I shouldn't have scarfed down my entire dinner so quickly. Now I'm bored AND my stomach hurts. It wasn't a lot of pain, more like slightly discomforting, but it was well enough to keep me from napping. There wasn't much to do in this environment, and the idea of possibly learning some real life magic kept my mind from calming down in the slightest.
At least my wing had stopped hurting at every move, though I couldn't quite subject it to a full wing beat. By the end of the day, I think I'll be able to glide into my place from above, maybe. Downside is, if it's not good enough, I'll be right back where this all started, or I'll go splat on the ground. I wonder if I could survive a 60 meter dead drop. Probably not.
Since Red left, I had already tried to carve some of the symbols I had seen into the rock around me, but absolutely nothing happened. That might have either been because all of the lines were crooked, because I was required to do something I didn't know about, or because the symbols were just wrong. Most likely all three.
Then I called up the list to see if I could make it do anything interesting, but was sorely disappointed at the extent of my options. I already knew that I could redefine my age based on different measures of time. The first time was just a consequence of another decision, but it was easy to replicate.
Adding all sorts of statistics was hardly interesting, with maybe the exception of adding my height to the list. While not very useful, since I had already defined half a meter to be my height when I first hatched, the list stated that I was currently 0.8 meters tall. Doing the same to my length and weight, roughly based on the weight of Dark, I got that I was 2.5 meters long, nose-tip to tail-tip, and about 6.3 Darks heavy. My wingspan was 1.9 meters.
I found that I could intentionally hide certain stats behind a [Hidden] prompt, allowing me to keep the list short despite ramping up the number of entries.
When I ran out of ideas to test, it had only been a few hours since Red had left. Implementing a calculator had been more frustrating than fruitful, writing my experiences down diary-style didn't work, and trying to go through with making a system of notation for the dragon/kobold language was too daunting a task for me to even try. And even if I managed the latter, I'd be mad at the wasted time and effort if there was already a written language.
I was tossing and turning from the boredom and discomfort for about an hour, when I decided to collect all of the rocks and rubble from the vicinity into another small mound of a bed. Thanks to Red's demonstration, there was enough around for something about a third as tall as my own pile. The difference it made in my comfort couldn't even be described. Despite the rubble I had found being very jagged and misshapen, it was like I had laid down on the softest mattress I had ever experienced.
If I ever decide to go anywhere else, I need to find a way to bring enough treasure with me for a bed. I could already feel myself calming down from my agitation. As I calmed down further, I finally dozed off, cutting the wait for Red a lot shorter than I had started to fear.
“There is two things important for magic. One, what non-runic magic you have. Two, how strong your runic magic is.”
“What is different between them? You said I not have non-runic magic. What that mean?” I was still slow in my speech, but it was certainly getting faster and surer.
“They different in purpose. Runic magic needed to do this.” He gestured to the hole in the wall he had made earlier. “Stronger runic magic gives other things. Long life. Stronger non-runic magic. Knowing where magic is.”
Red had actually started talking in what I thought to be regular speech, instead of the single words we had been communicating with for two weeks. I was simply missing a lot of the minutia of most sentences.
“That is why I can see magic? How do I see magic in others but not me?” He thought on the question for a second, then said he'd get to that in time.
“Non-runic magic makes runic magic easier. There are different magic-flavors, like I tell you yesterday. Bright, dark. Earth, water. Fire, air. There is tell of other ones in stories. There are also magic-flavors that are two magic-flavors in one. This takes strong runic magic.”
This 'magic-flavor' sounds like some sort of focus for what the magic can do, like some sort of element you're naturally good at. I think I think I've heard 'elemental affinity' used like this in fantasy settings. It would fit nicely here, I think. “So what means 'I not have affinity'?”
“It means you not have affinity. Makes all runic magic difficult, but you can make all runes work. I only know how to make few dark affinity runes work. Dark not need to know how to make them work. She make them work because she has dark affinity. It is like breathing when you have affinity.”
“And you make earth affinity runes work?”
“Not many. I am weak. Other kobolds taught me when I first showed magic. But I learn fast.”
“Then you teach me runes?”
“Will take long. You will need to mark rocks to make runes. Affinity is needed for non-runic magic.” He started floating some stray pebbles I hadn't collected, then formed another rune.
“I not care. I am bored of cave. Out there is dangerous. I know now. Not go out again before I learn magic. Then it is safe, yes?” Red actually sighed at that, but confirmed my assumption somewhat.
“It safer with magic, but out there not safe. You see what happened when Dark used much runic magic. She is not strong like you, but stronger than many kobolds.”
“What do I do?” I was eager to start, despite having another of my fears confirmed. So long as I could do magic, I thought my human ingenuity would pull through and let me figure out a way around this limitation.
“Most important thing is the runes. You must get them in the right form and right place.” He demonstrated by molding a slightly raised circle from the ground. As far as I could tell, this circle was pretty much perfect. I could also see how Red's glow got a bit dimmer as he did this.
Next, seven marks appeared along the circle, equally spaced around the perimeter. “This is places for runes. How large are the runes is not important, but must be all the same.” Centered on the marks appeared some of the runes, these ones looking a bit like what Dark had used.
The finished runic circle was about a meter in diameter, with a different rune in each spot Red had indicated. The raised rock around the runes fell away as he told me to step into it.
“Why? What will happen?” I was very leery of what this was going to be, after seeing what Red could do with runic magic. Then again, he used rock or earth magic or whatever. Dark's thing was shadow. It probably doesn't have that destructive power, but I could be wrong in what kind of magic this will be.
“It is magic for seeing in the dark. I think it is good start to learn to make the magic work.”
“What do you mean 'make the magic work'? It not just happen when the runes are finished?”
“No, you need to give the runes magic to work. I not know how to tell, but is like taking part of you and telling it what to do.”
Figures that there'd be some sort of spiritual element to this. If the fantasy tropes continue, I'll have to go within myself and find the source of my magic. “I try, then.” As I was about to step in and start experimenting, Red told me which rune specifically would need to be given magic for this to do its thing.
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Alright, you already have four points to your credit, fantasy. I'm betting on you not to let me down here. I closed my eyes against the low light of Red and the magic he had put into the ground, and tried to find something within myself I could 'give to the runes' as Red said.
At first, I didn't notice anything beyond the slight pains in my claw and wing, but after a minute or so, I started to once again feel all the ways in which this body was different from my formerly human one. First, it was how the air went through my nostrils each time I took a breath. There used to always be that tiny amount of resistance to slow air down for smelling, but that was gone now, seeing as a dragon's sense of smell was wholly different from a human's.
Then I noticed, oddly, how natural standing on all fours was. The lack of a need to balance myself almost didn't register over the added sensations I got from my wings and tail. How they twitched involuntarily every now and then, and, once again, how natural they felt to me by now.
Eventually, once I managed to ignore those, I felt like even the scales gave me a different sensation from skin. All across my body, there was an almost imperceptible pressure, akin to being submerged in water or wearing clothes that are too tight, but a hundred times weaker.
That could be any number of things, maybe a slightly higher air pressure than Earth. Maybe the scales make the outer layer of my skin less malleable. Maybe I'm just imagining things. I tried to tune the sensation out, but it persisted. I also didn't notice any more new sensations, so I stopped with this approach.
You disappoint me, fantasy. I thought we had a thing going. What's next then? I guess I could just try putting my claw on the rune and thinking very hard at it? Might as well try. With a single talon over the rune Red had indicated, I imagined some part of me going into it, like he had described, but nothing happened.
Welp, couldn't have been easy, could it? I think I'll just leave this for the time being and concentrate on learning the actual runes. I'm sure this will come to me in time.
Red wasn't surprised that I didn't manage it the first time. Apparently, kobolds take a few days to understand this, so at least I wasn't incompetent. “Only thing I can teach for shadow magic is this, but I can teach many more for earth magic. What do you want to learn first?”
Naturally, since I could somewhat see out in the caves with all the glowing moss, I decided I wanted to learn the earth magic spells. If I could ever learn to activate it, that rock missile spell would be really useful for self-defense.
When I told him the spell I wanted to learn first, he nodded in agreement, stating that it would have been his first choice as well. He brought up some rubble again and formed it into the runes required to launch the projectile, but when he was halfway done he stopped abruptly. He looked at me, seeming to consider something, then dropped the pieces he hadn't shaped yet, set down the ones he had, and started lifting more runes out of the ground.
“What are you doing?” As far as I could tell, some of the runes were different from the first ones he had started on. No to mention that this circle contained 12 runes, not the 10 from earlier.
“Need make a different thing for you. That one makes the rock fly through the ring. You can only make it on the ground. This one makes rock fly in any direction. You need to give different runes magic, but it is better for you.”
Yeah, probably a good idea that, wouldn't be very useful to only be able to shoot in one direction after spending who knows how long making the runes. When he was done, he instructed me to copy the runes just outside of the circle he had made. This went about as well as one might expect from someone that had never written or drawn on rock with talons. On the first round of copying them, the runes were quite literally chicken-scratch. As was everything up to the fifth time I redid all of them. They still didn't look quite right, but it was getting there.
Red had wiped away the scratch-marks of my failed attempts each time I wanted to try again, so by the time he left, his glow was just a fraction of what it was at the start.
“I need to rest now. I will be like Dark if we do more.”
“Is she good?”
“Yes, she good. Will be going out again in a few days.”
“Good. Then go rest.” I tested how my wing felt, and it was thankfully good enough to carry me again, just like I had expected. “I will be in the cave tomorrow.”
I waited a bit after Red left, then went back to the dark-vision spell. I thought once more about what might be worth for me to try, but nothing came to me. Sighing, I went up the path towards the tunnel leading outside, so I could glide back into my little alcove. Which, thankfully, worked without a hitch. Needless to say, I also took the shiny rocks Red had brought as an 'apology' with me.
I bee-lined it straight to my little hoard and deposited my new treasures, before curling myself back around it. Much better. I'll do more wing exercises tomorrow. For now, I just want to enjoy this.
The next day, once it was time for the next lesson, Red arrived together with the kobold bringing my food. Like yesterday, it was only about a quarter of what I usually get. Is this because Dark got injured? Are they still secretly angry at me, or are they having difficulties scavenging for food? I hope it's the former, I could live with that.
Since waking up, I had already done some more strength training for my wings and started to sketch the runes as I remembered them. I didn't bother trying to put them in the right places, as I just wanted to get them right first. Not that I did a very good job of it, since I was confident at least half of them had something missing.
“I see you want to learn fast. Can I see the runes?” I let him look and he pointed out what was wrong with each of them. He deemed none of them 'good enough', but at least 5 were pretty close. The rest either had at least one line missing, or in the wrong spot. At least they were starting to look like the runes Red had showed me.
Halfway through today's lesson, I had managed to copy the runes adequately, but I had trouble getting them right when trying to copy them from memory. To make better use of Red's time, so he didn't just stand around for 15 minutes while I practiced my 'writing', he also continued to talk to me and explain the meaning of some words I had heard but been unable to place.
For example, I learned that Dark's name was something like 'Runs after Males', while I understoon Red's name to be 'Speaks with Everyone'.
"Are all kobold names like this?"
"Yes. We choose names when we do something big, when we do something many times, or when others call us something many times."
"Are dragon names the same?"
Red considered for a moment, then said he didn't know. "I can ask Leader or High-Earth-Magic-Kobold if they know. They know a lot."
"Yes. Do that, please." One step closer to getting a name that could be considered normal for this species.
By the end of the lesson, I unfortunately didn't have any new insights into how to put in the magic, so I tried searching for some sort of sensation again.
I found all the same things again, this time without any pain from my claw and wing. Thank whoever designed these dragons for the great healing factor. But the question is; am I doing something wrong? Am I just looking in the wrong spot? I'm sure there must be some indication of where my magic is.
When Red left again, I decided to try my luck at flying again, but this time not anywhere dangerous. I wanted to go back down to the ground level of the chasm, then try and get a running lift-off, reminiscent of what I had gotten to work in yesterday's excursion.
Gliding down was hardly an issue at this point, so when I was just about on the ground, I tried again to use my wings to slow down, with a lot more success than the first time, now about 13 days ago. I got in two full flaps before one of my wings accidentally brushed the ground, throwing off my balance.
I had managed to arrest my forward momentum almost completely with those two flaps, so while the landing was a bit rough, it was manageable.
I didn't stay still for long. I was excited because I could feel that I was very close to finally being able to fly. I'd just need to figure out landing and take-off and I'd be fully capable of going in and out of my alcove whenever I wanted. It would also mean that if I ever had to carry someone while flying again, I wouldn't be as likely to almost kill them.
Over the course of the next half an hour, I kept sprinting back and forth and flapping my wings up and down. At first I wasn't very successful, but all too suddenly, I took off. My claws left the ground for just a moment before gravity reasserted itself. Yes! Progress! Now to make that the norm, rather than the exception.
Again and again, I sprinted, flapped my wings, and took off for just a moment. As time went on, my airtime increased and I also managed to beat my wings while still in the air once or twice. I was just glad I hadn't fallen on my face during all of that.
Finally, after two hours of running, I had the glorious idea to jump just before the first beat of my wings. To say I was surprised at how easy it was to get to the air compared to just running would be an understatement. I managed to beat my wings 5 times before I lost my balance, a new record. And that's just my luck, to find a better way to do shit right when 99 percent of the work is already done.
Ah, well. Shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Now I just need to fucking stay in the air.