Ch.2

Rok and several other Copper Kobold clan members ran to the entrance of the cave while Uglu and a few older clan members rushed somewhere else. I quickly followed after Rok to see how my Mom was doing. Running behind them since it was too little space for me to fly down here, I stopped at the entrance where we can see the three ancient dragons fighting above us.

The one bigger-looking red dragon was heavily injured but still putting up a fight while the other red dragon had many injuries, but looked much better. My Mom was very injured too, not as much as the one red dragon but more than the other one. I became extremely worried about her as I grew antsy seeing her. Then I see the other red dragon about to grab my mother's neck from behind I roared to get their attention while flying up a few feet into the air.

All dragon's stopped fighting for a split second to look down, the less injured red dragon diverted its attention to me quickly dropping down to kill me. My Mom used this to claw the heavily injured one's neck making it drop down looking dead while driving after the one other. Rok screamed for me to get back into the cave, which I quickly dropped down and rushed behind them back into the cave.

The red dragon dropped at the entrance just as the Kobolds and I reached the back of the cave's entrance. The red dragon let loose a breath of extremely hot fire that we managed to dodge at the last second. Though it killed a few other Kobolds while burning my tail slightly. Normally I'm immune to even the hottest of fires, but Mom once told me that dragon fire holds magic in it too which can hurt even gold dragons.

We then here the battle take place outside as my mother landed behind the red dragon grabbed it by the tail and pulled it away from the cave. The two then scuffled on the ground as my Mom finally used her tail and smacked the red dragon making it stumble back from the strike. My Mom then turned to the cave to see if I was fine, but I can now tell that my mother is a lot more hurt than I originally thought.

"Rok! Take my son and escape this place!" Mom yells to Rok as the red dragon launched itself at her with a roar. My Mom turned to meet its charge.

"Come Talrit! We must not linger!" Rok says to me while trying to push me deeper into the cave.

"I can't leave my Mom!" I say refusing to move, while more Kobolds run up to try to push me deeper into the cave.

"Talrit!! Do not let your Mother's fight be for nothing! If you remain this is all for nothing!" Rok says to me desperate to get me to leave, while I stare at my Mom who is desperately fighting the remaining red dragon.

With a roar of pain and sadness at leaving my Mom, I turn and run deeper into the cave with the Kobolds behind me. I then follow Rok as he ushers his remaining clan members to follow. We all reach the place where Uglu and the other clan elders went to see a giant blue rift being opened up.

"Rok! Take the others through! We can not hold it open much longer!" Uglu screams to his grandson and Rok nods with a hard-to-read expression.

"Go Talrit! I'm right behind you!" Rok says to me as the last remaining Copper Kobolds run through the rift.

Looking back to where the fighting is taking place my eyes water up at the thought of never seeing my mother again. Then I run through the portal, after crossing the other side I stumble as a few Kobolds were standing a few feet from the rift. Looking around in the extremely dark cave that seems to have no natural light, we find ourselves in a huge empty cave structure. With only the sounds of water dripping from the ceiling and the breathing of the Kobolds. Then the rift closes with only Rok coming out right before it does, he appears to be just as sad as me. Seems like me he lost his only remaining family.

"Rok, where are we?" I ask as all the other Kobolds turn hearing me and looking at Rok curious too.

"I'm not sure… The magic that the elders used was passed down every generation as the last resort to escape danger. We have lost the knowledge of where it leads," Rok says while looking around for any danger.

"Rok, you are clan leader now. What do we do?" one of the Kobold hunters asks Rok while the others look to Rok for guidance.

"Now we find a place to call our own. Talrit I want you to stay with us, our clan has served your mother for many centuries, and we'd like to do the same for you," Rok says to me while bowing his head slightly and the other Kobolds quickly follow suit.

"You don't need to bow! You are family! Of course, I want to stay with you all!" I say to Rok and he smiles along with many of the other Kobolds.

"I want all the hunters to explore the surrounding area! Then come back here before the day is out! As for everyone else, gather what we have so we know what we will need!" Rok says after thinking about what to do and immediately almost all of the Clan Hunters/warriors run off to explore the surroundings.

Rok then has the remaining kobolds gather the items they all brought with them. Watching this all happen I think about my mother and all the things she taught me. She said as I age I will instinctually know magic as it comes from my blood and that the older a dragon is the stronger a dragon becomes. True dragons she told me never stop growing until the day they die. Plus she told me the Copper clan of Kobolds is different than the rest, from the many she met they appear to be the smartest and bravest.

After a few hours of waiting, as I lay on the ground just thinking about my mother all of the hunters return except for one. Rok ran over as I stood up and followed wanting to hear about the area too. The hunters then took turns explaining what the surrounding area appears to be like.

They each came to believe we are either in part of the Underdark that my mom once told me is extremely dangerous. As they each explored different areas and none lead to the outside, nor did they find any signs of other life. Though Rok does not believe that to be true as one hunter is missing, he then tells three of the hunters to go after the lost one to see what may have happened.

"Rok you really think we might be in the Underdark?" I ask him as the three hunters run off to find the missing one.

"I hope not Talrit. That would make our survival all that much harder, we creatures that respect life and have honor do not survive long in that place," Rok says while sighing and walking back to the other Kobolds.

Once again we wait for the hunters to come back and yet none do, so Rok deems the passage they went unsafe and had four hunters guard the entrance to the place while everyone rested. Once we all slept and woke up the next day Rok had everyone follow the one path that the one hunter explored and Rok deemed the safest out of all the paths.

We walked with Rok and a few of the older hunters at the front, as I stayed in the middle helping carry some of the items the Kobolds brought. After walking for hours we start to the lava pit that the one hunter found. As soon as the heat hit us the Kobolds seemed to wince as they are not fireproof like me, though I found this heat to be very comforting.

Walking inside the area we see that it is extremely huge bigger than even the mountain my Mother made for her home. The pit of lava looked to be thousands of feet wide and maybe around a thousand feet up we see the sky.

"Rok! We are not in the Underdark, but a huge volcano!" I say looking up at the sky as the other Kobolds look up and exclaim in happiness at not being trapped in the Underdark.

The gases from a volcano do not affect me as my mom told me that gold dragons are immune to all poisons and forms of fire, other than the breath of a fellow dragon. The Kobolds can resist the fumes and heat of the lava for a few hours at best but do not enjoy being near it as I do. I run over to the edge of the pit leading to the lava as the Kobolds look at me worried. My instincts scream at me to jump into the lava to swim in it, I then begin to shift around excitedly contemplating jumping down.

"Talrit, what are you doing?" Rok says while looking at me nervously and the others watch nervously too.

"I want to swim in the lava," I say without looking back as my instincts scream at me to jump down into it.

"Talrit, I don't think even–" Rok begins to say before I jump down as he and several other Kobolds rush over to look down at me.

"Talrit!!" Rok yells after me as I let out a roar of happiness after landing in the lava that was a maybe hundred feet below the edge we were on.

The feeling of the lava washing over me was extremely exhilarating, nothing like the baths Mom made me take before in the cold rivers or lakes. This was like I was being massaged all over, while the lava cleaned everything off of me melting it away. I then began rolling around in it as I sank a bit then opened my eyes to see I was under the lava's surface. Jumping out of the lava I flew back to Rok and the others who were looking at me with wide eyes.

"Talrit! Why did you do that?!" Rok says to me worried about me while I shake off the remaining lava and stretch, feeling very relaxed.

"Because my instincts told me too and they were right! That was the most amazing thing I've ever felt before!" I say wanting to spend all day just relaxing in the volcano.

"I see," Rok says nodding his head, while the other Kobolds nod along. Just like dragons, Kobolds place a lot of stock in our natural instincts.

"Well we can not stay here longer, we must find a suitable place to claim as our own. Then find a way outside to gather more things we need to survive," Rok says looking around for another way as this is as far as the hunter came last time.

We see another opening across the other side of the volcano, luckily the edge we are on is big enough for the kobolds to walk around to it. Though it takes them almost an hour since the volcano is so large. I use this time to swim in the lava while making my way to the other side since I can fly other there at any moment.

"Talrit! We are ready when you are!" Rok says yelling down at me as I played in the lava making rocks on the walls by placing lava on them to cool.

"Oh ok!" I say flying up to the kobolds and landing to see them gathered around the only other entrance to the volcano's center.

"I want you four to walk ahead scouting it out as we follow behind," Rok says pointing to the most experienced hunters who run off ahead of the rest of us.

"Let's go," Rok says after waiting a few minutes to give the hunters some lead before we follow after them.