Ves woke to the smell of food.

That never happened ever since she left her cage, she would always be awake by the time food was ready. Suddenly a rush of memories came to her, inspecting the energy that seemed to be pervade her body, finding a second egg and breaking free. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed something strange; she was in a different, a bigger hut.

Ves followed the smell of food to a different room! A room where she found the shaman sitting on the ground next to a fire.

“Sit with me.” He commanded. Ves compiled immediately, getting a huge bowl of food in return. The shaman watched her devour the food with knowing eyes. He only spoke up again once she was finished.

“You hatched second time.”

“I did.”

“You Ves’ra now.” He stated. Ves was amazed, the second part of her name! She could hardly contain her joy. The time for her second nameday had yet to come.

“I thought I'm too young!” She protested.

“No. Hatchlings get second name with second hatching!”

“What's the preparation for then?” She asked, intrigued.

“Younglings need help to find and leave egg.”

“It’s not that hard.” Ves stated.

“It is the most important moment of any living being!” Ves’ra looked at him, confused by the insistence and intensity in his voice as well as his suddenly improved speech.

“The method you used to break free will permanently determine the magic you will be able to do. Most kobolds only manage to imagine themselves and as such can only use magic to affect their physical body.”

Ves, no Ves'ra nodded in understanding. “How did you break free?”

“I am fire. You?” he asked.

“I imagined myself as a stormcloud full of wind, water, ice and lightning to break the shell.” The passive face of the shaman suddenly lit up in glee.

“You did. That's excellent!”

She looked at the slightly disturbing, jubilant face and suddenly wondered why she was here. “Why am I here?”

“It easiest to recuperate from your second hatching if you are in magically rich area and taken care by someone knowing what needs to be done.”

“I thought everyone went through this. Shouldn't they know?”

“You are unusually smart for one so young. Most do not remember the first few months of their life. Minds grow last.”

“Why can I feel so much more?”

“What do you feel?”

“Air, water and heat.”

“That's your magic, all you can affect. I know all sources of fire and heat. You weak now so you shouldn't feel more than half a kobold around you, but that will expand later.”

“How long do I have to stay?”

“The rest of the winter. I train you to control your magic and help your siblings with their second hatching.”

“But the adults are more suited for that!”

“They sleep.”

“Sleep?”

“Most adults have to sleep during the deepest of winter so you younglings can grow uninterrupted. You will all come to live in my hut because only warm.” Ves’ra shuddered, thinking about living in an unheated hut, she would gladly live with her siblings to avoid that.

“When do I start?” She asked, magic did sound quite exciting, even her additional subconsciousness agreed to that.

“When you wake again. Magic takes a lot out of an untrained body and mind. Eat another bowl and go back to sleep!” The rest of the meal passed quietly, Ves’ra ravenously ate another bowl of food and went back to the other room, falling asleep the moment her body touched the ground.

---

The next time she woke the shaman was sleeping next to her. Ves'ra saw no reason to wake him, she went into the other room and already found a soup brewing over the fire.

She didn't feel any exhaustion remaining so she decided it was time to try some magic. She concentrated to feel the energy flowing through her once again - noting it was way easier than before - and tried to impose her will on a small amount, commanding it to stop moving.

It worked, at least until she was assaulted by a pain so intense she let loose a scream, losing consciousness soon after.

Ves'ra was startled awake by the shaman.

“What did you do?” he yelled.

“I tried to do magic.”

“What happened?”

“I don't know, I took control over my energy and then I blacked out because of the pain.”

“Don't do that! Learning magic without teacher is dangerous!”

Ves'ra nodded, she did not want to experience something like this again. “What happened to me?” She asked.

“You stopped the energy didn't you?” She nodded. “That's problem, it’s like trying to stop your blood from moving, painful and dangerous.

You are up and ready to experiment so we can start. Do you know where your energy leaves your body?” She nodded again.

“Good, don't tell me, that's something you should never tell another, it can be easily exploited!

Now, you see that some of your energy is leaving your body, try to take control of the energy that's just about to leave and move it outside. Easy task, do whenever possible. Try and increase the total amount of energy under your control.”

Ves’ra did as told and, to her immense relieve, didn't feel any pain. She tried forming the energy in a sphere, hovering it above her palm and trying to force it not to diffuse in her surroundings. She failed only moments later, already noticing a slight strain. Both her body and mind felt a little tired, like she ran for a little while or had a small headache.

The strain grew worse the longer she practiced,she had to stop after only seven more tries as a pounding headache and deep exhaustion rewarded her efforts.

The next three weeks were spent in or around the shaman's hut with Ves'ra training basic magic under his guidance. The adults went out hunting whenever the sky was clear. Soon enough all water was replaced by snow until the whole world was hidden under a deep blanket of snow and ice. Her siblings joined them soon after; all while the rest of the village cooled down for the next few weeks.

A day later they were all gathered near the fire, the shaman preparing her siblings for their second hatching.

“You all noticed all of your elders are capable of feats you are not. Ves'ra and I will be preparing you for your second hatching where you will awaken your own ability.

You only have one try so be careful not to rush it, there will be no food if you do and fail!” It seemed the shaman was actually capable of speaking in proper sentences if he wanted, she hid a grin as she looked at her siblings. She had been told the best way to make a young kobold comply was with food, looking at the horror in her siblings eyes had her agreeing to that statement.

“Ves'ra will work with you, teach you how to feel your energy and when the time comes, how to control it.”

Her siblings were quite stupid.

She didn't know how different she was until she started to really interact with them. All they thought about was eating and sleeping.

She was fine with that though, that made them easy to motivate. All eleven managed to feel their energy within a week and a half after of moving in the shamans hut. Afterwards she started to prepare them to break free of their inner egg.

When the day came a week later she was quite excited, she wanted to know how her band knew she had started hatching. All her siblings sat down near the fire and started their second hatching. It turned out to be quite obvious, they all froze up one after another. She fetched the shaman and they both started releasing as much energy as possible, saturating the air around them, easing their hatching as much as possible.

As the suns reached their zenith the first was finished, crumbling to a heap. The rest followed soon after until only one of them was left, sitting rigid, unmoving. He would have the rest of the day to break free, if he didn't they would remove him from the village.

“Good year. Eleven out of twelve way better than normal, usually three or more fail.”

“What happens to him now?”

“He’ll have time to finish, as unlikely as that is, and if not we will kill him.”

“We can't wake him?”

“No. Even if we could, why? Without magic he’d be a burden and burdens die!”

“What's next? We teach them the basics of energy manipulation?”

“Yes, I will. Your control over your energy is good enough to find out what your magic can do. I will teach you access your innate magic. You have to train outside because it sounds destructive, nothing I want near the village with snow outside.”

‘Finally!’

“What do I have to do?”