Aby was not the only to hear this noise, it seemed. Almost as soon as the soft crunching of the egg could be heard the high kobold sitting outside the primitive hut poked her head inside, and upon seeing the white shell beginning to deform she quickly hopped to her feet, then quickly made her way to where the warrior was sparring with the kelpie’s rider, a one sided affair in the eyes of Aby. She was simply unable to match up to the warrior without her mount, and he was already off elsewhere.

Their bout was already on the verge of ending, but when the visitor to the sparring grounds barked out a few words to him about the situation it came to a rapid resolution. In just a short few seconds, the rider was flat against the floor, her stained black crusted in a layer of damp sand whilst her already matted, oily black feathers were now caked with sand. The warrior didn’t even spare her a glance, simply tossing aside the feathers he’d ripped from her and bolting towards the hut that held his progeny with even more gusto than his partner had come to him.

Aby healed the winded and livid rider, and the patch of skin and feathers which regrew stood out against her otherwise pitch dark exterior. The core didn’t review her for long, though, instead shifting its focus the few dozen meters away towards the hut. A second egg had begun shaking, this time one of the high kobolds was joining its aquatic brethren in their struggles against the confines of their eggs.

It wasn’t long before the warrior had also arrived at the building, practically dragging the high kobold behind him in his haste. He quickly narrowed his eyes at the clutch of eggs that were his own, an easy feat due to the steadily climbing amount of activity he saw. His face twisted into a feral grin upon seeing the activity, and Aby was interested in seeing why exactly that was as he quickly but carefully walked around the drake’s clutch over to where the first egg had begun splitting open.

Strangely, despite being the first to awaken, it wasn’t the aquatic kobold that did so. Instead, the high kobold had spared no time in putting his all towards breaking free of his prison, and within moments had managed to thrust his arm through the hard shell, immediately catching the eye of the warrior. His father responded by grabbing hold of the tiny forearm and giving a quick pull, tearing him free of his egg. The high kobold was handed off, his shrill cries beginning to draw the attention of the rest of the tribe by this point, and it wasn’t long after that a large majority had arrived, from the two dragonkin to the still irate coastal kobold.

Aby too was watching with interest, watching as all eleven kobolds had more or less simultaneously begun hatching. It was an interesting phenomena, something it had seen with most animals that laid multiple eggs, there was almost no delay between the first hatchling being freed from its liquid home and the rest starting their own hatching. In fact, only the aquatic kobold seemed content where she was, and with the other ten eggs having hatched not much attention was spared for her.

In just a few short minutes, the empty hall was now overrun with small kobolds, each varying degrees of loud and energetic. The three high kobolds had already almost entirely settled down by this point, after a few moments they had finished their wailing and instead huddled around the only other of their kind they could find, their mother, staring warily at everything else in the room. The coastal kobolds were a great deal more rambunctious, and unlike the reasonably intelligent high kobolds they acted much more like the seagulls on the ninth floor. Specifically, all of them had picked a figure in that room and wobbled towards it unsteadily, then clung to them as if their life depended on it.

The next while was hectic, most of the tribe was at a loss with what exactly to do with the new members, and the only idea at all wasn’t exactly gaining ground in the tribe. While the coastal dragonkin wanted to simply leave them in the wild and allow them to work their way back if they’re able to, the parents took offense to this. Aby had never actually seen one of the kobolds contest the chief so vehemently in the past, and he and the high kobold were gritting their teeth, trying with all their might to not succumb to the matriarch’s simple presence.

During the course of their argument, if one could call a dragonkin trying to make a reasonable point as well as display her authority getting the word ‘no’ screamed in her face in varying tones by two kobolds an argument, the little hatchlings had found themselves unable to handle the stress, and a majority of them were now unconscious. Only the high kobold young were still awake, and even they were on the verge of passing out.

The core watched the two parties square off for an extended period of time, the dispute growing more and more heated, and Aby was worried that it would have to notify the two to refrain from killing the other, since it couldn’t yet spawn either. Thankfully, before tensions came to a head, a third party arrived that everyone was wary of.

Aby watched as the kelpie jerkily trotted over to the central hut, no doubt drawn by the yelling going on, only to peer inside and see the ten different hatchlings strewn about, each recuperating from the stress. The kelpie’s trainer was only barely fast enough to propel herself in front of the doorway before her mount had finished rearing back and giving a genuinely disturbing laugh, if the rest of the tribes’ emotions were anything to go off of.

Aby wasn’t overly concerned with the safety of the newborns at the appearance of the kelpie, it had already been more than clear in telling the kelpie not to attack any of the tribe outside of whatever form of training the beast did with his rider, figuring that would be for the best. The core still payed attention to his appearance nonetheless, he had a tendency to complicate matters.

Still, it appeared that the kelpie was more than a little eager to investigate the newer, smaller inhabitants, and even with his rider practically beating him over the head with the shaft of her harpoon, he still trudged towards the opening valiantly, and it wasn’t until the kobold warrior left to join the rider that the kelpie finally stilled its march forward. Finally, after another minute of being abused by the two it took the hint, giving a cold harrumph before shaking his mane once more. He turned around afterwards, and departed with a wobbly gait, looking over his shoulder a few times before he disappeared around a bend to resume his prior activities.

And so the tribe was left in silence, mostly due to the fact that a great deal of the adults had been coated in the tar of the kelpie, before they finally resumed what they had been doing before. It was at this point in their discussions that Aby’s interest had begun to wane, now that things were mostly settled, and nothing interesting had occurred, it decided to put its mind towards more meaningful matters, allowing the warrior and chief to continue their much more polite discussion without it.

Before it could depart, however, it gave a final glance at the aquatic kobold. It was only now that she had begun to do anything resembling a struggle to hatch, and before long she, too, had broken free of her ivory shell. It watched as she began to struggle in an entirely different fashion than the rest, instead of imprinting on any of the other members, or seeking parental comfort, she simply crawled forward, ignoring the surrounding few before her father scooped her up, placing her back in the center of the hut with a stern no.

And so, the core turned its mind away from that floor entirely, deciding to leave them to whatever they decide to do, and debating whether it should spawn a few more kobolds before the others finish maturing. Eventually, it simply decided to create a trio of aquatic kobolds on the ninth floor to fend for themselves.

It was pleased with the three, turning away as they very quickly became used to their own bodies and their new territory. It withdrew its focus back to its core room a moment later, feeling Sela slowly enter the room, still antennae-in-hand with the injured rifle shrimp. The core wasn’t sure why exactly she brought the shrimp with her, it wasn’t used to having company in its core, but it wouldn’t object to Sela’s wishes without good reason to.

And besides, as it watched the two wander back into Sela’s room, the shrimp acting much more sluggish while they do, the core felt another barrier in its mind crumble. It was surprised to feel that happening, though, it was only recently it had created new floors, and it wasn’t expecting to be able to do three more for quite some time. It was left confused all over again about what exactly dictates these seemingly arbitrary rules, but while it could only hope to one day understand more about itself, it had plenty of time right now to work on digging downwards.