"Okay. Kobold sleep, I plan. Plan is think will be and decide what do. Decide is this or that, say which want and take which want."

She spends a few seconds puzzling this out, and then nods. "Okay."

She disappears again and returns with two more pieces of jerky and a little dried fruit - "you eat later" - and then goes to curl up in the living room under her blanket.

Derek eats, and broods, and plans.

And several hours later the kobold peeks into the kitchen.

"Hi."

Brood. Bite. Bristle. Bite.

"How was sleep?"

"Okay. You hungry?"

"I am eating now."

Bite.

"Kobold hungry?"

He has some paper in front of him.

Nod. "Go, see more food?" She offers her hand.

He takes her hand.

"We go."

They go. Their destination is dimly fire-lit; the fire is new and hasn't had time to catch properly yet. She takes a stick and pokes at it, causing it to flare up and briefly show her cave. "Kobold home," she explains.

"Kobold home. Kobold understand fire, understand light? You touch fire with," he gestures, indicating the stick.

"You make fire. You see fire light."

"Yes, understand." She moves around in the dimness and in a moment there's another flare of light; she's lit a torch from the fire.

"Not light is dark. If it is dark, it is not bright."

"Okay."

She takes the torch to one end of the cave, where a tunnel leads into the darkness. "Food there," she points. "You okay?"

"I am okay. Angry about murder."

She nods, then hesitates for a moment, and suddenly there's a human-sized patch of inky blackness on the cave wall near the tunnel. "New magic," she says, and then steps unhesitatingly into it; when the torch passes through it reveals a second cave on the other side of the portal with baskets of food piled on the floor. She turns back to look, not quite making eye contact - she doesn't seem to know where he is - and says, "come?"

He goes through. He looks around the second cave. 

"New magic. Can not you person magic come and go?"

"Need word, if you do thing maybe you die, thing is word?"

"Maybe deadly. If do thing and maybe die, is deadly."

Nod. "Learn magic is deadly. Know magic is not deadly. I no teach magic, not-me person not do magic."

"Other people come with you magic and they no do magic?

"Yes."

"This is kobold food? Only this?"

Sigh. "Yes. Is okay. Only I, no other kobold." It's hard to see her face in the dim light, but she certainly sounds sad.

"Understand alone? Understand family?"