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Tala was exhausted, she had been running for days. There had been no time to hunt, not that she was particularly skilled at it, little time to rest. In the back of her mind she was certain that the Elves that attacked her tribe were following her. Every night she had climbed a tree and tried to nest. It had been a waste of time. She hadn't slept since the night before the raid.

Every time she closed her eyes she could hear her friends and family screaming. She could see the warriors trying to rally and swarm the intruders, taking up their spears and attacking. It was for nothing. The elves were too fast, there were too many of them. The Kobold's that she had known her whole life had died by the dozen in their desperate defence. It had been horrible.

She had seen elves pulling apart huts, smashing Kobold eggs and eating them as they pinned the inhabitants to the dirt under their boots. The thought made her want to vomit. It felt like she had been running forever, like it was all she had. To skitter through the woods as fast as possible in hopes of outrunning the memories of her home being torn asunder.

The green stick she had broken off was all that was still holding her up, and as she broke through the green undergrowth and found herself at the shore of a lake it gave way as well, snapping and depositing the calico colored Kobold onto her face. Trying to crawl as best she could to the water to drink and rest for a few moments, Tala was entirely unaware she had been noticed by a nearby human fisherman.

Gazing at her with a furrowed brow, he quietly took in the sight as the mess of a Kobold stumbled out of the woods just a dozen or so feet from where he was sitting. Obok sat there, totally dumbstruck. He had always heard Kobolds were sneaky creatures, wily and clever. This one was none of those things. The diminutive female was holding herself up with a stick and stumbling towards the water. Frozen where he sat Obok didn't start to move again until the compact creature's walking stick broke and it plopped to the ground gasping for air and weakly scrabbling towards the water.

Human strength quickly allowed him to easily pick up the Kobold, carrying her gently to where he had been fishing. The beast was in bad shape, exhausted and likely nearing the point of no return for dehydration, from her small ribs being visible above the tattered leather loin cloth starvation wasn't far behind either. Obok had never felt any hatred towards these forest dwelling thieves, combined with his own moral compass he couldn't let her just expire in his lap.

Ignoring the possibility that she may be ill he quickly pulled his watersack up and pulled the cork from its top, gently wetting her mouth. The suddenness of her pint-sized paws coming up surprising him as she nearly pulled the pouch from his grip to gulp at the water, he knew his native tongue would likely be useless but nevertheless spoke, "Whoa there, not so fast. You'll choke. There's a lake, don't worry there'll be more water."

The wild thing's ears twitched violently at his words and she stared up at him in shock, Tala was beyond resisting, too weak to fight after expending what strength she had trying to turn the water skin inside out. Obok could feel her heart rate start to skyrocket as she stared at him, and remembering what his father had once said about these creatures wars with the nearby Elven clans he slowly twisted his head, showing it his not pointed ear.

Tala did everything she could not to cry out in terror as the huge creature moved, it was twice her size and some, easily, but it had given her water. Her mind raced about what Elves did to Kobolds. Stories of being captured and fattened up for slaughter crept at her remaining sanity. Of being run through from end to end and cooked while still alive. It took her a few moments of looking at the side of the creatures head to realize that it wasn't an Elf.

Barely mustering up the courage to speak she asked back in her own tongue, "You human? Why share?"

The two were totally lost for a time. The nearly yip-yapping of Tala and spoken words were just noise to each other. Eventually the human pointed to himself and simply said, "Obok." The simple concept worked and Tala returned the idea, slowing her speech down and answering with her own name in kind. This continued for a time as the two worked out some form of mixed communication, only ending because of a loud grumble in the Kobold as she clutched her pained midsection.

The fisherman pointed to his mouth, miming and saying "Eat?" All the while reaching down with a free hand to pull a thin rope up out of the water, he had already caught half a dozen fish and run the string through their gills before tossing them back in the water to stay fresh. Laying her down gently and swiftly pulling a small crappie from the line to share as he softly jibed her, "This one aught to be good."

She just nodded, shaming herself in her own eyes by needing him to hold the fish up for her as her small Kobold fang's bit into the offered food. It was as odd a few minutes as Obok had ever seen in his days, the fish didn't last long and there was nothing left when she was done. As she finished the last of the meal Tala looked up at her savior, pondering what kind of insanity this was as her exhaustion overtook her.

It would be an hour or two before he carried her, and his catch, back to his nearby hut. He hadn't had any visitors at all since he was outcast from his village a few years before for accidently setting a barn on fire. Life had been hard, but it would be nice to have company for a few days before she ran back into the woods and back to her tribe.