She's a speaker; she knows better than almost any other kobold what her odds are. Sometimes an exile will survive a year; rarely, the tribe that exiled them will see them again after two. But no exiled kobold in all the history the local speakers know has ever survived to be seen after a third year, no matter what advantages they started with.
She's a mage, if not a proper one, and that is an advantage, at the same time as it's the thing that caused her exile. She's almost comfortable, now, at least in the ways she can be comfortable. She's not hungry or thirsty or cold; just lonely.
Kobolds don't do very well, though, lonely.
And she knows her odds. Even with her magic, she'll eventually run into something that she hasn't planned for and can't defend against on her own. Or get sick, or hurt, or unlucky in some fatal way.
So there's very little reason not to take risks. She has an idea of what her magic might do, if she uses it in this interesting-looking way, but if she's wrong, if it doesn't... well, she's not missing out on much, anyway.
She casts.