A Spare in the Trunk: Winter Wardrobe Vignette
Just a quick shopping scene to tide people over.
Pink, pink, pink. The line of coats on the rack kept going round and around, picking up speed until several fell off, clattering to the ground amid the sound of laughter. Jack surveyed the discount store to make sure no one was staring and then cleared his throat, loudly. “Would you knock it off?"
Lys took her claw off the coat rack, but left it spinning. Another coat flew off. “I’ve never seen one of these before."
“And you never will again if they toss us out of here. Did you forget they didn’t even let us in at Wal-Mart?”
“I didn’t forget.” The green kobold huffed, but she slowed the rack down until it came to a stop. “Most of these are for kids anyway. Couldn’t we just order online?”
Jack shook his head. “Want to make sure it fits and that you like it.”
“Are you saying that I’m picky?”
“Yes.” Jack looked at the mess on the floor and sighed. She was right, for someone her size and their budget the selection was pretty much limited to hand-me-downs of ponies and princesses. Even when those were absent there were often other decorations that made her turn her snout up at them, not that he blamed her. He gave up on the current rack and moved to another. Once in a while someone looked in his direction to figure out who he was talking to and wound up looking at him confused. “How did you get by in winter before?” he asked.
“Any way that I could,” she said with such a note of finality that he decided not to explore the subject. He didn’t want to see that mental image of her huddling someplace or stealing clothes. Humans had been awfully slow to offer the hand of charity to kobolds.
“I’ve heard things are changing in some places.”
“Well, they aren’t changing here. I’m just glad I tricked a big, strong, handsome human to take care of me.”
The corners of his mouth raised, first into a smile and then a massive grin with a bit of a blush he couldn’t get rid of. “But at what cost?”
“Cooking, cleaning, and spreading my tail…it’s not so bad,” she said without skipping a beat. “Can’t we find something in red?”
“I haven’t found any red yet, there’s pink, loads of pink, tons of pink.”
Lys looked sick each time he said the word. “I hate pink. Pink is just a bad red.”
“I guess kobolds don’t come in pink then?”
She poked her snout into another line of coats as if she could sniff out the one she wanted. The kobold pulled away, something in the pile must not have agreed with her. “Every kobold hatched red thanks their elders for not being pink. It’s a weakness either in the spawn or the parents, or both. My parents told me a few stories when I was young about how some families would…dispose of them.” She shuddered and moved a few coats around.
“Jesus…so are there any preferred colors then?”
Using her tail, she pushed them back and forth, giving each one the stink eye. “White used to be a sign of good things all around, very rare. Blue meant the hatchling was destined for great things, easy life for nothing, as easy as any kobold’s life could be anyway.” She sneered and rolled her eyes. “Yellow is strong and brave.” Her gaze went distant as if thinking it over, Jack figured their minds had both gone to the same place as he thought of Rodil, the only yellow kobold he knew.
“We don’t really believe that stuff anymore, at least no one I grew up with unless we were trying to pick on each other. It’s all soup…sup…what is that word.”
“Superstitious.”
A flick of her tongue showed her ire that she couldn’t remember herself. “Yes, that.”
“So what about green?” He asked, looking over at her trying to do her best to pretend she hadn’t heard him. “Well? What does green mean?”
She took one of the coats off the rack and sneered at the designs. “Do humans really wear this?”
“Yes. Come on, what does green mean?”
Lys put it back on the rack lopsided, it teetered for a moment and then fell to the floor. “Green is ordinary, plain, nothing. Greens are everywhere, just like all these stupid pink coats.”
“So when you say you ‘don’t believe most of that anymore’ you just mean the parts don’t apply to you.”
“I am not, I’m just saying we’re as common as…as…”
“As?”
“I don’t know, but if I was in a crowd of kobolds you’d never find me.” She started to walk off.
That bothered him. It started in his chest and spread upward until he turned about and almost shouted. “I wish I could take you up on that dare. I may not have seen a whole lot of kobolds, but I could pick you out from a hundred if I had to.”
She half-smiled and then all-frowned. “How?”
He stepped forward. “Let’s see. Your left horn has a small pit in it, right here.” He tapped at it until she batted him away. “And then there’s that small scar near the right one.” A harsh glare kept him from touching it.
Lys folded her arms together and looked away. “Ok, if you could see me up close you might find me then, really close. I doubt any kobold on the street is going to let you touch them.”
“Good thing I like touching you instead. Oh yeah, then there’s this.” Jack ran his palm across her snout, making her very aware of the turquoise patch on her face. She tried to grab at him, but he dodged and gave her a knowing look. “There’s a dark spot on your left arm, darker than the rest. Of course, it’s kind of brown right now with you shedding.”
She snorted at the sour face he made. “Alright I…spoke a little too soon. Do you really notice all of those things about me?”
“Of course I do. There might be a lot of green kobolds, but there’s only one Lys,” he pushed another set of coats aside, “and I’m rather pleased to have her.” He heard her sigh in that special way.
“You always know what to say.”
“Well, I’ve had a lot of practice, those other girls helped me hone my craft before you came along.”
“And you always know how to ruin it with your stupid jokes.”
He laughed out loud. “You better believe it. There has to be a coat around here somewhere that isn’t covered in advertisements for kid’s movies. All of these are pink.”
“All of them are horrible.”
What should have been a quick stop to get a decent winter coat had already turned into a venture. “Here’s one, look, it’s green.”
She frowned. “I’m green.”
“You can be more green.” He smiled, but she shook her head. “You’re no fun.”
“Are you sure you haven’t seen a red one?”
“I’m sorry, sweet, but we have to take what we can get in places like this.”
“Well, I’m not taking green and I’m not taking pink and…I saw that!”
Jack had been mouthing her words silently to himself with his tongue sticking out, but he figured he was out of sight. In the next moment he had a glaring kobold blocking his way. He looked around her, trying to find something, anything to avoid the forked tongue lashing he was about to get. She didn’t enjoy being mocked, at all. In desperation he pointed past her.
“What about…wow.” He saw it nestled in between the rest. It wasn’t red, but it wasn’t pink either.
“Hey, where are you going?” she snapped at him.
It felt good in his hands. A nice, black faux firm trim at the top made it look expensive. No ponies, no hearts, no princesses. A little frayed at the edges and a small rip on one sleeve which he figured he could sew up. It looked so out of place among all the rest. Someone must have put it there by accident or else divine provenience was on his side. The coat itself was brown, a dark brown that accented the black buttons on the front, but would she go for it? “Sweet, come here and check this out.”
“What? What did you find? It better not be more pink.”
“It’s not, look at this.” He held it out for her. She stepped back like he’d shown her something obscene. The kobold cocked her head, narrowed her eyeridges, and sniffed at it. “Well?” he asked.
“It’s brown.”
“Exactly. It’s not pink.” He held it out for her. She took it into her claws and looked it over carefully inch by inch, even sniffing at it. “I can fix that, I think.” He said right as she found the rip on the sleeve. Her maw slammed shut without saying a word and she finished her attempt at fault-finding.
“I guess I can try it on.” With nothing else left to protest she went over to the nearby mirror. Each sleeve slipped over her arm with ease, no bunches, no snags. It closed around her like it’d been custom tailored just for her except that the back of the thing still bulged out with her tail. He wondered how difficult it would be to cut a hole or if she’d even let him.
She took a few steps up and down and did the buttons up without any trouble and she began to grin at the kobold looking back from the mirror. “Well?” he asked.
“Lys likes it, a lot. It feels nice on my hide, very warm and I like this.” She pinched her claws around the imitation fur collar. By the time she did one last turn she looked ready to burst. “It’s wonderful.” She looked up at him with those golden yellow eyes beaming and smiled. “Now, what about winter shorts?”
His eyes twitched. “Winter shorts…right…”