“Zel!” A sharp cry wakes me from a dreamless sleep, sending me scrambling as I rise from my bed in a panic. Or what I call my bed, rather — it’s more a collection of mismatched rags. I grimace as I look around my tiny abode, a literal hole in the wall just barely big enough for me to move around in without too much discomfort.
Poking my head out of what can only generously be called my room, I come face to face with the fervent gray eyes of my clutch-brother Karr. Technically speaking, we may not be related at all but all eggs hatched together are considered as such.
Karr is — by kobold standards at least — quite the specimen. His slate-gray scales are jagged and sharp-looking, making it look almost like he was plucked from the stony walls of our home. His legs and arms are almost half as thick as his torso, which combined with his large claws and scales makes it look like he’s got spiked clubs for limbs. His head resembles that of the dragons that our race descends from, all threatening and majestic. The tail that sways behind his back is as mighty as the rest of him, and I say that from experience — the oaf once nearly knocked my head off my shoulders with it.
I, on the other hand, can be best described as lanky.’ While my scales are equally gray, they more resemble the smooth scales of a serpent compared to my clutch-brother’s more impressive spiky ensemble. We are of equal height — a little over two feet tall, higher if we stand straight instead of hunching over — but I have nowhere near his bulk. My head is more serpentine as well, as smooth as the rest of me and sitting on a neck that feels just a little too long, a feature matched by my overlong whiplike tail.
“You’d better have a good reason for waking me up.” I grumble as I blink the sleep from my eyes. One neat thing about being a reptile? I’ve got a third eyelid now, a horizontal one. It’s oddly soothing to feel it close, for some reason. Maybe it’s just the novelty of the sensation compared to my old life, or the knowledge that I’ve got an extra layer of protection. Getting something in my eye and going blind from it would have sucked back on Earth, but here it’s all but a death sentence.
“I do!” He replies cheerfully, gesturing across our clutch’s little cavern towards the tunnel that serves as its only entrance and exit. “Soh wants us. Says it’s important.” He leans in conspiratorially, glancing around so as to make sure the other two occupants of our little slice of the Nest don’t overhear. “Pretty sure he’s taking us to the surface with him.”
Well that is interesting. The surface is nigh-mythical to most kobolds, since the majority spend their time entirely within the Nest — the collection of tunnels and caverns that we’ve made more-or-less safe and settled. Some of us do go out into the tunnels beyond the nest to forage for edible mosses and fungi, or the occasional beastie to eat, but that’s dangerous enough in its own right that it’s relegated to those either capable or unliked enough to be saddled with the duty.
“Really? What makes you say that?” I ask him as I slink out of my hidey-hole, my claws making a soft clacking noise as they hit the hard ground.
“I heard some of the others talking about needing some good meat soon for a celebration, and he’s one of the best hunters around.” He explains to me as he leads me out of the cavern and through the network of tunnels towards wherever it is Soh wants us. “So if he’s going out, and he’s asking for us…”
“Then we’re going out too.” I finish, sliding out of the way of another gray-scaled kobold carrying a jar as she passes the two of us. “‘Course, he could just want us to watch his hoard while he’s gone.”
The excitement in my clutch-brother’s eyes dims a bit at that. “Maybe… but I don’t think so. Why would he ask us instead of his own clutch?”
He has a point. More than one kobold has gotten sticky fingers around another’s hoard, and etiquette prevents the wronged party from investigating another’s cavern without solid proof… and what counts as solid proof tends to depend on how much the clan elders like you compared to the thief. Best to just trust your siblings to watch your things since kobolds of the same clutch tend to live in the same cavern, barring the separation between us grayscales and the chromascales. Even if your clutch-brother does decide to snatch your favorite cup or whatever, he’s opening himself up to a vicious reprisal from you and everyone else you shared your hatching with.
Unable to think of some other reason Soh might want to see us, I follow Karr the remainder of the way, the only sound from either of us being the scraping of our claws along the stone floor. The twists and turns in tunnels and caves that comprise the Nest would have seemed absolutely labyrinthine to my former self, but being a kobold gives you a sense for underground life.
The smells, the sounds, the air, even subtle differences of pressure all mix together to give me a general sense of where I am relative to everything else at any given moment… which is how I realize that we are indeed headed towards one of the smaller caverns on the outskirts of the Nest.
Soh awaits us there, inspecting his claws. The first kobold I ever met (and the first one I’ve ever attacked, a detail he finds less amusing than I do) could pass for Karr’s father — and hell, he probably is. That sort of thing isn’t supposed to matter as much as who’s in your clutch, but I’ve noticed that Soh tends to favor my clutch-brother whenever he feels he can get away with it.
It’s a personality trait I tend to benefit from by proxy since Karr and I usually come as a pair, so I’m not going to complain about it any time soon. Sure enough, Soh’s stony face lights up when he sees us… or Karr, rather, approaching him in the cavern, which is currently empty aside from the three of us and a pair of warriors standing guard near the exit to the tunnels beyond the Nest.
“Hatchlings.” He rumbles, reaching over to clap the two of us on the back. Karr bristles a bit at the address, but I take it in stride — we're both full-grown kobolds, but Soh and a few of the other warriors still call us hatchlings anyways. Best I can figure is they see everyone who hasn't been out of the Nest as a hatchling, so it's not like he's picking on the two of us in particular. Karr knows that too, despite his reaction — I'd bet my best blanket that it's half he reason he's so excited that we might be going to the surface.
Karr's scowl vanishes immediately when Soh tells us why we're here. “Today’s your lucky day. I’ve got some hunting to do and need someone to help carry the catch back. You two are young with strong backs. Put the pieces together.”
“So we really are going to the surface?” Karr asks excitedly, his scales practically vibrating with excitement at the thought. I move to his side and stand a little further away — if I know Karr, he’s seconds away from swinging that fat tail of his, and I don’t want to be anywhere near the damn thing when that happens.
“You are.” Soh nods and gestures towards the wall near the guards. A pair of crude spears are propped against it, made of what looks like bone, stone, and some fibers to bind the two together. “Take them. Your claws are sharp, your fangs are many, but spears have reach. Don’t need much training to use, either — point the sharp end at whatever you want dead and push.” He laughs and grabs the spears, tossing them to us. Fortunately, I manage to not fumble the catch. “Look at you, hatchlings. I could almost mistake you for warriors already.”
Karr glows at the compliment, and I have to admit that I perk up a little as well. I mean, I know it’s not true in my case, but it’s nice of Soh to at least pretend for my benefit.
“Anything we should know?” I ask. Better to find out if there are any giant birds or something now instead of when I’ve got a set of talons in my spine.
“Stick close to me.” He replies seriously as he waves the two guards out of the way and begins leading us out of the Nest. “If you hear or see anything strange in the tunnels, let me know. Chances are I noticed it too and it’s nothing to worry about, but you can’t be too careful. If something comes at us, remember what I told you about the spears — they have reach, use it.”
He freezes for a moment, as if something has just occurred to him, and he turns to look us both in the eye. “And if you see anything shiny near water, leave it the hell alone. If you’re lucky it’s real and you get a nice new piece for your hoard.” Karr perks up at that, predictably. There’s nothing that entices a kobold quite like something sparkly for their hoard. Soh notices and his eyes narrow as he grabs each side of my clutch-brother’s head, forcing him to look him in the face as he finishes.
“But if you’re not? It’s a lurker.” He pauses and stares at Karr’s eyes, which widen in horror at the mention of the kobolds’ universal boogeyman, then turns back around. “I saw one catch a hatchling like you once. There are less horrifying ways to die, and I’d rather not watch it happen again.”
Karr gulps audibly beside me and I pat him lightly on the shoulder. “Please, if either of us needs to worry, it’s me. I doubt a lurker could pierce those thick scales of yours even if it could wrap its claws around your fat hide.” I’m exaggerating, of course — if half the stories I’ve heard about lurkers are even close to true, Karr would be just as dead as anyone else if one got its claws on him.
Instead of sniping back at me like I expected, he turns and looks at me with worried eyes. “You think so? Ruk says—”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I have to fight not to roll my eyes as the big lug begins to cite our red-scaled clutch-brother. “Ruk is full of shit. Whatever he said was just him trying to rattle you.”
He looks at me, scandalized, and I remember just a bit too late that he buys into our chromatic brethren’s superiority complex just like most of our kind. He opens his maw, presumably to tell me off, but Soh’s voice cuts him off before he can. “Eyes up, hatchlings. We’ve left the Nest.”
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There’s something eerie about being out of the Nest for the first time, and it takes me a while to really put my finger on it. There’s not a ton of difference between those tunnels and these ones, after all, at least not at a glance. Sure, there’s a lack of some of the crude architecture and other signs of habitation that fill the inner Nest, but the outskirts more-or-less look identical to here.
It’s not anything tangible, I realize, so much as it is the realization that I’ve left somewhere safe and stepped out into the wild. The guards and warriors who patrol our tunnels to kill the various critters that sneak into the Nest are gone, meaning that any corner we turn could lead us face-to-face with some critter or another. Soh is here, sure, but he’s only one kobold, and he’s taking the front. If anything were to sneak behind us at any point…
… well, then I’d either have to get it or get got, so to speak. It’s a sobering realization, and one that makes my blood run a bit colder. Ironically, despite his earlier trepidation my clutch-brother looks more confident than ever, striding forwards with a gait that… I mean, it’s not exactly majestic or powerful, considering we're two-foot tall squat lizard-men, but I’m pretty sure more than a few of the lady kobolds back at the Nest would appreciate the sight.
The three of us walk in silence through the winding tunnels and caverns, Soh leading the way the entire time. Thankfully, we’re still able to see well enough without light sources even if things are a bit dimmer and we can’t make out color. I don’t know if that’s a biological feature of our eyes or some sort of magical fantasy world thing, but either way I’m grateful for it.
Even better, we’ve got our tunnel sense. Even on edge like I am, I'm able to mentally map our path and surroundings, memorizing all the sights, smells, and other sensations of these new places as we go. Doing so actually helps to calm me, if only just a bit — in the absolute worst case, I can find my way back alone if I need to.
I hear a scratching noise above me and to my right and nearly leap right out of my scales. Heart racing, I swing my spear wildly at the sound, prepared to fight for my life… only to see a surprised and angry cave rat scurry away as I smack it off the cave moss it was gnawing on.
“Dragons! You scared me more than the damned rat did.” Karr breathes next to me as he watches the creature dart away and out of sight. I mumble an apology and bring my spear back down as Soh once more begins to lead us towards the surface.
“Good reflexes there, Zel.” Soh whispers back to us after a moment. “Don’t be ashamed of how you reacted. If that had been a spider or something worse it may have saved your life.”
I don’t reply, and from how he keeps going it doesn’t seem like he expects me to either. Karr gives me a brotherly clap on the shoulder, nearly causing me to drop my spear, and we continue down on our way.
Thankfully the next stretch of our journey is equally uneventful, with the majority of our encounters being with more rats, or on one occasion a spiderweb sans spider. Soh carefully prods the thing apart with his spear before we move past it. “This should convince it to move further away.” He explains to us. “And more importantly, if we end up having to run back to the Nest we won’t get caught up in the web.”
We continue on in this manner for what feels like an age, the oppressive eerie feeling of being in the dangerous wilds slowly receding into the background of my mind, which means that when I do notice a new noise amidst the scraping of our claws on stone it immediately sends me into high alert. It takes me a moment to place the sound, but when I do I relax just a bit.
“Water?” I ask, lifting my head so that I can better pick up the noise. Sure enough, further down a tunnel to our right I hear running water — a stream of some sort, if I had to guess.
Soh stops, listens, and nods. “Good ear. That’ll be one of the cave streams. Smaller than the one running through the Nest, but still a good size.”
“Does it lead to the surface?” I ask, and this time he shakes his head.
“No. But it does cross our path. There’s another way,” He gestures down a different shaft. “But the stream is faster. Only problem is—”
“Lurkers.” Karr finishes for him, his spear creaking a little as he tightens his grip.
“Yeah.” Soh confirms. “We’ll check the stream first, but if we spot one we’ll take the long way around.”
A short trek later and we reach the source of the noise. The stream — more an underground river, really — carves its way through a decently-sized cavern, one part of it emerging from what looks to be a crack in the wall and the other disappearing down a tunnel that leads elsewhere. It’s wider than I expected, maybe eight feet across at a glance. Moss gathers at its edge, fed by the water as it rushes past, though without light I can't quite tell what color it is.
“Where does that go?” I ask, gesturing down the tunnel where the stream disappears, and Soh shrugs in response.
“Never been. Do I look stupid enough to wander next to the water for long?”
“Well, maybe not for too long.” I jibe, and he rewards me with a gentle thwack on the head from the shaft of his spear.
“Watch it, hatchling.” He mock-threatens me before pointing towards the opposite side of the stream and stalking forward with both of us just behind him. “Over there’s where we want to be. See that other exit? That’s where the other path leads. There’s no shine that I can see, so we might be—”
There’s a sharp intake of breath from Soh and he clambers back, his arms spread wide so that he can force us to back up with him. “Ack! Hey!” Karr hisses, but Soh shushes him and continues moving our group away from the stream.
Once we’ve backed all the way back out of the cavern he lets out a shuddery breath. “Dragons above, I nearly marched us right on top of the damned thing.”
“What, there really is a lurker in there?” I ask, fear mixing with an unhealthy amount of curiosity as I peak back into the cave. “I don’t see anything.”
“Look there, on the floor.” He leans past me and points towards the spot we just were, and I follow his claw to what looks like an oddly smooth rock that just barely stands out amidst the moss near the river. A little more focus reveals it to be connected to a thin string which trails into the water and disappears. “See it?”
I confirm that I do and he explains. “That’s their lure. Most of them have two or three. If they’re hungry it lights up, which is what normally lures its prey. We aren’t the only ones who like shiny things down here.”
“So this one isn’t hungry?” Karr asks hopefully. “Will it just let us go by?”
“No. It’s not hunting right now, but lurkers won’t turn down a meal if it happens to stumble into them anyways.”
“So…” I comment, still trying to see the lurker itself in the water. It’s a fruitless endeavor, sadly, since I can’t get a decent angle to see into the stream itself from here and despite my curiosity I’m not crazy enough to try and get closer. “We’re taking the other way around?”
“We’re taking the other way around.” Soh confirms grimly, still somewhat shaken from his narrow brush with death. “Come on. It’s a long trek.”
He isn’t exaggerating, unfortunately. The alternate path takes us just as long as the entire rest of the trip up to the stream did, and by the time we pop out of the exit he pointed out to us I feel the beginnings of fatigue setting in.
“Heh.” Soh laughs as both Karr and my gaits become noticeably heavier. “Sorry, hatchlings. I forgot how hard the walk is the first time. We’ll take a break when we get to the surface.”
Galvanized by the promise of a break, the two of us perk back up and follow him up the remainder of our trail. The first signs of the surface are surprisingly quick to come and are, unlike the stream, not auditory. Instead, there’s a difference in the flow of the air around my scales, accompanied by a distant sense of openness that feels entirely alien to my kobold senses.
“Feeling it already, eh Zel?” Soh comments and I realize that I’ve once more perked up in response to the new sensations. “Between that, the rat, and the stream, I’d say you make for a good scout, hatchling.”
“Thanks… I think.” I reply, not sure if he’s making fun of me for the rat thing or not. “Any other monstrous roadblocks we need to worry about?”
“Nope.” He responds cheerfully. “Well, unless a bear decided to make the cave its home. Then we’ve just wasted a trip.”
Karr frowns at the idea that we may not get to see the surface after all. “What’s a bear?”
“Big four-legged hairy monster with huge claws and thick skin.” I answer before Soh can, describing it exactly as Vekit, the crotchety old kobold who practically raised us, described it to me. I was roughly able to piece together what it was from her explanation and a crude sketch, and so far as I can tell they’re more or less identical to the bears I’m familiar with.
“Sounds bad.” He comments sagely, making Soh laugh. “Is it stronger than a lurker?”
“No.” Soh replies immediately. “Bears are big, but lurkers are bigger. They hide better, too, as you saw earlier.”
I’m not sure how big exactly bears are in this world, but if they happen to be grizzly-sized or even bigger… I look back towards where we came from, a sudden chill running down my spine as my mind conjures a multitude of huge, horrific shapes for the thing in the water that we very nearly walked right into.
A few minutes later we find out to our great relief that there are no bears taking up residence in the cave that serves as our exit to the surface. It must be day, because the harsh light shining in from outside blinds me for a good minute before my eyes fully adjust. From the way Karr rubs furiously at his eyes, he’s having just as much trouble adjusting as me.
Fortunately, Soh’s earlier promise holds true and we take the chance to rest for a good ten minutes or so before he stands, stretches his limbs, and hooks a clawed thumb towards the outdoors, which is now just unpleasantly bright instead of blindingly so.
“Alright, hatchlings. Ready to see the surface?”