It had been what Rosalyn could only guess was one day of moving at a rapid pace since jumping down into the deep hole and meeting the mysterious Serena, following the underground river that had washed Rosalyn so far down initially. As they ran deeper and deeper into the caves worry was starting to gnaw at the back of her mind as she felt more and more cornered. Swallowing the lump in her throat and feeling it land heavily in her gut, Rosalyn found that she was starting to regret her rather rash decision of making that leap. Still it was too late to back out now and at the very least Serena was very interesting company, even if she was a bit evasive about topics pertaining to herself. Like who or what she was, or why she was in the deep hole.

“Serena... how much... longer until we get to this safer... place? I am afraid... I cannot keep up this pace... for much longer, and... I need some food, water, and... rest.” The blue orb stopped and the voice said, “Hmm, I see. Ahh! We are actually pretty close to a suitable resting spot. You should have spoken up sooner, I could have slowed down. It is rather hard to judge things like pace when you do not have to exert yourself when you move and it has been a very long time since I dealt with a human." A wry chuckle came from the orb and Rosalyn made a mental note at that offhand confirmation that Serena wasn't human. She figured that she might be an elf or a dwarf but the bubbly voice didn't match the stories she had read about those races. The books she had read told her that elves tended to be haughty and racist while dwarves were legendarily taciturn. Still, Mother Cham had told Rosalyn that not everyone will fit into the same general mould and to treat everyone she met on her their own merits. With that in mind Rosalyn decided to keep an open mind about Serena, after all she had only helped so far.

Not noticing or not caring about her slip, Serena did a quick loop in the air as she continued "Do not worry child, we can be at this location is probably half an hour or so, even if we slacked the pace a bit to conserve your strength. Take a moment to catch your breath though, carrying you the rest of the way sounds like a terrible time.”

"Thank you, I do appreciate your help so far.” Rosalyn weezed at the voice as she bent over her knees and gulped in large amounts of air.

After a quick rest and a much more relaxed jog of about twenty minutes Rosalyn was delighted when she came into a large circular room made of worked grey stone. Fine sconces lined the walls and there was soft pale glow coming from the ceiling. There was even a rough fire pit carved into the center of the smooth floor. A surprisingly pristine metal cauldron covered by a lid hung suspended from a rusty chain in the roof. A collapsed tent and some discarded bedrolls littered the ground near the fire pit. Rosalyn made special note of the fine wooden furniture to one side of the room that had been smashed and stacked up for firewood. Rosalyn was taken aback. “Who lives down here Serena?”

The small blue orb made a dipping motion that Rosalyn guessed was a shrug. “No one at this time. As for previous occupants, I am not sure, I think maybe a dwarf. Although the camping things are new. I am pretty sure that equipment is left over from an adventurering party. How exciting!” Darting around the room, the small blue ball got very close to each of the items before hovering over the smashed furnishings.

"Shame about the furniture though. It was priceless. If those adventurers had taken it out of the cave instead of smashing it they could have made a fortune. Also, they probably wouldn't have been eaten by kobolds. Ah well, such is the circle of life I suppose." Quickly spinning in the air and coming to stop in front of Rosalyn's face, Serena continued "Child, will you be alright alone for a short while? I want to check in on your pursuers. There is plenty of water for you to drink at the river and there are plenty of edible mushrooms around the banks, although do avoid the purple ones. I am told they are a good way to start a party, but that doesn't seem constructive at this time. Also, the silver moss is also edible although it is supposedly quite spicy. You should take this time to eat something."

With those instructions Rosalyn got to work as the orb flew off. Rosalyn started to root through the abandoned gear from the more than likely dead adventurers. She was delighted to find a slightly dented canteen and an intact mess kit and even some matches and candles. Speaking to herself "These will come in handy. I can't expect everywhere in this place to glow mysteriously." Rosalyn also packed away a length of rope and a small iron crowbar into her satchel. "It isn't much, but at least I am a little more prepared." Ripping a bit of the old canvas of the collapsed tent and fashioning it into a makeshift basket of sorts, she headed to the bank of the river to get some dinner.

Working her way down to the shore of the underground river Rosalyn took a moment to marvel at the fast moving water. She hadn't noticed before but it was giving off a soft blue glow. Rosalyn sighed, "Maybe I can count on everything down here to glow mysteriously." Shrugging she walked down and filled the canteen and began her search for edibles. Rosalyn decided not to sweat the details on the water because that ship had already sailed when she took her impromptu swim earlier.

After a few minutes she had gathered some of the silver moss that Serena had mentioned and quite a few of the mushrooms on the bank. Rosalyn recognized them as an edible species that grew in the caves that dotted this side of the mountain range, and in fact she had eaten them many times before. They had kind of a nutty flavor and were really great in stews or even just grilled as her and the other kids would often eat them out in the wilderness. Momentarily thinking about the other children made Rosalyn stop for a moment.

"It probably isn't healthy, but I can't deal with all of your deaths right now guys. Yep, definately not healthy. I'm already talking to myself." Rosalyn wiped a tear from her eye and pushed the sadness away. Glancing down into the water Rosalyn noted several large fish milling around the shore. She briefly contemplated trying to catch one, but decided against it as she had no equipment. Still, it was tempting. She could make a basic fish stew with the mushrooms and the moss if she had some fish.

That was when a low hissing filled her ears as something tackled her from behind. Panicking Rosalyn dropped all of her mushrooms and rolled forward to dislodge what ever had attacked her. Spinning around into a neutral stance Rosalyn was immediately relieved it wasn't another zombie, but mild panic set in when she realized that it was a monster.

A short lizard creature with brownish orange scales was eyeing her. He was wearing a too large leather tunic with a small brass trumpet strapped his side and was brandishing a cudgel made for a much larger fighter in both his hands. Rosalyn's first thought was how cute he was. Then he bared his teeth and hissed and her thoughts shot to Serena mentioning there were kobolds in these caverns and that they ate intruders. That thought made the little guy a lot less cute.

While she was ruminating on the cuteness of kobolds it sprung forward and swung the cudgel down in an overhead swing. Thankfully the cudgel was not built for such a small creature and was clumsy in its hands allowing Rosalyn plenty of time to dodge to the side. Extending her foot she tripped the kobold and he fell down, landing face first onto its own weapon and stunning itself as its forehead struck the business end of the cudgel.

Getting back into her neutral stance, Rosalyn waited for the creature to stand back up but it seemed to be stunned. Remembering how fondly Serena spoke about the tribe of kobolds that she shared this cavern with, Rosalyn decided to try diplomacy instead of violence. "Can you understand me? I hope you can because I would hate to have to beat you to death with my hands."

Rolling over on it's back the kobold gave her a bleary look and nodded, "Birdie understand. This is where intruder kill Birdie." SIghing dramatically, the kobold stared at the ceiling, "At least Birdie wasn't eaten alive. Birdie imagines that is the pits."

Rosalyn almost laughed out loud, but decided to hold in her mirth as she felt it would hurt the little creatures pride. Even though he had attacked her Rosalyn didn't hold a grudge as this was technically the kobold's turf. Deciding that having two roaming bands of monsters after her was bad Rosalyn decided to try and make nice with the kobolds.

Clearing her throat, Rosalyn tried to sound as friendly as possible, "No, I am not going to kill you. Well, unless you keep attacking me that is. Even then I am not sure I could do it. I haven't actually killed anyhting before other than the occasional chicken. No, I was grabbing some mushrooms and moss to eat while Serena was away. She went to check on the undead's progress before leading me further into the cave."

Perking up when Serena was mentioned he shot to his feet and ran over to Rosalyn with a silly smile on his face. "Pretty lady know the great one? Birdie is happy that you aren't an intruder! Now Birdie isn't going to be killed for losing the fight."

Grabbing the hem of Rosalyn's dress he pulled her toward the water, "Come and let Birdie catch pretty lady a fish. Birdie is amazing at catching fish." Blushing at Birdie's continued nickname of "Pretty Lady" Rosalyn nodded her head and began to picked up her discarded food while Birdie jumped into the water. He emerged just as she was finishing up carrying a carp almost as large as he was. Deciding that she couldn't eat all of this alone, Rosalyn invited Birdie back to the stone room and he eagerly accepted.

After a quick trip back to the stone room campsite she decided to make that fish stew that she was thinking of earlier. Sending Birdie back to the river to wash out the pot and fill it with water she started piling the broken wood up in a roughly square shape and pulled out her fire striker from her side pack. She was suddenly thankful that Mother Cham had raised her to always be prepared as she lit the ancient wood.

After about 10 minutes of work the fire was burning nicely and she had a nice pile of scrap wood to keep it doing so for a good long while. That was when Birdie returned followed by three other even smaller kobolds who were carrying the pot she had sent Birdie out with. Birdie was in the lead carryinbg several items that Rosalyn noted as edible cave plants such as tuberous roots, liverwort plants, and some strange blue ferns. The three smaller kobolds were struggling with the water filled pot, but through teamwork and the desire for fish stem they managed to perservere.

She dumped the edible cave plants and mushrooms into the cauldron hung it back over the fire to start cooking while she laid the large carp onto the floor. Looking at the giant fish Rosalyn pulled the folding knife from her satchel and began to clean and gut the fish. After removing as much of the meat as she could she dumped it all into the pot and watched it slowly cook down into a basic stew with four hungry sets of eyes watching the pot greedily. Deciding that watching the stew bubble wasn't productive enough Rosalyn looked through her satchel for something to eat the meal with.

She pulled out the canteen and the mess kit she had found earlier and using a splash of water she began to clean the utensils in the mess kit. While she worked she watched the kobolds run around the room like small children, getting into anytthing they could and occasionally doing cartwheels and somersaults to pass the time. After a while the mixture was suitably cooked and Rosalyn started to serve herself.

Filling the bowl from the mess kit with a large helping she turned around to tell the kobolds to get something to eat with when she noticed they were standing in a line each holding a small clay bowl. Where they had produced the bowls from she didn't know, but she decided not to ask. They all sat down and enjoyed the meal in companiable silence. Well, as silent as four loudly slurping kobolds could be. It was surprisingly spicy and while it could use some salt and pepper it was a much better meal than her earlier one of raw mushrooms and moss. The company wasn't that bad either. Kobolds were surprisingly cute and silly. She giggled as they fought over who got seconds first.

Rosalyn and the kobolds all jumped when Serena unexpectedly spoke from further in the tunnels “When you are done eating we really should get moving again. Unfortunately, I cannot directly attack the hoard as the Lich’s power is preventing my control over the environment from doing anything truly devastating. The kobolds have been collapsing tunnels behind us to try and stymie the undead and have taken out a great many of them with ambushes and traps, but there seem to be too many flooding in the tunnels for their normal tactics to work.”

Rosalyn looked at the door leading further in where her voice came from and said “How much of a lead do you think I have and what is your endgame here? Why are we going deeper in?”

“You are full of questions aren't you child? That is fine, it is how we learn after all. Well, at this time it would take them about three days of marching to get to you. However, I would estimate a delay of two days with the fact that the kobolds are making them pay for every inch with cave ins and traps. Couple that with how thoroughly the lich is searching all the tunnels you get maybe another day. I think I can obfuscate our path enough to buy a little more time than that, but they will find you eventually. As for going in deeper, that is where I am. I do not know what I could do to help in my current state, but the room I am in is very deep in the cave. They might miss it, or at least miss it long enough for another plan to become evident.”

A few moments later the blue ball that Rosalyn had followed to this room appeared out of thin air. "Oh that is better, hard to see without my avatar. Oh my! What are you little things doing here? You didn't trouble Rosalyn did you? No matter, everyone seems to be intact so I won't ask for details. Finish up your meal dearies and let us be on our way."

Rosalyn looked at Birdie who stood up and started barking orders in a language she didn't understand. The three other kobolds quickly downed their soup and ran out the door, Birdie turned to Rosalyn and smiled showing all of his teeth, "Birdie help pretty lady. You feed Birdie and his crew so we help." Taking a cue from her new friends she downed the rest of her soup as well and stood back up. “Well then we had better get moving.”