Theris' inn was nothing like Bereth's. Being such a small town with minimal trade routes passing through it, the inn was only a single floor, resembling a lodge. To make up for that small size, the owner had seen fit to affix a tavern to the end of it opposite the rooms. Townsfolk and adventurers alike could sit together, eat and drink, then retire to their beds. It helped with upkeep during the off-season when few people traveled.

Merdon walked in and surveyed the tavern space, slowly twisting his head from one side to the other. Theris' tavern may have been filled to near capacity but it was nothing compared to The Howling Wolf half full. He spotted a table with a bench along the back wall and motioned for the kobolds to follow him. Naturally, the vigilant knight took the space with his back to the wall, putting the whole room in his view so he could watch everyone. Sarel sat across from him, grinning and already flagging down a barmaid for a tankard. Red sat next to Merdon, while Skyeyes sat, somewhat awkwardly, across from her and next to Quickclaw. The little cleric was not used to being so close to ladies of his own kind it seemed.

Red, seeing the mugs of alcohol as common in the tavern, asked for one of her own. Skyeyes gave her a worried look, and then ordered himself a simple water and some meat. That started a whole chain of kobolds asking for meat. Ham, it seemed, was all that was on the menu, which suited them just fine. Merdon also ordered a meal with water, much to Sarel's disappointment. He'd have no lapse of cognition while out on a quest though. What had happened in Bereth the one time, their first time, was only because they were in Bereth. At a time Merdon knew he didn't need to have his wits about him. Their situation was different now.

The food and drinks arrived and everyone dug in. Skyeyes used the provided utensils to eat with, of which Merdon used the fork at least. Red and Sarel ate like animals, gathering the attention of the tavern. They lifted the slabs of ham with their claws and took massive bites out of them, chomping and slurping every second until the quarter pound of food was gone. Merdon was almost embarrassed. Almost. He knew that Sarel was doing that intentionally to upset the humans, and it was possible Red didn't know any better. After all, who would have taught a slave how to eat properly? At the same time Merdon considered that, Skyeyes started whispering to the red kobold, explaining to her the purpose of the tools provided by the waitress. She seemed to be listening to him, though her attention was split between him and the mug of alcohol she had to the side.

The moment Skyeyes finished talking, Quickclaw let out a loud belch and slammed her tankard down with a pleased grin on her snout. While the cleric glared at her, Red picked up her own mug and took a drink. Her face scrunched with confusion and she tried another drink. This was what made the blue kobold smile? To the former slave's credit, she tried, how very hard she tried, but after half a mug she passed it off to Quickclaw with an ill look on her face. As soon as the maid passed by, her last pass before leaving for the night before the crowd got too rowdy, Red requested water. At the very least, the maid seemed sympathetic to the red kobold. She got her water and drained almost the whole thing before leaning back in her seat, defeated.

Sarel laughed and finished the drink for her friend. She was about three drinks in now and was giving Merdon a certain look that told him they would be sharing a bed, and much more if they had been alone on the journey. In fact, if she got any more inebriated, they might just do that despite the cleric and mage hanging around them. It made Merdon blush and he felt forced to avert his gaze, which naturally made Sarel chuckle. She liked making him flustered like that. Teasing him with her actions and words.

Skyeyes, since the barmaid had left, got up and offered to order and carry anything anyone wanted. The two female kobolds asked for more food, Sarel another drink. Which led to Skyeyes walking back with three more plates and a mug. Merdon watched them all eat, yet again, with a bit of a sinking feeling. That was not cheap. He was full already and twice their size, but the kobolds were positively voracious. It made him wonder if they had multiple stomachs or something to store food. Not to mention Sarel's drinking. He needed to think about their contracts, once the table settled down. At least Red was eating more behaved now. She was being tutored by Skyeyes on how to use a fork and knife and appeared to be picking it up rather quickly. Sarel just rolled her eyes and kept using her claws. For a kobold that liked to bathe so much, she also liked to do things the dirty way.

Red, with just half of a drink, was merely tipsy, but she muttered something about feeling woozy after eating. Sarel, although she would have preferred to stay with Merdon, knew if she stayed at the table any longer she wouldn't make it back to the room on her own two feet. The pair staggered together, arms over shoulders for support, back to the room. Skyeyes, ever the worrywart, tapped his claws together and then got up and leaned out of the big doorway that separated the tavern from the front of the inn. From that spot he could look down the long hallway of rooms the two lady kobolds were plodding down and make sure they got to the room in peace. He had been rather protective, despite it being his idea for them to stay in the town for the night.

Merdon debated talking to him about that but opted not to. Worrying was what Skyeyes did. The knight had other things to focus on, like their next contract.

Apparently, the town down the road was having a bandit problem. They had a lot of stolen goods that needed to be returned. It was an actual problem the Returner's Guild would normally deal with, and with a full team at his back, they actually stood a chance. There was a great deal of risk involved though. No telling where the bandits were holed up, what traps they had laid, or if they would be there when the group arrived. Timing was paramount to their success. Unless they wanted to take a detour halfway around the continent chasing thieves. Merdon sure didn't. Keeping on track to the capital and then to the witch's tower was their main priority, but they did need funds for that.

And concerning funds, Skyeyes was making his way over to the bartender to ask for another serving of food. The priest seemed to have quite a bit more room than even Merdon did when it came to meat. Maybe it was the smell in the tavern, the way the aroma was lingering from the ever roasting hams. Pigs were one of Theris' exports, which lent a certain fragrance to the rest of the town. Those smells didn't matter inside though. It was completely drowned out by the smell of baking hams and bacon in a giant oven behind the bar. Ovens that were far more sophisticated than the seating and placements in the bar. Clearly, the innkeeper had made his choice about where to spend the coin he made.

Many villagers were hanging around inside the tavern that night, but the crowd was nothing compared to what one would see in Bereth. It was that simple fact that gave Merdon the edge others might not have expected. There just wasn't enough space, meaning there were fewer tables and chairs. So when the farmer Merdon had shaken hands with earlier, an older fellow with a rust-colored beard and thinning hairline, said “Kobolds” from three tables over, Merdon heard it. The knight frowned, leaned back to look relaxed, and listened.

“Two of the kobolds are in their room now, and those are the two we want,” he whispered to another pair of men. One was younger with a wilder hairstyle, perhaps simply a rebellious phase. The other was closer to the farmer's age but had completed the balding process. All three of them were hunched over in a very suspicious way. A sign of amateurs.

“You sure the collars will work?” the younger one, judging from his voice, asked the other two. He had doubts.

“Of course they will,” the voice of the last one said sharply. “Don't be stupid, boy. I got these from proper slavers when they were passing through back to Sedra. Just in case something valuable came through town.”

There was a laugh from the farmer Merdon had met. “Never imagined they'd walk right into town and give us coin on top of it.”

To say that Merdon was upset with what he was hearing was an understatement. It took all of his self-control to not beat those three within an inch of their lives right there in the bar. That wouldn't help anyone though, not that way, not right here. The rest of their plan seemed to rely on he and Skyeyes retiring for the evening and then taking a key from the innkeeper, by force if necessary, to get into their rooms. With Sarel as drunk as she was it was possible their plan would have worked. Would have that was if Merdon hadn't heard it first.

The question was what to do with the information. He could go wake up the others, get them out of town. That would look suspicious though and may ultimately push Red further into her human distrusting shell. Not to mention Sarel would spend the next week being surly about how the humans acted. Although he was starting to understand her position more and more each day.

No, Merdon was going to take a quieter approach to this situation. He waited until Skyeyes was stuffed with food and then suggested they turn in for the night. It would be a late morning for them all, he figured, and the white kobold agreed. Once they were safely tucked away in their room, however, Merdon waited only a few minutes before getting back up.

His sword belted at his side, Merdon quietly exited the room, helped by the well-oiled hinges on the door. The innkeeper didn't have a lot to do except keeping the place well maintained, he figured. In fact, the beds were quite nice, even compared to ones in Bereth. But that was neither the time nor the place for such thoughts. With a little bit of work, the door across from their room was coerced to open and Merdon slipped inside, leaving it ajar enough to see. After that, it was just a case of waiting.

Midnight came and went before the trio arrived. The youngest member was their scout, it seemed from the way he looked around, but he missed Merdon's hiding place across the hall in the low light. He waved and the other two men casually walked over with a key in their hands. When all three of them were facing the opposite direction Merdon allowed his door to slowly swing open and he stepped out. Clearing his throat got their attention before the key was in the lock, and it didn't take a brilliant mind to see the longsword hung at his side. They'd been caught, the jig was up.

The young lad wasn't settled with just that though. Either afraid of the knight's sword or just wanting the plan to work out, the man pulled a dagger and rushed the knight with more of a whimper than a battle cry. Merdon wasn't worried about some farm boy holding a knife and no training. He easily caught the lad's wrist and twisted the blade out of his hands before headbutting him hard enough to send him reeling into the older men. Those two didn't take well to his skilled counter though and, after pushing the youngest one aside, stepped towards Merdon with balled fists.

In a normal situation, Merdon would have pulled his sword out, given them a stern threat, chased them off using words. This wasn't a normal situation though. He was angry; he wanted to be violent with these three. Keeping it as silent as one could in a fist fight, Merdon swung first, and hard. His fist breaking the nose of the man he'd shook hands with less than half a day ago. The bald man tried to take advantage of that by striking while the knight was busy, but this wasn't his first scrap. Dodging to the side, he countered with a swift blow to the older man's ribs, knocking the wind out of him. Just in case the farmer got any bright ideas with his broken nose, Merdon grabbed him by the back and forcefully put his knee to the man's face. Such a blow sent him falling back against the wall and left the stolen key on the ground.

At which point, the trio realized their plan had not only been found out but was up against more than they bargained for. The youngest grabbed the red-haired man and tried to take off with him. He didn't get far as the middle-aged man weighed more than he could carry, forcing the grumbling older one to take the other side and help the two hobble home. Merdon had hoped for much more a brawl than what they had given him, but it was about what he expected from untrained farmers. They might have believed themselves tough in a barroom fight, but that would be against other farmers and drunks. Against Merdon they were lucky he let them live.

He pushed the thought out of his mind as quickly as it entered. Two wrongs didn't make a right. They may have been greedy but their outlook was entirely uneducated. They didn't know kobolds, they saw them as monsters as many others did. Merdon knew better and if he wanted others to know better then he had to act better. Their plot had been thwarted and that was well enough for him.

Merdon picked up the key, adding it to the other one he carried out of the room with him, and unlocked the door. He glanced around at the others. Asleep, every one of them as far as he could tell. Sighing, he re-locked the door, sat the only two keys, that he knew of anyway, on the table, and laid down for what he hoped would be about eight solid hours of sleep. Kobolds didn't normally sleep for so long, but Sarel had been drinking and Skyeyes had stayed up late. Red might wake up first, but she wouldn't go anywhere alone.

As Merdon relaxed in bed, snuggling up next to Sarel, Skyeyes was watching. He'd heard the scuffle in the hallway, just like he'd heard the men talking in the tavern. Merdon had dealt with it, alone, in his own way, but the knight hadn't felt the need to tell him? Or any of them for that matter. The cleric frowned and tossed in his bed. That notion didn't sit well in him. They should have been warned. At least he should have. He had been right there in the tavern with the human after all. Did the knight not trust him? Not think he could have helped? Or was he worried that, as a cleric, Skyeyes would have suggested a less violent route? It could have been any of those, or none of them. His mind tumbling with all of those thoughts, it took Skyeyes much longer to fall asleep than it should have considering how late it was.

The next morning Merdon and Sarel woke up around the same time, which seemed to please the blue kobold. Red and Skyeyes had already woke up and were loitering about the room waiting for the other two, so they claimed. To Sarel's dismay, however, there was no bath in the smaller inn. She just had to settle for a rinse with some water that might have been intended for drinking, not being splashed on a rag and rubbed about bodies.

“It's important Quickclaw not stink, verakt,” she told Merdon, who had a curious expression. “We're going to bargain for supplies before leaving, yes? Quickclaw can hardly do this if she smells like the tavern in the middle of the day.”

Merdon chided, “Then perhaps you shouldn't spend most of the night in the tavern.”

“To be fair,” Skyeyes chimed in, “We also spent a good deal of time in there more than they did.”

Sarel smirked, wrung out her rag, replacing it with fresh water, and tossed it at Merdon where it landed on his chest, making an audible splat. “Perhaps you should wipe up too then,” she suggested while putting her clothes back on. Apparently, she slept in the nude while safe.

Merdon grumbled to himself but did wipe down with the rag. She had a point. The scent of alcohol and cooked meats had a very nasty habit of clinging to people. He didn't mind the smell so much, but others might. Perhaps not in this village, but in other places. Especially the capital. Bathing was much more common there, or so he was told.

After a quick scrub, Sarel and Merdon left to do the shopping. The kobold had essentially been put in charge of their necessities and knew exactly what they needed. Merdon was there to carry things she needed carried. All in all the process didn't take long and Sarel proved a shrewd haggler for even the most trivial items. They would be back at the inn before noon and well on their way out of town to boot.

Merdon also noted, during their outing, that the three he'd fought off the other night weren't hanging around town. He doubted they'd run out of town, however pleasant such a thought might be. It was likely they were hiding, for now, waiting for him and the kobolds to leave town. At least they would get their wish. The knight didn't feel like staying in Theris another night either. Once they got back to the inn and found Red and Skyeyes well, Merdon set about distributing pack loads with their new supplies.

There was no fanfare when they left. The innkeeper had been paid, they had been paid, it was all squared away, nothing to hold them back. Merdon couldn't help but notice the few eyes that glanced at them as they passed through the town one last time. Some of these people had to know what their fellow residents had planned. They had expected to see two of these kobolds marched out in chains the night before, not happily walking down the path, blissfully unaware of what almost transpired. It left a sour taste in his mouth and a burning in his guts. He sort of hated these people now.

Sarel noticed there was something off about Merdon, but she didn't ask. She figured it had something to do with the fact they had basically saved the town from goblins ransacking the place and yet no one cared after learning the man that did it wasn't a slave keeping monster like other humes. Now they just watched quietly from the sidelines as their heroes walked away. Not so much as a last thank you for their efforts. The kobold still felt a sense of pleasure in what they did though. Whether the residents of Theris were grateful or not, they had helped them. It made her feel good inside. Maybe that was how Merdon felt all of the time with his little contracts. She could get used to feeling that way.

Still, leaving Theris felt a little hollow for everyone. None of the residents even bothered to make eye contact with the group, for one reason or another. To them, it was a normal day in their town for tending to gardens, crops, and shops. The man marching through town alongside three kobolds was an oddity, one to be viewed from afar, but not approached. Perhaps that was just how they handled people leaving the town. Travelers must have come and gone fairly often since there was an inn and tavern in the town, but Sarel couldn't shake an awkward feeling on top of her sense of accomplishment. Maybe it was just Merdon's mood rubbing off on her. He certainly seemed to improve as they got along the highway.

The group walked down the highway until they came to a certain turn that led onto a well-worn trail. A dirt road carved out with wagon wheels and horse tracks which led to their next destination. Travel got harder on an unpaved road, as Red discovered when she stumbled over some rocks. Good news came near sundown when Merdon pointed to a grove off the road. It looked abandoned, decent cover, Quickclaw could climb a tree and do her normal lookout thing. They didn't even need to discuss it.

Red set about gathering tinder she could set on fire for the camp, while Quickclaw meandered about outside the grove looking for a good vantage point for the night. That left Merdon and Skyeyes to set up tents and dig a fire pit respectively. Which also meant they were alone and gave Skyeyes the opportunity to ask something he'd been wrestling with all day.

“Why did you not tell me about what those men planned?”

Merdon, distracted with the tents, looked at him in confusion. “What men?”

“The ones back in Theris,” Skyeyes clarified as he scooped more dirt out of the ground.

There was a long pause while Merdon considered what to say. “You heard them?” he asked carefully.

The white kobold huffed. “Yes, I heard them in the tavern even. I saw you listening in as well.”

“So why didn't you say anything?”

That gave the kobold cause to pause. “I thought you had a plan,” he replied a little slowly.

“And I did,” Merdon said with confidence. “So what's the issue?”

“The problem, sir knight, is that you didn't seem to trust me enough to tell me.” What reason did he have to hide his frustrations?

Merdon stopped what he was doing and thought about it. “It wasn't about trust between us,” he said, turning around and looking Skyeyes in the face. “I thought if you knew then it might … shake your belief in humans. Or if Quickclaw or Red found out they'd hold a grudge.”

“I'm not so easily broken,” Skyeyes told him, coupled with a hard gaze. “Humans can be quite evil, but so can every race. I will not hold the acts of few against the many. If something had happened to you or us...” He couldn't finish his thought, because he didn't know. It wouldn't have been so easily forgivable though.

“I'm sorry,” Merdon said plainly. “You're right. I should have said something to you at least. You were there when I heard it. Maybe I could have used the backup or a plan B.”

Skyeyes nodded and turned back to his digging. “Please remember that in the future, Merdon. For now, we are a team. We should act like one.”

The knight nodded and turned back to setting up the tents. While he placed poles through holes and into the ground, Merdon couldn't help but think about his own feelings on the subject now. He was worried about Skyeyes or one of the others getting upset, but in the end he was the one that felt disdain for his own kind afterward. What was different about him than them? They already knew how terrible people could be to their kind. It didn't matter if it was some backwater farmers or a high born noble, the idea that kobolds should be in chains was nearly universal. He should have told them.