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"How about this one over here?" the matron says, walking off to the corner.

"There you go," the matron chirps, patting the egg. "Right next to this lonely one."

"Lonely one...?" the Grand Matron turns around, then shouts. "You idiot. Not next to the grand egg! Pick it up before it hatches!"

The poor rushing matron quickly reaches to scoop up the egg, only to stop when she sees the crack forming along the larger Grand Egg. "Oooh boy..." she says. "This one's hatching now."

The Grand Matron Hobbles on over toward her, but stops when a tiny face emerges from the shell, coated in the natal fluid, and crying in a proud roar. Pink scales show off sharp teeth, and when its eyes open, the bright blues scan along the room.

In response to the birth of this new kobold, all the other eggs begin to shake and stir, cracking open to reveal the hatchlings.

"Grand matron, what is this!?" One of the matrons cries out.

"It... it must be some omen," she says, staring dumbfounded. "I have never seen a simultaneous hatching before!"

Tikit snaps and pushes himself up. "How are we supposed to call on the new ones, if they all come out at once!"

Kakat pushes him aside and rushes past more of the kobolds. "I call that pink one. It's got a dig boss's presence!"

Waves of kobolds stumble over each other, looking to take for themselves the newly-born creature, but the Grand Matron raises her staff and shouts in a commanding voice. "No one shall stand in this sacred ground, or they shall face my staff!"

Everyone stops right on their tracks, Katat balancing on his toes as he threatens to trip right into the hatching grounds.

The kobold chick's hands reach up, breaking through the rest of the shell and spilling out, falling onto its stomach. The matrons all crowd around this one and gasp when it spreads its wings out, only for them to collapse upon its back once more.

"This one has the touch of a dragon," they whisper.

The Grand Matron growls as she looks to the shattered egg, a sense of relief coming out of her as she sees it has not hatched. "Ah, so we don't have to worry about this wonderful specimen being nestmates with a stunted creature. Now, to determine her path in life..."

"Look, Grand Mistress. The egg moves!"

"What!?"

Sure enough, the little egg rolls back and forth, tumbling next to the little half-dragon. The winged kobold whines, crawling up beside the egg, watching it with eyes that strain to see.

The smaller egg breaks open, tiny pink kobold head pops out, squeaking with a much less impressive cry, but it tumbles on out from its fragile shell, bumping into the more impressive kobold, who falls onto her back, kicking and crying, their pink scales blending them together on the floor.

"Nest mates...! They are nest mates!" one of the matrons say, clapping her hands together.

"Yes... so they are..." the Grand Matron says, scooping up the half dragon. "So, it seems fate has entwined these two very different creatures. Let's see just how far luck will let them flourish. Though, I have great things in mind for you, magnificent one."

The matron who had carried the egg in scoops up the runt and walks on over towards the group of leaders, presenting her to them. None would take the tiny creature, but when the hatchling opens her eyes, those bright baby blues rest squarely upon Tikit.

Snorting, the male shakes his head. "Might as well be with me. I could use her to crawl into holes or something."

"Very well, Tikit. Then, you shall take this young one and raise her into the ways of the trapmaker. Apprentice of Tikit," she says, looking down to the little one, the little squirming hatchling, "You shall continue his legacy and his name. This is the beginning of your life adventure, Tik Tik."

How odd it is that only after a short time away from the trapmakers' chambers, it had felt as if it had a different lifetime. Master Tikit had disagreed with my leaving. He considered it a waste of resources, but I had been doing some research before I entered into his workshop, and I saw him now with new eyes.

He was busy, as always, tinkering with this or that, but his hands shook with the effects of age. I approached his workbench and offered my hand, tightening up a squeaky hinge for him. We worked that way in silence for long enough, as if time had never moved. The first things that came from my mouth was the compliments on the traps I had to bypass on my way here. Apparently, my old rival Quiquan had grown a bit better in her trapmaking with my absence. I suppose she had to step up her game if she was to survive in this deadly environment.

When we had sufficiently caught up on the workings of mechanics, I sat my aging master down and placed my hand upon his shoulder and I spoke to him, telling him everything that I had found out about the world, about myself, and about the previous owner of this book. I knew the information would overwhelm him, but I had not foreseen all the details he would add to the story. I made quick note of them, for I had little time to speak to him, as my next mission was to confront the queen with the secrets I had learned, for the fate of all of our kind, nay, the world, hung on the charade that was perpetrated here under the ground.

What I did not expect from my old master was for him to grab onto my hand and hold onto it for the time that he did. In that moment, I knew what he wanted to say to me, but knew that he was too ingrained in his ways to ever say it out loud, so I pressed my snout to his forehead and whispered to him a quick thanks. After all, my story would have never begun if it weren't for his actions, his passion, his donation.

It is one of my goals to change how our society works--to show them that there can be love and kindness and companionship between kobolds beyond the childish notion of the nestmate. It is perhaps because we cling so closely to our need to be adults that we shun the truth we as hatchlings and pups know all-too-well to be the natural state of things. A tribe is only as strong as its working parts, yet each part is an individual. They are a free-thinking, talented being that can be many things. Lover or friend, nestmate, sibling, or maybe, as my suspicions lead me to be, father and child.

-Tik Tik Tikitsdottir

-Heir to the Trapmaker's legacy.