree is girl.”

I nod, now I can stop referring to her by it. I probably should've referred to her by them, but she’s not human, so my brain automatically goes for it. I’m sure there is a deep look at my psyche in there, but no use splitting hairs.

By the time I reached The Democracy I was out of potatoes. The gate guard greeted me. “Stop, step in here.” . Leading me into a wooden building right past the stone gate. He had a white curled mustache

“Business or pleasure?”

“Just visiting.”

“Length of stay.”

“Don’t know just winging it.”

……And other questions of that nature.

The interview went fine until the last question. “Why are you trying to bring a monster inside the city walls?” He asked me, leaning over the table to look at Kree, who was hiding behind my legs. “She’s not a monster.”

“A familiar?”

“No, she-” she’s just following me.

“A slave?”

“No, she-” she just likes being around me.

“A soulbound minion?” His insistent interrupting irks me, so I quickly, and more loudly than I wanted to be, say.

“She’s just a friend!” I suppose she is at this point.

He twirls his mustache. “Very unusual, it’ll have to be put to a vote.” He takes out a pen and paper. Scribbling down a ticket like a policeman. He hands it to me, it’s a court summons to the supreme court of The Democracy. “It’s in six hours, at the large courthouse, until then, enjoy the city.”

We entered the large courthouse after lunch. It was set up like a stadium. In a large semi circle filled with seats sat facing the entrance. In the middle of it was three podiums. One large with a man in a white wig and black robe. Two podiums set across from him. Each with a sharply dressed man behind it. We followed an usher down to the stage. He unlatches a velvet rope. I walked through and he closes it after me, leaving Kree on the other side. “Umm...she’s with me.” He points to behind the podium, next to the sharp dressed man in a red suit. I give Kree a shrug then take my place next to the podium.

He extends his hand to me. I look at it. His face falters and he slowly puts it back to his side. “Well anyway, I’ll be your representative to The Democracy. I understand you would like to pursue an undefined to indefinite stay. Are you seeking citizenship?” I shrug. “Well, they normally like it when you are and it accomplishes your goals.” He turns away from me. Taking the podium in front of us he announces. “Autumn Mystic, would like to pursue citizenship.” He announces. The other attorney, dressed in blue, takes his podium. “Citizenship can not be granted to just anyone. There are many requirements on the citizens of the nation. Does Autumn have the money to pay for taxes?” My lawyer looks back at me. I nod, I have a whole box of gold coins. Then he announces “He does.” The crowd watches me with dull faces. A few smile at me on instinct. In the few minutes where each attorney reviews their notes I look at the people in the stands. They’re the jury aren’t they? It’s a massive jury. With five rows of twenty people.

“Does he agree to serve time on the jury, atleast one day a week, but limited to a total of six days a week.” Again my lawyer looks at me, I nod. “He does!” The blue lawyer is sweating now. He tightened his tie. “But. But does he have the knowledge to contribute to The Democracy? To answer that I will call my first witness. Autumn Mystic.” My lawyer ushers me to the podium next to the judge. I look up at the judge, he has a stern face.

“Mr Mystic. Are you of royal blood?” I shrug, which he is taken aback by. “What do you mean you don’t know? Are there uncertainties in your past? Are you from a family of criminals? Do you not remember your own fake backstory?” I don’t know what counts as royal blood. Plus anything is possible. I’m just 99% sure I’m not noble.

“Objection! Stick to the line of questioning at hand.” My lawyer interjects.

“Sustained.” The judge adds.

“Mr. Mystic, if you are not royal then I can assume you are from common birth?” Again I shrug, but he takes it as a yes.

“Then you have had no formal education?”

“I’ve had twelve years.” A gasp rings out in the crowd. I feel like I have said something I shouldn’t.

“How did a child of low birth go through such intense schooling. Surely you don’t expect the court to believe such ridiculous claims.” He turns towards me with such speed that the fabric on his suit snapped. “Quick! Give us the highest math you know.”

What odd wording, highest math? I doubt this world is ready for the mandelbrot set, they don’t even have public schools, so I give them a really simple equation.

“A^2 + B^2 =C^2” It’s pythagrists’s theorem. Drilled into me when I was a sophmore in highschool.

The prosecutor looked at me like I was dumb. So I explained what it was “It’s used to find the length of the long side of a right triangle. The square of the other two sides equals the square of the long side.” More dumbstruck looks. I could hear the scratching of pencils on paper behind me. “The square of a number is the number times itself.” More fevered scratching. I hear the judge whisper under his breath. “Genius. A truly otherworldly grasp of arithmetic.” The prosecutor sighs, defeated he says. “The prosecution rests, let’s put it up to a vote.” I return to my seat and watch as the judge calls for a vote. Almost every hand in the stands goes up. The judge doesn’t bother counting. Just congratulates me on being a citizen of the democracy.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I took a step to the side as Kree was led to the podium. She nervously clicks her claws together. The crowd murmurs. “A kobold? Why is there a kobold here?” I can hear the sentiment echoing through the court. Kree sits at the table. Her lawyer, formally my lawyer, looks down at his papers. He looks at Kree, gives her a smile, then greets the crowd. “Ladies and Gentleman, this kobold is a traveling companion of Autumn Mystic. It-Er...She would like to stay by Mr. Mystic’s side for the duration of his stay. Normally this would be an easy vote. If a citizen has a visiting friend they aren’t even put up to a vote. Then why is she being forced to jump through these hoops?” The prosecutor stands up. “Jury, you can’t seriously be humoring having a kobold in the walls. It’s a monster, with no magic bonds to Mr. Mystic. Barely more intelligent than a wild animal there is no guarantee that it won’t attack someone.”

“There is no guarantee that another human won’t attack someone. As for intelligence, what seperates a human and a kobold? There are humans with intelligence lower than a kobold in this city.”

“But kobolds have an innate voice in their heads telling them to do bad.”

“Objection! How many kobolds do you know? Is anyone, but my client, a kobold expert?”

“Sustained.” The judge turns the floor back over to the prosecutor.

“Then what we as humans, should be asking of the kobold is if it can understand our laws. I’ll call it to the witness stand.”

Kree’s legs were shaking as she entered the podium.

“How many days have you lived with Anon?” Kree counts it out, holding out each of her six fingers she holds them out to the prosecutor. “More.” We had been together for more than six days, but she didn’t have the fingers to count it on. “Can you not count?” Kree shakes her head.

“How can we expect a creature who can not count to follow the laws?” The prosecutor asks the jury. Our defendant stands up. “There are citizens in this country who have to use their fingers to count. Are you suggesting we exile them?”

The prosecutor bites his lip. Then goes back to asking Kree questions. “Since you’ve been around humans, have you stolen anything?” Kree shakes her head. “No need steal. Anon give Kree food.”

“Have you ever hurt a human?” Kree shakes her head.

“Do you understand why you shouldn’t attack humans?”

“Cause human get mad?” Kree offers.

The prosecutor rings his tie, looking for a question to ask that will implicate Kree unfit to live in human society. “Fuck it, just put it up to vote.”

I notice my breath is bated while they count the votes. I don’t know why, mentaly I don’t feel anything. Kree is just a tag along to me. If she gets rejected I’m sure she’ll be fine outside the city. I feel nothing, but then why is my breath bated? I feel nothing consciously. Out of the one hundred voters on the jurey fifty voted that she be turned away and fifty voted that she be allowed to stay. There was a brief recount. Then the judge sighed. “Alright, grab someone outside, we will have to plead the case again to bring them up to speed.” A cry comes out from the crowd. “But that’ll take forever.” The judge sighs, looking at me. “In the interest of expediency we could allow Autumn to vote on this matter. He is afterall a citizen.”

“But he’s obviously biased.”

“All citizens are biased.” The attorneys go at it until the judge speaks again.

“We will put that up to a vote as well.”

The conviction of the people voting she leaves was wavering in front of wasting time. My guess is that once it took on a personal dilemma it became internalized. A rational like “Let one kobold into the city, or hear another boring court procedure.” it was a sixty to forty split that I was allowed to vote on this matter. I of course voted for her to stay by my side. Though I didn’t comprehend my actions. Realistically having to take care of her would be a burden on me. It would require one hundred and fifty percent more food on my journey to maybe find a key.

I was just starting to think this was a great city. The design was greek, white stone pillars and colorful wooden residential buildings. The people were friendly, except the people who kidnapped us. Bag over head, thrown into the back of a horse drawn cart, ropes around wrist. It was all very bland. Kree was struggling to break free, clawing at her bindings and biting the cloth sack. I didn’t see the point in this, the situation was under control still, but for her sake I began to escape.

As a formed a black dagger to cut my binds one of the watchers in the back of the cart yelled out. “Wait! Stop! We caught a brother.” The cart stopped and the bag was taken off my head. I cut my own bindings. The man was average build dressed in normal clothes with a black mask on. “Sorry about that brother, we didn’t know you followed the sleeping one.” I nod and free Kree from her bindings. She immediately jumps to attack the man, but I grab her tail and pull her into me. She looks at me annoyed, but sits on my lap as I converse with the cultist in front of me.

“We were just grabbing sacrifices. It’s hard to recognize each other with the mandatory mask rule, forgive me?” I nod. “Where are you living? I’ll drop you off there.” For a cultist his tone is casual, not edgy like I would expect. He acted like a middle class uber driver. “We just got into town.”

“Oh, so you’re part of a different branch. Well welcome to The Democracy. We meet at 1230 Council Avenue, there is a mask rule, to protect the identities of our high society members. Do you have a mask?” I shake my head. He hands me one from a compartment in the cart. “My friend needs one too.” I point to Kree. “Uhhh, sure, but I mean, it’ll-” I correct him. “She’ll” Though I don’t know why I corrected him. “She’ll be very noticable, we don’t have many kobold members.” I shrug, I guess I don’t need a mask for Kree. The smart move would be to leave her at home while I scope out the cult. Actually, the smart move would be to not check out the cult at all, but I don’t have anything else to do, and I can’t leave Kree alone. Well, I can leave her alone, but people might get scared and attack her, which I don’t want to happen.

The cult was nice. It had pews, the room was lit by oil lamps, but they didn’t do much. The theme of the underground room was black. The benches black, the walls black, the floor black. The pitch black room and low light made me move like I was drunk, bumping into random things that I couldn’t see. Kree was unaffected by it though. Kobolds have darkvision. I noticed this and let Kree lead me to the front row pew. I wanted to see the sacrifice up close. I had never seen a human sacrifice before, something cool might happen.

Nothing cool happened. They strapped a dude to a stone slab. Then pulled a large drill from the ceiling. The cult leader turned a hand crank for half an hour until the person fully died.

Now the cult leader kept turning the drill, the screw going farther down into the earth. It felt like overkill at this point. I looked to the guy next to me. He sat with bated breath and stiff as a board. He’s waiting for something to happen. I guess I’ll wait too.

It wasn’t long until a black fluid sprayed out of the hole. It sprayed into the ceiling then deflected into droplets that rained on to the crowd. It was a vicious black liquid. This is nothing like the black water that was back on the planet the Unpronounceable was sealed on. This water smelled like earth and gasoline. That water was just water but with a black opaque pigment. The leader had his arms outstretched and his mouth wide open catching the spray into his mouth. With the thik juice dripping down his chin he speaks “Rejoice brothers, the dark god blesses us with the water of his life. We have made a good sacrifice!” This isn’t his water, this is just oil. Of course, as soon as I realize it’s oil I use my magic to create a shield from it, protecting me and Kree from the spray. As the sound of the rush of oil dies down and the last bits trickle down off the ceiling I notice that the room is silent. I take down the shield and look around. Every eye is on me. It would appear I have broken some cult code. Rejecting what they think is the life juice of their god would probably set them off to attack me. I quickly form my magic into a gun. “Amazing!” The cult leader exclaims. He steps off the stange and inspects my gun. He doesn’t reach out to grab it, just leans his face forward, purposefully holding his hands behind his back. “I haven’t seen a tool like this before. Did the dark god bless you with this knowledge?” I can see the moisture from his breath forming on the steel. “Umm.. No, I thought it up myself.” He scratches his chin and examines the small slits in my mask where my eyes would be. “You have great powers granted from The dark one. Did you travel to the center of the planet?”

“What?”

“Where the dark one lives, in the center of the planet he sleeps. That is why we drill into the planet. To awaken him.”

“Oh, well actually he lives-” He slams a hand onto my mask to get me to shut up. Leaning close to my ears. “Sir, your power is certainly proof of your story, but….” He looks around at the people staring at us. “For my sake, let’s talk privately about this.”