Kobold Life

Arc 2: chapter 11: Jitra

"You should have listened to your friend," the pink scales kobold said as she pressed the sharpened tip of rough flint against my neck.

Her grip was like a vice, holding me in place, not that I would have moved anyway given her clear threat. Gabriel was a few yards back, thanks to my excited and worried sprint to Opal. The large jungle cat was still tied in place behind us, growling aggressively towards us. The kobold didn't seem to mind much apparently confident enough in her rope work to face us both away from her, instead facing us towards Gabriel. Both of us were exceptionally still in our unwanted embrace, but across the way, Gabriel stood at surprising ease. A moment of tension followed by a relaxed demeanor as he simply stared at the kobold as of urging her to speak.

"Step forward, scum, where I can see you," she said.

He complied, casually pacing his way forward. He covered surprising ground before the kobold saw fit to put end to it. He was within perhaps 20 ft now, cresting into the edge of the clearing we had used a campsite.

"That's far enough," she said, removing the blade from my neck for but a moment to point it his way. "Drop your weapons," she demanded, returning the point to my throat as she did.

Gabriel seemed to contemplate it for a moment, before looking back at the knife in his hand.
"No thanks," he said.

Her accent emerged again in the surprise, it was brusque and at times guttural, but it was interesting nonetheless.

"I have your friend, I can kill him. You will do as your told." She said over my shoulder.

"Go ahead? You kill him you lose your bargaining chip," Gabriel challenged.

"It will hurt you," she commented, "you will listen to avoid losing him."

"See that's what might happen if I cared about him," Gabriel countered, "all you stand to gain by hurting him, is pissing me off."

He took another step forward brandishing the dagger.

"You're bluffing," she accused.

"And you aren't?" He retorted.

Gabriel had to be the worst hostage negotiator I had ever seen. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I was the hostage, but it really didn't feel like he was doing a good job at it.

"I am warning you, I will kill him," she said.

I looked to Gabriel, trying to get some glimpse that he knew what he was doing. He didn't look back, he looked at her and took another defiant step forward. I felt her grip loosen, but I didn't dare attempt to break her hold. I could feel the surprisingly sharp point against my neck. She pulled away dragging me with her a step backward. Gabriel moved quicker, closing the distance again.

"You spent too much time warning, and not doing," He said, "now I'm close enough, that if you killed him, I could gut you before his body hit the floor."
To emphasize his point, he took one further step.

"I am faster than you," She said, taking a final step back before a fresh growl emanated from Opal's position behind us. She was running out of room.

"Try me," Gabriel challenged.

She was backed into a corner, one way or another he was pushing her to act. I just didn't know what that action would be.

Then I felt her hand pull away as she kicked me forward towards Gabriel apparently expecting me to serve as an obstacle for her to make her escape. It didn't work. Gabriel side-stepped me like he had been expecting it leaving me to collapse to the ground.

When I looked up I saw Gabriel had managed to completely close the gap between them. While Gabriel took the upper hand in the initial exchange, once they actually had actually gotten into a melee, however, I began to see some of the martial skills she had exhibited before. He had immediately gone for her crude dagger, trying to disarm her. She had managed to land a solid blow to his stomach with her other hand when he leaned in. I only watched the exchange for a moment, surprised to see them struggle to face each other. They were both fast, beyond what I thought reasonable. He seemed to pivot in place as she struck always forcing the blows to barely graze him, all the while he made a few strikes of his own. I was pleased to see that neither appeared to be going for a killing blow. I wasn't willing to risk it escalating further.