“Setting aside the fact that I will need to claim wrathful vengeance in the future,” I began, shooting a glance at Kiri that made her duck behind her cup of tea again, “how did everything go, Grandmother? Were there any issues with transplanting the trees?”

  I focused on Aesa, ignoring the quiet, startled “Grandmother?!” from Lilly.

  “Things went… well,” Grandmother hedged, with a sigh that told me her words were only partially true. “The trees were stubborn, but we managed to stabilize them, I think. I used up far more resources to do so than I thought I would. Still, they are proving to be a boon already.”

  “Hrm? How so?” my dragoness asked, settling with me onto ‘our’ sofa.

  “The trees themselves are still somewhat weak.” Grandmother smiled. “But the flowers are, I am glad to say, thriving.”

  Her smile faltered slightly when Lilly threw herself to her feet again.

  “Those flowers are amazing!” the kobold gushed. “Everyone’s been lethargic, with the entire family being away. But then we went near those flowers, and they are so energizing! Everyone’s been trying to get some time in tending to them!”

  “They feel soothing.” Vren spoke carefully, sounding hesitant to contribute. Then he glanced towards our bedroom. “I think I can sense the flowers upstairs, too?”

  I was impressed. “That is correct. The flowers have a positive effect on draconic creatures, so we keep some in the bedroom. Actually, that makes me wonder… are they effective on kobolds, too?”

  “Shouldn’t you know?” Lilly snickered, then sobered up for a moment. “They are, I think, if you’re asking if they strengthen us. That’s part of why everyone likes them so much. And it’s a relief their numbers can be increased so easily! The tribe is planning to spread them all over the lair, so they’ll be everywhere by the time most of the family returns.”

  She sounded so proud of herself and her people that I couldn’t help but smile. However, there were several interesting nuggets of information there, both in the kobolds’ words and other people’s reactions.

  Amara had looked guilty when Lilly mentioned the kobolds being lethargic in the family’s absence. Yet both she and Soren visibly flinched at the mention of returning to the lair. Clearly, my new mother and father were processing some rather conflicted feelings.

  Aside from that, I was deeply interested in the fact that the flowers were helpful to kobolds.

  The classification of the species was contentious, at best. Scholars had long argued about the specifics of the kobolds’ origins, their relationship to dragons, and even if they should be considered a proper or ‘lesser’ species.

  The latter wasn’t as unusual as one might assume, considering the fact that kobolds seemed to need dragons. Their communities formed around dragons, for one thing. While some small tribes did live ‘independently’, those tribes always ended the same way, so far as everyone knew. Each tribe would grow until it reached a certain size, fall into infighting, and dissolve into smaller groups. Then each of the smaller groups would start from scratch. This seeming inability of kobolds to form stable civilizations on their own was the basis of the argument to refer to them as a ‘lesser’ species.

  I found this hilarious. After all, if it weren’t for the Seasons serving as the linchpins of fae society, I was fairly certain that’s the pattern my own species would follow.

  I was also thrilled to know the propagation of the flowers themselves was going so well. They were the far more important thing to nurture away from Swiftband. The trees were only useful to me, and only in a limited sense. The flowers, on the other hand, were beneficial for the whole family.

  Even the kobolds, apparently.

  Finally, I was intrigued by Grandmother’s sheepish expression during our discussion of the flowers. I considered her for a moment… then sighed in quiet amusement as I voiced my guess.

  “How many of the flowers have you eaten?”

  From the way Grandmother’s head snapped in my direction, eyes wide, one might think I had unearthed some sort of shameful secret. As if to accentuate this, Lilly broke into a cackle. The Molten Expanse quickly shifted her attention to glare at the kobolds.

  Vren and Millie both cowered beneath her gaze. Lilly did not.

  “Oh, you have no idea!” Lilly told me through giggles. “We’ve started smuggling rings just to get some flowers away to display them in communal areas! And then, though we had permission to do that, we still made plans to hide the flowers if the big mistress came along.”

  My lips twitched, but I refused to show any further reaction as Grandmother slowly panned over to look at me.

  She coughed, then finally spoke.

  “I might have had a few.”

  Lilly started laughing louder. I admired the kobold’s boldness, but both Grandmother and I ignored her.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Would you like some more stock of the refined materials?” I asked.

  Grandmother shifted as the glow of her scales briefly brightened. “Yes, that would be acceptable.”

  I briefly wondered about the timing of her return. Had she come back so quickly because she had already burned through the entire supply I had given her before she left? I thought I had prepared enough for her to spend at least a few more days away.

  Since Alys hadn’t yet received her morning portion anyway, I didn’t delay. I handed out some materials to my dragoness, then quickly repacked another week’s supply for Grandmother, who accepted the package with a light flush and a grateful nod.

  I wasn’t sure why she was embarrassed. Was it simply the act of accepting help from one of her descendants, adopted though I was? Did she perceive herself as somewhat of a burden, due to her inability to refine things herself?

  If that was the case, I might have to find a way to extend reassurances later. I genuinely didn’t mind preparing the refined draconic materials at all. It made me feel useful and helpful, more like a proper part of the family.

  In fact, I was eager for more of a demand. Perhaps Grandmother would finally persuade Amara to start taking the materials as well. When the effectiveness of Aesa’s and my efforts had become apparent, my mother-in-law had been supportive and excited for Alys and our child, but she had yet to accept any herself.

  “Hmmm, what’s that like?”

  I blinked, distracted from my thoughts and the feeling of my mate’s fluctuating mana by Lilly’s voice. The next moment, a kobold’s face intruded on my field of view.

  Lilly had moved onto our sofa and hugged my dragoness, observing Alys’ face carefully as she devoured the materials.

  “Your mana feels all… funny. Nice, but odd,” the kobold commented, eyes narrowed. “Like it’s getting… squeezed tighter, and that ‘dragon’ feeling is ever so slightly intensifying.”

  “You can sense all of that, so keenly?” I asked before my dragoness could react, drawing the kobold’s attention.

  “Of course! Kobolds are attuned to their dragons. You should know this, fellow kobold! Don’t go failing your mistress now.”

  I smiled at her teasing tone, but pushed on nonetheless, because this particular subject was fascinating. “Attuned… how? Do you simply sense their mana? Draw on a part of it to strengthen yourselves? And if so, does the dragon’s element affect the kobolds in turn?”

  I almost flushed, embarrassed to have thrown so many questions out, but I couldn’t help it. This was a whole new species in my home that I knew woefully little about. I had been equally excited about the knowledge I’d managed to extract from Grandmother on the topic of dragons, though I had been much more circumspect and respectful in my questions.

  “Curious, aren’t you?” Lilly giggled, leaning back but still holding onto my dragoness, who just looked amused. “Tell you what. I’ll trade answers for a morsel of that stuff.”

  She pointed to the last few samples of the refined draconic materials.

  “Mother! You can’t just make demands like that! He’s… I-I mean, sir, you are part of the family. We aren’t supposed to…” Millie floundered when my attention turned to her. I wondered if I couldn’t see a flush on her face because kobolds simply didn’t do that, or because her scales were pink already.

  “Relax, silly. If you are so respectful and such all the time, you’ll only make the family uncomfortable," Lilly insisted.

  The argument could be made that she was a little too relaxed, but I found myself not bothered, somehow. In fact, I amused myself by imagining my mother’s reaction if the servants got this familiar back home.

  Then again, I was coming to understand that kobolds really didn’t qualify as regular servants, not within the odd dragon-kobold symbiotic relationship. At least, as far as Lilly’s behavior seemed to indicate…

  My mind was full of questions. For example, the way they said ‘the family’ every time intrigued me. I could almost hear the emphasis whenever the two words came up, but I couldn’t be sure of the significance.

  I would definitely have to get Lilly to share more details about kobold culture with me later, along with any herbal lore they might know. For the moment, though, I set aside the idea and looked at Aesa questioningly.

  The refined materials were hers, after all. It was her decision whether or not to share them with Lilly.

  Grandmother sighed, but nodded.

  “It’s fine,” I said, feeling the eyes of ‘the family’ on me as I did so. I had the oddest feeling that they were carefully examining all my reactions to the kobolds. “And I would be more than pleased to share.”

  It didn’t take me long to extract a refined drop of Aesa’s blood and hold the vial out to the kobold. She snatched it up with no hesitation, worry, or fear, making me chuckle as the eyes on me slid away in favor of watching her.

  “Perhaps we should be careful with how we test… ah.” Grandmother rubbed her forehead and sighed again, seeing as Lilly had already opened the vial and gulped down the drop of blood.

  My attention and senses sharpened, and I cast a few spells as well to observe Lilly’s reaction. This turned out to be rather muted. There was no pulse of mana, eruption of Dragon Fear, or anything of the sort. I did sense her mana deepen a little in quality, but it remained calmly contained within her. Outwardly, the kobold simply shivered like she’d been struck by a bolt of lightning. Her tail lashed behind her and then shot up straight as her eyes widened.

  “Oooooohhhh… that felt nice. Odd, too. Definitely felt like I took a big old chomp of big mistress, though. Which is… odd.” She nodded sagely, narrowing her eyes at Grandmother before glancing at me. “Are you feeding bits of big mistress to small mistress, new kobold?”

  “Well… yes.”

  Her squinting gaze was probably meant to look intimidating as she assessed me, but it really came through as adorable. I knew it was wrong of me, and I logically knew this was the woman who had helped to raise Alys, but I simply couldn’t see her as much older than I was. In fact, with how she’d been behaving, she seemed a bit younger.

  “I guess that’s fine, since neither of them has set you on fire yet. I don’t need to bring down the wrath of the tribe onto you!”

  She nodded once more, so gravely that a little snort of laughter escaped me.

  “Hey!” she protested. “What was that? The wrath of the tribe is a serious thing, new kobold! We protect our dragons!”

  “Yes, I am sure you do,” I stated as solemnly as I could, but some of my amusement must have shown anyway, because the kobold growled at me ‘intimidatingly.’

  I looked at my dragoness. Alys was trying very hard not to laugh herself, mirth dancing in her beautiful golden eyes. Then I looked back to the kobold, who seemed to be considering whether she wanted to try to tackle me.

  I was granted a stay of execution when she huffed and leaned into my dragoness once more.

  “Hmph. Well, you are helpful. You obviously love the little hellion here.” She patted Alys’ arm, drawing a squawk of indignation from my dragoness. “And the family seems to like you… so I guess you’ve got my approval. Even though we need to teach you about the might of the tribe!”

  “Thank you, senior kobold. It is an honor,” I drawled. The glare I received in return was largely undermined by a giggle.

  Well, at least I wasn’t going to be bored with the kobolds around.

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