The Cobalt Mage: Visions

Story by Apachy on SoFurry

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#5 of The Age of Ash

Following the events of the first chapter, Kelat, a kobold on the hunt for a dragon to serve, finds himself in a strange place he doesn't remember entering in the first place...

This story has been on the back of my mind for a couple of months now at this point, and should begin to show how integral Kelat may end up being in the later stories.



This story is implemented with a Skip feature. Use CTRL + f and search for %%%% to immediately skip to the beginning of any sexual content within the story.


Kelat was.... floating. All around him was nothing but an eerie blackness, the world surrounding him devoid of any light other fthan the faint glow of his eyes. When had he enchanted his own eyes? It didn't matter, he needed to figure out where the hell he was, and fast. Kicking his feet like he was swimming, Kelat managed to get some momentum forward, his tail swaying in time to keep himself from spinning uncontrollably.

With his glowing eyes, he could see his glow shining off the blackness that shifted around him, tendrils of inky black scurrying away from him, but always just within his view, like a predator stalking its prey. The writhing masses terrified the small kobold, feeling not even the most natural of magicks around him to aid in his defense should they attack. He was all alone, naked with naught but claws and scales to his name.

He tried to conjure a flame with a snap of his fingers, but only a small puff of smoke curled up from the tips of his fingers, making him hiss as a sudden pain enveloped his hand immediately after. He gripped his wrist tightly and waited for the pain to subside, although he knew not how long he floated there before it eventually faded. Wherever he was, magic was definitely off limits, if that was even possible.

Kelat kept a mental note of the consequences and continued to "swim" through the darkness. He could see his own hands clear as day, but it was as if all around him was just... nothing. Suddenly, a stabbing feeling of cold seemed to penetrate his gut, like someone had ran him through with a sword of ice.

"Mortal, You do not belong here. Begone" a voice boomed, the air around Kelat shivering like a cowering dog as he jolted in surprise. A rush of wind tore the kobold back, sending him tumbling end over end through the void. The blackness spun faster and faster, until it began to warp into a collage of crimson reds, brights greens, and a motley brown. The weightlessness Kelat felt disappeared altogether as he landed onto something with a resounding thump that knocked the breath from his lungs.

He gasped for his breath, eyes blearily blinking to find that he was lying face up in... a field of grass?

Recovering quickly as he climbed to his feet, Kelat found his assumption to be pretty accurate, only that the grass he was surrounded by glowed a bright neon green. The sky was a dark crimson, with orange rays of light peeking over a towering mountainscape that encircled the grassy knolls around the kobold. Above, thick grey clouds swirled around and around, the epicenter high above him. Wherever he was, Kelat felt uneasy and more than a little unnerved at the odd sights surrounding him. A phrase came to mind: out of the frying pan...

A roar unlike any other Kelat ever heard shook the world around him, the glowing foliage quivering from the sound alone. High above the kobold, a colossal being burst from the clouds high above, its wings beating the clouds apart as it turned and released a jet of acid green fire at the hole it had torn into the cloudline. It was a dragon!

Kelat yelled with joy, having finally found a dragon. but...

Another dragon followed the first, shooting balls of icy blue flames to meet the green ones racing to meet it. The fireballs collided, detonating like powder kegs in the air and raining down a hail of green and blue flames until they faded into motes of dust and trails of smoke. The first dragon whipped around and flew towards Kelat, a look of sudden fear crossing his face as he realised the fight was heading towards him.

Kelat could make out more and more of the dragon's features as it beat its wings towards him, a sight he couldn't pull his eyes away from despite the terror that struck at his heart. Ebony black scales gave it an permanent dark cloak from snout to tail, its body bigger and grander than an entire village as it took up more and more of his view. Atop it's wide, angular head was a set of massive horns that curled upward with two balls of fire the same color as the one he had shot behind him tipping the curled horns like torches.

Kelat's stunning fear eased up enough for him to take a shaky step backwards as the dragon touched down on the ground, claws bigger than his head digging trenches the kobold could walk in as he slowed to a stop before him. Vision filled with the encapsulating beauty of the dragon's black scales, Kelat's eyes slowly climbed upwards to meet with the dragon's menacing face, its eyes ablaze with a feral rage within.

"This shall not be your grave, little one." The dragon spoke without opening his mouth, his words reverberating through Kelat's skull. Kelat's brain started firing off random questions one after another until they were all squashed by an overpowering presence that soaked into his skull like a wave of ice cold water.

"I am Chloroblood, the last of The Twelve. You, kobold, will be my vassal. Seek my kin who still wander the mortal realm, help them harb-" The dragon's voice was cut off as the one that had been chasing it crashed into him, tooth and fang flashing between the two as they tumbled up and over Kelat.

Chloroblood tore at his opponent with ferocity and extreme ease, tearing through flesh until the dragon that had crashed into him moved no more, its ocean blue scales drenched in crimson blood, but exactly whose was a mystery to the kobold.

"Do not mock my kind with that form, hellspawn!" He bellowed, watching the body reduce to wisps of purple light.

"Find them." The dragon's words echoing in Kelat for the final time. Turning towards the kobold, Chloroblood launched a column of flames in his direction, bathing him in a sea of green flames. Kelat screamed and put up his hands in defense, but the flames didn't burn him, but rather stuck to him like balls of mud until his whole body began to feel felt warm and tingly. The ground around him seemed to give away, and with it Kelat's consciousness faded as he began to fall...

The next moment Kelat awoke, he shot up like a lightning bolt, his mind on full alert as he whipped his head around. His body was pouring sweat into the soft blanket and mattress he found himself lying on, joining what had already accumulated as he laid there.

From what he could see, he was inside the two kobold shop owners' bed, the same one he had earned their boons. He was also alone, nude and feeling very, very weak. He looked at his arm, and nearly jumped out of his own scales, which were clearly no longer his own.

All around where he lay were flakes of his olive scales, his arm coated in a new layer unlike any he'd ever seen. Instead of the oval shapes his hide had once taken, shield-like scales coated his body in a armor-esk look with a brighter, almost luminescent tint of the green flames he had been coated in not even a moment earlier... Actually, how long had he been in bed?

A knock at the door tore his attention from his arm, Kelat's gut reaction being to jump into a defensive stance, his claws ready to strike. An oblivious Kiaer stepped past the door, a tray of food carefully held in her claws. Glancing up, she nearly dropped the tray entirely as she gasped in surprise. Kelat lowered his stance as she carefully set down the tray, the surge of energy in his limbs seeping away along with his strength. Normally he wouldn't have let up, but given he was still alive despite bedding the both of them spoke volumes for how much he could trust them. For now.

That is, until Kiaer sprinted full tilt towards Kelat, leaping to him with tears streaking over her face. Kelat had enough time to give a sharp yelp as the short kobold brought him right back onto the bed, her arms latching around his chest tightly as she squealed in her ecstatic voice. Meridia came in not long after, rubbing her eye and stifling a yawn.

"What's wrong Kiaer, did you...?" She began to ask, trailing off as she noticed the kobold gripped in her co-owner's hands was struggling, and very much awake. Kelat found a chance to look in Meridia's direction long enough to see she was employing the same strategy as Kiaer, already halfway in her leap towards him as he looked on in fear.

Squished between the two kobolds, Kelat tried to get them to stop with his hands, failing completely as his weak limbs were pinned against his chest in their tight embraces.

"Ah! Quit it already!" He gasped out, short of breath as he meagerly struggled against them. His voice was deeper and more masculine sounding than the night prior, although given his more obvious changes, Kelat didn't dwell on his voice for the time being. Kiaer and Meridia eventually eased up with their soul-crushing hugs, albeit only enough that he could peel his arms from his side.

"We thought you'd never wake up!" Kiaer huffed, rubbing the top of her head against his shiny scales and sending a few specks of his old ones flaking off like dust. Both of them looked to absurdly concerned, and Kelat was completely in the dark as to why. Never wake up? Surely he had only been asleep fo-

"You've been out for an entire week, mumbling in your sleep the whole time! Don't scare us like that again." Meridia exclaimed sternly, answering the question buzzing in Kelat's head. A whole week!? Kelat struggled against the two, trying to rise from the bed he had been apparently staying in for far too long.

"No, you really shouldn't be moving!" Kiaer berated, keeping herself latched onto him and mostly anchored down. Meridia also wrapped her hands tighter around his chest, pinning his arms yet again as he struggled to stand.

"I can't waste anymore time, I need to go. Now!" Kelat blurted out, climbing to his feet despite the kobolds still firmly jockeyed onto him. Meridia brought him back down with a hook of her arm around his neck and a firm yank

"Wait, why?" Kiaer asked. Kelat gave one last struggle to dislodge the kobold, and failing miserably, gave her an answer:

"I-I suppose since neither of you have tried to kill me as of yet.... I seek the dragon the hunting party is after." He said, giving a long, drawn out sigh. Kiaer uncoiled her arms from around his chest, letting him breath easier.

"Of course you are. Can you even walk to the door?" Meridia asked, jabbing a finger towards the other side of the room, the tray of food still sat beside it. Kiaer's attention turned to the tray she had left beside the door, her arms unlatching from around Kelat's chest as she scurried off the bed to scoop up the tray gingerly.

"Absolutely." Kelat said matter of factly, feeling her arms loosening their grip on him enough to slip out from her grasp. Confident he wouldn't get yanked back this time around, Kelat shakily got to his feet and took a hesitant step, his unsteady legs crying out for him to stop in their abysmally weak state. Kiaer rolled her eyes as she walked up to the bed and stepped to the side and well away from the approaching kobold, setting the tray down to watch Kelat.

Taking carefully placed steps on the bed, Kelat slowly made his way to its edge, nearly toppling with each move he made atop his jello-like legs and inconsistent strength. Taking the step onto the wooden floor, Kelat felt his leg give under the harder foothold and send him tumbling forward, hands feebly flailing to lessen the impending impact as he fell face first towards the floor. Something caught him by the waist, a low groan accompanying his sudden stop as Kiaer strained to keep him from eating the wooden flooring for breakfast instead of what they had made on the tray. Meridia quickly relieved the weight on Kiaer's arms by pulled the kobold back onto the bed's edge, giving him a angry sigh of relief.

"You made your point, tough guy. I'm sure you'll do wonders of good when you fall every five feet. Eat and you should recover a bit." Kiaer wheezed, sliding the tray towards him before flopping onto the bed tiredly.

The kobold muttered a thanks as he sat the tray on his lap, a whiff of the steaming food dropping whatever point he wanted to prove and the small twang of offence he took to how tired she acted. In fact, the smell felt almost indescribably powerful, his snout alone discerning the sweet, savory scent of breakfast far stronger than he could have expected. Perhaps they had done something to enrich the flavor?

The last question want unanswered as Kelat's stomach made it clear of his hunger, his hand scooping up the fork and knife as he began to chow down on the feast that laid on his lap. He wasn't sure anymore how long it had been since he ate, how long had he been on that boat? It didn't matter, Kelat tore into the food on the metal tray until there was only the dishes and the tray left standing, both of which he cleaned relentlessly with his tongue for even a speck of food he might have missed.

His tail had, since who knew how long, begun wagging frantically, flattening the royal purple blanket beneath it until it hit something. Or someone. Meridia yelped as Kelat's tail smacked her in the rump, her hand slapping at the appendage angrily and making Kelat yelp as well.

"Ow! What was that... for?" Kelat asked, scooping his tail and giving it a soft squeeze. His voice trailed off as he glanced at his tail for the first time since he had woken up. Was it always this long? The more Kelat did, the more he felt alienated in his own body, from the moment he saw his own scales to the very appendage he was holding onto. What in the world was going on?

"You really have no idea, do you?" Meridia asked, noticing the confused look on the kobold's face. He nodded his head, glancing back at the two girls with curiosity. What could they know that he didn't? It wasn't like they had seen what he had. "Your one of the Torchbearers, and you don't know a single thing about the Primal Kobolds?"

"Ooh, ooh! That's an easy one." Kiaer shouted, raising her hand as if she was in school. "Primal Kobolds were the first kobolds ever born, and the royal guards of the Council of Twelve." She stated matter-of-factly, beaming at Meridia, who nodded with a similar smile.

Kelat didn't say anything, his brow furrowing sceptically as his eyes flicked from Meridia to Kiaer, the latter looking extremely proud of herself with her hands on her hips. He kept his skepticism for the time being while Kiaer began to flex her supposed knowledge on a topic Kelat himself hadn't even heard of.

"They were big, taller than even a Serulians, pretty much lived forever, and held powers similar to the dragon they served." Kiaer finalized, smiling wide at the chance to flex her knowledge.

"Th-" Kelat began, only to be immediately interjected by Meridia.

"Trust me, she knows her stuff. We aren't just a couple of enchantress's running a shop." she said, patting Kiaer on the back. Kelat brought a hand to his forehead, mulling over just what they were saying. He admitted that he didn't know much of the dragon's culture, nor his kind's own. Primal Kobold? He remained sceptical, but kept it hidden for now as he looked to Kiaer, the supposed expert on the topic, and waited for her to continue.

"If you know so much, I need to understand what all this means. I saw a vision in my dreams, it was... hard to understand. There was a dragon, he had horns that billowed with green flames that," He motioned towards his nearly identically colored scales. "He used on me. He was fighting... something, I don't know what. He called it a hellspawn, and before tha-"

"Slow down Kelat. First, the dragon you saw was indeed one of the Twelve. Kiaer, if you would please." Meridia cut him off once again, motioning for Kiaer to speak.

"You saw Chloroblood, nicknamed the 'World Scorcher' back then. His horns glow with his green flames, like you saw and look. If he used his flames on you without turning you into a burnt steak, then he must have triggered the primal change within you, which basically means you were knighted as a new Primal, congrats." Kiaer rabbled off without batting an eyelash, as if such a wealth of knowledge wasn't a treasure trove for the transformed kobold.

"That's a start, but if I'm some sort of 'Primal' as you keep saying, this Chloroblood said for me to find his sons to harbor a new age or something. Neither of you killed me when you learned of my goal, so at the very least you must share my stance, what else reason would you help me?" Kelat pressed, leaning forward and putting his hands together

The two glanced at each other then back to Kelat, a eerily similar smile to their first encounter crossing their faces.

"You could say that. But we're a little more interested in..." Meridia began, drawing out the last of her words until Kiaer spilled their reasons out plain as day:

"You were pretty hot when you had your nice olive scales. Now, well, your sexy as hell now, and it's been probably a couple hundred years since anyone's had sex with one of the Primal Kobolds, which was already a huge honor back then." Kiaer blurted out, ignoring the embarrassed look Meridia gave her as she spilled the beans.

"Oh." Kelat mouthed, taken back by the short kobold's upfrontness. Meridia turned a deeper shade of red when Kelat gave her a knowing look, confirming Kiaer's statement entirely. A rush of energy took Kelat by surprise, like a bolt of lightning that stemmed from his spine and jumped over his entire body.

Feeling his confidence returning, Kelat stepped off the bed, his legs as sturdy and strong as when he had arrived. His tail still swished with excitement, although now it was more on what Kiaer had mentioned rather than his returned strength.

"Well, you've both been very.... accommodating since I've arrived, I suppose we could 'test' my capabilities, just to be safe." He stated coyly, turning to face the two.

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Not to his surprise, both Meridia and Kiaer were already stripped and ready to go, his eyes catching the sailing pink of a pair of painties as they flew over the edge of the bed and out of sight to where he assumed the rest of their clothing had been tossed. Kiaer and Meridia got to either side of him, their hands gently grabbing him by either shoulder as they pulled him back between them, lust burning in their eyes.

Unlike their first encounter, neither of the females raced to claim control of his groin, instead opting to rub their hands over him passionately, feeling his newer sleek scales with reverence. Kelat let his eyelids flutter closed, enjoying the tender touch of the two worshipping his body so delicately, their hands drifting lower to his toned chest, and further...

His excitement spurred the blood to his groin, his slit already parted with a motley purple pillar of flesh rising like a monument for all three of them to admire. Meridia and Kiaer's hands met at the base of his expanding rod, the latter climbing up to massage the hardening yet tender flesh.

The last of Kelat's member came out all at once, shifting smooth to a wide, almost knot-like base Meridia wrapped her hands around and began to rub. Kiaer scooted a little lower, laying on her side as she felt something on the member's underside that make it jump with a loud moan from Kelat, that very something a line of small nubs that rode up his length.

"You've got frills now, big ones too." Kiaer commented in a mischievous tone as she danced her fingers over the round buds, feeling his penis surge with another heated moan from the male.

"Don't end the fun too quickly Kiaer, we didn't finish the potions, so we're going off his stamina alone, which won't be long if you keep that up." Meridia scolded in a soft, sultry voice. He attention shifted from his thick base to the section of shaft her partner was neglecting, fingers kneading out droves of pleasure with dexterity and skill.

"Trust me, I know." Kiaer stated, moving her hands away from his sensitive frills and planting her snout on the side of his member to give it a lingering wet kiss, her tail swaying fast behind her. Kelat gasped as Meridia began to pump her hands over her section of his rod, starting at his knotted base and stopping when her hand ran over the first of his frills at the midway of his cock. Kiaer shifted her position again, this time moving her snout over Kelat's fat crown of his member, her tongue swirling around it before she lowered herself onto him and swallowing the first inch at a sluggish pace.

Kelat grabbed a fistful of the blanket beneath him tightly, the two's working of his cock sparking droves of pleasure through his loins and through his body like electricity. His other hand, roaming to find something to do, and found Meridia's soft scaly thigh, putting a toothy smile on his face. Letting his fingers glide up towards his goal, Meridia moaned as Kelat cupped her sex with his paw, thumb caressing and flicking her clit, his claw glossing over the tougher scales above the fleshy nub to excite her all the more.

The two females begin to work faster with the primal's retaliation, his control over his urges melting away fast as he put two of his fingers to his palm and pressed the knuckles against Meridia's pussy lips, the dripping flesh yielding to the pressure immediately as they parted for him to intrude. Meridia stopped to enjoy the primal kobold's fingers spreading her folds apart almost as much as he had when he'd first arrived at their shop, a feeling the female had been dreaming about for days to relive.

Kiaer, taking advantage of Meridia's absence, swallowed another couple inches of Kelat's cock, pushing past the halfway point with the tip already pressing towards the back of her throat, his frills tickling her tongue as it ran across them feverishly. Every flutter of the primal's heartbeat was hers to feel through his dick, and even more so when he gave a mix between a moan and a growl to signal his incoming climax. Speeding up his shaft like a bullet, Kelat's first rope of cum shot down Kiaer's throat before she could react, giving her little choice other than swallowing his cream, not that she would have picked any other.

She did pull back just a hair on his firing member, but only so she could take in his potent flavor in all its glory and fullness, tongue twining around his sputtering head to bathe in his creamy white seed. The taste is heady, a powerfully sweet nectar that drowned Kiaer in the droves of his orgasm as it poured from his tip like a hose. The male's fingering of Meridia's snatch ground to a halt as his fiery clax burned him to the very core of his being, strikes of lightning fast pleasure dancing across his nerves. A satisfying pop sounded over Kelat's fit of moans as Kiaer removed her maw from his tool, a streak of jizz arced over her snout to paint the top of her head and back a hazy white.

"Did you have to make a mess so early?" Meridia asked with an annoyed huff. Kiaer shrugged as another shot of cum, this time much weaker, landed on her snout with a wet plop, enticing her slick tongue to slide from her cum stained lips and lick up the liquid eagerly.

Kelat, recovered from his orgasm, began to finger Meridia again as Kiaer started to clean his tool with a tongue bath, the wisps of his release lingering in his veins like a simmering flame. Meridia leaned into his hand with a loud moan, his knuckles assaulted with her squeezing tunnel as it tried to suck him in further. Just as all three of the kobolds were getting started up again, a loud banging from downstairs resounded through the floorboards, grinding the threesome to a abrupt halt. Meridia gave a huff of annoyance as she grabbed Kelat's wrist and pulled his fingers from her snatch with a wet slurp, the primal himself confused yet on edge as even Kiaer sat up with an alertness in her eyes.

Meridia swirled her finger in the air twice and her clothes floated up from the floor and hovered towards her, her motions curt and very serious as she grabbed her panties out of the air and slipped them on quickly. "Get him going Kiaer, and clean up this mess just in case." She commanded, slipping on her dress as it tightened to her form on its own. Kiaer nodded, giving Kelat's cock a quick lick before bunching her legs and bounding over the two towards her clothing with seemingly no effort. Kelat sat up and looked around, vying for some indication to their sudden mood shift.

"Wha-" he began, a curt hush coming from Kiaer, who held a claw to her lips as she dressed in record time while her red-scaled partner slipped out the door and shut it behind her. Kiaer made the same motion Meridia did, a sense of weightlessness taking hold of Kelat as he began to float up and off the bed. He landed on the floor softly as the weightlessness stopped altogether, the kobold getting a smile from Kiaer before she turned to look at the stained blanket and gestured once more.

This time around, only the cum that stuck to the fabric along with the mound of dead scales Kelat had shed floated up into the air, both hovering towards one another like bizarre tendrils gliding through the air. Kelat watched in surprise as Kiaer balled her hand into a fist, bringing both scales and cum to tighten together into a ball that tightened more and more, eventually stopping as it was crushed to the size of a marble.

Kiaer's cool demeanor dropped along with her as she fell to her knees, hands planting on the floor with a tired gasp for breath. Kelat hurried to her side with a single spring of his step, hands hovering over her with concern.

"What's wrong?" He asked immediately, leaning to see a bead of sweat roll down her neck.

"I'm fine, just can't do much magic without Meridia by my side." She gasped, waving him off as she caught her breath.

"Alright, just let me help next time." Kelat replied, shaking his head and placed a hand on her shoulder. As his hand rested on her shoulder, any icy cold feeling shot through him like a bullet, chilling him to his soul as he yanked his arm away with a yelp.

"Thanks Kel." Kiaer stated as she rose to her feet, the lines in her scales beginning to thrum with an acrid green glow. Kelat felt weaker somehow, as if a chunk of his energy had been yanked from his body crudely.

"Sorry, forgot to mention about that." Kiaer motioned to her glowing body. "If necessary, primal's served as something like a battery for dragons, charging their bodies upon touch. Nothing fatal of course, you have the same potency of a young dragon with magic, but since you didn't get any training at any point you won't be able to control it for a while." She stated, flexing her arms out a bit before making more arcane gestures.

"That's implying you're a dragon, Kiaer." Kelat remarked, eying her as the black slash white marble hovered towards a small trash can and plopped inside. Kiaer laughed at his statement, lowering her hands and turning to him with a smile.

"The recharge works on kobolds too, but the transfer is inefficient as all hell." Kiaer replies, the purple blanket on the bed lifting up and straightening out with a swirl of her finger. Hovering the blanket back down onto the bed, Kiaer's work was pretty much complete, having removed all but a couple bits of evidence that Kelat was even there: himself, and his things. "Open that drawer and grab your stuff." She commanded, pointing a finger behind him without looking away from the bed.

Kelat turned around, following her pointing finger to see a dresser pressed up against one of the room's walls on his left. The banging downstairs resounded throughout the room below, followed by what Kelat assumed to be the front door opening as the banging stopped.

"What's with all the noise?" Meridia asked, voice muffled through the wooden floor and clearly annoyed.

"We have a warrant to search this shop for a fugitive possibly linked to the boat explosion a week ago." A gruff voice replied, a moment of silence following it as the guard likely handed Meridia said warrant. Kelat looked to Kiaer without saying a word, her hands waving to tell him to hurry up, which he did while making as little noise as physically possible, a feat he had trouble doing on his newer legs.

Tiptoeing over to the dresser, Kelat grabbed the handle of the top drawer and silently pulled it open, glancing back just long enough to open it fully before noticing what laid inside. Lying within was a treasure trove of wildly colored phallic objects of all shapes and sizes, each different from the last in their uniqueness and style. Kelat's eyes shot open wide as he shut the drawer, hearing a stifled giggle from across the room as Kiaer fought to control herself, getting a mean and embarrassed look from Kelat in response.

When he did glance back though, her scales had noticeably dimmed in their neon green glow, a sign of the waning boost he'd given her by accident. Turning back to the dresser, Kelat pulled open the second drawer much more carefully, eyes gleaming an all too familiar shade of blue within. Pulling the drawer all the way open, Kelat smiled eagerly at his neatly folded cobalt cloak and the leather belt and armor that laid beside it.

Reaching his hand under the cloak and the armor, Kelat pulled out his dingy brown undershirt, the fabric clean and almost new in appearance. He slipped it one happily, finding an actually new pair of pants that fit him rather well that he slipped on before getting the leather armor itself put on.

The feeling of the leather tightening to his new form perfectly was a nice one to say the least, a modest layer of protection for his tougher hide as he tested the encumbrance of his arms and found it almost nonexistent. Strapping the belt to his waist, the kobold undid the string and opened the flaps to make sure the glimmering bottles within were still inside, his smile widening as their rainbowy glow sparkled in his eyes. Dawning his cloak finalized the entire process, although for the moment he kept the hood down when he felt his own horns had grown as well.

A tap on the shoulder from Kiaer had him turn to see she held his crystal staff in her hands, realising just how short it now was compared to him. "Thank you, now what?" He asked in a whisper, taking the staff from her and glancing around. There were no windows in the room, nor did he remember any back entrance he could use to elude the supposed guards on their way up to the room. Kiaer's answer came with a soft snap of her fingers and a finger pointed up to the ceiling, where a square of wood lifted itself up and shifted out of the way to reveal the dim interior of an attic.

"Get up there and take the window out, the circular one with the bottom right corner broken out. You need to get to the top of the city to a tavern called Maiden's Lodge, that's where the hunting party is gathering. Should head out probably a day or two from today, not sure" Kiaer stated, taking a step towards him.

As much as Kelat wanted to know more about what he was and everything they knew about the hunting party, he didn't have the time to spare. He began to climb atop the dresser when Kiaer grabbed him by the waist and tossed him up through the opening in a perfect arc, the trapdoor closing beneath him as his feet cleared the hole. His fit touched down on the wooden floor shakily, nearly letting go of his staff as he collected himself.

"Kiaer's a scrawny kobold for how she can toss me like a damn ball" Kelat thought. Glancing around, the attic was lit by two round windows on either end of the room, the ceiling slanted and short for the kobold as he hunched over to keep his horns from scraping against the wood beams just above. Several dusty and decrepit crates sat in shambles throughout the attic, every surface layered with a smattering of mouse pellets beside the area Kelat stood.

A simple gesture and a short incantation sent a light wind from him over the floor, scattering the mice poop aside and creating a small path he could walk along. He looked to the window to his right, noticing that it was cut into four parts, but the bottom right wasn't missing like Kiaer had stated, so he turned his attention to the other side. As expected, the bottom right segment of the other window was missing altogether, a small array of snow scattered across the window sill and the floor below. Another spell cleared a path to the window, where Kelat slowly approached cautiously and peaked through. A metal pole clung to the outside wall beside the window, leading down to a snow covered alley behind the shop.

Giving the two kobolds a silent thank you, Kelat unlocked the window and pushed it open, feeling the chilling breeze sweep into the opening and billow his cloak. The cold barely nipped at him, although whether it was his stronger hide or the new leather armor he wore would remain to be seen as he climbed out onto the metal pole, shutting the window once he got a good foothold.

Back in their room, Kiaer rolled her shoulders after tossing the primal up to the attic. He was heavier than she was expecting, but at least she didn't spear his horns into the ceiling and make a bunch of noise in the process. She stepped out of the room and double timed it down the steps as silently as she could, reaching the bottom of the steps just as Meridia rounded the corner by the staircase and nearly bounced snouts with her.

Behind Meridia were two Dra'Kir dressed in full metal armor, each with a scabbard at their side that bounced as they stopped behind the kobold. One had a stern, almost angry gleam in his eyes, face tight with his lips peeled back slightly to reveal his menacing yellowed teeth within, while the other seemed softer in his expression, more bored and tired than his partner.

"H-hi, wasn't expecting company." Kiaer stated weakly, as if shy or scared, neither of which were anywhere close to true.

"Don't worry Kiaer, these gentlemen are just looking for a criminal and need to search our upstairs." Meridia replied, looking back at them with a friendly and innocent smile. The angry looking one merely grunted, his hand twitching beside his sheath as if itching for one of them to give him a good enough reason to use his sword. He brushed past both of them, his heavy boots resonating on the steps as he stomped up the steps.

The other guard followed close behind, waving to the two of them and apologizing: "Sorry for my friend's behavior."

"Oh it's quite alright, just don't open the top drawer in our dresser." Meridia responded with a smile, getting Kiaer to chuckle quietly.

"We'll do whatever we damn well please, lizard!" the first guard growled, climbing the steps a little faster at the warning. His partner sighed and double timed it to keep pace. Meridia's smile turn wicked as soon as the wolves were out of their sight, turning to Kiaer, who mirrored her mischievous joy well.

"Is he gone yet?" She asked in a hushed tone, keeping an eye on the top of the steps just in case one of them came snooping near them. Kiaer nodded, smiling like an idiot as she heard the guard loudly open the drawer Meridia had warned about and shout "What the fuck?" loudly.

"He should be fine, although for now we should take it slow, we've got clutches on the way after all." Kiaer stated and patted her belly. Meridia nodded in agreement, seeing the two guards come into view and begin walking down the steps, the polite one of the two clearly embarrassed given his dipping ears and sheepish smile on his face. The other guard looked even angrier than before, grumbling "Damn kobolds and their fucking toys." under his breath as he stomped past the two without even glancing at them.

"S-sorry again. We'll, erm, take your advice next time." The one guard apologized as he stepped past the two after his partner.

Meridia bit her tongue as the two guards left out the front door of the shop, wanting so badly to shout to the one guard that he could borrow one of their bigger toys once he got the stick out of his ass. Kiaer giggled loudly at the unused quip, nearly bursting with laughter when Meridia put a hand over her snout to keep it shut.

"Hey, no using the link, not even when we're alone." Meridia scolded, snapping her fingers to bring the shop lights fully one. Kiaer giggled for a few more seconds as the room began to fill with an appley incense slowly filled the air, nodding to the stern-looking kobold as she let go of her snout.

...

Kelat took another couple steps up the staggeringly long staircase, his staff clicking on the marbled stone before he stopped to rest for a moment. His movements were inefficient and slow, especially given the heaps of snow that still caked the streets and even the staircase itself sometimes, but he was beginning to feel more acclimated as a primal. He was beginning to feel the bite of the cold winds in his hide, but thankfully the steps covered him from much of the gusts of wind that swept over the city. Turning around, Kelat gazed at the expanse of rooftops before and slightly below him, the icy blue sea beyond the moldy brown bricks and wood sparkling every so often when the sun broke through the thick clouds above.

Despite the piled snow that coated the less travelled roads and paths, he'd made good tracks, especially since his cloak barely reached below his knees, thus keeping the hem free from collecting clumps of snow and slowing him down. Squinting at the sea of brown before him, Kelat was shocked at how many details he could make out from such a distance, even from what he presumed to be at least a mile away!

He could almost make out where the Enchanter's Gauntlet was, given its proximity to the pier that was unusually vacant, which surprised him all the more. Kelat turned around and began to climb the steps again, smiling to himself as he began to go through a mental checklist of all the things he needed to learn, to test about his reborn body. He couldn't wait to show the world what he was capable of, and what he'd inflict on his enemies...

To Be Continued...