When we returned, I went to the chiefs chamber. He was sat behind a somewhat long and slightly heightened stone slab, that acted like a table. He sat there, staring a the hide I had given him. He looked up to me when I got closer.

“Young one? Ah, yes! You have another hide for me, right?”, he asked.

“No, we didn’t see the strange humans today, chief”.

“What about the other humans?”.

“I don’t think we should worry too much about them, chief. They seem to live peacefully. It’s only those strange ones that hunt monsters. Have you been able to translate their conversation, chief?”.

“No, I haven’t been able to decipher your writing. Who taught you how to write like this?”.

The world suddenly slowed down for me. My heart sank, as I realised I had written in the alphabetical system. A system they don’t know. I had never been taught how to read or write, so I don’t know how they write. I’m guessing that knowledge is reserved for the sorcerers.

“Well? I assumed your sister had taught you, as you knew how to write on a hide, but that might not be the case looking at this”.

“I...taught myself”.

He looked at me with piercing eyes. I was sweating bullets, trying to keep a smile under the pressure to not seem suspicious. It was clear he wasn’t buying it.

“Moving on. I’d like to speak with your companions”.

“Sure. I’ll go tell them that”.

“I want you here with them as well”.

“...ok. Sure”.

I left that room drained of all my colour. He’s definitely suspicious of me and there is no telling what he might do when I tell him the truth. The truth doesn’t seem that bad, special and cool even. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have someone from a more technologically advanced society help your society out?

But, their religion states that good kobolds are reincarnated into kobolds again, though stronger than before. It also says that the deity they worship controls those reincarnations, so having someone from another dimensions entirely could disprove that. That’s sure to anger the chief.

I have to come up with an excuse and quickly. He’s expecting me back within minutes, so I’m strapped for time. Vyth will have my back, but that will only get him into trouble as well. What should I do?!

I go up to my party, who were still near the entrance, waiting for me.

“Well, has he translated the last report?”, Turalisjtilsin said

He had been eager to know what the adventurers said all day. His curiosity far surpassed that of Vyth and me.

“No, he wasn’t able to. He told me to bring all of you to him. He probably has something to discuss with us”.

They all looked at each other a bit confused, but quickly went with me regardless. If the chief wants to speak with them, then they’ll have to speak with him. I left out what happened on purpose. The shock of hearing all of that will hopefully make them unable to recall anything suspicious about me. It’s far from a bullet proof safeguard, but it’s the best I can do for now. Now I’ll just have to hope Vyth notices there’s something wrong from my expression.

We entered the chiefs room and stood in the middle of it, waiting for him to say anything.

“Tell me, young ones. Were you able to understand the humans?”.

We all looked really confused at each other. I thought it had already been established that they speak a different language.

“No, chief. None of us know what they’re saying. That’s why we gave you that hide. So you could translate it”, Vyth said.

“I know that. I didn’t expect you to be able to understand them. Tell me. What did they sound like?”.

We only got more and more confused. I thought he was going to ask them questions about me. Why is he suddenly asking all of this?

“They sounded somewhat like this: ‘zdjfdskfzqsdjfnefdqj’”, Turalisjtilsin said.

The others began arguing over small details of his interpretation, while I was stuck wondering what they were going on about. The humans didn’t sound like they were barfing up a string of nonsense all the time. They just sounded like they were speaking a… foreign...yet familiar...language…

I turned to the chief. He had a big grin on his face when he saw me look at him. Was this a trap? What’s going on?!

“How they sounded isn’t really important. What is important is the difference between what you are saying and what Othokentir has written”, he said.

He held up the hide so they could see it. All of them looked amazed. I guess they were too stressed to actually look at what I was writing yesterday. At least I know they’re taking look out duty seriously.

After a few seconds of looking amazed, they started praising me a bit and patting me on the back. They said stuff like “Of course he was able to understand them.” and “Othokentir is the smartest I know!”.

“He didn’t understand them, but he was able to make out some of what they’re saying”, the chief said.

They were a bit confused by this. I guess they really can’t read and just assumed I had correctly translated everything.

“He knew what they were saying, but didn’t understand the words they used”, the chief clarified, “He was able to differentiate the words, unlike the rest of you”.

“So, we still don’t know what they said”, Threndiaw said.

“Correct. Do you remember how he acted when he wrote down their dialogue?”.

“Not really. I remember him putting his head against the wall”.

“What about you Vyth? You seem to be close to him”.

Vyth seemed to remain calm, but I knew he was panicking, trying to come up with an excuse.

“There’s no need to lie. He isn’t in any trouble. There might be something about him that could help us, though he might not realise it yet”.

Now both me and Vyth were dumbfounded. We came in expecting him to be after the origin of my knowledge. We were expecting me to be in danger! Now he’s gone off talking about something I don’t know?!

“Tell me, Vyth. What was he like when you were in the humans nest yesterday?”.

“He put his head against the wall to hear the humans talking. He focused on that, to the point he didn’t hear me half the time”.

“Huh”, I accidentally let slip.

“There were many times I thought something was coming when it was just a bird or a shadow. All of us were on edge, so there were many false alarms like that. You didn’t seem to hear them, however”, he clarified.

“As I expected”, the chief said with that big grin again, “It seems Othokentir used magic without even knowing it”.

All of them turned their attention to me. I was shocked. I didn’t know what to do or say. I just stood there, gawking at the chief.

“There exists a spell that allows you to understand a different language. I’m not that good with it, so I can’t translate what he wrote. It seems he, however, is also somewhat capable of using it. So here is the plan. The rest of you will no longer need to enter their nest for the time being. I’ll teach Othokentir how to use magic and hopefully he’ll be able to fully translate what those humans said”.

“Yes, chief!”, they all said, before leaving the room. Vyth wished me luck before he left as well.

I was still confused about what had just happened.

“Starting today, I will begin to teach you how to use magic”, the chief said with his big grin, that seemed somewhat sinister now.