Kobolds, cowering little critters lurking in caverns surrounded by enough traps to justify the most chronic paranoid and worshiping dragons? Get with the times, chummer. That was centuries ago. Back when your folk were looking down on us figuratively as well as literally, slaughtering us by the score with your advantages in good steel and brute force. You were the ones who drove us into those caves. You were the reason we needed all those traps.

I don't hold it against you, though. If anything, we should thank you for it. When you took almost everything from us, you left us with desperation. That dragon worship? That turned into sorcery, harnessing the power of our draconic ancestry. Traps? Those are just machines, and in refining those we began a legacy of engineering. And once we found black powder? Well, all that height just makes for bigger targets.

But like I said, that was centuries ago. It's not like I'm some nutjob going around killing humans and elves to right the injustices of the past, or something. Even the elves who perpetrated that're long dead. And it's not like I get my jollies killing people, either.

Well, maybe a little.

But mostly, it pays well. I know you understand the value of money. I mean, seeing what you stole from -- well, you know who hired me. And why. The only thing you don't know for sure is that they wanted me to make it slow. You pissed off the wrong suit.

So that's why I started by disabling your limbs. And why I'm talking to you. That and so you know I mean it when I say it's just business.

Now, why don't we talk about how much a quick death is worth to you?

-=-

Vikaya ('vɪk kaɪ ʌ in her native Southern Draconic; 'vɪsk kaɪ ʌ in the Northern), cold-blooded kobold gunslinger, infiltrator, and assassin for hire from a dark near-future urban fantasy cyberpunk setting. Cybernetic wings sold separately.

Art:  goat-kid