I sit inside a moving box in the middle of the cold season shivering, and not just from the cold… It would have been nice if they gave me something warm to wear…
‘I don’t mind the dark but, does it have to be so cold? Do they know it can make me sick? Or don’t they care? I can’t tell…’ I think to myself.
The box stops and I hear them moving and talking… I can’t understand what they’re saying, it’s too quiet… The door suddenly opens and one of the shiny ones grabs the chain connected to my collar and pulls, I nearly fall off the wooden seat, but I stumble out of the box and fall onto the cold ground.
I push myself up, I hope we get into the shade soon while it’s warmer the sky fire hurts. I feel a tug and follow trying to not look up at them, they don’t like it when I look at them. Soon after we walk through a doorway and into the shade and the warmth, I stop shivering almost immediately.
“Annabelle where is Phillip, is he not up yet?” The largest human I have ever seen says to a smaller but Still large human that’s. How can something be so large? The Largest is nearly three adult kobolds tall, and the smaller one is just over two adults tall. I can’t help but look at them.
“Oh, let him sleep in Daniel, it’s his birthday after all, and he works too hard a- Oh…”
It noticed me looking at it, I quickly look away and lower my head.
“Is… that the present you’ve gotten him?” The second largest human says.
“Yes, a strange colour is it not?”
"I thought we agreed that he was too young for a slave?”
“I know but it’s a kobold, it’s more a pet than a slave, so it’s a good starting point, I think. Anyway, you know how mature he is. And just look at it! It’s a white kobold! Never seen such a thing in all my years! I couldn’t lea-”
“It’s probably sick, or has some birth defect, I’ll be surprised if it lives a year, just how much did you waste on it anyway?” It sounds angry…
“W-well only, uh, a few gold…”
“A Few Gold…?”
It sounds very angry, I try not to move but I’ve started shivering again, and this time not from the cold…
“Ten?”
“Ten! For that!” I flinch as the smaller large one shouts, and I have to stop myself from trying to run and hide.
“It was a sign! Philip turned ten today and the kobold was ten gold!”
“I’ll give you a si-”
“Mother? Why are you shouting?” A new voice said, I risked a glance towards it and see a smaller human only one and third adults tall, standing, at the top of some large staircase that is looking at the largest one.
"Oh! Philip, did I wake you? I'm so sorry, I was goi-”
“Son! Look at what I got you for your birthday!” The biggest human yells while pulling the chain which makes me stumble forward. They’re all looking at me and I try to make myself look smaller than I already am.
“Uh…” The smallest one seems confused.
“It's a white Kobold! Have ever heard of such a thing?” The big human says excitedly. I Glance at the mother and she looks annoyed.
“Daniel, Philip just woke up. We can give him his presents later, he must have breakfast first. Jerald look after the kobold, Daniel, we’ll talk about this later.”
One of the smaller humans takes the chain and pulls me out of the room and I follow it while focusing on the ground…
After walking for a while and through a few different rooms we stop, it looks at me and says.
“Right, you wi- wait do you even understand what I’m saying?”
I nod my head while still looking at the floor.
“Right, well as I was saying, you will stay here until someone comes to collect you, oh are you house trained by any chance?” He says as he takes the chain of off my collar.
I flinch remembering the ‘house training’ that the slavers put me through and nod.
“Good and don’t try to escape, that collar will stop you if you get to far away from the key.” It says as it turns and leaves the room and as it shuts the door it makes a ‘Click’ sound. After it has left, I decided to look around the room.
It’s a small room, at least compared to the other rooms we walked through only twenty full paces across, and it’s mostly empty save for some dried grass on the stone floor and a pile of it in a corner, there’s one bared window letting some light in, it's much too high for me to see through, even when I jump...
I walk over to the pile of grass and lay down on it and press myself into the corner, curling my tail around me as I do so, and do my best to not cry, big kobolds don’t cry, while I think about how I got here. About how I should have stayed in the village and how I shouldn’t have left it to explore the forest, about how I should have listened to the elders about how dangerous the humans are… About my mom…
After a while stop struggling against the urge to sleep and pass out…
----------------------------------------
I wake up to the sound of a chain rattling and the door clicking, I get up of the grass and look at the door. The largest human walks in with the chain in his hand, he looks at me, and I flinch and look to the floor.
“Well, you must have been tired, though I can’t blame you after the trip you must have had to get here. Well, at least it kept you docile. Anyway. Come.”
I walk over to it, knowing not doing so means punishment, and it connects the chain to my collar and says.
“Hm. Some basic training… That is quite good, though I do wonder how trained you are. Hopefully not too well trained, my son needs to learn after all, though he’ll pick it up quickly either way.” It says that last bit proudly.
“Anyway, come along." It says as he lightly pulls the chain, I follow knowing that not following will only make it angry at me.
I take the chance to look at it properly, it’s big, Very big, it’s taller than two adult kobolds tall, and looks very strong. It’s one of the pale ones and it has strange-shaped black fur on the top of its head but no horns, is it not fully grown? Can the humans get bigger? I hope not. And it has a lot of fur where its mouth is, I wonder how it eats with all that fur in front of its mouth.
“Good, good. Now, you are to be my son’s first slave, and while you are just a young kobold, it’s best he learns how to handle non-human slaves with something relatively harmless, not that I believe that you are completely harmless, you see my son is quite impressive and is definitely exceptional in many ways to the point where I would call him a prodigy, in both the physical aspect and the mental one, he is a fast learner and quite impressive with a sword, especially for someone his age and rather smart I must say, a veritable genius at times, able to understand some things vastly ahead of other children his age, not that he has many friends his own age, they just can’t keep up, but he is quite hopeless with mathematics I’m afraid, it annoys him to no end when he spends hours on a simple equation that takes me only mere minutes to do, but he never gives up always looking to improve himself no matter how hopeless it may be…”
It slows to a stop while looking at its right hand, the air around its hand almost seems to wobble and the collar starts to feel warmer. I start shivering and suddenly feel very afraid.
“You see my son is incapable of even the most basic of magics. Including fire… The magic that any human can use, be it a mere fireball, to a raging inferno… All humans can use it, except for my son… So, to put it simply so you can understand it…”
It suddenly turns to look me in the eyes, the chain in its hand starts glowing red and my collar starts to burn me a little, I’m too scared to even shiver, the slavers never did anything like this.
It-, He says with a voice that’s sounds harder than metal, but so very cold.
“Do Not Hurt Him. And Do Not Use Magic On Him. Nod if you understand me kobold.”
I quickly and shakily nod my head.
“Good, well I shall take you to him. I will know if you hurt him. Just so you know.” He says as the chain suddenly stops glowing and the collar stops burning. He lightly pulls the chain and I follow while shivering a little.
After walking a while and going through a few rooms he slows to a stop and I glance up. The smaller human is sitting in a large chair near a strange fire pit, looking at a square thing in that It’s holding in its hands.
It looks up from the square thing and at its dad and then closes and puts the square thin on a table next to it, and then it looks at me and sees that I’m looking at it, I look at the ground again and listen to what they say.
“Farther, are you going to tell me why you got me a kobold now?”
“Ah, son, I have gotten you this kobold because I thought it was about time you learnt how to manage and teach non-human slaves. Also, it’s a white kobold! Look at it! It’s so strange I couldn’t help but bye it!”
“Okay.” I hear the small one move and then a light thud. Then I hear it walking towards me.
“Now before I give it to you, I must ask, how much do you know about kobolds?”
“I’ve read a couple of books on them, they don’t seem that interesting.” It says in a disinterested tone.
“While they are quite weak and cowardly, do not underestimate them, until it’s properly trained you should treat it like a wild animal, and while I know you are capable of protecting yourself, I want you to be careful with it.”
"I know, father.” It says.
"Good! Now, where did I-” I hear the sound of rustling clothes. “-hear it is! This key is attuned to its collar and I had it specially made for you so you can use it, you just need to hold it like this, and then-”
I fall to the ground grasping at the collar, unable to breathe as my neck feels like its burning, I try to claw it off but- and as suddenly as it started the burning stops and I can breathe again. Everything is blurry and it stings to breathe.
“-u can see it even stops it from breathing as well as heating up and burning its neck, you just need to squeeze the key harder and the collar will react more, but you should only use the key like that if it attacks you or tries to run away.”
I climb to my feet slowly, wondering what happened. Why did he do that to me? How did he do that to me? Is this why the elders feared the humans? Are they all this cruel? It’s difficult to breathe and my neck burns a little.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
“Okay.”
“Well, I’ll leave you to it then, unless you want some tips on how to train it?”
“No thank you, I’ll figure it out.”
“Very well son, I’ll be in my study if you need me.” I hear the big one leave the room and shut the door.
“…”
I stand shivering while still looking at the floor afraid and confused as I rub the collar on my neck trying to move it a little to relieve the stinging.
“Uh… What’s your name?”
I don’t say anything and just stand there looking at the ground while wrapping my arms around myself.
“Oh… Uh, do you want some water?”
Do I? Yes. But I don’t know if the smaller human will give me the bitter water that burned or actual water. The slavers liked to trick me. Should I risk it? Knowing that I have to drink eventually, I nod my head slightly. Better to get it over with.
“Okay… You don’t have to keep looking at the ground you know?”
Is that an order? I can’t tell. I look up, just in case, and see it as it pours what might be water out of a big jug and into a shiny cup. I take a closer look at the human and notice it’s more than twice as tall as me and has black fur on the top of its head, but no horns, don’t humans have horns? It puts the jug down, picks the shiny cup up, walks over to me and holds it out to me while bending over a little so I can reach it.
I look at it for a moment, then I slowly reach out to hold it. My claws make a few ‘Clink’ sounds as they touch it, trying not to drop it as not only is it a bit heavy, but my claws can’t grip it easily, so I end up gripping it in my palms.
It’s a little uncomfortable but at least this human lets me drink from a cup rather than pour it into a plate, the human lets go of it and I pull the cup closer to me and look at the maybe water closely. I sniff it a little, then I look at the human and then back at the cup.
And then I raise it to my mouth and dip my tongue into it. Good water. I lift the cup and tilt it a little, so some water pours into my mouth careful not to spill it, and take small sips slowly drinking it.
I look back to the human and see it looking at a piece of shiny metal that it’s holding between its clawless fingers, I feel myself stiffen as I realize that what it’s holding must be the key, was this a trick? Was I supposed to say no to the water? It looks at me, and I only just now realize I’m shivering.
It looks at the key and then me, and put the key into one of its pockets and walks back to the chair and picks up the square thing and opens it, as it sits it notices me looking at it and says.
“Well if you don’t want to talk to me then I’m just going to read for now.”
Hearing that I calm down a bit when it stops looking at me and looks at the square thing I slowly start sipping the good water again, though it’s a bit difficult and takes me a bit to finish since the cup isn’t meant for kobolds.
After a while I finish drinking the water, I look at the human and back to the cup, wondering what I should do with it, I don’t want to keep holing the cup, so I decide to put the cup back on the table… But that means going near the human… I don’t really want to go near it, so I just stand and look at the ground.
I hear it move and I look up to see it walking over to another, equally large, chair on the other side of the fire pit and sit down in it. It didn’t look at me once while it moved. Did it know I didn’t want to go near it? No. It’s a human. It probably just wanted to be further away from me. Or to have a better view of me. Or both.
I decide to put the cup on the table since the human has moved. I look to the human to see if it’s still looking at the square thing and not at me, it is. I slowly walk over to the table while taking quick glances at the human to make sure that it hasn’t moved.
I reach the table and it hasn’t looked at anything other than the square thing… What’s so interesting about the square thing anyway? Does it have pictures? I’ll think about that later, right now I’ve got to put the cup on the table… There’s just one problem… It’s taller than me… I know I’m small for a kobold my age, but this just makes me feel sad. It’s nearly two heads taller than me, even when I’m standing as tall as I can, I can’t reach the top.
I look at the cup and then at the table, then I look at the human, it still hasn’t moved. I won’t be defeated by a table in front of it. I’ll show these humans I’m smarter than they think.
I look for something to stand on, and I see a wall filled with square things, I put the cup on the ground and then walk over to the wall. I can barely reach the lowest one, but I manage to grab it, I pull it out and nearly fall over from the weight and size of it.
After stumbling a few paces backwards, I regain my balance and adjust my grip on the square thing, it’s nearly half as big as me, I look at the human and see it still hasn’t moved, I look back at the square thing in my hand and open it, it’s full of black lines and squiggles and doesn’t have any pictures... I don’t understand what’s so interesting bout this thing, maybe the humans one is different?
I walk over to the table and place the square thing on the ground next to the table and step on it, still not tall enough. I look at the human and see it looking at me with one of its forehead furs raised, I look away, ignoring it like it’s ignoring me, and repeat the trip two more times and once I place the third one down, I look at it and decide that it should be enough to reach the table.
I pick up the cup and step on the square things, I wobble a bit but after a moment I regain my balance, I still can’t see the top of the table, but I can reach it, I glance at the human and see it’s still looking at me. I focus on the table and I raise the cup and place it on the table. Feeling proud of myself I look at the human and see that it has a small smile as it says.
“You managed to put the cup on the table, but can you put those back? Or is that too hard for you?”
I look at it annoyed. I got the square things out, of course I can put them back. I hop off the square things, pick one up and walk over to the wall of square things, I put it back where I got it, I do that two more times and once I've put the last one away I step back and look at them. Exactly like it was before I took them. I look to the human feeling even more proud of myself.
It’s looking at me with a larger smile and says.
"Well, aren't you smart." I suddenly realise I did what the human wanted, it didn’t even need to tell me to do anything… It asked me… It tricked me… I suddenly feel a lot less proud of myself now, was this a trick? Did it plan this when it gave me the cup?
“Uh… Are you okay?” I jump a little as I notice it’s gotten off the chair and has started to walk towards me, as it passes the table, I put the cup on it puts the square thing on it. I look at it and say quietly.
“w-was all this a trick…" It looks surprised, did it think I couldn’t speak? Maybe it did, the thin human didn’t think I could…
“A trick? What do you mean?” It says. Is it still tricking me?
“When you g-gave me the water. Was i-it a trick?” I ask slightly louder.
“No, I thought you might be thirsty… So, I asked if you wanted some. And when you finished I noticed you looking at the table and the cup repeatedly, as if trying to decide whether to put the cup back or not and, uh, I thought your difficulty in deciding might have been you not wanting to approach me so, I moved to the other chair that's further away from you.”
“And j-just then? With the square t-things?”
“Squar- oh, you mean the books?”
Is that what they’re called? I nod my head.
"Well, I just wanted to know if you could put them back.”
“o-oh…” That makes sense. I think…
“So, uh. Is that why you look sad?”
Look sad? Why would it care… Humans are cruel and like hurting others…
“Do you think I’m still tricking you?”
“i d-don’t know… a-are you?” I ask quietly.
“No. But I can convince you otherwise.”
“o-oh…” I hug myself.
“Do you want anything? Like food or, uh, better clothes? More water?”
“i-i want t-to go home… i-i- want to see my f-friends… i-i w-w-ant my m-m-om…” I say as I feel tears fall from my face and I start shaking… Why couldn’t I have listened, why did I have to be brave… Why are humans so mean… Wh-
“Uh, hey, no crying.” It says as it picks me up. I can’t bring myself to struggle or fight it… Even if I hurt it the big human will hurt me worse.
It walks over to the chair with a table and sits me down in the chair.
“Stay there.” It says as it walks past the chair. I don’t pay attention, I can’t. It’s hard enough trying to stop myself from crying like it ordered. I curl up and hug myself as I lean in the side of the large armrest.
By the time the humans come back I’ve managed to stop crying, it places a squa- book on the table, then it picks me up again, I let it and wonder what it’s going to do to me.
It sits down and places me on its lap, I stiffen, what is it doing? It reaches over to the table and picks something up, a sq- book and opens it in front of me… It’s got nice pictures…
“wh-what are yo-you doing?” I ask quietly and nervously, the slavers never did anything like this.
“Well, I’m going to read to you.” It says in a quiet voice.
“oh… w-what’s read?” I ask.
“Uh… I’m uh… Going to tell you a story. I’ll explain what reading is later.” As it shifts me, so I lean into its arm… It’s warm… Are all humans this warm?
“ok… what the s-story?” I say as I look at the pictures.
“It’s something m- I was read when I was younger. It’s about a knight who fought the elves off and united the kingdom. It all starts three thousand years ago in the age o-” I listen as it keeps talking. After a while, I wonder if this is a trick. If it is it’s a nice trick.
It turns the pages every now and then, showing more pictures while it continues the story. After a short while I find it difficult to stay awake, and eventually, fall asleep while leaning against his arm…
----------------------------------------
‘Well I was not expecting this’ I think to myself as I peer through the flames in the fireplace, seeing me son with the little kobold child leaning in his left arm, struggling to stay awake, while he reads to it, from the book he loved when he was younger… I'm feeling slightly sentimental now.
When I purchased the little white kobold for him, I honestly just bought it because it was interesting. A kobold with white scales and red eyes, that is something even I have never seen. I expected Philip to simply train it and once he finished, move onto the next thing that interests him. But he was awfully happy with it, to the point that Annabelle even forgave me for spending ten gold on it.
But after I dropped it off, after lightly warning it about what will happen to it if it hurt my son, He simply looked… Hesitant… Which is rather unusual for him.
And after I left and started watching through the fire, he simply gave it some water from a good cup… I was rather surprised that he let it drink from the same cup that he was drinking from, which will need a thorough cleaning later on, and I was even more surprised... No. Shocked. That he let it touch those books, even more so when he let it stand on them to put the cup back on the table and when he just watched it put the books back, all the while, looking amused.
But I can’t help but wonder… Did the little kobold catch onto something when it accused him of tricking it? Was the entire ordeal with the cup simply to get it to feel comfortable around him? It’s the only reason I can think of that explains why he let it touch his books…
But if seeing him let the kobold touch his books wasn’t shocking enough.
He picked it up and put it on his lap.
I was almost floored when he did that, even more so, when he started reading to it from his favourite storybook, why would he do that? To calm the kobold? It’s a slave… No… It’s a pet… That must be it! He has decided it is a pet and not a slave, maybe he overheard me say it was more a pet than a slave, and that is why he is trying to comfort it!
It makes so much sense when I think about his actions with this in mind, I comfort Sharps whenever he is upset, so, it makes sense he would comfort his new pet when it was sad, though he was spoiling it when he let it drink from his cup, and was very lenient when it stepped on his books, but I can understand. I was much too lenient with Sharps when I first got him.
Given time he will teach it properly, but for now, he will simply enjoy having a pet. If he only told me that he wanted a pet, I would have gotten him something better than a young kobold, but he seems happy enough with it.
The kobold has fallen asleep now, and he’s looking at the fireplace… No, he’s looking at me. Perceptive little bugger, I wonder how long he knew I was watching him?
Oh well, I withdraw from my mind from the fire, impressed that he noticed the subtle difference in the fire when I was watching him compared to when I wasn’t. I can’t help but feel both impressed and sad that he can do such a thing. He’s determined to make up for his inability to use magic in any way he can, to become a knight to the point of absurdity at times.
I remember the look on his little face when he was told he had no magic. He was four at the time and we hired a Mage to see why he wasn’t using magic, most children start using some form of magic by the time they’re two, we just thought he was still developing his core as it was not unheard of for some children in very rare cases to not use magic until they were five.
But the Mage said he had no core and would never use magic in any form and that he was essentially soulless. Right in front of him. I feared I’d have to restrain Annabelle from drowning him then and there from the look she was giving him, for saying that in front of Philip, I’d seen that look before and I dare say the only reason that wizard lived was because she didn’t want Phillip to see her like that.
As for the Mage, well, that’s what we get for hiring one of those nuts. But the look on his face… He always wanted to be a knight, I blame myself for that, he knew that all Knights needed magic, and without magic, he would never be a Knight, and being called soulless didn’t help much either.
It took hours to get him to calm down, what really did the trick was when I told him that he should be the first-ever Knight without magic, I regrated saying that almost immediately as Annabelle look like she was about to kill me then and there. But before she could say anything, little Phillip latched on to the idea.
We decided later that night that we (I) were going to tell him that he couldn’t be a knight without magic in a week as to give him some time to calm down and that we (I) should never have got his hopes up.
People say those with an affinity for fire magic are most angry. Those people have obviously never met Annabelle.
But he surprised us. He was so determined to be a knight that when Annabelle went to check on him at five in the mourning like she always does, she saw he wasn’t in his room, and after came back to get me and wake me by splashing (almost drowning) me with a (tidal wave) small hand full of water.
She told me Phillip was missing and told me to find him help her find him. After alerting the guards and servants, we eventually found him in the training room using a training sword on a practice dummy. When we asked him what he was doing he said he had to train if he was going to be a Knight without magic, and when we asked how long he’d been training he said since three in the morning.
And over the course of the week, he started training more, reading more and learning more. He focused on improving himself so much that when a week had passed, not only was there a noticeable improvement in his studies and swordsmanship, but he only had a single nightmare that whole week.
We decided that we should tell him when he’s older. It’s been nearly six years and we still haven’t told him.
Though I got the very distinct impression that she meant me whenever she said. ‘We.’
Is it cruel that neither I nor Annabelle have the heart to tell him that, without magic, he has no chance at becoming a knight, no matter how good with a sword he becomes, how smart he is, how determined he is? And the mere thought of how much it will hurt him breaks my heart.
If he had magic, I have no doubt he would’ve made Knight General, maybe even Knight Master, if he was as gifted with magic as he is with sword…
I sigh before I voice my thoughts aloud.
“I really need to tell him… Maybe next year…” If I told him it’d crush him…
I’ll tell him when he’s older. Until then, I’ll let him be happy…