Grae pushed his way into a small cave of rough, orange-gray rock. The walls were painted with red clays, depicting ancient dragons and strings of writing in an unknown tongue. Not the language of humans at all. There was a firepit, and Grae could smell ash and cooked meat in the air, meaning it had been used recently. Refuse had been piled neatly in one corner.

Grae twitched his nose, dissatisfied. Who wasted their garbage by piling it neatly in one place? A proper lair had generously strewn garbage, all over the floor.

But this was a lair, however small and stingy.

He could smell the fear of its inhabitant, and his head turned to a stalagmite poking up like a crooked fang from the floor.

“You can come out…” He rumbled. “I won’t hurt you.”

Out stepped a small, strange creature. It had smooth copper-yellow scales, and barely came halfway to Grae’s height, with two long horns sprouting from its head to curve inwards and nearly touch together. Its body was weak and stringy but humanoid, with terrible scars striping its limbs.

Its face was skinny and draconic, with a sharp muzzle and a beaked mouth.

“You are monster.” It said, in broken Common.

“Yes. I am Grae.” Grae couldn’t rise to his full height in the smallness of the cave, but he didn’t need to. His furred body took up so much space that he was like a living avalanche. There would be no escaping if he decided to eat the little thing. “What are you?”

“Is kobold. Is Larktongue.” It hissed. “Wherefrom is monster Grae?”

Grae considered that. “From a dungeon.” He said carefully. He would never say where, or how to find his home. It was secret and buried and his.

“Dungeon?” The kobold perked up. It lifted higher onto its backwards bending leg, lifting its head to the air. “Is it… human dungeon?”

Grae snorted. “A human dungeon? There are no such things.” Ridiculous notion…

“But yes! Yes there are. Many, many. Humans and dungeons deal together, make friendships, sometimes. Other times the humans dig. They dig their way in like mite burrowing into fur. Dig and dig, eating everything inside. Keep the dungeon alive but make it slave.” The kobold hissed angrily. “My dungeon, yes, my own, met such a fate.”

Grae felt the anger in the kobold’s voice reflected in his own soul. Yes, he knew the humiliation and shame of outliving his own maker. He knew it too well…

And for that maker to be bound forever, a slave in its own halls and corridors?

That was worse.

“Can you… take me to the dungeon?” The kobold’s voice was heartbreakingly hopeful. “I would serve. Happy and forever, I would serve.”

“I can’t.” Grae said simply. “I am sorry.”

The kobold sank down.

“Where are these humans?” Grae asked. “Are they near?”

“Not near but not far enough. Never far enough.” Fear entered the little creature’s voice. “Larkspur and others all ran away together. Escaped. They made us wear collars and fed us little, whipped us until we worked…”

“Slavery.”

“Yes, that is their word. It is death. Another kind of death.” The kobold's head tilted aside, considering Grae. "You are big…" It said, beginning to think. Grae understood the tone in its voice. Now that it was no longer afraid Grae would eat or enslave it…

It began to think of how it could use Grae to its advantage.

"I cannot be your protector." Grae cut that line of thinking short. "I merely plan to borrow your cave until that evil star is gone from the sky."

"I would serve you, me and others. Loyal, faithful. Bring you food and sing you stories…"

Grae snorted. "That sounds like being a slave again."

"Better monster-slave than human." The kobold replied. Finally finding its courage, it stepped towards Grae, sinking to one knee. Begging. "I am not strong enough to be free. None of us are. Slave-finders come and catch and drag us back. I can do nothing. I am nothing; I saw my children in cages, and still ran."

Grae saw the little creature's soul so clearly.

It had been a slave so long it did not believe in freedom. It was, in the saddest way, afraid of freedom; freedom came with the duty to fight, and this sad little creature had long ago lost the needed spark of anger.

Although it had somehow escaped, it could no longer imagine being truly free. Only finding a kinder master.

"I would follow you for all your life." The kobold pleaded.

"Even if I went into human lands?" Grae asked. "Even if I walked among them?"

Larktongue fell silent.

"I didn't think so." Grae curled himself down and prepared to sleep. "Light the fire again, little kobold. When the night comes, I will help you with these slave-finders."