Natural Magic

Chapter 11 - Betrayal

Dawn spread its long bright fingers over the wasteland, groping for each living thing there. When it found Very Small Numbers, Chicken was already awake and moving.

"Penelope!" he called, walking among the huts and lodges. "Penelope!"

She hadn't been at the waiting spot, and he wondered briefly if he should have told her ahead of time where that had been. In any case, he had to find her soon if she was to join him. His feet drew him towards Auntie's tent, the grand high Knower of Things. He found the hut inert and sleepy. Auntie was not a morning kobold, as the rest of the village well-knew. Looking for Penelope here would be done at his own peril. He pushed back the flap cautiously, illuminating the room a little at a time.

At first, he sent just a spear of dull grey morning light, pushing the flap aside only a little. He saw only hanging dry ingredients and a dirt floor. He widened the gap, spilling more light into the room.

"Penelope?" he whispered, worried someone inside would hear him.

He saw pots and tubs, but no sign of life. If he pressed further, it increased his chance of waking Auntie. But he needed to find Penelope, so he steeled himself and drew the flap further aside.

Something grabbed his elbow causing him to yelp and turn around.

"It's a good morning, Chicken," someone said.

The someone happened to be Pithy. "Do you need something from Auntie?" she asked. She seemed oblivious to her having just caused Chicken to jump out of his scales.

She continued, "You usually leave before daylight. Did you forget something and have to come back?"

"I'm looking for Penelope," he whispered. "We'd planned for her to come with me."

"Salander is letting her go with you?" the young kobold asked, tilting her head.

"He hasn't given her permission to do anything since she arrived," Chicken said irritably, "But I'm sure he'd be ecstatic to find she's gone." He crossed his arms.

"Ecstatic to find who's gone?" a voice said behind him.

****

Penelope was sitting in front of a thing she was rubbing with a stone. It made prolonged ssshhk ssshhk noises as she drew the stone along the length of the thing. Laid out beside her on a crude mat were a variety of other stones, all roughly hand-sized, and small bowls each filled with some liquid or gel. She was sitting in the shade of a rock out of sight of the village as she worked. The thing before her was long, thin, and intermittently shiny grey and rough red. She had secured it on its back, insomuch as a thing like this could have a back, with its leading edge pointing towards the cloudless sky.

It had been some time since Penelope had taken up residence in Very Small Numbers. She used the moment and dull repetitive task to reflect on her stay.

Her verdict was that this place was alien to her.

Sure, she could speak the language and eat the food, but the kobolds were different from her own people. They were primitive. There was not a single prisoner among them to perform labor. In the few weeks she had been with them, they had only gone on a single hunt. When they returned with only one slain beast, they rejoiced. They aided one another without contest, where her own people bred strength in their numbers by doing the opposite.

The orc girl sat in the shade, her arm drawing the rock from one end to the other, picking it up, and starting again. The rough red gradually flaked away, showing more shiny grey in its place.

She felt the understanding click into place. These kobolds screamed weakness to her. Where her people struggled against each other to claw their way to the top social and physical standing, these kobolds provided for one another, doing the work so another would benefit. And now they had included her in their debauchery. Don't they understand, like she did, that you don't get something from nothing?