In a hole in the ground there was a kobold.

[lurkingkobold]

From the outside, the cave is nearly invisible; what looks like a simple outcropping of rock hides the entry tunnel. Inside, the cave is barely more impressive - three chambers, only the largest tall enough for even a kobold to stand upright, and that littered with sand and loose stone in lieu of any more interesting rock formation.

It's obviously not a cave that sees habitation often, but it is inhabited now - off to one side of the main chamber, there's the cooling remnant of a cookfire, with the remains of a rabbit piled neatly to the side of it; leaning against a small boulder on the other side is a kobold, her feet propped up on a leather backpack obviously designed for a much larger creature, slowly sounding out words in a book by the blue light of a magic mirror.

Comments

[lurkingkobold]

Leaf speaking to her sort of snaps her out of it. She consults the mirror, and it takes her a moment to work out how to reply.

"Home, elf do of war of that."

She's trying the groats, and nabbed a piece of leftover ham from the refrigerator; maple syrup does not feature, even on the groats.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Oh. There aren't any elves here," he says. "Near here there are a lot of maple forests where people make maple syrup. No one starts any wars over it."

[lurkingkobold]

She nods, regards the syrup bottle dubiously, and decides to try the groats. They're not very good, plain. She switches to the ham.

[thisvorlunatic]

Well, it's understandable that she might not want to eat something people go to war over. Miles doesn't try to convince her otherwise.

[lurkingkobold]

She appreciates his restraint.

She finishes the ham, decides she's hungry enough to try to fix the groats, and raids Leaf's spice cabinet, eventually coming away with bottles of rosemary and thyme, which do the trick. Nom.

While she's considering the spice selection, she asks, "say more of family?"

[thisvorlunatic]

Relevant facts about visiting family...

"My brother and I are twins; he looks just like me. He's very good at pretending to be me, but he usually doesn't do it. He's feeling much better since Mother rescued him, but he still gets upset easily. He does a lot of hiding in dark corners. Sometimes he'll only talk to people if he's hiding where they can't see him. And it's important not to go near him when he's sleeping - he wakes up very upset when people do that."

[lurkingkobold]

Leaf may notice that the mirror's translation uses the animalperson word for identical twins, which refers to coming from the same egg.

The kobold nods at the information, muttering something that's apparently not a word but that sounds approving at the bit about hiding.

"Brother always do of sleep of room?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold nods, "good, is easy of no do of worry".

Food, food, adding a little more rosemary near the bottom of the bowl, food, nom.

[thisvorlunatic]

Food. Miles does not feel the need to add any more things to his groats on top of the decadent and allegedly non-hazardous quantity of maple syrup already present.

[lurkingkobold]

That is probably a good thing, really.

The kobold applies herself a little more studiously to the remains of her groats when Leaf finishes first and starts poking at his mirror. Soon she's done too, and asks, "Leaf do of plan of day?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Not much of a plan. I'll probably spend the rest of the day making spellbooks with wish and reading the forum, unless something unexpected comes up."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold nods. "Am do of go of Leaf, if is no of trouble."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Sure, no trouble."

[lurkingkobold]

She will let him lead the way, then.

Once he's settled in, she slips off for a few minutes to get her spellbook, then settles in herself and returns to her reading efforts, quietly.

[thisvorlunatic]

Making spellbooks with wish apparently involves wearing backpacks full of zorkmids. And it's slow, at least for Miles - about three times in two hours, evenly spaced. He spends the rest of his time sitting at his comconsole, browsing the forum and reading miscellaneous other things.

[lurkingkobold]

That's kind of strange, but very pretty to magic vision.

The kobold reads, and after a while takes a break to catch up on the forum, and reads some more.

Eventually, while Leaf is busy at his comconsole, there is a loud POP and a koboldy 'eep!'

[thisvorlunatic]

...He looks over to determine whether this is a good eep or a bad eep.

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold is covered in shreds of multicolored paper, her spellbook having apparently exploded.

[thisvorlunatic]

A confetti'd eep?

"Oh, you read a spellbook!"

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold nods, eeping rather more happily as she brushes off the paper shreds.

She then considers for a moment, and her face falls. "MP is of none."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That's... a little weird," he says thoughtfully. "There should be some way to get you more MP... the most obvious is for you to do magic that isn't this kind, but the kind from your world is dangerous to use, that's no good... I think I can get you another kind of magic that is safe to use, but I'll have to ask someone to help."

[lurkingkobold]

This, she needs the mirror for.

"Am want of magic." She considers. "Home magic is of safe if do of careful, do of smart; home magic need of mage of do of teach, no mage do of teach of kobold of exile. Other kind magic... say more of?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"The other magic is arcany, from Prism's world. I have a secret friend from Prism's world who told me how to do the ritual that makes someone able to use arcany. But it's only ever been humans and Prism's world's elves who've done the ritual, so I'd have to ask her to come and help me figure out how to change it so you could use it, if you wanted to. There's nine kinds of arcany, and different people get different amounts of each of the kinds. I can show you some of the things they can do, if you want."

[lurkingkobold]

"Elf magic?"

She spends several seconds considering this, with a running commentary of small sounds that range from curious to concerned, heavy on the concern.

"Say more of things of elf magic is of do?"