Sighing inwardly Destorianaxe sat on her haunches before the kobold, her tail tapping against the floor in irritation as she stared down at the wretched thing trying to compose itself, "Now crying finished have you? Speak more, meaning you will tell me." Destorianaxe hated the kobold tongue, it was so... backwards. Trying to not slip into the more straight forward and easy draconic tongue was truly straining her maw.
The kobold was shaking and sniveling, certainly no hunter that was now clear. The young wyrmling looked the pale reptile over and sighed, her neck bending low she didn't loom over the pathetic thing getting down at eye level. Tilting her head she growled. "Speak, answer this one you shall."
The kobold yelped as its vision was filled with irritated dragon scooting back and shivering as it more completely sat in the puddle it had errantly released. Squirming uncomfortably it looked into the big yellow eyes the temple keeper always spoke of and shivered in fright bowing its head immediately, "This one unsure what great Bone God demands, lowly breeder is stupid, needs your chosen to guide it."
Destorianaxe snarled shaking her head, "Grab priest I shall not, answer you must, answer you shall. Speak."
The kobold gave a soft yelp of fear before nodding briskly, "This one called Stares at Skies Vast, this one is breeder of Bone tribe. This ones job to bare young of tribe, care for young. Is typical job of females of tribe other than food heaters. Yet... Stares at Skies Vast think she can do more. Bow not hard to draw. Hand fangs too. Thought to hunt beast and prove to priest can do it. Uh, great god sort of ruined plan..." The kobold mumbled softly letting the last bit fall under its breath.
Destorianaxe blinked tilting her head another way. Wait, if she understood it properly the tribe had another caste beyong the priests, warriors and hunters. These breeders were the mothers of the future tribe members, but generally castes didn't over lap. If you were a breeder you weren't a hunter, even if you had the prowess for it. Yet Stars at Skies Vast... ugh what a maw full, wanted to prove she could hunt. Wait. The dragon blinked looking down on the kobold, "Speak of this plan to your Goddess, Goddess has seen what priest does to rule breakers in past, how did Stares at Skies Vast plan to avoid being next ceremony... guest of honor?"
Stares at Skies Vast paled event further, her jaws working slowly before big tears showed at the corner of her eyes and started bawling, "Stares at Skies Vast not think of that!"
The young dragon sighed and felt like she kicked something small, cute and furry. What was obvious was this kobold lived up to her name, she stared into future horizons quite willingly... yet wasn't quite all there in the brains department. Even if she succeeded the hunt she'd just have been offered up. Shaking her head she looked down on the crying kobold and grumbled, "Fine. Stay here you may. Know though! Stay here not free! Help Goddess you shall, else bone rain you join. Understand?"
The kobolds cries broke off into sniffling again then overjoyed squeals, the kobold plopped forward to bow forgetting the puddle she was knelt in. This made Destorianaxe sigh, "First we need get Stares at Skies Vast, bath. Then clean that up. You come, we go, river."
Leading the kobold back up the ramp Destorianaxe stood on the ledge looking over the land, Stares at Skies Vast looked over the edge and squeaked, "Um, goddess, climbing not so good, maybe bath wait?"
Destorianaxe shook her head, reaching over biting the back of Stares at Skies Vast neck and lifting the startled kobold onto her back. The thing weighed next to nothing so she could carry her passenger rather easily. "Hold tight you shall, fall off, on your own head it is."
Stares at Skies Vast hugged the back of the young dragons neck, even more so when the wyrmling wings snapped outwards launching the pair out into the open air. Destorianaxe felt her hearing go as the kobold gave a scream of terror, clutching all the tighter to the thick base of the dragons neck. Banking on the wind Destorianaxe grumbled to herself, how did this thing ever consider hunting game? It had all the bravery of those little white fuzzy things she saw amongst the grasses. The long ears were quick to scamper off into the bushes when ever she took an interest.
Sighing inside her wings beat slowly, catching a faster ear current and sending her passenger into a renewed scream of denial. For a moment she considered dumping Stares at Skies Vast, but in the end she focused on the river. Guide or not, the little thing could certainly help her better understand the tribe if nothing else. Plus it would be good to have some company, while she would never admit it, being completely alone was starting to bother even her, while her family were awful they were at least someone to talk with. Much the same case here... well once she taught Stares at Skies Vast a proper way to talk.
Dropping close to the river the dragon looked around before unceremoniously rolling her back to shake off the paralyzed kobold. With a splash the little white reptile dropped into the chilly waters and immediately resurfaced with a different screech, "Cold!"
Shaking her head Destorianaxe also stepped into the waters letting the current splash over her body. Like Stares at Skies Vast had said, the water was quite chilly but also refreshing. Lifting her head from the water she watched the kobold digging at the sandy silt along the edge to scrub at her stained lower half. Tilting her head she watched the kobold cleanse her body before rinsing off with the river. There were things only this kobold could help with, and having a helper for herself and her future guide wouldn't be a bad thing.
Watching the kobold dry itself under the sun on the bank, the wyrmling trudged over looking down at her companion, "To clean home, what need you?"
Stares at Skies Vast looked up at the dragon in thought, "Something to hold water from river, something to scrub at floor. Hides would be best, rougher skin needed most."
Destorianaxe nodded as she emerged fully from the river, her wings flexing as she shook off the excess water, "Wait here shall you, get what needed shall I, trying fishing you can, back soon be I." With little else said the wyrmling leapt to the air, her wings beating hard to pull her free from the grip of the ground as she took to the skies leaving the kobold sitting bewildered on the bank of the river, turning her attention to the water Stares at Skies Vast moved over, she knew of the concept but she'd never seen hunters fish so she could only assume fish were caught by hand...
A few hours later the shadow of Destorianaxe fell across the kobold who was again laying on the bank, the pale reptile was breathing hard with a few fish on the grass beside her. How she had ever thought hunting a job anyone could do was gone from her mind after fighting with the swift river morsels. Destorianaxe looked between the tired kobold and the sparse few fish beside her before pushing her catch towards the reptile. The dead boar was fairly large so landed with a loud thump that startled Stares at Skies Vast awake.
Jumping to her feet she looked sheepishly at the dragon before checking out the boar, "Hm, need fang tool."
Destorianaxe looked at the kobold who looked expectantly to her, grumbling the wyrmling asked, "What tool is fang?"
Stares at Skies Vast looked to the boar's small stunted tusks, "Like this but sharper. Moon howler fang or honey seeker claw usually best."
Destorianaxe sighed and turned around, leaping into the air, it would only take the young dragon another hour before she returned dropping the carcass of a wolf next to the body of the boar. Glancing to the river she could see the kobold struggling to catch more fish. "Come see shall you. Have what need?"
Splashing through the river the kobold ran over and nodded, bending down to get to work. First removing a large pointed fang from the mouth if the wolf before using it to skin first the boar, then the wolf. The sun was setting when Stares at Skies Vast presented the hides to her goddess, "There done, now fold up to make hole at top, fill with water, tie off with meat rope. Do for both."
Destorianaxe eyed the hides and carefully gathered them as instructure before dipping into the river, it took her a few tries but eventually the hide bag bulged with water and Stares at Skies Vast ran over with some senew from the corpses to tie off the opening. Nodding her head poking the sloshing package she looked to Destorianaxe, "Now fill other then we go."
Destorianaxe chuckled as the little kobold started giving her orders, for the time being she would let Stares into Skies Vast have her moment of accomplishment. Frowning in a bit she looked at the water filled hides then the bloodied carcasses... how was she getting all this and the kobold back? Thankfully Stares at Skies Vast had a solution, cutting more sinew and tendons from both beasts and binding them together before slinging the grisly rope across the dragon's back, tying each end off to a bag. Destorianaxe herself gripped a carcass in both her front and back claws as the kobold climbed up.
Frowning at the weight the young dragon still managed to get aloft but her wings beat far more frequently, lugging two bodies, two bags of water and a rather happy kobold was no easy feat. The second problem was when they arrived back at the lair as Destorianaxe couldn't land clutching everything, and she was loathe to toss the bodies in destined as they were, the entry passage would be slathered in animal blood. With nothing else to be done, toss them in with seperate passes she did, grimacing at the slick thump each made as they tumbled down the incline.
Landing herself, Stares at Skies Vast climbed down and helped the wyrmling drag the bags in before Destorianaxe returned for the carcasses. Settling down to eat the wolf she watched as the kobold set to work pouring out some water and scooping some silt out of the bottom of one bag before cutting off a square of boar hide to scrub at the floor. the dragon watched as she tore into her carcass watching with interest as Stares at Skies Vast cleaned up the mess she had made and was about to start the other stains when the dragon stopped her, "No, come eat you shall, clean more next day."
In truth Stares at Skies Vast was glade for the reprieve, moving over Destorianaxe pushed the boar to the hungry kobold before tilting her head. Rather than digging in the kobold was looking around. Leaning closer Destorianaxe stared at her guest, "Something the matter is?"
The kobold nodded, "Need cook fire, meat better that way."
Destorianaxe sighed. These kobolds were such work! Glancing towards the exit she sighed, "Eat meat raw tonight shall you. Tomorrow we gather what needs have you else."
Stares at Skies Vast looked a little crest fallen and using the fang cut off a few strips of the raw meat to chew on with a shiver. They were tribal sure but they weren't animals! They cooked their food! Still hungry as she was she gulped down the meat before crawling atop one of the bloated water sacks to curl up. Watching this Destorianaxe sighed, she thought she was getting a guide, but instead she gained another mouth to feed. Crawling up on her bed slab she curled up and laid her head down dreading doing more fetch work for the troublesome reptile.