<-ke up!> The voice echoed through Kaz’s mind as something was pushed from his hands. It fell, landing hard on his toe before rolling away. It didn’t get far, since one side of the dull orb was nearly flat, so it settled quickly in place, looking entirely innocuous.

Kaz shook his head, staring down at the dragon clinging to his arm. Her back feet were planted against his chest so she could shove away the enormous broken core he had been holding, and now she was clinging to his arm as her wings flapped, desperately trying to get her balance - and her dignity - back.

Li muttered, finally managing to pull herself into a more stable position. She wrapped her tail firmly around Kaz’s wrist and looked up at him, releasing a vaporous little hiss.

“What… did you say?” Kaz asked numbly.

Li froze, golden eyes staring up into Kaz’s. They rarely swirled in the way they had when she first hatched, but now a distinct thread of black spun around her pupil.

He nodded, then drew her close, gently stroking the back of her neck. “Are you really talking to me?” As he spoke, a hint of pain flashed through his head, and he reached up to prod his skull, feeling for a lump. “Or did I finally hit my head one too many times?”

Something shifted in the dimness of the ribcage, and Lianhua’s pale face formed from shadows. She looked puzzled and slightly worried. “Are you talking to me, Kaz?” Without even waiting for a response, she leaned over still further, until she saw the core resting on the ground in front of Kaz. Relief flooded her face, and he realized that she had been worried about her discovery, not him.

Leaning forward, Lianhua vaulted down easily, crossing to the core and lifting it so she could cradle it almost as gently as Kaz was cradling Li. “I think this is the dragon’s core,” she said, eyes shining. “I’m sorry about dropping it on you. I thought I had it, and then it just slipped out of my hands. But look at the size of it! It’s easily twice as large as the core belonging to the Divine Tortoise found in Kifaland, and sightings of the Tortoise were recorded in the scrolls of Kif for at least a thousand years before-”

Lianhua’s voice faded into the background as Kaz looked down at the dragon in his arms.

How can you speak? he asked her.

Li huffed. She broke off, glancing away as she seemed to realize that whatever she was about to say might not be polite.

Kaz looked at the broken orb in Lianhua’s arms, wondering why it wasn’t affecting her the same way it had him. He felt like he had truly been Qiangde, ancient dragon emperor, but Lianhua looked as unconcerned as if she was holding a normal rock.

“Oh,” Lianhua suddenly said, noticing the intensity with which Kaz was looking at the broken core. She turned away, clutching the thing protectively. “I forgot kobolds have the urge to eat cores. Kaz, you can’t! It’s a priceless relic, and besides, it’s much too large.”

Kaz thought about telling her that the core she was holding had quite possibly belonged to the Diushi emperor, and that that same emperor was actually a dragon, but decided that now was probably not the time. She would insist that he tell her every detail, probably repeatedly, and it would take much, much too long.

He shook his head. “I definitely don’t want to eat that.” Given what it had done to him when he only held onto it, eating it was absolutely not an option, even if he wanted to do so. Though it was interesting that he really felt no urge to even try.

Lianhua’s shoulders relaxed. “Good. In that case, will this fit in your pack?” She held out the core, and Kaz barely managed not to take a step back. The dragon in his arms had no such inhibitions, however, and hissed angrily at Lianhua, releasing a roiling cloud of steam.

Li murmured happily, before glaring at Lianhua and giving a series of clicking hisses that left puffs of fog in the air.

Kaz realized that Li didn’t know what had just happened to him either. She must have been able to tell that the core was doing something to him, at least enough to push it out of his grasp, but she hadn’t seen Qiangde’s memories.

“It didn’t hurt me,” he told both of them, “but it did something when I touched it.”

Li tilted her head curiously, and Lianhua bit her lip. “Oh, Kaz, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about how ki-infused objects sometimes affect you. What happened?”

Again, Kaz hesitated, and decided that sending Lianhua into a paroxysm of scholarly curiosity was probably not a good choice at this moment. Li must have thought his pause meant he didn’t know, because she sent him an image of himself, standing stock still, with the orb held out in front of him. He was staring into it with a vacant expression, his muzzle hanging open in a distinctly embarrassing way. Kaz had a suspicion that that last part might have been an exaggeration on Li’s part, but he had no way to know for certain.

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He shook his head again, lifting Li to his shoulder so she could settle into her usual place. “I can’t explain,” he admitted. “But I don’t think I should touch it, or anything else up here.”

Lianhua blinked, then looked around, seeming to remember for the first time that she was standing inside the remains of a creature so saturated with ki that she herself couldn’t tell exactly where it was strongest.

“Chi Yincang!” she called, then let out a little squeak when he appeared from the darkness right next to her. She swatted at him, apparently without thinking, and the corners of his eyes crinkled ever so slightly. “Don’t do that up here,” she told him. “I can’t tell where you are.”

Even Kaz hadn’t noticed the blur of the male’s ki against the constant background glow of the bones, so he understood how Lianhua felt. Li, however, tilted her nose up and murmured, Kaz nearly laughed, finally realizing that the dragon must have grown so used to no one being able to hear her that she had started talking to herself. Eventually, he would have to let her know that he could hear even when she wasn’t speaking directly to him, but this wasn’t the time for that, either.

Chi Yincang bowed slightly. “Yes, my lady.”

Lianhua shoved the core at him. “Here. Find a way to store this. I want to examine it some more, and I’m sure the elders will wish to see it.”

Anxiety stabbed through Kaz, and he yelped, “No!” before he could stop himself.

Lianhua looked over at him, and even Chi Yincang froze in the act of accepting the core.

“It has to stay here,” Kaz said. He didn’t know why, but he felt this very strongly. If Qiangde’s core was removed from the top of the Tree, something bad would happen. Something that would affect Kaz himself, and quite possibly the mountain as a whole. He was still scrambling to find a reason that might convince the humans when Kyla poked her head in through the gap between two of the lower ribs.

“They’re sending someone up after us,” she began, then stopped as she took in the scene in front of her. Her ears flattened, and the fur on top of her head and down her spine lifted. “No!” she barked. “Put it back!”

Lianhua looked between the two kobolds, and then her eyes narrowed. She shook her head as if chasing away a troublesome insect, and frowned at the core. “What was I doing?” she murmured. “I can’t just take an irreplaceable artifact.”

She looked at Chi Yincang and held out her hands. “Give it back.”

For the briefest moment, it seemed like the dark warrior would refuse, and then he handed the core back to Lianhua, his face suddenly returning to its usual flat affect.

Acting quickly, as if worried she would change her mind, Lianhua pushed the core back up onto the shelf of ribs, where they all listened to it roll briefly and then clunk into place between two of the bones. Looking around, Lianhua gave herself another shake, and said, “If they’re coming up, then it’s time for us to go down. I’ve seen enough, and something about this place is… unsettling.”

Now this was something Kaz could agree with, and he quickly made his way back out of the arching ribcage, once again avoiding any contact with the bones. He didn’t feel safe until he was far enough away from the gigantic skeleton that there was no chance he would even brush against it.

Kyla was standing at the edge of the open area, tail half-tucked as she stared down toward the ground. Kaz came up beside her, and saw that there were indeed two kobolds climbing rapidly toward them. As he stepped back, something caught his eye, and he walked over to find a heavy niu-fur rope coiled beside one the branches. It was clearly old, but hadn’t completely fallen apart yet. One end was trapped beneath a bony claw, while the other was tied around one massive branch, which had actually grown around a good part of it.

Kaz swallowed hard at this evidence that what he had seen was real, though he hadn’t truly doubted it. Still, he found his eyes pulled toward the grinning skull. One slow step at a time, he moved toward it, seeing dark shreds caught between the pointed teeth on one side. The shattered remains of a few bones lay on the ground, looking small and frail next to the dragon skull, and when Kaz peered closely, he could see that the black things were delicate scales.

Li said sharply in his mind, pulling him back as he was reaching toward those scales, driven by an urge to brush them away from the tooth. Kaz pulled his hand back, then turned sharply and walked back to Kyla, where he immediately laid down on his belly and lowered his legs over the edge. His paws scrabbled for purchase, and then Li lifted from his shoulder as he began to climb down.

“Kaz?” Lianhua’s voice called after him.

He looked back up at her, pausing only long enough to say, “There’s nothing good up there, Lianhua. You should come, too.” Then he returned to his descent.

After a few seconds, brown flakes tumbled onto his head, lodging in his fur and making him sneeze. Soon, Kyla caught up to him, her smaller size and lighter weight allowing her to move quickly. More debris indicated when the humans started down, but when a dark blur dropped past him, Kaz glanced down to see Chi Yincang bounding from branch to branch, Lianhua held in his arms. The humans quickly vanished beyond one of the wide branches, and Kaz and Kyla exchanged glances.

The puppy grinned slightly, ears perked and tail sweeping gently behind her. “I bet I can beat you,” she said. “Winner gets to give Li her next bath.” With that, she began to scramble downwards much faster than Kaz felt comfortable moving.

Li flew back and forth near Kaz, sometimes resting on a branch as he passed, and sometimes flying all the way around the Tree before reappearing on his other side. she told him, sending an image of herself, large enough to fill the cavern, with a tiny blue kobold barely a speck perched on her back.

Kaz snorted and glanced down. He was finally clear of the branches and could see the ground clearly. The number of kobolds down there had at least doubled, and many of them bore the bright red fur of the Magmablades. “Someday you will be that big,” he told Li as she flew by him again. “But right now you’re just distracting. I really do need to concentrate on what I’m doing.”

She huffed, but stopped circling him, instead flying out into the cavern, mostly gliding in circles as she slowly descended. Kaz could feel that she was tired, but she was also worried about him, and wasn’t willing to rest until his paws were on the ground again.

Kaz hastened his movement; paw, hand, paw, hand, focusing entirely on the feeling of the bark. Was it strong enough to bear his weight? Was this hollow deep enough for his toes? He didn’t even look down to see how much further he had to go, so he was entirely surprised when he stepped onto cold, hard stone.