After taking the parts that needed from the brutish beast, he took some time to consider the outcome, coming to the conclusion that this was todue to his great foolishness, he then looked down his now crippled legs, the blue lines he had first seen remained there, however, where they once connected to the rest of his legs, now he saw a myriad of smaller tentacles that extended hungrily from the blue lines and tried to catch and stick to the bones of the skeletal alligator, but when they touched the brute, they were repelled by an unknown force.
"Urghh! Creepy, so that's what those lines where huh? Let's see if they can stick to these things, yes yes, new legs, sad that they are so short, yes yes" with these thoughts on his mind, he took one of the alligator lower legs and placing it near one of crippled legs, the tendrils reached towards it and attached easily, new lines of blue then flowed down the center of each bone finally reaching the now truly clawed foot of the skeletal kobold, he proceeded to do the same with his other leg, amazed at the bizarre experience.
"Hmm, interesting, yes yes, very interesting indeed…" said the skeletal kobold looking at his new legs, quite a bit shorter on the lower half but they fulfilled their purpose, he then looked at the long tail of the alligator, being instantly filled with envy and greed, his own tail had taken almost no damage, yet it had been useless, not to mention it was shorter than his enemy's tail, this took quite a toll on the skeletal kobold's pride.
"Hmm, I need to replace this as well, yes yes" thought the kobold looking at his own tail "But not yet, too long to use, and I became shorter than I was, yes yes, need to grow bigger" thought again the kobold looking at the skeletal tail his defeated enemy "I will save you for later, yes yes, until then I guess I keep this here, yes yes" said the kobold thoughtfully on his mind, quenching the eagerness to change his tail, knowing that making decisions hastily would lead to problems on the long run.
He then crawled out of the room, getting closer to the floor thanks to the new length of his legs, his still short tail helped him to steady his pace, making it more easy for him to get accustomed to his new legs, crawling evermore stealthily, making his way to the next door, this one was on the left, looking even more decayed than the previous one, with gaping holes on it, some were rotted and others were burns on the wood, but this holes were of no use for the kobold, now that he was one head shorter, he couldn't make use of them, so he proceeded to very carefully open the door, to once again be met by the disappointing sight of a now completely empty room, not even benches were on this one, all that remained in here was ashes of burned wood and charred corpses.
He cautiously approached this scene, observing the place, he looked around, bits and pieces of charred bones were spread around the room, the upper part of the torso of what once was a living being laid on the northern wall, the head was nowhere to be found, the same could be said about the rest of the body, the walls were scorched up to a certain point, but none of them showed signs of being the origin of the fire, it was as if the blast had occurred in the middle of the air.
"Strange, yes… yes… I don't like the look of this, it may have been magic… must be even more careful, yes…" thought the skeletal kobold looking at the macabre scene, he moved towards the center of the room, near the biggest black spot, carefully looking behind as to make sure that nothing was behind him, he then proceeded to remove some of the soot and ashes that had settled on the spot, finding strange runes and hieroglyphs, organized in a the pattern of a star with twelve points on it, forming a circle on the inside with the lines traced from point to point, in the center of the star lay a crooked rune, clearly this symbol wasn't here before the explosion, as the thing was carved without the same care as the carvings on the hallway walls.
After a long look at the strange carvings, the skeletal kobold moved towards the charred remains, seeing that they sported the same markings, these were incomplete due to the almost complete devastation caused to the corpse.
"Interesting… this looks like a ritual of some sort, or maybe even… no, I don't think so… let's keep moving, yes yes" thought the kobold, getting out of the charred room, moving again towards the direction of the archives, crawling on the floor, soon after, he found a small statuette, it stood upon a stone altar, strange markings were carved on the base, unnatural, looking to the scenery, this small shrine confined the effigy it had the shape of the woman much like the one that the wall carvings showed, he found himself tempted to touch the thing.
"I would like to touch this figurine, yes yes, just one… small… touch…" thought to himself the kobold, being evermore tempted by an unknown impulse to touch the statue, but swiftly remembered what Throzahk had said, "No, no I should leave this be, better leave it be, yes yes" thanks to this bout of reason he refrained from touch the statue, fearing what the specter might do to him.
After backing off from the stone statues the kobold resumed his journey, it was a short way no more than 12 steps to the next door on the right, this one was intact, pristine, untouched by time to the kobold's surprise, yet he dared not to approach it, as it had strange glowing runes, these weren't organized on any pattern, this looked way more different than the ones on the previous room, these glowed with a sacred light, however the gnarled and twisted rune that he had seen on the charred room now laid on the center of the door, it was as if this room had to be sealed to contain whatever was inside it.
"Nope, nope, I'm not going to touch that, nope, no way in hell!" thought the kobold, as he looked in disgust the centermost rune that glowed with malicious intent, he resisted with all his might his instinctual curiousness, leaving the damned room behind, clawing on the floor, he soon after found the next room to the left, its door sported the same look as the previous one, the glowing runes, and the malicious intent, so he left that one alone as well.
The last room, the archive, was at the end of the hallway, next to spiraling stairs, they led up and down, it seemed to the kobold that the temple he was in, was not a single floor one, this made the skeletal kobold curious.
"So, there are other floors... interesting, yes yes, opportunity for treasure… yes, more treasure…" thought the skeletal kobold, carefully patting the cloth pouch tied to his ribs, he then went to the door, this one had not decayed much, but one could see that it had seen better days, with a startling screech the door opened, the hinges resisted the unnatural force used to open the door, and then he saw what laid inside the archives, rows upon rows of tall bookshelves, most of them were now empty, but the one on the center rows of shelves, had within them, three books, whose almost pure white covers, glowed with an unnatural light, quite a bit different from the runes on the door, yet they laid a bit tainted by the spots of dust that gathered on them, unwilling to touch the radiant letters.
"Well… sh*t… I just hope I don't burn to cinders… here I go… yes yes!" with a sanguine attitude he slowly approached the white tomes, reluctant to touch them he tried to move the bookshelf, but to his dissatisfaction it proved to be a fruitless effort, as the bookshelves were much too heavy for his small frame, even when they were not made of stone.
"ARHGGG! Too heavy! Goddamm*t! SH*T! DON'T YOU DARE BURN ME TO ASHES!" shouted angrily the skeletal kobold in his mind, frustrated at his failed effort to move the bookshelf, he moved swiftly away from the thing, trying to find a way to climb safely towards the seemingly holy tomes, and soon he found it, there was a wooden stool on which he could stand upon, however it looked old and fragile, yet he didn't let this scare him, he too the wooden stool, putting it near the bookshelf, with the agility expected of a short legged kobold, he ascended with some difficulty.
Once he stood upon it, he touched the first of the white tomes, expecting to get burned "Ooh, what's this sensation… I haven't burn to ashes yet… that's good, yes yes, hmm if I learn to project my voice I will have to ask Throzahk about this, yes yes" thought the kobold, intrigued by the strange sensation that came from the touch of the white tomes, it felt warm, almost living, with a beating rhythm that came with the waves of warmth.
He then placed took the white tome an put it under his arm, proceeding to take the second one and placing it on his head, carefully balancing it, making sure it didn't fell towards the ground, and finally the last tome he placed under his other arm, jumping down from the bookshelf.
With a soft thud he fell on the ground, and stumbled a bit backwards, but the kobold swiftly used his tail to regain a stable footing "There we go… Hey! it didn't fell… that's good, good, now back to Throzahk, yes yes".
Th kobold then began walking back to the room where the egg was, now more relaxed as he now knew that in this floor were no enemies, soon he arrived to the room [Finally! I heard the commotion! I hope nothing important was damaged…] said Throzahk looking up and down the shape of the kobold skeleton [And how come your legs are shorter now… no matter you can't answer me… yet… now the tomes, put them on there, on top of that stone slab if you would] pointed Throzahk, towards an elevated stone slab near the altar of the egg "That… it wasn't in here before… yes yes, that is new" thought the kobold, looking at the slab.