The siblings spun, and Kaz pulled his stone knife from its sheath, stepping in front of his sister. Behind him, he could sense Katri summoning her power, and a glow of flickering light from that direction told him that she was readying an attack. Unfortunately, the light held in Katri’s hand was dwarfed by the one that hovered over the female standing before them.
She stood framed by the cave mouth, head and shoulders thrown back, a confident smile on her flat, nearly furless face. The largest single piece of fabric Kaz had seen since his tribe left the deep places clothed her body, revealing her wealth and power, and three more of the strange beings tumbled in after her.
The largest of the three, a male with orange fur covering only the lower half of his face, glared at the one who had first spoken. “I keep tellin’ you to let me go first, Gaoda!” he exclaimed. Sharp golden eyes flickered around the cavern, and he stepped in front of the smaller female. Pulling a sword made of a single piece of sharpened metal from its sheath, he glared at Kaz and Katri.
A pale, slim hand with soft, round claws patted the warrior’s arm as the female stepped around him. She smiled at Kaz, flicking her fingers so the sparkling orb followed, hovering just above her shoulder.
“There now, no need for violence. You can see we’re more powerful than you, can you not? So, why not try talking before you throw your lives away?” Her lip curled, and she muttered, “Not that that would be much of a loss.”
Kaz wondered if the little round ears mostly hidden in the golden fur on the sides of the female’s head didn’t work, or if she meant for Kaz and Katri to hear the insult. Still, she was right that the four large beings armed with power and metal weapons were undoubtedly more than a match for two kobolds.
Katri set her hand on Kaz’s shoulder, though she continued using his body as a shield, as she should.
“Fine then. What do you want?” She took a step back, creating more distance between them and the strangers, and the hand on Kaz’s shoulder tugged him after her.
The female shrugged, her light bobbing cheerfully behind her. “A guide.” Her blue eyes flickered to take in the scattering of nest, shells, and corpses, narrowing greedily. “And whatever we wish to take from here.” She lifted a hand, and another male slipped out from behind the first. This one wore all black, and the fur on his head and face were black as well.
“Chi Yincang,” the female said, “see if there’s anything left that’s usable.”
Silently, the male nodded and stepped toward the dragon nest, black eyes flicking from the two kobolds to the scattered mess. Kaz and Katri took several more steps backwards, towards the deep crack that was nearly hidden in the shadows of the far wall of the cavern.
“Fine,” Katri said, quickly. “Then we’ll-”
“Wait,” the female said sharply, and both kobolds froze in place as her ball of light pulsed above her, showing off her power and control. “You were saying something about a little problem you’re having, and I still need a local guide.”
The male with orange fur huffed. “There’s nothin’ up here I can’t handle. We should go deeper before you-”
The female cut him off as easily as she had Katri. “Divine Providence has granted me exactly the thing I was looking for. Why would I spit in her face? No, these two will help me, and I, of course, will help them.”
Again her lips stretched in a smile, revealing no teeth. “You said your tribe is going to be taken over by another, did you not? And you didn’t sound pleased by the prospect. If I stop this from happening, you will provide me with whatever I wish, I am certain. Or, perhaps I should have Raff kill you both, and seek out this Mital instead?”
Katri froze, and the feeble light she had been maintaining vanished with an almost audible pop. Her fingers dug painfully into Kaz’s flesh. “You will kill Mital for us?”
Kaz turned to stare at her. What? She believed this stranger? Was she really going to trust a female not of their tribe?
Katri didn’t look away from the group, but the subtle shake of her head told Kaz more loudly than words that she wasn’t that much of a fool. Kaz looked back around as Katri went on. “If you kill the leader of the Longtooth tribe, and her heirs, I’ll send someone to lead you wherever you wish to go.”
The other female nodded in satisfaction, her gaze flickering to the dark male as he straightened. All of the dragonling’s bodies had vanished from the nest, as had the largest pieces of shell and most of the nest material. Even the pool of blood had trails scraped through it, as if the male had scooped up the fluid into some kind of container. His hands were free, however, so Kaz had no idea where all the things he had picked up had gone. He didn’t even wear a pack like Kaz’s.
A second bare-faced female poked her head out from behind the big one… Raff? The fur atop her head was pure white, and so long that it was wound into balls and braids that were pinned up and decorated by sticks with delicate, glittering things perched on the ends. Her amethyst eyes were wide, and she smiled brightly, though Kaz’s fur lifted at the sight of her flat, white teeth.
She clapped a hand over her mouth, her bare skin turning pink. “Oh! No teeth! I forgot!” Her voice was noticeably higher-pitched than that of any of the others, and she was much smaller as well, standing not much taller than Kaz himself, though he was large for a kobold. Still, he wondered if she might be a puppy, and he felt his hackles settle. Puppies often made mistakes, and it was the responsibility of the older members of the tribe to correct them.
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Sure enough, Raff’s arm stretched out, and he stepped in front of her again, growling, though the sound seemed to be aimed at Kaz, rather than the puppy. The pup stepped out from behind him again, ignoring the chastisement, and ducked beneath the arm blocking her face.
“It’s all right, Raff,” she said, smiling with her lips closed. “They’re already talking, and they seem nice enough. And you’ve been scaring me with horror stories about them this whole time.” Her lower lip poked out, and her purple eyes lingered on Raff accusingly.
The first female stepped between the pup and the orange male. Her lip raised, revealing canines on one side, but the snarl seemed to be directed at the male, so Kaz didn’t react. Reaching out, the female set her hand on the pup’s arm, then gestured toward Kaz and Katri, sweeping the long piece of fabric that covered her aside in a grand gesture.
“You said you wished to speak to the… locals, cousin,” the female said. “Here they are. I simply ask that you remain by my side as you do so. I will protect you, if they turn out to be rabid.”
Kaz didn’t know what ‘rabid’ meant, but it didn’t sound complimentary. Still, he and Katri were vulnerable until they could escape into the crevice, so he ignored it. He took a step back, but came up against Katri’s body, which refused to budge, no matter how hard he pressed backwards.
“We’ll lead you to the Longtooth’s den,” Katri said, sounding confident, though her body trembled against his. “If you can do as you say, I’ll keep my promise as well.”
The gold-furred female nodded. “Fine, then.” She flicked her fingers at Raff. “Follow them, and kill this Mital, and whoever else our new friends wish dead.”
Raff hesitated, his blade wavering, and then shrugged resignedly. Kaz felt for him. He spent far more time around females than most males, and he knew the sting of their tongues. Still, a command was a command, and a male who disobeyed a direct order was a male who would soon suffer unpleasant consequences.
Katri’s stiff body finally gave way behind Kaz, and he nearly stumbled backwards. When he glanced around, he saw that she had turned her back on the strangers, and was striding toward the exit, her plumed pink tail waving behind her. Kaz scrambled after her, the click of his claws drowned out by the clatter of the hard sheaths covering the lower paws of the strangers. Whatever else these creatures were, they were loud.
Katri and Kaz slipped easily into the crack, with only a familiar tug of rough stone against fur. The male following them, however, came to a complete halt.
“I can’t fit through there,” he growled, but the adult female scoffed.
“You can if you take off that ridiculous armor. You claim to be Bronze rank, so nothing here should even be able to scratch you.”
The male growled again. “That’s what everyone says until a great, bloody dragon shows up out of nowhere, and suddenly everyone wants magical armor. What if that black monster comes back?”
The female was becoming impatient. “Then we’ll leave you behind to be slain, while we head deeper into the mountain. Now, hurry up.”
Clattering sounds began to come through the crack, and Kaz turned to Katri in the narrow confines of the tunnel. “We should run,” he whispered. “If we hurry, we’ll be long gone before they make it through.”
She stared at him, her eyes glowing silver in the darkness. “You can go,” she said. “But this is my only chance. There’s no way Mital will leave me alive when she takes over the tribe. Unless these humans kill her, I have no more than two days before I join Mother among the ancestors.”
Kaz’s eyes widened. “Humans? That’s what they are?” A hundred stories ran through his mind. Humans were the villains of every pup’s nightmares; great, powerful monsters who came in and hunted kobolds as if they were fuergar. Sometimes, rarely, they came seeking something, and those who aided them were as likely to gain great rewards as a pitiful death. Stories that turned out well for the kobolds were few and far between.
Katri nodded. “There are some pictures in the chief’s book.” She shuddered. “I didn’t think they’d be quite so ugly, though. The pictures make them look almost like us, just with flatter faces and less fur.”
“Are you certain they’re humans, then?” Kaz asked, momentarily distracted. When he was a pup, he had asked if he could read the book like his sister, and Oda had beaten him black and blue.
“I’m certain,” she said. “The description matches, even if the picture isn’t quite right.” She hesitated, then offered, “I could… show you? I know Mother said males shouldn’t be encouraged to step out of their place, but you’re not-”
Normal, he thought, but the deep well of longing that lived in his belly made him whisper, “Yes,” until he remembered that Rega was their new leader, not Katri. Their aunt had always been far kinder than their mother, but she was still a female.
“Rega will never let you show it to me,” he said, and Katri’s eyes shifted away.
“We’ll see,” she said, but there was a tone in her voice he recognized. It was a tone that meant she had decided on something, and nothing he did or said would change her mind.
Oh, Katri, what are you planning? he thought, but a scraping sound from behind them interrupted before he could voice the question. As one, the siblings turned to look at the orange-furred male as he forced his way into the narrow passage.
He grunted, sliding through the crevice inch by inch until he caught up with them. “Thought you two’d have run by now,” he muttered, looking at them. “I don’t know whether to be glad you stayed, or kill you before Gaoda gets here and save us all some effort later.”
“I heard that,” the leader’s voice snapped. “Now, get on with it. Even my fuulong silk robes will be stained if they have to drag over stone for too long.”
Katri bowed her head. “The passage widens not far ahead. Many of the upper tunnels are small, since they’re simply natural cracks in the stone, but as we go further into the mountain, more of the shafts will be made by kobolds or other, older races, and those are much larger.”
Muffled sounds of understanding came from behind them, and Kaz and Katri began to head deeper into the familiar passage.