Chapter One hundred eighty-four (Patreon)

There were few bushes and trees breaking up the grass for several yards ahead of them. After that, water roared and tumbled, more of it than Kaz had ever seen in one place except a few of the great, dark lakes. Those were incredibly dangerous, thanks to the immense creatures that could live in their depths, so most kobolds allowed them to remain undisturbed.

This water moved, however, making Kaz question whether the word ‘flow’ was even the proper one. It ran, it leapt, streamed, and gushed, and surged. Kaz had seen brief floods caused when a tribe released a blocked water source, but this seemed as if it would never end. Was it, in fact, eternal? If he could find its source, could he live without fear of thirst for the rest of his life?

Li had a hard time flying in the trees, so she had been perched on Kaz’s shoulder, but now she jumped up, wings carrying her toward the torrent, where she dipped and dove, glittering gold darting down to play with leaping silver. Kaz’s eyes ached as he stared, unable to see details, but still mesmerized by the interplay of color and the joy he felt coming through his bond with the dragon.

A soft sigh came from nearby, and Kaz looked over to see Lianhua’s pale shape. “That’s beautiful,” she said softly. “I wish I were an artist so I could capture that image.” She turned toward Kaz, and he could see the shape of her mouth stretch. “Can you see it?”

Kaz closed his eyes, more eager than ever to have his eyes fully recovered. He pushed blue ki into them, ignoring his own concerns about overdoing it and causing more damage. When he blinked them open again, they burned, but he could tell the difference between Li’s tail and her neck, which was a definite improvement.

On his other side, Kyla gave a soft squeak, and Kaz looked over at her. Her ears were partially down, and her golden eyes were wide. “Your eyes are bleeding, Kaz,” she told him.

Kaz reached up and brushed at something rolling down his cheek. Lifting it, he saw a crimson smear on his skin and grimaced. So the ki had worked, but at what cost?

With a cry, Li wheeled, leaving her mock battle with the waves to fly back to Kaz. Settling heavily on his shoulder, she pushed her head against his cheek, her tongue tickling his skin. <What did you do? Why did you do that? I can watch for you!>

Kaz wiped away another drop of blood, but this one only left a pink streak on his finger. “I wanted to see you,” he told the dragon, and she hissed at him as she sent an image of herself, splashing in water at the pool by the Sharpjaw den, and again in the mosui baths.

<You’ve seen it before. Wait and heal when your body is ready,> she told him angrily.

Kaz shrugged, but he didn’t regret his impulsive choice. If a few drops of blood were all he had to pay to see his friends more clearly, he would do it a hundred times. Li licked his cheek once more, then nipped at his ear, though she didn’t fly off his shoulder again.

Raff had missed - or at least pretended to miss - their conversation, but he stopped now and looked back at them. He was almost to the water’s edge, and he gestured to them. “C’mon,” he called. “Let’s wash up. Especially you, Blue. You reek.”

Kaz chuckled. If even Raff was saying something, he must smell very bad indeed. He started jogging forward, with Kyla, Mei, Lianhua, and Chi Yincang close behind him.

The distance was shorter than it looked, and the water narrower. It didn’t take long for Kaz to realize he could probably jump across it, though he might have to wade through the last few feet. He didn’t want to, however, because the ground was saturated, and the dirt turned to mud, which squished up between his toes, trying to trap his paws.

Kyla seemed to love the feeling, because she squealed each time she took a step, giggling as her paw came back up with a squelch. The humans, on the other hand, split to the side, and Kaz quickly realized they had found a path of large, rough stones. Lianhua had to hop from one to another, but Raff and Chi Yincang simply strode across them. Kaz veered to the side, climbing up onto the closest one, then followed behind Lianhua. Kyla, however, plowed onward, and Kaz thought she might have just laid down and rolled in the muck if it weren’t for her pretty, beaded loincloth and pack.

“Looks like it was a dry winter,” Raff said, stopping on the edge of a particularly large, flat rock that extended into the water. “It should be a good three feet higher, though I guess we might just have been in the mountain longer than I thought. Almost makes me wish we could bring Gaoda out just long enough to use his fancy clock.”

“No,” said Lianhua and Chi Yincang in unison, and Raff laughed loudly.

Kaz sat down, carefully inserting his filthy paws into the water. He shivered. It was cold, but the air was warm, and the contrast was almost pleasant, though he didn’t think he would want to submerge himself in it. Li jumped down from his shoulder, and he could tell from her muttering that she was considering splashing him with her wings, but once she felt how cold the water was, she quickly gave up on that idea.

Kaz smiled to himself and shifted so he could lie down on his belly. The stone was warm beneath him, and he splashed water onto his body, feeling crunchy bits beneath his hands. The nearby rock was soon covered in sloughed-off things that he didn’t much want to think about, and then a hand stretched out in front of him.

Lianhua offered a small, rough ball of some fibrous material. It was already soaked with her sweet-smelling soap, and Kaz accepted it hesitantly. “You scrub your skin with it,” Lianhua said, as if he hadn’t seen her do it several times now. “It would have tangled in your fur before, but now-” She broke off, as if realizing he might not be comfortable talking about his current lack of fur.

Kaz gingerly scrubbed the thing against his arm, watching how it rubbed away the last brittle pieces of blue fur along with the remains of the monster he’d killed. It was very effective, and also soothed the itch of his healing skin, so he quickly washed the rest of him, only hesitating when he started to take off his loincloth and Lianhua scrambled backwards.

Raff snorted a laugh, and said, “Most humans aren’t comfortable with too much skin, Blue, and at the moment, you’re more skin than fur. Lianhua’ll have to cover her eyes if you’re gonna strip to the buff.”

Kaz thought back to when he and Lianhua had taken baths together, and realized that the female had always been very careful to avoid being completely naked in front of anyone, and had looked away whenever he removed his loincloth. Wearing clothes was as much symbolic as necessary among kobolds, so he hadn’t realized how uncomfortable she was until Raff pointed it out.

He looked from the female to the rushing water, and noticed Kyla’s pack and loincloth neatly folded and placed on the rock. The puppy was entirely naked and happily rolling in mud, rinsing it off, and then rolling in mud again. There was no way Lianhua hadn’t seen Kyla, so why did it matter if Kaz did the same?

Confused, he looked toward Raff, who just shrugged. Lianhua had moved away, and she very pointedly had her back turned, so Kaz went ahead and took off his loincloth. As he did, his belt gave way, and he nearly fumbled his pouch as it slid off. Fortunately, he managed to catch the bag, but lost the belt entirely in the process, and it swirled away along with the rest of the debris he had scrubbed from his skin.

Sighing, he went ahead and washed himself, wishing he could just get into the water. Kyla was using the shelter provided by the rock on which they sat to keep from being swept away, but there was no more room there. Besides, the puppy’s paws were sinking in muck even in the water, and Kaz had no interest in that, even though it was obvious Kyla was enjoying herself immensely.

 Once he was as clean as possible, he rinsed his loincloth as well, though it was only superficially dirty, at most. He wrapped the damp fabric around his waist, planning to tuck it in and hope for the best, but Raff handed him a length of leather.

“I use it to fix my gear,” the human said. “It should work well enough for a belt until we can buy you a proper one.”

“Thank you,” Kaz said, accepting it, and when he looked up from knotting it around him, he saw that Lianhua was looking in his direction again.

“Chi Yincang is going to make something to eat,” she told them. “I’m going to read, and I think Kyla has worn herself out.”

She tilted her head toward another of the large, flat stones, and Kaz could see a puddle of pink splashed across it. It looked like the pup had finally tired of her game, and she was curled up with Mei, drowsing or asleep.

Raff stood, his armor creaking. He had washed the least of all of them, obviously unwilling to remove any of his protective garments. His hair and beard were wet, their bright red color darkened to a deep carmine. “I’ll keep watch,” he said. “This area is fairly safe, bein’ so close to a town, but fairly isn’t the same as completely.”

Kaz looked up, seeing that Li was still swooping and circling above them, as he had known she would be. She had seen a few creatures flying through the sky, which Raff and Lianhua identified as ‘birds’, but so far nothing that was even as large as she was. Kaz sent her silent encouragement to be cautious, which she completely ignored, and Kaz turned away from the beautiful, astonishing tumble of wild water.

Raff, Kaz, and Lianhua made their way back across the path of stones, leaving Kyla resting peacefully by the water. Lianhua went to sit near where Chi Yincang had built another fire of burning wood, and Raff began to pace slowly around, watchful gaze on their surroundings.

Kaz followed along, though his eyes wouldn’t be much help in spotting monsters or beasts, unless those monsters or beasts had cores. He waited until he thought they were far enough from the others, then asked softly, “What’s it like being a human?”

Raff halted, red brows lifting as he looked at Kaz. “Don’t know,” he finally admitted. “I’ve never been anything else. There some particular reason you’re askin’?”

Kaz glanced back toward Lianhua and Chi Yincang, then shrugged. “I think I may be able to… disguise myself. As a human. But I’m not sure if I want to.”

Raff had started to walk again, but now stopped, scratching at his beard. “Huh. Now that’d be a sight, wouldn’t it? If you’re just talkin’ about looking human, you’re already a good bit of the way there. Not many humans as hairy as a kobold. A pair of long pants, some shoes, and a hood, and I reckon most people wouldn’t notice unless they had some reason to look close.”

“What would happen if I just walked into town with you and Lianhua and Chi Yincang?” Kaz asked softly, holding out his arms. “Just like this.”

The human made a thoughtful sound. “Probably better to attempt some kinda disguise. We’d keep you safe, but questions would be asked, and things might get a wee bit tense before we could explain. Most folks around here have fought wild kobolds, or heard stories from someone who has. Further from Scarabus, you might have better luck.”

Kaz nodded. “That’s what I thought. All right. Thank you, Raff.”

Raff lifted a hand, giving a soft, garbled yip of farewell, and Kaz turned away. He made his way back toward the fire, then thought better of it and walked back along the stones to the water’s edge. Here, he could watch over Kyla and Li, who had discovered that there were some warmer currents of air that would lift her high into the sky. She was having almost as much fun as Kyla rolling in mud as she rode the warm air up, then glided back down in slow, easy circles. It was almost effortless on her part, and she was simply enjoying the feeling of warm sun on her scales, and the eternal sky all around her.

Kaz sat down, settling into the comfortable crouch that he used instead of Lianhua’s favorite crossed-leg pose. Setting the backs of his hands on his thighs, he circled his thumb and fingers. Closing his poor, damaged eyes, he turned his vision inward so he could truly examine his core for the first time in far too long.