“You’re back.” Clan lord Zeek addressed Simon. “Your guards… were they all lost in the battle?” He stepped forward with a refined dignity that only an upper class Kobold who lived in a rotting city could possess.

“No. They stayed behind.”

Zeek surveyed the party that had returned.

It included Valleria, Simon, and seven other Kobolds. Five carried a basket of mushrooms in each hand, their side of the deal fulfilled. Two others had spears that they leaned against now.

“Glad to see you’re both in health.” Zeek stepped slowly over to Valleria. She jumped when he slapped her shoulder, his claws digging into her. “With this, our alliance can be official. You should all stay here until morn. Our scouts reported more movement from the Bighorn clan, as well as activity near the borders of clan Longtail. We will have to wait until mornlight for our scouts to report to us.”

“We should report that to Alverost then…” Valleria said.

“You wont be able to report anything if you don’t make it back. Stay. Tonight, instead, we feast! You can stay with us. Quickly, bring the baskets of mushrooms to the hall. Simon, go and gather the clan. Bring a treat for the feast. Don’t kill it, I want to do it myself. Valleria, gather your guards and follow me.”

Clan lord Zeek lead Valleria and the Kobolds through an attached side chamber and out into another, a huge, open building, held up by wood pillars that were shackled together with reed fiber. What dim light was left from the ceiling above cast it in an ominous gloom, revealing rotting pieces of reed that had cracked or rotted away. There were layers and layers of it covering the wooden pillars that held this buildings roof up. The wall across from them was removed, open to the stale air of the city.

Most of the ground was covered in wood, so as to separate the Kobold’s from the layers of muck below them, and there was a ramshackle arrangement of chairs, or an approximation thereof, around tables.

“Put the mushrooms there.” Zeek pointed, and the Kobolds looked to Valleria for affirmation. She nodded once, and they began depositing the glowing mushrooms on the various tables. Each basket was almost the size of the Kobolds themselves, but light enough to lift. “Come come, sit!” Zeek said, sitting himself before waving Valleria over to sit across the table from him.

Valleria spun around, observing the work of Kobold innovation. She couldn’t exactly call it awe inspiring anymore, not after having seen Mark and Alverost’s work in that gloomy world of stone and mushrooms below. True, it was sometimes brighter here than there, but she was sure that Mark and Alverost could create their own Mornlight, given enough time. But she found something lacking in the cold world of the Clan Below.

There was no sense of family. Sure, there was a sense of duty. Silver to Mark. Axel to Alverost. And Mala to food. But there was nothing like the sense of family fostered in the Rot City. Valleria wondered if she could help bring that. Slowly, Kobolds had gathered in and around the little hall, whispering impatiently in the dim light. Some whispers were curious, prodding questions just loud enough to hear about the glowing baskets and the strange bright red Kobold. Others stared accusatorily at Valleria, angry about their day being interrupted.

Valleria knew they couldn’t have interrupted much; maybe a craftsman twisting reed into fiber, or someone sorting wood from the dredge, lining the street or preparing nets for the swell-tide. How long had it been since the last swell-tide, anyway? Well, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like the little fortress was close enough to be affected by it.

There was a squeaking, chirping noise coming from somewhere in the now gathered crowd of Kobolds, which must have numbered at least a hundred. Valleria squinted, trying to make it out, and saw Simon pushing through the crowd of Kobolds. Many of them had plopped down, sitting on the wood, and he had to step around and through the crowd. Whatever was in his hands was bucking wildly, flipping and throwing its entire body weight from side to side.

Simon approached the elevated hall, reserved until then for the clan lord and his guests, and held it aloft before Zeek. Only then could Valleria see that it was a bat, writhing and flailing inside of reed fiber bonds that constrained it.

Zeek rose slowly on shaky legs, leaning on chain for assistance. He grabbed the bat from Simon’s hand, and coughed loudly before speaking.

“Tinyfingers! My clan! Today we have forged an alliance with a new clan. One that will surely revitalize us in time for the coming Swelltide.” Zeek spoke to the assembled remnants of his clan. The tiny fingers, Valleria knew, had been pushed back with each successive swelltide, only barely hanging on to the territory they controlled.

“But who among the other clans can we trust!?” An aged Kobold stood, shouting from the crowd below. “Each of them have betrayed us in turn! You may not be, but I am old enough to remember each and every one turning their back on us!”

“This isn’t one of the other clans.” Zeek said, leering over the crowd as if daring someone else to interrupt him. “Not anyone that you know.”

Whispers echoed through the crowd, whispers of another clan.

“Is it the fabled Clan Above?” Another elder shouted. “Have they finally returned to show us the way to the surface?”

“A wives tail! There is nothing above besides an ocean!”

Zeek raised a hand to quiet the clan. “Today we break bat with Valleria, representative of the Clan Below!”

The crowd erupted into shouts, a sea of noise.

“Rise Valleria!” Zeek said, turning and offering the bat to her.

It was an expensive thing. Any kind of live animal was in the rot city, where there was seldom more than insects. A true feast. Living, warm meat.

Valleria stepped to the stage, taking the bat gently. The bat squeaked in her hands, and one of the reed fiber lines tying its wings down snapped.

She bit into its head with a visceral crunch, and it finally stopped writhing. The skull crunched, the meat of its brain melted in her mouth. She leaned her head back in pleasure before handing the headless corpse back to clan lord Zeek. Zeek took his own chunk from its flesh, completing the ritual.

Valleria flinched as the cloud moved as a wave, descending on the tables full of mushrooms.