“A human, interesting. Most interesting…” the voice mumbled to itself. Or to me, considering I was able to hear it and it wasn’t exactly talking. It was far more like a voice was being projected into my mind.

The combination of things happening left me completely unable to talk. Not physically, but I was so overwhelmed by the situation that I wasn’t able to process everything fast enough to form anything decent to say.

I was blown through the darkness. The first few seconds were fun and interesting, but after that I was terrified that I’d hit something. It’s rather scary to realize you’re probably flying at 80 km/h with no control over what’s happening, and no light to show you where you’re going. I think I nearly peed myself in fear, the cold sweat flowing down my back before I passed out.

…

“… extremely fragile” I heard Core say as I woke up. My pants were dry, and I didn’t wet myself. I swear.

“Wha… What did you do?” I asked. It was the first thing that came up in me, and probably the most logical thing I could’ve asked in the situation.

I could almost hear Core making a smile “Now that you ask” he voiced before he started ranting about magic, symbols and several hundreds of terms I didn’t understand. In all it easily took over fifteen minutes where I wasn’t able to cut in a single time.

“Won’t you ever learn to speak to someone in their own language” an elderly voice said. Yes, I could actually hear it with my ears now, rather than only hearing it in my mind. This actually calmed me enough to observe my surroundings again.

I was lying on a field of grass, and above me were many dots of light, almost like stars but far closer to the ground. Some had a blue hue, some white, some pink, others yellow, orange, red. Just about any colour you can think of. The ceiling seemed to be made of rather plain rock. Something I hadn’t seen in my life, as I actually hadn’t been in a cave before, and I must tell you that it’s rather different from a concrete or stone building.

I sat up and looked around, hoping to see either Core, or whoever the other voice was from. And I can say I was not disappointed. I saw the source of the voice just as he was about to start talking again. He looked old, and was about five feet, one and a half meters, tall. He had a long wizard-like grey-white goatee. He wore a long robe, similar to one from those Asian stores, coloured black with red where it was folded, and what seemed like fine golden threads keeping the structure together. He stood on a pair of slippers which seemed to be made of very old wood. But the most impressive part was that he was covered in brown, almost bronze scales. His head was shaped liked that of a dragon from stories, aside from the goatee that is. Instead of ears there were holes on the side of his head, behind which were horn-like protrusions, one on either side of his head. His hands and feet were clawed, with ridges covering their backs.

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He saw me looking at him as he was about to say something. He halted for a moment, as though he was in thought before he continued. “What, have you never seen a Kobold Ancient before?” he said. Something which I later learned was a smile began to cover his face. Showing his teeth similar to how an angry dog would bare its teeth, but apparently happy and joking.

“The teeth! The horrible teeth!” was all that occupied my mind, feelings which I can only describe as being similar to terror flooded over my mind, covering it from thinking straight, even for a little bit after he continued speaking.

“What Master Core meant to say was that you were brought here for one of many of master’s experiments. Master created the magical formation to bring you here, and then used air magic to lift you up and move you here. You passed out in the process which allowed master to conclude that you were extremely fragile. This is something which master had been pondering about as you were passed out.” The Kobold Ancient explained.

My thoughts simply couldn’t keep up, the only word which finally broke through my confusion was the word ‘magic’ “Magic? Like in stories? Things like throwing fireballs, creating lightning bolts and barriers?” I asked with confusion and astonishment most likely easily heard in my voice.

“Exactly, that kind of magic” The scaled horror with teeth for days said. Followed by Core speaking into my mind saying “You haven’t even described a millionth of what’s possible. Don’t see magic as something only that simple.”

I can’t say that I couldn’t believe what they were saying, but all of this felt more and more like a weird feverish dream rather than reality. The weirdness of the situation forcing itself on my mind, struggling to overpower the fear that was still present from seeing a dragon-faced person for the first time… Especially the teeth. He kept looking at me as over a minute passed, not much of which I realized. I suppose he was expecting something of me, but I still don’t know what.

“His name is Hornscale” Core said.

“What?” I asked in response

“I said I’d introduce you. This is Hornscale, one of my longest living servants. He began as a young Kobold, but survived the test of time, and grew up to be my most loyal and trusted servants.” Core explained.

“…Right…” I said, still unsure of what was going on around me. I realized both of them were trying to be social to me despite what I heard earlier about an experiment I was supposed to be a part of. I didn’t quite understand what they meant just yet.

“Before we introduce anyone else, let’s begin with the first steps” Core said, upon which Hornscale grabbed a book from within his robe.