Chapter 79 – Why not? (Patreon)

Not so much as a scale brushing against the stone floors could be heard as the assembled Elders stared at the youngling, their faces contorted in confusion at her response. No one spoke, no one moved, no one so much as twitched a tail for several long seconds.

Feeling their stares, the silence dragged on the confidence with which Kori had made her proclamation. The longer it went on the more it felt like she had done something wrong.

The first to say anything was Ylst, “All of them?” She blurted out. “You can’t be serious…” When all she got in response was the tilted head that everyone knew was about to be followed by the little kobold’s favorite word, Ylst looked to the others and asked what everyone else was likely thinking. “She can’t do that… can she?”

Ortik looked on as the silence was broken and the others began murmuring in response, the claws that had been rubbing the scales on the bridge of his muzzle previously having returned to their work unbeknownst to him, “I’m not…” he started before sighing, “no?” He thought for a few more moments, “Maybe?”

As the Elders slowly descended into uncertainty, one of them simply began laughing. It wasn’t clear what Har found so funny about the situation, only that his laugh was edged with a tinge of mania that made the others concerned for his well being.

“You see it, right?!” He gasped out between bursts of laughter, “What I’ve been dealing with for weeks?” Waving his hand in Kori’s direction. “Every time I turn around, it’s something new.” His tone straddling the edge between joy and despair. “Let’s face it, I wasn’t her mentor… I was her minder… same as the rest of you…”

Realization grew on the faces of Ortik, Ylst, Aldr, Bolst, and even Korse, every one of them who had spent time trying to teach the youngling to do this or that, every one whose path she had failed to follow, usually in one spectacular fashion or another. She’d always found a way to do her own thing within the bounds they had set.

Kles, still seated on the floor next to the youngling, who was awkwardly trying not to be the center of attention when she could be nothing but, laughed at the stunned expressions the rest of them wore.

She turned to Kori, tapping her on the arm before asking her, “Help an old kobold to her feet, dear?” As she rose, Kles addressed the rest of the Elders. “Oh, don’t look so bothered. So a youngling’s got you chasing your own tails, at least she’s making these caves a little more interesting.” She continued her laugh, though unlike Har, hers was full of actual mirth.

“Now, are you lot gonna keep staring at her like she’s a talking salamander, or are we actually going to accept that none of us have a scale damned clue how to actually train the greedy girlie?”

This sparked a new round of debates, culminating in a single question spoken by Korse, “Well, she’s gotta be somebody’s apprentice… right?”

The answer, much to basically everyone’s amusement and several more hands raising to massage the space between their eyes, came from the youngling in question. The only answer that could ever be fitting from her in that situation.

“Why?”

This of course was accompanied by a tilted head and quirked brow, as well as another round of stunned expressions. Everyone looking towards the chieftain expecting him to have the response.

 “Because… well… that’s just how it’s done…” Ortik mumbled.

His answer was trumped with the simplest of responses.

“Why?”

“Why?” He answered, “Because that’s the rule. Younglings apprentice, Elders train, the clan grows.”

“But, why?” She replied, from anyone else they’d think she were mocking him, but the simple, innocent, curiosity behind her words was unmistakable.

“It’s always been that way, since before I hatched and for every single kobold within the clan.” By this point it sounded like he was rationalizing their entire history to a four-year-old. “It’s what works.”

Before the inevitable response, Kles placed her hand on the youngling’s shoulder and shook her head. “That’s enough for now.” She said softly, then turned back to Ortik. “I think aside from running you in circles again, she’s trying to make the same point that Har so eloquently made himself, is it working for her?”

Har barked another laugh, sounding a little more stable than he had been for the last several minutes, “Obviously not… she still can’t even tell what a meal should cost…” He looked to the others who’d she’d trained with, “Can any of you say she did any better?”

Only Aldr spoke up, “She mixed a decent batch of mead…” then with a bit of a self-deprecating sigh he added, “At least until she wanted to try shoving mana into it…”

Har shook his head, “And you stopped her? I bet it would have been something interesting.”

Aldr’s response was to look over at Bolst, “It was right after… well, you know…” He received a nod of commiseration from the trapper and several comments affirming that he made the right call from the others.

“So, what are we supposed to do with her, let her loose and see what she blows up next?” Bolst finally piped up, clearly exaggerating what he thought was a ridiculous suggestion.

This time it was Kles who echoed Kori’s favorite word, though not exactly the same, “Why not?”

“You can’t be serious!” Bolst shouted, “It took me months, and a potential war with the damn goblins, for you all to let me get that thing out of my lab!”

Kles just waved him off and replied in a stern tone, “You know full well that was mostly because of those damned spiders.”

Everyone could see Blonc twitch and a shiver run down the warrior’s tail when she mentioned the redbacks.

“Fine, fine,” Bolst replied. “I shouldn’t have kept the spiders… their venom just had too many potential uses, but they were too big a risk…” He finally admitted. “But still, we can’t just leave her with no oversight. It’s not even about what she might make, we need some of her creations and she needs someone teaching her.”

“When’d I say anything about ‘no oversight’?” Kles replied, like he’d said something stupid. “Of course she needs someone teaching her.” She pointed back at the trapper, “So, what are you going to teach her?”

“Me?!” At the same time, several other voices said “Him?!” in unison.

“Of course, he works mushing things together and making them do things they didn’t before, same as she’s been doing.” Kles said with the same tone she’d used with Bolst the last time.

Har sputtered before reminding them of the last time they’d worked together, “But aren’t we worried about…”

She then turned her attention to him, “And you, what are you going to teach her?” She turned back to the others and posed the same question, “Or the rest of you lot?”

What she was intending slowly dawned on them all, Kori’s response had been ‘All of them’ and Kles seemed to agree with her. She wanted them to all teach her.

“You can’t possibly expect her to apprentice to all of us, can you?” Ortik asked.

“Why not? Are you saying you’ve got nothing to teach her?” Kles asked. “I’m certainly going to try to teach her more of our history and maybe some of our organization tricks for the records.”

Kori’s eyes lit up with idea that she could learn from all of them, “Oooh, ooh, can Bolst or Kora teach me Toxicology? Mines still only level one…” She said disappointedly, then pulled up her Status and continued rattling out Skills she wanted to work on, “And I still need to finish my Spiritual Sense… and Linguistics, Har’s good at that… And I guess I should work on Staff Mastery… you know, just in case…”

Kles just smiled, “See, she’s got the idea of it. So what if one of us can’t teach her everything, we can all teach her something.”

All of the Elders took a moment to think about it before several of them decided that they weren’t really needed in the meeting anymore, “Sorry, but unless she wants to know how to gut a fish, I got nothing for her.” Angler Deq said.

Aldr spoke as soon as he’d finished, “And she’s already pretty much mastered everything I teach an apprentice… her Skills are higher than some of my newly classed brewers…”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Deq.” Kles replied, “You and Blonc over there are about the only ones that picked up zoology last I checked. Sure, you specialized into ichthyology, but you’re a much better candidate than he is to teach it to her.”

Har piped up adding his coppers worth, “Yeah, his way to teach about animals is just to tell her where to poke things with a stick…”

“Hey!” Blonc bellowed, trying to defend himself. “It’s not a stick… it’s a spear…” Not at all refuting the point that Har was trying to make.

“And before you try to leave too, Tuli.” Kles quickly added, spotting the foreman eying the door, “I’m sure Geology would be helpful too, I know Bolst mixes some crushed rocks in some of his stuff.”

“Okay, you’ve made your point, Kles.” Ortik spoke up, trying to take back some semblance of control. “Do you really think this can work? All of us teaching her?” He got a sharp nod in response and continued on, “Fine. Then how is it going to work? Who’s teaching her what? How do we know if it’s working or not? Scale, who’s in charge?”

“For your last point, I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?” Kles grinned, “You’re the chief, so who better.” She said teasingly, he could nearly picture her tongue stuck out at him mockingly as she said it. “As for the rest, well, why don’t we take a look at her Status and make a plan. Figure out what Skills need work, what new ones might be useful and who is best to teach them. She’s a bright little youngling, I’m sure with some work she can fill out her Skills nicely.”

Har barked another laugh, something that was becoming a habit in the discussion. “Bright… She’s a monster… Got Glassblowing in less than an hour… learned a damn language in a few weeks… She’ll run the lot of us ragged and then ask us why we don’t have anything left to teach…”

This time Har did get a tongue stuck out at him. From Kori. “I’m not a monster!” She protested with a pout, “Not my fault I’m smart.”

“If it’s not yours, then its his.” Har joked, waving his closed fist to point a thumb at Korse.

“Nope! You all saw it; she came that way!” Korse defended himself with a laugh, reminding them all of the hatchling fight they’d seen when she was just a scrappy little day-old ball of scales.

“Anyway,” Ortik said exaggeratedly, “Show us your Status, Kori.” He asked, “We need to see what we’re working with to make a plan.

She did as she was asked, sharing her Status with the Elders as they started listing off what they thought she needed, getting a few suggestions or reminders from her about basic Skills like Measurement, Negotiation, which Har thought was a lost cause, and asking if anyone could help her with Cartography, which she again complained about it having nothing to do with carts, though no one bothered to pat attention to that particular complaint.

It seemed that things were going to get a bit hectic for the next two years, as rather than falling into a routine of learning a single trade, she was about to be inundated with training from all of them. Just like she’d asked for.

Skills! All the Skills! I’m going to learn so many things and get to make new stuff! I wonder if they’ll let Imelda come down here to teach me more, or if Har will take me back to Whatzakt?

Ohhh! Maybe I can get them to let Losq join me for lessons. I wonder how he’s doing on his mana Skills? He’s had like a month, maybe he’s already learned Control, or even Imbue?

The discussion surrounding her status continued while Kori lost herself in thoughts of working with every one of the Elders, as well as wondering what exactly ichthyology was, she’d never heard that one before. She assumed it had to do with fish, since it was Deq, but still.

And why don’t we have an Elder for the farms? If we did could they teach me how to grow my own ingredients?

Everyone else planned and she stared at her own status, wondering what it might look like in a few years when she finally had her Class.