"Dig, dig, dig. Dig down deep. Find the ore and dig it out. Swing the pick, tooth, and claw. Keep on digging down!" The kobold mining crew's chants repeated repeatedly in the dark depths of the Crimson Claw Cavern. All down the line, soot-covered kobolds dressed only in threadbare protection swung in unison as they expanded their warren further down into the depths in search of new secrets and treasures to claim as their own.
Boss Prakibak scowled as he paced back and forth along the digging crew, his yellow teeth exposed in his snarls. He is a tall, deep-red scaled kobold with sinuous muscle and imposing frills. Though his horns are small, he makes up for their lack with his sharpened claws and gnashing teeth. "Keep it up, keep it up. You diggers need to move faster. Uplanders are coming down. They trampled our hatchery. Our young, the future of the tribe, was damaged beyond repair. We must dig deeper to escape their greed. All hidden from the burning skyfire is ours right now; now is the time to claim what is ours. We are dragons, the true rulers of this world! Dig, as befits your heritage!"
One of the diggers, a young girl named Tik Tik, struck the earth with her scrawny arms. She lifts the pick, panting heavily before swinging it down again, striking the rock with a pathetic thing.
Prakibak stomped forward and scowled down at Tik Tik. "You call that a swing? What kind of kobold are you if you can't dig!"
Tik Tik held up a finger and replied. "I worked as a trapper's apprentice. I am no brute laborer."
Prakibak snarled, "So, you're responsible for the uplanders getting to our eggs..."
Tik Tik gasped. "Absolutely not! All of my traps were unsprung! They came in from the other side, where Lishnash worked. I was protecting the south by the fairy forest, and-"
Prakibak's claw slammed the wall right beside Tik Tik's face. The pink kobold winced and backed up against the wall.
The larger kobold leered at her, his teeth filling his muzzle. He snorted, hot air passing over Tik Tik's heart-shaped nose, causing it to wrinkle. "Well, if you were any good at yer job, you would have checked all the entrances, wouldn't you have?"
Tik Tik opened one of her blue eyes, her teeth gritted together not in a display of dominance but in abject fear. "T-that w-was Quiquan's job," she objected.
His other hand slammed on the wall on the other side of her face, effectively pinning her against the rock. "Doesn't matter! We have an egg shortage now because of poor trappers! The breeders are working from shroomglow to mushdim and adding to the tribe. And what are you all doing? Making ineffective traps and swinging your pathetic, weak arms at the rock. Maybe I'll have the Queen put you on breeder duty instead. How does that sound, eh? I bet you'd do really well at that. In fact, I'd be happy to give you your first egg."
Tik Tik's face burned as he talked on about that, and as his clawed hand moved from the rock to her cheek, she hissed, grabbing his hand and staring him down. "Do not treat me like a slave! We are working together, Prakibak! And it was the Queen who put me here!"
Prakibrak freed his hand, an easy task against the smaller, tired, and weakened kobold. He held his arm aloft, hand clenched in a fist, staring down at her with his bright orange eyes filled with fury. His chest rose. His nostrils flared, and he snarled, slamming his fist on the rock wall right by her head!
Tik Tik sensed it first--a rumble beneath her feet. She curled her toes and whimpered, looking up to Prakibak. His eyes widened, and, for that moment, she didn't see the stubborn and angry dig boss but a fellow kobold, one worried about the safety of his people. He turned around and shouted. "Quake! Get out of the tunnel! Go, now!" He grabbed Tik Tik's arm and pulled her away from the wall, her hands resting on his firm yet soft-scaled chest as he wrapped his arms around her. The ground beneath their feet gave way, and she yipped in surprise, holding tighter onto him as the two found themselves slipping off their feet and falling down the new hole. Suddenly, a loose bit of stone struck the dig boss, causing him to let go of her. She shrieked, and he gasped, reaching out to try and grab her again, but he missed, and the two tumbled separately down, with the screams of their fellows ringing through their ears.
Tik Tik awoke, her pink scales caked in dust and dirt and her working clothes torn, with droplets of dried blood on her arms and legs. She groaned and got on her knees, shaking off loose rubble from her head. She poked at her frills and traced a finger over her horns, sighing in relief as they were unharmed. She then tested her tail, flicking it back and forth. Everything seemed alright. She stood and glanced around. The chamber she stood in was natural, devoid of the marks of any sentient race's pickaxe or chisel. She stepped along the darkness. The ground felt like an ancient river had worn the floor. But it had dried up long ago.
A groan caught her attention, and she gasped, running up to the trapped kobold. Prakibak's tail and one of his legs were caught underneath a reasonably large boulder. Tik Tik dropped to his side, and examined over the rock, frowning.
"Damn, quakes!" Prakibak muttered, his claws scraping at the ground. "It'll throw back construction for at least a week, figurin' out the weaknesses in the rock!"
"Do not try to move," Tik Tik said, running her fingers over the stone. "This could shift and crush you."
"I'm already crushed!" He snarled. "Why don't you try something useful and go find some help? Scurry along like a good little girl."
Tik Tik froze, and then stood up, folding her arms over her chest. Her tail slapped the ground as she narrowed her eyes. She scrutinized the once large and impressive kobold, reduced to a barking wyrmling. "You weren't very nice to me up in the mine. You wanted to transfer me to breeding duty."
"Yeah? So? Did you really think you'd be better chipping away at that rock all your life?" He asked. He coughed and groaned. "At least you'd be having fun and being productive as a breeder."
Tik Tik sighed and tapped the rock. "I'll go find some help. Don't do anything stupid." With that, she walked off down the path of the ancient river. Just as he left, she paused and looked over her shoulder. "I will only use my body if I can also stimulate my mind. Tell me how breeding can do that, and I might consider it."
Tik Tik crept along the cave. Being alone and unarmed meant she had little chance of fighting off any monster that lived in the darkness. As a weak little kobold, she had no means of defending herself, so all of her senses were on overdrive. She sniffed the stale air, felt the disturbances in the floor and walls, listened to the creaks and drips echoing from the far-off chambers, tasted the mustiness of the air, and finally saw the light beyond.
She paused. Light meant trouble. Light meant creatures who couldn't see in the dark. Light meant uplanders. Tik Tik leaned forward, her tail raised, squinting as he saw more of the light and the small tent where the light source rested. Tik Tik pressed herself to the wall, shimmying her way over, being as slow and quiet as possible. Her chin pressed against the wall, impairing her vision as she looked up. Anyone watching her would surely catch her off guard. She made it as far as the edge of the tent, looking out the corner of her eye to examine the fabric. Small shadows clung to its walls, yet none of them moved; none of them looked organic. Tik Tik raised a toe and poked at the lining of the tent. She pierced through with little resistance. She licked her lips and brought her toe around the edge of the tent, creating a flap. She ducked down and peeked her head in, pulling her head back out and rubbing her eyes. It hurt like the fire in the uplands, and it hurt so much, she hissed in reflex.
Without hesitation, she clapped her hands over her mouth and opened one eye partially, darting her gaze back and forth over the scene. There was nothing at the camp. Just the tent, the nasty light, and the things inside. "Must find help," she spoke to herself. "Must push through." She kept her eyes shut as she wriggled in through the hole. First, her head, then her shoulders, and finally, she pulled her arms through. Blinded, she knocked over a small stool, which knocked into the lamp and knocked it over. The light immediately disappeared with the sound of a slight hum. Tik Tik paused, surprised by the sudden darkness. When nothing immediately happened, she opened her eyes once more.
The tent was furnished only with a bed roll, a small chest, an upturned stool, and a small writing desk. Tik Tik stood, finding it easy to stand at full height with plenty of headroom. Whoever used this shelter must have been much taller than the average kobold. Tik Tik coughed, catching the whiff of dust in the air. She squatted down, placed a hand upon the bedroll, and pulled it back to see the shape of her handprint. "Abandoned..." she said. "Long time. How did an uplander get here?" she asked. If there is a way to the uplands, there is a way out for a kobold to find help. Perhaps the mysterious traveler left a map.
Even a map not made by expert Kobold's hands would be enough to orient her. To that end, she investigated the chest. She approached it and licked her lips, rubbing her hands together. She pressed her cheek to the lock and waited a moment--no sound. She then rapped her knuckles on one side and then the other. Everything sounded consistent. It wasn't trapped. However, the thing was still locked. She frowned and turned to a broken, shattered device lying on the ground. A metal frame with glass fragments all around it. It must be the light source, but it lay broken now. She snaked her tail toward it and hooked the tip over a ring on top of the device. Pulling it in close, she grabbed it and flipped it around, once, twice, three times. Once she had a good handle on the thing, she found the weak point and slammed it against the ground. A small piece of metal broke free, and she tossed the rest of the husk away. With a few twists of the loosened strip, she fashioned a tiny pick, which she inserted into the lock. With a click, the chest opened, and she peered inside.
Within, there were scraps of paper and a curious thing. Bound in leather with designs of gold on the front, this mysterious item intrigued her. She picked it up first. Inside, many pages were glued to the casing. She frowned as she looked it over. What matter of device would this be? Some kind of paper holder? She opened it up, and her eyes widened. Words! Words written in the tongue of dragons, the tongue of the kobold race! She drank in the knowledge held within, sitting back on the bedroll as she did. These words were directions on how to speak the actual words of power... the words of magic.
Could she use magic? She flipped further in and frowned. Unfamiliar words filled the pages now--words and pictures. She placed a hand over one of those pictures. She recognized the more immense horror drawn here. This thing with a maw that could swallow a kobold whole, with many tangled arms. It is a burrower, but the thing underneath is a mystery. Built like a Kobold, it would be much taller and fattier, with fur upon its head and a flat, tiny snout. But the most intriguing part wasn't the creature itself, but the fact that it was held up by the borrower by its arms and legs, and its legs spread wide, with the burrower's other arms going up between them until they reached--
Prakibak shouted her name and Tik Tik closed the book, holding it tightly as she scrambled out of the tent.
Tik Tik scurried from the old abandoned campsite. Prakibak had called for her, and she couldn't leave the injured dig boss alone. After all, it is a kobold's duty to see after the well-being of their tribe, and those above a kobold in rank needed to be protected for the good of them all. She arrived at the site and panted, dropping to her knees beside the injured foreman and looking him over with a frantic concern. "What? What is wrong?"
Prakibak, lying on his back with the collapsed stone on his leg and tail, looked up to Tik Tik with his once-powerful orange eyes. "You... you were taking too long," he admitted. I need a report more often."
Tik Tik blinked, but a smile ran across her face. "Boss... are you scared?"
"No!" he snapped, sneering and showing off his impressive teeth.
"It's alright if you are," Tik Tik said. She reached out and placed a hand upon one of his impressive frills. The dig boss flinched at her touch, and she frowned. "Dig crew will come to save us," she said. "We can't get out with you like this. Even if I free you, you'll be too hurt to move. So, I'll stay beside you." She sat back, placing the book she found at the campsite upon her lap.
"What's that?" he asked, unable to shift to a comfortable position to correctly see it.
