I turned slowly, experiencing mirth and horror all at once, to gaze upon our diminutive intruder.

  She resembled a draconian, really, just scaled down and stripped of a few features. The wings were missing entirely. Instead of horns, her head sported small, stubby protrusions that were doing their best, but looked entirely unintimidating. While Alys’ scales were a brilliant red, the kobold’s scales were a bright, slightly mottled green.

  I couldn’t tell if she even reached a meter in height. She also walked with a bit of a slouch, making her look even shorter than she was. Yet it was hard to remember that. If one focused only on her expression, a blinding grin full of confidence, one might think she was three times taller.

  Her noxious green, slightly glowing eyes met mine.

  “And this is the honorary kobold I’ve been told about!” she crowed, waving at me cheerfully. “Have you been trained yet? Do I need to give you lessons on how best to serve your mistress?”

  “Lilly!” my dragoness roared, finally sitting up a little and supporting herself on her elbows to glare at the kobold.

  “What? I meant cooking, cleaning, home-making, and other such matters. Where did your mind go, hmmm?”

  The kobold’s grin just kept growing. My dragoness was less amused.

  “I should set you on fire.”

  “Aha! That reminds me! The most important lesson of all: baby-wrangling,” Lilly muttered almost feverishly, looking at Alys with the sort of intensity that was typically reserved for something extremely precious.

  Except she wasn’t really looking at my dragoness, was she? From what I could tell, she was trying to force the world to bend to her will and let her look directly at Alys’ stomach, though both a blanket and I were in the way.

  Suddenly, the kobold sniffled. She took a few steps forward and stretched out her arms, almost like she was about to rush Alys for a hug.

  “I can’t put into words how proud of you I am! Gone for just a few months, and already you’ve got a mate and a little fire-spitter on the way!”

  “Um, thank you?” my dragoness rumbled, looking a more than a little overwhelmed.

  “Don’t thank me! Just keep the little ones coming!” The kobold was back to grinning, in spite of the tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. “Really, we can’t rely on your mother and grandmother there. Can you believe it’s been all these years and both only had a single child? That’s not right!”

  “Hrm?” was Alys’ intelligent answer, accompanied by a startled, wide-eyed look. I wasn’t much better off.

  “A clan of kobolds shouldn’t get this much bigger than the dragon family they’re serving,” Lilly continued. “I mean, sure, it’s very nice of your grandmother to give us everything we need to prosper, but people are starting up betting rings and actual duels for the right to pick up shifts directly in her lair! We need more of your family to look after. Well, I guess I got lucky. I got to come here!”

  She accompanied this smug declaration with a full-body wiggle that ended with her tail snapping out.

  I stared at the proud little creature, trying to wrap my head around her existence. Most importantly, I wondered how old she was to be acting with such… childlike enthusiasm, let’s call it.

  Naturally, I wasn’t about to ask a lady her age, but there were ways around that.

  “I am curious,” I ventured. “How old were you when you started taking care of Alys? You mentioned baby-wrangling experience?”

  “Hmm? Oh, I was twelve! Amara chose me because little Alys always stopped crying when I held her!” The kobold sent Alys a wink that made my dragoness groan in embarrassment. “And yes! I have some very important experience to pass on. Trust me, you don’t want a little fire-spitting hellion running around without proper supervision. Speaking of…”

  I watched as she spun around in place, studying the room. When she turned towards us again, there was a shrewd look in her eyes.

  “You should really reconsider your current home. I mean, half of it is right and proper, from what I’ve seen… but it’s certainly not this half. Really, Alys, you couldn’t have made a nice, warm, safe cave?” The kobold sighed dramatically. “This place is going to go up in flames the first time your little one has a tantrum. Besides, how are we supposed to dig access tunnels and burrows in a home like this?!”

  “I… We… We’ll talk about this later. Maybe when we’ve had a chance to dress?” my dragoness grumbled, reminding me that there was only a single layer of fabric between the kobold and our dignity.

  The little whirlwind of chaos didn’t seem bothered at all. Then again, the clothing she was wearing wasn’t exactly expansive. She had some kind of black, silky-looking cloth bound several times around her chest. It was even sliding down a little on one side, showing plainly that there was nothing for it to hide. I wondered if this was just the kobold way to signal their gender more easily. Further down, she was wearing something that reminded me of a loincloth, though much more elaborate and better able to conceal things. She’d been able to spin and skitter around with no fear for her modesty.

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  “Oh, pish-posh.” The kobold scoffed. “I’ve seen you naked way too many times to care, young lady. And I doubt your new kobold here’s got anything I haven’t seen, either.”

  Her words reminded me that her people were strong proponents of communal living. From what I’d read, they also didn’t subscribe to the concept of necessary clothing the way many other species did. Thankfully, they reserved the following of such principles to their own lairs and burrows…

  I was fairly sure they did, at least.

  Lilly spun away from us with another snap of her tail. “But if it means that much to you, I’ll go back downstairs! Don’t take too long, or I’m coming back to drag you down.”

  I doubted her diminutive stature would allow her to follow up on this threat. Still, I breathed a sigh of relief when she vanished a second later, having practically thrown herself down the stairs.

  “We should probably be quick. Something tells me she’s going to try to do what she promised,” I hedged.

  My dragoness seemed ready to combust in embarrassment. “Oh no. I accepted Grandmother’s request, but I forgot what it would mean to actually have Lilly living with us.”

  She groaned so dramatically, I had to fight down my laughter as I made soothing circles on her back.

  “At least she’ll help with ‘the little hellion,’” I said soothingly. “Even if she’ll probably bother us to… ah, make more of them.”

  Alys’ only response was more embarrassed groaning.

  —

  Getting dressed was a bit of a frantic process. Alys muttered to herself throughout, too quietly for me to pick up what she was saying. Still, by the time we had our clothes on, my dragoness had settled down considerably. We descended the stairs calmly, hand in hand.

  We were barely halfway down when we froze.

  I wasn’t sure what Alys was experiencing at the sight before us, but for me, it was something close to panic. There wasn’t just one kobold in our kitchen. There were three.

  Lilly was sitting between two other members of her species, arms wound around their waists and a very smug look on her face.

  To her right sat a cerulean kobold. I assumed he was male simply because he wasn’t wearing a chest binding like the other two. In small yet significant ways, his appearance was a bit different from the rambunctious terrorist who had held our modesty hostage. His tail ended in a fin-like tip. Two crested protrusions spread out from the sides of his head. His hands and feet were webbed. Even so, he was undoubtedly and undeniably a kobold.

  The other kobold was female. Her scales were coral pink, of all things. I had to assume the other two were her parents, as she was just about an even split between them. She had her father’s tail fin and webbing, but lacked the crests. A second look between Lilly and the unnamed male showed me that his scales were also slightly sleeker and almost wet-looking, traits which their daughter lacked.

  “Let me introduce you, fellow kobold!” Lilly crowed before anyone else could say a thing. The male shrank in on himself and looked about ready to pass out. The female whined and buried her head in her hands. “This is Vren, my mate. And this here is Millie, my youngest! Isn’t she precious?!”

  Lilly cooed for a moment, petting her daughter, before she suddenly paused. “Actually, fellow kobold, what is your name? I think the big mistress told me, but I forgot!”

  I glanced at Grandmother. However rambunctious Lilly had been with me and Alys, I hadn’t dreamed a kobold would sport such casual behavior around The Incandescent. Yet, though Aesa was rubbing her forehead and appeared to be dealing with a headache, she seemed amused rather than offended.

  Seeing as she wasn’t going to set the kobolds on fire (which was a relief, if for no other reason than the fact that Lilly was right and our home was highly flammable), I decided to play along.

  “My name is Thorn,” I said, raising a hand in greeting. Then I froze again in panic at the sight of my faintly rose-colored skin.

  Oh no.

  Following the promise I had made my dragoness long ago, my disguise was off. My hair, which typically looked black, was in its full blood-red splendor. My eyes, which were normally a sickly shade of yellow, were their true crystalline green. Combined with my rosy skin, there was absolutely no one who would mistake me for a common fae.

  And the kobolds had seen all of that. Extremely chatty kobolds, if Lilly was any indication.

  I overcame my surge of anxiety only by reminding myself several times that this had been Grandmother’s idea. She would not bring anyone into our home who would betray her trust. There would be no hiding my true nature in the long-term, anyway.

  “Very spiky name! I like it,” Lilly chirped. “Not that I didn’t like you already! The big mistress told us all about you and what you’ve been doing for the family. And I mean more than just contributing to it.” She giggled, gesturing vaguely towards Alys’ stomach, then sighed happily. “You do feel a whole lot more like a full dragon, smaller mistress.”

  “Hrmmm. She does.” Grandmother nodded approvingly, then speared the kobold with a look that would have had me cowering. “And really, Lilly. ‘Big mistress’? Must you refer to me in such a manner?”

  “Of course I must!” Lilly glanced at me, then barely covered up a snort of laughter by coughing. “I wasn’t aware that I haven’t been following proper kobold etiquette. The new kobold here has opened my eyes.”

  “How did you even find out about that?” I demanded, entirely incapable of covering the mild exasperation in my tone. “Who told you?”

  “The snowy one told me all about it!” Lilly sold out her source with a grin, motioning towards the dining table where Soren and Amara were sitting with a very quiet Kiri.

  Ah. Betrayal, then, I thought solemnly as I looked at Kiri.

  The Winter fae let out a soft little whimper at the sudden attention. She tried to hide behind her steaming mug, but obviously failed.

  “Urm… I can’t help some of the things I overhear,” she said tentatively.

  My look was extremely unimpressed. Were she capable of erupting into a flush, she would have.

  “And you had to share all of what your familiars let you ‘overhear’?” I demanded.

  “Well…”

  I had to admit, I enjoyed the little twitch of her lips. It was the equivalent of a smile for the Winter fae. In spite of the betrayal, for which I would definitely have my vengeance, it was truly wonderful to see that Kiri was feeling better.

  As the kobold erupted into laughter, and her mate and daughter looked embarrassed enough to consider running away, I took a moment to gaze at this expanded family of mine.

  A smile slipped onto my own face and refused to go away.

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