Akri carefully wheeled a cart full of treasure behind him, bringing it deeper into the temple in which his dragon master lived. The usual tribute had been paid to them by a nearby town, and the brownish-red kobold had been assigned to bring it home to add to the dragon's hoard this time. At his size, just under 3 feet tall, it took some effort, but he managed. This was finally his chance to prove himself to his master, after all the mistakes he'd made in the past...
As he continued, the cart hit a rock on the temple's floor, and Akri froze as he heard something shatter a moment later. He slowly turned to look... An intricately-engraved vase had fallen out and broken on the floor. Fear quickly filled him as he thought about how mad his master was going to be, knowing that even if he didn't bring the remnants of it they'd still almost certainly know... Almost.
Quickly and quietly, Akri gathered up the shards of the vase and hid them behind some of the room's decorations. He had to hope that'd be enough, he didn't have time to do a better job of it before his master would get impatient. Returning to the cart, he resumed pulling it along, making sure to be even more careful now. There was no way he could afford to lose something else.
Not too long after, he reached the entrance of the treasury, and after the guards there announced his presence, he was allowed in. As usual, there was his master, an intimidating red dragon nearly 20 feet tall, lounging on the pile of valuables they'd claimed over... Longer than Akri could remember.
"A good haul this time, I see." The dragon's voice broke the silence. "They've certainly learned not to short-change me." Akri nervously smiled, knowing better than to speak unless he was asked something, and after removing the remaining fragile things from the cart, dumped the rest of the treasure directly into the dragon's hoard.
The dragon looked over the new treasure, soon frowning a little. "Are you sure that's all? I'm getting the feeling that something is missing."
Akri never understood how they were able to tell so well. He tried his best to convince them. "Y-yes, that's all they gave us, master."
The dragon moved their head to directly in front of the kobold, even that part of them alone dwarfing the small reptile. "Don't lie to me, Akri. Did you take anything?"
"N-no, I didn't! I'd never!"
There was a tense silence as the dragon looked at him, the kobold worrying he might be about to be eaten... Then there was a puff of hot air from the dragon's nostrils. "I suppose it can't be helped. Maybe I was wrong."
Akri sighed in relief as the dragon relaxed back onto the pile of treasure again. That had been way too close... With his master's approval to leave, he wheeled the cart back out and tried his best not to show any fear. That night, he was going to grab the shards of that vase, sneak them outside, do a much better job of hiding them, and forget all this happened...
Hours passed, and he couldn't really focus on a whole lot, though he thankfully had little to do. Akri tried his best to relax, chatting with other kobolds during their free time and trying to do some reading. Gradually, he did indeed calm down. It'd been a long time since he'd made that delivery, maybe he really was in the clear-
"AKRI!" His master's angry yell echoed through the entire temple, and instantly the fear was back tenfold. They knew, there was no way they didn't. With only a moment of hesitation, he rushed for the treasury, knowing that delaying in seeing them would make the situation far worse.
After getting looks of understanding from its guards, Akri was allowed into the treasury, the air within notably hotter than it'd been earlier. Smoke was rising from the nostrils of his master, and he covered his head and face as the shards of broken pottery were flung toward him.
"Once again, you've proven yourself as pathetic as ever! You couldn't even do one delivery without breaking something!"
The kobold was shivering with fear; he'd never seen his master this mad before. "I-I-I'm sorry, master, there was-"
He was cut off as the dragon's tail slammed into him, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sprawling on the floor several feet away. "You will speak only to answer my questions!"
Catching his breath, Akri nodded as he struggled to his feet. He was lucky that hit hadn't broken anything.
"So many times, you've proven yourself a failure. Can barely read, can't hunt, can't even scout out who passes nearby. I used to think you were a complete idiot, but now I see the only fool here is me, for thinking you could ever amount to anything!"
Akri yelped as his master breathed fire toward him, only barely being able to avoid most of it, though it singed his tail.
"Now, what pathetic excuse were you about to give this time? The sun somehow get in your eye while in the temple?"
"Th-there... Th-there was a rock on the floor, a-and the cart hit it..."
"And you didn't see it? What are you, blind!? You're lucky that killing you would terrify the others so much their work would suffer... Get out of my sight, you worthless kobold."
Not wasting a moment, Akri bolted for the room's exit, the guards seeming surprised that he was still alive.
Akri couldn barely sleep that night, his master's words echoing in his head as he nursed the burns on his tail. They were right; something must have been wrong with him at that point, he just wished he could know what it was. It wasn't that he didn't care, he genuinely tried his best, but nothing was ever enough. For everyone else's sake, maybe he'd be better off leaving...
The next day, to his surprise, he was given a new task despite his prior failure, coming directly from his master themself. "There's a lake not far from here, at its bottom is some kind of treasure. Don't come back until you've gotten it. Even you can't screw this up." Eager to finally prove he wasn't a failure, and knowing where the lake was, Akri immediately set out.
It was rare for him to leave the temple two days in a row, since he wasn't exactly asked to do much and saw little reason to go outside during his free time, but it was always a refreshing change of pace. Greenery around and dirt beneath his feet, instead of stone and more stone, and no company aside from his thoughts and the occasional animal. Plus, he didn't have to worry about breaking anything out there. Gradually, a slight smile formed on his face.
Quicker than he wished it would be, Akri arrived at the lake, and a bit of nervousness entered him. He wasn't good at swimming or holding his breath, and had never been in that much water before, limiting his recreational swims to ponds... But, he had a job to do, and had been assured he was capable of it. Surely this time he really could, it had to work out eventually.
Akri waded into the water, before beginning to swim along the surface. Looking below the surface, he wondered how he was going to know where the treasure was... After a while, he stopped. Something on the lakebed was definitely shining down there. That had to be it! But, that be by far the deepest underwater he'd ever gone... A look of determination came over the kobold. He had to do this. Taking the deepest breath his little lungs could hold, he dove below the surface, his cheeks bulging on either side of his muzzle.
It was slow, it was awkward, but it was working. Akri dog-paddled deeper, soon already surpassing his deepest dive only about 10 feet down. But, the lakebed looked impossibly far away, and his blurry vision wasn't helping him judge the depth... Doubt entered his mind again. Could he really go that deep? It looked like over 100 feet underwater, and his lungs were already beginning to strain.
20 feet from the surface... 30... His chest was heaving, spurts of bubbles floating free just 40 seconds into his dive. He was going into unfamiliar territory with holding his breath, and had no idea what to expect. How long did he still have? It must have been long enough to reach the bottom, he was almost certain.
40 feet... 50... And Akri stopped, whining in fear as his lungs began to burn. He could reach the bottom if he wanted... But he wouldn't be surfacing after that. No, he had to turn back, now! Turning himself around, he began frantically swimming for the surface, the air he was in more and more need of being terrifyingly far way. Even now, he worried he may have gone past the point of no return...
He practically clawed at the water, trying to go just a little faster, bubbles trickling from his lips as his cheeks inflated bigger and his eyes went wide. The surface steadily grew closer, frustratingly slowly, while the fire in his chest grew more intense. His need to breathe was hurting, making his body shiver as he began to consider just inhaling and getting it over with... A little bit of water leaked into his mouth...
And Akri broke the surface, gasping heavily at last. He flailed, struggling to not sink back under - though he swallowed a mouthful of water - and desperately started going back to shore to rest. There was no possible way he could get to that treasure without help, but he doubted anyone could hold their breath long enough to get to and return from that kind of depth.
Reaching the shore, Akri layed down on his back as he panted, trying to think of what he could do... His master knew he didn't do very well in water, so there must have been-
He sat up as he had a realization. Some time ago, he'd proudly told his master he'd surpassed a 30 second breath hold, so they absolutely knew his limit wasn't far beyond that. Yet, they'd sent him out there anyway, to a depth far beyond his record that needed more time than his lungs could provide... They'd sent him here to drown himself. That explained why they gave him a job sooner after a failure than ever before.
For a moment, Akri didn't really know what to think. He'd been sort of expecting there'd soon be an "accident" that'd get rid of him, but now that it'd happened and he'd survived... He didn't feel much, but a tiny bit of satisfaction that this time it wasn't his own failure.
Now though, what was there to do? If he went back, that wouldn't be the end of it, his master would just send him out again, either back to the lake or to something else he wouldn't return from... And they'd probably personally ensure it. There was one option though, one that he'd never imagined himself even seriously considering. That town his master had been demanding tribute from wasn't too far, and as much as he knew people hated kobolds... It'd be better than the temple, and it's not like his master would miss him.
Not even taking a moment to look back, Akri started making his way toward the town, having hope for the first time in a long time.
The trip was uneventful, for better or worse, and with a few hours of walking now behind him, he'd arrived. He'd never actually been there before, even yesterday he'd picked up the treasure from a drop off point closer to the temple, so it was an interesting sight. Instead of a single large stone building, there was a variety of wooden ones, and even the atmosphere of the place was far less oppressive.
Though, there was definitely still a bit of an issue. Akri could already tell that there weren't going to be other kobolds around, and he was getting some looks, though he couldn't quite make out whether they were of disgust, acceptance, or something else... But, nothing was coming of it, giving Akri time to think about what he'd have to do to live there.
Food was likely going to be a problem; bad at foraging and not being able to hunt at all, Akri had been relying on other kobolds for that. He barely knew anything about towns, but he was aware the people that lived in them provided for each other just like back at the temple, so he'd just have to find where food was being offered. Water would be easy, he could just find a river somewhere, and he was resilient enough that he wouldn't get sick as long as he was reasonably careful. And, shelter... An alley would probably work okay, and maybe he could find a cloth to lay on or under to sleep.
First order of business, he had to figure out where to get food. Trying to ignore the people around that would occasionally give sighs of disapproval, Akri set about exploring the town. It was a pretty big place, and he couldn't really tell what a lot of the buildings were for, having signs he couldn't read... After a while though, he found an area that looked promising.
It was a fair bit more open than most parts of the town, with more people around as well, some of them seeming to be trying to entice others to come see what they have. As strange as it was to Akri, this was probably the place to look. Wandering through, he heard more complaints about his existence than usual, particularly from people he'd happened to be behind, but he tried his best to tune them out. After some searching, he did indeed happen to find someone that seemed to have some food on offer! Though most of it was kinds that were unfamiliar to him.
Akri anxiously stepped up to the stand, looking up at the fox person running it that had to lean over it to see him. This was going to be his first ever interaction with someone that wasn't a kobold or dragon... "C-can I have some?"
"Do you have any money? You don't look like it."
He remembered something his... The dragon, had told him: Outside the temple, people would rarely do or give things for free, generally wanting "money", which was coins, in return. And, never having needed any before, he had none. "...No, I don't..."
"Then move along before you drive off any actual customers." Akri sighed, and left. Where was he going to get money? He doubted there'd be any just laying around if it was so important, and he had no clue where it came from, so he couldn't get any from whatever the source was. Trying to get a bit more confident around the people of the town, he asked a few people where money came from, but was quickly discouraged from that by how unhelpful the responses were. One just scoffed, one ignored him entirely... One said something interesting though. "Don't bother, not like anyone would hire a kobold."
"...What do you mean hire?" But, the person that had said that was already walking away, and didn't answer. Well, he at least now had a lead. He had to look for someone that would "hire" him, whatever that meant. It sort of seemed like something he wouldn't be able to get just some random person to do though...
More time passed, and the confused and increasingly frustrated kobold was starting to get thirsty. Figuring he could pause his search for money or food that he could just take, he started on his way out of town to a river he'd seen not too far outside it. As he was going though, he happened to see someone at some kind of small structure using a mechanism to haul a bucket out of it... Then pour water from the bucket into a container they had!
Akri smiled at the sight of it; this was going to be way easier! He now recognized the structure as a well, which one of the other kobolds he'd used to work with told him about: It was designed to give easy access to water by bringing it up from underground. Once the person using it was done, he headed over to try it out for himself.
The handle of the mechanism for the rope was out of his reach because of how short he was, but he could just barely reach the rope itself, so he grabbed that and started pulling up the bucket. It was heavier than he expected, he still had some trouble with it... He hadn't really transported water before, or even heavy things in general all that often. By the time he finally got the bucket up and saw it was about a quarter of his size, Akri was panting, and had to set it on the edge of the well while he recovered, keeping hold of it so it wouldn't fall back down.
Once he'd caught his breath, he picked up the bucket again and finally took a well-earned drink directly from it. He smiled again as he did so, glad to finally have something good happen... When he was done, he carefully lowered the bucket back down into the well, wanting to avoid damaging it. Now that he was looking down there though, he remembered something else he'd heard about wells: Occasionally, for reasons no kobold understood, people would intentionally drop coins down into them.
As nonsensical as that sounded, Akri figured he'd at least try to check, beginning to feel hungry. He leaned over the edge, squinting into the darkness of the water... Was he imagining it, or was there a little sparkle in there? Maybe that would be something... He knew coins didn't float, and the bucket probably wouldn't be able to get them, so how would he-
He suddenly felt something grip his legs from behind him and pull him up, making him start falling toward the well's hole! Yelping in surprise and fear, he tried to grab the edges to stop himself, but they were too smooth, his hands slipping off them, and he screamed as he tumbled into the well! His scream quickly turned to bubbles as he splashed into the water, and as he ran out of air and tried to gasp, water rushed down his throat. He clutched at his neck and coughed out the very last air left in him in a flurry of bubbles, before sucking in again, choking and gagging as he frantically rushed for where he thought the surface was.
Thankfully, he was right, and got his head above water to start hacking out what he'd inhaled, struggling to stay afloat and get air down between his coughs. He heard laughing above him, and looked up to barely make out a frog person smiling down at him. "Figured you could use a bath!", they called down to him. "And hey, if it gets a kobold out of the way too, then even better!"
And they left, leaving Akri alone, stuck at the bottom of the well about 10 feet down. He panted, trying not to panic as he took in the surroundings he might not be getting out of... He had to figure out how to escape before he got too tired to stay on the surface. Trying to climb the walls around him wasn't going to work, it was even harder to get a grip on them than the top had been. But, the rope went all the way up, and he'd heard of people being able to climb those, maybe that!
He grabbed on, trying to heft himself up... It was slow, but he managed to get a little height. He pulled again, and again, leaving the water entirely but already panting from exertion. The top of the well was still so far... There was no way this would work either, and if he kept going until he got exhausted he wouldn't be able to swim.
Sighing and letting himself drop back down, Akri started trying one more strategy, one that he knew was probably just as hopeless given how the people in the town had been treating him. "Hello!? Someone get me out!" ...Nothing. He called out again, but still, no one came. Just constantly doing that probably wasn't going to work before his voice gave out, he'd need a little strategy with it. Getting himself as stable as possible by holding the rope and planting his feet on the bucket, he waited. He knew people would try to use the well, so he was going to yell each time someone tried.
Soon, that first time came. The rope and bucket shifted, and the kobold called up to whoever was there, hoping they'd get him out. They quickly looked down with a concerned expression... That then faded as they saw him. Sighing, they just left. Akri had figured that'd be how it'd go, but there had to be someone who'd actually care about him... He wasn't going to give up.
For what felt like half an hour, he'd yell up to people that tried to use the well, but none felt like going through the effort of pulling up a kobold; he couldn't convince them that he hadn't gone in intentionally to get at any coins, and while there were some, he didn't care right then. Every now and then he had to adjust position as he got tired, and those shifts were gradually needed more and more often from his arms becoming exhausted. If he wasn't pulled out soon, he'd get too tired to hold on, and he'd be too tired to swim... He started to cry a little, worried he wasn't going to survive this...
As his arms started to shake a little, another person tried to use the well, and he called out once more, thinking he already knew how it'd go. That person, a lizard, looked down and sighed. "Ugh, you're probably all gross... Fine, I'll get you out, but only because if you drown your body's gonna taint the water even more."
Relief rushed through Akri as he finally began to be lifted from the well, and he held tight to the rope and bucket. "Th-thank you, thank you! I-I was kind of giving up hope..."
The lizard didn't respond, just using the well's mechanism to raise him up. And, at last, Akri got high enough to escape, climbing out and collapsing on the ground before getting back up. Before he could do anything, the lizard glared at him. "Don't try to hug me or I'll throw you back down there."
"I-I don't know what that is, so don't worry. B-but, thank you!"
"Whatever. Get going before someone else puts you back in the well." Fear rushed through Akri at the thought of needing to go through all that again, and he darted away without another word.
Getting himself into an alley, he finally had a chance to relax a little again... Though he was still hungry. He needed to figure out how to get food, that was going to start being a real problem soon. As he thought about it, something occurred to him... It wasn't like he had to pay to get food. The dragon had once told him something else important about towns: If you're going to just take something, don't get caught. It didn't sound the most pleasant, but certainly better than starving... He'd just have to find the right place.
Akri hadn't expected it to be easy, but he hadn't expected it to be quite so hard either. Pretty much everywhere he went had too many people around for him to feel confident about trying to steal, and even the exceptions to that didn't go well; a person alone in an alley he thought would be easy ended up spotting him, and he just barely managed to pretend he was looking for something. Another time, he almost managed to sneakily grab money from someone when he thought no one else was around, but someone he hadn't seen warned them and he ended up being kicked away.
Late in the day, having given up on stealing for the moment as the sun set, Akri returned to that open area he'd learned was called a market. Maybe if he asked around there someone would take pity on him... But there were far fewer people there than before, as the ones that had been selling things were packing up, likely specifically to prevent anyone like him from taking anything. He watched from a distance for a while, keeping himself hidden just in case.
Eventually, everyone was gone, and it was just the beginning of night. Leaving his hiding spot, the kobold looked around the now-empty market for anything. Maybe someone would have left behind something small they didn't notice... After searching the place for almost half an hour, all he had to show for it was a piece of broken glass and a single cherry. Dusting off the latter as best he could, he looked it over. It looked fine... And it was better than nothing. He popped it into his mouth, finally enjoying the first food he'd had since that morning.
When he eventually gave up on trying to find more food laying around, Akri wandered away, trying to find a spot to sleep. He felt worse than he had earlier, and it occurred to him there might have been a reason that that cherry had been left behind... Trying to focus past that, he looked up at the buildings around, seeing lights through the windows and wishing he could join whoever was in there, but knowing they wouldn't be okay with it. But, some buildings were completely dark, whoever lived in them being asleep or not around... That gave him an idea. Surely sleeping people would be easier to take things from, right?
He began the search for a promising-looking home, trying to ignore how tired he was from the exhausting day he'd had. It took a while, but eventually one stood out to him; a relatively small place, one floor, and some windows just within reach. That seemed to be his best bet.
Carefully, quietly, and making sure nobody saw him, the kobold made his way to the outside of the house, and began trying to open the windows, thankfully knowing how they worked. The first was locked, same with the second and third... The sixth he tried was loose. Climbing up onto the windowsill - for once thankful he was so small and light, as it creaked a little under him - he got better leverage and pulled a little harder... And immediately stopped as it got unstuck, before slowly fully opening it. He looked inside, trying to figure out where would be best for him to look since he had no idea what the inside of a house would be like... Coming up with nothing, he carefully climbed inside, closing the window behind him.
Akri knew full well what he was doing was one of the most dangerous things he'd done. If he was caught, it'd end up even worse than when he'd broken that vase he was supposed to give to the dragon; he might not even survive at all. But, between this and starving, there was a clear winner. In the dark of the house, he very carefully explored, not having much trouble seeing since he was used to dimmer light. His heart was pounding, every little creak of the wooden floor making him briefly freeze up before he'd continue... He noted every potential hiding spot he could think of.
There were a lot of odd things he didn't recognize; bottles of some kind of smelly liquid, types of furniture he hadn't seen before, a bunch of shiny pointy things in one of the drawers... Nothing edible so far though. He slowly opened another door, and froze as he saw someone. They were in a bed, clearly asleep judging by the snoring, but it was still nerve-wracking to be so close to the house's owner. Maybe there was something helpful in there though...
Being the most careful yet, the kobold dropped to all fours to distribute his weight better, and slowly crawled to search the room. There still wasn't really anything, but such an important room must have had something he could take. Creeping up to the bed, he noticed a stand of some kind next to it had something on it he actually recognized; two circular bits of glass held in a metal frame. He'd seen people wearing these "glasses" before, though he never understood why. They must have just been some kind of accessory. Picking them up and inspecting them in an attempt to understand their purpose, he tried putting them on-
And barely held back a gasp as everything changed. The world came into clearer focus than he'd ever seen before, the edges of objects becoming defined and even the edges of his own scales now being visible. That was why he always had a hard time with things involving small details! Almost completely forgetting his fear, he quietly left the room again, holding the glasses on his head since they were too big to properly fit him.
He surveyed the house a second time, a smile on his face as he was the happiest he'd ever been. A few times he caught himself moving a bit too loudly, though it was a little tough to focus on that. Even if he didn't find any food, this had absolutely been a successful search! This time around though, he did manage to find a surprisingly good amount of food, and after a moment of realization that the home's owner would absolutely know that something had happened, he helped himself anyway. He was going to be long gone by the time they woke up.
After 10 minutes of stuffing himself, Akri was satisfied and left alone what remained. He was surprised he'd managed to fit all that in him... As he started on his way back to the window he'd entered through, he remembered one more thing he'd wanted to get. With a bit more searching, he found a towel about as long as he was tall, and decided that would work to help him sleep. He grabbed hold of it and... Hesitated. Part of the towel was under a wood block out of his reach that had more sharp things in it, those seeming loose. Glad he'd noticed that in time, he carefully brought over a nearby crate of some kind, stood up on it, and tried to move the block aside. It was heavier than it look...
The crate suddenly buckled a little, and Akri fumbled with the block, one of the sharp things falling out and clattering to the floor! His fear instantly fully returned; there was no way that hadn't woken up the house's owner. Setting the block down, he grabbed the towel and bolted for the window as quietly as he could, opening it as he could hear movement getting closer! Without time to be careful, he jumped straight through, landing on the ground outside with a thud and pressing back against the outside wall to hide under the windowsill.
As he heard the person come up to the window, he held his breath and stayed as still as possible. They looked around, trying to figure out where the thief went... And they looked down, but in the darkness, missing their glasses, and with the kobold's scales not being that different in color from the wall, they didn't notice him, closing the window and storming away. Akri quietly gasped before running away, making sure to stay out of view of that window.
After getting himself a better hiding spot, he sat down to try to calm himself, shivering from adrenaline and fear. That had certainly been a success, but if his life was going to be him needing to do that every day, he wasn't going to be able to live like that. This time was worth it though, as he happily looked around with the greatest clarity he'd ever had and kept hold of the towel he'd managed to grab.
Once he was able to relax again, his exhaustion started to catch up with him; this had been a long day, and the lack of proper sleep the prior night wasn't helping. Getting up again, he started searching for a place to sleep, which thankfully didn't take too long. A relatively close by alley seemed decently cozy, and had some crates he could hide behind as well. Hopping behind them and moving them a little to better hide himself, Akri set out the towel he'd taken and laid down on it. It was... Not awful. The ground certainly would've been worse.
With that, he tried to get some sleep, setting the glasses aside in a strategic spot so he wouldn't accidentally break them. The towel was big enough to also act as a blanket at the same time if he was clever about it, which he managed fairly well. Every now and then he couldn't resist putting the glasses back on and looking around, still in awe of how much help they were, but eventually he finally got to sleep.
The rest of the night was uneventful, and as the sun shone down into the alley, Akri slowly awoke. He realized fairly quickly that he'd slept longer than normal, having not had anyone to wake him up, and he did feel a little better than he typically did when waking. Though he was a bit sore from all the excitement of the previous day.
With a stretch, he looked around for the glasses, getting nervous when it took a moment to find them... But, there they were, and he smiled as he held them up to his eyes again. He was going to have to find some way to keep them there better, he couldn't risk them falling off and breaking. Getting up, rolling up the towel, and getting out from behind the crates, he thought about what to do that day. Since he was able to see a lot better now, maybe he could try foraging outside of town? His past attempts at foraging hadn't gone well, but he had a feeling it'd work this time.
He began strolling through the town, looking around at how much detail everything now had. While he now recognized he was getting looks of disdain from some people who saw him, he'd been expecting that at that point, and it was at least interesting for a while to see a bit of confusion from some people at the sight of a kobold trying to wear glasses. Eventually ignoring them but making sure to stay out of the way, Akri made his way out of the town entirely.
Trying to think back to the times he'd accompanied more accomplished foragers on their wilderness trips, he started to search around. Not really having the best idea of what he was doing, his results were... Unimpressive, but still better than searching the market had gone. With about an hour of work, he'd gotten himself a handful of berries he was pretty sure were edible. He was definitely going to need practice, he'd be at it all day like this...
Taking a break for a while, Akri sat down against a tree to eat his berries. He'd ended up in a forest not far from the town, glad to be away from the people that disliked his mere presence and marveling at all the leaves he couldn't make out before. But, as he rested, he heard some movement getting closer. He got on guard just in case...
It was just another few foragers, one a chameleon, one a wolf, and one a crow. The crow was the first to see him, and pointed him out to the others. "Oh hey, there's a kobold over there."
The wolf narrowed their eyes at him. "Why's he got glasses? Look how big they are, there's no way those are theirs."
"N-no, they're mine..." Akri did his best to convince them. At this point, with him having no plan of giving up the glasses, they were his in a way.
The chameleon immediately called him out on it. "Yeah, sure they are. What, like they didn't have a frame small enough for your head and you just went with it? I bet that towel you've got isn't yours either."
The crow smiled a little, addressing the others. "You know... If we get those glasses from him, we might be able to get a reward from whoever he stole them from..."
At that, Akri immediately got up and started running away, hearing the wolf a moment in. "Why couldn't you have whispered that, we have to catch him now!" The three took off after him.
Barely realizing he'd forgotten the towel and the remaining berries, the kobold didn't care, and did everything he could to stay away from the group. Being so short was working against him this time, the longer legs of his pursuers letting them gain on him worryingly quickly... But it also still helped. He focused on going through smaller spaces they wouldn't fit in, slowly making up the lost ground and then some. He knew it wasn't going to be reliable though; sooner or later, he'd run out of options, the foragers would catch up, and trying to stop them from taking the glasses would be hopeless. He needed to hide, and soon.
Sliding down a short decline and leaving the view of the group, Akri briefly paused, frantically looking around for somewhere he could hide. There was a pond not far, nothing else looked like an obviously good option, and he didn't have time to look for a better spot. It had to do. Rushing over to the water, he tried his best to catch his breath, before holding it and ducking below, swimming down to the bottom - thankfully only a few feet - and covering his mouth and nose, hoping the water wouldn't mess up the glasses.
There, he waited. After a couple more seconds, he could just barely make out the three foragers having entered the area of the pond and begun spreading out to search for him. He just had to hold his breath until they gave up, that was all it would take... But his pounding heart and tired muscles weren't making it easy. Already he was feeling an urge to breathe, knowing he wasn't even going to break a minute... Maybe it would be enough?
Soon, grunts and whines were audible, the desperate kobold fighting an increasing desire to surface. With his mouth and nose covered, there weren't any bubbles to give away his position, but the foragers were still up there looking for him anyway. His struggles grew more intense, his chest heaving and lungs beginning to burn, and he shivered in place, going even farther in his breath hold than he had in the lake the previous day.
D-don't breathe... Don't go up... Don't breathe... D-don't go...up... His mind grew foggy, a purple tint appearing on his face as he shivered all over... And bubbles erupted from him as his lungs gave out, and he bolted up to the surface, loudly gasping and coughing.
"There, he's in that pond!" The trio wasted no time in taking advantage of the moment, and even as Akri fought what little his exhausted body could, he was hauled out of the water and pinned on the ground. Panting heavily as he looked up at them, he saw the wolf inspecting the glasses, not even having realized until then that he wasn't holding them any more.
"Man, there's nothing on here that says who owns them..."
"Let me see." The chameleon took a look as well, his eyes turning independently to check multiple parts at once, before he sighed. "Nope, nothing."
Akri was starting to cry a little at the prospect of losing the most important possession he'd ever had. "P-please, give them... G-give them back!"
"And reward you for being a thief? No, I have a better idea..." Taking the glasses, the crow grinned at the kobold. "If you want them so bad, then go get them!" He turned and threw the glasses into the distance!
"NO, NO!" Horrified, Akri struggled his hardest yet before he was let go, and ran even faster than before in the direction the glasses had been sent, hearing the foragers laughing behind him. He HAD to find them, even if it took all day, even if it took all of the next day!
And it did indeed take quite a while. He hadn't gotten the best idea of the arc they'd gone on because of his blurry vision, so it was mostly guesswork, hoping beyond hope that he'd get it right eventually and be okay again. A full hour went by as he started losing hope... Then, the sunlight was at the perfect angle, and he was in the perfect position, and a glint of light on the ground caught his attention. He bolted straight there, and in seconds he'd found the glasses!
...The frame of them. Below, the glint of light had become many; the lenses had broken. And, a moment later, the kobold broke too.
He cried the hardest he ever had. Why did all of this have to happen to him? Barely anything he ever did worked out, and even when it did, whatever good came of it would just be torn away from him, time and time again. People even just hated him for no reason, as if he were just some communal stress toy everyone could mess with all they wanted.
Akri stayed there for some time, before he slowly left, empty handed. He barely even noticed where he was going; back to the town, for some reason. Maybe he was gravitating toward it because a handful of good things had happened there? He didn't care, he was back to having uselessly blurry vision regardless.
In the town once again, he aimlessly wandered, running nearly exclusively on instinct. The people around were meaningless sounds and colors as he thought about where he'd get food. Would he have to break into another house? He didn't want to, but he was probably going to have to.
He sat down next to a wall, waiting for night.
{START OF GOOD ENDING BELOW}
Some time later, Akri heard a voice. "Excuse me, sir." Clearly that person was referring to someone else. He ignored them.
"Mister kobold, I'm referring to you." That got his attention. No one had ever called him mister before. He looked up to see a well-dressed blue jay looking at him.
Assuming they wanted him gone, Akri started getting up, mumbling "Sorry, I'll move..."
"No, no, that's not what I mean. I have an... Odd proposition for you."
The kobold paused. This probably wasn't good, but there was at least a chance this time...
The blue jay continued. "I work for a noble that desires a very exotic pet. A kobold, in fact. All you would be required to do is simply live with her, and you will be compensated."
Akri was lucky he knew what "compensated" meant, though he didn't know what a noble was. "I don't care about money. People will think I stole it."
"Then what about simply food, shelter, comfort? By your lack of belongings, I imagine you may not be doing so well in those regards."
They had that exactly right... "Fine." It wasn't like he had anything to lose.
"Good, good. Come with me, and stay close, I'll ensure no one bothers you." They began to lead, and Akri began to follow. For a while, it was basically the same as when the kobold had been initially exploring the town the previous day; having no idea where he was going, and people being annoyed by his existence. At least he had something obvious to do this time, and as the blue jay had promised, everyone they passed left Akri alone. He couldn't tell whether that was a coincidence though, and he figured it probably was.
Eventually, the blue jay spoke up again. "We're just about there now, it's that mansion up ahead." Not knowing what that was, and only able to see a blurry building some distance away, he just nodded. He didn't feel like asking. As the two approached, a fence came into Akri's view, and he paused with the blue jay as some kind of guard - presumably - opened a gate to let them in. That pulled him out of his depressed stupor a little; in the brief time he'd been in the town, he hadn't seen a single building that had something like this. Maybe this was more significant than he thought?
He tried to occupy his mind by doing his best to take in the surroundings. Even still being outside, the place seemed surprisingly well decorated, especially as the "mansion" grew closer. Statues, oddly perfectly-shaped bushes, lots of color... He'd never seen a place like it before. Akri focused again on what was ahead, and briefly stopped in surprise at how big the main building was! Before, he'd thought it was closer and smaller, but this close even he could tell it was likely the biggest building in the town! The blue jay stopped after a moment, looking back at him. "It's quite the sight, isn't it? It takes some effort to keep it like this, but thankfully there's workers that take care of that for us." They motioned for him to continue following, which he did.
At the door, the blue jay paused again. "Please wipe your feet on the mat before we go in."
"Okay..." Akri did so, realizing how dirty they'd gotten from running in the forest earlier. Normally he didn't care and neither did anyone else, but apparently here it would be a concern.
With that, he was let into the mansion. It was even more impressive on the inside, and he couldn't help but look around in awe. The blue jay smiled as they started going off somewhere. "Remain here, I'll notify Lady Loretta you've arrived." Akri wanted to stay behind to take in the sight anyway, and with a nod, he was left alone. That gave him some pause for a moment; they were putting more trust in him than he'd thought anyone would with a kobold. Whatever this was going to be, maybe it wouldn't be awful...
He wasn't anywhere near done examining everything in the room before he heard a new voice. "Oh, aren't you just adorable!" He looked over, seeing an otter woman even better-dressed than the blue jay had been coming over to him. This was probably Loretta, and this was going to be the moment of truth. Akri didn't believe that anyone could like a kobold but another kobold, and he prepared to run as she crouched to his level, reached out to him...
And cupped his cheek. "You poor thing, I can tell you're tense just by looking at you... I've never understood why people hate kobolds so much."
Akri didn't know what to make of it, staying silent. Was this some kind of trick? He knew he wasn't going to be as strong as her, surely if she wanted to torment him like everyone else she could be more obvious about it. But... He found himself unable to cling to that thought. This truly seemed like a chance for his life to get better, and he'd give anything for that.
"Do you have a name, little guy?"
"...A-Akri."
"It's nice to meet you, Akri! I'll do everything I can to help you enjoy living here. Firstly though..." She took her hand off him and looked at it, wiping it clean. "You're, um... Filthy. We need to give you a bath."
"Okay..." Akri wasn't sure what that was, but... Maybe it wouldn't be so bad? Loretta got up and held a hand out to him, which he held, though he didn't understand what that was supposed to mean. She led him through the mansion, the kobold surprised she knew the layout so well when the place was so big, and the two soon arrived at a bathroom.
"Just give me some time to fill the tub, feel free to look around while you wait." Wanting to see what was happening first though, Akri went to the tub as Loretta turned on its faucet, water beginning to rush out to fill it.
Instantly, fear rushed through the kobold, his mind shooting back to the awful experiences he'd had with water over the past 24 hours. Nearly drowning in a lake, being trapped in a well, hiding in a pond to keep his glasses... Why did every horrible thing he'd gone through since he left that temple involve water!?
Loretta recognized his sudden change in mood. "O-oh, you don't like water, do you?" Akri shook his head, and she quickly turned off the faucet again. "Okay, um... How about a sponge bath instead? You won't have to be sitting in water for it. I've never done one before, but I probably could."
"Th-that sounds better..." While he still didn't know what it entailed, the idea of there being less water made it much more appealing to him.
"Alright, we'll do that. Sit down on this for now." Loretta laid out a towel, and Akri sat on it. It was a bit bigger than the one he'd had before, and far more comfortable as well. He watched her grab what he assumed was the aforementioned sponge, soak it in water, then begin to firmly but gently rub it against him. Where she did that, his scales were getting a little less brown...
It took some time, Akri eventually had to get up and adjust position to let Loretta get at all of him, and the water that was in the tub had a noticeable brownish tint, but it got done. His scales now shone a brilliant red, all trace of brown gone, and he felt... Better than he expected.
"Look at that, your scales are all shiny now!"
"I... Didn't even know they could shine..." For the first time since he had the glasses, he smiled.
"I think it might be just about time for dinner right now too... I've been hearing your stomach growling, so how about we have it a little early today?"
"Oh! Y-yeah, that sounds good!" After getting dried off, he held Loretta's hand again - recognizing it as a sign of affection now - and headed off for a meal with her, wondering what there was going to be.
And there was quite a lot! Akri didn't recognize any of it, but loved the smells, and the tastes even more so. He ended up overeating a little, needing Loretta to stop him as she laughed. "Pace yourself, Akri, you're going to make yourself sick!" As much as he wanted to continue, he knew she was right, beginning to trust her.
The day went on, as Akri was shown around the mansion and its grounds by his new master. It was interesting to think of Loretta like that; it was absolutely the right term, but it felt so negative to him, the word having been tainted by his previous master. If he were asked, he'd call her a friend instead. The first non-kobold friend he'd had.
Eventually, night came, and the kobold was shown to his room. A spare room was in the process of being repurposed into a bedroom, and while it clearly wasn't quite finished yet, it was his. Loretta looked a little sheepish at the state of it. "Hopefully this is okay for now..."
Completely uncaring that it wasn't done yet, Akri was thrilled. "Th-this is great! This is SO much better than I've ever had!"
"Oh! Well, there you go! It should be actually finished by tomorrow night, but I'm glad you already like it so much."
Akri happily went over to the bed and climbed on, having the help of a box that had been set beside it specifically to make getting into bed easier for him. Not once had he ever slept in an actual bed before, but as he laid down on it he could tell it was going to be great.
"Remember to get under the blankets if you get cold. Goodnight, Akri!"
"Goodnight..." As he remembered something else, he tried to well up the courage to say something. It was going to be his first time asking for something for himself... "L-Loretta? I need to ask you something..."
A week later, Akri flopped down onto his new bed with a happy sigh, having had an easy time getting on thanks to its smaller size, and took off the glasses that had been made specially for him. It'd practically been a dream living with Loretta, and if it was he'd never want to wake up. He'd even gotten some proper clothes, making the people around the town... Well, probably not quite respect him, but certainly tolerate him better. Tomorrow, he was going to learn what a "hobby" was and see if there was one he'd like. For now, he relaxed in bed to try to get to sleep...
Though occasionally, he'd put on his glasses and happily look around with them.
Kobolds always have it pretty rough, and Akri is no exception, working for a cruel dragon that hardly cares about him at the best of times. After an especially bad incident, he decides enough is enough, and ventures off to see if life can be better. How will it go?
S: in a far away temple, a kobold and a Sandshrew were just getting back from handling a masters orders for getting treasure, said sandshrew was really exhausted from it as it took them quite a while to get all this stuff together, and the Sandshrew hopes all of this will be enough to finally impress their master
L: The kobold, Akri, is clearly getting nervous as he and the sandshrew get closer. "I hope this was worth it, this was so much work... I hate when we end up disappointing our master..."
S: the sandshrew, named David was just as nervous as Akri
"M-me too, I only just started like 3 days ago and our master is already giving me such a hard time!"
L: "At least he might not be expecting as much of you since you're so new here... He always expects more of me, and I keep messing it up."
S: "Yikes thats never good, you can't be messing up all the time! You'll get in trouble I can feel it!"
L: "I don't know what's wrong with me, no matter how hard I try something always goes wrong... I bet something's even gonna happen with this, too."
S: that made David stop for a moment and look at Akri with concern
"Hey now, don't say that! I'm sure everything is gonna be ok! Don't worry about it! This is where that bad luck streak ends i can feel it!"
by now, they are just about to head into their master's room
L: Akri sighs. "I really hope you're right, I'm tired of disappointing him... We probably shouldn't delay much longer, we've taken long enough already."
S: "Right, as nervous as I get confronting our master...I always end up shaking everytime I see him, we better just go..."
L: "I always get nervous too, I don't blame you..." Akri resumes walking, heading into the room with their master, a dragon.
S: David walks into the room as well, and as soon as he sees the dragon he shakes in fear
L: The dragon looks down at them expectantly. "Well? What do you have?"
Akri tries to keep calm. "W-we managed to get all this..." He gestures to the treasure he and David brought in.
S: "Y-yep! This is what we've gathered!"
David tries to stay calm as he looks up at the dragon
L: The dragon frowns a bit as they look over the treasure. "...That's it? I figured putting you two together might finally make you actually good at something, but apparently not... Ugh, why do I even bother with you two..."
Akri: "I-I'm sorry! We did everything we could!"
S: "Are you serious?? We really tried our best here! I swear we did!"
L: Dragon: "And your best clearly isn't good enough, is it? I don't know whether I want you to be lying and you were just lazy about this... You're not going to fail me again, got it? I don't have any more patience for you two screwing things up over and over again."
Akri: "We'll try... I don't know what we'll do different, but we'll try..."
S: "Lazy?? We've been working hard for you! We're not gonna screw up next time! I promise you!"
L: Dragon: "Yeah, sure you won't... Next time I send you two out to get treasure, it better be more substantial than this, or you'll be better off not coming back at all."
Akri: "We'll do everything we can to do better, no matter what it takes!"
S: "Yes! We will dedicate try harder for sure!"
L: Dragon: "I may as well tell you where to go next, since you're here. Hm..." They smile a little. "There's a lake nearby, apparently with treasure at the bottom of it. Bringing that back ought to redeem you two."
Akri: "A-a lake...?" He clearly doesn't like the idea of swimming. "Y-yeah, we can do that."
S: "Whoa whoa whoa! A lake?!" David definitely hates that idea, not liking swimming himself "Oh jeez..."
L: Dragon: "What, neither of you fans of water? Too bad. Guess it's just something you'll have to get over for this."
Akri: "...R-right, yeah... Hopefully it'll go okay..."
S: "This is gonna be bad! I hate swimming! Especially submerging of all things!"
squirtlerocks07 and I did an RP based on this. S: in a far away temple, a kobold and a Sandshrew we
L: Dragon: "Find some way to make yourself okay with it then. Your fears aren't my problem."
Akri: "We can probably figure something out... Or just get it done with quick..."
S: "Whatever, we'll firgure it out I suppose... I'm gonna hate every minute of this!"
L: Dragon: "Alright, now get going. Come back with something substantial for once."
Akri, to the sandshrew: "Come on, we should leave. He gets mad quick if someone sticks around too long..."
S: "Fiiiine!" David then leaves and knows Akri will be right behind him, he's not looking forward to this at all
L: Akri quickly follows them out. "Can't believe we're gonna have to swim for this... He knows I hate water, and you're weak to it!"
S: "Exactly! I don't understand! I can't even swim pretty much, ive never had to, let alone go to the bottom of a lake!"
L: "Maybe it won't be that deep, he didn't say how deep it was, just that we have to get to the bottom... But I've never been underwater more than a few feet, so this is probably gonna be past my record..."
S: "Ditto on that, in fact I can't even remember the last time I've been in water, let alone underwater! I'm not even sure I can handle going underwater honestly!"
L: "You heard our master though, he doesn't want us coming back at all if we can't do this... As bad as living here has been, it's gonna be better than being homeless..."
S: "Ugh, I guess you're right...I'm gonna hate every minute of this tho... I can certainly just try and see what happens"
L: "Better than just giving up... Let's go before we get too scared to even try at all..." Akri starts heading out of temple.
S: David reluctantly follows Akri, trying to calm himself down but its really hard for him to do so
L: After a while of walking, the two get to the shore of the lake together.
"A-alright, this is it... O-oh man, it looks so deep..."
S: David yelps at that and backs away in fear
"That does look pretty deep! M-mama mia! There's no way we can do that! That looks super duper deep! Ahhhh!!"
L: "W-we have to at least try... Our master wouldn't tell us to do something that's not possible for us..."
S: "I-i guess you're right, but still this is crazy! I don't know if I can do this, the water is already scaring me!"
L: "U-um... Maybe if we get in and just wade around for a while we'll start feeling a little better... I don't know what else to do if that doesn't work..."
S: "I-i don't wanna get in at all! My body is telling me no! I don't wanna budge!"
L: "We have to! We're gonna get kicked out of the temple if we don't get the treasure from down there!"
S: "No! I can't!! I'm too scared!"
David continues to shiver in fear, his whole body shaking and he was even tearing up
L: "I wish I knew how to help you relax, I barely know anything about that... Um... I've heard people do this to help with that..." Akri somewhat awkwardly hugs David.
S: David's eyes go wide at the hug for a moment, he stiffens for a second, not used to this before he eventually relaxes into it and hugs Akri back
"T-that does feel kind of nice..."
L: "I guess I must be doing it right then... Same with you, I like this too... I wish we could do something like this the whole time, it'd make that dive a lot easier..."
S: "As much as it would, I think us trying to swim would complicate things, since we're both so bad at it... I think I feel better enough to try it..."
L: "Yeah, probably wouldn't be able to swim while doing that... Let's just get in and hope for the best..." Still a bit nervous, Akri starts slowly getting into the water.
S: after a lot of hesitation, David slowly starts to get into the water himself, he's visibly tearing up as he's hating every second of this
"O-oh gosh this is awful!"
L: "A-and it's just gonna get worse... Th-this better be the only time we have to go in water for something we're told to do..."
L: Dragon: "Find some way to make yourself okay with it then. Your fears aren't my problem." Akri:
they get to a point where they need to swim to stay afloat, and while David's motions are probably super embarrassing for him with how bad they are, its somewhat working
L: Akri's swimming is only barely better, and it's not like he expected a sandshrew to be very good at swimming.
"O-okay, um... We need to figure out where the treasure is, so we'll only have to dive once..."
S: "R-right yeah, as much as I really don't wanna dive at all... I'm still dreading the part of submerging underwater"
L: "So am I... Let's try to find it quick so we don't have to be dreading that for long..."
S: "Fine..."
it took a while, but luckily the duo can spot something glistening at the bottom of the lake
"Is that it?"
L: "I hope so... Jeez, it looks so far down... Are we even going to be able to get that deep?"
S: "I-i don't know, but one things for sure, I'm even more terrifed then ever now!"
L: "W-we don't have a choice, we have to get this done... We're gonna have to try to just ignore how scared we are..."
S: "I don't know if I can do that Akri, I'm really really scared! Its so far down! But...we don't have a choice do we?"
L: "Our master must know how deep this actually is... Maybe it's not really that far and it just looks like it is... We have to do this, or we don't get to go home!"
S: "Ughhhh!!!! This SUCKS!! Fine...I guess we'll do it then!"
L: "This is gonna be the longest dive either of us ever do... We can't waste any time down there, just go straight down, grab as much as we can, and go straight back up."
S: "Y-yep, ohhhh jeez, lets just...stop delaying this and get on with it before I flee in fear!"
L: "L-let's just do it!" Akri takes the deepest breath he can, tightly shuts his eyes, and dives down, starting to swim toward what he hopes is the treasure.
S: Poor David was still shooken up, watching Akri dive underwater, but eventually, he too takes the largest breath he can, shuts his own eyes and dives under as well, his cheeks puffing up and constant air bubbles escaping him
L: Akri tries to look below, though he can't see through the water very well, and he's losing a lot of bubbles too. Still, despite his fear, he does his best to keep swimming down...
S: David on the other hand was too scared to go down further, he was loudly whining out bubbles, trying to make it clear to Akri that he's super terrifed
L: Hearing David getting more distant, Akri looks back up at them. As much as he really doesn't want to waste time, he figures he might be able to take at least a moment, swimming back up a bit and hugging David.
S: the hug does somewhat help, David hugs Akri back, looking at him apologetically as his face is already turning red
L: Akri's face is going red too... Despite what he'd thought before, he figures it'll be safer to get more air before trying again. As much as he wanted this to only take one dive, he starts going back up.
S: David quickly follows and gasps heavily for air, coughing a little too
"I'm sorry Akri, I tried my best to not freak out but its so hard! Please forgive me..."
L: Akri gasps as well, breathing a bit heavily. "It's alright... Honestly, I thought it would be even harder than this to convince you to go down there..."
S: "I really just wanted to get this over with but I didn't expect it to be THIS hard... now i don't know if I can go back down..."
L: "You did it once, you can do it again... As much as I wish we didn't have to do a second dive here..."
S: "I guess I have to try then, I just really hope I don't drown"
L: "As long as we're careful I think we'll be okay... We just need to not get carried away with this."
S: "Y-yeah, your right...thats just my main concern right now... how about we just go and ill really try my best to not get so scared"
L: "Let's just try again, yeah... Please don't stop this time, I don't think I'd be able to do this on my own..."
S: "I-i certainly hope so..." they get to a point where they need to swim to stay afloat, and while
S: "I-ill try my best, but no guarantees honestly..."
David frowns, but he has to try and get this done with Akri
L: "I really hope this'll work..." Akri once again takes a deep breath and dives back under, starting to swim back down.
S: David then takes a deep breath of his own, puffs his cheeks up again and dives atter closing his eyes, awkwardly swimming downwards
L: Akri does his best to go toward the treasure, but it's still awfully far down... Even though he's unsure he can actually make it, he doesn't give up.
S: David whines out bubbles but he tries to not give up himself as he paddles downwards
L: Already beginning to blush from strain, Akri whines a bit too, trying to stay calm and keep swimming down.
S: David gets more and more scared the deeper they dive, in fact, his face was already blue! He's that bad of a breath holder
L: Akri's face is going blue too... With how far the bottom still is, he panics, realizing he's not going to be able to hold his breath long enough to surface if he goes much farther! Briefly covering his mouth, he turns around and starts frantically swimming back up.
S: David didnt waste anytime to swim back up to the surface himself desperately, covering his own mouth and whining out tons of bubbles
L: Bubbles are streaming away from Akri, his eyes going wide as he starts to get close to his limit, getting a purple blush.
S: same goes for David, tho his purple blush is a lot more serious, he was on the verge of inhaling water and the surface seemed so far away from him even when it wasnt
L: Akri tightly shuts his eyes as he runs entirely out of air, about to gasp... And he manages to surface just in time, gasping hard and struggling to stay on the surface.
S: David just barely surfaces before he could inhale water too, gasping very heavily for air and also struggling to stay on the surface, starting to sink down again from the efforts
L: Even though he's hardly able to keep himself up, Akri tries to help keep David from sinking back underwater. As he does so, he briefly goes under a couple times, but manages to not take in any water.
S: David goes back under a few times himself but didnt take in any water thankfully
L: Slowly, Akri begins to calm, doing better at keeping himself and David above the water and managing to talk. "Th-there's no way we'd survive going down there... W-we barely even got back..."
S: David nods at that, still catching his breath as he finally talks
"O-oh jeez yeah you're right! That is wayy too deep!!"
L: "I-I don't know how our master expects us to do this..." Akri pauses for a moment. "...I don't think he does... What if he wants us to drown here?"
S: "What?!" David's eyes go wide at that "No, there's no way! I just joined! How could he want me to drown here already??"
L: "The whole time you've been with us, we've both been messing up just as much... I think he's run out of patience, and just wants us gone. Do you remember how he smiled just before he told us to come here? It was because he'd figured out a good way to get rid of us..."
S: "...I do remember seeing him smile at the end...I didnt think nothing of it, I still don't know this is what he intended for us to drown tho, I just can't bring myself to believe it"
L: "Then how are we supposed to get that treasure? I don't think we'd even reach it at all before we'd drown, let alone bring it up..."
S: "I guess thats a good point, there's no way we can make it down that deep, I don't even think we were halfway there..."
L: "And we can't go home unless we get it... Not that we probably even should, now... I guess we're just stuck out here..."
S: "Oh no...so, what do we do now?? I don't wanna be homeless!"
David starts tearing up
L: "Um... Th-this really isn't gonna be much better, but... There's a town fairly close by. It'd be better than just... Living in the wild out here..."
S: "I-ill try my best, but no guarantees honestly..." David frowns, but he has to try and get this
S: David wipes away a few tears before nodding at Akri's suggestion
"I guess thats better then nothing then..."
L: Akri hugs David. "We'll figure out some way to survive there... I've never been there, but it can't be too hard. Other than that people tend to not like kobolds..."
S: David hugs akri back
"I heard people arent too big of a fan of Sandshrews, I don't know why but in this area everyone seems to hate them"
L: "At least we'll be together for it... Hopefully it won't get too bad... Come on, we should get going. We don't want to be out here at night."
S: "R-right, but I hate the thought of being homeless, it makes me feel uneasy... I'm so nervous honestly!"
L: "I really don't like that either, we'll have to find a good spot to live in... Someday we'll get ourselves an actual home, but that might be a long time from now..."
S: hearing that made David whimper sadly, tears still in his eyes before he gets out of the water
L: As Akri follows them, it starts to really set in for him what all this means... He has no idea what to expect where he intends to go, he's probably not going to be seeing his few other friends again... He starts to cry a little too.
S: seeing Akri cry too made David cry even more before he tightly hugs him and cries into his shoulder, he didnt have any other friends besides Akri and now he feels lonely with him
L: Akri hugs them back. As much as he tries to calm himself down, he's too worried about what might end up happening if trying to live in the town doesn't go well.
S: David hugs Akri as close as he can to his body, still crying, but he knows they can't just stay here, they should at least get to town
"I-i-i know we're both so sad right now, but I think we need to get going...at least get to town"
L: Akri rubs the tears from his eyes, nodding. "Y-yeah, we shouldn't stay here, there's nothing left for us here... O-or back where we came from..."
S: David rubs the tears from his own eyes too, before he places his arm around Akri's shoulder
"Come on, lets go then..."
L: Akri tries to smile at David a little, and starts heading for the town with them, trying to come up with a plan of what to do once they're there.
S: it didnt take long for the duo to reach the town, but David couldn't think of what to do now
L: Akri looks around, thinking of where the best places might be. "O-okay, um... We need sources of food and water, and somewhere to sleep... Towns have those, right?"
S: "Usually they do, I know there's a thing called Hotels around here for places to sleep, but it isnt free... and I doubt either of us have any money so thats out of the question..."
L: "Finding a way to get money ought to make this a lot easier... Maybe we could try looking for that first?"
S: "I suppose thats a good idea, but how do we get money? I'm not exactly a city pokemon..."
L: "I have no clue, I've never been in a town before... I guess we might be able to ask someone? If they'll actually talk to us at all..."
S: "Its worth a shot, we've got nothing else to lose, lets try and find somebody then"
L: "Alright, um... How about that guy?" Akri gestures toward a nearby lizard person.
S: "Hmm, we've got nothing to lose, lets go and ask them then, hopefully they are friendly"
L: "Okay..." Akri goes up to the lizard. "H-hey, um... Where can we get money?"
The lizard glares down at them. "Not from me, that's for sure."
S: "Hey give us a break, we really need a way to get some money, can you please help us?"
David tries the cute look on the lizard
L: Lizard: "Ugh, leave me alone, you dumb things..." He starts walking off.
Akri sighs. "Figured that'd be how it'd go..."
S: "Wait!" David rushes over to stop the lizard
"Please, we really need some help, any kind of help would be great! Pleaaaase??" his face grows innocent and more cute
L: The lizard sighs. "I don't know, get a job or something."
Akri: "Not really sure what a job is, but I guess if it'll get us money it'll be good..."
S: David wipes away a few tears before nodding at Akri's suggestion "I guess thats better then noth
S: "I don't know what a job is either... and I dont really like the sounds of it...if it was anything like doing our master's work, I want nothing to do with it"
L: Akri: "That's a good point, I don't want to have to do that again..."
Lizard: "Ugh... Look, will you two go away if I give you some money?"
S: David nods at that "Yes! Any money will do nicely! Please!"
L: Lizard: "Whatever, here." He gives the two a little bit of money.
Akri smiles as he looks at it. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!"
S: "Thank you so much!"
David sees the money and smiles as well, and without even thinking, he hugs the lizard as a way of saying thanks
L: Akri: "D-don't-!"
The lizard shoves David away. "Get off me. Just because I helped you doesn't mean I like you."
S: "Oww.... that hurt..."
David tears up a little and rubs his injury from being shoved
"I'm sorry... I just got a little too excited..."
L: The lizard sighs, and walks away.
Akri rushes up to David. "Are you okay? It looked like he did that pretty hard..."
S: "It hurts really bad, but I think I'm gonna be ok..."
David keeps rubbing his injury to hopefully make it go away
L: Akri: "I hope so... Maybe we should just explore for now, and see if we can find anything helpful we can use this money for. It doesn't really seem like much though..."
S: "Yeah...but its better then nothing I guess...lets just see what we can find"
L: "Hopefully this'll go okay too..." Akri starts wandering the town with David. After a little while, they come across a spot where it looks like they might be able to buy food.
"Oh, maybe we could get something to eat there?"
S: "Looks like a little shopping area, I suppose we can go over and give it a shot, maybe the people will actually be nice this time..."
L: "As long as we don't annoy anyone we should be fine... Let's go see what they have." Akri heads into the area to look around.
S: David heads over there as well, before a Green Snake stops them, seemingly the owner of the stand as they hiss at them
Green Snake - "Whoa hold on there, I don't need stupid Kobolds over here trying to mess with my stand, get lost and take your sandshrew with you!"
L: "H-hang on, we're not here to mess with you, we have money! We just want to buy some food!"
S: David - "Yeah!"
the green snake keeps hissing for a moment
Green Snake- "Hmm, how much you've got??"
L: "Just this..." Akri shows what little money he has. "Is this enough for anything?"
S: David shows his half of the money too, and that makes the Green Snake laugh
"Seriously? Thats all you have? Pathetic, thats probably only enough for this"
the green Snake pulls out one singular berry
David - "Thats it??"
L: "Th... That's basically nothing..." Akri sighs. "It was hard enough convincing someone to even give us THIS much money..."
S: "Yeah! Come on can't you give us more then that??"
Green Snake - "This is all I can give you, your lucky I'm even letting you shop here, so are you gonna take it or not?"
L: Akri turns to David. "Should we bother? Maybe we should just save up for something better..."
S: David - "But I'm hungry...not sure if one berry is enough tho... yeah I guess we'll just save then..."
Green Snake - "Thanks for wasting my time then, get outta here"
the green snake slithers away
L: "Sorry... This is already so much harder than I thought it'd be... We need to find a better way to get money, just a few of those berries isn't going to work."
S: "Yeah your right, as hungry as I am we have to find a way to get some more money..."
David's stomach growls audibly
L: Akri's does as well. "If we just did what we did with that lizard, I doubt that'll be enough... Ugh, how do these people live in these towns? I feel like we're missing something!"
S: "Yeah! I don't know, lets just go explore some more then, maybe we'll get lucky"
L: "I guess there's a chance, yeah..." Akri starts to wander around with David again, hoping they'll happen across something good.
S: "I don't know what a job is either... and I dont really like the sounds of it...if it was anythin
S: David wanders around as well, his stomach still growling as they walk
L: Eventually, the two happen to find a well.
"Oh, I think those are called wells... We can at least get water from that, but I don't think it'll be helping us with money."
S: "Eww, that water is probably contaminated... and technically wells usually have money from people making a wish, its not a ton of money but its something"
L: "Wait, really? Those can have money in them? We should figure out how to get at it then!" Akri heads over to the well, looking down into it.
S: "Be careful, I heard its pretty hard to get out of a well"
David looks over as well
L: As the two look down, they can see some sparkling in the water below - there's some coins down there!
"Ooh! Alright, how are we gonna get those..."
S: "The water at least isnt too deep to get the coins, but we gotta firgure out how even get down there with a way to get back up..."
L: As the two consider what to do, they don't notice someone sneaking up behind them... And before they can react, they're each suddenly pulled up by one of their legs, then shoved forward toward the opening of the well!
S: "W-whoa!! What in the world?! What is going on?!"
L: A frog person is trying to push them into the well! He's grinning as he keeps trying. "C-come on, get in there!"
Akri fights as hard as he can... But he can't quite manage to stop himself, and screams as he falls into the well!
S: "Hey, s-stop!"
David also tries to fight it as well, but couldnt as he also screams and falls into the well too!
L: As Akri hits the water, the impact and the cold of it make him gasp, inhaling the water! He struggles, trying to figure out which way is up as he keeps coughing and gasping.
S: David keeps screaming as he too hits the water next to Akri, inhaling water too as he coughs and gasps as well, struggling to stay above the water
L: Akri soon manages to surface again, coughing up water and barely managing to stay on the surface. Above, the two can hear the frog laughing at them. "Not too used to swimming, are you?"
S: "W-why did you do that??" David keeps coughing up water, his movements getting more sluggish as he wasnt used to treading water for this long unexpectedly
L: Frog: "Eh, felt like it. Have fun down there! Wish I could stick around to watch, but I've got stuff to do." He walks off, leaving the two there!
Akri: "W-wait, no, come back!"
S: "C-come on man! Ugh, I was hoping to not be in water agaon today! This wasnt part of the plan! I-i dont think i can tread water much longer!"
L: Akri: "S-same here... W-we're gonna drown if we can't get out of here, but I don't think we can just climb out!"
S: "If I was my evolved form which is Sandslash ill be able to escape easily, but unfortunately these little claws arent gonna do anything! What do we do?!"
David gets lower into the water as it threatens to submerge him
L: "N-now would be a pretty good time for you to evolve... U-um..." Starting to panic, Akri just starts yelling for help, hoping someone above will hear.
S: Poor David couldnt stay above water anymore as he yelled for help too, thankfully after getting a deep breath his body eventually sinks completely underwater, whimpering as he did
L: Soon, Akri can't keep himself up any more either, and after one last gasp he sinks down too. He whines, struggling to swim up, but he's too tired to.
S: David struggled to swim up too but was too tired
worst part is, somebody actually heard them yelling for help, a Sceptile, who peers inside the well
Sceptile- "Hmm, could have sworn I heard someone..."
L: They'd be able to see bubbles rising to the surface of the water, and as Akri struggles below it, he's briefly able to get his hand out of the water, splashing it a little.
S: David wanders around as well, his stomach still growling as they walk L: Eventually, the two hap
S: David sticks his own little hand up and splashes around too, grunting in strain from holding his breath
Sceptile - "The heck was that? Is somebody actually down there??"
the Sceptile was a bit concerned, wondering what to do
L: A nearby rhydon overhears the sceptile. "Hang on, did you say someone's down there?" He rushes over to look in as well.
S: "I think so! Look! I think I see a hand sticking out, they must be underwater!"
the sceptile points down to it as more bubbles form on the surface
L: "O-oh jeez, we have to get them out!" He grabs a spare rope from next to the well and tosses one end down. "Hey! If you can hear us, grab onto that rope!"
While Akri can't hear them, he does notice the rope and assumes someone's trying to help him, grabbing it as his face goes red.
S: David quickly grabs onto the rope as well, hoping they will get pulled out as his own face turns red
Sceptile - "I can't tell if they grabbed on or not! Lets hope they did..."
L: Rhydon: "I really hope so..." He starts pulling up the rope, immediately realizing the two are on it. "Oh, yep! Give me a hand, it feels like there's more than one!"
Akri smiles a little bit, glad something good is finally happening.
S: "No problem"
the sceptile grabs onto the rope and starts to pull up with all his strength
David also smiles a little
L: With the rhydon and sceptile working together, Akri and David finally get lifted up enough to breathe!
Akri gasps, panting some and looking up at the two. "Th-thank you! I-I kind of thought that was gonna be it..."
S: David gasps as well
David - "Yeah, appreciate...t-that"
Sceptile - "Phew, that was a close one...glad they are ok..."
L: The rhydon frowns a little as he sees what Akri and David are. "Oh, a kobold and sandshrew... Well, I guess we're already bringing them up, may as well keep going..."
Akri: "Yeah, we know... Thanks for not just dropping us back down..."
S: the sceptile frowns as well
"Not the most ideal duo, but we've already come so far..."
eventually they lift David and Akri out of the well
David - "Thank you so much for saving us!"
L: Akri almost goes to hug the sceptile, but remembers he shouldn't. "We've been having a really bad day, you guys getting us out is the first good thing that's happened in hours..."
Rhydon: "Well, there you go. Maybe it'll start getting better from here."
S: however, David went to hug the Sceptile, this time tho, he didnt actually pull back and briefly hugged David back
Sceptile - "I certainly hope you two have much better luck from now on"
L: Akri: "I really hope so too... We're both really hungry..."
Rhydon: "There's probably something that could help somewhere, just keep looking."
S: "Yeah, you'll find something eventually"
David - "Yeah, I hope so..."
L: Akri: "Well, um... We should probably keep searching... Unless you guys know something that can help us out?"
Rhydon: "Not really... You're kind of just going to have to do it on your own, I guess."
S: Sceptile - "Yeah agreed, good luck you guys" The sceptile then leaves
David - "Ugh, great...we gotta keep searching then"
L: Rhydon: "Hope things go well for you." He leaves as well.
Akri sighs. "I feel like we're running out of options at this point..."
S: "Yeah...I'm getting really hungry now, and I have no energy..."
L: Akri: "Um..." He lowers his voice a little to make sure no one else hears. "I-if it comes down to it and we can't buy any food... We could try just taking it..."
S: "What?!" David covers his mouth after that "No! We are NOT gonna do that! No way!"
L: "And just starve instead!? If this doesn't get any better, we're gonna have to start doing some things we don't like so that we stay alive!"
S: "This is getting ridiculous, lets just wait a little longer, I mean maybe our bad luck is turning around"
David starts looking and walking around for a bit
S: David sticks his own little hand up and splashes around too, grunting in strain from holding his
L: "I guess, maybe..." Akri wanders around with David, wondering if anything else good will happen despite how hopeless he feels.
S: they soon stumble across a group of pokemon, and they don't seem too happy to see Akri and David
one of the members was a Machoke
Machoke - "Eww, look guys a kobold and a sandshrew"
L: Another is a heliolisk. "Ugh, what are they doing here? Those are always so annoying to see..."
Akri: "O-oh, um..." He looks at David. "We should probably go..."
S: David - "Y-yeah, agreed"
then another member, a Shiny Lucario, joins in and glares
Shiny Lucario - "Leave?? Oh no no no, your not going anywhere! You've invaded our privacy, so now we gotta rough you up! Ain't that right boys?"
Machoke - "Absolutely!"
L: Heliolisk: "Yep, we're gonna make sure things like you know not to mess with people!"
Akri starts backing away. "W-we're just trying to live, we don't want to bother anyone!"
S: David starts backing away too
David - "Y-yeah! We mean no harm! Seriously!"
Shiny Lucario - "A likely story"
the machoke starts to crack his knuckles and glare meanly at Akri and David
L: Akri nervously looks at the group... "D-david, run!" He turns and tries to run away.
The heliolisk almost immediately runs up to him and grabs him. "Ha! You can't run from a heliolisk!"
S: as David tries to run away as well, the Shiny Lucario immediately runs and grabs him too
"And you most certainly can't run from a Lucario! Hahaha!"
David- "Hey!! Let us go!!"
Machoke - "Pathetic..." the machoke goes up to them and gets ready to punch the duo as David tries to squirm free
L: Akri struggles, unable to get free. "No no no, we haven't done anything! Let us go!"
Heliolisk: "Yeah, like we're gonna believe that..."
S: "Cause we arent! Now get ready, this is only gonna hurt...a lot!"
David - "No no! Please!!!"
David tries his very hardest to squirm free, and by some miracle he actually manages to get away from the Shiny lucario!
L: The heliolisk looks over in surprise. "What!? Don't let him get away!"
With them briefly distracted, Akri just barely manages to break free as well, starting to try to run off with David.
S: David - "Runnnnn!!!!" David runs aways as fast as he can!
Shiny Lucario - "What the?! Get them!!!"
the Shiny Lucario and Machoke start to run after them
L: Akri tries his best to keep up with David, staying away from the bullies.
The heliolisk quickly joins in on the chase. "Ugh, you're lucky I barely have any electricity right now!"
S: Akri and David keep running and eventually they come across a seemingly dead end, but theres a pond of water in front of them
David - "Oh no, dead end!"
L: Akri quickly looks around, seeing that the pond's water completely hides what's below it. He points to it. "We can hide in there until they go away!"
S: "Are you crazy?! I don't wanna go underwater AGAIN! Ive suffered enough of that!"
L: "We're gonna get beaten up if we don't! We have to put up with going underwater again, it's still gonna be better than being out here!" Not wasting time, he starts getting into the water.
S: "No! I-i can't!"
meanwhile, the bullying trio start to get closer
Shiny Lucario - "I can smell them from over here! They are close!"
Machoke - "We're gonna really get them for this!"
L: Heliolisk: "Yep, we gotta punish them for trying to get away from us!"
Akri holds out a hand to David. "W-we really don't have long until they find us, come on..."
S: David yelps a little
David - "F-fine..." he then takes Akri's hand and goes into the water
L: After a few deep breaths to try to calm down, Akri gasps and dives under, entirely disappearing from view.
S: however, David didnt dive, he was too shooken up by this
Machoke - "Almost there, I can sense them!"
L: Heliolisk: "They're REALLY gonna regret coming to this town..."
Akri soon surfaces again. "David, we HAVE to do this! Who knows what they're gonna do to us if they find us!?"
L: "I guess, maybe..." Akri wanders around with David, wondering if anything else good will happen d
S: David - "I'm sorry! I got too scared! I can't dive! You gotta help me Akri! I don't wanna die!"
Shiny Lucario - "Yeah! They are truly gonna regret after what were gonna do to them!"
the bullying trio is almost there!
L: Akri: "Look, I know it sucks to have to go underwater AGAIN, but at least we don't have to swim anywhere this time! We can hug the whole time!"
S: seeing that the trio is getting even closer, David sighs heavily
David - "Ok fine! I guess if we hug the whole time then it might help..."
L: "Okay, now hurry!" Akri takes another deep breath and goes back underwater.
S: David quickly gasps a deep breath of his own and dives underwater too, closing his eyes and whimpering a little as he did
L: Akri squints to try to see in the water, looking up and hoping none of the bullies think to check in the pond.
The heliolisk arrives first, looking around. "Ugh, how did we lose them? There's nowhere to even go from here..."
S: David manages to hug Akri, needing comfort as he was very scared
soon, the Machoke and shiny lucario arrive too
Shiny Lucario - "Where in the world did they go?! This is a dead end!"
Machoke - "Yeah! All there is here is this pond"
L: Akri quickly hugs David back, quite scared himself.
The heliolisk looks at the pond. "...No, they were so nervous before, there's no way they'd go in there. Spread out, we have to find them before they leave!"
S: "On it!"
Shiny Lucario - "Right!"
they spread out and look everywhere for the duo that are still underwater
David whimpers away a few tiny bubbles too, his face red already
L: Akri tries to cover David's mouth as well as his own, knowing bubbles might give the two away. His face is red too, all the fear making him use up his air a lot faster.
S: David continues to whimper even with his mouth covered, bubbles still escaping from his nostrils however
meanwhile the trio above water continue the search, when the Machoke spotted a glimpse of a very tiny bubble in the pond
Machoke - "Hey guys, what's that?"
L: The heliolisk looks over, noticing that bubble. "That might just be from some random fish or something... We should probably check, but I doubt they're in there."
S: Shiny Lucario - "Hey, it doesnt hurt to see, thats pretty much the only place we havent really searched"
Machoke - "Right"
David meanwhile is shivering in fear of getting caught, still hugging Akri
L: Akri is still hugging David as well, whining in both fear and strain.
Heliolisk: "Ugh, that water looks gross, but we can't just let those two get away..." He reaches in, starting to feel around.
S: Shiny Lucario - "I don't wanna touch it! Its gross! I hate water..."
the machoke reaches in and feels around too
David grunts in strain as his face is fully red by now
L: Akri moves to try to stay away from the machoke and heliolisk, trying not to panic or give away his position or David's. His face is fully red, and he hopes that the bullies will give up soon...
Heliolisk: "...Doesn't really seem like anything's here..."
S: Machoke - "Yeah I don't feel anything either, but then again, they could be deeper in the water for all we know"
David tries to relax but its so hard for him to do so, he keeps grunting in strain
L: Heliolisk: "Man, I don't want to go in there... I wish I could just zap the water and see if bubbles come up, but I still don't have enough electricity."
S: "I don't really wanna go in there either, but we gotta check!"
Shiny Lucario - "Machoke is right, you should at least take a peek down there"
L: Heliolisk: "I guess, yeah..." He sighs, then takes a deep breath and lowers his head underwater to look around. While he can't see well without goggles, he quickly notices Akri and David, grabbing them and pulling them up as he surfaces! "Found them!"
Akri immediately panics at that, gasping once he's above the water and struggling to get free. "No, just leave us alone!"
S: David - "I'm sorry! I got too scared! I can't dive! You gotta help me Akri! I don't wanna die!"
S: David gasps as well and starts struggling hard too
David- "Please! Leave us be!"
Shiny Lucario - "Well well well, it looks like they were hiding down there, the nerve!"
Machoke - "I gotta admit I was surprised"
L: The heliolisk drags the two out of the pond, throwing them to the ground. "Now, it's about time we got started with you two..."
Akri is starting to cry from fear. "P-please, no... W-we didn't do anything..."
S: David - "N-no!!! Don't!!!! PLEASE!!!" David starts crying from fear too
the machoke soon goes over and gets ready to punch the two
Machoke - "Finally, time to get what you two deserve!"
he then punches the both of them hard in the face
L: Akri: "OW!" He covers his face, whimpering.
Heliolisk: "Ooh, nice one! You always do these so well!"
S: David - "Owwie!!!" he covers his own face and whimpers
the machoke punches them again
Shiny Lucario - "That'll teach you to stay away from us! Never go into this town again!"
after the Shiny Lucario punches them too, both him and Machoke finally leave them to suffer
L: The heliolisk smirks as he starts walking away too. "Believe us, it'll be worse if we see you again..."
After he's sure they're gone, Akri looks over at David, still crying. "...W-we can't go back... W-we have to find another town..."
S: David keeps crying too, his tears never seeming to fade away
David - "Y-your right Akri, we have to find a new town, oww...they really punched us hard..."
L: Akri slowly manages to get up, and helps David up as well. "I-I think they might've almost broken something..."
S: "Y-yeah, I think so too...lets just get outta here I'm so sad right now!"
as David gets up he starts to cry even more heavily
L: "I can't believe people would just beat someone up for no reason... Th-that's so messed up!"
S: "Y-y-yeah! It totally is! I hate it! I hate it so much! I'm starting to think this whole world just hates us at this point!"
L: "I-it really seems like it does... I don't think anything's ever gonna go well for us..."
S: "Never ever..."
as David keeps crying, he really does start to wonder if nobody is ever gonna help them
L: While the two cry together, they can hear someone else coming - a blue jay.
Blue jay: "Excuse me, are you two okay?"
Akri shakes his head. "E-everyone hates us for no reason... Y-you probably do too..."
S: "Y-yeah! Just leave us alone! Go away! We've suffered enough torture for one day!"
L: Blue jay: "That sounds awful... Why would I do anything to you two? We've only just met."
Akri looks over at them in confusion. "...Y-you're not going to yell at us or anything?"
S: "Y-your being serious here? No way..."
L: Blue jay: "Of course I'm not going to be mean to you! In fact, I actually have an offer for you. I work for someone who really likes sandshrews and kobolds, and I was wondering if you'd want to potentially live with that person. And not for free, of course."
Akri: "...Th-that does sound kind of nice..."
S: "Wait wait wait, not for free?? But we don't have any money! We're broke...thanks for the offer tho...it sounds too good to be true anyways"
David then goes back to crying
L: Blue jay: "Oh, sorry, I think that came out wrong. I mean YOU two would be paid, in food or money or whatever works. I know this does sound too good, but I promise you it's true."
Akri: "Okay, I was thinking that was what you meant... Maybe we should try, David, it's not like we have anything left to lose..."
S: David sighs
"Well, if they truly like Sandshrews and Kobolds, I guess ill give them a try... anything to take my mind off our former master and this horrible day...I never wanna work for someone again!"
L: Blue jay: "I don't believe the person I work for intends on having you do much, if anything. They just want a sandshrew and kobold to be friends with. I'll take you to where they live, it's not that far."
Akri: "Alright, lead the way I guess..."
S: David gasps as well and starts struggling hard too David- "Please! Leave us be!" Shiny Lucario
S: "Yeah, go right ahead... we'll follow behind you"
David wipes some tears away and just hopes this isnt another trick
L: The group walks together for a while, and thankfully no one bothers them along the way. Eventually, they're getting close to a mansion, which the blue jay gestures to. "That's the place, right there."
Akri: "Wait, really? I've heard of these, rich people live in them..."
S: "Yeah, these are called..."Mansions" theres no way this person lives here, guess were gonna find out..."
L: Sure enough, Akri and David are brought up to the front door of it, and the blue jay lets them in!
Blue jay: "I'll go get the owner of the mansion, you two stay here for now."
Akri looks around. "Wow, this is... A lot cooler than I expected..."
S: "Wow, this place is so cool! I love it already!"
David smiles just a little
L: Akri: "I guess this might not be so bad if we're going to be living here... Hopefully whoever we're going to be with isn't secretly mean..."
S: "Yeah me too..."
some time passes and soon the Blue Jay returns, with someone this time, an Amaura, who gasps at the two of them, her face lighting up happily
Amaura - "Oh...my...GOSH!!!! Is that actually a Kobold and a Sandshrew in my house?!"
L: While he was a little nervous at first when he heard her, Akri smiles once he sees how happy she is, realizing she's probably not mean. "H-hi! Y-yeah, your blue jay friend brought us here."
S: David was nervous too, but relaxes and smiles again when he hears how happy she sounds
David - "Y-yeah! Hi there!"
Amaura - "Wow you weren't kidding! I can't believe you two are here! That makes me so happy! But, why are they here?" She turns to the blue jay
L: Blue jay: "Well, you said you were interested in potentially having a sandshrew and kobold live with you, and I happened to find these two while I was out, so I figured I'd bring them here."
Akri: "Is that okay? We've both been having an awful day, I really hope you're about to make it better for us..."
S: David - "Y-yeah our day really sucked, we don't have anywhere to live right now!"
Amaura - "Awww really? I'm so sorry about that, nobody should have a bad day... of course you can guys can live with me! I've got plenty of extra room for the both of you!"
L: Akri: "Th-that'd be great, yeah! Thank you!" He runs up to hug the amaura.
S: David - "Yeah thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to us!"
David runs over and hugs the amaura as well, who she hugs both of them back and smiles even more
Amaura - "Of course! I'm sure you guys are hungry too, ill be cooking a great dish for you both to celebrate!"
L: Blue jay: "And I'll help you two get settled in in the meantime. I really hope you'll enjoy living here, and it certainly seems like you will."
Akri: "For sure! This is going to be so much better than where we used to live, I can already tell!"
S: David - "Totally! I'm really looking forward to living here!"
Amaura - "Great to hear! I'll go cook us the food then!"
the Amaura heads into the kitchen and starts cooking
L: Blue jay: "We have a guest room you two can stay in for now, eventually we'll be getting you your own proper rooms."
Akri: "It's gonna be weird sleeping with so few people around, we'd generally have to share with a lot of people back where we're from..."
S: David - "Yeah...it was honestly not great, having my own space would be nice, but sleeping with Akri as a roommate isnt a problem since I'm used to it, he's like my only friend"
L: Akri: "I'll be fine with sharing a room with David, yeah."
Blue jay: "Just one room, then. That'll certainly speed up giving you two a proper room of your own!"
S: "Heh yeah I guess so, thank you again, seriously...this is all so great!"
L: The blue jay laughs. "No problem! I'll admit, it was a little lonely around here, this'll be a nice change of pace for us too."
Akri: "I guess we may as well start having a look around while we wait for food, right David?"
S: "Yeah, go right ahead... we'll follow behind you" David wipes some tears away and just hopes thi
"Yeah may as well, even tho I'm super duper hungry! Heh"
Amaura from the kitchen - "The food is almost done!"
L: Akri: "Oh, well, apparently we won't have to wait much longer! And yeah, I feel like I'm starving, this is gonna be great."
Blue jay: "She always makes great food, you're both in for a good time."
S: David - "Really? I definitely didnt expect that kind of pokemon to be good at cooking!"
L: Akri: "I guess we'll be seeing for sure pretty soon, huh?"
Blue jay: "I hope you two will both enjoy it, and I'm pretty sure you will."
S: it didnt even take more then 4 minutes before
Amaura - "The food is ready! Come and eat guys!"
L: Akri: "Alright, coming!" He starts heading to get food, wondering how much better it's going to be than what he's used to.
S: David - "Wait for me!"
David comes as well, and the two arrive, there was a whole buffet of food of all different varieties, and it smells AMAZING!
Amaura - "I wasnt sure what you two liked, so I kind of cooked one of everything i can think of for you guys!"
L: Akri is stunned by the amount of food that's there! "I-I've never even seen this much food before... I don't know where to start!"
S: David - "O-oh, my gosh!!! Look at all this food!! Oh I'm so hungry!!!!"
Amaura - "Hehehe! Dig in guys! There's plenty!"
L: Akri happily grabs some of the food that's closest to him and starts eating. By his expression, it's pretty clear he's loving it already.
S: David also grabs some food and eats it too, he too really loves it
"Hehe! I guess I did a good job on my cooking then huh?"
L: "Mmhm!" Akri nods, since his mouth is too full for him to talk as he keeps eating.
S: David - "Mmhm!!!" David nods too as he keeps eating too, his plate of food gone in like 10 minutes from how hungry he is, making amaura giggle
L: Akri finishes his not long after, and sighs a little in both satisfaction and a bit of frustration. "Man, I wish I could eat more, but I'm pretty much full..."
S: "Me too...I'm very full... I could use a nap honestly"
Amaura - "Go right ahead! I don't mind! But...maybe you two should freshen up first hmm? No offense but, you two smell a little, hehe"
L: "Do we...?" He sniffs himself. "I guess I must just be used to it... Maybe that explains why some people haven't liked us."
S: David sniffs himself too
David - "Oh, yeah I guess I'm used to it as well"
Amaura - "No worries, I've got a bathtub you two can use upstairs to get clean, its a very big tub since its gotta fit me in it, you might have to tread water to stay on the surface of it since you two are small but I'm sure thats not a problem for you guys"
David - "N-n-not this again!"
L: "N-not water, no! We've had WAY too much of that for today, we're both gonna freak out if we have to go in any again!"
S: Amaura - "Oh dear, I had no idea... sorry for even suggesting that! Unfortunately tho the bathtub is all I have, my house apparently didnt install a shower"
David - "Oh... that sucks... maybe we could do it tomorrow then, as much I'm gonna hate it"
L: Akri sighs. "I guess maybe tomorrow would work, yeah... I hope I'm not just afraid of water in general now..."
S: "Me too..."
Amaura - "Well, you two go and get some sleep then!"
the Amaura smiles and gestures for then to head to the bedroom to get some rest
L: "Yeah, I'm exhausted, today was awful until we got here... I can tell it's gonna finally be better tomorrow, at least."
S: David - "Yeah, seriously thanks again! This is all so nice!"
Amaura - "Of course!"
David then heads to the bedroom, yawning as he did
L: Akri follows David there, and smiles as he sees the room. "Just like everything else here, this is way better than what we were stuck with back at that temple..."
S: David - "Yeah definitely, I think I'm gonna enjoy my new life with my best friend by my side"
he tightly hugs akri
S: David's stomach growls loudly "Yeah may as well, even tho I'm super duper hungry! Heh" Amaura f
