They stopped a couple of hours later, a concept she was still getting her head around, at a rough cave, set within the cavern wall. A well-used fire pit near the entrance showed that others had camped here before, and the floor was scratched and scuffed, the sign of many previous visitors.

"So we found the staircase and it's intact, but we should really check out the next one, just in case." Yaris and Shrike were leaning over a piece of paper they called a map.

A drawing of where they'd been, and where they wanted to go.

She'd mentioned that she found the idea neat, and Shrike had commented that with her [Pocket Zone] skill being a traveller's skill, she might be able to get a card or upgrade which allowed her to see a mental-map of where she'd travelled, which she would be able to see in the same way she could see things inside her Heart.

She hoped so, that would be awesome. She could draw it out and stick it on the wall and everyone could see where she'd been, or if it was a Heart upgrade, then maybe it could be one of the walls!

How great would that be?

She had been mentally playing around with the temperature in there throughout the day, and she'd found she could make it anywhere from near-freezing, to as warm as a summer room, with all the doors and windows closed and a big fire in the fireplace. She could control the air, too, but she hadn't found a mental switch for the 'walls' yet.

Jump-touch pressed her hands together, speaking quietly in Given Tongue. "Mountain, please grant me the skill to make maps or, or a Spell, or a card, it sounds super awesome," she intoned, head bowed, touching the tips of her second fingers to either side of her forehead.

That was how you appealed to the Mountain, either for good weather, or for luck, or for new kobolds to come to the village who knew how to do magic. It rarely worked, but you never knew. The Mountain was always listening.

Should she be appealing to the Stone instead? That was what humans did, right?

Something in her violently rejected the idea. It was the Stone which had given her magic, sure, but it wasn't a Mountain. It had looked like a regular Kobold.

Appeal done, she sidled up to Ollie, who was staring intently down at a piece of cloth.

"What're you doing?"

They gave her a side-eye, then looked back to their work. Should she leave?

"Embroidery." They said, tersely.

A moment later, "but I'm not very good at it. I got a point of Dex when I was seven, and it should've been enhanced when I gained my class, but my hands don't work any better than they used to."

Jump-touch hummed, looking down at the scrap of linen. It looked alright to her, doodled with red and blue threads in the shape of delicate flowers. She couldn't see the problem.

"It's fine," Ollie elaborated, "good, even, but it's not good enough to sell, and I was hoping that getting my class would… Improve it."

"Oh. That's rough."

Is this a Mediator thing?

She found Ollie hard to read at the best of times, and she wasn't sure now if they were venting, asking for help, or hoping she'd leave them alone to their sewing.

"Well," she tried to keep her voice neutral, if they wanted her to go then they could say so. "What does your job- uh, Class? Do."

Ollie side-eyed her again.

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"It lets me learn faster," they went back to staring glumly at the work, "and it lets me mend things better, supposedly. I've only had it a week."

That surprised her, these humans were all so old. Shouldn't they have chosen their classes years ago?

"Do hu- do normal people get their jobs later?" Jump-touch said, "aren't you all uh, really old?"

Ollie slapped the embroidery down onto the stone, turned with their legs still crossed, and pointed an accusatory finger at Jump-touch, who flinched backwards.

"Are you calling me old, you goblin-child?"

Their voice was resonant, echoing off the cavern walls. "You, who are but only a child, thou darest to call me old?"

She flinched back again, the words scrambling as her skill struggled to unravel them, "I'm sorry I didn-"

Eim's laughter cut through the echoes, and she flicked a glance at him.

He was smiling, and on the other side of the cave Shrike and Yaris were watching calmly, neither looking upset.

Am I reading it wrong? Is this not an attack?

Would they watch and laugh as Ollie attacked me?

"I?" Ollie boomed again, resonant, "I who was at the time of last recording fifth-teen-point-six years of age!"

Jump-touch tried not to be small, tried to be witty. Humans play-fought with words, that's all this was. It wasn't a real attack, it wasn't, even if all body language and expression indicated that it was.

"Well," she struggled, "that does mean you're… Almost two years older than me? That sounds old!"

Ollie kept their mouth open, finger pointed, but the booming stopped.

"Huh."

"You're only fourteen?" Yaris asked, and Jump-touch nodded as Ollie sat back down, shrugging and retrieving their embroidery.

"That's when my, uh, Friend said people, get their jobs. And the Stone seemed to think it was fine?"

"We never asked," Ollie was folding up the cloth now, around the needles and thread, "but you do have family in town, right?"

She queried Family. 'People with whom you are closer to than others,' supplied her skill.

She thought about that.

"I know My-he-kal, I met him on the road to town? And his uh-" she frowned, "-the woman who looked after him until he was old enough to look after himself, I think?"

"His mother," offered Eim, and she worked through that, nodding. "That sounds right. My skill says so anyway. Do they count as family?"

"It depends. How long have you known them?"

"Two… Two days, maybe three?"

It was hard to keep track in the nightless space of the underground,

"I met My-he-kal on the road to town, and I've been here three days? So that."

"That's not family," Ollie shook their head. On the other side of the cave Shrike was rolling the map back into its storage tube, "that's just people you know. Not even friends. Family is somebody who raised you your whole life, or sometimes people you've travelled with for a long time."

Jump-touch looked at the empty fire pit, digesting.

"Oh."

The concept wasn't translating well for some reason, but she was pretty sure the people of her village would count as Family, but not the Lower Village, because she didn't know them quite as well, and they had only had a small part in her care as a child.

"I guess I left my family behind," she said finally. "But I'll go back. When a year is up I can go home, and everyone is waiting for me."

"Why a year?" Shrike handed her the tube, leaning across the floor to avoid getting up, and with only a small jolt she sent it back to its place on the bookcase.

"My, uh, family?" There had to be a more specific term for a single person, but was friend the right one? Mother didn't fit. "They thought that a year away would be good. That a year would be long enough for me to learn about how people live outside my village. They thought that…"

She wasn't sure what they thought. Something about knowing her own species and how the rest of the world worked, but did that really matter, when she was only going to go home again anyway?

Feather-paw had disdained the idea. She was happy in the village, why did she need anything more? and she was still inclined to agree with him.

Rat-tail had disagreed, but Rat-tail had lied to her, and now she didn't know what to think. She hadn't even known he could lie.

"They thought I should get magic and a job and learn about people," she said at last. "The magic will be useful when I go home again, and I can help out with trades and talking to people. I can even talk to hu- I can speak Resper now, so that's gonna be a big help."

Ollie leaned back, stretching, their hands on their knees.

"You have nobody at all in town, though?"

She shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable with all the eyes on her. Their gazes had a strange weight.

"It's fine though?"

Eim stood from where he'd been crouching, walking over and slapping her on the shoulder before she could dodge out of the way.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," she couldn't see his face, with him standing above her, "and when your year or whatever is up, we'll take you back to your family and make sure everything works out."

"Alright?"

That sounded nice. She would have to introduce the idea of kobolds to them slowly, though. She was learning how humans were.

****

That night she awoke to quiet voices, human voices, almost too quiet for her to hear in her drowsy state.

"—kidnapped—"

"—keep an eye—"

"—do you think?"

She shut her eyes and drifted back into dreams, warm and safe under her rabbit skin blanket.