It was sounding more and more like it would only be a matter of time before The Wild Elves made it here, and id still never gotten any information on the way they were using aether. An ancient weapon of war was something terrifying but there were ways around those, if there weren't id doubt anyone could have survived this long. A rogue wizard though was something I feared to my core, especially one that was surviving using aether in a war.

As I was starting to leave the city I was approached by a kobold couple, they were clearly part of the city’s poor showing signs of flaking scales and their clothes being barely more than rags. They stared at me for long moments, not that I blamed them I was a bit monstrous looking these days.

“You are a wizard, right?” the male asked me, showing off he was missing quite a few fangs.

“I am”

“We beg a favor please, we can pay.” the woman pleaded with me. She had a desperate look to her eyes. I simply waited for them to continue, not many people liked wizards and being approached for favors was normally unsavory business.

The man produced a long strip of cloth wrapping, and I was floored. It was aether wrap, worthless cloth for most people, but for a wizard it was almost priceless. Aether wrap helped contain channeled aether, it made channeling weaker but weakened the side effects by a magnitude more and the man appeared to know what he had.

The woman began to unwrap a sack she had tied around herself and then I saw it wasn’t just a sack, it was a sling loaded down with a freshly laid clutch. Four small eggs bound up tightly.

“Were starving, and now there's a war coming, they can't live like this please.” The woman begged through tear filled eyes. I hardened my jaw, wrapped the sling carefully inside my overcoat, sealing it up tight to keep the warmth before taking the aether wraps. I gave them the last of the rations id brought for the trip, I could go a day without eating I didn’t know if they could. I began the trip home freed from the weight of the trees but feeling far heavier.

Walking through the forest I found my thoughts drifting to my family. My mother and father were loving parents, always taking an interest in me and my sibling, it had been their idea to send me to the wizards’ academy when I showed more interest in books than any trade skills. My younger sister was the Headstrong type, and it was no surprise when she’d joined the local constabulary and even less surprising when she’d practically dragged a childhood friend into the family estate to announce her wedding plans. MY older brother was a warm and outgoing man, his nature to attract people to him was probably the only reason id made friends growing up and last id heard he’d started a run in the Ephemeral valley's politics. As I traveled through the night my hands kept finding their way to eggs strapped to my chest, leaving me with a melancholic smile and hope for the future of these little kobolds.

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While the night wore on it had started to rain, the cold, fat, pink droplets of a fall storm. I channeled the aether to keep me and the eggs warm but in the process I'm pretty sure the aether had given me a fever. The rest of the trudge home was a miserable affair fighting through an ever-muddier path and growing exhaustion.

I was more than a little relieved when I finally caught sight of the dullahan diligently guarding the cave’s entrance. When I made it down to the main cavern, I knew the fever had peaked, to all my senses I appeared to have interrupted a musical number in which Grak declared his love for being a pirate king. Viess helped me to bed and when I managed to pass the clutch of eggs to her and explain what they were, she immediately nested down with her new treasures, smiling like a mad woman and muttering something about her “little gobold babies”.

No longer having a need to keep warm, it didn’t take very long for the aether to dissipate and my fever to break. Deciding to make the most of the day I found my way to the dullahan at the entrance to practice actual combat as I adjusted to the changes my body had been through. In the end I don’t believe id made any real progress, but I had learned the bone plates on the back of my hand were strong enough to deflect the dullahan’s sword if I was careful, and my claws were sharp enough to leave scores in the shield that would repair themselves naturally over time.

More and more of the goblins were walking around with freshly made metal spears, and it gave me the idea to head to Zraih’s forge to see about having a second hatchet made to pair with the first we’d made together. When I entered the forge Zraih wheeled on me hammer raised stating “You’d best not be getting any funny ideas about me and that clutch of eggs you brought back, and you can be damn sure you’ll not be getting any from me either.” I could only raise my hands in surrender while laughing. While Zraih was in no way unattractive, we most definitely didn’t have that sort of relationship. With that out of the way we got to work forging a second aether hatchet.

After forging the second hatchet Zraih suggested making a new bow for Ultai. I went and carved out a piece of wood from the entry dome and set to work shaping it. Zraih for her part fashioned a thin blade that could be set in one of the limbs of the bow, curving back sharply. The completed bow would be large for a goblin but usable, with hard angles and when firing an arrow from it we found it would leave a faint blue glow on the target, similar to the flowers from the dome.

Sazz was a terrifying creature as she practiced with the pair of hatchets, quietly zipping around and staying low to the ground. It was very apparent that anyone that got in her way would be cut down at the knees swiftly. Ultai on the other hand, was terrifying in her own unique way. She would cackle like a mad woman, rapidly firing off arrows and setting everything she could to glowing. After watching the two of them I was starting to feel a little better about our overall situation.

The rest of the tribe had used some of the cloth I'd brought back combined with the shaved fur of some of the shag deer pelts to make proper bedding finally. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that bring the most joys, and I truly was a happy man to be able lay down comfortably for the first time in what felt like ages. The tribe had also fashioned a massive blanket as despite the improved bedding the vast majority of the goblins still insisted on sleeping in a pile, leading to the interesting sight of goblins crawling under a blanket that was increasing growing into a vast mound. Granted I couldn’t judge too much as it didn’t take long for Sazz and Ultai to pile on me as well, with Viess settling on sleeping next to me curled around her little nest of eggs instead.