This old bastard was definitely in the running for worst villain of the year award. Chalk Eater stood at the entrance of the home-cave that Juaki had brought me to, and what I assumed was our family’s domicile, with a goon on each side. Before any of the residents of the humble cave could react the the surprise appearance of the wizard, a spell flew from his fingers and made a shimmering barrier that divided the entire room in two, cutting them off from me and the door. I dared not flinch or look away from the old kobold.

I could see that both of my parents began to hammer their fists into the barrier, desperately attempting to breach the wall of magic that cut off all sounds they might be making, but to no avail. My brothers had sensed the danger and fled to the furthest side of the den to cower behind the jars and boxes of the lowest shelves. All I could do was watch and wait as the elder kobold lurched towards me slowly. Those cloudy red eyes never once left my own.

There was only a foot between us when they came to a halt, well within range of my sense of smell. A dry musk of burnt sage and incense hung in the air around them, as well as their own natural aroma of magically tinged ozone. A single wrinkly hand came close to me holding a red gemstone in its palm that crackled with an unknown power. Chalk Eater closed their eyes and chanted in that alien tongue, and the gem began to shimmer in response.

Inside of my own mind I heard a voice boom out not in english, but in a language I knew regardless. It sounded just like the chanting kobold in front of me, though much throatier and powerful. Definitely a man’s voice.

“WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT ARE YOU?”

The sensation of the thunderous words caused my head to ache, but I responded regardless.

“I am called Kayrux, and I am one who was reborn.”

I had no way of knowing how Chalk would react to this information, but something told me that in a world like this it might be possible that such a thing is not uncommon. There was no discernible change in the chanting of the wizard, though the intensity of the voice lessened slightly.

“A REBORN DRAGON-KIN IS UNHEARD OF, BUT I SENSE NO DECEPTION. TELL ME YOUR PURPOSE.”

Was he reading my thoughts, or had I accidentally put that inner thought where he could read it? Regardless, this was a good opportunity to set the record straight.

“I do not know my purpose. I was given a new life by the aspect of Death because of my terrible fate. I know nothing else.”

A pained expression crossed the face of the elder, and he stuttered for a moment in his arcane chanting at the mention of Death. When he spoke again, I no longer felt the intense pressure at the inside of my skull.

“If your claims are true, then you should be able to share with me the memories of your death. Show those to me, or face annihilation.”

Annihilation did not sound like a pleasant prospect, then again neither did actively remembering the feeling of being made into ground meat. I had little choice but to allow the metaphorical doors open to allow the intrusive voice access to that memory.

It was a regular Thursday evening, one like any other. I had just finished a twelve hour shift as a mechanic, so the smell of grease and cigarettes was lingering on me as I sat on the sidewalk just beyond the light of a gas station. My hunk of junk car was still hooked up to the pump, so I was taking a smoke break by the road. I had my phone out and was just browsing some of the latest memes when I heard a bellowing horn off to my left. I could only say “Oh shit” as the forty ton executioner flew at me at high speed. The moment of impact shattered almost everything in my body, followed closely by the awful sensation of being pulled under by the wheels and crushed into a red mess on the asphalt.

The presence of the wizard left that part of my mind as soon as the memory concluded. Chalk Eater looked a bit paler after witnessing the first person POV of my death. He almost stopped chanting again as he pushed his voice into my head once more.

“You are telling the truth. I was wrong in assuming that you were possessed by a demon. This discussion ends here.”

The audacity of this fucker! He has the nerve to torture me, interrogate me, and treat me like shit after I had only been hatched for a day? There was no way in hell that he was getting away with that.

“That’s it? No apology for how you had treated me? You think I’m just going to let-”

Before I could react to the sudden motion of the elder kobold, he had dropped his staff and wrapped his now free hand around my neck. He opened his eyes, and a dangerous aura filled the air. The words in my mind flared with unbelievable force.

“DO NOT BECOME PRESUMPTUOUS LITTLE BRAT! I am willing to overlook your disrespectful tone, and to allow you to exist within this conclave normally, but not if you are going to become a nuisance!” His fingers tightened around my throat as the red gem shone with a bright ruby light. “You will not speak to me, nor will you tell others of your nature. It is only by the will of Death that you exist here, and it is by my belief in the teachings of the End that spares you this day. Heed this warning, runt: do not meddle in the affairs of Zhathrael.”

The iron-like grip around my neck relented, allowing me to take in a ragged breath before the bastard threw me to the floor. My lungs burned as I struggled to take in new air, though I found it easier to lie on my side. The shattered fragments of the red stone clattered to the ground in front of me while the entourage of evil exited the den. The barrier soon collapsed, and I was lifted from the floor and placed in a wide alcove. Bahruk scrounged through the alcove until he held above me a cup, from which he poured a bright green liquid into my open mouth. It stung as it made its way down my throat, though I could already feel the bruising that was no doubt forming on my neck fading rapidly.

This feeling of helplessness dug a pit within my stomach. The sound of my father hyperventilating as he fumbled to put away the remaining potion, the sobbing of the three terrified brothers hiding across the room, and the fuming roars of an enraged green mother. In the darkest part of my heart I carved the name Zhathrael, and vowed one day that I would end that sadistic freak. In the corners of my eyes I could feel tears welling up and running down my face.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Some hours went by before I regained motor functions, though I didn’t dare to move my neck in case it was broken. Juaki had left not long ago, and Bahruk was sitting at the edge of the pit with a somber expression on his face. A temporary door had been made of wood and placed over the door, though I doubted it would stop an evil wizard with huge henchmen. So long as it gave the others some peace of mind, I had no objections to it.

While I lay there with my eyes closed, someone silently crawled into the alcove alongside me and curled up next to me. Then, not long after, a second and third presence joined the first. Daring to take a peek, I allowed one eye to open and inspect them. It seemed that Mibata had cozied up to me and was lying on my right, with Humey to my left with Tokols lying atop him. Perhaps they were worried about me, though it was hard to gauge based on the nonexistent interaction time we had. No words had been exchanged, and of the four I was the one that had been isolated, yet they seemed to understand that I was injured.

During the peaceful nap they were having, mom came back with a new kobold in tow. A giant kobold that looked like a fusion of dinosaur and crocodile, with ultra-deep green scales and shining blue eyes, and fangs that jutted from under their respective lips. Wait a second, this person smells just like Juaki, who’s referring to her as Tuleni. That instinctive part of my brain finally clicked as this enormous lizard knelt down beside me, close enough for me to get a deep sniff of the earthy aroma they carried. This was my grandmother, and she seemed to be a doctor of some kind.

Despite her large size and intimidating visage, she was impressively quiet while she inspected my sore neck. Blade like claws the size of daggers skimmed across the surface of my scales without so much as tickling me, and every so often would press into or pull against said scales. One hand slipped beneath my head and tilted it forward, which in turn caused every nerve in that area to scream out. My pathetic whimpers must have been heard since she immediately laid my head back down. From a bag at her waist she procured a pouch of fresh smelling herbs that she sprinkled over my head and shoulders while whispering something under her breath.

The sensation that pushed into my skin was just like the rapid cooling and relief that one would get from menthol gel after getting a terrible sunburn. I offered the great grandmother doctor a silent thanks as she stood to leave. Juaki followed her, the two stood by the makeshift door and spoke in hushed voices as their eyes darted to me every few seconds. The expression my mother had was so grim, like someone who had just heard that their child would die. Oh shit.

Grandma left, though how she fit her enormous body through the narrow doorway was beyond my understanding. After she left, I got to see first hand what earth magic looked like when father waved his hands wildly through the air while the stone surrounding him and the doorway shifted like putty until there was no door to be seen. He then went across the room and performed the same dance of flailing arms until a small room no larger than a broom closet formed in the wall, in which he began shaping out four alcoves just above the floor, as well as a divot in the floor just as large as the one in the main chamber.

Mom also contributed to the effort of making the kid room by cracking open a crate with her bare claws, in which was a bundle of pelts and blankets of varying sizes and colors. Each little den got its own bedding and the space in the center also received a few loose blankets. It was a cozy space, and one that I was already being moved into by the careful hands of Bahruk. Each of us sleepy little hatchlings were placed in a little den of our own, and it seemed to match with how we were sleeping on what must have been the big bed. Mibata was placed in the hole to my right, while the two to my left were for the largest and smallest of the three brothers. The word runt that the wizard had used made sense when I saw the size of the dens, since mine was by far the smallest, even compared to little Tokols’.

Time for sleep had once again come, and I silently prayed that Death would hold off for the night. Something told me that I was worrying too much, since the pain in my neck had completely vanished after the strange herbal remedy of sorts. All that was left for me to do was to rest to ensure nothing the evil wizard did was permanent.

…

If my memory was sound, I am certain that I would recall that I had gone to sleep within my own little bed of comfortable furs, and not in a pile of scales and blankets in the center bowl of the room. I wasn’t sure if it had been me seeking the warmth of the existing pile or if I had been dragged out by one of them, but I’m not complaining. It seemed that the air in these tunnels grew quite cold when the night came, and the kobolds would seek the warmth of their dens and family to stay warm. It was nice and toasty in the improvised bedroom, but the rumbling of stomachs reminded me that the four of us were growing and would need a lot of sustenance.

Luckily, our mom had us covered on that front with an assorted pile of diced fruits and pulverized meat strips. Unlike human babies, it seemed that teething was important for us young kobolds, and our little fangs were more than a match for the strips of tenderized jerky. It also seemed that kobold young were fast learners, as all three brothers were now competing to see which could stand upright first. As entertaining as their mock battle to achieve standing posture was, I noticed something startling about them: they were all beginning to speak. I ran the numbers in my head, and assuming that at most I had been in that cage for two or three days, it could only have been five days at most since we had hatched, and yet they were already attempting to produce words.

Our parents were thrilled and would cheer for them with each word they managed to speak, but there was no praise given to me. I could not understand the words spoken to me, and worst of all was that my previous difficulty in just croaking was now even worse from the brutal treatment I had received. Even attempting their easiest word, which I had guessed was “hello”, was too difficult for me to manage. I’m certain that Juaki understood what was wrong, since every time I gurgled or coughed she would make that same face from last night. She knew that I might never speak after what had happened.

Regardless, I wouldn’t give up. Yes, I found myself crying after that realization settled on me, but I pressed forward. There had to be some way for me to communicate, perhaps nonverbally with the others. Would kobolds have a form of ASL? Probably not, and it wouldn’t help anyway since I didn’t know any of my own. I had thought of perhaps relying on written words, but so far I have yet to see any examples of literary structure anywhere within this house. What else could there be to aid me?

Magic. That was what I thought of when I looked over at the red stone that lay on the floor. Perhaps if I could replicate the power that was used to invade my mind, I could become some kind of telepathic kobold and skip over the language barrier altogether. I chose my moment to creep over to the discarded gem when nobody was looking and scrambled to collect the pieces.

Of the five chunks it had broken into, only one still held the ruby red sheen it had the day before. The shard was no bigger than a marble, and was relatively smooth on one side while flat on the other. There was an enchanting allure to it, as though whatever lingering power it held was calling out to me from within the glowing embers of latent magic. My senses told me that there was definitely power inside, however faint it was, and that it was eager to be used.

With no means of replicating the chanting that had been used to activate it before, I could only sit with the shining gem as I pondered my options. Just then, I heard Juaki call my name, and I could see that she intended to take the stone from me. She didn’t understand what I was trying to do, and she would probably get rid of it if I let her take it from me! With no options left, I steeled myself for whatever effect it may have on me as I tossed the glowing rock into my mouth and swallowed it.

Oh, that hurts. That hurts a LOT.