The Broken Knife

Kaz crouched by a totem made from a pale gray skull whose eyesockets were filled with dozens of small copper teeth. It was familiar, but he thought he’d heard of it, rather than seen it with his own eyes. He didn’t know how many tribes of kobolds there were, but they likely numbered in the hundreds, and many of them used skulls and bones to make their totems.

Glancing toward Li, he shook his head. “I’m still not sure. I think… maybe this is another tribe like the Stoneborn. Pups have to stay close to the den on the mid-levels, so I didn’t meet any of the other tribes except in passing. If this tribe is also fleeing the tribe from the Deep, that would explain why I don’t know them.”

Standing, he sighed and brushed off his hands. “This doesn’t tell us where we are in relation to the stairs, though. We’ll have to keep going. Are you still okay?”

Li whistled confirmation, looking a little insulted that he felt the need to ask. Kaz chuckled. “I know, I know. Dragons are great and powerful, and you are the greatest of all dragons.”

She smacked him with a wing, but he could tell she was pleased. He had discovered that she liked such compliments, and made sure to offer them regularly. After all, she might be a very small dragon at the moment, but she wouldn’t stay that way. Plus, he liked the feeling of her happiness.

Cautiously, Kaz walked off down the passage, with Li clinging to his shoulder. She wanted to fly, but no kobold would ignore the sound of wingbeats in the darkness, so she had to stay with him. They could come across a group of gatherers or guards at any time, especially if this really was a mid-level tribe. If they were like the Stoneborns, their territory was likely small, and there could even be patrols.

The scent of kobold grew ever stronger, and Kaz lingered in crevices and cracks, ears pricked high as he listened for any sign of activity. He circled, finding clear signs of gatherers, with half-picked patches of yumao and toufa.

A deep breath and the click of a claw gave the presence of guards away just before he turned yet another corner, following the directions of his nose, and Kaz froze, then sank back, taking advantage of the darkness of the tunnel. He waited, barely breathing, to see if they had noticed him. When nothing happened, he slipped away, following the tunnel back to the last branching.

Guards meant something to guard. Kobolds guarded three things; den, chief, and gatherers. Gathering groups tended to move around and talk, at least a little, but these guards were still and silent. Therefore, Kaz had likely found the den itself.

That silence also argued that it was probably nighttime, and all the kobolds were asleep except the guards themselves. This presented Kaz with something of a dilemma.

First, he could withdraw. If this was the den, then in the morning, gathering groups would depart, and he could follow one, listening in on all the little conversations between pups. The downside to this was, of course, that they were pups. No one told puppies anything important, and at least in his recent experience, their discussions mainly focused on what they were going to eat, and when they were going to eat it.

Second, he could try to sneak inside the den itself. If Li really could keep the guards from seeing or smelling him, this would be a perfect time to go in and find a place to hide and gather information for the day. Yes, he would be trapped there until the following evening, but he would probably be far safer in the den than wandering the passages. No one would ever expect a strange kobold to be inside the den itself, so even if someone detected something, they would probably dismiss it.

He was so tired. If he could find a quiet place to hide, surely he could finally sleep, as well? With an entire den of kobolds around him, he would be safe. Safe, for the first time in… how long? Days? Had it been a week? More? He could close his eyes and truly relax, knowing there was more than his own reaction speed and a single, very small dragonling standing between him and the teeth of a woshi or something worse.

Yes, he had to go in. Somehow, he had to find a way past the guards. A distraction. But what? What would attract their attention just enough to make them look away, but not enough to make them call for help?

A lost pup. A pup just like Kaz himself, alone and frightened, whimpering in the darkness. Surely any guard would look, at least for a moment.

Silently, Kaz explored the tunnels near the guards, trusting Li to keep his scent from alerting them to his presence. He found a second entrance, also guarded, and this time he was able to see the warriors who stood there. He crept forward, inch by inch, until he could hunker down in the darkness of a small stand of stalagmites.

The guards were short, but broad, with thickly muscled arms and chests, and a great ruff of fur framed their ears. He couldn’t see what color that fur was, except that it was dark, but at their waists long, heavy-looking weapons hung. Copper glittered in the dim light coming from the cavern behind them, but he thought it reflected from chunks embedded in the gray surface of the weapons, rather than from the weapons themselves.

Copper and cudgels, with the scavenged teeth of copper fuergar serving to make their bone weapons cut and chop, rather than simply bludgeon. These were the Copperstrikers, and they most definitely didn’t belong in the upper levels of the mountain. What kind of fierce tribe had risen from the Deep to push such a strong clan out?

Kaz huffed a small breath, trying to decide if he should continue with his plan. That was all it took for one of the muscular males to whip his head around, eyes staring straight at Kaz’s hiding place. Kaz’s body froze in place, nearly trembling with the flood of terror he felt at the cold pressure of that yellow gaze.

This tribe was too strong. He had been a fool to think he could simply slip past them while they looked for a whimpering pup. He needed to retreat, go back to wandering again. If he stayed just outside of their territory, surely it would eventually meet up with that of another, weaker tribe - a tribe who hadn’t ruled half the mid-levels for generations.

The warrior on the left looked over to his partner. With a flick of a finger, he indicated that the other guard should investigate the sound. The second male nodded, tugging his cudgel from his belt with practiced ease. His muscles rippled as he clutched the weapon, slowly advancing on the cluster of stalagmites beyond which Kaz crouched.

Kaz reminded himself that while he could see the other kobold thanks to his enhanced vision, the Copperstriker had no such advantage. Kaz had to hold still. Still and silent, and hope Li was correct that she could conceal his scent as well.

The male advanced, pale eyes peering into what must be near-darkness as he came. He stepped up to the stalagmites, hesitated, then sniffed, frowning. Time stretched. At last, with a shrug, the male turned back, returning his weapon to a hook on his belt. This close, Kaz could see that it was made of the same gray bone as the totem, and there were indeed dozens of jagged copper teeth thrusting seemingly at random from the weapon’s surface.

“Nothing,” the one who had come to check said as he returned to his position.

The first male shrugged, obviously unconcerned, but the second sighed, tapping his claws against the bone shaft of his weapon.

Silence stretched. “I don’t know why we even bother,” the second male mumbled at last.

Slowly, the first male turned his head. His eyes were nearly white, and his voice was cold as he said, “This is our place. We watch.”

The second male stiffened. “Yes. I- Yes.”

Kaz, who still huddled in place, watched them. He hoped they would say more, but there was nothing. If he hadn’t been able to see the light gleam from their dark fur as their ribs rose and fell, he wouldn’t have been certain they still breathed.

Li shifted on his shoulder, and an image trickled into his mind. Blue kobold, shrinking, raising its little nose to whine and whimper, until two larger males appeared. The little kobold then disappeared into smoke, leaving the larger ones looking baffled.

Kaz sent denial. Too dangerous. He recreated the blue pup, made it whimper, but this time only one of the two larger kobolds moved toward it, while the other one stood back and watched. The pup vanished, reappearing behind the moving kobold, only to have the second warrior snatch it up as it tried to pass him by.

Kaz would retreat. He would find a tribe that hadn’t just risen to this level. They would be less cautious, and more talkative. He just needed to know where the stairs were. If he was lucky, he might even stumble over the stairs without help. Powerful tribes liked to control the passages between levels, so it was possible, even likely, that one was nearby, and the Copperstrikers had already taken it over from whoever was here before.

Slowly, he stood and began to back up. He kept his eyes locked on the guards until he turned a corner, then spun and placed his back against the wall, trembling. Yes. He would hide, skulk, creep through the edges until he found another tribe. Any tribe who was not from the mid-levels.

Only when he reached this decision and felt the tension drain from his body did he realize just how frightened he had been. He had allowed his exhaustion and his loneliness to convince him to make a poor choice. No, it would truly be for the best to continue on. He had found kobolds. That was enough for now.

Quickly, he retraced his steps, soon reaching the corner where the first pair of warriors stood, still guarding the den. He hurried past, his paws lighter and lighter as he moved further away. Down one tunnel, then another, back to a cavern that reminded him uncomfortably of the one the woshi had snatched him from. Tiny pools had formed beneath a hundred tiny stalactites, too small to bother breaking off, and clumps of lichen mingled with fronds of moss and a few stout, fleshy mushrooms. All of the plants were plundered, clear evidence of the recent activity of gatherers, and the scents of a dozen kobolds and copper were nearly overwhelming.

As he passed through, his nose twitched, and he paused. Copper and kobolds. Copper and strangers. Blood and… not stranger. Not familiar. Not quite. But not stranger, either. It was a faint smell. Too faint to be produced by any living creature, but perhaps… the aroma that lingered on an object after someone handled it? Had something come through here that smelled familiar? But he didn’t know any-

His eyes widened. He did know someone who would have passed through this level recently. Four someones, actually. Lifting his nose, he sniffed again, filling himself with the aromas surrounding him. The overwhelming scent was the tang of copper, and beneath that lay kobolds. Pups, mostly, their scents immature and dusty, trailing around the cave, back and forth in overlapping waves. Some females, he thought, but mostly males, and definitely a few adult males, musk inextricably mingled with the metallic odor of their weapons.

Kaz circled around to the far side of a pool, toward a dark tunnel he hadn’t yet explored. There was less moisture here, and so there were fewer plants, and the habits of hundreds of hours of gathering had sent him along the path with the greatest growth. Now he followed his nose instead, and it was definitely telling him that something familiar had passed this way. Not recently, no. Not within the last few days, even. The gatherers had come at least twice since then, and only the ki pulsing through his body let him detect… Lianhua.

He stopped.

Lianhua hadn’t been here. No, the scent wasn’t strong enough for that. But something belonging to her had come this way. Trade goods perhaps? Had the humans traded another of their ‘handkerchiefs’ to use a passage controlled by the Copperstriker tribe?

It didn’t matter, not really. What mattered was that he had the scent. Kaz finally knew which way to go.