As it turns out, there is a lot more that a kobold could want out of life, namely the ability to leave bed in the morning. It would be one thing if I were just tied up in my blanket, it would be another thing if it were just Tim on my chest like a cannonball on my lungs, but the third thing was Raevu’s body pinning my legs down to top it all off. I was definitely comfortable but incapable of getting up without first waking them from their peaceful slumber, a veritable prison of coziness. Resigning myself to this fate, I just laid there for the first hour of the morning until one of my brothers got up.

I had hoped that it would have been one of my brothers, but instead it was Bahruk who arrived first and just stood in the doorway chuckling at my situation. Thanks dad, you’re really helping in this scenario right now. He quietly crept close to me and kneeled down beside where my head was resting, a sincere smile on his face. He leaned closer and whispered as to not stir my resting captors.

“Doing well, daughter? This does look to be quite the scenario. You want me to wake them so you can escape?”

I shook my head to decline his offer. As much as my brain was itching to be up and doing something other than being still, I was actually quite relaxed right now and could easily enjoy this moment of pause. I looked up to him with my eyes wide as a way of pleading for him to not interrupt their slumber. A knowing smile slid over his face as he reached down and patted my head playfully.

“Alright, I understand. You enjoy yourself here, I will prepare some food before anyone else wakes. I love you, sweet daughter.”

A noise caught in my throat as I tried to say the same back to him, but the pitiful squeak that came out was neither words nor pleasant for my throat. I winced from the sting the note left behind, but still managed to hiss out what sorta sounded like a reply. He brushed at my head in reassurance before rising and dusting himself off. He was gone from the room in short order, leaving me sighing there wearily from the failed attempt at talking. Don't give up Me, you'll be able to speak someday.

Some time passed while I was trapped in that scenario, with me lying there stewing in resentment towards the elders that wronged me and self pity for not having a voice, all while everyone else snoozed around me in a quiet chorus. I tried not to overthink and lump all of the elders together, but my perception that I had been robbed of something only kept me circling back to the start every time. Eventually the scent of sizzling meat began to creep into the room causing some tails to twitch and snores to abruptly end as the kobolds began to wake. With how quickly they all began to crawl out of bed and begin their morning rituals, I had half a mind to believe that this was the power of some kind of spell. My brooding mood also seemed to spontaneously vanish when the prospect of food became apparent.

Raevu also rose from her position pinning my legs, took a look around the room, and barked in surprise while looking around the room with a lost and worried expression. I was wriggling my way free from Tim when she noticed me and recognition flashed in her eyes. A blush began to creep over her as she buried her face in the furs, obviously embarrassed by forgetting where she was. I choked on a chuckle and placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her for her slight blunder. Don’t laugh at her Kayrux, she’s just a little startled and confused.

We managed to untangle ourselves from the furry cocoons we had built and made our way out into the main den where Bahruk was waiting with a platter held aloft in one hand like some kind of waiter. Atop the copper tray was what equated to fruit salad, bacon and eggs, and toast covered in some kind of sugar dust that was really just powderized sweet mushrooms. Basic, but it hit all the necessary parts of the food pyramid, or at least I think so. The lot of us all scarfed our food down as politely as we could before doing some morning chores and tasks, wherein I showed Raevu the hobby room and all of its splendor. Disappointingly, she didn’t seem all too interested in any of my mechanical designs or my notes of magic theory, but was delighted when Tokols cracked open his crates and offered her a scarf he had made in his spare time. I squinted at him for his devilish tactic, which only earned me a sly wink as he delved into his supplies for more thread.

Soon enough it was time to leave and the entire den worth of kobolds departed in a mob formation as we all made our way to our various jobs. Most of our destinations were down on the lower floors, so almost everyone got to ride the cargo lift down to the bottom floor where we scattered into different tunnels and stairways. Something felt different as my friend and I made our way towards the scribe hall, but no matter how I cleaned my head or reached out with my mana senses, nothing odd or abnormal was to be seen. I pushed that thought aside and followed Raevu until we reached the enchanted dungeon door that led to our destination, then following the rules of the resident lord of the hall we entered one at a time with a single knock to gain access.

Today’s work went by at a thankfully quick pace, as the documents selected for us to translate today were mainly just trade route logs that consisted of lines and lines of remarks about how there were no dangers on certain routes. Boring, but getting through them quickly gave me plenty of time to head into the back of the scribe hall and begin perusing the books. With some assistance from some senior scribes I was able to locate two specific books I wanted to read up on: ‘Monster Behaviors and Habitats’, and ‘Machines of Progress’. One would help me understand more about my pet monster, and the other sounded like it might tell me something about the technology of this world that I hadn’t seen in the workshop yet. I took my prizes back to the tables assigned to Raevu and myself, but unfortunately I could not share my reading adventure with her as she was still engrossed in her work.

The first one I wanted to explore was this exploration of these monsters I had heard so much about, as the only one I had met that was still alive upon meeting me was my little roly boy who was playing around at my feet right now. The book wasn’t really a book per se, but more like a collection of first hand accounts from various researchers compiled into one big tome. With no table of contents and a clear lack of alphabetization to the entries my only option was to simply slit through the pages looking for the Ironshell Cavern Cleaner entry and whatever information that page would hold. Let me see…fire newts, poison leeches, flying rats, dinosaurs, lava crabs… ah here we go, cavern cleaners!

Uh…Why does everything here seem so vague, as if they didn’t know anything? The page says right here that the investigation into these guys took three months and the best they could come up with was a list of things their specimens would and would not eat, what kind of shells they saw, and some odd quirks they noticed about them. I’ve had Tim for less than that and I’ve figured out most of this without any special title to allow me researching privileges. Whatever, maybe the next page will tell me more.

Hold on, this actually looks like some notes on mana experiments they did on their bugs. Freezing them, shocking them, melting them, they did it all and got different results each time they repeated it. This line here in particular seems to summarize it well.

“Directing magical energies into the creatures seems to elicit some kind of reaction with the mana stone grown within them. Repeated attacks using low intensity magic spells can cause adaptations to form after a maximum energy level is reached. Subjects will seek out sources of elemental magic in order to force themselves to adapt, regardless of the magic displayed before them.”

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So Tim was trying to adapt to magic, even if it might have turned him into dust. I don’t know whether to call that a creative way to change yourself or a suicidal fixation on attaining more power. Despite the fact that I was reading it right here, I couldn’t help but wonder as to the credibility of these claims. If I had a whole swarm of Tims to test with, I might expose them to more than just thunder magic and see what they change into, but right now I only had the one bug. Maybe I should figure out some way to set more than one type of magic in front of him and let him choose what kind of bug he wants to be. Yeah, he might not be smart enough to understand that, but I'd rather put the choice there before him and let things go on from there rather than force him to be what I wanted him to be.

The rest of the entries began to go in a downward spiral when it came to useful information. The first pages could tell me everything from where the mana stone was and where to strike to kill it to where it made its nest and the best type of bait, but the last dozen or so entries were just a name, a vague physical description, and usually an abrupt end to the findings. Oh, that probably means what I think it means. Yikes. Sorry researcher people, I’ll be sure to avoid these creatures in honor of your sacrifice.

With no more entries to go over and lunch time soon approaching, Raevu and I took a short break to gather some edible things that would give us the energy to press on, or in my case to crack open a second book. We ate, we laughed, I shared my thoughts about my little bug, and we came back to the scribe hall just in time so as to not be late and get locked out of the hall. Alrighty then, time to see if there’s anything more to machinery this land is hiding from me.

Short answer: no, there is not much hidden from me when it comes to machinery. I breezed through the book and even went back to double check some things, but from my understanding it looked as though the book only knew of the innovations of the kobolds of this city, and most of those machines were either commonly in use in the workshop or were something so useless it might as well be a product that gets TV ads on Earth. I could probably learn more about the other machines in the workshop just by borrowing them and disassembling them myself, then piecing them back together before anyone comes looking for them.

I rested my chin atop my palm while drumming my claws against the tabletop, wondering what I should do with the remainder of my shift. Faerkurch did give me permission to do some weapon schematic drawing, but for that I would love some straight edges and rulers like the one over at the chart table that was currently swamped with scribes. Too many issues there, from my apprehension towards crowds to my desire to keep my work as private as possible. That sucks, but I’ve got tools at home that can fit the bill just fine. What else could I put my efforts towards?

I glanced to Raevu to see what she was up to, but it seemed that she was actually done with her initial stack of scrolls and had moved on to do a little overtime. I gently nudged her elbow to get her attention, and when she saw me I pointed to the small hill of completed work she had off to one side. She smiled and returned the nudge while keeping her voice low.

“I wanted to work more. Get better at new languages, make more moneys, buy furs for my own nest. Make a comfy bed like you having.”

An admirable, understandable, and satisfying goal to have, my friend, and one I would be more than happy to assist you with given the uncertainty always sitting before me. I sighed and picked my quill up once more to combat the endless tide of documents awaiting translation. I never did like working more than was required, especially at jobs I didn’t particularly like, but I suppose that habit has to die at some point. I pushed through the hesitancy in order to resume work, and for the rest of my shift worked silently there alongside the other scribes.

…

I was back home again, this time without Raevu in tow. Our sleepover was fun, but I knew that she had her own home, her own lifestyle, and her own family waiting for her to return. I greeted my brothers in my usual fashion of a wave and a smile, a hug and a pat on the head, and whatever else they enjoyed as a greeting before I ambled over to the hobby room. I sat there and tried to come up with some kind of earth design that could be adapted to a magical power supply, but from my memory it seemed as though my imagination had been completely exhausted of ideas for the time being. I even poked around to ask Charles if he had any suggestions, but it seemed as though he too struggled to find anything in my deep storage for memories. I could only thank him for trying before dropping myself into the corner couch.

I watched with tired eyes as Tim scuttled up to the edge of the bowl and flopped down at the edge right alongside my hand. I thought back to one of the things mentioned in the book, and as if I were reading the page right in front of me I could see the words plain as day.

“Bonding with a monster takes time and patience, but the loyalty of a tamed beast is unlike any other bond. You cannot force a monster to love you, even with spells and magic, as that kind of relationship requires more than just mana.”

I blinked and thought back to how the two of us met, how he had somehow followed us up here through the sewage pipes, and even in the absence of my own mana being displayed he would still follow me everywhere. I didn’t understand this little rascal’s way of thinking, but somehow I had earned his trust and made a true companion out of him. All I ever did was magnetize myself to you Tim, why do you love me so much?

Huh. Why did he seem so fixated on magnets? This was something I hadn’t thought of, but perhaps he was so adamant to follow me because I was uniquely able to create strong magnetic fields. I did want to give him the choice of choosing his element after all, so maybe this will work out for him. I grabbed the isopod and set him in my lap, then held a hand above him to either side and began to form runes in each hand.

First was a magnet in the right and a thunder in the left, both set to 1% true power. Electricity arced between my claws in my left hand while nothing visible happened in my right, but tim tried to move towards it regardless. I halted the flow and centered him facing me again, the tried another test with magnetic power on the left and filtering on the right. Again, he turned towards the magnet. Wind, heat, cool, scanner, even just a ball of raw mana itself, it did not matter. Tim wanted the magnet.

Not wanting to get ahead of myself I picked him up and left the room, then approached Tokols and asked him to activate his nullifying magic around his hand. We both activated our magics at the same time, and Tim scuttled towards me. I tried again with Humey and his dragon’s fire, Bahruk and his stone shaping, and even with one of the light stones from the wall. The last person to test this theory, and the late one to come home, was Mibata. I set Tim on the floor between us and instructed my brother to transmute his claws into metal when I signaled, and the moment we both did I saw something so wild that it made my jaw drop.

Tim glanced between the two of us, would take a few steps in one direction, then turn back around again only to repeat this multiple times. Eventually the poor bug began to make distressed noises that I had never heard before, almost like a pained scream coming from the segments of his shell scraping together. I waved for Mibata to stop while disabling my runes at the same time, and the immediate reaction of the poor creature was to freeze in place momentarily before scuttling hastily to my feet.

I knelt down and stroked the little guy’s shell in order to both calm him and apologize for using him as a test subject once again. His normal bubbly attitude came back after a minute of continued scratching and he was soon off to Humey’s feet to scavenge for dropped ingredients. I remained there kneeling on the floor, uncertain as to what this meant. Did Tim possess some kind of understanding of what kinds of magic were being presented to him, and was he struggling to decide which was more enticing? If that is the case, just how smart was this little bug and what could cause such indecisiveness in his little mind?