Elderly and Kobold don't normally go in the same sentence. But since this village protected their kobold neighbors, and vice / versa, it was not unusual to have one, now, die of old age rather than other circumstances. Some were even being born to other warrens with the memories of tunnels reinforced so they would not collapse again. Before too long, around the world, kobold tunnels collapsing due to lack of proper reinforcement was starting become a rarity rather than commonplace.
@internutter/challenge-04824-m075-seems-harmless-enough -- Anon Guest
Everyone knows that Kobolds have a species-wide capability of instant reincarnation. The soul and the memories attached went flying to the next hatching egg in the nearest nest. There was a radius in which this system worked, allowing for the spread of information between warrens that didn't involve gossip.
That, and their seeming destiny to end in a brief and crunchy squeak, encouraged Kobold-kind to maintain fecundity.
When Yaark finally closed his eyes at an amazing two hundred years of age, he was not shocked to awaken in a new body just emerging from the shell. He could feel that this new body was not male and instantly changed pronouns accordingly[1]. She'd done this dozens of times before.
The only true issue was how long it took to get the arms, legs, and mouth working properly. Her eyes would open in a couple of days as she grew accustomed to the smells and sounds of her new home.
"My name is Yaark," said Yaark. "I am reborn from Drakfield farm and Sorforrest Warren."
A voice from her new family said, "Welcome to Highmount Warren, Yaark." Then they gave her some of their food.
In two days, she was teaching her family what she knew from her previous life. How to prop and shore tunnels so that collapse was less likely, and a multitude of ways to detect dangerous gasses. As well as how to deal with them involving a minimum of deaths.
Yaark knew that death was inevitable. All Kobolds accepted that. They knew they'd emerge again, sniffing, bumbling and stumbling, from a nearby nest. That cycle of life and death was woven into their very nature.
It was also that cycle of life and death that allowed for knowledge to spread at a rate that baffled the larger forms of intelligent life. Some called it spontaneous. Some called it convergent. Some theorised that Kobolds were secretly telepathic.
Kobolds thought it was hilarious.
[1] Kobolds can't understand why Humans and other "bigguns" have trouble with gender plasticity. For them, the work is more important that what shape anyone's cloaca is.
[Photo by Matt Kochar on Unsplash]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends! Or visit my hub site to see what else I'm up to.
Send me a prompt [18 remaining prompts!]