-Lain-

As I stand there outside, hands firmly planted on my hips and a big smile across my face, I can’t help but breathe deeply as I gaze upon the sky. “Ahhhh! What a beautiful day!”

Last night had been really fun for me, and now I am feeling very relaxed. Some of the night, I can’t really remember all to clearly, I think I let myself get a bit too excited as I was playing with the Kobold.

By the time I came to, it was sitting on my lap and practically demanding that I love on it. Complaining and whimpering if I stopped petting it, pushing itself into me and nuzzling me, grabbing onto my arms and play biting me. It was fucking adorable, and I loved every moment of it.

But I have to say, that cute little Kobold must have really loved getting some belly rubs!

I admit, I may have gone too far by picking on the poor little thing, but seeing it be so afraid when all I was going to do was give it some pets was simply too much for me to take. How could I possibly resist!? And the fur! So soft, so fluffy! How could I possibly resist when I see that cute little belly right in front of me?

I don’t know how long I spent giving it pets and scratches, but eventually it fell asleep in my arms. Deciding to let it rest, I made a bed on the table and tucked it in. I even got to spend the rest of the night relaxing with my book and petting its head.

This was easily one of the most relaxing nights I’ve had in a long time.

Hearing a bit of a commotion behind me, I turn and find the Kobolds leaving the building. Five of them, including the green leader with the scars, are heading out and walking towards me. The sixth, the blue one from last night, is slowly trailing behind them. It looks like it is depressed, occasionally throwing a glance towards the other Kobolds or myself. The others seem to be ignoring it.

Did something happen? Is this because it got caught last night? Oh, I hope I didn’t cause trouble for it!

The other Kobolds, without a word, step forward in a line, their leader stands a bit further than the others.

The blue Kobold remains off to the side, looking down as if in shame.

Seriously! What the hell happened? Did I do something? All I did was catch a thief and punish it with belly rubs! Was that some kind of Kobold Taboo, that I don’t know about!?

The Kobolds, ignorant of my internal conflict all proceed to bow to me and remain bowed. They don’t move from the spot.

Should… should I bow back? Yes? Yes, let’s go with yes. If someone bows to you, bowing back should be the right response!

Bowing back to them, I make sure to match their angle in case they have some custom about bowing depth and what not. Best to just match their angle.

Almost immediately, the Kobolds in front of me seem to relax and we all end the bow. Looking relived, the Kobolds gather up their basket packs and spears and then set off in single file line. Not a single word said between any of us.

The only problem is that all of the Kobolds didn’t leave. The blue one stayed, standing awkwardly off to the side and staring at the ground. Its ears are drooped and tail hanging limply. It’s clearly depressed and I’m probably the one responsible for this….

Shit… What do I do? I can’t really ask what happened or why it’s being left behind. Even now the rest of the troop is just marching away and not even looking back. Should I try to stop them? Will that just make it worse?

Looking back from the troop, I look at the blue one again, it’s sitting on the ground and hugging its knees now.

Damnit! Ya, not good, how do I fix this?

Looking around and not knowing what else to do, I slowly approach the little blue Kobold. Curled up on the ground like this makes it look so incredibly small and fragile, even despite my own shortness.

When I step next to the Kobold, I can’t help but notice it shaking a bit in fright. As I kneel down next to the poor thing it curls up tighter into a ball and shakes harder. So, gently and ever so slowly, I lay my hand on its small back and gently stroke it.

I don’t know how long I kneel there just gently petting it, but eventually the shaking slows, and it comes out from its shell. Looking up at me the Little Kobold stares up into my eyes. I don’t see any tears in those big yellow eyes of its, Kobolds might not even be able to cry, but I can clearly see the sadness in its eyes.

It, no, I think it might be a she, she has been abandoned. If she could cry, she would, to burst with emotions and let it all out, but her body can only express itself in so many ways. Shifting my other hand, I cradle her head and stare into her eyes, I am no longer smiling, I can only show her sympathy because I know how it feels to be left behind, I can only show my guilt because I know that I had a part to play in all of this.

Softly, I whisper to her, “I’m so sorry for this, I never wanted you to be hurt…”

She throws herself against my chest, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck as she continues to shake in my arms.

From her face buried in my chest, I hear a single muffled and lonely chirp. I can’t understand their language, but my instincts tell me all I need to know, “Please.”

I wrap her up in my arms and give her a hug, lifting her up, I hold her and whisper back into her ear as softly as I can, “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you.”

Hearing my words, she digs even deeper into me, her shaking subsides slightly but remains regardless. You can’t get rid of someone’s sadness with just a couple of words and a hug, sometimes you have to hold them and let them cry it out.

So, I do just that, walking back to the rest stop with the Kobold in my arms, I sit down by the front entrance and just hold her in my arms as I let her cry out her sadness; even if no tears are able to fall from her yellow eyes.

“I guess I’ll have to take responsibility now, huh?” I whisper to myself.

I can’t help but think to myself, ‘I feel like a guy that went and got a girl pregnant in a one-night stand only for the girl to get kicked out by her family. Ah, I feel like shit now. All because I had to go and mess around instead of just scaring her off in a moment of weakness. I’m responsible for all this, even if I don’t know the exact reasons for why her troop left her behind, this is my responsibility. Fuck, I really messed up here. I just had to give in, didn't I? I'm such a fucking idiot!’

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I don’t know how long I sat there holding her, but by the time she finally calmed down and stopped crying, the sun had already finished rising and morning had turned to day.

Picking ourselves up, I go to reenter the building, she follows behind me meekly, refusing to let go of my hand as she follows me in. Going through the building, I collect up her basket pack, seemingly emptied by the other kobolds, and retrieve her spear from where she left it by the table.

Helping her put on her basket, I hand her spear to her, and walk her out the building.

Still looking sad, she still refuses to let go of my hand while she looks down at the ground. I give her a small pat on the head and tell her, “Don’t worry, I’ll take responsibility. I won’t leave you.”

I can feel her grip on my hand tighten and I give a little squeeze back. Together we walk away from the truck stop, away from her troop, and we head south. It’s some hours later that the two of us would step over the state line and leave Ohio, we don’t look back.

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While I am most certainly feeling bad about what happened to my little Kobold friend, after some hours of having her with me, I have to say that I am rather happy to have some company finally. Traveling alone with nothing but your own thoughts for days on end can get pretty lonely. But now I have a travel buddy, a super cute travel buddy that likes to hold hands. Even if this bit of happiness is heavily laden with guilt.

As we walked together side by side, we haven’t interacted much. She is obviously still sad about being left behind by her troop, and I can’t blame her for that, it hasn’t even been a day.

I just wish that she would look at me properly, but she is being a bit weird about it….

Occasionally, I will catch her staring at me, but when I turn to look at her, curious if she needs something, she always snaps her head right back down to the road as if she wasn’t just staring at me. This keeps happening and she won’t even respond if I call out to her.

She just keeps holding my hand and walking right next to me.

Honestly, I’m a bit concerned if I miss read the situation. What if it wasn’t that she was afraid of being abandoned and wants to stay with me, but instead it’s some Kobold tradition or something and I ended up tying her to me through some honor bound ritual of the Kobolds or something on accident. She could be upset that she is and must be with me and has no choice in the matter.

Besides a gut feeling that it is the former and not the latter, until we figure out a more effective way of communicating besides pointing and hand signs, I won’t really be able to find out.

Who knows, maybe she has a massive crush on me and is just shy. It as good a guess as any until we learn to talk to each other…

Deciding that just walking and being awkward isn’t getting me anywhere, ‘Well, except for further south.’ I decide to stop for a bit and see if we can talk a little.

The Kobold seems surprised when we stop moving, looking around and probably trying to figure out why we have stopped. She is startled a bit when I kneel down next to her and try to get her attention, doing a little squeak and a jump.

“Hey.” I tell her with a small smile on my face. “How are you doing? How about we try to get to know each other a bit better, hmmm?”

She shows some shock as she realizes that I am trying to talk to her.

Locking eyes with me for a second, she looks like she becomes a bit flustered and then looks down at the ground again. Hmmmm, ok, maybe the crush idea has a bit more weight to it than I thought… Going to leave that for latter to figure out, but I’m not going to assume anything until the two of us are actually able to communicate with each other.

Giving a little giggle I reach out and lift her chin so that she has to look at me. Her eyes start swimming as she realizes that I have her trapped. She tries to look to the side, but I use one finger and gently turn her head so that she is looking right into my eyes.

She still hasn’t let go of my hand, so I’m assuming that she doesn’t want to run away. She’s probably just shy. Before she can look away from me again, I ask her a question that is as good a starting point as any. “Do you mind If I learn your name? My name is Lain.” I say pointing to myself. “Lain.” I repeat. Pointing to her I ask, “What is your name?”

For a while the little Kobold simply looks shocked. But I give some her time to let her process as I smile at her gently. After a bit she seems to come too, swallowing a bit, she opens her mouth as if to say something. After a bit of struggling, she finally manages to make it out and, pointing at me, say, “Lain… la la lain la…in LAIN, Lain…” As if trying out the word and seeing how it tastes. For a while she keeps mumbling it to herself until finally pointing at me and saying confidently, “Lain!”

I can’t help but giggle at her for it, and not to mention for just how cute it is to see a small thing like her saying my name when I am so used to seeing her kind chirping instead.

“Mhhm, that’s right. My name is Lain.” Pointing to her again I ask, “What is your name?”

She looks at the finger pointing at her and thinks until she responds with a short series of chirps and then looks at me with a hint of excitement.

Well, this is a bit troubling, not surprising in the slightest, but most certainly troubling. When I was human, I never tried to learn how to mimic bird calls: it just wasn’t a skill that I was all that interested in learning. So, I honestly have no idea if I’ll be able to say her name properly.

Regardless, I give it a try. End result? I sound like a bird that has been on a three-night bender and hit every bar in town. And it clearly shows as she tilts her head and looks at me as if I just grew a second head.

She repeats her name, I try to mimic it and fail.

She repeats and I fail.

She repeats and I fail.

She repeats and I fail.

With each failure, she tilts her head a bit more to the side and I start to worry is she is going to fall over just from me butchering her native language.

She repeats herself, but instead of trying again, I tell her while pointing at my throat,” I’m sorry, but I am not able to speak like you do, our vocal cords are just too different.”

She looks at me for a while and thinks, I don’t interrupt her and just patently wait for her to finish. After some time, she looks straight up, pointing she repeats her name and then looks at me again. I follow where she is pointing and all I see is the sky, still blessedly as wide and blue as it was this morning.

“The sky…” Looking back down at her I ask, “Your name is Sky?” Pointing up I say it again, “Sky?”

She, or I guess its Sky now, chirps happily. Pointing to herself she says, “Sky? Sky, sky ssskyyy, k k k k k…. Skyyy, Sky!” carefully trying each syllable of her name happily.

Pointing to me she says, “Lain. My? Your? Name?”

Is she trying to figure out the other words I was using?

“Mmm, name.” I gesture to the both of us, first to myself then to her, “Lain, Sky.”

Sky nods her head, so I keep going. Pointing to myself, “My, me, I…Lain.”

She seems a bit confused, probably too many ways of referring to myself? Eventually she slowly nods her head.

Pointing to her this time, “Your, you, Sky.”

This time she is a bit faster to nod. It looks like she is thinking something over, so I leave her to it.

Eventually she points back to me, “You, Lain? Your name Lain.”

I nod back and smile, “Yes, good job!”

I notice her tail start wagging behind her, she seems pretty happy with herself.

She points back to herself, “Me, I? I Sky? My name Sky.”

“Yes, very good job!” I smile more and pet her head. Behind her, her tail is wagging even faster as she leans into my hand.

She’s so smart! I might not be able to pick up their language, but she might be able to learn English. And I think she is using mimicry like a parrot to learn the pronunciation? They already sort of speak like birds, so maybe their vocal cords are similar or something?

After a little while of petting her head, Sky seems to realize something and then backs up, shooting her head back toward the ground, she covers her ears with her arm that isn’t currently holding my hand.

Ah, back to being shy again. At least she doesn’t seem as sad as she was earlier, so that’s good. Still, seeing her like this sort of makes me want to bully her a bit, but that would just be cruel right now.

Resist the temptation Lain!

Giving a little laugh, I stand back up and give her hand a little tug, “Come on Sky, we still have a lot of walking to do. We’ll take a break in a bit and have some food.”

Still hiding her ears, Sky follows right next to me looking very shy, but I can still see her tail happily wagging behind her, so I leave her alone to cool her head as we walk.