Maikana
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Chapter 55 – Pork, it’s what’s for dinner
🕑 Added 2025-05-01 02:22:28 +0000 UTCA little ointment went a long way towards brightening Snq’s evening, though she still wasn’t in the greatest of moods for the remainder of it. Suffice to say, there would be no playing hide the mana mote that evening, which was in no way, shape, or form a euphonism.
Kori had enough on her mind once the sun went down that she barely even noticed the lack of the promised lessons; the stars twinkling above drew any attention that she might have spent elsewhere. Innumerable pinpricks of light shone in the sky overhead, each just slightly different from its neighbours in an array of hues, sizes, brightness, and tone. There were enough things to be different as to make them each look as though they had that combination of characteristics unique all to themselves.
If the stars themselves weren’t enough to enrapture the young kobold, that which blotted them out from the sky would have been. She knew from her lessons that there was a moon that drifted through the sky, sometimes visible during the day, but almost always so through the night. Like most things had been on her trip so far, seeing it with her own eyes was a vastly different experience than simply hearing tales of it from the matrons.
The moon slowly drifted across the expanse of the sky, a patch of pock marked shining black. Only its surface, brighter than the depths it crossed, differentiated the celestial body from its background as it meandered through the heavens. Occasionally a cloud would drift in front of it and would appear illuminated briefly as it did so. It resembled a solid mass of dark crystal that floated through the sky, casting its glow down upon the world.
While Kori stared towards the heavens, the others finished their sleeping preparations; unfurling the rolled leather pads beneath the carts and affixing another set as curtains around the exterior. It made sense they would sleep beneath the cover of the wagons; they were most used to sleeping in their small dens and with solid stone surrounding them. There were even perfectly sized crates to set under each corner should an axel give out or anything else happen so that they wouldn’t be squished.
The warriors and mages each took turns watching over the camp for the night to ensure that there was nothing in the area that they had missed on their earlier excursion that would pose a threat. Aside from a few scavengers sniffing about where they had butchered the boar, the night remained uneventful.
Even without Snq’s guidance that evening, Kori still learned an invaluable lesson. Har snored. Loudly. She had wondered why most of the others had spread themselves under the other two carts and it was just Har and her under the third at first, but once she learned the reason she decided that she’d join them the remaining nights. She also felt at least a bit betrayed that no one warned her beforehand.
Kori had a hard time getting any sleep that night, there was just so much to hear. Chirping insects, cawing and hooting birds, the chittering of small animals, and even the howling of fierce predators. While she eventually drifted off, the sounds from beyond the curtains, or those from within, made the prospect more difficult than normal.
Eventually morning came and, unlike most days where she was awoken by the minders declaring it was time to get up, there was more of a visual representation of the new day than she was used to. Beams of light streamed in from the gaps and openings in the covering surrounding them. When she exited her confines beneath the wagon, she saw a sight that was nearly as breathtaking as her first sight of the sky the day before. The sun had not yet crested the horizon, but it was making its impending presence known as the sky bloomed into a pale orange and red sunrise.
Breakfast was a quick repeat of the prior evening’s meal, it wasn’t quite as good cold, with promises of something better that evening when they would have roast boar. Packing everything up to leave was the same as it was when they arrived at their camping spot, just in reverse. Sleeping pads were rolled, crates returned to their places amongst the cargo, beasts given their own meals while they were hitched to their harnesses and before too long, they were off.
The days journey was easier than the previous’ for Kori, she was getting used to her bright, open surroundings and the sun was still low in the sky and not quite as bright as it had been the day before. Their travels were short and uneventful, the warriors called an occasional stop to investigate some tracks or check something that appeared out of place, but overall, it passed quickly. Five hours wasn’t that long to be travelling, but still long enough that her feet had begun to ache and cramp. She was thankfully rewarded for the day’s efforts.
<<Ability Score improved. Endurance increased 25 -> 26>>
Not really surprising given how low her Endurance was to begin with.
They stopped at another clearing that they came upon when the sun in the sky was directly overhead and just as they were nearing Har’s limit, clearly purposeful in its placement. Once they stopped, the same process of setting up their camp began all over again. It seemed like just as much of the day was spent packing and unpacking the carts as was on the roads.
Kori was once again put to work, tending to the grumpy beasts of burden while everyone else got things ready around her. Nkt quickly took up the task of preparing the boar that had been brought back the night before, the warriors lending a hand in maneuvering the sizable body for him. Large racks of meat and bones that weighed as much as Kori were pierced with a long metal spike and hung over the fire to roast, other bits were laid on racks and tented over with thick hides as smoke was funneled in from another fire, and still more was packed away in a barrel, coated with salt. It surprised Kori just how much food could be procured from a single beast.
Her thoughts about the beast she would be partaking of for dinner brought her mind around to the question that had gone unanswered in the aftermath of Snq’s injury the night before, why were some things beasts and others monsters. She would make sure her question did not get overlooked again this night.
Kori’s work with the oxen was a distracted thing, likely not the best of jobs even for her. But given the smells that were wafting away from the sizzling boar meat, she doubted anyone would blame her for her inattentiveness. Except the oxen she worked on at least, they might not be happy with her effort. But to be fair, she didn’t think they were happy about much of anything, so it was unlikely that she could have pleased them regardless.
It was unusual to eat a midday meal, but Kori had no intent on complaining about it. Especially about something so delicious. The meat was moist and fatty with juices that ran down her chin as she bit into it and she needed no encouragement to return for a second and even a third helping. Aln took the record at six plates piled high with succulent boar though. Kori knew that she had to enjoy as much of this as she could, while she could, because before long she’d be back down with the rest of the clan and back to the lackluster meals that she had gotten used to. Between the festival and now her trip to the surface, she’d never look at a steamed fish with the same enthusiasm she once had ever again.
Snq, her robe having been mended and partially cleaned at some point, and the others went about their afternoon the same as they had the prior evening, departing in a group to survey the surroundings and flush out any threats. While they were gone Har continued his lessons from the previous evening for most of the afternoon, discussions of currency and trade goods, how much a meal like what they just ate would cost in Whatzakt and why the price might be different a few streets over.
The nuances of monetary exchange mostly went over Kori’s head, why a single gold coin was worth more than the boar’s entire carcass, which could feed the group of them for days, was baffling to her. It’s not like you could eat the coin to satiate yourself after all.
Har struggled to impart the concepts of implied value and things such as supply and demand. He tried to explain to her that because there was high demand from the human’s kingdom, they could either sell more stone or sell the same amount of stone at a higher rate to them. This of course made no sense whatsoever to Kori, she struggled to understand the concept much beyond ‘you have stone, they want stone, you traded stone for one price last time, you trade stone for same price this time’.
The idea of charging them more because they were building a new wall around some city to the north, so the other quarries were too busy to send it this far south, just seemed mean to her.
Har’s attempts to enlighten her with the concepts of capitalism mostly fell on deaf ears over the next few hours, the idea of negotiating and ‘haggling’ over a few coins seemed to be the definition of tedious to the youngling. While Har might be overseeing her apprenticeship now, she made it fairly clear that afternoon that she had no intention of pursuing the path of commerce and profit. Like most kobolds, it was a means to support the clan, not a passion.
The little expedition returned before too late, just in time for when she’d normally be eating dinner with her siblings were she back in the brood chamber. She did not think the timing was a coincidence. There were no serious injuries or maimings on display after this hunt, though there were certainly scrapes and bruises to be seen. About the worst she could find evidence of was a group of cracked scales on Aln’s shin, whatever struck him must have hurt, either enough that his healing was only sufficient to recover to this point or not enough to justify expending the mana on while they were out.
Just as she had the night before, Kori held up her little pot of ointment with a grin and offered it to the shaman. He declined, but she still offered.
Dinner was yet more boar meat, wrapped in flatbreads that they cooked alongside the fire and filled with a bit of ground moss to give them some variety. Even if it was just the usual moss, it tasted better than she was used to where it had absorbed the drippings from the meat.
I might have to make things for Har to sell just so he can buy me good food from now on…
There was little chatter besides appreciative noises and exclamations of delight as the group ate their meal, aside from some gentle ribbing of Snq about the meal being worth her suffering. By the time they finished eating Kori thought they must have consumed a quarter of the boar already. Quite the feat for less than a dozen kobolds.
After the meal was devoured, there were still several hours left before the sun went down and it would be time to curl up under one of the wagons for the night. Definitely not the same wagon as Har this time. Kori approached the mage hoping that she would be up for the missed discussion and hopefully some training time.
“Mage Snq, I was wondering if we could talk for a bit?” She asked, trying to sound meek rather than upset at having missed the night before. “You weren’t up for much last night, so I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Oh, of course, Kori.” Snq replied with a beaming smile, some grease still glistening on the scales of her chin from dinner. “Sorry about last night. Even healed, an injury like that takes a lot out of you.”
Kori had never experienced anything worse than some bruising or a couple of scrapes, mostly caused by her siblings over the years, so she really didn’t have much reference for the subject. She couldn’t imagine having a creature drive its sharp tusk literally through her body, let alone to hang off said tusk while it charged through the bushes and tried to run down her allies.
After a gulp that felt like she’d tried to swallow one of the hooves at imagining the situation that Snq had found herself in, Kori responded to her, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you. Now, I believe I promised an explanation of the difference between beasts and monsters?” She thought for a moment before adding, “And Ylst wanted me to help you with [Mana Sense] too, right?”
Kori nodded to both questions, more looking forward to the information than she was the training. Though that sounded kind of fun too. “Yes! It seems weird that some things are called one way and other’s differently.”
Chuckling at her simplistic view, Snq began in on her explanation. “It’s a fascinating subject. I’m sure there is still plenty I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping that Har can source a few more books for me.” Her tone shifted as she spoke, sounding more like Kori when she was asking a barrage of questions than the youngling had ever heard someone else sound. “The main difference is their origin. Beasts are like us, they live, breed, die, and repeat. Generations of boars came before the one we just ate and, given its size, probably will come after its offspring.” Using the obvious example of a beast she knew Kori would be familiar with.
“Monsters on the other hand, they come into being directly from the mana around them. Though occasionally a beast can become a monster if the circumstances align, but we’ll save that for once you’ve got the basics down.” Nearly becoming side tracked in a way Kori was all too familiar with herself. “There are all sorts of monsters, from those that look like beasts like the fell salamanders to things completely impossible for normal creatures like elementals made entirely out of flame or stone.”
All young kobolds knew the stories about fell salamanders, creatures that looked like the relatively cute amphibians that some kobolds kept as pets, but gave off a noxious and dangerous miasma from oozing pustules on their hides that caused rapid decay of anything living. They were used as cautionary tales to the young to be wary of unknown creatures in the tunnels. Until just that moment, Kori also thought they were simply scary stories to tell hatchlings to keep them from wandering.
“Wait… fell salamanders are real?” Kori coughed out in surprise.
“Of course they’re real.” Snq scoffed. “What did you think, that we just wanted to scare you?” She asked rhetorically while shaking her head. “We don’t see them often, a couple of them show up every few years, but they’re an absolute menace to the farms when they do. They eat the rotted moss and just about anything else they can get their grimy little mouths on.”
They both shared a shiver as one thought of the disgusting creatures and the other learned the truth of their existence.
“Where do monsters come from then, they can’t just appear out of thin air, can they?” She hoped that wasn’t the case, though she didn’t think it was as she’d never heard of a monster just appearing in the middle of the clan or anything.
“They’re born of confluences of magic, either ones that occur naturally in places untended to, or ones more permanent in nature.” She said, trying to assure Kori that there was little chance of them simply appearing in the middle of a busy cavern. “Most of these permanent confluences are not natural in origin, things like ruins or abandoned places where much magic had once been worked and it altered the flow of mana in the world.” Snq’s tone became excited as she spoke and her words quickened. “There has been much study on how it happens and what we can do to prevent the formation of a confluence. Ultimately it seems no matter how hard a civilization tries, once they depart a place, one will form eventually.”
A thought occurred to Kori as she listened to the explanation of how confluences formed. “What about the old quarry where they’re building my new work space? There were a bunch of slimes there, are those monsters?”
Shaking her head, Snq denied the suggestion, “No, slimes are natural, if strange, creatures. They breed by eating a bunch and splitting off from each other.”
“Not even the aqua slimes?”
“Aqua slimes? Uhhh… those might be monsters actually…” Snq answered, her uncertainty not helping Kori’s anxiety over the potential monsters she’ll be working near.
