For Food and Future!

Ko, Level 3 Kobold
Stats:
Health - 20
Stamina - 16
Mana - 10
Nutrition - 9/10
Attributes:
Endurance - 2
Strength - 3
Coordination - 3
Focus - 2
Intelligence - 5
Traits:
Hyper Adaptability
Kobold Work Ethic
Skills:
2: Mining
3: Trapping
Spells:
1: Snip

The next necessities will be food, shelter, and scouting. Considering their relative importance, Ko decided it would be best to scout first. He would scout for potential food, dangers, and shelter all at once. Next up would probably be food and then digging out a hole under some roots. If he found dangers, that might change the plan, but it was good for now.

Over the next hour, Ko spent most of his time scaling grey roots and scouring his surroundings. He quickly lost track of where he had started, but that was fine since he didn’t see anything particularly special about it. One of the things he quickly learned about the trees is that they were easily as hard as stone. He tried using his pick and dagger to chip them and climb, but the pick only made small dents and the dagger only scratched them. It would be possible to pick holes or other shapes into them with enough time, he just didn’t have that time yet.

Finding shelter turned out to be easy. At his size, he could definitely make hidden holes or tunnels around the solid roots. There were also some large boulders scattered seemingly randomly every few hundred feet. Those boulders might be useful for building with more time.

Danger and food turned out to be the most interesting. Most of the scarce plants looked inedible, generally due to their lack of fruit or strange colors. No one in their right mind would eat a spotted purple mushroom. While exploring, he began to hear the sound of running water, a distinct and important sound for any tunneler to recognize. Getting closer, he first heard something splashing in it. Then he got close enough to see what it was from behind the ubiquitous roots.

There was a stout dwarven woman about 4 feet tall and knee-deep in a stream. She had simple clothes, and thick limbs for her size, probably 4 times Ko’s weight, although Kobolds tended to be quite light. She’s a town or city dweller, her clothes probably not made for traveling, but a physique made for some sort of labor. She seemed to be trying to catch fish with her hands to little effect. It didn’t strike Ko as a bad idea for food, she just seemed to be terrible at it.

He watched for a bit, assessing her. She would peer into the water, walk a bit further upstream, then lunge at something, coming up empty handed every time. What she needed was a net, or maybe a trap of some kind. That’s something he could probably make, like a box out of sticks to dip into the water.

Repositioning further up the stream for a different angle on her, he was suddenly distracted from fishing ideas. He hadn’t noticed just how unsuited to water her clothing was until he saw it from the front. Her loose shirt was currently plastered to her chest, showing every curve of her sizable bust. He could imagine the pale skin beneath it and almost see the edge of her areola around her obvious nipples. Her bust was proportional to the rest of her, not massive, but somewhat above moderate. He felt an urge to just hold them, feel them, squeeze them. He wanted her, for the sight at minimum.

Then he looked lower and the junction between her legs was similarly outlined, obviously obscured by only a single layer of fabric, the mound clearly outlined. Her pants were as thin and currently as form fitting as her shirt. She was like a jumbo serving of everything he needed at the moment, muscles, company, security, and a fantastic view. He needed a way to get her on his side now. Then the box fishing idea came back to him. He took a last longing look at her and scampered back into the forest just far enough that he had a few visual barriers between them while still hearing the occasional splashing.

He threw himself into the work of creating a box of sturdy twigs and plant matter. This was his best chance of entering a relationship of sorts with that beauty, and he was going to enter it with as many advantages as possible. He compared his situation to that of taming small animals, his best route to control and advantage was to enter with multiple advantages. This was a bit different in that his goal was intelligent, but even among intelligent creatures, food is life and only an idiot would turn it down.

Soon enough, his creation was complete. It was like a trap, that’s how he knew how to build it. This box had numerous holes and gaps in it, but all of them should be small enough to keep suitably large fish in. All the user would have to do is leave it submerged with some sort of bait inside, then pull it up when a fish goes in. An actual net would be better for this, but those were not his focus among the old pack.

Next goal, seduce the dwarf maiden with the promise of food and shelter. He particularly needed to stay in charge. So he didn’t want to just provide her with the fishing basket, his new and so creative name for the box. Then it struck him. Maybe Hyper Adaptability could prove its worth here.

What he wanted was something that she definitely couldn’t do. Like making the fishing basket only usable by him. That wasn’t really possible though, he couldn’t lock it, and something that prevented her from touching it, like spikes or magic would hurt him too. Maybe he could just find a way to be much, much better at using it. Snip sort of did that, but only with cutting stuff. He could set traps with strings to trigger them, and then Snip the strings any time he liked. He needed a more versatile form of that.

The full specs of what he wanted was magic that would attach to something, stay there for a while, then do something after a trigger, like flipping the bucket. It wouldn’t even need to be much more **** than Snip. Hoping it would work, he marked Snip as his lowest priority and began to envision the sorts of actions he was trying to create. He had done this successfully only once before to learn Snip. It had taken a month at the time before he could create the most minuscule cuts. Now it felt easier, like his mind was already primed for it. His visions were amorphous as they always started when learning something. Then in only a few minutes they gained focus and he tried to cast the spell. Of course it didn’t work, but he kept trying.

Then it worked, he felt the magic take hold of the basket in front of him. He tapped it, and it jerked upright without him actively moving it. He could feel the action, like it was a memory of him moving it, but without actually doing it. Checking his sheet, he had figured out the Trigger spell, but lost Snip in the process. Trigger would apparently let him cause any effect he could physically do, but after a trigger and costing mana instead of stamina. It was great, a bit more than he had even wanted.

Now he should definitely have something irreplaceable, meaning it was time to find that beauty again. It took some time, since she had walked further up and was now sitting on the side, staring into the water. Her clothes were still wet, so it must not have been too long since she stopped hand fishing. He could still see the shape of her breasts clearly through the wet top, and it drove him on.

“Are you alright?” Ko opened with a question, emulating the caring he had heard from outsiders on occasion. It did not come naturally to him, but he hoped it would be enough to offset him being a Kobold and her a Dwarf.

“Wha!” Her head jerked up towards him and she slipped backwards off the stone she was sitting on. “Ah!” She continued, her back hitting the ground as she fell.

He had to contain a chuckle at the obvious surprise and lack of coordination she had just displayed. He remained atop the roots overlooking the stream and continued in his most pleasant voice, gesturing at the trees around them.

“I saw you trying to catch fish. You don’t seem to be doing so well out here.”

Her immediate response when she stood up was to eye him warily and glance around, presumably looking for more Kobolds. It was admittedly unusual for one to be alone.

“What does it matter to you?” She tried to put **** behind it.

He might normally be looking for an out himself by this point, but he was confident he had the high ground in at least two ways.

“I would be willing to help, for a price.” He was really trying his best to sound gallant, like a hero or leader.

She did not seem to see it that way. Although she gave a more reasonable response than he was expecting.

“What price you little… thing?”

“My name is Ko, and I would like to have your services!”

It took a few moments for him to realize what he had implied. Her slightly reddening face and look of surprise helped him see the issue.

“I would like for you to aid me with your strength, carrying and constructing if you know how. Also fighting along side me if it becomes necessary.” He hurriedly amended.

Her face calmed at that clarification and she shook her head quickly.

“Sure.” She wavered. “If you help me catch enough of these damn fish, I’ll, um, help you out too. My name’s Elise.”

Elise glanced around again, while he attempted to assess her sincerity. He honestly had no idea if she was being truthful, but he assumed he could escape her if need be. So he dropped the fish bucket over the edge and slid down after it, only barely landing on all fours. He was glad he hadn’t fallen right after meeting her.

Then he picked up the bucket again and looked up at her as he approached the stream. From this angle and distance he saw her breasts and mound again in slightly more detail. He was entranced by there tantalizing shape for a second. They rose and fell, nipples poking through, swaying as she took a step to the side. Then his foot caught a rock and over he went, almost landing on the bucket.

He stood back up in a flash. She was looking at him with a blush. He promptly set to his work, looking for places in the stream were he could wedge the bucket. He quickly found one and placed the bucket into it, dropping some bits of mushroom and other possibly edible plants he had collected into it. He looked up to check on the dwarf and she was there a few feet away looking on intently, breasts swinging slightly beneath her.

Focusing back on the bucket, he did the final step. He looked at it intently, placing a hand on it to make the magic easier, and willed his Trigger into place. When something that he would identify as a fish entered the bucket, it would be flipped upright onto the rocks just behind it. Casting the spell took a few seconds of focus, but he was pretty sure it would work. Then it was done, and he stepped away to wait.

He had to explain the basics of what he had done with the bucket to Elise to keep her from messing with it. After that, she looked at him with an expression he had never received before, awe. It made him feel like he was finally special, not just another Kobold. He also felt more powerful, like he had just crossed a line from insignificant to slightly less insignificant.