Katri pushed open the door of her hut, a whimpering pup on her hip and a long-suffering expression on her face. She handed the puppy to Kaz, who cradled the tiny male, rocking him as he offered blue ki that soothed the pain of sore gums. Katri sighed as the whimpers faded away and the pup fell asleep.
“I wish I had enough Wood to do that,” she said. “I thought having two sets of birth-sibs one after the other was difficult, but Qren is more trouble than all four of the others.”
Kaz looked down at the weanling pup in his arms, smiling internally at the small but strong blue and red core in the round little belly. If Katri thought he was trouble now, just wait until he got a little older. Not that Qren would be the only young male with a core, not by any means. Kaz had to make changes slowly, so it would take generations for the numbers of males and females with cores to even out, but it was beginning already.
“He’s just teething,” he said softly, leaning down to sniff the sweet, milky scent of very young puppy. “And he gets gas a lot.” As if on cue, his nephew shifted, grunted, and produced a burst of foul-smelling air. Kaz and Katri both wrinkled their noses, then caught each other’s eyes and smiled, their tails wagging.
The two of them turned and walked toward the center of the den, where the den-mother for the youngest pups was waiting. Sika had joined the ancestors the year before, but she’d lived long enough to see her family reunited and freed from their long history of fear and hatred, and she’d also taught the new den-mothers all the pups’ tricks. Not that all of the den-mothers were female anymore, though ‘den-fathers’ hadn’t become common yet.
“So what are you doing here, brother?” Katri asked, nodding an acknowledgement as a few of her kobolds bowed. “Or did you just know that Qren was giving me trouble again?”
Kaz’s ears twitched, but he shook his head. “I’m…going on a trip. It won’t be long, maybe a few weeks, but I wanted to talk to you before I go.”
Katri’s ears perked up in curiosity, but they’d arrived at the fenced-in area Katri had had made so the little pups couldn’t run off. In case of emergency, it also meant the pups couldn’t flee on their own, but the Deep was as safe as any place in the mountain could be, especially since Kaz figured out how to place more red ki-crystals in places where things like lopo and dengyu would sometimes sneak through. Even the tiniest of the mobile lopo couldn’t get past them and into the Deep, though Kaz didn’t try to stop fuergar, jiyun, zhiwu, or other similarly dangerous but usually not deadly creatures. After all, this was still the mountain, and young kobolds needed a way to prove themselves.
Kaz passed Qren over to the den-mother, an orange-furred female named Khiki, who was actually a little younger than him. She wagged her tail at him, lowering her nose so she could look up at him through long lashes, but he turned away, focused on his sister. As they walked off, Katri sighed, shaking her head.
“Half the females in the tribe would jump at the chance to have you as their mate, you know,” she said. “Sometimes I think half the females in the Deep would jump at that chance.”
Kaz snorted. “A few have offered, but as I’ve told you, I have other plans.” He glanced around, seeing the entrance to the food storage cavern off to their right. Two male guards stood watch nearby, a holdover from the tribe’s time in the heights, and the bored expressions on their faces said they didn’t think they really needed to be there. When they saw Katri, however, they both straightened up, bowing deeply as Kaz led his sister between them.
The food cavern held far more food than Kaz had ever seen in his youth. Dried meat, mushrooms, mosses, and even yumi roots were neatly stacked, tied into bundles, or placed in rows of stone jars. If the tribe ever had to retreat to this cavern because they were being attacked, they would be able to survive for weeks before they had to fight their way out. Of course, unless something happened to Kaz, or another tribe declared vara on them, they were safe, but Katri was a surprisingly cautious leader, who prepared for every eventuality.
Leading Katri to the back of the cave, Kaz pictured the rune for silence, though he didn’t bother to sketch it out anymore. The familiar dome of his ki surrounded them as Kaz sat down on a jar that probably contained pickled eggs. This was a delicacy the humans had brought to the mountain, and Katri had craved them during her pregnancy with Qren. The tribe still had more than they knew what to do with.
Katri’s ears were half-lowered as she stared at Kaz. “I’m starting to worry now. What’s going on, Kaz?”
Kaz sighed, but he knew he had to do this. Should have done it some time ago, in fact, but there was always something else, some excuse to delay, and now here they were. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out three small, round objects and handed them to his sister. Pointing to each, he said, “Oda, Rega, and…Ghazt.”
Katri’s ears were flat against her head as she stared at the three cores. All of them were dim, holding very little power after so long, but their time in Kaz’s pouch had slowed the decay. They didn’t even have enough ki left in them to spark a desire to eat them.
“I meant to send Oda’s with the rest of the Magmablade cores from Nucai’s den, but I just couldn’t. Even if she wasn’t a good person, she was our aunt, and she shares our ancestors. She should go and be judged by them.” He traced the faint line of demarcation between Oda’s original core and the one she’d eaten. “Maybe they can separate her from whoever this was.”
Katri barely glanced at the red core, however, her eyes caught instead by the crack in Rega’s. “What…is this? Was it broken by the core hunter?”
Kaz shook his head. “I think that happened when she took off the necklace meant for me.” He was certain, in fact, but how to explain that certainty to his sister? “She would have been in terrible pain afterwards, and it would only get worse when she used her power.”
“But she healed us every day,” Katri said. “I used to go to her for the smallest things. A bent tail. A stubbed toe. Anything just to spend time with her.”
“And she probably didn’t use ki for most of those,” Kaz said gently. “Just being with her made you feel better, the same way being with you and Latz makes your pups feel better.”
Katri grimaced, but her fingers closed around the damaged core. “All except for Qren. I swear he only whines louder when I pick him up. But-” Her gaze finally turned to the core that had probably once been a rich, deep blue, but was now gray. “How did Nucai come to have Ghazt’s core? How can you even be sure this belonged to our father?”
Kaz knew because he was the Dog, and Ghazt was one of his, even if that had only happened retroactively. But so far he’d managed to avoid any of the kobolds finding out what he was - well, other than Kyla - and he planned to keep it that way as long as possible. He desperately needed the normalcy of being among his people after a long day spent carefully changing an entire species.
“Nucai had the Irondiggers scouring the mountain for cores, and of course Ghazt’s wasn’t removed. As for how I know…I can feel it,” he said, though he was fairly certain his ears gave away the half-truth.
His sister gave him a look, but stroked her finger gently over the core. “Either way, we can still howl him to the ancestors. But Kaz…how did he really die? All Mother would say was that he fell in battle. But Father was too strong to just die like that.”
Kaz looked down, clenching his fists. He’d known the question was coming, and he was determined to answer it, even though Katri might well hate him after learning the truth. “It was my fault,” he said, holding nothing back. “I was sent along simply to make it look like the tribe was larger than it was. I wasn’t supposed to fight. Father was protecting Oda, as usual, but she was so strong he was able to watch over Rega as well. When Rega’s shield broke, she began to retreat, but Ghazt was distracted by another female who was directly assaulting Oda. She’d sent her males around to strike from behind, and Father was fending them off. I went out to protect Rega, but I barely had any training, and she knew it.
“When Rega saw me, she panicked and tried to lift her shield even though she had no ki left. She passed out, probably from pain, and Ghazt ran to her, abandoning Oda. Oda continued to fight, but the female that had been attacking her saw an opportunity and hit him in the back with a ki-bolt. But even though the luegat wasn’t supposed to be to the death, she was using full force bolts because she’d been trying to break Oda’s shield. Rega was still out, so we had no healer. Father died trying to protect her because I went out when I shouldn’t have. I don’t think anyone else even saw what really happened, and I never told.”
By the time Kaz finished talking, he was staring down at his hands, so he couldn’t see Katri’s response. Her long silence didn’t bode well, but finally she sighed.
“Before I had pups, I probably would have hated you for that,” she said. “Maybe even before Shri and Reaz got old enough to start learning to gather. But now I know pups make mistakes. In spite of everything we do to teach them and keep them safe, they persist in putting themselves in harm’s way. And Kaz, you were a pup. A tall, strong one, yes, but a pup nonetheless.” Katri reached out and laid her hand over Kaz’s, and for the first time, she reminded him of their mother.
Kaz looked up, and Katri gave him a nod as she continued. “I know our father didn’t blame you, and I don’t, either. You wanted to protect our mother, as any son would.” Her fingers closed around the faded core. “Thank you for this. We’ll howl them to the ancestors as soon as I can arrange it.” She hesitated. “But you said you would be gone for a few weeks. Should I wait?”
Kaz shook his head. “I already said goodbye to them. Please, have the howl. Tell the tribe about our father and mother, who lived and died for their family and their tribe.”
Katri nodded again and stood from the jar she was sitting on. She tucked the three cores into her small pack, then gave the entrance to the cavern a slightly guilty look, took off the lid of the jar, and popped a yellow pickled egg into her mouth. Her eyes closed as she savored it, and when she opened them again, Kaz was gone.
=+=+=+=
Lianhua and Yingtao were in Nucai’s den, as usual, which meant Chi Yincang was undoubtedly nearby, though his Dao of Shadow had become so good that even Kaz could only see him when he focused. Kaz suspected that Chi Yincang would be able to ascend someday, but wasn’t sure if the other male would choose to pursue his cultivation that far, knowing that if he did, he would leave his sister behind.
Nucai’s pen was at Lianhua’s elbow, and as Kaz entered, it scribbled runes across the page. Lianhua glanced over at it, blinking, then looked up at Kaz. A smile spread across her face, and she pushed her hair back. She no longer kept it in its intricate knots, preferring a few simple braids that wound around each other. She had even threatened to cut it, but Yingtao had looked so stricken that she never mentioned it again.
“Hello, Kaz,” Lianhua said, standing from the desk. She patted the pen affectionately, saying, “Thank you, Hao. You can write whatever you want now. Just not a, ah, ‘romance’, please. The children might read it.” The pen squiggled, and Kaz almost thought it seemed embarrassed.
It turned out that Nucai’s pen was like Shom’s hammer - a soul trapped in a form not its own. Even Shom wasn’t sure how it had been done, since neither Eizri nor the long-forgotten scribe killed to create the pen had had a core. Unlike Eizri, the pen either didn’t know its original name, or didn’t want to tell anyone what it was, so Lianhua had simply named it Hao, which was a common name for both males and females in the Empire.
“I think Kimel is practicing her translation right now,” Lianhua said as she moved to Kaz’s side. “I can call her if you’d like, though.”
Kimel was a young female mosui, and had been the first pup to be adopted by Lianhua and Yingtao. Vek had originally sent her to their school after she showed great natural talent in writing runes, but she and Lianhua had bonded almost immediately. Upon learning that Kimel had no real family left, the two human females had invited her to join theirs, and she had accepted.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Then, when she met Kaz, he discovered that they shared an interest in art. Though Yingtao was an excellent art teacher, it wasn’t a passion for her, so Kaz came to paint with Kimel whenever he needed to stop thinking about the many responsibilities and projects that weighed on him. That wasn’t why he was here today, however, so he shook his head.
“Actually, I came to bring you something, and to say goodbye, at least for a little while,” he said.
Lianhua stopped, frowning. “Are you going somewhere?”
Kaz’s tail wagged. “Yes. Just for a few weeks, but if it works out, I’ll probably spend a lot less time in the mountain, for a while, at least.”
He could tell Lianhua caught the motion, because she relaxed. If he was happy, then she had nothing to worry about. She glanced around, making sure no one was nearby, then whispered, “Is it…Dog related?”
Kaz chuffed a laugh. “No, it’s Kaz related. I’ll tell you about it later.” After it was over.
Now Lianhua looked intrigued, but she didn’t press for more information. Instead, she held out her hand. “All right, I’m ready, then.”
Kaz laughed again, and placed a filigree box on Lianhua’s palm. The two scrolls he’d taken from Zhangwo’s den had been badly damaged in the watery trash heap, so he’d given those to Lianhua already, because she had the best chance of repairing them. Even five years later, she was still trying to find ways to lift the ink from the stains, and became very cranky when she was reminded. This box, however, had remained completely intact, but Kaz had wanted to figure out how to open it before he gave it to her, just in case whatever was inside was dangerous.
Lianhua’s eyes brightened, and she turned the box over and over, looking for a latch or lock. She didn’t find one, since all six sides seemed to be identical, with no top or bottom. “What’s in it?” She raised it to her ear and shook it, causing a faint rattle to echo from inside.
Kaz’s tongue lolled out in a grin. “You’ll have to open it and find out. Good luck. It took me almost four and a half years.”
He didn’t mention that it took another six months to figure out that the golden arrow floating in the round metal object inside always pointed at the bearer’s greatest desire. It was only after Li traveled back from the Grimgar Wilds where she’d been searching for the rest of her family that he realized what was happening. He wondered how long it would take Lianhua to realize that for her, it always pointed at Yingtao. Not long, he suspected.
Lianhua laughed, lowering the box. She was so much more relaxed and happy now that it was hard to remember how quiet and worried she’d been when they first met. “Thank you, Kaz. You know I love a mystery. Am I allowed to ask for help?”
He tilted his head. “Yes,” he said, “but only if you don’t think you can do it on your own.”
“Any clues?”
The only one he could give her was that if she handed it to a child it would be open in minutes, but that would take all the fun out of it, so he shook his head. “I believe in you.”
She smiled, then turned serious again. “I believe in you, too. Thank you, Kaz. I hope your journey or adventure goes well.”
He bowed his appreciation, then waved and started to walk away. After a few yards, however, he paused and looked at a patch of shadow that was far too small to conceal anything. “Chi Yincang?” he asked.
The warrior dropped into view a moment later, and the small, black rodent on his shoulder squeaked a greeting to Kaz. This was Song, one of Mei’s third or fourth litter of pups, and she had chosen Chi Yincang the moment she’d met him, even though she barely had fur at the time.
Kaz held up something he’d requested especially from the Woodblade crafters. The tribe was thriving, producing more pups than any of the others, and the vast majority of the pups with cores had a good amount of Wood ki. The adults were beginning to produce art again, but they’d also started making a few things that had been inspired by products bought from human traders, often with Kyla’s enthusiastic encouragement.
“This is niu-milk cheese,” he told the fuergar. “It has to be mixed with milk from cows, which means it’s very difficult and expensive to make, so the Woodblades will definitely notice if any goes missing.”
Song squeaked her understanding, though Kaz was almost certain she planned to ignore his warning. That was all right. He and the Woodblades had planned a few surprises for her when she went looking for more of the cheese. Nothing that would hurt her, but it would definitely make her think twice about raiding their food cave, something which had become a bit of a problem as more of Mei’s pups grew to maturity and began to develop…unexpected abilities.
The fuergar took a nibble from the pale cheese, then stopped, her whiskers standing straight out from her fuzzy cheeks as a shiver traveled down her body from her nose to the tip of her tail. Her small paws turned the cheese as she stared at it, then sniffed it, looking like Katri with a mouthful of pickled egg. Only after that did she take another bite, and as Chi Yincang stepped back into his little patch of shadow, the human dropped one eyelid in a slow, deliberate wink.
=+=+=+=
Kaz sat in the center of the cave at the top of the mountain, waiting. He breathed in slowly, concentrating on compressing his core, regulating his cycle until it was as smooth as the deep rivers Heishe liked to swim through. The crystal that ran through the Tree at the center of his core was vibrant with power, ki arching from it like the branches of the Tree itself, reaching into every part of the mountain. He could feel everything, and knew it was working as intended. Best of all, there were enough Woodblades now to maintain it without him, at least for a little while.
Turning his attention away from the mountain, he focused on the sparks of life scattered around the world. Most canines liked to be in groups, whether for protection or companionship, but there were also many who spent much of their lives alone. These tended to be more vulnerable, though also difficult to find - at least for anyone who might be hunting them - so he checked on them in a quick sweep, assuring himself that they, too, were living their lives as they were meant to.
Only when all of that was done did he allow himself to turn his attention to the Fallen. They had become a bit of an obsession for him, as he tried to teach the world what they were so that it would include them in its cycle. Like kobolds in the mountain, Fallen females could pull power from the world itself, filtering and refining it until they released it once more. Beast cores were like the world’s dantians, summoning, controlling, and purifying power, but because the Fallen females were surrounded by mana with so much wei in it, their own channels and dantians became full of foulness, which in turn shortened their lives and reduced them to little more than the beasts from which they had been created. Slowly but surely, however, he was making their cores better at refining that ki and clearing the waste away, rather than allowing it to linger in their bodies.
Males, on the other hand, were simply unable to hold enough power - mana or ki - to survive at all. Strong females with more ki than they needed for themselves could produce living male pups, and by staying near their mothers, those pups could survive to adulthood, but they were never strong. That meant that every Fallen tribe was in constant decline, both in population and strength. In the mountain, there was enough already-refined ki that most males never even noticed the problem, though the power passed in and out of them constantly, never lingering for long. Only on the top few levels did it become a problem, explaining why males were usually unable to reach the cave at the peak, and even females found it difficult.
The trick was to teach the world that kobolds were no different from any other natural creature, in spite of their human heritage. Unfortunately, this was rather like trying to howl to a distracted pup, and it took many repetitions and finding new ways to explain things in order for any changes to take place. This was something Mei seemed to be remarkably good at, perhaps because of her now-extensive experience as a mother, but Kaz was too impatient, and tended to push too hard, resulting in the world losing focus much like that bored puppy being lectured by an adult.
Still, every chance Kaz got, he changed things a little more. While Fallen males living in the wild still died at much the same rate as when he’d become the Dog, the ones who lived among the xiyi had seen a notable increase in the number of males born and reaching adulthood. Bit by bit, he was improving their ability to survive using the mana of the world, just like other creatures without cores. Eventually, he suspected they might even be able to cultivate, though he honestly wasn’t sure if the core a kobold cultivator created would be a human or a beast core. Would a kobold someday ascend to the Heavens, as Qiangde had so longed to do? If so, he hoped he was still there to see it.
To his surprise, Heishe and the others hadn’t been in any great hurry to replace their last three siblings, and as the years passed, Kaz was beginning to realize why. He was effectively immortal now, and while five years had seen huge changes among his people and in the mountain, he himself was the same, physically at least. After a thousand years of separation, another ten or twenty years was nothing to an immortal, especially now that the balance was being restored. Eight of the Twelve was enough, at least for now.
The sound of claws scratching on stone made his ki-cycle jump, though, and when he drew in another breath, it shook. He rose to his paws as a crimson-horned, gold-scaled head poked in through the entrance of the cave, melting snowflakes causing the scales to glisten as if covered in tiny crystals.
He hadn’t seen Li in person since she left for the Grimgar Wastes nearly three years ago, chasing a rumor that a small flight of blue and gold dragonlings had been sighted there. It took her a long time, many adventures, and a great deal of work to track them down, but she found three of her four remaining siblings. When she freed them from their runes, she discovered that the last had been killed by an older wild dragon, and that had been a very hard day, when Kaz very much regretted that he wasn’t with her.
Kaz stared, taking her in. She wasn’t as large as her father, but she was already bigger than her mother, and probably had at least a bit more growing to do. Her horns were an elegant crown, sweeping back away from her face, and she was just beginning to develop a few small tendrils around her nose. They floated as if in a breeze, though her body blocked the wind that blew outside the cavern.
“Did you see the little tree?” he asked, almost surprised to find that his voice sounded normal.
She nodded.
He chuffed. “Well, Mei did. Apparently she just moved stone there from someplace else when she was making a tunnel. I tried to move a piece, and it wouldn’t budge, so I don’t think the wind or snow will knock it down.”
Li entered the rest of the way, shaking the last of the snowflakes from her scales as she laid down, resting her chin on her front paws. Her eyes never left him, and Kaz rather uneasily began to feel a bit like prey being watched by a very large predator.
“Here,” he said, and pulled the red ki from both of their cycles, bringing it to the surface to warm them and the air around them. It felt so strange to do it when she was right there, and he could actually see the effect.
She curved her neck and arched her wings, steam gently rising from her body as she closed her eyes.
He grinned, feeling his blood begin to pound through his veins. “Yes, but…I have a surprise for you first.”
“Me first.”
They laughed, and the strange tension between them drained away. Li stretched out her neck, gently touching her large nose to Kaz’s, and they shared a breath, closing their eyes and leaning into each other. Then she moved back, and said,
Kaz nodded. “But close your eyes.”
Together, they closed their eyes, but Kaz knew she would feel the ki moving through him as clearly as he felt the ki moving through her. It had been so, so hard to keep this a secret from her, working on it only when she was distracted or asleep. Had she done the same for her surprise?
He opened his eyes, looking from his much higher vantage point. He could feel his fur move in the wind that managed to make it through the cave mouth, because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t picture himself without blue fur. He had to make a very strange-looking dragon, but besides the fur, he had gotten everything right.
Rather than looking straight at Li, however, he found that he had to tilt his head down. Staring up at him in astonishment was the most beautiful female kobold he had ever seen. Her fur was long and seemed to be made of pure gold, though her ears were red shading into orange, and there was a ring of blue fur around her throat. Her body was long and well-muscled, and her muzzle swept gracefully away from familiar golden eyes.
They both began to laugh, and it took a long time for that laughter to fade. By the time it did, Li was embracing Kaz’s long neck, her nose buried in his fur. “You still smell like Kaz,” she said wonderingly, and her voice was the perfect mixture of sweetness and a gentle rasp.
She reached up and stroked his neck as he’d stroked hers so often. “Can you fly?” she asked.
Rising from the crouch he’d fallen into so she could reach his shoulders, he said,
A moment later, two observers watched as a golden dragon and a slightly wobbly - and very fuzzy - blue one flew from the mouth of the cave and swooped up into the brilliant blue sky. They dove in and out of clouds, circling each other in a joyful dance of wings. Fortunately, no one was watching except for a very small snake and a very large, flaming bird.
The Rooster sighed, and a pair of doves in a nearby tree suddenly grew a good bit larger.
Fengji preened his fiery wing.
Heishe was gone, but her laughter hissed in the Rooster’s mind.
Fengji sounded scandalized.
More laughter was his only answer.
here is the link to Lucky Rabbit on Royal Road, and I hope you'll all at least glance at it. I'd love to see you there!