Kobold Life

Chapter 8: A New Understanding

Needless to say, Rose was not ok with humans. In the four months that I had known her, a few things had become evident, and her distaste for humans was perhaps the most prominent. The fact I used to be human was something she actively tried to ignore and would dismiss with something along the lines of "you're better now" as if it were some kind of sickness. So, when she saw the unconscious body of a human man on her front doorstep, still bleeding she took it better than I had expected.

"Cyrek! Why is there a human here?!" She yelled.

I will admit, amidst the panic of the orc, and Rose getting maimed, then her treating it like it had been a pleasant experience, my brain was a little too overwhelmed, and I might have forgotten about the human Opal and I had saved. Apparently, Rose hadn't noticed either, because seeing it seemed to give her a complete change of mood.

"He was being chased by the orc; he was- no is injured. I was just helping," I countered.

She took a few steps towards the man. He had dark black hair that went down past his ears, and stubbly beard probably only a few days old. His eyes were closed, but his mouth was open, taking long, and labored breaths. His clothes looked far sturdier than ours, made from proper cloth and hide rather than strung together from jungle fibers. He looked to be in his late 20's or perhaps early thirties, he had no significant wrinkles or grayness to hair, but neither did he have the telltale look of a child, whose body hadn't finished growing.

"You shouldn't have brought him here," she said, in a more serious tone.

"The orc tried to kill him, I saved him" I protested.

"And you killed the orc," She stated flatly.

Apparently, she was done pitying me the mental toll she had tried to alleviate before, because on the drop of a dime she was ready to use it against me.

"I didn't want to fight, he was attacking," I tried.

"He was attacking someone else. You made a choice, and that made you a target," She said," The same number of people died, Cyrek. You just chose the orc to die instead of the human. You shouldn't have interfered"

She sounded like she was lecturing me, and in a way, I felt like she was. As if the action she had been so excited by a moment before, was suddenly soured by the fact it had been to save another life. I knew her distaste of humans, but surely this was better wasn't it, that the aggressor was the one to pay the price. She was lecturing me on making the choice just because the man I had saved was human.

"You made the same damn choice," I berated," when Opal and I were fighting you didn't care about interfering you just did."

"Yes, but both of you are still alive," She countered, "I made a point of that."

"Then what about the orc you just fought off?" I asked, "You stepped in, and fought for my sake, and nearly got yourself killed too. Why is that ok?"

"Because you aren't human, you were innocent in this." She spat back.

"So, if I were human, you wouldn't have saved me from Opal?" I demanded.

"No!" she yelled in response, "I wouldn't have."

Some part of me expected that answer, but it hurt to hear it. After all this time together, knowing that she hated the real me even to that point, it felt like being stabbed in the heart. Apparently, she had regretted saying it because immediately tried to back pedal.

"That wasn't fair," She said, "You know I didn't mean it like that."

"It seemed pretty clear to me." I responded.