I didn't know exactly how long I had been lying there, quietly crying to myself, though by the entry in the List it had been somewhere between half an hour and one hour. Get a grip, man! This is just what you expected to happen from the start. It just took them a while to realize what so many people in fantasy already know; Dragons are dangerous. I can't really fault them for their reaction, either.

No matter how much I tried to reassure myself of these facts, however, I couldn't stop the pain of losing another life, short as this one had been. It felt so much worse than waking up in that egg, as well. That had felt so impersonal, not having seen it coming, and depending on the what actually happened to put me there, nothing had been meaningfully lost.

Now, though? I was at fault for nearly killing someone. I had been chased away, like some sort of beast. I had seen fear and hatred directed at me, even if only for a brief moment, and it made me feel wretched. Even now, as the scenario played back before my eyes like it was happening again, I descended into another bout of sobs.

I curled in on myself further, but was reminded again that my feelings hadn't been the only thing to take a painful blow. Neither my wing nor my foot hurt like my wing had after that first painful blow, 12 days past, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.

At least the pain helped me calm down a bit. Soon, I had finally gotten myself under control, only sniffling occasionally. Everywhere where I had rested my head, there was a wet spot from all the tears and, surprisingly, snot I had produced. No matter what image dragons hold in this place, I don't think this would be part of it. The thought brought something close to a smile on my face, but was quickly replaced by worry.

What am I going to do now? The kobolds won't accept me back. Especially not if Dark dies because of me. Was I even at fault? He had seemed close to death before my very graceful landing. Then again, they only saw me flying in and crash landing with a nearly dead kobold. They might not make a distinction between my fault and happenstance.

I forced myself to test how much weight I could put on my front right claw before it started to hurt too much. Not much was the answer, but not nothing, either. It's going to be another few days before my wing is usable again, but I'll need to eat and drink something until then. I don't think going out is a smart choice, either. Not with things that can sneak up on me despite being thrice my size.

Inspecting my scales, I did find a scratch from where I had likely hit a jagged rock during my tumble. There was just a trickle of already dried blood next to it, but I felt no pain from the spot. I didn't have the mental energy to stop myself from licking at the tiny wound, cleaning - and possibly disinfecting - it. I couldn't claim to know what properties dragon saliva had, after all.

Suddenly, I was taken out of my reverie by a blue glow approaching from the direction of the kobold village. I snapped my head in the direction, expecting to find the kobolds come to hunt me down, but only saw one kobold. My eyes were still slightly blurry from my crying fit, but I recognized Red almost immediately. What's he doing here? Surely he was told what I did? Or was he sent to kill me?

Knowing that kobolds were capable of more than just hiding with magic, I glanced around at the walls and floor, to look for any glow that shouldn't be there. There was nothing, but I still kept up my guard. Considering I had been able to run just a bit faster than Dark when I was rested and uninjured, I didn't think I could outrun Red in my current condition. Because of that, I prepared myself to do what I might need to to preserve my life, as horrible as that might make me feel afterwards. I'll burn that bridge when I inevitably get to it.

My thoughts must have reflected in my bearing, because Red suddenly stopped around 4 meters away from me, before he presented something I hadn't noticed before. He held out another old light crystal, with a tiny mote of light still remaining, as well as a few pieces of rock encrusted with crystals of all colors. They all looked more impressive than anything I had been given previously, despite telling myself that I didn't care about such things.

“Apologies, dragon. Please forgive.” He said as he bowed, setting the rocks down in front of me.

I was getting a little confused as to his purpose here. Surely, he's not been told to apologize for the kobolds defending themselves? Well, might as well ask him. After I tell him to stop bowing. I'll never get used to that.

“We disrespect you. We apologize.” So it is that. They must have high hopes for me to protect them, if they're willing to apologize for my mistakes. I fail to see how I can do anything like that, if I can't even fly or talk properly, let alone know anything of these magic-like abilities everyone has.

“You not disrespect me. I hurt Dark.” I did my best to pronounce his name as best I could, but couldn't be sure how well it came out.

“What happened?” His voice took on what I assumed to be the equivalent of a soothing tone.

I stayed quiet for a little while, trying to find the words to describe all that had happened. I described what I had been doing, then the giant, brightly glowing snake, and how I rushed back after Dark went unconscious.

When I described the snake, however, Red seemed a bit confused. “Bright thing? Bright like crystals?” He asked once I was done.

So that confirms that the kobolds don't see the blue glow. Just like I had assumed. Maybe he has some sort of idea if this is normal for dragons? “No. Bright like you and Dark.”

At that, his eyes went wide and he seemed lost in thought for half a minute. I cocked my head, confused at his reaction. “This bad?”

My question took him out of his silence, as he exploded into a string of words too fast for me to understand even a single word. When he finally noticed that I didn't seem to be able to follow his words, a minute later, he adjusted his speech for me again. “Is good. You like Dark, and not like Dark.”

“I not understand. I not bright like Dark.” The irony of my statement made me unintentionally smile for a moment. What are the chances his name actually has anything to do with darkness, though?

When he floated in a few pebbles from around us, I was immediately on guard again, but tried to stay relaxed, hoping this wasn't meant as an attack. “This magic” The last word he used was also part of what he had described Dark as. 'mana-kobold', as far as I knew. That word though, also had something close to the word for darkness as part of it, now that I thought about it.

Some of the pebbles that were hovering between us took on whole new shapes. They looked similar to the ones Dark had used, but none of the ones I had seen were the same as any of these. Where Dark's magic had formed shapes and line of all sorts, Red's was made entirely out of blocky looking symbols. “This Magic.”

It was nearly the same word, but he stressed a different sound this time. When there was a ring of 10 of these symbols, most of the glow around Red seemed to flow into it. After he put one more pebble into its center and the flow of mana stopped, the glow around the circle got brighter. Then, all at once, it went into the stone in the middle, and the thing launched at a frightening speed towards the other side of the chasm, maybe 8 to 10 meters away.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Not even a second later, it impacted and exploded into a million pieces, leaving a small crater in the wall. Not as large a hole as I had seen on my first day out in the caverns, though. Okay, that's scary. I don't thing I'd survive something like that. New goal, then; Make sure the kobolds love me, so they don't subject me to that.

Name: unknown

True Name: unknown

Age: 16 day(s) 9 hour(s) 29 minute(s) 16 second(s)

  (12 day(s) 9 hour(s) 29 minute(s) 16 second(s))

Species: (some sort of)Dragon

Gender: female

Life Stage: Hatchling

Titles and Given Names: K

Statistics:

  [Hidden]

Goals:

  Learn to fly. Progress: 90%

  Learn the dragon language. Progress: 85%

  Make sure the Kobolds love me. Progress: 0%

The hidden statistics was new, and appreciated, as the list had been getting a bit long, what with all the things that were being tracked by now. I could show and hide them at will, at least.

“This earth magic. Make me Earth-Magic-Kobold.” 'Earth Magic' and ' Earth-Magic-Kobold' were each just one word, but they weren't just those two or three words slapped together. For one, the 'magic' in what he had called himself was pronounced the same as the 'magic' he had first used, where the one in 'Earth Magic' was with the second pronunciation.

For another, the word for 'Earth' was one he hadn't explained to me yet, but I just assumed that's what it meant from how it had the same root as 'rock', though it sounded more like 'ground', while not having the stress on the correct sound.

“Dark use dark magic. Make her Dark-Magic-Kobold.” So I did dub him correctly. Do the kobolds' scale's colors have something to do with their magic, then? ... Wait, did Red just use a female pronoun for Dark? … Well. I have no clue how to tell a kobold's gender. They all look just the same to me. Heck, I wouldn't know my own gender if I hadn't checked! I mentally blushed at trying to check someone else' gender the same way I had done mine.

“You not have dark or rock magic.” This was again the first pronunciation of 'magic'. “There also bright, hot, water and air magic. You not have those. But you need magic to do this.” He pointed to the crater in the wall and used the second pronunciation. “You have strong Magic.” OK, if I assume that the two pronunciations are referring to different things, I don't know what the distinction is. The first was him- is it even a him? For all I know Red is female as well. I guess it doesn't matter so long as I don't have to refer to Red with a gendered pronoun out loud. Anyway, The first 'magic' was Red just floating a bunch of rocks. For the second, there were those strange symbols. Is that the difference?

But that doesn't really help me. Does it? He says I have no … non-runic magic? But I have strong runic magic? How does that make sense, and how could he even tell? I was going a bit cross-eyed trying to figure out what Red was trying to tell me. Is this some of that 'looking' as opposed to 'seeing' bullshit? 'Hearing' as opposed to 'listening'? “I not understand. 'Runic magic'? 'Non-runic magic'?”

Red thought for a long time, but eventually just said “I not know how to tell. Need to teach more words first.” At least that's still on the table. “You want to know more words?” I nodded gladly, but that reminded me of the issue of getting back into my little alcove.

“I … not get back up.” I said, wincing a bit when I showed off my lightly bruised right wing.

“Hmm. I bring ~~ soon? She look at hurt wing?” I suspected he was referring to some other kobold's name, one I hadn't heard before. I hesitantly nodded, since whoever he would bring in this situation would likely be some sort of doctor or healer, depending on how far magic goes. “I teach later. I go back to other kobolds and tell of this.” He bowed again, then left after I verbally dismissed him.

I tried and failed to find any more clues as to what he could have meant, while he was away. I should ask if Dark is OK, though. I don't want to be left wondering if I killed a kobold.

I was just about to try and replicate some of the symbols Dark and Red had made, when he came back with another kobold. This one was carrying another of the light crystals and not glowing with mana. I wonder if one of the pronunciations of 'magic' are what I see as this blue glow? Would be the 'non-runic' magic, since that's what I apparently don't have?

The new kobold, I'd call her Healer until proven otherwise, looked a tiny bit frightened to be in my presence, and when I cocked my head to the side, she seemed to remember something and threw herself to the ground before me. This is getting old. I had tried a few timed to get them to not prostrate themselves like this, but to no avail. “Rise.”

She hesitantly did so, after I had to repeat myself once. “How can I help?” The words were in a slightly different order than I would have done, but that's likely because I still didn't have an inkling of proper grammar.

“I hurt wing.” I winced again, moving my wing a bit too fast.

“I look at wing?” I nodded, understanding her, even though I didn't understand the full sentence.

Healer Gingerly stepped closer, until she was right next to me. The way she looked and trembled, I could have assumed she was sent as some sort of sacrifice. “I not bite.”

My words didn't seem to reassure her in the slightest, as she inspected my wing without touching it, like causing me pain would spell her death. She looked all along the leading edge, then asked me very quietly if I could lift it further. I winced again when I did so, likely some tendon or muscle at the base of the wing had been hurt as well.

After she looked at the entirety of my wing's membrane, she said something too complex for me to understand, until Red literally dumbed it down for me. “Wing good. She not find what wrong.” There goes the idea she might have been able to use magic for healing.

“Is good. She try. How Dark?”

“She is not bad. Will be good soon.”

“Good. Now teach words.” I realized that I hadn't actually heard Red's name spoken yet, but it didn't seem very important then. Healer took that as her cue to leave again, bowing deeply once more before leaving.

This time, the lesson ended a lot earlier than usual, likely because we had started a lot later than usual as well. Red actually went into grammar today, explaining what sorts of words came in what order in what situation.

This, like I had expected based on the structure of the words themselves, was quite easy to understand. The important words came in the same order as in English, just that some of the prepositions and conjunctions were slightly different.

“I need to go now. It time for rest.”

“I will be here. Bring food later. Please.” This lesson had actually been really successful for my language progress. Now, with 94%, I felt like I was as close as ever to some sort of fluency in the language.

When I had asked if this was good enough for an explanation of magic, he said he'd tell me more tomorrow. Well, his tomorrow, likely, as the kobolds operated on a different day's length from me, currently. I wonder what an actual day's length is, here. I haven't noticed any sort of cycle in any of the plants that live down here. I'll adjust my timer based on that, whenever I get out to the surface.

Now alone again, I went back to contemplating the issues I had nearly caused myself with my inability to fly properly, and before that, to hide using my own magic. Red said I had strong runic magic. I didn't exactly know what that meant yet, but id it was as straight forward as what I called it suggested, I'd just need to figure out the symbols that Dark had used, then somehow get them onto the ground around me.

Wait, didn't Dark use some sort of shadows to form the symbols? And Red used stone. Earth and shadow magic. Is what I understand as non-runic magic just some sort of manipulation? So, earth and shadow manipulation? If I don't have that for anything, how do I form the symbols?

It only took me a minute to remember that my claws were hard and sharp enough to easily leave a mark on the rock. I don't think that's gonna work in a pinch. It'll take me a minute to carve even a few of those symbols into rock. Let alone get them right, if they need to be exact and in to right location relative to the other symbols.

To say I was impatient for Red to come back would be an incredible understatement. As such, when someone arrived with today's food – a very small amount even compared to what I had gotten before – I immediately went to town on the meat and bones.

For all of three minutes, I was sure the sound of bones crunching was audible all the way to the kobold village.