Maikana
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Chapter 53 – Only surface deep
🕑 Added 2025-04-16 21:04:25 +0000 UTCMinutes passed as Kori just stood there, stunned by the novelty of her surroundings. The abundance of sensations was overwhelming to the young kobold who had never imagined that the surface could be just so starkly different to the underground life she had known. Sounds of life permeated the air, carried to her by a gentle breeze that felt like a buffeting wind to one accustomed to the stillness below.
Alongside the cacophony were the scents. The musty smell of humid earth and kobold wasn’t even something Kori noticed anymore, it had always been there since the day she hatched, and now it was gone. The familiar odour of her home was replaced by a myriad of new scents. Bright and floral smells wafted from nearby plants, deep and earthy ones from the soil they grew in, similar but different to home, even a hint of decay from somewhere nearby, where fallen trees were slowly decomposing and being consumed by insects and fungus.
As she stood there, her eyes still held firmly shut against the piercing brightness of the sun high above them in the sky, her mouth hung agape and she fell to the hard packed dirt beneath her. She barely managing to keep herself upright as she landed in a seated position. Even the dirt was different. Gone was the sandy gravel she’d trod upon her entire life, the bed of dried mud below her scales was firm and solid, anything loose having washed away in the rains. She didn’t know that part of course, ‘rain’ was another of those mythical words that she’d never truly been able to conceive of before. Though if her thoughts hadn’t come crashing to a halt, she might have managed a closer proximity now than before she’d seen the sky.
For the first time in Kori’s life, she experienced what she imagined meditation to be like. As she sat there in the dirt and took in the strange and wonderful sensations she had no thoughts, no questions, no whirling curiosity. For the briefest of moments, her mind knew stillness.
The moment passed before she even realized that it had occurred, or perhaps even because she had realized, and though she didn’t truly know how long she sat there stunned and stupefied, she believed it wasn’t very long.
As her thoughts returned with their typical velocity, so did the rest of what made Kori different from everyone else, the questions and inquisitiveness that drove her to the ultimate question of ‘why?’. Her mouth opened long before she managed to force her eyes to do so, only certain Har was still present to be asked by his laughing and supportive hand upon her shoulder that she hadn’t even noticed.
“What… How…. It’s…” She stammered, trying to ask all of her questions at the same time and managing none of them.
“Relax, Kori.” Har chuckled, bringing his hand down under her arm to help her up, “Come, there’s a seat for just this sort of thing. It’s over here, out of the way so the others can finish getting ready to leave.” Once she was standing, he guided her, she thought towards the left side of the tunnel but even opening the barest slits of her eyes left her vision overwhelmed and blurry through the tears she was beginning to realize she had shed. The gentle breeze blowing upon her face highlighting the cool trails of water they had left behind.
As Har helped her walk from the middle of the path, Kori noticed that the warmth on her scales, and light that even shone through the lids of her eyes, diminished. She nearly resisted and retreated back into the warmth, but instead allowed herself to be guided to sit upon a rough and oddly textured seat, even if she didn’t want to. Wiping her watery eyes clear, she found it a little easier to see now, merely akin to staring into a dozen of the brightest lantern spells than the blinding that it had been previously. She examined her surroundings and found that she was seated on a felled log under an overhang of stone, a grinning Har sitting close by.
“It’s just so… different…” She said, finally looking out to see the green leaves waving on the branches of the unbelievably tall trees in the slight breeze.
Those have to be at least ten meters high!
The greenery along the ground rustling and moving, even the dirt lifting and falling as the wind pushed it across the packed trail leading into the cave, everything was alive with movement.
“Why is everything moving?” She asked, the first of many questions finally squeezing its way out of her packed full mind.
Har’s laughter continued, his amusement at her reaction unreserved and uncontained. It took him several long moments to reply to her, “All of this,” waving his hand as though showcasing the sights before them, “everything, and the first thing you want to know is why things are moving?”
Trying not to sound pouty or petulant, Kori gave off a quiet harumph before responding to his question, “There’s just soooo much I want to ask, but can’t you see how all the green is moving and waving, that doesn’t happen… or at least doesn’t in the caverns…”
Continuing his chuckles between words before finally giving her an actual answer, “It’s the wind. Our air runes help us ventilate and keep the air fresh for us, but it’s the wind that does that up here.” He tried to explain. “It’s enough to make the branches sway and bushes rustle.”
They both know what was coming before she made her typical response, “Why?”
“Not sure.” He said. Seeing the look on her face at his non-answer he quickly added, “Don’t look at me like that, I’m really not sure. It just kinda is.” Holding his hands up defensively towards the burgeoning glare of a child that thought she was being denied an answer. “Same with the blue sky, bright sun, and clouds, they’re just the facts of life up here on the surface. No different from learning to spot a loose rock in the ceiling or when a cave isn’t stable is for us down below.”
The mention of clouds caught her attention, being under the jutted rock of the overhang she had yet to get a good look at the sky above. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for the full return of the sun’s bright rays, but wanted to see more. Standing, she managed to keep her eyes mostly open as she edged forward, not entirely into the light but close, and look up above herself. Blue sky stretched as far as she could see between the mountainside and the trees as white fluffs of cloud drifted across the expanse lazily.
Her awed expression from that first moment still rested on her face as she took in the vastness of the space before her. Even the deep lakes paled in comparison to what she saw, she knew that the massive opening they fished from was a mere pittance of their spacious depths, but this seemed truly limitless. In theory she had known that the surface was unconstrained by the stone that had surrounded her throughout her life, but to see it laid out before her was another thing entirely.
“Why?” The single word escaping without context.
“Why what, Kori?” Har asked, a raised brow.
“Why do we all live down there when,” Spreading her arms in the same way Har had moments prior, “all this, is up here?”
Har’s expression turned serious for a moment as she asked her question, his chuckling and giggling petering out. “We live in the depths because that is where the Emberscale kobolds have always lived.” He stated in a more serious tone. “Asking why we live there is like asking why we mine ore and quarry stone; it is simply because we are kobolds.”
“But don’t some of the other clans live on the surface?” She asked, not as constrained by tradition as the Elder.
“They do, because that is their purpose. Just as we continue to fulfil our own the best we can.” A measure of finality in his tone making it clear to her that the topic wasn’t one of debate.
Minutes continued to pass, questions asked and answered to the best of Har’s ability, as the other kobolds readied the carts and harnessed the oxen for their trip. Before long, Kori spotted something new, amongst all the other things that had been new just a short time earlier. A small creature covered in fuzzy fur with a tail that looked larger and fluffier than its whole body scurried vertically up the side of a tree and onto a branch.
“What is that?!” She asked suddenly and loudly, causing the creature to freeze mid-stride and turn its attention towards her.
“That is a squir…” Har had nearly managed to answer the question when the unlucky rodent found itself the prey of an opportunistic hawk. After blinking a few times and processing what he had just witnessed, he amended his explanation, “That was a squirrel… and that blur that flew in to grab it was some type of bird.”
“Flew?! It was so fast!” Kori asked excitedly, ignoring the unfortunate demise of the squirrel she had indirectly caused by distracting it.
“Yes, like the ancient dragons and our Drakkiri cousins, there are still many creatures up here that are able to fly, like the bats you may have seen below. Some of them can be quite dangerous.” He replied, watching Kori’s eyes widen as she unconsciously took a step back, closer to the overhang, and watched the skies above for any sign of danger.
The pair continued to wait while Kori pestered him with questions and queries, no further wildlife was spotted but it remained heard in the background. Har explained that the chittering sounds she could hear were likely other squirrels and similar creatures, the chirping and high-pitched songlike sounds likely birds. Though most of those he explained were not quite as predatory as her introduction to the avian creatures.
He pointed out how there were different types of trees, about which he was unable to answer the inevitable ‘why’ that followed. And how the sun moved across the sky when she noticed the shadows changing as time passed. And many other little aspects of what made the surface different at first glance.
Har knew that she would have more questions, many, many, more, as the trip progressed. He tried to satisfy as many of these initial queries as he could before they got underway, in the foolish hope that it would lessen the burden later. He really should have known better, but he would learn eventually.
It took nearly an hour for the carts to be loaded and the oxen hitched, but eventually the three laden wagons trundled out of the mouth of the cave into the bright noonday sun.
“Ah, I do believe it is time for us to depart.” Har said, interrupting her latest curiosity. “We can ride on the carts once we tire, but for now I’d like to stretch my legs for a bit.”
Har Jogged up to the front of the caravan and spoke with the others who were assembled and ready to go. The warriors spread out along the length of the three carts while the mages and shaman each sat next to the traders that were guiding the teams of oxen. They all wore serious expressions as the group began their journey, slowly, down the road that led to the town of Whatzakt.
Kori and Har walked just ahead of the lead carts quartet of ox, their pace relatively sedate as the beasts pulled the heavy cargo behind them. “How far is the trip?” She asked, knowing that they had said two to three days but now realizing that it might not be nearly as distant as she had thought.
“Hm? Oh, only about twenty-five kilometers, maybe twenty-six.” Har responded. “We won’t get too far today; the oxen don’t like to travel once the sun goes down and the beasts in the woods are more active at night.” He answered offhandedly, keeping most of his attention on the road ahead.
Twenty-five kilometers was a difficult distance for Kori to comprehend, below ground it would take quite a bit of time to walk that far but mostly because the tunnels twisted and turned and intersected. But she knew she had to be able to walk that distance much faster than a few days if she didn’t need to match her pace to the slower beasts.
“Can’t they move faster than that? Do your abilities only help you move faster?” She asked, skirting some social norms with the second question.
“That,” He said, pointing to the oxen, “is with my abilities active.” He finished, shaking his head. “Each cart is carrying over ten tonnes of ore and stone. My abilities enhance the beast’s ability to pull the weight and their endurance. They’d manage half of that weight and still be slower without me here.” His tone landing somewhere between prideful and arrogant as he explained the benefits he was providing. “I can keep three wagons like that going for over five hours a day before I run out of mana and stamina to fuel it, less if I walk the whole time so I’ll have to ride after a while.” Finishing his little tirade, clearly a bit offended by her questioning his abilities.
All Kori could really muster as a response was a simple, “Oh.” Before the pair fell into a somewhat tense silence while they continued walking along ahead of the wagon train.
Silence never lasted long with Kori around of course, and after a few minutes of leaving Har alone the questions began anew.
“What do we do when we have to stop for the night?” She asked, realizing that the time limit on their daily traveling meant that they would need to rest the other hours of the day. She had known that they would spend a few nights on the road, but it hadn’t really occurred to her what that meant until she’d actually experienced the surface.
“We’ll set up camp, cook some food, and rest.” Said matter of factly, as though it were nothing of note. “Ylst made me promise to give you time with one of the mages for some training of some kind too, what’s that about?” He asked, curious why the other Elder was butting into his new apprentices training.
“She’s trying to help me and Losq raise our [Mana Sense] Skills, though I didn’t expect that I’d get to practice until I got back.” She answered. Surprised that Ylst had considered it.
“Well, you do. Don’t blow anything up or light anything on fire, please.” He replied sarcastically.
