A cold gust blew past a cloaked figure riding a carriage, a metal clinking heard from them. A kobold, blankly staring at the floor of the carriage, arms chained. "Transported once again." The Kobold thought to itself. The lizard tensed up at the thoughts at their new owners possible actions, letting out a shaky breath they waited for the inevitable stop of the carriage.

CH. 1 - Strangers

	You mindlessly mix together ingredients spices, herbs, and greenery. The quiet bubbling of the brewing stand being the only source of sound in the shop. You were the owner of this shop, business slow but adventurers almost always bought out your stock, keeping you afloat. You let out a sigh continuing to mindlessly mix ingredients waiting for you new assistant.

	A knock at the door snaps you out of your thoughts. you head towards the shop's door. opening it to the sight of a hooded man and a Kobold in tattered rags in the dead of night, chains adorning the lizard's wrists shivering violently. "Ah, you must be... er... Anon. E. Mous?" He said in a rather unsettlingly cheery tone.

	"Um, yes that's me. Is this my new assistant?" You manage out, trying to ignore his tone.
The man lets out a hearty laugh "Yes, yes... this is your "assistant". You grimace inwardly as the word assistant leaves his mouth, you let out a nervous chuckle as his laughter soon dies down to a mere chuckle, he looks down to the Kobold still shivering and shoves it in your abode. It lands face first as it's arms are still bound. He smirks and looks back up to you, rummaging through his pocket before pulling out a key, handing it to you.

	You grab the key and look down at the Kobold. It has picked itself up and is now shivering as it stands next to you - at least it isn't out in the cold now, so it may be able to warm up. You turn your head to look at the hooded man again asking him a question "Uh, what's this key for?" He puts on the same unsettling cheerful grin. "Ah, it's for the arm restraints. We don't have the key for the collar though. Heh, like you want to remove it." He replies in that same cheery tone.
"Ha ha, y-yeah as if. That is all I need for tonight, thank you." You avert your gaze to not look him in those seemingly dead eyes and moving to close the door. The man simply nods and waves goodbye, the smile never leaving his face, A shiver escapes you as you think about the guy.

	You turn to the Kobold still shivering and kneel down to it, giving a warm smile. You reach out to hold it's arm, the lizard flinches as if you pulled a weapon on it, You're slightly taken aback but shrug it off gently saying "Hey, if you aren't comfortable with me touching you can you hold your arms up?" The Kobold scrutinizes you carefully, analyzing for any dishonesty or malice in your words. It lets out a shaky sigh, raising its arms or should you say her arms, 2 scaled breasts are visible from under the tattered top. You shake your head and not letting it get to you, raising the key to the hole the chains soon loosen and fall off of her wrists. She immediately crossed her arms, hiding her breasts again.

	You look to her and motion her to follow, she's avoiding eye contact but follows you. "Let's get you into something more comfortable, and probably something warmer." You walk into your bedroom and can now hear haggard breathing, you look back to your Kobold and see her frozen, heavily breathing, eyes darting everywhere. You slightly freak out and quickly blurt out "Oh, uh you can wait outside if you'd like!" You start rummaging through your clothing drawer to find something that would seem comfortable to someone of her stature. You quickly pull out a black turtleneck sweater and look back to your still hyperventilating Kobold.

	awkwardly shuffling towards her you pull her out of your room, her breathing is still heavy but she seems to be calming down. You kneel down to her and present the sweater, "Here, i've outgrown it and don't have the heart to throw it out." Her eyes dart around the gift looking for anything fishy, with the constant look of fear still on her face she grabs the sweater, she places it on the floor before tearing the rags that adorned her off and away, leaving nothing but a mess of burlap. "I can pick that up later, just get dressed." You look away, keeping your imaginary good standing with her.

	Once you stop hearing the sound of wool shifting you look back, the black sweater contrasting her snow white scales. A smile creeps on your face without you noticing, with the smile still on your face you ask her a question "Do you have a name?" slightly tilting your head. She looks away and starts tapping her claws together, you take it as a "no" and put your hand to your chin thinking of a name for her. A name pops in your head and suddenly point to her, she flinches, pulling back a bit, eyes slightly wider. "How about Lucco?"

	She rubs her arm and nods slowly, you stand back up and motion her to follow. "Come come, we need to get you fed." she stands still for a second before following behind. You open a cabinet grabbing a loaf of bread, then grabbing a knife. You look over to the cellar a few feet away, going towards it you hear a chair moving and feel a slight sense of relief. You open the cellar and grab a leg of ham, closing it on the way back to the counter. Cutting the bread, you hear footsteps, ignoring them as you know the culprit behind them. Minutes later you have a few sandwiches prepped and ready to be eaten. Walking over to the table, you see Lucco examining at a painting of you and your family, a look of longing showing clear on her face.

	You slide the plate over to where she was last sat and go into another room with a glass, you come back with the glass filled with water. Seeing Lucco eyeing the plate, you raise a brow but don't question it. You come back to the table, sitting in the chair in front of her. "You can eat these if you want, i'm not that hungry." You move the glass of water next to her, she slowly moves her arm to grab a sandwich then biting into it. The constant look of fear slightly disappearing but still very much prominent. You give her a quick smile before looking at a list of the ingredients you have to buy for a full restock in potions.

	An idea comes to you, you'll get her to come out with you to help with shopping. It'll make the carry load easier on you and she'll get to go outside without those shackles, another thought comes around and bounces around in your head. What if she reacts badly..? You quickly shake the thought away, you have to put some trust in Lucco. With it done and accounted for you look up to see the Kobold staring at the empty plate, visibly tensed up. You get up to collect the plate, reaching down she immediately covers her head with her arms, tears flowing down her face.

	You physically jerk back wondering if you did something wrong. You look at her, she's in a fetal position, a shivering sniffling mess, a few gasps and moans escaping her maw. You kneel down and pick her up, she seemingly shrinks as she curls even more into the position. You look at the tiny Kobold in your arms, so vulnerable, so weak in this state, you gently rock her while whispering sweet nothing into where you think her ear would be, "You're fine, i'm not going to let anyone hurt you... You're safe here." "I won't let anything happen to you."

	Minutes later she finally uncurls from the fetal position, finally gaining enough courage to look you in the eyes. Two brilliant crimson colored eyes caked in layers of fear. You give her a genuine smile but she simply turns away. Opting to keep her face hidden away. You let out a sigh of defeat before your back collides with the kitchen wall slowly sliding down to hit the floor, to a sitting position.


	What was this human doing? Why hasn't he hit you? Why is he comforting you in your most vulnerable time, and not taking pleasure in your pain? Why is he treating you well? You move your arms away from your head and look at him, smiling to lull you into a false sense of security, to have you drop your guard. You turn away from him, not trusting the human one bit, you hear a sigh and feel movement, a thud, and sliding down. All you can think is what he's planning to do.

	You tilt your head back hitting the wall you were resting on. Staring at the ceiling with a rather untrusting Kobold in your arms you sigh, you close your eyes thinking how this will gel over until you're interrupted by the squirming lizard in your arms, you look back down to see the Lucco stretching and yawning. You follow suit with a yawn of your own pulling yourself up from the kitchen wall you walk towards your bedroom. Looking behind you to see Lucco following, a small smile crawls onto your face.

	You get to your bedroom door, pulling it open and motioning your Kobold to come in. With slight alarm she begrudgingly walks in nervously fidgeting, while studying the room. A grimace slowly appearing on her face as she sits on the floor next to your bed, you walk up to your bed, sitting on the edge of it you pat the empty spot next to you, looking down to her you give an encouraging smile. But all that effort for naught she turns away without a second thought opting to lie on the wooden floor.

	You raise a finger in protest but let it drop with a sigh standing back up you look around your room for any spare pillows or blankets. You come back empty handed, not anticipating the current situation you made very few purchases prepare for your assistant. You let out a groan of defeat and climb back onto the bed lying on the side furthest away from Lucco, you close your eyes thoughts racing through your head not letting you have a moment of peace. After a few minutes of uncomfortably shifting and turning around the welcoming grip of sleep finally grasps at you bringing you into the world of dreams, the faint sounds of creaking wood is all that is heard before you fully drift off.

	The floor lets out a groan of protest as you place your hand against it pushing yourself up to a sitting position, multiple thoughts rushing through your brain many of them regarding the human that bought you. Was he just trying to gain your trust to let you down even further? Did he actually care for you? With a sigh of anguish you bring your knees to your chest, hugging them and letting your head rest on them continuing to question the thoughts. You look up to see the room's door unguarded, you can just waltz out and for a fleeting moment feel freedom.

	You shoo the thought away, and begrudgingly accept the "compassion" your new owner seems to be giving you. Standing up you pull yourself up onto the bed lying on the seemingly silky sheets and lie as far away from the human peacefully lying next to you, closing your eyes you try not to let thoughts of him attacking you push themselves to the front of your brain. You finally drift off to unconsciousness still rather uneasy.

	Your eyes flutter open slowly evolving into rapids blinks finally coaxing you into reality, not moving from your lying position you turn your head to the window to try and figure out the time. Examining the window with blurred vision you make out it's still dark out with a slight groan you turn your head back trying to enjoy the precious seconds you have left in bed. Your eyes land on a white and black blob, narrowing your eyes so that you can actually focus it slowly shapes into your now familiar Kobold. You're surprised to see her there and plan to ask her questions but you relent, looking at her face now the constant expression of fear and unease was replaced by a rather vacant one, you enjoy the change of pace.

	With another short groan you sweep your legs off the bed planting them on the ground. You heft yourself up and start towards the door only stopping to pet the sleeping Kobold, she shifts and fidgets at the touch but calms down rather quickly returning to her rhythmic breathing. Continuing out the door you enter your brewing room, the stand still quietly bubbling "I should teach her how to brew herself one day." You think aloud to yourself. Picking up a bottle filled with a deep red liquid and a dagger you quickly nick yourself with your trusty dagger placing it down you pour a bit of the red liquid in a small glass swigging it all down. The cut on your finger seemingly healing instantly, raising an eyebrow you grab the dagger again you flip your hand palm upwards and splay your fingers. You slowly move the dagger to the middle of your palm digging it in rather deep.

	You grit your teeth trying to ignore the pain while raising the dagger back up, your hand sufficiently harmed you pour more of the red liquid into the small glass again taking a swig of it. Feeling immediate relief you look back down to your hand to see your flesh quickly remolding itself to fix the damage with a large grin plastered on your face you place the potion back onto the brewing shelf labelling it "Strengthened healing" you turn away from the table and swear you could hear pittering of feet, you shrug it off thinking you're still tired continuing out of the brewing room.

	Pushing the door of your bedroom open you see Lucco still fast asleep but now turned around, taking a few steps towards her you give her a light shake. You nearly have a heart attack as she quickly sits up with a yelp defensively wrapping arms around herself with a few deep breaths you calm down, the same cannot be said about the white Kobold shivering on your bed. "H-hey, hey, it's just me Anon. I just needed you awake" you say in the most soothing voice you can put on, you see her eyes move to your face as she slowly unfurled herself. Her eyes staying trained on you "W-why are you t-treating me like this?" a very raspy but feminine voice says seemingly on the edge of crying.

	You're slightly taken aback by the seemingly mute Kobold saying something out of the blue, it takes you a moment to process the question "Treat you like what?" You ask genuine confusion lacing your words. Lucco looks up to you staring into your soul, tears welling up at the sides of her eyes "Like i'm a person!" you recoil a bit at the harsh tone but reply with the only answer you can genuinely give, "Because you are a person, not a piece of property." you frown a bit at her, Lucco only giving an angered stare back. "That's what they all say..." with that sentence she breaks down, tears streaming down her face and falling back onto the bed with hands covering her face.

	You sit next to her the soft sobbing and sniffling becoming more apparent, placing your hand on her head you start to rub passing along the ridges on her scalp protruding upwards to her long goat like horns. Still looking at her with grief stricken eyes you do your best to comfort her, the sounds of sobbing slowly becoming quieter and quieter she moves her hands away from her face looking at you with her crimson eyes, she mutters "Please... don't be like the others." diverting her gaze again she stands up throwing your hand off from her head. Looking at her again the constant look of fear and disdain have softened slightly, a small smile spreads across your face. Seems you've finally made a chip in the marble.

CH. 2 - Assistant

	A few hours after the incident Lucco has gone back to her normal 'mute' self but now you're sitting across from her in the kitchen. 
Examining the list of ingredients you need for today's batch of potions muttering to yourself about the ungrateful adventurers that buy out your stock and leave with such a ruckus. You look up from the paper to the Kobold nibbling the leg of lamb you've cooked for her "Hey, Lucco I want you to get some fresh air, why not come out with me?" She looks spooked at first but soon calms down and weakly nods while looking at the floor. A smile comes to you along with the thought that she may only be doing this reluctantly even if it was, it'd be a nice change of scenery for her.

	Leaning on the door frame you wait for Lucco to get finished readying herself up to leave the house. Hearing footsteps you look down breaking your idle daydreaming seeing your Kobold wearing a rather large scarf, enough to cover the collar but small enough to not be cumbersome with the sweater you gave her still adorned on her upper body. Pushing yourself off the frame you take a few steps towards her, keeping her gaze locked on the floor you kneel down placing a hand underneath her chin and pushing up so she faces you head on. You give a light smile and say in a hushed tone "I won't let anyone hurt you, come on I don't want you cooped on in here." with that said you use a free hand and slip it into her clawed ones. Standing up you open the door and gently pull her along.

	A mish-mash of muffled chattering fills the market air no one taking much notice to your Kobold companion. You bring her to the stands you frequent for ingredients, striking up a few conversations with the people that run the stands you introduce them to your Scaled assistant many of whom give compliments and warm greetings. Through all of it she just keeps the grip on your hand feeling like a vice grip every time you introduce her to someone, taking note of it you buy the ingredients from the current vendor and kneel down to Lucco "Do you want me to stop introducing you?" tilting your head slightly as you say it. Sheepishly she nods taking it into account you stand back up and continue buying the ingredients trying to keep the Kobold comfortable.

	You wave goodbye to the last vendor as you go towards the entrance of the market to get home, checking your list one last time you're met by some resistance as the Kobold next to you is staring at a booth with an uncharacteristically placid expression. Kneeling down Lucco's height you casually ask "Want me to buy you something from that guy?" her crimson eyes shift to you adopting the familiar look of fear you've grown accustomed to, her eyes quickly dart around trying her damndest not to look at you. With your free hand you cup her cheek and move her head to look at your directly "I want to prove to you that i'm not like your past owners" you say in a reassuring tone, feeling her hand squeeze yours harder threatening to draw blood she lets out a barely audible "Yes please."

	You nod as you reach a free arm around her, pulling her into a quick embrace you stand back up gently pulling her along to the stand with a sign reading "Genuine Kobold jewelry and charms!" looking down to your companion you see she's too busy examining the jewelry to notice you looking at her, giving her hand a little squeeze snaps her out of the trance she looks up to you with a confused look. You roll your eyes "Which once looks good to you?" you say to her, she looks back at the table full of exotic looking jewelry until her eyes land on a specific necklace. a crow skull shaped amethyst glittering with a beautiful purple shine. Asking how much the necklace is the merchant takes notice of Lucco staring at it, shooing her away he angrily says "Hey! Get outta here lizard, get your grubby claws off of my jewlery!" she recoils and skitters behind your legs for protection keeping a tight grip on your hand.

	You mutter angrily to yourself and swear at the merchant under your breath with the man none the wiser he looks back up to you with a fake smile. You bring up the cash to pay him and slam it on the tabletop, grabbing the necklace you turn away angrily huffing while pulling the Kobold along quickly out of the market square to your home. You slam the door behind you and sigh loudly to calm yourself down and not go into a yelling fit and spooking your companion, you turn back to where Lucco would be standing and you see her rubbing one of her arms and keeps her head down in shame, groaning inwardly you saunter to the Kobold with necklace in hand and squat down to her height, adopting a softer tone of voice you speak to her "Hey, none of that was your fault just some grouchy guy with anger problems."

	Holding out a hand the amethyst skull dangles from the chain interlaced with your fingers "Here, it's yours anyway." She looks up to you then the necklace, gently grabbing the skull that hung from it. Letting it go you look at Lucco her expression is nothing but surprise, a massive change from her usual melancholic look standing back up you leave to your brewing room to unpack all the ingredients you've just bought. Despite the one setback you think this was an okay start to get her out and about, another thought crosses your mind... when will you teach her how to help you brew potions? Rubbing your chin you decide to bring it up to her later when the time is right, even if it is counter productive to why you got her in the first place.

	While placing the last of your ingredients in cabinets and pantries you swear you could see a speck of white in the corner of your eye in the doorway, ugh hopefully no restless adventurer spirits come back and haunt you for no explainable reason. You shiver at the thought of rowdy adventurer souls constantly yelling dumb commands at you, with a quick stretch you stand back up and turn around to the door thinking if you need some sort of priest to get some dumb spirits out of your home, you walk down the hall to your living room while deep in thought. You feel a sudden solid object hit your stomach with very little force and recoil, snapping out of your thoughts to see what you ran into. Lucco stands before you, tensed up and looking up in your general direction. You reciprocate the stare then flick your eyes elsewhere then back to her, with a cough you break the silence "Hey Lucco, you need something?" 

	With her nervous fidgeting and absolute unwillingness to look you in the eye you kneel down and cup her cheek, making your companion completely freeze in her tracks. Running your hand across the scales of her cheek you reach rough spots at certain points each time making her recoil at the touch, with a sigh you remove your hand and let it rest on your knee. Standing back up to your full height you move to walk past her, after she disappears from sight you feel a grasp on your hand and are prompted to look back at the Kobold behind you, she looks up at you with those beautiful crimson red eyes and with a pull of the collar of the sweater revealing the collar she's bound, a mutter escapes her "Please, if you truly want to help me get this thing off of me, I don't want to be reminded that i'm just property now..." as the last word leaves her maw she lets go of your hand without letting you respond and lets the sweater's collar go back to hiding the slave collar.

	You're left stunned at her sudden request and gawking at nothing as she shuffles past you, now left with even more thoughts racking your brain than before while walking to your living room. Dropping onto your sofa you contemplate Lucco's request... how would you even get it off without hurting her if you can't find the key, acids would burn her, anything that melts metals would burn her, your town was big on slave trading so you don't think the key-maker would just make you a key for a slave collar, and paying some thief for a chance of being mugged instead doesn't sound very lucrative to you either. Turning to a lying position you stare at a wall while going over ways to remedy the problem at hand, while going over them your eyelids get heavier and heavier as you constantly shift from consciousness to unconsciousness finally drifting off to a dreamless sleep.

	The quiet creaking of wood is all that echoes throughout the halls in a rhythmic beat, you lean on the door frame of your owners bedroom examining the trinkets and baubles hung and strung around the room until one catches your eye, a picture frame... it holds a photo of your owner with his family, humans of all shapes and sizes surround him as he sits in the middle. Your mind drifts to happier times with your own family as you blankly stare at the photo, taking a few steps into the room you get close enough to grab the frame to study it in more detail, as you pick it up you eyes drift to your owner almost instinctively he looks... nervous behind the facade of a smile. Putting the frame back down you're filled with a slight melancholy when you remember your past life before enslavement, you wonder what happened to your parents when you were taken, were they even still alive, do they even think you're still alive, you groan and leave the room to wander your home some more.