Faerkurch should have expected that I wouldn’t be able to get anything done after hearing everything he had to say. Raevu was the unfortunate victim of what boils down to a mute rambling session about the shortcomings of kobold politics. Seriously, how could a group of eight old lizards become so disjointed that half of them are possible cult members? I tried not to get her too involved in the details I had learned, but by the end of it she at least knew that I was severely dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. All of my fuming got me a few pats on the head and a verbal reassurance that things will get better.

I wouldn't normally tolerate such patronizing behavior, but Raevu was a special exception. She's another big sister kind of person, so it was no wonder that when we worked together long enough to get to know how the other acted under stress that we would work to support the other. I had a tendency to lose interest in translating the medieval equivalent of bills and receipts, but would usually be pulled back to focus when she falsely pointed out some flaw I hadn't made. She would sometimes come to work half awake and need to take a midday nap, so I would ramp up the writing speed so she could recover. I was glad to have her as my scribing partner, and elated that she considered me her best friend.

What was something friends did to show their appreciation? How about lunch? I asked her what she thought about getting something from the market, but she shook her head at the idea.

"We should go to my family den. Is closer, and we have many foods."

Scribe work was a lot different from workshop life. Here you could technically take your work home, go get food when you needed it, and generally just hang out if you weren't motivated. The only thing that mattered to the great magus was that your quota was met and that the rules were adhered to. Raevu and I pressed on until we had sufficiently bought ourselves an hour to go get some food. We were in no rush as we made our way to the elevator.

She led me to her den, which from my understanding was in the kobold "old neighborhood" hidden behind a confusing number of staircases and right turns. This place certainly was larger than I had anticipated, and it had a blue metal sign above the double wide door declaring this the Dread Claws estate. The inside of the cavernous villa was almost as big as the workshop, and had three floors of stairs leading up to dozens of different doors. A few kobolds were milling about or keeping the place tidy, but none paid us any mind as we crossed the cavernous space on our way to a door on the right.

Our destination was a room as big as the entire den my family lived in, but every available space here was made for food storage or cooking areas. Raevu walked up to one of the shelves and grabbed an armful of ingredients before going over to one of the cooking spots. She gestured to an empty chair across from her table with a fork.

"You should sit. I will treat you to a food I can cook, is quite tasty."

I sat down, but there was no way I couldn't ask her some questions about the ludicrously huge place she lived in.

"Raevu, what's the deal with your home? This kitchen is as big as my entire house!"

She read these words and chuckled sweetly.

"This is Dread Claw home. Our family is old, we've had growing time. Have twenty families here. Each family has one clutch, and all work together to make home bigger and better. I think maybe we have over one hundred family here.

Dang, that's a lot of mouths to feed. I thought about what kind of environment that must have been to grow up in, and how she could be such a shy girl coming from such a large family.

"What was it like growing here?"

"Not as different as you think. My parents are new couple in the family, so we are not popular. Like I said, this place old so many kobolds here old too. My clutch newest one in six years. No others close in age, so just my siblings to talk to. We caused problems many times, but young enough to make mistakes and be forgiven.”

That makes sense. It is difficult for me to imagine considering my background, but I could theorize that her aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives had probably just gotten too old for that kind of energy that children brought. Still, what a bunch of jerks for ignoring the young family. Maybe not every family was as tightly knit as the one that I was brought up in.

Raevu had finished her prep work and had begun to sear the veggies alongside a few slices of bacon. Hot damn she’s really good at cooking, and she’s managing to keep everything stirred and on the cusp of burning all while continuing to speak.

“I may sound weird, but I am glad that I was not around many of the other families. Uncle Thru’uni is bitter, and his sons are very rude. Aunt Shalmam hates hatchlings. Many of the Dread Claw families think they best at everything, and new houses weak. I wanted to run away, but my brothers and sisters need me, especially after…”

She shook her head around to avoid that topic, then served us both a plate of her bacon and veggie dish. It was a little unsettling to see Raevu look so dejected, and memories of that night atop the altar came back to me. She and I weren’t very different, and it hurt me to see her so miserable again. I was about to about to reach for my slate when she abruptly slapped her fork down onto the table.

“Alright, now we’re done eating, so let’s check my den.”

I followed her up to the third floor fo the hangar-sized entrance to the estate, then went across the entire length of the wall to reach an entrance that was noticeably rougher than the ones we had passed. The living space within was much like the dorm room of my own home, but there were few storage shelves and seven beds, as well as a crate of mining tools at the right wall. I followed after Raevu as she made her way to a bed marked with Imperial Jani’nan stating her name above it. My eyes lingered on a bed that was no longer meant for sleeping, but rather had been made into a shrine under its label of Freloe.

We sat next to each other, and from the farthest reaches of her bed she withdrew a small pouch. Her fingers pulled at the string binding it, but she had words she wished to share first.

“Kayrux, I had a question. Why did you approach us on the function assigning day?”

My mind raced to create an answer that didn’t involve mentioning invisible forces of fate guiding my hand, though fortunately I had decided to help her of my own accord then. At least I believed I did, though perhaps there was some unseen influence going on in addition to my own compassionate compulsion. I wrote my reply and passed her the slate with a smile.

“Because you needed help. Anyone could see that you were all miserable, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if I let someone suffer when I could reach out to save them. My heart ached for you, and because of its call we became who we are today. There’s nothing else that can be said, really.”

She fidgeted with my plank for a moment as she asked her next question.

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“Do you actually care that much, even for someone like me?”

Red flag alert! I gently took my writing device back before assaulting her with a three pronged attack of questions of my own.

“Why would I lie? Is something the matter? What do you mean by that?”

She appeared to be overwhelmed, though the scowl that was now forced on my face probably made me a tad intimidating as I actually shoved my board into her field of view. She raised her hands defensively to push my wooden barrier away from her face.

“I…I just…I don’t get it, that’s all. You’re so kind to me, even though I’m a screw up. Everyone Dread Claws is such rude person, but even though I disagreed with their beliefs, still found myself thinking like them. I looked down on you because of supposedly cursed, it was terrible. You reached out for a bad person, and now I’m like this.”

She gestured to herself from head to tail. I didn’t catch her meaning of that last line, so I tilted my head to display my confusion.

“I’m trying to better my mind. We help each other as scribes, but as friends I’m not good enough. You are free to tell me things and let me know your life, but I am shamed of my life. Since losing Freloe, my heart missing pieces. I…I know they’re broken, but I want keep the shards. Want to put Raevu back together so Kayrux not regret being nice. It’s dummy talk, but that’s what I think.”

My hands were taken in her own as she pulled me close. The sudden shift in direction almost knocked me from my seat, but my tail was strong enough to push against the floor to stabilize me. Raevu’s eyes were shining like lights in the sky, her dark orbs with blue irises practically glowing with inspiration.

“I know you not wanting me talk like that, can know just from how alike we are. Please Kayrux, let me work to being better friend. You gave me hope, I want to give you something equal: loyalty. I am not a fighter, not a caster, and not a scholar, but I am your friend. We will make fun memories, share secrets, visit the sands outside, and work hard to make Faerkurch proud. We inspire each other to be the best us we can be. I promise!”

Oh man, she’s really worked up. I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to go that far and she was fine how she was, but the energy she had was resonating with me on a spiritual level in ways I hadn’t really thought possible. I wanted to do the same for her and truly build upon our comradery. I freed one of my hands from her grip so I could imprison her hand against mine in a powerful clasp.

Was this a vow of some kind, because it felt awesome. Someone who wasn’t tied to me by blood and worked at my side had acknowledged me as their equal and had sworn to overcome their ingrained prejudices. Fate, you fickle bitch you, how dare you bless me with such an amazing BFF? Our silent agreement had to come to a finale since a pained look was now creeping across her face from the bone-crushing force I began to apply. Sorry, got carried away there! With my hands free from the gesture, I could now write what I wanted to tell her.

“Raevu, I am honored that you would go to such lengths for me. I swear, there isn’t any force in this world that will tear us apart and I’m going to grow alongside you. Although you are not a fighter, a mage, or a scholar, you have the heart of a survivor, and if nurtured you will become strong in your own way. I’ll always be there to help guide you to that point. I promise!”

Raevu’s face contorted into a goofy grin as she bent over laughing.

“Ooh, I’m so excited Kayrux! Here, this is something I made, just for this day.”

She passed me the tiny sack, and inside I found a charm carved from some kind of dark hardwood. It looked like an armored kobold with wings and a spear, and on its face was a look of silent determination. Wow, this was so well made! I looked back to her in astonishment, which delighted her further.

“It’s luck charm! My mother taught me that Dread Claws made them for safety. The better the carve, the more luck! From things my brother has learned about you from Mibata as mushroom harvester, you have smarts and skills but bad luck. Wanted to make our friendship genuine with gifts.”

Aw crap, I didn’t know that gifts were a way to officiate something like this! Okay, let me think, what do I have on me that would be good. Money was too impersonal, my set of lenses wasn’t something she would like, a set of tiny jeweler’s tools wouldn’t do, and there was no way she would accept the throwing dagger still rattling around in my bag. No, this had to be something personal, something from the heart. I looked at her desert yellow scales and my own, and an idea came to mind.

I reached out and gently tugged at a scale from her chest until it popped free, much to her surprise and dismay until I prompted her to do the same. Yowch, that was a big one! I aligned both scales together so that her smaller circular scale would be backed against my larger diamond scale in its center, then shimmied a Drak in between them. My runes came to life as I made a thunder rune focused on passing a current from my left to right hand before sandwiching the scales and coin together between my palms. The heat was immense as the alloyed gold coin melted in my hands, but a backup cool run was able to mitigate the burns considerably as well as rapidly solidify the alloy once it had bonded with the scales. Finally I used my miniature toolset to carve a small hole in the top of my blue scale so it could be hung from a leather strand that I had used to tie my tool kit closed.

I presented my improvised gift to Raevu, whose ocean blue pupils widened in awe.

“Kayrux, it is amazing! How did you make it so fast, and what kind of magic was that? Oh great dragons, is beautiful gift. Does you know what this gift means?”

I glanced around awkwardly, hoping I hadn’t somehow given her a gift with deep symbolic importance. I shook my head with a slight bit of fear as she giggled again.

“It means we are allies for life. No matter what comes, we will never turn blades to each other. I love it, is very poetic.”

Oh, if that’s what it means then yeah, I totally agree. I placed a hand over my heart and bowed slightly, which made her clutch the scale-made necklace to her chest as she beamed brightly. Sworn allies and best friends, the two best things for people to be. My jaw began to ache from how wide my own grin had grown during all of this. How long had it been since I had ever called someone a friend?

Raevu’s smile faded as she hid the gift under her bedding hastily. She looked a little worried, was something wrong?

“We have to get back to Faerkurch scribe hall, our hour is almost over!”

Shoot, I’d completely forgotten!

…

We returned to the scribe hall with less than a minute to spare and were back to hastily transcribing scrolls for the rest of the day. I came home wearing an enormous grin that caught the attention of my brothers, and when they had heard that I now had a friend who was my lifelong ally there came a powerful feeling of pride and joy that radiated from their whole bodies. Come on guys, you’re making this seem as though you thought I wouldn’t have any friends, let alone one as cool as Raevu.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, though I noticed that Faerkurch never came back from his abrupt departure. Wablaks informed us that the elders had once again gathered to discuss the events transpiring in the North, but because one or more of them were refusing to accept the current ruling of non-intervention they had to meet every day until the matter was resolved. Politics in kobold culture were also victim to filibustering, how awful. Well this sucks, I still had questions for him about my magic and the dragons.

Without access to my greatest source of intel, all I could do was work hard, earn my slightly improved pay, and go about preparing for what was to come. I had relayed everything that Faerkurch had told me about the elders and the secret ritual to my family, and it was not shocking in the slightest that they were able to digest the information quickly and begin discussing how best to ready ourselves. The conspiracy wall was updated, and a new set of options were laid out by everyone.

Mom wanted bombs, but we had to remind her that high explosives and caves were not friends. Dad suggested a permanent door fixture that was more durable than our makeshift one, and apparently had already begun making one from some of the leftover lumber for the kitchen renovation. Humey was practical in suggesting that we make better weapons, which gave me the perfect opportunity to pitch a design I had made for him. Tokols and Mibata actually agreed on an idea of their own and asked us for permission to rig the front door with an alarm that we could arm every night.

Everyone had such great ideas, so it was only fair that I showed them some of mine. There were many glossed over eyes as I attempted to keep them following along with modern day technology, but they seemed to get the gist of what I had planned. When all was said and done, we had constructed a decent strategy on how to defend ourselves against this mysterious elder cult hiding in the shadows. Mibata was right, sharing the load did help keep you centered on the present.

Okay, now there was just one thing left to worry about, and unfortunately this one was all up to me to figure out. Next week was moon-rise, and I remembered exactly what would be happening that night. This time, I wouldn;t be the one up there, but someone I cared about would be. I had to be there even if it drove me mad. I had to be there for Vimna.