I was cold.

  The water poured down from the heavens, glistening off my scaled body and soaking my cotton tunic. The wind howled like a wicked banshee, passing between the simple wooden homes and still reaching me in the square with force to spare.

  And despite all that, my body was still able to resist the cold. Only my heart and mind felt cold. It felt as though a thousand blades were piercing my heart, and as though a frigid wasteland was all that remained of my mind.

  It felt like a hole had been gouged out of my heart, leaving an empty void that I’d never be able to fill. I felt guilty, but I knew my hands were clean of any wrongdoing, I knew that there was nothing I could’ve done about my loss.

  After days of refusing to eat, drink, or move, my head had begun pounding with splitting aches and pangs of pain shot through my stomach. My head felt dull, lacking any power and equally lacking any motivation.

  I had already cried for days on end, tears flowing like the rain which poured around me. And now I had no more tears left to cry.

  The rain slid down the smooth onyx surface. I could see crimson eyes peeking through coppery scales in the surface reflection. My head fell in dismay. Even my own face was a solemn reminder of what I’d lost.

  It was maddening, I felt like I lost so much, as though there was no deeper pit of sadness I could descend into, and simultaneously had a sense of existential dread that my woes wouldn’t end here. It was contradictory and felt like a mocking of all I’d experienced, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. It clung to me like a parasite feeding off my emotions.

  The once monotonous feeling of my simple daily life had been destroyed, wrecked beyond all recognition. Regret was all I had left. Regret that I hadn’t savored every moment I was with them. Regret that I hadn’t gone with them, as another name on the monolith. Another soul lost to this illness.

  Ko’Lum.

  Ko’Ree.

  I sighed. I knew I was being dramatic. I knew that despite the fact that my parents are gone, I shouldn’t just be cowering here. But it was so hard to let go, to pull away from the last symbol that they existed. I looked up, staring into the monolith once more, determination settling into my eyes. I wouldn’t let his-

  In the reflection of the black stone, I saw a figure standing behind me. I spun my head around, hissing and falling backwards with the slippery momentum. Looking up, I could see a distinct figure peeking through the stormy weather. There was too much rain and too little light to make out any features.

  Cupping my hands over my eyes, I peered at the figure. “Who the heck are you?!” I exclaimed in irritation. My voice was hardly audible over the wind and rain, and I was quickly becoming anxious over the menacing height of the figure.

  The figure stepped forward, and I could now make out his features. He wore simple cotton pants tied with a rough leather belt, and his scales were a deep crimson. I could see the glint of a golden ring above his brow and his eyes shone with an emerald glint. Despite being a kobold like me, he was several feet taller, an oddity. He had a clawed hand at either side of his hips, and wore an amused smirk on his face.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Scared ya?” my friend Jeeh said.

  …

  I settled down at the wooden table. After my scare with Jeeh, and some creative insults hurled his way, he invited me to stay at his hut, knowing that I was avoiding my home.

  “Thanks again Jeeh. You sure you don’t mind?” I asked once more.

  “If you ask again I might just kick you out.” he chuckled.

  His hut was at the edge of the village, near the river that separated the plains from the swamp. Despite being only a year older than me, he had already become a fully fledged “warrior” of the village, which gave him plenty of benefits, this hut being one of them. There weren’t many dangers that came from the swamp, but those that did, were dangerous.

  It was simple, with walls made of wooden pillars that were still covered in bark and floors of large, but smooth, stones. There was only a table, 2 chairs, a stone fire pit, and a couple hay beds on the ground in the hut. but it was more than most kobolds had only a year after their maturation. He was incredible, that much I agreed with.

  He shuffled over to a fish he had hanging on a string, removing it and displaying its blue scaled body to me, “Hungry? Caught it in the river this morning, it was a slippery fella.”.

  I wanted to say no, but the sight of the fatty fish made my stomach betrayed me with a rumble. He took that as my answer and, laughing, brought it over to the table.

  “Throw some logs in the pit, will ya?” he said, pointing over to a pile of dry logs as he removed a heavy knife from a hook on his wall. It was made of stone, but sharp and heavy enough to cut through the fish.

  I nodded, my headache and stomach still overwhelming me.

  Soon enough, we had a pot full of rainwater, fish bits, and an assortment of wild vegetables hanging over the fire pit. The smell of cooking meat and brothy water wafting from the pot was enough to make me drool.

  Normally, I’d strike up a conversation with him, but given my circumstances… yeah.

  Time passed, and by the time we’d finished eating I’d drunk 5 bowls of the soup. Jeeh held back from eating, saying he wasn’t hungry. By the time we’d finished, the terrible pain which tore my head and stabbed my stomach had settled to a slight prodding.

  I groaned, “I'm stuffed… Thanks for meal Jeeh.”.

  “It was my pleasure O’ Great Ko.” he mocked.

  I laughed, “Funny.”.

  There was silence for a few moments as we went outside to rinse the wooden bowls in the rain. It’d calmed down drastically, going from typhoon-like rain to a heavy, but lighter, rain.

  I sat down on the stony steps, finally deciding to confront that which I so fervently avoided.

  “What do you think it is?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Take a guess genius. The thing killing our village.”

  “I dunno,” he replied calmly, “Heard a rumor though. Some warriors said it's a curse from the Ancestral Dragon. That She is angry with us.”

  I shook my head, “The Ancestor wouldn’t be so cruel to-”. The unfinished sentence hung in the cool night air. Wouldn’t be so cruel to the faithful. To my parents. I cared little for the worship of the older generation, but the idea that the Ancestor would do that was… alien to me.

  “What do we do?” I asked, not expecting any answer.

  “We do what we can, wait for the elders to figure this out and guide us out of this,” Jeeh answered in probably the longest sentence I’d heard from him, “Not much else two newly matured kobolds can do.”.

  I gave him a judging stare, and he just shrugged, “I’m not wrong.”.

  I said no more, and we sat there for a while longer. Eventually, when the rain had calmed to a light shower and the moon was at its highest, we went to sleep on the hay beds.

  My mind wandered as I lay there, going back to what Jeeh said. Not much we could do. I wasn’t going to accept that. I couldn’t. I refused to wait for whatever was killing the village to kill me. To end my village.

  And as Jeeh began to rumble and hiss in his sleep, I came to a conclusion.

  I’ll take this into my own claws.