The Endless Forest

Eri was having a dragon problem, albeit a small one.

She had decided to show Kyrith around the manor, hoping to use the time to strengthen their bond. Unfortunately, she hadn’t considered what would happen if she took the newly hatched dragon through the kitchen.

A kitchen filled with kobolds.

The moment they stepped in from the backdoor, all eyes were on them. The next second all but Chef had rushed her and the dragon. In the ensuing chaos, she lost track of Kyrith, only finding him as a heavy bag fell to the floor.

Scared that he had been hurt, she practically plowed through the gathered kobolds to reach him. Thankfully, he was fine but that’s when her problems started.

Upon inspection of the bag, Eri found it contained sugarcane; a rare and valuable commodity this far inland. Usually one would only find it closer to the northwestern edge of the island, seeing it here was a surprise.

But that wasn’t the problem. No, it was the fact that Kyrith had ripped a hole in it and was now happily munching away on the sugar.

“Kyrith!” She shouted, like an angry mother. “Get out of that!”

Hearing his name, the dragon froze before slowly lifting his head up at her. She could see the fear in his eyes, unaccustomed to being shouted at. Though, even the kobolds around them seemed to have a similar look on their faces.

Tempering herself, Eri softened her voice. “Kyrith, come and stay next to me. You can’t just go and get into anything you want.”

Honestly, she wasn’t sure if the dragon even understood her, but he at least came back and stood next to her. She could feel something akin to regret cross into her mind.

Letting out a sigh, she reached down and gently patted him. “It’s okay, just stay next to me.”

The dragon gave a slight nod, making her think he had understood her before. With that situation sorted out, she could only hope he hadn’t eaten too much sugar…

They left the kitchen and into the hall. Their first stop was the dining room, which Kyrith sniffed around before quickly getting bored. She decided to move on.

Their next stop was the drawing room, and almost instantly Kyrith began nosing around. The furniture itself proved to be far more interesting than Eri thought it would. Soon, he hopped onto one of the couches and began testing it out.

She had half a mind to stop him, but honestly, watching the young dragon try to work out why it was so soft and springy was too adorable. Sadly, that’s when things started to go wrong, again.

The change was subtle, at first, but it soon became apparent that he was getting a little too excited. He started jumping on the couch, before unfurling his wings.

Realization dawned on her too slowly, and before she could stop him, Kyrith launched himself towards the other couch. He landed, barely, his taloned hands and feet digging into the side.

“Kyrith–” She started to say as she rushed to him, but he leaped off at the last second and bolted through the door. A moment later there was a clatter from the hall.

Uh-oh…

Not wasting any more time, she ran out through the door and immediately came to a halt. Niri was on the ground, an empty bucket on top of her. The poor kobold was soaking wet, but there was no ember-colored dragon to be found.

Torn between helping Niri and finding the dragon, Eri hesitated. A bang sounded out from upstairs. Seeing that the kobold was mostly fine, she ran past to investigate.

Quickly climbing the stairs, she found Kyrith laying on the floor shaking his head. It looked as if he slipped and bumped it against the wall that was in front of him.

“Kyrith… Are you okay?” She asked, slowly approaching. Her concern over him hurting himself temporarily overriding her frustration.

He whipped his head around to face her, but the moment she got close, he tried to bolt. Fortunately, he was still disoriented and wet, slipping on the hardwood floor. Eri managed to grab him and thinking quickly, started dragging him to her room.

The dragon fought, clearly on a sugar rush and not thinking clearly. Still, she managed to throw open her door, drag him in, and shut it behind them. For good measure, she locked it.

Now contained, Eri let him go and sighed. Rubbing her temples, she watched as the over excited dragon began running about the room. She dared not take her eyes off him, fearing he’d find some way to escape.

Kyrith continued his exploration of the room, stopping once he reached her dresser.

Oh no… She thought, realizing she had left one of its compartments partially opened. The dragon was already sticking his head into it before she could even move. He pulled something out and tossed it to the ground.

It was her nightgown.

Feeling herself blushing, she tried to pick it up but Kyrith beat her to it. He snatched it in his mouth and ran towards the bed. With a quick leap, he landed on it and began to circle. Satisfied, he spit the gown out and proceeded to plop down onto it.

“Oh Kyrith… What am I going to do with you?” She said, walking up to the dragon.

He began to rub his head on it, letting out a low purr…

***

It was getting close to the end of the day when Eri and Kyrith finally left her room. The dragon had slept for a while, and even Eri found herself taking a nap. However, the day was not yet over, and with both of them refreshed, she decided to try her luck with training.

They did have one stop to make on their way though, Niri. They found the kobold happily cleaning the dining room, getting it ready for their coming meal.

“Hello Niri,” Eri said, watching the poor kobold nearly jump out of her skin. Niri had been in her own little world, humming along to some tune only she knew.

“Elf lady!” The kobold’s eyes turned downwards. “Master!”

Eri let out a chuckle, watching Niri bow towards the dragon. Kyrith just cocked his head in confusion.

She cleared her throat, regaining the kobold’s attention. “Both me and Kyrith wanted to apologize for earlier,” she said.

“For what?” Niri’s expression was one of confusion.

“The mop bucket? When Kyrith ran into you.” Eri explained.

The kobold thought for a moment. “Oh, elf lady talk about that. It no problem,” she waved away any concern.

“Still, it wasn’t nice,” Eri looked down at the dragon as she said that, “and it’s only right to apologize.”

Kyrith cowed at that, whimpering quietly.

“Oh…”

Straightening her posture, Eri gave a formal bow to the kobold. “I’m sorry for Kyrith running into you.” Standing back up, she gestured towards the dragon. “Now it’s your turn, Kyrith.”

The dragon slowly approached, head down, whimpering. He came to a stop just in front of the kobold.

“Niri accept…” the kobold muttered, unsure what to do. She held out her hand as if to pet the dragon, but hesitated.

“It’s okay, you can pet him. He really likes the back of his head massaged.”

“But… He Master… Kobold no touch–”

Eri cut her off. “Look at him, he wants you to.”

Niri looked down, seeing the dragon giving her a pleading look. Carefully, she reached down and started to softly pet him. After a moment, she began to relax and picked up the pace.

Kyrith started purring and even let out a little chirp when Niri got to his favorite spot. Encouraged, the kobold started to smile as she moved further down his back.

Sadly, it had to come to an end. Eri still wanted to get some training done today, and they were burning what little daylight they had left. So with a depressed goodbye from the kobold, they made their way to the front door.

Stepping out, they found themselves in the evening sun. Eri guessed they had maybe an hour and a half of daylight left, before it got too dark. And given that Niri was already cleaning and preparing the dining room, they probably had less than that.

I wish we had more time… But that’s fine, I wasn’t planning on anything hard. It has already been an exciting day. She thought, watching Kyrith looking out in amazement.

“Kyrith,” she started, “make sure to stay near me. We are going to do a little training, okay?”

The dragon turned his head up to see her, straining his neck in the process. Eri could only laugh at the silliness he displayed.

It really is hard to be upset with you little one… She took a deep breath and started to make her way down the steps. Kyrith was close behind, now sniffing the air as they walked.

They came to a stop in the middle of the small clearing that constituted the front yard, and sat down.

“Now we’re going to work on your mana, nothing too serious, but I want to see where you are at. Do you understand?”

The dragon cocked his head again before nodding. He might be smarter than I originally thought… Strange that he doesn’t talk like Zira apparently does.

Kyrith let out a defiant chirp.

Eri smiled, but felt her cheeks flush from embarrassment. “Sorry little one, I’m still…new to all this.” She reached out and gave him a quick pat. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts.

“Right then. Let’s get started…”

Felix let out a yawn and stretched, blinking away the sleep from his eyes. Looking around, he realized he was still outside. Zira was lying next to him, however, she wasn’t the only one…

Several kobolds were piled on top of each other, happily snoozing away.

Where did they come from? He wondered before feeling Zira’s consciousness stir.

She lifted her head and greeted him, Good night.

Felix chuckled, only to then realize it was definitely getting dark out. Shoot! How long was I asleep?

You sleep for while. Kobolds came and check on you, they got tired and sleep as well.

Somehow, that makes a lot of sense. He had to stop himself from chuckling at the thought. Should we wake them, or just leave them be?

We wake them. They say Uzreg want show you thing. She answered after thinking about it.

Letting out a sigh, he got to his feet. Oh boy, wonder what it could be? I’m surprised he didn’t come himself.

Zira sent him indifference over their bond, almost shrugging in the process.

As she got up herself, Felix went over to the sleeping kobolds. “Alright guys, time to get up.” He gave a few claps for emphasis.

Soon the pile of kobolds began to stir, a few slowly getting up. He waited until the majority were up, giving a few more claps to ensure the rest were at least awake.

“Masters…” One of them muttered, letting out a yawn.

Felix turned his attention to him. “So what’s this about Uzreg wanting to see me?” He asked.

It took a moment for the kobold to process his question, his eyes going wide once it did. “Uzreg say that it time for ser-i-mon-ie!”

He gave the unknown kobold a questioning look, ignoring the horrible pronunciation. “Ceremony? For what?”

Another kobold jumped in. “Uzreg become new Watcher!”

At that, the rest of the group came alive with excitement. So a big deal then– Wait…

“When was this ceremony supposed to start?” He asked, realizing it had likely been hours.

They all froze, every single one of them.

“Now?” One said, completely unsure.

Felix let out a sigh. “Then we better hurry… Actually, what about Eri and Kyrith?” He had almost forgotten about them.

“Only need true Master. No need others…”

“True Mas– You know what? Never mind. Let’s just go.” I have a feeling they mean Fea.

Zira sent her agreement, and with that they started back for the kobold’s camp.

The trip back to the kobold’s camp was silent, well, as silent as a group of excited kobolds could be. That is to say, not very. Still, Felix decided to keep his questions to himself, preferring to wait until he could speak directly to Uzreg.

Coming into the camp, which was starting to look more and more like a village, they continued down the makeshift pathways until they made it to the opposite side. It was only then that Felix noticed how eerily quiet it was. In fact, even the group he was with had quickly settled down.

Well, I guess we’ll find out why soon enough… He thought to himself, though he noted that Zira was just as curious as him.

It didn’t take long.

Just on the other side of the camp, was a new structure. It was made up of a dozen stone pillars, all crudely cut and smoothed, arranged in a semi-circle around two smaller pillars. However, as they got closer, it became apparent that the two smaller ones were actually shrines.

Adding to the effect was almost the entire kobold pack, all sitting in neat rows and facing the shrines. Not a single voice could be heard, and soon most of the group that were with Felix and Zira broke off to take their places.

Oh wow… He had a sudden flashback to when he hatched Zira.

They praying? She asked, almost as stunned as he was.

He swept the crowd, noticing that most had their eyes closed. I think so.

“Masters!” A voice whisper-shouted to them.

Both turned and saw Uzreg, donned in the gaudiest robes Felix had ever seen. Intricate patterns of gold, red, and white made up most of it. In the kobold’s hand was an impressively carved staff, depicting multiple dragons.

Making their way over to the kobold, Felix had to ask. “What is going on here? Why are you dressed like that?”

“Uzreg become new Watcher.” The kobold said, there was a slight nervousness in his voice.

Felix lowered himself down to Uzreg’s level. “Yes, but what does that mean? And what is this place?”

“Oh! I become new Watcher for eggs. I guard, I protect, I help hatch.” The kobold paused to take a breath. “This new worship site. Kobold build place for hatch egg! Kobold rebuild and store egg here, other kobold come to worship birth of Masters!”

Felix was doing his best to follow along. “Worship site? When did you build this?”

The kobold gave him a wide smile. “Kobold start after Master’s Master hatched! Kobold keep secret from Masters! Master surprise?”

Honestly? I am, little guy… Felix thought to himself while Zira snorted in agreement.

“Yeah…” He said, forcing a smile.

Uzreg continued, “Kobold rebuild Master’s Master’s egg…mostly! Kobold have small problem– But it no big deal! Kobold can no wait longer…”

Felix stood back up. “Why the rush?”

“Master want hatch more egg. Egg need Watcher, Watcher need ceremony, ceremony need worship site.”

“Oh… I think I get it.” He didn’t, but then again these were the kobolds he was dealing with. “But then why did you have to wait? What was the problem?”

Uzreg froze for a moment. “Kobold… It small problem, Uzreg should no have say. It fine.”

Felix wasn’t convinced. If I know anything about these guys, it's that they take their job very seriously… Even if I don’t understand why.

“Uzreg, it’s fine, you can tell me. I might even be able to help.” He tried, hoping to not offend the kobold.

Uzreg thought for a moment, eyes darting between him and the shrines. “Kobold lose…” He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he spoke up again. “Kobold lose–”

“The stupid kobolds are missing a piece of Zira’s egg.” A new voice sounded behind Felix and Zira, causing them to whip around. It was Ithea. “The ceremony to name a new Watcher requires them to pledge their oath before a hatched dragon’s egg.”

She gave her wicked smile. “It’s supposed to be a reconstructed egg. Though, it seems these idiots have decided a partial egg is good enough.” She laughed. “Not that I really care. Actually, no dragon does.”

Uzreg ran forth and threw himself down before Ithea. “Kobold sorry!”

Felix’s eyes narrowed, he could already feel his blood boiling. “Why are you here then?” He seethed while Zira growled.

Ithea scoffed. “Oh please, like you have any idea what is actually going on.”

“I might not know exactly what’s going on, but I will support them. They have been nothing but kind and helpful to me. If all you did is come to mock them, then just… Go.” He felt the air grow cold as Zira began to suck up the mana in the area.

All eyes were now upon them.

Ithea’s face hardened. “I wasn’t planning on staying…but I thought I’d be helpful.” She reached into her dress and pulled something out. “That green kobold has been hounding me since I got here for this. I guess I don’t need it.”

She tossed the object onto the ground, landing right in front of Uzreg. The kobold looked at it and gasped, quickly snatching it and holding it up.

“Thank you Master!” He shouted, his hands trembling.

It took a moment for Felix to realize what it was, a piece of Zira’s egg. He looked up to where Ithea was.

She was gone.

A cold wind blew, sending a chill down Eri’s spine. Strange…

It was dark now, but they had only entered into the warmer seasons. Still, a freak cold snap was not entirely unheard of…

“I think that is enough for today,” Eri said, shivering. “You did very well, Kyrith.”

She began to reach over to pet the dragon when he suddenly started growling. Startled, she almost missed the fact she could see her breath. Quickly, she used her mana sense and gasped. All the ambient mana was being sucked away.

Ice began to form, crackling from the instant freezing. Without warning the front door was kicked open, and Ithea stepped out.

Looking at the woman, Eri could see frozen tears.

Something was wrong.