Chapter IX

Somewhere, West Virginia, USA

Jeb felt kinda bad.

After telling Chief about dragons on Earth and the fact that they either were dead or never around in the first place seemed to set the Kobold off.

He just seemed to stare at Jeb for a few solid minutes before running back into his library and throwing himself into every book Jeb had about History, Geography, and Myths & Legends.

Anything to prove Jeb wrong.

Jeb sighed and turned towards the stairs leading to his room to get changed out of his work clothes. When he spotted Ruby coming out of the basement.

"Hey there Ruby!" Jeb said. Excited to see the little lizard lady.

She went still as stone and turned towards Jeb eyes wide, face turning a shade redder.

And went back into the basement.

Now Jeb really did feel bad.

He turned to the salamander whos scaly belly he was petting.

"You aren't mad at me too are ya?"

The salamander rolled off its back, shook itself and wandered towards his kitchen.

Trudging up his stairs in shame Jeb went into his room to change and shower.

Once that was done he made his way downstairs to see about making Ruby and Chief feel better.

He looked in on his study and found the Chief no less frantic then he was earlier. So Jeb left him to wear himself out.

He opened the door to the basement and headed down.

When he got to the bottom he found out just how many had shacked up with him.

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"I'm gonna need more snacks." Jeb muttered as he beheld the tribe of Kobolds housed in his basement.

They all had red scales though some had the pale line going from the lower jaw all the way along their belly to the tip of their tail. Jeb figured that the ones with stripes were males if Chief was the standard. Horns weren't much better when it came to variety. Females had longer thinner horns like gazelles or antelope and the males having thick curved horns like sheep and rams.

And they were all looking right at Jeb.

"Evenin' everyone." Jeb said putting a smile on and giving a little wave.

They all just continued to stare.

"I uh, brought snacks?" He said as he pulled out the paltry two bags of assorted nuts and jerky.

They were all stock still of him and refused to move.

"Enough of this!" One said as he marched up to Jeb and took the bag of jerky from him.

"If he wanted us dead he would have done so already!" He barked at the others as he opened the bag and scarfed down a handful of dried meat.

As he chewed, the others, satisfied by this display of bravery, went back to what they were doing though some still gave Jeb a glance now and then.

"Hey thanks fo-"

"I don't trust you human." The lizard man cut Jeb off. He turned towards Jeb and he got a good look at him.

Like the Chief he had the pale underbelly, red scales covered in a green paint, and ram like horns. They had feathers and beads strung on them, but half of his right horn had broke off. He was also covered in scars and had a few bandages around his left arm and body.

The grizzled lizard continued.

"Not that I am ungrateful for your shelter and food, but every human we've ran across has tried to kill us in some shape or form. Either because we encroached on their supposed land or because we simply are there and they had the means and intention to kill us."

"I am called Trap Master. It is my duty as both lead scout and most experienced hunter of our tribe as well as its head protector. It was also my duty to see to it that any that would trespass against our home paid for it."

Jeb turned back towards the stairs he descended, eyeballing them like spikes were about to pop out and skewer him.

"This is your home human." Trap Master stated.

"Besides, if we wanted you dead we could swarm you with little effort." He plainly and pointedly stated also.

Jeb would have taken the implied threat more seriously if just looking around didn't show how worn, dispirited and afraid of him they all were.

Jeb seeing this for what it was, backed down to give the lizard man his win in the eyes of his people.

"Understood Mr. Head Hunter." Jeb said lifting his arms up, still holding the bag of trail-mix, in surrender.

The Kobold nodding his head in thanks waved for him to follow.

As Jeb followed after the Trap Master, internally counting up as he went, he looked around and found a sorry sight indeed.

Most of the Kobolds were practically sleeping on each other, some had turned his carpet and rugs meant for down here into clothes and blankets to keep warm.

Around the blazing wood stove to his left were some hatchlings and a clutch of about 40 eggs the size of baseballs, and watching over them was Ruby and a couple of other female Kobolds.

When she saw Jeb she quickly turned back and became VERY focused on what she was doing. To the snickering of the other two with her.

Careful to pick his way through the horned lizards wasn't easy as some of those tips from the females came damn close to unmanning him. As they left through the back of the basement/cellar and entered the back of his property it wasn't much better outside.

It was clear that these lizards didn't like the cold and it showed.

Most were inside, packed like sardines on top of each other, the ones out here huddled around small fires. What was left of his carpeting and upholstery was turned into small lean-tos and tents that were just as packed as inside was.

The salamanders also were delegated outside and those that weren't given a spot around the small fires were bundled into a pile of scaly bodies to keep warm from the fall chill.

If the ones he's seen are all of them then all tallied there was about 123 Kobolds and 34 salamanders crammed together on his property.

"Thank you for that in there."

Jeb was shaken from his mental math by the short lizardman's words.

"No problem, I get lookin' tough for the others. They need to know someone is put together. Or at least acts like they are."

The Trap Master nodded in understanding.

"Well!" Jed said as he clapped his hands together.

"Guess I gotta' find you a better place to be livin' in." Jeb said excitedly.

The Trap Master looked shocked.

"Are we no longer welcome here!?"

"Oh no you are, but we can't have ya'll packed together like Vienna wieners now can we." Jeb said as he made his way back inside, the Trap Master now being the one made to follow him.