After being guided back to the hatchery and her brood chamber, Kori found that she was no longer in the mood to be celebratory, today did not go at all as she had expected it to. Laying on the leather pad within her den in the brood chamber, Kori stares at her status and its unexpected entry and remains that way, lost in her own thoughts and worries until she finally falls asleep.

The morning begins as all others, a quick meal of fish and cave moss amongst her siblings, before they all prepare to head to their various apprenticeships. Seeing them getting ready and moving with purpose rekindles some of Kori’s departed excitement, even if she gets called in front of the Elders today.

‘Today’s the day! Not only do I get to finally begin my apprenticeship, but I’m even going to start learning Magic! I can’t wait, I wonder what they’ll teach me first?’ Her excitement continuing to be stoked higher and higher.

Shortly after their meals are finished and her siblings dressed in their robes, tunics, and other trappings for their various apprenticeship roles, another cause of some envy for Kori as she remains the only Youngling still in her simple waist wrappings that she’s worn for years, barely more than a long strip of cloth wound around her midsection and thighs several times. She watches as her brother, Plk, leaves the brood chamber, wearing a grey robe that covers him from shoulder to knee.

‘I’ll have one of those soon!’ Clearly back in her usual spirits, Kori even assists the Minders in tidying after their meal, partly for something to occupy herself, but also to hasten the completion of their morning duties. They know her well enough by now to see the questions coming, her not wanting to interrupt them until a task is completed is usually a sign of a big one.

“Well, my dear, we’re nearly done cleaning up, why not ask it now so we can think on an answer while we finish.” One of the minders, who will likely move on to the hatchlings to help them through the day since there will be no other younglings around shortly.

“Oh, okay. I was just going to ask about being shown how to get around the caverns. I may have… kinda… gotten lost trying to get back here yesterday…” Kori replies to her a bit sheepishly.

“Ah, yes, I heard about that! Apparently, the look on her face when she found out you were allowed to be out, after she dragged you back like a wandering hatchling, which I will admit I’m surprised that it was the first time that ever happened with how much you liked to wander from where you were supposed to be, was quite a sight.” The Minder replies with a light chuckle, “Made Ord’s night.”

“I’m told Elder Korse might be looking for you this morning, he told us to keep you here for a while and if he didn’t come fetch you then to take you about and show you the way to the training chambers for the mages, Plk will be able to help you make your way home and get used to the route over the next few days.” She gives her head a shake, “That was a bit of a surprise, everyone assumed you’d be heading to the Trappers. Congratulations, Magic is hard to come by, having it high enough to awaken the spark and learn the mana skills before your class isn’t common.”

“Thanks! I’m So, so, excited to learn magic, I wanna throw fire like Ylst or maybe batter gobbos with wind like Kore! Oooh, oooh, maybe collapse tunnels on adventurers with Earth magic? There’s just so many options!” Kori working up her excitement and talking quickly as the minders look on with a chuckle.

A few hours pass before Korse arrives, having already sat through most of the morning meeting and gone over the various events of the night before, as usual there were injuries, damages, and various Kobolds found passed out in places they were never meant to be, including a near drowning after someone decided to do some late night, and very drunken, fishing in the deep lakes beneath the mountain. This also resulted in a tale of the shadow of something quite massive being seen while she was beneath the waters. They had decided to still take the report seriously, though Elder Blonc was quite dismissive and suggested it was merely a small fish much closer than the accidental swimmer thought.

“Kori, if you would please accompany me this morning? The Elders requests your presence.” It is odd for Kori to hear the Elder use this tone, he sounds very official and authoritative, different than his usual tone with the young Kobolds of the hatchery.

The Minders shoot surprised glances towards Kori, to summon a youngling to the Elders was definitely not something that came along very often.

“Oh… OK…” She shuffles forward, even being told that this might happen Kori was hoping that it wouldn’t, she almost believed with how long it took that it wasn’t going to be necessary.

“Come along, it shouldn’t take very long, and I’ll give you a quick lesson on our way before leaving you with Elder Ylst’s and her sorcerers to begin your apprenticeship.” Korse always knows just how to capture Kori’s interest, his grin barely supressed when he sees her excitement return.

As they proceed onward to the Elder’s Chambers Kori does her best to keep track of the twists and turns made in the halls and caves, this is noticed by Korse as they walk, and he begins to offer explanations.

“You see the line there on the wall?” He points and waits for her to acknowledge, “That shows which tunnel leads back to the great hall. It’s always on the right heading towards it. You can find your way there from anywhere in all of Emberscale Caverns by following one of those lines. When we reach the hall, you’ll see that the line is marked with a fang. As long as you know to take the door marked with a fang you can follow it back to the hatchery by knowing how many halls you must pass through before you leave the line, so for your hatchery you begin at the tunnel marked with the fang and go 5 caverns on the line, then take the third door on your left and follow that tunnel to the entrance to the hatchery.”

“There are many tunnels branching from the great hall, each leading in a different direction and marked in ways to identify their purpose. Hatcheries are a bit of a special case, we learned long ago to spread them out amongst the cavern to avoid disaster, like that sickness a while back, from threatening all our young at the same time. Your hatchery is in one of the residential tunnels, there are others spread about.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Kori nods her head along and thinks on what Korse has said for a while as they proceed along the route to their destination, “Does that mean I’ll head to the great hall then take a tunnel marked with a magic rune, or something to get to the training grounds?”

“Close, but not quite. You’ll take the tunnel marked with a spear and flame, the training grounds are shared by the sorcerers and warriors of the Clan.” A proud smile on his face as she figured it out quite quickly. “You’ll take just the one hall from the great hall to reach there, the training grounds is actually the second largest of all of our caverns, and the largest that we dug ourselves, the great hall being natural. That’s why you’ll find pillars there but none in the larger great hall.”

“Now, we’re nearly there. Once we arrive you will wait outside the chamber until you are called in, there is a space just by the door for that, then we will discuss the matter we talked about with Elder Kles, and they will likely ask to be shown your status. Only speak when they ask you questions and only to respond to those questions.”

They arrive at the great hall and Kori is once again taken aback at the sheer size of it, several hundred meters across the hall is a hive of activity, Kobolds coming and going, tables set out with workers preparing fish and meat and other products for cooking the daily meals, sounds of metal tools being sharpened or hafts repaired from another side of the chamber, and a buzz of voices the floors of the cavern showing worn paths where Kobolds have trod the stone down over decades and centuries, work areas sitting just slightly taller than the paths. In every direction Kori can see more Kobolds than she had ever seen, at least before the crowds of the previous night.

“Elder, how many live in Emberscale Caverns? There were so many out and celebrating last night, I never knew there were that many of us.” Kori’s head panning across the space as she speaks, trying to count just how many Kobolds are passing around her, though with them all nearly a third of her height taller than her it becomes fairly difficult.

“Hmm? Oh, I believe the Clan is somewhere around twenty-five thousand Kobolds strong presently. Nearly all of them live here in the Caverns, though about a dozen live on the surface as traders, taking the stone and ores we mine and some other goods and trading them to the people of Whatzakt for the things we cannot gather beneath the ground.” Korse answers her questions as they approach the doors to the Elder’s Chambers, one of the few openings to actually possess wooden doors spanning its opening. “Now, as I said, wait here.”

She nods in response and sidles up to the wall near the door, watching the Kobolds pass through the hall, noting the differences in attire as they go. Many wear tunics of various cloths and pants of leather down to their knees, some robes bearing coloured belts of mostly red, though sometimes brown, the robes are similar to what Plk wore before he left, though he had no belt, while others still bear thicker leather coats that look stiff and hardened, she even spots a one wearing a robe dyed deep red, cinched at the waist with a belt of black rope, this is akin to what Elder Kles and Matron Rels wore, though the belt differed and she wasn’t sure why.

Her hands pick at her own wrappings, feeling self conscious as she sees the other Kobolds looking at her questioningly, she realizes she stands out and looks like a hatchling, standing outside the leaders of their clan like she is awaiting punishment.

‘I wish I’d gotten my robe before we came here…’

Before she’s had too long to watch the passers by Kori hears a voice call for her, “Youngling Kori, please enter.” It was not Korse, and she does not recognize the man speaking, but does as instructed. Opening the wooden door, she finds the hall a little smoky from a pair of small braziers burning warmly to the sides of the room, a low table she recognizes from the night before sits with two others in an arc facing the door with space in front to address the council from. Several tunnels open behind the tables leading off to various other rooms and chambers Kori can only speculate at.

Over a dozen Kobolds sit arrayed in front of her at the low tables, she spots those from the night before and can still only bring names to the 4 of them, Korse, Ylst, Kles, and Ortik.

“We have been led to believe that you possess something quite remarkable Youngling,” The Kobold sitting at the center of the tables begins, clearly the Chieftain, Spiritcaller Ortik, though lacking the haze he had displayed the night before, clearly something he did to impress rather than a permanent facet of his Abilities. “Please, if you would begin by displaying your status so that we may verify this for ourselves.”

“Uhm… Yes Sir… Err… Chieftain…” Kori stutters slightly correcting herself. She moves closer and wills her status to be shown to all those present. They each study it with various levels of interest, most very little, but a few with quite a bit. One in particular on the lefthand table, quietly curses “Dragon-shite…” as he peruses her status. “Still not happy about this Korse, I was looking forward to this one. If she’s half as good as Kora, then I’d know the Clan would be in good hands for a long time to come.”

“Well, you’ll just have to settle for having her protect the Clan as one of my mages Bolst, if this Trait is near as good as we’ve heard then you’re going to be quite the little caster, may light a fire under Kore’s tail too to practice harder.” Ylst rebukes her colleague, a giant grin on her face as she looks at Kori’s status.

Ortik looks to the Elders and clears his throat, trying to restore a little decorum to the chamber, “Now then, Elder Kles, can you verify that you were unable to find any reference of this particular Trait within the written records?”

The elderly Matron looks up and for such a frail looking Kobold her voice projects strongly through the chamber, “Yes Chieftain, my Matrons and I spent the early hours scouring our records, while there are records of other draconic Traits, this particular one is not recorded.”

“Very well, Youngling Kori, if you would please read out the text exactly, Elder Kles, please ensure that it is added to the records in its entirety.” Ortik commands them to proceed, both do as told, Kori reading out the text of her Trait to surprised looks of the others.

“That matches what you reported earlier. My, that is quite the Trait young one, to grow your magical aptitudes before your class is quite difficult for the majority of Kobolds. We will expect great efforts on your part in the coming years to ensure that you are awarded the greatest class possible to take advantage of this.” Ortik looks quite pleased with the news he has received. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention Elder Korse, and for your researching the matter Elder Kles.” Ortik looks at the two Elders before he turns back to Kori, “Youngling, thank your time here today. You are excused from this meeting.”

Before Kori can respond Ylst speaks up, “Please wait outside the chambers for a few minutes, you were the final topic to discuss. I will bring you with me back to the training grounds when I depart shortly.”

“Thank you, Chieftain. Yes Elder, I will wait by the door.” Kori quickly responds before retreating from the chamber and returning to her spot just outside the door, her heart racing as she does, thankful to be away from their watchful gazes, excitement building with every step.

This is it! Magic!