“It must be nice,” thought Kajk, “to be the kobolds of a fire dragon … bare toes warmed by the master’s breath.”
The snowdrifts through the forest were chest-high for the diminutive creature. The only way forward for most of this return trip to the ice caves of Winterbold was to lie on his belly and slither like a snake across the top of the snow. He was used to it, but it meant shedding his hides and protection, baring his scales and feathers to skim the snow with less resistance—more comfortable, yet vulnerable, in these frozen marshes. The small, penguin-like pinfeathers cloaking Kajk’s body—like all his kin—let him endure even the bitterest days and nights the Northlands could conjure. The cold did not pierce his core, yet it gnawed at his
thoughts when he was far from his caves… and from HER.
“Food! Food! FOOD!” The command rang through his ears, even now, an entire day later, as he wriggled across the snowdrifts, dragging two rabbits and his clothes pack behind. His slithering left a bloody and scented trail in the snow. Walking, sinking deep into the snow, would be no better, and it would expend twice the energy.
“Yess, Malssiss,” Kajk mocked himself—and his entire cabal. So easily, so readily, they prostrated before the Lady of Winter. Dragons were agents of the koboldic gods, but why did Malssiss have to be such a hungry one?
Before she came, the kobolds hunted for themselves in forests of plenty. Two rabbits would be enough to feed a small cabal for a few days. These tender, precious rabbits would be gone in a single small bite for the dragon, and she would demand more even before she gulped them down.
Kajk might only see his home for an hour or two before being sent out again to feed the hungry mistress. It was only a matter of time before they would be sent to steal from dangerous humans or maybe the frost giants to satiate her hunger.
“Food! Food! FOOD!” Kajk muttered it aloud, embittered, with teeth clenched. He hated her commands this far from Winterbold, but somehow craved the security and power of serving her when he returned home. This swamp, full of frolicking winter hares and conies, lay at the very limits of her power. “Two today will have to do,” spat Kajk, mustering a flicker of rebellion.
Winterbold eventually came to sight. Bitterness ebbed away at the mouth of the icy cavern, and in its place, devotion and greed seeped in. Malssiss. A calm came to Kajk’s troubled mind when he thought of the white dragon’s name. She was here, in their cave, blessing his cabal.
They would be the most powerful cabal in the world with their mistress guiding them, roaring their power over all. He could feel her command and thoughts in his own draconic mind. His eyes blinked peacefully when he skittered into the caves to bring his mistress the fresh food he had found. They would be frozen solid, but she seemed to enjoy her kills that way during the depths of winter. Day in and day out, for weeks, Kajk would follow the command and
desire of the icy mistress. “Food! Food! FOOD!” Kajk was good at finding sweet, tender rabbits and hares, even if he might be gone for two days at a time.
“Why Kajk? Why?” The kobold found himself, again, far from Winterbold in the hunting swamp, hip-deep in snow. “Food, Food, FOOD!”
“This Kajk life now—food fetcher. Pffft!!” Kajk became aware that his mind was once again his own at the very edge of the frozen swamp. His snare had trapped another rabbit, bringing the day’s total to three. The creature, peppered with fluffy flakes of snow, trembled and squealed
in panic as Kajk approached. A gurgle of water muffled beneath thin ice caught Kajk’s attention. At the edge of the stream lay an orange-yellow rock, half-submerged in the frozen water, half clinging to the soil. Its flaky surface bled into the nearby snow, and ochre specks discolored the water beneath the ice. Kajk knew this rock—arsenic—though he had no word for it other than “poison”.
The kobold’s eyes went wide with a plan—a plan to have his cabal, his home, his caves all back to themselves!
He found more of the orange-yellow rocks and placed them in branches where he would see them on his return, when his mind would be blurred with the drug of servitude. They would be a reminder of this day, and this sweet little rabbit of freedom. Gleefully, he snared rabbits and grouse to be brought to the pool to drown them in the poisonous water. It didn’t
matter that he would forget his bitterness when he returned to Winterbold. He would happily return his catch to the mistress in his blissful ignorance.
Down, pretty rabbit!
Drink in pretty freedom.
Down you go in the cold.
Drown, pretty rabbit, drink in the freedom.
When you sleep underwater,
Back home you will go!
He sang his song as he brought the poor creatures to the pool to hold them in the spring until they were good and full of the water. They would freeze soon after, and the call of his mistress would compel him to return to Winterbold within a couple of days.
The remaining weeks of winter wore on, and Kajk obeyed his mistress when she commanded, “Food, Food, FOOD!”
“Yellow rock? Drink in pretty freedom rabbit!!”
Then, the wave of obedience came when the call to return home rang through his mind.
Eventually, the warmth of spring returned. The cabal of kobolds emerged, 200 strong. They dragged pieces of poisoned carcass from Winterbold toward a crackling fire. Kajk observed his family in supple, carefully crafted white dragon hides. Oppression was leaving their home.
Many didn’t fully understand why Malssiss stopped commanding their minds. They didn’t know why she fell ill. Such a young, healthy dragon. Had they done something to displease their god? Whispers spread uncertainty. However uncertain they might be, the mistress was no more. Gone were her commands.
Kajk was now master of his own mind and no longer a pawn to gather food. His cabal worked diligently around the blazing fire in the spring air to burn the winter’s refuse, among it the remains of their god. His stash of gold and jewels, more than he could carry, rivaled a human lord’s fortune.
It is here in the boreal forest of this world that a little fellow known as Kajk would need to choose the course of his cabal. His mind yearned for the drug of comfort and devotion when the mistress commanded him. The tribe no longer knew the spells of their mistress. Many in the tribe clung to sanity by a meager, thin thread without the dragon.
Kajk stared at the burning, poisoned meat as the embers danced and popped into the air. The cabal waited for his command; he wasn’t sure if they should have it or if he wanted to be the one to replace the dragon.
The acrid scent lingered long after the smoke dissipated, as did the pull of the Lady of Winter, now reduced to nothing more than ash and bones. A wealthy little kobold decided and changed many things that day.